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UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday called for the resumption of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

As close neighbors that cannot physically move away from each other, Palestinians and Israelis must adhere to the strategic option of peace talks and relaunch equal-footed dialogue without delay, said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is ending how it began, with over-the-top declarations of praise for the chief executive.

But now the flattery is mixed with a sense of finality as key people in the president’s orbit are beginning to turn the page and acknowledge his defeat. Trump himself keeps to the Oval Office, still fighting the Election Day results and offering scant acknowledgement of the death and suffering Americans are bearing in the darkest hours of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal advisory panel recommended Sunday that people 75 and older and essential workers like firefighters, teachers and grocery store workers should be next in line for COVID-19 shots, while a second vaccine began rolling out to hospitals as the nation works to get the coronavirus pandemic under control.

The two developments came amid a vaccination program that began only in the last week and has given initial shots to about 556,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NEW YORK, December 20. /TASS/: White House officials planned to make a statement alleging that Russia had been involved in the hacker attack against computer systems of the US government but were instructed at the last minute not to release it, Associated Press news agency reports, citing a source.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday strongly condemned the attack that took place in Galkayo on Friday, which resulted in heavy casualties.

Through a statement attributable to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief extended his deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to those who were injured.

He hoped that the perpetrators of this attack will be brought to justice, the statement said.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 (APP): Pakistan highlighted the struggle of peoples in occupied Palestine and Kashmir for their right of self-determination at an event organized by Russia, South Africa and Vietnam on Friday to mark the 60th anniversary of the landmark UN Declaration on Decolonization.

The commemorative meeting, held on the sidelines of the 75th session of UN General Assembly, was attended by nearly 100 member states.

NEW YORK, December 19. /TASS/: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has conceded that Russia is among enemies for the United States, he said in an interview with American journalist Mark Levin published by the State Department Friday.

Levin wondered what Pompeo thinks about certain Republic Party representatives’ opinion that Russia is not an enemy for the country despite its alleged attempts to interfere in the US electoral process.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Friday voted to renew the mandate of the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for another year.

Resolution 2556, adopted with 14 votes in favor and one abstention, extends the mandate known as MONUSCO until Dec. 20, 2021.

The resolution also decides that MONUSCO's authorized troop ceiling will comprise 14,000 military personnel, 660 military observers and staff officers, 591 police personnel, and 1,050 personnel of formed police units.

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department was caught off guard by the size of the spring protests after the killing of George Floyd and resorted to aggressive disorder control methods that stoked tensions and stifled free speech, the city’s inspector general said in a report released Friday.

The Department of Investigation report followed a six-month probe that focused on the NYPD’s institutional planning and response to the May and June protests after Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis, rather than on the actions of individual officers.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 18 (APP): The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan has urged all countries to continue pressuring the parties to the conflict for reducing violence in the war-torn country so that the peace process could move forward.

“Regrettably, the unrelenting violence remains a serious obstacle to peace and a threat to the region,” Deborah Lyons, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, told the Security Council on Thursday.