The UN refugee agency's introduction last August of cash grants for Burundian returnees appears to have both encouraged more people to go back home and eased their reintegration. In the months since the 50,000 Burundian Francs (about US$45) grant per person was introduced for Burundians in Tanzania, some 35,000 refugees have returned to their country.

Their makeshift shelter of branches and leaves is only 800 metres from Chad's border with the Central African Republic, but for Josephine and Veronique it could be 800 kilometres. The two women finally feel safe on this side of the border, where they have joined almost 14,000 other refugees, including some 3,000 of whom arrived over the past two weeks. Most have left Central African Republic (CAR) since mid-December to escape attacks by rebel fighters and bandits on their villages.

Minority and indigenous groups across the world are among the hardest hit by climate change and often disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters but their plight has yet to be recognised by the international community, a new report says.

Despite real advances in China, India, South Africa, and several Latin American and Caribbean countries, overall there has been little progress in reducing the number of victims of hunger and malnutrition around the world, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Jean Ziegler said Tuesday.

Leading trade unions from three emerging economies, South Africa, the Philippines and Brazil, voiced concerns in Geneva on Wednesday regarding the risk their industries face in the current Doha round of trade liberalisation talks. Rudi Dicks of COSATU, the South African trade union congress, said that negotiators have failed to take account of the positions of developing countries in the Doha round, which aims to reduce global barriers to trade.