North America

New York, Feb 19 (AP) Former President Donald Trump faced one legal setback after another this week as a judge ruled he must sit for a deposition in New York to answer questions about his business practices, his accounting firm declared his financial statements unreliable, another judge rejected his efforts to dismiss conspiracy lawsuits and the National Archives confirmed that he took classified information to Florida as he left White House.

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. securities regulators responded to allegations that they are harassing Elon Musk, writing in a letter that they’re following a judge’s instructions in trying to speak with the Tesla CEO’s lawyers about his posts on Twitter.

In a letter dated Friday, Steven Buchholz of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s San Francisco Office wrote that the judge handling a securities case against Musk encouraged both sides to confer before raising issues with the court.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Lawmakers in the Maryland House of Delegates outlined a tax-relief package on Friday that would steer about $300 million over five years to working and middle class families, partly by cutting the state’s sales tax on goods like diapers, car seats and diabetic care products.

NARANJO DE CHILA, Mexico (AP) — Special squads of Mexican army troops equipped with metal detectors and bomb suits have deployed to the western state of Michoacan, where warring drug cartels have planted land mines or improvised explosive devices.

The squads apparently have found dozens of such devices along rural roads and fields in the area around the township of Aguililla.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday rejected efforts by former President Donald Trump to toss out conspiracy lawsuits filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers, saying in his ruling that the former president’s words “plausibly” led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta said in his ruling that Trump’s words during a rally before the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol were likely “words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment.”

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kim Potter, the former suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser when she fatally shot Daunte Wright, was sentenced Friday to two years in prison. Wright’s family denounced the sentence as too lenient and accused the judge of giving more consideration to the white officer than the Black victim.

Potter was convicted in December of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 killing of Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist. She was sentenced only on the more serious charge in accordance with state law.

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Police arrested scores of demonstrators and towed away vehicles Friday in Canada’s besieged capital, and a stream of trucks started leaving under the pressure, raising authorities’ hopes for an end to the three-week protest against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions.

NEW YORK, Feb 18 (APP): The visiting Pakistan parliamentary delegation leader, Sardar Talib Hasan Nakai, MNA, told a gathering of Pakistani community activists that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government was working diligently to ensure the people’s welfare, and it’s success in combating the coronavirus pandemic was recognized internationally.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 18 (APP): With tensions continuing to mount over the Ukraine crisis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that he still believed military conflict in Europe “will not happen” – but if it did, “it would be catastrophic”.

Addressing world leaders at the Munich Security Conference in Berlin — amid an intense spike in shelling in eastern Ukraine by opposing sides, and a concentration of Russian troops around the country’s borders –- the UN chief said that it was high time to “seriously de-escalate” the crisis.

HOUSTON, Feb 18 (NNN-Xinhua) — A grand jury in Austin, Texas, had indicted multiple police officers for using excessive force during racial justice protests in 2020, local authorities said.

Speaking at a press conference, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said that “multiple indictments will be forthcoming in the days ahead” for police officers suspected of criminal conduct during the May 2020 protests, spurred by the murder of African American George Floyd by a white police officer.