GENEVA (Reuters) – Iran has stepped up executions of prisoners including juveniles as well as arrests of dissidents who are often tortured in jail, sometimes to death, the United Nations reported on Thursday.

In twin reports issued in Geneva, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the U.N. special investigator on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, voiced concern at what they called an apparent rise in the frequency and gravity of abuses in Iran.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Iran has stepped up executions of prisoners including juveniles as well as arrests of dissidents who are often tortured in jail, sometimes to death, the United Nations reported on Thursday.

In twin reports issued in Geneva, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the U.N. special investigator on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, voiced concern at what they called an apparent rise in the frequency and gravity of abuses in Iran.

GENEVA, Feb 28 (Reuters) – People in the area worst affected
by Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident two years ago have a
slightly higher risk of developing certain cancers, the World
Health Organisation said on Thursday.

A magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011,
killed nearly 19,000 people and devastated the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear plant, spewing radiation and forcing about 160,000
people to flee their homes.

GENEVA (Reuters) – A U.N. human rights investigator called on Wednesday for an international inquiry into the weekend death of a Palestinian prisoner in disputed circumstances in an Israeli jail.

The death of Arafat Jaradat has led to the widespread rioting in the occupied West Bank leading to fears of a new Palestinian uprising against Israel.

GENEVA (Reuters) – North Korea accused the United States on Wednesday of contributing to an “unpredictable” situation on the divided Korean peninsula and abusing its power in the U.N. Security Council to impose its “hostile policy” against Pyongyang.

North Korea is facing further United Nations sanctions for its underground nuclear test explosion two weeks ago, its biggest and most powerful to date which drew warnings from Washington and international condemnation.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The rebel-held north of Syria remains largely out of reach to aid operations, even though they have been stepped up elsewhere in the country torn by civil war, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Tuesday.

“We are watching a humanitarian tragedy unfold before our eyes,” Amos told a news briefing. “We must do all we can to reassure the people that we care and that we will not let them down.”

GENEVA, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Japan and the United States
called on Tuesday for the main U.N. human rights forum to launch
an inquiry into allegations of violations including the torture
and execution of political prisoners in North Korea.

The reclusive country’s network of political prison camps
are believed to contain at least 200,000 people and have been
the scene of rapes, torture, executions and slave labour, U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said last month.

GENEVA, Feb 26 (Reuters) – A former Swissair official said
the airport scenes in Oscar-winning film “Argo” were a realistic
depiction of the airline’s unwitting role in the rescue of
American diplomats from Tehran during the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.

Heinz Koch, who was in charge of the now defunct air
carrier’s operations in Tehran at the time, said Swissair was
not told about the true identities of the “very important
Canadian passengers” until months after it carried the six U.S.
diplomats to safety aboard one of its airplanes.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Turkey accused Syria on Monday of attacking Syrian towns with bombing, shelling and Scud missiles and called at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council for perpetrators of atrocities to be brought to justice.

Britain and Switzerland urged the United Nations Security Council to refer war crimes in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.

GENEVA, Feb 22 (Reuters) – The conflict in northern Mali
risks dragging on for months, cutting off civilians from aid and
basic services in a Somalia-like situation, the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on Friday.

The independent agency said that it had become harder to
contact armed Islamist groups and determine who was in control
of territory to get security guarantees for its aid convoys.