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UNITED NATIONS, Jan 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Senior UN officials have arrived in Kabul for talks as the United Nations chief voiced concern over the Taliban’s creation of “gender-based apartheid,” a UN spokesman said.

Since returning to power 17 months ago, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on women, keeping them out of government jobs, banning them from secondary schools and universities, and prohibiting them from visiting parks.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's warring parties should take advantage of the current absence of major fighting to advance peace talks, the top UN official in Yemen told the Security Council on Monday.

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg reported via video link on his ongoing mediation efforts with the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels, also known as Ansar Allah, following their failure last October to extend a landmark truce that lasted six months.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Only 16 percent of public education funding goes to the poorest 20 percent of learners, while 28 percent goes to the richest 20 percent, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a report published Tuesday, highlighting global educational inequality.

Children from the poorest households benefit the least from national public education funding, UNICEF said in the report titled "Transforming Education with Equitable Financing," which looks at government spending from pre-primary through tertiary education in 102 countries.

NEW YORK, Jan 16 (NNN-XINHUA) – Oil prices, boosted by improved demand outlook in China, rose, bringing both the U.S. and the global crude benchmarks to gain more than eight percent for the week.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for Feb delivery climbed 1.47 U.S. dollars, or 1.9 percent, to settle at 79.86 dollars a barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery added 1.25 dollars, or 1.5 percent, to settle at 85.28 dollars a barrel, on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of protesters from New York City and nearby regions held a rally and a march against U.S. involvement in overseas wars at Times Square on Saturday.

The participants spoke against NATO's expansion and called for peace in Ukraine, criticizing U.S. hefty spending on the Ukraine crisis and the White House's announcement to provide Kiev with another Patriot surface-to-air missile battery.

UNITED NATIONS, January 14. /TASS/: The Kiev government’s draft resolution about a ‘peace plan’ is completely detached from reality, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya told reporters on Friday.

"They come up with all kinds of extravagant ideas, including the 10-point peace plan which has nothing to do with reality," he said.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The members of the UN Security Council on Friday reiterated their full and unanimous support for the peace process in Colombia, and underscored the importance of tackling insecurity in the country.

In a press statement, the 15-member council also stressed the importance of ensuring the comprehensive implementation of the 2016 peace agreement.

The council members said they welcomed further progress on the comprehensive implementation of the peace agreement including through significant developments on comprehensive rural reform.

NEW YORK, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices, boosted by improved demand outlook in China, rose on Friday, bringing both the U.S. and the global crude benchmarks to gain more than 8 percent for the week.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery climbed 1.47 U.S. dollars, or 1.9 percent, to settle at 79.86 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery added 1.25 dollars, or 1.5 percent, to settle at 85.28 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ask people what you might find buried in the muck at the bottom of New York City’s East River and they’d likely say “mob boss” before thinking of mammoth bones.

But several groups of treasure hunters have taken to the waterway in recent weeks after hearing a guest on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast claim a boxcar’s worth of potentially valuable prehistoric mammoth bones was dumped in the river in the 1940s.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday that the rule of law is at grave risk of becoming “the Rule of Lawlessness,” pointing to a host of unlawful actions across the globe from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and coups in Africa’s Sahel region to North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program and Afghanistan’s unprecedented attacks on women’s and girls’ rights.