Mozambique says it needs more than 70 million dollars in aid following recent flooding and a cyclone. The government estimates 170 thousand people have been displaced, most of them in the central part of the country.

The former prime minister of Norway is among human rights activists calling on the international community to include human rights on the agenda of negotiations with North Korea. They are also urging the U.N. Security Council to push for access by international humantarian groups to Korea's starving population. VOA's Stephanie Ho reports from Washington.

South Korea says it plans to resume limited food aid to North Korea following four days of talks in Seoul.

The United Nations says it is stepping up aid to Bolivia to assist the victims of recent floods and landslides.

An influential lawmaker says the United States and its international partners need to plan for possible deployment of a peacekeeping force to protect civilians in Darfur, without the permission of Sudan's government, if diplomacy fails.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday deployment of an East African stabilization force in Somalia is an urgent need following the rout of Islamic militiamen by Ethiopian forces and troops from the Somali interim government. The United States is committing more than $16 million in new humanitarian aid for Somalia.

For yet another year, Sudan's Darfur region has been in the news repeatedly, with media reports using language such as genocide, atrocities, rape and pillaging. Despite a peace deal signed last May between the government and rebels, many observers say Darfur has sunk deeper into violence and despair.