AP - Hundreds of experts began assessing the needs of Myanmar's cyclone victims Tuesday as the country's military junta finally gave them access five weeks after the disaster.

Reuters - The U.N. humanitarian chief defended on Monday the policy of working with Myanmar's military government after last month's cyclone, saying trying to deliver aid by force would not have helped the victims.

AP - The U.N.'s top human rights body has performed poorly since it was created almost two years ago, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said Monday, but she urged leaders not to abandon it.

AP - Ivory Coast's president, opposition leader and key electoral officials told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that a repeatedly delayed presidential vote can take place as scheduled on Nov. 30.

Reuters - A hardline Islamist leader rejected on Tuesday a U.N.-brokered peace pact signed in Djibouti by the Somali government and some opposition figures, and vowed that the war would continue.

AP - U.N. helicopters loaded with relief supplies reached areas of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta Monday that have been cut off from regular aid since a devastating cyclone five weeks ago, an official said.

Reuters - The Myanmar military junta's arrest of a popular comedian campaigning for victims of cyclone Nargis is part of continuing serious human rights violations in the country, a United Nations investigator said on Monday.

AFP - Iran protested to the United Nations on Saturday over a warning by an Israeli minister that it faces attack over its contested nuclear programme, the official IRNA news agency reported.