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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan left London today for Geneva, where he will meet with senior UN officials as well as address the high-level segment of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) next week.

The top United Nations envoy for the Middle East peace process, Terje Roed-Larsen, is set to leave tomorrow on a nine-day regional tour of Arab capitals to follow up on the latest meeting of the diplomatic Quartet.

Despite significant progress in the fight against Al-Qaida, the terrorist group blamed for the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States still poses a significant threat to international peace and security, including possible use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), according to a United Nations draft report released today.

Lack of security remains a source of concern for United Nations operations in Iraq and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to temporarily withdraw from the Al Hurriya warehouse in Baghdad following ongoing unrest and theft, a spokesman said today.

An estimated $4.7 billion will be spent this year to address the AIDS epidemic in low- and middle-income countries, falling far short of the more than $10.5 billion that will be needed annually by 2005, according to a report released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

The United Nations closed the visitors' entrance at its New York headquarters for several hours today and suspended its morning tours after a suspicious package described as a bag with a canister inside was found at the tent outside the entryway.

After two days of fierce shelling and rocket blasts, Monrovia awoke to "less intense" fighting this morning, but the renewed push by rebels to take the Liberian capital has further eroded the ability of United Nations agencies and other humanitarian workers to assist thousands of terrified people in need.

Forcefully condemning the recent escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), members of the United Nations Security Council today called on all the parties in the area to fully commit to the political process and to "completely and decisively" renounce the military path.

The United Nations General Assembly has elected 18 short-term judges to help expedite the work of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

As donor countries prepare for a conference this autumn on the reconstruction of Iraq, a senior United Nations official today urged for the inclusion of a strong gender dimension to ensure that outcomes reflect the concerns of both men and women.