North America

Trump, Clinton exchange angry charges of racism

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The tone of the US presidential campaign turned darker on Thursday, with Hillary Clinton skewering Donald Trump as a man who flirts with racism and paranoid ideas, while he in turn labeled her a racist whose family foundation was a “criminal enterprise.” Speaking at a campaign event in Reno, Nevada, Clinton employed unusually tough language as she detailed a history of what she said were the Republican real estate mogul’s […]

Gaston becomes third hurricane of Atlantic storm season: US monitor

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Gaston became the third hurricane of the Atlantic season Thursday when it was upgraded from a tropical storm, the US-based National Hurricane Center said. Swirling in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean some 1,215 miles (1,955 kilometers) west of Cape Verde, Gaston appeared to pose no immediate threat to land. Data collected by the agency’s hurricane-tracking mission indicated maximum sustained winds at 75 miles per hour, with higher gusts, as […]

Donald Trump’s campaign chairman resigns

  By Sarah Nacman Eagle News Service Washington Bureau WASHINGTON DC, USA (Eagle News) — Donald Trump’s campaign chair, Paul Manafort, resigned Friday, adding to a list of recent changes made in key positions of the Republican Presidential Candidate’s campaign. Kellyanne Conway was promoted to campaign manager and Stephen K. Bannon, Breirbart News executive, was placed as the campaign’s CEO. In an interview with WABC’s Rita Cosby, Conway said Manafort’s exit was a mutual decision. […]

Trump slams Clinton for ‘Third World’- style corruption

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump on Tuesday stepped up his attacks on Hillary Clinton, accusing her of “Third World”-style corruption over her family’s charitable foundation and calling her unfit to hold office. “It is a total embarrassment if our secretary of state can be bought or bribed or sold,” he told a rally in Austin, Texas after a damaging Associated Press report raised questions about whether donors to the Clinton Foundation paid […]

Obama defends Louisiana flood response

by Nicholas Kamm, with Andrew Beatty in Washington BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) — After a much-criticized delay, President Barack Obama visited flood-stricken Louisiana Tuesday, defending his administration’s response and urging citizens to pitch in and help ravaged communities. Obama — decked out in hiking boots and with shirt sleeves rolled up — touched down in Baton Rouge and toured a hard-hit and debris-strewn parish, promising Louisianans they would get all the help they need. […]

Biden vows ‘rock solid’ NATO ties as allies slam Trump

RIGA, Latvia (AFP) – by Mike Collier with Mary Sibierski in Warsaw US Vice President Joe Biden promised unwavering commitment to NATO’s collective defence Tuesday as he sought to reassure Baltic allies spooked by a resurgent Russia and White House hopeful Donald Trump. “Let there be no doubt — America’s Article 5 commitment is rock solid and unwavering,” Biden said, referring to a cornerstone of NATO that an attack on one member state is considered […]

Clinton says U.S. presidential election an “alternative reality”

  (REUTERS) — Democrat Hillary Clinton said on a late-night television show on Monday (August 22) that sometimes she feels she is in an “alternative universe” in the U.S. presidential race against Republican Donald Trump. “I do feel sometimes like this campaign has entered into an alternative universe,” Clinton said on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I have to step into the alternative reality, answer questions about am I alive, how much longer will I be […]

Deaf driver shot dead by US police during traffic stop

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Authorities in the southern US state of North Carolina said Monday they are investigating the death of a deaf man who was fatally shot after a trooper tried to pull him over for speeding. Daniel Harris, 29, who used sign language to communicate, led trooper Jermaine Saunders on an eight-mile (13-kilometer) chase on Thursday that started on an interstate highway and ended outside his home in Charlotte, local television station […]

Clinton’s health: Trump’s sharpening focus of attack

by Jennie MATTHEW NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — On the skids in the polls and under fire for not releasing his tax returns, Donald Trump’s campaign is sharpening a new attack on Hillary Clinton: claiming she is not healthy enough to serve as president. The Internet is awash with conspiracy theories claiming that she may have a brain tumor, Parkinson’s or dementia, or complaining that she has “seizure-like facial expressions” or allegedly twitches. Trump, […]

Trump demands closure of ‘corrupt’ Clinton Foundation

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Hillary Clinton shut down the charitable foundation founded by her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, branding it a “corrupt enterprise.” “The Clintons have spent decades as insiders lining their own pockets and taking care of donors instead of the American people,” the Republican presidential candidate said in a statement. “It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in […]

Canada’s Justin Trudeau defends the burkini

OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday defended individual rights and freedoms while touting cultural diversity and tolerance when asked about a controversy swirling in France over a burkini ban. “We should be past tolerance in Canada,” Trudeau told reporters after meeting with his ministers to plan the government’s legislative agenda. Some lawmakers in Canada’s Quebec province have called for outlawing “burkinis” — body-concealing Islamic swimsuits — following bans in at […]