North America

NEW YORK, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices, boosted by improved demand outlook in China, rose on Friday, bringing both the U.S. and the global crude benchmarks to gain more than 8 percent for the week.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery climbed 1.47 U.S. dollars, or 1.9 percent, to settle at 79.86 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery added 1.25 dollars, or 1.5 percent, to settle at 85.28 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address to the divided Congress next month, the White House said on Friday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden had accepted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's invitation to address a joint session of Congress on Feb. 7.

This would be Biden's second State of the Union speech and the first before a divided Congress with Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives and Democrats still running the Senate.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ask people what you might find buried in the muck at the bottom of New York City’s East River and they’d likely say “mob boss” before thinking of mammoth bones.

But several groups of treasure hunters have taken to the waterway in recent weeks after hearing a guest on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast claim a boxcar’s worth of potentially valuable prehistoric mammoth bones was dumped in the river in the 1940s.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is nearing deals with two Pacific Island nations to extend ties that are considered critical to maintaining balance in the U.S.-China rivalry for influence in a region where the Chinese are rapidly expanding their economic, diplomatic and military clout.

ATLANTA (AP) — During the 2022 midterm campaign, President Joe Biden steered clear of Georgia as Sen. Raphael Warnock, like many other battleground-state Democrats, tried to distance himself from the White House amid an inflationary economy and the president’s lagging approval ratings.

Now, with Warnock having secured his first full term and Biden buoyed by Democrats’ better-than-expected election results, the senator is welcoming the president back to Georgia and to America’s most famous Black church.

OTTAWA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- More than 2,000 anomalies and a child's remains were found during radar search of a former residential school site in Canada, local media reported Thursday.

Star Blanket Cree Nation, a First Nations band in Saskatchewan, Canada, said it has located the anomalies after completing phase one of a ground-penetrating radar search at the site of the former Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School, operated from 1884 to 1998 in the village of Lebret, Saskatchewan, about 80 km northeast of Regina, local media CTV News reported.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The mayor of Mexico City announced Thursday that 6,060 National Guard officers will be posted in the city’s subway system after a series of accidents that officials suggested could be due to sabotage.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said mechanical problems in recent months may have been due to “not normal” causes. She appeared to suggest, but did not say, that it could involve some form of sabotage.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday that the rule of law is at grave risk of becoming “the Rule of Lawlessness,” pointing to a host of unlawful actions across the globe from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and coups in Africa’s Sahel region to North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program and Afghanistan’s unprecedented attacks on women’s and girls’ rights.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chaos? In the House of Representatives?

Republican Kevin McCarthy wrapped his first full week as House speaker in the most outwardly orderly way, with hardly a hint of the chaotic, rebellious fight it took for the Republicans to arrive here, having barely installed him as the leader with the gavel.

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s President Joe Biden’s refuge from Washington — a place that’s part home office, part Sunday family dinner venue, a safe place for his treasured 1967 Corvette and a makeshift campaign studio during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, is coming under fresh scrutiny as a repository of classified material.