Rome - Earlier this year, international donors pledged 22 billion dollars to promote global food security. But "only 10 per cent of this has so far materialized," the head of a UN food agency said Thursday.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf made his comments at a ceremony marking World Food Day at the agency's Rome headquarters.

New York - Some 7,500 Haitians have been given jobs under programmes carried out by the UN Development Programme since the country was devastated by four consecutive hurricanes in recent months, UNDP said Wednesday.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was hardest hit in August and September by hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.

New York - UN Sec

New York - The Afghan government told the UN Security Council Tuesday that the former Taliban rulers have become a threat to the country seven years after they were toppled from power.

Taliban and al-Qaeda forces have intensified the fighting at Afghan borders with Pakistan, timing their campaign to presidential elections in the United States this year and presumably in Afghanistan in 2009 "to force a change in international commitment" in Afghanistan, the country's UN ambassador Zahir Tanin said.

New York  - The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday extended the mandate of its large peacekeeping operation in Haiti by 12 months, while the government there is strengthening its national police force to assume the security role now being performed by the UN.

The UN mission's new mandate will expire October 15 next year. It is now composed of 7,060 military troops and 2,091 police from dozens of countries.

The council said in a resolution that it extended the UN mandate "until the planned substantial increase of the Haitian National Police capacity to allow for a reassessment of the situation."

New York - The world's major economies should work together to recapitalize the banking system and guarantee the savings of people around the world in this time of economic crisis, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.

Ban called efforts by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the financial ministers of the world's seven biggest economies (G7) "laudable" in trying to instill more confidence in financial markets.

But he said "more coordinated approaches" are needed.