TEHRAN (Press TV) - The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is to discuss the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar next week, a Malaysian official says.
The official said on Wednesday that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who recently called on the global community to help stop the "genocide" of the Rohingya, would chair the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, which is scheduled to be held on January 19.
Fifty-six OIC representatives are reportedly expected to take part in the meeting.
Myanmar's western state of Rakhine has been the scene of communal violence at the hands of Buddhist extremists since 2012.
The plane was traveling from Koltsovo airport in Russia’s Yekaterinburg when it crashed 16 miles from a village called Tiksi.
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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. prosecutors have charged relatives of former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with conspiracy to bribe a government official.
Ban's younger brother and his nephew stand accused of offering money to a Middle Eastern official, through an American middleman.
They allege the two men bribed the official to use state funds to buy their building project.
Ban served as UN secretary general from 2007 until 2016.
He was succeeded by former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres on 1 January 2017. Ban is now being seen as a possible future president in his home country of South Korea.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - An atmospheric river of moisture has swept parts of California and Nevada with another bout of heavy rains and snow, swelling streams to flood stage and piling up wind-blown snow drifts several feet high in the mountains.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for ski resort communities in the greater Lake Tahoe area, including the towns of Truckee and South Lake Tahoe, California, and neighboring Nevada enclaves of Stateline and Incline Village.
Snow accumulations of 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters) were forecast above elevations of 7,000 feet, with fierce wind gusts reaching 100 miles (160 km) per hour along the ridge of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, the Weather Service reported.
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 GENEVA (Reuters) - Peace talks in Geneva to resolve the decades-long division of Cyprus are 'on track', the U.N. envoy for the island said on Wednesday, saying many issues dividing the sides had been resolved.
Espen Barth Eide said however that there was 'still work to do' in the reunification negotiations between estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
"We have dealt with some of the most difficult issues. We have touched upon almost all of them, we have solved many of them and we are close to resolving some other issues.
Some tremors were also felt in various parts of the east coast, including Sandakan and Tawau as well as in the state capital, according to the Straits Times.
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MANILA (Dispatches) - The 7.3-magnitude earthquake that has struck under the Celebes Sea off southern Philippines was far too deep to cause any damage and casualties or generate a tsunami, authorities reportedly said.
Renato Solidum of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said that the quake, which was centered 138 miles southeast of Sulu province, was slightly felt in southern General Santos city.