Expressing his sadness at a deadly earthquake that hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra today, killing up to 100 people and injuring over 70 others, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated the world body’s offer of emergency help, while an inter-agency aid team prepared to fly out to the devastated area and specialized UN disaster officers were placed on stand-by.

Opium production in Afghanistan, a $3-billion-a-year trade accounting for more than 90 per cent of the world’s illegal output, could rise again this year after a nearly 60 per cent increase in 2006, due to the ousted Taliban using the trade in the raw material for heroin to fund their war, according to a new United Nations survey released today.

The United Nations envoy in Timor-Leste has said fugitive Timorese Major Alfredo Reinado and his followers, who are accused of involvement in last year’s deadly violence that rocked the tiny nation, bear ultimate responsibility for the weekend military operation launched against them by the International Security Forces (ISF) because they rejected the Government’s terms of surrender.

The United Nations refugee agency has resumed the voluntary repatriation of Afghans in Pakistan after a winter break, the sixth year of the largest such operation in the agency’s history that has already seen over 2.87 million Afghans return from Pakistan, and another 1.5 million from Iran.