North America

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate a political foe.

Now, a central question for Democratic lawmakers moving with remarkable speed to impeach him is the extent to which Trump entangled both his office and the machinery of the U.S. government to spark investigations that would benefit him personally.

The White House and Trump’s aides have already put much of that evidence on public display.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Five people got injured in a stabbing attack at a shopping center in the U.S. state of Maryland on Saturday afternoon, and the suspect was shot and killed later by police, said local authorities.

Officers responded to the incident at Hunt Valley Towne Centre in Cockeysville, where they found five people were attacked at an intersection nearby, sustaining no life-threatening injuries, Baltimore County Police Department said in a statement.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States continues to be the main obstacle to the development of Cuba, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, said on Saturday.

Speaking at the General Debate of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Parrilla said that "economic aggression, no matter how hard threats and blackmails might be, will not extract a single concession from us."

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Syria’s top diplomat on Saturday demanded the immediate withdrawal of American and Turkish forces from the country and said his government reserves the right to defend its territory in any way necessary if they remain.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem’s remarks to the United Nations General Assembly were made as Turkey and the United States press ahead with a deal to create a safe zone along Syria’s border with Turkey.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 29 (NNN-XINHUA) – Vietnamese Foreign Minister, Pham Binh Minh, called for strengthening the United Nations by revitalising the acutely challenged multi-lateralism.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 29 (NNN-XINHUA) – Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, said, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, should follow China’s example, to boost the regional economy while voicing strong support for free trade.

“ASEAN has got 650 million people, half the population of China. Yet, we don’t have even half the strength of China,” said the 94-year-old politician, adding, “we must learn how to exploit that population.”

BOCA CHICA VILLAGE, Texas (AP) — Elon Musk has unveiled a SpaceX spacecraft designed to carry a crew and cargo to the moon, Mars or anywhere else in the solar system and land back on Earth perpendicularly.

In a livestreamed speech from SpaceX’s launch facility near the southern tip of Texas, Musk said Saturday that the space venture’s Starship is expected to take off for the first time in about one or two months and reach 65,000 feet (19,800 meters) before landing back on Earth.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the U.N.’s nuclear test ban treaty organization says that in his “wild dreams,” very young children around the world will be taught that nuclear testing isn’t good — and that the world should be free of nuclear weapons.

In an interview on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, Lassina Zerbo said he started a nine-member youth group three years ago with that aim. It has grown to 780 today, and they come from all over.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is denying his country would interfere with the upcoming U.S. presidential election and says his government doesn’t have a preference in the race.

In an interview to air Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Zarif also accuses the U.S. of initiating a cyberwar with his country and warns that “any war the United States starts it won’t be able to finish.”

The interview took place in New York, which Zarif visited this past week to attend meetings at the United Nations. NBC provided a partial transcript on Saturday.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — By the time drug enforcement agents swooped into his small medical office in Martinsville, Virginia, in 2017, Dr. Joel Smithers had prescribed about a half a million doses of highly addictive opioids in two years.

Patients from five states drove hundreds of miles to see him, spending up to 16 hours on the road to get prescriptions for oxycodone and other powerful painkillers.