North America

WASHINGTON, May 11. /TASS/: The Russian citizen Maria Butina, who is currently serving a prison sentence in the US for espionage, has been transferred from the jail in Alexandria, Virginia, where she has stayed until now, her attorney Robert Driscoll told TASS on Friday.

"I have contacted the prison authorities, she is not there. Where she has been transferred is anybody’s guess so far," he said.

The US Federal Bureau of Prisons told TASS earlier that Butina would stay at a detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, and would be released from custody on November 5, 2019.

WASHINGTON, May 11. /TASS/: The United States has decided to move a Patriot long-range all-weather air defense system battery and USS Arlington to the United States’ Central Command (CENTCOM) zone of authority, which primarily contains the Middle East and Central Asia, the Pentagon’s press service said in a statement on Friday.

"The Acting Secretary of Defense (Patrick Shanahan) has approved the movement of USS Arlington (LPD-24) and a Patriot battery to US Central Command (CENTCOM) as part of the command’s original request for forces from earlier this week," the statement said.

UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (APP): The United States is crafting a surrender document, not a peace plan, and the Palestinians will not accept it regardless of how much money is offered, Palestine’s Foreign Minister Riyad al Maliki has said.

Maliki was addressing an Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council at which the United States’ Middle East peace negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, was present ahead of the release of the US plan aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (APP): Top executives from across the United Nations system have called for more action on part of member states to mitigate the existential threat posed by climate change, saying doing so was a “moral, ethical and economic imperative”.

New York, May 11, IRNA – Assistant Director for National Security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Frank von Hippel criticized US President Donald Trump's approach towards Iran and told IRNA that it will bear reverse results.

11 May 2019; DW: US President Donald Trump said Friday that North Korea's recent missile tests were not a "breach of trust."

"They're short-range and I don't consider that a breach of trust at all. And, you know, at some point I may. But at this point no," he said in an interview with Politico.

"These were short-range missiles and very standard stuff. Very standard."

Washington, May 10; PTI/GANASHAKTI: The US Air Force released images of B-52 Stratofortress bombers landing in Qatar. The deployment is part of a larger US military build-up in the region touted as a countermeasure to an unspecified threat from Iran.

The strategic bombers arrived at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Thursday night, the Air Force said. They were provided by the 20th Bomb Squadron of Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Other B-52s were moved to an unspecified location in “southwest Asia,” the statement said.

Washington, May 11 (PTI) United States President Donald Trump has ordered his top officials to begin the process to raise tariffs on almost all the imports from China, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Friday.

This amounts to about USD300 billion. This is in addition to the Chinese imports worth USD200 billion on which Trump increased the import duty from 10 percent to 25 percent, beginning Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump let loose with a morning round of tweets that sugar-coat the consequences of his trade war with China.

Trump minimized the worth of China’s purchases of U.S. goods and services, which support nearly 1 million jobs in the U.S., misstated the trade deficit and ignored the inevitable rise in many costs to consumers when imports are heavily taxed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee says special counsel Robert Mueller won’t appear before his panel next week, despite the committee’s hope that Mueller would testify May 15.

New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler said Friday that negotiations continue with Mueller and the Justice Department about the testimony. He wouldn’t characterize those talks.

Nadler said he expects Mueller to appear, and if he won’t agree the committee will attempt to compel him.

“If necessary we’ll subpoena him and he’ll come,” Nadler said.