North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s a common thread among the 11 felons who found favor with President Donald Trump this week — all who were pardoned or set free had advocates among the president’s wealthy friends and political allies.

In at least some cases, including former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and ’80s junk-bond king Michael Milken, Trump has personal relationships with those he granted clemency. In three others he drew on the recommendations of a Tennessee grandmother he’d previously granted clemency at the urging of reality-TV star Kim Kardashian West.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — From the opening bell, Democrats savaged New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and raised pointed questions about Bernie Sanders’ take-no-prisoners politics during a contentious debate Wednesday night that threatened to further muddy the party’s urgent quest to defeat President Donald Trump.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 (APP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sounded alarm over the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in north-west Syria, and called for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing fight that has displaced more than 900.000 civilians since early December.

19 February 2020; AFP: The world is failing to protect children from the health dangers posed by climate change and poor diet, a landmark UN report said Wednesday, warning that every child is under "immediate threat".

According to more than 40 of the world's pre-eminent child and adolescent health experts, not one country on Earth is adequately protecting the next generation from the impacts of carbon emissions, the destruction of nature and high-calorie and processed foods.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Donald Trump began a four-day Western swing on Tuesday with a fundraiser in Los Angeles, the first stop on a trip aimed at making himself a distraction as Democratic presidential candidates focus on the Nevada caucuses.

Buoyed by his acquittal in the U.S. Senate impeachment trial, Trump has campaign rallies planned in Phoenix on Wednesday, Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Thursday and Las Vegas on Friday. All the events are aimed at providing a competing message to the Democrats.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Clad in a beige uniform marked “3870,” the captured drug kingpin answered the Mexican prison guard’s questions calmly, barely looking up as he scrubbed black fingerprint ink from his hands.

Alias? “El Chapo.” Occupation? “Farmer.”

The interview is part of a four-year-old video released this week which appears to offer rare footage of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, who is now under lock and key for life at a top-security U.S. prison.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele deployed hundreds of soldiers on Tuesday to fight gangs, days after facing criticism for barging into Congress with the army to pressure lawmakers over his security plan.

The 1,400 soldiers will join about 8,600 already battling crime, an increase of about 16%.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mike Bloomberg would sell the financial data and media company he created in the 1980s — which bears his name and made him a multibillionaire — if he is elected U.S. president, a top adviser said Tuesday.

Bloomberg would put Bloomberg LP into a blind trust, and the trustee would then sell the company, adviser Tim O’Brien said. Proceeds from the sale would go to Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable giving arm that funds causes from climate change to public health and grants for American cities.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A 6-year-old girl who disappeared from her front yard after school was killed by a neighbor who then killed himself, authorities said Tuesday.

Faye Marie Swetlik died of asphyxiation just hours after she was abducted, Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher told reporters Tuesday, refusing to say if she was strangled or suffocated.

Faye’s body was found nearly three days later in woods near her home and had been put there just hours earlier, Fisher said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump went on a clemency blitz Tuesday, commuting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence and pardoning former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, among a long list of others.