USA

HOUSTON, Aug 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S. state of New Mexico, has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths in the country, the state’s Department of Health announced yesterday.

The department said, a new study by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at data over four years ending in 2015. Researchers found that people from New Mexico died, related to alcohol, at a rate of 52.3 per 100,000 people. That was almost twice the U.S. average of 27.4.

The state that ranked close to New Mexico was Montana with a death rate of 37.4, said the research.

15 Aug 2020; MEMO: Time is running out to prevent a decaying tanker stranded off the coast of Yemen from dumping its load of 1.1 million barrels of oil into the Red Sea, the UN warned Friday, Anadolu Agency reported.

Miami (US), Aug 15 (AP/PTI) Tropical Storm Kyle was moving away from the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States late Friday as Tropical Storm Josephine continued its crawl toward islands in the Caribbean.

Threats to land appeared to be minimal from both storms, according to the US National Hurricane Centre's 11 pm advisories.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A new ensemble forecast published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has projected up to 200,000 total COVID-19 deaths in the United States by Sept. 5.

The projection published Thursday forecast that 4,200 to 10,600 new COVID-19 deaths will be reported during the week ending Sept. 5 and that 180,000 to 200,000 total COVID-19 deaths will be reported by that date.

(AP) --- Mayo Clinic researchers reported a strong hint that blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors helps other patients recover, but it’s not proof and some experts worry if, amid clamor for the treatment, they’ll ever get a clear answer.

More than 64,000 patients in the U.S. have been given convalescent plasma, a century-old approach to fend off flu and measles before vaccines. It’s a go-to tactic when new diseases come along, and history suggests it works against some, but not all, infections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After more than two years of browbeating and trade sanctions on Canada and Mexico, President Donald Trump strong-armed the United States’ neighbors into agreeing to supplant a 25-year-old North American trade agreement with one of his own.

His pact, meant to update the old deal and encourage more manufacturing in the United States, was expected to restore clarity and predictability to the rules governing $1.4 trillion in annual in U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico.

The tranquility didn’t last long.

MIAMI (AP) — A federal prosecutor who has jailed some of Venezuela’s biggest crooks is stepping down, The Associated Press has learned, leaving a void that could dampen U.S. efforts to expose criminal activity in the South American country amid rising tensions with the Trump administration.

Michael Nadler, an assistant U.S. attorney, is leaving to enter private practice next month at a boutique Miami law firm— Stumphauzer Foslid Sloman Ross & Kolaya—said a person familiar with the move who insisted on speaking anonymously because it hadn’t been made public.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A major union representing U.S. postal workers has endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, a move that comes as President Donald Trump has acknowledged starving the postal service of money in order to make it more difficult to vote by mail in November’s election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The two most senior officials in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were improperly appointed to the posts under federal law by the Trump administration, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog said Friday.

The Government Accountability Office says acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and his acting deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, are ineligible to run the agency under the Vacancy Reform Act.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Friday resoundingly defeated a U.S. resolution to indefinitely extend the U.N. arms embargo on Iran, with the Trump administration getting support from only the Dominican Republic but vowing further action to prevent Tehran’s sale and export of conventional weapons.