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Tensions remain high in Somalia’s disputed northern Sool region after violent clashes last week between troops from the self-declared autonomous Puntland and Somaliland provinces, according to United Nations humanitarian workers in the fractured Horn of Africa country.

Deadly violence continues across parts of Kenya and the police presence remains heavy, the United Nations reports today, as the country reels from the crisis sparked by last month’s disputed election.

The international community should seize the opportunity offered by recent security and political improvements in Iraq to push ahead with stabilization and reconciliation efforts, the top United Nations official in the violence-torn country said today.

Pledging the continued commitment of the United Nations to Liberia, the world body’s top official there has stressed that sustainable peace will depend largely on the West African nation’s ability to ensure development for its people.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leaving New York this evening for a trip which will take him to Switzerland, Eastern Europe and Africa.

Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia today held United Nations-led talks over the official name of the latter country and related outstanding issues – the first time such discussions have been held in the region and involved the participation of one of the two nations’ foreign ministers.

A senior Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) representative heads today to Guinea-Bissau for talks with Government officials, civil society groups, members of the private sector and international partners to help chart how the United Nations advisory body can help prevent the West African country from sliding back into war or chaos.

After meetings with the Government and the main rebel groups, the United Nations and African Union envoys for the Darfur peace process said they are hopeful that talks aimed at ending the conflict in the war-wracked Sudanese region can reconvene soon.

In another move to foster livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of Colombians uprooted by decades of conflict, the United Nations refugee agency has signed an agreement with a Venezuelan bank to grant over $700,000 in micro-credit.

Some 24,000 Mauritanians, who fled to Senegal nearly two decades ago after a long-standing border dispute escalated into ethnic violence, are set to start returning home within weeks under a United Nations-backed voluntary repatriation programme.