North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top-level negotiations between Congress and the White House churned late into the night Sunday over a now nearly $2 trillion economic rescue package, as the coronavirus crisis deepened, the nation shut down and the first U.S. senator tested positive for the disease.

As President Donald Trump took to the podium in the White House briefing room and promised to help Americans who feel afraid and isolated as the pandemic spreads, the Senate voted against advancing the rescue package. But talks continued on Capitol Hill.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 21 (APP): With coronavirus fast spreading around the world, the United Nations has warned that the consequences could be devastating for the 100 million people living in war zones and other emergency settings.

“Many people live in cramped conditions and with little or no access to proper sanitation and basic health services,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters. “As the virus reaches these places, our colleagues warn that the consequences could be devastating.”

NEW YORK, Mar 22 (APP): An organization dedicated to promoting the realization of Kashmiri people’s U.N.-pledged right to self-determination has called on the United Nations to demand the immediate release of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Muhammad Yasin Malik who is being held in Indian jail on “trumped-up” charges.

The organization — World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF) — expressed “deep distress” over Malik’s vow to go on fast-unto-death on April 1 to protest against his incarceration and denial of legal process.

22 March 2020; AFP: The chief executives of the largest US airline companies asked Congress Saturday for urgent help avoiding widespread layoffs among the industry's 750,000 employees.

"Unless worker payroll protection grants are passed immediately, many of us will be forced to take draconian measures such as furloughs,” the CEOs said in a letter to leaders of both houses of Congress distributed by the Airlines for America trade group.

MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major bust by U.S. drug authorities targeting Mexico’s fastest-growing gang will likely do little to stem the rise of the ultra-violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and its shadowy leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias ‘El Mencho’.

Over the past decade, Oseguera, a 53-year-old former policeman, has masterminded the CJNG’s emergence as a criminal empire spanning five continents and a rival to the Sinaloa Cartel of captured kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, now in a U.S. prison.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In normal times massive unemployment and a collapse in economic output would be tragic.

This time, as the coronavirus cloisters millions of Americans and shuts down the U.S. economy, it should instead be saluted as an investment in public health that lays the groundwork for a rapid rebound.

UNITED NATIONS, March 21 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday welcomed the positive responses by the Libyan warring parties to calls for a humanitarian truce amid COVID-19 fears.

"The secretary-general welcomes the positive responses by the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA) on March 18 and 21 respectively, to the calls for a humanitarian pause to stop the fighting," said Stephane Dujarric, Guterres's spokesman, in a statement.

NEW YORK, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Governor of the U.S. state of New York Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that a total of 10,356 people in the state had tested positive for novel coronavirus, jumping 3,254 compared with the previous day.

The Empire State has thus become the first state in the country that reported over 10,000 COVID-19 cases, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The governor said the increase of confirmed cases demonstrated the scale of testing in the state.

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Italian general practitioners remember seeing strange pneumonia cases as early as November, which could mean the virus was circulating in parts of Italy before doctors became aware of China's COVID-19 outbreak, a U.S. radio outlet reported, citing a paper on Italy's coronavirus crisis.

The report published Thursday by U.S. media outlet National Public Radio (NPR) cited Giuseppe Remuzzi, co-author of a recent paper in The Lancet about Italy's epidemic.

OTTAWA, Mar 22 (NNN-XINHUA) – Air Canada is laying off more than 5,000 flight attendants, as the country’s largest airline cuts routes and parks planes, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wesley Lesosky, who heads the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said that, the Canadian carrier is laying off about 3,600 mainline employees, as well as all of Air Canada Rouge’s 1,549 flight attendants.