Somalia's parliament votes Monday for a new president in what the UN has described as a historic election for the war-torn nation, which has lacked an effective central government for decades.
New UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said the death toll in Syria is "staggering" and the destruction "catastrophic" and called for a united stance from the international community.
Israel's prime minister has accused the international community of failing to draw a "clear red line" for Iran over its nuclear programme, after a UN report found Tehran had doubled its capacity at a nuclear site.
Iran's hopes of boosting its international prestige by hosting a Non-Aligned summit this week were tripped up by a critical new UN nuclear watchdog report.
War-torn Syria's frustrated neighbor Turkey demanded on Thursday that world powers set up refugee camps within the country to stem the massive outflow of refugees fleeing the fighting.
The US is stepping up support for the Syrian rebels but, despite the failure of UN envoy Kofi Annan's mission, is sticking to its refusal to pour arms into a complex conflict.
World powers traded blame on Friday after Kofi Annan quit as international peace envoy to Syria, complaining that his initiative to end the bloodshed there never received the support it deserved.
Rebels seized control of Syria's border crossings with Iraq on the bloodiest day of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, as China and Russia dismayed the West by blocking UN action against his regime.
Chairman of Kazakhstan Statistics Agency has been elected to the UN Managing Committee for Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistic.