USA

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 07 (APP): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari flew into New York Tuesday morning to begin a 5-day visit during which he will preside over a conference on ‘Women in Islam’, which is set to take place Wednesday on the sidelines of the 67th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

He was received at New York’s John F Kennedy International airport by Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram, Deputy Permanent Representative Aamir Khan, Consul General Ayesha Ali, and officials of the Pakistan Mission to the UN.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 07 (APP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned Monday’s suicide attack on a Balochistan Constabulary van in the Dhadar tehsil of the Kacchi district in Bolan, according to his spokesman.

“He extends his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a prompt recovery to those injured,” Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Nine people, eight of them policemen, were martyred in the attack. Thirteen people were injured.

March 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will seek to raise the Medicare tax on high earners and push for more drug price negotiations to help keep the federal health insurance program solvent through at least 2050 as part of his budget proposal this week, the White House said.

The tax increase from 3.8 percent to 5 percent on earned and unearned income above $400,000 is part of a package of proposals aimed at extending the solvency of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund by at least 25 years, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES, March 6 (Xinhua) -- NASA plans to launch a new science mission to the International Space Station in March on studying heart diseases, life in space and more, the agency announced on Monday.

It will be NASA's 27th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission. The mission, carried by the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft, will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

HOUSTON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- COP28 UAE President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber on Monday highlighted the need for unity and solidarity in tackling the energy trilemma and fighting the climate change.

"This is a global challenge that calls for global solutions from every stakeholder acting in unity and solidarity," he said in a keynote address at the CERAWeek, an influential global energy forum kicking off in the U.S. city of Houston on Monday.

ATLANTA (AP) — A nuclear power plant in Georgia has begun splitting atoms in one of its two new reactors, Georgia Power said Monday, a key step toward reaching commercial operation at the first new nuclear reactors built from scratch in decades in the United States.

The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. said operators reached self-sustaining nuclear fission inside the reactor at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta. That makes the intense heat that will be used to produce steam and spin turbines to generate electricity.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper urged legislators on Monday night to keep fueling opportunities for the state’s citizens to succeed through more monetary investments in K-12 education, mental health services and public safety.

“Our moment to build enduring prosperity is now. And I know that North Carolina is ready,” Cooper said while delivering what’s likely his final biennial State of the State address to a joint House-Senate session at the Legislative Building.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to position himself on Tuesday as a champion of conservative causes during a State of the State address that will likely be as much about his national ambitions as it is an assessment of Florida’s status in the wake of a pandemic and a series of crippling storms.

The address comes at the outset of a 60-day legislative session that has added significance this year because it will likely be used to launch DeSantis into a highly anticipated presidential campaign.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s former spokesperson Hope Hicks met Monday with Manhattan prosecutors who are investigating hush-money payments made to women on the ex-president’s behalf — the latest member of the Republican’s inner circle to be questioned in the renewed probe.

Hicks and her lawyer, Robert Trout, spent several hours inside the Manhattan district attorney’s office and, afterward, were seen walking to a waiting SUV. They didn’t say anything to reporters as they got in the vehicle.

ATLANTA (AP) — More than 20 people from around the country faced domestic terrorism charges Monday after dozens in black masks attacked the site of a police training center under construction in a wooded area outside Atlanta where one protester was killed in January.