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22 Dec 2022; MEMO: Turkiye has rejected a Chinese lecture regarding its fight against the People's Defence Units (YPG) in Syria, a group which the Turkish government has designated as a terrorist organisation.

China's Deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang accused Turkiye on Wednesday of "repeatedly pounding northern Syria with air strikes and artillery shelling and threatening to launch ground operations."  He called at the Security Council for Turkiye to "immediately cease cross-border attacks."

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Wednesday called for respect for Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In remarks at a UN Security Council briefing on Syria, Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said the security situation in Syria has been turbulent for some time. Türkiye has repeatedly pounded northern Syria with airstrikes and artillery shelling, and continues to threaten to launch ground actions. Israel has frequently attacked targets within Syria.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council approved its first-ever resolution on Myanmar on Wednesday, demanding an immediate end to violence in the Southeast Asian nation and urging its military rulers to release all “arbitrarily detained” prisoners including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and to restore democratic institutions.

The resolution reiterated the call by the 15-member council for the country’s opposing parties to pursue dialogue and reconciliation and urged all sides “to respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Two of Sam Bankman-Fried’s top associates secretly pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and are cooperating with investigators, a federal prosecutor announced Wednesday as the digital coin entrepreneur was being flown in FBI custody to the U.S. from the Bahamas.

Carolyn Ellison, the 28-year-old former CEO of Alameda Research, a trading firm started by Bankman-Fried, and Gary Wang, the 29-year-old who co-founded FTX, pleaded guilty to charges including wire fraud, securities fraud and commodities fraud.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was pessimistic that Russia’s war in Ukraine would end soon but he hoped it would be over by the end of next year.

“I am not optimistic about the possibility of effective peace talks in the immediate future,” he told reporters Monday during his annual end-of-year press conference in New York.

It is ten months since Russia invaded its neighbor in late February.

On Monday, Russia launched a swarm of attack drones at critical infrastructure in Kyiv as the war showed no signs of relenting.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20 (APP): Amid continuing deadlock in the talks to reform the UN Security Council, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the possibility of expanding the 15-member body was now seriously on the table.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for practical solutions to the world's problems despite many reasons for despair.

"Our world faced many trials and tests in 2022 -- some familiar, others we might not have imagined just one year ago. There may be plenty of reasons for despair," he told an end-of-year press conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its allies clashed with Iran and its ally Russia over Western claims that Tehran is supplying Moscow with drones that have been attacking Ukraine — and the U.S. accused the U.N. secretary-general of “yielding to Russian threats” and failing to launch an investigation.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 18 (APP): The United Nations on Friday launched the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022-2032) aimed at helping peoples around the world to keep their mother tongues alive.

Preserving their languages is “not only important for them, but for all humanity,” UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi said while marking the occasion.

NEW YORK, December 18. /TASS/: The US company SpaceX on Saturday launched a Falcon 9 rocket with another cluster of 54 satellites for its orbital Starlink network, according to a broadcast on the company’s website.

The liftoff took place at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:32 ET (00:32 Moscow time).