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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 01 (APP): United States President-elect Joe Biden spoke with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday and discussed the need for a “strengthened” US-UN partnership to address urgent global issues, including coronavirus pandemic, climate change, upholding peace and security and resolving conflicts.

A readout from the president-elect’s transition team said that Biden thanked the UN chief for his congratulations following his election victory on November 3. Biden will be sworn in on January 20.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad said the coronavirus pandemic has increased trafficking of women and gender-based violence, leaving the health and safety of women “on the line.”

The 27-year-old activist, who was forced into sexual slavery by Islamic State fighters in Iraq, said curfews, lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed by governments to slow the spread of the virus “have had unintended consequences on women worldwide.”

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City will reopen its school system to in-person learning, and increase the number of days a week many children attend class, even as the coronavirus pandemic intensifies in the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.

The announcement marks a major policy reversal for the nation’s largest school system, less than two weeks after de Blasio announced that schools were shutting down because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases in the city.

28 Nov 2020; MEMO: A new United Nations (UN) report found that the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip has resulted in $16.5 billion losses to its crippling economy and pushed more than half of the enclave's residents below the poverty line.

The report, which was issued on Wednesday by the UN's Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to the General Assembly, covered the years between 2007 and 2018.

NEW YORK, Nov 27 (APP): India’s economy is in “severest recession” since 1996 — the year it began publishing its gross domestic product numbers — while other countries, especially China, are fast recovering from the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, according to an American media report.

In a dispatch from New Delhi, The New York Times wrote that hundreds of millions of Indian labourers and shopkeepers, who keep the country’s economy running, still can’t find relief, amid predictions that the economic situation would take a turn for the worse.

NEW YORK, Nov 28 (APP): A United States (US)-based Sikh advocacy group, which is planning to organize a worldwide referendum to demand the secession of Punjab from India, Friday announced one million dollars in aid for Punjabi farmers who suffered injuries or damage to their vehicles in clashes with police as they marched into New Delhi to protest against new farm laws.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 28 (NNN-PNN) – United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, yesterday said that, the prospects of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are becoming “more distant.”

The UN chief pointed to a host of factors which continue to cause great misery, including the expansion of illegal settlements, a significant spike in the demolition of Palestinian homes and structures, violence and continued militant activity.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations spokesman on Friday called for exercising restraint and avoiding escalation in the Middle East region following the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

NEW YORK, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 13 million on Friday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. COVID-19 case count rose to 13,047,202, with a total of 264,624 deaths, as of 4:26 p.m. local time (2126 GMT), according to the CSSE tally.

Texas reported the country's most cases, standing at 1,206,248, followed by California with 1,179,857 cases, and Florida with 979,020 cases. Illinois registered 705,063 cases and New York confirmed 628,375 cases.

27 Nov 2020; MEMO: A fourth session of the constitutional committee will begin on Monday in Geneva to hammer out the roots of the basic laws for a peaceful Syria, the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria said Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.