A senior United Nations refugee official is heading to South America this weekend for talks in Colombia on the growing humanitarian crisis there and its effects on neighbouring countries.

Moving to aid small-scale Nicaraguan growers hit by the steep global drop in coffee prices, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced plans today to help feed those worst-affected while promoting longer-term crop diversification and the production of more competitive varieties.

With 19 million workers jobless in Latin America's cities and unemployment hovering at above 10 per cent despite a modest economic recovery in 2003, the United Nations labour agency today called for a reorientation of economic priorities and a more equitable globalization process.

Jamaica’s senior officials, who recognize the need for better security force accountability, must streamline the Caribbean island’s criminal justice system to reduce summary killings, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights says.