Queen Elizabeth addresses UN general assembly

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday for the first time in over five decades. She also visited Ground Zero, the site of the deadly World Trade Center attacks in 2001, to lay a floral wreath. The Queen commented on how the world had changed since she last spoke at the UN fifty years ago. She said she has “witnessed great change, much of it for the better" since her first speech as a young queen in 1957. A British diplomat, Sir Brian Urqhart, told reporters he thought the Queen’s role had become less important in the interval between her two speeches. He told reporters how he met the Queen when she first addressed the UN, saying: "I suppose the British monarchy was a bigger deal in 1957 than now." UN General-Secretary welcomed the Queen by calling her "an anchor for our age". He noted her reign spanned decades "from the Cold War to global warming," from "the Beatles to Beckham," and from "the television to Twitter." The Queen gave a seven-minute speech to the U.N. She spoke about how the organization had changed: "When I was first here, there were just three U.N. operations overseas. Now over 120,000 men and women are deployed in 26 missions across the world," she said. She praised the UN for its efforts to help millions around the world, saying: "You have helped to reduce conflict, you have offered humanitarian assistance to millions of people." She added that the United Nations has been "deeply committed to tackling the effects of poverty in many parts of the world”.