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The United Nations refugee agency today pledged funding and other aid to one of its key partners in Colombia whose premises were burned down over the weekend, apparently in an arson attack.

United Nations agencies were today beginning a 12-day mission to assess the “dire food situation” of some 90,000 Sahrawi refugees in western Algeria, where they sought shelter from the conflict between Morocco, which claims the Western Sahara Territory, a former Spanish colony, and the Frente POLISARIO independence movement.

Slums pose particular problems for women and girls, especially the way this growing phenomena affects the global effort to combat HIV/AIDS, the head of the United Nations agency charged with promoting socially and environmentally sustainable housing has warned, as she called for greater focus on the challenges of urbanization.

The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is discussing with officials from Iran the country’s request for withdrawing some of its inspectors, but it still has a sufficient number to continue its efforts seeking to determine whether Tehran’s nuclear programme is solely for the peaceful purpose of producing energy and not for making weapons.

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is providing funding to a $22.2 million project to allow more than 70,000 rural poor in eastern El Salvador to transition their small-scale farms into businesses.

A United Nations proposal for the future status of the Albanian-majority Serbian province of Kosovo, which the world body has run since Western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid brutal ethnic fighting, will be presented to a group of concerned countries on Friday and to the parties early next month.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on all parties in Lebanon resume a dialogue to address their political differences after street confrontations that have reportedly caused loss of life and injuries.

Despite fewer bird flu outbreaks in the first weeks of this year versus 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today strongly advised countries to remain on high alert and cooperate with international organizations as the deadly virus continues to be destructive for farmers.

The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) today rejected Uruguay’s request to force Argentina to prevent or end citizen-led blockades of their mutual border that have emerged during the dispute between the two nations over the construction of two Uruguayan pulp mills.

The Security Council today established a United Nations political mission in Nepal to oversee the peace process in the tiny Himalayan country, following an historic agreement reached last November by the Maoists and Government aimed at ending 10 years of bloody civil war that killed around 15,000 people and displaced over 100,000 others.