The United Nations General Assembly has elected Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa to serve on the Security Council for two-year terms, beginning January 1, 2011.

They will replace Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda, whose two-year terms come to an end on December 31.

To be elected to the Council, candidate countries need a two-thirds majority of ballots of member states that are present and voting in the 192-member Assembly. The seats are allocated on the basis of geographical groupings.

Colombia, India and South Africa ran unopposed and were elected to represent their respective regions, having received 186 votes, 187 votes and 182 votes, respectively, in the first round of balloting.

The five countries elected today will join Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria, whose terms on the Council end on December 31, 2011. The five permanent members are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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A United Nations panel monitoring the January referenda which will decide whether Southern Sudan secedes from Africa's largest country discussed security and other key challenges with the region's leaders on October 12.

The three-member Panel on the Referenda, appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and led by former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, held a 90-minute discussion with Salva Kiir, president of the government of Southern Sudan and first vice-president of Sudan, in Juba as they continued their first visit to the country.

After the talks, which covered issues ranging from how to make the referenda as free and fair as possible to security arrangements during campaigning to how to deal with the key post-referenda challenges, Mr. Mkapa told reporters he believes credible elections can still be held by the scheduled date of January 9.

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A Rwandan rebel leader was arrested in France on October 11 on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last year.

The ICC, to which the situation in the DRC was referred by that country's government in 2004, said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Callixte Mbarushimana, the first senior leader arrested by the ICC for massive crimes in the DRC's Kivu provinces, is criminally responsible for 11 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, rape, attacks against civilians, destruction of property, inhuman treatment and persecution.

"This is a very important signal to all perpetrators in the DRC that crimes of sexual violence are not tolerated and that the international community is fully committed to bringing these individuals to justice," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallström said in a statement.

"We are grateful to the French authorities for executing the arrest warrant and we are thankful for the excellent cooperation of the many parties involved in the investigation, including France, Germany, the DRC and Rwanda," ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said.

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Nearly 1.5 million people have been affected by floods and 377 killed in Western and Central Africa, with Chad, Northern Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria facing a serious cholera epidemic, United Nations relief officials reported on October 12.

Benin has been hardest hit, with 360,000 people affected and 42 deaths, followed by Nigeria with 300,000 victims and 118 deaths.

Among other countries affected by the floods are Niger with some 227,000 victims, Chad with nearly 145,000, and Burkina Faso with over 105,000. Burkina Faso has launched a $14 million emergency plan and has received $2 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and its partners have already scaled up their activities in Chad, which is facing one of its worst cholera epidemics in 10 years, with nearly 2,600 cases and 112 deaths reported as of the start of the month.

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Meeting against the backdrop of recent increases in food prices, delegates have gathered in Rome for United Nations-led talks focusing on issues such as land tenure, international investment in agriculture and food security during crises.

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has been undergoing reform with the aim of making the body the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all relevant stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all.

In his message to the delegates, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the expanded membership, saying the world required formal global governance on food security.

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