Nairobi/Kinshasa - The United Nations has blasted rebel Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda for saying he plans to expand his rebellion from the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to encompass the entire sprawling Central African nation.

"MONUC (the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo) and the international community will not tolerate this new attempt to destabilize the political process," MONUC said in a statement late on Friday evening.

New York - World leaders on Monday promised a renewed effort to lift Africa out of poverty and into the "mainstream of the global economy," after a one-day United Nations conference taking stock of the continent's progress.

The new pledge came as African leaders and UN officials called for a boost in foreign development aid, even as a financial crisis in advanced economies left some concerned that aid commitments from wealthy nations might be drying up.

"Eradicating poverty, particularly in Africa, is the greatest global challenge facing the world today," read a declaration that was passed by the UN General Assembly Monday evening.

Abuja - Militant rebels carried out new

London, Sept 12 : Child mortality rates are falling significantly in many regions, but remains high in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, according to UNICEF.

Its reports shows that more than 9 million children globally died before their fifth birthday in 2007.

Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and East Asia and the Pacific countries have cut deaths among under-fives by over 50 percent since 1990, according to the report.

However, over the same period, deaths in western and central Africa have fallen by just 18 percent; in sub-Saharan Africa the figure was 21 percent while in eastern and southern Africa it was 26 percent.

Kinshasa - Diplomats have expressed serious concern over recent fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and called on warring forces to respect a January ceasefire.

Rebels aligned with rogue general Laurent Nkunda and government soldiers have been involved in firefights in the eastern North Kivu province.

The United Nations' peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) has also fired warning shots at troops from Nkunda's Congres National pour la Defense du Peuple (CNDP) to prevent them from from capturing new territory.

Thousands have fled the fighting into neighbouring Uganda.

Cairo - US media mogul Walt Disney once said, "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing," which is what the Doing Business report has pushed several Middle Eastern countries to do for the past six years.

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa compete to score better in the annual Doing Business report, published by the International Finance Corp, a World Bank group.