Unless it received new funding from donors immediately, United Nations humanitarian operations in Somalia would begin 2010 with “zero” in the bank, a “life-threatening” situation that could trigger a spillover of people into neighbouring states like Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, said Mark Bowden, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.

The United Nations must be prepared to make efficiency gains in the next five years to free up funds to better respond to the world’s needs, said Gareth Thomas, Minister of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, addressing journalists on priorities for a more effective international humanitarian response.

In Copenhagen, the UN Climate Change Conference has entered the drafting phase for a final agreement. And according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, there is a real eagerness among parties to sit down and get the work done as much as possible before Ministers arrive.

The top United Nations peacekeeping officials today reported significant progress in the ongoing discussions among Member States on a study of wide-ranging proposals to bolster the world body’s peacekeeping capacity, in their quarterly press conference during which they also updated reporters on peace operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Southern Lebanon, and in the Western Darfur region of Sudan.

As negotiations in Copenhagen continue, the Secretary-General is closely following the situation. Delegates continue to work on a set of texts before Ministers arrive in Copenhagen this weekend. The negotiations are focusing on new commitments for developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol and a new long-term cooperative deal under the Climate Change Convention, which will include key issues such as mitigation, adaptation, technology and deforestation.

John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said today that he and other humanitarian actors would push negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen to guarantee sufficient funding and action plans to help the world’s poorest, most vulnerable people adapt to the changing weather patterns threatening their physical and economic survival.

The Security Council should immediately suspend United Nations support to military operations in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo until clear conditions were in place to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and the removal of commanders known to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch said at Headquarters today.

The Secretary-General has arrived in Copenhagen, and he has been meeting with key officials on climate change while an estimated 130 Heads of State and Government prepare to converge in the Danish capital for the high-level session of the Climate Change Conference.

With three days remaining at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the Secretary-General is confident that world leaders will be able to agree on a new deal to combat global warming. As part of his efforts to help pave the way, he held meetings today with a wide number of leaders and representatives of groups of nations. He’s met the Group of 77, the African Group, the Least Developed Countries group and the Alliance of Small Island States.

More than 1,300 people from around the world would join 50,000 Palestinians in a march on 31 December to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel’s military incursion into the Gaza Strip, and appeal for the lifting of its blockade, which prevented food, medicine and reconstruction supplies from reaching those in desperate need, the event’s lead organizers said today.