USA

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The FBI investigation into whether the Nashville bombing was a terrorist act has sparked criticism about a possible racial double standard and drawn questions from downtown business owners whose insurance coverage could be affected by the bureau’s assessment.

(AP) --- The U.S. could soon be giving at least a million COVID-19 vaccinations a day despite the sluggish start, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday, even as he warned of a dangerous next few weeks as the coronavirus surges.

The slow pace is frustrating health officials and a desperate public alike, with only about a third of the first supplies shipped to states used as of Tuesday morning, just over three weeks into the vaccination campaign.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans mounting an unprecedented challenge to Joe Biden’s election win are setting up a congressional showdown on Wednesday that threatens to divide their party and the country for years to come.

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin prosecutor declined Tuesday to file charges against a white police officer who shot a Black man in the back in Kenosha, concluding he couldn’t disprove the officer’s contention that he acted in self-defense because he feared the man would stab him.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia officials counted the final votes of the nation’s turbulent 2020 election season early Wednesday as polls closed in two critical races that will determine control of the U.S. Senate and, in turn, the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

The two Senate runoff elections are leftovers from the November general election, when none of the candidates hit the 50% threshold. Democrats need to win both races to seize the Senate majority — and, with it, control of the new Congress when Biden takes office in two weeks.

NEW YORK, Jan 05 (APP): A prominent Kashmiri advocacy organization has strongly condemned India’s occupation of Kashmir, and hoped that the incoming Biden administration would champion the Kashmiri people’s cause for the exercise of their United Nations-pledged right of self-determination.

“Seventy three years of oppression and terror have not weakened the Kashmiri peoples’ commitment to self-determination,” the World Kashmir Awareness Forum, which is based in Washington, said in a statement marking Kashmiris’ Right to Self-determination Day being observed on Tuesday.

NEW YORK, Jan 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines shipped within the United States have so far gone unused, US health officials said, as the governors of New York and Florida vowed to penalise hospitals that fail to dispense shots quickly enough.

In New York, hospitals must administer vaccines within a week of receiving them or face a fine and a reduction in future supplies, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, hours before announcing the state’s first known case of a new, more infectious coronavirus variant originally detected in Britain.

Washington, Jan 5 (PTI) US President-elect Joe Biden has blasted Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the November 3 election result, saying the outgoing president spends most of his time "whining and complaining" rather than doing "the work" of his office.

Trump, a Republican, is yet to concede the elections and has filed several lawsuits challenging the presidential poll result that gave Biden, a Democrat the required Electoral College votes to be the 46th US President.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway on Monday began to assume responsibilities as non-permanent members of the Security Council.

Their two-year term officially started on Jan. 1. But Monday is the first working day of the council for 2021 after the Christmas and New Year break.

A flag installation ceremony was held at noon to mark the start of their responsibilities.

NEW YORK, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. state of New York on Monday confirmed its first case of a new coronavirus variant that was first identified in Britain and appears to be more contagious, making it the fourth state to report the strain.

"An individual from Saratoga County, New York, tested positive for the strain. The individual had no known travel history," said Governor Andrew Cuomo in his tweet.