The UN-African Union Mission in Darfur reports that at around 11:30 local time this morning, one of its convoys was ambushed. Two Egyptian peacekeepers were killed, and another three seriously wounded. The attackers opened fire on the peacekeepers and fled when the convoy returned fire. The wounded were airlifted to UNAMID’s hospital in Nyala and they’re reported to be in a stable condition.

Young artists from the former Soviet States — Georgia among them — would commemorate the sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War with a concert at United Nations Headquarters showcasing the importance of tolerance and preservation of cultural ties, reporters were told today at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation.

Convinced that recent Government-led climate negotiations had ignored the perspective of the people most affected by global warming, Bolivian President Evo Morales told reporters today that the United Nations should adopt the outcomes of a “people’s summit” he had convened last month in the Andean city of Cochabamba as a more inclusive, people-centred framework for future talks to ensure equitable decision-making and respect for the rights of the planet.

The United Nations has a decent chance to avert a catastrophe in drought-prone West Africa by taking timely action and scaling up its capacity to deal with the situation, but the effort would crucially depend on the needed resources being made available by the donor community, John Holmes, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said today.

Launching the third Global Biodiversity Outlook in New York today, a senior United Nations development official warned that, without swift action and renewed political will, current “alarming” biodiversity declines would continue, and some life-giving ocean and rainforest ecosystems would spiral towards collapse, threatening sustainable development and human well-being.

Overdue commitments made to small island developing States must be fulfilled to enable them to survive climate change and other international crises that were threatening their very existence, officials from three such States said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

The Secretary-General strongly condemns the wave of terrorist bombings and other attacks in Iraq yesterday that reportedly claimed the lives of over a hundred people and injured many more, mostly civilians. The United Nations stands in solidarity with the Iraqi people in the face of these deplorable, unjustifiable acts.

We issued a statement last night in which the Secretary-General said he is encouraged by the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks and commends the United States initiative in this regard. The Secretary-General hopes that the parties are able to make progress and move towards direct negotiations.

The Secretary-General is in Ottawa today, where he just spoke to the UN Association of Canada about the importance of the relationship between the United Nations and Canada. He said that relationship is particularly significant this year, as Canada will soon host the G-8 and G-20 meetings.

The adoption of a resolution this morning by the General Assembly to convene a high-level summit in September 2011 on the issue of prevention and control of non-communicable diseases was a “momentous and historical” occasion, not only for the world, but also for the Caribbean community which had taken the lead on the issue, Marina Annette Valère, Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago said today during a press conference at Headquarters.