Calling on all Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political leaders to refrain from divisive rhetoric and make further concrete and tangible progress towards European Union integration, the Security Council this afternoon authorized for another year, until 18 November 2011, the European Union Stabilization Force (EUFOR) mandated to ensure continued compliance with the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended fighting in the country in 1995.

Condemning and deploring all acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels in the waters off the coast of Somalia, the Security Council today extended for 12 months its authorizations granted to States and regional organizations cooperating with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in the fight against such acts.

“We are in the midst of a delicate period which will determine whether a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is possible,” the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs told the Security Council today, adding that the continued diplomatic impasse over settlement construction since the moratorium ended on 26 September was worrying.

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

The new Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations, Néstor Osorio, today presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Abdou Salam Diallo of Senegal was today elected Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Mr. Diallo’s nomination by Oumar Daou (Mali) was seconded by Hamidon Ali (Malaysia) as B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, facilitated the election.

Non-communicable diseases related to tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol have emerged as a serious macroeconomic and development challenge around the globe, exacerbating poverty and requiring urgent attention to curb related productivity loss and rapidly rising health-care costs, General Assembly delegates said today.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the 2010 Young Atlanticist Summit, in Lisbon, 20 November:

Concluding its work for the current session today, the Third Committee approved eight draft resolutions involving issues ranging from the follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action to monitoring the use of mercenaries and combating defamation of religions. These approvals brought the total number of texts that the Committee will forward to the General Assembly for adoption during the sixty-sixth session to 58.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, as delivered by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva and Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, to the Twelfth Annual Conference of the High Contracting Parties to Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional weapons, today, 24 November, in Geneva: