USA

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for strengthening efforts to address the root causes of instability and insecurity in Mali.

The root causes should be addressed "through humanitarian aid and support for sustainable development, including programs on climate change mitigation and adaptation," Guterres said at Friday's Security Council meeting on Mali held in New York.

"Security in Mali has an impact on the entire Sahel (region), which, in turn, affects global stability," he said.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Using an airborne telescope on a jetliner, astronomers captured a cosmic light show sparked by the forming stars almost 17,000 light years away.

Learning how massive stars form in our Milky Way Galaxy helps scientists understand how these stars form in distant galaxies that are too far away to see in detail.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States is cutting off aids to three Central American countries, as President Donald Trump kept grumbling at their failure to stop illegal migration up north to his country, said the State Department on Saturday.

The U.S. State Department is "carrying out the President's direction and ending FY (fiscal year) 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle," otherwise known as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, it said in a statement.

29 Mar 2019; AFP: Boeing's MCAS anti-stall system, which was implicated in the October crash of a 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia, was also activated shortly before a recent accident in Ethiopia, a source with knowledge of the investigation said Friday.

The information is part of preliminary findings from the analysis of black boxes from Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, which crashed southeast of Addis Ababa killing 157 people on March 10, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON, March 29. /TASS/. US State Secretary Mike Pompeo has informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Washington’s intention to introduce the second set of sanctions related to the Skripal case in a phone conversation in February, a US official told TASS on Friday.

"As you know, the Secretary of State had a call with Russian FM Lavrov in February and informed him that the United States will be taking CBW Act related action," the official said.

WASHINGTON, March 30. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said he may discuss the situation in Venezuela with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon, Reuters reported on Saturday.

"We will probably be talking at some point," the US leader told reporters at his estate in Florida. "I’ll be talking to a lot of people - perhaps President Putin, perhaps President Xi of China."

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Australia, on track to meet and beat the 2020 Kyoto commitments, is confident of meeting its 2030 target, which represents a halving of emissions per person, a senior Australian official said here Friday.

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Attorney General William Barr told Congress on Friday to expect a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's confidential report on the Russia investigation by mid-April, "if not sooner."

"Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr said in a letter to top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees.

The attorney general also said he's willing to appear before both panels to testify about the Mueller report on May 1 and May 2.

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to close the nation's southern border with Mexico next week, amid feud over illegal immigration.

"If Mexico doesn't immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our southern border, I will be closing the border, or large sections of the border, next week," Trump said on Twitter.

He claimed closing off border crossings, key avenues for trade with Mexico, "would be a good thing!"

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has approved seven applications for U.S. companies to sell nuclear power technology and assistance to Saudi Arabia, the Energy Department said Thursday.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Energy Department has approved 37 nuclear applications since January 2017, including nine in the Middle East. Besides the seven to Saudi Arabia, two were approved for Jordan. Perry said in his testimony that six applications were approved to Saudi Arabia, but a spokeswoman later said he misspoke.