North America

GUADALAJARA (Mexico), March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nine people were killed in a bloody confrontation in western Mexico between a criminal gang and agents investigating a suspected kidnapping, officials said.

The dead included two officers and six people believed to have been held captive in a house in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco state, the state prosecutor’s office said.

Another man died on the street.

Jalisco has been hard-hit by violence linked to organized crime, particularly the powerful Jalisco New Generation drug cartel.

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations asked nine countries, including China, South Korea and France, to delay by three months the rotations of their UN peacekeeping forces due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The request was made to the countries “to maintain operational strength and execute their mandated tasks”, diplomatic sources at the UN said.

The nine countries also include Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, India, Italy and Germany – all of which have experienced significant outbreaks of the COVID-19 virus.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Six months after an acid attack in Mexico, Maria Elena Rios is now speaking out in hopes officials will find and punish her aggressor. Talking through a bandage covering the burns on her face, she has a message for other women: Do not live in fear.

Rios, who believes her ex-boyfriend ordered two men to splash her body with acid last September, is one of many women to have suffered abuse by their romantic partners in Mexico, where femicides have risen 137% in the last five years.

PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump praised the United States’ relationship with Brazil under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday, but declined to say whether he would impose steel and aluminum tariffs on the South American country.

Ahead of a dinner between the two men at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump was asked if he would continue to hold off placing new tariffs on Brazilian steel and aluminum. Trump responded that the United States had helped Brazil, but said he would not make any promises regarding tariffs.

NEW YORK, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Governor of the U.S. state of New York declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the northeastern state rose to 76.

At a press conference, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that New York City, the most populous metropolis in the country, has seen 11 cases, and Westchester County now has 57, an increase of 23 overnight.

Long Island's Nassau County has four, Rockland County has two and Saratoga County has two new cases.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A cruise ship that was hit by the new coronavirus is headed to the port of Oakland, California, the captain told passengers Saturday night.

Grand Princess Capt. John Smith, in a recording provided by passenger Laurie Miller of San Jose, told guests the ship will dock in Oakland. Princess Cruises says it’s expected to arrive on Monday. The ship is carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries.

MARION, Ala. (AP) — Della Simpson Maynor remembers the mounted police officer cracking her elbow with a baton. She recalls the panicked marchers unable to escape the onslaught, and the scuffle between officers and a young church deacon who was trying to protect his mother and grandfather. Most of all, she remembers the gunshot.

Two weeks before Bloody Sunday — the clash in Selma on March 7, 1965, that helped propel passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — there was a march in this small town 30 miles away.

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump would not commit Saturday to continue holding off on hitting Brazil with tariffs on imports of its aluminum and steel, saying “I don’t make any promises.”

Trump commented in the presence of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who Trump was hosting for dinner at his resort home in southern Florida.

In a tweet in December, Trump accused Bolsonaro’s government of hurting American farmers by manipulating its currency. He pledged to slap tariffs on Brazilian aluminum and steel, but withdrew the threat days later.

NEW YORK (AP) — The White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, a federal official told The Associated Press.

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — The Democratic presidential primary is down to two major candidates, and it shows.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are spending their first weekend as their party’s last top White House contenders increasingly taking aim at one another. Each wants to show he’s the best choice before six more states — Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington — vote on Tuesday.