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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.’s first virtual meeting of world leaders was set to start Tuesday with pre-recorded speeches from some of the planet’s biggest powers, kept at home by the coronavirus pandemic that will likely be a dominant theme at their video gathering this year.

NEW YORK, Sep 21 (APP): The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, which met in New York on Sunday, voiced “deep concern” over the continued human rights violations by India in occupied Kashmir, and called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council to take steps to end those abuses.

The meeting, which was requested by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was held on the eve of the UN General Assembly’s high-level debate opening on Tuesday.

NEW YORK, Sep 20 (APP): An Indian-American academician has denounced what he called the “systematic” abuse of police and judicial powers in India—with the apparent blessing of the Modi government— that threaten Indian democracy.

ehran, Sept 21, IRNA – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his message for the International Day of Peace, 21 September 2020, with a focus on International Day of Peace namely “Shaping Peace Together”, said together, I know we can — and will — build a more just, sustainable and equitable world.

According to the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Tehran, UN Secretary-General in his message put emphasis on collective efforts to build a more just, sustainable, and equitable world.

The full text of his message reads:

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, on Sunday wrote a letter to the president of the Security Council and UN secretary-general, expressing opposition to the U.S. unilateral announcement on the return of UN sanctions on Iran on Saturday.

NEW YORK, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 jolted 19 km northeast of Emirgazi, Turkey at 19:08:07 GMT on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 38.0014 degrees north latitude and 34.0264 degrees east longitude. 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Born out of World War II’s devastation to save succeeding generations from the scourge of conflict, the United Nations officially marks its 75th anniversary Monday at an inflection point in history, navigating a polarized world as it faces a pandemic, regional conflicts, a shrinking economy and growing inequality.

Criticized for spewing out billions of words and achieving scant results on its primary mission of ensuring global peace, the U.N. nonetheless remains the one place that its 193 member nations can meet to talk.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 (APP): The World Health Organization (WHO), a Geneva-based UN agency, has said that coronavirus has shown that collectively, the world was woefully under-prepared to combat the pandemic.

Speaking during the virtual media briefing on COVID-19 from Geneva, the Director-General of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, however, said with the right political and financial commitment and investment now, the world can prevent and mitigate future pandemics.

NEW YORK, Sep 20 (APP): A report in Newsweek, an American weekly magazine, has drawn attention to Pakistan’s rebuttal of the recent Indian allegations about what New Delhi called “unprovoked ceasefire violations” by Pakistani army along the Line of Control sector in the disputed Kashmir region.

Quoting a Pakistani official, the report said that Islamabad, in turn, blamed New Delhi for both the incidents.

Tehran, Sept 20, IRNA - Coinciding with Trump administration’s claim that UN sanctions against Iran will be restored, Bloomberg wrote in a report: "allies and adversaries argue the U.S. effort to restore sanctions is groundless and a diplomatic crisis is set to explode."

According to Bloomberg on Sunday, The Trump administration’s push to kill off what’s left of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran comes to a head this weekend at the United Nations, where allies and adversaries argue the US effort to restore sanctions is groundless and a diplomatic crisis is set to explode.