UNITED NATIONS

U.N. aid agencies will launch an emergency appeal to raise for about $550 million to help survivors of the earthquake in Haiti, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.

The United Nations said on Thursday at least 36 of its personnel were killed in this week's earthquake in Haiti, the worst loss of life the world body has ever suffered in a single incident.

Thousands of Haitians at home and abroad are trying to get in touch with each other through a website set up after the devastating earthquake, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.

Up to 200 international United Nations staff in Haiti, including peacekeepers, remain unaccounted for after its headquarters and other buildings collapsed in a devastating earthquake, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Countries should stop blaming each other for the weak outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks and sit down together to move the process forward, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Wednesday.

The UN climate chief said Wednesday the Copenhagen Accord was vague about climate funds pledged by rich countries to help poor countries fight against climate change.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Thursday it had loaned South African state owned utility Eskom 1.86 billion euros ($2.81 billion) to finance the construction of the Medupi power project.

The World Bank will start a trust fund to boost agriculture in poor countries with an initial $1.5 billion, its president Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday, warning of the risk of another food price crisis.

Eight years after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, the war-ravaged state is the most dangerous place in the world for a child to be born, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Eight years after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, the war-ravaged state is the most dangerous place in the world for a child to be born, the United Nations said on Thursday.

A draft declaration to be made at next week's world food summit ducks new targets on agricultural aid and the fight against hunger, but France said on Thursday it wanted firmer pledges on finance and market regulation.

Poor nations battered by record food prices last year need international help to raise agricultural output given conditions are still ripe for another food crisis, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation's chief said.

Corruption costs developing nations $20 to $40 billion each year, while emerging markets and financial centers are increasingly havens for stolen assets, a top World Bank official said Saturday.

Turkey's President Abdullah Gul accused the European Union on Friday of interfering after the bloc asked Ankara to reconsider a decision to invite indicted Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to an Islamic summit.

The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution on Thursday urging Israel and the Palestinians to investigate war crimes charges leveled in a controversial U.N. report on the Gaza war.

Developing countries risk missing out on the benefits of information technology because of their lack of broadband infrastructure, a U.N. agency said.

International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors said on Monday Sudanese Darfur rebel leader Bahr Idriss Abu Garda deliberately ordered the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers, leaving civilians unprotected.

A combination of the food crisis and the global economic downturn has pushed more than 1 billion people into hunger in 2009, U.N. agencies said on Wednesday, confirming a grim forecast released earlier this year.

Actor Orlando Bloom, star of the Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings movies, was named a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations children's organization UNICEF on Monday.

Two months ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, the world body's telecoms arm urged governments and companies to use information technology to fight global warming.

The world needs to invest $83 billion a year in agriculture in developing countries to feed 9.1 billion people in 2050, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said on Thursday.