Only a negotiated solution would end the suffering in Syria as the nature of human rights violations there changed from the use of excessive force during demonstrations to wholesale attacks on neighbourhoods, members of the Commission of Inquiry on the situation told correspondents at Headquarters this morning.

The Secretary-General is leaving Singapore today for the Republic of Korea, where he will attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul and hold a range of bilateral meetings. In Singapore, he had meetings with the President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and also met other Government ministers.

Senior United Nations and African Union officials today announced plans to launch within the next 24 hours a regional strategy targeting notorious warlord Joseph Kony and his dwindling, but still vicious, band of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters, suspected of committing mass atrocities in Uganda during the 1990s, now preying on civilians across a broad swath of Central Africa.

The Secretary-General arrived in Jakarta today at the start of his trip to Asia. Tomorrow, he will hold talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and deliver a speech on peacekeeping at the Indonesia Peace and Security Centre.

A total of 12 million hectares of land with the potential to produce 20 billion tons of grain was lost to degradation and drought every year, a reality that hampered the ability of States to tackle food, water and energy security, as well as climate change, Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification said at Headquarters today.

Ahead of the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, the Secretary-General urged the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to reconsider its declared plans to launch a satellite. He called for its full compliance with Security Council resolutions, notably the one that prohibits any launch using ballistic missile technology.

By year’s end, some 2,000 child soldiers in South Sudan were expected to trade in their guns for schoolbooks, thanks to an agreement reached earlier this month between the United Nations and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army of South Sudan (SPLA), Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said this afternoon during a Headquarters news conference.

The Secretary-General took part in the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul today, and also had a wide range of bilateral meetings. He told world leaders the prospect of nuclear terrorism threatens international security and that the international community was united in its resolve to defuse that threat.

Warning that long-agreed principles concerning human rights, development, and water and sanitation were in serious danger of being rolled back by short-sighted diplomats negotiating the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, a coalition of civil society groups today demanded that “real political impetus” be injected into the process, which would be crucial for improving the lives of millions of poor people worldwide.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Guinea-Bissau, Joseph Mutaboba, briefed the Security Council on the challenging political and security environment in Guinea-Bissau. He said restoring full constitutional order is now a crucial priority. Elections were marred by the killing of the former intelligence chief. Observers were unanimous that they were free and fair.