USA

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — A prosecutor said Friday that Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel will not face a second trial in the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley, an announcement that came 45 years to the day after the teenager was bludgeoned to death in her wealthy Connecticut neighborhood.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart has reversed course, announcing it is returning ammunition and firearms to their displays in its U.S. stores.

On Thursday the nation’s largest retailer said it had removed the items from displays due to “civil unrest” in some areas of the country. Guns and ammunition, however, had remained for sale at the stores, just not visible to shoppers.

But on Friday Walmart said the items had been restored to displays because the unrest has remained isolated.

BOSTON (AP) — Russian interference has been minimal so far in the most tempestuous U.S. presidential election in decades. But that doesn’t mean the Kremlin can’t inflict serious damage. The vulnerability of state and local government networks is a big worry.

One troubling wildcard is the potential for the kind of ransomware attacks now affecting U.S. hospitals. Russian-speaking cybercriminals are demanding ransoms to unscramble data they’ve locked up. It’s uncertain whether they are affiliated with the Kremlin or if the attacks are timed to coincide with the election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 86 million Americans have already voted in the presidential election, but President Donald Trump thinks he can count on one hand the votes that will determine the outcome.

“I think this will end up in the Supreme Court,” Trump said last month of the election.

The justices have already tackled issues involving voting in more than half a dozen states. On Friday, the president on Twitter sharply criticized their decision involving an extended deadline for receiving mailed-in ballots in North Carolina as “CRAZY and so bad for our Country.”

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — A 17-year-old from Illinois accused of killing two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been extradited to stand trial on homicide charges, with sheriff’s deputies in Illinois handing him over to their counterparts in Wisconsin shortly after a judge on Friday approved the contested extradition.

In his afternoon ruling that rejected Kyle Rittenhouse’s bid to remain in Illinois, Judge Paul Novak noted that defense attorneys had characterized the Wisconsin charges as politically motivated.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court isn’t the nation’s only judicial battleground.

The high courts in a number of states are on the ballot Tuesday in races that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats have a majority, and the stakes are high for both sides. This year alone, state supreme courts have been thrust into the spotlight to decide politically charged cases over voting rights, race and governors’ coronavirus orders.

Next year, it could be abortion, health care and redistricting.

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Joe Biden enters the final weekend of the presidential campaign with an intense focus on appealing to Black voters whose support will be critical in his bid to defeat President Donald Trump.

The Democratic presidential nominee is teaming up with his former boss, Barack Obama, for a swing through Michigan on Saturday. They’ll hold drive-in rallies in Flint and Detroit, predominantly Black cities where strong turnout will be essential to return this longtime Democratic state to Biden’s column after Trump won here in 2016.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Even as a new surge of coronavirus infections sweeps the U.S., officials in many hard-hit states are resisting taking stronger action to slow the spread, with pleas from health experts running up against political calculation and public fatigue.

Days before a presidential election that has spotlighted President Donald Trump’s scattershot response to the pandemic, the virus continued its resurgence Friday, with total confirmed cases in the U.S. surpassing 9 million.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 30 (APP): The President of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan, Thursday called for the application of advanced technologies in order to “build back better from the wreckage of the coronavirus crisis” to a more sustainable future.

“While coronavirus virus is inflicting unprecedented sufferings on human beings;

it is science and technology that is maintaining business continuity and striving to provide a possible cure from the pandemic,

WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (NNN-YONHAP) — U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged Friday to strengthen the alliance with South Korea, rather than “extorting Seoul with reckless threats to remove our troops,” and keep pressing toward North Korea’s denuclearization through “principled diplomacy.”

Biden made the pledge in a special article contributed exclusively to Yonhap News Agency just days ahead of the U.S. presidential election, reciting the catch phrase of the Korea-U.S. alliance, “Katchi Kapshida,” or “We Go Together.”