North America

NEW YORK (AP) — Saudi officials arrested two members of the royal family early Friday for allegedly plotting to oust King Salman and the son he has designated to succeed him, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Quoting unidentified sources, the Journal said guards from the royal court detained one of the king’s brothers, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al Saud, and one of his nephews, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Both men were arrested at their homes and charged with treason, it said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden has put an exclamation point on his Super Tuesday victories by winning the most delegates on the presidential primary calendar’s biggest night.

The Associated Press has allocated more than 92% of the 1,344 delegates that were up for grabs on Tuesday, and Biden has such a commanding lead that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders cannot catch up as the remaining votes from that day’s 14 state primaries are counted.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the midst of one of the most daunting crises of his administration, President Donald Trump announced he had made a major staff overhaul, replacing his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney with Republican Rep. Mark Meadows.

While much of the country was focused on the spreading coronavirus, Trump announced the surprise reshuffle by Friday night tweet, saying Mulvaney would become the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland.

ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday turned into a scattershot defense of his administration’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, veering into political score-settling, exaggerations and talk harking back to his impeachment.

6 March 2020; AFP: Facebook has taken down an ad from President Donald Trump's campaign which critics said misled people into believing it was an official message about the US census.

The ads encouraged readers to "take the official 2020 Congressional District Census," but clicking on the messages directed users to a Trump campaign website.

Facebook has been under pressure from activists who have said its hand-off policy on political messages enables the proliferation of misinformation.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada gained a higher-than-expected 30,300 net jobs in February while the unemployment rate rose to 5.6%, official data showed on Friday.

Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a gain of 10,000 jobs in February and an unemployment rate of 5.6%. Wages for permanent employees - a metric watched closely by the Bank of Canada - rose by 4.3%, Statistics Canada said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed more than expected in January as imports declined, and further decreases are likely as the coronavirus outbreak disrupts the flow of goods and services.

The Commerce Department said on Friday the trade deficit dropped 6.7% to $45.3 billion also as exports fell.

Data for December was revised slightly to show the trade gap widening to $48.6 billion instead of $48.9 billion as previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade gap tightening to $46.1 billion in January.

ABUJA, March 6 (NNN-ALLAFRICA) — The US government has reiterated its reward of $7million (N2.5bn) for anyone with credible information that can lead to the arrest of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau.

This came as Boko Haram insurgents in the early hours of Saturday, attacked a military base in Damboa, Borno State, killing three soldiers and three policemen. 13 of the insurgents were also killed by the troops, while 47 others were injured.

WASHINGTON, March 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Defense Secretary Mark Esper accused Russia of violating the Open Skies Treaty designed to improve transparency and confidence between the militaries of the two superpowers.

Esper told a congressional hearing Russia had been blocking the United States from conducting flights over the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad and near Georgia that are permitted by the 18-year-old agreement.

WASHINGTON, March 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US lawmakers passed an emergency $8.3 billion spending bill to combat the coronavirus as the number of cases surged in the country’s northwest and deaths reached 12.

The Senate gave sweeping bipartisan support to the funding one day after the House passed the bill, so that it could be quickly sent to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature.

The amount is significantly above the $2.5 billion President Donald Trump had initially requested, but he later said he was happy to accept more.