Reuters - Nearly 1,500 Afghan civilians were killed in the first eight months of this year, many in attacks on schools, medical clinics, bazaars and other crowded areas, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

AFP - Iran is still stalling a UN investigation into its disputed nuclear programme, refusing access to documents, individuals and sites, the UN atomic watchdog said in its latest report on the crisis.

Reuters - Police frequently kill criminal suspects and ordinary citizens in Brazil, driving up the homicide rate in what is already one of the world's most violent countries, the United Nations said on Monday.

AFP - The UN General Assembly on Monday agreed to begin negotiations on expanding the membership of the powerful Security Council no later than next February 28.

Reuters - The U.N. General Assembly opened the door on Monday to expanding the Security Council by calling for full-scale negotiations on adding new members to the United Nations' most powerful body.

AFP - China said Tuesday that United Nations-imposed sanctions would not resolve the stalemate over Iran's nuclear programme, after the United States raised the prospect of new tough action.

AP - Two kidnapped employees of the United Nations World Food Program were released hours after they were abducted, a spokesman said Monday, but 11 aid workers remained in captivity amid a series of attacks on the humanitarian community.

AFP - Iran's ambassador to the UN atomic watchdog said on Monday that his country will continue enriching uranium in defiance of UN Security Council demands, the ISNA news agency reported.

AFP - The United Nations said Sunday its aid staff were unable to comply with a Sri Lankan government order to quit the war-torn north of the island because of protests by local civilians.

Reuters - A suicide bomber rammed a car into a U.N. convoy on Sunday as it drove through a market in southern Afghanistan, killing a driver and two local doctors, U.N. officials and police said.

AP - An American bombing that killed up to 90 Afghan civilians last month was based on false information provided by a rival tribe and did not kill a single Taliban fighter, the president's spokesman said Sunday.

AFP - Six children were killed in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan Sunday while a suicide car bomb blew up a marked United Nations vehicle and killed two Afghan doctors and a driver, officials said.

AFP - The United Nations said Sunday its aid staff were unable to comply with a Sri Lankan government order to quit the war-torn north of the island because of protests by local civilians.

AP - A suicide bomber in a vehicle attacked a convoy carrying Afghan doctors working for the United Nations in southern Afghanistan Sunday, killing two doctors and wounding 15 other people, a spolice chief said.

AFP - Two Afghan doctors working for the United Nations were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack on their vehicle in southeastern Afghanistan Sunday, police said.