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Following the recent deadly violence in Timor-Leste, in which 155,000 people were forced to flee their homes, it is important for the international community to realize that the tiny nation needs a sustained, long-term commitment, a United Nations envoy said today after briefing the Security Council on his recent assessment mission to the country.

Condemning recent abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where demonstrators have faced opposition in violation of their right to freedom of expression, a United Nations official in the country today called on the authorities to respect its new Constitution.

The recently created United Nations body meant to help countries consolidate stability and avoid relapsing back into violence started its briefings today on the situation of Burundi and Sierra Leone, the first two situations referred to it.

Expressing grave concern at the killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said today that the shelling of cities was an “unacceptable targeting of civilians,” and stressed that international law demands accountability.

In anticipation of tomorrow’s arrival of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his Lebanon envoy team and other high officials in New York, where they will meet as part of efforts to end the spiralling Middle East violence, Mr. Annan’s deputy said that a permanent solution to the crisis is needed but that saving innocent life is an obvious priority.

In the run-up to a high-level meeting next week on the future status of the United Nations-run province of Kosovo, delegations from Pristina and the Serbian capital of Belgrade met today in Vienna to discuss the decentralization process in the province, a UN spokesman said.

The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has announced that it will provide logistical support to a new body that will study the spread and impact of the virus and the disease in Asia and the Pacific with a view to mobilizing an adequate response for the region, where over 8 million people live with HIV.

Action is needed to conserve mangroves in the Pacific amid concern that rising sea levels, linked with climate change, are set to drown large areas of these precious and economically important ecosystems, the United Nations Environment Programme said today citing new research.

The United Nations humanitarian relief appeal for West Africa, where some countries have faced threats of political instability and nutritional and food insecurity, while others have benefited from progress towards stability and development, is short $118.9 million of the $243.2 million being sought, the world body’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.

In the face of an “extremely bleak” and worsening humanitarian outlook for the occupied Palestinian territory, the United Nations and select non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have taken what officials called an unprecedented step of revising their appeal for humanitarian assistance to Palestinians from $215 million to $384 million.