North America

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 28 (APP): UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet Friday called on the international community to intensify pressure on Myanmar’s military to stop its campaign of violence against citizens, and to insist on the prompt return to civilian rule, almost one year after seizing power in a coup.

MEXICO CITY, Jan 28 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Mexico’s exports grew 18.5 percent in 2021, compared to the previous year, bolstered by petroleum and manufacturing shipments, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reported, yesterday.

The value of exports climbed to 494.225 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, compared to 416.999 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

Meanwhile, imports grew by 32.1 percent in 2021, to 505.716 billion U.S. dollars, according to the INEGI press release.

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Initial jobless claims in the U.S. fell to 260,000, after hitting a three-month high amid Omicron surge, the U.S. Labour Department reported yesterday.

In the week ending Jan 22, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits decreased by 30,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised level of 290,000, according to a report released by the department’s Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS).

OTTAWA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Canada's beleaguered Conservative opposition leader is backing a trucker protest against the Liberal government's strict COVID-19 vaccine mandates, with critics warning the movement is led by far-right activists with a history of trying to incite violence.

GUATEMALA CITY, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Guatemalan authorities working with the U.S. Homeland Security agency on Friday arrested 10 people in raids against a migrant smuggling group linked to the massacre of 19 people in Mexico last year, Guatemalan officials said.

Guatemala's Public Prosecutor's Office said 19 raids were being carried out in the western town of Comitancillo to dismantle the human smuggling network that took the Guatemalan migrants to Mexico.

"An operation is underway," said Juan Luis Pantaleon, spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor's Office.

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - China and the United States could end up in a military conflict if the United States encourages Taiwan's independence, Beijing's ambassador to Washington said in a U.S. radio interview broadcast on Friday.

China considers the neighboring, democratically ruled island of Taiwan its "sacred" territory and has never renounced the use of force to ensure eventual unification.

"Let me emphasize this. The Taiwan issue is the biggest tinder-box between China and the United States," Qin Gang told National Public Radio.

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is set to deny $130 million of military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns, three sources familiar with the decision told Reuters.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in September that the aid would be withheld if Egypt did not address specific human-rights related conditions.

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - If Russia unleashes the forces it has amassed near Ukraine's border to invade its neighbor, the outcome would be "horrific" and result in significant casualties, the top U.S. military officer said on Friday, comparing this moment to the Cold War.

Army General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the comments amid fragile Russia-U.S. diplomacy in a broader East-West standoff over Ukraine. Moscow has demanded NATO pull back troops and weapons from Eastern Europe and bar Ukraine from ever joining the military alliance. 

CHAMPLAIN, N.Y. (AP) — Whenever a bus arrives at the Greyhound station in Plattsburgh, New York, a small band of taxi drivers waits to drive passengers on a half-hour trip to a snowy, dead-end road that turns to dirt near the Canadian border.

There, at the border, refugees pile out of taxis or vans several times a day, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers warn that they will be arrested for illegal entry if they cross, which they do. Most are soon released to pursue asylum, living and working freely while awaiting a decision.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — When hundreds of potential jurors gather at a Louisville courthouse on Friday, they’ll find out for the first time that they could be chosen to preside over the only criminal trial to arise from the botched police raid that left Breonna Taylor dead.

The former Louisville officer facing trial, Brett Hankison, was not charged in Taylor’s shooting death. Instead, he is standing trial on three lower-level felony charges for allegedly firing his service weapon wildly into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartments during the March 13, 2020, raid.