North America

NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 jolted 41 km SSW of Coquimbo, Chile at 16:51:32 GMT on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 45.04 km, was initially determined to be at 30.2741 degrees south latitude and 71.564 degrees west longitude.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador closed out 2019 with a parting shot at his predecessors, saying imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera had had the same power as the country’s president.

MONSEY, N.Y. (AP) — F or years, ultra-Orthodox Jewish families pushed out of increasingly expensive Brooklyn neighborhoods have been turning to the suburbs, where they have taken advantage of open space and cheaper housing to establish modern-day versions of the European shtetls where their ancestors lived for centuries before the Holocaust.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Tens of thousands of Jewish people congregated Wednesday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to celebrate the reading of the entire Talmud in an event called Siyum HaShas — and drew a heavy security presence after recent anti-Semitic attacks in the area.

The New Year’s Day event celebrated the completion of the reading of the 2,711-page Babylonian Talmud, a process that takes 7 1/2 years. Similar events have recently been held in major cities around the globe, such as Mexico City, while others are scheduled in the next few weeks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The breach of the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad has prompted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to postpone his trip to Ukraine and four other countries.

Pompeo was to arrive in Ukraine late Thursday in his first visit to the country at the center of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, then on to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Cyprus.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Pete Buttigieg’s campaign says he raised more than $24.7 million in the last three months and now has a campaign staff of 500 people nationwide, a show of financial and organizational strength heading into the presidential primaries.

NEW YORK (AP) — When a machete-wielding attacker walked into a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, during Hanukkah and a gunman fired on worshippers at a Texas church 14 hours later, the two congregations in different regions of the country joined a growing list of faith communities that have come under attack in the U.S.

It is a group that crosses denominations and geography and has companions around the world. The frequency of attacks has faith leaders and law enforcement grappling with how to protect people when they are at their most vulnerable.

01 Jan 2019; MEMO: A formal criminal investigation into war crimes allegations in Palestine is a “momentous step forward in the quest for accountability,” a UN human rights expert said Tuesday of the ICC’s decision, reports Anadolu Agency.

“Accountability has, until now, been largely missing in action throughout the 52-year-old occupation,” Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Territories Michael Lynk said in a statement.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 01 (APP): The world will welcome more than 392,000 babies, including 16,787 in Pakistan, on New Year’s Day, according to estimates from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The agency believes 2020’s first baby will be born in Fiji and that globally, over half of all births on January 1 will take place, besides Pakistan, in 7 other countries: India ( 67,385), China (46,299), Nigeria (26,039), Indonesia (13,020), the United States of America )(10,452), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (10,247), and Ethiopia (8,493).

PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had signed a contract about denuclearization and that he thought the North Korean leader was a “man of his word.”

Hours after Kim said his country would continue developing nuclear programs and introduce a “new strategic weapon” in the near future, Trump said he got along with Kim and “we have to do what we have to do.”