The United Nations help the rural communities in western and southern Nepal suffering from serious food insecurity caused by increasing food and fuel prices, the effects of long-term conflict and the destruction of food stocks and crops by the recent floods. Around 1.5 million populations in the remote areas also require urgent help, the U.N. said in a statement late on Wednesday. The United Nations Central Emergency Response fund (CERF) has allocated NPR 247 million (US $3 million) to help them.

Washington  - A collection of 17 interest groups in the United States urged world leaders to speed up efforts to reach a new global deal on curbing emissions that cause global warming, in a letter Friday to government delegates meeting in Poland this week.

The group of environmental, science, health and religious organizations said the US was ready to lead the way towards an international agreement by the end of 2009, which would set more stringent caps on countries' polluting emissions.

"The American public is committed to action on climate change and clean energy as never before," the letter stated.

Nairobi  - The United Nations' Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah Friday called for the release of all hostages being held in Somali as a show of good faith during a Muslim holiday.

"On the eve of Eid al-Adha, a period of forgiveness, I appeal to all Somalis to help to ensure that those hostages being held, both Somalis and foreigners, are allowed to enjoy their freedom and to return home safe and sound," Ould-Abdallah said in statement.

Journalists and foreign aid workers have increasingly become targets for kidnap and murder this year, mainly in south and central Somalia where Islamist insurgents are waging a bloody conflict against the government.

Nairobi  - Over 90,000 civilians who fled heavy fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are unaccounted for, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Friday.

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said that the agency had taken advantage of a lull in the fighting to enter the Rutshuru area, 80 kilometres north of the Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

The UNCHR team found that three UNCHR-run camps for internally displaced in the area - Nyongera, Kasasa and Dumez - had been forcefully emptied and destroyed.

Three other makeshift camps were found to be empty.

United Nations, Dec. 5: Pakistan’s Ambassador to United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon has urged India not to widen the area of conflict between the two nations.

In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Haroon hassuggested that US Secretary of State should be dispatched to the region to ease tension in the subcontinent which developed after the Mumbai terror attacks.

Ban-Ki-Moon has “no specific response” to a recent letter sent by Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon on last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, said spokesperson to the UN Secretary-General Michele Montas.

New Delhi, Dec. 5 : The Planning Commission, Government of India and the United Nations signed a Joint Programme on Convergence to help India’s backward districts achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by better utilization of government resources. The Programme document was signed by Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee (Principal Adviser, Planning Commission) and Dr. Maxine Olson (UN Resident Coordinator).