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More than 1,000 Afghan refugees, some of whom have lived in camps in Pakistan for more than 25 years, went home this week in one of the year’s biggest return convoys organized by the United Nations refugee agency under its voluntary repatriation programme, which in the past four years has allowed over four million people to go back to Afghanistan.

For the second time in as many days, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has condemned the killing of a journalist, this time a Russian investigative reporter.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended that the Security Council extend the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) for another year to help the country in the face of formidable political, security and economic challenges.

Although Haiti has made significant electoral and political progress in recent months, the Caribbean country still faces enormous challenges as it attempts to climb out of impoverishment and violence and the United Nations stands willing to play a key role in helping out, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last night during an official visit.

Israeli troops today kept up their operations around Gaza’s international airport, forcing Palestinians to flee to safety, the United Nations said, while also highlighting Palestinian rocket attacks into Israel and ongoing tensions in the West Bank, which remained closed for a fifth consecutive day.

More than three weeks after hostilities began, Hizbollah and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are still exchanging heavy fire in southern Lebanon with little sign of any abatement, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported today.

Stressing that there can be no impunity for the serious human rights violations committed in Timor-Leste following its vote for independence in 1999, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended the establishment of a new United Nations programme of international assistance to help the country achieve justice and reconciliation.

A United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur may need as many as 18,600 troops to ensure that all sides in the war-ravaged Sudanese region comply with the recently signed peace agreement, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest report on the issue.

Getting emergency United Nations humanitarian aid to the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese displaced by the worsening conflict became even harder today after the UN said that Israeli shelling had severed the vital supply route between Syria and Beirut, as well as forcing the cancellation of all but one convoy to the devastated south of the country.

The United Nations Security Council could convene a meeting at any time – including this weekend – if the text of a resolution on Lebanon is presented by diplomats now discussing the matter with the parties, the president of the 15-member body said today.