USA

Biden said the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi had "removed a major terrorist threat to the world".

Qurayshi detonated a bomb that killed himself and members of his own family "in a final act of desperate cowardice", the president added.

Syrian first responders said they found the bodies of 13 people after the raid.

The operation targeted a two-storey residential building on the outskirts of the opposition-held town of Atmeh, which is in northern Idlib province and is close to the border with Turkey.

Thousands of flights have been cancelled, and power cuts have been reported in some south-eastern states.

Virginia, Georgia, and North and South Carolina declared states of emergency.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) said the storm would hit much of the eastern third of the country over the next two days, with more than 1ft (30cm) of snow expected in some areas.

The huge storm system is approaching the eastern US from the Midwest.

Snow and ice could result in "dangerous travel, power outages, and tree damage", the NWS warned.

The fast-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus has become dominant in the United States with lightning speed, and claimed the life on Monday of an unvaccinated man in Texas, officials said.

The spike in Covid-19 cases is alarming public health officials, who fear an explosion of infections after the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

The Omicron variant now accounts for 73 percent of US coronavirus infections based on sequencing data for the week ended on Saturday, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was acting following 11 Tesla crashes since 2018 involving emergency vehicles.

In some cases, the Tesla vehicles "crashed directly into the vehicles of first responders", it said.

The investigation will cover roughly 765,000 Tesla cars made since 2014.

That includes those in the Model Y, Model X, Model S and Model 3, the NHTSA said - the entire current range.

No fatalities or major injuries were reported after the magnitude 7.1 quake, which jolted an area from Sacramento to Mexico on Saturday (NZT) and prompted the evacuation of the Navy's largest single landholding, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert.

The quake was centred 18 kilometres from Ridgecrest, the same area of the desert where a magnitude 6.4 shock hit on Friday. It left behind cracked and burned buildings, broken roads, obstructed railroad tracks and leaking water and gas lines.

Megan Rapinoe's penalty and Rose Lavelle's fine run and finish gave the defending champions victory in the second half, after resilient first-half defending from the Dutch.

Veteran winger Rapinoe's calmly-slotted opener came from a spot-kick awarded after a video assistant referee (VAR) review, at the end of a tournament in which the system has been a major talking point.

The justice department said the ship was used to transport coal, North Korea's largest export but subject to a UN export ban.

The vessel was initially impounded in Indonesia in April 2018.

It is the first time the US has seized a North Korean ship for breaching sanctions and comes amid worsening relations between the two.

A meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump ended without agreement in February with the US insisting North Korea give up its nuclear programme and Pyongyang demanding sanctions relief.

He said what Pruaitch has said is misleading and untrue.

The Prime Minister said the statement lacked evidence, and challenged the Pruaitch to prove it.

The leader of the Opposition recently claimed that the Government had placed the PNG Electrification Partnership in jeopardy by awarding power projects to companies from China without calling for open and competitive tendering.

Kila Vare-Nixon from Elevala, Poreporena, in the nation’s capital, told Loop PNG that faith and her vision to represent US were the main drive that kept her on track to achieve her dreams.

“Two years ago, I tried out for team USA but didn't know what I was doing,” says Vare-Nixon.

“I wanted to find out what it would take to make team USA so I came home and went to work and started training for it.

Nicknamed the Hawks, this is their second appearance on the biggest stage of international rugby league. Their first was back in 2013.

USA is currently ranked tenth in the world.

This Sunday’s match against the PNG LNG Kumuls will kick off at 3pm at the Oil Search National Football Stadium.

USA are winless so far having lost their opening match to Fiji 58-12 and then to Italy 46-0 last weekend.