USA

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (NNN-UNNS) — The UN Secretary-General issued a statement on Saturday expressing grave concern over the escalation of fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, where Government troops and separatist forces have been locked in conflict since November 2020.

The latest surge in violence began in August, after a fragile five-month humanitarian truce, which has halted aid deliveries into the northern Ethiopian region, where around five million civilians are in need of aid.

JACKSONVILLE (Florida, US), Oct 16 (NNN-XINHUA/AGENCIES) — NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts aboard the Dragon spacecraft safely splashed down off the coast of the southeastern U.S. state of Florida on Friday, NASA said.

The four-member international crew, consisting of NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted splashdown at 4:55 p.m. Eastern Day Time.

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday criticized British Prime Minister Liz Truss's original economic plan as a mistake and said he was not concerned about the strength of the soaring U.S. dollar.

Truss on Friday fired her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng and scrapped parts of their economic package after it sparked financial market turmoil, including a steep dive in the value of the pound.

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will act "methodically" in deciding how to respond to Saudi Arabia over oil output cuts, but options include changes to U.S. security assistance, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday.

Sullivan, speaking on CNN, said no changes to the U.S.-Saudi relationship were imminent as Biden re-evaluates it.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. and Canada sent armored vehicles and other supplies to Haiti on Saturday to help police fight a powerful gang amid a pending request from the Haitian government for the immediate deployment of foreign troops.

A U.S. State Department statement said the equipment was bought by Haiti’s government, but it did not provide further details on the supplies flown on military aircraft to the capital of Port-au-Prince.

DETROIT (AP) — Thieves are using cloned key fobs to steal Dodge muscle cars and other high-powered vehicles directly from dealerships and even automakers in Michigan, then selling them for tens of thousands of dollars less than their value, according to authorities and court records.

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Derrick Van Orden was among the thousands of people who went to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” rally headlined by then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. Afterward, Van Orden was photographed on or near the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, where rioters violently breached the building in one of American democracy’s darkest days.

NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021.

By refusing to go along with the then-president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook.

Washington, Oct 15 (PTI) The IMF has urged countries to preserve vital foreign reserves to deal with potentially worse outflows and turmoil in the future, amidst appreciation of the US dollar and depreciation of other major currencies, including the Indian rupee.