Refugee numbers increasing for first time in five years

People fleeing Iraq have swelled the ranks of the world’s refugees, reversing a five-year decline, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

At the end of last year, the world had 9.9 million refugees, a 14% increase over the 8.7 million refugees recorded in 2005, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in releasing its '2006 Global Trends' report.