USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court declined Friday to lift its stay on the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more workers.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay last Saturday of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney is free. A Los Angeles judge on Friday ended the conservatorship that has controlled Britney Spears’ life and money for nearly 14 years.

The decision capped a stunning five-month odyssey that saw Spears publicly demand the end of the conservatorship, hire her own attorney, have her father removed from power and finally win the freedom to make her own medical, financial and personal decisions for the first time since 2008.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, has been indicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The United States and Qatar signed an accord on Friday for Qatar to represent U.S. diplomatic interests in Afghanistan, an important signal of possible future direct engagement between Washington and the Taliban after two decades of war.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Qatari counterpart, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, signed the agreement making Qatar the U.S. "protecting power" in Afghanistan at a State Department ceremony after holding talks.

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- More than half of federal employees recently surveyed disagreed with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate announced by U.S. President Joe Biden in September, according to U.S. media outlet Government Executive.

A total of 53 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat disagreed with the vaccine mandate, while 44 percent strongly or somewhat agreed with it in a survey conducted by the Government Business Council (GBC), the research arm of Government Executive.

NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities conducted investigations after New York University (NYU) evacuated multiple buildings due to bomb threats Thursday night.

"NYU has received bomb threats for three locations: the Stern School of Business, Center for Neural Science, and Hebrew Union College," the school said in its website Thursday evening.

The locations were soon evacuated, according to the university. Police conducted a search and later issued an all clear.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the Gulf nation of Qatar has agreed to represent American interests in Afghanistan following the closure of the U.S. embassy in Kabul in late August.

Blinken said Qatar will serve as the “protecting power” for the United States in Taliban-run Afghanistan, a move that suggests the Biden administration has little confidence that it will re-open the embassy in the near future.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who admitted burying his wife’s body and misleading authorities for more than a year about her whereabouts was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder.

A jury found Joseph Elledge guilty in the killing of 28-year-old Mengqi Ji, whom he married after she moved to the U.S. from China to study at the University of Missouri.

Elledge reported Ji missing in October 2019, prompting months of extensive searches. Her remains were found in a park near Columbia, Missouri, in March.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked the release of White House records sought by a U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, granting — for now — a request from former President Donald Trump.

The administrative injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively bars until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over Friday. The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for Nov. 30.

NEW YORK (AP) — In the past week, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar tweeted a video showing a character with his face killing a figure with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s face. Several of the 13 House Republicans who backed a bipartisan infrastructure bill said they faced threats after their vote. In one profanity-laced voicemail, a caller labeled Rep. Fred Upton a “traitor” and wished death for the Michigan Republican, his family and staff.

The response from Republican leaders? Silence.