MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has criticized the “inhumane” treatment of migrants by U.S. Republicans, saying he would propose to U.S. and Canadian leaders at a summit next January to tackle immigration issue at its source. According to U.S. media reports, busloads of migrants were dropped off outside the residence of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, DC on Saturday night amid historically frigid temperatures. The migrants, including women and children, are reported to be from Central America and the Caribbean region.

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Heavy rains and floods that devastated parts of the Philippines over the Christmas weekend have left at least 29 dead and 25 missing, the national disaster response agency said Wednesday. More than 86,000 people were still in emergency shelters after bad weather disrupted Christmas celebrations in the eastern, central and southern Philippines. Images from the southern province of Misamis Occidental showed rescuers carrying an elderly woman on a plastic chair as they waded through a flooded street. Some residents in the province were seen hanging on to floaters as coast guard rescuers pulled them across chest-deep floods using a rope.

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MADRID (AP) - The Spanish government has appointed a new ambassador to Venezuela, signalling a thaw in relations that comes two years after Madrid vacated the post to protest over what it said was the absence of free elections in the Caribbean country. Following the 2018 presidential election, Spain recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president and distanced itself from the government of Nicolas Maduro, culminating in the recall of its top envoy to Caracas in November 2020. The new appointment heralds a change in that stance within the context of the ongoing political talks in Mexico between Venezuela’s government and opposition groups.

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JUBA (AFP) - Clashes have killed 56 people during four days of fighting in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei state, after youth from the Nuer community attacked another ethnic group, a local official said, with the Nuer making up most of the casualties. The territory of South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, has been plagued by blood feuds and clashes over cattle and land for decades.

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TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia powerful UGTT Union on Wednesday approved a two-day strike by air, land and sea transport workers on Jan. 25 and 26, to protest against what it called “the government’s marginalization of public companies”. The strike will pile pressure on the government of President Kais Saied, who is facing growing opposition 17 months after seizing executive powers in a move his opponents described as a coup.