North America

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Three people who were among a group of US and Canadian missionaries kidnapped by an armed gang in Haiti have been released, according to their organisation.

Christian Aid Ministries said the three were safe and seemed in good spirits.

Two others were freed last month, but their identities were not made public.

Sixteen Americans and one Canadian were abducted in mid-October after they visited an orphanage in an area run by a powerful criminal gang.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mexican officials have sped up the transfer of thousands of migrants from southern Mexico to other regions as northern border states prepare to receive asylum seekers sent back to Mexico from the United States.

Dozens of buses full of migrants, mostly from Central America as well as some from Cuba and Venezuela, have left the city of Tapachula in Chiapas state in recent days to head to other states, an activist said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an abrupt reversal, an attorney for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said his client will not cooperate with a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, citing a breakdown in negotiations with the panel.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence is cooperating with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Marc Short was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and accompanied Pence as he fled his post presiding over the Senate and hid from rioters who were calling for his hanging. Short is cooperating with the panel after receiving a subpoena, according to the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private interactions.

HONOLULU (AP) — From the empty shores of Oahu’s Waikiki Beach to the snowy summit of the Big Island’s highest peak, an unusually strong winter storm is clobbering the Hawaiian Islands and raising the threat of dangerous flash floods, landslides and crashing tree limbs.

The strong storm over the nation’s only island state left eloping couples without weddings and tourists stuck indoors. It also threatened the state’s infrastructure with a deluge of rain and wind.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — It’s former Officer Kim Potter who’s on trial for the killing of Daunte Wright, but the trial in the same courtroom earlier this year of ex-cop Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd is casting a shadow over the proceedings.

During jury selection last week, there was little mention of Chauvin or Floyd, whose death sparked outrage over police brutality in the U.S. The court has seemed determined at times not to bring it up.

CHICAGO (AP) — Jussie Smollett will return to the witness stand Tuesday at his trial in Chicago, where the former “Empire” actor called claims that he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself “100% false.”

Prosecutors will continue cross-examining the 39-year-old, who appeared calm through several hours of testimony Monday. He told jurors “there was no hoax” and that he was the victim of a hate crime in his downtown Chicago neighborhood.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Justice Department sued Texas on Monday over its new redistricting maps, saying the plans discriminate against minority voters, particularly Latinos, who have fueled the state’s population boom.

The lawsuit claims the Republican-controlled state violated part of the Voting Rights Act in drawing new district boundaries for its congressional delegation and state legislature. It’s the Biden Justice Department’s first legal action challenging a state’s maps since states began redrawing their maps this year to account for population changes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing t o protest Chinese human rights abuses, the White House confirmed Monday, a move that China has vowed to greet with “firm countermeasures.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said U.S. athletes will continue to compete and will “have our full support,” but added “we will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is ready to warn Vladimir Putin during a video call Tuesday that Russia will face economy-jarring sanctions if it invades neighboring Ukraine as the U.S. president seeks a diplomatic solution to deal with the tens of thousands of Russian troops massed near the Ukraine border.