North America

DEL RIO, Texas (AP) — Haitian migrants seeking to escape poverty, hunger and a feeling of hopelessness in their home country said U.S. plans to speedily send them back will not deter them as thousands of people remained encamped on the Texas border Saturday after crossing from Mexico.

People continued wading across the Rio Grande on Saturday afternoon, re-entering Mexico to purchase water, food and diapers in Ciudad Acuña before returning to the Texas encampment under and near a bridge in the border city of Del Rio.

WASHINGTON, September 18. /TASS/: The US government understands France’s decision to recall its ambassador from Washington for consultations, National Security Council (NSC) Spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement.

"We have been in close touch with our French partners on their decision to recall Ambassador [Philippe] Etienne to Paris for consultations. We understand their position and will continue to be engaged in the coming days to resolve our differences, as we have done at other points over the course of our long alliance," the statement says.

WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A drone strike in Kabul last month killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children, the U.S. military said on Friday, apologizing for what it called a "tragic mistake".

The Pentagon had said the Aug. 29 strike targeted an Islamic State suicide bomber who posed an imminent threat to U.S.-led troops at the airport as they completed the last stages of their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Even as reports of civilian casualties emerged, the top U.S. general had described the attack as "righteous".

MEXICO CITY, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived in Mexico City on Friday, Mexico's foreign ministry said, ahead of a summit of a recently elected "pink tide" of leftist Latin American leaders.

The socialist leader will attend a meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a regional body that Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez helped set up in 2011.

The CELAC summit will also convene the "pink tide" leaders whose elections boosted left-wing movements across the region.

HAMILTON, Ontario, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Canada's election is in a dead heat two days before the Sept. 20 vote, according to a new poll on Saturday, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Conservative rival both campaigned in the same seat-rich region to scour up votes.

The latest Sondage Leger poll conducted for the Journal de Montreal and the National Post newspapers put the Conservatives one percentage point ahead of Trudeau's Liberals, with 33% over 32%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just one month ago, President Joe Biden and his health advisers announced big plans to soon deliver a booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine to all Americans. But after campaigning for the White House on a pledge to “follow the science,” Biden found himself uncharacteristically ahead of it with that lofty pronouncement.

Some of nation’s top medical advisers on Friday delivered a stinging rebuke of the idea, in essence telling the White House: not so fast.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fence around the Capitol is back up. The D.C. police department is at the ready, and U.S. Capitol Police have requested assistance from nearby law enforcement agencies including the U.S. National Guard.

The Capitol police are taking no chances as they prepare for Saturday’s rally at the U.S. Capitol in support of rioters imprisoned after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection. They’re working to avoid a repeat of the pre-inauguration attack.

17 Sep 2021; MEMO: Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed today to help Israel normalize relations with additional countries in the Muslim and Arab worlds as he commemorated the one-year anniversary of former President Donald Trump's Abraham Accords.

Washington, Sep 18 (PTI) Asserting that America's Indo-Pacific pivot is in full swing under the Joe Biden administration, experts believe that the first-ever in-person Quad summit involving Australia, India, Japan and the United States at the White House next week is a natural culmination of a process restarted in 2017.

Washington, Sep 17 (AP-PTI) The Pentagon retreated from its defence of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing Friday that a review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed.

The strike was a tragic mistake," Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told a Pentagon news conference.