After heated negotiations that stretched beyond Christmas Day, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) concluded the main part of the sixty-eighth session today, recommending a $5.53 billion budget for the 2014-2015 biennium.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Gérard Araud (France):

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Gérard Araud (France):

The United Nations issued the sixty-third volume of Yearbook of the United Nations, covering the Organization’s global activities in 2009.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Gérard Araud (France):

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

Against a backdrop of imminent or impending wars, civil and sectarian bloodshed and strife between and within States, chemical warfare in Syria, grinding poverty and malnutrition, gender violence and deadly climate change impacts, the year ahead was “pivotal” for the 193-nation organ, General Assembly President John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) said at the opening of its sixty-eighth session.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

On 31 December 2013, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011) enacted the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entries below to its List (the 1988 List) of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2082 (2012) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations:

On 2 January 2014, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) concerning Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities removed the names of the individuals below from the Al-Qaida Sanctions List.