For the past several years the council has been divided over how to deal with Pyongyang. Russia and China, veto powers along with the United States, Britain and France, have said more sanctions will not help and want such measures to be eased.

"It is for us today to push our governments, our institutions, our people to move towards a federation because we believe that only the federation can be the global and definitive solution for Africa," said Souleymane Diouf Diallo, spokesperson for the group, calling itself "The walkers for African unity".

Holding the flags of both countries and the African Union, the group of about a dozen men and women walked in single file last week on the side of a road near Hounde, in western Burkina Faso, as they neared the finish line of a trek of more than 860 km (535 miles).

The brief from the Caribbean governments, which was joined by a network of non-governmental organizations, follows a summit among regional leaders last month held in the Bahamas, where arms trafficking was a key topic.

HOUNDE, Burkina Faso, March 21 (Reuters) - A small group of activists have been walking from Mali's capital Bamako to Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou to express their support for a federation between the two West African states.

sanctions would reward Pyongyang "for doing nothing to comply with Security Council resolutions." She accused Pyongyang of depriving North Koreans of needed humanitarian assistance. Thomas-Greenfield said lifting U.N.

The United States has been shoring up alliances in the Asia-Pacific seeking to counter China's assertiveness in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing seeks to advance its territorial claims.

The states said the automakers had failed to take adequate steps to address the alarming rate of theft and urged them to accelerate the implementation of the software upgrade and provide free alternative protective measures for owners whose cars cannot support the software upgrade.

The states filing the brief were California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

"The theater forces will maintain a high state of alert at all times and take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security and peace and stability in the South China Sea," said Tian Junli, a spokesman for China's Southern Theatre Command.

Canada and the United States also acknowledged "the serious long-term challenge to the international order posed by the People's Republic of China, including disruptive actions such as economic coercion, non-market policies and practices, and human rights abuses," the two countries said in a joint statement.

OTTAWA, March 24 (Reuters) - The United States and Canada pledged to work together on several issues, including migration, defense and security, the two countries said on Friday after a meeting between U.S.

President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

China and Russia blamed joint military drills by the United States and South Korea for provoking Pyongyang while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions.

UNITED NATIONS, March 20 (Reuters) - The United States, China and Russia argued during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday over who was to blame for spurring North Korea's dozens of ballistic missile launches and development of a nuclear weapons program.