North America

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- In its semi-annual monetary policy report delivered to Congress on Friday, the U.S. Federal Reserve said that the current stance of monetary policy was appropriate as downside risks to the U.S. economy had receded.

"Downside risks to the U.S. outlook seem to have receded in the latter part of the year (2019), as the conflicts over trade policy diminished somewhat, economic growth abroad showed signs of stabilizing, and financial conditions eased," the report said.

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (AP) — The younger of two students charged in a school shooting in suburban Denver that killed a classmate pleaded guilty on Friday under an agreement that gives him a chance to be paroled after serving about 25 years in prison.

Alec McKinney, 16, pleaded guilty to 17 felonies, including a first-degree murder charge, in the May 7, 2019, shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch that killed Kendrick Castillo, 18. He will be sentenced May 18.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed Kobe Bryant and eight others was almost out of blinding clouds when he suddenly plunged and crashed into a Southern California hillside, investigators and aviation experts indicated.

Ara Zobayan had told air traffic control he was climbing to 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) and he rose to 2,300 feet (701 meters), according to an investigative update released Friday from the National Transportation Safety Board.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Democratic presidential front-runners Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg beat back a barrage of attacks during a debate as rivals raised persistent questions about their ideology and experience, hoping to sow doubts about their ability to defeat President Donald Trump.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Extreme wind gusts, blowing snow and widespread flooding made traveling treacherous on Friday as a storm system moved into the northeastern United States, leaving rising water and at least five deaths in its wake across the South.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Suicides in the active-duty Air Force surged last year to the highest total in at least three decades, even as the other military services saw their numbers stabilize or decline, according to officials and unpublished preliminary data.

The reasons for the Air Force increase are not fully understood, coming after years of effort by all of the military services to counter a problem that seems to defy solution and that parallels increases in suicide in the U.S. civilian population.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Democrat in Congress said Friday the party’s future under Tom Perez is under scrutiny amid fallout from the Iowa caucuses and the winnowing of the presidential primary field to the exclusion of candidates of color.

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House Democrat, stopped short of saying Perez must go as leader of the Democratic National Committee.

“That’s a decision for him,” he said.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge has prohibited U.S. immigration authorities from relying on databases deemed faulty to ask law enforcement agencies to hold people in custody, a setback for the Trump administration that threatens to hamper how it carries out arrests.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — With urgency rising in their presidential nomination fight, the Democrats’ top presidential contenders clashed over experience and electability in a fiery debate Friday night that tested the strength of a new front-runner, former Midwestern mayor Pete Buttigieg, and struggling former Vice President Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened President Donald Trump on Friday ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings. The president took retribution just two days after his acquittal by the Senate.