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As Sudan grapples with the third-highest rate of polio cases in the world, the senior United Nations envoy to the country has urged the warring parties in the conflict engulfing its Darfur region to halt their fighting next week so that a three-day campaign to vaccinate nearly six million children against the disease can take place safely.

Rejecting myths arising out of major historical plagues, relief workers coping with large numbers of people killed by natural disasters such as last week’s earthquake and tsunami in South Asia should make every effort to respect the traditions of the affected communities and preserve the individual identities of the dead, the United Nations health agency says.

Saying that 2005 offered the United Nations a critical opportunity to push through a new round of reforms, Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced today that he had chosen the UN's top development official to be his new chief of staff, who would play a key role in carrying out a series of measures to enhance the effectiveness of the world body.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today he would attend a high-level international conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, later this week to launch an appeal for emergency funds for the massive relief effort the UN is helping to coordinate in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster.

With some 40 countries offering support for the victims of the tsunami disaster, over $2 billion in pledges had already been recorded for the emergency and recovery phase, a senior United Nations relief official said today.