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Report to United Nations security council says remnants of Hwasong-11 violate arms export embargo on Russian ally The debris from a missile that landed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on 2 January was from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile, UN sanctions monitors told a security council committee in a report seen by Reuters.In the 32-page report, the UN sanctions monitors concluded...

Islamist group release new video apparently showing two hostages as UN warns famine thresholds will be breached within six weeksHamas has said it is studying the latest Israeli counterproposal regarding a potential ceasefire in Gaza, a day after media reports said a delegation from Egypt had arrived in Israel in an attempt to jumpstart stalled negotiations.The signs of renewed truce talks come as the...

Children among those killed in second fatal incident in two weeks close to the Horn of Africa, says UN agencyAt least 21 people have died after a boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the UN’s migration agency has said.It was the second fatal maritime accident in two weeks off the Horn of Africa nation, which lies on the perilous so-called eastern migration route...

Spokesperson says some bodies allegedly had their hands tied while others were bound and strippedThe UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has said he was “horrified” by reports of mass graves containing hundreds of bodies at two of Gaza’s largest hospitals.Palestinian civil defence teams began exhuming bodies from a mass grave outside the Nasser hospital complex in Khan Younis last week after Israeli troops...

Inquiry has not backed up allegations of ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which led to loss of $450m as people died in drovesIsrael has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, Colonna report saysUnsupported Israeli allegations about Unrwa links to terrorism led major donors to cut $450m in funding to the main humanitarian agency working in Gaza at a time when...

Exclusive: review finds government yet to substantiate claims UN relief agency staff have ties to Hamas or Islamic JihadIsrael still has no proof of Unrwa terrorist claims – but damage to aid agency is doneIsrael has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees of the UN relief agency Unrwa are members of terrorist organisations, an independent review led by the former...

Tory MPs urging government not to restore funding despite UN’s roadmap, published on Monday, to make agency more transparentA plan due to be published today to improve the accountability and transparency of Unrwa, the UN relief works agency for Palestinians, is not expected to lead to a snap British decision to restore funding to the agency.Britain joined 18 other nations in suspending funding for...

Washington blocks security council resolution supported by 12 member countries, with two abstentions including UKThe US has vetoed a Palestinian request to the United Nations security council for full UN membership, blocking the world body’s recognition of a Palestinian state.The vote in the 15-member security council was 12 in favor, the US opposed and two abstentions, the UK and Switzerland. Continue reading...

UN human rights office expresses concern over escalating violence after deaths near Nablus over weekendThe UN and the UK have voiced grave concern over escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Israeli security forces “immediately” stop supporting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory.The comments came hours after two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli settlers in a northern village south of...

Ecuadorian police forced their way inside embassy in Quito to arrest former vice-president who was seeking asylum in MexicoMexico is demanding that the United Nations expel Ecuador from the world body as part of a complaint to the top UN court over a police raid last week on the Mexican embassy in Quito.Tensions between Mexico and Ecuador have soared since late last week when...

Repealing ban would mean return of ‘one of the most pernicious forms of violence committed against women and children’A team of UN experts has urged Gambian lawmakers not to repeal a ban on female genital mutilation, saying such a move would set a dangerous global precedent.In a letter dated 8 April and made public on Thursday, the experts, led by Reem Alsalem, the UN...

António Guterres voices ‘alarm’ as Latin American governments sharply criticise Quito’s move to arrest former vice-presidentThe UN secretary general, António Guterres, has added his voice to a torrent of criticism of Ecuador’s decision to storm the Mexican embassy in Quito in order to arrest the former vice-president Jorge Glas.“The secretary general is alarmed at the forced entry of Ecuadorian security forces into the premises...

German’s appointment to head Convention on Biological Diversity follows global failure to meet any targets on protecting ecosystemsThe next UN biodiversity chief will be Astrid Schomaker, an EU civil servant who will be entrusted with helping the world confront the ongoing catastrophic loss of nature.Schomaker has been a career official with the EU commission for 30 years. A surprise appointment, she will be tasked...

Exclusive: Aid officials warn that transferring Unrwa’s functions to other bodies with famine looming would be disastrousIsrael has given the UN a proposal to dismantle Unrwa, its relief agency in the Palestinian territories, and transfer its staff to a replacement agency to make large-scale food deliveries into Gaza, according to UN sources.The proposal was presented late last week by the Israeli chief of the...

Ukraine’s foreign minister calls veto ‘guilty plea’ amid claims Pyongyang is aiding Moscow’s war against KyivRussia has blocked the renewal of a UN panel monitoring sanctions against North Korea, weeks after the body said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.The move was met with a flurry of criticism, including by Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who took to social...

Exclusive: Dfat official said there was ‘precious nothing in the public domain’ on claims against aid agency hours before pause announcedGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAustralian officials scrambled to “understand what the allegations are” against Unrwa staff and complained of “precious nothing in the public domain” hours before the government suspended funding to the “vital” aid agency.New...

Israeli PM cancels White House visit by two ministers and says US ‘abandoned its policy in the UN’ after abstaining on voteThe UN security council has voted to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, after the US dropped a threat to veto, bringing Israel to near total isolation on the world stage.The vote...

Special rapporteur will tell human rights council Israel’s actions ‘reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group’A UN human rights expert will deliver a report on Tuesday saying that Israel has carried out acts of genocide in Gaza and should be placed under an arms embargo.Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said in her report...

Washington’s decision not to use its veto is an acknowledgement of its failure to lead the UN Gaza agendaDiplomacy occasionally has the capacity to surprise, and when it does it often portends a deep shifting in the landscape.Few as recently as the end of last week saw much chance that the UN security council would be able to put aside five months of division...

Visiting medical team reported untreated open wounds, shortage of supplies to pin fractures and lack of food jeopardising treatmentThe obstacles to Gaza aid deliveries – visual guideThe medical situation in Gaza’s hospitals has reached an “unimaginable” state of crisis in which large open wounds are being left untreated and medical staff are facing chronic shortages of the most basic medical items, including surgical gauze...

Head of agency says military authorities told UN that convoys will no longer be approved amid ‘man-made famine’The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said on Sunday that Israel had definitively barred it from making aid deliveries in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is highest.“Despite the tragedy unfolding under our watch, the Israeli Authorities informed the UN that they will no...

International Organization for Migration believes those discovered ‘died in process of being smuggled through the desert’A mass grave containing at least 65 bodies has been discovered in south-west Libya this week, the UN migration agency said on Friday.A spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the mass grave was uncovered by Libyan security forces. Continue reading...

Draft resolution put before UN represents important tonal – but not substantive – shift for White HouseUS resolution on Gaza ceasefire vetoed After months of vetoing other UN security council resolutions in an effort to defend Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the US has in recent weeks gone on to the diplomatic front foot in New York, drafting and tabling its own resolution that...

Draft resolution loosens linkage between Gaza ceasefire and hostage release as US tries to claw back leadership on issue at UNWashington’s draft UN security council resolution on Gaza marks a shift in the US position, but it is a nuanced shift, retaining the linkage between a ceasefire and hostage release while loosening that linkage and emphasising that an immediate end to hostilities is the...