Hundreds of partnerships between small island developing states or SIDS and the private sector are being successfully forged at a major international conference according to the President of the UN General Assembly.

Villagers on the Pacific island of Samoa, whose homes were destroyed by the tsunami of 2009, are adapting to a new life away from the sea shore.

An international meeting to chart the future development of small island states is beginning in the Pacific Ocean nation of Samoa.

Over one hundred countries are expected to be represented at the conference which officially opens on Monday.

A transit camp for Syrian refugees in Erbil, northern Iraq is making room for an influx of Iraqi citizens displaced by recent fighting, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).