USA

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Friday's two separate terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

"We very much condemn the terrorist attacks that took place in Pakistan, killing more than 50 people. The people responsible need to be held to account," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN chief, when asked for Guterres' reaction to the attacks.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Before being assigned to investigate President Joe Biden’s son, Leo Wise built a reputation in Baltimore as a tough and hard-charging federal prosecutor, taking on powerful, and seemingly untouchable, figures — whether a gang of corrupt cops, a police commissioner, a top local prosecutor and even a mayor.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Having stood out in two presidential debates, Nikki Haley has booked her largest venue in Iowa since launching her campaign. She’s hoping to fill a 600-person hall in a western Des Moines suburb on Saturday.

That would be a huge number for most of her rivals. It’s also less than the smallest crowds usually drawn by Donald Trump, who is dominating the Republican field for the 2024 Iowa caucuses less than four months away.

NEW YORK (AP) — One of New York’s wettest days in decades left the metropolitan area stunned and swamped Friday after heavy rainfall knocked out several subway and commuter rail lines, stranded drivers on highways, flooded basements and shuttered a terminal at LaGuardia Airport for hours.

Some 8.65 inches (21.97 centimeters) of rain had fallen at John F. Kennedy Airport by nightfall Friday, surpassing the record for any September day set during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The first arrest in the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur had its roots in the investigation of the killing of Biggie Smalls.

The shooting deaths of the two hip-hop luminaries and rivals — Shakur in Las Vegas and Smalls in Los Angeles six months later — have always been culturally inseparable, and one man, Duane Keffe D. Davis, found himself involved in both investigations.

On Friday, Davis was arrested and charged with murder, with prosecutors saying he ordered and masterminded the Shakur killing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Staring down a likely government shutdown, the White House wants to make sure any blame falls at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue — specifically on House Republicans.

After all, it’s House Republicans who have been paralyzed by their inability to pass a funding package, and Republicans who don’t want to uphold a bipartisan spending agreement from earlier this year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is on the brink of a federal government shutdown after hard-right Republicans in Congress rejected a longshot effort to keep offices open as they fight for steep spending cuts and strict border security measures that Democrats and the White House say are too extreme.

Come midnight Saturday with no deal in place, federal workers will face furloughs, more than 2 million active duty and reserve military troops will work without pay and programs and services that Americans rely on from coast to coast will begin to face shutdown disruptions.

SAN JOSE, Sept 29 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Costa Rica in Central America intends to declare a state of emergency due to an increased wave of migrants on their way to Mexico and later cross to the United States.

“I have instructed the security ministry to take a firm stance with anyone who takes Costa Rica’s kindness for weakness,” Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said at a media briefing, referring to recent riots by migrants crossing the nation.

Since January, more than 386,000 migrants have passed through the border from Panama into Costa Rica.

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday he had urged his Indian counterpart to work with Canada to investigate the killing of a Sikh separatist advocate that the Canadian prime minister has linked to Indian government agents.

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar confirmed earlier he had spoken to Blinken and the U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan about Canadian allegations of New Delhi's possible involvement in the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

EAGLE PASS, Texas, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk waded into the U.S. immigration debate on Thursday, paying a visit to the Texas border with Mexico to meet with local politicians and law enforcement and obtain what he called an "unfiltered" view of the situation.

Musk's visit came as thousands of migrants have ventured to northern Mexico in recent days on freight trains and buses, then crossed the U.S. border into Texas, Arizona and California in an upswing in arrivals of people seeking asylum in the United States.