overnight News of 03/24/19

North Korea Abruptly Withdrew Its Staff From An Inter-Korea Liaison Office, Seoul Says

(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea abruptly withdrew its staff from an inter-Korean liaison office in the North on Friday, Seoul officials said. The development will likely put a damper on ties between the Koreas and complicate global ...

U.S. Forces Say 2 American Soldiers Were Killed During An Operation In Afghanistan

(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Two American service members were killed during an operation in Afghanistan on Friday, the U.S. and NATO forces said without providing any other details on the combat deaths. The fatalities underscore the difficulties in ...

Jimmy Carter To Become The Longest Living American President

(ATLANTA) — Nearly four decades after voters unceremoniously rejected then-President Jimmy Carter’s bid for a second term, the 39th president has reached a milestone that electoral math cannot dispute: He is now the longest-living chief ...

Death Toll In China Chemical Plant Explosion Rises To 44

(BEIJING) — The death toll in an explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China has risen to 44, with another 90 people seriously injured, the local government reported Friday. Thursday’s blast at the Tianjiayi Chemical plant in the city ...

White House Rejects Democrats’ Request To Release Trump’S Private Conversations With Putin

(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Thursday rejected a Democratic request for information on private conversations between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, including an interview with an interpreter who sat in on their ...

A Venezuelan Opposition Aide Has Been Arrested, Prompting Rebuke From The U.S.

(CARACAS, Venezuela) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido’s top aide was taken away in the middle of the night by masked intelligence agents who broke down his door early Thursday, drawing condemnation from the United States and ...

President Trump Blames The Federal Reserve For Holding Back Economic Growth In 2018

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump says the economy would have grown much faster last year if the Federal Reserve had not been tightening credit last year. In a broadcast interview, Trump said without the Fed’s rate hikes last year ...

U.S. Announces The First North Korea-Linked Sanctions Since The Derailed Trump-Kim Summit

(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration on Thursday sanctioned two Chinese shipping companies suspected of helping North Korea evade sanctions — the first targeted actions taken against Pyongyang since its nuclear negotiations with the ...

A Shortage Of Women In China Has Led To The Trafficking Of ‘Brides’ From Myanmar, Says A Report

Authorities on both sides of the border have failed to stop the trafficking of hundreds of women from Myanmar to China, says a new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday. The 112-page report, titled Give Us a Baby and We’ll ...

Republican Senators Defend John McCain’S Legacy As President Trump Goes On The Attack Again

(WASHINGTON) — Casting aside rare censure from Republican lawmakers, President Donald Trump aimed new blasts of invective at the late John McCain, even claiming credit for the senator’s moving Washington funeral and complaining he was ...

The Activities Of Hundreds Of Hotel Guests In South Korea Have Been Live-Streamed Over Hidden Cameras

Just days after several K-pop pop stars made headlines for filming women without their knowledge , police announced that videos of approximately 1,600 hotel guests were secretly live-streamed to an unnamed subscription website in South Korea. Two ...

The Family Of Shamima Begum Is Appealing The U.K. Government’S Decision To Revoke Her Citizenship

The family of a British schoolgirl who married an ISIS fighter in Syria is formally appealing the government’s decision to revoke her U.K. citizenship, the Guardian reports. Tasnime Akunjee, a solicitor for the family of Shamima Begum, ...

New Zealand Bans Military-Style Weapons Following The Christchurch Mosque Shootings

(CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand) — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced an immediate ban Thursday on semi-automatic and automatic weapons like the ones used in the attacks on two mosques in Christchurch that killed 50 worshippers. The man ...

A New Kazakh President Is Sworn In After Soviet-Era Strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev Steps Down

(MOSCOW) — The speaker of Kazakhstan’s parliament was sworn in as interim president on Wednesday, a day after longtime leader Nursultan Nazarbayev abruptly resigned. Nazarbayev surprised many by announcing in a televised address Tuesday ...

Burials And National Mourning Underway For Cyclone Idai Victims In Zimbabwe And Mozambique

(CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe) — Zimbabwe is retrieving and burying bodies Wednesday as Mozambique begins three days of national mourning for victims of Cyclone Idai. The death toll is rising in both countries, but the full number of those killed and ...

A 3,000-Year-Old Tablet Likely Looted During The Iraq War Is Being Returned By The U.K.

A 3,000-year-old stone tablet from Babylonia is being flown home after experts in the U.K. verified its provenance and determined that it was likely looted during the Iraq War, Agence France-Presse reports. The tablet was handed over to Iraqi ...

The Supreme Court Ruled That Immigrants With A Criminal Past Can Be Detained Years After Serving Time

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the government can detain immigrants with past criminal records even after they have completed their prison terms, issuing a narrow verdict that sided with the Trump Administration’s pursuit of hardline ...

Japan Urged To Stop Requiring Sterilization For Altering Gender On ID Cards

(TOKYO) — Human Rights Watch urged Japan on Wednesday to drop its requirement that transgender people be sterilized to have their gender changed on official documents. A 2004 law states people wishing to register a gender change must have ...

Supreme Court To Examine Possible Racial Bias In Mississippi Jury Selection

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court is hearing arguments over a Mississippi prosecutor’s decision to keep African-Americans off a black death row inmate’s jury in a murder trial. The appeal before the court Wednesday comes from inmate ...

Disney Closes A $71 Billion Deal For Fox’S Entertainment Assets

Disney has closed its $71 billion acquisition of Fox’s entertainment business, putting “Cinderella,” ”The Simpsons,” ”Star Wars” and “Dr. Strange” under one corporate roof. The deal is likely to ...