North America

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 (APP): A global surge of cholera cases has put one billion people in 43 countries, including Pakistan, at risk, the World Health Organization (WHO), a Geneva-based UN agency, has warned.

Three countries, this week alone, have reported outbreaks, WHO cholera team leader Philippe Barboza told reporters at a press conference on Friday, according to a UN press release issued in New York on Sunday.

For the first time, WHO is asking donors for help to fight the outbreaks, he said.

MEXICO CITY, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Thousands gathered in cities throughout Mexico on Sunday to protest against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's drive to shrink the independent electoral authority, arguing the changes threaten democracy - an accusation he vigorously denies.

Mexico's Congress last week approved a major overhaul of the National Electoral Institute (INE), which Lopez Obrador has repeatedly attacked as corrupt and inefficient.

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - China has not moved toward providing lethal aid that would help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine and the United States has made clear behind closed doors that such a move would have serious consequences, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.

"Beijing will have to make its own decisions about how it proceeds, whether it provides military assistance - but if it goes down that road it will come at real costs to China," Sullivan told CNN's "State of the Union" program.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The politically divided Virginia General Assembly worked through dozens of pieces of legislation, including a major energy bill and stop-gap budget bill, on Saturday as lawmakers reached the end of their regularly scheduled session without a deal on the entire state spending plan.

Unable to agree on several key pieces of the budget, including whether to enact the additional $1 billion in tax cuts Gov. Glenn Youngkin is seeking, lawmakers opted to pass a “skinny” spending bill and allow House and Senate negotiators to carry on with their broader discussions.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — When machine gun fire erupts outside the barbed-wire fences surrounding Fontaine Hospital Center, the noise washes over a cafeteria full of tired, scrub-clad medical staff.

And no one bats an eye.

Gunfire is part of daily life here in Cité Soleil – the most densely populated part of the Haitian capital and the heart of Port-au-Prince’s gang wars.

STAGECOACH, Nev. (AP) — All five people aboard a medical transport flight, including a patient, were killed in a plane crash Friday night in a mountainous area in northern Nevada.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s office said authorities began receiving calls about the crash near Stagecoach, Nevada, around 9:15 p.m. and found the wreckage two hours later. Stagecoach, a rural community home to around 2,500 residents, is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Reno.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful winter storm that swept down the West Coast with flooding and frigid temperatures shifted its focus to southern California on Saturday, swelling rivers to dangerous levels and dropping snow in even low-lying areas around Los Angeles.

24 Feb 2023; MEMO: The US said, Thursday, that it has transferred two detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to Pakistan, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"The Department of Defence announced today the repatriations of Abdul Rabbani and Mohammed Rabbani from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Pakistan," it said in a statement.

The two men are brothers, according to reports.

NEW YORK, February 25. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden said that Ukraine does not currently need F-16 fighters, so for now he rules out their transfer to Kiev.

"I am ruling it out for now," he said in response to a related question in an interview with ABC television. Excerpts from the interview were aired on Friday.

Biden added that at the moment "he (Ukrainian President Vladmir Zelensky - TASS) needs tanks, artillery, air defense, including HIMARS."

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations voted overwhelmingly to demand Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine, marking the one-year anniversary of the war (Feb 24) with a call for a “just and lasting” peace.

Ukraine earned strong backing in a nonbinding vote that saw 141 of the 193 UN members in support, seven opposed and 32, including China and India abstaining.