Category: WORLD NEWS

North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament was scheduled to convene Sunday to pass decisions made by a major ruling party meeting where leader Kim Jong Un vowed maximum efforts to expand his nuclear weapons program in face of what he described as US hostility. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said deputies led by senior official Choe Ryong Hae, president of the Supreme People’s Assembly’s presidium, laid flowers at the statues of Kim’s grandfather and father, the North’s previous rulers, at Pyongyang’s Mansu Hill on Saturday as they prepared for the…

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President-elect Joe Biden has announced a USD 1.9 trillion stimulus package for the coronavirus-sapped US economy, including direct financial aid to average Americans, support to small businesses and a national vaccination plan. “During this pandemic, millions of Americans, through no fault of their own, have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a paycheck, Biden said in an address introducing the American Rescue Plan. The relief package, announced on Thursday, includes USD 415 billion focused on combating the COVID-19 pandemic, over USD 1 trillion in direct aid to individuals…

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The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives would vote on the impeachment of outgoing President Donald Trump on Wednesday on charges of inciting his supporters to carry out a violent attack on the Capitol Hill last week. Co-authored by Congressmen Jamie Raskin, David Cicilline and Ted Lieu, the article of impeachment — co-sponsored by 211 House members — was tabled on Monday. During a conference call with his party colleagues on Monday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the impeachment vote will be held on Wednesday. The article of impeachment charges Trump…

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 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday the House will proceed with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump as she pushes the vice president and Cabinet to invoke constitutional authority to force him out, warning that Trump is a threat to democracy after the deadly assault on the Capitol. Pelosi made the announcement in a letter to colleagues, saying the House will first vote to push Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the powers of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. After 24 hours, she said, the House would…

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Authorities said they determined the location of the crash site and black boxes of a Boeing 737-500 on Sunday, a day after the aircraft crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board shortly after taking off from Indonesia’s capital. The head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, Bagus Puruhito, said officials believe they identified the location of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder the so-called black boxes because emergency signals transmitted by the devices were detected by a navy ship’s sonar system. We have determined…

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US President-elect Joe Biden has said he will introduce an immigration legislation “immediately” after taking office, reversing the Trump administration’s policies. Biden will taken the oath of office on January 20. “I will introduce an immigration bill immediately and have it sent to the appropriate committees to begin movement,” he told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday. Biden was responding to a question on what his administration would do first after his inauguration on January 20. He had also previously promised an immigration overhaul within 100 days of taking office.…

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US President-elect Joe Biden has blasted Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the November 3 election result, saying the outgoing president spends most of his time “whining and complaining” rather than doing “the work” of his office. Trump, a Republican, is yet to concede the elections and has filed several lawsuits challenging the presidential poll result that gave Biden, a Democrat the required Electoral College votes to be the 46th US President. Trump alleges that there was a massive voter fraud. Election officials and the media have said that there…

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Veteran Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has been narrowly re-elected as the Speaker of the US House of Representatives for a fourth time, as a new Congress took office amidst raging coronavirus crisis and political uncertainty. Pelosi, 80, secured 216 votes in a tight contest against Republican Kevin McCarthy, who got support from 209 Congressmen, after Democrats lost 11 seats in the November elections to command a narrower 222-212 majority. According to the House Clerk, a total of 427 votes were cast. One vote went to Senator Tammy Duckworth and one…

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A US court has ordered the permanent shut down of a technical-support fraud scheme, masterminded by an American citizen and operated through call centres in India, that allegedly defrauded hundreds of elderly and vulnerable Americans. The US Justice Department said on Tuesday the District Court entered the order of permanent injunction against Michael Brian Cotter, 59, of Glendale, California, and four companies Singapore-registered Global Digital Concierge, Nevada-registered companies Sensei Ventures Incorporated and NE Labs Inc, and New York-registered Kevisoft from selling technical-support services or software via telemarketing or websites. “The…

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Delivering a powerful blow to President Donald Trump, the US House of Representatives has voted by an overwhelming majority to override his veto of a USD 741 billion defence bill. Trump last week vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2021, which had bipartisan support, arguing it had provisions that would damage national security. In the Democratic-controlled House, as many as 109 Republicans broke from Trump to vote in support of overriding the veto, delivering a 322-87 defeat to Trump only weeks before he leaves office. The bill that funds…

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