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The top United Nations envoy for Somalia has wrapped up private talks in the town of Jowhar with senior Somali officials who pledged to work with the UN to heal the rift over the government’s location and the deployment of foreign peacekeepers that stalled the latest attempt to re-establish a central authority in the war-shattered Horn of Africa nation.

The United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) today condemned a recent incident in which an unidentified gunman stole a cell phone from a West African peacekeeper and then wounded him. It called on the national authorities to investigate.

Although the United Nations Security Council’s work programme for August would be relatively light, the 15-nation body’s president for the month today said that it would nevertheless follow closely key international events, including the mid-month deadline for the drafting of an Iraqi constitution, and, at month’s end, the completion of the so-called Bonn processes, which set Afghanistan on the road stability in 2001.

In an annual ceremony performed in advance of an upcoming session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thailand was selected to occupy a front-row spot that will determine the order of seating in the General Assembly Hall during the sixtieth session of the UN's main deliberative body that begins in September.

Launching a training course on child protection today, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) called on the political parties contesting the upcoming elections to put children at the centre of their plans, because too often, no one has taken responsibility for their rights, especially during conflicts.

The United Nations refugee agency today again voiced “extreme concern” over the continued detention of 15 Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan after more than 400 of their compatriots, who fled violence in their homeland two months ago, were flown to Romania on Friday.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today renewed its appeal for $4 million for emergency agricultural aid to tackle the food crisis in Niger, where 3.5 million people in the world’s second poorest country are suffering the effects of drought and the worst invasion of crop-devouring locusts in 15 years.

With the number of Togolese fleeing post-election instability to neighbouring countries now passing the 40,000 mark, the United Nations refugee agency today appealed to the international community to urgently make up a $1.45 million shortfall in funding.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged all sides in Sudan to press on with the peace accords following the death of Vice-President John Garang de Mabior in a helicopter crash, for the sake of the children of Africa’s largest country.

With Burundi’s senate elections, the latest in a series, now successfully completed, the international community must give even more support so that the people of the war-torn country can see the benefits of democracy and not fall back into crisis, according to the top United Nations envoy there.