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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Taking over from the Republic of Guinea the leadership of the Group of 77 (G77) and China for 2022, Pakistan assumed its duties on Friday.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi presided over the proceedings of the opening segment of the handover ceremony held in a virtual format, which was also attended by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and president of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly Abdulla Shahid.

"The work of the Group of 77 and China is pivotal," said the UN chief.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Friday encouraged more Americans to wear the kind of N95 or KN95 masks used by health-care workers to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Those kinds of masks are considered better at filtering the air. But they were in short supply previously, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials had said they should be prioritized for health care workers.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Aid to Afghanistan and Syria, as well as, vaccine equity demands, were high on the 2021 agenda of the UN Security Council (UNSC), which was grappling with more issues as the COVID-19 pandemic caused various problems, including an economic fallout, the UNSC said, in a press release.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A UN envoy said on Tuesday that Mali's partners should help lay the foundations for lasting stability in the worn-torn landlocked country in West Africa.

Mali's partners should build on the aspirations of the Malian people for peace "to help lay the foundations for lasting stability," the special representative of the secretary-general for the country, El-Ghassim Wane, told the Security Council's meeting on the situation in Mali.

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has — for now — refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Britain’s Prince Andrew by an American woman who says he sexually abused her when she was 17.

Stressing Wednesday that he wasn’t ruling on the truth of the allegations, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected an argument by Andrew’s lawyers that Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit should be thrown out at an early stage because of an old legal settlement she had reached with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier she claims set up sexual encounters with the prince.

11 Jan 2022; MEMO: Afghans in the US have demanded that the Biden administration lift restrictions on the Afghan banking sector and release financial assets belonging to the Afghan people, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The humanitarian situation is worsening in Afghanistan after the US withdrew troops from the conflict-hit country and the Taliban took control of the government by seizing Kabul on 15 August.

NEW YORK, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- For many Americans, testing for COVID-19 means long waits that bring more risks or spending extra money, The New York Times reported Monday.

Many Americans have been waiting in long lines at free testing sites since before the Christmas and New Year's holiday rush.

Some went to crowded emergency rooms in hopes of getting tested, inviting more risks to themselves and others, and potentially delaying emergency care for the ill and injured, the report said.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government will agree to drop pending perjury charges against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell if her sex trafficking case goes to sentencing later this year, prosecutors said.

The offer was made in a letter to a judge filed jointly late Monday by the prosecutors and Maxwell’s attorneys in federal court in Manhattan. The defense countered by asking that questions about the perjury charges be put off until the judge rules on its request for a new trial.

NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators sought answers Monday for why safety doors failed to close when fire broke out in a New York high-rise, allowing thick smoke to rise through the tower and kill 17 people, including eight children, in the city’s deadliest blaze in more than three decades.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations Women have set the theme for International Women’s Day, as “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,” which will be marked by a high-level virtual event on Tuesday, March 8, 2022.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the General Assembly, the Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Executive Director of UN Women as well as gender equality and climate change activists and celebrities will participate.