USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is highlighting the federal government’s efforts to “surge” military medical personnel to help overwhelmed medical facilities weather the spike in coronavirus cases and staff shortages due to the highly transmissible omicron variant.

WASHINGTON, January 12./TASS/: Every country has the sovereign right to choose its own path, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on Wednesday, quoting this on her Twitter account.

"In today’s NATO-Russia Council, I reaffirmed the fundamental principles of the international system and of European security: Every country has the sovereign right to choose its own path," Wendy Sherman blogged.

WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, on Tuesday accused Republican Senator Rand Paul of spreading misinformation that has sparked threats of violence against him and his family while distracting the public from the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is considering lowering the 2022 ethanol blending mandate below the proposed 15 billion gallons amid backlash from the oil refining lobby and unions arguing the shrinking U.S. ethanol industry can no longer support the target, according to two sources familiar with the administration’s thinking.

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a bill to impose sweeping sanctions on top Russian government and military officials, including President Vladimir Putin, and key banking institutions if Moscow engages in hostilities against Ukraine.

Jan 12 (Reuters) - As COVID-19 cases surge in the United States, businesses say they fear a California court ruling has increased the likelihood that companies will be sued for infections, even by people who are not employees or customers.

The Dec. 21 ruling allowed a wrongful death lawsuit to proceed against See's Candies Inc, owned by Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), by the family of Arturo Ek of Los Angeles who died in April 2020 at 72 from COVID-19.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A UN envoy said on Tuesday that Mali's partners should help lay the foundations for lasting stability in the worn-torn landlocked country in West Africa.

Mali's partners should build on the aspirations of the Malian people for peace "to help lay the foundations for lasting stability," the special representative of the secretary-general for the country, El-Ghassim Wane, told the Security Council's meeting on the situation in Mali.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank Group on Tuesday slashed global growth forecast for this year amid incessant COVID-19 flare-ups, rising inflation and lingering supply bottlenecks, warning of various downside risks to global growth prospects.

In its newly released semiannual Global Economic Prospects, the multilateral lender projected that global economy is on track to grow by 4.1 percent this year, 0.2 percentage point lower than the forecast in June. It also revised down estimation for 2021 global growth by 0.2 percentage point to 5.5 percent.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Thousands of people in Mississippi continue to be jailed for long periods while waiting to go on trial because they are too poor to afford bail, judges may deny bail altogether or public defenders might not be available when they’re needed, according to a new report from a group that advocates for the rights of the incarcerated.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday slapped sanctions on five North Korean officials in its first response to Pyongyang’s latest ballistic missile test.

The Treasury Department announced it was imposing penalties on the officials over their roles in obtaining equipment and technology for the North’s missile programs. In addition, the State Department ordered sanctions against another North Korean, a Russian man and a Russian company for their broader support of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction activities.