North America

10 Jan 2019; AP: A U.S. supplier of t-shirts and other team apparel to college bookstores cut its ties Wednesday with a Chinese company that drew workers from an internment camp holding targeted members of ethnic minority groups.

In recent years, authorities in the far west Chinese region of Xinjiang have detained an estimated 1 million Uighurs and Kazakhs in heavily-secured facilities where detainees say they are ordered to renounce their language and religion while pledging loyalty to the China’s ruling Communist Party.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly walked out from a meeting with congressional leaders, saying later that his talks with top Democrats on ending the partial government shutdown were "a total waste of time."

"I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!" Trump tweeted after his fresh engagement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas authorities filed a capital murder charge Tuesday against a black man they believe fired the bullet that killed a 7-year-old black girl in a drive-by shooting her family initially believed was racially motivated.

Prosecutors believe 24-year-old Larry D. Woodruffe killed Jazmine Barnes on Dec. 30 as she and her family drove to a grocery store in Houston.

The driver of the SUV Woodruffe rode in, 20-year-old Eric Black Jr. has also been charged with capital murder. Both suspects remain jailed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump urged congressional Democrats to fund his long-promised border wall in a somber televised address that was heavy with dark immigration rhetoric but offered little in the way of concessions or new ideas to break the standoff that has left large swaths of the government shuttered for 19 days.

09 Jan 2019; AFP: The UN has said an 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family is a legitimate refugee and has asked Australia to resettle her, Canberra said Wednesday, as the Twitter-led campaign to grant her asylum edged towards resolution.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was stopped by authorities at Bangkok's main airport as she arrived on a flight from Kuwait on the weekend after running away from her family, who she says subjected her to physical and psychological abuse.

09 Jan 2019; AFP: President Donald Trump used a prime-time address to the nation Tuesday to insist on $5.7 billion for a steel wall along the Mexican border that he said would stop the shedding of "American blood" by illegal immigrants.

The nine-minute speech from the storied Oval Office in the White House contained no concessions to Democrats refusing to fund construction of the wall -- a project Trump has made his signature domestic policy idea.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Global economic growth is projected to slow to 2.9 percent in 2019 from a downwardly revised 3 percent in 2018 amid rising downside risks, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

In its newly-released Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank said the outlook for the global economy "has darkened" as global financing conditions have tightened, trade tensions "have intensified," and some large emerging market and developing economies have experienced significant financial market stress.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Jim Yong Kim, president of World Bank, said on Tuesday that he will join a private equity fund next month after leaving his current post.

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a New York-based global infrastructure investor, said that Kim will become GIP's partner and vice chairman on February 1.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is taking over the nation’s airwaves Tuesday night to argue his case for a U.S.-Mexico border wall — and Democrats are not happy about it.

Representatives for ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC and NBC confirmed plans to air Trump’s address live at 9 p.m. Eastern.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say Democrats should be given time to respond after Trump’s address.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans’ first bill of the new Congress aims to insert the legislative branch into President Donald Trump’s Middle East policy — but also tries to drive a wedge between centrist and liberal Democrats over attitudes toward Israel.