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NEW YORK (AP) — A top world health official Monday warned that countries are essentially driving blind in reopening their economies without setting up strong contact tracing to beat back flare-ups of the coronavirus.

UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday strongly condemned an attack against a convoy of UN peacekeepers in Mali, which killed three peacekeepers from Chad and injured four others.

Guterres recalled that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law. He called on the Malian authorities to spare no effort in identifying the perpetrators of these attacks so that they can be brought to justice swiftly, said Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief's spokesman, in a statement.

UNITED NATIONS, May 09 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Friday called for concerted global action to quash the “tsunami” of hate speech that has risen alongside the coronavirus pandemic.

“COVID-19 does not care who we are, where we live, what we believe or about any other distinction. We need every ounce of solidarity to tackle it together. Yet the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering”, he said.

NEW YORK, May 09 (APP): The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Friday welcomed the establishment by the Pakistani government of a National Commission for Minorities, calling it a step in the right direction.

“We are encouraged by the formation of the National Commission for Minorities as a governmental body promoting the rights of religious minorities within Pakistan; it’s an important step in Pakistan’s continuing journey towards the protection of religious freedom,” Anurima Bhargava, one of USCIRF’s eight commissioners, said in a statement.

NEW YORK, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States reached 1,300,079 as of 3:32 p.m. (1932 GMT) Saturday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the disease in the country hit 78,320.

New York remains the hardest-hit state, with 333,122 cases and 26,563 deaths, followed by New Jersey with 137,397 cases and 9,116 deaths. Other states with over 50,000 cases include Massachusetts, Illinois, California, and Pennsylvania, according to the CSSE.

NEW YORK, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Global confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 4 million on Saturday, reaching 4,004,224 as of 4:32 p.m. (2032 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

According to the CSSE, a total of 277,860 people worldwide have died of the disease.

The United States suffered the most from the pandemic, with 1,305,199 cases and a death toll of 78,469. Countries with over 150,000 cases included Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and Germany, according to the CSSE data.

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States is responsible for an impasse in the Security Council over the adoption of a resolution on COVID-19, a Chinese diplomat said on Saturday.

Security Council members had agreed on the text of a draft resolution thanks to the great efforts by France and Tunisia, the co-penholders. China supports the text. The United States also expressed its support.

NEW YORK (AP) — The record unemployment rate reported on Friday captured the pain of a nation where tens of millions of jobs suddenly vanished, devastating the economy and forcing President Donald Trump to overcome historic headwinds to win a second term.

Just a few short months ago, Trump planned to campaign for reelection on the back of a robust economy. That’s a distant memory after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April, leading to an unemployment rate of 14.7%, the highest since the Great Depression.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has won bipartisan praise for rallying supplies for his ravaged hospitals and helping slow the coronavirus, is coming under increasing criticism for not bringing that same level of commitment to a problem that has so far stymied him: nursing homes.

In part-lecture, part-cheerleading briefings that have made him a Democratic counter to President Donald Trump, Cuomo has often seemed dismissive and resigned to defeat when asked about his state leading the nation in nursing home deaths.

NEW YORK, May 08 (APP): The US military is removing Patriot antimissile systems from Saudi Arabia as part of a shift of forces and equipment in the region following a buildup last year in response to the alleged Iranian threats, The Hill newspaper reported Friday, citing a US official.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Washington was pulling four Patriot missile batteries from the region.

The Hill said the US official confirmed that two Patriot systems would come from Saudi Arabia — along with the roughly 300 military personnel deployed to man them.