North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — A State Department official told impeachment investigators Friday that he overheard President Donald Trump talking with a U.S. ambassador about “investigations” in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the testimony.

David Holmes, the political counsel at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, said Trump was talking so loudly that Ambassador Gordon Sondland had to hold the phone from his ear.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 15 (APP): Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, on Wednesday had wide-ranging discussions with the United Nations General Assembly President, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, that centred on the worsening situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir which has been under a repressive military lockdown for over four months now.

NEW YORK, Nov 15 (APP): India is seeing its freedoms erode under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “increasingly autocratic rule” as “illiberal” rulers are undermining democracy from Poland to the Philippines, according to an opinion piece in an influential American newspaper.

Writing in the Washington Post, author and columnist Max Boot targeted Modi, enumerating his high-handed actions and spotlighting some failed policies.

Pointing out that Modi was first elected in 2014 on a promise to boost India’s economic growth, the author said that his “reforms have been a bust”.

TASS, November 15: The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has purchased $3.9-billion worth of seats from Russia to transport its astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) since July 2011, says NASA Inspector General Paul Martin’s report published on NASA official website on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, November 15. /TASS/: US and Russian officials have held the 18th session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in Geneva, the press service of the US Department of State said on Thursday.

"The eighteenth session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission under the U.S.-Russia New START Treaty was held in Geneva from November 6-13, 2019," the press service said.

THE UNITED NATIONS, November 15. /TASS/: Illegal military presence of the United States in Syria should be stopped despite their interest in oil deposits, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said at the UN Security Council session on Thursday.

15 November 2019; AFP: Discredit the witnesses, dismiss the accusations against President Donald Trump as hearsay, shift the focus to the Bidens, unmask the whistleblower.

The outlines of the White House defense are clear after Day One of the impeachment hearings in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.

Trump claimed he was "too busy" to watch the first round of public hearings that could see him potentially removed from office for abuse of power.

15 Nov 2019; MEMO: UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard on Thursday sharply criticized German and French leaders for their “cowardly” silence on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Anadolu Agency reports.

“This incident [Khashoggi’s murder] has demonstrated us the cowardice of the international community,” Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, told internet portal Business Insider.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A school shooter who was 14 when he killed a first grader on a school playground in South Carolina after killing his father in their home was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole.

Jesse Osborne targeted Townville Elementary School because he had spent seven years there. Prosecutors, who pushed for the life sentence, said the teen was familiar with the classroom layout and knew there was no police officer on campus.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — About 50 shoppers lined up early Thursday ahead of the reopening of a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that had been closed since August, when a gunman police say was targeting Mexicans opened fire in the store and killed 22 people.

On the day of the attack, Walmart didn’t have a security guard on duty. But as the doors opened to the public for the first time in three months and shoppers streamed into the renovated space, they passed dozens of sheriff’s deputies, security guards and store employees.