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UNITED NATIONS, Mar 05 (APP):After days of marathon negotiations, UN member states Saturday reached a historic agreement on a treaty to protect the high seas — the ocean area beyond the jurisdiction of any country.

3 Mar 2023; MEMO: Hamas' Basim Naim said the United Nations Security Council's failure to issue a statement condemning Israeli settlers' "terrorist attack" against Palestinians in Huwara, south of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, "reinforces the law of the jungle and chaos", Quds Press reported yesterday.

UNITED NATIONS, March 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Leaders across the UN system have called for bolder action and more effective partnerships to protect endangered animals and plants, ahead of World Wildlife Day on Friday.

“One million species teeter on the brink of extinction, due to habitat destruction, fossil fuel pollution and the worsening climate crisis. We must end this war on nature,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in his message for the Day. 

NEW YORK, March 2 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 jolted 80 km WSW of Port Olry, Vanuatu at 18:04:30 GMT on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 15.2929 degrees south latitude and 166.3657 degrees east longitude.

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations spokesman on Thursday said the world body is joining hands with Costa Rica to fight hate speech using artificial intelligence (AI) and also develop the first national AI strategy in the Central American region.

UN team continues to support the country's efforts to combat hate speech through AI, leading Costa Rica to launch the region's first national plan to combat hate speech, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman.

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged countries to agree a “robust and ambitious” treaty to protect the high seas, as time starts to run out for negotiators.

After 15 years of formal and informal talks, delegates have been meeting in New York since Feb 20 to discuss a text that aims to protect nearly half the planet.

It is the third “final” negotiating round in less than a year and is due to end Friday.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 01 (APP): The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, Tuesday asked all nations to work harder towards abolishing the death penalty, an ongoing practice in 79 countries.

He was speaking at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council which held its biennial high-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty. The theme of this year’s panel was “Human rights violations relating to the use of the death penalty, in particular with respect to limiting the death penalty to the most serious crimes”.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Award-winning Haitian broadcaster Michele Montas follows the chaos in her home country every day from her apartment in New York. She has a simple answer to why peace remains elusive and violence is worsening in the country: Haitians were never part of any solution.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN mission in Mali condemned and vowed to investigate a recent raid where terrorists killed at least 12 civilians, a UN spokesman said on Monday.

The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, condemned the attack by an armed terrorist group in the village of Kani-Bonzon, in the Bandiagara region, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The raiders killed the villagers, wounded three others and torched several buildings.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 (APP): The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), a Rome-based UN agency, concluded a visit on Saturday to earthquake-devastated Syrian and Turkish communities and aid supply routes, calling on authorities to open more border crossings to help survivors of the disaster that hit both countries in early February.

“While the world has quickly mobilized in support of people here, the impact of this quake will be felt for months and years to come,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley said in a statement.