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The United Nations refugee agency is seeing an increase in the number of Syrian refugees arriving in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, with local charities and authorities reporting about 2,200 people settling in the east over the past week – almost double the recent weekly average, according to a spokesperson for the agency.

Somali authorities must do everything in their power to put an end to the continuing violence which has already claimed the lives of eight journalists in the African country this year, the head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom said today, as she condemned the latest killing of a Somali journalist.

The United Nations human rights office today voiced concern about the excessive use of force by security forces in Guinea in a number of incidents over the past few weeks, and stressed that demonstrators must be allowed to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly and expression.

While in Iran for 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with several leaders of the group’s members, discussing issues ranging from nuclear power and security to human rights and the humanitarian situation in Syria.

Pau Gasol, National Basketball Association (NBA) champion and Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has wrapped up a trip to Chad by urging continued support for the hundreds of thousands of children affected by the food crisis in West Africa’s Sahel region.

Taking note of the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran’s nuclear programme, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has emphasized the need for diplomacy in resolving the country’s nuclear issue, a United Nations spokesperson said today.

The United Nations agency tasked with defending human rights voiced renewed concern today over the sudden spate of executions in countries around the world following the recent use of capital punishment in Gambia, Iraq, and South Sudan.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) today said it is increasingly concerned by recent violence in Jonglei state that threatens the important gains made this year in restoring peace and security.

The United Nations human rights chief today urged Gambian authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty, after nine people were executed on Sunday and President Yahya Jammeh announced that all remaining death row inmates would be executed, by firing squad, by mid-September.

About 80 percent of the residents of a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North Darfur, Sudan, have returned to the camp, in the aftermath of the recent violence which displaced 25,000 IDPs, the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, known by the acronym UNAMID, reported today.