NEW YORK, July 19 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's request for a new trial after a jury found the former U.S. president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million.

In a 59-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan also dismissed Trump's arguments for reducing damages to less than $1 million.

Kaplan said the unanimous May 9 verdict was "almost entirely in favor of Ms. Carroll," and neither a "seriously erroneous result" nor a "miscarriage of justice."

WASHINGTON (AP) — A target letter sent to Donald Trump suggests that a sprawling Justice Department investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election is zeroing in on him after more than a year of interviews with top aides to the former president and state officials from across the country.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed new guidelines for corporate mergers, took steps to disclose the junk fees charged by landlords and launched a crackdown on price-gouging in the food industry.

The announcements will be discussed as part of President Joe Biden’s scheduled meeting with the White House Competition Council, a group of officials established under a 2021 executive order.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two miners were killed when a cable snapped on the bucket used to lower them into a small, primitive coal mine that was operating illegally in northern Mexico.

The failure of the cable sent the bucket plunging down the mine shaft, killing the miners, the Labor Department said late Tuesday. The department said the accident occurred Tuesday at a mine in the northern border state of Coahuila.

ST. PETERSBURG, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Russia will develop an international information exchange system to counter the legalization of illegal income, the government announced on Tuesday.

According to the government's press service, Russia will develop the system in cooperation with countries of Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, which will become one of the tools to fight money laundering.

MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/: Poland will not open its borders to grain from Ukraine and will unilaterally extend the ban on its supply to the country after September 15, if the European Commission refuses to do so.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki made this announcement at a press conference following a meeting of representatives of the ministries of agriculture of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

BATU PAHAT (Johor, Malaysia), July 19 (NNN-Bernama) — Three Myanmar nationals were found dead in a car parked at the Yong Peng rest and relax (R&R) southbound near Batu Pahat in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor on Tuesday.

Acting Batu Pahat OCPD Supt Shahrulanuar Mushaddat Abdullah Sani said the car was locked, with its windows wound up and engine and air-conditioning running when the incident happened.

Police were alerted to the incident by members of the public at about 9.15 pm.

WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russia is far from a failure, but the fight ahead will be long and bloody, the top U.S. general said on Tuesday, even as casualties on both sides mount and the front lines have moved only incrementally.

The United States and other allies have spent months building Ukraine a "mountain of steel" of weaponry and training Ukrainian forces in combined arms techniques to help Kyiv pierce formidable Russian defenses during its counter-offensive.

July 19 (Reuters) - A fire that broke out at the military training grounds in the Kirovske district on the Crimean Peninsula has forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people and a closure of nearby highway, the Moscow-backed governor of Crimea said on Wednesday.

"It is planned to temporarily evacuate residents of four settlements - this is more than 2,000 people," Russian-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov of Crimea said on the Telegram messaging app.

There was no reason given for the fire, which also forced the partial closure of the major Tavridy Highway.

BEIJING, July 19. /TASS/: Beijing strongly opposes plans by deputy head of the Taiwanese administration Lai Qingde to transit the US, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said at a briefing on Wednesday.

LEEDS, Britain, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The China-Northern England Cooperation Forum was held here Monday, bringing together business representatives from China and Britain to explore new opportunities for cooperation in investment and trade.

At the forum themed "Partnership for a Prosperous Future," Chinese Ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang noted that trade and investment relationship between China and Britain serves the fundamental interests of both sides.

He pointed out that thanks to the measures China has put in place more growth opportunities will be generated.

NEW DELHI, Jul 19 (NNN-PTI) – At least 15 people, including a police official and three home guards personnel, were killed and six others suffered critical injuries today, after an electricity transformer exploded, in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, police said.

The transformer, placed at a project site, exploded, electrifying a bridge spanning across Alaknanda river, in Chamoli district, about 266 km east of Dehradun, the capital city of Uttarakhand.