The worst of the economic crisis seemed past, correspondents were told this morning in an International Monetary Fund (IMF) briefing on the Fund's annual report.
At a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), Bernard Kouchner, said the United Nations operation in the territory was, to his knowledge, the quickest and fastest mission the Organization had mounted since its inception.
Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, this morning proposed a 15-point agenda for action to help the war-affected children of Sierra Leone.
Antonio Monteiro, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations, informed correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today, that he had requested a formal meeting of the Security Council on East Timor because the situation in the Territory was desperate.
Many economists, including those at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), felt it was feasible to halve the 1.3 billion people living in absolute poverty by the end of the first decade of the new century, UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown said at a Headquarters press briefing this morning. The war against poverty was not in danger of being lost, he added.
The Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans Carl Bildt told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing today there were no "quick fixes" when it came to restoring peace after a prolonged conflict.
