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The long saga of hundreds of thousands of Burundians who fled to Tanzania to escape decades of ethnic conflict in their small homeland is finally approaching its end with the last camps closing down as the refugees return home or integrate into the host country, the United Nations reported today.

Achieving the goal of quality education for all by 2015 will require countries to devote greater funds to this critical sector and to address the growing shortage of qualified teachers, according to a United Nations meeting that concluded today in Oslo.

Top United Nations officials are marking International Migrants Day by stressing the need to ensure the dignity and human rights of the more than 200 million people worldwide who cross borders to live and work, and who make a vital contribution to their societies.

A United Nations-backed campaign aimed at eliminating obstetric fistula, a debilitating injury resulting from giving birth, has been recognized with an award for championing collaboration between countries of the global South, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) announced today.

The top United Nations envoy to Afghanistan today called the fight against corruption one of the single most important issues for the future of the young democracy, and urged all of its citizens and its international partners to combat the scourge.

A United Nations court today sentenced the alleged mastermind behind the 1994 massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda and two co-defendants to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon and President Michel Suleiman held talks today on a range of issues, from the holding of national dialogues and reconciliation to the “encouraging” developments regarding the country’s budding relations with Syria.

International talks on the Russian-Georgian conflict in South Ossetia have now entered issues of substance, with in-depth political discussions focusing on a mechanism to help prevent and resolve incidents as they arise, a senior United Nations envoy said today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Slovakia’s Foreign Minister, Ján Kubiš, as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which promotes dialogue and cooperation among 56 nations on a range of issues, including economic integration, energy, environment and trade.

The United Nations today launched a year-long advocacy campaign to help scores of millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs), focusing on mitigating the impact of conflict and natural disasters that drive so many people from their homes within their own country in what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called “one of the greatest humanitarian challenges we face.”