USA

Philadelphia (US), Nov 12 (AP/PTI) During a Pennsylvania court hearing this week on one of the many election lawsuits brought by President Donald Trump, a judge asked a campaign lawyer whether he had found any signs of fraud from among the 592 ballots challenged.

The answer was no.

Accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step, said the lawyer, Jonathan Goldstein. We're all just trying to get an election done.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Eta dumped torrents of blustery rain on Florida’s west coast as it marched over the Gulf of Mexico toward an expected landfall north of the heavily populated Tampa Bay area.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted Eta would slog ashore sometime Thursday and then move northeast across Florida as it loses strength. Eta briefly gained hurricane strength Wednesday morning, but forecasters said it later weakened to tropical storm status with maximum winds of 70 mph (110 kph).

WASHINGTON (AP) — The words spoken by America’s top military officer carried a familiar ring, but in the midst of a chaotic week at the Pentagon, they were particularly poignant.

“We are unique among militaries,” said Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, a tyrant or a dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump spent 10 minutes in public honoring America’s war veterans — a veneer of normalcy for a White House that’s frozen by a defeated president mulling his options, mostly forgoing the mechanics of governing and blocking his inevitable successor.

Trump’s appearance Wednesday at the annual Veterans Day commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery was his first public outing for official business in more than a week. He’s spent the past few days in private tweeting angry, unsupported claims of voter fraud.

(AP) --- World leaders spoke to President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday about cooperating on the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other issues, even as President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede complicates the U.S. post-election transition.

In his conversations with key Asian allies, Biden seemed intent on easing their uncertainties about a less-engaged Washington, which built up during the four years of Trump’s “America First” approach.

A look at their conversations:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidential race was hovering in limbo in 2000 when outgoing President Bill Clinton decided to let then-Gov. George W. Bush read the ultra-secret daily brief of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence.

Clinton was a Democrat and his vice president, Al Gore, was running against Republican Bush. Gore had been reading the so-called President’s Daily Brief for eight years; Clinton decided to bring Bush into the fold in case he won — and he did.

(AP) --- Texas on Wednesday became the first state with more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and California closed in on that mark as a surge of coronavirus infections engulfs the country.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said all restaurants, bars and gyms statewide will have to close at 10 p.m. starting Friday, a major retreat in a corner of the U.S. that had seemingly brought the virus largely under control months ago. He also barred private gatherings of more than 10 people.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11 (APP): Three Pakistani draft resolutions focusing on regional disarmament were adopted with overwhelming support by the UN General Assembly’s main committee on Tuesday that diplomats here said could lead to the strengthening of international peace and security.

The resolutions dealt with regional disarmament, conventional arms control at regional and sub-regional levels as well as Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) in the regional and sub-regional context.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will further lay the groundwork for his new administration on Wednesday as President Donald Trump pursues a flurry of lawsuits challenging the election results in an effort to cling to power.

Trump has declined to concede, instead lodging unsupported charges of election fraud that have gained little traction. His campaign said on Tuesday it planned to file a lawsuit in Michigan to halt the state from certifying its results, a day after it brought a similar action in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Washington, Nov 11 (PTI) Indian-American Kash Patel has been named as the Chief of Staff to the Acting US Defence Secretary Chris Miller, the Pentagon has announced.

The new appointment from the Pentagon comes a day after Trump fired Defence Secretary Mark Esper and designated the National Counter Terrorism Center Director, Chris Miller, as the Acting Secretary of Defence.