USA

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: The United States plans to allow Russian, Chinese and European companies to continue work at Iranian nuclear facilities to make it harder for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: The US House of Representatives approved sanctions against Turkey yesterday over its military operation and presence into northern Syria, only a week after President Donald Trump lifted them.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States still expects to finalize with China the text of the Phase One trade deal in November, White House Spokesman Hogan Gidley said here Wednesday.

U.S. officials have repeatedly said that Washington hopes to sign the Phase One deal with Beijing on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum scheduled for November in Chile.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The situation in Burundi remained tense in the past four months, said Michel Kafando, the UN secretary-general's special envoy for Burundi, on Wednesday.

"It is important to note that in many respects, the situation in Burundi remains tense. During the period under consideration (between June 14 and Oct. 15, 2019), there has been an increase in political intolerance and infringement upon civic and political freedoms," Kafando told the UN Security Council in a briefing.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg got a harsher thrashing on Wednesday as he testified for the second day before U.S. Congress, grilled by new evidence about the company's malpractice in two air crashes that killed 346 people in a short span of five months.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The general who oversaw the U.S. raid on Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi provided the most detailed account yet of the operation Wednesday and said the U.S. is on alert for possible “retribution attacks” by extremists.

Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said al-Baghdadi’s remains were buried at sea within 24 hours of his death inside an underground tunnel where he fled as special operations soldiers closed in on him.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and the House impeachment inquiry (all times local):

8:10 p.m.

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton is not agreeing to a voluntarily interview in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

The House committees leading the impeachment investigation have asked Bolton to appear behind closed doors next week. But Bolton’s lawyer, Charles Cooper, says Bolton will not appear without a subpoena.

Democrats have issued subpoenas to several other witnesses who ended up testifying.

NOVATO, Calif. (AP) — One woman in her 80s tripped over another resident who had fallen on the landing in a steep stairwell. Others got turned around, even in their own apartments, and cried out for help.

At least 20 seniors with wheelchairs and walkers were essentially trapped, in the dark, in a low-income apartment complex in Northern California during a two-day power shut-off aimed at warding off wildfires.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bitter fight over funding for border fencing is imperiling Capitol Hill efforts to forge progress on more than $1.4 trillion worth of overdue spending bills, one of the few areas in which divided government in Washington has been able to deliver results in the Trump era.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Santa Ana winds were expected to linger for a final day Thursday after driving more than a dozen wildfires through California, sending thousands fleeing and burning nearly up to the walls of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Firefighters managed to tamp down or at least partially corral fires that for the past few days surged through tinder-dry brush in both the north and south, destroying dozens of homes.