North America

(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to take legal action against Live Nation Entertainment (LYV.N) on allegations the concert promoter has sought to strong-arm concert venues into using its dominant Ticketmaster subsidiary, a source familiar with the planned legal action said on Friday.

The department believes the concert promoter’s conduct has violated the merger settlement Live Nation and Ticketmaster reached with the government in 2010 and plans to file a decree enforcement action, the source said.

NEW YORK, Dec 14 (NNN-SANA) – The United Nations General Assembly reiterated its demand for Israel to comply with resolutions on the occupied Syrian Golan, particularly resolution No. 497 for 1981, which considers Israel’s decision to impose its law and legal jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan to be null, void, and without international legal effect.

14 Dec 2019; MEMO: Iran’s proxies have carried out a series of attacks on bases where US forces are collocated with their Iraqi partners, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Pompeo cited a rocket attack on a facility at Baghdad International Airport that he said wounded five Iraqi soldiers, including two who died of their injuries on 9 December.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Kim Motl doesn’t work in the health insurance industry. But her friends and neighbors do. So when she saw Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Motl pressed the Democratic presidential candidate about her “Medicare for All” plan, which would replace private insurance with a government-run system.

“What about the little guys that work in the insurance business, that support our communities? The secretary that works for them, but maybe supports their family, what happens to them?” the 64-year-old housing advocate asked the senator.

14 Dec 2019; MEMO: The quest for accountability in Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death took a step forward this week with United States lawmakers calling on their intelligence chiefs to publish details about those behind the assassination, reports Anadolu Agency.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has rejected a $13.5 billion settlement that Pacific Gas & Electric struck just last week with thousands of people who lost homes, businesses and family members in a series of devastating fires that drove the nation’s largest utility into bankruptcy.

The decision announced Friday in a five-page letter to PG&E CEO William D. Johnson marks a major setback in the utility’s race to meet a June 30 deadline to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

NEW YORK (AP) — A 13-year-old boy was arrested Friday in the stabbing death of a Barnard College freshman who was approached in a park by as many as three youths as she ventured from her New York City campus on the eve of final exams.

The arrest of such a young suspect added another tragic element to the slaying of 18-year-old Tessa Majors, a case that has troubled city and campus leaders.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear President Donald Trump’s pleas to keep his tax, bank and financial records private, a major confrontation between the president and Congress that also could affect the 2020 presidential campaign.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats propelled President Donald Trump’s impeachment toward a historic vote by the full U.S. House as the Judiciary Committee on Friday approved charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. It’s the latest major step in the constitutional and political storm that has divided Congress and the nation.

The House is expected to approve the two articles of impeachment next week, before lawmakers depart for the holidays.

Washington, Dec 13 (AFP/PTI) The United States has announced a pause in talks with the Taliban after an attack near a US airbase in Afghanistan.

"When I met the Talibs today, I expressed outrage about yesterday's attack on Bagram, which recklessly killed two and wounded dozens of civilians," US special representative for Afghanistan peace talks Zalmay Khalilzad said on Twitter on Thursday.

"#Taliban must show they are willing & able to respond to Afghan desire for peace," he tweeted.