North America

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A 50-year-old bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh early Friday, requiring rescuers to rappel nearly 150 feet (46 meters) and form a human chain to reach occupants of a bus that had plummeted with the span into a park ravine.

The collapse came hours before President Joe Biden was to visit the city to promote his $1 trillion infrastructure law, which has earmarked about $1.6 billion for Pennsylvania bridge maintenance.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge was set to hear arguments Friday on whether prosecutors should return to Kyle Rittenhouse the assault-style rifle he used to shoot three people during a street protest.

Rittenhouse shot the men during the protest in Kenosha in 2020. He killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in the arm. Rittenhouse argued he fired in self-defense after each of the men attacked him. A jury last year acquitted him of multiple charges, including homicide.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat in a deep-red state, was immersed in a difficult reelection campaign when he received a text message from the head of the state police: Troopers had engaged in “a violent, lengthy struggle” with a Black motorist, ending with the man’s death.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a break from the past, the U.S. and its allies are increasingly revealing their intelligence findings as they confront Russian preparations for a possible invasion of Ukraine, looking to undercut Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans by exposing them and deflecting his efforts to shape world opinion.

Mumbai, Jan 28 (PTI) Global gold demand rose 10 per cent to 4,021.3 tonnes in 2021 on account of a massive 50 per cent surge in year-on-year demand -- a 10-quarter high -- during the December quarter, a report by the World Gold Council (WGC) said.

The overall gold demand during 2020, which was impacted following Covid-19 related disruptions, stood at 3,658.8 tonnes, the WGC said in its 'Gold Demand Trends 2021' Report.

New York/Toronto, Jan 28 (PTI) The family of four Indian nationals from Gujarat, found frozen to death near the Canada/US border, has been identified, with Canadian authorities saying they had moved around the country for a period of time and met with their tragic end when they were driven to the border by someone, in a case being described as that of human smuggling.

OTTAWA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had gone into isolation for five days after being exposed to someone with COVID-19, adding a rapid test result had come back negative.

"I feel fine and will be working from home. Stay safe, everyone – and please get vaccinated," Trudeau tweeted.

The news means Trudeau, 50, will miss the reopening of Parliament next Monday. Trudeau, prime minister since November 2015, was reelected for a second time last September.

TEGUCIGALPA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Honduran President-elect Xiomara Castro will take her oath of office on Thursday as the country's first woman president with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in attendance, as the Honduran leader faces an early test in a sharply divided Congress.

Harris, who has been tasked by President Joe Biden to lead U.S. policy in Central America's impoverished northern triangle of countries, arrived in the Honduran capital on Thursday morning.

She was greeted by two of Castro's children as well as her incoming foreign minister.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN team in Afghanistan on Wednesday launched a 3.6 billion U.S. dollar plan to help reduce new-found suffering and save lives, a UN spokesman said.

The overarching One-UN Transitional Engagement Framework aims to help the Afghan people meet their basic human needs, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A teenager charged with killing four students at Michigan high school will pursue an insanity defense, his lawyers said in a notice filed Thursday as he, his parents and school officials faced a new lawsuit over the attack at Oxford High School that killed four students.

The notice, listed in a summary of case filings available online, should lead to mental health exams of 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, who is charged as an adult with murder and other crimes for the Nov. 30 shooting, which also and wounded six other students and a teacher.