The World Health Organization will dramatically reform its emergency response operations this year, after the UN agency faced blistering criticism for its slow Ebola response.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday he was increasingly concerned by the humanitarian crisis sparked by refugees stranded in boats in Southeast Asia.
Russia's UN envoy said he expected UN-brokered peace talks on Yemen to re-start quickly and warned that sending ground forces to Yemen would be a reckless escalation.
The UN Security Council will hold a special meeting next week to discuss ways to address the crisis sparked by a relentless wave of thousands of Mediterranean boat migrants.
The UN Security Council was unable to agree on a Russian-drafted statement demanding an immediate ceasefire or at least humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Yemen.
UN culture chief Irina Bokova urged the Security Council to task peacekeepers with protecting cultural sites and to help prosecute those who destroy historical treasures.
Britain and France agreed to seek UN approval for an EU military operation against people smugglers, in a bid to curb the soaring number of migrants dying.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to world governments to share the burden of taking in refugees after more than 700 migrants were feared dead.
The UN Security Council pressed Libya's warring factions to urgently form a unity government and threatened sanctions against those behind spiraling violence.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for a new push to resolve the conflict over Western Sahara and stressed that cooperation to address human rights could help find a settlement.