USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Suicides in the active-duty Air Force surged last year to the highest total in at least three decades, even as the other military services saw their numbers stabilize or decline, according to officials and unpublished preliminary data.

The reasons for the Air Force increase are not fully understood, coming after years of effort by all of the military services to counter a problem that seems to defy solution and that parallels increases in suicide in the U.S. civilian population.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Democrat in Congress said Friday the party’s future under Tom Perez is under scrutiny amid fallout from the Iowa caucuses and the winnowing of the presidential primary field to the exclusion of candidates of color.

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House Democrat, stopped short of saying Perez must go as leader of the Democratic National Committee.

“That’s a decision for him,” he said.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge has prohibited U.S. immigration authorities from relying on databases deemed faulty to ask law enforcement agencies to hold people in custody, a setback for the Trump administration that threatens to hamper how it carries out arrests.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — With urgency rising in their presidential nomination fight, the Democrats’ top presidential contenders clashed over experience and electability in a fiery debate Friday night that tested the strength of a new front-runner, former Midwestern mayor Pete Buttigieg, and struggling former Vice President Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened President Donald Trump on Friday ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings. The president took retribution just two days after his acquittal by the Senate.

NEW YORK, Feb 07 (APP): Pakistan’s forceful and determined campaign to highlight the grave situation in the curfew-bound Indian occupied Kashmir has led to the revival of the decades-old dispute at the United Nations, Ambassador Munir Akram told a large gathering in New York on Thursday.

“For the first time in 50 years, the Jammu Kashmir issue is now fully alive at the UN,” he said in a spirited speech at the meeting arranged by Pakistan’s Consulate General to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day.

7 February 2020; AFP: The United States and its allies should take controlling stakes in Nokia, Ericsson or both to battle Chinese telecoms giant Huawei's dominance of the 5G market, US Attorney general Bill Barr said Thursday.

"There are only two companies that can compete with Huawei right now: Nokia and Ericsson," Barr said in a speech on the Chinese economic threat.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN Security Council’s EU member states called for Myanmar to bring to justice those who have carried out human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims.

France, Estonia, Germany and Belgium urged Myanmar to comply with measures meant to prevent genocide set forth by the International Court of Justice, in a joint statement issued following a closed-door Security Council meeting.

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that African nations should be free to cooperate with both the United States and China, warning that foreign powers were exacerbating the continent’s divisions.

Kenyatta was speaking on a visit to Washington, where speculation has built that the United States will seek to negotiate a free-trade agreement with Kenya, in what would be a first with an African nation.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia blocked a UN draft resolution on Libya due to inclusion of the word “mercenary” in the text, diplomats said, casting doubt that a Security Council vote will occur by week’s end.

“There are a few sections in the resolution that are of concern,” Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told reporters following a Security Council meeting.

“We decided to continue our discussions with others,” he said.

Russia had already halted the approval process that would have allowed for a vote on the text on Thursday or Friday.