North America

Trump threatens to ‘terminate’ US-Cuba thaw

by Michael Mathes WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threatened to end the US thaw with Cuba unless Havana makes key concessions, potentially upending the historic rapprochement engineered by the White House, which insists the opening serves American interests. Trump’s tough comments sparked a flurry of speculation about the incoming Republican administration’s policies regarding the communist-ruled island, and come after former leader Fidel Castro’s death Friday. “If Cuba is unwilling to […]

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Ohio State attacker was a university student: officials

COLOMBUS, United States (AFP) — Police identified the assailant who rammed his car into a crowd of pedestrians at Ohio State University Monday and attacked them with a butcher knife, as student Abdul Razak Ali Artan. “We can tell you the suspect is an OSU student,” Craig Stone, police chief at the university, told a news conference at which officials released the name of the suspect, who was shot dead by police. “We do not […]

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Cubans begin emotional farewell to Fidel Castro

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) – by Laurent THOMET Massive crowds of Cubans streamed onto Havana’s iconic Revolution Square to pay tribute to Fidel Castro on Monday, kicking off an emotional, week-long farewell to the divisive Cold War titan. Long lines of mourners, many of whom had been waiting since before dawn, filled the square as the memorial began with a salvo of 21 cannon shots from a colonial fort overlooking Havana harbor. They filed silently past […]

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Eight hurt in Ohio State campus attack, alert over

CHICAGO, United States (AFP) – by Nova SAFO Eight people were injured when an attacker apparently drove into a crowd at Ohio State University on Monday, triggering an hours-long lockdown before authorities declared the campus secure. Law enforcement shot and killed one suspect, according to local television station WBNS, which reported that police led two people out in handcuffs from a garage they had surrounded on the university’s main campus in Columbus. A witness suggested […]

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Cuba set for farewell for historic leader Fidel Castro

by Alexandre GROSBOIS HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Nightclubs closed, baseball games were suspended and booze was banned Sunday as Cuba prepared to send off revolutionary leader Fidel Castro with days of tributes and a cross-country funeral procession. Cubans braced for a series of events to commemorate the life of the man who ruled the communist island for decades, played a major role in the Cold War and was loved or loathed by many. Students left […]

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Trump says ‘millions’ voted illegally, decries recount

by Brian KNOWLTON WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President-elect Donald Trump asserted Sunday that he would have won the US popular vote were it not for “millions of illegal” ballots, while dramatically sharpening his criticism of a recount in Wisconsin, calling it “a waste of time.” With the recount threatening to revive debate about the legitimacy of Trump’s victory — his rival Hillary Clinton won far more popular votes, while he carried the all-important Electoral […]

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Trump calls state election recount a ‘scam’ as Clinton campaign joins vote recount

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump called a recount of votes being prepared in Wisconsin a scam, insisting Saturday that his presidential win should be respected, not “challenged and abused.” The recount, which was requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who received a minute fraction of the total vote, flew in the face of an election “that has already been conceded,” Trump said. Hillary Clinton’s campaign said it would join the recount […]

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Clinton leads Trump by over two million in popular vote

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Hillary Clinton is now more than two million votes ahead of President-elect Donald Trump in the popular vote count for the US presidential elections, a tally compiled by the Cook Political Report showed Wednesday. The Democratic candidate’s 1.5 percent lead in the popular vote makes no difference to the outcome of the November 8 election, which Trump won by taking a majority of electoral votes. Clinton conceded the following day. […]

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Trump urges unity in Thanksgiving message

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President-elect Donald Trump acknowledged that a “long and bruising” presidential campaign had left emotions raw and tensions high Wednesday but urged America to come together on its Thanksgiving holiday. In a video address from his Florida golf resort, the 70-year-old tycoon said: “It is my prayer, that on this Thanksgiving, we begin to heal our divisions and move forward as one country, strengthened by a shared purpose and very, very […]

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Obama spares turkeys ‘Tater’ and ‘Tot’ from the Thanksgiving table

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (Reuters) — For the last time in a time-honored tradition, outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday (November 23) pardoned the National Thanksgiving Turkey and its alternate at a ceremony in the Rose Garden. Obama spared Tater and Tot, both 18-week old, 40-pound turkeys raised in raised in Northwest Iowa, from being dressed and turned into a Thanksgiving feast. The names for this year’s lucky birds were chosen by Iowa schoolchildren […]

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Trump taps South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for UN ambassador

PALM BEACH, United States (AFP) – President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will nominate South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican critic who once rebuked him for failing to disavow white supremacists, as US ambassador to the United Nations. An Asian-American with little previous foreign policy experience, Haley was the first woman to be picked for Trump’s cabinet, injecting a measure of diversity in a group that until now has consisted solely of white […]

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Trump reverses threat to prosecute Clinton

by Andrew BEATTY WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US president-elect Donald Trump backed away from a threat to prosecute his political rival Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, saying to do so would be “very divisive for the country.” During a meeting with New York Times editorial staff, Trump appeared to reverse the “lock-her-up” campaign rhetoric that had called his respect for the rule of law into question. “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really […]

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