Remarkable but fragile gains had been made in the fight against malaria over in last decade, making it critical to close funding gaps, scale up the use of effective interventions, combat drug and insecticide resistance, while supporting research and development to ensure that new ambitious targets would be met, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement continues in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan States. The Sudanese Red Crescent Society has reported that some 115,000 people fled their homes, while 20,000 more people were displaced in the west of the state.

The General Assembly’s incoming President, in his first Headquarters press conference this afternoon, said the sixty-sixth session would focus on the priority theme of mediation.

With staggering numbers of people in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa affected by — and on the run from — severe shortages of food and water, a senior official overseeing the response of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to the crisis said today that the United Nations was intensifying its efforts to save lives and livelihoods, while working with regional partners to help drought-prone countries avert future catastrophes.

The Secretary-General is launching the 7 billion Actions Initiative. In just seven weeks, the global population will reach 7 billion. The campaign is a clarion call to people, communities, countries, and our partners such as non-governmental organizations, businesses, academics, and faith leaders.

The General Assembly will convene a landmark meeting next week to energize the global community’s strategy to tackle deadly non-communicable diseases — including heart disease, the world’s number one killer — which not only caused huge numbers of premature and preventable deaths, but also undermined socio-economic development, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said at Headquarters today.

The Secretary-General announced today the appointment of María Eugenia Casar of Mexico as United Nations Controller. Ms. Casar will replace Jun Yamazaki. The Secretary-General is grateful for Mr. Yamazaki’s dedicated service.

While donors continued to provide substantial resources to fund tangible improvements in the lives of millions of people around the world, there was still a troubling distance between what had been pledged and what was actually being done to help poor countries realize the Millennium Development Goals through international cooperation, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today at a Headquarters press conference.

The United Nations, as part of its ongoing effort to bolster international law and strengthen the rule of law, will host its annual treaty event from 20 to 22 September and 26 to 27 September on the margins of the General Assembly’s general debate, top legal officers said today at a Headquarters press conference.

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, informed the Secretary-General today of his intention to submit an application for membership in the United Nations. The Secretary-General reiterated his support for the two-State solution, and they discussed Quartet efforts for resuming negotiations.