USA

Dec 10 (Reuters) - Most of the 43 COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant identified in the United States so far were in people who were fully vaccinated, and a third of them had received a booster dose, according to a U.S. report published on Friday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that of the 43 cases attributed to Omicron variant, 34 people had been fully vaccinated. Fourteen of them had also received a booster, although five of those cases occurred less than 14 days after the additional shot before full protection kicks in.

NEW YORK, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Powerful storms like the ones that tore through parts of the central United States this weekend are the "new normal" in an era of climate change, and the severity, duration and magnitude of the storms this late in the year were "unprecedented," Deanne Criswell, administrator of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told CNN on Sunday.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The United States cannot be "the torchbearer for democracy" as it grapples with own democratic crisis, opined a recent article in USA Today.

"While President Biden is hosting a global democracy summit, our own democracy right here is falling apart," the article quoted Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a voting rights group, as saying. "You can't be the torchbearer for democracy while your own house is on fire."

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that he will travel to Kentucky on Wednesday to view damage from last week’s devastating tornadoes that killed at least 64 people and displaced thousands more.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is set to recommend contempt charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Monday as lawmakers are releasing new details about thousands of emails and texts he has handed over to the committee.

In laying out the case for the contempt vote, the nine-member panel released a 51-page report Sunday evening that details its questions about the documents he has already provided — including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages.

OXFORD, Mich. (AP) — A 15-year-old boy accused of opening fire at his Michigan high school, killing four students and wounding seven other people, was due in court Monday for a procedural hearing.

Ethan Crumbley is charged as an adult with murder, terrorism and other counts for the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Navy will hold a hearing Monday to determine whether there is enough evidence to order a court martial for a San Diego-based sailor charged with setting the fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard in the summer of 2020.

Ryan Sawyer Mays, a junior sailor, was charged with aggravated arson and the willful hazarding of a vessel in a case that marked the maritime branch’s worst warship blaze outside of combat in recent memory.

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Night-shift workers were in the middle of the holiday rush, cranking out candles at Mayfield Consumer Products, when a tornado closed in on the factory and the word went out to seek shelter.

For Autumn Kirks, that meant tossing aside wax and fragrance buckets to make an improvised safe place. She glanced away from her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, and when she looked back, he was gone. Later in the day, she got the terrible news — that Ward had been killed in the storm.

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Workers on the night shift at Mayfield Consumer Products were in the middle of the holiday rush, cranking out candles, when a tornado closed in on the factory and the word went out: “Duck and cover.”

Autumn Kirks pulled down her safety goggles and took shelter, tossing aside wax and fragrance buckets to make room. She glanced away from her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, and when she looked back, he was gone.

NEW YORK, December 11. /TASS/: The US administration prepared a $200 mln package of additional military assistance for Ukraine but held it back despite appeals from the Kiev authorities, NBC News reported, citing sources.