Experts from Mali and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization found the damage to the cultural heritage of Timbuktu more extensive than first estimated, senior officials of the country’s Government and the world body said today in Bamako and at New York Headquarters during a press conference.

In a press statement read this morning, the members of the Security Council strongly condemned intense fighting in the Area of Separation, including the attack yesterday, which led to injuries suffered by two peacekeepers. They also expressed grave concern about the humanitarian impact of the recent heavy fighting in Al-Qusayr, Syria.

Rising sea levels, inundation of salt water and more frequent severe weather events had made life on some low-lying islands “untenable”, an anthropologist specializing in the peoples of the Pacific islands said at Headquarters today.

The UN Support Mission in Libya has expressed its deep concern regarding the violence in Benghazi on Saturday, in which many people died and many others were injured. The Mission calls on all concerned to exercise maximum restraint and reiterates the necessity of resolving disagreements peacefully through dialogue and in a democratic spirit.

The Secretary-General, concerned at the appalling upsurge of violence in Iraq, today underscored the pressing need for dialogue between political blocs and for all parties to redouble their efforts to ensure that the momentum of national reconciliation is not lost to those groups wishing to reignite sectarian violence.

Pointing out that more than 11.4 million people were facing a daily food and nutrition crisis throughout West Africa’s Sahel region, the newly appointed United Nations Regional Coordinator for that area said that his priority was to close the financial gap that has left nearly two thirds of this year’s $1.7 billion Sahel appeal unfunded.

The nine men still wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda should not believe they have escaped justice, despite the conclusion of the court’s active phase, two high-ranking lawyers said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The Secretary-General will depart New York on Monday, 17 June, for China, where he is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, 18 June. He will hold meetings with President Xi Jinping, Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and State Councillor Yang Jiechi, among other officials, to discuss issues of common interest.

The world had become less peaceful in the past year, with Afghanistan at the bottom of the ranking and Syria being the “biggest ever faller”, experts said at a Headquarters press conference today upon the release of this year’s Global Peace Index.

Despite the progress made in 2012, new and ongoing conflicts posed grave dangers to children, said the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict at the launch of the Secretary-General’s annual report on the matter during a briefing at Headquarters today.