USA

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Feb 27 (Reuters) - NASA and SpaceX early on Monday postponed the launch of a capsule containing two U.S. astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates crewmate minutes before scheduled lift-off from Florida on a flight to the International Space Station.

The U.S. space agency and SpaceX, the private rocket company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, cited a technical glitch concerning the ignition fluid used to start the spacecraft's engines.

26 Feb 2023; MEMO: Father Hilarion Heagy, a prominent US-based Eastern Catholic priest has converted to Islam, describing his decision as a "reversion to Islam" and that it was "like coming home."

NEW YORK (AP) — Republican presidential contenders typically fight for prime speaking slots at the Conservative Political Action Conference. But as conservative activists gather in suburban Washington this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be courting donors more than a thousand miles away in Texas and California.

The apparent CPAC snub is nothing new for DeSantis, who has emerged in the early phase of the 2024 presidential election as a leading contender for the GOP nomination even as he ignores many conventions of modern politics.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 (APP): A global surge of cholera cases has put one billion people in 43 countries, including Pakistan, at risk, the World Health Organization (WHO), a Geneva-based UN agency, has warned.

Three countries, this week alone, have reported outbreaks, WHO cholera team leader Philippe Barboza told reporters at a press conference on Friday, according to a UN press release issued in New York on Sunday.

For the first time, WHO is asking donors for help to fight the outbreaks, he said.

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - China has not moved toward providing lethal aid that would help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine and the United States has made clear behind closed doors that such a move would have serious consequences, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.

"Beijing will have to make its own decisions about how it proceeds, whether it provides military assistance - but if it goes down that road it will come at real costs to China," Sullivan told CNN's "State of the Union" program.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The politically divided Virginia General Assembly worked through dozens of pieces of legislation, including a major energy bill and stop-gap budget bill, on Saturday as lawmakers reached the end of their regularly scheduled session without a deal on the entire state spending plan.

Unable to agree on several key pieces of the budget, including whether to enact the additional $1 billion in tax cuts Gov. Glenn Youngkin is seeking, lawmakers opted to pass a “skinny” spending bill and allow House and Senate negotiators to carry on with their broader discussions.

STAGECOACH, Nev. (AP) — All five people aboard a medical transport flight, including a patient, were killed in a plane crash Friday night in a mountainous area in northern Nevada.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s office said authorities began receiving calls about the crash near Stagecoach, Nevada, around 9:15 p.m. and found the wreckage two hours later. Stagecoach, a rural community home to around 2,500 residents, is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Reno.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful winter storm that swept down the West Coast with flooding and frigid temperatures shifted its focus to southern California on Saturday, swelling rivers to dangerous levels and dropping snow in even low-lying areas around Los Angeles.

24 Feb 2023; MEMO: The US said, Thursday, that it has transferred two detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to Pakistan, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"The Department of Defence announced today the repatriations of Abdul Rabbani and Mohammed Rabbani from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Pakistan," it said in a statement.

The two men are brothers, according to reports.

25 Feb 2023; MEMO: US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has condemned the "violent attack" carried out by the Israeli occupation on the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

Tlaib wrote on Twitter: "Today the extremist right-wing government of Israel violently attacked the city of Nablus, leaving 82 Palestinians shot & bringing the 2023 death toll to 61, including 13 children."