New York

NEW YORK, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- For the first time in two months, the United States is averaging more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases each day, a few days after millions of Americans traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The seven-day moving average of new cases was 121,437 as of Saturday, CNN cited data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Prior to the week, the United States last topped the 100,000-cases-a-day mark in early October.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged authorities in Sudan to respect freedom of expression and the press, calling the coup-stricken country hostile to journalists in a report submitted Friday to the Security Council.

   Hundreds of political activists, journalists, protesters and bystanders watching anti-coup rallies were arrested following the country’s latest upheaval on Oct 25.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 03 (APP): The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a China-sponsored resolution, co-sponsored by Pakistan and 172 other nations, that called for upholding an Olympic Truce for the time of next year’s Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, and foster world peace.

The resolution, “Sport for development and peace: Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic idea”, was approved by consensus in the 193-member Assembly on Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 03 (APP): World food prices rose for a fourth straight month in November to remain at 10-year highs, led by strong demand for wheat and dairy products, according to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a Rome-based UN agency.

The FAO’s Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in the international price of cereal, dairy, meat, vegetable oils and sugar, jumped 1.6 points in November from the previous month to 134.4. That is the highest level in a decade and the fourth consecutive month the index has risen.

NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump’s lawyers try to block the White House from releasing records to the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, the former president faces a flurry of other investigations that could come to a head in the coming weeks and the new year.

That includes two major state criminal investigations — one in New York and one in Georgia — and lawsuits concerning sexual assault allegations, a fight over an inheritance and questions of whether he should be held personally liable for inciting the insurrection.

NEW YORK (AP) — The omicron variant of COVID-19, which had been undetected in the U.S. before the middle of this week, had been discovered in at least five states by the end of Thursday, showing yet again how mutations of the virus can circumnavigate the globe with speed and ease.

Just a day after the first known U.S. case was found in California, tests showed the omicron variant had infected at least five people in the New York City metropolitan area, plus a man from Minnesota who had attended an anime convention in Manhattan in late November.

02 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Middle East's peace and security is at stake if Palestinian suffering is not brought to an end with a solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, said yesterday.

02 Dec 2021; MEMO: Palestinian Authority (PA)'s permanent envoy to the UN, Riyadh Mansour, yesterday warned of a religious war in the Middle East due to the "continuous Israeli crimes against the Palestinians."

During a meeting held in the headquarters of the UN General Assembly, Mansour said: "The time has come to put an end to the sufferings of the Palestinian people and end the Israeli occupation."

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 01 (APP): Pakistani military engineers serving the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have deployed heavy equipment and water pumps to help hundreds of thousands of people in Unity state whose lives have been disrupted by the worst flooding in 60 years, according to a report received in New York.

Homes, health facilities, water sources, schools and markets have been submerged, preventing people from accessing essential services and exacerbating the existing vulnerability of communities.

NEW YORK (AP) — The first of four women described as key accusers in the indictment against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell testified Tuesday that Maxwell was often in the room when the witness, then just 14, had sexual interactions with the financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Prosecutors went to the heart of their sex trafficking case against Maxwell with their second witness, a woman in her early 40s who was introduced to jurors as “Jane,” a pseudonym she said she prefers, in part to protect a 22-year acting career.