Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Council on Foreign Relations

I’ve got quite a few items today, starting off with the Secretary-General who, as you know, is in Washington today, where he is currently meeting with US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**SG in Brussels

Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

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

Good afternoon,

**Statement Attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General

We’ll start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the subject of Iraq:

PRESS CONFERENCE ON SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION

The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize was a clarion call to both complement and challenge the South at all levels, this year’s Nobel Peace Laureate told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today, on the observance of the first annual United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation.

Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

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

Good afternoon,

Vacation started early.  Sorry, I am a little bit late.  We’ll start with Iraq.

**Iraq

Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

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

Good afternoon,

**Iraq –- Electoral Update

In Iraq, the list of candidates for the upcoming elections is still being processed.  So far, the names of almost 19,000 candidates have been presented.

PRESS BRIEFING ON TSUNAMI DISASTER

 

Describing the tsunami which struck several Asian countries over the weekend as the worst natural disaster in history, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland this morning appealed to donors to respond generously to relief efforts.

PRESS BRIEFING ON TSUNAMI DISASTER

 

With the death toll at 80,000 and increasing by the hour, the United Nations has launched what Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland called one of the biggest relief operations ever to assist the tsunami-stricken societies of South and South-East Asia.

Press conference on tsunami disaster

 

Updating correspondents today at Headquarters in the first of three planned weekend briefings on developments in the tsunami disaster, Jan Egeland, wished everybody a Happy New Year and assured them that the United Nations and its colleagues in the Red Cross and Red Crescent system –- the two major coordinators -– were doing their level best on all affected continents.

Press conference on tsunami disaster, sunday, 2 january

 

“The world is really coming together here in a way we probably have never seen before”, Jan Egeland said in the second of three holiday weekend briefings at Headquarters on the United Nations’ response to the tsunami disaster, adding that he was more optimistic than he had been yesterday and the day before that the global community would be able to face up to the enormous challenge.