1 August 2003

• "The Agenda is exhausted, so are the delegates; the meeting is adjourned;" thus spoke former U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson when he had chaired a prolonged Security Council series of meetings. Well, it is August and most distinguished Ambassadors have gone elsewhere, leaving world affairs to their deputies so as to return, batteries recharged by early September.

• Seating in the General Assembly for each session is by alphabetic order following the name of a member state picked by a lottery. The forthcoming session will start with the letter M. That does not necessarily mean that during the discussions, "Mum is the word."

• Non-Governmental Organizations are preparing for their annual General Conference early September in collaboration with U.N. Department of Public Information.