North America

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday eased its COVID-19 travel ratings for Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and Haiti.

The CDC said it had changed its COVID-19 travel recommendation for the three countries to "Level 1: Low" from "Level 4: Very High," which urges Americans to avoid travel to those locations.

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Biden discussed issues regarding Ukraine, including India's energy purchases from Russia, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual meeting on Monday but did not make a "concrete ask," a senior U.S. administration official said.

India will make its own decisions, but the United States believes India should not accelerate energy purchases from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing war, the official said. The two leaders had an hour-long, productive and candid conversation, the official said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is nominating an Obama-era U.S. attorney to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as his administration unveils its formal rule to rein in ghost guns, privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up at crime scenes, six people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk won’t be joining Twitter’s board of directors as previously announced. The tempestuous billionaire remains Twitter’s largest shareholder.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted the news, which followed a weekend of Musk tweets suggesting possible changes to Twitter, including making the site ad-free. Nearly 90% of Twitter’s 2021 revenue came from ads.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to speak with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday as he presses world leaders to take a hard line against Russia’s Ukraine invasion.

India’s neutral stance in the war has raised concerns in Washington and earned praise from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who lauded India this month for judging “the situation in its entirety, not just in a one-sided way.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A COVID-19 patient was in respiratory distress. The Army nurse knew she had to act quickly.

It was the peak of this year’s omicron surge and an Army medical team was helping in a Michigan hospital. Regular patient beds were full. So was the intensive care. But the nurse heard of an open spot in an overflow treatment area, so she and another team member raced the gurney across the hospital to claim the space first, denting a wall in their rush.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 10 (APP): With new coronavirus variants emerging every four months on average, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the pandemic is far from over as large outbreaks are spreading in Asia.

NEW YORK, April 9. /TASS/: The unwillingness of the Kiev regime to stop the genocide of Russians and implement its obligations under international treaties have led to the special military operation, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said in an interview for Newsweek Friday.

"The special military operation in Ukraine is a result of the Kiev regime’s unwillingness to stop the genocide of Russians through implementation of its obligations under international agreements," he said.

ISS, April 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The first all-private team of astronauts ever launched to the International Space Station (ISS) arrived safely at the orbiting research platform to begin a week-long science mission hailed as a milestone in commercial spaceflight.

The rendezvous came about 21 hours after the four-man team representing Houston-based startup company Axiom Space Inc lifted off on Friday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, riding atop a SpaceX-launched Falcon 9 rocket.

April 10 (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that he expects Russia's newly appointed general overseeing Ukraine, Alexander Dvornikov, to orchestrate crimes and brutality against Ukrainian civilians.

Sullivan did not cite any evidence.

Sullivan said targeting civilians "lies at the feet of the Kremlin" during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union."