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11 Mar 2021; MEMO: Roger Waters has urged fellow music legend Stevie Wonder not to accept Israel's Wolf Prize, which is normally given to those who have made outstanding contributions to the arts and sciences. The American singer-songwriter was awarded the prize in February by the Wolf Foundation, a state-owned entity, and will be required to travel to the occupation state for the award ceremony.

NEW YORK (AP) — A convicted Honduran drug trafficker and former leader of a cartel testified in United States federal court Thursday that he paid now-President Juan Orlando Hernández $250,000 for protection from arrest in 2012.

Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, former leader of the Cachiros cartel, testified that he made the payment in cash through one of Hernández’s sisters, Hilda Hernández, in exchange “for protection so that the military police and preventive police didn’t capture us in Honduras.”

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief criticized the “many examples of vaccine nationalism and vaccine hoarding” as well as side deals with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers that undermine access to all people in the world.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement marking one year since the U.N. World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic that “the global vaccination campaign represents the greatest moral test of our times.”

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s grip on power appeared increasingly threatened Thursday as a majority of state legislators called for his resignation, Democrats launched an impeachment investigation and police in the state capital said they stood ready to investigate a groping allegation.

The firestorm around the Democrat grew a day after the Times Union of Albany reported that an unidentified aide had claimed Cuomo reached under her shirt and fondled her at his official residence late last year.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (APP): The United Nations General Assembly President, Volkan Bozkir of Turkey, and the President of Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan, had their monthly meeting Wednesday to coordinate the activities of UN’s two organs in order to make them “impactful”.

In a tweet, Bozkir said that the meeting was aimed at ensuring that UNGA and ECOSOC work effectively and in harmony despite the challenges posed by coronavirus pandemic.

UNITED NATIONS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged the international community to continue to reach all Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance.

"It is imperative that we continue to reach all Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance," the UN chief said at the press encounter marking the 10th anniversary of the Syrian conflict at the UN headquarters in New York.

The secretary-general warned that the situation "remains a living nightmare" in Syria.

NEW YORK, Mar 10 (APP): India is planning to buy 30 armed drones from the United States to boost its defence, according to an American media report.

Citing unnamed officials, Bloomberg, a New York-based international news agency, said India will approve in April the $3 billion purchase of 30 MQ-9B Predator drones manufactured by San Diego-based General Atomics.

Currently, India’s drones can only be used for surveillance and reconnaissance but the addition of armed drones will add to India’s military capabilities, the report said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos plans to spend the $10 billion he invested in the Bezos Earth Fund by 2030, the fund’s new CEO said Tuesday.

Since Bezos announced the fund in February 2020, little has been revealed about how it would be used combat the climate crisis.

Andrew Steer was named as the fund’s CEO on Tuesday, and in a series of tweets, he offered a few details, including that Bezos’ “goal is to spend it down between now and 2030.” That would work out to a pace of more than a $1 billion a year.

NEW YORK (AP) — An accountant witnessed meetings between Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández and a drug trafficker in which they planned the trafficking of cocaine to the U.S., federal prosecutors in New York said Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig said during his opening statement at the trial of accused Honduran drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez that the accountant was present when Hernández allegedly said he wanted to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.’”

UNITED NATIONS, March 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN chief Antonio Guterres called for the safe release of hundreds of Myanmar protesters “barricaded” inside apartment complexes in Yangon, where security forces are violently cracking down on anti-junta demonstrations, his spokesman said.

The secretary-general “calls for maximum restraint and urges for the safe release of all without violence or arrests,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“Many of those trapped are women who are peacefully marching in commemoration of International Women’s Day,” he said.