USA

NEW YORK (Reuters) - United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has agreed to an Ethiopian request for a joint investigation in the country’s northern Tigray region, where Bachelet says possible war crimes may have been committed.

Fighting between government troops and the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes in the mountainous region of about 5 million.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least April 21, the U.S. government said on Thursday.

The 30-day extension is the second announced under President Joe Biden and comes as U.S lawmakers in northern border states have urged lifting the nearly year-old restrictions to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but the labor market is regaining its footing as an acceleration in the pace of vaccinations leads to more businesses reopening.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 770,000 for the week ended March 13, from 725,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 700,000 applications in the latest week.

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The Joe Biden administration and congressional Democrats on Wednesday condemned the exacerbating anti-Asian violence in the United States in the wake of a series of shooting incidents in Atlanta on Tuesday that killed eight people, many of whom were Asians.

ANCHORAGE, the United States, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said here Wednesday that China will not compromise on core interests during the upcoming high-level strategic dialogue between top diplomats of China and the United States.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The prospect of more tornadoes overnight and into Thursday across the Deep South had forecasters advising residents to take extra precautions after a wave of storms pounded the region throughout the day Wednesday, leaving a trail of splintered trees and damaged buildings.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats seem poised to claim victory in the House’s first votes this year on immigration, but moving legislation on the divisive issue all the way through Congress to President Joe Biden is an uphill fight.

The House was set to vote Thursday on one bill giving over 2 million young “Dreamer” immigrants and others legal status and a chance for citizenship. A second measure would do the same for around 1 million immigrant farm workers. Both seemed certain to pass.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a nod to Women’s History Month, the Democratic-led House passed two measures Wednesday, one designed to protect women from domestic violence, the other to remove the deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act passed 244-172 with 29 Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the legislation.

The resolution to repeal the ERA’s ratification deadline passed 222-204. Both measures face a more difficult path in an evenly divided Senate.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Violent extremists motivated by a range of political grievances and racial biases pose an “elevated threat” to the United States, officials said Wednesday in an unclassified intelligence report released more than two months after a mob of insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol.

The blunt assessment echoes warnings made in recent weeks by U.S. officials, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, who testified this month that the threat from domestic violent extremism was “metastasizing” across the country.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s head of Homeland Security sparred Wednesday with members of Congress over the surge of migrants at the Southwest border, refusing to concede the situation was a crisis or even much different from what the two previous administrations faced.