USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden will compete for TV audiences in dueling town hall meetings instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned.

The two will take questions in different cities on different networks Thursday night: Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia. Trump backed out of plans for the presidential faceoff originally scheduled for the evening after debate organizers shifted the format to a virtual event following Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 14 (APP): The World Health Organization (WHO), has called for urgent action and funding to sustain progress in the global fight against tuberculosis (TB), warning that global targets for prevention and treatment “will likely be missed”.

Although TB cases fell by 9 per cent and deaths by 14 per cent between 2015 and 2019, access to TB services remains a challenge, according to WHO, a UN agency based in Geneva.

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The UN General Assembly voted Tuesday to elect a new tranche of 15 Human Rights Council (HRC) members, including China, Cuba and Russia.

Anadolu Agency (AA) reported that the trio of countries won seats over objections from critics who challenge their rights records. 

It said Cuba and Russia were shoe-ins for the spots after running without a sufficient number of challengers in the regional groups established by the UN to open the possibility that they would not claim victory.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had a productive discussion about coronavirus relief proposals on Wednesday, but the administration’s lack of a national strategic testing plan remains a “major area of disagreement,” a Pelosi spokesman said.

“In response to proposals sent over the weekend, the two spent time seeking clarification on language, which was productive,” Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff for the California Democrat, said on Twitter, noting that Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke for about an hour.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Wednesday sought to allay fears raised by Democrats at her Senate confirmation hearing that she would be an automatic vote to strike down the Obamacare healthcare law, promising an “open mind” in approaching the case.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- China has returned to a post-COVID-19 new normal, which is "nearly unthinkable," according to U.S. media.

In a report on Sunday, CBS News said that from morning tai-chi at various gardens to lunch crush in central business districts in China, the "sheer normalcy" of it all makes it seem as if the coronavirus never happened at all.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has extended the deadline for registering to vote in Virginia by 48 hours after the state’s online voter registration system went down because of an accidentally severed cable.

Wednesday’s order by U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr. in Richmond is an effort to make up for several hours of lost time on Tuesday, which had been the last day to register before the November general election.

The shutdown of the state’s website caused “a tremendous harm” to the people who want to register to vote, Gibney said.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — For anxiety over voting and ballot counting in this year’s presidential election, it’s hard to top Pennsylvania.

Election officials in Philadelphia, home to one-fifth of the state’s Democratic voters, have been sued by President Donald Trump’s campaign, blasted by the president as overseeing a place “where bad things happen” and forced to explain security measures after a theft from a warehouse full of election equipment.

(AP) --- The World Bank has approved $12 billion in financing to help developing countries buy and distribute coronavirus vaccines, tests, and treatments, aiming to support the vaccination of up to 1 billion people.

The $12 billion “envelope” is part of a wider World Bank Group package of up to $160 billion to help developing countries fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank said in a statement late Tuesday.

The World Bank said its COVID-19 emergency response programs are already reaching 111 countries.

14 Oct 2020; MEMO: Washington called on Iraqi factions to surrender their weapons to the government in Baghdad, following the Hezbollah Brigade’s announcement that it would suspend attacks on US forces in the country.

The US Department of State told Al Jazeera that America urged all armed parties in Iraq to act responsibly and surrender their weapons to the government, adding that the actions of “Iraqi militias” jeopardises the government’s attempts to attract international investment.