North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020′s brief but devastating coronavirus recession.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Xiomara Castro is scheduled to be sworn in Thursday as Honduras’ first female president, facing high expectations to turn around the deeply troubled country amid uncertainty about whether an unfolding legislative crisis will allow her the support she needs.

Relatively smooth elections and a healthy margin of victory Nov. 28 came as a relief, but political maneuvering in the run-up to Castro’s inauguration has muddled the outlook and distracted from what was to be a hopeful new beginning after the two terms of President Juan Orlando Hernández.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats who have played defense for the last three Supreme Court vacancies plan to move swiftly to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, using the rapid 2020 confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a new standard.

Los Angeles, Jan 27 (AP) The most vulnerable members of the Wiyot Tribe were asleep the morning of Feb 26, 1860, when a band of white men slipped into their Northern California villages under darkness and slaughtered them.

Many of the children, women and elderly slain in what became known as the Indian Island Massacre had their eternal rest disturbed when their graves were later dug up and their skeletons and the artifacts buried with them were placed in a museum.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration and NATO told Russia on Wednesday there will be no U.S. or NATO concessions on Moscow’s main demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine.

In separate written responses delivered to the Russians, the U.S. and NATO held firm to the alliance’s open-door policy for membership, rejected a demand to permanently ban Ukraine from joining, and said allied deployments of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe are nonnegotiable.

(AP) --- Democrats stung by a series of election-year failures to deliver legislative wins for their most loyal voters may have been buoyed by the prospect that President Joe Biden will name the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Justice Stephen Breyer’s pending retirement, confirmed by numerous sources on Wednesday, couldn’t have come at a better time for a Democratic Party reeling from the collapse of Biden’s legislative agenda last week, including a push to overhaul election laws that voting rights advocates said was critical to protecting democracy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Longtime liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring, numerous sources said Wednesday, giving President Joe Biden his first high court opening, which he has pledged to fill with the historic naming of the court’s first Black woman.

Washington, Jan 27 (PTI) Former vice-president Hamid Ansari and four US lawmakers have expressed concern over the current human rights situation in India.

They were speaking at a virtual panel discussion organised by the Indian American Muslim Council on Wednesday.

India has rejected criticism by foreign governments and human rights groups on allegations that civil liberties have eroded in the country.

SAN JUAN, Jan 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A statue of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon was toppled early Monday in Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan, just hours before a visit to the Caribbean island by Spain’s King Felipe VI.

“Some individuals approached the statue,” located in a square in the historic center of San Juan, and “caused damage,” according to a police report quoted by local media.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Afghanistan is "hanging by a thread," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Wednesday, calling for countries to authorize all transactions needed to carry out humanitarian activities in the Taliban-ruled state.