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As the death toll mounts in the war-torn capital of Liberia, where the streets are jammed with thousands of displaced people, the United Nations top refugee official today joined Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call for an immediate end to the latest round of fighting between rebels and forces loyal to embattled President Charles Taylor.

Malawi will have the first seat in the United Nations General Assembly Hall reserved for it after the African country was selected by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a drawing to determine the seating arrangements for the upcoming session of the UN’s chief legislative body.

With the United Nations reporting a “horrific” situation in Liberia, where the death toll is rising and thousands of terrified people have been driven into the streets of the war-torn capital, two of the world body’s top child protection monitors have voiced their deep concern for the well-being of women and children amid the chaos.

On the eve of her three-day mission to Nigeria, home to 90 per cent of all polio cases in Africa, the chief of the United Nations agency for youngsters today called on the government to mobilize resources to protect children against the debilitating disease.

The United Nations Security Council heard its first full update report on Iraq today since it recognized the United States-run Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), with many members applauding the new Iraqi Governing Council as a step towards the restoration of sovereignty and also stressing a prominent UN role.

Interested countries tapped by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s to review the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process today said they were encouraged by the two sides’ constructive engagement on economic, political and security issues, as well as on the return of internally displaced persons and refugees.

The wait is finally over for thousands of Afghans stranded for the past 18 months – a makeshift camp on the Pakistani-Afghan border was closed today after the United Nations refugee agency moved the last remaining residents to a new settlement inside Afghanistan.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today warned that Liberia is “poised between hope and disaster” and stressed that the prompt and urgent deployment of troops is needed to salvage the situation.

The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has sent observers to two villages near the volatile town of Bunia to investigate reports of recent fighting there.

The United Nations refugee agency has resumed the repatriation of Somali refugees from Kenya’s Dadaab camp to Puntland in north eastern Somalia after a two-month suspension due to a lack of funds for the flights.