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UNITED NATIONS, April 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Security Council can only lift the arms embargo on South Sudan when the 2018 peace agreement is fully implemented, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said.

In the latest report on benchmarks to assess the arms embargo in South Sudan, Guterres said that the major matters that should be fulfilled include the establishment of the Revitalized Transitional Legislative Assembly, Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, full formation of States governments, and the unification of forces into one professional army.

UNITED NATIONS, April 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations special envoy’s office to Burundi will close on May 31, five months after the isolated regime requested it shuttered, the UN secretary-general said.

A highly political issue, the UN’s presence has been a source of tension for years between the organisation and Burundian authorities, which have contested the need for UN Security Council observation mission.

NEW YORK, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared racism a "serious public health threat," after a new wave of COVID-19 cases was witnessed in the country, reported USA Today recently.

Communities of color were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they were more likely to be hospitalized or even die from the virus, the CDC said in a statement recently, according to the report.

The disparities of health care among different groups during the pandemic also underlines a serious problem in America - racism, the CDC said.

NEW YORK, Apr 11 (APP): A top Pakistani diplomat has expressed the hope that the United Nations under the new Biden administration, will revive its active engagement at the United Nations to enable the world community to effectively respond to global challenges such as the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, terrorism and promoting Sustainable Development goals (SDGs).

NEW YORK, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York State dropped to 4,241 on Friday, compared with 4,351 one day earlier, tweeted Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the single-day COVID-19 test positivity rate went down to 2.79 percent on Friday from 2.96 percent on Thursday, he said, adding that there were 57 COVID-19 deaths in the state on Friday, compared with 56 one day earlier.

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors hope to preserve a July trial date for Ghislaine Maxwell by defending a late-hour expansion of charges against her, saying they developed when a woman spoke after Maxwell’s arrest about her abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s.

The rewritten indictment lodged against the 59-year-old British socialite on March 29 added sex trafficking charges to allegations that Maxwell recruited three teenage girls from 1994 to 1997 for then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. New charges stretched the conspiracy to 2004.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 10 (APP): The vast majority of coronavirus vaccines administered have so far gone to wealthy nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported other day.

Although more than 700 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, richer countries have received more than 87 per cent, and low-income countries just 0.2 per cent.

“There remains a shocking imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanonom Ghebreyesus said, speaking during the agency’s regular briefing from Geneva.

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The number of food-insecure people in Niger during the coming months could reach 2.3 million people, UN humanitarians said on Friday.

About 1.6 million of them are likely to face severe food insecurity as soon as May, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. That's a 30 percent increase compared to projections made in November.

The humanitarian office projects the 2.3 million food-insecure people for "the lean season, between June and August."

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 09 (APP): Pakistan has called for strengthening international cooperation in mine action to counter the threat posed by landmines and other explosives to civilians and infrastructure as well as to safeguard UN peace-keeping missions and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 08 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that the mere presence of landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) can “stall development and shatter stability”, and called for stepping up efforts to counter their challenges.

“They are left in the path of women walking to work, a family displaced by conflict and seeking safety, children on their way to school. They crush lives and end livelihoods”, Secretary-General António Guterres told the UN Security Council.