New York  - The economic crisis crippling the world has a direct impact on its 200 million migrant workers, putting them at risk of destitution, stigmatization, discrimination and abuse, the United Nations said Thursday on International Migrant Day.

It said reports of layoffs and lower remittances have been just the beginning of what could be a long story of human suffering. At the same time, migration policies of some governments have become more restrictive.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon complained Wednesday that governments in the United Nations have called for a peacekeeping force in troubled Somalia, but none has volunteered to lead it with large ground troops to stabilize the country.

Ban offered a rare glimpse into the working of the UN system in which members made loud proposals but failed to back them up with resources and manpower, the two components needed to deploy peacekeeping forces around the world.

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.

Poznan, Poland - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged rich and poor nations Thursday to agree on new steps to fight global warming, saying the United States and Europe must lead the way in avoiding a climate "catastrophe."

Addressing 189-nation talks on climate change, Ban said the global financial crisis was a chance to speed investment in clean technology.

He evoked the New Deal, a massive public works programme launched by US president Franklin D Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

New York  - The United Nations celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Wednesday, knowing that its provisions have remained largely unfulfilled even by the governments that promote them to their own citizens.

Human rights, along with development and security, are the three main pillars upon which the world organization has built its activities since its birth in 1945. UN founders included human rights in the organization's charter in response to atrocities committed during World War II.

United Nations, Dec. 5: Pakistan’s Ambassador to United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon has urged India not to widen the area of conflict between the two nations.

In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Haroon hassuggested that US Secretary of State should be dispatched to the region to ease tension in the subcontinent which developed after the Mumbai terror attacks.

Ban-Ki-Moon has “no specific response” to a recent letter sent by Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon on last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, said spokesperson to the UN Secretary-General Michele Montas.