Copenhagen  - Researchers from over 70 countries ended a three-day meeting Thursday on future threats of global warming including rising sea levels.

Potential threats discussed included acidification of oceans and reductions of glaciers and ice sheets causing sea levels to rise.

The effects of higher temperatures could also change weather systems and precipitation causing climate refugees.

A group of researchers from the University of Cambridge in England said there was a case for more joint international efforts.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday North Korea's plan to launch a communication satellite would raise tensions with its neighbours.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday highly praised US President Barack Obama's commitment to UN programmes, like climate change and ending poverty around the world.

Ban and Obama met earlier this week for the first time since the president was inaugurated in January. Ban said he was encouraged by the talks "both in substance and in spirit."

"That it should come so early is a strong signal of the new administration's commitment to the United Nations and its cause," Ban told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

New York  - The world population is expected to reach 7 billion by 2012, from the current 6.8 billion, with the additional population increase coming mostly in developing countries, the United Nations said Wednesday.

By 2050, the world population is projected to reach over 9 billion people based on an annual average gain of 78 million people. Most governments depend on UN studies in world population to map socioeconomic policy.

Vienna  - A United Nations meeting to discuss policies for tackling the global drug problem in the coming decade began Wednesday in Vienna against the backdrop of limited progress over the last 10 yeras.

The high-level meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs is set to adopt an action plan Thursday that calls on countries to find a better balance between measures to curb supply and demand, for example by strengthening health care services.

United Nations, Mar. 7 : The Pakistan Government has given 1.5 million dollars as seed money to the United Nations Secretariat to partially cover the cost of a three-member fact-finding commission to probe the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

"The money has been received, I can confirm that," The Daily Times quoted UN Secretary-General''s spokeswoman Michele Montas, as saying.