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United Nations, Feb 9 (PTI) Reiterating his concern over the situation in Myanmar, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been reaching out to regional leaders in Asia to call for collective and bilateral action to create conditions for the recent military coup in the country to be reversed, the UN chief's spokesperson has said.

Myanmar's military last week toppled the government and seized power for one year, detaining top political figures, including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

NEW YORK, Feb 08 (APP): No solution of the Kashmir dispute will hold unless based on the principles of self-determination, Ghulam Nabi Fai, a prominent Kashmiri leader, has said, as he firmly rejected one of the of-repeated proposals to convert the existing Line-of-Control (LoC) into an international border.

Speaking in a Webinar, he said that making the LoC into a permanent border amounted to sowing a minefield in South Asia that will lead to a nuclear disaster.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — The United Nations welcomed the announcement of US intention to revoke the designation of the Houthi movement in Yemen as a terrorist organization.

The revocation will provide profound relief to millions of Yemenis who rely on humanitarian assistance and commercial imports to meet their basic survival needs. It will help ensure that much-needed essential goods reach them without significant delays, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a note to correspondents.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 06 (APP): The 74-members of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) have selected an interim Prime Minister and President of its new executive council, marking what the United Nations Special Representative called another “historic moment” on the road to unification of the war-torn country and national elections in December.

The winning slate at talks in Geneva, saw Mohammad Younes Menfi, selected President of the presidential council, where he would serve with Mossa Al-Koni, and Abdullah Hussein Al-Lafi.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 06 (APP): A new United Nations report has acknowledged the action taken by Pakistani government against individuals engaged in terrorist activities, and goes on to say that terror group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was responsible for over 100 ‘cross-border’ attacks within three months last year.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pledged Friday that the United Nations will do everything it can to unite the international community and create conditions for the military coup in Myanmar to be reversed.

The U.N. chief told a news conference it is “absolutely essential” to carry out the Security Council’s calls for a return to democracy, respect for the results of the November parliamentary elections, and release of all people detained by the military, “which means the reversal of the coup that took place.”

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York judge ruled Friday that Republican Claudia Tenney defeated U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi by 109 votes in the nation’s last undecided congressional race.

The ruling by Judge Scott DelConte could clear the way for Tenney to be sworn in as the representative for central New York’s 22nd Congressional District, barring emergency intervention by a state appeals court.

She previously was the district’s representative for one term, until she was defeated by Brindisi, a Democrat, in 2018.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, said his spokesman.

Bozkir was given a Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at the Javits Center in New York, said Brenden Varma, his spokesman.

Following the injection, Bozkir said his priority remains to advance the fair and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world. He encouraged all people to get vaccinated when they can, saying that vaccines save lives, according to the spokesman.

NEW YORK (AP) — A fund set up to provide money to scores of women who say they were abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein when they were as young as 14 has abruptly suspended payouts over uncertain funding, an action the Virgin Islands attorney general blamed Thursday on Epstein’s estate as she moved to freeze its assets.

The announcement by the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program came through a release that attributed the suspension to uncertainty about the liquidity of estate assets needed to finance payouts.

NEW YORK (AP) — Despite its world-class medical system and its vaunted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. fell behind in the race to detect dangerous coronavirus mutations. And it’s only now beginning to catch up.

The problem has not been a shortage of technology or expertise. Rather, scientists say, it’s an absence of national leadership and coordination, plus a lack of funding and supplies for overburdened laboratories trying to juggle diagnostic testing with the hunt for genetic changes.