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Some 100 Angolan refugees living in Namibia have been repatriated under a programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to return people to their homes in Angola’s interior regions, the first of its kind, the agency announced today.

Fourteen new hazardous chemicals and pesticides have been added to an initial watch list of 27 substances subject to a United Nations-backed treaty aimed at helping developing countries more effectively manage the dangerous materials.

After two years of negotiations, a committee of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has adopted voluntary guidelines upholding the right to food for every person – a move it hopes will add momentum to the global drive to halve the number of hungry people by 2015.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent hepatitis E testing kits to Iraq to help confirm whether there was a possible outbreak of the disease near Baghdad, the United Nations agency said today.

The main United Nations agency providing assistance to Palestinian refugees today protested to Israel following new restrictions imposed on UN staff moving in and out of the Gaza Strip.

Civilian police from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have helped arrest 10 people in connection with a massacre earlier this week in the country's Ituri region.

Two senior United Nations human rights officials examining how to protect the civilians of Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region from further militia attacks have completed their weeklong mission to the region and have now returned to the capital Khartoum for talks with government officials and other UN staff.

The problems bedevilling the world's small island States, especially global warming, fishing rights, natural disasters and the inequalities of global trade, dominated this morning's session of the United Nations General Assembly's annual high-level debate.

Haiti is always going to be especially vulnerable to natural disasters such as last weekend's Tropical Storm Jeanne - which so far has left more than 1,000 people dead and another 1,200 others missing - because it has no early-warning system and there is massive deforestation, the United Nations disaster-reduction body said today.

The fifth annual drive by the United Nations to encourage Member States to sign or ratify some of the hundreds of global conventions and treaties has ended, with 32 countries participating this year and 93 actions taken.