Fragile optimism for slow, but steady, progress in Somalia demonstrated that a Security Council strategy for increasing security and stability in the region would continue to unfold over the coming months, B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs told reporters today during a Headquarters press conference.

The Security Council began its work this morning with consultations to discuss the Secretary-General’s most recent report concerning Lebanon and the implementation of resolution 1559 (2004). The report, which is out as a document today, calls the June elections another milestone in Lebanon’s transition.

Speaking at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s representative on the human rights of internally displaced persons, hailed the recently adopted African Union Convention to protect displaced persons on the continent as the first binding treaty addressing the rights of “a huge number of people who need protection”.

“My mandate covers any killings which are in contravention of international law, whether humanitarian law or human rights,” said Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

The main purpose of reviewing every entry on the Consolidated List compiled by the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee was to improve its credibility, Committee Chairman Thomas Mayr-Harting, Permanent Representative of Austria, said today at a Headquarters press conference.

While the worst cases of religious intolerance in the past year involved killing in the name of a faith, repression of women was still the most common expression of both intolerance and extremism, Asma Jahangir, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.

The top United Nations humanitarian official today briefed the press at Headquarters on the situations in Yemen, Philippines, Indonesia and Uganda after his recent visits to those countries.

In an initiative to unite the world and bring awareness to the Millennium Development Goals, Dominican long-distance swimmer Marcos Diaz today announced plans to connect the five continents of the world, through four long-distance swims.

The Secretary-General will brief the Security Council on Afghanistan in closed consultations at 3:30 this afternoon.

The Secretary-General paid tribute in a town hall meeting to the United Nations staff members who were killed in an attack on a guest house in Afghanistan on Wednesday.