North America

NEW YORK (AP) — The unwritten rules that have so far prevented the Democratic presidential contest from devolving into all-out conflict are about to be tested.

The early front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, has so far fended off the relatively gentle wrath of his rivals. The shortcomings of his most ambitious opponents like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren have been largely overshadowed. And the fiery concerns of lesser-known candidates, such as former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, have been all but ignored.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he wants to build a global coalition against Iran during urgent consultations in the Middle East, following a week of crisis that saw the United States pull back from the brink of a military strike on Iran.

LOS ANGELES, June 22 (Xinhua) -- NASA InSight lander's mission team started new efforts on Saturday to try to get InSight's heat probe digging again on Mars, said the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

InSight, a Mars lander designed to study the inner space of the planet, uses advanced instruments such as seismometer and heat-flow probe to collect preliminary data.

The heat probe, also known as the "mole," can dig below the Martian surface and measure the heat coming from inside the red planet.

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Xinhua) -- President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States would impose major additional sanctions against Iran on Monday.

"We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday," Trump tweeted on Saturday, without providing any other details.

"Iran cannot have Nuclear Weapons!" he stressed in the same tweet.

Before leaving for Camp David earlier in the day, Trump told reporters that additional sanctions would be moving forward against Iran, with some being implemented "slowly" and some "more rapidly."

LOS ANGELES, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Authorities confirmed on Saturday 11 people died after a twin-engine aircraft carrying skydivers crashed near an airfield on the Hawaiian island of Oahu Friday night.

The Hawaii Department of Transportation initially said first responders reported six deaths. The death toll rose to nine on Friday night and to 11 as of Saturday.

"There were 11 people on board the plane that went down soon after takeoff from Dillingham Airfield with no survivors," the department tweeted on Saturday afternoon.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A rookie Sacramento police officer who died during a domestic violence call was ambushed by a gunman and had no chance of surviving after she was shot, police said.

The disclosure came late Friday amid criticism that it took police 45 minutes to get to 26-year-old rookie Officer Tara O’Sullivan during the armed standoff.

O’Sullivan was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

TRENTON, N.C. (AP) — Nine months after Hurricane Florence inundated much of eastern North Carolina, the tiny town of Trenton is still struggling to rebuild as a new hurricane season begins.

The Jones County courthouse and jail have yet to reopen. Judges hear cases in county office buildings and inmates are housed in another county. Even the mayor has yet to move back into her house, because construction workers are in short supply.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Greek Orthodox church of the United States, a far-flung denomination of 1.5-million members, on Saturday installed its first new leader in 20 years — a lifelong European whose top priority is completing construction of a shrine in New York City linked to the Sept. 11 attacks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Saturday unveiled a $50 billion Palestinian investment and infrastructure proposal intended to be the economic engine to power its much-anticipated but still unreleased “deal of the century” Middle East peace plan.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The self-avowed white supremacist who plowed his car into counterdemonstrators opposing a white nationalist rally in Virginia two years ago, killing one person and injuring dozens, has asked a judge for mercy and a sentence shorter than life in prison.

Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr., 22, said in a sentencing memo submitted in court documents Friday that the defendant should not spend his entire life in prison because of his age, a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness.