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New York: With one day left to go in the historic referendum on the future of Southern Sudan, United Nations officials today voiced their satisfaction at the strong turnout and smooth proceedings witnessed so far during the week-long polls.

New York: Marking the end of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council today urged the Government and all political parties to find a way to complete the country’s peace process.

New York: The United Nations has “concrete intelligence” that the former Côte d’Ivoire president, who refuses to step down despite his election defeat, is inciting violence against its peacekeepers and his own countrymen, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, again raising the prospect of a trial by the International Criminal Court.

New York: From promoting sustainable development and mitigating climate change to empowering women to keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today laid out the United Nations agenda for the coming year.

New York: An independent United Nations human rights expert today called on the international community to intervene following what he described as a series of illegal acts by Israeli authorities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the third review of Jamaica’s economic performance under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). Completion of the review enables the immediate disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 31.9 million (about US$49.3 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 541.8million (about US$838.2 million).

New York: The next round of informal talks between the parties to the conflict over Western Sahara will take place from 21 to 23 January in New York, the United Nations announced today.

For the first time in over 13 years of talks, WTO intellectual property negotiators have started work on producing a single draft text for setting up a multilateral geographical indications register for wines and spirits. A draft on notification — the first of six broad topics of the system to be discussed — was circulated by chairperson Darlington Mwape at an informal meeting of the full membership on 13 January 2011.

After two years of contraction, the economy is struggling to recover from recession. The financial sector is adjusting to the effects of Italy’s tax amnesty, which led to a significant decline in the size of banks’ balance sheets. A long period of fiscal surpluses has ended, as revenues fell sharply in 2009-10, mainly due to the cyclical downturn and lower revenues from the financial sector. San Marino has strengthened financial regulation, diluted bank secrecy, and tightened anti money-laundering defenses.