The Security Council began consultations at 11 this morning to discuss a letter from the Permanent Representative of Brazil requesting that an urgent meeting of the Council be convened to discuss the situation in Honduras.

A diplomatic strategy by countries supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was urgently needed to persuade and pressure the nine remaining States required to ratify the treaty so it could enter into force, Jessica Matthews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, said at Headquarters today.

President Johnson Toribiong of Palau announced today the creation of the first national sanctuary for sharks, encompassing the country’s entire exclusive economic zone, an area roughly the size of France.

Under the auspices of the United Nations, States were taking a revolutionary and aggressive approach to the global food crisis, David Nabarro, United Nations System Coordinator for the Global Food Security Crisis, said at Headquarters today.

Roughly 20 years after last serving on the Security Council, New Zealand would again seek a Council seat for the 2015-2016 term, Prime Minister John Key said today during a press conference held after his first address to the General Assembly.

Among the highlights of several very busy days that had begun with the opening of the general debate last week, the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) mentioned the address by United States President Barack Obama and the adoption of a resolution on non-proliferation by the high-level meeting of the Security Council.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the Millennium Villages Project announced the launch of a new partnership aimed at dramatically reducing hunger and malnutrition across Africa, at a Headquarters press conference today.

The Secretary-General met this morning with Prime Minister Thein Sein of Myanmar, reiterating his clear expectation that Myanmar will respond in a timely manner to the proposals he left with the senior leadership of Myanmar during his visit.

In meeting after meeting, the intensity of activities on peace and security during the first week of the General Assembly’s sixty-fourth general debate had been incredible, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, said during a press conference at Headquarters today.

At a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, France’s Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophonie, Alain Joyandet, harshly condemned Monday’s attacks by Guinean soldiers on crowds of unarmed civilians at a pro-democracy rally in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, which left some 100 people dead and hundreds more injured.