USA

LOS ANGELES, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization on Thursday for the country's first COVID-19 diagnostic test that detects chemical compounds in breath samples associated with a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The test can be performed in environments where the patient specimen is both collected and analyzed, such as doctor's offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites, using an instrument about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, according to the FDA.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Friday he plans to nominate Michael Barr, the dean of the University of Michigan’s public policy school, to be the Federal Reserve’s vice chairman of supervision.

United Nations, Apr 15 (AP) The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations accused Russia on Thursday of making the precarious food situation in Yemen and elsewhere even worse by invading Ukraine, calling it just another grim example of the ripple effect Russia's unprovoked, unjust, unconscionable war is having on the world's most vulnerable.

Washington, Apr 15 (PTI) The United States is looking forward to working with the Shehbaz Sharif government, the Biden administration said Thursday as it refuted the allegations by former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and his supporters of the US' role in regime change.

We've congratulated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on his election by the Pakistani parliament, and we look forward to working with him and his government, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Reps. Lucy McBath and Carolyn Bourdeaux flipped two longtime Republican congressional districts in Atlanta’s northern suburbs by running against then-President Donald Trump and his divisive brand of politics.

But as they fight to keep their House seats this year, they’re competing against each other.

15 April 2022; MEMO: The US denied Iranian claims that a deal has been reached to unfreeze $7 billion in the Islamic Republic's overseas funds, Anadolu Agency reports.

An Iranian media report said the deal was part of an agreement to secure the release of Iranian-Americans detained in Iran.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 14 (APP): More than 870,000 people who fled abroad since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, have now returned to Ukraine, UN humanitarian agencies said in their latest emergency update, amid concerns about deteriorating food security inside the country.

Citing the State Border Guard Service, UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that about 30,000 people are crossing back into Ukraine every day.

The recent returnees reportedly include women with children and older persons, compared to mostly men at the beginning of the escalation.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The IMF plans to raise at least $45 billion for a new Trust to help “low-income and vulnerable middle-income countries” cope with protracted challenges like pandemics and climate change. 

The Washington-based crisis lender’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) will come into effect May 1, and is in addition to a $650 billion boost to reserve assets called Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocated earlier this year.

UNITED NATIONS, April 13 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for action to mitigate the global impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on food, energy and finance systems.

The conflict is supercharging a three-dimensional crisis of food, energy and finance that is pummeling some of the world's most vulnerable people, countries and economies, he said at the launch of a report by the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance over the Ukraine crisis.

(AP) --- In his first letter to Amazon shareholders, CEO Andy Jassy offered a defense of wages and benefits the company gives its warehouse workers while also vowing to improve injury rates inside the facilities.

Jassy, who took over from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as CEO last July, wrote the company has researched and created a list of the top 100 “employee experience pain points” and is working to solve them.