North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House declared Sunday it would not participate in the first impeachment hearings before the House Judiciary Committee as Democrats prepared to approve their report Tuesday making the case for President Donald Trump’s removal from office.

The Democratic majority on the House Intelligence Committee says its report will speak for itself in laying out possible charges of bribery or “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the constitutional standard for impeachment. After receiving the report, the Judiciary Committee would prepare actual charges.

NEW YORK, December 1. /TASS/: Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov described attempts to treat Russia as a dangerous enemy that must be deterred as dangerous and unrealistic.

"In the local information space, one can often hear that Russia is a dangerous and unpredictable enemy that must be deterred by various means. This approach can hardly be described as a far-seeing one," he told the Youth Forum in New York on Saturday. "A focus on diminishing the role of our country in the world is unrealistic and even dangerous."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump faced two deadlines in Congress on Sunday as Democrats prepared to shift the focus of their impeachment inquiry from fact-finding to the consideration of possible charges of misconduct over his dealings with Ukraine.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, tasked with considering charges known as articles of impeachment, has given the president until 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Sunday to say whether he or his legal counsel will participate in an impeachment hearing on Wednesday.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 1 (NNN-Xinhua) — Four police officers and 10 suspected gunmen of the Cartel of the Northeast were killed in an hour-long gunbattle in Mexico’s northern state of Coahuila, authorities said Saturday.

Miguel Angel Riquelme Solis, governor of Coahuila state, said six more policemen were injured in the battle and several municipal workers were missing.

The governor said the armed group descended on the small town of Villa Union, which has a population of 3,000 and is about an hour’s drive southwest of the U.S. city of Eagle Pass.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. online shoppers spent 7.4 billion dollars on Black Friday, up by 19.6 percent from last year, according to the web analytics tool Adobe Analytics.

The top three online selling products on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, were L.O.L Surprise dolls, Frozen 2 toys, and FIFA 20 video games.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican security forces fought an hour-long gun gunbattle Saturday with suspected cartel gunmen in Villa Union, a town in Coahuila state about an hour’s drive southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas, leaving at least 14 people dead, officials said.

Coahuila state Gov. Miguel Angel Riquelme told local media four of the dead were police officers killed in the initial confrontation, and that several municipal workers were missing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The forecast for July 25 was typical for Washington: sunny, mid-80s. President Donald Trump had good reason to be feeling bright and sunny himself.

It was the morning after Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony at the conclusion of the Russia investigation, and Trump and his allies were expressing relief, thinking the rumblings about impeachment would at last fade, even if the special counsel hadn’t offered the president the total exoneration Trump claimed.

USA (AP) --- Wintry weather bedeviled Thanksgiving weekend travelers across the United States Saturday as a powerful and dangerous storm moved eastward, dumping heavy snow from parts of California to the northern Midwest and inundating other areas with rain.

Authorities found the bodies of two young children, including a 5-year-old boy, and a third child was missing in central Arizona after a vehicle was swept away while attempting to cross a runoff-swollen creek. A storm-related death also was reported in South Dakota.

CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. (AP) — Authorities say nine people have been killed after a plane crashed in South Dakota.

Peter Knudson with the National Transportation Safety Board tells The Associated Press 12 people were aboard the Pilatus PC-12 when it crashed about 12:30 p.m. Saturday, shortly after taking off from Chamberlain, about 140 miles (225.3 kilometers) west of Sioux Falls.

Knudson says nine people were killed and three were injured. The single-engine plane was bound for Idaho Falls, Idaho.

ARIZONA (AP) --- The bodies of two children were found Saturday, but searchers were still looking for a third child who went missing after a truck they were in was swept away while attempting to cross a runoff-swollen Arizona creek in what a sheriff’s official called a “horrible and tragic incident.”

Gila County sheriff’s Lt. Virgil Dodd said the first body found was of a 5-year-old boy. The second child’s age and gender weren’t provided in a statement released by the Sheriff’s Office.