Favourable production prospects for 2010 main season cereal crops.

The political situation in the country remains tense.

International agencies agree on severe and extremely high food insecurity throughout the country.

The government is investing to increase production and social welfare.

Speaking at an assessment meeting, the Administrator of the sub-zone, Mr. Kidane Woldeselasie, pointed out that the farming community has managed to carry out impressive harvesting activity.

According to reports, the local inhabitants undertook satisfactory soil and water conservation activities in 18 administrative areas of the sub-zone through investing more than 6 million Nakfa. About

- Thousands of individuals continue to return by road, rail, barge, and plane from northern Sudan to their homelands in Southern Sudan and the Three Areas of Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Abyei. As of December 28, relief agencies had verified the return of 105,334 people in government-organized and spontaneous movements since October 30.

- The humanitarian community continues to prepare for and respond to humanitarian needs associated with population movements. U.N. agencies, international organizations, and non-governmental

During its participation in the Security Council over the last two years, Mexico had focused on strengthening the role of conflict prevention and resolution; the promotion and protection of human rights and international humanitarian law; and enhancing transparency of the Council, the country's Permanent Representative, Claude Heller, said today at Headquarters.

Briefing correspondents on Mexico's work

They stated that river waters flowing to the sea have now been diverted for agricultural purposes as a result of the machinery-backed campaign in which the inhabitants are employing their labor and money. The farmers went on to say that they are working round the clock as the agricultural activities heavily depend on river

SC/10131

6457th Meeting* (AM)

The outgoing members of the Security Council =97 Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda =97 delivered briefings this morning on the work of subsidiary bodies they had chaired during their two-year tenure.

Austria's Representative reported on the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005), which had placed sanctions on those "impeding the peace process" in Darfur, as well as the Informal Working Group on International Tribunals.

The representative of Japan described

VIENNA, 14 December 2010 - The Government of Japan will fund UNIDO projects worth a total of over USD 10.6 million in Africa, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan, as well as in Afghanistan.

The projects aim to provide vocational training and equipment for productive activities to help increase employment opportunities and income generation to vulnerable groups, especially those affected by natural disasters.

The partnership was sealed in Vienna

(Jakarta, December 12, 2010) - Many governments' immigration policies and protection gaps expose migrants to abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report today in advance of International Migrants Day, December 18, 2010. The abuses include labor exploitation, violence, trafficking, mistreatment in detention, and killings, yet the nations involved offer limited recourse to seek justice, Human Rights Watch said.

The 48-page roundup of Human Rights Watch

UNHCR has very limited information about this group. We have noted media reports that the traffickers are demanding payments of US$8,000 per person for their release, that people are being held in containers and are subject to abuses, and that some may have been held for months.

We are, at this time, in contact with the Egyptian government over this matter. Egypt's Ministry of Interior