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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, today arrived in Singapore on the first leg of an Asian trip that will also take him to Bangkok, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

As monsoon rains continue to pound South Asia, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the sheer size and scale of the resulting floods, as well as the massive numbers of people affected, poses an “unprecedented challenge” for governments and aid agencies in their relief efforts.

United Nations agencies are helping Afghanistan’s Health Ministry carry out a new nationwide polio vaccination this week, which aims eventually to protect over 7 million children under the age of five from the highly infectious, often paralyzing and sometimes fatal disease.

Up to half a million Sudanese flood victims have received emergency aid from United Nations agencies and their partners, including water purification products to avert the huge risk of epidemics, in the wake of four weeks after torrential rains that have devastated many parts of the vast country.

The top United Nations envoy in Timor-Leste today welcomed the announcement of a new Government to be led by Xanana Gusmão in the small Asian nation, which the world body helped shepherd to independence in 2002.

Continuing its provincial forums in Côte d’Ivoire, the United Nations this weekend mobilized the inhabitants of Touba, the Bafing regional capital, to support the peace accord to reunite the West African country that has been split between the Government-controlled south and the Forces Nouvelles-held north since 2002.

Two United Nations experts today welcomed the reinstatement of Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry by the Supreme Court after being suspended this March by President Pervez Musharraf over unspecified allegations of “misuse of office.”

Terming the killings a year ago today of 17 Sri Lankan aid workers “probably the single worst crime committed against humanitarian workers in recent history,” the top United Nations humanitarian official called on the Government to investigate “with the full weight and force of the justice system” the crime that has seemingly become a cold case.

The murder of three men working to rid Afghanistan of the scourge of landmines has sparked outrage from the top United Nations official in the country.

Darfurian rebel groups attending United Nations-sponsored “pre-negotiation” talks over the weekend have agreed to work together to try to devise a solution to the deadly conflict that has devastated the Sudanese region since 2003.