USA

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday authorized $200 million in weapons and other assistance for Ukraine, the White House said, as Ukrainian officials said heavy shelling by Russian forces were endangering attempted evacuations.

The decision brings total U.S. security aid provided to Ukraine over the past year to $1.2 billion, a senior administration official said.

In a memorandum to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden directed that up to $200 million allocated through the Foreign Assistance Act be designated for Ukraine's defense.

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- A high-ranking UN official on Friday urged Russia and Ukraine to cease the ongoing conflict through dialogue and diplomacy at a Security Council meeting called by Russia to discuss the United States' alleged military biological research in Ukraine.

ATLANTA (AP) — Unaccompanied child migrants trying to enter the United States will no longer be denied a chance to seek asylum under new guidance announced by U.S. health authorities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in announcing the change late Friday night, said “that expulsion of unaccompanied noncitizen children is not warranted to protect the public health.”

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Growing suspicion about the security of voting systems has kindled a back-to-the future moment among conservatives in some parts of the U.S.

Republican lawmakers in at least six states have introduced legislation that would require all election ballots to be counted by hand instead of electronic tabulators. Similar proposals have been floated within some local governments, including about a dozen New Hampshire towns and Washoe County in the presidential battleground state of Nevada.

11 March 2022; MEMO: The US Senate approved $1 billion in supplemental funding for Israel's Iron Dome as part of its domestic and national security programmes.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Top Democrats are pleading for President Joe Biden to act alone on some of the party’s core legislative priorities, viewing executive action as their best hope of delivering on their promises and energizing liberal voters they worry are going to sit out the elections in November.

11 March 2022; MEMO: UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on Friday, called for a political solution to the civil war in Syria that began 11 years ago and has devastated the country and its people, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The civil war began when the Bashar Al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters. Hundreds of thousands of people have since been killed and millions more displaced, according to UN estimates.

FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) — Under pressure recently to prove her loyalty to Donald Trump, Rep. Nancy Mace traveled to New York to film a social media video outside Trump Tower reminding her South Carolina constituents that she was one of the former president’s “earliest supporters.”

Facing similar scrutiny, Rep. Tom Rice has taken a different approach, quietly winding through rural stretches of his congressional district to remind voters of his work securing federal relief for frequent — often disastrous — flooding, and of his advocacy for agricultural improvements.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At first, the White House resisted calls from Congress to ban Russian oil imports to the U.S. And then, it did just that.

The administration hit the brakes on legislation that would have revoked Russia’s normal trade status, until President Joe Biden announced the move Friday. The administration persuaded senators to hold off on imposing Russian sanctions, then slapped stiff sanctions itself. It rejected efforts in Congress to stop the Nord Stream 2 energy pipeline, then led allies in halting it.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (APP): As the Syrian civil war passes the 11-year mark, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Friday called on all parties to take concrete actions and accelerate the political process to end the brutal conflict.

“The destruction that Syrians have endured is so extensive and deadly that it has few equals in modern history”, the UN chief said in a statement. “There must be no impunity.”