NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Grunge and punk are poised for
comebacks for fall and winter, say top U.S. department store
buyers at New York’s Fashion Week, which starts on Thursday, but
don’t rip up your flannel shirt just yet as the revival will be
taking on a more feminine flair.

The return of grunge and punk for autumn 2013 are part of a
rock ‘n’ roll theme experts expect to see in collections by the
more than 90 designers showing at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at
Manhattan’s Lincoln Center.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Security Council should consider lifting an arms embargo on Somalia to help rebuild the country’s security forces and consolidate military gains against al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon suggested in a report Friday.

The council imposed the embargo in 1992 to cut the flow of arms to feuding warlords, who a year earlier ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged Somalia into civil war. Council diplomats said the arms embargo was “under discussion” as the delegations have not reached a final agreement.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A military intervention by France in Mali to combat Islamist rebels could exacerbate a “precarious” security situation in Libya, where armed groups have targeted security officials and diplomats, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

U.N. special envoy Tarek Mitri, head of the U.N. mission in Libya, said that country’s government faced a serious security challenge in the east, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in September.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will recommend to the U.N. Security Council that a peace enforcement unit be deployed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to take on the M23 rebels and other armed groups, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.

The intervention unit of a few thousand troops would aim to prevent armed groups from expanding territory in the resource-rich region by overpowering and disarming them. The unit would be contained within the existing U.N. force, known as MONUSCO.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A call by nearly 60 states for the Syria conflict to be referred to the International Criminal Court for an investigation into war crimes is “complicating the situation and hindering the search for an end to the crisis,” Syria’s U.N. envoy said.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari also called for sanctions imposed on his country by the European Union, the United States and others to be lifted because they were a punishing the Syrian people.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations is planning to consider later this year the scientific validity of a claim by China that a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea are part of its territory, although Japan says the world body should not be involved.

Tensions over the uninhabited islands – located near rich fishing grounds and potentially huge oil-and-gas reserves – flared after Japan’s government purchased them from a private Japanese owner in September, sparking violent anti-Japanese protests across China and a military standoff.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council has given a green light for peacekeepers to use surveillance drones in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after weeks of delay over concerns of Russia, China and Rwanda about the use of aerial spy equipment.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote to the 15-member council late last month to advise that peacekeepers in Congo planned to use unmanned aerial systems “to enhance situational awareness and to permit timely decision-making” in dealing with a nine-month insurgency by M23 rebels in the mineral-rich east.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned the U.N. Security Council against requiring the world body to provide logistical support for combat military operations in Mali, saying such a move would put U.N. civilian staff throughout the region at “grave risk.”

In December, the 15-member Security Council authorized the deployment of an African-led military force to help defeat al Qaeda and other Islamist militants in northern Mali and called on the secretary-general to submit funding options.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned the U.N. Security Council against requiring the world body to provide logistical support for combat military operations in Mali, saying such a move would put U.N. civilian staff throughout the region at “grave risk.”

The 15-member Security Council in December authorized in December the deployment of an African-led military force to help defeat al Qaeda and other Islamist militants in northern Mali and called on the secretary-general to submit funding options.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – More than half the 642,000 refugees who have sought refuge from the Syrian conflict in neighboring countries are children and the number of people fleeing could almost double by June, said a senior U.N. official on Thursday.

Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. Refugee Agency regional coordinator for Syrian refugees, said plans were in place to help 4 million people in Syria – 2 million who had been displaced and 2 million who need help in their homes – and up to 1.1 million refugees.