The General Assembly this afternoon elected Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, as President of its sixty-sixth session.

With Afghanistan set for a mid-July launch of its two-year transition process — covering security, governance and efforts to bring opposition groups into the political mainstream — the top United Nations official in that country told the Security Council today that the “train was on track and moving forward”, but to be successful, it must be underpinned by the socio-economic development that the Afghan people so desperately needed and deserved.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Economic and Social Council to launch the 2011 Millennium Development Goals Report in Geneva today, 7 July:

At the intersection of critical conflict zones and impacted by insecurity in neighbouring Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic was at a crossroads, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council today.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to civil society on food security and sustainable development, in Madrid today, 6 July:

On 30 June 2011, the Security Council decided to change the name of its Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999).

The following Security Council statement was issued today by Council President Peter Wittig (Germany):

The new Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations, Haniff Hussein, today presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

For 67 years, Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity — as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Hilde Johnson of Norway as his Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan.