North America

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that nothing prepared her for “the extent and depth of suffering” she saw when she visited camps in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled a violent crackdown by Myanmar’s military.

In her very different role as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, Blanchett said she heard “gut-wrenching accounts” of torture, rape, people seeing loved ones killed before their eyes, and children thrown into fire and burned alive.

UNITED NATIONS, August 28. /TASS/. Russia’s Defense Ministry, unlike foreign agencies, does not spread fake news, particularly on Syria, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said in response to a statement made by UK Ambassador to the UN Karen Pierce.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pierce told reporters that the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement about preparations for a chemical weapons provocation involving White Helmets members was fake news.

UNITED NATIONS, August 28. /TASS/. Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya will discuss a possible chemical weapons provocation in Syria, as well as a UN directive hampering the country’s reconstruction, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, as he himself told reporters.

WASHINGTON, August 27. /TASS/. The United States’ sanctions on Russia over Moscow’s alleged involvement in poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia come into effect on Monday.

The US State Department claimed that by using lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals Russia had violated the US Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.

WASHINGTON, August 27. /TASS/. Washington’s new sanctions against Moscow bring the US closer to the point of no return in resolving current international issues with Russia. Besides, such measures are fruitless and futile, the message published on Monday by the Russian Embassy in Washington states.

Despite a strong economy, about 40 percent of American families struggled to meet at least one of their basic needs last year, including paying for food, health care, housing or utilities.

That’s according to an Urban Institute survey of nearly 7,600 adults that found that the difficulties were most prevalent among adults with lower incomes or health issues. But it also revealed that people from all walks of life were running into similar hardships.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Police in the Florida city of Jacksonville said Sunday a mass shooting has led to multiple fatalities, and the lone shooter is dead at the scene.

"Multiple fatalities at the scene, many transported," the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said on twitter, following up on earlier reports of the shooting in Jacksonville Landing, a downtown market place.

The police said that one suspect, a white male, has been killed, and that after thorough search of the shooting scene it was determined that the shooter acted alone.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior U.S. Navy official said Friday that the U.S. 2nd Fleet will expand its operation space past the Arctic Circle and reach close to Russia.

"A new 2nd Fleet increases our strategic flexibility to respond - from the Eastern Seaboard to the Barents Sea," Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson said aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush, which is currently at Norfolk in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Washington, Aug 24 (AP) US and Chinese negotiators ended two days of meetings without breaking a deadlock over trade that has unnerved financial markets and disrupted global commerce.

The delegations "exchanged views on how to achieve fairness, balance and reciprocity in the economic relationship," Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement. She did not mention further talks.

A Chinese Commerce Ministry statement said the talks were "constructive and frank" but gave no details. It said the two sides would "maintain contact."

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The 67th United Nations Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization Conference kicked off Wednesday, bringing together some 2,000 representatives from over 300 non-governmental organizations to discuss issues of global concern.

Alison Smale, under secretary-general for global communications, UN Department of Public Information, said stronger links to civil society provide the greatest chance for dealing with global problems that no country can solve alone.