North America

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will nominate David Bernhardt, acting secretary of the Department of Interior, to lead the agency.

"David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived," Trump said in a tweet Monday afternoon. "We look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed!"

Bernhardt, 49, would replace Ryan Zinke, who resigned in December amid ethics investigations, if Senate approves his nomination.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon announced Sunday that it is deploying 3,750 more active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border for three months to support border agents.

The deployment will raise the total active duty forces supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to approximately 4,350, according to a statement released by the Pentagon.

"Additional units are being deployed for 90 days, and we will continue to evaluate the force composition required to meet the mission to protect and secure the southern border," the statement said.

Cincinnati, Feb 3 : A sheriff's deputy was shot and killed during a 12-hour standoff at an apartment complex in Ohio that left another deputy wounded and a suspect in custody, authorities said Sunday.

Capt Jeff Sellars of the Clermont County Sheriff's Office said officers responded about 7 pm Saturday to the Royal Oaks Apartments in Pierce Township, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Cincinnati, following a 911 call from a man who said he believed someone was inside his residence.

Yorba Linda, Feb 4 : Five people died and two others were injured after a small plane apparently came apart, raining debris across a Southern California neighbourhood and igniting a house fire before landing in a backyard, authorities said Sunday.

ANKARA; 03 Feb 2019; AA: The Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC) will host an international conference at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City on Feb. 8 and 9.

The two-day conference, with the participation of world renowned scholars, UN envoys, activists and refugees, will call for accountability and protection for national minorities in Burma, also known as Myanmar, the FRC said in a statement on Friday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Rami Malek says working with director Bryan Singer before Singer was fired from “Bohemian Rhapsody” was “not pleasant.”

The actor, nominated for his Freddie Mercury on the Queen biopic, said Friday at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival: “In my situation with Bryan, it was not pleasant, not at all. And that’s about what I can say about it at this point.”

The film earned five Academy Award nominations, including Malek’s best actor nod.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The second in a string of powerful storms battered California on Saturday, shutting key highways after water and mud rushed into lanes from bare hillsides in wildfire burn areas where thousands of residents were under evacuation orders.

Flash flood warnings were issued for huge swaths of Southern California and forecasters said the system brought more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain at lower elevations and several feet of snow in the mountains, where whiteout conditions closed roads.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Resisting widespread calls for his resignation, Virginia’s embattled governor on Saturday pledged to remain in office after disavowing a blatantly racist photograph that appeared under his name in his 1984 medical school yearbook.

In a tumultuous 24 hours, Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday apologized for appearing in a photograph that featured what appeared to be a man in blackface and a second person cloaked in Ku Klux Klan garb. In a video posted on Twitter, he said he could not “undo the harm my behavior caused then and today.”

HAVANA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Saturday called for mobilization to defend Venezuela and "stop the imperialist intervention in Latin America."

"The U.S. government, the true mastermind behind the coup d'etat vs. Venezuela, is threatening to launch a military aggression against that sister nation. It is putting pressure on Europe to become its accomplice," Rodriguez tweeted.

"Let's all mobilize to stop the imperialist intervention in Latin America," he added.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has named Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson as assistant to the president and chief medical adviser, the White House announced Saturday.

The president also nominated Jackson for a promotion to a two-star admiral in the U.S. Navy on Friday.

Jackson, the president's former physician, was tabbed last year to lead the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs before he withdrew after allegations of misconduct and mismanagement during his service in the White House surfaced.