DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Lebanon Video

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Statement on the Middle East

We released a statement on the Middle East yesterday afternoon.  I would just like to read it before the camera into the record.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.  Welcome to the briefing.

**Videotape

PRESS BRIEFING BY DESA ON CENSUS TAKING

The Director of the Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Hermann Habermann, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing today that the census was the most important data collection that any country undertook; the process, one way or another, sought to touch everybody in a country.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon, thank you very much for coming.

**Statement on Terror Attack by Suicide Bomber in Jerusalem

I'll start by putting on the record the statement we issued a few hours earlier this morning:

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS

At a Headquarters press conference today marking the International Day of the World's Indigenous People, Human Rights Officer and Secretary of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Julian Burger, welcomed the establishment last July of a new United Nations body that was expected to elevate the concerns of indigenous peoples within the United Nations hierarchy.

‘SIGNIFICANT NARROWING OF DIFFERENCES’ IN LEAD-UP TO DURBAN RACISM CONFERENCE,

SAYS UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Significant progress had been made on the most sensitive issues contained in the draft official documents to be presented to the World Conference Against Racism, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said in Geneva this morning.

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.  It is Friday, the last day of the heatwave, hopefully.  We prepared a short briefing.  I will start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Statement on Cambodia

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Statement on Middle East

I will start by putting on the record the statement that we released yesterday on the Middle East: 

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Statement on Angola

I am going to start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on Angola:

“The Secretary-General condemns the deliberate attack on a train, on