Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed a Mexican environmentalist who was chief of staff to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan to spearhead UN reform efforts and a British diplomat who served as a top adviser to two prime ministers as the UN’s new humanitarian chief.

The International Criminal Court expects to finalise its first case by February against suspects in war-torn Darfur who bear the greatest responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today told the UN Human Rights Council to immediately address the escalating atrocities in Darfur by sending an independent team of investigators to the volatile Sudanese region.

Minister of State for Irish Aid Conor Lenihan will attend a major speech by out-going UN Secretary General Kofi Annan today as part of a visit to discuss Irish aid efforts.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland accused UN member states of failing to live up to the pledge they made last year to protect civilians caught in armed conflicts, saying attacks against non-combatants increased by 55% between 1989 and 2005.

THE International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has nearly completed an investigation into war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region and has sufficient evidence to file charges soon, he said yesterday.

Four million Sudanese in conflict-wracked Darfur are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance as newly rearmed Arab militias and rebels escalate attacks and resume looting and burning villages, the UN humanitarian chief said.

The Sudanese army and government-backed militias are committing acts of “inexplicable terror” against civilians, including children, in Darfur, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official says.

Sudan has agreed in principle to allow a joint United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force into Darfur.

The UN’s humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, met a Ugandan rebel leader wanted for war crimes today.

The United Nations’ top humanitarian official today demanded an immediate moratorium on the use of cluster bombs, a day after the international Red Cross stepped up its campaign against the weapons by calling for their outright abolition.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief said today that sectarian killings are “out of control” in Iraq, with about 100 deaths a day and civilians fleeing neighbourhoods and towns because of the cycle of Sunni-Shiite reprisal attacks.

Sectarian violence, armed militias and death squads have created a situation in Iraq where revenge attacks go unchecked, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official said in Geneva today.

The Sudanese government has launched a major offensive against rebels in war-torn Darfur in recent days, human rights activists and African Union officials said tonight.

The UN humanitarian chief has accused Israel of “shocking” and “completely immoral” behaviour for dropping large numbers of cluster bombs on Lebanon when a ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah was in sight.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland warned yesterday that the anger on all sides in the Middle East is the greatest he has seen in two decades of trying to help the troubled region make peace.

The UN's top humanitarian official has demanded that Israel and Lebanon grant immediate access to aid agencies in southern Lebanon.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland tonight called for a three-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah to evacuate trapped civilians and replenish supplies to areas cut off by the fighting.

A humanitarian aid convoy could move from Beirut to southern Lebanon tomorrow if the Israeli army gives final approval, UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said today.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will lobby Israeli leaders today in an attempt to silence the guns and halt the bloodshed on both sides of the Lebanese border.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief today issued an emergency appeal for £81m (€118.58m) in humanitarian aid to help Lebanon through the next three months following the damage wreaked by Israel’s bombardment of the country.

The United Nations’ top humanitarian official today inspected the destruction caused by Israeli air raids on southern Beirut and called for an end to violence as he began a relief mission to war-ravaged Lebanon.

UNITED Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday called for an immediate halt to the escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, but said “there are serious obstacles to reaching a ceasefire or even to diminishing the violence quickly”.

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas today as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second consecutive day as Israel refused to rule out a full-scale invasion.

Nearly one third of all casualties in the Lebanon-Israel conflict have been children, according to the United Nations’ emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland.

SUDAN’S Darfur region is facing a new wave of killings and rapes, with fighting between rebel factions displacing thousands of villagers despite a recent peace agreement, the UN humanitarian chief has warned.

Children in families that have flocked to tent camps to escape violence in East Timor’s capital face a high risk of malnutrition and disease, health officials warned today, as they kicked off a mass measles vaccination campaign.

International relief poured into Indonesia’s earthquake disaster zone today, but for many of the estimated 647,000 displaced people, aid was not arriving quickly enough and healthcare remained patchy.

International rescue workers today rushed to get medical care, water and shelter to some 650,000 people displaced by Indonesia’s earthquake, aided by the reopening of the airport closest to the disaster zone.

UN agencies, governments and aid organisations rushed emergency supplies to Indonesia today to lay the groundwork for a coordinated humanitarian response to this weekend’s deadly earthquake as the death toll hit 5,000.

Eight foreign ministers have led a UN Security Council meeting to demand that rebel groups in Darfur join a peace deal signed last week, and warned that the fate of the Sudanese region would be a test for the powerful UN body.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief left a Darfur refugee camp in a hurry Monday after demonstrators – calling for UN peacekeepers – attacked a translator, accusing him of supporting the feared Janjaweed militia, a UN spokeswoman said.

The UN humanitarian chief hurriedly left a Darfur camp for displaced people today when a crowd attacked one of his translators over an apparent mistake, a UN spokeswoman said.

THE UN humanitarian chief travelled to northern Uganda over the weekend to highlight what he called a forgotten humanitarian crisis, with about two million people made homeless and tens of thousands of children abducted in the region's 20-year insurgency.

Three months after South Asia’s monster earthquake, hundreds of thousands of survivors chilled by the first blast of the Himalayan winter face a fight for survival until spring, huddled in unheated tents and tin shacks erected by the ruins of their homes.

It appears unlikely that Osama bin Laden, if still alive, is in full command of the al-Qaida terrorist network, according to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

A year of disasters around the world sparked an unprecedented outpouring of aid, but richer nations still are not giving enough money to tackle lingering humanitarian crises, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief says.

THE United Nations said yesterday it has received only $85 million of the $550m it has requested for the survivors of Pakistan’s devastating earthquake.

The estimated death toll in South Asia’s earthquake jumped to more than 87,000 today, the one-month anniversary of the disaster, as survivors prepared for the region’s savage Himalayan winter.

THE United Nations almost doubled its emergency aid request for quake-stricken Pakistan to $550 million (€455 million) yesterday as aid workers warned thousands of survivors face death from exposure and disease.

Countries and other donors told the United Nations today they were pledging an additional £300m (€440m) for Pakistani earthquake victims, but UN officials said it was unclear how much was going to combined emergency relief efforts.

The United Nations today nearly doubled its appeal for donations for victims of the south Asia earthquake to $550m (€455.7m) at a donors' conference.

Ministers and high-ranking officials from 65 United Nations member countries were to meet today in a new attempt to mobilise funds for the victims of south Asia’s devastating earthquake before winter sets in.

RICH countries have failed to donate enough to the UN appeal to help the victims of the earthquake which devastated Pakistan earlier this month, according to a leading charity.