KABUL - The United Nations drug control agency has signed agreements with the Government of Iran to provide HIV prevention and care services to women and Afghan refugees there who are dependent on drugs.

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai has kicked off a United Nations-backed polio vaccination drive targeting some 7.7 million children in Afghanistan, one of four countries, along with India, Nigeria and Pakistan, where the disease is still endemic.

15 January 2009 - Women in the world’s least developed countries are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications than women in developed countries, according to UNICEF’s latest State of the World’s Children report, released today.