New York

(AP) --- Five months after the Biden administration declared an emergency and raced to set up shelters to house a record number of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone, kids continue to languish at the sites, while more keep coming, child welfare advocates say.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- UN officials and representatives of member countries on Tuesday noted that escalating conflict and a deepening economic crisis have pushed humanitarian needs to the highest levels in Syria, as the Security Council met on the situation in the war-torn country.

UN special envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen stressed the importance of "an immediate end" to the violence, as he drew attention to the heavy shelling and ground clashes in Syria's southern province of Daraa.

NEW YORK, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- China scored a victory with its stringent zero-COVID-19 approach, as no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday nationwide for the first time since July, and it "could become the world's first country to control a major Delta outbreak," CNN reported on Monday.

The Delta outbreak recently has been "the biggest challenge yet to China's uncompromising zero tolerance virus policy," it said. Local authorities responded by imposing strict lockdown, conducting massive testing and tracing campaigns, and restricting domestic travels.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Kathy Hochul became the first female governor of New York on Tuesday, inheriting immense challenges as she takes over an administration facing criticism for inaction during Andrew Cuomo’s distracted final months in office.

Hochul, a Democrat and former member of Congress from Western New York, took the oath of office just after midnight in a brief, private event overseen by the state’s chief judge, Janet DiFiore.

(AP) --- Hurricane Henri kept on course early Sunday to crash into a long stretch of northeastern coastline, as millions on New York’s Long Island and in southern New England braced for flooding, toppled trees and extended power outages.

With the center of the storm projected to pass just off the eastern tip of Long Island by midday, hurricane warnings extended from coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island to near the old whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and across the luxurious oceanfront estates of New York’s Hamptons to the summer getaway of Fire Island.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- About 1 billion children -- nearly half the world's 2.2 billion children -- live in 33 countries classified as "extremely high-risk" of the impacts of climate change, according to a report of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) launched Friday.

These children face a deadly combination of exposure to multiple climate and environmental shocks with a high vulnerability due to inadequate essential services, such as water and sanitation, health care, and education, says the report.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 20 (APP): The U.N. refugee agency says millions of Afghans caught in deteriorating situation in Afghanistan are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance and protection and must not be forgotten by the international community.

“UNHCR remains concerned about the risk of human rights violations against civilians in this evolving context, including for women and girls”, Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, said.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- UN humanitarians said Thursday that the relief crisis in Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly, with 12.2 million people acutely food insecure.

While thousands of people are reported fleeing, or attempting to flee, through Kabul airport, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 735,000 people returned to the country this year from Iran, Pakistan and other countries and are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Another 550,000 people became internally displaced since January.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 (APP): The United Nations’ draft plan to preserve and protect nature must be amended to put human rights at its centre to ensure the future of life on the planet, David Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and environment, said Thursday.

“Leaving human rights on the periphery is simply not an option, because rights-based conservation is the most effective, efficient, and equitable path forward to safeguarding the planet,” he said in a statement.

“I urge Member States to put human rights at the heart of the new Global Biodiversity Framework.”

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that UN peacekeeping must embrace the digital world to deal with evolving threats.