North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is confronting no shortage of difficult issues as he travels to New York this week for the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

The Russian war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture. European fears that a recession could be just around the corner are heightened. Administration concerns grow by the day that time is running short to revive the Iran nuclear deal and over China’s saber-rattling on Taiwan.

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man who killed three students and wounded five more in a school shooting 25 years ago told a parole panel on Tuesday that he is still hearing voices like the ones that told him to steal a pistol and shoot into a crowded high school lobby in 1997.

The two-person panel hearing Michael Carneal’s testimony deferred a decision until Monday, when the state’s entire parole board will meet and could decide to grant his parole request, defer his next parole decision to a later date, or determine that he must spend the rest of his life in prison.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As the parents of children killed when a school collapsed during Mexico’s 2017 earthquake celebrated a Mass in their memory, the ground began to shake again.

“No, not again! My God, not again!” they shouted when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake rattled the capital Monday, killing two people in the Pacific coast state of Colima.

CAYEY, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team has told a newly appointed independent arbiter that it does not want to answer his questions about the declassification status of the documents seized last month from the former president’s Florida home, saying that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal authorities charged 47 people in Minnesota with conspiracy and other counts in what they said Tuesday was the largest fraud scheme yet to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by stealing $250 million from a federal program that provides meals to low-income children.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In an alarming assessment, the head of the United Nations warned world leaders Tuesday that nations are “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction” and aren’t ready or willing to tackle the challenges that threaten humanity’s future — and the planet’s. “Our world is in peril — and paralyzed,” he said.

New York, Sep 20 (PTI) India, the UAE and France have held their first trilateral ministerial meeting here on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session and discussed a new and more contemporary way of doing diplomacy with a focus on active exchange of ideas between strategic partners and UNSC members.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in New York on Sunday to participate in the high-level 77th session of the UN General Assembly, which kick-starts September 20 with the opening of the General Debate.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 (APP): Reaffirming its full support to the Palestinian people’s struggle for self-determination and against foreign occupation, Pakistan Monday urged the international community to help them establish an independent State of their own with Al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 18 (NNN-Xinhua) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his special envoy for global education, Gordon Brown, launched a multi-billion-dollar International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd).

With the first projects expected in 2023, IFFEd will support education and skills development investments in lower-middle-income countries. With an initial funding of 2 billion U.S. dollars, the facility is expected to expand to 10 billion dollars by 2030.