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With more than 100,000 people driven from their homes by fighting in the north-western Pakistani region of Waziristan, the United Nations has continued to rush assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The people of southern Sudan face serious threats to their security from a brutal Ugandan rebel militia operating in the area as well as a recent flare-up of violent ethnic clashes, a senior United Nations official warned today.

Food insecurity is expected to get worse for the remainder of this year in some drought-affected regions of Somalia, according the latest update from the United Nations humanitarian arm.

United Nations aid agencies and their humanitarian partners launched an appeal today for more than $18 million to help the victims of deadly floods in Burkina Faso, one of the countries hit hardest this year by the annual wet season in West Africa.

The number of children dying before their fifth birthday has decreased steadily over the past few years and fell to under 9 million in 2008, thanks in part to greater use of health interventions such as vaccinations and insecticide-treated bednets to prevent malaria, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today.

A United Nations-backed gathering on how to scale up a carbon credit system wrapped up today, with participants agreeing that the mechanism can help contribute to a successful outcome at this December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, which aims to conclude an ambitious new pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has safely removed powerful radioactive sources out of Lebanon, including Cobalt-60, a single source of which is enough to kill a person within minutes if directly exposed.

A shortfall of around $20 million in educational funding is hampering efforts to get Pakistani children back to school in the aftermath of the mass exodus in the north-west of the country during the recent conflict in the area, the United Nations humanitarian arm announced today.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of an African refugee convention, which the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) hails as “groundbreaking” for having paved the way for millions on the continent to receive protection and assistance.

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders today discussed issues related to the election of the president and vice president of a united republic as they continued United Nations-backed talks on unifying the Mediterranean island.