North America

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 (APP):The United Nations Monday commemorated for the first time in its history, the mass displacement of Palestinians from land that was to become Israel, 75 years ago, that turned 700,000 Palestinians into refugees, almost overnight.

The mass displacement in 1948, known as the Nakba (meaning “catastrophe”), has an importance to Palestinians across the world, Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, said, while addressing a high-level event at UN Headquarters in New York, marking the day.

TORONTO, May 16 (Reuters) - Tinder-dry weather and shifting winds in Alberta on Tuesday elevated the risk of spreading wildfires in the Canadian oil-producing province where thousands have already been forced from their homes.

Some 90 wildfires are active in Alberta, with 23 out of control, according to the provincial government. At one point the fires pushed more than 30,000 people out of their homes while oil and gas producers shut in at least 319,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 3.7% of national production.

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden continues to hold an edge over potential Republican challengers Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis as the 2024 U.S. presidential election draws closer, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.

But there are potential hazards ahead for Biden should the situation at the U.S. southern border worsen, the poll shows.

LOS ANGELES, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The United States has launched a first-in-human clinical trial of an experimental oral drug for removing radioactive contaminants from inside the body, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Monday.

The trial is testing the safety, tolerability and processing in the body of escalating doses of the investigational drug product HOPO 14-1 in healthy adults.

The clinical trial is taking place at a site in Plymouth, Michigan. The study team will enroll 42 healthy participants ages 18 to 65 years in seven groups of six.

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 (Xinhua) -- UN Undersecretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo on Monday regretted the stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians.

Efforts to find a peaceful and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been central to the work of the United Nations since its earliest days, DiCarlo told a high-level special meeting on the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, also known as the Palestinian Catastrophe.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is ready to discuss the debt ceiling with congressional leaders at the White House in a high-profile session with reverberations across the globe as early outlines of a potential deal begin to emerge despite painstakingly slow negotiations.

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — An 18-year-old man armed with at least three guns roamed through a northwestern New Mexico community firing randomly at cars and houses, killing three people and injuring six others including two police officers before he was killed, authorities said.

The shootings occurred around 11 a.m. Monday in Farmington, a city of about 50,000 people near the Four Corners — where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet — that is a supply line and bedroom community to the region’s oil and natural gas industry.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A special prosecutor found that the FBI rushed into its investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and relied too much on raw and unconfirmed intelligence as he concluded a four-year probe that fell far short of the former president’s prediction that the “crime of the century” would be uncovered.

16 May 2023; MEMO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Monday, called on the international community to suspend Israel's membership in the UN for obstructing the implementation of UN resolutions and international law, Anadolu News Agency reports.