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The United Nations health agency today lifted its advisory against non-essential travel to Toronto, Canada, following an improved outlook in the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak there.

The United Nations health agency co-launched a new partnership programme today aimed at improving the public health of European, Palestinian and Israeli cities through information exchange, study tours, training initiatives and workshops, leading eventually to direct Israeli-Palestinian cooperation.

The head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today expressed deep concern over reports of renewed abductions of children and women by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) following the recent breakdown of a ceasefire in northern Uganda, and called on all parties to the conflict to do everything in their power to secure the immediate release of all kidnapped.

Lebanon has been chosen to host this year’s World Environment Day on 5 June, the first time in the 30-year history of the awareness-raising event that the main celebrations will be held in the Arab world, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to the Security Council to set aside its past differences over Iraq and find a new unity that will allow the Iraqi people to take charge of their own destiny.

United Nations aid agencies opened a new health corridor into Iraq today, prepared to receive fresh food supplies and reported a further resumption of international work within the country, but they warned of a continuing lack of security that included looting of facilities that had been restocked and repaired after previous pillaging.

The diplomatic Quartet - comprising the United Nations, United States, Russian Federation and European Union - released its Road Map for a permanent solution to the Middle East conflict today, a move immediately welcomed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who urged the two sides to embrace the plan.

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus today said it was working with both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sides to help people move to and from the northern and southern sides of the island.

Pledging total United Nations support to the Israelis and Palestinians in implementing the Road Map settlement for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to both sides to “stay the course” on what may be a difficult path to peace.

The head of the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has condemned the spate of violence in the country's volatile northeast, which threatened to eclipse an historic meeting between rebel leaders and Government officials in the capital, Kinshasa.