<p>ISTANBUL—Least Developed Countries  should seize the unique opportunity of having a large number of young people. Investing in them will speed up their economic growth and help them meet development priorities, such as the Millennium Development Goals, UNFPA’s Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, said today at the LDC Summit in Istanbul.</p>

<p>ISTANBUL --- Straddling both Europe and Asia, Türkiye has connections “across the region and across the world,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin during the opening ceremony of the first Regional Office of the United Nations system in Istanbul.</p>

<p>ISTANBUL—Investments in young people, women’s empowerment and reproductive health, including family planning, are critical to boosting least developed countries’ productive capacity and speeding their escape from poverty, according to a new report by UNFPA.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS, New York—World population is projected to reach 7 billion on 31 October 2011, according to the 2010 Revision of World Population Prospects, which was released today.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS, New York—Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, the new Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, will tomorrow start a three-country mission to Africa—his first visit to developing countries since he assumed his new position in January 2011.</p>

<p>United Nations, New York — On behalf of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, I express our deepest sympathy to the people and Government of Japan following the catastrophic earthquakes and tsunami.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS, New York — An Iranian demographer, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, and an African research institution, L’Institut de Formation et de Recherche Démographique (IFORD), were announced today as winners of the 2011 United Nations Population Award.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS, New York—UNFPA  today welcomed the announcement by Women Deliver of the names of the top one hundred people advancing the causes and rights of girls and women. The list of honorees includes a number of partners and supporters of UNFPA, including two of its former Executive Directors.  </p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS, New York—Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, the new Executive Director of UNFPA, has urged the international community to take a giant leap towards universal access to reproductive health, including family planning, by supporting a campaign to put contraceptive choices in 100 million women’s hands.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS, New York — UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is tackling the health needs of the thousands of people fleeing the reported violence in Libya, including women and girls—particularly along the Libyan-Tunisian border, where conditions have reached crisis point.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS, New York—UNFPA had no involvement in the selection of women to be profiled in the 'White Hand Campaign' of the Arab Producers’ Union for TV, even though its logo appears on the campaign’s website.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS, New York—Over 6,000 communities have chosen to abandon the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), according to a joint United Nations programme designed to eliminate this practice, and the number is growing. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> <br/> </span> </p>