North America

Washington, Dec 11 (AFP/PTI) The Pentagon announced Tuesday it was temporarily suspending operational training for Saudi military students in the United States following a shooting rampage last week by a Saudi air force officer.

Saudi Arabian military students in the United States will continue classroom instruction but operational training is halted pending a security review, senior Defense Department officials said.

Vancouver, Dec 11 (AFP/PTI) The world's first fully electric commercial aircraft took its inaugural test flight on Tuesday, taking off from the Canadian city of Vancouver where tall mountain peaks edge the Pacific Ocean.

"This proves that commercial aviation in all-electric form can work," said Roei Ganzarski, chief executive of Seattle-based engineering firm magniX.

WASHINGTON, December 11. /TASS/: Russia’s Foreign Ministry has shed light on how US citizen Paul Whelan, who is in Russian custody on espionage charges, made threats against the staff of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS).

WASHINGTON, December 11. /TASS/: US President Donald Trump urged Moscow to back US efforts on thwarting Iran’s nuclear arms development and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, White House Spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

"President Trump also emphasized his support for effective global arms control that includes not only Russia, but also China," Deere said in a statement on Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Lavrov.

WASHINGTON, December 11. /TASS/: The sanctions against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream pipelines, included into the new military budget of the United States, will not stop those projects, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters after his working visit to the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon announced on Tuesday it was halting operational training of all Saudi Arabian military personnel in the United States until further notice after a Saudi Air Force lieutenant shot and killed three people last week at a base in Florida.

The decision will have far-reaching impacts on visiting Saudi personnel, including grounding more than 300 Saudi Arabian military aviation students as part of a “safety stand-down,” first reported by Reuters earlier on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House leaders are racing the clock and bracing for inevitable blowback on an emerging government-wide spending bill that’s likely to largely maintain President Donald Trump’s tactical ability to fund his much-sought border wall.

NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil won Tuesday in a closely watched lawsuit over the costs of climate change, with a judge saying there was no proof the energy giant duped investors about the toll that regulations could take on its business.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office didn’t prove the company made any material misstatements “that misled any reasonable investor,” state judge Barry Ostrager in Manhattan wrote in dismissing the case.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr leveled blistering criticism at how the Russia investigation was conducted, saying Tuesday that it was based on a “bogus narrative” that the Trump campaign might have conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

Barr spoke to NBC News one day after the release of a Justice Department inspector general report that found problems with the FBI’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, but also concluded that there was a proper basis for opening the probe and that it was free of political bias.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats and the White House announced a deal Tuesday on a modified North American trade pact, handing President Donald Trump a major Capitol Hill win on the same day that impeachment charges were announced against him. Both sides hailed the deal as a win for American workers.