USA

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine has received millions of dollars in severance from Fox News Channel’s parent company and is owed millions more, a new financial disclosure report shows.

The report released Friday shows that Shine received $8.4 million in severance pay from 21st Century Fox after he left in May 2017. He’ll also receive bonus and options payments in 2018 and 2019 amounting to $7 million for the two years combined. The agreement is set to expire May 1, 2019.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As California’s catastrophic wildfires recede and people rebuild after two hurricanes, a massive new federal report warns that these types of disasters are worsening in the United States because of global warming. The White House report quietly issued Friday also frequently contradicts President Donald Trump.

Los Angeles, Nov 23 (AFP) The fire that has ravaged northern California is now almost completely contained, authorities said Thursday as the death toll rose to 84.

Rain fell in the first measurable amounts in months in the drought-stricken area and this helped put out hot spots and smouldering fires, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

It said the so-called Camp Fire is now 95 per cent contained.

The number of people listed as unaccounted for in the deadliest and most destructive fire in state history stands at 563.

Hoover (US), Nov 23 (AP) One teen is dead and two others have been injured following a shooting at an Alabama mall prior to Black Friday shopping.

Authorities say the shooting happened about 9:30 pm Thursday at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, a nearby suburb of Birmingham.

Police say a fight between two teens, including an 18-year-old, resulted in a gunfire exchange.

One teen fled but was confronted by two Hoover police officers.

VERNAL, Utah (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies arrested two teenage boys they say stole a small airplane at a private airstrip in rural eastern Utah and flew about 15 miles (24 kilometers) before landing successfully at Vernal Regional Airport.

The Desert News reported the 14- and 15-year-old boys stole the single-engine Cessna Thursday from a private airstrip in Jensen along U.S. Highway 40 about 15 miles (24 km) west of the Colorado line.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. aerospace giant Boeing Company said Wednesday that it is confident in the safety of its 737 MAX aircraft despite a deadly air crash of a same-model jet of an Indonesia airline.

Boeing said in a statement that it is working closely with Indonesian authorities in the ongoing investigation into the Oct. 29 crash of Lion Air Flight JT 610 off the coast of Indonesia, which killed 189 people aboard.

22 Nov 2018; AFP: US troops stationed on the border with Mexico ahead of the expected arrival of a Central American migrant caravans can intervene to quell violence but will be armed only with batons, Defense Minister Jim Mattis said on Wednesday.

The White House has given almost 5,800 troops posted along the frontier guidance that they can come to the aid of any Customs and Border Protection agents who come under attack, Mattis told reporters.

22 Nov 2018; AFP: A US judge has dropped federal female genital mutilation charges filed against a Michigan doctor, ruling that Congress overstepped its authority in prohibiting a practice best left to state courts.

In what was hailed a landmark case, Jumana Nagarwala was charged in April 2017 with performing the widely condemned practice on nine girls at a clinic in Livonia, Michigan over a span of 12 years.

22 Nov 2018; AFP: The levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, have hit a new record high, the UN said Thursday, warning that the time to act was running out.

Ahead of the COP 24 climate summit in Poland next month, top United Nations officials are again trying to raise the pressure on governments to meet the pledge of limiting warming to the less than two degrees Celsius, enshrined in the 2015 Paris accord.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A suburban St. Louis man has been charged with killing one woman and sexually assaulting two others after herding them at gunpoint into the back room of a religious supplies shop.

The arrest of 53-year-old Thomas Bruce ended a two-day manhunt that followed the brazen Monday afternoon attack at a Catholic Supply store in the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin. The attack frightened the region and led some schools, churches and businesses to close.