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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (centre) meets with Nicos Anastasiades (left), President of the Republic of Cyprus, and Mustafa Akinci, Leader of the Turkish Cypriot Community.

Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria, addresses the Security Council.

In 2014, more than 18 million primary school pupils (or 84% of all the pupils at this level) in the European Union (EU) were studying at least one foreign language, including nearly 1 million (around 5%) studying two foreign languages or more. At primary level, English was by far the most popular language, studied by over 17 million pupils.

From Syrian refugees on their way to being resettled to Europe to Palestine refugees who have been living in camps for years: members from the civil liberties committee delegation got to speak to many different people during their fact-finding mission to Lebanon on 19-22 September. They were there to assess the situation to help prepare future rules on the resettlement of refugees. They also spoke to representatives of local NGOs and large international organisations.

Nuclear power is projected to continue expanding globally in the coming years, even as the pace of growth slows amid competition from low fossil fuel prices and renewable energy sources, according to an IAEA study released on 23 September.

The World Bank Group released its newest Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) for Sudan on September 25. The CEM provides Sudan’s authorities with analysis and advice on accelerating structural transformation and economic diversification. 

Unless progress speeds up considerably with full support from the international community, the world's least developed countries (LDCs) will miss the growth and productivity targets they have set themselves by the target date of 2021, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson warned on 24 September.

With around 1,5 million refugees fleeing to Lebanon since the beginning of the war in Syria, it is clear that the situation in the country is untenable and that substantial help is needed to avoid a complete breakdown, not only in terms of financial assistance, but also through improved resettlement tools, says Civil Liberties Committee Chair Claude Moraes who this week heads a delegation to Beirut.

The United Nations welcomes the release the day before by the Government of Sudan of twenty one children allegedly associated with armed groups. These children, who have been in the custody of the government security forces, were captured during fighting between the Government of Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement in Darfur, in 2015.