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Former United States President Bill Clinton continued his advocacy as United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery today by launching a six-month intensive examination of key challenges facing groups working in the area affected by the disaster, which sparked unprecedented financial contributions for relief efforts.

Expressing concern at the escalating violence in Sri Lanka, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to the Government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to attend next week’s peace talks in Geneva, while the senior UN official on the island said the latest killings of aid workers could threaten humanitarian operations to those most in need.

With the support of the United Nations, Ecuador is seeking additional international support for relief and recovery efforts for 28,000 families in the wake of the flooding and landslides caused by the heavy rains that have soaked the country since early February.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today praised the United Kingdom for donating $8.7 million for its road works project in southern Sudan, but warned that the initiative faces a crippling funding shortfall of some $70 million and called for more donor contributions.

United Nations cooperation with regional organizations is increasingly contributing to global peace and security, the Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs today told the Sixth Doha Forum for Democracy Development and Free Trade, meeting in Qatar.

The top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan today condemned the “heinous” attack on a school which killed six children and wounded 14 other people. He called for the end of such atrocities against the youngsters of the violence-torn country.

A major United Nations meeting on the Asia-Pacific region today discussed a two-track approach to cooperation focusing on both cross-border infrastructure development, such as highways and railways, and infrastructure investment like bonds and a development bank.

Restoring tens of thousands of lost and degraded wetlands around the world could go a long way towards reducing the threat of bird flu pandemics by keeping disease-carrying wild birds away from infecting domestic poultry, according to a United Nations report released today.

With the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip still closed, a senior official of the main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees warned that the clock is ticking toward a dangerous lack of basic food.

The United Nations today voiced deep concern at the recent intensification of fighting along Chad’s eastern border with Sudan and the extension of the armed confrontations to the southern border with the Central African Republic (CAR), particularly after a large armed group entered a camp sheltering 17,700 Sudanese.