North America

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An Iraq War veteran deliberately drove into a group of pedestrians because he thought some of the people were Muslim, California authorities said Friday.

Isaiah Joel Peoples, 34, faces eight counts of attempted murder for injuring eight people, including four who remain hospitalized. The most seriously injured is a 13-year-old Sunnyvale girl of South Asian descent who is in a coma with severe brain trauma.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’s withdrawing the U.S. from an arms trade treaty because it’s “badly misguided.” He made the announcement in a speech to the National Rifle Association. The move comes as pro-gun legislation is largely stalled in Congress and Trump is imploring the NRA to rally behind his re-election bid.

President Barack Obama signed the pact, which has long been opposed by the NRA, in 2013. But it has never been ratified by U.S. lawmakers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department has issued a heightened travel warning for Sri Lanka after last Sunday’s suicide bombings that killed more than 250 people.

The department is urging Americans to “reconsider travel to Sri Lanka due to terrorism.”

The U.S. has also ordered the departure of all school-age family members of U.S. government employees. And it has authorized the voluntary departure of nonemergency U.S. employees and family members.

Friday night’s advisory warns, “Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump expressed confidence Friday that a bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and Japan can be reached quickly despite ongoing differences over tariffs as he opened talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House.

HUGO, Okla. (AP) — Three children were wounded in a police shooting Friday in Oklahoma when an officer fired at a man in a truck who was suspected of robbing a restaurant earlier in the month, according to state investigators.

27 Apr 2019 (AP) - Former Vice President Joe Biden is reporting he raised $6.3 million in the first day of his campaign, the most of any of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates in the first 24 hours after their announcements.

In a news release Friday, Biden’s campaign says he raised the money from nearly 97,000 individuals across all 50 states, including 65,000 who weren’t solicited by email.

Biden edged former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s first-day total of $6.1 million and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ sum of slightly less than $6 million.

25 Apr 2019; AFP: NASA and SpaceX remained tight-lipped Thursday about what caused a mysterious but apparently serious incident last weekend during engine tests on the Crew Dragon capsule designed to carry US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year.

SpaceX said that an "anomaly" had occurred during Saturday's ground tests at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

26 Apr 2019; AFP: At least 1,300 mainly Cuban migrants escaped Thursday from a detention center in southern Mexico after threatening to set fire to the facility to protest against overcrowding.

The escape occurred at dinner time when several inmates mutinied at the center in Tapachula, in the southern state of Chiapas, according to witnesses.

"There was a large-scale unauthorized exit of people housed in the migratory station," the National Institute of Migration (INM) said in a statement.

United Nations, Apr 26 (PTI) UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has underscored the need for free press disseminating reliable information to maintain peace and justice, especially during elections as "facts, not falsehoods" should guide the people while choosing their representatives.

Noting that civic space has been shrinking worldwide at an alarming rate, Guterres said that he is "deeply troubled" by the growing number of attacks against journalists and the culture of impunity.

HAVANA, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Thursday slammed Washington's newly adopted measures against the island, saying they will "suffocate" the country's economy.

On April 17, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that a 22-year suspension of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act will be lifted on May 2, which allows U.S. citizens to file suits against foreign firms operating property in Cuba since 1959.