Second Front

STATE, NATIONAL AND WORLD NEWS Antelope Valley Press, Sunday, February 28, 2021 B1

BRIEF
IN
Biden hails House passage of $1.9T virus bill
From Valley Press wire services
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The House
WORLD approved a $1.9 trillion pandemic
Ukraine sees relief bill that was championed by
President Joe Biden, the first step
second fatal in providing another dose of aid to
oxygen blast a weary nation as the measure now
moves to a tense Senate.
at hospital this “We have no time to waste,”
month Biden said at the White House after
KYIV, Ukraine — An ex- the House passage early Saturday.
plosion in a Ukrainian hospi- “We act now — decisively, quick-
tal ward where COVID-19 ly and boldly — we can finally get
patients are being treated ahead of this virus. We can finally
has killed one person and get our economy moving again. Peo-
injured another, authorities ple in this country have suffered far
said Saturday. too much for too long.”
The national emergencies The new president’s vision for
service said in a statement infusing cash across a struggling
that the explosion occurred economy to individuals, businesses,
in an oxygen pipe. It said 20 schools, states and cities battered by
people were evacuated after COVID-19 passed on a near par-
the blast at the hospital in ty-line 219-212 vote. That ships the
Chernivtsi, a city about 250 bill to the Senate, where Democrats
miles southwest of Kyiv. seem bent on resuscitating their min-
Saturday’s explosion was imum wage push and fights could
the second fatal oxygen erupt over state aid and other issues.
explosion at a hospital in Democrats said that mass un-
Ukraine this month. Three employment and the half-million
COVID-19 patients and a American lives lost are causes to act
young doctor died when an
President Joe Biden speaks on the economy Saturday in the Roosevelt Room
of the White House in Washington.
despite nearly $4 trillion in aid al-
ready spent fighting the fallout from
the disease. GOP lawmakers, they
said, were out of step with a public
that polling finds largely views the
bill favorably.
“I am a happy camper tonight,”
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said
Friday. “This is what America needs.
Republicans, you ought to be a part
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP
of this. But if you’re not, we’re going
without you.”
Republicans said the bill was too
expensive and said too few education
dollars would be spent quickly to im-
mediately reopen schools. They said
it was laden with gifts to Democratic
constituencies like labor unions and
funneled money to Democratic-run
states they suggested didn’t need it
because their budgets had bounced
back.
“To my colleagues who say this bill
is bold, I say it’s bloated,” said House
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy,
R-Calif. “To those who say it’s ur-
gent, I say it’s unfocused. To those
who say it’s popular, I say it is entirely
partisan.”
The overall relief bill would pro-
vide $1,400 payments to individuals,
extend emergency unemployment
benefits through August and increase
tax credits for children and federal
subsidies for health insurance.
It also provides billions for schools
and colleges, state and local gov-
ernments, COVID-19 vaccines and
testing, renters, food producers and
struggling industries like airlines,
restaurants, bars and concert venues.
Moderate Democratic Reps. Jared
Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrad-
er of Oregon were the only two
lawmakers to cross party lines. That
sharp partisan divide is making the
fight a showdown over whom voters
will reward for heaping more federal
spending to combat the Coronavirus
and revive the economy atop the $4
trillion approved last year.

Students abducted from Nigerian school freed

explosion caused a fire at
a hospital in Zaporizhzhia
during the first week of Feb-
ruary.

EU summons its By SAM OLUKOYA

Associated Press
Students and
ambassador to teachers who
were abducted by
LAGOS, Nigeria — Students, teachers and rela-
Cuba to explain tives abducted two weeks ago from a school in north- gunmen from the
letter to Biden ern Nigeria have been freed. Government Science
The students, teachers and family members were College Kagara two
BRUSSELS — The weeks ago are seen
European Union has sum- abducted Feb. 17 by gunmen from the Government
Saturday after their
moned its ambassador to Science College Kagara.
release meeting with
Cuba to return to Brussels Niger State Gov. Abubakar Sani Bello said he
the state Governor
to explain himself after he received 24 students, six staff and eight relatives on
Abubakar Sani Bello,
reportedly signed an appeal Saturday after they were released early in the morn- in Minna, the capital
asking US President Joe ing. of Niger state, in
This number released differed from the 42 peo- Nigeria.
Biden to lift sanctions against
ple that the governor had originally said were kid- AP PHOTO
Cuba and begin normaliz-
napped by the attackers, indicating some may still be
ing ties with the country.
missing. The discrepancy was not explained. dits, and are known to kidnap for money and to push and unharmed.
A spokesman for EU
One of the students has been hospitalized for ex- for the release of their members from jail. “We will not succumb to blackmail by bandits
foreign policy chief Josep
cessive exhaustion, he said, adding that the released Masauda Umar, 20, managed to escape from the and criminals who target innocent school students in
Borrell said Saturday that
will be medically checked and monitored for a few school when the men arrived Friday. the expectation of huge ransom payments,” he said.
the ambassador, Alberto Na-
days before being reunited with family. She told The Associated Press the bandits came “Let bandits, kidnappers and terrorists not entertain
varro, was asked “to come to
Sani Bello said that joint efforts of security, tra- to their sleeping quarters and after knocking on the any illusions that they are more powerful than the
Brussels to provide explana-
ditional leaders and stakeholders helped secure the main door, they hit the people who answered it and government.”
tions.”
release. made everyone gather. Nigeria has seen several such attacks and kidnap-
Politico reported that 16
Their release was announced a day after police “I was coming out from the door and I met some- pings over the years, notably the mass abduction in
European Parliament law-
said gunmen had abducted 317 girls from a board- body but ran back and hid under my bed,” she said. April 2014 by jihadist group Boko Haram of 276
makers wrote to Borrell ask-
ing school elsewhere in northern Nigeria, in Zamfara “I’m scared of going back to school because of what girls from the secondary school in Chibok in Bor-
ing him to remove Navarro
state. One resident said the gunmen also attacked a happened really got me scared but I will go back if no state. More than a hundred of the girls are still
as ambassador, arguing that the government tackles insecurity.” missing.
nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing
the diplomat was “not wor- Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said In December, 344 students were abducted from
soldiers from interfering with the mass abduction.
thy of the high functions he Several large groups of armed men operate in Friday the government’s primary objective is to the Government Science Secondary School Kanka-
holds.” Zamfara state, described by the government as ban- get all the school hostages returned safe, alive ra in Katsina State. They were eventually released.
NATION
Michigan girl
charged in
Officer fatally shot outside Armenia’s president refuses
grandmother’s
killing
New Orleans high school game order to dismiss military chief
CANTON TOWNSHIP, YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — over the separatist territory of Na-
NEW ORLEANS (AP) About 15,000 protesters calling for gorno-Karabakh. The agreement
Mich. — A 14-year-old girl — A police officer working
has been charged with kill- the resignation of Armenia’s prime saw Armenia lose control of terri-
security at a high school bas- minister marched through the cap- tories in Azerbaijan it had held for
ing her grandmother in sub- ketball game in New Orleans
urban Detroit, authorities ital Saturday as pressure on the more than 25 years.
was shot in the chest by a
said Saturday. leader intensified after the country’s Top military officers this week
man who was denied entry
The girl’s mental health president rejected his order to dis- joined in demanding Pashinyan’s
into the game, authorities
and ability to understand the miss the chief of the military gen- resignation, a move that he called
said.
proceedings will be exam- eral staff. an attempted coup. He ordered the
The shots were fired Fri-
ined before additional court Protests against Prime Minister dismissal of the chief of the gener-
day evening near the gymna-
action occurs. Nikol Pashinyan arose in November al staff, but the order was subject to
sium at George Washington
The 65-year-old victim after he signed a cease-fire ending approval by Armenia’s largely cere-
Carver High School, Police
was found stabbed Monday a six-week war with Azerbaijan monial president.
Superintendent Shaun Fer-
at her home in Canton. A guson told reporters at a MAX BECHERER/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE/
granddaughter was arrested THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE VIA AP
news conference.
the same day about 20 miles New Orleans Police Chief Shaun Ferguson
John Shallerhorn, 35, got
away at a motel in South- (center) updates the media on the inves-
into an altercation with a
tigation of a shooting Friday at George
gate. staff member after he tried Washington Carver High School where a law
The victim was a “nurse to enter the game, authori- enforcement officer was fatally shot as a bas-
who was raising her grand- ties said. The officer — later ketball game was being played.
daughter. Our prayers go identified as Tulane Univer-
out to her son and family,” sity Police Cpl. Martinus Mitchum — went to intervene, and Shallerhorn
Wayne County Prosecutor shot him, police said.
Kym Worthy said. Two loud bangs were captured on video shared by WGNO-TV as the
If the teen is convicted of high schoolers played. A photographer from WWL-TV also reported that
HRANT KHACHATRYAN/PAN PHOTO VIA AP
murder, a judge would have the gunfire could be heard inside the gym. Opposition demonstrators carrying Armenian national and the separatist
the option of sentencing her The school was put on lockdown after the shooting, news outlets reported, region of Nagorno-Karabakh’s flag (right) march to the government build-
as an adult or a juvenile or and the game was ultimately called off. ings Saturday during a rally to pressure Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
a combination of both, the Mitchum, who also was a deputy constable with the Second City Court, Pashinyan to resign in Yerevan, Armenia.
prosecutor’s office said. later died at a hospital.

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