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UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a rise in racism since the spread of coronavirus across the world in a message released Saturday to mark the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Violence Based on Religious Belief.

The UN chief underlined that the pandemic has been accompanied by “a surge in stigma and racist discourse vilifying communities, spreading vile stereotypes and assigning blame.”

NEW YORK, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Global COVID-19 deaths surpassed 800,000 on Saturday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

As of 1356 GMT Saturday, 22,984,824 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported globally, according to the tally.

The United States and Brazil remain the top two in both confirmed cases and deaths, with 5,626,284 cases and 175,429 deaths reported from the United States, and 3,532,330 cases and 113,358 deaths from Brazil.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 (APP): Pakistan has urged the world community to prosecute Indian civil and military personnel for “the worst form of state terrorism” perpetrated against the oppressed people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K).

“Over 100,000 Kashmiris have lost their lives, 22,000 women widowed and raped and hundreds of thousands of children martyred by the India,” Ambassador Munir Akram said in a statement on the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, marked globally on Aug. 21.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States was further isolated over its bid to reimpose international sanctions on Iran with 13 countries on the 15-member UN Security Council expressing their opposition, arguing that Washington’s move is void given it is using a process agreed under a nuclear deal that it quit two years ago.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court said Friday it wouldn’t step in right away to delay New York prosecutors’ effort to get President Donald Trump’s tax records, potentially leaving the Supreme Court as his most promising option to block prosecutors’ subpoena.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s request to immediately put Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s subpoena on hold while Trump appeals to try to get it invalidated.

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc is looking at post-election scenarios that include attempts by U.S. President Donald Trump or his campaign to use the platform to delegitimize the results, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the company’s plans.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and some company executives are discussing a "kill switch" to shut off political advertising after the election is over to curb misinformation, the report added. (nyti.ms/3aLpH1e)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Trump administration ran into immediate opposition after its top diplomat officially informed the United Nations it is demanding the restoration of all U.N. sanctions on Iran, with allies and opponents declaring the U.S. action illegal and doomed to failure.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Thursday that the United States has the legal right to “snap back” U.N. sanctions even though President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers that was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was pulled from a luxury yacht and arrested Thursday on allegations that he and three associates ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall, making him the latest in a long list of Trump allies to be charged with a crime.

NEW YORK, Aug 20 (NNN-XINHUA) – The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States surpassed 5.5 million on Wednesday, according to the Centre for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), at Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. case count rose to 5,505,074, with the national death toll reaching 172,418, as of 1:27 p.m. local time (1727 GMT), according to the CSSE.

The hardest-hit U.S. state of California reported 640,722 cases, followed by Florida with 584,047 cases, Texas with 569,331 cases, and New York with 426,571 cases, the tally showed.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo responded Wednesday to an Associated Press report that his state’s coronavirus death toll in nursing homes could be a significant undercount, saying it makes sense to include only those residents who died on the home’s property.

Unlike the federal government and every other state with major outbreaks, only New York explicitly says that it counts just residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there.