USA

SAN FRANCISCO, May 2 (Xinhua): U.S. experts in law and international business on Thursday expressed positive views on China's pledge to lower tariffs and import more goods and services from other parts of the world.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's statement about China's plan to have more imports "is, of course, welcome," and its willingness to provide a "level-playing field" is an important factor in bilateral trade, said Mei Gechlik, a law professor at Stanford University, on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House approved a bill Thursday that would prevent President Donald Trump from fulfilling his pledge to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement and ensure the U.S. honors its commitments under the global accord.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The campus has turned quiet. Flowers and candles fill the steps outside the building where two students were killed. Exams have been postponed or canceled.

For students, professors and administrators, Tuesday’s shooting that left two dead and four wounded at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte has altered what they thought was a safe space, a home away from home.

WASHINGTON, May 2 (Xinhua): U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that Stephen Moore, who was picked by him to serve on the Federal Reserve Board, has decided to withdraw from consideration.

The president's announcement came after weeks of tussling with opponents over Moore's past comments about women, his personal financial issues, as well as his similar view with the president on Fed policy.

"Steve Moore, a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person, has decided to withdraw from the Fed process," Trump tweeted.

WASHINGTON, May 3 (Xinhua): Around 120 civilians were killed by U.S. overseas military operations in 2018, said a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

"There are credible reports of approximately 120 civilians killed and approximately 65 civilians injured during 2018 as a result of U.S. military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia," said the Annual Report on Civilian Casualties in Connection with U.S. Military Operations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr skipped a House hearing Thursday on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report, escalating an already acrimonious battle between Democrats and President Donald Trump’s Justice Department. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr had already lied to Congress in other testimony and called that a “crime.”

PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) — The Trump administration moved Thursday to give oil and gas companies more flexibility in meeting safety requirements imposed after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed nearly a dozen people and was the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history.

The revised rules, which govern safety standards at offshore wells, come as the administration pushes to expand drilling off the U.S. coast, although court challenges and opposition from many coastal states have slowed its efforts.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After years of pressure to crack down on hate and bigotry, Facebook has banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones and other extremists, saying they violated its ban on “dangerous individuals.”

The company also removed right-wing personalities Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer, along with Jones’ site, Infowars, which often posts conspiracy theories. The latest bans apply to both Facebook’s main service and to Instagram and extend to fan pages and other related accounts.

POWAY, Calif. (AP) — Leaders at a Southern California synagogue knew they needed to increase security around their front door a year before a gunman walked through it and opened fire.

The Chabad of Poway synagogue sought a $150,000 federal grant to install gates and more secure doors, but it took nearly a year for the application to be approved and the money to be distributed. It was awarded in late March.

“Obviously, we did not have a chance to start using the funds yet,” rabbi Simcha Backman told The Associated Press.

BOSTON (AP) — A pharmaceutical company founder accused of paying doctors millions in bribes to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray was convicted Thursday in a case that exposed such marketing tactics as using a stripper-turned-sales-rep to give a physician a lap dance.