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The United Nations has established the institutional framework for a registry of damages incurred by Palestinians to their homes, business and agricultural holdings as result of Israel’s construction of a barrier in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report released today.

The arrival rate of Somalis pouring into neighbouring Kenya to escape factional fighting has dropped to about 300 people a day from a high of over 1,000 three weeks ago, the United Nations refugee agency said today, citing border officials.

Jan Pronk will continue to serve as the top United Nations envoy for Sudan until the end of the year, when his contract is set to expire, despite the Sudanese Government’s demand for his removal, but he will return to Khartoum next month to organize a smooth handover to an interim officer, a UN spokesman announced today.

Wrapping up his three-nation trip to Asia, the top United Nations political officer today met with the Republic of Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister to discuss developments on the Korean peninsula, the situation in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region and other issues.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will be guest speaker at Georgetown University on Monday when he is expected to explain how “Africa is in a defining struggle for its destiny” and needs the international community’s assistance, said his spokesman today.

Twenty-five new sites, including 18 in Mexico, have been added to the United Nations global network of protected biosphere reserves where local communities are actively engaged in sustainable development management, the UN announced today.

Hundreds of young people from all 192 Member States of the United Nations will gather at UN headquarters on Sunday for the landmark Global Youth Leadership Summit, which aims to get more people involved in promoting international development, including eradicating poverty, hunger and a host of other social ills.

Inadequate funding is “seriously hindering” the work of the United Nations principal scientific body studying the effects of radiation, which provides critical information for both government programmes and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which establishes health standards, officials have warned.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan emphasized today that all sides in strife-torn Somalia must settle their differences through dialogue and not military action, as he repeated calls for the international community, and especially the country’s neighbours, not to make the situation worse in the East African nation.

Better communication – including more listening by donors – needs to be a more central part of developments efforts, the head the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has told a major conference on development and communications.