Yangon - The United Nations Thursday acknowledged that over the past three months some 1.56 million dollars in aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis has been lost to Myanmar's odd foreign exchange regulations.

"The loss in value due to foreign exchange for the Cyclone Nargis international humanitarian aid during the last three months has been about 1.56 million dollars," said Daniel Baker, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar.

"We are not getting the full value of dollars donated for emergency relief, and donors are extremely worried and keen to see that this issue is resolved," said Baker, in the latest UN update on relief efforts for Cyclone Nargis.

Amsterdam - Georgia has instituted proceedings against Russia before the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the ICJ said in a statement Wednesday.

Georgia is suing the Russian Federation over what it calls "its actions on and around the territory of Georgia" in breach of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

In its application, Georgia "also seeks to ensure that the individual rights" under the convention "of all persons on the territory of Georgia are fully respected and protected."

Phnom Penh - Nearly 30 years after the regime ended, a joint UN-Cambodian court set up to try former Khmer Rouge leaders announced it had indicted its first defendant Tuesday - a former torture centre commandant.

"On August 8, 2008 the co-investigating judges delivered a closing order ... indicting Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, and sending him forward for trial for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 (war crimes) as regards his role in S-21," the court said in a statement.

Phnom Penh - Officials from the United Nations Development Programme said Friday that investigations were ongoing into allegations of funding irregularities on the Cambodian side of the joint UN-Cambodian Khmer Rouge tribunal.

The UN said in a statement earlier this week that corruption allegations against the tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, that were received in late June were being reviewed and as a result funding for the Cambodian side remained frozen.

A spokesman for the media unit of the court was unavailable for comment Friday, but the allegations have stalled distribution of more than 300,000 dollars in wages, which have not yet been paid for July.

New York - The UN Security Council met in emergency session to discuss the escalation of violence in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia.

Russia, which is closely allied with South Ossetia, called the meeting, which began late Thursday in New York. Its ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, accused Georgia of aggressive behaviour toward the breakaway region.

While the meeting was taking place, the Georgian government and South Ossetia separatists deployed fighter jets to carry out bombings on one another Friday after a ceasefire declared by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was broken after a few hours, a news report said.

Rajgarh (Madhya Pradesh), Aug 5 : Fresh World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks to negotiate a global trade agreement would begin after a new government assumes office in the United States, a senior United Nations (UN) official said.

Special Adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Jeffery D Sachs, said: "Most countries were not ready for a bargain as a regime change is expected in the US."

Talking to reporters in Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh, after a conference organised by the Gita Mittal Foundation, Sachs blamed the lack of serious efforts by the member countries for the failure of the recent WTO talks.