After more than a decade in Ethiopia, Somali refugees in the eastern camp of Rabasso are preparing to return to their homes in northwestern Somalia, a spokesman for UNHCR told IRIN Thursday.

Mali became the first country to sign a legally binding international pact to control the proliferation of small arms, the UN reported in New York on Wednesday.

Children displaced by years of drought are dying every day from malnutrition and disease in a situation that is likely to get worse unless urgent action is taken, a UNICEF press statement released on Tuesday in Addis Ababa said. "Mortality rates among IDP [internally displaced people] children in Ethiopia's Somali region are alarming. Several children are dying from malnutrition and related diseases every day, the statement quotes UNICEF nutritionist Yvonne Grellety as saying.

"President Muhammad Ibrahim Egal of Somaliland should immediately and unconditionally release former presidential candidate Suleiman Mohamed Adam,"Amnesty International reiterated today. Suleiman Mohamed Adam, 66, is considered by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, detained solely on account of his non-violent opinions and for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of expression and association.