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UNITED NATIONS, February 13. /TASS/: The UN Security Council will gather on February 18 on Russia’s initiative to discuss implementation of Minsk agreements, Russia’s first deputy envoy to the UN, Vladimir Polyansky, told TASS.

"In connection with the fifth anniversary of the Minsk agreements, marked today, Russia requested holding an open UN Security Council session with participation of an OSCE envoy to analyze the implementation of the agreements," he said.

UN, February 13. /TASS/: The UN Secretariat would welcome a summit of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and China), UN Secretary General’s official spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.

"We would welcome any meeting of Security Council permanent members which we hope would lead to increased cooperation between those five countries in the Security Council," he said, answering to a question from TASS.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution to endorse the outcome of last month's Berlin Conference on Libya.

Resolution 2510 won the support of 14 of the 15 members of the Security Council. Russia abstained.

Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said after the vote that there should have been no rush in the council.

Resolution 2510 endorses the outcome of the Berlin Conference held on Jan. 19 and notes that the outcome represents "an important element of a comprehensive solution" to the situation in Libya.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday reiterated the rejection of a newly released U.S. Middle East peace plan, calling it an "Israeli-American proposal."

"I have come to you on behalf of 13 million Palestinians to call for a just peace. That is all. I have come to you today to reaffirm the Palestinian position that rejects the Israeli-American proposal," Abbas told the UN Security Council, which met to discuss the U.S. plan.

NEW YORK (AP) — Incidents of white supremacist propaganda distributed across the nation jumped by more than 120% between 2018 and last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, making 2019 the second straight year that the circulation of propaganda material has more than doubled.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism reported 2,713 cases of circulated propaganda by white supremacist groups, including fliers, posters and banners, compared with 1,214 cases in 2018.

NEW YORK (AP) — It has become standard practice for U.S. corporations to assure employees of support regardless of their race, gender or sexual orientation. There’s now an intensifying push to ensure that companies are similarly supportive and inclusive when it comes to employees’ religious beliefs.

One barometer: More than 20% of the Fortune 100 have established faith-based employee resource groups, according to an AP examination and there’s a high-powered conference taking place this week in Washington aimed at expanding those ranks.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday on the U.S.-proposed Middle East peace plan, a UN spokesperson said on Monday.

Both UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov will speak at the meeting, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres, told reporters.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also expected to make a statement at the briefing.

NEW YORK (AP) — A gunman was arrested after he ambushed police officers in the Bronx twice in 12 hours, authorities said, wounding two in attacks that brought outrage from officials who blamed the violence on an atmosphere of anti-police rhetoric.

Robert Williams, 45, of the Bronx, was captured after he walked into a police station in the Bronx and started shooting shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday, police said. His shots struck a lieutenant in the arm and narrowly missed other police personnel before he ran out of bullets, lay down and tossed his pistol, officials said.

NEW YORK, Feb 09 (APP): Braving severe cold weather, a large number of Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Sikhs — some of them holding candles — demonstrated in New York City’s iconic Times Square Saturday night condemning India’s annexation of Jammu and Kashmir and calling on the international community to play its role in the implementation
of U.N. resolutions that pledged to them the right of self-determination.

The demonstration, organized by the Kashmiri-American Council, was part of a number of activities planned for the week in connection with Kashmir Solidarity Day.

NEW YORK (AP) — Two New York City police officers narrowly escaped with their lives when a gunman fired into their patrol van Saturday night, wounding one of them in an attack officials called an attempted assassination.

The ambush, which Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said “should outrage all New Yorkers,” happened just before 8:30 pm in the South Bronx.

The officer at the wheel of the van was grazed in the chin and neck, but he avoided serious injury, Shea said. He was expected to released from the hospital Sunday.