Islamabad - Pakistani government on Saturday dismissed the demands of the captors of a United Nation's official as unrealistic but expressed willingness to negotiate with them.

A separatist group in Pakistan's south-western Balochistan province set a 72-hours deadline on Friday to kill John Solecki, the local head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, if 141 women held in the torture cells of country's intelligence agencies were not freed.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Sri Lanka's warring parties on Friday to open a safe corridor and allow an estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the fighting to escape.

Ban welcomed President Mahinda Rajapaksa's announcement of safe passage for all civilians trapped in the area of intense fighting in the North to a secure environment. But he said serious concern remained for the 250,000 civilians caught in the area close to the fighting.

New York  - The United Nations said Friday Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have gone from an "overwhelming grief to a pervasive sense of anger" as they continue to face the reality of the destruction of their community and shortage of daily essentials.

"People here are coming to term with a new reality, with tens of thousands of them have no homes anymore and also the aid efforts are hampered by the lack of access," said John Ging, the head of the UN relief agency for Palestinians in Gaza.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Friday the decision by Zimbabwe's main opposition party to join President Robert Mugabe's government following five months of a political rift.

Ban said in a statement that Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai was complying with an agreement reached last September and the recent demand by the Southern African Development Community heads of state for a government of national unity in Zimbabwe.

Madrid  - A United Nations conference on Tuesday launched plans for a "global partnership" against hunger, with UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon urging donor countries to release more funds to guarantee food security despite the economic crisis.

"We must all do more," Ban said on closing the two-day meeting on food security in Madrid, hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Spain.

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