North America

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana on Friday became the first state in the nation to approve abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, as the Republican governor quickly signed a near-total ban on the procedure shortly after lawmakers approved it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate parliamentarian narrowed Democrats’ plan for curbing drug prices but left it mostly unscathed Saturday, Democrats said, as party leaders prepared to start moving their sprawling economic bill through the chamber.

Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s rules arbiter, said provisions must be removed that would force drugmakers to pay rebates if their prices rise above inflation for products they sell to private insurers. Pharmaceutical companies would have to pay those penalties if their prices for drugs bought by Medicare rise too high.

NEW YORK, Aug 05 (APP): Pakistan has called on India to stop human rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, reverse demographic changes there, and restore the State’s identity by rescinding its “illegal” measures of 5 August 2019 to pave the way for a dialogue aimed at resolving the decades-old dispute.

WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The only way out of the crisis in U.S.-Chinese relations triggered by a visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is for the United States to immediately rectify its mistakes, a senior Chinese Embassy official in Washington said on Friday.

Jing Quan, a minister of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, referred to the White House protest to China's ambassador about Beijing's military actions since Pelosi's visit and said it was the United States that was threatening peace and stability.

OTTAWA, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Canada said on Friday it would temporarily ban the import of restricted handguns from Aug. 19 in a move designed to indirectly achieve goals of a gun control legislation proposed in May.

The import ban would stay in place until a national freeze on handguns comes into force, the Canadian government said in a statement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's ruling Liberal government introduced bill C-21 in May to fight gun violence.

NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said on Friday he has started to send buses carrying migrants to New York City in an effort to push responsibility for border crossers to Democratic mayors and U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

The first bus arrived early on Friday at the city's Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan carrying around 50 migrants. Volunteers were helping to steer people who had no relatives in town to city resources.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and nine others injured Thursday afternoon in a fiery multi-vehicle crash in Los Angeles, authorities said.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department said in a tweet that the agency responded to the crash at about 1:41 p.m. local time (2041 GMT) at La Brea and Slauson avenues.

Five people were pronounced died at the scene. Eight of the nine injured were transported to area hospitals, said the department.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday expressed the hope that the Summit of the Future scheduled for the General Assembly high-level week in September will produce a Pact for the Future.

The summit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvigorate global action, recommit to fundamental principles, and further develop the frameworks of multilateralism so they are fit for the future, he said in a briefing to the General Assembly on the progress on his Our Common Agenda.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones bulled through the first of several trials against him that could decimate his personal fortune and media empire in his usual way: Loud, aggressive and talking about conspiracies both in and out the courtroom.

It’s business as usual for the gravelly voiced, barrel-chested Jones. But by courtroom standards, his erratic and, at times, disrespectful behavior is unusual — and potentially complicated for the legal process.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans are to announce Friday whether the 2024 national convention, where the party’s presidential nominee will be officially named, will be held in Milwaukee or Nashville.

Milwaukee, in swing state Wisconsin, is the odds-on favorite to get the event given Nashville’s refusal to adopt an agreement for hosting the convention. There has been broad bipartisan support for holding the event in Milwaukee, which was selected to host the 2020 Democratic convention that had to be moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.