USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials say they will allow operators to fly small drones over people and at night, potentially giving a boost to commercial use of the machines.

Most drones will need to be equipped so they can be identified remotely by law enforcement officials.

The final rules announced Monday by the Federal Aviation Administration “get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations such as the delivery of packages,” said FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House voted overwhelmingly to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a defense policy bill, setting the stage for what would be the first veto override of his presidency.

House members voted 322-87 on Monday to override the veto, well above the two-thirds needed to override. The Senate, which is expected to vote on the override this week, also needs to approve it by a two-thirds majority.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A white Ohio police officer was fired Monday after bodycam footage showed him fatally shooting 47-year-old Andre Hill — a Black man who was holding a cellphone — and failing to administer first aid for several minutes.

Columbus police officer Adam Coy was fired hours after a hearing was held to determine his employment, Columbus Public Safety Director Ned Pettus Jr. said in a statement.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is warning of massive damage done to the national security apparatus by the Trump administration and “roadblocks” in communication between agency officials and his transition team that could undermine Americans’ security.

During remarks Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said his team has faced “obstruction” from the “political leadership” at the Defense Department and the Office of Management and Budget as they’ve sought to gather necessary information to continue the transition of power.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — In the days before he detonated a bomb in downtown Nashville on Christmas, Anthony Quinn Warner changed his life in ways that suggest he never intended to survive the blast that killed him and wounded three other people.

Warner, 63, gave away his car, telling the recipient that he had cancer. A month before the bombing, he signed a document that transferred his longtime home in a Nashville suburb to a California woman for nothing in return. The computer consultant told an employer that he was retiring.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks now rests with the Senate after the House voted overwhelmingly to meet the president’s demand to increase the $600 stipends, but Republicans have shown little interest in boosting spending.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 28 (APP): The UN General Assembly President, Volkan Bozkir, has condemned Saturday’s terrorist attack on a Pakistani Frontier Corps post in Balochistan in which seven soldiers were martyred.

“I express my condolences to the people and the Government of Pakistan today,” he said in a tweet on Sunday.

The terrorists raided the FC post located in Shahrag area of Harnai late on Saturday, according to media reports.

NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) - With the passage of time, Americans are less familiar with two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes, but if they are made aware of those disasters, more than half say they would probably avoid the aircraft, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.

The poll results, released on Dec. 28, a day before the 737 MAX resumes commercial flights in the United States, found that 39% of adults were familiar with the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 versus about half in a previous poll.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The United States has witnessed more COVID-19 deaths in December than in any other month since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to a latest report of The COVID Tracking Project.

"December is already the deadliest month since the beginning of the pandemic in the United States," said a weekly report of the tracking project.

The report came as the country continues to see surges in cases, deaths and hospitalizations nationwide.

NEW YORK, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 19 million on Sunday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. COVID-19 case count rose to 19,000,572, with a total of 332,145 deaths, as of 11:22 a.m. local time (1622 GMT), according to the CSSE tally.