North America

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- China's economic growth target for this year will allow policy makers to focus on improving the quality of growth, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokesman said Thursday.

"As China shifts the economic model from less export orientation to more domestic consumption, (in regards to) the quality quantity issue, this is an appropriate step," Gerry Rice, director of the IMF's communications department, said at a press briefing.

Rice told Xinhua the resetting of the growth target will also help avoid creating too much debt.

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, was sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for tax and bank fraud on Thursday, much shorter than it had been expected.

LOS ANGELES, March 7 (Xinhua) -- A federal judge based in Los Angeles Thursday dismissed adult-film actress Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against U.S. President Donald Trump over a hush-money settlement, which was alleged by Daniels to cover her affair with Trump in 2016.

In a 14 pages order, Central District of California Judge S. James Otero ruled that the suit was irrelevant after Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen agreed to rescind a non-disparagement agreement that Daniels signed in exchange for a 130,000 U.S. dollars payment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, turned over documents to lawmakers Wednesday as he tried to back up his claims that a false statement he delivered to Congress in 2017 was edited by the president’s attorneys, two people familiar with the case said.

It’s unclear who edited the documents or what exactly was changed.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Border agents have been told to explicitly target Spanish speakers and migrants from Latin America in carrying out a Trump administration program requiring asylum seekers wait in Mexico, according to memos obtained by The Associated Press that reveal some inner workings of a top government priority to address the burgeoning number of Central Americans arriving in the country.

07 Mar 2019; AFP: Arizona Senator Martha McSally, the first woman to fly in combat for the US Air Force, said Wednesday that she had been raped by a superior officer while in the service.

McSally, 52, who spent 26 years in the Air Force and commanded a fighter squadron, revealed the attack in emotional remarks during a Senate subcommittee hearing on sexual assault in the military.

07 Mar 2019; DW: Huawei is disputing a US law before a Texas court in a bid to overturn a security ban against its products, the company's rotating chairman Guo Ping said in a statement on Thursday.

"This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming US consumers," Guo said.

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Democratic Party said Wednesday that it would not allow conservative Fox News to host a presidential primary debate.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement that the news channel had an "inappropriate relationship" with the Trump administration which led him to make the decision.

UNITED NATIONS, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss the latest findings by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of the chemical weapon use in Syria.

The report from the UN-backed watchdog concluded, based on its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) assessment, that there were "reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place, on 7 April," during the battle for control of Eastern Ghouta.

NEW YORK, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The United States will see its annual economic growth decline to about 2 percent this year and slower growth is just a "new normal," New York Fed President John Williams said on Wednesday.

A downturn in global growth, heightened geopolitical uncertainty and the effects of tighter financial conditions are the three constraining factors that will contribute to the slower pace this year, the central bank official said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York.