USA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The next Democratic presidential primaries are set for Tuesday, despite growing worries about a coronavirus outbreak that has forced candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders off the campaign trail and led two states to delay voting.

Last week, state officials said the primaries in Ohio, Illinois, Florida and Arizona would be held as planned, but new doubts surfaced on Sunday after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended cancellation of gatherings of 50 or more over the next eight weeks.

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Some 4.8 million children have been born in Syria since the conflict began nine years ago. An additional 1 million have been born as refugees in neighboring countries. They continue to face the devastating consequences of a brutal war, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Sunday.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday committed to naming a woman as his running mate if he’s the Democratic presidential nominee, making a definitive assertion clamored for by some voters who have watched a historically diverse candidate field dwindle to two white men.

Biden made that assertion during Sunday night’s debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders in response to a video question from a voter about how he would handle women’s health issues. Asked the same question, Sanders didn’t definitively commit but said, “In all likelihood, I will.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge on Sunday postponed the murder trial of multimillionaire New York real estate heir Robert Durst for three weeks over fears of the transmission of the new coronavirus.

Superior Court Judge Mark E. Windham announced that the trial, which had been underway for six days and is expected to take five months, will stand adjourned until April 6.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the course of a few weeks, President Donald Trump veered from confidently assuring Americans his administration had the coronavirus outbreak “very well under control” to declaring a national emergency and tweeting all-caps caution about the pandemic that has upended every facet of American life.

Trump meandered from denial to grudging acceptance, and he seeded conflicting, inaccurate and eyebrow-raising commentary on a country desperate for unvarnished, even shock-to-the-system, guidance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders sought in Sunday’s Democratic debate to cast themselves as best-positioned to lead the nation through a global pandemic, uniting in their criticism of President Donald Trump’s response to the fast-moving coronavirus but diverging in how they would confront the spiraling public health and economic crisis.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve took massive emergency action Sunday to try to help the economy withstand the coronavirus by slashing its benchmark interest rate to near zero and saying it would buy $700 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.

The Fed’s surprise announcement signaled its rising concern that the viral outbreak will depress economic growth in coming months, likely causing a recession, and that it’s poised to do whatever it can to counter the risks. It cut its key rate by a full percentage point to a range between zero and 0.25%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus will receive an experimental dose on Monday, according to a government official.

The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. The official who disclosed plans for the first participant spoke on condition of anonymity because the move has not been publicly announced.

CHICAGO (AP) — Officials across the country curtailed many elements of American life to fight the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, with health officials recommending that groups of 50 or more don’t get together and a government expert saying a 14-day national shutdown may be needed.

Governors and mayors closed restaurants, bars, and schools as the nation sank deeper into chaos. Travelers returning home from abroad were stuck in line for hours at major airports for screenings, crammed into just the kind of crowded spaces that public health officials have urged people to avoid.

WASHINGTON, March 15. /TASS/: The US Department of Commerce blacklisted Russian companies Avilon Ltd. and Technomar, according to the notice of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) posted in the electronic database of the US Federal Register.

Companies were added to the sanction list because they "are acting on behalf of a listed entity in circumvention of licensing requirements by procuring U.S.-origin items for Technopole Company, which was added to the Entity List on September 7, 2016," according to the notice.