North America

12 Feb 2020; MEMO: Libyan families whose relatives were killed or injured during the Libyan crisis have filed lawsuits to the Washington DC District Court, against the UAE and its ally, retired Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar.

The Transnational Business Attorneys Group stated on behalf of six Libyan families, in which it said: “Prosecutors shed light on the serious violations of human rights, killings and torture in which the defendants were involved.”

CARACAS, Feb 12 (NNN-Xinhua) — US sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned airline Conviasa violate international law, said Jorge Alvarez, president of the Chamber of Venezuelan Air Transport Companies.

The only organization with the power to stop a carrier from flying from one country to another is the International Civil Aviation Organization, Alvarez told a local radio station.

“From a strategic viewpoint, Conviasa flies to a series of destinations that our country’s executive branch considers to be fundamental,” said Alvarez.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nearly 200 people evacuated from the China Covid-19 outbreak were released from quarantine in California on Tuesday with officials urging Americans not to shun them, or workers who helped them, after both groups faced discrimination.

The 195 U.S. citizens, mostly U.S. State Department employees and their families, underwent the United States’ first mandatory quarantine since 1963 after they were evacuated from the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) – UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, called for reflection on ways to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiations, as the U.S. Middle East peace plan has been rejected by the Arab world.

In a briefing to the Security Council, Mladenov noted that, the U.S. proposal, unveiled Jan 28, has been rejected by the Palestinian government, the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN Security Council was asked to vote on a resolution supporting a ceasefire in Libya, in what would be the first binding text adopted since fighting flared in April last year.

The United Kingdom, which has been drafting a text for three weeks, called for the vote to take place on Wednesday, diplomatic sources said.

The position of Russia, which blocked a draft resolution last week, is unknown.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the current stance of monetary policy will "likely remain appropriate," according to his testimony prepared for a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee later in the day.

"Of course, policy is not on a preset course. If developments emerge that cause a material reassessment of our outlook, we would respond accordingly," Powell said, adding the risks to the U.S. economic outlook remain.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday reiterated the rejection of a newly released U.S. Middle East peace plan, calling it an "Israeli-American proposal."

"I have come to you on behalf of 13 million Palestinians to call for a just peace. That is all. I have come to you today to reaffirm the Palestinian position that rejects the Israeli-American proposal," Abbas told the UN Security Council, which met to discuss the U.S. plan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic voters in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary were angry at President Donald Trump’s administration and eager to pick the candidate most likely to oust him from office.

Roughly three-quarters of voters said they were not just dissatisfied but also angry with the Trump administration, according to a wide-ranging AP VoteCast survey of Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire. A wide majority said it was very important that Democrats nominate a candidate who can beat Trump in November.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Bloomberg is under fire for resurfaced comments in which the Democratic presidential candidate says the way to bring down murder rates is to “put a lot of cops” in minority neighborhoods because that’s where “all the crime is.”

The billionaire and former New York City mayor made the comments at a 2015 appearance at the Aspen Institute, as part of an overall defense of his support for the controversial “stop and frisk” policing tactic that has been found to disproportionately affect minorities.

Manchester, NH (AP) --- Democrat Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur who created buzz for his presidential campaign by talking about his love of math and championing a universal basic income that would give every American adult $1,000 per month, suspended his 2020 bid on Tuesday.

“I am the math guy, and it is clear to me from the numbers that we are not going to win this race,” Yang said in front of a crowd of supporters as votes in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary were being counted.