BAGHDAD, 22 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Aid agencies say thay have been prevented from entering the city of Samarra, in central Iraq, where a major US and Iraqi military operation is underway.Full report

FALLUJAH, 21 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - It has been 14 months since US forces fought insurgents in the city of Fallujah, but there is still slow progress on humanitarian issues, according to local officials.Full report

AMMAN, 21 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - The Jordan-Iraqi border at Karama closed on Monday and remains so after 89 Palestinian refugees from Iraq, including 42 children, tried to enter Jordan, according to the UNs refugee agency in Amman, UNHCR.Full report

BAGHDAD, 21 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - The Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and Displacement said on Tuesday that 3,705 families had been displaced in the country, as a result of the ongoing sectarian violence.Full report

AMMAN, 20 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - "The first three days after our arrival we had nothing to protect us from the rain and the cold," said Khabati Mohammadi, one of 191 Kurdish-Iranian refugees stuck since January 2005 at the Karama border crossing between Jordan and Iraq.Full report

DUBAI, 19 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - CONTENTS: EGYPT: Ship disaster compensation inadequate, say...Full report

BAGHDAD, 19 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Hundreds of families have fled the city of Samarra, some 120 km northwest of the capital, Baghdad, after US coalition and Iraqi forces launched the biggest air offensive in the country since 2003.Full report

BAGHDAD, 14 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - The oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq has been the scene of ongoing displacement and rising ethnic tensions in the past six months, according to local officials.Full report

DUBAI, 9 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - CONTENTS: EGYPT: Migrant workers face abuse EGYPT: Activists condemn...Full report

AMMAN, 7 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Officials from the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR in Jordan have urged around 200 Iranian-Kurdish refugees stuck on the Iraqi side of the Jordan-Iraq border to move to a new settlement in the northern Iraqi governorate of Arbil.Full report

JORDAN: Year in Brief 2005 – A chronology of democratic developments

EGYPT: Year in Brief 2005 - Chronology of democratic events

EGYPT: UNHCR office temporarily halts operations

SYRIA: Educated expatriates resist the call to come home

LEBANON: Poor Lebanese find life easier in Palestinian refugee camp

LEBANON: Palestinian refugees complain they are second class citizens

SYRIA: Training refugees to gain useful skills

IRAQ: Briefing paper on food security

IRAQ: Briefing paper on power

IRAQ: Briefing paper on water and sanitation

IRAQ: Briefing paper on Education

IRAQ: Briefing paper on health