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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ethiopia’s U.N. ambassador said Tuesday that Eritrean troops who have been fighting with his country’s forces in a war against the Tigray region’s fugitive leaders “will definitely leave soon,” a move that would be welcomed by many including the United Nations whose humanitarian chief accused the Eritreans of using starvation as “a weapon of war.”

UNITED NATIONS, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Volkan Bozkir, on Monday called for urgent action to address unsustainable agriculture.

"We must urgently address unsustainable agriculture, one of the main drivers of desertification, land degradation and drought," the UNGA president, or the PGA, told the General Assembly High-level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought held at the UN headquarters in New York.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Sunday kicked off the 100-day countdown to the International Day of Peace, which is observed on September 21, with a call for standing up against hatred and discrimination, and by caring for the pollution-hit planet.

“Peace is the foundation of that recovery. The global vaccination effort cannot advance amidst armed conflict,” he said in his countdown message marking the day on which the UN invites the world to celebrate peace by observing 24 hours of ceasefire and non-violence.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 14 (APP): A senior United Nations official has welcomed the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrialized nations’ commitment to immediately share at least 870 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, supporting global access and helping to end the acute phase of the pandemic.

NEW YORK, June 14. /TASS/: Russia is ready to consider the issue of prisoner swap with the US, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with NBC.

"Yes, yes," he said when asked a respective question.

Meanwhile Putin noted that much more Russian citizens are held in custody in the US than American citizens - in Russia. "I know that there are convicted US citizens in custody, but their number cannot be compared with that of Russian citizens remaining in American prisons," he said.

NEW YORK, June 14. /TASS/: Predictability and stability are the most important value in international affairs, though Russia has not seen that on the part of the US in recent years, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with NBC.

UNITED NATIONS, June 13 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his solidarity with persons with albinism on Sunday, which is the International Albinism Awareness Day.

Albinism, a rare, non-contagious, genetically inherited condition found in both men and women, presents as a lack of melanin pigmentation in hair, skin and eyes, causing vulnerability to the sun and bright light.

As a result, almost all people with albinism are visually impaired and are prone to developing skin cancer.

13 June 2021; MEMO: Iran regained its vote in the UN General Assembly on Friday after the United States enabled Tehran to use funds frozen in South Korea to pay some $16 million it owed to the world body, reports Reuters.

Iran lost its vote in the 193-member General Assembly in January because it was more than two years in arrears. It owed a total of more than $65 million, but paid the minimum amount needed to regain its vote.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 12 (APP): Pakistani and Indian delegates engaged in a fresh verbal duel in the United Nations General Assembly Friday, after Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram drew world community’s attention to New Delhi’s grave human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and called for resolving the UN-recognized dispute in accordance with Security Council resolutions.

UNITED NATIONS, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were elected non-permanent members of the UN Security Council on Friday for a two-year term.

The newly elected members will take up their new responsibilities on Jan. 1, 2022, and will serve till Dec. 31, 2023.

All five candidates were running unopposed on Friday. They will replace the outgoing non-permanent members of Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, and Vietnam.