USA

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN team in Afghanistan on Wednesday launched a 3.6 billion U.S. dollar plan to help reduce new-found suffering and save lives, a UN spokesman said.

The overarching One-UN Transitional Engagement Framework aims to help the Afghan people meet their basic human needs, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A teenager charged with killing four students at Michigan high school will pursue an insanity defense, his lawyers said in a notice filed Thursday as he, his parents and school officials faced a new lawsuit over the attack at Oxford High School that killed four students.

The notice, listed in a summary of case filings available online, should lead to mental health exams of 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, who is charged as an adult with murder and other crimes for the Nov. 30 shooting, which also and wounded six other students and a teacher.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020′s brief but devastating coronavirus recession.

27 Jan 2022; MEMO: The Biden administration in Washington has proposed to President Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestinian Authority should stop paying stipends to Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, Arab48.com reported on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden has instead suggested that the funds saved by cutting the stipends could be used for welfare payments.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats who have played defense for the last three Supreme Court vacancies plan to move swiftly to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, using the rapid 2020 confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a new standard.

Los Angeles, Jan 27 (AP) The most vulnerable members of the Wiyot Tribe were asleep the morning of Feb 26, 1860, when a band of white men slipped into their Northern California villages under darkness and slaughtered them.

Many of the children, women and elderly slain in what became known as the Indian Island Massacre had their eternal rest disturbed when their graves were later dug up and their skeletons and the artifacts buried with them were placed in a museum.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration and NATO told Russia on Wednesday there will be no U.S. or NATO concessions on Moscow’s main demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine.

In separate written responses delivered to the Russians, the U.S. and NATO held firm to the alliance’s open-door policy for membership, rejected a demand to permanently ban Ukraine from joining, and said allied deployments of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe are nonnegotiable.

(AP) --- Democrats stung by a series of election-year failures to deliver legislative wins for their most loyal voters may have been buoyed by the prospect that President Joe Biden will name the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Justice Stephen Breyer’s pending retirement, confirmed by numerous sources on Wednesday, couldn’t have come at a better time for a Democratic Party reeling from the collapse of Biden’s legislative agenda last week, including a push to overhaul election laws that voting rights advocates said was critical to protecting democracy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Longtime liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring, numerous sources said Wednesday, giving President Joe Biden his first high court opening, which he has pledged to fill with the historic naming of the court’s first Black woman.

Washington, Jan 27 (PTI) Former vice-president Hamid Ansari and four US lawmakers have expressed concern over the current human rights situation in India.

They were speaking at a virtual panel discussion organised by the Indian American Muslim Council on Wednesday.

India has rejected criticism by foreign governments and human rights groups on allegations that civil liberties have eroded in the country.