North America

WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) — A home’s multilevel deck collapsed Saturday evening at the Jersey Shore during an event weekend, trapping people and injuring at least 22, including some children, officials said. No deaths were reported.

The collapse happened around 6 p.m. Saturday in Wildwood during the annual New Jersey Firemen’s Convention.

It was unclear how many people were on or under the decks at the time, or how many were firefighters, but authorities said those who were trapped were quickly removed.

NEW YOKR, September 14. /TASS/: US astronomers made the first multicolor image of the first-ever interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), discovered by an amateur astronomer from Crimea, the US-based Gemini observatory said in a statement.

The comet was observed on the night of 9-10 September using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini North Telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea sleeping volcano.

14 September 2019; AFP: The devastated northern Bahama islands were facing a fresh tropical storm on Saturday, potentially complicating desperately needed relief efforts to the shattered archipelago in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.

The announcement from the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) came after it had warned early Friday that a strengthening tropical depression was heading for the same islands hit by Dorian last week.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration’s decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who shot to global fame for inspiring worldwide student strikes to promote action against climate change, took her mission to U.S. President Donald Trump’s doorstep on Friday with a protest outside the White House.

Thunberg, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt with her hair loosely pulled back in a ponytail, was greeted with a hero’s welcome by hundreds of mostly young people carrying signs reading “People or Profit?” and “Warming!”, and chanting “This is a crisis, act like it!” and “Business as usual is not enough.”

14 Sep 2019; MEMO: US Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Friday he will meet the new Saudi energy minister on Monday and likely discuss plans the kingdom has to build nuclear reactors, reports Reuters.

Perry did not say where he would meet Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who took over from Khalid al-Falih on Sunday. But a US official said the meeting would likely take place on the sidelines of an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna next week.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Some 65 percent of U.S. chief financial officers (CFOs) believe that U.S. trade policy will be negative for their businesses over the next six months, a new survey released on Friday showed.

Thirty-five percent of CFOs cited U.S. trade policy as the "biggest external risk factor," more than double the second biggest risk highlighted -- consumer demand, according to the latest quarterly CNBC Global CFO Council survey.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- A surge in inter-communal violence is worsening humanitarian conditions in Mali and 3.8 million people there need humanitarian assistance, spokesman for United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Friday.

The number of people needing humanitarian assistance has increased by 22 percent since the beginning of the year, and currently one in five Malian people is dependent on international aid for survival, Stephane Dujarric told a regularly briefing.

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The U.S. Treasury on Friday announced sanctions on three North Korean hacking groups it said were involved in the “WannaCry” ransomware attacks and hacking of international banks and customer accounts.

It named the groups as Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff, and Andariel and said they were controlled by the RGB, North Korea’s primary intelligence bureau, which is already subject to U.S. and United Nations sanctions.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal investigators identified a violation of Coast Guard regulations that could trigger criminal charges in the California dive boat disaster that killed 34 people.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that all crew members on the boat Conception were asleep when the pre-dawn fire broke out Sept. 2 off the coast of Santa Barbara. The boat was required to have a crew member on lookout duty, according to Coast Guard rules.