USA

LOS ANGELES, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Vaccine advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted on Thursday to support recommending the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for use in people ages 6 through 17 years old.

The vaccine received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week.

This recommendation reinforces the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine as an important tool in the pandemic and provides another vaccine option for children and adolescents, said the CDC in a statement.

PHOENIX (AP) — The attorney for the Arizona Senate’s ethics committee submitted a report Friday on his investigation of a Republican lawmaker’s online comments that appeared to blame the federal government for a supermarket massacre in Buffalo, New York.

But the report from attorney Chris Kleminich reached no conclusions on whether Sen. Wendy Rogers’ comment broke the Senate’s rules and said the committee’s role has been completed.

Instead, it will be up to the full Senate to decide whether the Flagstaff lawmaker’s comments merit discipline.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Most California taxpayers would get hundreds of dollars in cash to help offset the high price of fuel and other goods under a tentative budget compromise being discussed by legislative leaders and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The plan would return a portion of California’s record-setting $97 billion budget surplus to taxpayers — but the money would only go to people who made below a certain income level.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home is scheduled to be released from prison next week, months after his murder conviction was overturned and he was resentenced on a lesser charge.

Mohamed Noor, 36, is scheduled to be released from custody Monday, 18 days shy of the fifth anniversary of the July 15, 2017, fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a 40-year-old dual U.S.-Australian citizen and yoga teacher who was engaged to be married.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Counties across Nevada on Friday certified the last outstanding results of the state’s June 14 primary election after critics questioned the tallies by recounting their own experiences at the polls and repeating conspiracy theories that nearly derailed certification in New Mexico last week.

Esmeralda County, Nevada’s smallest, became the last to certify its countywide results Friday night less than two hours before a midnight deadline.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Up to 40,000 Army National Guard soldiers across the country — or about 13% of the force — have not yet gotten the mandated COVID-19 vaccine, and as the deadline for shots looms, at least 14,000 of them have flatly refused and could be forced out of the service.

Guard soldiers have until Thursday to get the vaccine. And according to data obtained by The Associated Press, between 20% to 30% of the Guard soldiers in six states are not vaccinated, and more than 10% in 43 other states still need shots.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House sent President Joe Biden the widest ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades Friday, a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.

The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation on a mostly party-line 234-193 vote, capping a spurt of action prompted by voters’ revulsion over last month’s mass shootings in New York and Texas. The Senate approved the measure late Thursday by a bipartisan 65-33 margin.

NEW YORK, June 24, /TASS/: Russia should not be excluded from the UN Ocean Conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with the Portuguese news agency Lusa on Friday.

The Secretary-General explained that the exclusion of a country from the list of participants at the conference does not make sense to him, as the upcoming meeting is aimed at changing the climate policy of absolutely all countries.

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for sustainable funding for the UN agency for Palestine refugees.

The agency, officially known as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), suffers from chronic underfunding. In the last 10 years, the needs of Palestine refugees have increased, while funds have stagnated, Guterres told a UN pledging event for the agency.

BOSTON (AP) — He was the uncle I never met. But in my family’s origin story, Emmanuel “Manny” Yap always loomed large.

The life of great potential cut short. The cautionary tale. But also the reminder of doing what was right, no matter the cost.

A rising leader in the youth-led opposition to President Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Manny Yap joined his parents and siblings for lunch at his mother’s favorite Chinese restaurant in their hometown of Quezon City.