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United Nations relief agencies opened a fourth food corridor into Iraq today while pledging help for re-opening schools and shifting focus from contingency preparations for a refugee exodus out of the country to the eventual repatriation of up to 500,000 people.

Timor-Leste was admitted today to the regional arm of the United Nations responsible for promoting economic and social development through cooperation and integration in Asia and the Pacific.

The United Nations expert body charged with monitoring worldwide efforts to ensure adequate protection for all persons against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, is set to open its thirtieth annual session in Geneva next week.

A preparatory committee to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime - begins a two-week meeting in Geneva on Monday under the shadow of concern over nuclear materials falling into the hands of criminals or terrorists.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed to the Security Council to extend for another year the mandate of the United Nations mission in Timor-Leste, where he says the security environment continues to deteriorate.

The key United Nations forum bringing countries together to consider ways to integrate the three dimensions of sustainable development - economic growth, social development and environmental protection - is set to open its 2003 session next week at UN Headquarters in New York.

No new cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) have been detected in Viet Nam for 17 days and if this continues until April 30, the country where the deadly new disease was first identified could also become the first to contain the outbreak, the United Nations health agency reported today.

Amid reports of brazen mercenary activities, political finger pointing and failing social services, the security situation has deteriorated so badly in Liberia that it is virtually impossible to reach desperate refugees and internally displaced persons, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a report out today.

Continuing an eight-day mission to evaluate the current humanitarian conditions in Côte d'Ivoire, the United Nations envoy for the crisis today left Abidjan to visit the volatile western part of the country, where tens of thousands of internally displaced people are sheltered.

Wrapping up its annual session today, the main United Nations human rights forum adopted a resolution on the situation in Iraq asking all parties to the current conflict to abide strictly by their obligations under international humanitarian law.