New York - The United Nations Security Council Monday spoke with one voice to condemn North Korea for launching a missile, and found the April 5 firing of the rocket violated a 2006 resolution. The so-called presidential statement fell short of full resolution status because of opposition from China and Russia, which hold two of the five veto votes on the 15-member council.

But it was adapted unanimously, a pre-requisite for issuing a presidential statement.

New York - After weeks of rising violence in Sudan's war- ravaged western province Darfur, the situation has calmed down over the past three days, according a joint report released Monday by the African Union and United Nations , which share peace-keeping operations. Nonetheless, tension was still high after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir expelled aid groups from the region in retaliation for an arrest warrant issued against him in March by the International Criminal Court for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Amman - Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh conferred Wednesday with the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Robert Serry, underlining the importance of the UN role in pushing forward the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, an official statement said.

"The United Nations and the world community have an important role to play in launching serious negotiations aimed at bringing about a settlement for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Judeh told the visiting US envoy.

Bonn - The UN's head of climate change Yvo de Boer said Wednesday that talks in Bonn had brought a degree of "clarity and convergence" to the process of drawing up new global climate change commitments by the end of 2009, although the ten-day talks brought few tangible advances.

Industrialised countries were not able to agree on common goals for emission reduction at the talks in the former German capital, which are the first in a series of meetings paving the way to a replacement of the Kyoto Protocol.

New York  - With global economic misery escalating, the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday called for a global financial crisis meeting in June that it hopes will involve the leaders of all its members.

The General Assembly approved the plans by consensus in New York. Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann appealed to all leaders of the 192 member states to come in person instead of sending lower ranking representatives, according to his spokesman.

Geneva - The United Nations human rights chief thanked Tuesday the witnesses who came forth and gave testimony during the war crimes tribunals for the genocide in Rwanda 15 years ago.

"I would like to pay homage to the witnesses," said Navi Pillay, who was a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She said the "truth fosters reconciliation."

Pillay was speaking at an observance ceremony at the UN's Geneva headquarters, before an inauguration of an exhibition called A 100 Nights, which focused on the period of the genocide.