North America

UNITED NATIONS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The international community must help Syria move toward a political solution following the recent deadly earthquakes, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s Republican supermajority Senate followed a growing national trend of GOP opposition to health care for transgender youth by passing a bill that would ban certain treatments and therapies, while approving a significant change to add exceptions for mental health.

The Senate version of the bill passed by a count of 30-2 on Friday was noteworthy in the addition of allowances for some transgender youth to continue receiving medical interventions, including hormone therapy, when they are considered at risk of self harm or suicide.

NEW YORK (AP) — In the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump’s lawyer tried to buy the silence of a porn actress who said she had a sexual encounter with the Republican during his days as a reality TV star.

More than six years later, New York prosecutors appear to be close to deciding whether Trump should face charges in connection with that payoff, in what could become the first criminal case ever brought against a former president.

NEW YORK (AP) — Regulators rushed Friday to seize the assets of one of Silicon Valley’s top banks, marking the largest failure of a U.S. financial institution since the height of the financial crisis almost 15 years ago.

Silicon Valley Bank, the nation’s 16th-largest bank, failed after depositors hurried to withdraw money this week amid anxiety over the bank’s health. It was the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the collapse of Washington Mutual in 2008.

NEW YORK (AP) — It wasn’t critics, political foes or their bosses that united Fox News stars Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham when they gathered via text message for a gripe session shortly after the 2020 election.

It was their own network’s news division.

“They’re pathetic,” Carlson wrote.

“THEY AREN’T SMART,” Ingraham emphasized.

“What news have they broken the last four years?” Hannity asked.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is scheduled to testify Monday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush-money payments made on the former president’s behalf, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. They were not authorized to speak publicly about grand jury proceedings and did so on condition of anonymity.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s House of Representatives has endorsed new limitations on public access to police body-camera video when it captures images of nudity, violence, injury or death.

The 46-19 vote Thursday sent the bill to the Senate for consideration. Proponents of the initiative include the New Mexico State Police and associations representing county and municipal governments, including sheriffs’ departments.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Not one but two volcanoes on the same island in Alaska’s Aleutian chain were rocked by earthquakes on Friday, prompting concerns about a possible eruption.

Elevated earthquake activity was reported at both Tanaga and Takawangha volcanoes on uninhabited Tanaga Island, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Anchorage.

“If an eruption were to occur, it is uncertain at this stage if it would come from Takawangha or Tanaga,” officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said in a statement that raised the alert level for the two volcanoes.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — First lady Jill Biden visited a medical center in New Orleans on Friday to stress the importance of cancer research, a priority in the budget proposal President Joe Biden sent to Congress.

The Democratic president’s overall budget plan has been roundly criticized by Republicans and won’t make it through Congress intact. But Biden is hoping the fight against cancer will find bipartisan support.

The first lady briefly touted her husband’s budget plan but the tone of the event was largely apolitical.

MATAMOROS, Mexico, March 9 (Reuters) - Suspected drug cartel members on Thursday handed over five purported henchmen as a would-be apology for the abduction of four Americans in the border city of Matamoros, according to media and a source familiar with the investigation.

Two of the Americans and a Mexican woman died after gunmen opened fire on the U.S. citizens shortly after their arrival in Matamoros on Friday. The four Americans were found on Monday on the edge of the city, by which time two of them were dead.