A panel of nine global economic and political leaders would aim to nail down innovative ways to help develop the world’s poorest countries in the run-up to the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Turkey next year, key members of the group said today at a Headquarters press conference.

In a press conference at Headquarters today, Mazlan Othman, Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs and Deputy Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, gave an overview of work being done on the peaceful uses of outer space through the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization Committee).

The Secretary-General spoke by telephone this morning with President Sebastian Piñera of Chile, to offer his warmest wishes following the safe rescue of 33 miners in Chile. In a statement we issued last night, the Secretary-General joined with the people of Chile and the families of the heroic miners to celebrate what he called the “extraordinary triumph of human ingenuity and the strength of the human spirit”.

Roger Meece, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, briefed the Security Council this morning on recent developments there, including the rapes and other recent violence in the east. He said the attacks in North Kivu clearly show the importance of civilian protection and compelled the United Nations Mission, MONUSCO, to review its procedures and take additional steps to protect people.

Recognizing that the global economic crisis had made it difficult for some Member States to hand over their contributions on time, the United Nations senior management official told correspondents today that the total unpaid assessed contributions for all categories of United Nations funds amounted to $4.1 billion.

This weekend in Morocco, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the opening of the World Policy Conference in Marrakesh. He highlighted three main themes: the need to pull together for the poor and vulnerable; the need to pool our energy and resources to stave off the climate catastrophe; and the need to work together on a host of new-generation challenges.

In Strasbourg today, the Secretary-General spoke to the Council of Europe, to join with the Council in celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights. He said that one of the cardinal missions of the United Nations is to shine the light of human rights everywhere, including the darkest corners of the world.

Calling upon States to “reconnect with the values” of the Convention against Torture, Claudio Grossman, Chairperson of the Committee against Torture, emphasized at Headquarters today the imperative of fighting attempts to make torture acceptable, particularly during emergency situations.

When women had access to the same rights and opportunities as men, they were more resilient to conflict and disaster, which could lead to better reconstruction efforts in their societies, according to Richard Kollodge, the editor of a United Nations Population Fund report launched at Headquarters today.

"World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics", launched today on the occasion of World Statistics Day showed overall progress in areas such as school enrolment, health, and economic participation, but made clear that more needed to be done in such areas as closing the gender gap in public life and violence against women, a top United Nations official told correspondents today at Headquarters.