Expressing anger at the United States Government’s expanded presence at seven military bases in Colombia, the Venezuelan Government had asked the Security Council to place an examination of Colombia’s armed conflict on its work agenda, its Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jorge Valero Briceño, told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference.

According to an agreement with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the United Nations would be able to conduct surprise visits to SPLA camps in Sudan to verify the presence of child soldiers, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, who added that such dialogue might begin for similar action plans with other participants in the Darfur peace process.

An AIDS-free generation was now in sight, but progress around the world had been extremely uneven, marked by huge deficiencies in preventing transmission of the disease, said Jimmy Kolker, Chief of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) HIV and AIDS Section, as he presented a new joint report on the impacts of the pandemic on children at a Headquarters press conference today.

Secretary-General: "Michèle Montas was my first appointment, as you may recall. I wanted someone I could trust, and someone who believed in the United Nations as much as I do. Someone who embodied the highest standards of personal integrity and journalistic credibility. I found that Michèle Montas has all the qualities one could hope for in a Spokesperson."

During a press conference today to update reporters on the upcoming multi-year renovation of United Nation Headquarters in New York City, Assistant Secretary-General Michael Adlerstein said about 3,300 people had been moved out of the Secretariat Building and that the temporary North Lawn building would be ready for occupancy by the end of December.

Today is World AIDS Day. In a message, the Secretary-General says that more must be done, on an urgent basis, to uphold the commitment to reach universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.

The project “CO2 CUBES –- Visualize a Tonne of Change”, to be launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on 7 December, was introduced today at a United Nations Headquarters press conference.

Burkina Faso, December’s President of the Security Council, had organized an open debate on “drug trafficking as a threat to international security” on 8 December, that country’s Permanent Representative Michel Kafando said today at Headquarters.

Poised to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary on 18 December, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was today lauded by women’s rights advocates for enabling human rights defenders over the last thirty years to successfully demand change in laws that discriminated against women.

The world economy will rebound and grow by 2.4 per cent next year, officials from the United Nations said today in a report launched at Headquarters, while warning that the recovery was brittle and depended on continued stimulus measures.