The U.N.'s cultural agency has listed Switzerland’s long-celebrated yodeling among 67 traditions honored its list of intangible cultural heritage.

The U.N.’s humanitarian aid coordinator is downsizing its appeal for annual funding in 2026 after support this year — mostly from Western governments — plunged to the lowest level in a decade.

Officials say progress was made in urgent weekend talks on amending the U.S. peace proposal for Ukraine that many saw as favoring Russia.

The World Health Organization reports that gunmen who reportedly killed at least 460 people at a hospital in Sudan's Darfur region returned three times to the facility during their assault.

The United Nations' food aid agency has warned that severe funding cuts are impacting its operations in six countries.

The number of reported cholera cases is increasing in Darfur and over 3,000 people in Sudan have died in the past 14 months of civil war, according to the World Health Organization.

A World Trade Organization agreement aimed at reducing overfishing has taken effect.

The U.N. human rights office says Congo’s armed forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have committed gang rape, sexual slavery, torture, killings of civilians and other “horrific” atrocities in eastern Congo this year.

Norwegian soccer’s profits from hosting Israel in a men’s 2026 World Cup qualifying game will be donated to humanitarian work in Gaza.

Talks on a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution in Geneva ended without an agreement Friday.

Negotiations on a global treaty to end plastic pollution will draw to a close Friday.

Negotiators working on a treaty to address global plastic pollution are discussing a new draft of the text that wouldn't limit plastic production or address chemicals used in plastic products.

Nations are crafting the first global, legally binding treaty on plastics pollution.

Environmentalists and Indigenous leaders held signs in front of the United Nations buildings in Geneva where talks for a global accord to end plastic pollution are taking place.

As nations began a second week of negotiations Monday for a global accord to end plastic pollution, an artist heaped piles of plastic waste onto a large sculpture in front of the United Nations office.

Nations have started a crucial meeting to finalize a treaty to tackle the global plastic pollution crisis.

England and Spain are set to face off in the Women's European Championship final, echoing their World Cup clash two years ago.

Italy is one win away from reaching the final of the Women’s European Championship, but just three years ago its players couldn’t even get professional contracts back home.

U.S.-China trade talks in London this week are expected to take up a series of disputes that have buffeted relations.

A 64-year-old man remains missing after a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier crashed down a Swiss mountainside the day before.

A day after China and the U.S. agreed to a 90-day truce in their tariffs stalemate, China is moving to strengthen its alliances as a counterweight to President Donald Trump's trade war.

U.S. and Chinese officials say they have reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90 day pause so they can keep talking to resolve their trade disputes.

International aid agencies warn that plans presented by Israel to control aid distribution in Gaza will only increase suffering and death in the devastated Palestinian territory.

The United Nations agency that fights HIV says it plans to slash its workforce by more than half as a result of sweeping funding cuts from longtime donors in the United States, Asia and Europe.

The head of leading vaccines group Gavi alliance says it has not received confirmation from the U.S. government that it might be losing more than $1 billion in pledged funding as part of a reported proposal by U.S. authorities to cut support for international aid groups.

Iran increasingly relies on electronic surveillance and the public to inform on women refusing to wear the country's mandatory headscarf in public, even as hard-liners push for harsher penalties for those protesting the law.

President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the World Health Organization means the U.N. agency is losing its biggest funder.

The new head of the U.N. humanitarian aid agency is calling for “ruthlessness” when prioritizing how it spends money.

The United Nations says more aid workers, health care staffers, delivery personnel and other humanitarians have been killed in 2024 than in any other single year.

The right-to-die activist behind a new “suicide capsule” says he rejects “absurd” allegations that the U.S. woman who was said to be its first user may have actually been strangled.

A Lebanese government minister says his country has filed a complaint against Israel at the U.N.’s labor organization over the string of deadly attacks involving exploding pagers, saying workers were among those killed and injured.

The U.N. envoy to Western Sahara is suggesting that dividing the territory between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front could be one way to settle the decades-long conflict.

The World Trade Organization has raised its outlook for global goods trade this year slightly, but cautions that increasing geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over economic policy pose “substantial” risks to its forecast.

Winter sports are facing a long-time crisis because of climate change and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation has teamed up with the United Nations weather agency.

The World Health Organization says it has granted its first authorization for use of a vaccine against mpox in adults, calling it an important step toward fighting against the disease in Africa.

The head of the World Health Organization believes the ongoing mpox outbreaks in Africa might be stopped in the next six months.

The U.N. health agency has launched a six-month plan to help stanch outbreaks of mpox transmission.

A bus that was transporting a professional baseball team from Iowa to a game in Illinois caught fire.

U.N. officials say that Sudan’s warring parties have arrived in Geneva at the invitation of the United Nations to discuss the protection of civilians through possible local cease-fires.

Health authorities say a man in Mexico died from a type of bird flu called H5N2 that has never before been found in a human.

A global treaty to fight pandemics like COVID is going to have to wait: After more than two years of negotiations, rich and poor countries have failed to come up with a plan for how the world might respond to the next pandemic.

With an assist from Paul McCartney the Paralympic Games is starting its 100-day race to the opening ceremony in Paris on Aug. 28.

Top envoys from the U.S. and China huddled Tuesday in closed-door talks in Geneva to discuss ways to ensure that emerging artificial intelligence technologies don't become existential risks.

Leaders of top European soccer leagues say have no plans to take games to the United States.

The world’s top anti-doping regulator says after reviewing a documentary and other media reports that it stands by its decision to clear 23 Chinese swimmers to compete at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for a banned heart medication.

Switzerland says it will host a high-level international conference in June to help chart a path toward peace in Ukraine after more than two years of war, in hopes that Russia might join in the peace process one day.

Representatives of two armed groups in Congo signed solemn pledges this week to both their violence-wracked country and the wider world: We will do better to respect and protect civilians.

Geneva-based commodities trading firm Gunvor said Friday that it has reached $661 million settlement with U.S. and Swiss prosecutors after a conviction for bribery of foreign officials in connection with the petroleum industry in Ecuador.

The head of the World Trade Organization says the body remains relevant and its leaders focus on reform “no matter who comes into power” as Donald Trump — who as U.S. president bypassed WTO rules by slapping tariffs on America’s friends and foes alike — makes another run at the White House.

A top U.N. official says that two generals in Sudan whose forces have been at war for the last 10 months assured him recently that they would attend a meeting in Switzerland to discuss humanitarian issues and Sudan’s beleaguered civilians.

The U.N. health agency says reported cases of dengue globally increased tenfold over the last generation.

Paris Saint-Germain and not Newcastle or AC Milan advanced to the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday.

If Saudi Arabia could have designed a process for choosing future World Cup hosts, it might look similar to what FIFA has unveiled for the 2030 and 2034 men’s soccer tournaments.

The Ukraine soccer federation says it will boycott any European youth competition that includes Russia as UEFA works on easing a blanket ban imposed since the war started.

Swiss federal prosecutors say they have indicted a former employee of the Geneva-based commodities trading firm Gunvor over bribes paid to obtain access to the Republic of Congo’s petroleum market more than a decade ago.

The Swiss weather service says a heat wave has driven the zero-degree Celsius level to its highest altitude since recordings on it in Switzerland began nearly 70 years ago, a new ominous sign for the country’s vaunted glaciers.

The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for women until an assessment of gender change is made by its officials.

Switzerland’s main intelligence agency says Russia continues to have dozens of spies disguised as diplomats at its embassy in Bern and its mission to the United Nations in Geneva, making the Alpine nation a hotspot for Russian espionage activity in Europe.

Switzerland’s executive branch has thrown its weight behind a proposal to decommission 25 out-of-service Leopard 2 battle tanks that Germany’s government wants returned to the German manufacturer to help Berlin plug gaps in its arsenal after it shipped weapons to Ukraine.

The World Health Organization says it has fired one of its doctors who faced allegations that he had repeatedly engaged in sexual misconduct.

Russia's president and the deposed leader of Afghanistan were among the top gift givers to President Joe Biden and his family in 2021, according to federal documents.

The U.N.’s humanitarian aid and refugee agencies say they are seeking $5.6 billion to help millions of people in Ukraine and 10 countries that have taken in fleeing Ukrainians in the wake of Russia’s invasion of their country nearly a year ago.

The IOC has made clear it wants Russians to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics as neutral athletes.

The Red Cross says it has conducted rare visits with thousands of prisoners on both sides of Yemen’s eight-year-old civil war, a step that could pave the way for an exchange of detainees between the rival parties.

A U.N. body devoted to promoting broader and better access to the internet is about to hold its annual gathering in Ethiopia.

FIFA’s top doctor has highlighted brain injuries in soccer as his top priority ahead of a World Cup where teams can now use an extra substitute if a player has a suspected concussion.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has received the U.N. refugee agency’s top award.

Western countries are leading a simultaneous push at the U.N.’s top human rights body to scrutinize human rights in two of the world’s most influential countries: China and Russia.

A team of experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body to look into rights violations in Ukraine says its initial investigation has turned up evidence of war crimes in the country following Russia’s invasion nearly seven months ago.

Marijuana use is to stay banned at sports events.

An envoy from China’s Xinjiang province says Chinese authorities are ready for a “fight” with “anti-China” critics in the West and elsewhere over allegations of rights abuses in the anti-extremism campaign against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in the region.

A top Chinese diplomat says China can’t work with the U.N. human rights office after it released a report criticizing Beijing’s policies against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in western Xinjiang.

A Florida law is getting international attention from a special United Nations committee aimed at combatting racial inequality around the world.

Independent U.N. human rights experts are expressing concerns about the adverse impact on the rights of racial and ethnic minorities from the U.S. Supreme Court decision that stripped away constitutional protections for abortion in the United States.

The number of monkeypox cases reported globally dropped by 21% in the last week, reversing a month-long trend of rising infections in a possible sign the outbreak may be starting to decline in Europe, according to an report issued by the World Health Organization on Thursday.

After five weeks of declining coronavirus deaths, the number of fatalities reported globally increased by 4% last week, according to the World Health Organization.

A veteran Russian diplomat to the U.N. Office at Geneva says he handed in his resignation before sending out a scathing letter to foreign colleagues inveighing against the “aggressive war unleashed” by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus cases reported worldwide has continued to fall except in the Americas and Africa.

The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 17% in the last week even as COVID-19 infections rose.

An expert group convened by the World Health Organization said it “strongly supports urgent and broad access” to coronavirus vaccines, including booster doses.

The number of new coronavirus cases reported globally dropped by 16% last week, marking a month-long decline in COVID-19 infections, according to figures from the World Health Organization.

An 18th-century icon that a British officer spirited out of war-wracked Cyprus in 1974 has been returned to the island’s Orthodox Church by the officer’s son to reunite it with those “who really appreciate what it stands for.”.

An annual report from the United Nations labor agency has highlighted the work conditions of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s western Xinjiang region.

The head of the World Health Organization says “COVID isn’t finished with us,” as he appealed for extra help to fight the pandemic after his agency reported case counts and deaths fell worldwide over the past week.

The World Health Organization chief says 90 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the omicron variant was first identified 10 weeks ago, amounting to more than in all of 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan's government says it will watch the World Health Organization’s probe into staff complaints over racism and abuse by a top Japanese official but denied it inappropriately received sensitive vaccine information from him.

The World Health Organization says there were 21 million new coronavirus cases reported globally last week.

The head of the World Health Organization is warning that conditions remain ideal for more coronavirus variants to emerge and says it’s dangerous to assume omicron is the last one or that “we are in the endgame.”.

The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus cases globally rose by 20% last week to more than 18 million, marking a slowdown in the surge caused by the omicron variant.

The World Health Organization says the number of new coronavirus infections in the last week globally jumped by about 55% although the number of deaths remained stable.

Moscow and Washington both have taken uncompromising stands ahead of more talks amid a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine.

Russia and the U.S. remained far apart after talks aimed at defusing tensions over Ukraine, with Moscow insisting on guarantees to halt NATO’s eastward expansion and even roll back the military alliance’s deployments in Eastern Europe, and Washington firmly rejecting the demands as a nonstarter.

The World Health Organization says travel bans by countries are having an impact on global cooperation against the new omicron variant by causing “challenges” to the sharing of laboratory samples from South Africa that can help get better grips on the new variant.

The World Health Organization’s Europe office says projections show its 53-country region could face another 700,000 deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic by next spring, topping 2 million in total.

Two Swiss skiers that do not want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus will miss the first men’s downhill race of World Cup ski season in Canada because the country requires international visitors to have two doses to enter.

The World Health Organization says its director-general is running unopposed for a second five-year term.

The U.S. and Russia have agreed to press ahead with arms control and related strategic security talks despite significant differences between the two sides.

The United States and Russia will hold their second round of strategic talks later this week as the two sides attempt to resolve myriad differences ranging from nuclear weapons to cyberspace.

The U.N.’s intellectual property agency says innovation marched forward last year despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

The World Health Organization and its partners hope to provide Africa with about 30% of the COVID-19 vaccines the continent needs by February.