Americans are getting creative as the US shivers in the worst cold snap in decades.

The ferocity that Ayatollah Khomeini brought back with him from exile on 1 February 1979 has eased a lot. But it is still there.

The U.S. government on Thursday warned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of consequences for what it called "egregious" acts of intimidation, and said Russia and other countries should cease "last-minute looting" of oil and gold.

As Venezuela grapples with U.S. sanctions on its vital oil industry, socialist President Nicolas Maduro has made plans to lift some price and foreign exchange controls in a bid to revive the country's battered economy, sources said.

Brazilian miner Vale SA hired law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP to organize an investigation into a deadly dam burst last week that likely killed hundreds of people in Brazil, the company said in a securities filing on Thursday.

An Australian air strike on Iraq in 2017 "may have" killed up to 18 civilians, the Australian government confirmed late on Thursday, following a year-long investigation.

The United Nations Security Council agreed on Thursday to review arms embargo measures on Central African Republic by the end of September if the country makes progress in areas including reform of its security sector and management of its weapons.

Colombia's navy has recovered the bodies of 12 African migrants, including seven children, who died in a shipwreck in the Caribbean, a source from the country's migration agency said on Thursday.

France, Germany and Britain have opened a new channel for non-dollar trade with Iran to avert U.S. sanctions, although diplomats say it is unlikely to allow for the big transactions that Tehran says it needs to keep a nuclear deal afloat.

The United States will soon announce plans to suspend compliance with a landmark nuclear missile pact with Russia, responding to an alleged violation of the treaty by Moscow, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

A blast of icy polar air brought dangerously low temperatures to the US Midwest on Wednesday, causing at least three more deaths while halting mail deliveries and forcing residents who pride themselves on their winter hardiness to huddle indoors. Classes were cancelled for Wednesday and Thursday for students across the Midwest, including Chicago, home of the nation's third-largest school system, and police warned of the risk of accidents on icy highways. Michigan said all state offices would remain closed through Thursday. In a rare move, the US Postal Service appeared to set aside its credo that "neither snow nor rain ... nor gloom of night" would stop its work as it halted deliveries from parts of the Dakotas through Ohio. At least eight deaths related to extreme cold weather have been reported since Saturday in Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, according to officials and media reports. Illinois State Police officers rescued 21 people who were stranded in a charter bus that broke down in sub-zero temperatures along Interstate 55 near Auburn after the vehicle's diesel fuel turned to gel in its engine, according to the agency. Cold front: Temperatures held at below -20C in Chicago, Illinois. The city's record low, -33C, was registered in 1985 Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images In Detroit, a 70-year-old man was found dead on Wednesday on a residential street, a Detroit police spokeswoman said. About 15 miles (24 km) south in the community of Ecorse, a former city councilman in his 70s and dressed only in sleepwear was also found dead on Wednesday, police there said. A University of Iowa student was found dead outside a building at the campus early on Wednesday, the school said in a statement. The death of Gerald Belz, a pre-med student, was believed to be weather-related. Streets in Chicago were nearly empty, with few people walking outside in the painfully cold air as temperatures hovered around minus 28 Celsius. "It's terrible!" Pasquale Cappellano, a 68-year-old waiter, said as he smoked a cigarette while waiting outside for a bus on Chicago's North Side. "I gotta pick up my medication at Walgreens or else I wouldn't be out the door." US weather: Polar vortex threatens record low temperatures, in pictures In Minneapolis, chilled to minus 26 Celsius, Brian Pierce ventured out to "embrace the elements" and found himself watching cars slipping on the roads. "The roads sound really weird, it seems there’s a lack of grip," he said. "And my teeth hurt." Wind-chill temperatures in parts of the Northern Plains and Great Lakes plunged as low as minus 41 Celsius  in Park Rapids, Minnesota, and minus  35 Celsius  in Fargo, North Dakota, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The frigid winds were headed for the US East Coast later on Wednesday. Normally, the #PolarVortex �� swirls around the Arctic, trapping cold air near the Pole. Recently, this pressure system has been less stable, spilling colder air south & bringing record-low temperatures �� to parts of the continental U.S. https://t.co/PS83gEo5u0pic.twitter.com/zQP4sYS2Kh— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) January 30, 2019 More than a thousand flights, close to two-thirds of those scheduled, were canceled on Wednesday into or out of Chicago O'Hare and Chicago Midway international airports, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. Amtrak canceled all trains in and out of Chicago on Wednesday. At the Morning Joy Farm in Mercer, North Dakota, Annie Carlson said her horses and sheep were doing fine. "They can go into the barn if they wish," she said. "They're snuggled in, warm and toasty." Her chickens, ducks and guinea hens were enjoying the 21 Celsius climate inside their greenhouse-like hoop house, she said. Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the NWS, said some of the coldest wind chills were recorded in International Falls, Minnesota, at minus 48 Celsius. Even the South Pole in Antarctica was warmer, with an expected low of minus 31 Celsius with wind chill. Out in the cold: goggles weather for Minneapolis residents Jen and Aaron Brackman Credit: STEPHEN MATUREN/AFP/Getty Images Temperatures in Chicago will drop again "quite precipitously" on Wednesday night, Orrison said, potentially breaking the record low of minus 33 Celsius on January 21, 1985, the day of Ronald Reagan's second presidential inauguration. Banks and stores closed for business. Waste Management Inc , a major trash collection company, said it cancelled pickups in counties across the Midwest on Wednesday and Thursday. The bitter cold was caused by a displacement of the polar vortex, a stream of air that normally spins around the stratosphere over the North Pole, but whose current was disrupted and was now pushing south. Officials opened warming centres across the Midwest, and in Chicago, police stations were open to anyone seeking refuge. Five city buses were also deployed to serve as mobile warming centres for homeless people, while city police handed out hats, jackets and blankets. In Ontario, Canada, steam rises from the frozen Niagara Falls Credit: LARS HAGBERG/AFP/Getty Images The Chicago Police Department said it could encourage people to get out of the cold. "But we will never force someone," police officer Michael Carroll said. US homes and businesses will likely use record amounts of natural gas for heating on Wednesday, according to energy analysts. Some residents just to the north and northwest of the Twin Cities in Minnesota were asked by Xcel Energy to dial down their thermostats 16C because of the strains on its natural gas supply system. The Michigan Agency for Energy said the state's utility companies had agreed not to shut off gas or electric supplies to delinquent customers for the rest of the week.

How satellites and artificial intelligence are keeping tabs on global commodities trading.

Bollywood actress Esha Gupta found herself at the centre of a storm over racism after posting a Whatsapp chat.

Hollywood stars are campaigning to improve the numbers of women directing major movies.

A Springfield school official called the alleged comment "disturbing, unacceptable" and "completely at odds with who we are as a district."

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law in 2017, brings adjustments for 2018 tax returns. "The impact of the TCJA's changes in the tax law could substantially reduce a retiree's income tax liability," says Mike Herzog, a tax attorney with Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott in Pittsburgh. -- The standard deduction has increased.

Ministers are urged not to "turn a blind eye" to modern slavery and environmental damage at hand car washes.

Toyota revealed that the 2020 Tacoma is "tacom-ing" to Chicago next week but gave out little more information about the upcoming truck apart for a picture of a shadowy top half. On Tuesday, Toyota shared a teaser image of the 2020 Tacoma showing only the top part of the truck as seen from the front at dusk. From what is barely pictured in the image, we can see that not much has changed in terms of exterior design -- at least, for the top half -- which makes sense considering that this 2020 update will likely just be a midcycle refresh.

Facebook said it removed 783 pages, groups and accounts linked to Iran that were attempting to manipulate political discussions about current events, like the Israel-Palestine conflict and the wars in Syria and Yemen. The industry collaboration has been central to the success of these operations, Facebook said. In September, Twitter disclosed it had suspended 770 accounts potentially based in Iran for violating its policies.

The United States is moving quickly to lift a freeze at the United Nations on humanitarian aid to North Korea, just weeks before a planned second US-North Korean summit, according to diplomats and documents obtained by AFP. At Washington's request, several applications from aid groups for exemptions to tough UN sanctions imposed on North Korea have been put on hold at a UN sanctions committee, some for as long as a year.

The second-largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers has turned its focus to paying down debt after spending $85 billion to buy media company Time Warner. "I would say we're ahead of schedule in each of our key priorities," said AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson during a call with analysts. The company's debt was $171 billion at the end of 2018, after paying off some $9 billion since the Time Warner merger closed in June.

Venezuela will sell 15 tonnes of gold from central bank vaults to the United Arab Emirates in coming days in return for euros in cash, a senior official with knowledge of the plan said, as the crisis-stricken country seeks to stay solvent.

The two parties that have ruled El Salvador for three decades could lose their grip on power on Sunday if voters choose as president a young outsider from a small third party who has vowed to lift the economy and stem the flow of migrants from one of the world's most violent countries.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has attacked a site east of the capital Sanaa which the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement used to store drones, Saudi news agency SPA said on Thursday.