Geneva  - The United Nations Refugee Agency said Friday that in recent weeks some 40,000 displaced Somalis have returned to the war ravaged capital Mogadishu as the areas elsewhere in the country where they sought refuge had become too violent and were being hit by drought.

"Somalis are between a rock and a hard place," said William Spindler, a spokesman for UNHCR.

The UN warned that it was "not encouraging returns to Mogadishu at this juncture, as the security situation is volatile and the conditions are certainly not conducive."

New York - A doctor from Egypt and a non-government organization from Nicaragua have won the 2009 United Nations Population Award for raising awareness on population issues, the UN Fund for Population said Tuesday.

Mahmoud Fathalla founded the Egyptian Fertility Care Society, one of the first family planning organizations in Egypt, in 1974, and has since been advising his government on issues related to population and health. He is a renowned doctor and professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Assiut University in Egypt.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that he and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper discussed efforts to secure the freedom of a Canadian diplomat kidnapped last December in Niger.

Robert Fowler, a high-ranking Canadian official and former ambassador to the United Nations, disappeared on December 14 with his foreign affairs aide, Louis Guay. They were in a UN-marked vehicle and were believed to be kidnapped with their driver.

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on Myanmar's military junta to release all political prisoners, including the main opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was not among those freed over the weekend.

Ban also said he was ready to visit Myanmar, but urged the junta to ensure a return to democracy.

Ban visited Myanmar in May 2008, after the devastation caused by cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 100,000 people and left 2 million homeless. That visit focused on humanitarian assistance to the impoverished nation.

New York/Vienna  - UN Security Council members on Friday said a new UN report offered proof that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, while some raised the spectre of Iran being able to produce an atomic bomb with the amount of enriched uranium it has.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna said in an updated report late Thursday that the Tehran regime has underreported by a third the extent of its enrichment activities.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday social justice is denied to too many people around the world as the UN celebrated its first World Day of Social Justice.

"Tragically, social justice still remains an elusive dream for an appallingly large portion of humanity," Ban said in a message.

"Extreme poverty, hunger, discrimination and the denial of human rights continue to scar our moral landscape," he said. "The global financial crisis threatens to worsen these ills further still."