USA

(AP) --- Three doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine offer strong protection for children younger than 5, the company announced Monday. Pfizer plans to give the data to U.S. regulators later this week in a step toward letting the littlest kids get the shots.

The news comes after months of anxious waiting by parents desperate to vaccinate their babies, toddlers and preschoolers, especially as COVID-19 cases once again are rising. The 18 million tots under 5 are the only group in the U.S. not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.

NEW YORK, May 22. /TASS/: Russia’s flagship air carrier Aeroflot will soon face parts shortages and may start disassembling some of its planes for spare parts, Bloomberg said on Sunday, citing expert estimates.

"The vast majority of the group’s more than 350 planes are Airbus or Boeing models, and it is facing a looming parts deficit. Aviation data specialists IBA estimate Russian airlines have supplies to last three months and then may start cannibalizing aircraft for parts," it said.

WASHINGTON, May 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A US military investigation has found that troops did not violate the laws of war or deliberately cause civilian casualties in an air strike in Syria in 2019 that killed dozens of people.

The probe was launched in response to a New York Times report which accused the military of a cover-up over the attack on a Daesh group position.

The investigator rejected the claim.

But he concluded that “numerous policy compliance deficiencies at multiple levels” had led to delays in reporting.

HAVANA/WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - Biden administration officials are considering inviting a Cuban representative to the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas, a person familiar with the matter said, as Washington scrambled to head off a potentially embarrassing boycott by some regional leaders.

Discussion has focused on allowing a Cuban presence at the next month's Los Angeles summit below the level of the country's president or foreign minister, but it is at an early stage and no decision has been made, the source told Reuters on Friday.

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called on the international community to "build a shared future for all life."

"Biodiversity is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, ending the existential threat of climate change, halting land degradation, building food security and supporting advances in human health," Guterres said in a statement for International Day for Biological Diversity, which falls on May 22 annually.

GAYLORD, Mich. (AP) — Nearly all of the power lost following a deadly tornado that killed two people and flattened parts of a northern Michigan community has been restored, state police said Sunday.

Police also said that everyone has been accounted for in Gaylord where Friday afternoon’s EF3 also left more than 40 people injured. Authorities had said Saturday that they were not able to account for one person.

Cleanup continued Sunday in the town of 4,200 people about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Based on the barrage of television ads and mailers leading up to Tuesday’s primary election in Arkansas, it’s obvious who the most influential Republicans in the state are.

21 May 2022; MEMO: The White House has not yet set a date for US President Joe Biden's visit to Israel, and this likely stems from the political crisis in Israel and the possibility of the government's collapse. This results from Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi's announcement of defection from the coalition, meaning the government is supported by a minority of 59 Knesset members.

LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. (AP) — When a gunman began shooting at a Taiwanese American church luncheon, Shoei Su said he froze.

The retired appraiser uses a walker and said he and many of the elderly congregants didn’t immediately know what was happening. He said the shooter said nothing before firing on churchgoers who were snapping photos after finishing lunch following last Sunday morning’s prayer service.

NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump has paid a $110,000 fine for his failure to respond to a subpoena in a civil investigation into his business practices, a spokesperson for the New York attorney general said on Friday.

The payment of the fine was one of three steps Trump needed to take for a judge to lift a contempt of court order issued last month for his lack of cooperation with Letitia James' probe into whether the Trump Organization gave banks and tax authorities misleading financial information.