New York

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to swiftly reverse their increasingly harsh restrictions on women and girls, which range from severely restricting education to banning women from most jobs, public spaces and gyms.

The council condemned the Taliban’s ban on women working for the U.N., a decision the resolution calls “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations.”

27 Apr 2023; MEMO: Kuwait on Tuesday called on the international community, including the UN Security Council, to condemn the Israeli occupation and the increasing attacks against Palestinian civilians.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 27 (APP):Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, handed over the chairmanship of the OIC Group in New York to his Mauritanian counterpart, Sidi Mohamed Laghdaf, at a simple ceremony on Thursday.

In brief remarks, Ambassador Munir congratulated Mauritania on the very successful 49th Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, in March 2023.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Gap is laying off 1,800 corporate workers, roughly three time the number of headquarters jobs it cut last fall, as the struggling chain cuts costs in a bid to become more nimble.

More layoffs at the struggling chain follow similar cuts at large U.S. corporations this year, such as Amazon and McDonald’s, with white collar workers taking the brunt of the head count reductions as economy slows.

NEW YORK (AP) — Tucker Carlson emerged Wednesday, two days after Fox News fired him, with a two-minute, campaign-style monologue that didn’t address why he suddenly became unemployed.

He posted a video on Twitter shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern, the time his Fox show used to begin, that talked about a lack of honest political debate in the media.

Carlson said one of the things he noticed, “when you step away from the noise for a few days,” is how nice some people are, and how hilarious some are.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. cigarette smoking dropped to another all-time low last year, with 1 in 9 adults saying they were current smokers, according to government survey data released Thursday. Meanwhile, electronic cigarette use rose, to about 1 in 17 adults.

The preliminary findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are based on survey responses from more than 27,000 adults.

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, and it’s long been considered the leading cause of preventable death.

United Nations, Apr 27 (PTI) India has emphasised that the exercise of veto in the UN Security Council is driven by political considerations and not by moral obligations, saying that only five permanent members being given the privilege of using the veto goes against the very concept of sovereign equality of states.

27 Apr 2023; MEMO: Israel is trying to persuade country representatives not to attend the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba at the UN headquarters in New York, Israeli TV Channel 13 has reported. The event is scheduled to be held on 15 May.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 26 (APP): Pakistan has called on Israel to comply with its international obligation to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, saying there will be no peace in the Middle East until the establishment of an independent State of Palestine.

“The international community cannot accept the fait accompli Israel is seeking to impose to destroy Palestinian nationhood,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the UN Security Council, which met under Russia’s presidency.

NEW YORK, April 26. /TASS/: The Pentagon has learned valuable lessons from the conflict in Ukraine in case of a possible confrontation with China, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said on Wednesday.

"There are many advantages we've gained for a potential Pacific challenge from the Ukraine conflict," Hicks told Bloomberg in an interview. "We're learning now to grow our industrial base and to study that industrial base, which has been for the last 60 years in a bit of a feast and famine cycle."