As Pakistan’s disastrous flooding continued to spread, the new United Nations humanitarian chief said today that she planned to ask donors this Friday to scale up funding for humanitarian assistance to the growing number of victims. “More people are turning to us for help, and as a world community we need to respond,” Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said at a Headquarters press conference.

The Secretary-General takes note of the decision by the Guinean authorities to postpone, due to technical reasons, the second round of the country’s presidential elections that were scheduled to take place on 19 September 2010. He calls upon the country’s authorities to quickly address the outstanding technical and logistical challenges in order to create the conditions necessary for the holding of transparent and credible elections as soon as possible.

The global economic and financial crisis had led to shortfalls in aid, trade and debt, notably in Africa, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at a Headquarters press conference today, while emphasizing that renewed commitment to a global partnership for development was crucial for filling those gaps ahead of 2015.

Despite the enormous scale of mental illness around the world, those suffering from such conditions were often among the most marginalized groups in developing countries, according to a new report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Chief of the Treaty Section in the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs,Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli, and the Liaison Officer for the international Convention on Biodiversity, Nandhini Krishna, expressed hope for increased participation at both the upcoming Annual Treaty Event and Biodiversity Summit, at a Headquarters press conference today.

The United Nations should play “a particular role” in Afghanistan’s national reconciliation process, Hervé Morin, Minister for Defence of France, said today following a day of meetings with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy.

Despite the global economic and financial crisis, the world trade system had remained open, with only minimal protectionist slippages, Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, said today. “As we all know, the media doesn’t like speeches, they like news. This is why I decided to come to New York with a speech for the United Nations General Assembly, but with news for you,” he said at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

During a Headquarters press conference today, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), called for increased emphasis to be placed on the regional dimensions of the broader effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

The Secretary-General told more than 140 Heads of State and Government this morning that there is an urgent need to achieve the Goals that world leaders had agreed to 10 years ago in time for the target date of 2015. He said that the eight Millennium Development Goals were a breakthrough, and they have already yielded real results.

A high-level event on the Central African Republic to be held later today was aimed at re-energizing international support for the country’s emergence from strife and poverty, officials involved in that effort said at Headquarters this afternoon.