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The United Nations logo is seen inside the United Nations in New York City, New York, US, Feb 25, 2021. (File photo: AFP) - 

If Moscow escalates the Ukrainian security crisis, the United States may refer the matter to the UN Security Council, US officials said Friday (Jan 14), stressing Washington still favors a diplomatic solution.

Tensions have mounted between the West and Russia over accusations Moscow is preparing to invade Ukraine.

"If Russia takes action, we're not going to hesitate to pursue an appropriate response in the Council and defend the principles of the UN Charter," a US official told reporters, on condition of anonymity.

"All options for Security Council response are on the table and we're discussing all of those with other Security Council members and with partners here in New York," the official added. "We are looking at the appropriate time to raise the issue in the Council."

Russia has amassed tanks, artillery and tens of thousands of troops near the border of Ukraine as it demands guarantees that its neighbor will never join NATO.

US officials said earlier Friday they had obtained intelligence showing Russia is planning a "false-flag" operation to create a pretext for an invasion.

"If Russia further escalates tension to really go to the heart of the principles and commitments that all nations states have made in the UN Charter ... there will be obviously an opportunity for discussion at the UN Security Council," another US official said, also on condition of anonymity.

The second official said the Security Council will in part be a forum "where you can see publicly a debate between the US and Russia in the event of they choose (an) escalatory path."

But he reiterated the US stance that Washington and its allies "vastly prefer ... a path of diplomacy."

So far, the UN has stayed silent on the recent mounting tensions between Moscow and Washington, two permanent members of the Security Council with veto power over its decisions.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has himself made few comments on the Ukraine issue, and none of the other 13 members of the Security Council has so far requested a meeting on the crisis//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A North Korean flag flutters at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng/File Photo - 

North Korea tested a railway-borne missile in its firing drills on Friday (Jan 15), state media KCNA said on Saturday, marking its third weapons test this month.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected what it presumed were two short-range ballistic missiles launched eastward from North Pyongan Province on the northwest coast of North Korea.

The official KCNA news agency said a firing drill was held to "check and judge the proficiency in the action procedures of the railway-borne regiment," which the country tested for the first time last September, designed as a potential counter-strike to any threatening forces.

Earlier on Friday, North Korea berated the Biden administration for imposing fresh sanctions against the country over its latest missile tests and warned of stronger and more explicit action if Washington maintains its “confrontational stance”.

In a statement carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesperson defended the North’s recent launches of purported hypersonic missiles as a righteous exercise of self-defence.

The spokesperson said the new sanctions underscore hostile US intent aimed at “isolating and stifling” the North despite Washington’s repeated calls for Pyongyang to resume diplomacy that has stalled over disagreements about sanctions relief and nuclear disarmament steps.

The Biden administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on five North Koreans over their roles in obtaining equipment and technology for the North’s missile programs in its response to the North’s latest missile test this week and also said it would seek new United Nations sanctions.

The announcement by the Treasury Department came just hours after North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a successful test of a hypersonic missile on Tuesday that he claimed would greatly increase the country’s nuclear “war deterrent”//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Take home COVID-19 self testing kits provided by the District of Columbia government, which provides city residents four free take home tests per day, are seen in this illustration taken January 11, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Illustration - 

US households can order four free at-home COVID-19 tests from the website COVIDTests.gov starting on Jan 19 with shipping expected within seven to 12 days of ordering, the White House said on Friday (Jan 14).

The batch of free tests are aimed at easing a shortage of COVID-19 tests across the country amid increased demand during the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

The US government has contracted already for more than 420 million tests, the White House said.

President Joe Biden has pledged to procure 1 billion free tests for Americans, and more may be ordered in the future. "We're not saying we're stopping there," one senior administration official told reporters on a conference call.

The administration also plans to launch a phone line for people who do not have access to the web to order tests.

Once ordered, the tests will ship to US households by the US Postal Service. Each household is limited to four masks.

American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein said the union had agreed to allow the USPS to use up to 7,000 temporary workers to label and package the test kits at 43 existing facilities. Many of those are holiday workers being held over for the project.

The kits could be mailed to as many as 160 million US addresses, Dimondstein said. The USPS has already brought in some labeling machines. “We’re off and running,” Dimondstein said.

The Biden administration has contracted for more than 420 million tests and additional contracts will be awarded over the coming weeks, the White House said. It expects to pay some US$4 billion to cover the first 500 million tests Biden promised, the administration official said.

Fighting the pandemic is one of Biden's top priorities and its persistence, coupled with fatigue among the public, has hurt his approval ratings roughly a year after he took office promising to do a better job of taming the virus than his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

Critics have said that while the administration focused its attention on getting Americans vaccinated, it did not do enough to encourage mask-wearing and spur testing, a deficit the White House has seemed to try to address with the at-home test deliveries and a pledge to get more masks out to the public as well//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A baking creation of the Olympic rings is on display during breakfast for guests of a hotel ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China January 8, 2022. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo - 

The Netherlands will not send an official diplomatic delegation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics because of COVID-19 restrictions, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Friday (Jan 14).

"Because of the COVID-19 measures in place in China there would only be limited opportunities for (...) bilateral contacts with the host country where the Netherlands' great concern about the human rights situation could be discussed in a meaningful way," Frits Kemperman told Reuters.

The Dutch decision comes amid a US-led diplomatic boycott to protest against China's human rights record, joined by Australia, Britain, Canada and Japan. China denies rights abuses and has condemned the boycott as betraying Olympic principles//CNA