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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 09 (APP): Pakistan was ranked at 152nd position among 189 countries in U.N.’s 2019 Human Development Index (HDI)’s annual rankings that is measured by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income.

The HDI forms part of the Human Development Report (HDR) 2019, a flagship study produced annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which was released Monday.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 09 (APP): The UN anti-crime chief said Sunday that stepping up efforts to eradicate corruption and promoting good governance is “essential… to deliver on our global pledge to leave no one behind”.

“Corruption affects people in their daily lives”, Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said in his statement marking International Anti-Corruption Day, which is commemorated annually on December 9.

NEW YORK, Dec 08 (APP): US President Donald Trump called himself the “greatest of all presidents” as his Democratic opponents are holding meetings to prepare impeachment charges against him.

The House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee is expected to draft at least three articles of impeachment — essentially charges of wrongdoing — against Trump which the whole House is expected to vote on before Christmas.

Those articles could include abuse of power through bribery, obstruction of Congress and obstruction of justice.

NEW YORK, December 8. /TASS/: A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft has approached the International Space Station and astronauts started an operation on capturing it with a robotic arm and docking it with the station, NASA reported on Sunday.

The operation began at 5.05 EST (13.05 Moscow Time). The effort is carried out by the European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan. Another NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is controlling telemetry data.

NEW YORK, December 8. /TASS/: The United States is trying to catch up with Russia in developing hypersonic weapons, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

"We took a pause on these technologies some years ago, when we had a clear lead. And what we are doing now, we are planning catchup," Esper said. "The department is investing every dollar it can" in order to gain an advance in hypersonic weapons, the Secretary added.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 07 (APP): Pakistan has underscored the need for realistic mandates for U.N. peacekeeping operations, with adequate resources, to face the difficult challenges in the world’s troubled regions.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft warned Iran on Friday that the Trump administration will keep up its maximum pressure campaign and use “other tools” if Tehran continues its “malicious behavior.”

Craft also told her first press conference since arriving at the United Nations in September that all 15 members of the U.N. Security Council are united in their concern about any more ballistic missile launches by North Korea, saying there have been 13 launches since May and Pyongyang’s actions are a serious global issue.

NEW YORK, Dec 06 (APP): Amna Nawaz, an upcoming Pakistani-American journalist, has been selected to moderate a US presidential debate, the first woman of South Asian origin to win this honour, according to media reports.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 05 (APP): Despite exceptional headway globally in fighting malaria in the last decade, the progress has slowed in recent years and critical targets will likely be missed, according to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency, on Wednesday.

“We’re seeing encouraging signs, but the burden of suffering and death caused by malaria is unacceptable, because it is largely preventable”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), the agency behind the World malaria report 2019.

NEW YORK, Dec 05 (APP): The people of Kashmir, whose access to the Internet was blocked by the Indian government four months ago, are gradually losing their WhatsApp accounts one by one as a result of its parent company Facebook policy on inactive users, according to media reports.

“On Wednesday, Kashmiris began disappearing from WhatsApp…”, BuzzFeed News, an American news website, reported.