North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — When an Iranian drone struck a U.S. base in northeastern Syria, killing a contractor and wounding several U.S. troops, it was just the latest in a growing number of attacks on American forces in Syria. But its lethality was rare. In most recent cases, no U.S. forces have been hurt in such attacks.

The strike on Thursday — by a small, suicide drone — set off a series of retaliatory bombings, and the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, Gen. Erik Kurilla, quickly warned that the U.S. was prepared to launch more attacks if needed.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Two migrants were found dead and at least 10 were hospitalized Friday after police in South Texas received a call that they were “suffocating” in a freight train traveling near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Uvalde Police Department said Border Patrol was informed of the phone call and able to stop the train. About 15 migrants were found inside, according to a statement from the department.

WEST READING, Pa. (AP) — An explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania Friday killed two people and left nine people missing, authorities said.

Several other people were injured by the explosion at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant, said West Reading Borough Police Department Chief of Police Wayne Holben, who did not confirm the exact number of injured.

The explosion just before 5 p.m. sent a plume of black smoke into the air, destroying one building and damaging a neighboring building that included apartments.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Working against the clock to stop a developing banking crisis, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had until sunset on Sunday, March 12, to come up with a plan to calm the U.S. economy.

She quickly turned to someone who had been through the fire before, and on a much larger scale: Hank Paulson.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene swept into the District of Columbia jail to check on conditions for the Jan. 6 defendants, with Republican lawmakers handshaking and high-fiving the prisoners, who chanted “Let’s Go Brandon!” — a coded vulgarity against President Joe Biden — as the group left.

A day earlier Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with the mother of slain rioter Ashli Babbitt, a Navy veteran who was shot and killed by police as she tried to climb through a broken window during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

WACO, Texas (AP) — Staring down a possible indictment, a defiant Donald Trump is hoping to put on a show of force Saturday as he holds the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign in a city made famous by deadly resistance against law enforcement.

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — A powerful tornado tore through rural Mississippi and Alabama on Friday night, killing at least seven people, destroying buildings and knocking out power as severe weather that produced hail the size of golf balls moved through several southern states and prompted authorities to warn some in its path that they were in a “life-threatening situation.”

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines said Friday that it will suspend flights between Philadelphia and Madrid for a few weeks this spring because of delays in receiving new Boeing jets that have been plagued by production problems.

American said it will offer passengers on the route alternative travel arrangements in May and early June.

A spokeswoman for American said the airline still plans to offer “a robust international network this summer.”

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vermont (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced a plan to close a loophole to an immigration agreement that has allowed thousands of asylum-seeking immigrants to move between the two countries along a back road linking New York state to the Canadian province of Quebec.

MEXICO CITY, March 24 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday denied that parts of his country are controlled by drug cartels, responding to recent comments from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Blinken said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday that it was "fair to say" that parts of the country were controlled by cartels instead of the government.

"That is false," Lopez Obrador said in a regular news conference. "There is no place in the country that does not have the presence of authorities."