USA

Washington (AP) --- The governor of Washington declared a state of emergency Saturday after a man died there of COVID-19, the first such reported death in the United States. More than 50 people in a nursing facility are sick and being tested for the virus.

Gov. Jay Inslee directed state agencies to use “all resources necessary” to prepare for and respond to the coronavirus outbreak. The declaration also allows the use of the Washington National Guard, if necessary.

“We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus,” the governor vowed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has not proved to be the bearer of reliable information when calamity threatens and people want straight answers about it. That’s happening again as he addresses the prospect of a coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Joe Biden scored a thundering victory in South Carolina’s Democratic primary on the strength of African American support, a decisive win that could force moderate rivals out of the race and blunt the rise of progressive leader Bernie Sanders.

Biden’s win Saturday came at a perilous moment in his 2020 bid as he needed an emphatic rebound after underwhelming performances this month in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. The race now pivots to the 14 states from Maine to California that vote on Tuesday in what effect will be a national primary.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man slipped into the U.S from Tijuana, Mexico, and made it just 25 yards from the border before he was arrested.

A seven-month journey from Sri Lanka was over for Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam. Now he would be able to tell an American official why he had fled the place he had lived virtually his entire life: As a member of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, he had been beaten and threatened. He would seek asylum to remain in the United States.

His timing couldn’t have been worse.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden has for weeks looked to the black voters of South Carolina to hand a win to his flagging campaign. On Saturday, they delivered.

Biden won 60% of the votes cast by non-white voters, dominating a crowded Democratic field among a group that made up more than half of the electorate. Biden also performed strongly with older voters, women, regular churchgoers and moderates and conservatives, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of more than 1,400 voters in South Carolina’s Democratic primary.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to reassure the American public, President Donald Trump said there was “no reason to panic” as the new coronavirus claimed its first victim inside the U.S. The White House also announced new restrictions on international travel to prevent its spread.

Trump, speaking Saturday only moments after the death in Washington state was announced, took a more measured approach a day after he complained that the virus threat was being overblown and that his political enemies were perpetuating a “hoax.”

UN, February 29. /TASS/: The Syrian army has a full right to respond to terrorist attacks on its territory, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said.

"In response to the ongoing violations of the ceasefire regime within the zone of Idlib, the Syrian army certainly has the right to respond and suppress terrorists," Nebenzya said speaking at the UN Security Council session on the situation in the Syrian province of Idlib.

WASHINGTON, February 29. /TASS/: President of the United States Donald Trump is ready to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as with the leaders of China, Britain and France to discuss the issue of arms control, Reuters reported on Saturday citing a high-ranking official in the US administration.

"The United States will use this opportunity to bring both Russia and China into the international arms control framework and head off a costly arms race," the news agency quoted its unnamed source as saying.

UN, February 29. /TASS/: The Astana talks on resolving the conflict in Syria remain essential, despite Western countries’ attempts to exploit the Idlib situation to set off Moscow and Ankara against each other, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya told journalists after an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Saturday.

"De-escalation can be achieved only through a dialogue between Russia and Turkey and not through our partners’ cunning calls for that," the Russian envoy said.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (Reuters) - Conservative activists are enthusiastically taking up Republican President Donald Trump’s re-election rallying cry that his Democratic adversaries are pursuing a radical socialist ideology that will ruin the United States.

Conservative students, right-wing media personalities and pro-Trump fundraisers and fans have gathered just outside Washington this week for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that appears to have crystallized Republican messaging for the election.