USA

(AP) --- Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials are reporting.

Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years, according to preliminary estimates Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 17 (APP): Adding new permanent members to the UN Security Council will not make the 15-member body more representative, democratic and accountable, a top Pakistani diplomat said Tuesday, while advocating for expansion in the non-permanent category.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 17 (NNN-XINHUA) – Top UN envoy for Iraq warned about the fragility of Iraq’s economy despite recent increases in oil revenues.

Iraq continues to experience acute financial and economic difficulties, as reflected by the exceptional devaluation of the Iraqi dinar by over 20 percent in late Dec, said Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, UN secretary-general’s special representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq.

17 Feb 2021; MEMO: The Biden administration has approved a $200 million arms sale to Egypt despite ongoing human rights abuses in the country including the arrest of a former political prisoners' cousins days before the sale.

The US State Department said that the $197 million sales of Raytheon-made Rolling Airframe Missiles were for Egypt's navy to improve defence around the coast including the Red Sea and that it has approved the sale subject to congressional review.

17 Feb 2021; MEMO: The UAE Ambassador to Washington, Yousef Al-Otaibi, has clashed on social media with US Congressman Ro Khanna over the war on Yemen and the UAE's direct involvement in escalating divisions in that country.

Khanna told The Intercept that the Emirati ambassador had yelled at him last year for leading efforts to end US support for the war in Yemen where the UAE is backing southern separatists.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, days after seven Republican senators joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict him of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

"Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again," Trump said in a statement released through his Save America super PAC, blaming McConnell for Republican Party's 2020 Senate losses.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 1,200 infection cases of coronavirus variants have been reported in the 50 U.S. states, according to the latest data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The vast majority of these cases, 1,173, were caused by the variant known as B.1.1.7, which was originally detected in Britain.

There were 17 cases of a new strain initially discovered in South Africa, called B.1.351, and three cases of the P.1 strain first discovered in Brazil.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday she knows her vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his recent Senate impeachment trial could have political consequences, “but I can’t be afraid of that.”

If the people of Alaska decide that “because I did not support my party that I can no longer serve them in the United States Senate, then so be it,” Murkowski told reporters during a visit to the state Capitol.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the still shaken and heavily guarded U.S. Capitol, thousands of National Guard troops still wander the halls. Glass windows remain broken. Doors swing without handles. And in the grand marble hallways, which amplified the shouts of insurrectionists just over a month ago, there is an uncomfortable silence.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Homeland Security chairman accused Donald Trump in a federal lawsuit Tuesday of inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and conspiring with his lawyer and extremist groups to try to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election he lost to Joe Biden.