North America

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday informed the General Assembly of his intention to appoint Inger Andersen of Denmark as the new head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), his press office said.

Andersen is currently serving as director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a post she has held since 2015. She previously held various leadership positions at the World Bank and the United Nations, most recently as World Bank vice president for the Middle East and North Africa.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday required European allies to take back 800 Islamic State (IS) militants arrested in Syria after the U.S. withdrawal.

"The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial," Trump tweeted late Saturday.

Trump said it was time "for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing" after the U.S. had expended plenty of resources in Syria.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert withdrew herself from consideration for the nomination of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN), the department said in a statement on Saturday.

President Donald Trump will make an announcement on the issue "soon," the statement said.

WASHINGTON; 16 Feb 2019; AA: The U.S. on Friday announced it would be delivering $60 million dollars in humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh in order to help the nearly one million refugees in the country, the majority of whom are Rohingya.

Part of the aid offered by the U.S. will include emergency shelter, food, water, sanitation, health care, psychosocial support and education, according to the State Department.

United Nations, Feb 16 (PTI) A "peaceful and just solution" to the longstanding Israel-Palestine conflict can only be achieved through creation of two States living side-by-side in peace and security, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said, asserting that there is no plan B.

Washington, Feb 16 (PTI) Exuding confidence ahead of his high-profile meeting with Kim Jong-un later this month, US President Donald Trump has said the second summit will be a "very successful one" as he has established a "very good" relationship with the North Korean leader.

President Trump and Chairman Kim are scheduled to meet in Hanoi, Vietnam on February 27 and 28.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a year in space put astronaut Scott Kelly’s immune system on high alert and changed the activity of some of his genes compared to his Earth-bound identical twin, researchers said Friday.

Scientists don’t know if the changes were good or bad but results from a unique NASA twins study are raising new questions for doctors as the space agency aims to send people to Mars.

CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. government will lead an ambitious effort to develop technologies to recycle lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles, cellphones and other sources to ensure a reliable and affordable supply of metals crucial to battery production in anticipation of soaring global demand and potential shortages, Department of Energy officials said Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he will nominate a former Alabama official to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jeffrey Byard held several positions with the Alabama Emergency Management Agency before he joined FEMA in 2017 during the agency’s response to Hurricanes Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida. Byard is currently the associate administrator for the Office of Response and Recovery.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The U.S. government has suddenly stopped force-feeding a group of men on a hunger strike inside an El Paso immigration detention center, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

The dramatic reversal came Thursday as public pressure was mounting on ICE to halt the practice, which involves feeding detainees through nasal tubes against their will. Last week, the United Nations human rights office said the force-feeding of Indian hunger strikers at the facility could violate the U.N. Convention Against Torture.