North America

15 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Head of the United Nations has reiterated the importance of cross-border aid to north-west Syria as essential for millions of people, as the authorisation to use the last border crossing is set to expire next month.

In a confidential internal report obtained by the news agency AFP, yesterday, the UN's Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said that "Cross-border assistance remains life-saving for millions of people in need in north-west Syria."

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Houston-based oil company and two subsidiaries were indicted Wednesday for a crude spill that fouled Southern California waters and beaches in October, an event prosecutors say was caused in part by failing to properly act when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture.

Amplify Energy Corp. and its companies that operate several oil rigs and a pipeline off Long Beach were charged by a federal grand jury with a single misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City jury has heard four women detail accusations that they were teens when they became victims of a sex-abuse scheme devised by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Starting Thursday, the British socialite’s attorneys are expected to make their case that Maxwell isn’t the one to blame.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors were expected to wrap up their case Thursday against the Minnesota police officer charged in Daunte Wright ’s death, setting the stage for a defense that at some point will have Kim Potter directly addressing the jury.

Potter, 49, has said she meant to use her Taser when she shot and killed Wright on April 11, as he had pulled away from officers at a traffic stop and was trying to drive away. Body-camera video captured her shouting “I’ll tase you!” and “Taser, Taser, Taser!” before firing once.

DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. (AP) — Tight-knit communities still digging out from the deadly tornadoes that killed dozens of people across eight states in the South and Midwest are turning to another heavy-hearted task: honoring and burying their dead.

The storms that began Friday night destroyed lives and property from Arkansas to Illinois and in parts of neighboring states, carving a more than 200-mile (320-kilometer) path through Kentucky alone. The National Weather Service recorded at least 41 tornadoes, including 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky.

(AP) --- The new omicron coronavirus mutant speeding around the world may bring another wave of chaos, threatening to further stretch hospital workers already struggling with a surge of delta cases and upend holiday plans for the second year in a row.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Abdulla Shahid, president of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), said yesterday that, his first goal for the New Year is to vaccinate the world and achieve vaccine equity, so that normalcy can return to the entire world at an earlier date.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 15 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – The death toll rose to at least 60, after a fuel tanker exploded in Haiti’s northern port city of Cap-Haitien yesterday, a local official said.

Dozens of people were injured and have been transported to hospitals in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second-largest city, Deputy Mayor, Patrick Almonor, told reporters, describing the blast as “horrible.”

“Firefighters are making an initial assessment to determine the number of houses burned” as a result of the explosion, Almonor added.

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - U.S. passenger railroad Amtrak said on Tuesday it will temporarily suspend a vaccine mandate for employees and now no longer expects to be forced to cut some service in January.

In a memo seen by Reuters, Amtrak Chief Executive Bill Flynn said the railroad would allow employees who were not vaccinated to get tested.

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday dismissed a bid by former President Donald Trump to keep his tax returns from a House of Representatives committee, ruling that Congress' legislative interest outweighed any deference Trump should receive as a former president.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden said in his ruling that Trump was "wrong on the law" in seeking to block the House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining his tax returns.