United Nations peacekeeping operations had made significant headway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali this year, a senior official overseeing those missions told reporters at a Headquarters press conference today.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the fact-finding mission in Syria had achieved 8.7, the chief of the mission charged with verifying the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The President of the United Nations General Assembly, John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda), held an end-of-year press conference today at Headquarters in which he discussed highlights from the past year and outlined expected activities for 2014 and beyond, including the long-standing issue of Security Council reform.

The global economy had recuperated, but continued to be subdued, according to a United Nations report, entitled World Economic Situation and Prospects 2014, launched today at Headquarters.

With the crisis in South Sudan continuing into its second week, the United Nations mission in that country was awaiting delivery of critical assets from other peacekeeping operations over the next 48 hours to bolster the protection of more than 50,000 civilians seeking refuge in its premises, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The Central African Republic would figure prominently on the Security Council’s agenda in January, Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein (Jordan), that body’s President for January, said at a Headquarters press conference today.

Food security, poverty reduction and creating sustainable ways to protect the Earth were among the world’s most pressing issues, Bolivian President Evo Morales said at a Headquarters press conference today, following the handover ceremony of the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China.

Describing the Sustainable Development Goals and post-2015 agenda “at the very heart” of the work of the United Nations, Martin Sajdik (Austria), speaking at a Headquarters press conference in his new role as President of the Economic and Social Council, said it was a time of great transition, including with regard to the Council’s own structural reforms.

Twenty years after the genocide in Rwanda had claimed the lives of nearly 800,000 people, there had been much talk, but not nearly enough action, by States to prevent mass atrocity crimes and punish the architects, a panel said today, recalling a 1994 “genocide fax” sent to the United Nations by its Force Commander in the central African country signalling the rapidly unfolding tragedy.