USA

UNITED NATIONS, April 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Security Council can only lift the arms embargo on South Sudan when the 2018 peace agreement is fully implemented, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said.

In the latest report on benchmarks to assess the arms embargo in South Sudan, Guterres said that the major matters that should be fulfilled include the establishment of the Revitalized Transitional Legislative Assembly, Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, full formation of States governments, and the unification of forces into one professional army.

UNITED NATIONS, April 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations special envoy’s office to Burundi will close on May 31, five months after the isolated regime requested it shuttered, the UN secretary-general said.

A highly political issue, the UN’s presence has been a source of tension for years between the organisation and Burundian authorities, which have contested the need for UN Security Council observation mission.

NEW YORK, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared racism a "serious public health threat," after a new wave of COVID-19 cases was witnessed in the country, reported USA Today recently.

Communities of color were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they were more likely to be hospitalized or even die from the virus, the CDC said in a statement recently, according to the report.

The disparities of health care among different groups during the pandemic also underlines a serious problem in America - racism, the CDC said.

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Several states in the United States have temporarily shut down some vaccine sites after people suffered adverse reactions to the shot.

A total of 18 people in North Carolina reported side effects, while 11 people in Colorado reacted to the shot with symptoms ranging from dizziness, nausea and fainting, according to media reports.

Georgia was the third U.S. state to temporarily shut down a vaccine site following North Carolina and Colorado, after eight people suffered adverse reactions following vaccination.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 300 businesses and investors, including such giants as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Coca-Cola, are calling on the Biden administration to set an ambitious climate change goal that would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: The White House on Monday said it was not involved in a power outage incident at an Iranian nuclear site and declined comment on Tehran's accusing Israel of sabotaging the Natanz facility, Reuters reported.

"The US was not involved in any manner," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in response to questions. "We have nothing to add on speculation about the causes or the impacts."

Washington, Apr 13 (PTI) A top Republican Senator has said that imposing CAATSA sanctions on India for buying the multi-billion-dollar S-400 missile system from Russia would be a geostrategic victory for Moscow.

Senator Todd Young, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in the Foreign Policy magazine that if the Joe Biden administration imposes sanctions on India, it would weaken two strategic fronts at a critical time -- undermine Washington's relationship with India and also affect the QUAD's ability to counter China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has struck an agreement with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to temporarily surge security forces to their borders in an effort to reduce the tide of migration to the U.S. border.

The agreement comes as the U.S. saw a record number of unaccompanied children attempting to cross the border in March, and the largest number of Border Patrol encounters overall with migrants on the southern border — just under 170,000 — since March 2001.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has begun publicly courting Republicans to back his sweeping infrastructure plan, but his reach across the aisle is intended just as much to keep Democrats in line as it is a first step in an uphill climb to any bipartisan deal.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility is casting a major shadow over the resumption of indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran over resurrection of the international accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program.

Neither Iran nor the U.S. say the incident will crater the negotiations. But the attack and the destruction of a significant amount of Iran’s uranium enrichment capability add uncertainty to the discussions set for Tuesday in Vienna.