USA

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 13 (APP): UN agencies have underscored their commitment to continue supporting civilians hit by the war in Syria, which this month enters its tenth year.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement Thursday evening, declaring that “we cannot allow the tenth year to result in the same carnage, the same flouting of human rights and international humanitarian law.”

The UN chief highlighted the need for a peaceful solution to the crisis in a message posted on his Twitter account.

NEW YORK, March 14. /TASS/: The US Securities and Exchange Commission has announced charges against Florida-based Russian citizen Denis Sotnikov over his alleged participation in a fraudulent scheme to lure US investors into buying fictitious Certificates of Deposit, the commission said in a statement posted on its website on Friday.

The complaint was filed in the federal court in the District of New Jersey.

New York, Mar 13 (AFP/PTI) US airlines announced additional steps Friday to ground planes and curtail executive pay as they prepare for an unprecedentedly bad travel market in the near-term.

Demand for service at Delta Air Lines is "declining at an accelerated pace daily, driving an unprecedented revenue impact," Chief Executive Ed Bastian said in a letter to employees that announced the carrier will cut overall capacity by 40 per cent.

San Francisco, Mar 13 (AFP/PTI) Microsoft on Friday announced that co-founder Bill Gates has left its board of directors to devote more time to philanthropy.

The 64-year-old stopped being involved in day-to-day operations at the firm more than a decade ago, turning his attention to the foundation he launched with his wife, Melinda.

(Reuters) - The coronavirus pandemic has begun to impact the U.S. court system, halting civil and criminal jury trials in high-profile venues such as Manhattan’s federal court and delaying a $1 billion trial against Elon Musk that was slated to begin Monday.

The postponements are raising questions about how courts will protect criminal defendants’ rights to a speedy trial, clear a backlog of hundreds of thousands of asylum cases and resolve high-profile corporate disputes.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday said it would reconsider a recent decision dismissing a Democratic-led congressional panel’s lawsuit seeking to enforce a subpoena for testimony from former White House Counsel Donald McGahn.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it would hear arguments in the case on April 28.

(Reuters) - Apple Inc said late on Friday it will close all its retail stores outside Greater China until March 27, to minimize risk of coronavirus transmission.

"We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27," Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a letter apple.co/2w768jZ posted on the company's website.

“In all of our offices, we are moving to flexible work arrangements worldwide outside of Greater China,” he added. “That means team members should work remotely if their job allows.”

UNITED NATIONS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday asked the world to declare war on COVID-19, two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized the situation as a pandemic.

"We must declare war on this virus," said Guterres in a video message.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he will “most likely” be tested for the novel coronavirus, as questions swirled about why he, his top aides and his family weren’t doing more to protect themselves and others after repeated exposure to COVID-19.

Trump has now had multiple direct and indirect contacts with people who have tested positive for the pandemic virus, which on Friday prompted him to declare a state of emergency as schools and workplaces across the country shuttered, flights were canceled and Americans braced for war against the threat.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process.

U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and take another look at how it evaluated technical aspects of the companies’ proposals to run the $10 billion computing project.