The Secretary-General has been chairing the High-level Meeting on Libya this morning, where he said that it was an historic day for Libya, as its new leadership is formally welcomed into the international community. The new Libyan flag flew for the first time at UN Headquarters this morning.

The Secretary-General spoke at the General Assembly meeting commemorating the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, where he noted that we have come a long way in the past decade, but that we must acknowledge that intolerance has increased in many parts of the world.

The United Nations human rights office is extremely alarmed at continued reports of the increasingly brutal crackdown against protestors by Syrian authorities. It cites reports of prominent human rights defenders being targeted, and is also concerned by reports of attacks against families and sympathizers of the protestors.

The Security Council heard a briefing today on Libya from the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, who said that the UN Support Mission in Libya is establishing a presence in Tripoli, which, he said, displays remarkable normality. A key task will be investigating human rights violations.

B. Lynn Pascoe, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, briefed the Security Council on the Middle East this morning, telling Council members that the parties remain far apart. He added that the main obstacles to a Palestinian State are the continuing Israeli occupation and the Palestinian divide.

The Secretary-General strongly condemns yesterday’s suicide bombings in Quetta, Pakistan, which reportedly targeted officers of the region’s Frontier Corps. The attacks left scores of people dead, including two children, and wounded many others. The Secretary-General extends his deep condolences to the families of the victims and the Government of Pakistan.

In a formal meeting this morning, the Security Council agreed to send the application received last Friday from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Standing Committee on new admissions. The Standing Committee will hold its first meeting on the matter this Friday.

Staffan de Mistura, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, briefed the Security Council this morning about the latest developments. He said that today’s meeting comes at a sad moment, following the killing of former President Berhanuddin Rabbani, but, he believed the resolve of the Afghan people for peace will not be deterred.

This morning the Security Council authorized the deployment mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to be extended until 31 October 2012. It requested the African Union to urgently increase its force strength to its mandated level of 12,000 uniformed personnel.

The “path-breaking” 2006 Millennium Villages initiative was now the largest scale project to achieve the Millennium Development Goals through an integrated rural development approach in sub-Saharan Africa, Jeffrey Sachs said today at the launch of the project’s second phase, for which George Soros had pledged an extra $47 million.