If Africans did not take steps now, Africa would remain on the wrong side of the digital divide, Youssou NDour, Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and member of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) working group on HIV/AIDS, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.
We are good targets, and in fact, also soft targets because there is no protection, Benon Sevan, United Nations Security Coordinator, told correspondents at a press briefing at Headquarters this afternoon.
The food distribution system in Iraq under the oil for food programme was second to none, but unless the basics - housing, electricity, water, and sanitation -- were restored, the overall well-being of the people would not improve, Tun Myat, United Nations Coordinator in Iraq, told correspondents at a United Nations briefing this afternoon.
The populations of Japan and a number of European countries were getting smaller and older, Joseph Chamie, Director of the Population Division of the United Nations, said today at a Headquarters press briefing.
The success of the World March of Women represented the birth of an international feminist initiative that was determined to eliminate poverty and violence against women, Francoise David, President of the Federation des Femmes du Quebec, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Susan Markham, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.
Briefing by Deputy Spokesman for Secretary-General
Good Afternoon. I am going to start with the Middle East.
**Middle East
Kim Hak-Su, recently-appointed Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning that during his tenure he would concentrate on transmitting and transferring proven best practices in poverty alleviation in the region to other developing countries.
President Charles Taylor of Liberia vigorously denied that he was involved in diamonds and arms trafficking in Sierra Leone, but others who spoke to the Security Council mission were not convinced, Sir Jeremy Greenstock (United Kingdom), head of the 11-member Security Council mission to West Africa, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.
After a period of managerial turbulence, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) had now been revitalized and a strategic vision put in place, Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Centre told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.
