News in Brief

Date: 03 December 2021 - 21:32

News ID: ۹۷۲۹۸

NEW YORK (AP) — The United Nations headquarters in New York City was locked down for several hours Thursday after a man was seen pacing outside one of its main gates with a loaded shotgun, holding it under his chin at times, police said. The man, who appeared to be in his 60s, was taken into custody without incident at around 1:40 p.m., about three hours after police said he was first spotted outside a U.N. security checkpoint on Manhattan’s First Avenue. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation, NYPD Chief of Special Operations Harry Wedin said.

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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s foreign ministry summoned Japan’s ambassador in Beijing for an “emergency meeting” on Wednesday, after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said neither his country nor the United States could stand by if China attacked Taiwan. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying called Abe’s remarks “erroneous” and a violation of basic norms of relations between China and Japan in the meeting with ambassador Hideo Tarumi, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying called Abe’s remarks “erroneous” and a violation of basic norms of relations between China and Japan in the meeting with ambassador Hideo Tarumi, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.

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WASHINGTON (TND) — The Central Intelligence Agency reportedly had credible evidence that at least 10 members of its staff, some of whom were contracted employees, committed sex crimes involving children, but only one individual was ever charged. Senior investigative reporter Jason Leopold and investigative reporter Anthony Cormier with Buzzfeed News detailed their findings in an article after combing through hundreds of internal agency reports they obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits.

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government threatened legal action Thursday over provisions of U.S. President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act that would give subsidies of up to $12,500 for purchases of union-made, American-made electric vehicles. Tatiana Clouthier, Mexico’s secretary of the economy, said the bill currently before the U.S. Senate would violate non-discrimination clauses of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade pact. Clouthier said the measure would discriminate against potential exports of Mexican-built electrical vehicles and favor domestic producers, something she said is forbidden under the USMCA pact.

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GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi said some of the four diplomats who first tested positive for the Omicron coronavirus variant in the country had come from Europe, calling for a reversal of widespread travel bans imposed against southern African countries. Omicron, dubbed a variant of concern by the World Health Organization, has prompted many governments to impose curbs on travel from southern Africa, and to take other measures to contain it.

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NEW DELHI (Dispatches) -Kuttiyamma, a 104-year-old woman in the southern Indian state of Kerala, had always wanted to go to school. But an early marriage and a life centered on household chores put an end to that dream. But her dream became realistic when she finally got a chance to join a government-sponsored literacy program. At 104, she learnt how to read and write - something she had wanted to do since she was a child. And then she made headlines by scoring 89 marks out of 100 in the official literacy test.