The United Nations human rights chief on Wednesday welcomed as "momentous" the verdict in the George Floyd case which she said had highlighted how much remains to be done to end systemic racism against people of African descent in the United States.

Police in Columbus, Ohio, shot and killed a Black teenage girl on Tuesday after confronting her while responding to a report of an attempted stabbing, according to authorities and the youngster's family.

Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted Tuesday of murder and manslaughter for pinning George Floyd to the pavement with his knee on the Black man’s neck in a case that triggered worldwide protests, violence and a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the US.

The police officer who died following the attack on the US Capitol by supporters of president Donald Trump in January was killed by two strokes, the Washington city coroner ruled Monday.

Jurors yesterday began a first full day of deliberations in the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd as US cities braced for a verdict in a case that sparked nationwide protests against racism last summer.

Five rockets targeted an Iraqi airbase hosting US soldiers Sunday, wounding two foreign contractors and three Iraqi soldiers, in the latest attack coinciding with tensions between Baghdad’s allies Tehran and Washington.

The hard-hit United States passed a hopeful milestone of giving at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose to half its adults, as India locked down its capital New Delhi for a week from last night to try and control a raging outbreak.

Five people were hospitalised after being shot and critically injured in a drive-by shooting at a liquor store in Shreveport, Louisiana, CBS-affiliated television station KSLA reported late Sunday.

At least 14 rebels and one Colombian soldier have been killed in combat between guerrillas and the Andean country's military, army sources said.

Eight people were shot and killed in a late-night shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, and the shooter killed himself, police said.

The United States today imposed a broad array of sanctions on Russia to punish it for alleged interference in the 2020 US election, cyber-hacking, bullying Ukraine and other “malign” acts.

More than 100 US companies including Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Ford Motor Co and Starbucks Corp have declared their opposition to voting curbs that a number of states are considering implementing.

One person has died, a dozen are missing and six others have been rescued after a commercial lift boat used to service oil rigs capsized in hurricane force winds south of Louisiana’s Port Fourchon, the US Coast Guard said on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors in the Brazilian state of Roraima are investigating reports that illegally-mined gold is being exchanged for Covid-19 vaccines in the Yanomami indigenous reserve, the prosecutors office told Reuters on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he will begin withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan on May 1 to end America's longest war, rejecting calls for US forces to stay to ensure a peaceful resolution to that country's internal conflict.

A law enforcement internal probe of the deadly Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol found significant shortcomings within the police department charged with securing the complex and made dozens of recommendations for avoiding a repeat of the violence.

The United States expects its relationship with Russia to remain a challenge but hopes that they can work together on arms control issues, the Iran nuclear deal and other issues, a White House spokeswoman said.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has told Congress it is proceeding with more than $23 billion in weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates, including advanced F-35 aircraft, armed drones and other equipment.

US President Joe Biden plans to withdraw the remaining 2,500 US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, 20 years to the day after the al Qaeda attacks that triggered America’s longest war.

US Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon termed herself as a “friend of Bangladesh” and expressed her keen interest in strengthening Bangladesh-US cooperation on wide-ranging issues.