DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Afghanistan

Good afternoon.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Colombia

Good afternoon.

I'm going to start today with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the situation in Colombia:

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Middle East

Good afternoon.

The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman on the subject of the Middle East.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Colombia

Good afternoon.

I'm going to start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the subject of events in Colombia.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

**Afghanistan

A belated Happy New Year to all of you I haven't said that to.

We'll start with Afghanistan.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Afghanistan

Good afternoon.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Afghanistan

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, visited Kabul airport today to take stock of demining activities under way there.  He applauded the work of the Afghan deminers and described them as “real heroes”.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Afghanistan

Let's start with Mr. Brahimi in Kabul.  Today in Kabul, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, met with all members of the diplomatic community accredited to the new authority.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.  Thank you for coming.  We'll have a short briefing, although a little bit longer than yesterday.  As I said, we’re picking up bit by bit. 

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim record of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Thank you very much for coming.  I didn't expect to have so many of you here today.