Four peacekeepers from Bangladesh have been sent home and 13 other UN personnel serving in southern Sudan are under investigation for alleged serious misconduct, including sexual exploitation and abuse, the United Nations said tonight.

The UN Human Rights Council today refrained from criticising the Sudanese government for atrocities in the western Sudan region of Darfur.

The chief of the only Darfur rebel group that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government set an ultimatum today for Khartoum to disarm the feared janjaweed paramilitary group by the end of December.

The top UN official in Sudan, who accused the army of mobilising Arab militias, has been ordered to leave the country within three days.

As a UN deadline expires for Sudan to ease the crisis in Darfur, the situation on the ground remains bleak – villagers forced from their homes by gunmen on horseback still cower in camps for the displaced, and reports the Sudanese military is bombing villagers continue to surface.