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NEW YORK, Jan 19 (APP): Human rights activists and Kashmiri intellectuals have denounced a proposal by India’s top general’s to ship off people in Indian occupied Kashmir to “deradicalization camps,” according to a report published in The New York Times.

Gen. Bipin Rawat, chief of India’s defence staff — a new post created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — made the suggestion about sending Kashmiris to deradicalization camps at an international affairs conference in New Delhi attended by government officials, foreign diplomats, business executives and scholars.

NEW YORK, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its partners including Russia and others are expected to further extend production cut until the end of 2020 from the end of March, 2020, according to a research note by Swiss investment bank UBS AG on Friday.

Still, OPEC and its partners would have higher production allowance in the second half of 2020, said UBS in the report.

Crude oil output from OPEC would dip to 29.6 million barrels per day in 2020, down from 30 million barrels per day in the previous year, UBS said.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 18 (APP): Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.N., Munir Akram, has said the flagship, multibillion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project is an `outstanding example’ of South-South cooperation, which is aimed at achievement of shared economic and development goals.

NEW YORK (AP) — The first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump to be president was sentenced Friday to two years and two months in federal prison after admitting he helped his son and others dodge $800,000 in stock market losses when he learned that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company had failed.

Ex-Congressman Christopher Collins, 69, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick in Manhattan after the Republican pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to law enforcement officials.

NEW YORK (AP) — Three U.S. airports will screen passengers arriving from central China for a new virus that has sickened dozens, killed two and prompted worries about an international outbreak, health officials said Friday.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say they will begin taking temperatures and asking about symptoms of passengers at three U.S. airports who traveled from the outbreak city of Wuhan.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 (APP): The climate crisis, as well as persistently high inequalities, and rising levels of food insecurity and undernourishment, is affecting the quality of life in many societies and fuelling discontent, the UN warned Thursday.

Releasing the 2020 World Economic Situation Report (WESP), UN economic experts behind the report called for “massive adjustments” to the energy sector, which is currently responsible for around three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The global growth of 2.5 percent in 2020 is possible, but a flare-up of trade tensions, financial turmoil, or an escalation of geopolitical tensions could derail a recovery, according to the United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2020, which was launched Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge must decide the fate of former U.S. Rep. Christopher Collins after his lawyers and prosecutors disagreed over how he should be punished for conspiring in an insider trading scheme.

U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick in Manhattan will sentence the 69-year-old Republican on Friday afternoon.

Collins’ lawyers said he is sorry and should face no prison time. Prosecutors, though, said in written arguments to the judge that he should go to prison for nearly five years.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 16 (APP): Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said after meeting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Wednesday evening that the repressive measures taken by India after annexing Kashmir in August last year have caused heightened tensions and are threatening international peace and security in South Asia.

The situation is very delicate and could spin out of control, he told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China’s U.N. ambassador warned Wednesday against further escalation between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region and expressed hope that a Security Council meeting called by Beijing will encourage both countries to seek a solution through dialogue.

Zhang Jun, whose country supports Pakistan, told several reporters after the closed meeting that China remains “concerned about the situation on the ground” in Kashmir.