USA

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 28 (APP): Pakistan has expressed the hope that the resumption of direct talks between the United States and the Taliban would open the way towards intra-Afghan negotiations that would lead to a peaceful settlement of the long-drawn conflict in Afghanistan.

Washington, Nov 28 (PTI) More than 227,000 Indians are waiting in line for family-sponsored Green Card or legal permanent residency, according to a latest recent official data.

Currently, there are about four million people waiting in line for family-sponsored Green Cards against a Congressional cap of 226,000 per annum.

Washington, Nov 28 (PTI) US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a bill that supports pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, a move that is bound to anger China.

The legislation proposes to impose sanctions on officials committing human rights violations against pro-democracy supporters in Hong Kong. It was passed by both the chambers of the US Congress House of Representatives (417-1) and the Senate unanimously.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Wednesday bashed again the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump led by House Democrats, without confirming whether the president would appear for a congressional hearing next week to which he was invited.

Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee issued a statement saying it would hold an impeachment inquiry hearing on Dec. 4. Committee chairman Jerry Nadler sent Trump a letter, inviting him and his counsel to participate in the hearing.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Five people died and three were injured when a fire broke out on the 14th floor of a public housing high-rise in a heavily immigrant neighborhood of Minneapolis early Wednesday.

While the cause of the blaze was still under investigation, Fire Chief John Fruetel told reporters that investigators believe the fire was an accident, but he didn’t explain why. The building is in part of Minneapolis known as Little Mogadishu for the many Somali immigrants who have settled there.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the U.S. economy was expanding at a modest pace in October and early November, supported by growing consumer spending.

In its latest assessment of business conditions nationwide, the Fed struck a more upbeat tone than it had in its previous report when it had worried more about trade tensions and slower global growth.

However, it still noted that the majority of the Fed’s 12 districts were not experiencing growth in manufacturing, which has been hurt by a widening trade war with China.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Navy on Wednesday canceled a peer-review process that would have determined if three Navy SEAL officers who supervised an enlisted SEAL convicted of posing with a dead teenage captive in Iraq should remain on the elite force.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said the case was becoming a distraction for the commando force, known for its quiet professionalism.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard Spencer, who was fired at Navy secretary for his handling of a SEAL war crimes case championed by President Donald Trump, wrote Wednesday that the commander in chief “has very little understanding” of how the American military works.

The extraordinary accusation came in an opinion piece published on The Washington Post’s website Wednesday evening, three days after he was fired. Spencer called Trump’s intervention in the case of Navy Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher “shocking” and unprecedented.

HONOLULU (AP) — A man arrested in Hawaii will be sent to Utah, where he’s accused of tormenting a family for more than year by sending more than 500 people to their house for unwanted services including food deliveries, repairs, tow trucks, locksmiths, plumbers and prostitutes.

Loren Okamura was in Honolulu’s federal courthouse Wednesday, for a scheduled detention hearing. His federal defender, Sharron Rancourt, said he wants to have that hearing in Utah.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was briefed on the whistleblower complaint about his dealings with Ukraine before the White House released nearly $400 million in military aid to Kyiv, officials say, shedding new light on events that triggered the impeachment inquiry.

Trump was told about the complaint in late August in a briefing by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and John Eisenberg, an attorney with the White House National Security Council, according to two officials not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.