North America

25 June 2019; MEMO: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday called on Houthi rebels to cease attacks on Saudi Arabia after an airport in the country suffered from a drone attack, reports Anadolu Agency.

Pompeo also singled out Iran, who the US accuses of funding and supporting the Houthis, for putting the lives of Americans in Saudi Arabia at risk.

25 June 2019; AFP: US President Donald Trump on Monday once again vigorously denied allegations by a magazine advice columnist that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s in a New York department store dressing room, adding: "She's not my type."

Trump made the comment in an interview with The Hill, a political news outlet, that touched on the allegations from E. Jean Carroll, who says in her new book that the alleged rape occurred in the mid-1990s.

25 June 2019; DW: Several US billionaires have urged candidates running in the 2020 US presidential election to raise taxes on the wealthiest of the wealthy.

25 June 2019; DW: United Nations special rapporteur Yanghee Lee warned that Myanmar's military could be committing rights abuses under the cover of a mobile internet ban in Rakhine and Chin states.

Thousands of troop reinforcements have been deployed to the western region, where ethnic rebels are waging an insurgency for more state autonomy.  

The internet blackout began on June 21 when the government ordered mobile providers to cut data services to nine townships.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 24 (APP): Thousands of relatives of suspected foreign ISIL/Da’esh fighters should be repatriated, the U.N. human rights chief said Monday, adding that children in particular have suffered “grievous violations” of their rights.

“Foreign family members should be repatriated, unless they are to be prosecuted for crimes in accordance with international standards,” Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in her opening speech at the UN Human Rights Council, which started its annual summer session in Geneva.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 (APP): Pakistan proposed a six point plan to address the new manifestations of racism and faith-based hatred especially Islamophobia at a largely-attended forum at UN Headquarters organized by Pakistan with Turkey, the Holy See and the United Nations on Monday.

Other speakers too called for effective steps to counter the challenge posed by the growing phenomenon of faith-based hatred and violence so as to promote peaceful, inclusive and just societies around the world.

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The members of the United Nations Security Council on Monday urged parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint in the Gulf region.

"The Council members urge concerned parties and all countries in the region to exercise maximum restraint and take measures and actions to reduce escalation and end tension," said Kuwaiti UN ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi, who was authorized by the council members to read a statement to reporters.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before returning a guilty verdict Monday in the federal death-penalty trial of a former University of Illinois doctoral student who abducted a visiting Chinese scholar from a bus stop and killed her at his apartment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday targeting Iran’s supreme leader and his associates with financial sanctions, the latest action the U.S. has taken to discourage Tehran from developing nuclear weapons and supporting militant groups.

The sanctions follow Iran’s downing of a more than $100 million U.S. surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump pulled back from the brink of retaliatory military strikes on Iran last week but is continuing his pressure campaign against the nation.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal officials have released their review on removing or changing vegetation over a huge swath of the U.S. West to stop wildfires on land used for cattle ranching, recreation and habitat for imperiled sage grouse.

The work would occur on strips of land up to 165 yards (150 meters) wide and up to 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) long in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Utah, according to an environmental analysis released Friday. It didn’t give specific details on what the impact to the land could be.