North America

ATLANTA (AP) — Watchful eyes now turn to Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, wondering when he might sign a “heartbeat” abortion ban that he supported and helped push through.

The Georgia House gave final approval Friday to legislation outlawing abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, sending the bill to Kemp. If enacted, it’d be among the strictest abortion bans in the U.S.

Signing the toughest abortion law in the country was a campaign pledge of Kemp’s during his run for governor last year.

31 Mar 2019; AP: President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean, a U.S. judge said in a ruling that restored the Obama-era restrictions.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in a decision late Friday threw out Trump’s executive order that overturned the bans that comprised a key part of Obama’s environmental legacy.

30 Mar 2019; DW: Several of the Saudi agents who were involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul last year had received training in the United States, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Post columnist David Ignatius said US and Saudi sources told him that the training occurred before the killing "as part of ongoing liaison" between the US and Saudi Arabia, but that it has since been halted.

ANN ARBOR, the United States, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of experts from a diverse range of fields gathered at the Michigan China Forum on Saturday to share thoughts on China-U.S. relations and probe into cooperation opportunities between the two countries.

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for strengthening efforts to address the root causes of instability and insecurity in Mali.

The root causes should be addressed "through humanitarian aid and support for sustainable development, including programs on climate change mitigation and adaptation," Guterres said at Friday's Security Council meeting on Mali held in New York.

"Security in Mali has an impact on the entire Sahel (region), which, in turn, affects global stability," he said.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Using an airborne telescope on a jetliner, astronomers captured a cosmic light show sparked by the forming stars almost 17,000 light years away.

Learning how massive stars form in our Milky Way Galaxy helps scientists understand how these stars form in distant galaxies that are too far away to see in detail.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States is cutting off aids to three Central American countries, as President Donald Trump kept grumbling at their failure to stop illegal migration up north to his country, said the State Department on Saturday.

The U.S. State Department is "carrying out the President's direction and ending FY (fiscal year) 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle," otherwise known as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, it said in a statement.

29 Mar 2019; AFP: Boeing's MCAS anti-stall system, which was implicated in the October crash of a 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia, was also activated shortly before a recent accident in Ethiopia, a source with knowledge of the investigation said Friday.

The information is part of preliminary findings from the analysis of black boxes from Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, which crashed southeast of Addis Ababa killing 157 people on March 10, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON, March 29. /TASS/. US State Secretary Mike Pompeo has informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Washington’s intention to introduce the second set of sanctions related to the Skripal case in a phone conversation in February, a US official told TASS on Friday.

"As you know, the Secretary of State had a call with Russian FM Lavrov in February and informed him that the United States will be taking CBW Act related action," the official said.

WASHINGTON, March 30. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said he may discuss the situation in Venezuela with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon, Reuters reported on Saturday.

"We will probably be talking at some point," the US leader told reporters at his estate in Florida. "I’ll be talking to a lot of people - perhaps President Putin, perhaps President Xi of China."