Lawyers

• UN backs mission to oversee Colombia peace deal

  The United Nations has officially supported the peacetalks between Columbia and FARC as a step to fully end the longest war in Latin America that had started since 1964.

• U.N. chief to visit North Korea this week: Yonhap

  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit North Korea's capital Pyongyang this week, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, quoting a U.N. source, in what could be a rare diplomatic opening by the isolated state.

• Russia makes rival U.N. move on MH17 probe after dismissing tribunal bid

  Russia is pushing for a greater U.N. role in an investigation into what caused the downing of a passenger plane in eastern Ukraine after dismissing a proposal by Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ukraine for a U.N.-backed tribunal.

• U.S. and Iran: the unbearable awkwardness of defending your enemy

  It's always awkward to defend your enemies. But that's the position U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has found itself in with Iran as it pushes for an historic accord that would end a 12-year nuclear standoff.

• Major nations hold talks on ending U.N. sanctions on Iran - officials

  Major world powers have begun talks about a United Nations Security Council resolution to lift U.N. sanctions on Iran if a nuclear agreement is struck with Tehran, a step that could make it harder for the U.S. Congress to undo a deal, Western officials said.

• Venezuela's Maduro moves foreign minister Ramirez to U.N.

  President Nicolas Maduro named powerful Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez to a new post as envoy to the United Nations on Friday, saying the appointment would strengthen Venezuela's voice on the world body's Security Council from Jan. 1.

• U.S., France propose U.N. sanctions on foreign Islamist fighters

  A United Nations Security Council committee is considering requests by the United States and France to blacklist more than a dozen foreign extremist fighters, fundraisers and recruiters linked to Islamist militant groups in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Tunisia and Yemen.

• U.N. denies Golan peacekeepers ordered to hand arms to Syria rebels

  The U.N. peacekeeping chief strongly denied on Wednesday allegations from the Philippines' army chief that Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights were ordered to surrender their weapons to Islamist militants who had trapped them.