Press Release

SECRETARY-GENERAL CONDEMNS SUICIDE BOMBING IN JERUSALEM AS ‘HEINOUS CRIME’,

CALLS ON PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TO BRING PERPETRATORS TO JUSTICE

The following statement attributable to the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan was issued today in Tokyo:

LOCUST SITUATION HEADS TOWARDS PLAGUE, UN AGENCY WARNS

(Reissued as received.)

ROME, 23 February (FAO) -- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched today an appeal to donors for $6 million urgently needed to support desert locust control operations in Mauritania and another $3 million for Mali, Niger and Chad, in order to prevent the early stages of the current upsurge from developing into a plague.

HEADS OF UNITED NATIONS PEACE MISSIONS IN WEST AFRICA MEET IN GORÉE, SENEGAL

(Reissued as received.)

General Assembly                                     

Briefing on Haiti (AM)                                     

Security Council       

4913^th Meeting (AM)     

ONE-YEAR ‘CONSOLIDATION PHASE’ NEEDED FOR TIMOR-LESTE MISSION TO REINFORCE,

STRENGTHEN ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE, SECURITY COUNCIL TOLD

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Describes ‘Remarkable Progress’;

Notes Areas in Which Additional Year of Support Could Make Major Difference

Commission for Social Development

Forty-second Session

14^th Meeting (Resumed) (AM)

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD ‘CONSTANTLY STRIVE’ TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SECTOR, SAYS SOCIAL

DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, AS IT CONCLUDES FORTY-SECOND SESSION

DEPUTY-SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN FLETCHER SCHOOL ADDRESS, DESCRIBES LESSONS LEARNED,

SOMETIMES PAINFULLY, IN MORE THAN DECADE OF COMPLEX, PEACE-BUILDING MISSIONS

Following is Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette’s address to the Fletcher Conference on Innovative Approaches:  “Rethinking Interdisciplinary Action in Conflict”, at Medford, Massachusetts, 19 February:

BERTRAND RAMCHARAN WELCOMES NOMINATION OF LOUISE ARBOUR

AS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

(Reissued as received.)

CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HEARS STATEMENTS FROM

FRANCE, MYANMAR, VENEZUELA, MALAYSIA

Malaysia Denies US Claim that Malaysian Company is Involved with

International Network which Supports Illegal Production of Centrifuges

(Reissued as received.)

UN MISSION TRAVELS TO NORTHERN HAITI TO ASSESS HUMANITARIAN SITUATION