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More than 400,000 Afghan refugees have returned home so far this year, bringing the number of returnees to more than 2.32 million since organized repatriation began in March 2002, about half the estimated total of those in Pakistan and Iran, the two principal asylum countries, the UN refugee agency announced today.

United Nations duty stations around the world organized silent marches today in memory of their colleagues and friends who were killed, and in solidarity with those who were injured, in the terrorist attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad last week.

Oscar®-award winning actress Angelina Jolie, Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has concluded a four-day mission to the Russian Federation by calling for all options to be kept open for refugees who do not yet wish to return to Chechnya.

Seeking to maintain stability in war-torn Bunia, the United Nations Security Council today authorized countries participating in the French-led force currently policing the tense northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assist UN peacekeepers during the upcoming handover of authority there.

With progress toward overcoming poor economic conditions grinding to a halt in the past five years, 220 million Latin Americans - more than 40 per cent of the population - were living in poverty by end of 2002 and the figure is set to rise, according to a report released today by the United Nations economic commission for the region.

With a fragile peace accord holding and a slight increase in the overall security in Liberia, life is slowly returning to normal inside war-ravaged Monrovia, but the United Nations today said it remained concerned about thousands of people still struggling for survival beyond the capital city's limits - and the reach of relief agencies.

The members of the Security Council today lauded efforts by countries of the Pacific Islands Forum, especially Australia and New Zealand, for their efforts to restore peace in the Solomon Islands, scene of recent inter-island political and ethnic fighting, and called on all parties there to renounce the use of force to settle their differences.

The head of the United Nations refugee agency has ended his mission to Africa, hailing the achievements of the Angolan repatriation programme while making a strong appeal for more reconstruction in the country's heavily-damaged interior.

Following up on a report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the bodies of some of the 605 Kuwaitis missing since Iraq's invasion of 1990 had been found in mass graves in Iraq, the United Nations Security Council today denounced the killings as a "grave violation of human rights" by the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.

A United Nations expert on the human rights situation in Somalia said today the current circumstances were “not promising” but noted that the peace process provided an opportunity for Somalis to show their commitment to rights.