The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is welcoming the establishment of a humanitarian corridor between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti -- that is between Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince. And this will allow the speedy delivery of aid to the areas most affected by the earthquake. And the Mission, as well as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), says that the security situation remains under control.

In July last year, the United Nations submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel a claim for reimbursement for the losses that the United Nations had sustained in a number of incidents that occurred during the Gaza conflict of 27 December 2008 to 19 January 2009. Pursuant to an arrangement reached, the Government of Israel has made a payment of $10.5 million to the United Nations in respect of the losses sustained.

“It is sheer dumb luck that we have succeeded as a world without a nuclear catastrophe since 1945, and not a function of good policy,” Gareth Evans, an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, said today at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Australia.

The Secretary-General strongly condemns the bomb attacks in Baghdad today that have killed dozens of people and injured scores more. No cause can justify these attacks on civilian targets. He extends his heartfelt condolences to the Government of Iraq and to the victims of these criminal acts, as well as to their families.

The head of the United Nations World Food Programme today warned that, while the international relief effort in Haiti was beginning to gain its footing, the scale of the devastation in the earthquake-ravaged country was immense, and helping more than 2 million people rebuild their lives would require the engagement of a broad spectrum of humanitarian actors “for at least the next 12 months”.

The United Nations top official in Haiti had presented to Government ministers today a proposal to better coordinate delivery of urgently needed food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies to people in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, Tony Banbury, Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, said this afternoon.

Participants in yesterday’s conference in Montreal on aid to Haiti after its devastating earthquake had agreed that planning for long-term recovery must be started while emergency assistance continued, United Nations officials told journalists at Headquarters this afternoon.

Thousands of civilians have had to flee their homes in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The UN refugee agency says that it has registered more than 15,500 newly displaced persons since mid‑December. Those displaced are fleeing the negative repercussions of a Government military campaign against Rwandan rebels, as well as widespread banditry.

“This is really a children’s emergency. You know, in Haiti, 40 per cent of the population is under 14, so the number of children affected is really huge. And what we’re doing is for the moment very much focusing on life-saving operations,” Dr. Guido Cornale, Country Director for United Nations Children’s Fund, told reporters today during a video link briefing on Haiti.

The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia this morning formally adopted a mode of cooperation between China and the Western naval coalition patrolling the Gulf of Aden, Carl Salicath, its Chairperson, said at Headquarters today.