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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that U.S. bank JPMorgan had this week stopped processing payments for the Russian Agricultural Bank as Moscow demanded action, not promises, from Washington to help Russian grain and fertilizer reach global markets.Moscow has a list of demands it wants met before it will return to a deal, which it quit on July 17, that had allowed the safe Black Sea exports of Ukraine grain for the past year. Under a related pact - also brokered in July 2022 - U.N. officials agreed to help facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports."As soon as...

Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that the country was ready for the voluntary return of refugees who fled during the more than seven-year conflict. ... We welcome any assistance with reconstruction from those countries that were not part of the aggression on Syria

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Some 129 countries at the United Nations signed on to a U.S.-drafted pledge to fight the global drug problem on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump warned presented a public health and national security threat. In order to attend the brief U.N. event with Trump, countries had to sign the one-page “call to action on the world drug problem.” Trump held a similar event at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York last year, focused on U.N. reform....

Maine Civil Liberties Union prompts council's change MONSON - It has long been a tradition in March for residents in this small Piscataquis County town to bow their heads in prayer before they act on the town's budget for the year. That tradition is no longer. Monson selectmen voted last week to discontinue the practice of including prayer in municipal meetings. The move was prompted by a request from the Maine Civil Liberties Union for the town to cease including sectarian prayer in its public meetings. The MCLU said it had received complaints from Monson residents who felt discouraged from...