Kevin Warsh sworn in as U.S. Fed chair for four-year term
Kevin Warsh was sworn in as chair of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System during a White House ceremony on Friday, beginning a four-year term.
"I will lead a reform-oriented Federal Reserve, learning from past successes and mistakes both, escaping static frameworks and models, and upholding clear standards of integrity and performance," said Warsh after he took the oath.
"Today marks a return to an institution that I do, in fact, cherish," said Warsh, who previously served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011.
Iran says peace talks with U.S. not close to agreement
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Friday that peace negotiations between Iran and the United States are not close to an agreement.
"The ongoing (diplomatic) process and the senior Pakistani officials' presence in Tehran do not mean that we have reached a turning point or determining situation," Baghaei told state-run IRIB TV, as Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi are in Iran's capital for bilateral message exchanges.
"We cannot say to have reached a point where an agreement is close; not necessarily, that is not the case," he said, noting that differences between Iran and the United States are such "deep and numerous," and that diplomacy takes time.
Senegalese president terminates functions of PM Sonko, government
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has terminated the functions of Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and his government, according to a presidential statement read Friday evening on public broadcaster RTS by Oumar Samba Ba, minister and secretary-general of the presidency.
No immediate announcement was made on the appointment of a new prime minister or the formation of a new government.
U.S. House Republican leaders cancel vote on limiting Trump's Iran war powers
U.S. House Republican leaders on Thursday canceled a scheduled vote on a resolution to limit President Donald Trump's war powers in Iran.
Republican leaders would have had to flip several votes because half a dozen Republicans were absent, and party leaders could not have won the critical vote for the president, so they postponed it until after lawmakers return from recess in June, the Politico reported.
Ebola risk revised to "very high" in DRC
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is spreading rapidly, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday to revise its risk assessment to "very high" at the national level, while remaining "high" at the regional level and "low" globally.
The WHO said 82 cases have been confirmed so far in DRC, with seven confirmed deaths. However, the epidemic is much larger, with almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.
Number of reported cases of hantavirus rises to 12, 3 reported deaths: WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Friday the latest developments regarding the hantavirus outbreak on board a cruise ship, with the number of reported cases rising to 12.
In a briefing to journalists, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Netherlands had confirmed an additional case involving a crew member who disembarked in Tenerife, Spain, was repatriated to the Netherlands and has been isolating since then.
There are now 12 reported cases and 3 reported deaths. No deaths have been reported since May 2, when the outbreak was first reported to the WHO, said Tedros.
Israeli forces kill at least 5 in Gaza
The Israeli military said Friday that its troops killed three Palestinian militants in separate incidents across the Gaza Strip, while Palestinian media reported two additional Palestinian deaths.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its troops from the Northern Brigade operating in northern Gaza on Thursday identified and killed a militant who crossed the so-called "Yellow Line," a demarcation marking Israeli-held territory under the first phase of the current ceasefire, and moved toward them.
In another incident overnight Friday, Israeli troops in southern Gaza killed a militant who similarly crossed the "Yellow Line" and approached them, the statement said.
Israeli strikes kill 11 across S. Lebanon
Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon from late Thursday into Friday killed at least 11 people, including paramedics, rescuers, and a child, and wounded several others, according to Lebanese sources.
Before dawn Friday, four paramedics were killed in a strike on an emergency center in the town of Hanouiyeh in the Tyre district, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.
Later that day, an airstrike on the Deir Qanoun al-Nahr-Abbasiyeh junction in the Tyre district killed six people, including two paramedics from the Islamic Risala Scout Association, who were evacuating casualties from an earlier strike. The dead also included a Lebanese citizen and three Syrians, one of them a child.■
