Briefly

UNITED STATES

No charges in shooting of black man Jacob Blake

A Wisconsin prosecutor announced on Tuesday he will not file criminal charges against a white police officer who shot a black man in the back in Kenosha last summer, leaving him paralyzed and setting off sometimes violent protests in the city. Officer Rusten Sheskey's shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug 23, captured on bystander video, turned the nation's spotlight on Wisconsin during a summer marked by protests over police brutality and racism. More than 250 people were arrested in the days that followed, including 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a self-styled medic with an assault rifle who is charged in the fatal shootings of two men and the wounding of a third.

IRAQ

Only hundreds of US troops to stay, PM says

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said on Tuesday that only hundreds of US troops would remain in Iraq after the withdrawal of half from the country. Kadhimi said during a televised speech on the eve of the centenary of Iraqi Army Day that the US troop withdrawal came due to "the ongoing strategic dialogue between Iraq and the United States that yield in the withdrawal of batches of US troops during the past months. The withdrawal of more than half of them will (be) complete in the coming days". Kadhimi also said that Iraq will not be an arena for regional or international conflicts and will not allow its land to be used to settle scores between countries.

NORWAY

Electric cars take record market share

The sale of electric cars in Norway overtook those powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines last year, new data showed on Tuesday. So-called battery electric vehicles, or BEV, made up 54.3 percent of all new cars sold in the Nordic country in 2020, a global record, up from 42.4 percent in 2019 and from a mere 1 percent of the overall market a decade ago, the Norwegian Road Federation said. Seeking to become the first nation to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, oil-producing Norway exempts fully electric vehicles from taxes imposed on those relying on fossil fuels. The policy has turned the country's car market into a laboratory for automakers seeking a path to a future without internal combustion engines.

Agencies - Xinhua