USA

BALTIMORE (AP) — Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the finances of Baltimore’s top prosecutor and her husband, who is city council president.

The Baltimore Sun reported Friday that it obtained a grand jury subpoena seeking business records for State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and City Council President Nick Mosby, including tax returns, bank and credit card statements and other financial documents.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The people of Myanmar have huge expectations from the United Nations and the international community following the Feb. 1 coup, with many calling for sanctions and some urging the U.N. to send peacekeepers to stop the killings of peaceful protesters seeking a return to democracy, the top U.N. official in the country said Friday.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Top U.S. and Chinese officials wrapped up two days of contentious talks in Alaska on Friday after trading sharp and unusually public barbs over vastly different views of each other and the world in their first face-to-face meeting since President Joe Biden took office.

ATLANTA (AP) — The murder case against a white man charged with shooting and killing six women of Asian descent and two other people at Atlanta-area massage businesses this week could become the first big test for Georgia’s new hate crimes law.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A judge said Friday he won’t delay or move the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death over concerns that a $27 million settlement for Floyd’s family could taint the jury pool, but he’ll allow limited evidence from a 2019 arrest.

Jury selection in the trial of Derek Chauvin will stretch into a third week after attorneys seated just one additional juror Friday. The 13th juror picked is a woman who said she’d seen only clips of the video of Floyd’s arrest and needs to learn more about what happened beforehand.

ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered solace to Asian Americans and denounced the scourge of racism at times hidden “in plain sight” as they visited Atlanta, just days after a white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The mood is so bad at the U.S. Capitol that a Democratic congressman recently let an elevator pass him by rather than ride with Republican colleagues who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election.

Republicans say it’s Democrats who just need to get over it — move on from the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, end the COVID-19 restrictions and make an effort to reach across the aisle toward bipartisanship.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (APP): Pakistan has joined 161 countries that have co-signed a joint statement underscoring the importance of water amid the coronavirus pandemic in which cleanliness and hygiene are the first defence lines in the absence of a vaccine, particularly in many developing countries.

The cross-regional statement was issued as a high-level meeting deliberated on the “Implementation of the Water-related Goals and Targets of the 2030 Agenda” on Thursday.

19 Mar 2021; MEMO: The candidate for Virginia Governor Lee Carter on Tuesday said he backs Palestinian calls to boycott the Israeli occupation.

19 Mar 2021; MEMO: The Biden administration is crafting a plan aimed at resetting US ties with the Palestinians that all but collapsed under former President Donald Trump, according to an internal draft memo, reported on by Reuters.