USA

11 Jan 2019; AFP: Holiday shopping reports released Thursday underscored anew the challenges US retailers face in the Amazon era -- even if consumers are willing to open their wallets to spend.

The updates were a mixed bag overall, with several retailers reporting small or moderate increases in comparable store sales during the critical November-December period.

But a report from Macy's aroused the most angst on Wall Street, after the chain slashed its profit forecast even as it signaled a modest increase in sales.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled his planned trip later this month to the Swiss ski resort of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), due to the ongoing partial government shutdown.

"Because of the Democrats intransigence on Border Security and the great importance of Safety for our Nation, I am respectfully cancelling my very important trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum," the president tweeted.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, will testify before the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee next month, the panel's chairman announced Thursday.

"I thank Michael Cohen for agreeing to testify before the Oversight Committee voluntarily," said the committee's chairman, Elijah Cummings, in a statement on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has approved a bill to fund the Treasury Department, the IRS and other agencies for the next year as part of a Democratic strategy to reopen the government on a piecemeal basis.

The Democratic-controlled House voted 240-188 on Wednesday to approve the funding bill, which also would reopen the Federal Communications Commission, the Small Business Administration and the federal judiciary, among other agencies.

Eight Republicans joined 232 Democrats to support the bill.

10 Jan 2019; AP: A U.S. supplier of t-shirts and other team apparel to college bookstores cut its ties Wednesday with a Chinese company that drew workers from an internment camp holding targeted members of ethnic minority groups.

In recent years, authorities in the far west Chinese region of Xinjiang have detained an estimated 1 million Uighurs and Kazakhs in heavily-secured facilities where detainees say they are ordered to renounce their language and religion while pledging loyalty to the China’s ruling Communist Party.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly walked out from a meeting with congressional leaders, saying later that his talks with top Democrats on ending the partial government shutdown were "a total waste of time."

"I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!" Trump tweeted after his fresh engagement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas authorities filed a capital murder charge Tuesday against a black man they believe fired the bullet that killed a 7-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting her family initially believed was racially motivated.

Prosecutors believe 24-year-old Larry D. Woodruffe killed Jazmine Barnes on Dec. 30 as she and her family drove to a grocery store in Houston.

The driver of the SUV Woodruffe rode in, 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. has also been charged with capital murder. Both suspects remain jailed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump urged congressional Democrats to fund his long-promised border wall in a somber televised address that was heavy with dark immigration rhetoric but offered little in the way of concessions or new ideas to break the standoff that has left large swaths of the government shuttered for 19 days.

09 Jan 2019; AFP: The UN has said an 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family is a legitimate refugee and has asked Australia to resettle her, Canberra said Wednesday, as the Twitter-led campaign to grant her asylum edged towards resolution.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was stopped by authorities at Bangkok's main airport as she arrived on a flight from Kuwait on the weekend after running away from her family, who she says subjected her to physical and psychological abuse.

09 Jan 2019; AFP: President Donald Trump used a prime-time address to the nation Tuesday to insist on $5.7 billion for a steel wall along the Mexican border that he said would stop the shedding of "American blood" by illegal immigrants.

The nine-minute speech from the storied Oval Office in the White House contained no concessions to Democrats refusing to fund construction of the wall -- a project Trump has made his signature domestic policy idea.