North America

KENTFIELD, California/BEIJING, June 21 (Reuters) - China hit back on Wednesday after U.S. President Joe Biden referred to President Xi Jinping as a "dictator", saying the remarks were absurd and a provocation in an unexpected row following efforts by both sides to lower tensions.

Biden made his comments just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing to stabilize relations that China says are at their lowest point since formal ties were established.

UNITED NATIONS, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations has allocated 20 million U.S. dollars for an urgent food security and nutrition campaign for hunger-hit northeast Nigeria, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.

With 9 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund and 11 million dollars from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund, "we will support the government-led response efforts across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states," said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, has agreed to plead guilty to two federal criminal tax charges and admit to illegally possessing a firearm, according to a court filing on Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in the court filing that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his 2017 and 2018 taxes on time. He has been under federal investigation by a federal grand jury in Delaware since 2018.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. envoy for South Sudan warned the Security Council Tuesday not to take its eyes off the world’s newest nation, saying the conflict in neighboring Sudan shows “how quickly hard-won peace gains can unravel.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party primary field for attorney general is filling up as the former head of Philadelphia’s public defense lawyers kicked off her campaign Wednesday for the state’s top law enforcement office.

If elected, Keir Bradford-Grey, 48, would become the first Black attorney general in Pennsylvania. She also would become the first attorney general whose legal experience was primarily as a public defender.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Inmates had complained for weeks they were being threatened by gang members at a women’s prison in Honduras. The gang fulfilled those threats, slaughtering 41 women, many of them burned, shot or stabbed to death.

President Xiomara Castro said Tuesday’s riot at the prison in the town of Tamara, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Honduras’ capital, was “planned by maras (street gangs) with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Criminal defendants are routinely advised to avoid commenting on pending charges against them. But Donald Trump, the former president and current White House hopeful, is no ordinary defendant.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden had just six words to offer after his 53-year-old son Hunter pleaded guilty to federal tax offenses in a deal that is also likely to spare him time behind bars on a weapons charge.

“I’m very proud of my son,” he said.

That pride has been accompanied by pain, and for the president’s family, both have been on public display. Republicans have worked to use Hunter Biden’s actions — and his acknowledged struggle with addiction — as an anchor to try to drag down his father.

Washington (AP) — A Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater noises as a massive search continued early Wednesday in a remote part of the North Atlantic for a submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.

A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard did not elaborate on what rescuers believed the noises could be, though it offered a glimmer of hope for those lost abroad the Titan as estimates suggest as little as a day’s worth of oxygen could be left if the vessel is still functioning.

WASHINGTON, Jun 20 (APP):Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Masood Khan, on Monday met members of the Pakistani community in Atlanta, capital of the U.S. state of Georgia, and urged them to work for the vital interests of the country.

“You are pillars and pivots of Pak-US relations,” the ambassador told a cheering gathering of the community members, calling them “hidden nuggets”.