USA

HOUSTON, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A person was killed and four others injured in a shooting on Sunday night at the Krewe of the Bacchus Parade in New Orleans, the largest city in the southern U.S. state Louisiana, local authorities said.

A man died from his injuries at the hospital. The other victims, a girl, a woman and two men, were in stable condition, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

An unidentified suspect was arrested "just moments after shots were fired," police said, adding that two weapons were also recovered from the scene.

ATLANTA (AP) — The woman flying out of Philadelphia’s airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. But what was more important was what she forgot to unpack: a loaded .380-caliber handgun in a black holster.

The weapon was one of the 6,542 guns the Transportation Security Administration intercepted last year at airport checkpoints across the country. The number — roughly 18 per day — was an all-time high for guns intercepted at U.S. airports, and is sparking concern at a time when more Americans are armed.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Nikki Haley is swinging through Iowa this week fresh off announcing her presidential campaign. Her fellow South Carolinian Republican, Sen. Tim Scott, will also be here as he decides his political future. And former Vice President Mike Pence was just in the state courting influential evangelical Christian activists.

After a slow start, Republican presidential prospects are streaming into the leadoff presidential caucus state. Notably absent from the lineup, at least for now, is former President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent a letter Sunday to the CEO of Norfolk Southern, warning that the freight rail company must “demonstrate unequivocal support for the people” of East Palestine, Ohio, and surrounding areas after a fiery train derailment led to the release of chemicals and residents expressing concerns about their health.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 18 (APP): Some 1.8 billion people on the planet are threatened by flood risks, the United Nations General Assembly President, Csaba Korosi, warned on Saturday, at a water management event in Tokyo, Japan.

“This is a challenge that we can master with ingenuity and determination,” he said, while calling for science-based solutions and solidarity, as he delivered a keynote speech at the high-level symposium on “Integrated Water Cycle Management in the post-COVID-19 era,” according to a press release issued at UN Headquarters in New York.

NEW YORK, February 19. /TASS/: The US President Joe Biden administration plans to impose further sanctions and export control measures targeting Russia’s energy and defense sectors, Bloomberg said on Sunday, citing its sources.

According to the sources, the future restrictions will cover Russia’s defense and energy sectors, financial institutions and a number of individuals. Apart from that, the United States is expected to take measures to thwart attempts at bypassing the anti-Russian sanctions by third countries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is scrambling to avert a diplomatic crisis over Israeli settlement activity this week at the United Nations that threatens to overshadow and perhaps derail what the U.S. hopes will be a solid five days of focus on condemning Russia’s war with Ukraine.

United Nations members gather Monday in New York to resume efforts to forge a long-awaited and elusive treaty to safeguard the world’s marine biodiversity.

Nearly two-thirds of the ocean lies outside national boundaries on the high seas where fragmented and unevenly enforced rules seek to minimize human impacts.

ARKABUTLA, Miss. (AP) — A gunman authorities say killed six people in Mississippi busted into his ex-wife’s home and smashed her boyfriend in the head with the butt of a gun before shooting her in the head, her boyfriend told The Associated Press on Saturday.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Election conspiracist Kristina Karamo, who was overwhelmingly defeated in her bid to become Michigan’s secretary of state, was chosen Saturday to lead the state’s Republican Party for the next two years.

Karamo defeated a 10-candidate field dominated by far-right candidates to win the Michigan GOP chair position after a state convention that lasted nearly 11 hours. A former community college professor, she lost her secretary of state race in the 2022 midterms by 14 percentage points after mounting a campaign filled with election conspiracies.