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WASHINGTON (AP) — The four lawyers who prosecuted Roger Stone quit the case Tuesday after the Justice Department overruled them and said it would take the extraordinary step of lowering the amount of prison time it would seek for President Donald Trump’s longtime ally and confidant.

The departures raised immediate questions over whether Trump, who earlier in the day had blasted the original sentencing recommendation as “very horrible and unfair,” had at least indirectly exerted his will on a Justice Department that he often views as an arm of the White House.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Joe Biden brought his wounded presidential campaign to South Carolina on Tuesday, staking his hopes for a comeback on the loyalty of black voters in the state after a dismal finish in the New Hampshire primary magnified his disappointing finish in Iowa.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire’s presidential primary election Tuesday night, narrowly edging moderate rival Pete Buttigieg and scoring the first clear victory in the Democratic Party’s chaotic 2020 nomination fight.

In his win, the 78-year-old Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, beat back a strong challenge from the 38-year-old former Midwestern mayor -- two men representing different generations and wings of their party.

“This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” Sanders declared.

WASHINGTON, February 10. /TASS/: NASA will keep using Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to deliver its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021 fiscal year that starts on October 1, NASA said it its 2021 budget request summary, published on Monday.

"Crew transportation is currently provided using the Russian Soyuz vehicle. NASA will continue to purchase Soyuz seats for crew transportation until a domestic capability is available," the document says.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The presidential nominating contest for both the Democratic and Republican parties continues Tuesday in New Hampshire.

For Democrats, what was once a field of more than 20 candidates has been whittled to 11, who are all aggressively making their case to New Hampshire voters to let them remain in the race.

The Republican choice will almost certainly be President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States has charged four Chinese military hackers in the 2017 breach of the Equifax credit reporting agency that affected nearly 150 million American citizens, Attorney General William Barr said.

“This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people,” Barr said in announcing the indictments of four members of the Chinese Liberation Army in connection with one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Palestinians have abandoned their request for a vote at the UN Security Council Tuesday on rejecting the US Mideast peace plan, over a lack of international support, diplomats said Monday.

Introduced by Indonesia and Tunisia, the resolution risked not having nine out of 15 votes in its favor, the minimum required for adoption provided there is no veto by a permanent member, the diplomats said.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday on the U.S.-proposed Middle East peace plan, a UN spokesperson said on Monday.

Both UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov will speak at the meeting, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres, told reporters.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also expected to make a statement at the briefing.

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — The aspiring ‘black metal’ musician who was arrested in a series of fires set at African American churches in Louisiana last spring pleaded guilty Monday to federal and state criminal charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Holden Matthews pleaded guilty to three counts of intentional damage to religious property, a federal hate crime. He also pleaded to one count of using fire to commit a felony. He entered the pleas in federal court in Lafayette. Sentencing on the federal charges is set for May 22.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence President Donald Trump’s confidant Roger Stone to serve between seven and nine years in prison after his conviction on witness tampering and obstruction charges.

Stone, who is scheduled to be sentenced next week, was convicted in November of a seven-count indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election.