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The nearly $1 billion United Nations flash appeal that Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched today for the survivors of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami ranges from the massive cost of feeding 2 million people for the next six months to relatively more modest pin-point goals such as replacing lost fishing boats.

In reports written before the devastating tsunami raced through the Indian Ocean last month, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warns of the toll tidal waves, cyclones and other natural disasters take on the economies of small island nations, especially when accompanied by such man-made devastation as pollution, over-fishing and the discharge of waste into bodies of water.

Urging all sections of Iraqi society to participate in their country's upcoming elections, the foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbours concluded a meeting today in Amman, the Jordanian capital, by stressing the importance of the United Nations in supporting the political process there.

While relief operations after last week's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami are making "phenomenal progress" in areas that can be reached, "enormous problems" still persist in Indonesia, the top United Nations emergency coordinator said today.

Voicing support for the recent steps taken by the Central African Republic (CAR) in its gradual political transition after years of instability and violence, the Security Council said today it was essential that the country's general elections scheduled for next month are free, transparent and democratic.

The United Nations atomic watchdog agency will be sending inspectors in the coming days to the Parchin military site in Iran, following allegations that it was linked to nuclear weapons testing.

While Rwanda's concerns about its genocidal citizens hiding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are understandable, Rwanda and the DRC's other neighbours are not promoting the conditions needed to bring peace to the country's troubled eastern region, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says.

With aid pledges for the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami already reaching between $3 billion and $4 billion, the United Nations health agency warned again today that 150,000 people are at "extreme risk" of dying from preventable diseases unless clean drinking water and other basic needs are restored within days.

Praising as “marvellous” the world response so far to last week's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, today to launch the United Nations flash appeal expected to total many hundreds of millions of dollars for the most urgent needs over the next six months.

Welcoming the initialling of the final two protocols of a comprehensive peace deal to end the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan, the Security Council today voiced hope that the agreement will play a role in resolving the separate conflict engulfing the country’s Darfur region in the west.