USA

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 (APP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sounded alarm over the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in north-west Syria, and called for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing fight that has displaced more than 900.000 civilians since early December.

19 February 2020; AFP: The world is failing to protect children from the health dangers posed by climate change and poor diet, a landmark UN report said Wednesday, warning that every child is under "immediate threat".

According to more than 40 of the world's pre-eminent child and adolescent health experts, not one country on Earth is adequately protecting the next generation from the impacts of carbon emissions, the destruction of nature and high-calorie and processed foods.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Donald Trump began a four-day Western swing on Tuesday with a fundraiser in Los Angeles, the first stop on a trip aimed at making himself a distraction as Democratic presidential candidates focus on the Nevada caucuses.

Buoyed by his acquittal in the U.S. Senate impeachment trial, Trump has campaign rallies planned in Phoenix on Wednesday, Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Thursday and Las Vegas on Friday. All the events are aimed at providing a competing message to the Democrats.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mike Bloomberg would sell the financial data and media company he created in the 1980s — which bears his name and made him a multibillionaire — if he is elected U.S. president, a top adviser said Tuesday.

Bloomberg would put Bloomberg LP into a blind trust, and the trustee would then sell the company, adviser Tim O’Brien said. Proceeds from the sale would go to Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable giving arm that funds causes from climate change to public health and grants for American cities.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A 6-year-old girl who disappeared from her front yard after school was killed by a neighbor who then killed himself, authorities said Tuesday.

Faye Marie Swetlik died of asphyxiation just hours after she was abducted, Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher told reporters Tuesday, refusing to say if she was strangled or suffocated.

Faye’s body was found nearly three days later in woods near her home and had been put there just hours earlier, Fisher said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump went on a clemency blitz Tuesday, commuting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence and pardoning former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, among a long list of others.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Terry Reece has long been skeptical that voters would back Bernie Sanders, a 78-year-old self-described democratic socialist who is just months removed from a heart attack. Then the Vermont senator essentially tied for first place in the Democratic Party’s Iowa caucuses and won its New Hampshire primary.

That forced Reece to rethink his assumptions about who can win the nomination. After months of leaning toward former Vice President Joe Biden, Reece filled out a preference card for Sanders during early voting this week in the Nevada caucuses.

(AP) --- Yemen’s Houthi rebels have blocked half of the United Nations’ aid delivery programs in the war-torn country — a strong-arm tactic to force the agency to give them greater control over the massive humanitarian campaign, along with a cut of billions of dollars in foreign assistance, according to aid officials and internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — There’s a new kid in town for the ninth Democratic debate, Mike Bloomberg, the self-funding billionaire presidential candidate. Five questions ahead of the faceoff Wednesday night in Las Vegas:

HOW DOES BLOOMBERG STACK UP?

No candidate has the potential to upend the race for the Democratic presidential nomination more than Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and billionaire owner of a financial data and news empire.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has told people close to him he’s considering quitting his post after President Donald Trump wouldn’t heed his warning to stop tweeting about Justice Department cases, an administration official told The Associated Press.