USA

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Army on Monday awarded the contract for its next-generation helicopter to Textron Inc's (TXT.N) Bell unit, ending a years-long competition for the technology that will replace the Black Hawk utility helicopter.

The Army's "Future Vertical Lift" competition aimed at finding a replacement as the Army looks to retire more than 2,000 medium-class UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters built by Sikorsky since the 1970s.

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- California, the most populous state of the United States, is among the states that have been hit hardest with "very high" flu levels, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said.

This is against the backdrop of a nationwide spike in influenza-related hospital admissions, which are nearly doubled from the week before, said the CDC in its latest report.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Biden administration said Monday that it would expand temporary legal status for Haitians already living in the United States, determining conditions in the Caribbean nation were too dangerous for their forced return.

The Homeland Security Department said Haitians who were in the United States Nov. 6 could apply for Temporary Protected Status and those who were granted it last year could stay an additional 18 months until Aug. 3, 2024.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top House and Senate leaders will present law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with Congressional Gold Medals on Tuesday, awarding them Congress’s highest honor nearly two years after they fought with former President Donald Trump’s supporters in a brutal and bloody attack.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Glenn Youngkin swept into office as a Republican sensation with a fresh formula for victory as the GOP contemplated its future beyond Donald Trump.

But one year after Youngkin became the first Republican in more than a decade to win the Virginia governorship, some in his party believe the shine of his national star is being tested just as he quietly contemplates a 2024 presidential run.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia voters on Tuesday are set to decide the final Senate contest in the country, choosing between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican football legend Herschel Walker after a four-week runoff blitz that has drawn a flood of outside spending to an increasingly personal fight.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 04 (APP): Against a backdrop of global conflicts, economic uncertainty and climate change, the UN General Assembly has recognized the transformative power of sport to achieve peace and sustainable development with the adoption of a consensus resolution.

Adopting the text, introduced by Monaco, titled “Sport as an enabler for sustainable development”, delegates laid out the ways in which sport can be used to help young people improve their lives while generating cooperation among nations.

Dec 4 (Reuters) - Residents of a central North Carolina county faced a second night of freezing weather without power on Sunday after vandals opened fire on two electric substations in what authorities called a "targeted attack."

A motive for the Saturday night damage spree wasn't clear, said Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields. Due to outages, schools will be closed Monday and potentially longer. Sunday church services and a well-known golf resort were disrupted.

CUMMING, Ga., Dec 5 (Reuters) - With Republican influence in the U.S. Senate on the line, two dozen party faithful gathered in an Atlanta suburb on Sunday for the final stretch of a get-out-the-vote effort aimed at electing former football star Herschel Walker.

Conservative activist Scott Presler told the group to make sure the targets of their door-knocking had a plan to vote in person on Tuesday or to submit their absentee ballots on time in the runoff between Walker and his Democratic opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The unabashedly liberal city of San Francisco became the unlikely proponent of weaponized police robots last week after supervisors approved limited use of the remote-controlled devices, addressing head-on an evolving technology that has become more widely available even if it is rarely deployed to confront suspects.