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Twenty African countries are to receive dozens of female-directed community telephone and computer centres to help them develop sectors in education, health, agriculture and governance and create information societies, the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said today.

A French United Nations peacekeeper was killed and a Swedish colleague injured Sunday while patrolling the line of withdrawal in southern Lebanon, prompting Secretary-General Kofi Annan today to deplore the rise in fighting between Israel and Hizbollah along the so-called Blue Line.

The United Nations Security Council today pledged aid, including the deployment of a peace support operation in southern Sudan, after yesterday's signing by the Government and rebels of an accord formally ending two decades of civil war that has killed at least 2 million people, uprooted 4 million more and sent 600,000 into exile.

The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) is receiving a new Deputy Special Representative while its police commissioner is on his way to UN Headquarters in New York.

United Nations officials today welcomed initial findings by an independent probe into the UN Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq, acknowledging deficiencies in the way the multi-billion dollar humanitarian operation was run and pledging to revamp the world body's current overall management structure.

The target of reaching equality in basic education for girls and boys is being met in much of the world, but girls and women still faced inequality in the labour market, in domestic violence and in vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, the United Nations expert on gender issues said today.

Expressing condolences to former South African President Nelson Mandela on the recent death of his only surviving son, the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said his candour in disclosing that his son had died in the pandemic was vital in the fight against stigmatizing AIDS victims.

Hailing today's signing of a comprehensive peace agreement formally ending Sudan's long and devastating war, Secretary-General Kofi Annan pledged to quickly outline plans for a United Nations operation there but warned that it would face severe challenges.

With nearly 3 million Afghans still living in Pakistan and Iran, the top United Nations refugee official will visit Afghanistan next week in an effort to solve the problem and develop new approaches to managing population movements within the region.

Despite recent improvements the locust threat remains serious in western Africa, vigilance and intensive control operations are still needed, and it will take another three months before the scale of any potential plague from the crop-devouring insects becomes clear, the United Nations warned today.