Refugees are fleeing Syria in ever greater numbers, UN agencies said yesterday, as the conflict between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels intensifies.

Government troops fought back rebels near the airport of battle-scarred Aleppo, Syria’s state media said today, in the first official acknowledgement that combat had neared a strategic gateway to the country’s largest city.

The United Nations’ (UN) refugee agency says nearly 150,000 people fleeing Syria’s civil war have sought its help, a figure expected to rise significantly.

The number of Syrian refugees who have sought help from the United Nations since April has almost tripled to 112,000.

After a decade of promoting refugee causes around the world, Angelina Jolie herself has been promoted.

ALMOST 2,000 people arrived by boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa from Libya and Tunisia over the weekend, the UN refugee agency has said.

Almost 2,000 people arrived by boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa from Libya and Tunisia over the weekend, the UN refugee agency has said.

A CHOLERA epidemic is spreading in famine-hit Somalia, with alarming numbers of cases among people driven to the capital Mogadishu by a lack of food and water, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

THE United Nations says many Somali children are arriving at refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia in such weak shape that they are dying within 24 hours despite emergency care and feeding.

Libyan rebels have broken the government siege of two western mountain towns, a rebel commander said, while Nato pounded 10 targets across the country.

At least 10 Nato strikes have hit in and around the Libyan capital, targeting military barracks close to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s compound in central Tripoli, a police station and a military base, a government official said.

TALIBAN militants wearing suicide vests and police uniforms stormed a guest house used by UN staff in the heart of the Afghan capital early yesterday, killing 11 people, including six UN staff. It was the biggest in a series of attacks intended to undermine next month’s presidential runoff election.

Taliban disguised as police killed five UN workers after storming their living quarters in Kabul today in an effort to disrupt the forthcoming presidential election.

Taliban militants wearing suicide vests stormed a guest house used by UN staff in the heart of the Afghan capital early today, killing 12 people – including six UN staff – in the biggest in a series of attacks intended to undermine next month’s presidential run-off election.

Gunmen attacked a guest house used by United Nations staff in the Afghan capital Kabul early today, killing at least six UN staff.

A top American official at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan has temporarily left the country following a disagreement with his boss over how to respond to the massive allegations of vote fraud in the August 20 presidential election, officials said today.

A suicide bomber in a vehicle attacked a convoy carrying Afghan doctors working for the United Nations in southern Afghanistan today, killing two doctors and their driver and wounding 15 other people, officials said.

A suicide bomber in a vehicle attacked a convoy carrying Afghan doctors working for the United Nations in southern Afghanistan today, killing two doctors and wounding 15 other people, a police chief said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a surprise visit to Afghanistan today, where he met President Hamid Karzai and the commander of Nato troops.

Afghanistan can no longer accept or understand civilian deaths, President Hamid Karzai said today, after officials reported that 51 villagers died during a US-led operation against Taliban militants in western Afghanistan.

East Timor’s international airport was closed today after a man was shot dead during clashes between rival gangs.

A suicide car bomb exploded near a UN convoy in southern Afghanistan today, killing the attacker, but there were no immediate reports of other casualties.

A spate of assaults by suspected Taliban rebels killed eight policemen and wounded an election candidate, and Afghanistan warned today that aid workers and other “soft” targets were in danger of attack ahead of elections this month.