USA

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 02 (APP): United Nations Special Envoy Martin Griffiths on Friday condemned as “despicable” the attack on Yemen’s newly formed government as they arrived at the country’s Aden airport on Wednesday, saying it may amount to a war crime.

“Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law”, Griffiths said on Friday. “A transgression of such magnitude potentially amounts to a war crime”.

NEW YORK, Jan 02 (APP): A Pakistani-American doctor has given nearly 200 patients a Christmas gift that he hoped would make their lives “a little bit easier”, erasing their more than half a million dollars in medical debt, according to media reports.

Dr. Omar Atiq, who founded a cancer clinic in 1991 in Pine Bluff in the U.S. state of Arkansas, sent out a notice to his patients just days before Dec. 25 saying “the clinic has decided to forego all balances owed to the clinic by its patients,” according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Washington, Jan 2 (AP-PTI) Federal appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The ruling, handed down on Friday by a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, concluded that a lower court judge erred when he vacated Lisa Montgomery's execution date in an order last week.

Washington, Jan 2 (AP-PTI) Congress has overridden President Donald Trump's veto of a defense policy bill, a first by lawmakers since he took office nearly four years ago.

In an extraordinary New Year's Day session, the Republican-controlled Senate easily turned aside the veto, dismissing Trump's objections to the USD 740 billion bill and handing him a stinging rebuke just weeks before his term ends.

Trump had lashed out at GOP lawmakers on Twitter, charging earlier this week that

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday unveiled a package of ethics and legislative reforms for the new Congress set to convene Sunday, including barring former lawmakers convicted of federal crimes from the House floor.

Democrats are set to hold a narrower 222-211 in the 435-member House during the 117th Congress, with one vacancy and one race undecided.

Pelosi said the reforms “will make the House more accountable, transparent and effective in our work to meet the needs of the American people.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes rose in 2020 to 299 worldwide, even as the number of crashes fell by more than 50%, a Dutch consulting firm said on Friday.

Aviation consulting firm To70 said in 2020 there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities. In 2019 there were 86 accidents, eight of which were fatal, resulting in 257 fatalities.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 20 million on Friday as the discovery of a highly contagious new virus strain in the country increases pressure to speed up the vaccination process.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors in the case against the four Minneapolis officers charged in the death of George Floyd requested that the trial delayed by three months.

The Star Tribune reports prosecutors cited the COVID-19 pandemic and the amount of time needed before enough people are vaccinated and health risks are sufficiently diminished.

The trial has been scheduled for March 8 for the four now-fired police officers charged in the death of Floyd on May 25 while he was forcibly detained on a south Minneapolis street corner.

CHICAGO (AP) — The number of homicides and shootings in Chicago spiked dramatically in 2020, ending with more bloodshed than in all but one year in more than two decades, statistics released by police on Friday revealed.

After three years of falling homicide totals, 2020 ended with 769 homicides — 274 more than the previous year and the most since the 784 homicides in 2016. The latest shooting victim figures told the same story, with the year ending with 4,033 shooting victims compared with 2,598 the year before.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday dismissed a last-gasp lawsuit led by a House Republican that aimed to give Vice President Mike Pence the power to overturn the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden when Congress formally counts the Electoral College votes next week.

Pence, as president of the Senate, will oversee the session Wednesday and declare the winner of the White House race. The Electoral College this month cemented Biden’s 306-232 victory, and multiple legal efforts by President Donald Trump’s campaign to challenge the results have failed.