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Colombia’s indigenous peoples, caught up in the fighting between the Government, rebels and armed militias, are facing tragedy as violent attacks and forced displacement increase, with fears that some smaller and more vulnerable groups and their cultures may actually disappear, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.

The economy of the Asia-Pacific region will continue to be the fastest growing in the world this year, but it has been undermined by last December's Indian Ocean tsunami, high oil prices, a weak United States dollar and health problems, the United Nations economic and social body for the area says in a new report.

Amid rising concern that ongoing violence and crumbling human rights safeguards will push Nepal's already-precarious humanitarian situation into crisis, the United Nations is moving to help thousands of displaced people in the desperately poor nation, a senior UN official said today.

Faced with major deficiencies, over-politicization and only selective reviews of countries' abuses, the United Nations Human Rights Commission wrapped up its annual session today with a ringing call for its replacement by a leaner, meaner body, as put forward in Secretary-General Kofi Annan's reform proposals.

Two United Nations teams will be heading to Lebanon in the coming days, one to verify the pullout of Syria's military and intelligence forces from its small neighbour, and the other to prepare for a Security Council-mandated inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a UN spokesman said today.

A top priority for delegations headed to the upcoming ministerial session of the United Nations regional commission for West Asia will be to examine the impact of peace and security on socio-economic development in the Arab region.

Hailing the efforts of a regional initiative to foster peace in Burundi, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed confidence that the Great Lakes country could hold credible elections as the group met to extend the transitional government's mandate, which was to have ended today.

The Roll Back Malaria Partnership, grouping governments, businesses and celebrities from around the world, has made unprecedented strides in reducing the spread of malaria in Africa by promoting the manufacture on the continent of anti-malarial medicines and millions of insecticide-treated bed nets, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

Seeking to reverse the agricultural devastation caused by floods and droughts in recent years and the soil erosion stemming from extensive deforestation, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is expanding a United Nations-sponsored pilot project of watershed management to increase the country’s output.

On a visit to desperate widows and small children living under trees in a dry river bed and to families huddled in miserable tiny twig shelters in squalid villages in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, the top United Nations refugee official has called on the international community to contribute more money for humanitarian relief.