North America

UN Security Council to discuss U.S. Middle East peace plan on Tuesday

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday on the U.S.-proposed Middle East peace plan, a UN spokesperson said on Monday.

Both UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov will speak at the meeting, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres, told reporters.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also expected to make a statement at the briefing.

USA: Guilty plea to federal charges in black church burnings

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — The aspiring ‘black metal’ musician who was arrested in a series of fires set at African American churches in Louisiana last spring pleaded guilty Monday to federal and state criminal charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Holden Matthews pleaded guilty to three counts of intentional damage to religious property, a federal hate crime. He also pleaded to one count of using fire to commit a felony. He entered the pleas in federal court in Lafayette. Sentencing on the federal charges is set for May 22.

USA: Feds seek 7 to 9 years in prison for Trump ally Roger Stone

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence President Donald Trump’s confidant Roger Stone to serve between seven and nine years in prison after his conviction on witness tampering and obstruction charges.

Stone, who is scheduled to be sentenced next week, was convicted in November of a seven-count indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election.

Trump campaigns as 2nd Amendment warrior

WASHINGTON (AP) — After the Parkland school shooting in Florida two years ago, President Donald Trump chided Republican lawmakers for being too “scared” of the National Rifle Association to tighten gun laws — then backed away from the idea.

After back-to-back mass shootings in Ohio and Texas in 2019, Trump embraced calls for “strong background checks” — only to backpedal once again.

USA: Changing electorate could affect New Hampshire’s primary

USA (AP) --- New Hampshire has been holding the first-in-the-nation presidential primary for 100 years, but a significant number of Tuesday’s ballots could be cast by newcomers to that storied tradition.

New Hampshire has one of the nation’s lowest percentages of native-born residents, with only a third of those age 25 and older having been born in the state. And one-fifth of the state’s potential voters either resided somewhere else four years ago or were not old enough to vote, according to a recent analysis of demographic trends by the University of New Hampshire.

USA: Gunman dead, 2 officers hurt in shooting at Arkansas Walmart

FORREST CITY, Ark. (AP) — Two police officers were wounded and a gunman was killed Monday morning in an exchange of gunfire at a Walmart store in eastern Arkansas, authorities said.

Forrest City Police Chief Deon Lee said one of the officers was taken to a hospital about 45 miles (70 kilometers) to the east in Memphis where he was in surgery, and the initial prognosis is “he’s going to be OK.”

Trump plunges into New Hampshire race, aiming to rattle Dems

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Eager to put on a show of force in a general election battleground state, President Donald Trump tried to rattle Democrats on Monday with a rally in New Hampshire on the eve of the state’s first-in-the-nation primaries.

Trump, on a high after his acquittal last week on impeachment charges, boasted about the nation’s strong economy, tore into his possible general election foes and launched an assault on the Democrats who tried to remove him from office, calling the episode a “pathetic partisan crusade.”

USA: Justice Department brings new suits over sanctuary policies

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department ratcheted up legal pressure Monday on local governments over “sanctuary” policies that hinder federal immigration officers, bringing two new lawsuits and launching a coordinated messaging campaign to highlight an election-year priority of President Donald Trump.

US says Chinese military stole masses of Americans’ data

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the computer networks of the Equifax credit reporting agency and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department said Monday, blaming Beijing for one of the largest hacks in history to target consumer data.

Pentagon: 109 troops suffer brain injuries from Iran strike

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries has shot up to more than 100, the Pentagon said Monday, as more troops suffer the aftereffects of the Iranian ballistic missile attack early last month in Iraq.

The department said the latest total is 109 military members who have been treated for mild TBI, a significant increase over the 64 reported a little over a week ago.

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