Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for World Habitat Day, to be observed on 4 October:

Joseph Deiss of Switzerland was elected President of the sixty-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly on 11 June 2010.

Miloš Koterec, Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on 11 June 2010.

Encouraged by political leaders’ strong support for the United Nations as the centre stage of dialogue and collective action to address the world’s multiple challenges, outgoing General Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki today implored the 192-member body, as the only global organ with a truly global agenda, to continue to innovate, build consensus and implement its resolutions to “stem the erosion of its authority”.

With countries gradually recovering from the global economic and financial crisis, the General Assembly had the duty to deliver results in its pursuit of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, reforming United Nations power structures and promoting sustainable development, incoming Assembly President Joseph Deiss stressed today as he opened the 192-member body’s sixty-fifth session.

Chitsaka Chipaziwa, Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) on 27 August 2010.

Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala was elected Chair of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on 11 June 2010.

Isabelle Picco, Permanent Representative of Monaco to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Sixth Committee (Legal) on 11 June 2010.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the panel discussion on “Democracy and the Millennium Development Goals” (on the occasion of the International Day of Democracy), co-organized by the International Conference of New and Restored Democracy and the Permanent Mission of Venezuela, in New York today, 15 September:

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia for one year, until 30 September 2011, authorizing it to focus on elections, security and other issues key to the Mission’s future drawdown.