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UNITED NATIONS, May 2 (Xinhua) -- In Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, with a fragile health system, the United Nations is bracing for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which, it is feared, could be severe, UN News reported on Saturday.

"COVID-19 is known to be particularly dangerous for those with underlying health conditions and, in the African Great Lakes nation, a significant proportion of the population fall into that vulnerable category," it said.

NEW YORK, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A more aggressive stand adopted by some top U.S. administration officials against China on economic, diplomatic and scientific issues at the heart of the relationship between the world's first and second largest economies may backfire, reported The New York Times on Saturday.

NEW YORK, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States topped 65,000 on Saturday morning, reaching 65,244 as of 12:00 a.m. (1600 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 1,106,373 cases have been reported in the country, according to the CSSE.

The state of New York suffered the most, with 308,314 cases and 24,039 deaths. Other hardest-hit states included New Jersey with 7,538 deaths, Michigan with 3,866 deaths, and Massachusetts with 3,716 deaths, the data showed.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. renewable energy industry is reeling from the new coronavirus pandemic, which has delayed construction, put thousands of skilled laborers out of work and sowed doubts about solar and wind projects on the drawing board.

In locked-down California, some local agencies that issue permits for new work closed temporarily, and some solar companies furloughed installers.

In New York and New Jersey, SunPower CEO Thomas Werner halted installation of more than 400 residential solar systems, fearing for his workers’ safety.

NEW YORK (AP) — Gorgeous spring weather across the United States and Europe on Saturday drew people cooped up inside for weeks outside to soak in the sun, even as additional coronavirus hot spots in Russia and Pakistan emerged.

UNITED NATIONS, May 02 (APP): A United Nations (UN) spokesman said Friday that he had not seen any new reports from the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) about ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, but reaffirmed that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ global appeal for a ceasefire also applies to the LoC.

“I have not gotten any updates from our colleagues in UNMOGIP on this,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in response to about the recent firing incidents along the LoC.

WASHINGTON, May 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The IMF renewed a nearly $11 billion credit line for Colombia as a backstop amid the growing economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Colombia has had a Flexible Credit Line (FCL) since May 2009, and the IMF board has renewed it every two years, providing the country with money that could be deployed to head off a crisis.

But Bogota has never drawn on the funds, treating it as a precaution.

(Reuters) - New York City’s pension fund leader claimed a win on Friday after JPMorgan Chase & Co set a timetable to replace its lead independent director, a former Exxon Mobil Corp CEO who had become the focus of criticism of the bank’s climate record.

The director, Lee Raymond, who is up for re-election at the bank’s annual meeting on May 19, had earlier asked the board to start a formal process to find a successor for the lead independent director role, JPMorgan said previously.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government was slow to understand how much coronavirus was spreading from Europe, which helped drive the acceleration of outbreaks across the nation, a top health official said Friday.

Limited testing and delayed travel alerts for areas outside China contributed to the jump in U.S. cases starting in late February, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We clearly didn’t recognize the full importations that were happening,” Schuchat told The Associated Press.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic is causing “untold fear and suffering” for older people around the world who are dying at a higher rate, and especially for those over age 80, whose fatality rate is five times the global average.

The U.N. chief said that beyond the health risks, “the pandemic is putting older people at greater risk of poverty,” with an especially devastating impact on the elderly in developing countries.