With the same players employing, with limited results, the same stale tactics to end long-standing conflicts or diffuse simmering tensions, “we believe peace processes could benefit from fresh ideas [and] an innovative cultural shift,” said Columbia University graduate student Gal Bar Dea today as he previewed the first conference of the United Nations-backed SPIRIT initiative.

Jan Kubis is on his way to Kyrgyzstan as the Secretary-General's special envoy. Once there, he will meet constitutional authorities and representatives of relevant political groups. He will then fly to New York to brief the Secretary-General on his fact-finding mission. He is liaising closely with the special envoys from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union.

The Secretary-General is on his way to Washington, where he will attend the nuclear security summit chaired by President Barack Obama. He told reporters this morning that we can see new momentum towards our ultimate ambition: a world free of nuclear weapons. Nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats we face today and in Washington, he will call on all world leaders to come together, perhaps at the United Nations in September, to further advance this essential cause.

Emerging forms of crime, such as environmental crime, cybercrime and piracy, were expected to figure alongside “traditional” forms of crime, such as bribery and money-laundering, in discussions during the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, John Sandage, Executive Secretary, said at a press briefing today.

The Secretary-General is in Washington for the Nuclear Security Summit, where he will deliver remarks this afternoon laying out his priorities in dealing with the safety of nuclear stockpiles. Those priorities are preventing nuclear terrorism; securing nuclear fissile materials; strengthening the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency; increasing the engagement of the Security Council; and achieving tandem progress on both nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.

With chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes responsible for 60 per cent of all annual deaths worldwide, tackling the global burden of such non-communicable diseases had become one of the major challenges for development in the twenty-first century, a senior World Health Organization official said today.

Improving resource mobilization, international cooperation, and national ownership were the main priorities of the upcoming five-year review of the Peacebuilding Commission, its Chairman said this afternoon.

Following extraordinary intergovernmental cooperation in containing the human and animal influenza threats of the past several years, the focus was now on maintaining momentum even as such threats dropped from the news, the Senior United Nations System Influenza Coordinator said today.

The Secretary-General is announcing today the development of a Joint Action Plan for accelerating progress on maternal and newborn health. The Plan will bring together Governments, foundations, the corporate sector, civil society and UN agencies in a targeted effort to improve the health of women and children.

An intensive focus on maternal health could boost the achievement of all international development goals, a panel of high Government and United Nations officials said as they kicked off a new global initiative this afternoon.