Urging reporters in New York to “keep the focus on Haiti”, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today said that “although commendable progress has been made, the situation remains dire” three months after the massive earthquake that killed nearly 250,000 people, left 1 million others homeless and levelled the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Barbados today announced the nomination of Senator and former Energy and Environment Minister Elizabeth Thompson as its candidate for Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, bringing to five the number of countries that have so far nominated candidates for the same position: Costa Rica; South Africa; India; and Indonesia.

The Commission of Inquiry that was formed to determine the facts in the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will formally present the report on its work to the Secretary-General at 4:30 p.m. The Secretary-General will then transmit it to the Government of Pakistan, and he will also share it, for information purposes, with the members of the Security Council.

The December 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, which could have been prevented by adequate security, was followed by a severely flawed investigation, according to the report of the United Nations independent investigation released to correspondents at Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

The Secretary-General addressed the Security Council’s open debate on post-conflict peacebuilding this morning. He said that we must seize the crucial opportunity after the end of a major conflict. We must respond early and robustly, he said, adding that we must then stay engaged over the long term. Peacebuilding was a complex and multifaceted undertaking -- requiring significant amounts of human, financial and institutional resources, he said.

Just back from Kyrgyzstan on a fact-finding mission as the Secretary-General's special envoy, Jan Kubis, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, briefed correspondents at Headquarters today on the situation in that country, where deadly public demonstrations over the President’s alleged pervasive corruption and nepotism had led to the resignation of the Government and eventual departure of the leader himself.

Georgia stood ready to talk with the Russian Federation “anytime, anywhere” without any conditions but one: that Russia respect international law and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours, Georgia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Grigol Vashadze, told correspondents today at Headquarters.

The Government of Brazil would use confiscated proceeds from money-laundering and other crimes to fund implementation of the main United Nations treaties on transnational organized crime and corruption, the country’s National Secretary for Justice said in Salvador, Brazil, today.

Staffan de Mistura, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, met today with Fazel Ahmad Manawi, the new Chairperson of the Independent Election Commission. De Mistura said that these elections must be an improvement over last year’s. He also said that with the appointment of Manawi and the endorsement of the Implementation Guidelines, he had recommended to the international community that they release funds, as soon as feasible, to allow electoral operations to begin.

The Government of New Zealand was now in support of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Pita Sharples, Minister of Māori Affairs of New Zealand, told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference on the opening day of the ninth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.