USA

SEATTLE (AP) — Following days of violent confrontations with protesters, police in Seattle have largely withdrawn from part of a neighborhood where protesters have created a festival-like scene that has President Donald Trump fuming.

Trump taunted Gov. Jay Inslee and Mayor Jenny Durkan about the situation on Twitter and said the city had been taken over by “anarchists.” “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will,” Trump tweeted.

(AP) --- The rapidly unfolding movement to pull down Confederate monuments around the U.S. in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police has extended to statues of slave traders, imperialists, conquerors and explorers around the world, including Christopher Columbus, Cecil Rhodes and Belgium’s King Leopold II.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 11 (APP): A top Pakistani diplomat has urged the world community to intervene and hold India accountable for its “grave” breaches of international humanitarian law and war crimes in occupied Kashmir, as he highlighted the decades of Kashmiri people’s sufferings now compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump ruled out renaming U.S. military bases that are named for Confederate leaders on Wednesday even as NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its races and Democrats sought the removal from Capitol Hill of statues of people representing the pro-slavery South in the 1860s Civil War.

UNITED NATIONS, June 10 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic must be a wake-up call for greater multilateral economic cooperation and health care solidarity.

"COVID-19 is exposing the fragility of our world. Despite the enormous scientific and technological advances of recent decades, a microscopic virus has brought us to our knees," Guterres said in his video message to the Forum of Small States.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Protesters tore down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis along Richmond, Virginia’s famed Monument Avenue on Wednesday night.

The statue in the former capital of the Confederacy was toppled shortly before 11 p.m., news outlets reported.

Richmond police were on the scene and videos on social media showed the monument being towed away as a crowd cheered.

LOS ANGELES, June 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The governor of the western US state of Washington on Wednesday announced a new investigation into the death of a black man who died while in police custody as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.

“I have become convinced that the Pierce County Sheriff should not complete the investigation of the death of Manuel Ellis and the county prosecutor should not review the investigation and make charging decisions,” Governor Jay Inslee said in a statement.

TRIPOLI, June 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US called for a ceasefire in Libya and urged warring parties to protect its oil sector Wednesday as the unity government said landmines had killed at least seven people in the capital.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s call came as the UN said it had held “productive” talks separately with officers from the unity government and rival forces backing military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

UNITED NATIONS, June 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — This year’s UN General Assembly will be held virtually for the first time in history because of the coronavirus pandemic, its president announced.

The meeting is still scheduled for Sept 22-29 but will be carried out with previously recorded speeches by world leaders, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who is from Nigeria, said in a letter to UN member countries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden acknowledged Wednesday that questions raised about his support for the 1994 crime bill are “legitimate.” But the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee insisted that people should judge him based on his current actions, not his past.