North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Standing before a Congress and nation sharply divided by impeachment, President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address Tuesday to extol a “Great American Comeback” on his watch, just three years after he took office decrying a land of “American carnage” under his predecessor.

Washington, Feb 4 (PTI) The Seattle City Council, one of the most powerful city councils in the US, on Monday unanimously passed a resolution condemning India's recently-enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The new citizenship law passed by Parliament in December 2019 offers citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 04 (APP): U.S. President Donald Tump’s senior adviser, Jared Kushner, will brief the UN Security Council on his controversial plan for Middle East this week, a few days before the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas arrives in New York to address the 15-member body.

The Palestinians have outrightly rejected the plan and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), backing their stand, said, “It does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people.”

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 04 (APP): International sports federation representatives and ambassadors met at the United Nations headquarters in New York Monday to launch a programme aimed at protecting major sports events around the world from terrorist attacks.

The programme will create guidelines for international cooperation between organizations involved in the security of sports events, facilitate the exchange of information and good practices, and develop related public-private partnerships.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 4 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Security Council will hear a briefing behind closed doors from Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, on the U.S.-proposed Middle East 'peace plan', on Thursday, the council president said.

The closed-door meeting will be held between noon and 1.00 p.m. EST (1700 and 1800 GMT), he told reporters.

The Security Council will also hold a meeting with Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, on Feb 11.

COMPTON, Calif. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg vowed on Monday he would not let President Donald Trump bully him and said the insults being lobbed at him are a sign Trump is worried about running against the fellow New York business tycoon.

“I think he thinks I’m going to beat him,” Bloomberg told Reuters in an interview in Compton, California, where he was campaigning. “And we’ve tried to get under his skin.”

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Trade confidence among Canadian exporters fell to its lowest level in nearly a decade, Canada’s export credit agency said on Tuesday, as businesses wrestle with protectionist policies and fret about the global economy.

In its biannual survey of 1,000 Canadian exporters, Export Development Canada (EDC) said its trade confidence index fell to 69.3% - the lowest level since 2012 and 6% below the survey’s historical average.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council will hear a briefing behind closed doors from Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's senior adviser, on the U.S.-proposed Middle East peace plan on Thursday, the council president said Monday.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) supports China's efforts to tackle the novel coronavirus outbreak, and is confident that China's economy "remains resilient," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Monday.

In a statement on Twitter and a similar one on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, the IMF chief expressed that "our deep sympathies to all those affected by the serious situation related to #Coronavirus."

BOSTON (AP) — Two college students from Iran have filed civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, saying they were mistreated and illegally denied entry into the country by federal officials at Boston’s Logan International Airport.

Shahab Dehghani, who attends Northeastern University, and Reihana Emami Arandi, who had been set to start classes at Harvard University, recently filed separate complaints with the agency’s civil rights office, requesting the agency investigate the conduct of Customs and Border Protection officials.