North America

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The strongest earthquake in 20 years shook a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada on Thursday, rattling nerves on the July 4th holiday and causing injuries and damage in a town near the epicenter, followed by a swarm of ongoing aftershocks.

The 6.4 magnitude quake struck at 10:33 a.m. in the Mojave Desert, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, near the town of Ridgecrest, California.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 04 (APP): Millions of people from minority backgrounds in the Indian state of Assam are living in a “xenophobic climate”, and face marginalization and a rise in hate speech on social media, UN experts have warned.

The concerns raised by the group of UN Special Rapporteurs are linked to draft amendments to the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) list, which excludes more than 4 million people, in particular Muslims and Hindus of Bengali descent.

UNITED NATIONS, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Wednesday reiterated the importance of a credible, free, fair and peaceful presidential election to be held in Guinea-Bissau on Nov. 24.

The Security Council called upon leaders of all political parties in Guinea-Bissau to continue to refrain from incitement of followers towards any violent action.

WASHINGTON, July 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. industry associations and business representatives have expressed the hope for the United States and China to resolve their trade dispute in the near future so as to bring bilateral trade back onto the normal track.

"The main thing that we hear from American companies is that they have a lot of uncertainty about where things are going in U.S.-China relations," Erin Ennis, senior vice president of the U.S.-China Business Council, told Xinhua recently. "That is not something that companies like."

WASHINGTON, July 4. /TASS/: Russia and the United States reached an agreement to hold full-format consultations on strategic issues in mid-July in Geneva, Director of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Vladimir Yermakov told TASS.

"There is an agreement to hold full-format consultations on strategic issues involving representatives of relevant departments the mid-July in Geneva," he said.

MIAMI (AP) — Conspiracy theorists took to social media in a flurry of excitement Wednesday after a mysterious flying object resembling an orange fireball streaked across the Florida sky.

The American Meteor Society reported two dozen sightings from Jacksonville to Key West after midnight and tweeted there’s “no real explanation yet.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China and Europe of playing a “big currency manipulation game.” He said the United States should match that effort, a move that directly contradicts official U.S. policy not to manipulate the dollar’s value to gain trade advantages.

In a tweet, the president said if America doesn’t act, the country will continue “being the dummies who sit back and politely watch as other countries continue to play their games — as they have for so many years.”

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A fire destroyed a massive Jim Beam warehouse filled with about 45,000 barrels of aging bourbon in Kentucky, and state officials worried that runoff whiskey seeping into nearby waterways would kill fish.

Firefighters from four counties responded to the blaze that erupted late Tuesday. It sent flames shooting into the night sky and generated so much heat that firetruck lights melted.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden has raised $21.5 million since launching his White House bid in late April, his campaign said Wednesday. While Biden’s haul will put him in the top tier of Democratic fundraisers, he lags behind Pete Buttigieg, a 37-year-old Indiana mayor who was virtually unknown a few months ago.

Buttigieg’s campaign announced earlier in the week that he posted an eye-popping $24.8 million second-quarter haul — a stunning sum for any candidate, let alone one who is so new to the national political stage.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A decorated Navy SEAL acquitted of murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive in Iraq but convicted over posing with the corpse

was given a demotion by a military jury Wednesday after the Bronze Star recipient acknowledged making ethical and moral mistakes.

Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, 40, was also handed the maximum penalty for the offense of four months in confinement, though he will serve no jail

time because it is less than the time he spent in custody before the trial.