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UNITED NATIONS, June 10 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic must be a wake-up call for greater multilateral economic cooperation and health care solidarity.

"COVID-19 is exposing the fragility of our world. Despite the enormous scientific and technological advances of recent decades, a microscopic virus has brought us to our knees," Guterres said in his video message to the Forum of Small States.

UNITED NATIONS, June 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — This year’s UN General Assembly will be held virtually for the first time in history because of the coronavirus pandemic, its president announced.

The meeting is still scheduled for Sept 22-29 but will be carried out with previously recorded speeches by world leaders, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who is from Nigeria, said in a letter to UN member countries.

NEW YORK, June 10 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. reference dictionary will update the meaning of the word "racism" after being contacted by a Missouri black woman, who claimed the current definition fell short of including the systematic oppression of people of color, media have reported.

NEW YORK (AP) — As anyone who has ever heard him speak knows, President Donald Trump loves to relive 2016.

He recycles old attack lines once aimed at Hillary Clinton. He recounts the drama of election night, complete with impersonations of stunned news anchors putting state after state (Pennsylvania! Wisconsin!) in the Republican’s column.

NEW YORK, Jun 09 (APP): An American military commentator has called for pressuring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end his aggressive actions along the Line-of-Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir as also against Muslims in India that have escalated tensions with Pakistan.

“Indian patrols have become more aggressive, as if pushing for a hostile exchange of gunfire,” Colonel (retired) Wes Martin of the U.S. Army Military Police, said in an article released Monday by United Press International (UPI), an international news service.

TRIPOLI, June 9 (NNN-Xinhua) — The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) welcomed the reopening of two major oilfields which were closed by tribal leaders in January to protest against the UN-backed government.

The UNSMIL said in a statement that it “welcomes the opening of the Sharara and El Feel oil fields this weekend. The oil blockade has needlessly cost the Libyan people over $5 billion due to lost oil sales as well as millions of dollars of indirect losses due to the shutdown of domestic refineries and damage caused by the oil infrastructure remaining idle.”

NEW YORK, June 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Exactly 100 days after the first coronavirus case was confirmed in New York City, some workers began returning to jobs on Monday at the start of reopening from a citywide shutdown to battle the epidemic that killed nearly 22,000 of its residents.

People who had been staying home for months boarded subways and buses as the most populous US city began Phase One of its hopeful journey toward economic recovery.

UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- President of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said Monday that some 100 diplomats are likely to attend the UN General Debate this September due to the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We want to have the General Debate as scheduled...(but) the number of people that can be allowed into the hall (General Assembly Hall) maybe a hundred or so, but not a whole lot of people coming to the General Assembly," Muhammad-Bande said at a press briefing.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister is accusing the Trump administration of unleashing a politically motivated campaign against Iran and is calling for “universal condemnation” of the U.S. attempt to get the U.N. Security Council to impose a permanent arms embargo against the Islamic Republic.

NEW YORK, Jun 8 (APP): Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell says that he will not vote for Donald Trump, calling the president’s approach to politics “dangerous for our democracy” and asserting that Trump has “drifted away” from the Constitution.

Powell, who is a Republican and a retired general, said he plans to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden, who clinched the Democratic nomination last week, in the November presidential election.