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The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) have partnered to find durable housing, education and health solutions for thousands of European refugees, displaced people and returnees.

United Nations staff in Somalia are mourning the loss of two of their colleagues who were killed in yesterday’s explosion at the UN compound in Hargeisa, which also seriously injured six others and was part of a wave of attacks in the north of the strife-torn nation.

United Nations agencies are stepping up efforts to assist some 20,000 people displaced by the deadly earthquake that struck Pakistan’s southwest Baluchistan province yesterday, and address immediate needs include access to food and water, health services and shelter.

United Nations agencies and their non-governmental organisation (NGO) partners today appealed for more than $17 million to provide food, shelter, health care, water and sanitation over the next six months to some 270,000 people affected by severe floods in Honduras.

The international community must fundamentally reform the global financial system and help restore the trust lost as a result of the greed and corruption that caused the current economic crisis and untold suffering around the world, the President of the General Assembly stressed today.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has created a new short-term lending facility for countries with strong policies and good track records but which are facing temporary liquidity problems amid the current global financial turmoil.

The ceasefire in the volatile eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) announced by Laurent Nkunda, the leader of a rebel group, is holding, with United Nations blue helmets being stretched to the limit in trying to protect civilians escaping fighting, an official with the world body said today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today congratulated the people of the Maldives for the peaceful conduct of the Indian Ocean archipelago’s first-ever multi-party presidential elections this week, calling the poll “an important step forward in the country’s democratic reform process.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks that struck the north-eastern Indian state of Assam today, reportedly killing at least 60 people and wounding several hundred more, and occurring on the same day that the United Nations chief was on an official visit to the country.

The World Bank has approved a $130 million loan to Bangladesh in response to the global food crisis which has crippled the ability of millions of the country’s poor to fend for themselves, the international financial institution announced today.