AIDS and global health activists are calling on the U.S. Senate leadership to urgently approve a record five-year, 50-billion-dollar bill to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis primarily in Africa so that President George W. Bush can take it with him when he meets with other western leaders at next month's Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Japan.

The UN refugee agency is embracing new media with a vengeance, launching on Thursday a pioneering Facebook application to raise funds and awareness about refugee protection. UNHCR is already using other popular social networking sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Deli.cio.us and Reddit to reach the massive online community and inform people about its work helping millions of uprooted people around the world.

Describing it as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, UN refugee agency chief António Guterres on Wednesday urged the international community to make peace in Somalia a priority and acknowledged that UNHCR had to do more to help those uprooted by the 17-year conflict.

On the eve of World Refugee Day, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Thursday concluded a mission to one of the world's largest refugee camps and then met with a group of internally displaced Kenyans who were uprooted in post-election violence earlier this year. He told both groups – Somali refugees in the sprawling Dadaab camp on the Kenya-Somalia border and displaced Kenyans in the town of Naivasha – that his hope is for all of them to be able to go home soon.

Mauritanian media is buzzing with news about the upcoming baccalaureate exams. Both parents and students are apprehensive about the bac, hoping and praying for good results. This year's stress level is even higher due to a teachers' strike which may cause the exams to be postponed.