WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effort. Barrett, a former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, said she was "truly humbled" by the nomination and quickly aligned herself with Scalia's conservative approach to the law, saying his "judicial philosop

TOKYO (AP) -- New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in talks Friday to work closely together by holding high-level meetings including summits, but did not discuss the possibility of a visit by Xi to Japan. "I told (Xi) that the stability of Japan-China relations is crucial, not only for the two countries but also for the region and for international society," Suga told reporters after their phone conversation.  His talks with

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Friday concluding a pact with the United States against interfering in one another's elections, just weeks before the US heads to the polls. Western countries have for years accused Russia of using hackers and internet trolls to sway the outcome of elections, and US intelligence officials have said that it is once again manipulating social media in favour of Donald Trump as it did in 2016. In a Kremlin statement, Putin called

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The US Justice Department asked a federal judge in San Francisco early on Friday to allow the government to bar Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google from offering WeChat for download in US app stores pending an appeal. The filing asked US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler to put on hold her preliminary injunction issued Saturday. That injunction blocked the US Commerce Department order which was set to take effect late on Sept. 20 and that would also bar other US transactio

　Climate change and the spread of infectious diseases are seen as the top threats by the majority of people in 14 economically advanced nations surveyed by the Pew Research Center. 　In similar surveys conducted by the Washington-based center in 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018, the chief threats were seen as climate change and terrorism. 　For the latest survey, Pew questioned 14,276 adults living in Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spai

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Kept apart by a devastating pandemic and dispersed across the globe, world leaders convened electronically Tuesday for an unprecedented high-level meeting, where the UN chief exhorted them to unite and tackle the era's towering problems: the coronavirus, the "economic calamity" it unleashed and the risk of a new Cold War between the United States and China. As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the first virtual "general debate" of the UN Gener

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The UN's first virtual meeting of world leaders was set to start Tuesday with pre-recorded speeches from some of the planet's biggest powers, kept at home by the coronavirus pandemic that will likely be a dominant theme at their video gathering this year. Among those expected to speak Tuesday are US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose countries have reported the highest and second-highest coronavirus death tolls, respectively. Also on dec

　Racial minorities accounted for 78 percent of COVID-19 deaths under the age of 21 in the United States between February and July, a government report said. 　Out of 121 deaths among under-21s, 45 percent were among Hispanics, 29 percent among blacks and 4 percent among American Indians or Alaskan Natives, according to the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 　Together, these groups represent 41 percent of the US population under 21. 　Overall, mortality among children a

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Saturday promised to put forth a female nominee in the coming week to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pushing the Republican-controlled Senate to consider the pick without delay. Taking the stage at a North Carolina rally to chants of "Fill that seat," the president said he would nominate his selection despite Democrats' objections. And, after conducting what he joked was a "very sci

PARIS (AFP) -- The number of coronavirus cases registered worldwide topped 30 million on Thursday, according to an AFP tally based on official sources. The grim landmark came as the World Health Organization warned of "alarming rates of transmission" of Covid-19 across Europe. The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries

　Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos topped Forbes’ list of richest Americans for the third year in a row, while US President Donald Trump’s ranking dropped as the coronavirus pandemic slammed his office buildings, hotels and resorts, the magazine said. 　The aggregate wealth of the Forbes 400 list rose to a record $3.2 trillion, as the richest Americans continued to do well even though the pandemic has devastated the economy, which is short about 11 million jobs compared to where it was in

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Wednesday reiterated the need to build a collective security alliance in the Indo-Pacific region, insisting his country must focus more on multilateral cooperation than one-on-one alliances. Speaking in a seminar organized by US think tank RAND Corporation, the US defense chief said the country's bilateral alliances with countries in the Indo-Pacific, including South Korea, provide a valuable, cost-free asset to deter conflict with China or R

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un both claim to have formed a special and close friendship, but only time will tell if their friendship is genuine, famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward writes in his soon-to-be released book, "Rage." "Trump has personally said they are 'love letters,' Woodward writes in his upcoming book, referring to 27 letters exchanged between Trump and Kim that he has obtained. "They are more than that

As Yoshihide Suga, a key loyalist of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is poised to succeed the hawkish leader, Tokyo is likely to stay the course in its hard-line stance on Seoul rather than seeking an immediate policy shift, analysts said Monday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)'s leadership contest and is expected to be endorsed as new premier in a parliamentary vote slated for Wednesday. Abe announced his surprise decision to step down due to ill

TOKYO (AP) -- Yoshihide Suga was elected as the new head of Japan's ruling party on Monday, virtually guaranteeing him parliamentary election as the country's next prime minister. Suga received 377 votes in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party election to pick a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced last month that he would resign due to health problems. The other two contenders received a combined 157 votes -- former Foreign minister Fumio Kishida got 89 and former Defense Mini