North America

WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's administration notified Congress on Monday of the planned sale to Turkey of avionics software upgrades for its current fleet of F-16 fighter aircraft, a deal valued at up to $259 million.

The deal, first reported by Reuters earlier on Monday, moves ahead with the sale of the modernization package for Turkey's aircraft, after leaders of U.S. congressional committees gave informal approval.

April 18 (Reuters) - The world is failing to cut carbon emissions fast enough to avoid disastrous climate change, a dawning truth that is giving life to a technology that for years has been marginal – pulling carbon dioxide from the air.

Leading the charge, the U.S. government has offered $3.5 billion in grants to build the factories that will capture and permanently store the gas - the largest such effort globally to help halt climate change through Direct Air Capture (DAC) and expanded a tax credit to $180/tonne to bolster the burgeoning technology.

UNITED NATIONS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to immediately cease hostilities and begin a dialogue to resolve the crisis in Sudan.

Guterres made the appeal before delivering his opening speech at a UN forum on financing for development.

He strongly condemned the outbreak of fighting in Sudan, noting that the situation has already led to "horrendous loss of life," including many civilians.

NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America said its profits grew 15% last quarter, the latest of the big banks to do exceptionally well this earnings season as investors and consumers flock to Wall Street for safety after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

The nation’s second-largest bank by assets posted a profit of $8.2 billion, up from $7.1 billion in the same period a year earlier. On a per-share basis, BofA earnings rose to 94 cents from 80 cents. The results beat analysts’ expectations.

TORONTO (AP) — The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation paused its use of Twitter on Monday after the social media platform owned by Elon Musk stamped CBC’s account with a label the public broadcaster says is intended to undermine its credibility.

Twitter labelled CBC/Radio-Canada “government-funded media” — the same label that prompted National Public Radio in the U.S. to similarly quit Twitter last Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has signed an executive order containing more than 50 directives to increase access to child care and improve the work life of caregivers, the White House said Tuesday.

But the directives would be funded out of existing commitments, likely meaning their impact would carry more of a symbolic weight compared with the Democratic president’s call in 2021 to provide more than $425 billion to expand child care, improve its affordability and boost wages for caregivers, the White House said.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s governor is seeking the resignation of four county officials after a newspaper’s audio recording apparently captured some of them complaining about two of the paper’s journalists and knowing hit men and where two holes are dug.

A portion of the recording was released by the paper, and it also appears to capture one of the four making racist comments about Black people.

HEBRON, N.Y. (AP) — A woman looking for a friend’s house in upstate New York was shot to death after the car she was riding in mistakenly went to the wrong address and was met with gunfire in the driveway, authorities said Monday.

Kaylin Gillis, 20, was traveling through the rural town of Hebron with three other people Saturday night when the group made a wrong turn onto the property.

They were trying to turn the car around when the homeowner, Kevin Monahan, 65, came out onto his porch and fired two shots, according to Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An 84-year-old white man in Kansas City, Missouri, was charged Monday with first-degree assault for shooting a Black teen who mistakenly went to the man’s home to pick up his younger brothers.

Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said at a news conference that there was a “racial component” Thursday night when Andrew Lester twice shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, who is recovering at home after being released from the hospital. But nothing in the charging documents says the shooting was racially motivated, Thompson clarified.

Washington, Apr 18 (PTI) Police in California have arrested 17 people in connection with a series of shootings in Gurdwaras in Stockton, Sacramento and other locations and seized weapons such as AK-47, handguns, and at least one machine gun in a series of raids carried out over 20 places, the State Attorney General said Monday.