USA

NEW YORK (AP) — The Republican Party still belongs to Donald Trump.

After he incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last month, the GOP considered purging the norm-shattering former president. But in the end, only seven of 50 Senate Republicans voted to convict Trump in his historic second impeachment trial on Saturday.

WASHINGTON, February 12. /TASS/: The US administration is continuing to monitor the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project US Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price said at a briefing for reporters on Friday. He added that unilateral sanctions are only one of among many important tools Washington has.

"We are continuing to monitor activity to complete or to certify the pipeline, and if such activity takes place, we’ll make a determination on the applicability of sanctions," Price said.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British human rights lawyer Karim Khan was elected as the new prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a politically daunting position whose incumbent was slapped with US sanctions.

Khan, 50, previously led a special UN probe into crimes by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremist group in which he pressed for a trial on the lines of Nuremberg for Nazi war criminals.

More controversially, he also represented late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam.

12 Feb 2021; MEMO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced today that he will revoke the designations of Yemen's Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organisation and a specially designated global terrorist group.

Blinken said in a statement that the United States would "closely monitor" Houthi activities and is "actively identifying" new sanctions targets, especially those responsible for attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia.

13 Feb 2021; MEMO: The US State Department announced on Thursday that Jerusalem is subject to final status negotiations.

This came in a press briefing by State Department spokesperson Ned Price, in which he conveyed: "The ultimate status of Jerusalem is, in fact, a final status negotiations issue. This has been a long-standing policy of the United States."

New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) Facebook's Oversight Board has taken up a new case related to a user's post that was shared from a Punjabi-language online platform and contained insinuations against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While the post was initially taken down for violating Facebook's community guidelines, the social media company later restored the content.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Georgia prosecutor plans to examine a phone call between U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and Georgia’s secretary of state as part of a criminal investigation into whether former President Donald Trump or his allies broke state law in trying to influence the results of the election, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will look into the call Graham made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 10 days after the Nov. 3 election, the Post reported, citing an unnamed person familiar with the probe.

Washington, Feb 13 (AP-PTI) The Biden administration is moving to roll back Medicaid work requirements in its latest effort to undo a controversial Trump-era policy.

Federal health officials planned Friday to inform 10 states that they would revoke permissions granted by the Trump administration to impose such requirements, according to a Biden official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans. Officials were also set to withdraw the past administration's invitation for states to apply for approval for work requirements.

DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The governor of Georgia on Friday called on President Joe Biden to overturn a trade ruling made against SK Innovation, saying the decision would hurt the electric vehicle battery maker’s plant being built in the southern state.

Governor Brian Kemp’s request came two days after the U.S. International Trade Commission sided with LG Chem Ltd, which accused SK Innovation of misappropriating trade secrets related to EV battery technology.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday urged finance ministers of Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations to provide more fiscal support to boost the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a virtual meeting with G7 finance ministers and central bank governors earlier in the day, Yellen stressed the importance of providing further fiscal support to promote "a robust and lasting recovery," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.