North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats moved aggressively to draw up formal articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Thursday, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying he “leaves us no choice” but to act swiftly because he’s likely to corrupt the system again unless removed before next year’s election.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 05 (APP): Despite exceptional headway globally in fighting malaria in the last decade, the progress has slowed in recent years and critical targets will likely be missed, according to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency, on Wednesday.

“We’re seeing encouraging signs, but the burden of suffering and death caused by malaria is unacceptable, because it is largely preventable”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), the agency behind the World malaria report 2019.

NEW YORK, Dec 05 (APP): The people of Kashmir, whose access to the Internet was blocked by the Indian government four months ago, are gradually losing their WhatsApp accounts one by one as a result of its parent company Facebook policy on inactive users, according to media reports.

“On Wednesday, Kashmiris began disappearing from WhatsApp…”, BuzzFeed News, an American news website, reported.

5 December 2019; AFP: Three constitutional scholars on Wednesday bolstered Democrats' case for impeaching Donald Trump by saying the president's actions seeking foreign interference in US elections were clear grounds for removal, as the inquiry kicked into high gear in Congress.

But reflecting the Washington political divide, a fourth expert strongly dissented, saying there was "woefully inadequate" evidence that Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors necessary for removal.

05 Dec 2019; MEMO: The world has not done enough to ensure justice is done over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a United Nations (UN) investigator said on Tuesday.

Agnes Callamard, UN’s rapporteur for extrajudicial executions, called for more action from the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) over Khashoggi’s murder by the Saudi operatives at Riyadh’s consulate in Turkey’s Istanbul in 2018.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has urged all countries to suspend the introduction of digital service taxes as nations work towards a multilateral deal on international taxation.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee took over a months-long impeachment proceeding into U.S. President Donald Trump by holding its first hearing on Wednesday.

After opening remarks by Chairman Jerry Nadler and Ranking Member Doug Collins, four constitutional law professors, three chosen by Democrats and the other invited by Republicans, provided testimony to the panel and took questions from lawyers and lawmakers of both parties.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Navy warship has seized a “significant cache” of suspected Iranian guided missile parts headed to rebels in Yemen, U.S. officials said Wednesday, marking the first time that such sophisticated components have been taken en route to the war there.

The seizure from a small boat by the U.S. Navy and a U.S. Coast Guard boarding team happened last Wednesday in the northern Arabian Sea, and the weapons have been linked to Iran.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — France, Germany and the United Kingdom say “Iran’s developments of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles” go against a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Tehran not to undertake any activity related to such missiles.

Ambassadors from the three European nations urged U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a letter circulated Wednesday to inform the council in his next report that Iran’s ballistic missile activity is “inconsistent” with the call in a council resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

USA (AP) --- Kamala Harris cloaked her presidential campaign in the promise of becoming the first black woman in the White House. That wasn’t enough for donors and supporters, including black voters.

The California senator abruptly withdrew from the race on Tuesday after her once-promising campaign failed to coalesce around a message that would resonate with voters. And without clear support from voters, Harris couldn’t raise the money needed to keep going.