North America

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 26 (APP): A United Nations (UN) human rights expert has criticized India’s inadequate responses to her communications about wide-ranging abuses, including killings, in Indian Occupied Kashmir and vowed to keep the pressure on New Delhi.

At the same time, Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard told a press conference that experts at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Right (OHCHR) could have only a limited impact on the situation in occupied Kashmir.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Chinese officials are “close to finalizing” some parts of a trade agreement after high-level telephone discussions on Friday, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and China’s Commerce Ministry said, with talks to continue.

The USTR provided no details on the areas of progress.

“They made headway on specific issues and the two sides are close to finalizing some sections of the agreement. Discussions will go on continuously at the deputy level, and the principals will have another call in the near future,” a statement said.

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday validated the legality of the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump and ordered his administration to hand over an unredacted copy of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report detailing Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

HOUSTON, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Tropical Storm Olga has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and coastal flooding is possible across portions of the northern Gulf coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Friday.

The NHC said that gale-force winds associated with Olga and its remnants should spread over portions of the northern Gulf coast Friday night and Saturday morning. The storm is expected to produce heavy rain across the Central Gulf coast in Louisiana into the Lower Mississippi Valley through Saturday morning.

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is at the threshold of its final ratification and there would be little chance of a reversal, a Mexican official said Friday.

"The end of this complex story is approaching, and we will soon see the United States starting the formal process for the approval of the treaty," said Jesus Seade, undersecretary for North America of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's daily press conference.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — When President Donald Trump talks about how his policies are helping African Americans, he almost always mentions a new law that has allowed thousands of non-violent offenders to gain early release from federal prison.

He made the pitch again Friday at a criminal justice conference in South Carolina. And then he sought common ground with African Americans by saying he has had his own brush with a justice system that many say treats blacks and other people of color unfairly.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For only the fourth time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives has started a presidential impeachment inquiry. House committees are trying to determine if President Donald Trump violated his oath of office by asking a foreign country to investigate a political opponent.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Howling winds that fueled destructive wildfires across California began to die down Friday, but residents in the northern part of the state braced for another round of power outages aimed at preventing what are expected to be the strongest gusts in years from sparking more blazes this weekend.

USA  (AP) — The spotlight of presidential primary politics shines brightest on Iowa and New Hampshire. But for Joe Biden, there’s an even more important venue in the opening weeks of Democrats’ 2020 nominating fight: South Carolina.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris is pulling out of a South Carolina criminal justice forum over organizers’ handling of President Donald Trump’s appearance.

Soon after her announcement, the mayor of South Carolina’s capital city, Columbia, and a co-host of the event said he was organizing an alternative forum at Benedict College, a historically black college, for any candidates who wished to participate, with Harris’ campaign confirming she would be among them.