North America

WASHINGTON, April 3. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump admitted that the previous US administration headed by Barack Obama had made a mistake not selling the Patriot surface-to-air missile system to Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in Washington on Wednesday.

The Turkish top diplomat pointed out that Ankara views as a done deal the agreement with Moscow on acquiring the S-400 long-range air defense missile system.

MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the situation in Libya at 3 pm (22:00 Moscow Time) on Friday, the United Kingdom Mission to the UN wrote on its Twitter page.

"The UK has called for the UN Security Council to meet in closed consultations on #Libya at 3 pm tomorrow, Friday," it said. Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Ghassan Salame will brief the UNSC members on the current situation.

TORONTO, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of students across Canada's Ontario province walked out of their classrooms on Thursday in protest of the provincial government's changes to education, according to CTV.

WASHINGTON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The number of initial jobless claims in the United States fell to its lowest level since December 1969, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday.

In the week ending March 30, the number of people filing for U.S. unemployment benefits was 202,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level, said the report.

The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 211,000 to 212,000, according to the report.

UNITED NATIONS, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations said Thursday that some 170 civilians are killed by mines per month, a sharp increase in explosive hazard casualties over the past five years.

"At one point, we were optimistic that the number of victims in Afghanistan was below a hundred a year, but now we are at 170 a month," Agnes Marcaillou, director of the UN Mine Action Service, told a press conference held at the UN headquarters in New York on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

Washington, Apr 4 (PTI) A free trade agreement between India and the US is a key to resolving their trade disputes as it will cover biggest irritants in ties including tariffs and mobility of Indian professionals, a top American business advocacy group has said.

Observing that the relationship between India and the US in the last five years has progressed tremendously, the advocacy group said the interest of the two largest democracies of the world are much more aligned than ever.

Washington, Apr 4 (PTI) India is one of the highest taxing nations in the world, US President Donald Trump has again slammed the country for imposing 100 per cent tariffs on American products, including the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Such a high tariff is not fair, Trump said Tuesday during National Republican Congressional Committee Annual Spring Dinner here.

DALLAS (AP) — Texas prisons will no longer allow clergy in the death chamber after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the scheduled execution of a man who argued his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual adviser couldn’t accompany him.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — China’s expansion in Latin America of its Belt and Road initiative to build ports and other trade-related facilities is stirring alarm in Washington over Beijing’s ambitions in a region that American leaders since the 19th century have seen as off-limits to other powers.

4 Apr 2019; AFP: Tensions soared Wednesday between the United States and two of its NATO partners, Germany and Turkey, marring a 70th birthday celebration for the alliance aimed at showing a united front against a resurgent Russia.