New York

NEW YORK, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 22 million on Saturday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. COVID-19 case count rose to 22,035,618, with a total of 371,260 deaths, as of 3:21 p.m. local time (2021 GMT), according to the CSSE tally.

California reported 2,649,119 cases, followed by Texas with 1,943,625 cases and Florida with 1,464,697 cases. The states of New York and Illinois both registered more than 1 million cases.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Britain’s new U.N. ambassador says the government is feeling “gung ho” about continuing its role as an important player on the world stage despite its exit from the European Union.

Barbara Woodward pointed to the United Kingdom’s permanent seat on the powerful U.N. Security Council, its presidency this year of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations, its membership in the Group of 20 leading economic powers and NATO, and its hosting of the next United Nations global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. federal prosecutors have filed motions saying that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took bribes from drug traffickers and had the country’s armed forces protect a cocaine laboratory and shipments to the United States.

The documents quote Hernández as saying he wanted to “‘shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos’ by flooding the United States with cocaine.”

NEW YORK, Jan 09 (APP): Pakistan’s UN Ambassador, Munir Akram, has praised the “heroism” of the Kashmiri people whose third generation was keeping alive the spirit of resistance to the Indian occupation, as he underscored the need for unity among their ranks at this critical juncture.

In a keynote speech to a webinar, held on Friday in connection with the Kashmiris’ Right to Self-determination Day, Ambassador Akram assured the Kashmiri people of Pakistan’s steadfast support to their just cause.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s steadfast grip on Republicans in Washington is beginning to crumble, leaving him more politically isolated than at any other point in his turbulent administration.

After riling up a crowd that later staged a violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, Trump appears to have lost some of his strongest allies, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Two Cabinet members and at least a half dozen aides have resigned. A handful of congressional Republicans are openly considering whether to join a renewed push for impeachment.

NEW YORK (AP) — A printing company in Maryland saw the photo on Twitter Wednesday night: an employee roaming the halls of the U.S. Capitol with a company badge around his neck. He was fired the next day.

Others are facing similar repercussions at work for their participation in Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol. Some business owners are being trashed on social media and their establishments boycotted, while rank-and-file employees at other businesses have been fired.

NEW YORK, January 7. / TASS /: The federal court for the Southern District of New York has sentenced Russian citizen Andrei Tyurin, who pleaded guilty to a number of cybercrimes in the United States, to 12 years in prison. The sentence was announced on Thursday during the court session held via telephone.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson of China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said on Thursday that China opposes a planned Taiwan visit by Kelly Craft, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations.

According to media reports, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Craft will visit Taiwan. China firmly opposes it, said the spokesperson.

(AP) --- New research suggests that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can protect against a mutation found in two highly contagious variants of the coronavirus that erupted in Britain and South Africa.

Those variants are causing global concern. They both share a common mutation called N501Y, a slight alteration on one spot of the spike protein that coats the virus. That change is believed to be the reason they can spread so easily.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 07 (APP): Pakistan has urged the U.N. and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to develop common strategies and plans to find just solutions for some of the most complex and protracted challenges, including the conflicts in Kashmir and Palestine, that threaten world peace and security.

“While conflicts affect many parts of the world, some of the most complex and protracted conflicts unfortunately afflict the Islamic world,” Mohammad Aamir Khan, acting Pakistan permanent representative to the U.N., told the Security Council on Wednesday.