Geneva - The cholera crisis in Zimbabwe is being compounded by the country's political turmoil, the United Nations has been less than successful in protecting civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and no agreements have yet been reached on climate change.

These were some of the issues UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon touched on while on a brief visit Friday to Geneva, which headquarters his organization's humanitarian and human rights teams.

New York  - The diplomatic group on the Middle East peace process, or quartet, will meet Monday at UN headquarters, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.

"It is a year which I hope will bear fruit in the Middle East," Ban said in a conference in Geneva announcing the quartet meeting in New York.

"Somewhat below the radar, Israelis and Palestinians have been engaged in direct, intensive negotiations, and have created trust and a framework where none existed only two years ago," he said.

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday called for efforts to continue to verify the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, despite another impasse reached this week in negotiations.

The six-party talks in Beijing ended on Thursday with North Korea apparently rejecting a compromise proposal on procedures to verify disablement of its disputed nuclear programme.

The parties involved in the talks are China, the United States, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas.

New York - The UN Security Council on Friday urged Cypriot leaders to intensify their efforts aimed at ending the ethnic division on the island.

The 15-nation council unanimously adopted a resolution urging both sides to use the favourable opportunity of negotiations to intensify the "momentum of negotiations, preserving the current atmosphere of trust and goodwill, and engaging in the process in a constructive and open manner."

New York - The United Nations on Thursday strongly condemned the suicide bombing in northern Iraq that killed 45 people and wounded close to 90 others as Muslims gathered on the last day of the hol

New York  - International contractors have brought more than 1,000 foreign workers to Baghdad's international airport without proper legal labour protection, the United Nations office in Iraq (UNAMI) said Thursday.

The workers are stranded in the airport, prompting charges of human trafficking, UNAMI said.

"UNAMI takes the allegations of human trafficking by contractors in Iraq very seriously and is concerned about their predicament," said Stefan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Iraq.