14 June 2010 – Member States of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have agreed on what constitutes the crime of aggression, a long-running source of contention in international law, after nearly one decade of discussion.

Nations agreed to amend the Rome Statute, which set up the Court, to define the crime of aggression as “the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations.”

Message on World Environment Day, 5 June 2010

Vienna, 5 June (UN Information Service) - Biodiversity, the incredible variety of life on Earth that sustains us, is in peril. Species are becoming extinct at the fastest rate ever recorded. Most of these extinctions are tied to human activities that are polluting and depleting water resources, changing and degrading habitats and altering the global climate. From frogs to gorillas, from huge plants to tiny insects, thousands of species are in jeopardy.

Message for International Day of UN Peacekeepers, 29 May 2010

Vienna, 29 May (UN Information Service) - On the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, we honour the sacrifices of the men and women who lost their lives while serving under the UN flag.

This year's commemoration is a somber one. The past 14 months have been especially deadly for UN peacekeeping.

Ambushes in Darfur...

Terrorism in Kabul...

And a plane crash in Haiti...

These were among the tragedies that struck peacekeeping last year, killing 121 people.

That toll was nearly matched in a few seconds with the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti last January.

21 May 2010 - The UN independent expert on human rights, water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, will visit Slovenia from 24-28 May 2010 to collect first-hand information and hold a dialogue with the Government of Slovenia about the steps taken to ensure that the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation are guaranteed in its territory. Her programme includes a meeting with the President of Slovenia Danilo Tuerk, who formerly served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the realization of economic, social and cultural rights.

Message of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the International Day for Biological Diversity, 22 May 2010

The planet's species and habitats, and the goods and services they provide, form the basis of our wealth, our health and our well-being. Yet, despite repeated global commitments to protect this heritage, the variety of life on Earth continues to decline at an unprecedented rate. Biodiversity loss is moving ecological systems ever closer to a tipping point beyond which they will no longer be able to fulfil their vital functions.