"A delay in aid payments and Ugandan rebel attacks are threatening the delivery of aid to millions in southern Sudan, a senior United Nations official said.
Jan Egeland, UN under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, is on a tour of Africa and was also planning a visit to Sudan's troubled western Darfur region. But that visit is now in doubt due to a disagreement with Khartoum officials." [More]
"The United Nations today called on Iraq's Government to urgently assert control over the security forces and all armed groups in the war-torn country, saying February's attack on a shrine in Samarra had led to a worsening situation, resulting in hundreds of cases of killings, torture, illegal detention and displacement." [More]
"Violence is surging in Sudan's south as well as its western Darfur region, fueled by government inaction even after years of global attention, U.N. envoy Jan Pronk told the Security Council on Tuesday." [More]
"In contrast to earlier problems with Syrian cooperation, the United Nations panel looking into last year's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri today reported progress in this "critical area," with a common understanding reached regarding access to individuals, sites and information." [Full Story]
"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the international community to remain focused on the protection of civilians in Sudan's strife-torn region of Darfur, saying that rising insecurity there had made it dangerous and volatile.
International efforts should aim to "contribute to the protection of civilians at risk with a view to creating an environment conducive to national reconciliation in a country where human rights are respected and internally displaced persons and refugees can return home," said Annan in his monthly update on Darfur, which was released to the Security Council on Tuesday." [Read more]
"The Security Council today welcomed the decision of the African Union (AU) to support, in principle, the transition of the AU peacekeeping mission in the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan to a United Nations operation.
"The Security Council commended the African Union for the successful deployment of the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and AMIS' role in reducing large-scale organized violence in Darfur," Council President Cesar Mayoral of Argentina told the press after the body was briefed by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi." [MORE]
"Pointing out that Islam and the West are not inherently contradictory or monolithic, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Doha, Qatar, today called for replacing the loud shouts of extremists with the calm voice of reason.
"President Bush on Friday called for doubling the number of international troops in the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan and a bigger role for NATO in the peacekeeping effort.... After private talks with world leaders, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Bush decided to call for an additional 7,000 or more troops to be placed under U.N. command, along with the 7,000 African Union troops already there, because such an expansion would be the quickest way to intervene in the bloody conflict, the officials said." [Read more]