The president of the U.N. General Assembly says the 193-member world body will take a decision in the coming month on whether to delay the annual gathering of world leaders in New York in late September because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It'll be virtually impossible to stop within certain communities,” one advocate warns about the spread of COVID-19 among asylum seekers and refugees.

Pope Francis on Sunday backed a call by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire so the world can focus on fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday the world is not only fighting the ``common enemy'' of the coronavirus ``but our enemy is also the growing surge of misinformation'' about COVID-19 disease.

The U.N. chief said: "It is time to put armed conflict on lock down and focus together on the true fight of our lives."

Rather than blaming each other for a calamity that is already upon us, China and the U.S. should be collaborating, Matthew Fisher says.

A Canadian woman and her Italian travelling companion who were suspected to have been abducted in West Africa 15 months ago have been released.

“The closer women get to closing the gender gap, it seems the greater the barriers become to achieving equality.”

The World Health Organization has so far resisted describing the crisis as such, saying the word "pandemic" might spook the world further and lead some countries to lose hope of containing the virus.

The United Nations' top disarmament official also warned governments of the implications of so-called killer robots that could take military decisions out of human hands.