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NEW YORK, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese vaccines have helped some developing countries in Asia push forward their vaccination drives, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week.

Indonesia is heavily reliant on shots made by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech Ltd., Cambodia has largely used two China-made vaccines to achieve one of the region's highest inoculation level, and the Philippines expects to increase vaccinations with more doses arriving this month, more than half of which will be Chinese, according to the report.

UNITED NATIONS, June 18. /TASS/: Russia is calling on the UN Security Council to discuss Ukraine’s diversion in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) last week, during which five LPR officers were killed, the Russian mission to the UN said in a statement published on its website on Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS, June 18. /TASS/: The UN General Assembly on Friday appointed Antonio Guterres UN Secretary-General for a second term. The decision was announced by the president of the 75th UN General Assembly session, Volkan Bozkir.

"I have the honor to announce that His Excellency Antonio Guterres has been appointed by acclamation Secretary-General of the United Nations for the second term of office beginning 1st of January 2022 and ending on 31 of December 2026," he said.

The resolution to appoint Guterres was passed on the basis of universal consent.

UNITED NATIONS, June 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations is planning for a possible increase in violence in Afghanistan when US troops withdraw after two decades, the global body’s refugee chief said.

Filippo Grandi said in an interview that he understood that international military operations like the one in Afghanistan “cannot be sustained forever”.

But, he warned, “the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and other troops as well is another indicator that violence may rise after that”, he said.

“We are making plans for it.”

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for debt relief extension for middle-income countries.

"Innovative instruments to allow debt restructuring and meaningful debt reduction can help middle-income countries expand their fiscal space to boost investment and steer a resilient and sustainable recovery from the (COVID-19) crisis," the secretary-general told the General Assembly high-level meeting on middle-income countries.

NEW YORK, Jun 17 (APP): Authorities in India’s Uttar Pradesh state must immediately drop their criminal investigation into well-known three journalists — Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi, and Mohammed Zubair — as well as The Wire, a private news website, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Famine in the war-torn Ethiopian region of Tigray is on track to spread to other parts of the country, the UN warned.

“The situation is set to get worse in the coming months, not only in Tigray, but in Afar and Amhara as well,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock told the Security Council in a closed-door meeting.

UN agencies say 350,000 people in Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, are barely surviving in famine conditions, including tens of thousands of malnourished children.

UNITED NATIONS, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Security Council grappled with the efficacy of maintaining international peace and security through meetings held via video-teleconference (VTC), and with other new technologies, as the 15-member organ held an open debate on Wednesday to consider the working methods that have defined its deliberations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 4 million people say they fear being evicted or foreclosed upon in the coming months, just as two studies released Wednesday found that the nation’s housing availability and affordability crisis is expected to worsen significantly following the pandemic.

The studies come as a federal eviction moratorium is set to expire at the end of the month. The moratorium has kept many tenants owing back rent housed.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 16 (APP): The United Nations has strongly condemned Tuesday’s killing of five Afghan health workers and the wounding of four others who were part of a polio vaccination campaign in Nangarhar Province.

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, said that he was “appalled by the brutality of these killings,” saying depriving children from an assurance of a healthy life “is inhuman.”