North America

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Chris Gagin says he hasn’t changed much politically, even as so much around him has.

The attorney from rural Belmont County, Ohio, became a Republican in 2013 after Democrats embraced environmental policies that he believed were detrimental to the area’s coal mining and fracking industries. As an anti-abortion-rights, pro-gun conservative, he felt unwelcome.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Millions of Californians spent part of the week in the dark in an unprecedented effort by the state’s large electrical utilities to prevent another devastating wildfire. It was the fifth time Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has pre-emptively cut the power but by far the largest to date in the utility’s effort to prevent a deadly wildfire sparked by its power lines.

But do the power shut-offs actually prevent fires?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States appears to be heading toward a full military withdrawal from Syria amid growing chaos , cries of betrayal and signs that Turkey’s invasion could fuel a broader war.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that President Donald Trump had directed U.S. troops in northern Syria to begin pulling out “as safely and quickly as possible.” He did not say Trump ordered troops to leave Syria, but that seemed like the next step in a combat zone growing more unstable by the hour.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 13 (APP): Pakistan’s Ambassador for United Nations (UN) Maleeha Lodhi has unleashed yet another blistering attack on India for it’s “brutal suppression” of the Kashmiri people, and said world body’s decolonization agenda would remain incomplete without a settlement of the Kashmir dispute based on Security Council resolutions that pledged to them the right of self-determination.

Washington, Oct 13 (PTI) After a broad-based deceleration in the initial quarters of this fiscal year, India's growth rate is projected to fall to 6 per cent, the World Bank said on Sunday.

In 2018-19, the growth rate of the country stood at 6.9 per cent.

However, the bank in its latest edition of the South Asia Economic Focus said the country was expected to gradually recover to 6.9 per cent in 2021 and 7.2 per cent in 2022 as it assumed that the monetary stance would remain accommodative, given benign price dynamics.

HAVANA, Oct 12 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — The tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba has caused millions in losses to Cuba’s tobacco industry, according to an official source.

The Tabacuba Business Group reported that the damages amount to $145 million from April 2018 to March 2019.

The group explained that most suppliers of packaging materials, spare parts and other supplies necessary for the tobacco industry are closely linked to the US market, and as such they cannot do business with Cuba.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the attack on a mosque in northern Burkina Faso, which killed at least 15 worshipers, said his spokesman on Saturday.

The attack took place in the village of Salmossi in the northern province of Oudalan on Friday evening, but was not reported until Saturday.

CHICAGO, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed and another critically injured in a shooting in an apartment building on Chicago's Northwest Side on Saturday night.

A man, identified as a 67-year-old construction worker who has lived in the 3-floor building for about 15 years, left his apartment, went to a neighbor's apartment in the same building and shot dead four people -- three men and one woman -- as they sat around a table eating dinner, local media quoted police as saying.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed a law intended to counter Trump administration plans to increase oil and gas production on protected public land.

The measure bars any California leasing authority from allowing pipelines or other oil and gas infrastructure to be built on state property. It makes it difficult for drilling to occur because federally protected areas are adjacent to state-owned land.

WASHINGTON (AP) — There were dozens of ears listening to President Donald Trump’s 30-minute phone call with the leader of Ukraine that is at the center of a House impeachment inquiry , and as many eyes that saw what he said.