North America

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Attorney General’s office is asking that a special prosecutor investigate whether the Republican candidate for state attorney general and others should be charged in connection with an effort to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election, according to published reports.

HAVANA (AP) — A deadly fire that began at a large oil storage facility in western Cuba spread Monday after flames enveloped a third tank that firefighters had tried to cool as they struggle to fight the massive blaze.

At least one person has died and 125 are injured, with dozens of firefighters reported missing ever since lighting struck one of the facility’s eight tanks on Friday night. A second tank caught fire on Saturday, triggering several explosions.

(AP) --- Climate hazards such as flooding, heat waves and drought have worsened more than half of the hundreds of known infectious diseases in people, including malaria, hantavirus, cholera and anthrax, a study says.

Researchers looked through the medical literature of established cases of illnesses and found that 218 out of the known 375 human infectious diseases, or 58%, seemed to be made worse by one of 10 types of extreme weather connected to climate change, according to a study in Monday’s journal Nature Climate Change.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities investigating the killings of four Muslim men said they are looking for help finding a vehicle believed to be connected to the deaths in New Mexico’s largest city.

A Muslim man was killed Friday night in Albuquerque, and ambush shootings killed three other Muslim men over the past nine months. Police are trying to determine if the slayings are linked.

The common elements in all the deaths were the victims’ race and religion, Deputy Police Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a recent closed-door meeting with leaders of the agency’s counterterrorism center, the CIA’s No. 2 official made clear that fighting al-Qaida and other extremist groups would remain a priority — but that the agency’s money and resources would be increasingly shifted to focusing on China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats pushed their election-year economic package to Senate passage Sunday, a hard-fought compromise less ambitious than President Joe Biden’s original domestic vision but one that still meets deep-rooted party goals of slowing global warming, moderating pharmaceutical costs and taxing immense corporations.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The white man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery after chasing the 25-year-old Black man in a Georgia neighborhood was sentenced Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.

Travis McMichael was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood in the port city of Brunswick. His punishment is largely symbolic, as McMichael was sentenced earlier this year to life without parole in a Georgia state court for Arbery’s murder.

Wood said McMichael had received a fair trial.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 07 (APP): The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the Israeli brutal attacks on Gaza, diplomats said.

The meeting was requested by the UAE — a UNSC member — along with China (the current Council chairman), France, Ireland and Norway.

During the Monday meeting, Security Council members will discuss “the current developments and ways to support international efforts to achieve a comprehensive and just peace,” an Arab diplomat said.

NEW YORK, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. launch of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) at the recent G7 summit reflects the Joe Biden administration's relentless attempt to undermine the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, said a recent report published by the personal website Scheerpost.

Although Biden did not explicitly mention it, the media widely believed that this is the West's move targeting the Belt and Road Initiative, said Scheerpost, which is run by Robert Scheer, a journalist with nearly 60 years of journalistic experience.

NEW YORK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Concern about safety has been top of mind of many Philadelphians this summer as the number of homicides in the city reached 322 as of Tuesday, of which 290 were shooting victims, the National Public Radio reported Wednesday.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney affirmed the city is experiencing a gun violence crisis, pointing out that it is a statewide and nationwide problem, the report said.

"If I had a magic wand and could get rid of guns tomorrow, I'd do it," Kenney said, blaming the accessibility of weapons for the continued crime surge.