North America

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Four people were shot and wounded in downtown Austin, Texas, early Sunday as the city hosts the annual South by Southwest festival, police said.

The Austin Police Department told people to avoid the area at around 2:50 a.m., warning via Twitter that the gunman was still at large.

However, police tweeted that a suspect was in custody shortly before 5 a.m.

Police and the Austin-Travis County EMS said the victims’ injures were not life-threatening, and all four had been taken to the hospital.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Lagging behind Russia in developing hypersonic weapons, the U.S. Navy is rushing to field its first, with installation on a warship starting as soon as late next year.

The United States is in a race with Russia and China to develop these weapons, which travel at speeds akin to ballistic missiles but are difficult to shoot down because of their maneuverability.

DENVER (AP) — The surprising advantage Democrats gained during the torturous process of rewriting the nation’s congressional maps may be short-lived, creating the potential for more frequent clashes over how political power should be distributed across the United States.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, is going before the Senate Judiciary Committee with the path to her historic confirmation seemingly clear.

Committee hearings begin Monday for the 51-year-old Jackson, a federal judge for the past nine years. She is expected to present an opening statement late in the day, then answer questions from the committee’s 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans over the next two days.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just days before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, President Joe Biden quietly dispatched a team to European Union headquarters in Belgium.

These were not spy chiefs or generals, but experts in reading fine print and tracking the flow of money, computer chips and other goods around the world. Their mandate: inflict maximum pain on Russian President Vladimir Putin, making it harder, if not impossible, for him to fund a prolonged war in Ukraine and denying him access to technologies at the core of modern warfare.

Des Moines (Iowa), Mar 19 (AP) The confirmation of bird flu at another Iowa egg-laying farm will force the killing of more than 5 million chickens, state officials said Friday.

It's the second confirmed case of avian influenza in Buena Vista County, about 160 miles (257 kilometers) northwest of Des Moines, but the latest outbreak is at an operation with 5.3 million chickens. The earlier case was at a farm with about 50,000 turkeys.

19 March 2022; MEMO: The Israeli murder of US peace activist Rachel Corrie was marked on 16 March, 2022, the 19th anniversary of her death. Along with eight others, Corrie acted as a human shield to prevent Israeli bulldozers from demolishing Palestinian homes in Gaza.

19 March 2022; MEMO: India, France, and European Union (EU) have objected to the decision to declare 15 March the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (APP): Making a strong case against creating new permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council, Pakistan had said an increase in the number of non-permanent members would make the 15-member body more representative and democratic.

BELIZE CITY, March 19 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate arrive in Belize on Saturday for a week long Caribbean tour that was marred by a local protest before it even began amid growing scrutiny of the British Empire's colonial ties to the region.

The arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge coincides with the celebration of Queen Elizabeth's 70th year on the throne, and comes nearly four months after Barbados voted to become a republic, cutting ties with the monarchy but remaining part of the British-led Commonwealth of Nations.