USA

Washington, Aug 6; GANASHAKTI: A US-based media watchdog has urged India to ensure access to internet and communications services in Kashmir, which were suspended in the Valley as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order.

Kashmir remained on the edge as authorities stepped up security at vital installations and in sensitive areas, suspended mobile Internet services and either "arrested" or "detained" several leaders in fast-paced developments on Sunday night.

NEW YORK, Aug 06 (APP): The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent watchdog body, has expressed alarm at reports of a communication blackout and the arrest of a journalist in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir state amid an escalating political crisis.

On Monday, the Indian government announced the revocation of a constitutional provision granting limited autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, and introduced measures that would change Kashmir’s administrative status from a state to a union territory, essentially putting it under federal control.

Washington, Aug 6 (PTI) The US has officially labeled China a currency manipulator, accusing it of using yuan to gain "unfair competitive advantage" in trade, a move that could further escalate the tense trade relations between the world's two largest economies.

Washington's move came as Beijing allowed its yuan to fall below the politically sensitive level of seven to the US dollar on Monday for the first time in 11 years and Chinese firms have reportedly stopped buying US farm produce.

06 August 2019; AFP: Four former US Federal Reserve chairs published an essay on Monday advocating for the independence of the institution, which has been the target of recent criticism by President Donald Trump.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, the four living former Fed chiefs, Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, defended the central bank and its current chair Jerome Powell from Trump's public criticism.

06 August 2019; DW: Perpetrators of mass shootings in the US have used the website to disseminate white nationalist propaganda. A cybersecurity firm has withdrawn its services to 8chan, saying: "They have proven themselves to be lawless."

US cybersecurity firm Cloudflare on Monday said it would withdraw its services from the online forum 8chan after the main suspect in the deadly El Paso shooting posted a white nationalist manifesto on the controversial website.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota prosecutor charged singer R. Kelly on Monday with prostitution and solicitation related to an allegation that he invited a 17-year-old girl to his hotel room in 2001 and paid her $200 to dance naked with him.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is accused of soliciting the girl after meeting her before a concert in Minneapolis.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department labeled China a currency manipulator Monday after Beijing pushed down the value of its yuan in a dramatic escalation of the trade conflict between the world’s two biggest economies.

The decision, which came hours after President Donald Trump accused China of unfairly devaluing its currency, marks a reversal for Treasury: In May, it had declined to sanction China for manipulating its currency.

The U.S. had not put China on the currency blacklist since 1994.

NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida amateur body builder who admitted sending pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and CNN was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday by a judge who concluded the bombs purposely were not designed to explode.

Cesar Sayoc, 57, wept and crossed himself, appearing relieved, when U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff announced the sentence.

Prosecutors had urged a life prison term for Sayoc, who pleaded guilty earlier this year after mailing 16 pipe bombs days before the midterm elections last fall.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stephen Kay was a fresh-faced prosecutor just 27 years old and three years out of law school when circumstances handed him the Charles Manson “family” murder case .

Over the next half-century, it would come to define his career and lead to death threats that to this day he worries a Manson sycophant might try to carry out.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has frozen all Venezuelan government assets in a dramatic escalation of tensions with Nicolás Maduro.

The ban places Maduro’s socialist administration alongside a short list of adversaries from Cuba, North Korea, Syria and Iran that have been targeted by such aggressive U.S. actions.

The ban blocks American companies and individuals from doing business with Maduro’s government and its top supporters. It came Monday night as an executive order from President Donald Trump and takes effect immediately.