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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations made a rare compassionate public gesture toward her Iranian counterpart in the Security Council chamber on Thursday, expressing condolences over the death of an Iranian toddler.

Since Washington pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, tensions between the United States and Tehran have risen.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The second session of the Syrian constitutional committee failed to get off the ground due to lack of consensus over the agenda, the UN envoy for Syria told the Security Council Friday.

Geir Pedersen, the secretary-general's special representative for Syria, assured the council, however, that there are lessons to be learned from the meeting of the "small body" of the committee, held in Geneva in late November.

NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter has identified and removed nearly 6,000 accounts that it said were part of a coordinated effort by Saudi government agencies and individuals to advance the country’s geopolitical interests.

Separately, Facebook said it removed hundreds of Facebook accounts, groups and pages linked to inauthentic behavior from two separate groups, one originating in the country of Georgia and one in Vietnam, which targeted people both in Vietnam and in the U.S.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 (APP): The United Nations is opposed to the death penalty, a world body’s spokesman said Thursday when questioned about the death sentence handed down to former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in absentia for high treason.

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told the regular news briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York that he understood that the case was in an appeal process, but the UN had long been opposed to capital punishment.

“The United Nations stands against the death penalty,” he added.

NEW YORK, Dec 20 (APP): Amna Nawaz, an award-winning correspondent for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), on Thursday became the first Pakistani-American and Muslim journalist to moderate a US presidential debate which took place in Los Angeles, California.

THE UNITED NATIONS, December 20. /TASS/: The UN Security Council has postponed voting on the resolution on extending the mechanism of delivering cross-border aid to Syria and will continue consultations, UN diplomats told TASS on Thursday.

Throughout the week, the UNSC was considering two alternative resolutions on cross-border aid deliveries to Syria. Voting was supposed to take place on December 19, but the sides failed to agree on the parameters of aid delivery. "Consultations will continue. Voting may take place tomorrow or later," one diplomat told TASS.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 (APP): The UN General Assembly Wednesday stamped its approval on a Pakistan-sponsored resolution reaffirming the right of peoples to self-determination, re-establishing the legitimacy of the oppressed Kashmiri people’s struggle for freedom from Indian occupation.

Adopted by consensus, the resolution, which was co-sponsored co-sponsored by 81 countries, calls on countries to immediately cease their foreign military intervention in and occupation of foreign countries and territories, as well as acts of repression, discrimination and maltreatment.

NEW YORK, Dec 19 (APP): A leading American newspaper Thursday denounced as “patently discriminatory” India’s new citizenship law, and urged all democratic nations to speak out against it.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 18 (APP): China expressed serious concern over the deteriorating situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) as it raised the issue in the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday and sought a detailed briefing by the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on the disturbing developments there, diplomats said.

Deployed in Kashmir in 1949, UNMOGIP monitors the LIne of Control (LoC) in the disputed state.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Demonstrators rallied in New York on Tuesday night to call for U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment and removal from office on the eve of the House of Representatives’ expected vote to impeach him.

Organizers said they were expecting thousands at a rally and march through midtown Manhattan, one of more than 600 events calling for Trump’s impeachment that were scheduled to take place across the country.