This guide outlines methodologies to assist practitioners in improving the nutritional impact of development activities, aiming to be of use to project controllers and others interested by this issue.

For this purpose, it examines the meaning of nutritional assessment and the means by which it can reinforce linkages between nutrition and agricultural development. In addition, it considers how nutritional assessment can be used in rural development projects for beneficiary targeting and project formulation, as well as for practical project monitoring and evaluation.

These guidelines provide advice on the implementation of safe disposal of unusable pharmaceuticals in emergencies and in countries in transition where official assistance and advice may not be available. They are not meant to supersede local, regional or national laws regarding disposal of drugs, but to provide assistance where there is insufficient guidance or none at all. A number of methods for safe disposal of pharmaceuticals are described. The document is divided into three main categories:

- Disposal methods
- Sorting categories
- Recommended disposal methods by sorting

Consultations between officials from the Kyrgyz and Russian Foreign Ministries took place in Bishkek on 26 February and resulted in a call for "UN-supervised negotiations," Interfax reported. Both parties said they felt "a degree of moral responsibility" for events in Afghanistan, and both agreed that negotiations that were conducted in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, last month by representatives of the Taliban and the northern alliance are an encouraging sign. Both also said their countries are "always ready" to help settle the conflict. BP

PEC/PEJA
Last week's on-again/off-again evacuations of expatriate staff contributed to a reduced number of convoys and distributions in MCI's Pec/Peja area of responsibility (AOR).

Staff were able, however, to conduct seven convoys, which consisted of Food for Peace commodities (flour, vegetable oil and beans), as well as non-food commodities such as hygiene kits, clothing, and sanitary napkins. Staff also performed normal monitoring functions in Klina and Decan municipalities.

Convoys were stopped on numerous occasions

KHARTOUM, March 1 (AFP) - The Sudanese government appealed Monday to the United Nations to help it remove landmines from battlegrounds in the south and east of the country.

Sudan is "doing its best" to remove the landmines, State Foreign Minister Ali Abdel Rahman al Nimeiri told a press conference, adding that Khartoum hoped the United Nations could support its efforts.

Nimeiri said between half a million and two million mines are strewn across an area of more than 10 million hectares (25 million acres) in southern and eastern Sudan.

MAPUTO, March 1 (AFP) - Dozens of South African tourists were stranded Monday in Mozambique's coastal town of Vilankulo awaiting an air lift after floods destroyed roads, officials said.

Vilankulo district authorities said some tourists had to sell their vehicles or boats to pay for rides on chartered planes out of the town, which is opposite the popular Bazaruto archipelago.

Authorities said the local airport was overcrowded. Torrential rains cut the main north-south highway on both sides of the small town of Vilankulo.

The most serious damage was south of

GENEVA, March 1 (Reuters) - A mystery illness in Afghanistan that killed at least 190 people was probably a flu-like virus made deadly by poor living conditions and a lack of medicines, the World Health Organisation said on Monday.

The U.N. agency said a team that visited the remote area of northeastern Afghanistan where the illness broke out had treated sufferers with antibiotics with significant success.

"The preliminary conclusions of the WHO team in the field are that the outbreak, which is now declining, was of an influenza-like illness which has affected a large proportion

ABIDJAN, March 1 (AFP) - Visiting UN refugee agency chief Sadako Ogata on Monday praised Guinea for providing a welcome to refugees from Sierra Leone, noting the hardships involved.

"The clarity and firmness of Guinea offering continued asylum was not a surprise but a very pleasant assurance. At the same time, the need to help the government to carry on that commitment is not going to be that easy," Ogata said at the end of a week-long west African tour.

"If the people turn against the refugees, it's going to be very, very serious," Ogata said.