United Nation

    At least five UN peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in central Mali by suspected militants on Sunday, the UN and police sources said. The attack is the first time the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, has recorded fatalities in the centre of a country long beset by violence in its vast and desolate north. "According to preliminary information, five peacekeepers were killed. Another was seriously hurt and is being evacuated," MINUSMA said in a statement. The UN did not immediately confirm the nationality of the dead soldiers but a Bamako police source indicated a group of Togolese peacekeepers "came across a mine and a terrorist attack some 50 kilometres out of Mopti." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, according to a statement from his spokes...

    Over 700 migrants are feared dead in three Mediterranean Sea shipwrecks south of Italy in the last few days as they tried desperately to reach Europe in unseaworthy smuggling boats, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday. Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for UNHCR, told The Associated Press by phone that an estimated 100 people are missing from a smugglers' boat that capsized Wednesday. The Italian navy took horrific pictures of that capsizing even as it rushed to rescue all those thrown into the sea from the boat. She said about 550 other migrants and refugees are missing from a smuggling boat that capsized Thursday morning after leaving the western Libyan port of Sabratha a day earlier. She says refugees who saw the boat sink told her agency that that boat, which was carrying abo...

    The UN high commissioner for refugees says the migrants crisis is now a global phenomenon and that simply turning them away "won't work". Filippo Grandi told the BBC that more nations had to help the "few countries" shouldering the burden, by increasing both funding and resettlement. He said that, last year, fewer than 1% of 20 million refugees had been resettled in another nation. More are fleeing conflict and hardship than at any other time in history. Mr Grandi was speaking to the BBC during a day of special live coverage examining how an age of unprecedented mobility is shaping our world. The UN refugee agency's special envoy, Angelina Jolie-Pitt, will shortly deliver a keynote speech, in which she will warn about the "fear of uncontrolled migration" and how it has "gi...

    The Queen has celebrated her 90th birthday by greeting well-wishers outside Windsor Castle. Hundreds of royal fans cheered the monarch as she stepped from her car in front of the Henry VIII gate. Her arrival was marked by a rendition of Happy Birthday by the Band of the Coldstream Guards. Born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary of York on April 21 1926 - the year of the General Strike - she was never expected to be Queen. But she has become the longest reigning and oldest monarch in British history - and now the first to reach 90. The Queen spent the morning of her birthday in private at her much-loved Berkshire castle - the family home of the nation's sovereigns for more than 1,000 years. She went on to mark her special day by carrying out public duties, including opening ...

    UK housing market House price growth accelerated in the UK during January 2016, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The average UK house price grew 7.9% over the year, to £292,000 as the ongoing supply shortage in some areas drives prices ever higher. House building in England is running at around half the level needed to meet demand. Broken down by country and region, the picture is varied. The ONS average house price grew by an annual rate of 8.6% in England (£305,000), 0.1% in Scotland (£195,000), and 0.8% in Northern Ireland (£153,000). It fell 0.3% in Wales (£195,000). Across the English regions, the South East recorded the fastest growth at 11.7% to an average of £374,000. London's average rose 10.8% to £551,000, the highest of all regions. The Nor...

    Britain's housing market is ripe for a correction because house prices are reaching the limit of affordability for many people, says a well-known economics research firm. House prices have soared in recent years, especially in London and the south-east of England, fuelled by a shortage of supply and intensifying demand. A healing economy with high employment, growing wages and low interest rates has lifted demand in the property market. But the average house price in England was £302,000 ($435,000) in November 2015, says the ONS, up 50% since 2005. In London the average is £537,000, a 90% increase over a decade. To contrast with pay, average weekly earnings between 2005 and 2015 rose just 23% in England and 19% in London, much slower than property prices. "On balance, the ...

    U.N. Security Council members approved a resolution Friday outlining a peace process for Syria involving talks by representatives of the Damascus government and the opposition, but the draft says nothing on the critical issue of what role President Bashar Assad will play. The resolution acknowledges that the peace process will not end the conflict because it bars "terrorist groups" operating in the country, including the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, from participating in a cease-fire. Foreign ministers from 17 countries met on and off for more than five hours to overcome divisions on the text. The resolution has been described as a rare gesture of unity on the Syria peace process by a council often deeply divided on the crisis. The draft resolution, obtained by The As...

    Hundreds of thousands of people rushed to sign after Mr Trump suggested Muslims should be barred from the US. More than 400,000 people have backed the "Block Donald J Trump from UK entry" call, with more than six signatures per second at its peak, and it is on track to beat the current record of 446,482 signatures on a petition calling for the UK to accept more asylum seekers and increase refugee support. Suzanne Kelly, who originally lodged the document, said it was "one of many little acts of defiance" against Mr Trump. The 54-year-old from Aberdeen said: "I started the petition on 28 November. It was after the petition was lodged that Mr Trump made his anti-Muslim remarks. These confirmed for me that what I did in starting this petition was right. "Is there a group this...