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Secretary-General Kofi Annan's top aide dealing with the peace process in Colombia will wrap up his current term in April after five years on the job, putting a temporary pause to active United Nations involvement in helping to end the country's decades-long conflict.

The United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI) has deplored the death of a bystander killed by an unidentified gunmen during a clash with the UN blue helmets on Friday.

The United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction – a long-planned event which gained added importance in the wake of the recent Indian Ocean tsunami – has concluded in Kobe, Japan, with countries pledging to reduce the risks facing millions of people who are exposed to natural calamities.

Beyond the horrific loss of human life, the recent Indian Ocean tsunami extensively damaged Indonesia's coastal environment, causing $675 million in losses to natural habitats and important ecosystem functions, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported today.

With hunger and related diseases claiming as many lives each week as the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami – more than 165,000 at latest count – the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) today shone the spotlight on the silent killers, whose terrible toll can be slashed by emergency preparedness.

In a critical report on the corporate response to the social and business threats of HIV/AIDS, a new United Nations-backed report today lamented that businesses rarely draw up written policies to tackle the crisis, such as counselling, testing and treatment, until 20 per cent of a country’s population is infected.

The top United Nations human rights official is to visit Nepal next week for a first-hand assessment of the situation in the Himalayan kingdom a month after a UN working group called on the Government to honour its international obligations to stop forced disappearances of suspects in its war against Maoist rebels.

Even as relief distribution improves in Indonesia, the region most ravaged by last month's Indian Ocean tsunami, a particularly heavy rainy season is worsening conditions in temporary settlements and hampering the delivery of supplies, especially by road, the United Nations reported today.

In a bid to help the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia meet its target of trying all defendants by 2008, the General Assembly today extended the tenure of seven short-term judges and appointed two new temporary judges as well.

With dialogue in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict frozen for much of last year, the United Nations mission there remains vital in preventing a flare-up of the hostilities between Government and separatist forces which uprooted nearly 300,000 refugees over a decade ago, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest report.