North America

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is set to kick off his 2024 White House bid on Saturday with visits to a pair of early-voting states, his first campaign events since announcing his latest run more than two months ago.

Trump will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire GOP’s annual meeting before traveling to Columbia, South Carolina, where he is set to introduce his state leadership team. New Hampshire and South Carolina hold two of the party’s first three nominating contests, giving them enormous power in selecting the nominee.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 (APP): The top UN envoy for the Middle East peace process said Thursday he was “deeply alarmed and saddened” at the continuing cycle of violence in the occupied West Bank, after nine Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military raid.

The envoy, Tor Wennesland, described the deaths – during an intense gun battle at a refugee camp in the city of Jenin – which included militants and reportedly, an elderly woman, as another “stark example” of the escalation in violence.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 (APP):Pakistan, which firmly opposes more permanent members in the U.N. Security Council, has called for ensuring equitable representation on the 15-member body by adding more elected member to make it more democratic and effective.

OTTAWA, Jan 27 (NNN-XINHUA) – Canadian Defence Minister, Anita Anand, announced yesterday that, Canada will be sending four battle tanks to Ukraine, CTV News reported.

In addition to the initial four Leopard 2 tanks, Canada is considering sending more tanks at a later date, the report said, quoting government sources.

The Canadian Armed Forces, currently has 82 German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks, but they are in various states of serviceability, according to the report.

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The FBI on Thursday revealed it had secretly hacked and disrupted a prolific ransomware gang called Hive, a maneuver that allowed the bureau to thwart the group from collecting more than $130 million in ransomware demands from more than 300 victims.

WEARE, New Hampshire Jan 27 (Reuters) - When Donald Trump trounced his Republican rivals in New Hampshire's 2016 primary, the stunning win announced to other states the reality TV showman was a serious contender. Trump went on to capture the Republican nomination and then the White House.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. military operation killed a number of Islamic State (ISIS) members in Somalia on Wednesday, including a key leader of the extremist group, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday.

Among those killed was Bilal-al-Sudani, "an ISIS leader in Somalia and a key facilitator for ISIS's global network," said Austin in a statement.

"Al-Sudani was responsible for fostering the growing presence of ISIS in Africa and for funding the group's operations worldwide, including in Afghanistan," he said.

OTTAWA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of job vacancies across all sectors in Canada decreased by 20,700 to 850,300 in November, down from the peak of more than 1 million recorded in May 2022, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.

Job vacancies decreased in the professional, scientific and technical services as well as the health care and social assistance sectors in November, the national statistical agency said.

Job vacancies were up in construction, and were little changed in accommodation and food services, retail trade and manufacturing, according to the agency.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank this weekend, the State Department announced Thursday, as the U.S. expressed alarm about escalating violence after Israel’s single deadliest operation in the West Bank in two decades.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The shooting that left four dead at a California mushroom farm on Monday was at least the second time an employee tried to kill a coworker on the property, records show.

Martin Medina, a manager at California Terra Garden, was charged with attempted murder after he threatened to kill another manager and then fired a shot into the man’s trailer. The bullet went through the trailer and into a neighboring one that was home to Yetao Bing, one of the workers killed on Monday, a prosecutor told The Associated Press. No one was injured.