The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is helping Central Asian countries to take steps toward securing millions of tonnes of uranium tailings – a potential source of radioactive and heavy metal pollution – in abandoned sites.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) released today results from a research project that warning that the risk of developing fatal blood clots during travel doubles after the passenger has been seated for four hours or more.

Without immediate evacuation and life-saving medical help, roughly one dozen seriously ill Palestinians – mostly young children stranded in Baghdad or in a make-shift camp close to the Syrian border – could die or suffer complications, the United Nations refugee agency said today, appealing for urgent assistance.

On the eve of the end of the United Nations refugee agency’s two-and-a-half year repatriation programme for Liberians, its spokesperson today said plans are underway to continue helping the people of the country to rebuild their lives.