GENEVA – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today announced that this year's Nansen Refugee Award will go to Dr. Katrine Camilleri, a 37-year old lawyer with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Malta, who works to defend the rights of refugees and migrants.

GENEVA – Asylum applications by Iraqis in industrialized countries rose 45 percent in the first half of 2007 compared to the previous six months, according to provisional statistics compiled by the UN refugee agency based on information provided by governments.

NEW YORK – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres welcomed the adoption today of a UN Security Council resolution establishing a multi-dimensional UN mission in Chad and Central African Republic (MINURCAT) that will help strengthen security in the region.

Washington, October 10, 2007--World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said, “It is the vision of the World Bank Group to contribute to an inclusive and sustainable globalization – to overcome poverty, enhance growth with care for the environment, and create individual opportunity and hope.”

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, marking his first 100 days as President of the World Bank Group, Zoellick explained that, “Globalization offers incredible opportunities.  Yet exclusion, grinding poverty, and environmental damage create dangers.  The ones that suffer most are those who have the least to start with – indigenous peoples, women in developing countries, the rural poor, Africans, and their children.”