United Nations (U.N.)

DUBAI: Iran said on Sunday it would continue missile tests to build up its defences and denied this was in breach of U.N. resolutions following U.S. allegations that Tehran had tested a new missile capable of carrying multiple warheads. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday condemned what he called Iran’s testing of a medium-range ballistic missile in violation of the 2015 international agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme, from which Washington has withdrawn. “Missile tests ... are carried out for…

KATOWICE (POLAND): Political leaders on Monday began arriving in the Polish coal city of Katowice where two weeks of talks have begun to revive the landmark Paris 2015 deal on climate change as dire warnings mount about a lack of action. Representatives of some of the most powerful countries and biggest polluters will be conspicuous by their absence as the United States has said it is leaving the U.N. process and China was not expected to send its top politicians. To maximize the chances of success, technical talks…

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations General Assembly will vote Wednesday on condemning Israel for Palestinian deaths in Gaza in a resolution fiercely opposed by the United States, which wants Hamas to face condemnation. US Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed the Arab-backed measure as "fundamentally imbalanced" for its failure to mention Hamas and has proposed an amendment that condemns the Palestinian group. "Any resolution focused on the protection of civilians in Gaza must recognize the destabilizing and reckless actions…

NEW YORK: Pakistan's Permanent Representative to United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi has welcomed political reconciliation between Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas. Speaking in a debate on the situation in the Middle East, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi said this positive development was not enough to tip scales of justice in favour of their long-suffering under Israeli occupation. “The international community must renew its resolve to sustain positive momentum and, as a first step,…

GENEVA/YANGON: The United Nations braced on Friday for a possible “further exodus” of Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into Bangladesh six weeks after the world’s fastest-developing refugee emergency began, U.N. humanitarian aid chief said. Some 515,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in an unrelenting movement of people that began after Myanmar security forces responded to Rohingya militant attacks with a brutal crackdown. The United Nations has denounced the Myanmar…

YANGON: A rights group has called for targeted sanctions and an arms embargo against the Myanmar military in response to an offensive that has sent 410,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh to escape what the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing. The latest spasm of violence in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State began on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army camp, killing about 12 people. Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say Myanmar security forces and Rakhine Buddhist…

PESHAWAR: Following suspension of the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan to their country for four months, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced the repatriation process to resume from April 3 this year, ARY News reported.  Each returnee will be granted $200 under individual assistance package by the United Nation’s refugee agency. Eleven thousand refugees have been registered so far in Khyber Pakthunkhwa who are opting to return to Afghanistan. Two repatriation centres have been…

MOSCOW/BEIRUT: Syria declared brief local truces near Damascus and in one province on Friday but made no mention of halting combat on the main battlefield in Aleppo, after a surge in fighting the United Nations said showed "monstrous disregard" for civilian lives.

BEIRUT/GENEVA: Air strikes destroyed a hospital and killed dozens of people in rebel-held areas of Syria's Aleppo including children and doctors, and the United Nations called on Moscow and Washington to salvage a "barely-alive" cease-fire.

GENEVA: The start of a new round of peace talks on the Syrian war has been pushed back by two days so that U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura can travel to Damascus and Tehran to sound out their position on a political transition, the envoy said on Thursday.