Category: World

WASHINGTON (AP): President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response. Separately, Biden picked a Harvard infectious disease expert, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.… Continue reading Biden picks Xavier Becerra to lead HHS, coronavirus response

KYIV, Ukraine (AP): More than 300 people were detained in the Belarusian capital on Sunday, where crowds of people took to the streets for the 18th consecutive weekend, demanding the ouster of the country’s authoritarian leader who won a sixth term in office in an election widely seen as rigged. Thousands of people Sunday took… Continue reading Over 300 detained in Belarus during protests against leader

ROME (Reuters): Iran will fully comply with a 2015 deal aimed at preventing it from developing nuclear weapons if both the United States and Europe honour their original commitments, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday. U.S. President Donald Trump quit the pact in 2018, saying it did not do enough to curb… Continue reading Iran ready to show goodwill if U.S., Europe abide by nuclear deal: Zarif

WASHINGTON (AP): Disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. Barr’s comments, in an interview Tuesday with the The Associated Press, contradict the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to… Continue reading Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud

STOCKHOLM (AP): Police in Stockholm are investigating a woman in her 70s suspected of having kept her son locked up — reportedly for 28 years — in an apartment south of the Swedish capital, investigators said Tuesday. Prosecutor Emma Olsson, who heads the preliminary investigation, said the woman who was held on suspicion of unlawful… Continue reading Sweden: Mother suspected of locking up her son for 28 years

WASHINGTON (Reuters): The Supreme Court on Monday is set to take up President Donald Trump’s unprecedented and contentious effort to exclude illegal immigrants from the population totals used to allocate U.S. House of Representatives districts to states. The challengers to Trump’s July directive include various states led by New York, cities, counties and immigrant rights… Continue reading U.S. Supreme Court weighs Trump bid to bar illegal immigrants from census totals

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AP): At least 34 people were killed on Sunday in two separate suicide bombings in Afghanistan that targeted a military base and a provincial chief, officials said. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks, which took place as Afghan government representatives and the Taliban hold face-to-face talks in Qatar for… Continue reading Afghan officials say 34 killed in separate suicide bombings

TEHRAN, Iran (AP): Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday demanded the “definitive punishment” of those behind the killing of a scientist who led Tehran’s disbanded military nuclear program, as the Islamic Republic blamed Israel for a slaying that has raised fears of reignited tensions across the Middle East. After years of being in the shadows, the… Continue reading Iran’s supreme leader vows revenge over slain scientist

WASHINGTON (AP): President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will leave the White House if the Electoral College formalizes President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory — even as he insisted such a decision would be a “mistake” — as he spent his Thanksgiving renewing baseless claims that “massive fraud” and crooked officials in battleground states caused his… Continue reading Trump says he’ll leave if Electoral College seats Biden