With Burundi entering a new phase in its efforts to emerge from a long civil war, support to socio-economic rebuilding and the 2010 elections could now be the focus of international efforts in the tiny Great Lakes country, the head of the Burundi arm of the Peacebuilding Commission told the Security Council today.

The Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs is now accepting applications for the 2010-2011 session of the United Nations–Nippon Foundation of Japan Fellowship Programme. We are pleased to note that during the last five years, 55 awards have been made to nationals of 48 States. The deadline for submissions has been set for 15 August 2009.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the high-level special session of the Peacebuilding Commission on Sierra Leone in New York, 10 June:

Young people have unprecedented freedom to explore and learn about the world via the Internet, yet hateful online content and cyberbullying are a constant threat. Such harassment can have disastrous results including stress, poor grades, inability to cope with the pressure and even suicide. In the context of its Unlearning Intolerance Seminar Series, the United Nations Department of Public Information is organizing a seminar titled “Cyber Hate: Danger in Cyber Space".

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement on the election of Ali Abdussalam Treki as President of the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly, in New York today, 10 June:

Representatives of non-governmental organizations, as well as students and others attending today’s United Nations Public Forum in Support of the Palestinian People, discussed ways in which civil society could promote greater solidarity with the Palestinian people, and how they could join forces in backing a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while stressing that a two-State solution was the only way.

The General Assembly this morning elected Ali Abdussalam Treki, a three-time Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations and former Foreign Minister, as President of its sixty-fourth session.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s video message for the International Scientific Studies Conference in Vienna today, 10 June:

Seven years after the civil war, the people of Sierra Leone wanted to see and feel the dividends of peace, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today, at an unprecedented high-level special session of the Peacebuilding Commission, which launched a Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Sierra Leone and rallied international support around the Government’s unified development strategy.