New York  - The 13 relief organizations expelled by the Sudanese government last week provided 50 per cent of humanitarian assistance to civilians in need in Sudan's Darfur region, the top UN humanitarian coordinator said Monday.

John Holmes, the UN undersecretary general for emergency relief coordinator, said at UN headquarters in New York that neither Khartoum nor the UN or other non-governmental organizations can sufficiently provide assistance alone.

New York  - The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan was in Tehran on Monday to discuss economic cooperation among Central Asian nations and between Iran and Afghanistan, the UN said.

Kai Eide, the top UN representative in Afghanistan, addressed a high-level meeting in Tehran of the 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which is an inter-governmental group promoting mutual economic, technical and cultural support in Central Asia.

Geneva  - The sub-prime mortgage crisis has exposed the crisis in governments' housing policies and could still hit the middle classes, the United Nations' expert on urban planning said on Monday.

Sub-prime mortgages, given by lenders to people who could not afford them, are widely blamed for triggering the meltdown in US banks and the global liquidity crisis and economic downturn.

Geneva - At least 4,011 people have died from cholera in Zimbabwe since an outbreak began last year, United Nations statistics showed Monday, with access to medical care still a major problem.

About 61 per cent of the dead were deemed community deaths, meaning the victims were unable to reach medical treatment.

A total of 89,018 cases have been reported, according to data from the World Health Organization, based in part on information from the Ministry of Health in Harare.

Geneva  - A representative of the United States addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council Wednesday for the first time since it pulled out of the body in the middle of last year.

The address was made following a pledge from Washington to re-engage with the council, which the previous administration of George W Bush shunned towards the end of his term.