Geneva - The Russian and Georgian delegations arrived Wednesday afternoon at the United Nations office in Geneva to begin their third round of talks since they went to war in the summer.

The talks are expected to focus on refugees, displaced people and security in the region.

Also expected to attend the meetings are representatives from the United States, European Union, UN and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as well as the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Geneva - The year so far has been marked by weather extremes across the planet and low levels of ice in the Arctic Sea, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday.

The overall ice volume in the sea during the melt season was the lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979. At the opposite pole, the Antarctic ozone hole was larger than in 2007.

Geneva - Zimbabwe faces potential "catastrophic" results if humanitarian efforts against cholera are not provided soon, an official with the Red Cross said Tuesday, as the UN confirmed that at least 978 people have died of the disease since August.

The UN statistics are generally seen as the minimum number of deaths and it is assumed the actual toll is higher. Some 18,413 suspected cases of the disease have been reported.

The rainy season about to hit Zimbabwe will likely exacerbate the spreading of the disease, triggered in part by the deteriorated state of the country's sewage system, aid workers said.

Geneva - An Italian aid worker was shot and killed in the Democratic Republic Congo, the United Nations reported Tuesday, condemning the death.

The UN's refugee agency said it "deplores the cold blooded murder" of the Italian who was working with internally displaced people in the troubled North Kivu area.

In the incident Monday afternoon, near the village Rutshuru, armed men ambushed a vehicle carrying staff from the Voluntary Association for International Service, killing the one aid worker and wounding another.

Geneva - Mia Farrow issued an appeal Monday for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, focusing on the abuse suffered by women and children in what she has described as "a lawless place torn apart by violence."

The actress and goodwill ambassador for UNICEF said she wanted to "plea for protection and peace," and recounted stories of her recent visit to the North Kivu region in the troubled eastern DR Congo.

"People asked me to tell the world they need protection, need the violence to end," said Farrow at the UN's Geneva office.

Geneva  - Banks and financial institutions in Geneva have lost possibly some 5 billion Swiss francs (4.2 billion dollars) in their involvement with former Nasdaq chairman Bernard L Madoff who was arrested the day before in New York, a Swiss paper reported Saturday.

The Le Temps newspaper, without naming its sources, called the affair an "earthquake," and that a leading hedge fund, Union Bancaire Privée, had exposure of about 1 billion dollars.

The company declined to comment on the report.

A private bank, Benedict Hentsch, said on Friday it could lose up to 47 million dollars to the fraud, meaning about 5 per cent of the assets it manages.

There was also concern for private investors.