North America

NEW YORK, Feb 07 (APP): Pakistan’s forceful and determined campaign to highlight the grave situation in the curfew-bound Indian occupied Kashmir has led to the revival of the decades-old dispute at the United Nations, Ambassador Munir Akram told a large gathering in New York on Thursday.

“For the first time in 50 years, the Jammu Kashmir issue is now fully alive at the UN,” he said in a spirited speech at the meeting arranged by Pakistan’s Consulate General to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day.

7 February 2020; AFP: The United States and its allies should take controlling stakes in Nokia, Ericsson or both to battle Chinese telecoms giant Huawei's dominance of the 5G market, US Attorney general Bill Barr said Thursday.

"There are only two companies that can compete with Huawei right now: Nokia and Ericsson," Barr said in a speech on the Chinese economic threat.

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that African nations should be free to cooperate with both the United States and China, warning that foreign powers were exacerbating the continent’s divisions.

Kenyatta was speaking on a visit to Washington, where speculation has built that the United States will seek to negotiate a free-trade agreement with Kenya, in what would be a first with an African nation.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia blocked a UN draft resolution on Libya due to inclusion of the word “mercenary” in the text, diplomats said, casting doubt that a Security Council vote will occur by week’s end.

“There are a few sections in the resolution that are of concern,” Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told reporters following a Security Council meeting.

“We decided to continue our discussions with others,” he said.

Russia had already halted the approval process that would have allowed for a vote on the text on Thursday or Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr waded into ongoing diplomatic tensions between the United States and China on Thursday, decrying what he said was Beijing’s determination to establish “dominance” in the market of next-generation, high-speed wireless networks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s impeachment ended with a reminder of why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi resisted the idea for so long — an acquittal everyone saw coming, followed by a bombastic presidential victory lap and a bump in his poll numbers just as the 2020 campaign officially began.

Now Democrats have to decide how to navigate the legislative and political landscape that they’ve helped reshape.

MIAMI (AP) — Six American oil executives under house arrest in Venezuela were rounded up by police hours after President Donald Trump met Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s chief opponent at the White House, according to family members of the men.

Alirio Zambrano said early Thursday that the executives of Houston-based Citgo were abruptly taken from their homes last night by the SEBIN intelligence police. Zambrano, the brother of two of the six detained men, said their current whereabouts are unknown.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Exulting in his impeachment acquittal, a defiant President Donald Trump took a scorched-earth victory lap Thursday, unleashing his fury against those who tried to remove him from office and pointing ahead to his reelection campaign.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of killing 22 people and wounding two dozen more in a shooting that targeted Mexicans in the border city of El Paso, Texas, has been charged with federal hate crimes.

Patrick Crusius, 21, has been charged with 90 counts under federal hate crime and firearms laws for his role in the Aug. 3 shooting that authorities said was aimed at scaring Hispanics into leaving the United States, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The chief architect of the U.S. blueprint to resolve the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday blamed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for soaring tensions and violence in the occupied West Bank since the plan’s release last week.

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and adviser to President Donald Trump who spent nearly three years working on the plan, said leaders who are ready for a state “don’t call for days of rage and encourage their people to pursue violence if they’re not getting what they want.”