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The deadly annual people-smuggling season has resumed in the Gulf of Aden, prompting the United Nations refugee agency to warn that hundreds of people could perish attempting to travel from Somalia to Yemen this year unless authorities crack down on the activity.

Noting that conflict prevention is a “moral imperative” and a “political necessity for the credibility of international cooperation, in particular the United Nations,” the president of the UN General Assembly today opened debate on Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s recent report on preventing armed conflict around the world.

Saudi Arabia will donate $6.3 million to finance the construction of 100 housing units in the West Bank city of Hebron as part of a project being carried out by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).

A United Nations committee will convene the UN International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People tomorrow in Geneva in a bid to help alleviate their plight.

Conditions in Indonesia’s disaster-ravaged regions of Aceh and Nias are so dire that large numbers of primary school children are suffering from stunted physical growth and retarded intellectual development, according to a new study financed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

Tanzanian authorities have released a defence lawyer serving before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but they have provided the tribunal with no explanation for why they took the man into custody, the court said today.

More than three weeks after the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, people are “especially vulnerable” because a quarter of all health facilities surveyed in a recent countrywide assessment are not functioning due to physical damage, lack of staff or lack of accessibility caused by the recent fighting, the United Nations health agency said today.

Dominican Republic women who migrated abroad to earn more money were empowered by their new roles as household breadwinners and decision-makers but were still expected to conform to traditional gender roles, according to a study released today by the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).

Following Eritrea’s decision to expel five United Nations security personnel, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today decried a “pattern of hostility” the country has demonstrated towards the world body, including its recent arrest of another staffer.

Iran has neither suspended its nuclear enrichment-related activities nor complied with all of its obligations under international non-proliferation agreements, according to a report by the United Nations atomic watchdog which states that further verification of the country’s declarations is difficult because of a lack of transparency from the Iranians.