USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a dramatic procession across the U.S. Capitol, House Democrats carried the formal articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate late Wednesday, setting the stage for only the third trial to remove a president in American history.

Trump complained anew it was all a “hoax,” even as fresh details emerged about his efforts in Ukraine.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 15 (APP): Experts from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will support the investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane in Iran on January 8, following an invitation from the Iranian authorities, which was accepted on Tuesday, the Montreal-based UN specialized agency announced.

In a statement, the ICAO said it has appointed senior and expert technical staff, who will now serve as advisors and observers.

NEW YORK, Jan 15 (APP): India’s unilateral actions in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 caused enormous suffering and rights violations of the Kashmiri population, Human Rights Watch (HRW), a prominent international watchdog body, said Wednesday in its World Report 2020.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government revoked the disputed state’s special constitutional status, an action which also violated United Nations’ resolutions on the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that some technology and cybersecurity issues would be resolved in the next chapter of a deal to end a trade dispute between the United States and China.

“I think a very significant amount of the technology issues are in Phase 1. There are other certain areas of services away from financial services that will be in Phase 2. There are certain additional cybersecurity issues that will be in Phase 2,” Mnuchin told CNBC as the two countries were poised to sign the first phase of the agreement.

Washington/Beijing, Jan 14 (PTI) The US has reversed its decision to brand China a "currency manipulator" as the world's two major economies prepare to conclude a "phase one" deal on Wednesday to end their bruising trade war.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused China of allowing the value of the yuan to fall, making Chinese goods cheaper. The US officially named China a currency manipulator in August last year when trade tensions were high between Beijing and Washington.

New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI) China has made a fresh pitch to raise the Kashmir issue in a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday, but the attempt is likely to fail as all other member countries of the body are set to oppose it.

French diplomatic sources said France has noted the request of a UNSC member to raise the Kashmir issue once again in the powerful body and it is going to oppose it like it did on a previous occasion.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on two companies for exploiting North Korean overseas labour but joined allies Japan and South Korea in appealing for diplomacy to ease tensions with Pyongyang.

Showing a united front, Japan’s defence and foreign ministers and South Korea’s foreign minister all held talks with American counterparts Tuesday on both coasts, two weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to launch a new weapon.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- NASA will announce the name for its next Mars rover in March, according to a latest release of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

NASA initiated the "Name the Rover" essay contest and received more than 28,000 submissions from students from kindergarten to 12th grade, 155 of whom were selected as semifinalists, according to the JPL.

The next phases of judging will reduce the competition to nine finalists, and the public will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite name online in late January.

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas inmate with a history of violence against women is set to be executed Wednesday evening for fatally shooting his wife, who had feared she would never get out of her marriage alive.

John Gardner, 64, is facing lethal injection for the January 2005 slaying of Tammy Gardner. Prosecutors said the couple was getting divorced when Gardner broke into his wife’s North Texas home and shot her in the head as she was sitting in bed. She died two days later at a hospital.

BELLAIRE, Texas (AP) — A 16-year-old student was shot to death Tuesday at a Texas high school, and a suspect was arrested hours later, officials said.

Grenita Lathan, interim superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, confirmed the shooting victim at Bellaire High School had died. She gave no other information and took no questions.