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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said in an interview with National Public Radio that he knew in advance about the arrest of a top executive of the Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], according to an NPR reporter on Thursday. Bolton said he did not know if the president was aware in advance of the arrest of Meng Wanzhou in Canada on Saturday, the day Trump struck a 90-day truce on trade in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina, NPR reporter Steve Inskeep said in a tweet. “I knew in advance. That is something we get from the Justice Department,” the tweet quoted Bolton as saying.[SEP]VANCOUVER — China’s embassy in Ottawa is demanding the immediate release of Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer, who was arrested in Vancouver over the weekend and faces possible extradition to the United States. In a statement posted online Wednesday, the embassy says Wanzhou Meng hasn’t violated any U.S. or Canadian laws, and called the arrest a serious violation of human rights. It says China will closely follow the developments on the case and “take all measures to resolutely protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens.” Meanwhile, a clerk at the B.C. Supreme Court says Meng appeared in court Wednesday and a bail hearing is scheduled for Friday. Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod says in an email that Meng was arrested Saturday, but further details cannot be provided because a publication ban is in effect at her request. McLeod says the U.S. is seeking Meng’s extradition. It is not known what law is alleged to have been breached in Canada. In a statement, Huawei says Meng is being sought for extradition to face unspecified charges in the Eastern District of New York. She was arrested when transferring flights in Canada, Huawei said. “The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng,” the statement said. “The company believes the Canadian and U.S. legal systems will ultimately reach a just conclusion.” In April, China appealed to Washington to avoid damaging business confidence following a Wall Street Journal report that U.S. authorities were allegedly investigating whether Huawei violated sanctions on Iran amid spiralling technology tensions. A foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said then that China hoped the U.S. would refrain from taking actions that could further undermine investor confidence in the U.S. business environment and harm its domestic economy. That same month, Washington barred Huawei rival ZTE Corp. from exporting U.S. technology in a separate case over exports to Iran and North Korea. In its statement on Wednesday, Huawei said the company complies with all laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, including applicable export control, sanction laws and regulations of the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. U.S. President Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods in response to complaints that Beijing improperly pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. That is widely seen as part of a broader effort by Washington to respond to intensifying competition with Chinese technology industries that Trump says benefit from improper subsidies and market barriers. The escalating trade war is threatening world economic growth and has set global investors on edge. David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said U.S. and Canadian business executives could face reprisals in China. “That’s something we should be watching out for. It’s a possibility. China’s plays rough,” Mulroney told The Associated Press. “It’s a prominent member of their society and it’s a company that really embodies China’s quest for global recognition as a technology power.” Mulroney said Canada should be prepared for “sustained fury” from the Chinese and said it will be portrayed in China as Canada kowtowing to Trump. He also said the Iran allegations are very damaging to Huawei and said China will push back hard. U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican member of the Senate armed services and banking committees, applauded Canada for the arrest. “Americans are grateful that our Canadian partners have arrested the chief financial officer of a giant Chinese telecom company for (allegedly) breaking U.S. sanctions against Iran,” he said. Meng is a prominent member of Chinese society as deputy chairman of the Huawei board and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei. — With files from The Associated Press[SEP]OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday said his government had no involvement in the arrest of a top executive from Chinese technology giant Huawei, who was detained at Vancouver airport. Trudeau said Ottawa had been given a few days’ advance notice about the plan to arrest Meng Wanzhou, who faces extradition to the United States. He declined to give further details, given that Meng faces a bail hearing on Friday. The news pummeled stock markets already nervous about increased tension between the United States and China and prompted experts to predict that Beijing would retaliate against Canada. “The appropriate authorities took the decisions in this case without any political involvement or interference ... we were advised by them with a few days’ notice that this was in the works,” Trudeau told reporters in Montreal in televised remarks. Asked whether he had spoken to the Chinese premier or the ambassador, Trudeau said he had had no conversations with international counterparts about the case. China’s embassy said late on Wednesday that it firmly opposed what it called an unjustified arrest. The move comes at a challenging time for Trudeau, whose attempts to boost trade ties with China are sputtering. Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who had served two postings in China, said Beijing was convinced the U.S. administration had pressured Canada to go ahead with the arrest. “We can expect China to retaliate against Canada very vigorously,” he said by email. In June 2014, Chinese businessman Su Bin was picked up on a U.S. warrant in Canada, where he had been attempting to establish residency. Shortly afterwards a Canadian citizen in China was arrested and charged with spying. Kevin Garratt spent two years in detention before being deported. Su pleaded guilty to conspiring to hack defense contractors and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison in 2016. Asked about the potential for ties with Beijing to sour, a Canadian government official said the two countries had a sophisticated relationship. “We will continue to discuss issues across a range of fora designed to do just that,” said the official, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation. Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, said there was little chance Meng would be released from detention. Most people held on U.S. warrants are extradited quickly, he said in an interview. “If you have deep pockets, you have options,” he said. Huawei has a small Canadian operation, employing just shy of 1,000 people. But the company said early this year it had become the 25th largest research and development funder in Canada, thanks to partnerships with local universities.[SEP]Ms Meng at a capital investment forum in Moscow in 2014. Huawei's chief financial officer was arrested in Canada on Dec 1 and faces extradition to the US. She is the daughter of the company's founder. A TOP executive and daughter of the founder of Chinese telecom giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada and faces extradition to the United States, officials said on Thursday, angering Beijing days into a trade war truce with the US. The detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, comes after American authorities reportedly launched an investigation into suspected violations of Iran sanctions by Huawei, which was already under scrutiny by US intelligence officials who deemed the company a national security threat. The arrest stirred tensions just as the United States and China agreed to a ceasefire in their trade spat while negotiators seek a deal within three months. News of her detention rippled through stock markets in Asia, particularly Shanghai and Hong Kong, with tech firms among the worst hit. By lunch, Shanghai was 1.3 per cent lower while Hong Kong was 2.6 per cent off. "China is working creatively to undermine our national security interests, and the United States and our allies can't sit on the sidelines," US Senator Ben Sasse in a statement linking the arrest to US sanctions against Iran. "Sometimes Chinese aggression is explicitly state-sponsored and sometimes it's laundered through many of Beijing's so-called 'private' sector entities that are in bed with (President) Xi (Jinping)'s communist party," he added. Ms Meng was arrested in the western city of Vancouver on Dec 1, Canada's ministry of justice said in a statement. The ministry said the US is seeking her extradition and she faces a bail hearing on Friday, adding it could not provide further details due to a publication ban sought by Ms Meng, whose father, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, is a former Chinese People's Liberation Army engineer. The arrest occurred on the same day that US President Donald Trump and Mr Xi struck the trade war truce at a summit in Argentina. "The Chinese side firmly opposes and strongly protests over such kind of actions which seriously harmed the human rights of the victim," the embassy said in a statement. "The Chinese side has lodged stern representations with the US and Canadian side, and urged them to immediately correct the wrongdoing and restore the personal freedom of Ms Meng Wanzhou." Huawei said it was unaware of any wrongdoing by Ms Meng and was provided "very little information" about the charges. "Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations where it operates, including applicable export control and sanction laws and regulations of the UN, US and EU," the company said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that US Department of Justice had opened an investigation into suspected violations of Iran sanctions by Huawei. The New York Times said the company had been subpoenaed by the Commerce and Treasury Departments over alleged violations of Iran and North Korea sanctions. Huawei is not the first Chinese telecoms equipment firm to face the ire of US authorities. Earlier this year, the US imposed a seven-year ban on the sale of crucial US components to Chinese smartphone maker ZTE after finding it had failed to take action against staff who were responsible for violating trade sanctions against Iran and North Korea. The ban nearly killed the Chinese tech company, which said it was forced to cease major operations in May. A month later, Washington and Beijing reached a deal that would strike ZTE from the sanctions list - just days after China reportedly offered to ramp up purchases of American goods to help cut the yawning trade imbalance with the US. American officials denied any connection between the two. In exchange, ZTE agreed to pay a hefty US$1 billion fine and put an additional US$400 million in escrow in case of future violations. It was also ordered to replace its board of directors and retain outside monitors. The case showed that China is highly dependent on imports of US-made semiconductors or computer chips and reinforced Beijing's need to become self-reliant on this key technology. Huawei is one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment and services providers. But despite global success, its US business has been tightly constrained by worries it could undermine American competitors and that its cellphones and networking equipment, used widely in other countries, could provide Beijing with avenues for espionage. In May, the Pentagon said that devices from Huawei and ZTE posed an "unacceptable" security risk. Personnel on US military bases are banned from buying equipment manufactured by the Chinese tech firms. Over the summer, Australia barred Huawei from providing 5G technology for wireless networks in the country over espionage fears. New Zealand followed suit in November, but said the issue was a technological one. Britain's largest mobile provider too has joined the global ban on Huawei. On Wednesday, BT announced it was removing Huawei's telecommunications equipment from its 4G cellular network, following a warning from the head of MI6 foreign intelligence service that singled out the Chinese company as a potential security risk. Despite being essentially barred from the critical US market, Huawei surpassed Apple to become the world's number two smartphone maker in the second quarter of this year. AFP[SEP]Canadian authorities have arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies for possible extradition to the United States. Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod said. Mr McLeod said a publication ban had been imposed in the case and he could not provide further details. The ban was sought by Meng, who has a bail hearing on Friday, he said. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that US authorities are investigating whether Chinese tech giant Huawei violated sanctions on Iran. Meng is also deputy chairman of the board and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei.[SEP]VANCOUVER -- Chinese officials are demanding that Canada release Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer, who was arrested in Vancouver over the weekend and faces possible extradition to the United States. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Thursday that the Chinese government also wants Canadian officials to reveal the reasoning behind Meng Wanzhou's arrest Saturday. He also said Meng's legal rights must be ensured, adding that neither Canadian nor American officials had so far responded to China's concerns. The comments come after China's embassy in Ottawa issued a statement Wednesday calling Meng's arrest a serious violation of human rights. "(Canada) arrested a Chinese citizen (who did not violate) any Canadian or American law," the statement said. "We will closely follow the development of the issue and take all measures to resolutely protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens." Meanwhile, a clerk at the B.C. Supreme Court said Meng appeared in court Wednesday and a bail hearing is scheduled for Friday. Canadian Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod said the U.S. is seeking Meng's extradition, but couldn't provide further details about the case because a publication ban is in effect at Meng's request. Meng was changing flights in Canada when she was detained "on behalf of the United States of America" to face "unspecified charges" in New York, Huawei said in a statement. "The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng," the statement said. "The company believes the Canadian and U.S. legal systems will ultimately reach a just conclusion." In April, China appealed to Washington to avoid damaging business confidence following a Wall Street Journal report that U.S. authorities were allegedly investigating whether Huawei violated sanctions on Iran amid spiralling technology tensions. That same month, Washington barred Huawei rival ZTE Corp. from exporting U.S. technology in a separate case over exports to Iran and North Korea. In its statement Wednesday, Huawei said the company complies with all laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, including applicable export control, sanction laws and regulations of the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. Huawei, the biggest global supplier of network gear used by phone and internet companies, has been the target of deepening U.S. security concerns. Under U.S. President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, Washington has pressured European countries and other allies to limit the use of its technology. The U.S. sees Huawei and smaller Chinese tech suppliers as possible fronts for Chinese spying and as commercial competitors. The Trump administration says they benefit from improper subsidies and market barriers. David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said U.S. and Canadian business executives could face reprisals in China. "That's something we should be watching out for. It's a possibility. China plays rough," Mulroney told The Associated Press. "It's a prominent member of their society and it's a company that really embodies China's quest for global recognition as a technology power." Mulroney said Canada should be prepared for "sustained fury" from the Chinese and said it will be portrayed in China as Canada kowtowing to Trump. He also said the Iran allegations are very damaging to Huawei and said China will push back hard. U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican member of the Senate armed services and banking committees, applauded Canada for the arrest. "Americans are grateful that our Canadian partners have arrested the chief financial officer of a giant Chinese telecom company for (allegedly) breaking U.S. sanctions against Iran," he said. Meng is a prominent member of Chinese society as deputy chairwoman of the Huawei board and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei. -- With files from The Associated Press[SEP]FILE - In this March 13, 2018, file photo, a Huawei employee looks up as he walks toward the company's headquarters in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong Province. Canadian authorities said Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, that they have arrested the chief financial officer of China's Huawei Technologies for possible extradition to the United States. (AP Photo/Dake Kang, File) (AP)[SEP]U.S.-based technology companies with business in China automatically lost value on news of the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who has reportedly been accused of violating U.S. sanctions, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Thursday. The arrest, which occurred in Canada on Saturday and was announced Wednesday, "means any tech company that does a huge amount of business in China, including Apple or Micron or Intel or Skyworks or Qualcomm or Broadcom, is worth a little less today than it was yesterday," Cramer, host of "Mad Money," told investors. Tech colossus Huawei, the world's second largest phone seller and one of China's most important companies, has been a cornerstone both of Chinese technological pride and of spying concerns from U.S. government officials. A rival of Samsung and Apple in the smartphone arena, Huawei counts Qualcomm and Intel among its suppliers. The arrest of its global CFO could mark a setback in U.S.-China trade relations, a notion that Wall Street took to heart. To Cramer, calling the event an "escalation" in tensions was "one of the biggest understatements of the year." "To say that it could wreck any further negotiations seems reasonable," he said. "Until we know more, we have to figure there could be more downgrades ahead [and] more pain to come in these tech stocks, unless the CFO is allowed to return to China, or at least released on her own recognizance." "Even then, we're in seriously uncharted waters here," he said. "Caution is warranted, at least on the Chinese-related tech stocks, until we know more." Moreover, it gives the White House "hardliners" on China — namely Trade and Industrial Policy Director Peter Navarro, Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer — more "ammunition" in their push to slow China's rise to power, Cramer said. "These guys want to maintain America's place as the world's sole superpower. They believe some pain needs to be taken, even if it hurts corporate profits, to prevent China from challenging the U.S. hegemony," the "Mad Money" host explained. "This kind of thing gives the hardliners a lot of ammunition because it illustrates that trade with China is about a lot more than making money." Stocks fell dramatically in the first half of Thursday's trading session, at one point bringing the Dow Jones Industrial Average's two-day losses to over 1,500 points. The major averages mounted a recovery into the close, though the Dow and the S&P 500 index still ended the day lower.[SEP]Canada has arrested Huawei's global chief financial officer in Vancouver, where she is facing extradition to the United States on suspicion she violated US sanctions against Iran, the Globe and Mail newspaper reports. Meng Wanzhou, who is one of the vice chairs on the Chinese technology company's board and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on December 1 and a court hearing has been set for Friday, a Canadian Justice Department spokesman said, according to the Globe and Mail. Representatives of Huawei, one of the world's largest makers of telecommunications network equipment, could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters. Officials for the Canadian and US Justice Departments did not immediately respond to a request for comment. US authorities have been probing Huawei since at least 2016 for allegedly shipping US-origin products to Iran and other countries in violation of US export and sanctions laws, sources told Reuters in April.[SEP]BEIJING (AP) — The Latest on the arrest of an executive of Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies. (All times local): China's foreign ministry has demanded Canada release a top executive at Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies who has been detained while in transit, and reveal the reasoning behind her arrest. Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Thursday that China was in contact over the case of Meng Wanzhou with both Canada and the U.S., which requested her detention on suspicion of trying to evade U.S. curbs on trade with Iran. Geng also said Meng's legal rights must be ensured. He said neither Canada or the U.S. had so far responded to China's concerns. Meng, Huawei's chief financial officer, faces possible extradition to the United States, according to Canadian authorities. Meng was detained in Vancouver on Saturday, the day President Donald Trump met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Argentina. China has demanded Canada release a Huawei Technologies executive who was arrested in a case that adds to technology tensions with Washington and threatens to complicate trade talks. Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, faces possible extradition to the United States, according to Canadian authorities. The Globe and Mail newspaper, citing law enforcement sources, said she is accused of trying to evade U.S. curbs on trade with Iran. The arrest follows a U.S.-Chinese cease-fire in a tariff war over Beijing's technology policy. Asian stock markets tumbled on the news, fearing renewed U.S.-Chinese tensions that threaten global economic growth. The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa said Meng broke no U.S. or Canadian laws and demanded Canada "immediately correct the mistake" and release her.

The chief financial officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested on 1 December in Vancouver, Canada. She faces extradition to the United States. Huawei says she faces unspecified charges.

MEXICO CITY (JTA) — It was during her ultimately successful campaign for Mexico City mayor that Claudia Sheinbaum made a reference to her Jewish heritage. Speaking before a group of Jewish women, she said she was proud of those origins. “We celebrated all the holidays at my grandparents’ house,” she recalled. For Sheinbaum, the capital city’s first elected Jewish and female mayor, the reference to her Jewishness was rare. Like many other liberal, secular Jewish politicians around the world, Sheinbaum rarely identifies publicly as Jewish. Despite extensive coverage in the Jewish media, her relationship with her Jewish identity is tenuous. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Her victory was hailed as the feminist highlight of Mexico’s dramatic election season. Sheinbaum’s six-year term no doubt will have a tremendous impact on the lives of the approximately 25 million people who populate the metropolitan Mexico City region. So Sheinbaum, 56, would prefer to talk about issues like high crime rates or social mobility rather than talk about herself. On the infrequent occasions that Sheinbaum shines the spotlight on herself, she mostly emphasizes that she’s a scientist or a woman. She is a well-respected physics and engineering professor who has helped the UN research climate change. Her family has no formal relationship with Mexico’s institutionalized Jewish community and she has never taken a political stance from an overtly “Jewish” perspective: She hasn’t made any public pronouncement about Israel or spoken as a member of a minority even though Jews make up far less than 1 percent of the capital city’s population. But her identity still complicated her rise to her powerful new post, which she started Wednesday. According to sources close to her family, who wished to remain anonymous in speaking to JTA, the Sheinbaums feel more connected to a tradition of political activism than their Jewish heritage. Sheinbaum’s father, Carlos Sheinbaum, was a Mexican-born chemical engineer who spent much of his life living in Guadalajara, once the home of a Jewish community with a few hundred families. His family, originally from Lithuania, arrived in Mexico during the 1920s, like most of Mexico’s Ashkenazi Jews. Carlos’ father was a jewelry merchant who was involved behind the scenes in the semi-illegal Mexican Communist Party and had to distance himself from it or face persecution. According to Sheinbaum’s mother, Annie Pardo, the family observed the High Holidays, spoke Yiddish and ate Ashkenazi food at home. Pardo comes from a family of assimilated Bulgarian Sephardic Jews from Sofia who arrived at the port of Veracruz in 1942, barely escaping the Holocaust. She attended elementary school in the Sephardic school of Mexico City, later pursued a career as a biologist and became one of the first Sephardic women to go into Mexican academia. Last week, she received the National Autonomous University Award, one of the most prestigious academic awards in the country, for her studies on lung functions. Both of Sheinbaum’s parents were heavily involved in Mexican leftist circles of the 1960s — they protested in defense of Cuba, were involved in labor movements and joined in the famous student revolts of 1968 that ultimately resulted in police violence. Although the family lived in the Jewish neighborhoods of Polanco and Condesa, they eventually moved south to be closer to the National Autonomous University, where Pardo worked. Claudia Sheinbaum, the couple’s second daughter, went to liberal non-Jewish schools and studied physics at the same university as her mother. An expert on climate change, she was part of an international team that won a Nobel Prize in 2007. Like her parents, she was involved in student activism and, in 1998, helped form the Revolutionary Democratic Party — for many years the main leftist opposition party in Mexico. She left the party six years ago to form Morena, or the National Regeneration Movement, with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s new president. Sheinbaum’s distance from the Jewish community hasn’t stopped journalists and others from noting her Jewish identity. A 2012 article described a deep division in Morena between Sheinbaum and Alfredo Jalife-Rahme, a well-known geopolitics professor, also at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, who spreads conspiracy theories about the Jewish billionaire George Soros and has been accused of anti-Semitism multiple times by Mexican anti-discrimination authorities. Jalife-Rahme, who says he is a founding member of Morena, has accused Sheinbaum of maintaining close ties with Jewish-owned real estate groups, including Grupo Danhos In recent years, Grupo Danhos has taken heat for constructing a series of massive and controversial shopping centers in Mexico City. Illegal real estate construction has become a touchy subject in Mexico after multiple recent earthquakes — but especially after the recent collapse of a new shopping center, Artz Pedregal, in July. Grupo Danhos’ owner, David Daniel Kabazz, is reported to have built close ties with Obrador when the latter was mayor of Mexico City. His daughter, Elvira Daniel Kabazz, served as a legal adviser to both the developer and Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum has not spoken about these claims, but sources close to her told JTA that she has been a vociferous opponent of Jalife-Rahme within the party. She has tremendous clout in Morena, and since her fight with Jalife-Rahme, he has been relegated to a fringe role — he has backed Morena’s surge in the far left media such as Venezuela’s TeleSur channel, but not as an official party member. Apart from this, the local news does not touch upon or discuss Sheinbaum’s Jewish heritage — likely how she wants it.[SEP]MEXICO CITY, Dec 6 — The first woman elected mayor of Mexico City was sworn in yesterday for a six-year term leading one of the world’s largest cities, in a country with a deep tradition of machismo. Claudia Sheinbaum, a 56-year-old scientist and environmentalist, rode to victory in the July elections on the same anti-establishment wave that brought her ally and mentor to power, Mexico’s new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Grinning, Lopez Obrador — himself a former Mexico City mayor — raised Sheinbaum’s hand in a sign of victory after she took the oath of office before the city legislature. It was a potent symbol of the radical shift in Mexican politics, now dominated by the left-wing party he founded four years ago, Morena. “We are beginning a new era of honesty and eradicating the privileges long enjoyed by top officials,” she said. “The first thing we will do is put an end to abuses. As of now, we are reestablishing democracy and political freedom.” She vowed to end “the privatization of public spaces” in the sprawling capital of more than eight million inhabitants, whose greater urban area is home to some 20 million people. And she promised to fight violence against women, in a country where gender inequality runs deep and more than seven women and girls are murdered each day, according to the United Nations. Another woman previously served as Mexico City mayor on an interim basis — Rosario Robles, from 1999 to 2000 — but Sheinbaum is the first woman elected to the post. Sheinbaum, who hails from a family of Jewish scientists, studied physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, earning a doctorate in energy engineering and going on to work as a consultant for the United Nations. She was active in the university’s student movement, which rose up against an unpopular series of reforms at the institution in 1986. She was one of many veterans of the movement to go into politics. When Lopez Obrador was elected Mexico City mayor in 2000, he named Sheinbaum his environment minister. She followed the fiery leader when he split with Mexico’s established left-wing party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), to launch Morena in 2014. The following year, she won an election for district mayor of Mexico City’s Tlalpan neighbourhood, Lopez Obrador’s own district and one of the 16 “delegations” that make up the city. That was her launch pad for her mayoral campaign. But her rapid rise has not been without controversy. When a private elementary school in her district collapsed in the earthquake that rocked Mexico on September 19, 2017 — killing 19 children and seven adults inside — it emerged that the local government had granted dodgy construction permits to the school’s owner, who is today on the run from the law. A group of victims’ families has brought criminal charges over the case, and wants Sheinbaum to face investigation. After she cast her ballot in the July 1 elections, a protester shouted “Murderer!” at her as she left the polling station. Sheinbaum vehemently denies responsibility for the school’s collapse, and accuses her opponents of exploiting the tragedy for political gain. — AFP[SEP]MEXICO CITY (AFP) - The first woman elected mayor of Mexico City was sworn in Wednesday (Dec 5) for a six-year term leading one of the world's largest cities, in a country with a deep tradition of machismo. Claudia Sheinbaum, a 56-year-old scientist and environmentalist, rode to victory in the July 1 elections on the same anti-establishment wave that brought her left-wing ally and former mentor to power, Mexico's new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. She echoed Lopez Obrador's fervent anti-corruption message in her inaugural address before the city legislature. "We are beginning a new era of honesty and eradicating the privileges long enjoyed by top officials," she said. She vowed to end "the privatization of public spaces" and excessive fines and taxes in the sprawling capital of more than eight million inhabitants, whose greater urban area is home to some 20 million people. Another woman previously served as mayor of the capital on an interim basis - Rosario Robles, from 1999 to 2000 - but Sheinbaum, who holds a doctorate in physics, is the first woman elected to the post. Sheinbaum was an early ally of Lopez Obrador, who was himself Mexico City mayor from 2000 to 2005. She was among the first politicians to leave Mexico's established left-wing party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and join Lopez Obrador's breakaway, Morena, when he formally launched it in 2014. The following year, she won an election for district mayor of Mexico City's Tlalpan neighborhood, Lopez Obrador's own district and one of the 16 "delegations" that make up the city. That was her launch pad for her mayoral campaign. But her rapid rise has not been without controversy. When a private elementary school in her district collapsed in the earthquake that rocked Mexico on Sept 19, 2017 - killing 19 children and seven adults inside - it emerged that the local government had granted dodgy construction permits to the school's owner, who is today on the run from the law. A group of victims' families has brought criminal charges over the case, and wants Sheinbaum to face investigation. Sheinbaum vehemently denies responsibility, and accuses her opponents of exploiting the tragedy for political gain.[SEP]The first elected female mayor of Mexico City has been… MEXICO CITY — The first elected female mayor of Mexico City has been sworn into office, and immediately announced she would dissolve the riot police. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum says “police are there to protect the people, and we don’t need a police force to repress them.” Sheinbaum pledged Wednesday to build cable cars to impoverished slums, and improve bus and subway service. She also said replacement housing would be built for victims of the 2017 earthquakes. Sheinbaum has a doctorate in environmental engineering and is a longtime associate of new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The only previous female governor for the city of 9 million was Rosario Robles, who was appointed in 1999 to serve out the remaining year term of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas when he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency.[SEP]MEXICO CITY — Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn into office Wednesday as the first elected female mayor of Mexico City and immediately announced she would dissolve the riot police. “The police are there to protect the people, and we don’t need a police force to repress them,” said Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum pledged to build cable cars to impoverished slums, and improve bus and subway service. She also said replacement housing would be built for people who lost their homes and apartments in the 2017 earthquakes. The previous administration had offered loans for rebuilding, but residents wanted the government to pay for the new units. Her key promises included reducing crime and enforcing zoning laws, a hot-button issue in the constantly growing megalopolis, where developers routinely build bigger buildings than zoning rules allow. Sheinbaum, who has a doctorate in environmental engineering, did post-doctoral research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and is a former member of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She’s also a longtime associate of new leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The only previous female governor for the city of 9 million was Rosario Robles, who was appointed in 1999 to serve out the remaining year term of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas when he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency.[SEP]International capital is worried and the world is hopeful as Mexico is ready to buck an international right-wing tide, shifting its government from right to left-of-center with the presidential inauguration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on December 1. The full quote by Porfirio Díaz is: “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States.” Mexican President Díaz (1876-1880 and 1884-1911) got it at least half right. Mexico has suffered in the shadow of the Colossus of the North, but Mexico is not poor. Mexico is rich in many ways, yet it also has been impoverished. And Mexico has been greatly underappreciated by North Americans. Mexico is bucking an international right-wing tide, shifting its government from right to left-of-center with the presidential inauguration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on December 1. Speaking for international capital, The Economist is worried. The other 99% of humanity is hopeful. A cautionary history of this trice conquered land follows. Pre-Colombian Mexico and the First Conquest Prior to Europeans “discovering” the New World, Mexico was home to many great civilizations, which thrived for nearly four millennia: Aztec, Huastec, Izapa, Maya, Mixtec, Olmec, Purépecha, Teotihuacan, Toltec, Totonac, and Zapotec. History and Headlines rates the “10 great historical civilizations,” naming the Olmecs and Aztecs alongside the Romans, Persians, and Egyptians. The popular image of the Aztec depicts savage men in loin clothes and feathers on top of stone pyramids making human sacrifices. But let’s put that into historical context. Historian James Cockcroft tells us that at the same time the barbarians in the New World were assuaging their pagan gods with human blood, more people met their end burned at the stake as “witches” by the civilized Europeans in the name of Jesus. Christian femicide is a forgotten legacy. European contact in 1519 brought Christianity and disease to the then flourishing Mexican civilizations. While the Europeans and the indigenous Americans were roughly on the par technologically, the Europeans were far more adept at war and to them went victory and the spoils. Geographer Jared Diamond estimates that 90% of the Native American population was obliterated by measles, small pox, flu, and the like for which the Europeans had developed relative immunities. Mexico did not regain its 1519 population until 1940, taking over 400 years to recover. Although the official language of Mexico is now Spanish and Mexico is the most populous Spanish speaking nation in the world, it is also home to the largest number of actively spoken indigenous languages in North America. The Second Conquest of Mexico The first conquest of Mexico was by the Spanish conquistadores. The second was by the Yankees and has received far less acknowledgment. Mexico won its independence from Spain in the period 1810-21 and with it slavery was abolished, though not entirely until 1829. It wasn’t until 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued followed by the Thirteenth Amendment two years later, that formal slavery was abolished in the US. However, sharecropping and Jim Crow laws continued to preserve the “peculiar institution” in the “land of the free.” The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 established the border between the former Spanish colonial territories and the former British colony, now the US. By 1836, the Republic of Texas succeeded from Mexico and was annexed to the US in 1845. The following year, the Mexican-American War was provoked by the US as a war of conquest. Two years later, Mexico was forced to sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceding nearly half its national territory. The US gained what would become parts or all of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado. The Gadsden Purchase of 1853 added southern Arizona and New Mexico to the spoils of war. In all, 55% of Mexico, over half of her sovereign territory, was taken from Mexico by the ever-expanding Colossus of the North. No wonder our Chicanx compatriots remind us “we did not cross the border, the border crossed us.” Gold had been discovered at Sutter’s Mill just a few days before the treaty was signed, which transferred Alta (upper) California from Mexico to the US. The discovery of gold was unknown to the signatories at the time. Alta California was to become the Golden State. With a $2.7 trillion economy, the state now boasts the world’s fifth largest economy, larger than Mexico’s $2.4 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). Were Alta California to rejoin Mexico, the new union’s GDP would be surpassed only by the mega-economies of China, US, India, and Japan. The constitution for Alta California was drafted in both Spanish and English. Despite having a bilingual constitution, the Alta California voters passed the English-only Proposition 227 in 1998. Then in 2016, the voters passed Proposition 57, which repealed the more egregious English-only provisions of the earlier proposition. The repeal of the English-only proposition reflected an influx of non-English speakers into the state. Alta California is today a truly multi-ethnic state with 43% of its inhabitants speaking a language other than English at home. The largest ethnic group is again Hispanic-Latinx, comprising 39% of the population and outnumbering what the Census Bureau calls “white alone.” The bully to the north became revolution-adverse after concluding its own revolution. When Haiti won its independence from France in 1804, the US joined Napoleon’s empire to force the fledgling Haitian nation to pay debilitating reparations for freeing itself from slavery. Nevertheless, the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20 was able to slip by. In those days the US empire was not as capable at multitasking as it is now and was preoccupied by World War I. The Mexican Revolution stands in the pantheon of great 20th century revolutions, pioneering the way for Russia (1917), China (1949), Vietnam (1975), and the many Third World liberation struggles of the last century. As the first of the major 20th-century revolutions, the Mexican Revolution guaranteed labor rights, nationalized subsoil rights, secularized the state and curbed the power of the Roman Catholic Church, and gave inalienable land rights to indigenous communities. Women’s rights were advanced, and women fought as soldiers and even commanders in General Emilio Zapata’s revolutionary army. Many of these gains have since been eroded. After the tumultuous revolutionary period, politics in Mexico became consolidated under the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party). This single corporatist party brought together political factions representing the peasantry, labor, and urban professionals. As the revolutionary period receded, the PRI became politically centrist. The one-party rule of the PRI was finally ended with the successful presidential election in 2000 of Coca-Cola executive Vincente Fox of the PAN (National Action Party). The PAN won the subsequent presidential election as well. The PAN is a right-of-center Christian democratic party. It has strong backing among northern Mexican agri-business and international corporations and has a conservative social agenda. The current Mexican president, Peña Nieto, is a member of the PRI. As the PRI moved to the right, more liberal forces within split in 1986 and formed the PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution). The main stronghold of the PRD has been Mexico City and among organized labor. Andrés Manuel López Obrador was the PRD standard bearer in the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections. His losses in both elections are widely believed to be due to fraud. NAFTA – the Third Conquest of Mexico The third conquest of Mexico was by North American finance capital came in the form of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and similar neoliberal arrangements. Neither free nor restricted to trade (e.g., it includes military cooperation), this stealth conquest facilitated the repatriation of foreign investment profits and the further integration of Mexico into the US economy. NAFTA was ratified in 1994 among Mexico, the US, and Canada. The agreement remains controversial in the constituent counties. The Zapatistas in southern Mexico specifically chose the initiation date of their on-going rebellion to coincide with the day NAFTA started, presciently predicting the deleterious effects NAFTA would have. By 2014, as many as a million US workers had lost their jobs due to NAFTA, which also had the effect of depressing wages. NAFTA ended many Mexican government supports for agriculture, while encouraging the entry of US and Canadian agricultural products. Consequently, peasant and most family farm agriculture in Mexico are less economically viable. The result has been a massive internal migration from the countryside into Mexican cities and an external emigration of people forced off the land to the US. A decade or two before the imposition of NAFTA, Mexico had appeared poised to transform from a developing to a developed country. New oil reserves had been discovered and a boom seemed imminent. Then instead of continuing a development model, Mexico bowed to international financial pressure and switched to a neoliberal model of deregulation and privatization. Rather than lifting Mexico’s economy through its deeper integration with the US economy, as NAFTA’s proponents promised, Mexico has fallen even further behind. After NAFTA and the neoliberal “reforms,” poverty went up in Mexico while per capita economic growth lagged compared to the rest of Latin America. Instead of wages becoming like those in the US, working wages became competitive with Guatemala. Mexico took its place in the international market economy as an export platform for low-wage maquiladoras, factories owned by foreigners and exporting to a foreign market. Despite great national wealth, 46% of Mexicans live below the poverty line. The per capita income of Mexico is a third of the US, making the shared border the most income-unequal border in the world. Neoliberalism has also had its winners. The government telephone monopoly Telmex was privatized in 1990, bought up by Carlos Slim Helú who became the richest man not only in Mexico but in the entire world by 2010. His ranking has now slipped to seventh, though he is still the top tycoon in Mexico owning 40% of the listings on the Mexican stock exchange. His net worth is equivalent to 6% of Mexico’s GDP, which is greater than the entire GDP of neighboring Guatemala and four times that of Nicaragua. With a new strata of billionaires and deepening poverty, both spawned by neoliberalism, Mexico is among the more income unequal nations, with a Gini Index of 48.2. Carlos Slim and eight other international fat cats now have more wealth than half the world’s population. Yet today Mexico as a nation is rich in many ways. In terms of biodiversity, Mexico is way under-recognized. Mexico ranks fourth or fifth in the world, scoring high for the number of reptiles, birds, mammals, and plants. The much more celebrated Costa Rica in comparison doesn’t make the top ten in any of these categories, although it has a far better public relations apparatus. Mexico encompasses vast rainforests, dry forests, mountains, deserts, and the second largest coral reef in the world. In terms of conservation, Mexico has been a world leader in the protection of whales. Commercial whaling was banned in 1954. In contrast, the last US whaling station in the San Francisco Bay was closed in 1971, followed the next year by passage of the Mammal Protection Act. The world’s first whale refuge was established in 1972 by the Mexican government. In 2002, Mexico again exercised world leadership in designating all its territorial waters and Economic Exclusion Zones as whale refuges. Culinarily, Mexico’s cocina is considered among the great cuisines of the world; a lot more than taco trucks and cheap burrito stands. Amongst Mexico’s contributions to the world’s larder are avocado, chocolate, guava, tomato, vanilla, many varieties of beans and chiles, and most notably corn, which is now the world’s most important staple food. Mexico has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the hemisphere. The three most influential modern muralists are the Mexicans Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Siqueiros. With 7.6 billion bbl of proven reserves, Mexico is a major crude oil producer. Ranking 12th in the world, it outproduces Nigeria, Qatar, and Libya. Mexico’s economy ranks 11th in the world, placing it second in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico’s GDP is greater than that of Italy or Spain and just below France and the UK, making it one of the world’s economic powerhouses. Left-of-center Andrés Manuel López Obrador ran for the Mexican presidency on July 1. Having broken from the PRD, this third run was the charm as he won decisively. Morena, his newly formed party, swept the national and state legislatures. Mayor-elect of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, is also part of the winning coalition. She is the first woman and first Jew to be elected to the post. She is a scientist and was a joint winner of the 2007 Noble Peace Prize as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. After decades of right-wing governments in Mexico, López Obrador is being sworn in on December 1. The popular sectors in Mexico are expectant that corruption, inequality, and other long-festering economic injustices will be addressed. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Roger Harris is the immediate past president of the Task Force on the Americas (http://taskforceamericas.org/), a 32-year-old human rights organization, and is active with the Campaign to End US-Canadian Sanctions Against Venezuela (https://tinyurl.com/yd4ptxkx).[SEP]Narcos: Mexico has been causing some confusion among fans of the Netflix show. Netflix has labelled the shows separately on the streaming platforms, whilst elsewhere the series has been called “Narcos season four”. Narcos fans cannot agree whether Narcos: Mexico is, therefore, the same show as Narcos or a spin-off/prequel like Better Call Saul is to Breaking Bad. Is Narcos Mexico the same as Narcos? WARNING: This section contains spoilers for Narcos and Narcos: Mexico. The two shows are set within the same timeline and feature a number of the same characters. Narcos: Mexico, however, is set earlier in the timeline than Narcos, and has as its leads a number of characters new to Narcos like Felix Gallardo (played by Diego Luna) and Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña). As such, most publications have considered Narcos: Mexico a spin-off of Narcos rather than season four of the same show. WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF NARCOS MEXICO? Netflix lists Narcos and Narcos: Mexico as two separate series as does IMDB. Saying that, there are some arguments that we can consider the latter as the same show as the former. For example, Narcos: Mexico does focus on new characters, but this is not the first time Narcos moved away from its central characters. In 2017, Narcos’ third season did not feature Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) as all after he died in the second series. WILL THERE BE ANOTHER SERIES OF NARCOS? Instead, the series told the continuing story of Javier Peña and moved on to the Cali cartel, yet this was considered part of the main series rather than a spin-off. Narcos showrunner Eric Newman told Slash Film at the time of Narcos season three’s release: “It pays to know a little bit about Pablo Escobar but I think you could experience season three independent of one and two.” The second argument for Narcos: Mexico being considered at Narcos season four is that it features Pablo Escobar himself. Wagner Moura plays an earlier version of his character from Narcos in one episode, which features a fictionalised meeting between Gallardo and Escobar. Both series also have the same showrunner, Eric Newman, and share a lot of the same creative team. WHO IS IN THE CAST OF NARCOS MEXICO? The issue of whether Narcos: Mexico and Narcos are the same show is mostly an issue because of rumours that another series of the show is coming soon. These rumours do not make it clear whether this will follow on from the story of Narcos: Mexico and tell the ongoing story of the Guadalajara cartel, or whether the series will return to the story of the Cali cartel in the modern day. In the Slash Film interview, Newman was asked whether he wanted to bring the story of Narcos up to date. He said: “I do like the idea of going as far into the future, or rather the present, as we can.” Narcos: Mexico and Narcos are available to watch on Netflix now[SEP]When the new Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known by his initials AMLO) took office on Dec. 1, he promised to “transform” Mexico into a more equal, less corrupt country. “I have no right to fail you,” he said at his inauguration. But the left-wing leader has his work cut out for him. López Obrador began his term with a focus on law and order, in a country where homicides hit a record high of 29,168 in 2017. On his third day in office, he opened a new investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, an unresolved case that symbolizes for many Mexicans the ubiquity of corrupt police and the impunity of cartels. He appears to have abandoned campaign pledges to demilitarize the war on drugs, but his proposal to offer amnesty for low-level criminals and his support for more liberal drug laws risk alienating the U.S., which spent over $100 million on counternarcotics efforts and policing in Mexico in 2018 alone. Even before AMLO took office, Mexico’s relationship with the U.S. was being tested by President Trump’s threats to close the border as migrant caravans headed north through the country. The new President agreed on Dec. 1 to a development fund for Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in an attempt to tackle the issue, but Trump might want more. Trade, too, presents hurdles; the new free-trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada approved by Mexico’s last President might yet collapse. López Obrador has pledged to revolutionize Mexico’s “neoliberal” economy, and he has slashed salaries for top bureaucrats–including his own. These promises and his leftist background have spooked the markets; since October, when he pledged to cancel the construction of a $13 billion Mexico City airport, Mexican stocks have lost 16% of their value. If he is to enact his policies, he must reckon with their effects on the market, and of the market on his government. This appears in the December 17, 2018 issue of TIME.[SEP]The Mexican metropolis is a city of vast inequality, and access to water reflects that. This story was adapted from “Defending Water, Defending Life,” published in Stranger’s Guide. Go here to sign up for their free newsletter, Field Guide. It’s a Friday evening in Coyoacán, Mexico City, and on the busy thoroughfare of Avenida Aztecas, a dozen neighbors mill around a tent erected just off the curb. They crowd around plastic chairs and mustard-colored couches. The back third of the tent has been turned into a makeshift kitchen, where a few people have prepared food for anyone who wants it: red rice, hard-boiled eggs, beans, sausage, sharply spicy red salsa. A spattering of university students and tattooed 20- and 30-somethings mingle with their elders, who they refer to with the honorifics don or doña. Commanding a particular degree of respect is Doña Fili, a tiny, gray-haired woman in her mid-80s. She can’t be more than five feet tall, but her presence commands immediate respect, and people jump up to greet her. The tent’s walls flap as cars speed by. In large hand lettering, the street-facing wall reads: “PLANTÓN EN DEFENSA DEL AGUA”—“Sit-in in defense of water.” It’s April, and the sit-in is in its seventh month. The Asamblea General de los Pueblos, Barrios, Colonias y Pedregales de Coyoacán has been occupying the space in protest at what they believe is an environmental atrocity. A tall metal barrier separates the sidewalk from the adjacent property, Avenida Aztecas 215. On the site, the developer Quiero Casa is constructing a new building: a condominium with 377 apartments, meant to house over 1,700 inhabitants. According to the members of the Asamblea General, though, Quiero Casa has been systematically draining millions of gallons of water, flowing from a natural spring, into the sewer every day for over two years. A hammering starts on the other side of the barrier, and Doña Fili launches into a chant: “Va a caer, va a caer, Quiero Casa va a caer”—“It’s going to fall, it’s going to fall, Quiero Casa is going to fall.” The others join in. Above them, hand-painted banners and protest signs hang from the tent’s walls. A spray-painted poster of Emiliano Zapata, the iconic Mexican Revolution-era figure who’s come to symbolize solidarity with peasants, indigenous people, and the poor, stares out from the wall: Aquí el pueblo manda, y el gobierno obedece—“Here the people give orders, and the government obeys.” A painting of a brown-skinned woman cupping a plume of water proclaims, No secarán el río de lucha que nace en los Pedregales—“They will not dry up the river of struggle that is born in the Pedregales.” As in most neighborhoods in Mexico City, residents of the Pedregales—or rock fields, as these neighborhoods built over lava rock refer to themselves—suffer from lack of water access. They turn on the taps, and nothing comes out. The Pedregales suspect foul play: a combination of corruption, racism, and institutional ineptitude that diverts water to wealthy neighborhoods and luxury developments. But unlike in most other neighborhoods, those in the Pedregales believe they have liquid evidence. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Two years ago, construction workers on the site of Aztecas 215 excavated a previously unknown natural spring as they dug out the building’s parking garage. Clear water flooded the site and it flowed down the street like a river. The spring released 76 liters of water per second, and a study by geologists from the National Autonomous University (UNAM) found that the water came from an aquifer and could be easily purified for drinking. It arrived in torrents. First, the construction workers let it flow freely into the street. Aztecas 215 sits on a hill, and soon the water rushed down the street in a river. A photo of the spring’s early days shows water gushing down the street, uncontained by the several industrial-sized hoses snaking out of the construction site. Of course, the neighbors noticed. They filed complaints with the city. Geologist Oscar Escolero Fuentes, from UNAM’s Institute of Geology, conducted studies on the water to determine its source. In one he found that the water came from a previously unknown underground aquifer, not, as the developer Quiero Casa and the city had variously claimed, from wastewater drains or septic tanks. Despite this, the developer started draining the water into the sewage system. So the neighbors decided to form an assembly to formalize their strategy and demands. Several dozen residents—young and old, laborers and students, shop owners and professors—formed the Asamblea General. They came primarily from the neighborhoods of Santo Domingo, Pueblo de los Reyes and Ajusco, all sharing Avenida Aztecas as a border. On April 29, 2016, the Asamblea installed their first sit-in outside Aztecas 215. Quiero Casa stopped construction on the site because, it said, the sit-in posed a security risk. In that time, the water continued to flow, and the excavation flooded with water. On a Monday morning in April 2018, Don Vicente, another elder member of the Asamblea, spends part of his shift at the tent showing me photos of the result. Behind the barrier from the street, just feet from where we’re seated, the site is filled with a deep green pond. All manner of flora and fauna had sprung up. Swallows and cardinals made it their home. Two ducks swim in the water. In that time, Doña Fili tells me, the high walls had a tiny window that the neighborhood’s children stopped to look through. “They saw a paradise being born,” she says. In late September, the Secretary of Water (SACMEX) and the Environmental and Zoning Authority (PAOT) come to an agreement with Quiero Casa conceding them control over the water, provided that they construct a structure beneath the building that would allow the water to continue its natural course through the aquifer undisrupted. Documents on the PAOT’s website detail the plans for the system. That December, construction began again. In the city of nearly 22 million, 70 percent of residents have water for only twelve hours a day. Oscar Escolero Fuentes, the professor in UNAM’s geology department who conducted the initial study of the spring, says that this kind of structure is fairly common in buildings with deep excavations, particularly those with below-ground parking garages. The report calls it an “insulating belt.” Its purposes are two-fold, Escolero says: to manipulate the course of the water and to provide the security needed to build aboveground. Usually, of course, these structures are built before the building itself is constructed. On December 5, 2016, between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning, riot police came to evict the Asamblea from their sit-in. The next day, Quiero Casa resumed construction at Aztecas 215 once again. The Asamblea continued with their regular activities—protests and actions at various governmental offices. Around March or April, they noticed that workers from the Aztecas 215 site had opened up the street to install tubing connecting to the sewage. According to the Asamblea, they’d opened up the drainage system and expanded it from 14 to 22 inches. Quiero Casa claimed this was to accommodate the increased waste that the hundreds of condominium residents would eventually produce. When the workers installed that, though, they also installed two new manholes in the street, through which is visible a rush of clear water. Nearly every day, someone broadcasts a video on Facebook Live filming the water rushing through the channel. They say that the water is coming from the site, and that the workers in Aztecas 215 can reduce the water flow when functionaries visit to check the site. Members of the Asamblea insist that there’s no way Quiero Casa could have properly installed the isolating belt to return the water to its natural course. To install such a structure beneath the foundations, they would have had to stop all construction on the condos, which, the Asamblea says, they didn’t do. Rather, they insist that the developer simply installed pipes to drain the spring water directly into the sewage, with pumps to control the flow of the water. Without properly installing the isolating belt, Escolero says, this would be the only option to control its flow beneath the building: to constantly pump it out of the earth around the foundation and drain it elsewhere. Luis Olguin, Quiero Casa’s director of public relations, tells me over the phone that the water is not being drained into the sewage and that the structure to divert the water is, as various public officials have pronounced, functioning properly. When I ask about the water flowing through the manhole across the street, he says that he didn’t know where it came from: “Maybe there’s more water because it’s the rainy season.” As the standoff between the developers and the activists continues, the Asamblea’s dingy white tent has become a de facto community center, public kitchen, and living room. Two or three people keep guard at all times. They sleep on the dingy mustard-colored couches, cook over the makeshift range, and thumb through books from the small library they’ve accumulated. The Asamblea’s weekly Friday-night meetings take place in the tent, rain or shine. Visitors from across the city and country stop by several times a week, too, often activists involved in similar struggles over water. Across all of Mexico City, water shortages are a feature of everyday life. In the city of nearly 22 million, 70 percent of residents have water for only twelve hours a day. Much of the city was built upon a lakebed, and the water system pumps water from beneath the city, causing areas over the former lake to sink and buildings to warp. The plumbing system is old and poorly maintained, and around 800 gallons per second leak out of the pipes—leading to a total water loss of between 30 to 40 percent. In 50 years, some experts say, the city may no longer have water from its current sources. Santo Domingo, Pueblo de los Reyes, and Ajusco lie in Delegation Coyoacán, towards the southeast of the city, about a 40-minute metro ride from the city’s Historic Center, tucked just behind UNAM, the National Autonomous University. They consist of low-roofed and brightly painted cinderblock homes, interspersed with small produce stores and corner tienditas. Their residents are predominantly working-class, and many are descended from those who originally built the area in the ‘60s. These neighborhoods’ water access also tends to be spotty. A friend of mine who recently moved to Ajusco estimates that the taps in his house produce water maybe 20 percent of the time. The rest of the time, he and his neighbors rely on water from their tinacos—the massive water jugs most residents have on their roofs, which they refill every so often when water trucks, or pipas, pass by. “We live in a place of abundance. But we have a paradigm of scarcity. We design scarcity.” Not everyone bears equally the brunt of water scarcity. Mexico City is a metropolis of vast inequality, and access to water reflects that. Water flows from west to east, thirty percent of it starting its journey at the Cutzamala reservoir system on the western fringes of the city. In the western delegation of Cuajimalpa, whose vast mansions and highly secured private developments shelter celebrities, politicians, and CEOs with teams of domestic workers, water pressure reaches 14 kilograms per square centimeter. Residents have swimming pools and well-sprinkled lawns. Not 20 miles to the east, in the densely populated delegation of Iztapalapa, water pressure is around 500 grams per square centimeter. With water access, the same issue arises the world over: Is it a problem of supply or of distribution? Delfín Montañana would say that it’s both. Delfín works for the NGO Isla Urbana, which installs rainwater recycling systems in homes with poor water access across Mexico City. He’s in charge of Isla Urbana’s education initiatives, and he argues that Mexico City’s water crisis is a man-made problem. The problem is not water, he says, but the city’s paradigm for it. Mexico City, after all, was once a flourishing mountain lake with rich, diverse crops. “We live in a place of abundance,” Delfín says, “but we have a paradigm of scarcity. We design scarcity.” He traces that scarcity back to the conquest. When the Spanish first came to the Valle de México, they broke the dams that the Aztecas had built to prevent floods. They destroyed the channel that funneled drinking water into the heart of the city. They covered the lake. Over the centuries, the watershed became less and less absorbent. The rivers beneath the city were entombed. Today, the city faces a fundamental imbalance: Far more water leaves Mexico City’s water system than enters. It doesn’t have to be this way. It rains six months a year here, all summer, every day at five p.m. like clockwork. That rain, Delfín says, could easily replenish the city’s water supply and then some. But the rainfall doesn’t absorb into the intake system: where it does infiltrate into the ground, it flows into the wastewater system. The city has no functioning wastewater treatment plants. The water that people use to wash, cook and, with precautions, drink, comes either from mountains far to the west or from aquifers deep beneath the city. The 70 percent of water that doesn’t come from the Cutzamala reservoir, including most of the water towards the northern, southern and eastern fringes of the city, comes from wells dug deep below the city’s soil. These wells are getting deeper and deeper all the time: Each year, the level of the water beneath the city sinks by a meter. Many wells, Delfín says, now reach hundreds of meters deep. In the eastern delegation of Iztapalapa, Mexico City’s mayor recently inaugurated a well that’s more than two kilometers deep. In other words, this thin-aired city high in the mountains now draws water from wells at sea level. The depletion of these wells, among other things, has caused the city to sink, slowly but perceptibly. Once used, water takes another kilometers-long journey to leave the city. Mexico City sits within a closed basin. It’s surrounded by mountains, and water has no natural point of escape. So Mexico City’s wastewater is artificially pumped out, to the state of Hidalgo’s Mezquital Valley in the northeast. There, it becomes the most reliable source of crop irrigation anywhere in Mexico. Farmers in the Mezquital Valley are the only ones in the country that enjoy a reliable, nutrient-rich, consistent water source year-round. Their fate is bound to the water consumption of the largest city in North America; so as long as Mexico City has water, so will they. This is one of many reasons why Mexico City’s water supply has national ramifications. Mexico is a deeply centralized country: The capital is not only the country’s political hub, but also its economic, cultural and educational center. Nearly every government entity has its headquarters there. “If Mexico City runs out of water,” Delfín says, “it’s a matter of national security.” Delfín proposes a number of concrete steps: Harvest the rainwater; allow it to infiltrate into the system. Repair the water system’s leaks. Build functioning treatment plants. Most of all, change the culture of water. Move away from thinking of water in terms of tubes and pipes. Understand the water. Know the land. Many residents of the Pedregales pride themselves on just this sort of deep ancestral knowledge. Santo Domingo has a rich history of collective resistance to outside forces—governmental and otherwise. Doña Fili embodies this: She was part of the founding of Santo Domingo, and she is practiced at sharing the neighborhood’s story. On a Monday morning in the sit-in, she perches on one of the couches and launches into her storytelling. Whenever a new member passes by, she waves them over: “I’m telling her about what we’re doing here, don’t you want to say something?” Each one defers to her: “No, Doña Fili, better you explain it, you’re the expert!” So Doña Fili crosses her legs and begins telling the history of the Pedregales. “The settlements of Coyoacán are of water,” she says, since pre-Hispanic times. When Hernán Cortés arrived, he put his first settlement in Coyoacán, because here, he found water. Even before him, inhabitants grew gardens and farms. They planted spinach, squash, beans and corn; they fed themselves with their crops. Cuauhtémoc, the last native ruler of Tenochtitlán, was from Coyoacán, Doña Fili tells me. But in this particular region of the borough, the land wasn’t so easy to inhabit. When the volcano Xitle erupted, around the fourth century CE, the lava dried over the southernmost part of Coyoacán and left the region covered in a layer of rigid volcanic rock. These came to be known as the pedregales: the rock fields. In the centuries after Hernán Cortés’s first settlement, Tenochtitlán urbanized into the Mexico City of today, slowly and then quickly. UNAM built its campus in Coyoacán in the ‘50s. When rural-urban migration began to speed up in the ‘60s, demand for housing ballooned. In 1971, residents of the neighborhoods Ajusco and Pueblo de los Reyes orchestrated a land invasion—essentially a massive, overnight coordination of squatters claiming a new site, common in peripheral urban communities across Latin America—to form what would become Santo Domingo. Doña Fili was there. “No one ever imagined that the Pedregales could become a neighborhood,” she says. “What the government couldn’t do, we did with our own hands. It was collective work.” They built houses from piled rocks with roofs of cardboard or tin. They built their own schools. With their own hands, Doña Fili tells me, they carved out the volcanic rock to build roads. As she tells her story, she pauses to emphasize: “This is historical memory.” Resistance runs through Santo Domingo’s DNA. “We never asked the government for anything,” Doña Fili says. “We always struggled with the government, because they came in and made us pay high taxes on the roads that we built.” Before Quiero Casa, Aztecas 215 was home to a school. Quiero Casa’s plan for their development was approved in 2014. For Doña Fili, Quiero Casa’s nature as a for-profit developer was enough of a red flag. “The housing is not of a social character,” she says. “It is for whoever can pay, whoever can buy, whoever has the money and can acquire it.” In a neighborhood built by the hands of collective community effort, the invasion of an outside, for-profit presence raised suspicions. And then they discovered the water. The Asamblea frames their battle—their lucha—as most specifically them versus the government and Quiero Casa. And they’re part of a city-wide pattern of accusations against developers for irregular construction and practices. Of course, irregularity is nearly a defining feature of Mexico City’s landscape. But when the actors are developers building condos for millions of residents rather than, say, a family adding an extra bedroom to the top of their two-story house, the consequences can be serious. The September 2017 earthquake, which left hundreds of people trapped in dozens of collapsed buildings, brought to the forefront talk of the “real estate cartel,” that is, the corruption that allows developers to build without regard for safety codes. This could mean building on land that can’t handle the weight, or simply using subpar materials. One residential building that collapsed in the earthquake had been finished just nine months prior, and engineers noted that the structure lacked essential resistance columns. The Asamblea General’s accusations that the water is rushing into the sewer, not back on its natural course, also taps into a deep struggle at the heart of life in Mexico City. Corruption is a part of daily life, and sometimes, it can cost lives. This time, the face of the enemy may be Quiero Casa, but the enemy is various. Most immediately, the Asamblea wants an end to the Aztecas 215 project. They want water. They want their community back. They want, too, autonomy and freedom; they want an end to the many kinds of corruption that keep the city, and the country, running. Solidarity with the Pedregales runs deep and wide. Each week, they receive visitors from other collectives of activists and organizers from around the city and country. One week, it’s the collective of residents of Atenco, the municipality in Mexico State where residents have spent years fighting against the erection of a new airport whose construction would have devastating consequences for the water table. (“We really need to ally ourselves with the Atenco struggle,” one Asamblea member tells another over cups of horchata. “If they drain that basin, it’s going to screw over all of us.”) Later that day, two visitors from the Las Abejas collective in Acteal, Chiapas, where police massacred 45 indigenous Zapatista sympathizers in December 1997, share stories of their community’s current struggles. One Friday in mid-May, Doña Fili arrives at the sit-in with a single long-stemmed red rose and a laminated photo of Javier Valdez, the Sinaloan journalist famed for writing about the drug war and government corruption. He had been killed one year and one day ago. She goes about making a humble shrine on the plastic table at the front of the tent: she props up the photo on some volcanic rocks from the Pedregales, lights a candle, places the rose on top and places a jar of spring water next to the arrangement. This week, their guests are a group of farmers from Sinaloa who are fighting for access to water to irrigate their crops. Doña Fili begins the meeting welcoming the compañeros. Today, too, they welcome “a guest who accompanies us spiritually.” They dedicate the meeting to Javier Valdez, who they explain was a part of the Pedregales community when he studied at UNAM in the 80s. Doña Fili recounts how he always helped them carry water, how despite his university education he remained humble, how he marched with them for disappeared people, how he became a part of the community. Moments like these evoke the expansiveness of the struggle in the Pedregales. Though Valdez became known for writing about the drug war, his life’s work overlaps the Asamblea’s. Narco violence, disappearances, corruption, privation of land and water rights—they’re all facets of what the Asamblea, and leftists of their ilk, simply call el mal gobierno. This is about more than water. The struggle stretches from indigenous communities in Chiapas to campesinos in Sinaloa and beyond. It stretches back centuries. It is about dignity; it is about self-determination. It is about, as Doña Fili so often repeats, historical memory. This spring is a symbol: of colonization, centuries of robbery, erasure of an entire continent’s people and memory. As the Sinaloan farmers end their presentation, the whole tent erupts in yet another practiced chant: “El agua es vida, y la vida se defiende”—“Water is life, and life is to be defended.”[SEP]This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. Andrés Manuel López Obrador was recently sworn in as Mexico’s 58th president, but will the recent regime change result in a “Feliz Navidad” for the country as a whole and Mexico-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs)? Early signs point to “yes” as President AMLO, his more familiar moniker, has taken early steps in the right direction. The [...]

Claudia Sheinbaum takes office as Head of Government of Mexico City, becoming the first woman and first Jewish person to serve as Mexico City's mayor.

Luxembourg is set to become the first country in the world to make all its public transport free. Fares on trains, trams and buses will be lifted next summer under the plans of the re-elected coalition government led by Xavier Bettel, who was sworn in for a second term as prime minister on Wednesday. Bettel, whose Democratic party will form a government with the left wing Socialist Workers’ party and the Greens, had vowed to prioritise the environment during the recent election campaign. On top of the transport pledge, the new government is also considering legalising cannabis, and introducing two new public holidays. Progressive attitude Luxembourg City, the capital of the small Grand Duchy, suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion in the world. It is home to about 110,000 people, but a further 400,000 commute into the city to work. A study suggested that drivers in the capital spent an average of 33 hours in traffic jams in 2016. While the country as a whole has 600,000 inhabitants, nearly 200,000 people living in France, Belgium and Germany cross the border every day to work in Luxembourg. Luxembourg has increasingly shown a progressive attitude to transport. This summer, the government brought in free transport for every child and young person under the age of 20. Secondary school students can use free shuttles between their institution and their home. Commuters need only pay €2 for up to two hours of travel, which in a country of just 2,590 sq km (999 sq miles) covers almost all journeys. Now, from the start of 2020 all tickets will be abolished, saving on the collection of fares and the policing of ticket purchases. The policy is yet to be fully thought through, however. A decision has yet to be taken on what to do about first- and second-class compartments on trains. Bettel only just scraped back into government in the recent election. Opinion polls before October’s poll had indicated that the Christian Social People’s party (CSV) – led for 19 years by the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker – would end Bettel’s five years as prime minister. The CSV, however, lost seats, while the Greens gained three seats. The result gave the coalition 31 seats in the 60-seat chamber. The policy of the new government that has caused the most debate, however, has been that of legalising the purchase, possession and consumption of cannabis for recreational use. – Guardian[SEP]Luxembourg is set to become the first country in the world to make all its public transport free. The plans, introduced by Prime Minister Xavier Bettel’s coalition government, will see trains, trams and buses run free of charge from next summer. Traffic congestion is a major problem in Luxembourg, which receives approximately 170,000 cross-border commuters from neighbouring France, Belgium and Germany on a daily basis. Although home to around 110, 000 people, the capital witnesses 400,000 commuters coming to the city to work. A recent study cited by The Guardian showed that drivers in the capital spent an average of 33 hours in traffic snarl-ups in 2016. Luxembourg has previously shown it has a forward-looking attitude towards transport — over the summer, the government introduced free transport for young people under the age of 20. Secondary school students are also provided free shuttle services between their places of study and homes.[SEP]Luxembourg is going to become the first country in the world to make all public transport free. Train, tram and bus fare will be lifted next summer according to the plans of the recently re-elected government. Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who was sworn in on Wednesday for his second term, had vowed to prioritise the environment. The government is also considering legalizing cannabis. Traffic in Luxembourg City is among the worst in the world. The city is only home to around 110,000 people but another 400,000 commute into the city every day for work. The country has a population of 600,000 and nearly 200,000 people living in France, Belgium and Germany cross the border every day to work in the country. The policy is yet to be fully thought through, however. A decision has yet to be taken on what to do about first- and second-class compartments on trains.[SEP]Luxembourg is to become the first country in the world to make all public transportation free. All fares for trains, trams and buses will be scrapped by summer 2019 as part of a new environmental initiative, Xavier Bettel, the prime minister, has announced. Luxembourg City, the capital, suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion in the world, with one study showing that drivers spent an average of 33 hours in traffic jams in 2016. Despite its tiny population of 110,000 people, some 400,000 - including those from the bordering countries of France, Belgium and Germany - commute to the capital city for work. Mr Bettel was sworn in for a second term on Wednesday, having promised during his election campaign to prioritise environmental issues. Mr Bettel will also consider introducing two new public holidays and legalising cannabis for recreational purposes. The Grand Duchy is the European Union's wealthiest but second smallest member state, with a population of approximately 600,000. Annually, the national public transport system costs around €1 billion (£890 million) to run. The new coalition government has promised to invest more in public services. The plan will ease road network constraint as well as save money on fare collection and ticket inspection, but there still remain some issues to resolve before people can start travelling for free.[SEP]Luxembourg is set make all of its public transport free in a world first, it has emerged. Trains, tram and bus fares will all be lifted from 2020 in the 999 sq mile European nation, under ambitious government proposals. The plan is part of a fresh environmental drive under the administration of Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel after his liberal-led coalition secured a narrow victory in an election in October. Policies also include further investment in public services, introducing two new public holidays and legalising recreational use of cannabis. The country's capital Luxembourg City, suffers from chronic traffic congestion despite being home to just 110,000. Some 400,000 commuters flock to the city for work while 200,000 from neighbouring cross the border France, Germany and Belgium every day. The free fares plan is the latest step in encouraging citizens to use public transport. There is already free transport for under 20s while secondary school students can use free shuttles between schools and their homes. Currently, commuters pay just £1.78 for two hours of travel - but even this low fare will be scrapped under the plan. The finer details of the proposal are still to be determined - including what to do about first and second-class carriages on trains. Bettel was sworn in for a second term on Wednesday. The foreign policy of the European Union's wealthiest but second smallest state is unlikely to change much, with Jean Asselborn keeping his post as foreign minister while Pierre Gramegna remains finance minister in the new administration. Bettel's Democratic Party, the Socialist Workers Party (LSAP) and the Greens, who have together ruled the Grand Duchy since 2013 signed a new accord until 2023 on Monday and settled ministerial posts on Tuesday. The Christian Social People's Party (CSV) - which was led for 19 years by EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker - remained the largest party in parliament, but lost seats, as did the LSAP and the Democratic Party. However, because the Greens gained, the three parties in government have 31 seats in the 60-seat chamber.[SEP]Luxembourg is set to become the first country in the world to make all of its public transport free of charge. From next summer, fares on trains, trams and buses will be scrapped under plans by recently re-elected prime minister Xavier Bettel, who vowed to make the environment a key part of his campaign. Fares are currently capped at two euros for two hours of travel, which in a small European nation of just 999 sq miles (2,590 sq km) covers most journeys. However, even this low fare will end under the plans that will be paid for in part by removing a tax break for commuters. The country has a population of nearly 600,000 - but its capital, Luxembourg City, has some of the worst traffic congestion on the planet. Around 110,000 people live there but another 400,000 commute in for work every day, while nearly 200,000 cross the border from neighbouring France, Belgium and Germany. Drivers spent an average of 33 hours in traffic jams in 2016, according to a study. The country already has shown its green credentials. Over the summer, free transport was introduced for every child and young person under the age of 20. And secondary school students are provided with free shuttles between their places of study and their home. Mr Bettel's Democratic party is to form a government with the left-wing Socialist Workers' party and the Greens after he secured a narrow victory in October. The new administration is also considering introducing two new public holidays and legalising cannabis - the latter policy has caused much debate in the country.[SEP]Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was sworn in for a second term on Wednesday after his liberal-led coalition secured a narrow victory in an election in October. LUXEMBOURG: Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was sworn in for a second term on Wednesday after his liberal-led coalition secured a narrow victory in an election in October. Bettel's government plans a stronger environmental drive, with some free public transport from 2020, to invest more in public services and to legalise recreational use of cannabis. The foreign policy of the European Union's wealthiest but second smallest state is unlikely to change much, with Jean Asselborn keeping his post as foreign minister while Pierre Gramegna remains finance minister in the new administration. Bettel's Democratic Party, the Socialist Workers Party (LSAP) and the Greens, who have together ruled the Grand Duchy since 2013 signed a new accord until 2023 on Monday and settled ministerial posts on Tuesday. The Christian Social People's Party (CSV) - which was led for 19 years by EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker - remained the largest party in parliament, but lost seats, as did the LSAP and the Democratic Party. However, because the Greens gained, the three parties in government have 31 seats in the 60-seat chamber.[SEP]The small European country will lift fares for trains, trams and buses from next summer, under the ambitious new proposals by Xavier Bettel’s administration. The recently elected Prime Minister has pledged to prioritise environmental issues in his liberal-led coalition with the Socialist Workers’ party and the Greens. Mr Bettel has also promised to legalise cannabis, introduce two new public holidays and increase investment in public services. The proposal aims to reduce traffic congestion, as despite being a country of just 999 square miles, Luxembourg City suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion in the world. The City is home to just 110,000 people, but it becomes inundated with a further 400,000 commuters, with half of travelling from neighbouring countries France, Germany and Belgium. A study suggested that drivers in the capital spent an average of 33 hours in traffic jams in 2016. The introduction of free public transport is hoped to reduce this, by encouraging a shift away from commuting in private in private cars. A free shuttle service is provided for secondary school students between their homes and school and earlier this year free transport was introduced for under 20s.[SEP]Luxembourg is set to become the first country to abolish all public transport fares. The Grand Duchy’s new coalition government has pledged to scrap tickets on all trains, buses and trams – a move which should come into effect by the summer of 2019. Luxembourg has long taken a progressive approach to public transport. As it stands fares are capped at €2 for up to two hours of travel – for a country the size of Oxfordshire, this covers just about every journey. It’s an extra €1 to upgrade to first class, while an all-day second-class transport ticket on any form of transport costs €4. As of this summer, anyone under the age of 20 can travel free in Luxembourg, while an annual “mPass” for commuters...[SEP]Next summer, commuters in the tiny European country of Luxembourg may be able to use buses, trams and trains for free. The newly re-elected coalition government led by Xavier Bettel plans to waive fares and make the country the first in the world to offer free public transport, the reports. The move is aimed at alleviating traffic congestion and furthering Bettel’s campaign vow of being environment-friendly. Sandwiched between France, Belgium and Germany, from which almost 200,000 people enter it daily to work, the reports. That’s a lot of people, many with their own cars, in a very small space. For perspective, the country can be driven across in a little over an hour. Luxembourg city has some of the world’s worst traffic congestion, according to the . The move is in keeping with Luxembourg’s new transport initiatives. Earlier this year, a new initiative allowed people under 20 years to travel for free and commuters to only pay €2 (about $2) for up to two hours of travel, which covers most of the tiny country. There are a few issues to be sorted out before fares are abolished, such as what to do about first- and second-class train compartments.

Xavier Bettel is sworn in for a second term as Prime Minister. His coalition government plans to make all public transport completely free by next summer, a world's first.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on events honoring former President George H.W. Bush (all times local): Former President George W. Bush and his family have greeted mourners at the Capitol as his father, George H.W. Bush, lies in state. The younger Bush was accompanied by his wife, Laura, their daughters, Jenna and Barbara, and his brother Jeb. The Bushes shook hands and hugged members of the public who had come to the Capitol to pay tribute to the family patriarch, who died Friday at age 94. George W. Bush even held a baby who had been brought to the Capitol by a mourner. A tearful Cindy McCain has said farewell to former President George H.W. Bush. The widow of Republican Sen. John McCain visited the casket in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday evening. She approached the casket in tears, kissed a hand and touched it to the flag covering the casket. It's the second time she's grieved in the soaring room since her husband died Aug. 25 of brain cancer. The casket holding the Arizona senator lay for a viewing in the same spot, also on the catafalque constructed to hold the remains of President Abraham Lincoln. President Donald Trump is visiting with the family of former President George H.W. Bush. Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived by motorcade at Blair House on Tuesday. It's the official government guest house across from the White House where Bush's son former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are staying for the elder Bush's state funeral this week. The Bushes descended a short staircase to greet the Trumps before everyone went inside for the private visit. Trump put his hand on George W. Bush's back a couple of times. Trump tweeted earlier Tuesday that he was "Looking forward to being with the wonderful Bush family at Blair House today." Trump hasn't always said the kindest things about the Bush family, and some of the Bushes have publicly criticized Trump. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has saluted President George H.W. Bush at the casket of the late president. Like Bush, Dole is a World War II veteran. He arrived in the Capitol rotunda in a wheelchair pushed by an aide. At the casket's side, the aide lifted Dole, 95, into a standing position. Once steadied, Dole saluted. Bush achieved the office that Dole sought in 1996 as the Republican presidential nominee. Former Polish President Lech Walesa, the founder of the anti-Communist Solidarity movement, and the current Polish president, Andrzej Duda, are planning to attend the state funeral of former President George H.W. Bush. Walesa is credited with a key role in bringing down the communist system in Poland in 1989 and went on to serve as the first democratic-era president, from 1990-95. On hearing of Bush's death, Walesa on Saturday also credited Bush with a historic role, saying, "he did much to overcome communism and help Poland" and that Bush "will remain forever in our hearts and memory." Duda said Walesa had asked to travel on the presidential plane with him and that he agreed. That in itself was a major news story in Poland on Tuesday because Walesa is a sharp critic of the current ruling authorities, including the president. Former first lady Laura Bush has received a tour of the White House Christmas decorations by first lady Melania Trump. A spokeswoman for Melania Trump says only that the visit happened. No other details about the private visit were released. President Donald Trump tweeted earlier Tuesday that Mrs. Bush would visit. Trump also said he'd visit the Bush family later Tuesday. Laura Bush is in Washington for the state funeral of her father-in-law, former President George H.W. Bush. Melania Trump unveiled the White House Christmas decor last week. She decorated a hallway in the East Wing with red Christmas Trees and tweaked the traditional gingerbread White House by adding replicas of the Lincoln and Washington monuments, the Jefferson Memorial and the U.S. Capitol, where Bush is lying in state. Sully the service dog has visited with former President George H.W. Bush's casket. The yellow Labrador, who served the late president until his death on Friday, walked into the Rotunda on a leash with Americans in wheelchairs who have benefited from the Americans with Disabilities Act that Bush signed. Sully is 2 years old and named for retired airline captain "Sully" Sullenberger who in 2009 landed a US Airways flight in the Hudson River off Manhattan after both engines were disabled by a bird strike. All 155 people aboard survived. Sully the dog lay down near the casket and later sat among the disabled Americans gathered to pay their respects to Bush. He'll head off to a few weeks' training at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and is expected to serve veterans. The CIA has saluted the late President George H.W. Bush, the only director of the spy agency to serve in the nation's highest office. CIA Director Gina Haspel and former directors John Brennan and George Tenet paid their respects as they visited Bush's casket in the Capitol Rotunda during a day of public viewing. Bush died Friday at age 94. Bush was the only former CIA director to become president. The agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, was named for him in 1999. Other officials who paid respects Tuesday include former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were among the mourners paying respects to the former president as he was lying in state on Monday. President Donald Trump says he'll meet with the Bush family at his guesthouse. Trump tweeted Tuesday: "Looking forward to being with the wonderful Bush family at Blair House today." Trump adds: "The former First Lady will be coming over to the White House this morning to be given a tour of the Christmas decorations by Melania. The elegance & precision of the last two days have been remarkable!" The president and the first lady were among the mourners paying respects to former President George H.W. Bush as he was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday. Bush died last week in Houston at age 94. Prince Charles plans to attend the funeral for former President George H.W. Bush. The prince's official residence, Clarence House, tweeted on Tuesday that he would attend the state funeral on Wednesday in Washington. He will be representing his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The prince is the heir to the British throne. The queen released a statement honoring Bush over the weekend, calling the 41st president "a patriot, serving his country with honor and distinction in office and during the Second World War." President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were among the mourners to pay their respects to Bush as he was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday. Bush died last week in Houston at age 94. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were among the mourners paying their respects to the late President George H.W. Bush as he lay in state in the Capitol rotunda. The Trumps stood in front of Bush's casket with their eyes closed for a few moments Monday evening before Trump gave a salute. The former president will lie in state until services Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral. The casket arrived Monday afternoon from Houston, where Bush died Friday at age 94. In remarks at the Capitol, House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the two-term congressman from Texas as a "great man" and a "gentle soul." Bush chose not to have a formal funeral procession through downtown Washington. Burial at his presidential library at Texas A&M University is Thursday.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) – The casket carrying the remains of George H.W. Bush has arrived at the U.S. Capitol for the nation to begin its formal farewell to the 41st president. His remains arrived Monday afternoon at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington aboard an aircraft that often serves as Air Force One. Former President George W. Bush, the eldest of the four Bush sons, and his wife, Laura, along with brother Neil Bush and his family, were aboard the plane for the trip from Houston. Following a short service Monday afternoon, the president’s remains will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until Wednesday morning. Bush died Friday in Houston at age 94. An invitation-only funeral service is set for Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral. President Donald Trump is among the dignitaries who plan to attend.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ordinary Americans, generals and former Cabinet members paid respects at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday to the late U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who died last week at the age of 94 after a life of service as a World War Two hero, head of the CIA and wartime president. Under the soaring Capitol dome, office workers and tourists walked silently past a flag-draped casket that bore Bush’s body. They were joined by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who led the U.S. military during the 1991 Gulf War, as well as U.S. generals from that campaign against Iraq and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Bush, the 41st U.S. president, was remembered as a patrician figure who represents a bygone era of bipartisan civility in American politics. National flags flew at half-staff on many foreign diplomatic buildings on Washington’s “Embassy Row,” past which Bush’s coffin will be transported on its way to the Washington National Cathedral for a memorial service on Wednesday. President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, planned to visit with the mourning family at Blair House, near the White House, on Tuesday. “The elegance & precision of the last two days have been remarkable!” Trump wrote in a tweet of the Bush memorial events. Bush’s service dog, a young Labrador retriever named “Sully,” also walked past the casket and sat near it briefly. Bush, father of the 43rd president, George W. Bush, will be buried on Thursday in Texas. Mourners lined up to enter the Capitol beginning Monday evening for the public viewing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened a session of the Senate on Monday heralding the “daring” former naval aviator, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and president who won the Gulf War against the forces of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein. “Year after year, post after post, George Bush stayed the course,” McConnell said. Bush was elected president in 1988 after serving two terms as President Ronald Reagan’s vice president. During his four years in the White House, Bush ended the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, steered the United States through the end of the Cold War and condemned China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. But he was dogged by domestic problems, including a sluggish economy. When he ran for re-election in 1992, he was pilloried by Democrats and many Republicans for violating his famous 1988 campaign promise: “Read my lips, no new taxes.” A Connecticut Yankee from a wealthy family who moved to Texas to be an oilman, Bush has been eulogized as a president with a keen sense of civility and duty. “His character speaks most, because of his character, how he handled so many important points in our history. The Iraq war, the falling of the Berlin Wall, he wasn’t (saying) that’s all about me,” Theresa Murphy, 64, a retired New York high school history teacher, said on Monday. “Can you imagine what it would look like if our president today did that?” Bush is the 12th U.S. president to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. The first was Abraham Lincoln following his assassination in 1865. Early in his political career, Bush served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967-1971. He lost bids in 1964 and 1970 for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas. The federal government and some financial exchanges will be closed on Wednesday for a day of mourning.[SEP]Family and close friends injected humor into an emotional final funeral service Thursday for president George H.W. Bush. The president died last week in his Houston home at age 94.Thursday's service comes after a state funeral was held at Washington National Cathedral. Bush had been lying in repose at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, where a procession of mourners paid their respects overnight.George P. Bush, one of the president's grandsons, told mourners Thursday that the former president would challenge his grandkids to games like "the first to sleep award." The line drew laughs at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, where the Bush family worshipped.The 42-year-old holds the office of Texas land commissioner. He joined former Secretary of State James Baker in eulogizing the 41st president.George P. Bush is the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He was easily re-elected in November to a second four-year term in Texas.Former Secretary of State James Baker remembered his longtime friend Bush as having "had the courage of a warrior but the greater courage of a peacemaker" during an emotional eulogy.Baker began the eulogy with an apology. Using the nickname "Jefe," which is Spanish for "boss," Baker said he was going to brag about Bush, even though the former president hated boasting.He called Bush the "best one-term president" in the nation's history. He also praised Bush's grace after the fall of the Berlin Wall, saying, that Bush understood that humility toward a fallen adversary "is the very best path."The Rev. Russell Levenson, Jr. told mourners that Bush had a "resolute faith" and once asked what heaven would be like. He told those gathered at St. Martin's Episcopal Church that he imagined Bush was greeted in heaven by his wife, Barbara Bush, "with her hands on her hips, saying 'What took you so long?'"Levenson said it was OK to cry because Bush was never afraid to shed tears himself.Bush's longtime pastor ended the homily with the same prayer used at the president's 1989 inauguration.[SEP]On the day he became the oldest president in American history, George H.W. Bush wrote one of his final letters. For most of his 94 years, handwritten notes had been Bush's preferred method of connecting with family members, friends, colleagues and foes, whether from an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific or behind a desk in the Oval Office. On his final birthday, Bush settled for a tweet. His 94-year-old hands, he said, would never forgive him for responding to all of his well-wishers with pen and ink. "As many of you know, for years I have said the three most important things in life are faith, family and friends," Bush wrote. "My faith has never been stronger. . . . I feel the love of the best friends a man ever had." Bush, who died Friday and will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol until Wednesday morning, was quickly lauded for his decades of public service, loyalty to loved ones and unflinching sense of civic duty. But his decency and compassion often played out subtly and behind the scenes, with his letters offering the most intimate glimpse of the 41st president. Bush was "the inveterate letter writer," wrote presidential historian Jon Meacham in his Bush biography, "Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush." The notes, Meacham said, "offered a window on an active, sympathetic, eclectic mind." Many of those letters were published in Bush's memoir, "All the Best." Compiled over decades, the letters cast Bush as a doting son, and as a father mourning the loss of his 3-year-old daughter, Robin. They capture a folksy Texas oil executive at the beginnings of his political career, and a fierce friend when others were down on their luck. Later in Bush's life, the letters gave voice to a man relishing his post-presidency days: "Barbara is a good cook," he wrote just after Bill Clinton's inauguration. "I AM A GOOD DISH WASHER." On Monday, Vice President Mike Pence memorialized Bush in the Capitol Rotunda, saying the late president "a record of his life in the thousands of letters that he wrote." Pence said that his own son, a marine aviator, received a note in August 2018 after making his first tailhook landing on the U.S.S. George Herbert Walker Bush. "Though we have not met," Bush wrote, "I share the pride your father has for your during this momentous occasion, and I wish you many CAVU days ahead." The acronym, Pence said, is short for "ceiling and visibility unlimited" -- an expression used by Navy pilots since World War II, and Bush's motto for his own life. The letters are those of a principled statesman. In his last moments in the Oval Office, Bush wrote a single letter to his successor. "There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I'm not a very good one to give advice; but just don't let the critics discourage you or push you off course," Bush wrote to Clinton. "You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well." Years later, Clinton did the same for his own successor, George W. Bush. Clinton wrote in his memoir that he "wanted to be gracious and encouraging, as George Bush had been to me." After the April 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City, the National Rifle Association said federal agents were "jack-booted thugs." Outraged, Bush resigned as an NRA lifetime member. He wrote to the group saying, "Your broadside against federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to this country." Bush's words were those of a loving husband. During World War II, letters were the only bridge between him and his future wife, Barbara Pierce. In December 1943, he wrote to his "Darling Bar": "I love you precious with all my heart and to know that you love me, means my life." Less than one year later, Bush was shot down over Chichi Jima in the Pacific. Bush stayed alive until a submarine emerged to rescue him, but the letters from Barbara he carried with him did not. Not long after, Barbara received a letter from George assuring her that "all was well." But the letter was dated before his plane had been hit. Letters were also crucial to shaping Bush's worldview, said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. In the Navy, one of Bush's tasks was to screen letters written by other enlisted men to make sure they didn't include sensitive military information. Growing up in Greenwich, Conn., and later at boarding school, Bush had lived a privileged and insular life before Pearl Harbor. But the letters written by his fellow officers showed him a widely diverse slice of America. "Reading their personal letters really showed him what was different about people, and what was common about people," Engel said. At times, Bush's letters were born of his greatest pain. In April 1967, he wrote to a friend who had been diagnosed with cancer, insisting that "in this field there is change - there is radical discovery - there is hope." Bush wrote of how he and Barbara were determined to continue treating their daughter, who died of leukemia in 1953, despite a doctor's recommendation to "let nature take its course." "My point I guess is this," Bush wrote. "Today a kid with leukemia has a much greater chance - and so tomorrow perhaps a gutsy guy with carcinoma might well have it made." It was that same genuine manner that Bush extended to those with whom he often clashed. In his memoir, Bush wrote that when he was president, Washington Post reporter Ann Devroy "gave me heartburn many mornings when I opened the Post." But in 1996, when Bush learned that Devroy had cancer, he set aside the bitterness and wrote to her, "I want you to win this battle." "I want that same toughness that angered me and frustrated me to a fare-thee-well at times to see you through your fight," he told her. In the preface to his memoir, Bush wrote that the letters and diary entries spanning decades are meant to show the "heartbeat" of an 18-year-old pilot, of a politician living far from home, of a president deciding whether to send someone else's child into combat. "If you enjoy reading it even just a tenth as much as I've enjoyed living it," Bush wrote, "then that is very good indeed." He signed the preface: "All the best, George Bush."[SEP]Nevada mourned the loss of George H.W. Bush on Saturday, a president who developed deep friendships and ties in the state and gave an emotional boost to a Las Vegas charitable organization that helps adults with intellectual disabilities. WASHINGTON — Nevada joined the nation in mourning the loss of George H.W. Bush, a president who developed deep friendships and ties in the state and gave an emotional boost to a Southern Nevada charitable organization that helps adults with intellectual disabilities. Bush, who presided over the fall of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Kuwait in the Gulf War, died late Friday at the age of 94. Las Vegas businessman Sig Rogich, a Bush confidant and former U.S. ambassador to Iceland, developed a strong bond with the president over a lifetime of Air Force One travel, martinis and golf that helped benefit Nevada. “We developed a friendship, and we never lost it,” Rogich told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a telephone interview. Rogich was part of the “Tuesday Team,” a group of advertising consultants for the Reagan-Bush presidential campaign, and later the Bush-Quayle campaign that developed TV ads attacking Democratic rival Michael Dukakis’ record on crime and punishment and one showing Dukakis riding in a tank. Rogich recalled first seeing a news segment showing Dukakis in the tank on TV while he was hosting a party at his Washington, D.C., apartment. Late that night, he said, he wrote a commercial and took it to the campaign’s creative director, Jim Weller, the next day. Later, Rogich said, he looked at the polling numbers and expressed that maybe the campaign shouldn’t run the ad. “I thought we could win on our own without it,” he said. “I wanted the president to take office on a high note.” After the election, Rogich brought Bush to Nevada. “He loved the state,” Rogich said. “He came several times as president.” On one occasion, Rogich took him to Opportunity Village, a not-for-profit charity in Las Vegas that assists adults with mental disabilities through vocational training, employment and other programs. Opportunity Village made the campaign buttons for the Reagan-Bush campaign and the Bush-Quayle campaign. He was met by entertainer Wayne Newton, said Linda Smith, Opportunity Village vice president of philanthropy and associate executive director. Bush tied up Las Vegas traffic for hours, staying longer at the facility than planned and meeting with everyone, including those who were intellectually incapable of knowing who the president was or the importance of his position. That visit in the early 1990s, Rogich said, gave the charity another significant boost. Bush was so taken by the mission and the operation that he helped secure support from a significant donor. “He helped us that day,” Rogich said. And he was helpful on other matters in Nevada. “The president took a lot of pride in the fact that he was helpful here in our state,” Rogich said. During his term in office, Bush signed into law the Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Settlement Act, a bill by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that settled a long-standing dispute over water apportionment from the Truckee and Carson rivers. The law ended a century of conflicting demands, provided certainty of water supply for municipal and agricultural users, enhanced conservation efforts for threatened and endangered species in Pyramid Lake and improved wetlands in the Lahontan Valley. Reid was one of the multiple public officials from both sides of the aisle who spoke with fond memories of the late president. Although from different parties and with different political philosophies, Reid said Bush “was one of the most qualified people ever elected president, and above all, he was among the most decent.” “He was kind, generous and determined to do the right thing for his country,” Reid said in a statement. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., called Bush an “American patriot.” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said the late president was pragmatic but also a “man of principle.” Gov. Brian Sandoval, R-Reno, wrote on Twitter: “I am deeply saddened by the passing of former President George H.W. Bush. He was a great man who gave much to his country. Lauralyn and I send our prayers to his family. May he rest in peace.” A memorial service at the National Cathedral will be held before the body is sent to a funeral in Texas. Prior to the services, the president’s body will lie in state under the Capitol Rotunda. Trump said he would send Air Force One to Texas to bring the president’s body to Washington. Trump said it is “a special tribute that he deserves very much.” Rogich said he traveled “five, six, seven thousand miles on Air Force One” with President Bush to foreign countries and every U.S. state. Rogich said Bush had a sense of decorum. “I never saw him less than presidential,” he said. He also liked jokes and gags. “We shared a good martini on occasion,” Rogich recalled. “And we always shared a lot of laughs.” Bush would also come to Vegas, while he was in the White House and after, to visit friends and to relax. “We did see some shows and we did play some golf,” Rogich recalled. They played Shadow Creek Golf Course, Spanish Trail Country Club and others. When the energy secretary came to an administration meeting to complain about Rogich’s advocacy against the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, the tiff between the two was relayed to Bush. “He just told me to stick to my guns, or something like that,” Rogich recalled. “I love him,” Rogich said. “He had a great sense of humor and a deep passion.” The Cold War ended during Bush’s presidency. The Berlin Wall came down. Bush, a World War II bomber pilot, was commander in chief during the Gulf War, leading an international coalition with great support by the American people. Bush’s popularity topped 91 percent after the war, before a declining economy and third-party candidate H. Ross Perot helped Democrat Bill Clinton defeat the Republican incumbent in the 1992 presidential election. As he left the White House, Bush left a handwritten note to Clinton in the Oval Office, humble and heartening words of support for the new president. “I will never forget the handwritten letters he wrote me when I did something he deemed worthy of a few generous words,” Reid recalled. “He was known throughout his career for sending these types of personalized notes to people, and I will always cherish the ones he sent to me.” Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter. Republican George H.W. Bush carried 65 percent of the Nye County vote in the 1988 presidential election, defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis, who won 31 percent. Bush carried nearly 59 percent of the Nevada vote in 1988. Bush won 34 percent of the Nye County vote in 1992, narrowly defeating Democrat Bill Clinton at 32 percent and Ross Perot of the Reform Party at 31 percent. Clinton won Nevada in 1992 with about 37.3 percent of the vote to 34.7 percent for Bush and about 26.2 percent for Perot. Bush carried 69 percent of the Esmeralda County vote in the 1988 presidential election, defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis, who won 26 percent. Bush won 37.8 percent of the Esmeralda County vote in 1992, narrowly defeating Ross Perot of the Reform Party at 37.7 percent and Democrat Bill Clinton at 20 percent. President Donald J. Trump has proclaimed today, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, as a National Day of Mourning in remembrance of former President George H.W. Bush. The U.S. government is closed today along with financial markets such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. “Out of respect for the 41st President of the United States and to honor his vast contributions to our country during his lifetime, and consistent with the Presidential Proclamation, the United States Postal Service will suspend regular mail deliveries, retail services and administrative office activity on Dec. 5,” the U.S. Postal Service said in statement. “We will provide limited package delivery service on that day to ensure that our network remains fluid and we do not experience any impacts to our package delivery operations that might negatively affect our customers or business partners during the remainder of our busy holiday season,” the statement added.[SEP] • Former President George H.W. Bush has died at age 94 • Social media reacts to the death of former Pres. George H.W. Bush • Houstonians pay their respects at the monument of George H.W. Bush • Flags at half-staff for 30 days following George H.W. Bush's death The nation bid a final farewell to late President George H.W. Bush in a ceremony at Washington National Cathedral.The ceremony caps three days of remembrance by dignitaries and ordinary citizens as they honored the Republican president who oversaw the post-Cold War transition and led a successful Gulf War, only to lose re-election in a generational shift to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992.On Tuesday, soldiers, citizens in wheelchairs and long lines of others on foot wound through the hushed Capitol Rotunda to view Bush's casket and honor a president whose legacy included World War military service and a landmark law affirming the rights of the disabled. Former Sen. Bob Dole, a compatriot in war, peace and political struggle, steadied himself out of his wheelchair and saluted his old friend and one-time rival Bush's service dog Sully also visited the president's casket in the Capitol Rotunda. Sully served faithfully and was treated as a member of the family as Bush's casket left a Houston funeral home on Monday.The golden lab came from America's VetDogs non-profit organization in New York and began providing assistance and companionship to the president in June. Sully will go on to help wounded soldiers.Thousands of people have waited in line for hours to pay their respects to the president, who has been lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda since Monday.President Trump has ordered the federal government closed Wednesday for a national day of mourning. The day of mourning means the major U.S. stock markets and some banks will be closed.The U.S. Postal Service will not make regular deliveries. Flags on public buildings are flying at half-staff for 30 days.Following the service at the National Cathedral, Bush will be flown to Houston on Wednesday with a scheduled arrival of around 4:30 p.m. CST. His body will be transported by motorcade to St. Martin's Episcopal Church, where he and his wife regularly worshiped.A public viewing of Bush's casket will be held at the church starting after 6 p.m. CST Wednesday until 6 a.m. CST on Thursday.On Thursday, a private funeral service with about 1,200 invited guests will be held at the church starting at 10 a.m. CST. After the hour-long service, a motorcade will transport Bush's casket to a train station north of Houston, near the international airport named after Bush.A ceremony will be held at the train station as Bush's casket is loaded onto a Union Pacific train. The train will take about 2 hours to travel roughly 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the city of College Station, home to Bush's presidential library at Texas A&M University.The locomotive has been painted the colors of the Air Force One plane used during Bush's presidency and bears the number "4141" in honor of the 41st president. The casket will be in a car with Plexiglas windows to allow people to see it during the trip, according to McGrath, the family spokesman.The train is scheduled to arrive in College Station on Thursday around 3:45 p.m. CST. Bush's casket will then be transported by motorcade to the presidential library, where he will be buried at the gated family plot near his wife and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3. Barbara Bush died on April 17 at their Houston home. The couple was married for 73 years, longer than any other U.S. presidential couple.Ceremonies at the presidential library will include a missing man formation flyover. The casket will then be rolled along a path through woods, over a bridge and over a creek for burial during a private graveside service with Bush's family.[SEP]President Trump arrives at U.S. Capitol to pay respects to former President George H.W. Bush WASHINGTON (AP) — President Trump arrives at U.S. Capitol to pay respects to former President George H.W. Bush.[SEP]WASHINGTON -- The nation's capital bids its final farewell to the late President George H.W. Bush in a service of prayer and praise that is drawing together world envoys, Americans of high office and a guy from Maine who used to fix things in Bush's house on the water. A viewing for the 41st president at the hushed Capitol Rotunda drew to a close on Wednesday morning. A ceremony at Washington National Cathedral, the nexus of state funerals, will cap three days of remembrance by dignitaries and ordinary citizens as they honored the Republican president who oversaw the post-Cold War transition and led a successful Gulf War, only to lose re-election in a generational shift to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992. The four living ex-presidents are coming -- among them, George W. Bush will eulogize his father -- and President Donald Trump will attend but is not scheduled to speak. Also attending: One king (Jordan), one queen (Jordan), two princes (Britain, Bahrain), Germany's chancellor and Poland's president, among representatives of more than a dozen countries. Also expected in the invitation-only crowd: Mike Lovejoy, a Kennebunkport, Maine, electrician and fix-it man who has worked at Bush's Maine summer estate since 1990 and says he was shocked and heartened to be asked to come. FOX31 will provide live coverage of the funeral on-air and online. On Tuesday, soldiers, citizens in wheelchairs and long lines of others on foot wound through the Capitol Rotunda to view Bush's casket and honor a president whose legacy included World War military service and a landmark law affirming the rights of the disabled. Former Sen. Bob Dole, a compatriot in war, peace and political struggle, steadied himself out of his wheelchair and saluted his old friend and one-time rival. After the national funeral service at the cathedral, Bush's remains will be returned to Houston to lie in repose at St. Martin's Episcopal Church before burial Thursday at his family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station. His final resting place will be alongside Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years who died in April, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia in 1953 at age 3. Trump ordered the federal government closed Wednesday for a national day of mourning. Flags on public buildings are flying at half-staff for 30 days. As at notable moments in his life, Bush brought together Republicans and Democrats in his death, and not only the VIPs. Members of the public who never voted for the man waited in the same long lines as the rest, attesting that Bush possessed the dignity and grace that deserved to be remembered by their presence on a cold overcast day in the capital. "I'm just here to pay my respects," said Jane Hernandez, a retired physician in the heavily Democratic city and suburbs. "I wasn't the biggest fan of his presidency, but all in all he was a good, sincere guy doing a really hard job as best he could." Bush's service dog, Sully, was taken to the viewing, too -- his main service these last months since Barbara Bush's death in April being to rest his head on her husband's lap. Service dogs are trained to do that. The CIA also honored Bush, the only spy chief to become president, as three agency directors past and present joined the public in the viewing. In the midst of the period of mourning, first lady Melania Trump gave Laura Bush, one of her predecessors, a tour of holiday decorations at the White House, a "sweet visit during this somber week," as Mrs. Bush's Instagram account put it. And the Trumps visited members of the Bush family at the Blair House presidential guesthouse, where they are staying. Former President George W. Bush and his wife greeted the Trumps outside before everyone went in for the private, 20-minute visit. Although Trump will attend Bush's service, he is not among the eulogists. They are, in addition to Bush's eldest son, Alan Simpson, the former senator and acerbic wit from Wyoming; Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who also gave a eulogy for Ronald Reagan; and presidential historian Jon Meacham. People lined up before dawn to pay respects to the 41st president, a son and father of privilege now celebrated by everyday citizens for his common courtesies and depth of experience. "He was so qualified, and I think he was just a decent man," said Sharon Terry, touring Washington with friends from an Indianapolis garden club. Said her friend Sue Miller, also in line for the viewing: "I actually think I underestimated him when he was in office. My opinion of him went up seeing how he conducted himself as a statesman afterward." Fred Curry, one of the few African-Americans in line, is a registered Democrat from Hyattsville, Maryland, who voted for Bush in 1988, the election won by the one-term president. "Honestly I just liked him," he said. "He seemed like a sincere and decent man and you couldn't argue with his qualifications." Inside the Capitol, Sully, the 2-year-old Labrador retriever assigned to Bush, sat by the casket in the company of people who came to commemorate Bush's signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the 1990 law that, among its many provisions, required businesses that prohibit pets to give access to service dogs. "After Mrs. Bush's death, general companionship was a big part of Sully's job," John Miller, president and CEO of America's VetDogs, said in a phone interview. "One of the things that I think was important to the president was the rest command, where Sully would rest his head on the president's lap." The law was just one point of intersection for Bush and Dole, now 95, who was one of its leading advocates in the Senate. They were fellow World War II veterans, Republican Party leaders, fierce rivals for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination won by Bush ("Stop lying about my record," Dole snapped at Bush) and skilled negotiators. Dole, an Army veteran hit by German machine gunfire in Italy, has gone through life with a disabled right arm. Bush, a Navy pilot, survived a bail-out from his stricken aircraft over the Pacific and an earlier crash landing. On Tuesday, Dole was helped out of his wheelchair by an aide, slowly steadied himself and saluted Bush with his left hand, his chin quivering. Dignitaries had come forward on Monday, too, to honor the Texan whose service to his country extended three quarters of a century, from World War II through his final years as an advocate for volunteerism and relief for people displaced by natural disaster.[SEP]By WILL WEISSERT, NOMAAN MERCHANT and CALVIN WOODWARD HOUSTON — George H.W. Bush’s family and friends praised his faith, humility and patience Thursday, saying the former president embodied courage and grace along with his unique brand of humor and kindness as days of national mourning in Washington took on a more personal feel during a final Texas farewell. Addressing a funeral at Houston’s St. Martin’s Episcopal Church where the 41st president and his family regularly worshipped, Bush’s former secretary of state and confidant for decades, James Baker, addressed him as “jefe,” Spanish for “boss.” He praised Bush as a “truly beautiful human being” who had the “courage of a warrior but the greater courage of a peacemaker.” “The world became a better place because George Bush occupied the White House for four years,” said Baker, who concluded his remarks fighting back tears. Following the services, a special funeral train was carrying Bush’s remains through small towns to the family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station. His final resting place is alongside his wife and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia at age 3. Thursday’s flavor was distinctly Texas. In place of most Washington dignitaries were top Houston athletes including the NFL Texans’ defensive end J.J. Watt — displaying Bush’s love for sports — and Chuck Norris, who played TV’s “Walker, Texas Ranger.” The St. Martin’s Parish Choir performed “This is My Country,” which was also sung at Bush’s presidential inauguration in 1989. Those gathered also heard a prayer stressing the importance of service and selflessness that the president himself offered for the country at the start of his term. President Donald Trump wasn’t in attendance Thursday, but Baker seemed to draw a gentle contrast by saying Bush respected vanquished adversaries. He said that Bush’s wish for a “kinder, gentler nation” was genuine, not cynical. There were rousing renditions of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Onward Christian Soldiers,” but also many of Bush’s country favorites. The Oak Ridge Boys recalled performing for him for decades and joked that Bush “fancied himself to be a good bass singer. He was not.” They then sang “Amazing Grace” and Reba McEntire offered a musical version of “The Lord’s Prayer.” The previous evening, more than 11,000 people paid their respects as his casket that lay in repose in Houston all night. George P. Bush, the former president’s grandson and the only member of the political dynasty still holding elected office, as Texas land commissioner, subsequently struck a more personal tone in his eulogy of the man he and the younger generations called “gampy.” “He left a simple, yet profound legacy to his children, to his grandchildren and to his country: service,” George P. Bush said. The church’s pastor, Rev. Russell Levenson, Jr., recalled the Bushes regularly attending services there and offering to give up their seats to others on days when the church was particularly crowded. “He was ready for heaven and heaven was ready for him,” Levenson said of Bush’s declining in health in recent years. He also suggested that when Bush died, he would meet his wife of 73 years, Barbara, in heaven and she would playfully demand “What took you so long?” Indeed, the funeral occurred at the same church where services were held in April for Barbara Bush, which was remembered for an emotional scene when the former president gazed from his wheelchair up at her casket, then shook hands with well-wishers. At Wednesday’s Washington funeral service at the National Cathedral, there was high praise for the last of the presidents to have fought in World War II — and a hefty dose of humor about a man whose speaking delivery was once described as a cross between Mister Rogers and John Wayne. Three former presidents and Trump watched George W. Bush eulogized his father as “the brightest of a thousand points of light.” The cathedral service was a tribute to the patriarch of one of the nation’s most-powerful political families — it occupied the White House for a dozen years —and to a faded political era that prized military service and public responsibility. Like Baker’s address Thursday, it was laced with indirect comparisons to Trump but was not consumed by them, as speakers focused on Bush’s public life and character — with plenty of cracks about his goofy side, too. “He was a man of such great humility,” said Alan Simpson, former Republican senator from Wyoming. Those who travel “the high road of humility in Washington, D.C.,” he added pointedly, “are not bothered by heavy traffic.” Trump sat Wednesday with his wife, a trio of ex-presidents and their wives, several of them sharp critics of his presidency and one of them, Hillary Clinton, his 2016 Democratic foe. Apart from courteous nods and some handshakes, there was little interaction between Trump and the others. George W. Bush broke down briefly at the end of his eulogy while invoking the daughter his parents lost in 1953 and his mother, who died in April. He took comfort in knowing “Dad is hugging Robin and holding Mom’s hand again.” Bush’s death makes Carter, also 94 but more than 100 days younger, the oldest living ex-president. Weissert reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer David J. Phillip contributed to this report.

The casket for former U.S. President George H. W. Bush arrives at the National Cathedral.

President Donald Trump paid his final tribute to deceased former President George H.W. Bush at the beginning of the White House Hanukkah reception Thursday afternoon. “This week, America is grieving the loss of President George H.W. Bush, who is being laid to rest today at his library in Texas. Yesterday, Melania and I were honored to attend the state funeral at the National Cathedral and pay our respects to the entire Bush family,” Trump said. The president continued to praise Bush’s state funeral Wednesday, saying that it was “a beautiful tribute to President Bush’s noble life and public service,” adding, “We will always remember this great statesman and American patriot.” (RELATED: Here’s A Look Back At George H.W. Bush’s Life In Pictures) Trump attended the state funeral Wednesday along with all former living presidents, including George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. His former 2016 presidential rival Hillary Clinton was also in attendance as former first lady. H.W.’s funeral dominated the business of the day throughout political Washington, D.C., since his passage late Friday evening. Trump has largely canceled his public appearances in the midst of the passing, and he repeatedly tweeted his praise for the former president. H.W.’s body was flown back to Houston, Texas, aboard the presidential aircraft known as Air Force One Wednesday. The Bush family held another memorial service for him Thursday morning before his body was loaded aboard a presidential train for College Station, Texas. Bush will be buried alongside his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, at his presidential library.[SEP]First of expected 1,200 mourners arrive for George H.W. Bush's Houston funeral Six days of public mourning for former President George H.W. Bush will come to a close in his adopted home state on Thursday, as an estimated 1,200 mourners will attend his Houston funeral before a private burial service at his presidential library in College Station. A family-centered funeral at St. Martin's Episcopal Church is scheduled to begin at about 10 a.m., with eulogies expected from grandson and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, as well as former Secretary of State and close friend James A. Baker III. The first mourners began arriving at about 8 a.m., making their way through the sprawling brick church's archway as an American flag flapped against the gray sky. HOW TO WATCH: Details on how you can watch the Houston funeral online Following the service, which is expected to last about 75 minutes, the 41st president's body and his family members are scheduled to be escorted to the Union Pacific Auto Facility in Spring for transport by train to College Station. A ceremony featuring about 700 to 800 participants, including Texas A&M leaders and Bush Foundation staff members, will be held upon his arrival at about 3:30 p.m. Full coverage of George H.W. Bush's death and funeral is at our subscription site, HoustonChronicle.com By 4:15 p.m., family members are expected to travel to the grave site, where Bush's wife Barbara and daughter Robin are buried, for a private ceremony. Thursday's expected events follow a day of national mourning primarily in Washington, D.C., where former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and son George W. Bush joined President Donald Trump for a state funeral at the National Cathedral. Bush's namesake son, biographer Jon Meacham and two political allies, former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, each delivered eulogies. Bush's body was flown to Houston after the funeral to lie in repose throughout the night and following morning at St. Martin's. Hundreds of Houstonians lined up outside the church for his arrival, streaming in after the casket's arrival in the early evening. Roads near St. Martin's, located about a half-mile west of Loop 610 off Woodway Drive, are expected to remain closed until 1 p.m. Thursday. Bush, 94, died on Friday following months of declining health as he dealt with a form of Parkinson's disease. His wife, Barbara, died in April. Her funeral also was held at St. Martin's.[SEP]The hilltop cathedral in Washington filled Wednesday with recollections of George H.W. Bush as a modest but mighty president, a man whose characteristic humility was belied one final time with all the pageantry of a state funeral. “He valued character over pedigree and he was not a cynic. He looked for the good in everybody, and usually he found it,” President George W. Bush told 3,000 political leaders and family members who congregated at the National Cathedral to say goodbye. “To us,” the younger Bush said, “he was close to perfect.” As Christian hymns echoed through the cathedral’s limestone arches, sung and played by military orchestras and choirs, there seemed to be more laughter than tears in the pews — a reflection of a long life lived in the company of good friends and family. His eulogists each captured the successive roles Bush played in his lifetime: World War II flyboy, statesman, friend and father. “He showed me what it means to be a president who serves with integrity, leads with courage and acts in love with his heart for the citizens of our country,” George W. Bush said, describing his father as a man who preferred steaks and vodka martinis over broccoli, speed-boated and skydived as an octogenarian, and who lived life at two settings: “full throttle and sleep.” When the tears did come, it was when Bush was remembered as a family man who doted on the large brood who filled the first several rows of the sanctuary. George W. Bush, who as president was sometimes prone to an occasional cry, appeared to steel himself with deep breaths throughout the service before letting out a sob. “He was the best father a son or daughter could have,” he said, his eyes welling up and his body quaking. When he concluded, the congregation burst into sustained applause. He was one of the five living US commanders in chief at the event; Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama all attended along with President Donald Trump. It’s the first time all five men have convened face-to-face since Trump took office. Bitter disputes between Trump and his predecessors have fractured the traditional presidents’ club. There was little warmth when Trump greeted only his direct predecessor Obama before taking his seat and looking directly ahead. The younger Bush, seated with his family instead of with his fellow presidents, seemed to break the unease when he handed Michelle Obama a candy — the same gesture she extended to him in September at the funeral of Sen. John McCain. Though the tributes delivered Wednesday focused squarely on the late president, the traits of the current one — sitting mostly stone-faced in the front row — made for a stark comparison. “Those that travel the high road of humility in Washington are not bothered by heavy traffic,” said former Sen. Alan Simpson. “To us, his was the brightest of 1,000 points of light,” George W. Bush said, using the same campaign motto Trump ridiculed several months ago during a speech. For the last two days, Americans both powerful and ordinary have filed past Bush’s flag-draped casket in the Capitol Rotunda, paying their respects to a man who oversaw the end of the Cold War but who suffered defeat after one term. To the strains of “Hail to the Chief,” the late president was carried from the Capitol and transported by hearse along streets lined with spectators braving bitter cold. He passed through a mostly shut-down city where he arrived first as a congressman and later served as a UN ambassador, CIA director, vice president and, finally, as commander in chief. “He was our shield in danger’s hour,” Jon Meacham, the presidential historian, said in his eulogy. “An imperfect man, he left us a more perfect union.” Like all presidents, Bush oversaw plans for his own funeral starting years ago, updating the details as time went on so the ceremony would reflect his druthers. The readings came from three granddaughters. Unlike some of his predecessors, Bush told advisers he did not want his ceremony to drag on endlessly, mindful of attendees’ time. Ninety minutes were blocked off, though these events typically extend past the allotted span. “He told me I only had 10 minutes. He was direct about it. It wasn’t even funny,” said Simpson, whose eulogy provided a healthy dose of comic relief. In the crowd sat Jordan’s King, Britain’s Prince of Wales, Germany’s Chancellor and Poland’s President, a reflection of a foreign policy hailed as measured and based in core American values. “Let me tell you — when George Herbert Walker Bush was President of the United States, every single head of government in the world knew that they were dealing with a gentleman — a genuine leader — one who was distinguished, resolute and brave,” said former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. After Irish tenor Ronan Tynan sang the final hymn, “Last full measure of devotion,” Bush’s casket departed back down the marble aisle, returning eventually to his adopted hometown of Houston on the military aircraft known as Air Force One when a sitting president is aboard. He’ll be buried in his family plot at Texas A&M University in College Station on Thursday.[SEP]A divided Washington led by the nation’s five living presidents put on a facade of unity Wednesday at the poignant state funeral of George H.W. Bush, as America bade farewell to its 41st president. Donald and Melania Trump shared a front row pew at Washington National Cathedral with past presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and their wives as an honour guard brought Bush’s flag-draped casket into the packed prayer hall. But the show of unity was only a facade as Trump snubbed the Clintons as he shook hands when he arrived. Since Bush’s death, Trump has traded his usual provocative posture for one of respect and solemnity, tweeting before heading to the cathedral about “a day of celebration for a great man.” Trump arrived and promptly shook hands with Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. But his greetings stopped there, as he failed to acknowledge Hillary Clinton, his defeated Democratic rival in 2016. Clinton sat stone faced, looking straight ahead, and the pair did not make eye contact. At the funeral, George W. Bush, America’s 43rd President delivered a rousing and deeply personal eulogy — at times punctuated by laughter — as he sang the praises of his father and predecessor as commander-in-chief, who died Friday at age 94. “He was born with just two settings — full throttle, then sleep,” Bush said. “To us, his was the brightest of a thousand points of light,” he added in reference to his father’s signature call to volunteerism. “When the history books are written, they will say that George H.W. Bush was a great president of the United States.” Bush’s eulogy followed an uplifting performance by Irish tenor Ronan Tynan — a friend of Bush who sang to the president in his dying hours. Wednesday’s state funeral caps a day-long homage that saw Bush lie in state for two days in the US Capitol rotunda. Other dignitaries in the cathedral included Britain’s Prince Charles, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Polish president Lech Walesa, former vice presidents Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Joe Biden, and former secretaries of state James Baker, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Wednesday was a day of precision, patriotic ritual, and ceremony. George W. Bush and wife Laura stood stoically outside the US Capitol as an honor guard carried his father’s flag-draped casket to the hearse. In a show of respect, Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with well-wishers as the cortege proceeded toward the Neo-Gothic cathedral in the first presidential funeral since Gerald Ford died in late 2006. Earlier, tens of thousands of Americans had quietly filed in to the Capitol to pay their respects to a man who steered the nation through turbulent times including the end of the Cold War — and in a style dramatically different to the combative current president. Trump’s ascendancy to the head of the Republican Party saw him exchange vitriolic attacks with the Bushes, notably slamming the presidential son’s 2003 invasion of Iraq as “one of the worst decisions in the history of our country.” But he has taken pains to demonstrate unity since Bush’s death, and made a low-key visit to the Capitol late Monday with First Lady Melania Trump to salute Bush’s casket. Trump declared Wednesday a national day of mourning. Many federal offices are closed along with Wall Street stock markets. Congress also suspended votes — even in the midst of a looming potential shutdown that requires congressional action before midnight Friday. Bush was a decorated World War II aviator who nearly lost his life when he was shot down on a bombing mission. He served as a congressman, envoy to China and ambassador to the United Nations, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and vice president to Ronald Reagan before winning the White House. At a time of extraordinary and deep political fissures, Bush was looked to this week as a gracious servant of country who aimed to bridge the political divide. “His life code, as he said, was tell the truth, don’t blame people, be strong, do your best, try hard, forgive, stay the course.” After the Washington service, Bush’s casket was flown back to Houston. The former head of state will lie in repose at St Martin’s Episcopal Church, where the Bushes worshipped for decades, until Thursday’s funeral. He will be interred at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Centre in College Station, Texas, next to his wife, who died in April, and their daughter Robin who died of leukemia at age three.[SEP]George H.W. Bush, who shaped history as America's 41st president and patriarch of a family that occupied the White House for a dozen years, is going to his final rest Thursday in Texas. More than 11,000 people paid their respects to Bush as his casket lay in repose all night at a Houston church where his family worshipped. Some visitors waited for hours to pay tribute to Bush, who will be buried following a funeral at St. Martin's Episcopal Church. Thursday's service began with "America the Beautiful" and a robust rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." It attracted local sports stars including Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt and was featuring eulogies from Bush's grandson, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the only member of the famous family still holding elected office, and James Baker, his former secretary of state and a close friend for decades. Hymns being sung were chosen and loved by the former president, said the church's pastor, Rev. Russell J. Levenson Jr. Performing were some of Bush's favorite country music stars including the Oak Ridge Boys doing "Amazing Grace" and Reba McEntire offering "The Lord's Prayer" as three days of official ceremonies in Washington gave way to more personal touches for the former president in Texas. The nation's capital bid him goodbye Wednesday in a Washington funeral service that offered high praise for the last of the presidents to have fought in World War II — and a hefty dose of humor about a man whose speaking delivery was once described as a cross between Mister Rogers and John Wayne. Bush's casket returned for the services in Houston, a ride on a special funeral train and eventual burial at his family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station. His final resting place is alongside Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia at age 3. In the service at Washington National Cathedral, three former presidents and President Donald Trump looked on as George W. Bush eulogized his father as "the brightest of a thousand points of light." The cathedral service was a tribute to a president, a patriarch and a faded political era that prized military service and public responsibility. It was laced with indirect comparisons to Trump but was not consumed by them, as speakers focused on Bush's public life and character — with plenty of cracks about his goofy side, too. "He was a man of such great humility," said Alan Simpson, former Republican senator from Wyoming. Those who travel "the high road of humility in Washington, D.C.," he added pointedly, "are not bothered by heavy traffic." Trump sat with his wife, a trio of ex-presidents and their wives, several of them sharp critics of his presidency and one of them, Hillary Clinton, his 2016 Democratic foe. Apart from courteous nods and some handshakes, there was little interaction between Trump and the others. George W. Bush broke down briefly at the end of his eulogy while invoking the daughter his parents lost in 1953 and his mother, who died in April. He took comfort in knowing "Dad is hugging Robin and holding Mom's hand again." It was a family that occupied the White House for a dozen years — the 41st president defeated after one term, the 43rd serving two. Jeb Bush stepped up to try to extend that run but fell short when Trump won the 2016 Republican primaries. The elder Bush was "the last great-soldier statesman," historian Jon Meacham said in his eulogy, "our shield" in dangerous times. But he also said that Bush, campaigning in a crowd in a department store, once shook hands with a mannequin. Rather than flushing in embarrassment, he simply cracked, "Never know. Gotta ask." Meacham recounted how comedian Dana Carvey once said the key to doing an impersonation of Bush was "Mister Rogers trying to be John Wayne." None of those words would be a surprise to Bush. Meacham read his eulogy to him, said Bush spokesman Jim McGrath, and Bush responded to it with the crack: "That's a lot about me, Jon." The congregation at the cathedral, filled with foreign leaders and diplomats, Americans of high office and others touched by Bush's life, rose for the arrival of the casket, accompanied by clergy of faiths from around the world. In their row together, Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton stood with their spouses and all placed their hands over their hearts. Simpson regaled the congregation with stories from his years as Bush's friend in Washington. More seriously, he recalled that when he went through a rough patch in the political game, Bush conspicuously stood by him against the advice of aides. "You would have wanted him on your side," he said. Simpson said Bush "loved a good joke — the richer the better. And he threw his head back and gave that great laugh, but he never, ever could remember a punchline. And I mean never." George W. Bush turned the humor back on the acerbic ex-senator, saying of the late president: "He placed great value on a good joke, so he chose Simpson to speak." Meacham praised Bush's call to volunteerism — his "1,000 points of light" — placing it alongside Abraham Lincoln's call to honor "the better angels of our nature" in the American rhetorical canon. Meacham called those lines "companion verses in America's national hymn." Trump had mocked "1,000 points of light" last summer at a rally, saying "What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? And it was put out by a Republican, wasn't it?" Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney praised Bush as a strong world leader who helped oversee the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union and helped bring about the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, signed into law by his successor, Clinton. With Trump, a bitter NAFTA critic, seated in the front row, Mulroney hailed the "largest and richest free trade area in the history of the world." The three countries have agreed on a revised trade agreement pushed by Trump. On Wednesday morning, a military band played "Hail to the Chief" as Bush's casket was carried down the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where he had lain in state. Family members looked on as servicemen fired off a cannon salute. His hearse was then driven in a motorcade to the cathedral ceremony, slowing in front of the White House. Bush's route was lined with people much of the way, bundled in winter hats and taking photos.[SEP]WASHINGTON — The CIA honored its old boss, the only spy chief to become president, with visits to George H.W. Bush’s flag-covered casket on Tuesday, joining members of the public who had lined up before dawn to pay respects to the 41st president in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. Besides the thousands of people streaming by, Sully, the late president’s service dog, was brought by, too. In the midst of the mourning, the Trumps invited the Bush family to share some holiday cheer with a tour of the Christmas decorations at the White House. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited Bush’s casket in the hushed Capitol on Monday evening, standing with their eyes closed before the president gave a salute. Trump and his wife were to visit the Bush family at the Blair House presidential guesthouse Tuesday. Although the president will attend Bush’s national funeral service Wednesday, he is not among the eulogists announced by the Bush family, a list that includes the late president’s son, former President George W. Bush. “The elegance & precision of the last two days have been remarkable!” Trump tweeted of the funeral ceremonies, which opened in Texas and came to Washington on Monday, with Bush lying in state at the Capitol until the Washington National Cathedral service. Dignitaries came forward starting Monday to honor the Texan whose service to his country extended three quarters of a century from World War II through his final years as an advocate for volunteerism and relief for people displaced by natural disaster. President from 1989 to 1993, Bush died Friday at age 94. On Tuesday, CIA Director Gina Haspel and former directors John Brennan and George Tenet visited Bush’s casket, as did Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when Bush assembled the coalition that rescued Kuwait from Iraq’s invasion in the Gulf War. Trump’s relationship with the Bush family has been tense. The current president has mocked the elder Bush for his “thousand points of light” call to volunteerism, challenged his son’s legacy as president and trounced “low-energy” Jeb Bush in the Republican presidential primaries en route to office. The late President Bush called Trump a “blowhard.” Those insults have been set aside, but the list of funeral service speakers marked the first time since Lyndon Johnson’s death in 1973 that a sitting president was not tapped to eulogize a late president. (Bill Clinton did so for Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush eulogized Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.) Joining George W. Bush as eulogists Wednesday: Alan Simpson, the former senator and acerbic wit from Wyoming, Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who also gave a eulogy for Reagan; and presidential historian Jon Meacham. In an invocation opening Monday evening’s ceremony, the U.S. House chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J Conroy, praised Bush’s commitment to public service, from Navy pilot to congressman, U.N. ambassador, envoy to China and then CIA director before being elected vice president and then president. “Here lies a great man,” said Rep. Paul Ryan, the House speaker, and “a gentle soul. … His legacy is grace perfected.” Political combatants set aside their fights to honor a Republican who led in a less toxic era and at times found commonality with Democrats despite sharp policy disagreements. Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a past House speaker nominated for the post in the new Congress, exchanged a warm hug with George W. Bush and came away dabbing her face. Bush himself seemed to be holding back tears. Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, placed wreaths in the short ceremony before the rotunda was opened to the public. Sent off from Texas with a 21-gun salute, Bush’s casket was carried to Joint Base Andrews outside the capital city aboard an aircraft that often serves as Air Force One and designated “Special Air Mission 41” in honor of Bush’s place on the chronological list of presidents. Cannon fire roared again outside the Capitol as the sun sank and the younger President Bush stood with his hand over his heart, watching the casket’s procession up the steps. Bush was remembered just feet away from what he called “Democracy’s front porch,” the west-facing steps of the Capitol where he was sworn in as president. Although Bush’s funeral services are suffused with the flourishes accorded presidents, by his choice they will not include a formal funeral procession through downtown Washington. On Sunday, students, staff and visitors had flocked to Bush’s presidential library on the campus of Texas A&M University, with thousands of mourners paying their respects at a weekend candlelight vigil at a nearby pond and others contributing to growing flower memorials at Bush statues at both the library and a park in downtown Houston. “I think he was one of the kindest, most generous men,” said Marge Frazier, who visited the downtown statue Sunday while showing friends from California around. After services in Washington, Bush will be returned to Houston to lie in repose at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church before burial Thursday at his family plot on the library grounds. His final resting place will be alongside Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years who died in April, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia in 1953 at age 3. Trump has ordered the federal government closed Wednesday for a national day of mourning. Flags on public buildings are flying at half-staff for 30 days. Bush’s passing puts him in the Washington spotlight after more than two decades living the relatively low-key life of a former president. His death also reduces membership in the ex-presidents’ club to four: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.[SEP]President for president: George W Bush breaks down while paying tributes to George H W Bush Washington, Dec 6: Former president George W Bush on Wednesday, December 5, paid an emotional farewell to his father George H W Bush, also a former president, who died at his residence in Houston, Texas, last week aged 94. Speaking at the National Cathedral in Washington where his father lied in state, the 43rd incumbent of the White House gave a 12-minute speech in which he reflected on his father's close bond with his six children, his love for Barbara to whom he was married for 73 years (the longest presidential marriage in the history of the US) and his enduring affection for Robin, the daughter he lost at the age of just four in 1954. She died of leukemia. Bush said during his speech: "The best father a son or daughter can have" with his voice shaking. "And in our grief, let us smile knowing that dad is hugging Robin and holding mom's hand again." Barbara Bush passed away in April this year. Also Read | Americans wear colourful socks to pay final tributes to George H W Bush Four living American presidents were present on the occasion and were sitting on a bench in the front, along with their wives. They included Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, the oldest of all aged 94. Bush Junior said his father had good qualities like finding character over pedigree and shared lighter stuff that the man hated certain vegetables like broccoli. He also recalled that during World War II, Bush Senior was shot down over the Pacific as a Navy pilot and that instances like those encouraged him to live everyday of his life "to the fullest". Also Read | Former US president, George H W Bush dies at 94 George H W Bush had even gone for skydiving on his 90th birthday near the family's residence in Maine in front of all family members.[SEP]When President George W. Bush greeted former presidents and their spouses at the funeral for his father, George H.W. Bush, he offered more than a handshake to former first lady Michelle Obama. He appeared to slip her a piece of candy, causing Obama to break out in a wide smile. It was a oddly lighthearted moment in the midst of a funeral proceeding, a microcosm of the unusual friendship between the 43rd president and the former first lady. Bush also snuck a cough drop to Obama during former Sen. John McCain's funeral in September. Obama described the viral "cough drop moment" at McCain's funeral in an interview with "TODAY" in October. "President Bush and I, we are forever seatmates because of protocol, and that's how we sit at all the official functions," Obama said about her relationship with the former president. "He's my partner in crime at every major thing where all the 'formers' gather. So we're together all the time." Obama and Bush's friendship has become a model of bipartisan bonhomie since former President Barack Obama was in office. They famously shared a hug at the National Museum of African American History and Culture dedication ceremony in 2016. Bush told People Magazine in 2017 that he and Obama shared a kinship thanks to their mutual sense of humor. "She kind of likes my sense of humor. Anybody who likes my sense of humor, I immediately like," Bush said. "[The Obamas] are around serious people all the time and we just took to each other." Bush acknowledged in another interview with Ellen DeGeneres in 2017 that his and Obama's friendship often surprises people, as it shows "that people on opposite sides of the political spectrum can actually like each other." The Obamas were joined in the first pew at the National Cathedral in Washington for George H.W. Bush's funeral by President Trump and first lady Melania Trump, as well as former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter and Rosslyn Carter.[SEP]WASHINGTON: International dignitaries gathered with US leaders on Wednesday at the funeral service for George H W Bush, a graceful show of unity that allowed Americans to hit pause on the toxic rhetoric that has engulfed Washington and national politics. The nation’s 41st president, who died Friday at age 94, laid in state for two days in the US Capitol rotunda, as President Donald Trump exchanged his usual aggressive posture for one of respect and solemnity. “Looking forward to being with the Bush family,” he tweeted early on Wednesday, before Bush’s remains were transported from the Capitol to Washington National Cathedral. “This is not a funeral, this is a day of celebration for a great man who has led a long and distinguished life. He will be missed!” Tens of thousands of Americans quietly filed in to the Capitol to pay their respects to a man who steered the nation through turbulent times including the end of the Cold War — and in a style dramatically different from the bombast and combativeness championed by the current commander-in-chief. In a show of respect, Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with well-wishers as a cortege proceeded toward the cathedral in the first presidential funeral since Gerald Ford died in late 2006. The country’s five living presidents — Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bush’s son George W Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump — were attending the service at Washington National Cathedral, the Neo-Gothic spiritual centerpoint of the US capital. George W Bush and wife Laura stood stoically outside the US Capitol as an honour guard carried his father’s flag-draped casket to the hearse. Dignitaries in the cathedral included Britain’s Prince Charles, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan, former Polish president Lech Walesa, former vice presidents Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Joe Biden and former secretaries of state James Baker, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. International tributes have poured in for Bush, whose political locus was foreign policy and America’s place in the world. A telegram from the Vatican relayed Pope Francis’s “heartfelt condolences” to the Bush family. Trump’s ascendancy to the head of the Republican Party saw him exchange vitriolic attacks with the Bushes, including mocking Bush senior’s “thousand points of light” phrase and slamming the presidential son’s 2003 invasion of Iraq as “one of the worst decisions in the history of our country.” — AFP[SEP]Supplied video obtained Wednesday, December 5, 2018 of President US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit the US Capitol Rotunda to pay respects to the 41st US president George HW Bush. Bush died last week at the age of 94 and will be buried on Thursday in his home state of Texas. (AAP Video/Supplied/The White House) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY Donald Trump has come face-to-face with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during an awkward moment at the funeral for George H.W. Bush. Mr Trump arrived at the Washington Cathedral with his wife Melania and was seated next to the Obamas, the Clintons and Americas oldest living former president, Jimmy Carter. Mr and Mrs Obama shook hands with the Trumps, but Mrs Clinton stared straight ahead and made no movement to greet the first couple. For his part, Mr Clinton held out his hand which Mr Trump either ignored or just didn’t see. Prior to Mr Trump’s arrival, the Obamas and the Clintons had chatted happily in the front row, and had also greeted US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen. It was an awkward moment in a funeral that has so far brought together both sides of the aisle. Earlier, a military band played “Hail to the Chief” as the casket of the 41st president was carried down the US Capitol steps in a solemn procession, with members of the Bush family watching and a cannon salute. His son, former President George W. Bush, placed his hand over his heart. Military pallbearers carried the casket up the steps to the cathedral. The hearse had been driven in a motorcade to the Washington National Cathedral ceremony, slowing in front of the White House. Mr Bush’s route was lined with people much of the way, bundled in winter hats and taking photos. A military color guard stood at attention as the hearse arrived. Wednesday’s ceremonies capped three days of remembrance in the nation’s capital by dignitaries and ordinary citizens as they honoured the Republican president who oversaw the post-Cold War world transition and led a successful Gulf War, only to lose re-election in a generational shift to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992. The four living ex-presidents all came - among them, George W. Bush who will eulogise his father - and President Donald Trump will attend but is not scheduled to speak. Also attending: one king (Jordan), one queen (Jordan), two princes (Britain, Bahrain), Germany’s chancellor and Poland’s president, among representatives of more than a dozen countries. Mr Trump tweeted Wednesday that he was “looking forward to being with the Bush family,” calling the day “a celebration for a great man who has led a long and distinguished life.” Bush’s death reduces membership in the ex-presidents’ club to four: Jimmy Carter, Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Bush’s remains will be flown to Houston to lie in repose before a private burial Thursday at his family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station.

U.S. President Donald Trump and former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton attend the ceremony alongside German chancellor Angela Merkel and Britain's Prince Charles.

It’s been a busy time for Elon Musk and SpaceX, lately. Earlier this week, the company launched 64 satellites (and a art project known as the Orbital Reflector) in what was the largest rideshare mission in history. The mission was also historic because it involved a booster making its third successful landing. And this was after Musk released more details about his proposed BFR, henceforth known as the “Starship” And earlier today (Wednesday Dec. 5th), SpaceX launched its sixteenth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-16) to the International Space Station (ISS). While the deployment of the Dragon spacecraft was successful, the first stage booster did not make it back to the landing pad. After suffering from an apparent malfunction in one of its grid fins, the booster fell into the sea – but remained intact and will be retrieved. The mission lifted off at 10:16 am PST (01:16 p.m. EST), from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Dragon spacecraft, which had previously been used for the CRS-10 mission in February of 2017, carried more than 2,540 kg (5,600 lbs) of supplies and payloads. Among these were materials that are critical to supporting the ongoing research and investigations aboard the ISS. As with previous launches, the company began live-streaming the launch via webcast. About seven minutes after liftoff, the second stage and Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9’s first stage and proceeded to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). At 10:26 am PST (01:26 pm EST), SpaceX announced “Second stage engine burn complete. Dragon confirmed in good orbit,” followed shortly thereafter by confirmation that its solar arrays had deployed. The first stage then began descending towards Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This was to be the twenty-seventh time that SpaceX had managed to successfully retrieve a first stage booster. However, 7 minutes and 25 seconds after the launch, the first stage began tumbling uncontrollably towards the surface. This was apparently due to the failure of one of the grid fins, which stabilize the first stage during its descent. Luckily, the mission controllers were able to stabilize the rocket in time with some bursts from the engine, bringing the first stage in for a soft landing on water off the coast of Florida. At 10:34 am PST (0:34 EST), Musk tweeted the apparent cause of the failed landing and addressed possible changes to avoid similar problems in the future. “Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea. Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched.” he said, adding later, “Pump is single string. Some landing systems are not redundant, as landing is considered ground safety critical, but not mission critical. Given this event, we will likely add a backup pump & lines.” Engines stabilized rocket spin just in time, enabling an intact landing in water! Ships en route to rescue Falcon. pic.twitter.com/O3h8eCgGJ7 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2018 Musk also posted the video of the first stage’s descent, which showed it spinning as it fell to Earth, how its spin rate was slowly arrested with correctional thrusts, and how it touched down on the ocean and fell sideways into the water. Musk also indicated that ships were en route to retrieve the booster. When asked if the booster would be reused, Musk replied, “We may use it for an internal SpaceX mission.” While the first stage booster did not land as intended, the fact that it survived the descent is no small feat. In addition, this should not distract from the fact that the launch itself went by the numbers. Currently, the Dragon spacecraft is on schedule to arrive at the ISS by Saturday, Dec. 8th. Once there, the crew will use the station’s 17.6 m (57.7 ft) robotic arm (aka. Canadarm2) to capture the Dragon spacecraft and attach it to the orbiting laboratory. The arrival of the Dragon spacecraft will also be the subject of a live webcast. Coverage will begin at about 02:00 a.m. PST (0:500 a.m. EST) with the capture expected to happen about 1 hour later. In the meantime, you catch the replay of the launch here: Further Reading: SpaceX, Twitter, ArsTechnica[SEP]SpaceX has blasted off its unmanned Dragon cargo ship, loaded with supplies, science experiments and food for the astronauts living at the International Space Station - but failed to land the rocket. However, the launch was marred by a system failure on the rocket which caused it to land in the sea, instead of on land SpaceX at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, as planned. SpaceX quickly cut the live feed from the rocket as it began to spin out of control. Moments later, it said 'It appears stage 1 has made a water landing off the coast of Cape Canaveral.' Elon Musk later confirmed the issue, saying 'Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea.' 'Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. He later added that the rocket appeared in good shape, and could be reused on a future mission. The mission had been a complete success until the aborted landing. 'We have had a great liftoff,' said SpaceX commentator John Insprucker, as the Falcon 9 rocket soared into the sunny, blue sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 1:16 pm (1816 GMT), carrying 5,600 pounds (2,500 kilograms) of gear. The mission is SpaceX's 16th for NASA, as part of a long-term contract to ferry supplies to space. The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket on its operational cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018. However, the launch was marred by a system failure on the rocket which caused it to land in the sea It was initially meant to take off Tuesday, but was delayed for a day after engineers discovered moldy mouse food in one of the science investigations designed to study the effect of microgravity on the immune system. The bad food was replaced ahead of Wednesday's launch. Other experiments among the more than 250 on board include a new kind of mustard green lettuce that astronauts will grow in space. The Dragon space capsule that flew on Wednesday was used once before, on a supply mission in February 2017. It should arrive at the space station on Saturday morning.[SEP]Christmas turkey is rocketing toward the International Space Station (ISS), along with cranberry sauce, candied yams and the obligatory fruitcake. SpaceX launched the holiday shipment on a Falcon 9 rocket, which pierced the clear, chilly sky. The first-stage booster aimed for a touchdown on land back at Cape Canaveral, once its job was done, but ended up smashing into the Atlantic Ocean instead. A SpaceX commentator called it a “bummer,” but noted it was secondary to the main mission of getting the Dragon capsule to orbit. It was the first missed landing at Cape Canaveral. “What a great day for a launch,” said Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana. Twenty years ago this week, Cabana commanded the shuttle mission that carried up the first U.S. part of the space station. Wednesday’s Falcon rocket was brand new, while the Dragon cargo carrier was recycled by SpaceX. The capsule should reach the 250-mile-high outpost Saturday; it also visited in 2017. Besides smoked turkey breast and all the other fixings for Christmas dinner, the delivery includes 40 mice and 36,000 worms for aging and muscle studies, respectively. Researchers expect a tenfold increase in the worm population. There will be plenty of room on board for all the tiny nematodes long. It turns out their muscles are similar to ours in structure and function, making them perfect lab substitutes, said lead scientist Timothy Etheridge of the University of Exeter in England. The launch was delayed for a day after NASA discovered that the food for the mouse-tronauts was mouldy because of contamination. More food had to be rushed in from California. READ MORE: Ice cream, fruit and 3D printer launched to International Space Station Just two days earlier, three astronauts arrived at the space station to join the three already there. The crew includes two Americans, two Russians, one German and one Canadian. The newest residents will remain on board for six months, while the others will return to Earth on Dec. 20. SpaceX has been making station deliveries for NASA since 2012. The company expects to start launching station crews next year.[SEP]Two days after a successful launch from California, SpaceX fired off another Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday, this one carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with 5,660 pounds of equipment and supplies bound for the International Space Station. But an attempt to recover the booster's first stage ended in failure when the booster experienced a control problem during its final descent, landing in the Atlantic Ocean just east of the launch site. Television cameras switched away from the rocket a moment before impact. SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted that a titanium grid fin, used to help steer the rocket during descent and maintain the proper orientation, malfunction, adding that the rocket otherwise appeared to suffer only minor damage. "Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea," he said. "Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched." It was SpaceX's sixth outright landing failure and the first since June 2016, ending a string of 32 successful recoveries, 20 on droneships, 11 on land at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and one at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Musk says the new "block 5" Falcon 9 stages are designed fly dozens of times with minimal refurbishment between launchings, a key element in the company's drive to lower launch costs by recovering and re-flying recovered stages. The stage launched Monday from California was making its third flight, a first for SpaceX. But the rocket launched Wednesday from Cape Canaveral was brand new. It's not yet clear what went wrong with the grid fin or whether the mishap will prompt the Air Force to reconsider SpaceX's clearance to land at the Air Force station. The area around the landing zone currently is evacuated for SpaceX flights attempting a return to Florida, but that was not a factor Wednesday given the rocket's water splashdown. During the 69th International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany, Oct. 3, Hans Koenisgman, vice president of build and flight reliability for SpaceX, said multiple reflights will soon be the rule, not the exception. "Beginning soon, we will start flying a booster three times, and then take it to four times, five times, an so on and so forth," he said. "We have obviously to be very careful in evaluating boosters that come back after multiple flights. We want to make sure that we don't see wear and tear in the wrong spots." The mission got underway at 1:16 p.m. EST (GMT-5) when the Falcon 9's nine Merlin 1C engines ignited with a roar and a torrent of fiery exhaust, quickly pushing the 230-foot-tall booster away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Liftoff came a day late because of time needed to replace moldy food bars in a habitat housing 40 rodents being carried to the station for medical research. But it was clear sailing Wednesday and the countdown ticked to zero with no interruptions. At the moment of liftoff, the space station was flying 250 miles above the Indian Ocean south of Australia, but the plane of its orbit was sweeping across the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as Earth rotated below it. The Falcon 9 climbed away to the northeast directly into that orbital plane to enable the planned rendezvous. The first stage engines shut down and the lower section of the rocket fell away two minutes and 23 seconds after liftoff. The single engine powering the second stage then ignited for a six-minute 18-second burn to complete the climb to orbit. The first stage, meanwhile, flipped around and restarted three engines to reverse course and head back toward Florida. Another burn four minutes later slowed the stage down for descent back into the thick lower atmosphere. Long-range tracking cameras provided spectacular views as the stage dropped tail first toward Cape Canaveral. But television views from a camera mounted on the rocket suddenly showed it rotating roughly about it's long axis. The rocket's center engine apparently started as usual for landing, but by then the booster was well off course and landed in the water. As it now stands, SpaceX's landing record stands at 32 successful booster recoveries, 11 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, one at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and 20 on off-shore droneships. But as always, the primary goal of Wednesday's mission was to deliver the Dragon cargo ship to the proper orbit. If all goes well, the spacecraft will reach the station Saturday morning, pulling up to within about 30 feet and then standing by while station commander Alexander Gerst, operating the lab's robot arm, locks onto a grapple fixture. Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will take over at that point, operating the arm by remote control to pull the Dragon in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the station's forward Harmony module. The science gear on board includes an experiment to test robotic spacecraft refueling techniques using ultra-cold cryogenic propellants, another instrument that will use laser beams to measure tree heights globally to determine the effects of deforestation on carbon dioxide processing and another to develop wound dressings that improve drug delivery. Yet another experiment will study development of retinal implants intended to restore vision to patients with age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Space Station Challenge is sponsoring student experiments to develop a UV-activated dental glue that could help astronauts on long-duration voyages and another testing a mist-based irrigation system for plants grown in space. With the Dragon in hand, the station crew will turn its attention to a planned spacewalk next Tuesday by cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Oleg Kononenko to inspect the Soyuz MS-09/55S ferry ship that carried Gerst, Prokopyev and Serena Auñón-Chancellor into orbit on June 6. Kononenko arrived at the station Monday along with Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain. In late August, sensors detected a small pressure drop in the station's air supply that was traced to a leak in the upper habitation module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle. An inspection revealed what looked like a small hole drilled into an interior panel. Prokopyev sealed the hole with cloth soaked in epoxy and stopped the leak. Russian engineers ordered the spacewalk next week to inspect the exterior of the Soyuz to look for any signs of damage that might be related to the hole found inside the spacecraft. While the hole appeared to be the result of deliberate action on someone's part, presumably before launch, the Russians have not yet revealed any conclusions. In any case, the habitation module is discarded before atmospheric entry and the issue is not considered any sort of safety threat when Gerst, Prokopyev and Auñón-Chancellor return to Earth on Dec. 20.[SEP]KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — SpaceX has encountered more than its fair share of scrubs, but the one that pushed the planned flight of the CRS-16 mission back 24 hours – is a doozy. While they haven’t gone awry, SpaceX’s and NASA’s plans to launch their 16th resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) have indeed been delayed – due to mice. An experiment involving the small rodents as test subjects, that was scheduled to fly to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply spacecraft, was found to have a problem on Tuesday. Food bars that would be consumed by the mice during the experiment were found to have developed mold. Although some of the bars appeared to be in good condition, it was decided not to risk sending any of the bars, and to instead replace the entire allotment. An effort was made to try to get the replacement mice food bars properly produced, packed, shipped, and stowed aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in a timeframe that would still allow the company to meet its 1:38 p.m EST (18:38 UTC) launch timetable today. It was decided that the launch timetable could not be met, and NASA announced shortly before midnight last night that the launch of CRS-16 would slip to Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 1:16 p.m. EST (18:16 UTC). The weather for a Wednesday launch is currently forecast at 90 percent favorable conditions. Michael Cole is a life-long space flight enthusiast and author of some 36 educational books on space flight and astronomy for Enslow Publishers. He lives in Findlay, Ohio, not far from Neil Armstrong’s birthplace of Wapakoneta. His interest in space, and his background in journalism and public relations suit him for his focus on research and development activities at NASA Glenn Research Center, and its Plum Brook Station testing facility, both in northeastern Ohio. Cole reached out to SpaceFlight Insider and asked to join SFI as the first member of the organization’s “Team Glenn.”[SEP]Blame it on the space mice. Mold found on food bars for a rodent experience heading to the International Space Station is causing a one-day delay in SpaceX’s resupply mission to the ISS. The launch was scheduled to take off Tuesday afternoon from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but has been moved to Wednesday at 1:16 p.m. instead. The mold was found prior to the handover to SpaceX, NASA said. The extra day will give teams time to replace the food bars. The mice are part of the Rodent Research-8 study that will study how spaceflight affects aging. “This investigation provides a better understanding of aging-related immune, bone, and muscle disease processes, which may lead to new therapies for use in space and on Earth,” according to a study description. Worms, too, are going to space in the first United Kingdom-led experiment to make the trip. The experiment, by a team of scientists at Exeter, Nottingham and Lancaster universities, uses worms to study muscle loss in space, with the hope of helping treat muscular conditions on Earth. The tiny, microscopic worms used in the experience share many biological characteristics with humans and are also affected by the trip to space. “Sending worms into space sounds wonderfully futuristic but this is real research that could help provide new solutions to health problems being faced here on Earth,” said Melanie Welham, executive chair of the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, in a press release. The mission is SpaceX’s 16th to resupply with space station. The worms, mice and other supplies and payloads taking the trip in a Dragon spacecraft will support dozens of experiments set to take place on the space station. Want more space news? Follow Go For Launch on Facebook. Contact the reporter at cherrera@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5660; Twitter @ChabeliH[SEP]SpaceX's 16th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station was a success on Wednesday, but the Falcon 9 rocket in-use failed its attempt to return on land, instead plunking into the Atlantic Ocean about two miles off the Cape Canaveral coast.SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk tweeted video footage from the rocket's on-board camera showing the 230-foot-tall first stage booster spiraling through the atmosphere and attempting to emergency-land on the ocean surface rather than Landing Zone 1, the on-ground rocket pad it was intended to stick.“As much as we are disappointed in this landing, it shows the system overall knows how to recover from certain malfunctions," Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of Build and Flight Reliability at SpaceX, said during a news conference after the launch. “The vehicle kept well away from where it could pose the slightest risk to public property.”The failure was caused by a hydraulic malfunction with the booster's grin fins, the square-shaped honeycombs jutting out of its sides used to stabilize the rocket's reentry to Earth. The booster was still communicating with mission control even as it was bobbing in the water on its side roughly two miles off the Cape Canaveral coast, Musk said.The botched landing wasn’t “mission critical,” the CEO tweeted, quelling assumptions that the overall mission was a failure."Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea. Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched," Musk tweeted.Responding to a question on Twitter, he added that SpaceX might still be able to reuse the rocket — which is currently covered in potentially corrosive saltwater — for an "internal SpaceX mission."Landing fiasco aside, the Falcon 9 successfully lifted off from its launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force station at 1:16 p.m., sending its Dragon cargo capsule on a three-day orbital journey to the International Space Station some 225 miles into space.There, Dragon will unload 5,600 pounds of supplies to the space station’s six-person crew on Saturday and stay docked until January 2019.Among the 5,600 pounds of research includes an "barley germination" experiment from Budweiser to test the beer-making process in space. "It could also provide valuable insight for the general agricultural community," Gary Hanning, director of Global Barley Research wrote in a mission news brief.Wednesday's mission marked SpaceX's 20th launch of 2018, with its final mission of the year targeted for December 18 from the same launchpad, SLC-40, sending a GPS satellite to space for the Air Force.NASA, as part of its effort to utilize the private sector and wean off Russian-made rockets, selected SpaceX for its Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing for its CST-100 Starliner capsule in 2014 to send humans to space as soon as 2019. SpaceX announced in November it will conduct its first uncrewed test of a Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon in January 2019 from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A.[SEP]SpaceX has successfully launched its 20th rocket of the year, a mission taking supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), but the landing wasn't quite as successful. Their Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida at 1.16pm Eastern time (6.16pm UTC) today, carrying the CRS-16 Dragon spacecraft into orbit. This is a mission under contract with NASA, as part of their Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program. SpaceX also attempted to land the first stage booster of the rocket – the first in a new Block 5 class – back on Earth about eight minutes after launching at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral. However, the landing appears to have experienced some problems, with the rocket instead hitting the ocean rather than landing on the ground. Video footage from just before the landing attempt showed the first stage spinning out of control, with one of its grid fins that it uses to steer itself seemingly out of position. SpaceX later confirmed the booster had performed a "water landing", rather than making it to the landing pad. "Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea," CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter. "Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched." The Falcon 9 rocket used on this mission had not been used before, but the Dragon spacecraft had. It had previously flown on the CRS-10 mission in February 2017. It will take the spacecraft several days to reach the ISS, due to arrive on Saturday December 8. On board are 2,540 kilograms (5,600 pounds) of supplies, which includes 250 experiments. Among these are 40 mice as part of the Rodent Research-8 (RR-8) mission, along with food bars for the mice. This had caused the flight to be delayed from its initial planned launch yesterday, December 4, when their food became mouldy and NASA had to fly some replacements in. These mice will live on the station for between 30 and 60 days. Sadly after that they’ll be euthanized, so that their tissue samples can be studied to see how their muscles have coped with living in the microgravity environment of the ISS. As mentioned this was SpaceX’s 20th launch of the year, and the 19th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket in 2018 – the other was the Falcon Heavy launch on February 6. This is the most launches SpaceX has ever completed in a single year, with their previous record of 18 coming in 2017. This week also marked the eighth anniversary of SpaceX’s first Dragon flight for NASA, which launched on December 8, 2010, with this being the 16th. SpaceX is contracted in total for 26 missions to the ISS, and next year they are set to begin not just crewed flights, but human flights too. The number of paylaods on board Dragon is the largest number of payloads ever taken to the ISS in a single launch. And it’s been a good week for multiple-payload fans, because just two days ago on December 3, SpaceX launched the SSO-A mission with a whopping 64 different satellites on board. Dragon will remain on the ISS after about five weeks, when it will depart the station, re-enter our atmosphere, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean. At the moment, this is the only cargo spacecraft that can return experiments and research from the ISS.[SEP]SpaceX on Wednesday blasted off its unmanned Dragon cargo ship, loaded with supplies, science experiments and food for the astronauts living at the International Space Station but failed to successfully land its booster afterwards. "We have had a great liftoff," said SpaceX commentator John Insprucker, as the Falcon 9 rocket soared into the sunny, blue sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 1:16 pm (1816 GMT), carrying 5,600 pounds (2,500 kilograms) of gear. The mission, SpaceX's 16th for NASA as part of a long-term contract to ferry supplies to space, successfully made it to orbit, which was the primary goal of the launch. But the tall portion of the rocket missed its goal of securing an upright landing on solid ground at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 1. After separating from the second stage, and firing its engines to return to Earth, a video camera on board showed the first stage spinning. Then the live feed was cut off. "Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea," CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter. "Appears to be undamaged and is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched." SpaceX has landed more than 30 of its boosters successfully back on Earth, either on land or on a floating platform. The effort is aimed at reducing the cost of launches by re-using expensive components, instead of jettisoning them in the ocean after each mission. The rocket was initially meant to take off Tuesday, but was delayed for a day after engineers discovered moldy mouse food in one of the science investigations designed to study the effect of microgravity on the immune system. The bad food was replaced ahead of Wednesday's launch. Other experiments among the more than 250 on board include a new kind of mustard green lettuce that astronauts will grow in space. The Dragon space capsule that flew on Wednesday was used once before, on a supply mission in February 2017. It should arrive at the space station on Saturday.[SEP]On Monday, it launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, which was headed to space—and the record books. As USA Today notes, the rocket’s booster was the first Falcon 9 to launch three missions, an important part of the company’s plan to reduce costs by reusing rockets. The booster was also the first to launch from all three of SpaceX’s pads (Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Vandenberg). If that wasn’t impressive enough, the launch was also SpaceX’s 19th launch of the year—the previous record was 18—and it still has three more launches planned before the year is out. To cap off this very big week, Elon Musk’s company today is planning to launch a Falcon 9 rocket loaded with thousands of pounds of cargo bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The Dragon capsule will deliver more than 5,600 pounds of food and supplies to the crew, as well as scientific experiments, including the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation, which will measure the impact of climate change on the world’s forests. It’s SpaceX’s 16th cargo mission as part of its contract with NASA. Here’s how to watch the launch, which is scheduled to take off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:16 p.m. ET: Watch on NASA TV below, or at NASA’s website, or via SpaceX’s own webcast. The launch was initially scheduled for Tuesday, but was delayed due to *checks note* moldy mouse food. According to Space.com, if all goes according to plan, the Dragon will reach the space station three days from now, and the ISS crew can start unpacking the load. The Dragon is scheduled to return to Earth in mid-January.

SpaceX successfully launches CRS-16 on its way to the International Space Station. The first stage crashes into the ocean near Cape Canaveral and is later recovered.

A suicide bomber has set off an explosion outside a police station in the Iranian southern port city of Chabahar, killing at least three people and wounding 48, state TV has reported. "This morning a bomb inside a car exploded near a police station in Chabahar. Three people were killed and some others were injured," Rahmdel Bameri, acting governor of Chabahar told state television, which reported the figure of 48 hurt. "Police stopped the explosive-laden car and started firing at the driver... who then set off the explosion near the police headquarters in Chabahar," said Bameri. Mohammad Hadi Marashi, deputy governor for security affairs, told state TV that two police officers were killed in the attack. An official said that "the terrorist who carried out the attack was killed". He did not elaborate, the Reuters news agency reported. The Tasnim news agency said there were reports that women and children were among the injured. Four people were reportedly killed and 4 injured in a terrorist attack on Police headquarters in #Iran's southeastern city of #Chabahar: Acting Governor of #Sistan and #Baluchestan Province pic.twitter.com/sDY3ZUb31f — Tasnim News Agency (@Tasnimnews_EN) December 6, 2018 Images posted on Twitter purported to show thick smoke rising from the area. Middle East Eye could not verify the authenticity of the videos. Chabahar is located in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, which is home to a Sunni minority in the largely Shia country, and has long been plagued by violence from both drug smugglers and separatists. The SITE Intelligence Group reported that Sunni militant group Ansar al-Furqan had claimed responsibility for the attack. In June, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had killed the group's suspected leader, Molavi Jalil Qanbar-Zehi, in a mountainous area of Sistan and Baluchestan. A year ago the group claimed responsibilty for a blast at an oil pipeline in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province. 'Such crimes won’t go unpunished' Suicide bombings are rare in Iran, but Sunni armed groups have carried out several attacks on Iranian security forces in the Sistan and Baluchestan province in recent years. In October, the separatist Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) group kidnapped 12 Iranian border guards in the remote province, five of whom have since been released. The Sunni armed group has carried out several attacks on Iranian security forces in Sistan and Baluchestan in the past, including an attack in 2017 that killed 10 border guards In 2010, two suicide bombers killed at least 28 people, including some of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, at a mosque in southeast Iran; an attack Iranian leaders said was backed by the United States. The scene at the car bomb site in Chabahar, Iran (STR / Tasnim News / AFP) That attack was claimed by the Sunni separatist group Jundullah (or Soldiers of God), which has claimed responsibility for bombings in the past. Tehran accuses its key regional rival Saudi Arabia and the US of funding most of these groups, a charge Riyadh and Washington deny. Iran says armed groups have safe havens in Pakistan and has warned it will hit their bases there if Islamabad does not confront them. "Foreign-backed terrorists kill & wound innocents in Chabahar. As we've made clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. "In 2010, our security services intercepted & captured extremists en route from UAE. Mark my words: Iran WILL bring terrorists & their masters to justice." Chabahar is a free trade zone and the site of an Indian-backed port complex which is being developed as part of a new transportation corridor for land-locked Afghanistan. The Indian foreign ministry strongly condemned the "despicable terrorist attack". "The perpetrators behind this dastardly attack should be brought to justice expeditiously. There can be no justification for any act of terror,” the ministry said. India has said it is ready to invest up to $500m in the development of the port that is key to its ambitions to chart a route to landlocked Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan. Washington has granted exceptions to some US sanctions on Iran for the project.[SEP]A suicide car bomber attacked police headquarters in the south-eastern Iranian port city of Chabahar on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding 15, state TV reported. A suicide car bomber attacked police headquarters in the south-eastern Iranian port city of Chabahar on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding 15, state TV reported. At least two dead in Iran suicide car bomb attack No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though a semi-official news agency blamed a Sunni jihadi group for the assault. State television broke into its regular broadcast to report the attack as such assaults are rare in the Islamic Republic. Rahmdel Bameri, a provincial official, said a suicide attacker driving a vehicle loaded with explosives drove up to the police headquarters. He said police officers blocked the vehicle and started firing at the driver, who then detonated his explosives. State TV also aired footage of smoke rising over the city. They said two police officers were killed, lowering an initially reported death toll of three without explanation. The semi-official Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, blamed the attack on Ansar al-Furqan, a Sunni jihadi group. Ansar al-Furqan is known to operate in Iran’s south-eastern Sistan and Baluchistan Province, which sees occasional attacks by Baluch separatists and drug traffickers. A year ago, the group claimed to have blown up an oil pipeline in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province. Chabahar, near Iran’s border with Pakistan on the Sea of Oman, is home to a new port recently built and is an economic free zone for the country. The attack comes as Iran’s economy reels in the wake of the US re-imposing sanctions lifted by Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. While Iran still complies with the accord, President Donald Trump withdrew the US over the deal in part due to Tehran’s ballistic missile programme, its “malign behaviour” in the Middle East and its support of militant groups like Hezbollah. While rare, Iran has been targeted in recent years by militant attacks. In September, gunmen disguised as soldiers opened fire on a military parade in Ahvaz, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 60. Arab separatists and the Islamic State group both claimed responsibility for the attack. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for the attack, allegations denied by both countries. A co-ordinated June 2017 Islamic State group attacon parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50.[SEP]TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused “foreign-backed terrorists” for attacks Thursday in the port city of Chabahar that killed two people and wounded around 40 others. “Foreign-backed terrorists kill & wound innocents in Chabahar. As we’ve made it clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished,” Zarif tweeted. “In 2010, our security services intercepted & captures extremists en route from UAE. Mark my words: Iran WILL bring terrorists & their masters to justice” Zarif added in the tweet. He was referring to the capture, trial and subsequent execution in June 2010 of Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the militant group Jundallah who had waged a deadly insurgency in Sistan-Baluchistan. He was captured while on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgystan after Iranian fighter jets intercepted the airliner and forced it to land in Iran and removed Rigi and a number of his companions.—AFP[SEP]Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. At least three people died and 24 others were injured in a suicide car bomb attack on the police headquarters in Iran's southeast on Thursday, state media reported, adding that the perpetrator was killed. Television also reported shooting in the area, located in the region of Sistan-Baluchestan, which is home to a Sunni Muslim minority in the largely Shi'ite country and has long been plagued by violence from both drug smugglers and separatists. "Three people were killed and some others were injured," Chabahar's acting governor Rahmdel Bameri told state television.An official told TV that "the terrorist who carried out the attack was killed." He did not elaborate.Mohammad Hadi Marashi, deputy governor for security affairs, told state television two police officers had been killed.The state news agency IRNA said some 24 people had been wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.Videos posted on Twitter, purportedly from Chabahar, showed thick smoke rising from the area. Reuters could not verify their authenticity."Police stopped the explosive-laden car and started firing at the driver ... who then set off the explosion near the police headquarters in Chabahar," said Bameri.Suicide bombings are rare in Iran, but Sunni militant groups have carried out several attacks on Iranian security forces in the Sistan-Baluchestan province in recent years.Iran has stepped up security in border areas after gunmen in September opened fire on a military parade in Iran's southwestern city of Ahvaz, killing 25 people, almost half of them members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards corps.An Iranian ethnic Arab separatist Sunni militant group and Islamic State both claimed responsibility for that attack.Last year, in the first deadly assault claimed by Islamic State in Tehran, 18 people were killed at the parliament and mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic.Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), a Sunni militant group that has carried out several attacks on Iranian security forces, mainly in Sistan-Baluchestan, claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 10 border guards near Pakistan in 2017.In 2010, two suicide bombers killed at least 28 people, including some of the elite Revolutionary Guards, at a Shi'ite mosque in southeast Iran, an attack Iranian leaders said was backed by the United States.The attack was claimed by a Sunni separatist group called Jundullah (Soldiers of God).Tehran accuses its Sunni-led regional rival Saudi Arabia and the United States of funding most of these groups, a charge that Riyadh and Washington deny.Iran also says that militant groups are sheltering across the border in Pakistan and has threatened to attack their bases if Islamabad does not confront them.Chabahar is a free trade zone and the site of an Indian-backed port complex being developed as part of a new transportation corridor for landlocked Afghanistan. Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>[SEP]TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A suicide car bomber struck a police headquarters in the Iranian port city of Chabahar on Thursday, killing at least two policemen and wounding 42 people, state TV reported. A little-known Sunni jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack, which Iran's foreign minister accused of being "foreign-backed." The bomber drove his vehicle, loaded with explosives, up to the police headquarters, provincial official Rahmdel Bameri told state TV. He said police officers blocked the vehicle and started firing at the driver, who then detonated the explosives. State TV also aired footage of smoke rising over the city. The television report said two police officers were killed, lowering an earlier death toll of three without explanation. Mohammad Mehran Aminifar, head of Medical Sciences University in Zahedan, the capital of southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province, told state TV that 42 people were wounded, including four kids and a pregnant woman. Ten of the wounded were members of the police force, he said. In a communique, the Sunni jihadist group Ansar al-Furqan claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity online. Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned the attack and warned "terrorists" that they will be punished. "Iran will bring terrorists and their masters to justice," he said on his Twitter account. Ansar al-Furqan is known to operate in Sistan and Baluchistan province, which sees occasional attacks by Baluch separatists and drug traffickers. A year ago, the group claimed to have blown up an oil pipeline in Iran's southern Khuzestan province. Chabahar, near Iran's border with Pakistan on the Sea of Oman, is home to a newly built port and is an economic free zone. The attack comes as Iran's economy is reeling in the wake of the U.S. re-imposing sanctions lifted under Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. While Iran still complies with the accord, President Donald Trump withdrew America over the deal in May, in part due to Tehran's ballistic missile program, its involvement in regional conflicts and its support of militant groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah. While rare, Iran has been targeted in recent years by militant attacks. In September, gunmen disguised as soldiers opened fire on a military parade in Ahvaz, killing at least 24 people and wounding over 60. Arab separatists and the Islamic State group both claimed the assault. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for the attack, allegations denied by both countries. A coordinated June 2017 Islamic State assault on parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50.[SEP]A suicide car bomber attacked a police headquarters in the southeastern Iranian port city of Chabahar on Thursday, killing at least three people and wounding several others, state TV reported. State television broke into its regular broadcast to report the attack, as such assaults are rare in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Rahmdel Bameri, a provincial official, told state TV that a suicide attacker driving a vehicle loaded with explosives drove up to the police headquarters. He said police officers blocked the vehicle and started firing at the driver, who then detonated his explosives. State authorities did not identify who was behind the attack. No militant group immediately took responsibility for the attack. State TV also aired footage of smoke rising over the city. Chabahar, near Iran's border with Pakistan on the Sea of Oman, is home to a new port recently built and is an economic free zone for the country. The attack comes as Iran's economy reels in the wake of the United States re-imposing sanctions lifted by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. While Iran still complies with the accord, US President Donald Trump withdrew America over the deal in part due to Tehran's ballistic missile programme, its “malign behavior” in the Mideast and its support of militant groups like Hezbollah. While rare, Iran has been targeted in recent years by militant attacks. In September, gunmen disguised as soldiers opened fire on a military parade in Ahvaz, killing and wounding dozens. Arab separatists and the militant Islamic State (IS) group both claimed the assault. Another coordinated June 7, 2017 IS group assault on parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50. Later in the day, Pakistan condemned the terrorist attack in Chahbahar and said that concerted efforts were required to uproot terrorism from “spreading anywhere and everywhere”.[SEP]related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 3 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. At least three people died and 48 others were injured in a suicide car bomb attack on a police headquarters in Iran's southeast on Thursday, state media reported. DUBAI: At least three people died and 48 others were injured in a suicide car bomb attack on a police headquarters in Iran's southeast on Thursday, state media reported. Television also reported shooting in the area, located in the region of Sistan-Baluchestan, which is home to a Sunni Muslim minority in the largely Shi'ite country and has long been plagued by violence from both drug smugglers and separatists. "Three people were killed and some others were injured," Rahmdel Bameri, acting governor of the coastal city of Chabahar told state television, which reported the figure of 48 hurt. Mohammad Hadi Marashi, deputy governor for security affairs, told state TV two police officers were among the dead. Videos posted on Twitter, purportedly from Chabahar, showed thick smoke rising from the area. "Police stopped the explosive-laden car and started firing at the driver ... who then set off the explosion near the police headquarters in Chabahar," said Bameri. The SITE Intelligence Group reported that Sunni jihadist group Ansar al-Furqan had claimed responsibility for the attack. In June, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had killed the group's suspected leader, Molavi Jalil Qanbar-Zehi, in a mountainous area of Sistan Baluchestan. A year ago the group claimed responsibility for a blast at an oil pipeline in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province. Suicide bombings are rare in Iran, but Sunni militant groups have carried out several attacks on Iranian security forces in the Sistan-Baluchestan province in recent years. Iran has stepped up security in border areas after gunmen in September opened fire on a military parade in Iran's southwestern city of Ahvaz, killing 25 people, almost half of them members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards corps. Last year, in the first deadly assault claimed by Islamic State in Tehran, 18 people were killed at the parliament and mausoleum of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Tehran accuses its Sunni-led regional rival Saudi Arabia and the United States of funding Sunni militants, a charge Riyadh and Washington deny. "Foreign-backed terrorists kill & wound innocents in Chabahar. As we've made clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. "Mark my words: Iran WILL bring terrorists & their masters to justice." Iran also says that militant groups are sheltering across the border in Pakistan and has threatened to attack their bases if Islamabad does not confront them. Chabahar is a free trade zone and the site of an Indian-backed port complex being developed as part of a new transportation corridor for landlocked Afghanistan. "The perpetrators behind this dastardly attack should be brought to justice expeditiously. There can be no justification for any act of terror,” the ministry said. India has said it is ready to invest up to US$500 million in the development of the port that is key to its ambitions to chart a route to landlocked Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan. Washington has granted exceptions to some U.S. sanctions on Iran for the project.[SEP]A car #bomb has exploded near police headquarters in #Iran’s southeastern port city of #Chabahar, killing four and leaving many injured. A suicide bomber was reportedly behind the atrocity. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/9jwt[SEP]DUBAI (REUTERS) - At least three people were killed in a bomb attack in southeastern Iran on Thursday (Dec 6), state TV reported, adding that many others were injured. "This morning a bomb inside a car exploded near a police station in Chabahar and four people were injured," the official said.[SEP]A general view of the scene of a car bombing in front of a police station in the city of Chabahar, on Thursday, in southern Iran (AFP photo) DUBA — At least two policemen died and 48 people were injured in a rare suicide car bomb attack by an extremist group on a police headquarters in the port city of Chabahar in southeast Iran on Thursday, state media reported. While suicide bombings are rare in Iran, Sunni militant groups have carried out several attacks on security forces in recent years in Sistan-Baluchestan province, where Chabahar is located. The province is home to a Sunni minority in the largely Shiite country, and it has also long been plagued by violence from both drug smugglers and separatists. State television also reported shooting in the area on Thursday. “Two policemen were killed in the terrorist attack in Chabahar this morning,” Hadi Marashi, deputy governor for security affairs, told state TV, which reported the figure of 48 hurt. Video clips posted on Twitter, purportedly from Chabahar, showed thick smoke rising. TV reported that four children, a pregnant woman and 10 policemen were among the wounded. “Police stopped the explosive-laden car and started firing at the driver... who then set off the explosion near the police headquarters in Chabahar,” Chabahar’s acting governor Rahmdel Bameri told TV. The Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group and state media reported that Sunni extremist group Ansar Al Furqan had claimed responsibility for the attack. “Such terrorist acts, which are designed and adopted by enemies to divide the Iranian nation, are doomed to failure and will make us more decisive in our fight against terrorism,” said First Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri, according to TV. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards promised to give a “crushing” response to the attack, state TV reported. In June, the Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had killed Ansar Al Furqan’s suspected leader, Molavi Jalil Qanbar-Zehi, in a mountainous area of Sistan-Baluchestan. A year ago the group claimed responsibility for a blast at an oil pipeline in southern Khuzestan province. Iran has stepped up security in border areas after gunmen in September opened fire on a military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, killing 25 people, almost half of them members of the Revolutionary Guards. Last year, in the first deadly assault claimed by Daesh in Tehran, 18 people were killed at the parliament and mausoleum of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Tehran accuses its Sunni-led regional rival Saudi Arabia and the United States of funding Sunni militants, a charge Riyadh and Washington deny. “Foreign-backed terrorists kill & wound innocents in Chabahar. As we’ve made clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Tweeted. “Mark my words: Iran WILL bring terrorists & their masters to justice.” Iran says militant groups are sheltering across the border in Pakistan, and it has threatened to attack their bases if Islamabad does not confront them. Chabahar is a free trade zone and the site of an Indian-backed port complex being developed as part of a new transportation corridor for landlocked Afghanistan. “The perpetrators behind this dastardly attack should be brought to justice expeditiously. There can be no justification for any act of terror,” the ministry said. India has said it is ready to invest up to $500 million to develop the port as it seeks to create a route to landlocked Central Asian countries and Afghanistan that bypasses Pakistan. Washington has granted exceptions to some US sanctions on Iran for the project despite pulling out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers and reimposing other sanctions that were lifted under the pact.

A car bomb explodes near a police post in Chabahar, Iran. Two police officers are pronounced dead and around 40 people were wounded in the attack. Islamic militant group Ansar Al-Furqan claims responsibility. Iran accuses the perpetrators of being "foreign-backed terrorists".

Sony Santa Monica's God of War has won the Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2018 ceremony. The acclaimed Norse adventure also picked up awards for best direction and best action-adventure. Rockstar's smash hit Western Red Dead Redemption 2 won the most awards, riding home with four. The sprawling adventure won best narrative, best performance for Roger Clarke as Arthur Morgan, best music for Woody Jackson and Daniel Lanois' score and best audio. Indie gem Celeste won two for best independent game and the Game for Impact award. And battle royale phenomenon Fortnite also took two with best ongoing game and best multiplayer. The Game Awards, organised and hosted by Geoff Keighley, is now in its fifth year and has become a key date on the gaming calendar. As well as handing out awards for the best achievements in the industry across the year, the show has become a hotbed for new game announcements and trailers. This year saw games such as Dragon Age 4, Far Cry: New Age and The Outer Worlds all revealed for the first time. We had the chance to see Ubisoft's Far Cry: New Dawn in action ahead of the announcement with our Far Cry: New Dawn first-look preview and interview.[SEP]It’s the time of the year that many gamers have been waiting for, the annual Game Awards. The Los Angeles-based ceremony celebrates all the hard work that gets put into making, developing and creating video games. While Los Angeles is not the closest place for Canadians to visit, the ceremony streams live on a variety services, including Twitch, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One and more. We also have The Game Awards official YouTube livestream embedded in this story below. Canadian studio developed games such as Celeste, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Starlink Battle for Atlas are among this year’s nominees. There are also games such as God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Red Dead Redemption 2 nominated for the title of ‘Game Of The Year.’ This year’s Game Awards will also feature world premieres and new information about games such as Bioware Edmonton-developed Anthem and even details about Dragon Age 4. The ceremony kicks off at 9pm ET/6pm PT with an 8:30pm ET /5:30pm PT preshow.[SEP]Sony Santa Monica's God of War has won the Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2018 ceremony. The acclaimed Norse adventure also picked up awards for best direction and best action-adventure. Rockstar's smash hit Western Red Dead Redemption 2 won the most awards, riding home with four. The sprawling adventure won best narrative, best performance for Roger Clarke as Arthur Morgan, best music for Woody Jackson and Daniel Lanois' score and best audio. Indie gem Celeste won two for best independent game and the Game for Impact award. And battle royale phenomenon Fortnite also took two with best ongoing game and best multiplayer. The Game Awards, organised and hosted by Geoff Keighley, is now in its fifth year and has become a key date on the gaming calendar. As well as handing out awards for the best achievements in the industry across the year, the show has become a hotbed for new game announcements and trailers. This year saw games such as Dragon Age 4, Far Cry: New Age and The Outer Worlds all revealed for the first time. The shortlists for the awards are decided by a panel of international media, while the winner is decided by a combination of critic input and public vote.[SEP]Sony’s PS4 exclusive has beaten Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption II, as Celeste picks up two awards and Ninja wins Content Creator of the Year. After an exhausting three-and-a-half-hour marathon The Game Awards 2018 have just finished and the winner of the Game of the Year award is not what many would’ve predicted. The most important award of the night was left until the very end, with even the announcer making it clear that it was really a two-horse race between Sony’s Santa Monica Studio and Rockstar Games. The Game Award nominations are made by a team of 60 international publications, of which GameCentral is one, but are then are voted on by a mix of those same people and the general public. You can see a list of all the nominees below, with the winners in bold, but God Of War also picked up Best Game Direction and Best Action/Adventure Game Red Dead Redemption II didn’t walk away empty-handed though and won Best Narrative, Best Score/Music, Best Audio Design, and Best Performance for Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan. There were a number of indie winners too, with Return Of The Obra Dinn winning Best Art Direction and Celeste winning Best Independent Game and the Games for Impact Award. Fortnite also picked up two awards for Best Ongoing Game and Best Multiplayer Game. • Bryan Dechart as Connor in Detroit: Become Human • Christopher Judge as Kratos in God of War • The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (White Owls/Arc System Works) Best Student Game (created at high school or college level) Best eSports Player: Presented by Omen by HP • C9 Comeback Win In Triple OT vs FAZE at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 • G2 Beating RNG at the League of Legends World Championship • KT vs. IG Base Race at the League of Legends World Championship • OG’s Massive Upset of LGD at the DOTA 2 Finals • SonicFox Side Switch Against Go1 in Dragon Ball FighterZ at EVO 2018 Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter[SEP]The Game Awards has revealed this year's batch nominees — and it will let fans vote to decide the winners across more than 20 categories. Fans can vote now for their picks at TheGameAwards.com, and via Twitter direct message, Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and the official The Game Awards Discord server. Rockstar Games' "Red Dead Redemption 2" and Sony's "God of War" lead the pack with eight nominations each, including "Game of the Year" and "Best Narrative." Other Game of the Year contenders include Marvel's Spider-Man (7 nominations), "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" ( 4 nominations) and the indie game hit "Celeste" (4 nominations). Categories like Best Independent Game, Best Student Game and Best VR/AR Game also make space for some lesser- known titles to shine. The Game Awards will name the winners and celebrate the nominees on Thursday, December 6 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The awards show will be streamed at 9 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. PST on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and several other streaming platforms. First established in 2014, The Game Awards advisory board includes executives from a dozen major gaming companies, including Xbox, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Valve, and Tencent.[SEP]A new game from Simogo titled ‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’ was announced at The Game Awards on Thursday evening. Simogo is the developer behind “Device 6,” the unique mobile puzzler. Excited for The Game Awards? Check out our predictions for the 2018 awards right here. You can watch the ceremony live from the Variety website, as well. And, make sure to check out all of Variety’s Game Awards 2018 coverage as we cover the show live, from the red carpet and inside the awards themselves.[SEP]There's a tension in the air at most award shows -- but the annual Game Awards are a bit different. Sure, there's still a lot of anticipation over who is going to win game of the year, but the real excitement takes place between the awards: trailers, announcements and DLC reveals. It's like a mini-E3 with a red carpet, and it's quickly becoming one of the biggest nights of the year in game announcements. It's where we first saw games like Bayonetta 3 and SoulCalibur VI, and got one of our best early looks at Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding. Here's how to make sure you don't miss the announcements or the awards. Know when to watch The Game Awards start at 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Dec. 6. If you happen to live on the other side of the planet, the show will start on Friday morning sometime between 1:30 a.m. (GMT) and 11:30 a.m. (GMT+11). Check the Game Awards website to find your local timezone. Know where to watch OK, you know when you need to tune in -- but how do you turn in? That part is easy: The Game Awards will be available to watch for free on almost every major social platform and gaming network, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Live, Twitch, Mixer, Caffeine, Steam, PlayStation, Xbox Live and more. In addition to those streams, you'll find the show on GameSpot. It'll also be streaming on region-specific platforms around the world. You can see the full list on the Game Awards' how to watch page. Know what trailers to expect New game announcements and trailers are easily half the draw for the awards show -- and we already know a few big ones are coming. Ubisoft has already announced that it will be showing off something new from the Far Cry franchise at the event, and the official Game Awards Twitter account has said that it will be hosting an exclusive new look at Anthem during the show. There's also buzz on the web that we might see a Crash Team Racing remake, more details on Death Stranding and more. There's even an off chance we might hear more about that open-world Harry Potter game that was allegedly leaked earlier this year. On top of those promises, a handful of publishers have very directly hinted their own announcements. Nintendo has been talking up the Game Awards as a pre-game to the release of Super Smash Bros Ultimate, implying it may tease the game's first DLC during the show. Similarly, Obsidian has made it clear that it's gearing up to announce a new RPG, and Epic's Donald Mustard will be on site with a mysterious Fortnite announcement. According to Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, there will be at least 10 brand-new game reveals in all, not including new trailers for previously announced games or DLC announcements. That's a lot of news to look forward to. There are a ton of awards being handed out in a staggering array of categories -- this list doesn't include everything, but here are the biggest ones. • The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories[SEP]Ubisoft revealed a new teaser trailer ahead of “The Game Awards 2018” centered around what appears to be a post-apocalyptic “Far Cry” game. The developer took to Twitter with the clip, stating “Tune into the Game Awards for the world premiere of the next Far Cry.” The brief teaser trailer begins with a shot of a mushroom cloud extending into the air, seen from a short distance away. An idyllic farm with golden crops is the first shot we see before the blinding light of the nuclear bomb whites out the screen. “None of us were ready for the end,” a male voice narrates while leaves turn to ash and an unknown party brandishes a crossbow that appears to launch saw blades. “The flames devoured everything, and when death rolled through our valley, our world turned cold and dark. The years of rain and the howling winds gave way to blue skies and a new world in bloom. We felt hope,” the voice continues as the footage reveals lush, flowery landscapes before devolving into violence with the unidentified weapon again. “We were wrong.” There’s no information about the game other than the a brief tease for its appearance during “The Game Awards,” not even a name to go by. It’s likely it won’t be a follow-up to 2018’s “Far Cry 5,” seeing as it’s only been out in the wild for months, but it could potentially be a spin-off of the core game or set in the same rural area of Montana. Given the way the way “Far Cry 5” can potentially end, a game set in the apocalypse certainly makes sense. “The Game Awards 2018” is set to kick off on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET in Los Angeles, California and hosted by Geoff Keighley. There are a number of game reveals expected during the show, including information on what “Fortnite” Season 7 will bring in the future.[SEP]won Game of the Year at Thursday night’s The Game Awards. Long live the Ghost of Sparta. Game director Cory Barlog wept when the first glowing wave of game reviews hit the web for his soft reboot to the long-running mythic franchise for Playstation. He teared up again when he won Best Game Direction earlier in The Game Awards ceremony, honoring the year’s highest achievements in gaming. When he took the stage with his team, including actors Christopher Judge (the voice of Kratos) and Sunny Suljic (the voice of Atreus), he was dried-eyed but grateful. “Please thank the creators,” he said, “and not just creators of games, creators of movies, creators of comic books, creators of every single thing that enriches our lives, that makes us believe that magic is real.” We’re not saying we toldja so, but check out EW’s Best of 2018 issue to see our pick for Best Video Game. takes its titular character, Kratos, and moves him into the world of Norse mythology, a change of pace from the vengeful Greek gods. (Not that Viking deities are any better.) There he sets forth on a path with his son, Atreus, to honor his late wife, yielding the most emotionally impactful, character-driven installment in the series. , Rockstar Games’ 10-years-in-the-making Western release, was a frontrunner for the coveted Game of the Year title. The game still swept multiple categories and received the most wins of the night with four total. received three, but they were pretty big titles. Nominees for The Game Awards are determined by a jury comprised of more than 60 publications — including ! The winners are then decided upon by a combination of jury voting and fan participation. See the full list of winners below. BEST PERFORMANCE Bryan Dechart as Connor, Christopher Judge as Kratos, Melissanthi Mahut as Kassandra, Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan, Red Dead Redemption 2 — WINNER Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker, GAMES FOR IMPACT (Digixart / Aardman Animations / BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment) (Matt Makes Games) — WINNER (Mountains / Annapurna Interactive) (Dontnod Entertainment / Square Enix) The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories (White Owls / Arc System Works) BEST VR/AR Game (SIE Japan Studio / SIE) — WINNER Beat Saber (Beat Games) Firewall Zero Hour (First Contact Entertainment / SIE) (Polyarc Games) (Resonair / Enhance, Inc) BEST ESPORTS PLAYER PRESENTED BY OMEN BY HP Dominique “SonicFox” McLean (Echo Fox) — WINNER Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao (Royal Never Give Up) Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev (Natus Vincere) Sung-hyeon “JJoNak” Bang (New York Excelsior) BEST ESPORTS EVENT ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 EVO 2018 League of Legends World Championship — WINNER Overwatch League Grand Finals The International 2018 BEST ESPORTS MOMENT C9 Comeback Win In Triple OT vs FAZE (ELEAGUE) — WINNER KT vs IG Base Race (LOL Worlds) G2 Beating RNG (LOL Worlds) OG’s Massive Upset of LGD (DOTA 2 Finals) SonicFox Side Switch Against Go1 in DBZ (EVO) • The new West world: signals the era of prestige video games[SEP]The Game Awards are back, and this year promises the biggest lineup of game announcements to date. Producer Geoff Keighley has revealed that more than 10 new games will be announced at The Game Awards 2018, alongside updates on upcoming titles. While some announcements have been confirmed, such as the official reveal of the latest addition to the Far Cry series, others are merely rumored. So, let's take a look at what we can definitely expect, and what we hope to see, at The Game Awards 2018. What are The Game Awards 2018? The Game Awards are an annual award show hosted and produced by videogame journalist Geoff Keighley – this is the fifth year the show has taken place. Winners are chosen through a mix of public fan votes (10%) and a voting jury (90%). The Game Awards aims to 'celebrate the best video games and esports of the year', but we can also expect to see world premieres and exclusive announcements of upcoming games. Keighley has promised at least 10 new game announcements this year. How to watch The Game Awards 2018 The Game Awards 2018 will be streamed live on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook Live, Xbox Live, Mixer, Steam and PlayStation. You can see all the available streaming platforms on the The Game Awards website. We've also embedded the YouTube stream below: The Game Awards 2018 takes place in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 6 at 5:30pm PST. This means the livestream will start at 8:30pm EST on Thursday, December 6 or on Friday, December 7 at 1:30am GMT / 12:30pm AEDT. What announcements can we expect? The rumor-mill has been working in overdrive around what announcements we can expect at the Game Awards 2018. While we know some of the announcements we can expect, others have only been teased. So here's what announcements we expect to see: Ubisoft released a teaser trailer earlier this week teasing a new post-apocalyptic Far Cry game. The trailer also confirmed an official worldwide reveal for the title will be shown during The Game Awards 2018. You can check out the trailer below: Geoff Keighley has confirmed there will be a big Fortnite announcement. However, a leak by a YouTuber has meant we already know what it was going to be. Fortnite is getting a new Sandbox mode called Creative, which will operate separately from Battle Royale and will allow players to design games and battle friends on their own private island. Creative Mode will be available week one of Season 7 for Battle Pass owners and will roll out to all players on December 13. While the full announcement may have been spoiled, there's a possibility this wasn't what Epic Games planned to reveal at all and we could be blown away by something entirely different. If that's not the case, we can hopefully at least look forward to some more details on Creative Mode. Geoff Keighley has said the Creative Mode announcement is just "part 1 of the story". We know Fallout: New Vegas developer Obisidan is working on a new RPG, and it looks like we might finally get a glimpse of it at The Game Awards 2018. Obsidian's official website and Twitter page have been counting down to the awards, teasing a "special message" is on the way. While this hasn't been officially confirmed, all signs point to a CTR remaster being officially revealed at the awards and, with the success of the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot remasters, it wouldn't be a huge surprise.. Several influencers have received teaser items from Activision including Crash cookies and a pair of fuzzy orange dice. According to a report by Venture Beat (and confirmed by Eurogamer), Dragon Age 4 will be unveiled at The Game Awards. Though we we get a glimpse at the upcoming game, its release date is currently "at least three years away". We're not really sure what to expect from Nintendo, but we do know the company is planning an announcement of some sort. Nintendo tweeted urging fans to tune into the awards before the release of Super Smash Bros Ultimate next week, so it's likely the announcement will be related to that. What we hope to see We're hoping to see more of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding (especially since he sits on the Advisory Board for The Game Awards). In addition, we're hoping to see more of Anthem and just maybe a look at Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - though it's a bit of a stretch. We definitely know we won't be seeing any of The Last of Us: Part II, as Naughty Dog confirmed as much in a tweet. • The best new games of 2018: everything you should play this year

God of War is named Game of the Year at The Game Awards annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

In this Oct. 13, 2016, photo provided by U.S. Marine Corps, two F/A-18D Hornets with Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 533 approach a KC-130J with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352 during a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Central Command aerial refueling exercise in undisclosed location. On Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, two American warplanes crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Japan's southwestern coast after a midair collision, and rescuers found one of the seven crew members in stable condition while searching for the others, officials said. The U.S. Marine Corps said that the crash involved an F/A-18 fighter jet and a KC-130 refueling aircraft during regular training after the planes took off from their base in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima in western Japan. (Cpl. Trever Statz/U.S. Marine Corps via AP) (Cpl. Trever Statz)[SEP]Tokyo – A Marine refueling plane and a fighter jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Japan’s southwestern coast after a midair collision early Thursday, and rescuers found one of the seven crew members in stable condition while searching for the others, officials said. The U.S. Marine Corps said that the 2 a.m. crash involved an F/A-18 fighter jet and a KC-130 refueling aircraft during regular training after the planes took off from their base in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima in western Japan. The crash took place 200 miles off the coast. Japan’s Defense Ministry said the aircraft carrying seven crew members in total collided and crashed into the sea south of the Muroto Cape on Shikoku island in southwestern Japan. The Maritime Self-Defense Force, which dispatched aircraft and vessels to join in the search operation, said Japanese rescuers found one of the crew members in stable condition. The Marine Corps said the rescued crew was taken to a hospital at its base in Iwakuni and was being treated, but did not provide any other details. Japanese officials said two crew members were in the F/A-18, and five others in the KC-130. The crash is the latest in recent series of accidents involving the U.S. military deployed to and near Japan. Last month, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea southwest of Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, though its two pilots were rescued safely. In mid-October, a MH-60 Seahawk also belonging to the Ronald Reagan crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors. More than 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under the bilateral security pact. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]A Marine refueling plane and a fighter jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Japan's southwestern coast after a midair collision early Thursday, and rescuers found one of the seven crew members in stable condition while searching for the others, officials said. The U.S. Marine Corps said that the 2am crash involved an F/A-18 fighter jet and a KC-130 refueling aircraft during regular training after the planes took off from their base in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima in western Japan. The crash took place 200 miles off the coast. Japan's Defense Ministry said the aircraft carrying seven crew members in total collided and crashed into the sea south of the Muroto Cape on Shikoku island in southwestern Japan. The Maritime Self-Defense Force, which dispatched aircraft and vessels to join in the search operation, said Japanese rescuers found one of the crew members in stable condition. The Marine Corps said the rescued crew was taken to a hospital at its base in Iwakuni and was being treated, but did not provide any other details. Japanese officials said two crew members were in the F/A-18, and five others in the KC-130. The crash is the latest in recent series of accidents involving the U.S. military deployed to and near Japan. Last month, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea southwest of Japan's southern island of Okinawa, though its two pilots were rescued safely. A rescue aircraft plucked the aviators from the water immediately and brought them back to the ship, the Navy's statement said. They were both in good condition and the aircraft carrier has since returned to normal operations, the Navy said. In mid-October, a MH-60 Seahawk also belonging to the Ronald Reagan crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors. The aircraft carrier participated in a joint exercise known as 'Keen Sword' with Japan and Canada from October 29 to November 8 in waters around Japan and near Guam in the Pacific. More than 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under the bilateral security pact.[SEP]TOKYO (AP) — Two American warplanes crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Japan's southwestern coast after a midair collision early Thursday, and rescuers found one of the seven crew members in stable condition while searching for the others, officials said. The U.S. Marine Corps said that the 2 a.m. crash involved an F/A-18 fighter jet and a KC-130 refueling aircraft during regular training after the planes took off from their base in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima in western Japan. The crash took place 320 kilometers (200 miles) off the coast. Japan's Defense Ministry said the aircraft carrying seven crew members in total collided and crashed into the sea south of the Muroto Cape on Shikoku island in southwestern Japan. The Maritime Self-Defense Force, which dispatched aircraft and vessels to join in the search operation, said Japanese rescuers found one of the crew members in stable condition. The Marine Corps said the rescued crew was taken to a hospital at its base in Iwakuni and was being treated, but did not provide any other details. Japanese officials said two crew members were in the F/A-18, and five others in the KC-130. The crash is the latest in recent series of accidents involving the U.S. military deployed to and near Japan. Last month, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea southwest of Japan's southern island of Okinawa, though its two pilots were rescued safely. In mid-October, a MH-60 Seahawk also belonging to the Ronald Reagan crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors. More than 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under the bilateral security pact.[SEP]TOKYO (AP) — Two American warplanes crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Japan’s southwestern coast after a midair collision early Thursday, and rescuers found one of the seven crew members in stable condition while searching for the others, officials said. The U.S. Marine Corps said that the 2 a.m. crash involved an F/A-18 fighter jet and a KC-130 refueling aircraft during regular training after the planes took off from their base in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima in western Japan. The crash took place 320 kilometers (200 miles) off the coast. Japan’s Defense Ministry said the aircraft carrying seven crew members in total collided and crashed into the sea south of the Muroto Cape on Shikoku island in southwestern Japan. The Maritime Self-Defense Force, which dispatched aircraft and vessels to join in the search operation, said Japanese rescuers found one of the crew members in stable condition. The Marine Corps said the rescued crew was taken to a hospital at its base in Iwakuni and was being treated, but did not provide any other details. Japanese officials said two crew members were in the F/A-18, and five others in the KC-130. The crash is the latest in recent series of accidents involving the U.S. military deployed to and near Japan. Last month, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea southwest of Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, though its two pilots were rescued safely. In mid-October, a MH-60 Seahawk also belonging to the Ronald Reagan crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors. More than 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under the bilateral security pact.[SEP]Six missing after two US military planes crash off Japan TOKYO: Six US marines were missing after two American military aircraft crashed on Thursday during a refuelling operation off the coast of Japan, said officials. The two planes -- an F-18 fighter and a C-130 tanker -- were involved in a "mishap about 200 miles off of the coast of Japan around 2:00 am" according to a statement from the US Marines in Japan. A US defense official told AFP there had been a crash after the plane took off from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in southern Japan. A spokesman for Japan´s Self-Defense Forces said that one of the airmen had been rescued but the immediate fate of the remaining crew members was unclear. The crew member was being assessed by doctors, the Marine statement said, adding that "the search and rescue operations continue for the remaining six." The C-130 was thought to be carrying five servicemen and the F-18 two, said the Japanese official, who added that Japan had scrambled four aircraft and three ships in the search. US media also reported five crew on the C-130 and two on the F-18. "We are thankful for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force´s efforts as they immediately responded in the search and rescue operation," the Marines said. The planes took off from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in southern Japan and were "conducting regularly scheduled training when the mishap occurred," the statement said. The circumstances of the mishap are currently under investigation, the military added. The US military has about 50,000 troops stationed in Japan and accidents are not uncommon. In November, a US navy fighter jet crashed into the sea off Japan´s southern island of Okinawa and its two crew members were rescued alive. The US military has also experienced difficulties with its Osprey helicopters, with several emergency landings, a deadly crash and a piece of the chopper falling on the grounds of a Japanese school. Those incidents have stoked tensions between close military allies Washington and Tokyo and led to protests against the deployment of Ospreys by residents living near US bases.[SEP]TOKYO (AP) — Two American warplanes crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Japan's southwestern coast after a midair collision early Thursday, and rescuers found one of the seven crew members in stable condition while searching for the others, officials said. The U.S. Marine Corps said that the 2 a.m. crash involved an F/A-18 fighter jet and a KC-130 refueling aircraft during regular training after the planes took off from their base in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima in western Japan. The crash took place 320 kilometers (200 miles) off the coast. Japan's Defense Ministry said the aircraft carrying seven crew members in total collided and crashed into the sea south of the Muroto Cape on Shikoku island in southwestern Japan. The Maritime Self-Defense Force, which dispatched aircraft and vessels to join in the search operation, said Japanese rescuers found one of the crew members in stable condition. The Marine Corps said the rescued crew was taken to a hospital at its base in Iwakuni and was being treated, but did not provide any other details. Japanese officials said two crew members were in the F/A-18, and five others in the KC-130. The crash is the latest in recent series of accidents involving the U.S. military deployed to and near Japan. Last month, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea southwest of Japan's southern island of Okinawa, though its two pilots were rescued safely. In mid-October, a MH-60 Seahawk also belonging to the Ronald Reagan crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors. More than 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under the bilateral security pact.[SEP]Two U.S. Marine aircraft crashed early Thursday during a refueling drill, leaving five crew members missing after two were rescued off the coast of Kochi Prefecture later in the day. A KC-130 air-refueling tanker and an F/A-18 fighter jet were involved in what the military termed a “mishap” in the early morning hours. One crew member was rescued later in the morning by the Maritime Self Defense Force and sent to a hospital, while another was rescued later in the day, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry. The Marine Corps said the second marine had been transported to a local hospital. One of the two was a crew member of the F/A-18. The F/A-18 had two crew members while five were aboard the KC-130. “Search and rescue operations continue for U.S. Marine Corps aircraft that were involved in a mishap … off of the coast of Japan around 2:00 a.m.,” the Marine Corps said in a statement. Tokyo said the crash had occurred around 100 km off Cape Muroto in Kochi Prefecture. The statement said the aircraft involved had taken off from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and had been “conducting regularly scheduled training.” The Iwakuni base is home to the sole forward-deployed marine squadron of F-35 stealth fighter jets. The Marine Corps said the cause of the accident was under investigation, but the difficult refueling maneuver would have been complicated by a lack of sunlight and any difficult weather conditions at the time. During the refueling, the smaller fighter approaches from the rear of the KC-130, which has a fuel line trailing behind. An extendable nozzle is then “plugged in” to allow fuel to flow. After learning of the crash, Japanese search and rescue aircraft “immediately responded to aid in recovery,” the Marine Corps said. The U.S. military’s III Marine Expeditionary Force, headquartered in Okinawa Prefecture, expressed gratitude to the MSDF for the help. “Extremely thankful and grateful for our Japanese Self Defense Force partners and their help in the search and recovery efforts,” the III Marine Expeditionary Force’s public affairs section wrote on its official Twitter account. Accidents involving U.S. military aircraft have become a sensitive topic in Japan in recent years after a spate of crashes — especially in Okinawa Prefecture, which is home to the bulk of U.S. military facilities in the country. Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told a televised news conference that while Japan is concerned, it was now focusing on helping find the missing marines. “The incident is regrettable, but our focus at the moment is on search and rescue,” Iwaya told a news conference. “Japan will respond appropriately once the details of the incident are uncovered.” In June, a U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jet crashed in waters off Okinawa Prefecture during a routine training mission. The pilot successfully ejected and was safely recovered by an Air Self-Defense Force search and rescue team. In November last year, a U.S. C-2 cargo plane carrying 11 passengers and supplies from the base at Iwakuni to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed during an annual bilateral maritime field-training exercise with the MSDF. Eight people were rescued and three died in the accident. Staff writer Sakura Murakami contributed to this report[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One U.S. Marine was killed and rescue teams were searching for five others missing after two Marine Corps aircraft collided in mid-air and crashed into the sea off the coast of Japan during a refuelling exercise, officials said on Thursday. Japanese and American officials said they had so far found two of the seven Marines who had been aboard the aircraft, an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet and a KC-130 Hercules. "One of the recovered Marines is in fair condition and the other has been declared deceased by competent medical personnel," a U.S. Marine Corps statement said. The deadly crash is the latest in a string of U.S. military aviation accidents around the world in recent years, which have prompted hearings and criticism in Congress over aircraft safety. U.S. President Donald Trump expressed gratitude to Japan for its quick assistance with search and rescue efforts. "My thoughts and prayers are with the @USMC (U.S. Marine Corps) crew members who were involved in a mid-air collision off the coast of Japan," he tweeted. The incident occurred around 2 a.m. local time in Japan (1700 GMT Wednesday) about 320 km (200 miles) off the Japanese coast. The Marine Corps said the aircraft were conducting routine training at the time, including refuelling training. The U.S. military did not speculate on the cause of the collision. "The incident is regrettable, but our focus at the moment is on search and rescue," Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told a news conference. "Japan will respond appropriately once the details of the incident are uncovered." A U.S. Navy P-8A patrol and surveillance aircraft was helping in search and rescue efforts along with Japanese authorities, the Marine Corps said, adding that the incident was under investigation. The incident raises questions about military readiness, something U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said is a priority for him. Congressional leaders have called the rash of accidents a crisis and blamed it on continuous combat operations, deferred modernization, lack of training, and ageing equipment. Last year, 16 service members were killed after a military transport plane crash in rural Mississippi. A military investigation said the primary cause of that crash was a propeller blade that went into the aircraft's fuselage. The investigation added that the propeller had not received proper maintenance and corrosion had been overlooked. In August 2017, the U.S. Marine Corps ordered its aircraft squadrons to suspend flight operations for 24 hours to review safety of aircraft. U.S. military accidents are a sensitive topic in Japan, particularly for residents of the southern prefecture of Okinawa, home to the bulk of the U.S. presence in the country. A series of emergency landings and parts falling from U.S. military aircraft have sparked concerns over safety. This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.[SEP]TOKYO — Search operations continued Thursday for five missing U.S. Marines after a pair of planes carrying seven Marines collided about 200 miles off Japan in a refueling accident, U.S. and Japanese authorities said. The planes, a KC-130 extended-range tanker carrying five crew members and an F/A-18 combat jet carrying two, "came in contact in the air" and crashed into the sea at around 1:42 a.m. Thursday (11:42 a.m. ET Wednesday), said Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary. The Japanese Defense Ministry said Friday local time that the two other Marines had been rescued. The Marines said one of them was taken back to base for treatment. There was no immediate information on the second rescued Marine. The aircraft had launched from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, on a regularly scheduled training exercise, the Marines said. Suga said the Defense Ministry had asked the United States for more information.

Two U.S. Marine aircraft from Iwakuni air base crash off the coast of Shikoku, Japan, during a mid-air refueling. One serviceman is rescued by Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, while one is found dead and five are still reported missing.

UNITED NATIONS — A U.S.-sponsored draft resolution that for the first time would have condemned the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday. Before the vote on the resolution, the 193-member world body had narrowly voted to require a two-thirds majority for approval as sought by Arab nations for rather than the simple majority urged by the United States. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the assembly before the vote that it could make history and unconditionally speak out against Hamas, which she called "one of the most obvious and grotesque cases of terrorism in the world." "What the U.N. chooses to do today will speak volumes about each country's seriousness when it comes to condemning anti-Semitism," she said. "Because there is nothing more anti-Semitic than saying terrorism is not terrorism when it's used against the Jewish people and the Jewish state." But the vote on the resolution to condemn Hamas was 87 in favor against 57 opposed, with 33 abstentions — a plurality but below the two-thirds requirement to adopt it. The vote to require a two-thirds majority was much closer, 75-72, with 26 abstentions and several countries changing their votes to "yes" at the last minute. In an official statement, Hamas thanked U.N. member states "that stood by our people's resistance and the justice of their cause" and attacked Haley who it said "is known for her extremism and her positions that support the Zionist terrorism in Palestine." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party is locked in a bitter decade-long split with Hamas, also welcomed the resolution's defeat saying: "The Palestinian presidency will not allow for the condemnation of the national Palestinian struggle." By contrast, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the "large majority" — 87 countries — "that took a stance against Hamas" for the first time, calling it "an important achievement for the United States and Israel." The U.S. attempt to condemn Hamas and demand that the militant group stop firing rockets into Israel, using "airborne incendiary devices" and putting civilians at risk sparked a Palestinian-backed amendment sponsored by Bolivia. It outlined the basis for comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace and referred to a December 2016 Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a "flagrant violation" of international law. It also reaffirmed "unwavering support" for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — issues not included in the U.S. draft. But before the vote on the U.S. draft resolution, Bolivian Ambassador Sasha Llorentty Soliz withdrew the amendment. That was because the Palestinians and their supporters wanted a vote instead on a short rival resolution entitled "Comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East" sponsored by Ireland that included the exact language of the amendment — but no mention of Hamas. After the U.S. draft on Hamas failed to win adoption, the General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the Irish resolution by a vote of 156-6, with 12 abstentions. It calls for "the achievement, without delay" of lasting Mideast peace on the basis of U.N. resolutions, singling out the December 2016 measure. And it reaffirms "unwavering support ... for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, based on the pre-1967 borders." The rival resolutions reflect the deep divisions among the 193 U.N. member states over the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and the failure to end it. Saudi Arabia's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, reflecting the Arab view, said the U.S. resolution would "undermine the two-state solution which we aspire to." And he said it would also turn attention away from Israel's occupation, settlement activities and "blockade" — whether in Gaza, the West Bank or east Jerusalem which the Palestinians want as their future capital. Haley sharply criticized the United Nations as having an anti-Israel bias, noting that "over the years, the U.N. has voted to condemn Israel over 500 times" — an average of 20 times a year. She stressed that Hamas' charter "openly calls for the destruction of Israel" and cited a variety of "barbaric terrorist tactics" it has used including suicide bombers and thousands of rockets, flaming kites and balloons. Haley called condemnation of Hamas "an essential step" to a peace settlement. The United States changed its initial draft resolution to get backing from the 28-nation European Union, adding that it supports a comprehensive peace agreement "bearing in mind relevant United Nations resolutions." But the resolution that was voted on never mentioned a two-state solution or referred to Israeli actions against the Palestinians, which some countries considered unbalanced. The overwhelming support for the Irish resolution reflects global support for action "without delay" toward an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a two-state solution.[SEP]UNITED NATIONS, Dec 7 (APP):In a blow to the United States, the U.N. General Assembly has rejected a US-sponsored resolution seeking to condemn Hamas, the Palestinian group administering the besieged Gaza Strip.[SEP]UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly voted on Thursday against a resolution sponsored by U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley to condemn the Palestinian Hamas group as a terrorist organization. The resolution said it would be supporting "just, lasting and comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians," CBS News' Pamela Falk reports. In a symbolic stride, the U.S. resolution did garner support by a majority of members, but failed because it required a supermajority. Haley had been working with the EU and other regional blocs to get the support for the U.S. resolution, which it did, Falk said. The vote was symbolically important because, from the time Haley arrived at the U.N. in January 2017, she has made a point of trying to turn the tide of what the Trump administration considers overwhelmingly anti-Israel resolutions and this vote illustrated what an uphill battle that turned out to be. Before the vote, in a letter to diplomats obtained by CBS News, Haley wrote "the United States takes the outcome of this vote very seriously." Haley told the General Assembly before the vote that "peace must be built on truth. To its shame, the General Assembly has avoided the truth of Hamas terrorism for far too long." Before the vote on the resolution, the 193-member world body had narrowly voted to require a two-thirds majority for approval as sought by Arab nations for rather than the simple majority urged by the United States. Haley told the assembly before the vote that it could make history and unconditionally speak out against Hamas, which she called "one of the most obvious and grotesque cases of terrorism in the world." But the vote on the resolution to condemn Hamas was 87 in favor against 57 opposed, with 33 abstentions — a plurality but below the two-thirds requirement to adopt it. The vote to require a two-thirds majority was much closer, 75-72, with 26 abstentions and several countries changing their votes to "yes" at the last minute. The U.S. attempt to condemn Hamas and demand that the militant group stop firing rockets into Israel, using "airborne incendiary devices," and putting civilians at risk sparked a Palestinian-backed amendment sponsored by Bolivia. It outlined the basis for comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace and referred to a December 2016 Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a "flagrant violation" of international law. It also reaffirmed "unwavering support" for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - issues not included in the U.S. draft. But before the vote on the U.S. draft resolution, Bolivian Ambassador Sacha Llorenty Soliz withdrew the amendment. That was because the Palestinians and their supporters wanted a vote instead on a short rival resolution sponsored by Ireland that included the exact language of the amendment. After the U.S. draft on Hamas failed to win adoption, the General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the Irish resolution by a vote of 156-6, with 12 abstentions. It calls for "the achievement, without delay, of a comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East" on the basis of U.N. resolutions, singling out the December 2016 measure, and reaffirms "unwavering support ... for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, based on the pre-1967 borders." The rival resolutions reflect the deep divisions among the 193 U.N. member states over the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and the failure to end it.[SEP]UNITED NATIONS: India has abstained from voting on a US-sponsored UN General Assembly draft resolution that would have condemned for the first time the activities of Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza. The resolution ‘Activities of Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza’ got 87 votes in favor, 58 against with 32 abstentions. The resolution failed to be adopted Thursday as it could not garner two-thirds support in the General Assembly. India was among the 32 countries that abstained from voting on the resolution which would have condemned Hamas for “repeatedly firing rockets into Israel and for inciting violence, thereby putting civilians at risk”, and for its use of resources in Gaza to construct military infrastructure including tunnels to infiltrate Israel and equipment to launch rockets into civilian areas. The resolution had specified that further engagement by the UN Secretary-General, and the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, in efforts to de-escalate the situation in Gaza, was also needed. Through a procedural vote held before the main vote on the resolution, the Assembly had voted to apply the two-thirds majority requirement for the adoption of the draft. Before the voting, US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley, said that despite more than 500 General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel, not one condemning Hamas has ever been adopted. Hailey, the highest ranking Indian-American in the Donald Trump administration who is stepping down from the post at the end of this month, described the two-thirds decision, which passed by just a handful of votes, as “unfair” adding that the Hamas resolution was an opportunity for States to “do the right thing.” “There is nothing more anti-Semitic than saying we cannot condemn terrorism against Israel, while we would not hesitate for one minute to condemn the same acts if they were taken against any other country. The people who have suffered by far the most because of Hamas are the Palestinian people. For their sake, the world should speak out against the destruction of Hamas and what it continues to cause,” she said. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said that the resolution had been a chance for “UN redemption” and that those who had voted against it “should be ashamed of themselves”. He said Hamas exploits the people of Gaza, adding that the organization is in flagrant violation of international law. There is no difference between Hamas, and Al-Qaida and Boko Haram, he said, adding that as the Jewish people are celebrating Hanukkah, the plurality of Member States of the United Nations has chosen to condemn Hamas. A number of States explained their reasons for voting against the resolution. The Saudi Arabian representative stated that, since 1967, Israel has not respected any General Assembly or Security Council resolutions, whilst Kuwait and Iran’s representatives said that the resolution “ignores” and “deflects attention from” the root causes of the conflict. The representative of Kuwait called for respecting relevant United Nations resolutions in efforts to address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and stressed the importance of a two State solution based on pre-1967 borders. Speaking after action had been taken on the drafts, the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine said the strong support for draft that was adopted was an unequivocal affirmation, especially significant in view of actions aimed at eroding the global consensus for a just solution for the Palestinian people. PTI[SEP]Ambassador Nikki Haley’s final resolution secures only 87 votes, falling short of the required two-thirds majority A U.S. resolution championed by Ambassador Nikki Haley to condemn the Palestinian Hamas movement at the United Nations for firing rockets at Israel failed to win enough votes for adoption on Thursday. The proposed measure won 87 votes in the General Assembly, falling short of the required two-thirds majority. Fifty-eight countries opposed the measure and 32 abstained. Haley, who steps down from her post at the end of the year, has repeatedly accused the United Nations of having an anti-Israel bias and has defended Israel in its latest confrontation with Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007. It was the first proposed resolution condemning Hamas to be presented to the 193-nation assembly, which has been meeting since 1946. Speaking ahead of the vote, Haley said the measure “would right a historic wrong” and “put the General Assembly on the side of truth and balance in the effort to achieve peace in the Middle East.” “The question before us now is whether the U.N. thinks terrorism is acceptable if, and only if, it is directed against Israel,” she told the assembly. Hamas praised the outcome of the vote, describing it as a “slap” to President Donald Trump’s administration, which has taken a firm pro-Israeli stance in addressing the Middle East peace process. “The failure of the American venture at the United Nations represents a slap to the U.S. administration and confirmation of the legitimacy of the resistance,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri wrote on Twitter, using a phrase commonly used to refer to armed groups that oppose Israel. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon lamented after the vote that a decision to condemn Hamas had been “hijacked” by procedural votes and hailed the “broad support from the world” for condemning Hamas. Kuwait had asked the assembly, on behalf of Arab countries, to require a two-thirds majority, which was narrowly endorsed by a vote of 75 in favor, including E.U. countries, 72 against and 26 abstentions. The United States had won crucial backing from the European Union, with all 28 countries supporting the U.S. measure that would have condemned Hamas for firing rockets into Israel and demanded an end to the violence. The European Union, like the United States, considers Hamas a terror group. The assembly also adopted by a wide margin of 156 to six with 12 abstentions a Palestinian-drafted measure, presented by Ireland, calling “for the achievement, without delay, of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East” based on U.N. resolutions. The United States, Israel, Australia, Liberia, Marshall Islands and Nauru voted against that measure. The vote at the assembly took place as Haley prepares to step away from public life even as polls show she remains one of the most popular members of Trump’s cabinet. Haley rattled the United Nations when she arrived in January 2017 vowing that the United States will be “taking names” of countries that oppose Trump’s foreign policy. Ahead of the vote, the U.S. ambassador sent a letter to all U.N. missions to make clear that “the United States takes the outcome of this vote very seriously.” “She would like to go out with something,” said a Security Council diplomat of the U.S.-drafted resolution. Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly are non-binding, but they carry political weight and are seen as a barometer of world opinion. The U.S. defeat at the General Assembly came as the Trump administration prepares to unveil long-awaited peace proposals, possibly in the first months of next year. The Palestinians have severed ties with the Trump administration since the decision a year ago to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and declare the city Israel’s capital. The Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. International consensus has been that Jerusalem’s status must be negotiated between the two sides.[SEP](UNITED NATIONS) — A U.S.-sponsored draft resolution that for the first time would have condemned the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the U.N. General Assembly. Before Thursday’s vote, the 193-member world body had narrowly voted to require a two-thirds majority which Arab nations pressed for rather than a simple majority which the United States urged. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the assembly before the vote that it could make history and unconditionally speak out against Hamas which she called “one of the most obvious and grotesque cases of terrorism in the world.” But the vote on the resolution to condemn Hamas was 87-57 with 33 abstentions, a plurality below the two-thirds requirement.[SEP]Alwaght- The United Nations General Assembly has rejected a US-sponsored resolution seeking to condemn the Palestinian Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas. The resolution, which was backed strongly by the Israeli regime, needed a two-thirds majority to pass on Thursday following an earlier vote in the assembly. The proposal failed to cross the threshold, with 87 nations voting in favor and 57 voting against. Thirty-three countries abstained. The earlier vote to require a two-thirds majority, which followed a procedural move requested by Kuwait, was much closer: 75-72, with 26 abstentions. The resolution was one of the hawkish US ambassador to the UN envoy Nikki Haley's final acts in the international body before she leaves her post at the end of the year. In an official statement, Hamas thanked UN member states "that stood by our people's resistance and the justice of their cause" and attacked Haley who it said "is known for her extremism and her positions that support the Zionist terrorism in Palestine". Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri described the vote as a "slap" to President Donald Trump's administration. "The failure of the American venture at the United Nations represents a slap to the US administration and confirmation of the legitimacy of the resistance," Zahri wrote on Twitter. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, also welcomed the resolution's defeat saying: "The Palestinian presidency will not allow for the condemnation of the national Palestinian struggle." In 2006, Hamas beat Fatah in parliamentary elections in the Gaza Strip and, a year later, fighting between the rival factions broke out. When Hamas eventually took control, the Israeli regime responded by enforcing a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza. The Egyptian regime followed suit, effectively sealing the Strip - often described as the world's largest prison - from the outside world. Gaza's continued isolation has devastated its economy, impoverished its population and left 60 percent without jobs, adequate electricity and health services.[SEP]A US-sponsored draft resolution that would have condemned the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the UN General Assembly on Thursday. The draft received 87 votes in favor, 57 against, 33 abstentions and 16 countries did not vote. Germany voted in favor of the draft resolution. Before the assembly voted on the text, the 193-member world body had narrowly voted to require a two-thirds majority for approval as sought by Arab nations, rather than the simple majority urged by the United States. The vote to require a two-thirds majority was close, 75-72, with 26 abstentions and several countries changing their votes to "yes" at the last minute. US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the assembly before the vote that it could make history and unconditionally speak out against Hamas, which she called "one of the most obvious and grotesque cases of terrorism in the world." "What the UN chooses to do today will speak volumes about each country's seriousness when it comes to condemning anti-Semitism," Haley said. "Because there is nothing more anti-Semitic than saying terrorism is not terrorism when it's used against the Jewish people and the Jewish state." Both the United States and European Union have classified Hamas as a terrorist group. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told the Reuters news agency, "Rejecting the American drafted resolution against the resistance represents a blow to the American administration and reaffirms the legitimacy of the resistance." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party has been locked in a power struggle with Hamas, welcomed the resolution's defeat saying, "The Palestinian presidency will not allow for the condemnation of the national Palestinian struggle." The US attempt to condemn Hamas and demand that the militant group firing rockets into Israel, using "airborne incendiary devices," and putting civilians at risk sparked a Palestinian-backed amendment sponsored by Bolivia. The amendment outlined the basis for comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace and referred to a December 2016 Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a "flagrant violation" of international law. It also reaffirmed "unwavering support" for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - issues that were not included in the US draft. However, before the vote on the US draft resolution, Bolivian Ambassador Sasha Llorentty Soliz withdrew the amendment. That was because the Palestinians and their supporters wanted a vote instead on a short rival resolution sponsored by Ireland that included the exact language of the amendment. After the US draft on Hamas was not adopted, the General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the Irish resolution by a vote of 156-6, with 12 abstentions. It called for "the achievement, without delay, of a comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East" on the basis of UN resolutions, singling out the December 2016 measure, and reaffirms "unwavering support ... for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, based on the pre-1967 borders." The two rival resolutions reflect the deep divisions among the 193 UN member states over the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the failure to end it. Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly are non-binding, however, they carry political weight and are seen as a barometer of world opinion. Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.[SEP]UNITED NATIONS—The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday rejected a U.S. resolution condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization, delivering a blow to Ambassador Nikki Haley’s parting action before leaving her post at the end of the year. The vote was the first time that the General Assembly was considering a resolution regarding Hamas, the Palestinian movement controlling the Gaza Strip since 2007. The resolution condemned Hamas and called for an end to violence.[SEP]A bid championed by US Ambassador Nikki Haley to condemn the Palestinian Hamas movement at the United Nations for firing rockets at Israel failed to secure enough votes for adoption on Thursday. The US-drafted resolution won 87 votes in the General Assembly, falling short of the two-thirds majority required for adoption. Fifty-eight countries opposed the measure and 32 abstained. Haley, who steps down from her post at the end of the year, has repeatedly accused the United Nations of having an anti-Israel bias and has defended Israel in its latest confrontation with Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007. "The resolution proposed by the United States would right a historic wrong," Haley told the assembly ahead of the vote. "More importantly, it would put the General Assembly on the side of truth and balance in the effort to achieve peace in the Middle East." It was the first-ever proposed resolution condemning Hamas to be presented to the 193-nation assembly. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon lamented after the vote that a decision to condemn Hamas had been "hijacked" by a procedural motion that required adoption by a two-thirds majority, instead of a simple majority. Kuwait had asked the assembly, on behalf of Arab countries, to require a two-thirds majority, which was narrowly endorsed by a vote of 75 in favor, including EU countries, 72 against and 26 abstentions. The United States had won crucial backing from the European Union, with all 28 countries supporting the US measure that would have condemned Hamas for firing rockets into Israel and demands an end to the violence. The European Union, like the United States, considers Hamas a terror group. The assembly was to vote later on a Palestinian-drafted measure, presented by Ireland, calling "for the achievement, without delay, of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East" based on UN resolutions. The vote at the assembly took place as Haley prepares to step away from public life even as polls show she remains one of the most popular members of President Donald Trump's cabinet. Haley rattled the United Nations when she arrived in January 2017 vowing that the United States will be "taking names" of countries that oppose Trump's foreign policy. Ahead of the vote, the US ambassador sent a letter to all UN missions to make clear that "the United States takes the outcome of this vote very seriously." "She would like to go out with something," said a Security Council diplomat of the US-drafted resolution. Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly are non-binding, but they carry political weight and are seen as a barometer of world opinion. The US defeat at the General Assembly came as the Trump administration prepares to unveil new peace proposals that the Palestinians have already rejected. The Palestinians have severed ties with the Trump administration after the decision a year ago to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and declare the city Israel's capital. The Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. International consensus has been that Jerusalem's status must be negotiated between the two sides.

A U.S.-sponsored resolution to condemn Hamas fails to get adopted at the United Nations General Assembly.

The daughter of Huawei's founder, a top executive at the Chinese technology giant, was arrested in Canada and faces extradition to the United States, stirring up fears it could reignite a Sino-U.S. trade row and roiling global stock markets. The arrest of Meng Wanzhou, 46, who is Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's chief financial officer, threatens to drive a wedge between the United States and China just days after they agreed a 90-day trade war truce in Argentina on Saturday - the day she was detained. Meng's arrest, revealed late on Wednesday by Canadian authorities, is related to U.S. sanctions, a person familiar with the matter said. Reuters was unable to determine the precise nature of the possible violations. People familiar with the matter told Reuters in April that U.S. authorities have been investigating Huawei, the world's largest telecoms equipment maker, since at least 2016 for allegedly shipping U.S.-origin products to Iran and other countries in violation of U.S. export and sanctions laws. The arrest and any potential sanctions on the world's no. 2 smartphone maker could have major repercussions on the global technology supply chain. U.S. and Asian shares tumbled as news of the arrest heightened anxiety over prospects of a collision between the world's two largest economic powers, not just over tariffs but also over technological hegemony. Huawei is already under intense scrutiny from Washington and other western governments over its ties to the Chinese government, driven by concerns it could be used by Beijing for spying. It has been locked out of the U.S. and some other markets for telecom gear. Huawei has repeatedly insisted Beijing has no influence over it. Meng, one of the vice chairs on the company's board and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities and a court hearing has been set for Friday, a Canadian Justice Department spokesman said. Trump and Xi had dined in Buenos Aires on Dec. 1 at the G20 summit. Huawei, which generated US$93 billion in revenue last year, confirmed the arrest. "The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng," it said in a statement. She was detained while transferring flights in Canada, it added. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily briefing on Thursday that China had asked Canada and the United States for an explanation of Meng's arrest, but they have “not provided any clarification". The Chinese consulate in Vancouver has been providing her assistance, he added, declining further comment. On Wednesday, China's embassy in Canada said it resolutely opposed the arrest and called for her immediate release. In April, the sources told Reuters the U.S. Justice Department probe was being handled by the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn. The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday declined to comment. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn also declined to comment. Lu Xiang, an expert on China-U.S. relations at the state-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, called Meng's arrest “extremely shocking.” "If someone from the United States is hoping to use threats to an individual’s personal safety in order to add weight in the talks, then they have most certainly miscalculated," he said. Arthur Kroeber, founder of Gavekal Dragonomics, said Beijing was unlikely to retaliate against the U.S. business community in China because its interests have partly overlapped with China’s in the trade war, giving Beijing some leverage. Jia Wenshan, a professor at Chapman University in California, said the arrest "runs a huge risk of derailing the U.S.-China trade talks." While Meng's arrest comes at a delicate time in U.S.-China relations, it was not clear if the timing was coincidental. The probe of Huawei is similar to one that threatened the survival of China's ZTE, which pleaded guilty in 2017 to violating U.S. laws that restrict the sale of American-made technology to Iran in efforts to curb Tehran's missile and nuclear programs. Earlier this year, the United States banned U.S. firms from selling parts and software to ZTE, which eventually paid $1 billion as part of a deal to get the ban lifted. Huawei has said it complies with all applicable export control and sanctions laws and other regulations. News of the arrest came the same day Britain's BT Group said it was removing Huawei's equipment from the core of its existing 3G and 4G mobile operations and would not use the Chinese company in central parts of the next network. In January 2013, Reuters reported that Hong Kong-based Skycom Tech Co Ltd, which attempted to sell embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone operator, had much closer ties to Huawei than previously known. Meng, who also has used the English names Cathy and Sabrina, served on the board of Skycom between February 2008 and April 2009, according to Skycom records and several other past and present Skycom directors appear to have connections to Huawei. U.S. Senator Ben Sasse praised the move and said that it was "for breaking U.S. sanctions against Iran." He added: "Sometimes Chinese aggression is explicitly state-sponsored and sometimes it's laundered through many of Beijing's so-called 'private' sector entities."[SEP]The arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada on Wednesday brought the Chinese telecom giant’s business practices under global scrutiny and raised questions about the state of tenuous trade negotiations between the U.S. and China. Meng, 46, faces extradition to the U.S. after her arrest on suspicion of violating existing sanctions against Iran. Aside from her role as a top Huawei executive, she is the daughter of the company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei. Huawei is among China’s most influential firms, with revenue of roughly $92 billion in 2017 alone, according to Reuters. The company ranks as the world’s top supplier of telecommunications network equipment and the second-most prolific maker of smartphones, ranking ahead of California-based Apple and trailing only South Korea-based Samsung. Huawei’s rise to dominance has generated controversy. The firm became prominent in the 1990s amid allegations of copying rival technology and undercutting prices. The U.S. government has largely banned the use of Huawei equipment by its agencies, and intelligence officials have warned that Beijing may have the ability to tap into the firm’s equipment to spy on users. Under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. government pressured allies to limit their use of Huawei technology due to security concerns. The Trump administration has argued that Huawei has benefited from market manipulation and other unfair practices. Australia and New Zealand recently banned Huawei from building 5G networks in their countries. The dispute over Meng’s arrest comes just days after the U.S. and China agreed to a temporary truce on their escalating trade conflict. The U.S. has slapped tariffs on billions of dollars in Chinese goods in what the Trump administration says is an effort to crack down on intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices. Beijing has responded with retaliatory measures. Meng’s arrested caused global markets to tumble and prompted a stern response from China, which has demanded her immediate release. The exact circumstances of her arrest were unclear. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that U.S. officials were investigating Huawei’s ties to Iran.[SEP]OTTAWA -- As details of American allegations against a Chinese executive were revealed Friday in a Vancouver court, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada's ambassador in Beijing had briefed the Chinese foreign ministry on her arrest. Freeland said that Ambassador John McCallum has assured the Chinese foreign ministry that due process is being followed in Canada and consular access will be provided to Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies. She was arrested at the Vancouver airport on Saturday after a request by the United States. Freeland refused to discuss details of the case, citing the imperative of keeping politics out of a live court proceeding -- one that clearly has massive geopolitical ramifications. The case will likely intensify pressure on the Trudeau government, which is being urged to refuse to allow Huawei products in Canada's next-generation 5G telecommunications networks. A Canadian prosecutor told a Vancouver court on Friday that the United States asked Canada to arrest Meng because the U.S. alleges she violated sanctions on Iran. The allegation against Meng came in a packed Vancouver courtroom during a hearing on whether she should be released on bail before an extradition process. The Crown lawyer told the hearing that the U.S. alleges Huawei Technologies used subsidiary Skycom to do business with Iran, violating sanctions against that country. Meng is being accused of fraud by the U.S. government, which wants her extradited from Canada to face the charge. The Crown says Meng is alleged to have said Huawei and Skycom were separate and she allegedly lied to an executive of an unnamed financial institution, which it asserts put the institution at risk. China's foreign ministry has pushed Canada to reveal the reason for the arrest and the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa has branded Meng's arrest a serious violation of human rights. Freeland highlighted McCallum's elevated diplomatic status as a former Liberal cabinet minister, and characterized his conversation with the Chinese as positive. "I have not spoken directly to Chinese officials but John McCallum, our ambassador to China -- our very senior ambassador to China -- has spoken with Chinese officials," Freeland said Friday in a teleconference from meetings in Berlin. "And he has assured China that due process is absolutely being followed in Canada and consular access for China to Ms. Meng will be provided, and that we are a rule-of-law country, and we will be following our laws as we have thus far in this matter, and as we will continue to do." Freeland reiterated what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday: that Meng's arrest was part of an independent legal process that is separate from politics. "The Chinese are well aware of John's seniority," she said. "They have had a good conversation with John. John has been very clear with the Chinese authorities -- as we are with Canadians -- that this was a matter handled as a part of our rule-of-law process; it was done without any engagement on involvement in the political level because we respect the independence of our judiciary." McCallum was clear that Chinese consular officials will have access to Meng "just as we seek consular access for detained Canadians around the world, including in China." Meng's father, the billionaire Ren Zhengfei, founded Huawei Technologies Ltd. in 1987 and established it in the southern China city of Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong. Among other things, it is working with Telus and Bell Canada to develop equipment for fifth-generation wireless networks that are expected to transform telecommunications around the world over the next decade or more. Huawei has become the world's biggest supplier of equipment used by phone and internet companies. But the company has faced widespread allegations that is it is an espionage organ of the Chinese military and security services -- an accusation the company strongly denies. The U.S. has led a charge to ban the use of Huawei products among its allies, particularly the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network that also includes Canada, Australia, Britain and New Zealand. So far, New Zealand and Australia have banned the company from their 5G networks; Britain has expressed concerns and is considering measures. Asked this week about a possible Canadian ban on Huawei, Trudeau said he would defer to the advice of his intelligence agencies. The new director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service flagged issues surrounding 5G technology in a major speech this week in which he described the threat to Canada's national security posed by "economic espionage" from "hostile states." David Vigneault did not name China or Huawei in his speech, but he noted that "many of these advanced technologies are dual-use in nature in that they could advance a country's economic, security or military interests." "In particular, CSIS has seen a trend of state-sponsored espionage in fields that are crucial to Canada's ability to build and sustain a prosperous, knowledge-based economy," he added. "I'm talking about areas such as A.I., quantum technology, 5G, biopharma, and clean tech." On Thursday, former prime minister Stephen Harper told Fox Business News that while he was in power he became increasingly concerned about allowing the use of equipment from Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom-equipment manufacturer. "These are organizations, ultimately, tightly tied to the Chinese security apparatus, and we think there are some real, serious issues there," Harper said. "The United States is encouraging western allies to essentially push Huawei out of the emerging 5G network, and my personal view is that is something that western countries should be doing in terms of our own long-term security issues."[SEP]The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the arrest of an executive of Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies (all times local): A Japanese official has cast doubt over reports that Japan plans to exclude Chinese telecoms equipment makers Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp. from government purchases due to security concerns. The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri reported Friday that Tokyo might take the action following the lead of the U.S. and some other countries. The report, citing unnamed sources, said government officials planned to meet to discuss such a move. TRENDING: Illegal Immigrant Arrested on Murder Charge After Being Deported 8 Times A senior official at the government office in charge of cybersecurity said Japan has not made such a decision. He said some new policy may be announced next week but it would likely not be what was being reported. The dramatic arrest of a Chinese telecommunications executive has driven home why it will be so hard for the Trump administration to resolve its deepening conflict with China. The Huawei Technologies executive, Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, faces extradition to the United States. A bail hearing was set for Friday. In the short run, her arrest heightens skepticism about the trade truce that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping reached last weekend in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Share markets were rattled by fears that the 90-day cease-fire won’t last. Huawei has been a subject of U.S. national security concerns that extend well beyond tariffs or market access. Washington and Beijing are locked in a clash between the world’s two largest economies for economic and political dominance for decades to come. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]TOKYO (AP) — World financial markets took another plunge Thursday on concerns that the arrest of a senior official at Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei could hinder progress in China-U.S. trade talks. The price of oil also fell even though OPEC was expected to agree on a production cut to support the energy market. KEEPING SCORE: The DAX in Germany fell 2.4 percent to 10,933 and France's CAC 40 dropped 2.2 percent to 4,836. The FTSE 100 in Britain lost 2.2 percent to 6,767. U.S. futures also augured a downbeat start for Wall Street after markets were closed Wednesday to mourn the death of former President George H.W. Bush. The contract for the Dow lost 1.6 percent and that for the S&P 500 declined 1.5 percent. ASIA'S DAY: Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 2.5 percent to 26,156.38 and Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 1.9 percent to 21,501.62. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2 percent to 5,657.70, while South Korea's Kospi sank 1.6 percent to 2,068.69. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.7 percent to 2,605.18. Shares also fell in Taiwan and all other regional markets. HUAWEI: The news of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou's arrest sent shares sharply lower. Shares had rallied Monday following President Donald Trump's agreement with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping over the weekend to hold off on further retaliatory moves in a festering trade war. But they've since fallen back amid confusion over what the two sides agreed to and whether the deal will enable Beijing and Washington to resolve longstanding, profound differences over technology policy and other issues. China demanded Meng's immediate release. ANALYST'S TAKE: "We are closely watching the developments in Asia after reports that Canada has arrested the Huawei CFO facing U.S. extradition for allegedly violating Iran sanctions. This headline is quite significant as the U.S. government is attempting to persuade allies to stop using Huawei equipment due to security fears, and this headline could weigh negatively on tech stocks," said Stephen Innes, head of trading at Oanda in Singapore. OPEC'S MOVE: OPEC countries gathered Thursday to find a way to support the falling price of oil, with analysts predicting the cartel and some key allies, like Russia, would agree to cut production by at least 1 million barrels per day. OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia indicated it was in favor of such a cut. The expectation did not keep the price of oil from falling, however, as investors focused on the potential economic disruption from any escalation in the U.S.-China trade war. Benchmark U.S. crude lost $1.45 to $51.44 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, dropped $1.48 to $60.08 per barrel. CURRENCY: The dollar slipped to 112.80 yen from 113.20 yen. The euro was flat at $1.1345. Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama[SEP]TOKYO (AP) — World financial markets took another plunge Thursday on concerns that the arrest of a senior official at Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei could hinder progress in China-U.S. trade talks. The price of oil also fell even though OPEC was expected to agree on a production cut to support the energy market. KEEPING SCORE: The DAX in Germany fell 2.4 percent to 10,933 and France's CAC 40 dropped 2.2 percent to 4,836. The FTSE 100 in Britain lost 2.2 percent to 6,767. U.S. futures also augured a downbeat start for Wall Street after markets were closed Wednesday to mourn the death of former President George H.W. Bush. The contract for the Dow lost 1.6 percent and that for the S&P 500 declined 1.5 percent. ASIA'S DAY: Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 2.5 percent to 26,156.38 and Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 1.9 percent to 21,501.62. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2 percent to 5,657.70, while South Korea's Kospi sank 1.6 percent to 2,068.69. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.7 percent to 2,605.18. Shares also fell in Taiwan and all other regional markets. HUAWEI: The news of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou's arrest sent shares sharply lower. Shares had rallied Monday following President Donald Trump's agreement with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping over the weekend to hold off on further retaliatory moves in a festering trade war. But they've since fallen back amid confusion over what the two sides agreed to and whether the deal will enable Beijing and Washington to resolve longstanding, profound differences over technology policy and other issues. China demanded Meng's immediate release. ANALYST'S TAKE: "We are closely watching the developments in Asia after reports that Canada has arrested the Huawei CFO facing U.S. extradition for allegedly violating Iran sanctions. This headline is quite significant as the U.S. government is attempting to persuade allies to stop using Huawei equipment due to security fears, and this headline could weigh negatively on tech stocks," said Stephen Innes, head of trading at Oanda in Singapore. OPEC'S MOVE: OPEC countries gathered Thursday to find a way to support the falling price of oil, with analysts predicting the cartel and some key allies, like Russia, would agree to cut production by at least 1 million barrels per day. OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia indicated it was in favor of such a cut. The expectation did not keep the price of oil from falling, however, as investors focused on the potential economic disruption from any escalation in the U.S.-China trade war. Benchmark U.S. crude lost $1.45 to $51.44 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, dropped $1.48 to $60.08 per barrel. CURRENCY: The dollar slipped to 112.80 yen from 113.20 yen. The euro was flat at $1.1345. Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama[SEP]China’s Huawei Technologies Co. is planning to overhaul its global software systems as it tries to avoid a ban in the U.K. and other European markets, after previous piecemeal fixes failed to assuage national security concerns, according to people familiar with the matter. Huawei is set to commit at least $2 billion in spending to make its equipment less vulnerable to hacking and snooping, said the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. Huawei will offer to transform the way it engineers software, instead of merely applying one-off changes and workarounds in response to specific demands from companies and governments, and that work will continue until all security concerns are assuaged, they said. The pledge comes at a critical moment for Huawei’s ambitions in Europe, its second-biggest market outside of Asia. European phone companies are on the cusp of ordering tens of billions of euros worth of equipment for fifth-generation wireless networks and Huawei has spent more than a decade positioning itself to win much of that work. Its plans are now under threat as Western governments grow increasingly concerned that Huawei’s systems could be used as a Trojan horse by Chinese intelligence. Its reputation suffered a further blow when Chief Financial Officer Wanzhou Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada on Dec. 1 following allegations it had violated sanctions against Iran, amid a wider tussle on trade between the U.S. and China. Huawei declined to comment. The company has always maintained that it’s independent and doesn’t give the government access to its equipment. Company officials will present the details of the software revamp to Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre in coming days before it presents it to the public, said one of the people. The measures would move beyond smaller-scale fixes it has made in response to a critical July report by a body staffed with intelligence officials and industry representatives. In a sign of how tenuous Huawei’s position in the U.K. has become, the head of foreign intelligence agency MI6 said on Monday the government needs to decide whether Huawei should be banned from the country’s 5G networks. In the last four months it has received bans on 5G from the U.K.’s intelligence-sharing allies Australia and New Zealand, led by a campaign from the U.S., where it is also banned.[SEP]TOKYO (AP) — Asian stock prices skidded Thursday following the arrest of a senior official at Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei that could derail progress in China-U.S. trade talks. KEEPING SCORE: Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 2.7 percent to 26,081.73 and Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 2.5 percent to 21,373.83. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2 percent to 5,657.60, while South Korea's Kospi sank 1.6 percent to 2,068.56. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.7 percent to 2,6043.91. Shares also fell in Taiwan and all other regional markets. WALL STREET: Markets were closed in the U.S. on Wednesday for a day of mourning following the death of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush. The future contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1.3 percent to 24,712.00 and the future for the S&P 500 lost 1.2 percent to 2,668.30. HUAWEI: The news of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou's arrest sent shares sharply lower. Share prices rallied early in the week following President Donald Trump's agreement with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping over the weekend to hold off on further retaliatory moves in a festering trade war. But they've since fallen back amid confusion over what the two sides agreed to and whether the deal will enable Beijing and Washington to resolve longstanding, profound differences over technology policy and other issues. China demanded Meng's immediate release and warned the case might lead to retaliation against American and Canadian executives in China. ANALYST'S TAKE: "We are closely watching the developments in Asia after reports that Canada has arrested the Huawei CFO facing U.S. extradition for allegedly violating Iran sanctions. This headline is quite significant as the U.S. government is attempting to persuade allies to stop using Huawei equipment due to security fears, and this headline could weigh negatively on tech stocks," said Stephen Innes, head of trading at Oanda in Singapore. TECHNOLOGY STOCK: Technology shares declined, with Japan's Nintendo Co. down 4.3 percent; Samsung Electronics Co. lost 1.8 percent; ZTE Corp. declined 5.8 percent and Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. dropped 4.6 percent in morning trading. ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude lost 55 cents to $52.34 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 0.7 percent to $52.89 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, dropped 52 cents to $61.06 per barrel. CURRENCY: The dollar slipped to 112.70 yen from 113.20 yen. The euro inched up to $1.1349 from $1.1343. Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama[SEP]As the daughter of the company's founder, Meng Wanzhou was known internally as the "princess" of telecoms giant Huawei and possible heir to the throne, but now finds herself a pawn in the US-China trade clash. Meng, Huawei's chief financial officer, was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States, which seeks to extradite her in a move that could blow tensions between the two powers wide open. Her arrest follows a US probe into the company's alleged violations of sanctions against Iran. The affair is a major setback for a woman who had been rising through the company founded by her father Ren Zhengfei, sparking speculation in recent years that she would some day assume full control. Doing so would make her one of the world's top female corporate bosses. Huawei is the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world after Samsung Electronics, having overtaken Apple earlier this year, and is ranked 72nd on the Fortune Global 500 with revenues of nearly $90 billion in the most recent fiscal year. Its officials have taken pains to stress that the company is a meritocracy, but there seems little doubt that family ties aided Meng's rise. Ren, 74, a former People's Liberation Army engineer, founded the company with a few thousand dollars in 1987, growing it into one of the world's leading suppliers of hardware for telecommunications networks. Meng has sought to stress her own "humble" beginnings, with Chinese media reporting that she once penned an internal memo claiming that her first tasks at the Shenzhen-based company involved secretarial work -- answering phones and acting as a typist. But Meng, reported to be in her mid-40s, went on to earn a Chinese management degree and later joined Huawei's finance department. According to Chinese media, Meng kept her head down for years, to such an extent that few knew who her father was. This may have been aided by the fact that she took her mother's surname from a young age, for reasons that remain unclear. "He is a CEO at work, and a father at home," Meng once said of Ren, to emphasise that competence, not connections, determined one's path at Huawei. In interviews, she has referred to him as "President Ren", rather than "father". But Meng's career soon took off and she rose to top financial positions. Huawei credits her for re-organising the company's financial and IT architecture beginning in the early 2000s, so that the company could cope with its rapid global growth. Little is publicly known about the un-listed Huawei's internal operations, however, and Meng remained an obscure figure until 2011, when the company unveiled its top leadership for the first time with Meng listed as CFO. From there, she began to assume a higher-profile financial role. In contrast to the often colourless male executives who populate the upper ranks of China Inc., Meng is known for an easy smile and good English, and appears to have taken not one but two English names -- "Cathy" and "Sabrina". Despite being dubbed the "Princess of Huawei", she is said to be respected among company rank and file as approachable and self-deprecating. She also appears to have eschewed the socialite lifestyle of her much-younger half-sister, Annabel Yao, a ballerina studying at Harvard University. Speculation that Meng was being groomed for Huawei's pinnacle has increased in recent years. In 2013, it was rumoured that Ren's son, Ren Ping, was the patriarch's favoured successor, which Ren Sr. took pains to deny in an internal email that was later leaked. But Ren Ping is not currently listed on the company's board and mention of him in Chinese media has been rare in recent years. It remains unclear whether Meng is married, but Chinese media previously have reported that she has two children. Even if a deal is reached to release her, it remains a question whether Huawei -- or Chinese authorities -- would permit the continued rise of an executive who will now always be linked to US accusations of company wrongdoing and a symbol of bilateral trade tension.[SEP]BEIJING: Chinese state-run media on Friday (Dec 7) condemned the arrest in Canada of a top executive of telecoms giant Huawei on a US extradition request as a "despicable rogue's approach" to contain Chinese high-tech ambitions. The arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer and daughter of the company's founder, has angered the Chinese government and raised concerns that it could disrupt a trade war truce between the world's two biggest economies. Canada defended the arrest on Thursday, saying there was no political motivation, and a senior advisor to US President Donald Trump denied it was linked to US-China trade talks. But Chinese media cast the move as an assault on the development of the country's high-tech industry. "The Chinese government should seriously mull over the US tendency to abuse legal procedures to suppress China's high-tech enterprises," said the nationalist tabloid Global Times in an editorial. "Obviously, Washington is resorting to a despicable rogue's approach as it cannot stop Huawei's 5G advance in the market," it said. READ: Huawei CFO to appear in Canada court in US extradition case READ: Who is Meng Wanzhou, 'heiress' to Huawei? The China Daily warned that "containing Huawei's expansion is detrimental to China-US ties". US authorities have not disclosed the charges she faces following a publication ban sought by Meng, but "one thing that is undoubtedly true and proven is the US is trying to do whatever it can to contain Huawei's expansion in the world simply because the company is the point man for China's competitive technology companies," the daily said. Meng's arrest follows a US probe into the company's alleged violations of Iran sanctions. She faces a bail hearing in Canada on Friday. Though China's technology sector is still reliant on certain US exports like microchips, Beijing wants to transform the country into a global tech leader - with a technological prowess rivalling the United States - in a plan dubbed "Made in China 2025". Huawei is one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment and services providers. Its products are used by carriers around the world, including in Europe and Africa. But its US business has been tightly constrained by worries it could undermine American competitors and that its cellphones and networking equipment, used widely in other countries, could provide Beijing with avenues for espionage. Australia, New Zealand and Britain have followed suit this year by rejecting some of the company's services over security concerns. Japan too plans to ban government use of telecom products made by Huawei and Chinese tech firm ZTE, reported Japanese media Yomiuri Shimbun on Friday. READ: Explainer: What is China's Huawei Technologies and why is it controversial? Chinese netizens have criticised Meng's arrest on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, where online trolls sometimes deliberately incite nationalist fervour or pro-government stances. Some users viewed the incident as part of the trade war - and a broader conspiracy to keep down China's technological development. "One of the most important reasons why the US started the trade war was to attack China's technology sector and its 'Made in China 2025' plan," wrote one Weibo user. The goal is to keep China stuck in "low-end industries and force China into the middle income trap." The detention of Meng appears to be a "game of politics", wrote another user. Earlier this year, ZTE nearly collapsed after Washington banned US companies from selling crucial hardware and software components to it for seven years, though the ban was lifted after it agreed to pay a US$1 billion fine. Some analysts say Meng's arrest could be used as a bargaining chip, but White House trade advisor Peter Navarro denied it was linked the US-China trade negotiations. "The two issues are totally separate," Navarro told CNN. But CNN, quoting an unnamed official, said that the United States saw the arrest as providing leverage in trade talks. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also denied "any political involvement or interference" in Meng's arrest. "I can assure everyone that we are a country (with) an independent judiciary," Trudeau told a tech conference in Montreal. Trump's national security advisor, John Bolton, said he knew that Canada was planning to arrest Meng, but he declined to discuss specifics of the case. But, he added, the United States has had "enormous concerns for years" about the practice of Chinese firms to "use stolen American intellectual property" and being used as "arms of the Chinese government's objectives in terms of information technology in particular." "So not respecting this particular arrest, but Huawei is one company we've been concerned about," he added.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands that Canada and the United States clarify the reasons behind the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, also asking for her immediate release.

UPDATE: CNN’s New York staff is being let back in to the network’s New York headquarters after being evacuated late Thursday night due to a bomb threat. CNN’s Brian Stelter tweeted that the headquarters had been evacuated while the NYPD investigated. No explosives were found, the NYPD said. The network aired taped programming due to the disruption, including “Anderson Cooper 360” on the East Coast. Stelter also tweeted that 58th Street outside the company’s Columbus Circle headquarters was closed down by police to traffic. CNN anchor Don Lemon tweeted that CNN’s floor in the Time Warner Center was evacuated in the middle of his nightly live show. We were evacuated in the middle of my live show. Bomb threat. We’re running taped programming. NYPD is investigating. Stay tuned. #cnn #nypd — Don Lemon (@donlemon) December 7, 2018 The NYPD is investigating a bomb threat near CNN NYC's office at Columbus Circle. Due to the threat, the office has been evacuated. Right now CNN is airing taped programming due to the disruption. — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 7, 2018 I was at Whole Foods, in the basement of the sprawling Time Warner Center complex, when I heard sirens upstairs. Now 58th St is closed off. pic.twitter.com/DEg3cW5eBB — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 7, 2018[SEP](CNN) Police and CNN have issued an all-clear message after the network's New York offices and studios were evacuated Thursday night because of a phoned-in bomb threat. "The NYPD has now given us the all clear, and employees have been permitted to return to the building,"CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker said in an internal memo to staff. "The building is secure and safe for everyone to return in the morning." "We appreciate the swift action by the local authorities, and the patience and professionalism of all the employees who were impacted." The threat was not substantiated, the New York Police Department tweeted. The threat came Thursday night when a caller indicated there were five devices in the building, according to a law enforcement source. Read More[SEP]NEW YORK — CNN was forced to evacuate its offices in New York late Thursday night after a caller claimed there were five explosive devices in the building, according to reports. Police searched the building and gave an “all clear” just before midnight, NBC News reports. The bomb threat was called in at 10:07 p.m., police say. According to CNN, network employees evacuated the offices in the Time Warner Center building. Don Lemon’s “CNN Tonight” was in a commercial break and was replaced with taped programming during the evacuation. In October, CNN and several Democratic politicians were targeted in a wave of pipe bombs sent by mail. The devices did not detonate and there were no injuries. A Florida man, Cesar Sayoc, was arrested in connection with the threats and indicted on more than 30 federal counts. To comment on this story, visit Thursday’s crime and courts comment section.[SEP]WABC-TV(NEW YORK) — The Time Warner Center in Manhattan, New York, which houses CNN, was evacuated after someone called in a bomb threat late Thursday, New York ABC station WABC reported. After a sweep of the building, police did not find any explosives and employees were allowed back inside the building just after 11 p.m. CNN security also searched and found nothing. Several CNN employees were tweeting about the incident. Host Don Lemon said he was evacuated while his show was on-air. Chris Cuomo also tweeted about the incident, but said employees expected to be allowed back into the building “ASAP.” CNN was also evacuated just two months ago after a pipe bomb was sent to the building and intercepted in the mail room. That package was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, who was a contributor to the network for a time. Cesar Sayoc, a Florida resident, was arrested for allegedly sending that bomb, as well as a number of others, to prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Cory Booker and Maxine Waters. Sayoc was indicted last month. The building is located in Columbus Circle at the southwest corner of Central Park. It also includes residences, a Whole Foods store and a number of high-end stores, such as Michael Kors, Swarovski, Cole Haan and Coach. President Donald Trump, who has made a political career of attacking CNN, had actually just tweeted about “fake news” the same hour of the bomb threat. He has repeatedly referred to CNN by that moniker.[SEP]CNN’s New York offices and studios have been evacuated due to a phoned bomb threat, the company said. Several fire alarm bells rang inside CNN’s New York newsroom, signaling an evacuation shortly after 10:30 p.m. Staffers evacuated the building and Don Lemon’s “CNN Tonight” was taken off the air and the network temporarily went to taped programming. “We were told to evacuate the building and to do it as soon as possible. We grabbed what we could and got out of the building and now, we are standing outside of the building,” Lemon said. “All of the employees, all the people who were in the building as we were doing our live broadcast are out of the Time Warner Center now,” he added. Numerous police and fire department trucks have blocked all vehicle and pedestrian traffic on West 58th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue due to a police investigation at Columbus Circle, where the Time Warner Center is located, the New York Police Department tweeted. The network’s bureau in the Time Warner Center was evacuated in October after a package with an explosive device, addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, was discovered, officials said. This is a developing story – more to come[SEP](CNN) –CNN’s New York offices and studios have been evacuated because of a phoned-in bomb threat, the company said. The threat came Thursday night when a caller indicated there were five devices in the building, according to a law enforcement source. Several fire alarm bells rang inside CNN’s New York newsroom, signaling an evacuation shortly after the call was received. Staffers evacuated the CNN New York offices in the Time Warner Center building and Don Lemon’s “CNN Tonight,” which had been on a commercial break, was taken off the air and the network temporarily went to taped programming. “We were told to evacuate the building and to do it as soon as possible. We grabbed what we could and got out of the building and now, we are standing outside of the building,” Lemon said. “All of the employees, all the people who were in the building as we were doing our live broadcast are out of the Time Warner Center now,” he added. Numerous police and fire department trucks have blocked all vehicle and pedestrian traffic on West 58th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue due to a police investigation at Columbus Circle, where the Time Warner Center is located, the New York Police Department tweeted. A bomb squad is on standby outside the building as police officers search the offices, a law enforcement source said. The network’s bureau was evacuated in October after a package with an explosive device, addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, was discovered, officials said. That package was among more than a dozen improvised explosive devices sent to prominent Democratic politicians and donors around the country in October. None of the devices detonated, and no one was injured. Suspect Cesar Sayoc, 56, was charged with five federal crimes and is currently in custody waiting for trail. If convicted, he could receive up to 48 years in prison.[SEP]CNN’s New York offices and studios have been evacuated due to a phoned bomb threat, the company said. Several fire alarm bells rang inside CNN’s New York newsroom, signaling an evacuation shortly after 10:30 p.m. Staffers evacuated the building and Don Lemon’s “CNN Tonight” was taken off the air. In the meantime, the network has gone to taped programming. Numerous police and fire department trucks have blocked all vehicle and pedestrian traffic on West 58th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue due to a police investigation at Columbus Circle, where the Time Warner Center is located, the New York Police Department tweeted. The network’s bureau in the Time Warner Center was evacuated in October after a package with an explosive device, addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, was discovered, officials said.[SEP]“We were evacuated in the middle of my live show. Bomb threat. We’re running taped programming. NYPD is investigating. Stay tuned,” CNN anchor Don Lemon tweeted this Thursday night after his newsroom was cleared in the wake of a bomb threat. Alarm bells began ringing inside the New York CNN building just after 10:30 p.m. ET, according to CNN. Don Lemon’s CNN Tonight was taken off the air mid-broadcast as staffers fled the building. West 58th Street, between 8th and 9th, was blocked to all vehicle and pedestrian traffic Thursday night as police and fire trucks arrived on scene. This is where the Time Warner Center is located, and the police are conducting the investigation. This is where CNN headquarters are located, according to Variety. CNN is one of over 10 targets that received a bomb in October through the mail. Cesar Sayoc, a Florida resident, was arrested for sending the bombs on October 27, according to CBS News. Sayoc targeted Democratic politicians and entities considered to be in opposition of Donald Trump, the sitting president. Sayoc was indicted on more than 30 charges, and could spend more than 50 years in prison. None of his bombs detonated, and no was injured. Soon after news broke of the bomb threat Thursday night, Twitter users pointed out that Donald Trump called CNN “fake news — enemy of the people” minutes before CNN was evacuated. Trump has often called CNN fake news in the past, and famously banned CNN reporter Jim Acosta from White House press briefings recently. Shortly thereafter, a judge ordered the White House to restore Acosta’s credentials. By 11:30 p.m. Thursday night, CNN was back with live programming, but not from the New York studio. Anchors began broadcasting from the street while still surrounded by emergency vehicles. The NYPD is still actively investigating the scene, and as of this writing, the Time Warner building is still empty. According to CNN anchors, there are potentially up to five bombs hidden somewhere in the Time Warner Center. As of Thursday night, the news network had little information about the threats due to the ongoing investigation. The bomb squad will want to go over the building with extreme care, and will not allow people back inside until all dangers have been assessed. This could take hours, leaving CNN on the street for most of the night. CNN’s response to the threat and determination to continue broadcasting, even from the street outside the studio, is nothing short of heroic. CNN was the first 24-hour cable news channel on the air, with a history that dates to 1980.[SEP]The Time Warner Center building in the city of New York in the United States that houses the offices and studios of CNN was evacuated on Thursday night after the police received a call about a bomb threat. The New York Police Department allowed employees to return to the building after a search operation, CNN reported. The New York Police Department said it received the call at 10.07 pm on Thursday (8.37 am on Friday in India) about the bomb threat. After combing through the channel’s offices, the police said the “threat was not substantiated”. An unideintified law enforcement official said the caller had indicated there were five explsoive devices in the building. CNN host Don Lemon tweeted that employees were evacuated in the middle of his live show. “We were told to evacuate the building and to do it as soon as possible,” Lemon said. “We grabbed what we could and got out of the building and now, we are standing outside of the building.” The netowrk said it ran taped programming for half an hour and then went live from the street while the police investigated. CNN’s bureau was evacuated two months ago after a package with an explosive device addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, who was a contributor to the network at the time, was discovered. Cesar Sayoc, who allegedly mailed a series of handmade bombs to Democrats and critics of President Donald Trump, was arrested and charged with five counts of federal crime.[SEP]A building in New York City that includes CNN was evacuated because of a phoned-in bomb threat Thursday night, according to police and a reporter at the network. The New York Police Department tweeted that a bomb threat was called into the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle, where CNN is located, at around 10:35 p.m., and that the threat had not been substantiated and police were "performing a comprehensive sweep-and-search of the facility." A police spokesman said the phoned-in threat claimed there were five devices planted around the building, and an NYPD sergeant in consultation with CNN security decided to evacuate the building as a precaution. A preliminary search by security and their dogs found nothing, and the NYPD was conducting a search as a precaution, the police spokesperson said. Brian Stelter, a reporter for the network, said on Twitter that the offices were evacuated and that CNN went into taped programming. CNN host Don Lemon tweeted, "We were evacuated in the middle of my live show" due to a bomb threat. CNN went to live programming from another location and Lemon said in a phone interview with the network that not only did the threat disrupt his program but “it’s also disrupted the entire neighborhood.”* In October, CNN was targeted in a wave of pipe bombs mailed to the network as well as to prominent critics of President Donald Trump. None of the devices exploded and there were no injuries. The suspect, Cesar Sayoc, of Florida, was arrested and indicted on more than 30 federal counts, including use of a weapon of mass destruction, and he faces up to life in prison if convicted. "It’s kind of a repeat situation of what we went through in October,” Lemon said on CNN. On Thursday night shortly after 10 p.m. Trump tweeted "FAKE NEWS - THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!" Trump frequently uses the term to denigrate some media organizations, including CNN.

CNN evacuates the Time Warner Center in New York City during CNN Tonight with Don Lemon after a bomb threat was called into the building.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan’s top election authority on Thursday rejected a ruling by the Electoral Complaints Commission that fraud and mismanagement had rendered invalid the votes cast in Kabul, the capital, during last October’s parliamentary election. Afghan men line up to cast their votes during the parliamentary election at a polling station in Kabul, Afghanistan October 21, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani The standoff between the two bodies charged with organising and managing the election highlighted the chaos around a ballot seen as a major test of Afghanistan’s democratic progress that had been heavily pushed by international partners. “The ruling by the complaints commission is a political, sentimental, unrealistic decision and is not based on credible evidence,” Gulajan Abdul Badi Sayyad, the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, told a news conference. “We strongly reject the ruling by the complaints commission.” The ballot, held on Oct. 20 after months of wrangling and delay, was marred by accusations of voter fraud, technical problems with biometric voter verification gear and inaccurate voter lists. “There were serious outstanding problems in Kabul that could hurt the fairness, transparency and inclusiveness of the election,” Ali Reza Rohani, a spokesman for the Electoral Complaints Commission, said on Thursday. With more than a million votes recorded in Kabul, or about a quarter of the nationwide tally of roughly 4 million, cancelling the vote there would call into question the validity of the whole election. The recommendation to cancel the vote in Kabul also fuels uncertainty over the April 20 presidential election, which election authorities have said they are considering postponing until July, due to organizational difficulties. Any delay to the presidential election could affect hoped-for peace talks with Taliban insurgents, who have opened contacts with the United States but have so far refused to talk to the government of President Ashraf Ghani. Authorities have still not released complete results from the Oct. 20 parliamentary ballot, dogged by delays that pushed voting into the following day.[SEP]Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission ruled on Thursday that votes cast in the capital Kabul during last October's parliamentary election were invalid, citing fraud and mismanagement. The ruling must be upheld by the Independent Election Commission, the body with overall authority over the ballot, which was marred by allegations of voter fraud, technical problems with biometric voter verification equipment and inaccurate voter lists. "There were serious outstanding problems in Kabul that could hurt the fairness, transparency and inclusiveness of the election," said Ali Reza Rohani, spokesman for the Electoral Complaints Commission. More than a million votes were recorded in Kabul, accounting for about a quarter of the roughly 4 million votes cast nationwide. If confirmed by the IEC, the decision would call into question the validity of an election heavily pushed by Afghanistan's international partners. The recommendation to cancel the vote in Kabul also adds to uncertainty over the April 20 presidential election. Election authorities have said they are considering postponing the vote until July due to organizational difficulties. Any delay to the presidential election could affect hoped-for peace talks with the Taliban, which have opened contacts with the United States but so far refused to talk to the government of President Ashraf Ghani. Authorities have still not released complete results from the Oct. 20 parliamentary ballot, which saw chaotic delays that forced voting to continue into the following day.[SEP]Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) on Thursday announced that all votes cast in Kabul in the country's Oct.20 parliamentary elections were invalid due to the widespread charges of irregularities and fraud recorded in the voting. "The votes cast in the Kabul province on 20-21 October are invalidated under the directions of the Election Law,” Ali Reza Rohani, a spokesman for the IECC, told a press conference in Kabul.[SEP]All votes cast in Kabul during the October parliamentary election are invalid, Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) has declared. There were 25 reasons why the decision was taken, including major fraud and mismanagement on the part of the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC), IECC spokesman Alireza Rohani said. Parliamentary elections took place in 32 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces on October 20. Due to security problems and organisational difficulties, voting took place in 400 constituencies a day later. In the province of Kandahar it was delayed by a week after a deadly attack on the provincial chief of police.[SEP]MOSCOW : All the votes cast in Kabul during the October parliamentary elections have been declared invalid by the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), local media reported Thursday. According to the TOLOnews broadcaster, the votes were nullified because of fraud that was detected in the city. Media also noted that there were concerns on the part of several observers over alleged fraud in the electoral process. Parliamentary elections took place in Afghanistan on October 20 and became the first such elections in the country since 2010. In 2016, the election was postponed over the country’s unstable security situation, as various militant groups, including the Taliban and the Islamic State (terrorist group banned in Russia), continued to carry out regular.[SEP]KABUL (Pajhwok): The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) on Thursday announced invalidation of votes cast at all polling stations in Kabul due to fraud and rigging. Addressing a press conference, IECC spokesman Ali Reza Rohani said the decision was taken after a comprehensive scrutiny by regional officials of the commission in Kabul. He added the IECC discussed the invalidation of votes in the October 20-21 elections in Kabul. Under Articles 2, 5 and 94 of electoral law and based on the documents and proofs produced, the votes cast in Kabul were declared null and void, the spokesman explained. IEC Secretary Ahmad Shah Zamanzai, former head of Kabul election affairs Awal Rahmand Rudwal, operational head of regional office Zamarai Qalamyar, his deputy Abdul Aziz Samim and IEC information technology chief Syed Ibrahim Sadat have been dismissed and fined 100,000 afghanis each over violations of the electoral law. Rohani told reporters criminal cases against the election officials are being reviewed and the results would be announced as soon as possible. Those who caused the situation that led to invalidation of votes would be investigated at the earliest possible, he promised. Rohani claimed all members of IEC agreed with the decision and signed it. However, the commission has announced the preliminary results from 21 provinces so far.[SEP]KABUL -- Afghanistan’s Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) has declared that all votes cast in Kabul Province during the country’s October parliamentary election are invalid. IECC spokesman Alirez Rohani told reporters in Kabul on December 6 that the decision was made because for 25 different reasons -- including major fraud and mismanagement by the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC). He said hundreds of complaints were filed about voting irregularities in the Afghan capital and surrounding areas of Kabul Province. A spokesman for the Afghan election commission, Mohammad Haqparast, told RFE/RL on December 6 that the IEC was preparing to issue a statement "soon" in response to the invalidation of the votes. At least 18 people were killed and 67 injured by a series of bomb attacks close to polling stations in Kabul during the October 20 vote. Technical issues that marred the vote and caused some polling stations to be closed included missing biometric systems and the non-arrival of voter registration lists. Lawmakers who represent Kabul Province have 33 of the 250 seats in Afghanistan’s lower chamber of parliament – the Wolesi Jirga. All of the lawmakers are directly elected. There are 68 seats reserved for woman under Afghanistan’s constitution. The election originally was scheduled for October 2016 but was postponed until July 7, 2018 -- and then postponed again until October 20 when voting took place in 32 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. Even then, security concerns and the organizational difficulties set back voting by another day in 400 constituencies across the country. In Kandahar Province, voting was delayed by another week due to a deadly attack on the provincial police chief, General Abdul Raziq, on October 18. Voting in Ghazni Province has still not been completed. About nine million Afghans were registered to vote at 21,000 polling stations across the country. They included about 3 million women. More than 54,000 security forces were deployed to protect polling stations across the country.[SEP]All votes cast in Kabul during the October parliamentary election are invalid, Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) announced on Thursday. The IECC cited 25 reasons for annulling the results in the capital, including fraud and mismanagement during the conduct of the October 20 poll. The Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) has not commented. Read more: Why are Afghan officials not announcing election results? More than a month since the vote official results from the election have only been anounced for only 14 of Afghanistan's 33 provinces, casting a shadow over the credibility of an election process that was marred by violence and allegations of fraud. The invalidation of votes in Kabul comes as Afghanistan prepares for presidential elections in April amid a deteriorating security situation and nascent talks between the United States and Taliban to end the 17-year war. More to come...[SEP]Canton Alderwoman and former Police Chief Vickie McNeil and five others are charged with voter fraud in Madison County involving the 2017 Canton municipal election. McNeil, 68, is charged with four counts of voter fraud, said Maj. Chuck McNeal of the Madison County Sheriff's Department. The indictments were served early Thursday. Voter fraud carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. McNeil served as police chief from 2009 until 2013. When she was a candidate for reelection for alderwoman, McNeil is accused of assisting two voters with filing absentee ballots, a violation of state law. Also indicted for voter fraud were: Courtney Rainey, a Canton Public School Board member. Rainey, 38, is charged with 12 counts of voter fraud, two counts of conspiracy and one count of intimidation of witness to commit fraud. Donnell Robinson, accused of voter fraud and voting by an unqualified person as an habitual offender. Jennifer Robinson, accused of voter fraud and voting by an unqualified person. Desmand King, a deputy clerk for Canton, accused of two counts of voter fraud. Sherman Matlock, 44, accused of two counts of voter fraud. Madison County Assistant District Attorney Bryan Buckley said an investigation began after the 2017 Canton city elections after complaints from citizens. Buckley said more indictments could be coming. “We anticipate another round of voter fraud cases being presented to the grand jury in the near future,” Buckley said in an email to the Clarion Ledger. In 2014, Cobby Williams, a former candidate for Canton alderman in 2013, was given a five-year suspended sentence for submitting a false voter registration application on behalf of a convicted felon. Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest said then that Williams knowingly submitted the voter registration on behalf of the woman although she had told him she was ineligible to vote because of a felon conviction. In Mississippi, individuals convicted of certain felony crimes are prohibited from voting. Some of the crimes include embezzlement, forgery, bribery, burglary, theft, arson, perjury, bigamy and false pretense. District Attorney Michael Guest says in a news release Cobby Williams allegedly was going door-to-door in March of 2013 and registering people to vote and then turning in those registrations to the clerk’s office. He says Williams registered a woman who is a convicted felon and not eligible to vote. Guest says Williams recently pleaded guilty to one count of voter fraud. Williams also was placed on five years’ supervised probation.[SEP]Afghanistan's election complaints body has declared October's parliamentary elections invalid for the capital Kabul and surrounding areas. According to the Afghanistan Independent Election Complaints Commission, the decision is based on a determination that the elections in Kabul province were marred by massive fraud and violations of election law. In a news conference in Kabul Thursday, the Commission also announced the removal of five of the top officials of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan, the body responsible for holding the elections. Ali Reza Rohani, the spokesman of AIECC said the five officials, which included the head of the Election Commission Ahmad Shah Zamanzai, were fined about $1,333 each. He said further action may be announced against these officials in the coming days. Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, a spokesman for Election Commission said the IEC will soon announce its position on the AIECC decision. Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan were held in October. Kabul province has 33 seats, including nine seats for women, in the 250-member Afghan assembly.

Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission declares all votes cast in Kabul Province to be invalid due to voter fraud and other cases of mismanagement.

A funeral service has begun for President George H.W. Bush in his home state of Texas HOUSTON (AP) — A funeral service has begun for President George H.W. Bush in his home state of Texas .[SEP]President George H.W. Bush was buried on Thursday next to his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush, at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas. The elder President Bush died on Friday night at the age of 94 due to Parkinson's disease. He occupied the White House from 1989-1993, only to have his son George W. Bush move in a few years later in 2001 as the 43rd president. Bush's body arrived back in Texas Wednesday night after landing in Washington, D.C. on Monday. His casket lain in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda starting on Tuesday where many people paid their respects to the 41st president, including his former service dog, Sully. The golden Labrador pulled at the nation's heartstrings when he was photographed in front of Bush's casket in Texas and at the Rotunda. On Wednesday, five U.S. Presidents and a number of vice presidents attended the funeral service at the National Cathedral in D.C., including President Donald Trump. George W. Bush, Bush's oldest son, gave a moving eulogy that brought him to tears at the end.[SEP]Former President George H.W. Bush's casket has arrived for burial on the grounds of his presidential library COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush's casket has arrived for burial on the grounds of his presidential library .[SEP]Former US president George HW Bush's family has taken centre stage at his funeral at a Houston church, with grandsons who knew him as "Gampy" serving as honorary pallbearers and granddaughters reading from the Bible. Bush, the 41st US president, died last week in Texas at age 94. His remains were flown to Texas on Wednesday evening after a state funeral at Washington's National Cathedral which was attended by US President Donald Trump, the four living former US presidents, and foreign leaders. Thursday's service began at St Martin's Episcopal Church, where Bush worshipped for more than 50 years, with more than 1000 attendees singing America the Beautiful. Bush's flag-draped casket was carried in soon after. George P Bush, son of former Florida governor Jeb Bush and one of the former president's 17 grandchildren, reminisced about fly fishing and sharing Blue Bell Creameries ice cream, a well-known Texas brand, as a child with the man he called "Gampy". James Baker, who served as Bush's secretary of state and was a longtime friend, eulogised the former president as a peacemaker and "a truly beautiful human being". "He was not considered a skilled speaker, but his deeds were quite eloquent and he demonstrated their eloquence by carving them into the hard granite of history," Baker said, his voice cracking at moments. Mourners laughed as Baker recalled how Bush would let him know a conversation was over: "'Baker, if you're so smart, why am I president and you're not?'" Country music star Reba McEntire was among the musical performers at the service. Following the funeral at St Martin's, a train was to carry Bush's remains about 130km northwest to College Station, Texas, where he will be laid to rest at his presidential library. The train is a Union Pacific Corp locomotive, numbered 4141 and bearing the name George Bush 41 on the side; it has been in service since 2005. Bush, who narrowly escaped death as a naval aviator after he was shot down by Japanese forces over the Pacific Ocean in World War II, will be buried with military honours, including a flyover by 21 aircraft from the US Navy. Bush was president from 1989 to 1993, navigating the collapse of the Soviet Union and expelling former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces from oil-rich Kuwait. He supported the passage of the American with Disabilities Act, a major civil rights law protecting disabled people from discrimination. A patrician figure, Bush was voted out of office in part for failing to connect with ordinary Americans during an economic recession.[SEP]HOUSTON — A week of national mourning for "41" concludes Thursday with an invitation-only funeral at former President George H.W. Bush's beloved local church and a private burial service at his presidential library 100 miles northwest of here in College Station. Eulogies at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church will be delivered by his son, former President George W. Bush, his best friend and former secretary of state, James Baker III, and his grandson and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush. Then the casket will be loaded onto the Union Pacific Railroad's Presidential Train Car, traveling through Texas cities such as Spring, Magnolia and Navasota to College Station and the campus of Texas A&M University. His final resting place will be on the grounds of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum alongside his wife and their daughter, Robin, who died from leukemia short of her 4th birthday. More than 10,000 mourners paid their respects to Bush overnight after his body arrived at the church Wednesday from Washington. The service at Washington National Cathedral drew President Donald Trump and all the living former presidents – Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush. Mourners at the Houston funeral ranged from luminary to ordinary. Fawaz “Fuzzy” Hajjar, said he has been serving pizza to the Bushes for 25 years at Fuzzy’s Pizza & Café in West Houston. Bush was a frequent diner at the cafe and often brought VIPs to the small, family-run establishment, from former presidential candidate Mitt Romney to the owners of the Houston Astros and Houston Texans pro sports teams. Hajjar, in turn, named a pizza after him – the “President Bush Pizza” – that comes covered in pepperoni, Canadian bacon, green peppers, onions, black olives, Italian sausage and artichoke hearts. More: The loss that forever changed former President George H.W. Bush More: The Presidential Train Car that will transport George H.W. Bush “He’s like for us my friend, my father, my brother. He’s everything for us,” said Hajjar, a native of Syria. “He’s just an amazing man.” Bill White, the mayor of Houston from 2004 to 2010, called Bush a “proud Houstonian and civic leader.” Bush, who died Friday at age 94, was a fixture at civic and sporting events in his post-presidential years, White said. But the memory that stands out came when the Democrat ran for mayor. “He told me he was voting for me because I was good for the city,” said White, who worked for the Clinton campaign in 1992. “He didn’t hold grudges.” John De La Garza Jr., who worked on Bush’s congressional staff in 1966 and 1967, wore a red tie decorated with military-style bombers and Mr. Rogers socks in honor of the former president. De la Garza his wife Dorothy said Bush and wife Barbara, who died in April, were like parents and served as a “model couple” to the then-newlyweds. They comforted Dorothy after she had a stillbirth. "They showed us how to live and how to die," she said. Karen Liedtke, 70, and her sister Kristy Liedtke, 67, said their parents were good friends and business partners with the Bushes. “All those years of friendship, you want to be able to say goodbye,” Karen Liedtke said. “He was the greatest of the greatest generation.” More: Bush was the 'center of our family,' granddaughter Barbara Bush says More: Bush and Trump: The contrast that went unspoken but was impossible to miss at the funeral Bush's body entered St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to the sounds of the U.S. Air Force Band of the West. A parade of emergency vehicles with red and blue lights flashing led the body from Ellington Field to the sprawling red brick church. St. Martin's, founded in 1952, is now the largest Episcopal church in North America with some 9,000 members. It was also the site of Barbara Bush's funeral in April. The church towers overs Houston's upscale Tanglewood neighborhood west of downtown. A message on the website of the 66-year-old church reads: "President George H.W. Bush and the late Mrs. Barbara Pierce Bush worshiped at St. Martin’s for more than 50 years, and now it is our turn to show our respect and support as our congregation, as well as our nation, grieve this loss."[SEP]The military plane carrying former President George H.W. Bush's casket and members of his family landed in Texas just after 6 p.m. on Wednesday as the events commemorating his life and legacy continue. Bush's remains will be transported to St. Martin's Episcopal Church for the next phase of the ceremony, which will include a second funeral service Thursday in the state where he launched his political career. During that service, Bush's grandson, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, and former Secretary of State James Baker will eulogize the former president. Following that ceremony, Bush's remains will be transported by funeral train to Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The former president will then be laid to rest on the grounds of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, near his wife, Barbara, and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia in 1953 at age 3.[SEP]HOUSTON: Former US President George HW Bush will be mourned on Thursday (Dec 7) at the Houston church where he worshipped for many years, a final public farewell before his remains are taken by train to their resting place at his Texas presidential library. The remains of Bush, who died last week in Texas at the age of 94, were flown to Texas on Wednesday evening following a formal state funeral where the World War Two veteran-turned-politician was hailed as a warrior-statesman of uncommon personal kindness. Amid an unusual bipartisan spirit at the service at Washington's National Cathedral, both Republican and Democratic politicians honoured a president who called for a "kinder, gentler" nation. "George HW Bush was America's last great soldier-statesman," presidential biographer Jon Meacham said in a eulogy. "He stood in the breach in the Cold War against totalitarianism. He stood in the breach in Washington against unthinking partisanship." Bush's remains were accompanied by members of his family, and were taken by motorcade to St Martin's Episcopal Church. The Houston church remained open through the night for mourners, who began lining up on Wednesday morning, to pay their final respects. Following the funeral at St Martin's, where Bush and his late wife, Barbara Bush, were long-time worshippers, a train will carry his remains about 100 miles (160 km) northwest to College Station, Texas, where he will be laid to rest at his presidential library. Bush, the 41st US president, occupied the White House from 1989 to 1993, navigating the collapse of the Soviet Union and expelling former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces from oil-rich Kuwait. A patrician figure, Bush was voted out of office in part for failing to connect with ordinary Americans during an economic recession. However, he has been remembered as representing an earlier era of civility in American politics, an image burnished in recent years by the divisiveness and anger in the United States that accompanied the rise of President Donald Trump. Bush, who also served as vice president to Ronald Reagan, did not endorse Trump in the 2016 presidential election. He sent him a letter in January 2017 saying he would not be able to attend his inauguration because of health concerns but wished Trump the best.[SEP]Preparations are underway in College Station, where President George H.W. Bush will be laid to rest.Crews have been busy putting up barriers, tents, and stages in the area where Bush and his family will arrive at 3:45 p.m. ThursdayThe public is invited to view thelocomotive carrying President Bush and his family as it nears campus from Wellborn Road.The train is expect to pass between 3:30 p.m. and 3:40 p.m. on Thursday. Those who wish to view are asked to be in place by 2:30 p.m.The designated area to view the train's arrival will be Lot 62 on Wellborn Road.Wellborn Road will be shut down on Thursday from George Bush Drive to University, as the departure from the train and the procession to the presidential library will be private.The George Bush Library and Museum will be closed until Friday, Dec. 7.[SEP]Want to watch Fox 4’s newscast? Click here. HOUSTON — Former President George H.W. Bush will be honored at a second memorial service in Houston at the Bushes’ family church Thursday morning. Bush’s grandson, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, and former Secretary of State James Baker, a man who has been by Bush’s side since the former president’s failed 1970 Senate campaign in Texas, will both deliver eulogies at the funeral. Before the service, Bush lay in repose at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church from Wednesday night until Thursday morning. Houston has been the Bushes home for years since he left the presidency, and they have worshipped at the church for decades. The church was also the funeral site for his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, earlier this year. Thursday’s funeral service in Houston follows the memorial service Wednesday in Washington, DC, attended by the former presidents and first ladies, family, friends and other dignitaries. The 41st President was honored at the Washington National Cathedral and eulogized by his son, former President George W. Bush, who remembered him as the “best father a son or daughter could have.” Thousands paid their respects to Bush as he laid in state in the US Capitol Rotunda on Monday and Tuesday. Following the Houston funeral service, Bush will be taken by motorcade procession to the Union Pacific Railroad Westfield Auto Facility. There will be a departure ceremony before Bush takes his last trip by train to his final resting place. The funeral train will depart on a 70-mile route, taking Bush from Spring, Texas, to Texas A & M University in College Station, Texas, the site of the Bush Presidential Library and Museum. He will be laid to rest on the museum’s grounds, alongside his wife Barbara and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia as a child.[SEP]George H.W. Bush, president and servant-statesman, is laid to rest UNITED STATES: Former US president George H.W. Bush, remembered as much for his legacy of service as his impact on history, was buried Thursday, capping days of tribute from a nation that briefly set aside political divisions to honor him. After a state funeral Wednesday in Washington that was attended by the country´s five living presidents and foreign dignitaries, Bush´s flag-draped casket was flown to Texas for a final farewell. A compassionate national spotlight had shone on Bush´s passing and the memorial proceedings throughout this week. But his burial at Bush´s presidential library center in College Station, Texas -- alongside Barbara, his wife of 73 years, and their daughter Robin who died of leukemia at age 3 -- was a private family service. "The 41st President of the United States of America, George Herbert Walker Bush, has reached his final resting place," family spokesman Jim McGrath posted on Twitter. Bush, who died Friday at age 94, lay in repose at St Martin´s Episcopal Church in Houston, where he was eulogized at a final memorial service by close friend James Baker, who served as his secretary of state. "His incredible service to our nation and the world are already etched in the marble of time," Baker said, highlighting the sense of duty, service, and personal grace that drove Bush. Fighting through tears, the 88-year-old Baker recalled how Bush´s deeds "expressed his moral character, and they reflected his decency, his boundless kindness and consideration of others, his determination always to do the right thing." Son George W. Bush, the nation´s 43rd president, appeared somber at his wife Laura´s side, and stood ramrod straight as military pallbearers carried the casket from the Houston church to a waiting hearse. It was then placed on a train -- with a locomotive painted in the colors and pattern of Air Force One, the presidential jet -- for the final journey to the presidential library, part of a precise series of ritualized events. There were emotional displays along the route in towns like Spring, Magnolia, Navasota and College Station. Crowds of people braved rainy weather to mass beside the tracks, where they held American flags, saluted, cheered and waved goodbye as the train rolled slowly past. Bush was the 12th president to lie in state in the US Capitol rotunda. Thousands paid respects there to a statesman who steered the nation through turbulent times including the end of the Cold War and the marshalling of an international coalition to oust invading Iraqi forces from Kuwait. On Thursday, Baker pointed to Bush´s eagerness to forge compromise and peace rather than rattle sabers. "He had the courage of a warrior," Baker said. "But when the time came for prudence, he always maintained the greater courage of a peacemaker." Bush was a decorated World War II aviator who nearly died when he was shot down on a bombing mission. He served as a congressman, envoy to China and to the United Nations, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and vice president to Ronald Reagan before winning the White House. At Wednesday´s service in Washington, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania shared a front row pew in the National Cathedral with past presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and their wives, to honor Bush. Son George delivered an emotional eulogy in tribute to his father. The pair are only the second father-son presidential duo in American history, after John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Since Bush´s death, Trump has traded his usual provocative posture for one of solemnity and respect for the Bushes, with whom he has often clashed since his meteoric rise in the world of politics. As Trump toned down the rhetoric this week, Washington´s political heat was reduced from a normal boil to a simmer. But at Wednesday´s service, tensions were obvious. Trump arrived and shook hands with the Obamas, but his body language turned cold as he failed to acknowledge Hillary Clinton, his defeated Democratic rival in 2016, or her president husband Bill.

Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush is laid to rest at his Presidential Library in College Station, Texas.

After the surge in fuel prices in France, the so-called Yellow Vests movement has held protests, calling firstly on the government to lower the prices, and then also on French President Emmanuel Macron to resign. On Wednesday, the French National Assembly approved a moratorium on the planned fuel price hike. The French labour union Vigi has called on its members working in the national police and in the Ministry of the Interior to start an indefinite strike on Saturday, joining the Yellow Vests movement. The statement was placed on Vigi's Facebook page on Wednesday. "The demands made by the Yellow Vests movement related to all of us. The time to organize legally and express solidarity with them for the benefit of all has come", Vigi's post reads. "We are being perceived as mercenaries, given bonuses for overtime work, but they cannot compensate for the decisions made by the government", Vigi's statement reads. The call is directed at "administrative, technical, scientific and state workers/cooks from the Ministry of the Interior", according to the statement. READ MORE: French Extremists Destabilizing 'Yellow Vests' to Prolong Chaos – Activist "Act IV" of the Yellow Vests' protests, which is to start on Saturday, will make the government take precautions, as during the previous "Act III", more than 260 people, including some 80 police, were injured. Earlier, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced that he would reinforce security for next Saturday. Michel Thooris, the head of the France Police labour union, said that the French government had failed to implement security measures in Paris, noting that "a majority of the French continue to back the movement". She also highlighted that using the armed forces against civilians would indicate that France is heading towards a civil war. READ MORE: WATCH Policemen in France Take off Helmets in Solidarity With Fuel Protesters The protests, which started as a movement against a hike in fuel prices, turned violent, leading to more than 600 people being injured and at least two deaths. The three-week demonstration forced the French government to drop the fuel tax rise from the 2019 budget. "The government is ready for dialogue and is showing it because this tax increase has been dropped from the 2019 budget bill", Edouard Philippe, the French prime minister, said on December 5. READ MORE: France Abandons Fuel Tax Increase After Weeks of Protest[SEP]Academic activities in Nigerian tertiary education institutions would soon be completely paralysed as Polytechnic lecturers are also planning to go on strike. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has declared that it would begin an indefinite strike on Wednesday, December 12, 2018. The National President of ASUP, Usman Dutse in an interview with Premium Times reportedly said the federal government had failed to meet the demands of the polytechnic lecturers. Earlier in October, the union issued a 21-day ultimatum to the government. It later extended it to November but didn't start the strike. The ASUP president said the impending strike would be ''total and indefinite''. “This further emphasises the resolution of the 93rd National Executive Council meeting reached at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos last week. “Government has failed to implement and fulfil agreements it reached with the union as contained in the memorandum of understanding signed,” he said. Meanwhile, the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities have again failed to resolve their disagreements over ASUU strike. The union leaders and the federal government representatives held a meeting on Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at the Ministry of Education in Abuja but both parties could not agree to call of the strike as the meeting ended without a resolution.[SEP]The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has announced its decision to embark on an indefinite strike with effect from Wednesday, December 12. ASUP National Treasurer, Suleiman Usman, said this while briefing reporters shortly after the union’s National Executive Council meeting on Friday in Kaduna State. He said the decision was taken at the end of the meeting which lasted for several hours at the Kaduna Polytechnic. READ ALSO: NOUN Graduates To Participate In NYSC, Attend Law School Usman explained that the planned industrial action followed the failure of the Federal Government to implement all the agreements it entered with the union since 2016. He alleged that despite the 21-day ultimatum issued by ASUP to the government to address some of the issues it had raised over time, the government has been nonchalant in addressing the demands for improved funding of polytechnic education in the country. The ASUP treasurer noted that the union had given government sufficient time to implement all agreements, stressing that they have no choice than to embark on an indefinite strike. According to him, this is coming on the heels of the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum issued after the union’s NEC meeting which held on October 2. Some of the demands, Usman said, include non-implementation of the NEEDS Assessment Report and shortfalls in personnel releases, as well as the withdrawal of allowances and persistent shortfalls in personnel releases to polytechnics. The other issues are the sacking of union leaders and delay in assenting to the amendment of the Polytechnic Act, among other demands. The union has directed all its members across the country to proceed on an indefinite strike starting from 12:00am on Wednesday next week.

The French police union Vigi calls on police officers to begin an indefinite strike on December 8 and join anti-government protesters, noting that "a majority of the French continue to back the movement".

This article is more than 8 months old This article is more than 8 months old Tourist attractions and museums in central Paris have said they will not open on Saturday, when fresh gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests are planned, as French authorities prepared to deploy 89,000 security personnel across the country. “The demonstrations announced on Saturday 8 December in Paris do not allow us to welcome visitors in safe conditions,” said the operator of the Eiffel Tower in a statement on Thursday. Police have also ordered about a dozen museums, including the Louvre and the Grand Palais, cultural sites such as the Opera and shops along the Champs-Élysées to close over fears of violence. “We cannot take the risk when we know the threat,” Franck Riester, the culture minister, told RTL radio. Several top-league football matches have also been cancelled. As senior ministers sought to defuse public fury with conciliatory language on taxes, an official in Emmanuel Macron’s office risked provoking more anger by saying that intelligence suggested that some protesters would come to the capital “to vandalise and to kill”. Play Video 0:18 French high school students made to kneel with hands on heads by police – video Despite capitulating this week over the plans for higher fuel taxes that inspired the nationwide revolt, the president has struggled to quell the anger that last weekend led to the worst street unrest in central Paris since 1968. Rioters torched cars, vandalised cafes, looted shops and sprayed anti-Macron graffiti across some of Paris’s most affluent districts, even defacing the Arc de Triomphe. Scores of people were hurt and hundreds arrested in battles with police. Macron’s politics look to Blair and Clinton. The backlash was inevitable | Larry Elliott Read more In a bid to end the three-week crisis, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, told parliament late on Wednesday that he was scrapping the fuel-tax increases planned for 2019, having announced a six-month suspension the day before. The finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, told a conference he was prepared to bring forward tax-cutting plans and that he wanted workers’ bonuses to be tax free. But he added: “In this case, it must go hand-in-hand with a decrease in spending.” He also said France would impose a tax on big internet firms in 2019 if there was no consensus on an EU-wide levy, seeking to appeal to anti-business sentiment among the protesters. The threat of more violence poses a security nightmare for the authorities, who make a distinction between the peaceful gilets jaunes protesters and violent groups, anarchists and looters from the deprived suburbs who they say have infiltrated the movement. On Facebook groups and across social media, the gilets jaunes are calling for an “act 4”, a reference to what would be a fourth weekend of disorder. “France is fed up!! We will be there in bigger numbers, stronger, standing up for French people. Meet in Paris on Dec 8,” said one group’s banner. The education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, urged people to stay at home this weekend. Security sources said the government was considering using troops currently deployed on anti-terrorism patrols to protect public buildings. The protests, named after the fluorescent jackets French motorists are required to keep in their cars, erupted in November over the squeeze on household budgets caused by fuel taxes. Demonstrations swiftly grew into a broad, sometimes violent, rebellion against Macron. Who are the gilets jaunes and what do they want? Read more The protesters have no formal leader and their demands are diverse. They include changes to a tax system perceived as unfair and unjust, higher salaries and Macron’s resignation. France’s hard-left CGT trade union on Thursday called on its energy industry workers to walk out for 48 hours from 13 December, saying it wanted to join forces with the gilets jaunes. The fuel tax volte-face was the first major U-turn of Macron’s 18-month presidency. The unrest has exposed deep-seated resentment among non-city dwellers with a perception that Macron is out of touch with the middle and working classes. They see the 40-year-old former investment banker as closer to big business and the rich. Trouble is also brewing elsewhere for Macron. Teenage students blocked access to more than 200 high schools across the country on Thursday, burning garbage bins and setting a car alight in the western city of Nantes. Farmers, who have long complained that retailers are squeezing their margins and are furious over a delay to the planned rise in minimum food prices, and truckers are threatening to strike from Sunday. Le Maire said France was no longer spared from the wave of populism that had swept across Europe. “It’s only that in France, it’s not manifesting itself at the ballot box, but in the streets.”[SEP]France is bracing for yet another weekend of protests that could rock Paris and other parts of the country. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government was deploying 89,000 security force members across France — including 8,000 in the capital — in case the demonstrations turn violent again. Many of the capital’s famed sites — including the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Musée Delacroix and the Paris Opera — will close over the weekend in advance of the protests, organized by the “gilets jaunes,” or “yellow vest” movement. Their name comes from the high-visibility yellow vests that drivers are required to keep in their vehicles for safety reasons. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner vowed to deploy all the means available to ensure the latest yellow vest protests are not hijacked by what he said were “10,000” people, “a small minority” of the movement who have been “radicalized and fallen into violence and hate.” “We have to guarantee the safety of protesters and the right of citizens to move around freely,” Castaner told a news conference Friday. Stores along the capital’s famed Champs Elysees avenue have also been advised to remain shut this weekend. Many shop owners were boarding up their stores on Friday amid fears of further disorder. The French retail sector has suffered a loss in revenue of about $1.1 billion since the beginning of the yellow vest protests last month, a spokeswoman for the French retail federation, Sophie Amoros, told CNN. Amid heightened tensions, police seized 28 petrol bombs and three homemade explosive devices on Friday at an area blockaded by protesters in Montauban, southern France, a spokesman for the Tarn-et-Garonne prefecture told CNN. Nationwide, some 630 people were arrested and more than 260 were injured, including 81 police officers, during last weekend‘s protests, the third consecutive week of such demonstrations. There have also been four accidental deaths, according to officials. Three of them resulted from traffic accidents related to the blockades and the fourth was an 80-year-old woman who died in Marseille after being hit by a tear gas canister that came through her window. The demonstrations began as a form of grassroots opposition to rising gas prices and planned increases in taxes on polluting forms of transport, but they have since evolved into broader demonstrations against the government of President Emmanuel Macron. Macron appeared to back down Wednesday, announcing that the fuel tax planned for January — as part of measures to combat climate change — would not be introduced in 2019. But the movement now appears to be about more than just taxes; it’s exposed the growing divide between Paris’ metropolitan elite and the country’s rural poor. Maxime Nicolle, a member of the gilets jaunes from rural Brittany, told CNN: “I’m definitely not backing down now. The moratorium is useless. The people want a referendum, a referendum on Macron, the senate and the national assembly.” Street furniture, such as railings around trees, public bicycle stations and benches, will be removed from parts of Paris ahead of the expected protests so they can’t be used as weapons, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said. Municipal buildings will be closed and services “mobilized and determined to ensure everyone’s protection,” she said. In an appeal to protesters, the mayor added: “Please take care of Paris, because Paris belongs to all the French people.” Many of those protesting have moved into the suburbs due to rising real estate prices. Suburban protesters, like those from rural areas, argue that they’re disproportionately affected by the now-shelved gas tax, as they rely on gasoline and cars much more than city-dwellers. Castener said he had talked to protesters around the country and had some sympathy with their concerns and economic troubles. But, he said, the French government had made appropriate gestures. “The Prime Minister opened the door, and canceled the environment tax,” he said. The unrest has also spread to hundreds of high schools across the country, where students are demonstrating against the government’s recent education reforms. More than 140 people were arrested outside a school in the Paris suburb of Mantes-la-Jolie on Thursday after protesters clashed with police. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told radio station France Inter on Friday that he, like many others, had been shocked by images of students in Mantes-la-Jolie being made to kneel with their hands behind their heads by security forces. But he said it was important to note that elements from outside the high school had made use of the situation to stir up trouble and attack security forces. Castaner said only 12 officers were present to bring the situation under control, which was reflected in the methods they used. Meanwhile, La Voix du Nord newspaper in northern France reported that a bottle containing acid had been thrown Friday at one of its journalists and a fellow reporter while they were covering a high school protest in the town of Wingles, in the Pas-de-Calais department. The pair narrowly managed to avoid being hit, the paper said. It’s unclear if the gilets jaunes demonstrations will be as violent or as large this weekend as they have been previously. The number of protesters peaked last month at 282,000, according to the Interior Ministry, but has been slowly on the decline, with 136,000 taking part on December 2. Since the first protests were held in mid-November, 1,648 people have been injured in total, including 552 police officers, the Interior Ministry said. More than 1,600 people have been taken in for questioning and 1,387 have been arrested. Small retailers, hotels and restaurants have all seen their takings fall significantly as a result of the protests, according to the French Ministry of Finance. While large protests are common in France, they’re usually organized in a top-down fashion by the country’s powerful unions. By contrast, the gilets jaunes protests began as a grassroots movement that emerged online, with Facebook events set up by citizens mostly from rural areas. Dominique Moisi, a foreign policy expert at the Paris-based Institut Montaigne and a former Macron campaign adviser, told CNN the French presidency was not only in crisis but that Europe’s future also hung in the balance. “In a few months from now there will be European elections, and France was supposed to be the carrier of hope and European progress. What happens if it’s no longer? If the president is incapacitated to carry that message?” Moisi said. “It’s about the future of democracy, as well, illiberal democracies are rising all over the world. And if Macron fails, the future of France risks looking like the presidency of Italy today. And it’s much more serious because we have a centralized state which plays a major role in the balance of power within Europe. “But make no mistake, it is a French version of a much more global phenomenon.[SEP]Major security measures are being put in place in Paris as the French government prepares for further major protests. Recent weeks have seen tens of thousands of demonstrators - dubbed 'Les Gilets Jaunes' or 'yellow vests' due to their high-vis jackets - take to the streets in protest over planned fuel tax hikes by Emmanuel Macron's government. While the demonstrations have largely been peaceful, there were violent scenes last weekend as police clashed with some demonstrators. Riot police fired tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon at protesters in central Paris, and at least 133 people were injured. The government has since announced a suspension of the tax hike for six months in response to the increasingly tense situation, but protesters have pledged to continue their demonstrations. Today, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told senators that 65,000 security officers will be deployed around the country this weekend - along with 'exceptional' extra security measures. Both the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum - two of the world's most famous tourist spots - will close on Saturday over the expected demonstrations. Local media reports that some museums, theatres, libraries and shops (including several along the famed Champs-Elysees) will also shut, while some major French football matches and other events have also been postponed. The actions and policies of President Emmanuel Macron - who swept into office last year on the pledge to make France more competitive - have been the source of much of the demonstrators' frustration and anger in recent weeks. Earlier this week, he thanked police and emergency services for their work last weekend. However, the French leader has been largely silent since then as the country prepares for another weekend of protests and possible violence. Meanwhile, there were tense scenes in Marseille, Yvelines and other areas of the country today as student protesters unhappy with education reforms clashed with security forces.[SEP]PARIS (AP) — The Latest on France protests (all times local): The Eiffel Tower has announced that it will be closed to visitors on Saturday due to the protests called in the French capital by the yellow vest movement. Tickets bought online will be refunded, the company operating the Paris monument said on Twitter Thursday. Several museums and other cultural sites have previously announced they will close on Saturday, fearing a repeat of the rioting in Paris city center last weekend. More than a dozen of museums and other cultural sites in Paris will be closed Saturday amid fears of new rioting at protests called in the French capital by the yellow vest movement. Several museums and two theaters in the city center, especially those close to the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue, have announced they will not open their doors that day. The Paris Opera has cancelled planned performances on its two Parisian sites. Two music festivals have also been postponed. The Arc de Triomphe remains closed since last weekend's protest damaged the monument. Paris police have also urged shops in the Champs-Elysees area to close on Saturday as a precaution. Many stores were smashed and looted in Paris last weekend. The Louvre Museum and the Eiffel Tower still plan to remain open. France's prime minister is promising "exceptional" security measures for protests planned in Paris and around the country Saturday, amid fears that radicals and troublemakers will take advantage of the moment to seed chaos. Speaking Thursday to lawmakers, Edouard Philippe said the government is taking "all measures necessary" to secure the protests, bringing in additional security officers to bolster the 65,000 forces already in place around the country. He urged "yellow vest" protesters to stay home for their own protection from those who could hijack the protests, after demonstrations in Paris last Saturday degenerated into rioting and looting. He also praised union leaders and local officials who are joining the government's call for calm. His government deeply damaged by weeks of protests and looking grave, Philippe acknowledged that the government's dramatic concession this week over the fuel tax rise that sparked the protest movement "doesn't respond" to all the protesters' concerns. French left-wing opposition parties are seeking a no-confidence vote in President Emmanuel Macron's government amid growing protests and fears of violence. The Socialist Party, far-left Defiant France and the Communist Party are setting aside their divisions and promising to submit the request to the lower house of parliament, or National Assembly, on Monday. The assembly would hold a no-confidence motion within 48 hours of the request. The left-wing parties alone don't have nearly enough votes to bring down the government, since Macron's centrist Republic on the Move party has a strong majority in the 577-seat house. But they are trying to attract support from other opposition forces. The move is a new swipe at Macron and his government, dramatically weakened by weeks of "yellow vest" protests. The government is trying to calm tensions but with little success. The transport minister met Thursday with truckers' unions but they maintained their promise to go on strike Sunday. Paris police and store owners are bracing for new violence at protests Saturday, despite President Emmanuel Macron's surrender over a fuel tax hike that unleashed weeks of unrest. Police unions and local authorities are holding emergency meetings Thursday to strategize — while disparate groups of protesters are sharing plans on social networks and chat groups. After the worst rioting in Paris in decades last weekend, many shops and restaurants in the center of the capital are expected to shut down Saturday, fearing a repeat of the violence. Macron on Wednesday agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike, but protesters' demands have now expanded to other issues. Protesting students are disrupting schools and universities Thursday, and drivers are still blocking roads around France, now demanding broader tax cuts and government aid.[SEP]The Eiffel Tower in Paris is to close on Saturday amid fears of further street violence from “yellow vest” anti-government protests. Across France, 89,000 police officers will be on duty and armoured vehicles will be deployed in the capital, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced. Police have urged shops and restaurants on Paris’s Champs-Elysees to shut and some museums will also be closed. Paris saw some of the worst rioting in decades last Saturday. The government has said it is scrapping unpopular fuel tax increases in its budget – the original trigger for the protests. But broader discontent with the government has spread and protests have erupted over other issues. What has the government said? An official with the interior ministry told AFP news agency authorities were braced for “significant violence” on Saturday, with activists from both the far right and far left planning to converge on the capital. In an interview with TV channel TF1, Mr Philippe said 8,000 police would be deployed in Paris as well as a dozen armoured vehicles. • Who are the ‘gilets jaunes’? He repeated an appeal for calm but added: “We are facing people who are not here to protest, but to smash and we want to have the means to not give them a free rein.” Earlier, Mr Philippe suggested further concessions to protesters, telling the Senate that the government was open to new measures to help the lowest-paid workers. How will Paris be affected? The operator of the Eiffel Tower said the threat of violent protests on Saturday made it impossible to ensure “adequate security conditions”. City authorities say they are stepping up protection for famous landmarks after the Arc de Triomphe was damaged last week. Culture Minister Franck Riester said the Louvre and Orsay museums, opera houses and the Grand Palais complex were among sites that would be closed. “We cannot take the risk when we know the threat,” he told RTL radio. Police have asked stores and restaurants along the Champs-Elysees and other major shopping streets to stay closed and to remove any outdoor items such as tables and chairs. A series of football matches have also been postponed on Saturday. They include those between Paris and Montpellier, Monaco and Nice, Toulouse and Lyon, and Saint-Etienne and Marseille. What other protests have there been? On Thursday young people took to the streets, protesting over education reforms. More than 140 people were arrested when a protest outside a school in Mantes-la-Jolie in Yvelines ended in clashes with police. Dozens of other schools were blockaded in cities including Marseille, Nantes and Paris. Students have been angered by President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to change the end-of-school exam, known as the baccalaureate, which is required for entrance to university. Critics fear the reforms will limit opportunity and breed inequality. Who are the protesters? The “gilets jaunes” protesters, so-called because they have taken to the streets wearing the high-visibility yellow clothing that is required to be carried in every vehicle by French law, initially complained at a sharp increase in diesel taxes. Mr Macron said his motivation for the increase was environmental, but protesters accused him of being out of touch. The government later scrapped the plan but the yellow vest protesters were not placated. Last week, the movement – despite a lack of central leadership – issued more than 40 demands to government. Among them were a minimum pension, widespread changes to the tax system, and a reduction in the retirement age. The protest movement has gained momentum via social media, encompassing a whole range of participants from the anarchist far left to the nationalist far right, and moderates in between. BBC[SEP] • French authorities are bracing for further anti-government protests over the weekend by deploying thousands of security personnel across Paris and closing down the Eiffel Tower. • The iconic tower, as well as the Louvre museum and shop fronts along the Champs-Elysees, will close as a precautionary measure. • The riots of the past week are regarded as the worst in Paris since 1968, and have seen violent confrontations, national monuments damaged, and cars set on fire. Authorities in Paris are bracing for further anti-government protests over the weekend by deploying thousands of security personnel to the area and closing down the city’s iconic Eiffel Tower. The tower, as well as the Louvre museum and several shops along the Champs-Elysees, will close as a precautionary measure amid fears of continued rioting led by the French protest group “Des Gilets Jaunes,” or the “Yellow Vests.” The Yellow Vests mobilized over rising gas prices mainly caused by a new tax on diesel fuel which has lifted prices 16% in 2018. But the demonstrations have grown into a broader protest against the rising costs of living and general displeasure with President Emmanuel Macron’s government. Thousands of protesters have joined in on the riots – the worst in Paris since 1968 – burning cars, smashing store-fronts, defacing national symbols, and clashing with police. Last week, police fired 12,000 canisters of tear gas and water cannons at protesters, and arrested more than 400 people. The running clashes have left four people dead, including an elderly woman who was struck by a tear gas canister as she was closing her window in Marseilles, and hundreds more injured. Read more: France is delaying a divisive fuel tax after days of violent protest from Yellow Vest movement that killed 3 French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced that 89,000 police officers will be deployed in the capital over the weekend. Local authorities held emergency meetings on Thursday in order to plan for the expected violence, AP reported. The move to protect the city’s famous landmarks follows damage last week to the Arc de Triomphe monument. On Wednesday, Macron agreed to abandon the controversial diesel tax, which was seen as a victory for the Yellow Vest movement. Still, protests are expected to continue as the group demands broader tax cuts and government aid. An interior ministry official told AFP that authorities were ready for “significant violence” on Saturday as activists from both ends of the political spectrum expected to make their way through the capital.[SEP]PARIS- French authorities will close dozens of museums, tourism sites and shops on Saturday, including the Eiffel Tower and Louvre, fearing a recurrence of last week's violence in Paris, officials said on Thursday. "We cannot take the risk when we know the threat," Culture Minister Franck Riester told RTL radio, adding that far-right and far-left agitators were planning to hijack rallies by "yellow vest" protesters in Paris. He said the Louvre museum, Orsay museum, the two operas, and the Grand Palais were among the sites that would be closed a week after rioters looted and defaced the Arc de Triomphe. The Eiffel Tower will also be closed on Saturday due to the protests, the site's operator SETE said, warning that it could not ensure security for visitors. With protesters calling on social media for "Act IV" - a fourth weekend of protest - Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said 65,000 police would be drafted in to stop a repeat of last Saturday's mayhem in Paris, when rioters torched cars and looted shops off the Champs Elysees boulevard. At least four of the weekend's first division football matches have been canceled. Paris police asked dozens of shop and restaurant owners around the Champs Elysees and Bastille areas to close on Saturday and requested local authorities in 15 areas around the capital to remove anything in the streets that could be used as projectiles. The government is also considering using troops currently deployed on anti-terrorism patrols to protect public buildings.[SEP]Eiffel Tower to be closed as Paris braces for more protests PARIS (AP) — France was mobilizing tens of thousands of police officers and closing landmarks including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre as authorities warned that anti-government protests on Saturday could be even more violent than the ones that have crippled the country for weeks. "According to the information we have, some radicalized and rebellious people will try to get mobilized tomorrow," Interior minister Christophe Castaner told a press conference on Friday. "Some ultra-violent people want to take part." Authorities say 8,000 police will fan out across Paris, equipped with a dozen barricade-busting armored vehicles that could be used for the first time in a French urban area since 2005. "These vehicles can be very useful to protect buildings," said Stanislas Gaudon, the head of police union Alliance. "And in case they set up barricades, we can quickly clear out the space and let our units progress." At the height of the festive shopping season, many Paris store owners were boarding up their shop fronts and have said they will remain shut Saturday for fear they may be in the line of any unrest between protesters and police. Meanwhile, Paris police, fearing protesters could turn street furniture and construction site material into makeshift weapons, were removing all the glass containers, railings and building machines set up in high-risk areas including the world-renowned Champs-Elysees avenue, which would normally be packed with tourists and shoppers on a Saturday in early December. The Nicolas wine chain, one of the biggest retailers in the country, canceled all its wine tasting sessions scheduled for Saturday. "It's with an immense sadness that we'll see our city partially brought to a halt, but your safety is our priority," Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said. "Take care of Paris on Saturday because Paris belongs to all the French people." Across the country some 89,000 police will be mobilized, up from 65,000 last weekend when more than 130 people were injured and over 400 were arrested as protests degenerated into the worst street violence to hit Paris in decades. Authorities also have cancelled six French league soccer matches around the country. Since the unrest began on Nov. 17 in reaction to a sharp increase in diesel taxes, four people have been killed in accidents. The protesters are collectively referred to as the "yellow vest" movement, in reference to the fluorescent safety outfit French motorists keep in their cars. Amid the unrest, some of the protesters, French union officials and prominent politicians across the political spectrum have urged calm especially as French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike that triggered the movement. However, protesters' demands have now expanded to other issues hurting French workers, retirees and students. Students opposing an education reform protested again Friday, a day after footage widely shared on social media showing the arrest of high school students protesting outside Paris prompted an outcry. Trade unions and far-left parties have lashed out at perceived police brutality. The images, filmed Thursday at Mantes-la-Jolie, showed a group of students on their knees with their hands behind their head. They are being watched over by armed police officers whose faces are hidden by ski masks. Interior minister Christophe Castaner said that 151 people were arrested in the small town, adding that some of them carried weapons. He said none of the students were injured. The rioting has also had an economic impact at the height of the holiday shopping season. Rampaging groups last weekend threw cobblestones through Paris storefronts and looted valuables in some of the city's richest neighborhoods. The national Federation of French markets said that Christmas markets have been "strongly impacted" and that its members registered "an average fall of their estimated figures between 30 and 40 percent since the beginning of the movement of the yellow vests." In addition to the closure of the Eiffel Tower, many shops and museums across France, including the Louvre, Orsay Museum and the Grand Palais, will keep their doors shut on Saturday for safety reasons. "We need to protect culture sites in Paris but also everywhere in France," Culture Minister Franck Riester told RTL radio.[SEP]The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum in Paris will be closed on Saturday as French authorities tighten security to prevent another outbreak of violence following three weeks of anti-government protests. And at the height of the festive shopping season, many retailers have said they will remain shut for the day for fear they may be in the line of any unrest between protesters and police. In addition to the 8,000 police forces that will be deployed in the French capital city, the Paris police prefect has identified 14 high-risk sectors that will be cleared out. Fearing protesters could target street furniture and use material found at construction sites as makeshift weapons, Paris police will remove all the glass containers, railings and building machines set up in the identified sectors which include the world-renowned and glitzy Champs-Elysees avenue. “According to the information we have, some radicalized and rebellious people will try to get mobilized tomorrow,” Interior minister Christophe Castaner told a press conference on Friday. “Some ultra-violent people want to take part.” Many shop owners across the French capital are getting ready for the violence, setting up walls with carton boards to protect their windows. Meanwhile, the Nicolas wine chain, one of the biggest retailers in the country, canceled all its wine tasting sessions scheduled for Saturday. Across the country some 89,000 police will be mobilized, up from 65,000 last weekend when more than 130 people were injured and over 400 were arrested in the worst street violence seen in Paris in decades. And authorities have also cancelled six French league soccer matches this weekend around the country. Since the unrest began on Nov. 17 in reaction to a sharp increase in diesel taxes, four people have been killed in accidents. The protesters are collectively referred to as the “yellow vest” movement, in reference to the fluorescent safety outfit French motorists keep in their cars. READ MORE: Paris protests reveal fracture between France’s haves and have-nots Amid the unrest, some of the protesters, French union officials and prominent politicians across the political spectrum have urged calm especially as French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike that triggered the movement. However, protesters’ demands have now expanded to other issues hurting French workers, retirees and students. Students opposing an education reform protested again Friday, a day after footage widely shared on social media showing the arrest of high school students protesting outside Paris prompted an outcry. Trade unions and far-left parties have lashed out at perceived police brutality. The images, filmed Thursday at Mantes-la-Jolie, showed a group of students on their knees with their hands behind their head. They are being watched over by armed police officers whose faces are hidden by ski masks. Interior minister Christophe Castaner said that 151 people were arrested in the small town, adding that some of them carried weapons. He said none of the students were injured. The rioting has also had an economic impact at the height of the holiday shopping season. Rampaging groups last weekend threw cobblestones through Paris storefronts and looted valuables in some of the city’s richest neighbourhoods. The National Federation of French markets said that Christmas markets have been “strongly impacted” and that its members registered “an average fall of their estimated figures between 30 and 40 per cent since the beginning of the movement of the yellow vests.” In addition to the closure of the Eiffel Tower, many shops and museums across France, including the Louvre, Orsay Museum and the Grand Palais, will keep their doors shut on Saturday for safety reasons. READ MORE: Why France’s ‘yellow vest’ protesters are rioting in Paris and across the country “We need to protect culture sites in Paris but also everywhere in France,” Culture Minister Franck Riester told RTL radio. In Paris, police officers will be equipped with a dozen armored vehicles that could be used for the first time in a French urban area since 2005. “These vehicles can be very useful to protect buildings,” said Stanislas Gaudon, the head of police union Alliance. “And in case they set up barricades, we can quickly clear out the space and let our units progress.”[SEP]Authorities in Paris are bracing for further anti-government protests over the weekend by deploying thousands of security personnel to the area and closing down the city's iconic Eiffel Tower. The tower, as well as the Louvre museum and several shops along the Champs-Elysees, will close as a precautionary measure amid fears of continued rioting led by the French protest group "Des Gilets Jaunes," or the "Yellow Vests." The Yellow Vests mobilized over rising gas prices mainly caused by a new tax on diesel fuel, which has lifted prices 16% in 2018. But the demonstrations have grown into a broader protest against the rising costs of living and general displeasure with President Emmanuel Macron's government. Thousands of protesters have joined in on the riots — the worst in Paris since 1968— burning cars, smashing store-fronts, defacing national symbols, and clashing with police. Last week, police fired 12,000 canisters of tear gas and water cannons at protesters and arrested more than 400 people. The running clashes have left four people dead, including an elderly woman who was struck by a tear gas canister as she was closing her window in Marseilles, and hundreds more injured. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced that 89,000 police officers will be deployed in the capital over the weekend. Local authorities held emergency meetings on Thursday in order to plan for the expected violence, AP reported. The move to protect the city's famous landmarks follows damage last week to the Arc de Triomphe monument. On Wednesday, Macron agreed to abandon the controversial diesel tax, which was seen as a victory for the Yellow Vest movement. Still, protests are expected to continue as the group demands broader tax cuts and government aid. An interior ministry official told AFP that authorities were ready for "significant violence" on Saturday as activists from both ends of the political spectrum expected to make their way through the capital.

Major landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre are to shut down amid expected protests this weekend.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The Aquarius has been stuck in Marseille since its registration was revoked Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says it has been forced to end migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean carried out by the vessel Aquarius. The medical charity blamed "sustained attacks on search and rescue by European states". Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini welcomed MSF's move. "Fewer sailings, fewer landings, fewer deaths. That's good," he tweeted. Aquarius has been stuck in Marseille since its registration was revoked. It has helped save migrants making the dangerous crossing to Europe from Libya and elsewhere, but has faced strong opposition, particularly from Italy. Mr Salvini accused charities running rescue ships of collaborating with people-traffickers operating out of Libya to run a "taxi service" to Italian ports. Italian policy is that migrants picked up at sea should be returned to Libya by that country's coastguard. But charities and human rights groups say migrants face appalling conditions in Libya, where abuses at the hands of people-trafficking gangs are rife. Aquarius had been the last charity rescue ship still operating. Announcing the decision to end its operations, MSF said EU countries, spearheaded by Italy, had failed to provide enough dedicated rescue capacity of their own, then had actively sabotaged the efforts of others trying to save lives in the Mediterranean, the BBC's Europe correspondent, Damian Grammaticas reports. In a tweet, MSF Sea said "sustained attacks" by European nations "will mean more deaths at sea, and more needless deaths that will go unwitnessed". Aquarius has been laid up in Marseille for months, after Panama revoked its registration - citing intense political pressure from Italian authorities A de-flagged vessel cannot legally set sail. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption In June, the BBC visited an empty and troubled Aquarius Italy has kept up the pressure. Last month, prosecutors called for the seizure of the Aquarius over the alleged dumping of potentially toxic waste in its ports. MSF called the move "unfounded and sinister". Migrant numbers reaching Italy have fallen significantly this year amid moves to dismantle smuggling networks in Libya and increase coastguard patrols. International Organization for Migration (IOM) data says more than 2,000 people have died or gone missing making crossings this year, compared to more than 3,000 last year. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC producer Alva White describes conditions on the Aquarius The Aquarius began operations in 2015 and came to worldwide attention over the summer as Italy closed its ports to migrant rescue ships, leaving the ship stranded at sea with people rescued from the water. Hundreds of migrants were eventually allowed to disembark in the Spanish port of Valencia in June, after being turned away by Italy and Malta.[SEP]The search-and-rescue ship Aquarius, which has helped about 30,000 migrants avoid death in the Mediterranean Sea, is suspending its operations. The humanitarian groups Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee said European governments were forcing them to end the rescue runs. The Aquarius has been docked in Marseille, France, since early October after Panama revoked its registration at the behest of the right-wing, anti-immigration Italian government. The ship has been rescuing migrants who were trying to make the dangerous crossing from Libya to Europe in inadequate rafts and dinghies. "The end of Aquarius means more lives lost at sea; more avoidable deaths that will go unwitnessed and unrecorded. It really is a case of 'out of sight, out of mind' for UK and European leaders as men, women and children perish," Vickie Hawkins, head of MSF UK, said in a statement. The International Organization for Migration said that about 15,000 migrants have drowned in the central Mediterranean since 2013. An estimated 2,133 have died this year alone. The Aquarius was the last rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean. Last year, five groups were running rescue ships. At the height of the migrant influx in 2015 and 2016, NGO vessels worked alongside Italian coast guard ships. The election of Italy's coalition government this year on an anti-migrant platform rapidly ended the cooperation, and rescue boats have been prevented from docking in Italian ports. Migrant arrivals in Italy have since fallen to pre-crisis levels following a series of hard-line measures drafted by far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. Now rescue missions fall on national coast guard crews from Europe and North Africa, who tend to return the rescued migrants to the country they set off from, usually Libya. NGO groups describe conditions for the migrants there as "inhuman," with allegations of arbitrary detention, torture, rape and killings by human smugglers and security forces.[SEP]Leading U.N. humanitarian agencies warn migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea will multiply with the end of sea and rescue operations by Doctors Without Borders and its partner SOS Mediterranee. The two international charities were pressured by the European Union to put their ship, the Aquarius into dry dock and abandon their life-saving rescue mission. The Aquarius has been docked in Marseille, France, since early October after Panama revoked its registration at the behest of the right-wing, anti-immigration Italian government. Italy claims these operations encourage migrants to make the perilous sea journey. It says ending these activities will save lives, a claim hotly disputed by U.N. officials. UN refugee agency spokeswoman, Shabia Mantoo, says search-and-rescue capacity needs to be reinforced rather than diminished. "So, we do continue to call strongly for increasing search-and-rescue capacity in the Central Mediterranean and for leaving space for NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) to contribute in a coordinated manner to these efforts," said Mantoo. "Saving lives is our primary concern." Since it began operations in February 2016, the Aquarius has helped nearly 30,000 refugees and migrants in distress find a safe haven. U.N. Human Rights Spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, tells VOA she is deeply concerned by recent developments. "The provision of support and assistance to migrants must not be criminalized," said Shamdasani. "The decrease of search-and-rescue by humanitarian organizations and States failure to provide adequate search-and-rescue capacity is resulting in an increase of migrants, an increase of vulnerability of migrants at sea." Shamdasani says the death rate in the Central Mediterranean this year is much higher than in previous years. She says States must protect the lives and safety of migrants and ensure those who are at risk are rescued and offered immediate assistance. The International Organization for Migration reports more than 2,100 people have died making the dangerous sea crossing from Libya to Europe this year. This is nearly two-thirds of the more than 3,300 deaths recorded globally in 2018.[SEP]Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says it has been forced to end rescue operations in the Mediterranean carried out by the vessel, Aquarius. The medical charity blamed "sustained attacks on search and rescue by European states". Aquarius has been stuck in Marseille since its registration was revoked. It has helped save migrants making the dangerous crossing to Europe from Libya and elsewhere but has faced strong opposition, particularly from Italy. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has accused charities running rescue ships of collaborating with human traffickers operating out of Libya to run a "taxi service" to Italian ports. Aquarius had been the last charity rescue ship still operating. Announcing the decision to end its operations, MSF said EU countries, spearheaded by Italy, had failed to provide enough dedicated rescue capacity of their own, then had actively sabotaged the efforts of others trying to save lives in the Mediterranean, the BBC's Europe correspondent, Damian Grammaticas reports. In a tweet, MSF Sea said "sustained attacks" by European nations "will mean more deaths at sea, and more needless deaths that will go unwitnessed". Aquarius has been laid up in Marseille for months, after Panama revoked its registration - citing intense political pressure from Italian authorities. Italy has kept up the pressure. Last month, prosecutors called for the seizure of the Aquarius over the alleged dumping of potentially toxic waste in its ports. MSF called the move "unfounded and sinister". Migrant numbers reaching Italy have fallen significantly this year amid moves to dismantle smuggling networks in Libya and increase coastguard patrols. International Organization for Migration (IOM) data says more than 2,000 people have died or are missing making crossings this year, compared to more than 3,000 last year. The Aquarius began operations in 2015 and came to worldwide attention over the summer as Italy closed it ports to migrant rescue ships, leaving the ship stranded at sea with people rescued from the water. Hundreds of migrants were eventually allowed to disembark in the Spanish port of Valencia in June, after being turned away by Italy and Malta. Italian policy is that migrants discovered at sea should be returned to Libya by that country's coastguard.[SEP]The Aquarius migrant rescue ship is to end its operations in the Mediterranean, the humanitarian groups that chartered the boat said on Thursday. The vessel has been stranded in Marseille since early October after Panama revoked the right to fly its flag following a request from Italy's far-Right, anti-establishment government. Last month Rome also ordered the seizure of the Aquarius, which had been conducting rescue operations off Libya since 2016, for allegedly dumping toxic waste. "This is the result of a sustained campaign, spearheaded by the Italian government and backed by other European states, to delegitimise, slander and obstruct aid organisations providing assistance to vulnerable people," Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement. "Coupled with the EU's ill-conceived external policies on migration, this campaign has undermined international law and humanitarian principles. With no immediate solution to these attacks, MSF and SOS Mediterranee have no choice but to end operations by the Aquarius," it added.[SEP]The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says it has been forced to terminate its search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean. It says a sustained campaign of obstruction by the Italian government brought about the decision to withdraw its rescue vessel Aquarius. It says Italy has twice stripped the ship of its registration, and falsely accused it of criminal activities. Over 2,000 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year. Tom De Kok who is on board the Aquarius says forcing the MSF vessel out of the region will mean more lives are lost. "Our work does save lives so if you ask me 'will our absence result in deaths?' the answer is unequivocally yes," said Mr De Kok. MSF says the European Union is working to force migrants back to Libya - in contravention of international law. "This has become a systematic delegitimisation of search and rescue activities," said Mr De Kok. "The European Union Council agreement in June of this year said it would stand by Italy."[SEP]The last refugee rescue ship working in the Mediterranean Sea, Aquarius, has ended operations, French NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said, blaming harassment from Italy and other countries. “The end of our operations onboard the Aquarius will mean more death in the sea, deaths that are avoidable and without witnesses,” Nelke Mander, MSF’s general director, said late on Thursday. The decision to moor the Aquarius is the result of a “constant denigration, smearing and obstruction campaign led” against MSF and SOS Mediterranean by the Italian government and supported by other European countries, according to the NGO. The ship was commissioned in February 2016 and has rescued almost 30,000 people in international waters off Libya, Malta and Italy. She has remained moored in Marseilles since October 4, after transferring 58 migrants to Malta during her last mission, Reuters said.[SEP]Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the SOS-Mediterranee aid group say the migrant rescue ship they operate in the Mediterranean Sea is ceasing operations due to "sustained attacks" from European Union states. MSF blamed Italy and other European states for smearing and obstructing the work of its chartered vessel Aquarius, which has helped rescue some 30,000 migrants in international waters between Libya, Italy, and Malta since February 2016. "Not only has Europe failed to provide search and rescue capacity, it has also actively sabotaged others' attempts to save [the] lives" of migrants attempting to "flee by sea along the world's deadliest migration route," the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group said in a statement late on December 6. In June, the Aquarius became a symbol of the political and diplomatic crisis over migrants in Europe when Italy closed its ports to the ship and left it stranded with 630 people on board. "This is the result of a sustained campaign, spearheaded by the Italian government and backed by other European states, to delegitimize, slander, and obstruct aid organizations providing assistant to vulnerable people," MSF said. "Coupled with the EU's ill-conceived external policies on migration, this campaign has undermined international law and humanitarian principles," the group said. "With no immediate solution to these attacks, MSF and SOS-Mediterranee have no choice but to end operations by the Aquarius," it added. Frederic Penard, director of operations for SOS-Mediterranee, said his nongovernmental organization was "actively exploring options for a new boat." The Aquarius has remained in the French port of Marseille since October. In November, Italy ordered the seizure of the ship as part of an investigation into allegations that it had passed off tons of potentially toxic waste as ordinary waste at Italian ports. With reporting by BBC, AFP, and dpa[SEP]Search and rescue ship Aquarius, which has saved tens of thousands of migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean, has ended its operations, the charity that runs the ship, Doctors without Borders (MSF), said on Thursday. MSF and its partner SOS Mediterranee said they were forced to terminate its operations due to a “smear campaign” by European governments. The ship has been blocked at the French port of Marseilles since it lost its Panamanian registration at the end of September. The Aquarius was the last charity rescue ship operating off of Libya. Last year there were five groups running rescue ships. “This is a dark day. Not only has Europe failed to provide dedicated search and rescue capacity, it has also actively sabotaged others’ attempts to save lives,” said Vickie Hawkins, head of MSF UK, in a statement. “The end of Aquarius means more lives lost at sea; more avoidable deaths that will go unwitnessed and unrecorded. It really is a case of ‘out of sight out of mind’ for UK and European leaders as men, women and children perish,” she said. Nearly 5,000 migrants died in 2016 while trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East to flee war and poverty, according to the UN agency International Organization for Migration (IOM). The number of migrants reaching Italy has fallen sharply since last year as smuggling networks inside Libya, a key departure point for mainly sub-Saharan Africans, have been disrupted and the European Union has stepped up efforts to increase Libyan coastguard patrols. Data by IOM showed that more than 2,000 people have drowned so far this year. Italian magistrates in November accused MSF of illegally dumping toxic waste at ports in southern Italy and ordered Aquarius to be impounded. The charity denied any wrongdoing and accused Italy of seeking to criminalise humanitarian search and rescue missions. The public prosecutor’s office in Catania, Sicily, said it believed crew on the Aquarius, and its sister ship VOS Prudence, had illegally dumped potentially dangerous medical waste among ordinary rubbish between January 2017 and May 2018. The Aquarius was launched in 2015 at the peak of the migrant crisis in Europe. – Reuters (Thomson Reuters Foundation)[SEP]The charity Médecins Sans Frontières has said it has been forced to end its search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean. The organisation said a sustained campaign of obstruction by the Italian government and the EU had left it with no choice but to withdraw the rescue vessel MV Aquarius from service. It accused Italian authorities of working to delegitimise, slander and obstruct aid organisations providing assistance to vulnerable people. It said the Aquarius had been stripped of its registration twice this year and now faces “patently absurd” allegations of criminal activity. It said the Aquarius had been forced to remain in port for the past two months as people continue to flee across the world’s deadliest migration route. The charity’s general director Nelke Manders said EU attempts to discredit search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean over the past 18 months “have drawn on tactics used in some of the world’s most repressive states.” “This is a dark day,” he said. “Not only has Europe failed to provide search and rescue capacity, it has also actively sabotaged others’ attempts to save lives. “The end of Aquarius means more deaths at sea, and more needless deaths that will go un-witnessed.” Some 2,133 people are believed to have died in the Mediterranean this year. The majority of people attempting the crossing from Libya to Europe do so on dangerous and overcrowded crafts. The Aquarius, which has assisted nearly 30,000 people since 2016, was the last ship working to rescue stricken migrants in the region. It’s after crackdowns by the Italian government forced several others to halt operations. MSF said the EU states have fuelled the suffering by enabling the Libyan coastguard to intercept more than 14,000 people at sea this year and forcibly return them to Libya. It said the policy was in “clear violation of international law” noting that in 2015, the EU pledged to ensure nobody rescued at sea would be forced to return to Libya. A number of humanitarian vessels have been blocked from entering ports in Italy and Malta in recent months. The stand-off has seen ships, including the Aquarius stranded at sea for days at a time with dwindling supplies and hundreds of people on board. Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini has said other European countries to take on more responsibility in taking in migrants. "Europe needs to seriously decide to help Italy in concrete terms," he said in August. The International Organisation for Migration says 15,000 migrants have drowned in the central Mediterranean since 2013.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) rescue vessel Aquarius 2 ends migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, citing sustained attacks on search and rescue by European governments, particularly Italy.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption A wrecked car stood outside one of the banks targeted by the gang At least five hostages, including a child, have died as armed police battled robbers who had tried to raid two banks in north-east Brazil. Six other people also died in the gun battle in the city of Milagres, reports say. It is not clear if they were robbers or police officers. The mayor of Milagres, in Ceara state, said the hostages were killed by their captors as police moved in. Two suspected robbers were arrested, Brazilian media reported. Four of the hostages, including the child, were all from the same family, city mayor Lielson Landim told Radio Band News. Image copyright Reuters Image caption A wrecked car stood outside one of the banks targeted by the gang According to initial reports, police surprised the robbers in the early hours of the morning and engaged them in a shootout. The gang then fled, reportedly grabbing the hostages on their way. Mr Landim, quoted by Brazil's Globo newspaper, said the gang had blocked a road with a truck and seized the family from a vehicle that was forced to stop. "The criminals killed the hostages and the police killed the criminals," he added. However, a spokeswoman for the state governor said that 12 people had died, including six police officers. Security officials said police had seized guns and explosives used by the gang. Three vehicles had been used in the attempted robberies on two bank branches, they added.[SEP]Eleven people — six bank robbers and five hostages, including a child — were killed Friday in a pre-dawn assault on two banks in northeast Brazil foiled by police, the local mayor said. The violence erupted in the city of Milagres, in the northeastern state of Ceara, with a fierce pre-dawn shootout between the armed robbers and the police. “Our information from the hospital is 11 victims killed — six bandits and five hostages,” the mayor of Milagres, Lielson Landin, told Radio Band News.[SEP]At least five hostages, including a child, have died as armed police battled robbers who had tried to raid two banks in north-east Brazil. Six robbers also died when police engaged them in a gun battle in the city of Milagres, reports say. The mayor of Milagres, in Ceara state, said the hostages were killed by their captors as police moved in. Two suspected robbers were also arrested in the operation, Brazilian media reported. Four of the hostages, including the child, were all from the same family, city mayor Lielson Landim told Radio Band News. According to initial reports, police surprised the robbers in the early hours of the morning and engaged them in a shootout. The gang then fled, grabbing the hostages on their way. Some media reports put the death toll at 13. Mr Landim, quoted by Brazil's Globo newspaper, said the gang had blocked a road with a truck and seized the family from a vehicle that was forced to stop. "The criminals killed the hostages and the police killed the criminals," he added. Security officials said police had seized guns and explosives used by the gang. Three vehicles had been used in the attempted robberies on two bank branches, they added.[SEP]Brazil bank robbery: Five hostages and six robbers have been shot dead Gunfire erupted in the city of Milagres, in the state of Ceara, when police were waiting as the robbers attempted to escape from the second bank. The gang was shot dead in a fierce shootout which lasted 20 minutes. Five people taken hostage were killed by the robbers, the mayor of Milagres said. Sao Paulo plane crash: Two dead, 12 injured as plane crashes in city Scientific DISCOVERY: Wonder of the World created by TERMITES Local media reports that four of the hostages were from the same family. One of the group was a child. They were reportedly travelling to the nearby airport when the gang took them hostage while making their escape. Mayor Lielson Landin told Radio Band News: "Our information from the hospital is 11 victims killed - six bandits and five hostages.” Landin added that “the criminals killed the hostages, and police killed the criminals”. Some Brazilian media reports put the total death toll as high as 13.[SEP]Eleven people -- six bank robbers and five hostages including a child -- were killed Friday in a pre-dawn assault on two banks in a northeast Brazilian city foiled by police, the local mayor said. The violence erupted in the city of Milagres, in the northeastern state of Ceara, with a fierce pre-dawn shootout between the armed robbers and the police. "Our information from the hospital is 11 victims killed -- six bandits and five hostages," the mayor of Milagres, Lielson Landin, told Radio Band News. He said four of the hostages, including the child, were all from the same family. They had been grabbed by the fleeing robbers as they were going to the nearby airport to catch a flight. Landin said that "the criminals killed the hostages and the police killed the criminals." Some Brazilian media gave higher death tolls, of up to 13, and said the child killed was a 14-year-old boy. The attempted robbery of the two banks occurred at 2:17 am (0417 GMT). When police arrived a shootout lasting 20 minutes ensued, reports said. 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After a shoot-out lasting about 20 minutes, the robbers were also killed, according to Mr Landin, who said that "the criminals killed the hostages and the police killed the criminals". An unidentified resident told R7: "I could not sleep with the noise of the shots and I also could not leave the house to know what was happening. The head of the Secretariat of Public Security and Social Defense Andre Costa told Diario de Nordeste that two people had been arrested. He added: "We still do not know what happened. "There was an exchange of shots. "The preliminary information we received is that one of the criminals arrested ended up saying that he killed people who were in the place and were not of the gang." He also said that it was too early to blame police for the deaths of the hostages, the newspaper reported. Milagres is in the state of Ceara, which is one of Brazil's most violent.[SEP]RIO DE JANEIRO: Eleven people - six bank robbers and five hostages, including a child - were killed Friday (Dec 7) in a pre-dawn assault on two banks in northeast Brazil foiled by police, the local mayor said. The violence erupted in the city of Milagres, in the northeastern state of Ceara, with a fierce pre-dawn shootout between the armed robbers and the police. "Our information from the hospital is 11 victims killed - six bandits and five hostages," the mayor of Milagres, Lielson Landin, told Radio Band News. He said four of the hostages, including the child, were all from the same family. They had been grabbed by the fleeing robbers as they were going to the nearby airport to catch a flight. Landin said that "the criminals killed the hostages and the police killed the criminals." Some Brazilian media gave higher death tolls, of up to 13, and said the child killed was a 14-year-old boy. The attempted robbery of the two banks occurred at 2.17am local time. When police arrived, a shootout lasting 20 minutes ensued, reports said.[SEP]A bank hold-up in Brazil has left 11 people dead as police try to negotiate for the release of five hostages taken. The hostage situation unfolded in he municipality of Milagres, Ceará, in the Cariri region. Mayor Lielson Landin said six robbers launched the attack on two banks before dawn in the city. The six were reportedly killed in a fierce shoot-out with police. Five hostages were also killed, including a child. The Military Police reportedly fired shots to contain the 'gang' involved in the incident, reports Correio Braziliense. Residents are said to have reported "at least 10 minutes of shooting". Local media report Milagres suffered an attempted attack the previous week, according to the director of the Banking Union of Ceará Gabriel Mota. Police had already been investigating the gang involved in that attempted attack and intercepted the latest bank hit, Correio Braziliense reports. The Municipal Government of Milagres has suspended all services in public office. In a statement, they said: "The measure is taken in accordance with the guidelines of the Military Police command, which at that time has the support of CIOPAER helipcopters and a large number of police officers who are in the center and vicinity of the city, in the capture of bandits who have undertaken escape this morning." The government are also advising residents to stay indoors until order is restored. Images from the scene show smashed window and mangled equipment inside the building following the deadly shootout.[SEP]RIO DE JANEIRO -- At least 12 people, including two children, were killed Friday when police engaged in a shootout with bank robbers, according to authorities in northeastern Brazil. The two attempted heists in the state of Ceara began around 2:30 a.m. in the downtown area of the city of Milagres. Robbers at one bank took several people hostage when police surrounded the area, according to a police statement. A firefight broke out, leaving several dead. Authorities have yet to identify the dead. Two suspects were apprehended, according to police. Milagres Mayor Lielson Macedo Landim told local media that two children, between 10 and 13 years old, were killed in the shooting. Landim told Radio Band News that four people taken hostage were all from the same family, according to AFP. The four were taken hostage as the robbers were going to an airport, according to AFP. Landim told Globo newspaper that the family members were taken from a vehicle that was forced to stop because the robbers had blocked a road with a truck, according to BBC News. Police did not immediately respond to email and phone requests for more information. Latin America's largest nation routinely is the world leader in total annual homicides. Ceara is one of the country's most violent states.[SEP]Banco Do Brasil in Milagres was attacked in the early hours of the morning. Banco Do Brasil in Milagres was attacked in the early hours of the morning. TWELVE PEOPLE, INCLUDING six hostages, were killed in northeast Brazil after police foiled a gang of armed robbers staging a simultaneous predawn assault on two banks in the town of Milagres, officials said. Five of the dead hostages were members of the same family and included two children, the local mayor, Lielson Landim, told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. They had been returning from a nearby airport when some of the robbers seized them. The secretary for security in the state of Ceara, Andre Costa, said in a statement that an investigation was being carried out to identify all those killed and the circumstances of their deaths. Costa did not say whose bullets killed the hostages. Landim had earlier said that, based on initial information, he understood that “the criminals killed the hostages and the police killed the criminals.” “A heavily armed group arrived in the town in the early hours and went to the centre where they tried to commit the crime. There was an exchange of fire between the suspects and police,” according to Costa’s state security secretariat. It said six gang members were killed and “another six people died from gunshots.” Various weapons and explosives, as well as three vehicles used in the bank assaults, were recovered. This handout photo released by the Civil Police of Ceara shows explosives seized by the police after a shootout with bank robbers, in Milagres. Source: AP/PA Images The gang had launched a simultaneous assault on two banks on the same street in Milagres, population 28,000, shortly after 2.00 am local time. According to the G1 news website, the robbers had blocked the street with a truck and stopped the car carrying the family, which included relatives who had just arrived on a flight from Sao Paulo to celebrate Christmas with them. G1 reported that the robbers “executed” the hostages when police turned up to prevent their operation. It said some of the gang managed to escape. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I stayed inside my home, cowering and afraid,” a local resident, Mendonca de Santa Helena, told media. Shaken by the violence, the municipality of Milagres suspended most of its activities today and asked residents to stay at home “until order is restored.” Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world, suffering nearly 64,000 murders last year – a homicide rate of 30.8 per 100,000 inhabitants that is three times higher than the level the United Nations considers to be endemic violence. On 1 January, a far-right politician promising a relentless crackdown on crime, Jair Bolsonaro, will become Brazil’s new president following his election in October.

Eleven people die, including five hostages, as armed police battle robbers who had tried to raid two banks in Milagres, Ceará, Brazil.

For the first time, prosecutors have tied President Donald Trump to a federal crime, accusing him of directing illegal hush-money payments to women during his presidential campaign in 2016. The Justice Department stopped short of accusing Trump of directly committing a crime. Instead, they said in a court filing Friday night that Trump told his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to make illegal payments to buy the silence of two women — porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — who claimed to have had affairs with Trump and threatened his White House bid. Trump has denied having an affair. FACT CHECK: White House says there’s no ‘damaging’ info about Trump in Cohen, Manafort filings Cohen has pleaded guilty to several charges, including campaign finance violations, and is awaiting sentencing. Although Trump hasn’t been charged with any crimes, the question of whether a president can even be prosecuted while in office is a matter of legal dispute. Here’s a look at a that long-running legal ambiguity and a few of the main issues at play: That isn’t completely clear. But federal prosecutors didn’t accuse Trump in Friday night’s court filing of violating the law. However, there was no ambiguity in the court documents that prosecutors believe Cohen’s actions were criminal and Trump was directly involved. Prosecutors charged that Cohen arranged the secret payments at the height of the 2016 campaign “in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump. They also alleged Cohen made the payment in order to fend off potential damage to Trump’s presidential bid. WATCH: Mueller accuses Paul Manafort of lying about his contact with Trump administration Federal law requires that any payments that are made “for the purpose of influencing” an election must be reported in campaign finance disclosures. “There is a plausible case against the president,” said Rick Hasen, a professor who specializes in election and campaign finance law at the University of California at Irvine. In order to bring charges, prosecutors would have to prove Trump had criminal intent and “willfully violated the law,” said Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. Something that would be perfectly legal to do as a businessman could take on a different standard as a candidate and campaign finance laws are “very open-ended,” he said. READ MORE: Michael Cohen portrayed as a shady opportunist who cheated and lied for years Hasen said Trump’s lawyers could argue Trump didn’t have willfulness to break the law if the payments were completely personal and not connected to the campaign, despite their timing. Some legal experts have also argued that hush-money payments to keep people silent about their affairs are inherently personal, though Hasen said he didn’t agree with that argument. Legal experts are divided on that question. The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether the president can be indicted or whether the president can be subpoenaed for testimony. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice and guidance to executive branch agencies, has maintained that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Two Justice Department reports, one in 1973 and one in 2000, came to the same conclusion. Those reports essentially concluded that the president’s responsibilities are so important that an indictment would pose too many risks for the government to function properly. Trump’s lawyers have said that special counsel Robert Mueller plans to adhere to that guidance, though Mueller’s office has never independently confirmed that. Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has also said that a president cannot be indicted. Could Trump be indicted once he leaves office? There would presumably be no bar against charging a president after he leaves the White House. Legal scholars have said that based on the Justice Department’s guidance, it would appear that Trump could be charged for wrongdoing during the campaign or as president once he leaves office, but likely not before that. Blackman said the statute of limitations for a campaign finance law violation — like the one Cohen pleaded guilty to — would be five years. The payments to Daniels and McDougal were made in 2016, meaning the statute of limitations would run out in 2021. Trump has already shown he’s not afraid to use his pardon power, particularly for those he has viewed as unfair victims of partisanship. He’s pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who was convicted of criminal contempt for disobeying a judge’s order, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a Bush administration official convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in a leak case. Courts have never had to answer the question of whether the president can pardon himself. In June, Giuliani told NBC’s “Meet the Pres” that while Trump “probably does” have the power, “pardoning himself would be unthinkable and probably lead to immediate impeachment.”[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert Mueller is set to reveal more details about his Russia investigation on Friday as he faces court deadlines in the cases of two men who worked closely with President Donald Trump. The special counsel and federal prosecutors in New York will have to file separate memos in court detailing the cooperation of longtime Trump legal fixer Michael Cohen, who has admitted lying to Congress and orchestrating hush-money payments to protect the president. And Mueller’s team will also be disclosing what they say former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied about when his plea deal fell apart last month. Cohen and Manafort are among five former Trump associates whom prosecutors have accused of lying either to federal investigators or to Congress. The court filings will close out a week in which Mueller’s team for the first time provided some details of the help they’ve received from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. Prosecutors, who said Flynn’s assistance was “substantial” and merited no prison time, disclosed that he had cooperated not only with the Russia investigation but also with at least one other undisclosed criminal probe. The new details about Mueller’s investigation are set to become public as Trump continues to lash out at the Russia investigation and those who help prosecutors. Trump singled out Cohen, accusing him of lying to get a reduced prison sentence. The president also praised another associate, Roger Stone, for saying he wouldn’t testify against him, and Trump said a pardon for Manafort isn’t off the table. In the latest filings Friday, prosecutors will weigh in on whether Cohen deserves prison time and, if so, how much. In doing so, they’ll have to provide a federal judge with at least some description of the assistance he’s provided to their investigations — the Russia probe and a separate investigation led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts, including tax evasion and campaign finance violations. He said Trump had directed him before the 2016 election to arrange payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom alleged they had affairs with Trump. And then last week, Cohen made a surprise guilty plea to lying to Congress, a move that refocused attention on Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign. Cohen admitted he lied about the details of a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, saying that talks about the project went on until June 2016 — longer than he previously said. Cohen also said he discussed the project with Trump during the presidential campaign, undercutting the then-Republican presidential candidate’s statements that he didn’t have any deals in Russia. Trump has downplayed the project and stressed that he never put any money into the deal and ultimately decided not to do it. In Manafort’s case, prosecutors are expected to lay out what torpedoed the cooperation agreement he made when he pleaded guilty in September to two felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. In late November, prosecutors revealed that Manafort had repeatedly lied to them but did not say about what. The allegations exposed him to the possibility of additional criminal charges and a lengthier prison sentence. Manafort’s attorneys have denied that he made false statements, and a judge is expected to hear from them before deciding whether he actually lied. Manafort, who was convicted in August in federal court in Virginia of eight financial crimes, also awaits sentencing in that case. ___ Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.[SEP]WASHINGTON President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering new attack Friday on Robert Mueller, as he tapped a veteran conservative lawyer to head the US Justice Department — and assume oversight of the special counsel’s Russia investigation as it inches ever closer to the White House. The latest of Trump’s increasingly frequent outbursts against the probe came ahead of crucial court filings that could reinforce suspicions the president’s campaign colluded with a Russian effort to get him elected in 2016, or that Trump himself sought to obstruct justice — two of Mueller’s lines of inquiry. Trump fired off a feverish volley of early morning tweets rejecting the probe as a “total witch hunt,” accusing Mueller of “big time conflicts of interest” and alleging the prosecutor coerced false testimony from witnesses. With speculation swirling that Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly may be on his way out, the president also lashed out at a gallery of figures from the campaign of his former rival Hillary Clinton, to former FBI director James Comey, to his own deputy attorney general who he said was “totally conflicted.” The president also vowed his lawyers would produce a “major Counter Report” to rebut Mueller’s findings, as and when he delivers them. “Already 87 pages done, but obviously cannot complete until we see the final Witch Hunt Report,” he fumed. “This should never again be allowed to happen to a future President of the United States!” Shortly afterwards, speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump announced his intention to nominate William Barr as his new attorney general — succeeding Jeff Sessions, who he sacked last month. Sessions had angered the president by recusing himself from overseeing the Mueller probe because of his own contacts with Russian officials. His recusal had effectively created insulation between Mueller and the White House — a barrier that would no longer exist if Barr is approved by the Senate, probably next month. Barr — who previously served as attorney general under late George H.W. Bush — was seen in Washington as something of a consensus candidate for the highly sensitive post. He does however have a record of endorsing strong executive powers, which could come into play if Mueller sought to compel the president to testify. And while Barr initially endorsed Mueller’s naming to lead the Russia investigation, he subsequently voiced concerns that his team appeared too heavily Democratic, citing the fact that a number of its members had donated to the party. The president’s attack on Mueller came as Washington was braced for potentially explosive new developments in the probe, related to two pivotal figures: Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen. Accusing him of lying to investigators, Mueller last month cancelled a cooperation deal with Manafort, who has already been convicted on multiple charges of money laundering, financial and tax fraud and witness tampering. A filing in the Manafort case is to lay out the newest charges against the veteran Republican consultant, which could shed new light on how other members of Trump’s inner circle may have been involved in his activities. Meanwhile in New York, federal prosecutors are to file a sentencing recommendation for Cohen that might offer details of what he has told them about the financial activities and Russian contacts of the Trump family. In recent weeks, filings in the Mueller probe have suggested the White House knew Cohen planned to lie to Congress about his contacts with Russians. They also suggest Trump and his family were in the loop on discussions with the Russians on a Moscow project, even after the real estate tycoon had secured the Republican presidential nomination in mid-2016. A sentencing memorandum last Friday for former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn revealed that Mueller’s prosecutors are investigating top members of Trump’s presidential transition team, and that the Justice Department might have two other separate probes ongoing into Trump campaign members. Separately on Friday, another key figure in the investigation — Trump nemesis Comey — was testifying behind closed doors in the House Judiciary Committee. Trump fired Comey last year, angry over his refusal to reel back the Russia investigation — an event that led Mueller to probe Trump over possible obstruction of justice.[SEP]Donald Trump has five children from his three marriages to Ivana Trump, Maria Maples and Melania Trump. He had Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka and Eric Trump with Ivana Trump, Tiffany Trump with Marla Maples and Barron Trump with First Lady Melania Trump. Who is Ivanka Trump mother? Donald’s first wife Ivana Ivan is her father’s advisor and is the first Jewish member of a First family, as she converted to Judaism before marrying her husband, Jared Kushner. Her mother Ivana Trump has Czech and Austrian ancestry. She was born in New York in 1981 and spent her early years among the Manhattan elite studying at the Chaplin school. Donald Trump Jr is the eldest child of the president and after graduating moved to Aspen, Colorado where he stayed for a year.[SEP]Following Mueller's Friday filings on Cohen, California congressman Ted Lieu is convinced it's the beginning of the end for Trump. Friday filings by federal prosecutors and Mueller’s team showed that Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer, had informed him about the two election-related crimes he had committed back in 2016. Experts on either side of the political spectrum appear increasingly convinced that Mueller has got Trump cornered, with California congressman Ted Lieu saying the Friday disclosures proved that Trump committed at least two felonies, according to The Hill. Lieu, who is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and has been one of the most vociferous critics of Donald Trump while in office, was speaking with MSNBC‘s Chris Matthews when he claimed that Trump “committed two felonies while running for president”. According to the filings, Cohen has informed prosecutors that Trump had directed payments to silence both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal before the elections in an attempt to steer away from the bad publicity it would invariably have brought. Although the filings don’t explicitly name Trump, it does name an Individual-1 who Cohen “acted in coordination with and at the direction of” to make the payments. The filings then state that Individual-1 went to become the president of the United States, leaving little to the imagination. “In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1,” the filings read. Apart from this, Mueller’s filings also showed that Cohen had informed Trump about his attempts to create a synergy between the Trump team and Russian government officials, and acted on the direction of Trump to coordinate a possible meeting with Kremlin officials, including Putin. “Cohen said he briefed Trump and his family extensively on the project. Trump, his son Donald Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner could face problems if their own answers to Mueller and Congress contradict this,” a report in the Guardian states. Lieu contends that prosecutors have evidence to implicate Trump now. Several legal pundits agree with this assessment, with former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal tweeting that this was the first time that prosecutors had effectively stated that Trump had committed a felony. “I think my reading here is correct. If so, it is the first time federal prosecutors have said they believe Donald Trump committed a felony,” Katyal said. There is little doubt that Trump finds himself increasingly cornered now, and it would be interesting to see how the investigation plays out from this stage for the president and his ostensibly beleaguered family.[SEP]Photo by Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team interviewed White House chief of staff John Kelly about obstruction of justice as it relates to President Donald Trump and those close to him, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ABC News. As ABC News has previously reported Kelly was among members of the administration and those outside advisers close to the president who have been interviewed by the special counsel, according to sources over the course of the investigation. Kelly’s interview with the special counsel’s team was first reported by CNN. Kelly, who signed on as President Trump’s chief of staff in July of 2017, joins a long list of current and former White House officials to have interviewed with Mueller. Since his appointment as special counsel, Mueller has met with the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; former legal counsel Don McGahn; former communications director Hope Hicks; senior aide Stephen Miller; former press secretary Sean Spicer; and Kelly’s predecessor, former chief of staff Reince Priebus, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge. The president recently responded in written testimony to a slew of questions posed by Mueller and his team of prosecutors. ABC News has previously reported that the questions, which were divided into five sections, focused mostly on whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the presidential campaign cycle, according to sources. This is a developing story. Please refresh for details.[SEP]President Donald Trump on Friday tapped William Barr, a conservative lawyer who was attorney general in the administration of the late George H.W. Bush, to lead the US Department of Justice. Barr would succeed Jeff Sessions, who Trump forced to resign last month amid rising pressure on the White House from the Russia collusion investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. "Bill Barr will be nominated for the United states Attorney General position. I think he will serve with great distinction," Trump told reporters. "He was my first choice from day one. Respected by Republicans and respected by Democrats," he added, describing Barr as "a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man." Barr has a record of supporting strong executive powers, which could play into high-stakes legal battles on everything from immigration policy to war powers to whether the president can be required to give testimony in the Russia investigation. He expressed support in May 2017 when Trump fired then-FBI director James Comey, which has become a focus of Mueller's investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice, and has expressed support for Trump's calls to reopen investigations into his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton. While Barr initially expressed support for Mueller's naming as an independent prosecutor to lead the Russia investigation, he subsequently voiced concerns that Mueller's investigative team appeared too heavily Democratic, citing the fact a number of his prosecutors had donated to the party. Trump's naming of Barr came after he unleashed a new series of attacks on the special counsel and his team, with the prosecutor expected to release documents that could shed new light in the Russia probe. Repeating his regular dismissal of the probe as a "total witch hunt," Trump once again accused Mueller of political bias in an early morning tweetstorm alleging that the prosecutor had coerced false testimony from witnesses. Barr would replace current Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, a little-experienced Republican activist named by Trump last month after Sessions was dismissed. While he led major initiatives of the Trump administration to crack down on crime and illegal immigration, Sessions had angered the president early on when he recused himself from overseeing the Mueller probe because of his own contacts with Russians. His recusal had effectively created insulation between Mueller and the White House -- a barrier that would no longer exist once Barr is approved by the Senate, probably next month. For the latest News & Live Updates on Election Results from each assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for updates.[SEP]Donald Trump's continued angry Twitter posts about the Russia investigation show that he now understands that the probe is not going away, a close Trump ally says. Russia Investigation Special Counsel Robert Mueller released two new filings on Friday detailing crimes by Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen and 2016 campaign chief Paul Manafort, as CNN reported, but not before President Trump unleashed a series of six Twitter posts attacking Mueller and the investigation. Trump’s Twitter explosion continued later in the day when he posted a message declaring incorrectly that Mueller’s filing “totally clears” him. In fact, as Politico reported, far from “clearing” Trump, Mueller said he has evidence that contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign began as far back as November 2015, and that Cohen had discussed the possibility of Trump meeting Russia President Vladimir Putin not only with a Russian official but with Trump himself — indicating that Trump likely had direct knowledge of his campaign’s involvement with the Russian government. The contacts with Russia were not merely incidental, Mueller’s filings showed, according to a Daily Beast account. One Russian official offered to create “political synergy” — in other words, cooperation, or “collusion” — between Russia and the Trump campaign. Yet on Saturday, Trump returned to his Twitter account at 8:01 a.m. Eastern Time, to declare, “AFTER TWO YEARS AND MILLIONS OF PAGES OF DOCUMENTS (and a cost of over $30,000,000), NO COLLUSION!” Trump has mentioned Mueller in his Twitter posts many times before, invoking Mueller’s name 66 times already this year alone, according to the Trump Twitter Archive. But never before had Trump mentioned Mueller’s name on Twitter as many as four times in a single day, as he did on Friday. Why does Trump now seem to have reached an increased level of concern over Mueller’s Russia investigation? According to what longtime Trump friend and political mentor Roger Stone told the New York Times on Friday, Trump has finally come to understand that Mueller’s Russia probe “was not going away, his lawyers’ promises notwithstanding.” As MSNBC reported, for more than a year, Trump’s lawyers have given him repeated assurances that the end of the Russia probe was imminent, starting in November of 2017 when Trump’s then-lawyer Ty Cobb promised him that the investigation would end “before Thanksgiving” of 2017. Cobb and Trump’s other lawyers then repeatedly extended their projections to “Christmas,” “the end of the year,” and then, “the end of March.” When Trump replaced Cobb with his current lawyer Rudy Giuliani in April of this year, the former New York City mayor immediately announced, according to CNN, that the Russia investigation would end in “maybe a couple of weeks.” Giuliani later revised his prediction to September 1 as his projected end of the Mueller investigation. But as Mueller has only become more active, Trump has now come to a new understanding — one that has driven his angry Twitter activity — according to what Stone told the Times. “He has finally figured out that this is about him,” Stone said. “I think he has finally woken up.” Stone himself is under investigation by Mueller for his alleged role in possible collusion, and as Inquisitr reported, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination earlier this week to avoid testifying to congress about the 2016 campaign.[SEP]President Donald Trump has started what is expected to be a busy day for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation by launching a Twitter broadside against the prosecutor and his team. Mr Mueller faces court deadlines in two pivotal cases on Friday, and ex-FBI Director James Comey is set to appear before politicians on Capitol Hill. Mr Trump has made little secret of his frustration with the swirling probe into Russian election interference and potential misdeeds committed by those in his orbit and is seeking to undermine the legitimacy of Mr Mueller’s investigation. Mr Trump tweeted: “Robert Mueller and Leakin’ Lyin’ James Comey are Best Friends, just one of many Mueller Conflicts of Interest.” Mr Mueller’s investigation has produced dozens of criminal charges and four guilty pleas from Trump associates. Mr Trump also argues his deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, is “totally conflicted”. Mr Rosenstein oversaw the probe until last month.[SEP]Robert Mueller is to reveal more details about his Russia investigation on Friday as he faces court deadlines in the cases of two men who worked closely with President Donald Trump. The special counsel and federal prosecutors in New York were filing court memos detailing the cooperation of longtime Trump legal fixer Michael Cohen, who has admitted lying to Congress and orchestrating hush-money payments to protect the president. And Mueller's team will be disclosing what it says former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied about to cause his plea deal to fall apart last month. Cohen and Manafort are among five former Trump associates whom prosecutors have accused of lying either to federal investigators or to Congress. The court filings will close out a week in which Mueller's team for the first time provided some details of the help they've received from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. Prosecutors, who said Flynn's assistance was "substantial" and merited no prison time, disclosed that he had cooperated not only with the Russia investigation but also with at least one other undisclosed criminal probe. The new details about Mueller's investigation are becoming public as Trump continues to lash out at the Russia investigation and those who help prosecutors. Trump has singled out Cohen, accusing him of lying to get a reduced prison sentence. The president also praised another associate, Roger Stone, for saying he wouldn't testify against him, and Trump said a pardon for Manafort isn't off the table. In a series of Friday morning tweets, the president attacked individual law enforcement and intelligence officials by name and accused Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — the Justice Department official who appointed him — of conflicts of interest. He also said his lawyers were preparing a "counter to the Mueller Report." "Already 87 pages done, but obviously cannot complete until we see the final Witch Hunt Report," he said. In the latest filings Friday, prosecutors were to weigh in on whether Cohen deserves prison time and, if so, how much. In doing so, they must provide a federal judge with at least some description of the assistance he's provided to their investigations — the Russia probe and a separate investigation led by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts, including tax evasion and campaign finance violations. He said Trump had directed him before the 2016 election to arrange payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom alleged they had affairs with Trump. Last week, Cohen made a surprise guilty plea to lying to Congress, a move that refocused attention on Trump's ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign. He admitted he lied about the details of a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, saying that talks about the project went on until June 2016 — longer than he previously said. Cohen also said he discussed the project with Trump during the presidential campaign, undercutting the then-Republican presidential candidate's statements that he didn't have any deals in Russia. Trump has downplayed the project and stressed that he never put any money into the deal and ultimately decided not to do it. In Manafort's case, prosecutors are expected to lay out what torpedoed the cooperation agreement he made when he pleaded guilty in September to two felony charges of conspiracy. In late November, prosecutors said that Manafort had repeatedly lied to them but did not say about what. The allegations exposed him to the possibility of additional criminal charges and a lengthier prison sentence. Manafort's attorneys have denied that he made false statements, and a judge is expected to hear from them before deciding whether he actually lied. Manafort, who was convicted in August in federal court in Virginia of eight financial crimes, also awaits sentencing in that case. Also Friday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that George Papadopoulos, the first person sent to prison in the Russia investigation, was released after serving his 14-day sentence. The former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries. Those contacts during the presidential campaign prompted the FBI in July 2016 to open a counterintelligence investigation. That investigation was later taken over by Mueller. Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.

American attorney Robert Mueller is set to reveal more details about the Special Counsel investigation as he faces court deadlines in the cases of two men who worked closely with Donald Trump.

Dancehall and Reggae star Buju Banton is free. Banton, who was convicted in a Tampa courtroom in 2011 on federal drug charges, was freed Friday from Georgia's private McMcRae Correctional Institute, a prison official told the Tampa Bay Times. The 45-year-old music star was to return to his native Jamaica. A video of a man reported to be Banton boarding a plane was published on Twitter on Friday and #freebuju hashtags were all over social media. Born Mark Myrie, he served seven years in federal prison in one of the most high-profile cases tried in the Sam M. Gibbons United States Courthouse in downtown Tampa. The Guardian wrote that Banton would be the "most eagerly awaited arrival in Jamaica since Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie touched down in April 1966." Jamaican officials confirmed to the British newspaper that the artist was expected to return to his native country. The newspaper described Banton as "perhaps the most famous Jamaican artist whose name isn't Marley." Reared in Kingston and nicknamed "Buju" by his mother, he rose to prominence at a young age in the 1990s as one of the premier dancehall artists. He overtook Reggae legend Bob Marley's record for No. 1 singles on the Jamaican charts in 1992, according to the Guardian. But Banton was also the subject of international condemnation for a violently homophobic song that "openly incited the killing of gay people," according to the Guardian. As a result, 28 of his shows were cancelled from 2005 to 2011. In 2007, the newspaper said he vowed to never again incite "hatred or violence." His legal troubles started on a 2009 flight from Spain to the United States. Banton was seated next to an informant who federal agents had paid $3.3 million over 14 years. The prosecution said Banton boasted of his role in a large cocaine smuggling ring, and talked to the informant about setting up a deal. The trial started on Feb. 14, 2011, the day after he won a Grammy for best reggae album, Before the Dawn, recorded before his arrest. At his Tampa trial, federal prosecutors showed the jury audio and video recordings of Banton that they said proved he was involved in the deal to buy 11 pounds of cocaine for $135,000. One video showed the performer tasting cocaine at a Sarasota warehouse on Dec. 8, 2009, though he was not present when the deal was finalized. Banton told the jury that he was just boasting to impress someone who he believed could help his music career. The defense emphasized Banton's musical career, displaying his album covers, telling jurors about his Grammy award and even calling one of Bob Marley's sons to the stand. "This is not about Buju Banton, the reggae singer," a prosecutor told the jury. "This is about Mark Myrie, the drug defendant." In June 2011 he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. During the trial, while Banton was being held in the Pinellas County jail, he wrote this letter to the court: "The days that lie ahead are filled with despair, but I have courage and grace and I'm hopeful, and that is sufficient to carry me through. The man is not dead. Don't call him a ghost." Banton's case and appeals would drag on for years in federal court, however, and even one of the jurors in his 2011 conviction would end up in serious trouble years later. Former juror foreman Terri Wright was found guilty in 2015 of contempt for researching the case outside of court. U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr., who also presided over the Banton trial, sentenced her to five months of probation, 40 hours of community service and ordered her to research and write a report about the cost of Banton's high-profile trial. Former Miami New Times reporter Chris Sweeney wrote a story in 2012 that suggested Wright ignored the court's order and researched the case on her own. The reporter even testified the juror. Times staff writer Anastasia Dawson contributed to this report, which uses information from Times files and other news organizations.[SEP]The most eagerly awaited arrival in Jamaica since Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie touched down in April 1966 might just be this weekend’s return of Mark Myrie, better known as Buju Banton. Myrie, perhaps the most famous Jamaican artist whose name isn’t Marley, has served seven years in a US prison after being found guilty of intent to deal more than 5kg of cocaine. On 8 December, the gravelly voiced rastafari artist will be put on a plane in Florida and flown to Kingston to a nation that has been eagerly awaiting this moment. Jamaica’s culture minister, Olivia “Babsy” Grange, reports that Banton “is now really about, from what we understand, employment of young people. If he can help shape and resocialise young people, that is something we should embrace.” That said, the government isn’t pulling out any stops. “We can’t give him a hero’s welcome,” says minister of national security, Horace Chang. “He committed a crime.” And yes, Grange agrees, “There’s no getting over the fact that he was convicted, but Buju was loved long before he was convicted and he will be loved just the same, even if he comes home in handcuffs.” Raised in Salt Lane, a poor area of Kingston, the man nicknamed Buju by his mother honed his craft as a child, performing live with soundsystems under the name Gargamel aged 12 and recording by the following year, 1987. Jamaica fell for Banton in the early 90s, when he established himself as arguably the most significant dancehall artist in the country. Banton was beloved for his baritone grit, raunchy songs such as his ode to short shorts, Batty Rider, and his responsiveness to his audience. When some fans felt excluded by his hit Love Me Browning, about a penchant for lighter-skinned women, he followed it up with the equally catchy Love Black Women. Reggae artist Protoje says: “There is nothing that he cannot do musically. He’s a prodigy. He was awesome from 18 years old. He is one of the greatest artists to ever do it in Jamaican music, so I would never count him out.” In 1992, he overtook Bob Marley’s record for No 1 singles in Jamaica and signed with Mercury Records. Less happily, he also released the most infamous Jamaican song ever recorded, Boom Bye Bye, which openly incited the killing of gay people. It received local and international condemnation, culminating in the the Stop Murder Music Campaign, organised by UK group OutRage! in collaboration with Jamaican LGBT-rights group JFLAG. The campaign ultimately led to concert cancellations – 28 of Banton’s were cancelled between 2005 and 2011. In June 2007, he signed the Reggae Compassionate Act, which meant he agreed “to not make statements or perform songs that incite hatred or violence against anyone from any community”. Banton wrote Boom Bye Bye when he was 15, and has since found other lyrical topics. In 1995, he released the critically adored ’Til Shiloh, which embraced rastafari consciousness and demonstrated his versatility, as fluent in hardcore dancehall as roots reggae. Since his imprisonment in 2011, a new generation of reggae artists have gained global success, and Banton will have to compete with with likes of Jah 9, Raging Fyah and Kabaka Pyramid; Chronixx and Protoje drew 10,000 fans to London’s Alexandra Palace only last month. “The last album he released prior to his incarceration was Before the Dawn, for which he won a Grammy,” notes Sonjah Stanley Niaah, author of Dancehall: From Slaveship to Ghetto. “What’s interesting to me is that Buju will have to come to terms as a stage presence with a reggae revival.” Artist of the moment Spice, real name Grace Hamilton, is excited about what might accompany Banton’s return: “It is extremely significant to the genre because his music uplifts our roots and culture. His first concert in Jamaica will prove that. I’m sure mass amount of tourists will travel to our island just to see the great Gargamel.” Banton’s Long Walk to Freedom tour (named after Nelson Mandela’s autobiography) will reportedly begin in Jamaica on 23 March. It’s rumoured that Banton has been writing songs and reaching out to potential collaborators. There is at least one album that is ready to go. UK producer Blacker Dread released the tantalising Stumbling Block single last year, one of a range of tracks recorded in the early 2000s, put off due to the death of Dread’s son in 2004 and then Banton’s imprisonment. “Man is a king,” says Dread, “I have tracks with Buju that are timeless.” Unlike the similarly revered dancehall artist Vybz Kartel – whose 2014 conviction for murder led to a life sentence that will see him serve at least 35 years, yet who still seems to be able to release track after track – Banton has been all but silent. In a statement to the Guardian, he described the impact of imprisonment and his means of coping. “Prison can be traumatising not just on myself, but on my family as well as emotionally draining,” he explained, “For me, I drew strength from immersing myself in my situation. Do not live in yesterday but live in today. And education was the only thing that kept me up and alive. I immersed myself in reading so much – theology, philosophy and other subjects.” Human rights activist and former member of OutRage! Peter Tatchell is confident that Banton will continue to put the past behind him, stating that “it would be even better if he could acknowledge and apologise for those violently homophobic lyrics, but the main priority is that he doesn’t continue and repeat them.” Dane Lewis, former director of JFLAG, states that “the reality is that [in Jamaica] the most vulnerable continue to face some extreme forms of homophobia ... but in the last 10 years we have seen some shifts regarding homophobia and the ways LGBT in the region experience life.” In many ways, Banton is coming home to a vastly different Jamaica. The Kingston he knew is now populated by shiny new high-rises; the economy is healthier with record low unemployment, and the music scene is always changing, with the UN designating reggae as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage”, soca-soundtracked Trinidadian-influenced Carnival exploding in popularity, and major radio stations blaring top 40 music from the US. Yet Banton, even if only musically, will likely slip back in with ease. Rory Gilligan, a founding member of the famed Stone Love soundsystem, which helped establish Banton’s career, says the artist will have a relatively seamless transition, at least in comparison to other involuntarily returned citizens. According to Oswald Dawkins, president of the National Organization for Deported Migrants, about 1,500 people are involuntarily returned to Jamaica from the US, the UK and Canada every year. “I think he will adjust very easily. He has no financial problems. He has the resources,” Gilligan says. “There is nobody who has anything bad to say about him.” DJ Agent Sasco might agree, especially when it comes to the airwaves and dancehalls, which are crying out for fresh Banton tracks. Sasco – whose first recording was produced at Banton’s Gargamel studio – insists that the star will likely bring a sound that is unique to the present. “Don’t expect that it is going to be 2006 or 1994, but just to take him in 2019 and wherever he is at as a person and an artist,” he counsels. Then again, in the rush of enthusiasm for his return, whatever Banton releases is due a rapturous reception: “He could put out a single of him singing the ABCs and it would be a huge success.” In one of Banton’s most memorable songs, Destiny, he speaks of wanting to chart his own future, singing “my destination is homeward bound … I know I must get through no matter what a gwaan”. As the prodigal son returns, finally his destiny is back in his own hands.[SEP]Buju Banton was released from CI McRae Federal Prison in Georgia on December 7, a prison officer confirmed to Heavy.com. Banton served seven years of a 10-year sentence on drug charges. Banton, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie, 45, was found guilty in February 2011 and sentenced in June of that year for conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute. On December 8, Banton is expected to fly home to Kingston, Jamaica, from Miami. Among those welcoming Banton home will be his father, Benjamin Myrie, who told Loop on December 7, “It’s a joy for me, joyful, to know that the Lord had blessed me that I live to see him come back. I can see his face, talk, eat, drink and move around. He’ll be able to take care of all of his business now.” Banton is arguably as famous worldwide for his homophobia, epitomized in his 1992 song, “Boom Bye Bye,” in which Banton wrote about murdering gay people. In 2011, Banton signed the Reggae Compassion Act, a government action in Jamaica in which artists promised to not “incite hatred or violence” through songs or statements. Banton said in a statement to the Guardian that he has new material that is ready to record. The singer said in a statement to the Guardian that his prison stay was “traumatizing not just on myself, but on my family as well as emotionally draining. For me, I drew strength from immersing myself in my situation. Do not live in yesterday but live in today. And education was the only thing that kept me up and alive. I immersed my self in reading so much – theology, philosophy and other subjects.” In the same feature, Jamaica’s minister for culture, Olivia “Babsy” Grange said, “Buju was loved long before he was convicted and he will be loved just the same, even if he comes home in handcuffs.” The article also described Banton’s homecoming as being the most anticipated in Jamaica’s history since Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie visited the country in April 1966. READ NEXT: Michigan School Teachers Admit to Being Porn Stars on the Side[SEP]Buju Banton received a warm welcome from adoring fans in Jamaica following his release from Georgia’s private McRae Correctional institution after serving eight years. The 45-year-old reggae star– born Mark Myrie — was freed Friday, a prison official told the Tampa Bay Times, and video of Banton boarding a plane was published on Twitter. He was expected to return to his native Jamaica and various clips online show him greeting fans near his Red Hills Road studio in Kingston. The Guardian wrote that Banton would be the “most eagerly awaited arrival in Jamaica since Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie touched down in April 1966.” The Grammy award-winning icon was convicted in a Tampa courtroom in 2011 on federal drug charges and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. He was reportedly the target of an undercover federal informant for more than a year. Prosecutors required two trials to convict the Dancehall star. His initial release date was February 2019, but was later revised to December 8, 2018. Buju recently released a statement saying that upon release he plans to focus only on his artistry. “Having survived, I want to share the good news and strength of my music. I just want to continue making music, which I’ve devoted my life to. I look forward to the opportunity to say a personal thanks to my fans and everyone who supported me,” Buju said. Jamaica’s culture minister, Olivia “Babsy” Grange, says Banton “is now really about, from what we understand, employment of young people. If he can help shape and resocialize young people, that is something we should embrace.” But the minister of national security, Horace Chang, cautioned against giving him “ a hero’s welcome.” “He committed a crime,” Shang added. And Grange agrees, “There’s no getting over the fact that he was convicted, but Buju was loved long before he was convicted and he will be loved just the same, even if he comes home in handcuffs.”[SEP]Legendary Reggae and Dancehall superstar Buju Banton officially released from prison. After his release he has returned to his home country of Jamaica, video footage below courtesty of Vladtv.

Jamaican reggae artist Buju Banton (Mark Anthony Myrie) is released from a U.S. prison and deported back to Jamaica, after serving 7 years of a 10-year drug charge conviction.

A Virginia jury has convicted James Alex Fields Jr of first-degree murder in the death of Heather Heyer at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The jury deliberated for less than a day before convicting on Friday the 21-year-old of murder and several other charges stemming from the deadly confrontation that occurred after police had declared an unlawful assembly and cleared a park of white supremacists gathered for the "Unite the Right" rally. During the incident, Fields slammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heyer and injuring dozens more. Earlier in the day, Fields was photographed marching with Vanguard America, a neo-Nazi group, during the rally. Throughout the day, rally participants clashed with community members, anti-racists and anti-fascists across the city. Unite the Right, called to oppose Charlottesville's decision to remove a Confederate statue, was the largest white nationalist rally in the United States in recent times. The rally brought out thousands of supporters of the alt-right, a loosely-knit coalition of white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis. Fields's defence team did not contest that he was behind the wheel of the grey Dodge Challenger when it struck activists who had descended upon the Virginia city to counter a "Unite the Right" rally. But they argued their client was "scared for his life". The prosecution called multiple witnesses and victims who recounted in some cases what turned out to be life-altering injuries. The witnesses testified the event had become peaceful, "joyful" and "celebratory" after city authorities ordered the far right to disperse - countering the defence's narrative of a hostile, frightening atmosphere at the time of the attack. Earlier in the week, they presented jurors an SMS message Fields sent to his mother before departing for the rally after she had asked him to be careful. "We're not the one who need to be careful" he replied, alongside a photo of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, whom he has long admired. Federal charges Separately, Fields also faces dozens of federal charges, including hate crimes, which could result in the death penalty. 170814093145904 In the wake of the deadly Charlottesville protest, several articles investigating Fields's history found a lengthy social media trail of neo-Nazi content and racist posts. Following the rally, far-right participants from across the country faced legal backlash, with a slew of civil suits against the organisers. Heyer was among 18 people killed by white supremacists in the US last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League. White nationalist, neo-Nazi and far-right groups that took to the streets in Charlottesville saw permits for a spate of subsequent public events pulled or denied, while hosting services, social media outlets and tech companies cracked down on far-right individuals and groups. Earlier this month, the FBI released its annual hate crimes report for 2017. It says, hate crimes grew for the third consecutive year, increasing by 17 percent.[SEP]Just over a year after he plowed his vehicle into a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, James Alex Fields Jr. was convicted Friday of first-degree murder and other felonies – and now faces the possibility of life in prison. A jury needed a little more than seven hours to convict Fields, of Maumee, Ohio, in the killing of Heyer during a “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia on Aug. 12, 2017. He was also found guilty of five counts of aggravated malicious wounding, three counts of malicious wounding and a count of leaving the scene of an accident. Fields faces life in prison. During closing arguments Thursday, prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony portrayed Fields as a hateful young man who idled his vehicle for more than a minute before backing up and then speeding into the crowd, killing Heyer and injuring dozens of other people. Video from a Virginia State Police helicopter captured the incident, showing a grey muscle car as it rammed the group and then drove away. Antony also referenced a text message sent by Fields the day before the rally after his mother told him to be careful. In the text, accompanied by a picture of Adolf Hitler, Fields wrote: “we’re not the one (sic) who need to be careful.” Antony also repeatedly reminded jurors about a meme Fields posted on Instagram three months before the crash. The image showed a crowd, identified as “protesters,” being rammed by a car, and depicted bodies being tossed in the air. "What we have is a man who had a decision, and he decides to turn his Instagram post into reality," she said. Defense attorney Denise Lunsford urged the jury to consider the chaos of the day, including the use of tear gas and a series of street fights between white nationalists, Antifa activists and counter-protesters. Lunsford said Fields only drove into the crowd out of fear after finding himself alone and unprotected. “Look at the circumstances as they appeared to him,” Lunsford said. “He says he felt he was in danger, there were people coming at him.” On Thursday, she urged the jury to find Fields guilty of “no more than” the lesser charges of manslaughter in Heyer’s death and unlawful wounding for the injuries to others. The “Unite the Right” rally was organized to protest plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. But white nationalists made up the bulk of the protesters who descended on Charlottesville, leading counter-demonstrators and left-leaning activists to join the fray.[SEP]CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A man who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia was convicted Friday of first-degree murder for killing a woman in an attack that inflamed long-simmering racial and political tensions across the country. A state jury rejected arguments that James Alex Fields Jr. acted in self-defense during a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. Jurors also convicted Fields of eight other charges, including aggravated malicious wounding and hit and run. Fields, 21, drove to Virginia from his home in Maumee, Ohio, to support the white nationalists. As a large group of counterprotesters marched through Charlottesville singing and laughing, he stopped his car, backed up, then sped into the crowd, according to testimony from witnesses and video surveillance shown to jurors. Prosecutors told the jury that Fields was angry after witnessing violent clashes between the two sides earlier in the day. The violence prompted police to shut down the rally before it even officially began. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist, was killed, and nearly three dozen others were injured. The trial featured emotional testimony from survivors who described devastating injuries and long, complicated recoveries. The far-right rally had been organized in part to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Hundreds of Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis and other white nationalists — emboldened by the election of President Donald Trump — streamed into the college town for one of the largest gatherings of white supremacists in a decade. Some dressed in battle gear. Afterward, Trump inflamed tensions even further when he said "both sides" were to blame, a comment some saw as a refusal to condemn racism. Read more: Here's what we know about James Fields, the 20-year-old with 'deeply-held, radical' beliefs about race accused of mowing down protesters in Charlottesville According to one of his former teachers, Fields was known in high school for being fascinated with Nazism and idolizing Adolf Hitler. Jurors were shown a text message he sent to his mother days before the rally that included an image of the notorious German dictator. When his mother pleaded with him to be careful, he replied: "we're not the one (sic) who need to be careful." During one of two recorded phone calls Fields made to his mother from jail in the months after he was arrested, he told her he had been mobbed "by a violent group of terrorists" at the rally. In another, Fields referred to the mother of the woman who was killed as a "communist" and "one of those anti-white supremacists." Prosecutors also showed jurors a meme Fields posted on Instagram three months before the rally in which bodies are shown being thrown into the air after a car hits a crowd of people identified as protesters. He posted the meme publicly to his Instagram page and sent a similar image as a private message to a friend in May 2017. But Fields' lawyers told the jury that he drove into the crowd on the day of the rally because he feared for his life and was "scared to death" by earlier violence he had witnessed. A video of Fields being interrogated after the crash showed him sobbing and hyperventilating after he was told a woman had died and others were seriously injured. The jury will reconvene Monday to determine a sentence. Under the law, jurors can recommend from 20 years to life in prison. Fields is eligible for the death penalty if convicted of separate federal hate crime charges. No trial has been scheduled yet.[SEP]Neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr. was found guilty on 10 charges including first-degree murder Friday after plowing his car into protesters during the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, killing Heather Heyer. Fields ― a 21-year-old extremist associated with the hate group Vanguard America ― faced charges of first-degree murder and other felonies over the attack, in which he intentionally sped into protesters after the “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, killing one and injuring dozens more. He also faces 30 charges in a separate federal case over the same attack. “That is the face of anger, of hatred. It’s the face of malice,” said Nina-Alice Antony, assistant commonwealth’s attorney, according to WTOP. During the trial, prosecutors provided evidence that Fields showed little remorse for the murder in a call he made to his mother in December 2017. He referred to Heyer as “that one girl who died, or whatever” and said her death “doesn’t fucking matter,” according to BuzzFeed. Days prior to the deadly rally, he sent a photo of Adolf Hitler to his mother along with the text, “We’re not the one [sic] who need to be careful.” Videos from several angles and photos from the Charlottesville attack show Fields flying down Fourth Street in his car, plowing into protesters, then backing up and hitting more. Fields’ defense asked the court to find him guilty of lesser charges of unlawful wounding and involuntary manslaughter, arguing that he was immature at the time of the attack and that he drove into protesters out of fear. Antony called the defense an excuse, noting that Fields could have backed away from protesters. Fields was also found guilty of eight counts of malicious wounding of various degrees, and a count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident. His sentencing hearing begins Monday, according to BuzzFeed’s Blake Montgomery.[SEP]Charlottesville: A man who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia has been convicted of first-degree murder for killing a woman in an attack that inflamed long-simmering racial and political tensions across the country. A state jury rejected arguments that James Alex Fields Jr. acted in self-defence during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. Jurors also convicted Fields of eight other charges, including aggravated malicious wounding and hit and run. Fields, 21, drove to Virginia from his home in Maumee, Ohio, to support the white nationalists.[SEP]Man who drove car into counterprotesters at white nationalist rally in Virginia convicted of first-degree murder CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Man who drove car into counterprotesters at white nationalist rally in Virginia convicted of first-degree murder.[SEP]CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Man who drove car into counterprotesters at white nationalist rally in Virginia convicted of first-degree murder.[SEP]A neo-Nazi who drove his car into a group of protesters, killing one, during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was found guilty of murder on Friday. James Alex Fields, 21, has been convicted of killing activist Heather Heyer when he plowed his Dodge Challenger into her and others during the “Unite the Right” rally in 2017. Fields is an avowed supporter of neo-Nazi beliefs. A jury found that Fields acted with premeditation on Aug. 12, 2017, when he backed up his car before barreling down a narrow street crowded with counterprotesters. He slammed his car into the group, killing the 32-year-old Heyer and injuring 35 others. The deadly attack came hours after a group of white supremacists, some wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats, descended on the University of Virginia campus holding tiki torches and shouting “Jews will not replace us.” In response to the violence, President Trump said there was “blame on both sides.”[SEP]FILE PHOTO: Rescue workers assist people who were injured when a car drove through a group of counter protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2017. REUTERS/Justin Ide/File Photo Charlottesville, Va., (Reuters) - A jury in Charlottesville, Virginia, will begin deliberations on Friday in the murder trial of a man who rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protestors at a far right rally last year, killing one activist. Hundreds of white nationalists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis gathered in Charlottesville in August 2017 to demonstrate against a plan to remove a statue of a Confederate general. The night before the car-ramming, they staged a torch-lit march, chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans. During his two-week trial, prosecutors said James Fields, 21, was motivated by hatred toward the counter-demonstrators, while the defense argued that he was fearfully reacting to a violent situation after supporters and counter demonstrators fought pitched battles using rocks and pepper spray. Defense attorneys never disputed that Fields was behind the wheel of the Dodge Charger that sent bodies flying when it crashed into a crowd on Aug. 12, 2017, killing counterprotester Heather Heyer, 32 and injuring 19 others. Instead, they suggested he was intimidated by a hostile crowd and acted to protect himself. U.S. President Donald Trump was strongly condemned from Democrats and Republicans alike for saying afterward that "both sides" were to blame for the violence. Urging jurors to find Fields guilty of murder and nine other charges, prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony said in closing arguments Thursday that Fields had had no reason to be afraid but that he had come to the rally from Ohio intending to harm others. But defense attorney Denise Lunsford countered that Fields' behavior was defensive in nature, telling jurors: "James' actions were impacted by everything else that was going on.” Asking the jury to find her client not guilty of all charges, Lunsford said when he was arrested, Fields told police, "I’m sorry I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I thought they were attacking me." Fields, who did not take the stand to defend himself, could face life in prison if convicted of murder.[SEP]CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — After deliberating for more than seven hours on Friday, a Charlottesville jury convicted James Fields Jr. of first-degree murder, finding that the Ohio man intentionally drove his car into a crowd of protesters at a white nationalist rally last year, killing one woman and injuring nearly 40 others. The jury, which heard testimony in a case in which hate and racism were as much on trial as Mr. Fields, also found the 21-year-old guilty of five counts of aggravated malicious wounding, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of leaving the scene of a crime. He faces up to life in prison for the death of Heather Heyer, 32, and for the aggravated woundings, and up to 20 years for the other offenses. Friday’s verdict provides some closure in a case that cast a national spotlight on Charlottesville, the scene chosen by racists and anti-Semites to rally for their cause, near a Confederate monument that some city leaders were trying to remove. The August 2017 Unite the Right rally was marked by violent clashes between counterprotesters and white nationalists, some of whom were convicted earlier this year. [Read: Year After White Nationalist Rally, Charlottesville Is in Tug of War Over Its Soul] The nine-day trial featured days of emotional testimony from victims who were seriously injured in the crash, including a man who pushed his girlfriend out of the way, bearing the brunt of the impact himself, and a single mother who suffered two broken legs and a broken back. Many of the victims returned to the courtroom day after day to listen to other witnesses, and jurors saw them hugging and comforting one another.

A jury finds James Alex Fields guilty of the murder, in the first degree, of Heather Heyer at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

US prosecutors have charged Huawei's chief financial officer with fraud, saying she had used at least seven passports in 11 years. American officials are attempting to prevent Meng Wanzhou from being bailed from a Canadian court after she was charged with conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions between 2009 and 2014. It is alleged the 46-year-old used Hong Kong company Skycom to access the Iranian market in deals that violated US sanctions. She allegedly assured US banks that Huawei and Skycom were different companies but prosecutors say they were one and the same. Meng was arrested in Vancouver on 1 December and appeared in one of the city's courts on Friday, where prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley asked the judge to deny her application for bail. He said that the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei had substantial financial resources and was a flight risk. Mr Gibb-Carsley said she had been aware of the US investigation and had avoided entering the country since March 2017, despite the fact that her son attends school in Boston. Meng's lawyer, David Martin, said: "The fact a person has worked hard and has extraordinary resources cannot be a factor that would exclude them from bail." Meng appeared before a packed court room and spoke to her lawyers through a translator. It is not yet clear whether Meng will be extradited to the US - American prosecutors have 60 days to formally request this. If an application is successful she faces a maximum jail sentence of 30 years for each charge if convicted. According to court documents, the US Department of Justice said there were no conditions that would make sure she would return to court. The US said she had at least seven passports from China and Hong Kong in the last 11 years and that Huawei had tried to move Chinese nationals out of the US if they could be potential witnesses to its Iran operations. China has called for Meng to be released and world markets are watching closely due to fears that the case could escalate the trade war between the US and China. Chinese media has blamed her arrest on US efforts to stop its global expansion, while Huawei said it had "very little information" about the case but was "not aware of any wrongdoing". Huawei was founded to sell phone switches but it is now the world's biggest supplier of network gear for phone and internet companies. It is also one of the leading sellers of smartphones.[SEP]VANCOUVER — A senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei is facing allegations of fraud by using a subsidiary to violate U.S. trade sanctions against Iran in a case that shook world stock markets this week. A federal prosecutor told a bail hearing for Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Friday that the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies is wanted in the United States to face criminal proceedings, alleging Huawei used subsidiary Skycom to do business with Iran. John Gibb-Carsley said Meng is alleged to have said Huawei and Skycom were separate companies in a meeting with an unnamed financial institution, misleading an executive with that institution and putting it at risk. “Skycom was Huawei. This is the alleged fraud,” said Gibb-Carsley, representing the Attorney General of Canada. “Skycom employees were Huawei employees.” None of the allegations have been proven in court. The company has said it is not aware of any wrongdoing by Meng and her lawyer, David Martin, told the B.C. Supreme Court no charge or indictment has been filed against his client, just a warrant. He said one of the glaring deficiencies in the allegations is that the summary of the case doesn’t differentiate between time periods. Martin said at the meeting Meng had with a bank that was referred to in a story by Reuters, she explained Huawei owned Skycom for a period of time but it sold the company in 2009. Martin told the court the PowerPoint presentation his client delivered to the bank is supposed to be evidence of fraud, but that claim is “preposterous.” Huawei sold Skycom before the sanctions became law in the United States under president Barack Obama in 2010, he said. Martin also argued that the outline provided by Canada does not support the case. “The allegations contained in this document do not support a prima facie case of fraud against Ms. Meng” or Huawei, he added. Gibb-Carsley said the Attorney General opposes Meng’s release on bail. But Martin told the judge Meng is prominent and she would not violate a court order if she were released. “You can rely on her personal dignity,” he said, adding that to breach a court order “would be to humiliate and embarrass her father, who she loves.” Huawei is the most prestigious tech company in China and was founded by Meng’s father, Ren Zhengfei. Martin said two properties in Vancouver worth a total of $14 million could be put up for bail, and electronic monitoring and surveillance-based security could be used, although he said neither would be necessary. Meng was arrested Saturday while in transit at Vancouver’s airport. The court heard she was en route from Hong Kong to Mexico. Gibb-Carsley told the hearing that Reuters reported in 2013 that Huawei was operating Skycom, triggering Huawei executives including Meng to allegedly make a series of misrepresentations. He argued the financial institutions that did business with Huawei were the “victims” of those misrepresentations. It’s alleged that they did not know that they were in effect doing business with Iran and could have faced severe financial consequences, Gibb-Carsley said. He said there is incentive for Meng to leave Canada, telling the court her father’s net worth is $3.2 billion and she has no meaningful connection to Canada, apart from spending two to three weeks on vacation in Vancouver every summer. In a statement earlier this week, Huawei said the company complies with all laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, including applicable export control, sanction laws and regulations of the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. Huawei is the biggest global supplier of network gear used by phone and internet companies, and has been the target of deepening U.S. security concerns. The United States has pressured European countries and other allies to limit the use of its technology. The U.S. sees Huawei and smaller Chinese tech suppliers as possible fronts for Chinese spying and as commercial competitors. The Trump administration says they benefit from improper subsidies and market barriers. Meng is a prominent member of Chinese society as deputy chairwoman of the Huawei board. The company is a privately held juggernaut with projected 2018 sales of more than US$102 billion that has already overtaken Apple in smartphone sales. On TV and social media, commentators likened her arrest to the hypothetical detention in China of a Mark Zuckerberg sibling or a cousin of Steve Jobs. U.S. and Asian stock markets tumbled after news of Meng’s arrest as it was seen to cause another flare-up in tensions between Washington and Beijing. Huawei has grown to more than 170,000 employees and does businesses in more than 170 countries since Ren founded the company in 1987. Meng’s bio on the company website says she joined in 1993 and held various positions across the company, including director of international accounting and CFO of Huawei Hong Kong. She holds a master’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. For a period of time she was in charge of Huawei’s successful internationalization efforts. Meng’s father, now 74, comes from rural roots, according to the Huawei website. His parents were school teachers and he grew up in the remote mountainous town in Guizhou province. Huawei says Ren was a standout in the Chinese military’s engineering corps, retiring in 1983 when the unit disbanded. Meng, who also goes by the first name Sabrina, is one of four deputy chairs listed on the Huawei website and one of three women to sit on the Huawei board.[SEP]VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The reasons that the United States asked the Canadian authorities to arrest a top executive of the Chinese technology company Huawei last week had been shrouded in mystery. On Friday, the details of the arrest and what led up to it came out in a Canadian courtroom. At a bail hearing in Vancouver for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei and a daughter of the company’s founder, Canadian prosecutors said she was accused of fraud. The heart of the charges related to how Ms. Meng may have personally participated in a scheme to trick American financial institutions into making transactions that violated United States sanctions against Iran, they said. Ms. Meng had “direct involvement” with Huawei’s representations to banks, said John Gibb-Carsley, an attorney with Canada’s Justice Department. The hearing shed light on an incident that has rattled the relationship between the United States and China. While changing planes in Vancouver on Dec. 1, Ms. Meng was arrested at the behest of the United States, which has for years looked into potential ties between Huawei and the Chinese government or Communist Party.[SEP]The Trump administration’s efforts to extradite the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co. over criminal charges mark the start of an even more aggressive phase in the technology rivalry between the U.S. and China and will increase pressure on Washington’s allies to shun the telecommunications company. Armed with a U.S. extradition request, Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou on Dec. 1, the same day as President Trump was holding a summit with Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping. But White House officials said Mr. Trump had no advance knowledge of the arrest, indicating the action was on a separate track from trade talks currently under way between Washington and Beijing. Ms. Meng’s detention underscores a sense of urgency, at the Justice Department and other U.S. agencies, to address what they see as a growing threat to national security posed by China’s ambitions to gain an edge in the tech sector. For years, Washington has alleged the Chinese government could compel Huawei, which supplies much of the world with critical cellular network equipment, to spy or to disrupt communications. Huawei has long said it is an employee-owned company and isn’t beholden to any government, and has never used its equipment to spy on or sabotage other countries. The Chinese government, speaking through its embassy in Canada, strenuously objected to the arrest, and demanded Ms. Meng’s immediate release. U.S. prosecutors made the extradition request based on a sealed indictment for alleged violations of Iran sanctions that had been prepared for some time, people familiar with the matter said. A federally appointed U.S. overseer, formerly charged with evaluating HSBC Holdings PLC’s anti-money-laundering and sanctions controls, relayed information about suspicious Huawei transactions to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, some of the people said. Ms. Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, is now in custody in Vancouver, and a bail hearing has been scheduled for Friday, according to a spokesman for Canada’s justice department. Some worried a lack of coordination on the various strands of the Trump administration’s China initiatives could be counterproductive, especially if Mr. Trump decides to use the detention of Ms. Meng as leverage to extract concessions in the trade talks. The two sides agreed on a 90-day window from the Dec. 1 summit to settle a trade dispute that has seen the two sides exchange tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s goods. “I’m very concerned that that’s just going to ratchet this trade war and make negotiations much more difficult,” said Gary Locke, former U.S. ambassador to China. “This is I think a really hot-button, almost a grenade with respect to the 90-day negotiations.” China has a long history of reading darker motives into U.S. actions. “The risk is conspiracy theories in Beijing,” said China scholar Michael Pillsbury at Hudson Institute, who consults regularly with the Trump trade team. He compares the events to when China rejected U.S. explanations that the U.S. had made a mistake when it bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 during the Kosovo war. The arrest indicated the Justice Department had significant evidence against Ms. Meng, and that additional charges were likely, said Brian Fleming, a trade and national security lawyer at Miller & Chevalier. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. The arrest could also add ammunition to an extraordinary U.S. government campaign to persuade wireless and internet providers in allied countries to stop using telecommunications equipment from Huawei, said national security experts. U.S. officials say they are intensifying efforts to curb Huawei because wireless carriers world-wide are about to upgrade to 5G, a new wireless technology that will connect many more items—factory parts, self-driving cars and everyday objects like wearable health monitors—to the internet. U.S. officials say they don’t want to give Beijing the potential to interfere with an ever-growing universe of connected devices. The campaign is bearing some fruit, with Australia in August banning Huawei from its 5G networks, and New Zealand last week blocking one of its major wireless carriers from using Huawei. In Britain, BT Group PLC said Wednesday that it was removing Huawei equipment from its network, two days after a British intelligence chief questioned whether the country should be using the Chinese gear. Still, not all countries are on board. Major telecommunications carriers say Huawei offers the most products and often customizes them to fit their needs. They also cite lower costs and high quality. The indictment could give U.S. officials more talking points in discussions with counterparts in Germany, where some officials have signaled a new wariness toward Huawei but haven’t committed to cutting ties yet, according to people familiar with the matter. U.S. officials have so far been unwilling to share all the detailed specifics about why they believe Huawei products present such security risks, but the indictment could offer a new argument to use with skeptics, according to one of the people. Canadian officials have yet to decide their stance on Huawei, but their cooperation with the extradition was likely to further increase pressure on them, one of the people said. On Tuesday, the day before news of Ms. Meng’s arrest broke, the head of Canada’s spy agency said state-sponsored economic espionage and cyber threats now pose a potentially greater challenge to the country than terrorism, warning that foreign actors are already targeting the domestic technology and telecommunications sectors. —William Mauldin, Peter Nicholas, Rachel Louise Ensign, Stu Woo and Paul Vieira contributed to this article. Write to Kate O’Keeffe at kathryn.okeeffe@wsj.com and Bob Davis at bob.davis@wsj.com[SEP]VANCOUVER: Chinese telecom giant Huawei's chief financial officer faces US fraud charges related to sanctions-breaking business dealings with Iran, a Canadian court heard on Friday (Dec 7), a week after she was detained on an American extradition request. Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada's Pacific coast city of Vancouver on Dec 1 while changing planes during a trip from Hong Kong to Mexico - ratcheting tensions between the United States and China just as the countries' leaders agreed a truce in their trade war. A Canadian government lawyer asked the court to deny her bail, saying she has been accused of "conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions" and if convicted faces more than 30 years in prison. She is specifically accused of lying to US banks about the use of a covert subsidiary to sell to Iran in breach of sanctions. The lawyer said that Meng had personally denied to American bankers any direct connections between Huawei and the subsidiary, SkyCom, when in fact "SkyCom is Huawei." SkyCom's alleged sanctions breaches occurred from 2009 to 2014. He suggested that Meng has also shown a pattern of avoiding the United States over the past year since becoming aware of the investigation into the matter, argued that she has no ties to Canada and has access to vast wealth and political connections - and thus poses a flight risk. Meng's detention in Canada came on the day of a summit at which US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to a truce in the escalating trade dispute opposing the two economic powerhouses. China says Meng - the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in China's People's Liberation Army - has violated no laws in Canada or the United States and has demanded her release. Washington and Beijing have exchanged steep tariffs on more than US$300 billion in total two-way trade, locking them in a conflict that has begun to eat into profits. Trump tweeted Friday that negotiations to defuse the high stakes dispute were "going very well" but the messages since Meng's arrest have been mixed, roiling global stock markets. Her appearance at the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver is a prelude to an extradition process that could take months. CNN, quoting an unnamed official, said the United States saw the arrest as providing leverage in US-China trade talks - although White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has denied any link to the dialogue. On Friday, Beijing nevertheless alleged that Meng, known internally as the "princess" of Huawei and possible heir to the throne, had become a pawn in the dispute. "The Chinese government should seriously mull over the US tendency to abuse legal procedures to suppress China's high-tech enterprises," said the nationalist tabloid Global Times in an editorial. "Obviously, Washington is resorting to a despicable rogue's approach as it cannot stop Huawei's 5G advance in the market," it went on. Meng spent most of the past week at a women's detention facility in a suburb of Vancouver. If she is released on bail, she would likely have to surrender her passport and submit to electronic monitoring until she is discharged or surrendered for trial to the United States. All security costs would be borne by her. The extradition process could take months, even years, if appeals are made in the case. The Vancouver Sun reported on Friday that Meng's husband Xiaozong Liu is believed to own at least one luxury home in the city. Canada is one of more than 100 countries that have an extradition treaty with the United States, requiring it to cooperate with US Department of Justice requests to hand over suspects. This longstanding treaty requires that the offence for which extradition is being sought is also a crime in Canada. A Canadian court must decide if there is sufficient evidence to support the extradition, but then it is left to Canada's justice minister to sign the order. On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended Canada's arrest of Meng, saying politics played no part in the decision. "I can assure everyone that we are a country (with) an independent judiciary," Trudeau told a tech conference in Montreal. READ: Europe should be wary of Huawei, EU tech official says Huawei's affordable smartphones have made strong inroads in the developing world, but the company has faced repeated setbacks in major Western economies over security concerns. Earlier this week, Canadian officials said Ottawa was continuing to review Huawei's technology for use in upcoming fifth generation networks. The company faces being shut out of Australia, New Zealand and US 5G rollouts, and British telecom group BT revealed on Wednesday it was removing Huawei equipment from its core cellular network. The five nations together form the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance.[SEP]White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC on Friday that he does not see the recent controversy surrounding China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd spilling into the trade talks between the United States and China. REUTERS: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC on Friday that he does not see the recent controversy surrounding China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd spilling into the trade talks between the United States and China. Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who is under arrest in Canada, is set to appear in a Vancouver court on Friday for a bail hearing as she awaits possible extradition to the United States. Kudlow said Huawei had been warned for "quite some time" about violations on Iran sanctions, but added he remains optimistic about the trade talks.[SEP]Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer and deputy chair of the board for the Chinese tech giant Huawei who was arrested in Vancouver on Saturday, is scheduled to have a bail hearing later today. According to a statement from the Department of Justice, Meng, 46, was arrested in Vancouver and is being sought for extradition by the United States. Meng, who is also the daughter of Huawei's founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, was granted a publication ban, which prevents the department from releasing further details about the arrest. The Globe and Mail, citing law enforcement sources, reported that Meng is suspected of trying to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran. Huawei, an increasingly dominant player in the network equipment market, is under scrutiny from the U.S. and other governments over suspected ties to the Chinese government and possible links to spying. The company says Beijing has no influence over its operations. News of Meng's arrest pummeled stock markets in anticipation the move would derail planned trade talks between China and the U.S., the world's two largest economies.[SEP]VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A Canadian prosecutor urged a Vancouver court to deny bail to a Chinese executive at the heart of a case that is shaking up U.S.-China relations and worrying global financial markets. Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of telecommunications giant Huawei and daughter of its founder, was detained at the request of the U.S. during a layover at the Vancouver airport last Saturday — the same day that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping of China agreed over dinner to a 90-day ceasefire in a trade dispute that threatens to disrupt global commerce. The U.S. alleges that Huawei used a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It also says that Meng and Huawei misled American banks about its business dealings in Iran. The surprise arrest, already denounced by Beijing, raises doubts about whether the trade truce will hold and whether the world's two biggest economies can resolve the complicated issues that divide them. "I think it will have a distinctively negative effect on the U.S.-China talks," said Philip Levy, senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and an economic adviser in President George W. Bush's White House. "There's the humiliating way this happened right before the dinner, with Xi unaware. Very hard to save face on this one. And we may see (Chinese retaliation), which will embitter relations." Canadian prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley said in a court hearing Friday that a warrant had been issued for Meng's arrest in New York Aug. 22. He said Meng, arrested en route to Mexico from Hong Kong, was aware of the investigation and had been avoiding the United States for months, even though her teenage son goes to school in Boston. Gibb-Carsley alleged that Huawei had done business in Iran through a Hong Kong company called Skycom. Meng, he said, had misled U.S. banks into thinking that Huawei and Skycom were separate when, in fact, "Skycom was Huawei." Meng has contended that Huawei sold Skycom in 2009. In urging the court to reject Meng's bail request, Gibb-Carsley said the Huawei executive had vast resources and a strong incentive to bolt: She's facing fraud charges in the United States that could put her in prison for 30 years. Meng's lawyer, David Martin, argued that it would be unfair to deny her bail just because she "has worked hard and has extraordinary resources." He told the court that her personal integrity and respect for her father, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, would prevent her violating a court order. Meng, who owns two homes in Vancouver, was willing to wear an ankle bracelet and put the houses up as collateral, he said. Huawei is the world's biggest supplier of network gear used by phone and internet companies and long has been seen as a front for spying by the Chinese military or security services. "What's getting lost in the initial frenzy here is that Huawei has been in the crosshairs of U.S. regulators for some time," said Gregory Jaeger, special counsel at the Stroock law firm and a former Justice Department trial attorney. "This is the culmination of what is likely to be a fairly lengthy investigation." Meng's arrest came as a jarring surprise after the Trump-Xi trade cease-fire in Argentina. Exact details of the agreement are elusive. But the White House said Trump suspended for 90 days an import tax hike on $200 billion in Chinese goods that was set to take effect Jan. 1; in return, the White House said, the Chinese agreed to buy a "very substantial amount of agricultural, energy, industrial" and other products from the United States. The delay was meant to buy time for the two countries to resolve a trade conflict that has been raging for months. The U.S. charges that China is using predatory tactics in its drive to overtake America's dominance in technology and global economic leadership. These allegedly include forcing American and other foreign companies to hand over trade secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market and engaging in cyber theft. Washington also regards Beijing's ambitious long-term development plan, "Made in China 2025," as a scheme to dominate such fields as robotics and electric vehicles by unfairly subsidizing Chinese companies and discriminating against foreign competitors. The United States has imposed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods to pressure Beijing to change its ways. Trump has threatened to expand the tariffs to include just about everything China ships to the United States. Beijing has lashed back with tariffs on about $110 billion in American exports. Fears the Huawei case might spark renewed U.S.-China trade hostilities have rattled global financial markets. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 560 points. But in a sign the case might not derail the Trump-Xi truce, Beijing protested Meng's arrest but said talks with the Trump administration would go ahead. Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said China is confident it can reach a deal during the 90-day timeout. Still, Cornell University economist Eswar Prasad warned that "this incident highlights the huge gap in trust between the two sides, casting a pall over the tough negotiations that still lie ahead. It will clearly take more than one convivial dinner between the leaders of the two countries to start bridging that gap." Gillies reported from Toronto and Wiseman reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Frank Bajak in Boston, Joe McDonald in Beijing and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.[SEP] • On Tuesday, Wall Street suffered its worst day since October. • Watch the major US indexes trade in real time here. Wall Street wiped out gains for the year Thursday as concerns about a cocktail of factors including trade tensions, Treasury yields, and energy prices weighed on global markets, extending losses following the worst day for US equities in seven weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.95%, or more than 487 points. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.99%, and the S&P 500 was down 2.02%. Selling pressure on futures was so strong in the first six minutes of trading that the CME Group Inc. was forced to intervene with market pauses to prevent severe price movements, according to Bloomberg. Wall Street had suffered its worst day since October on Tuesday as expectations for a trade deal between Washington and Beijing unwound and after sections of the yield curve inverted. The stock market was closed Wednesday, a national day of mourning for former President George H.W. Bush who died over the weekend. Canadian authorities said they arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese cellular giant Huawei Technologies, on charges related to alleged Iran sanctions violations. The December 1 arrest cast doubt on trade relations between Washington and Beijing, who agreed over the weekend to pause tariff escalations for negotiations. Optimism around the trade-war ceasefire has since waned after President Donald Trump called himself "a Tariff Man" in a tweet about Beijing, cementing expectations for further trade escalations between the largest economies if a deal isn’t reached within the next three months. "The market's in repair mode following one of the worst equity selloffs of the year," Mark McCormick, a strategist at TD Securities, said in an email. "There are many moving parts to the puzzle and yet Tariff Man's tweet looms large. It also wreaks of a classic 'buy the rumor, sell the fact' trade where the market priced in a bulk of the good news weeks ago." Treasury yields continued to slide Thursday, with the 10-year down 6.3 basis points to 2.86% and the 2-year 8.6 basis points lower at 2.725%. Spreads between some long- and short-term bonds inverted this week, an occurrence seen as a potential recession signal, for the first time since the financial crisis. The dollar slipped 0.4% against the Japanese yen. Oil prices slipped further into a bear market after OPEC reportedly reached an agreement to slash coordinated output levels but was waiting for Russia to agree. West Texas Intermediate dropped 3.3% to around $51 per barrel, and Brent fell to just below $60. Adding to concerns, the lens maker Largan Precision said its November revenue declined by more than a quarter from the same period a year earlier. Shares of Apple suppliers — including Lumentum (-2.8%), Micron (-2.9%) and Texas Instruments (-2%) — tumbled after the results. Wall Street’s biggest firms are suddenly embracing an asset class that has languished since the financial crisis — and it’s a competitive threat to stocks As the market hurtles toward disaster in 2019, one expert reveals the 'deus ex machina' that could save the day — and breaks down how it could happen Investors are staring at the bleakest future since the Great Depression — here's why one market bear thinks a crash could wipe 60% from stocks[SEP]There’s an aspect to China’s rise as an economic power that presents a constant national security threat to the United States: the unlimited reach of the Chinese government. In China’s communist-run political system, lines of control and influence between Beijing and privately operated enterprises are murky — when those lines exist at all. Some Chinese companies are owned directly by the government, but all owe a level of fealty to the government. A few weeks ago, the Chinese news media disclosed that Jack Ma, a Chinese internet entrepreneur worth $39 billion, is a Communist Party member. The revelation isn’t scandalous because it reflects the reality of the Chinese hybrid system: There’s no place for business owners and executives to hide in an authoritarian state. So they might as well join the party and accrue the benefits. That’s all background for a spectacular legal confrontation now brewing between China and the U.S. over Huawei, China’s telecom giant. On Dec. 1, Canadian authorities fulfilled a U.S. government request to arrest Huawei’s chief financial officer amid allegations the company violated U.S. trade sanctions against Iran. The pressure point runs much deeper than whatever U.S.-originated equipment Huawei may have sold to Iran. Huawei is described as the world’s largest supplier of cellular tower electronics and other telecommunications equipment. The firm is on the cutting edge, developing and selling 5G (fifth generation) mobile phone service technology around the world. All fine — global competition is welcome. Except almost everything related to telecommunications technology has potential military usefulness, including for espionage. Huawei says it’s a privately owned company that doesn’t answer to the government, doesn’t engage in espionage and complies with all applicable law. But who really calls the shots at Huawei? The company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, is a former Chinese army officer. He left the People’s Liberation Army in the early 1980s, the era in which Premier Deng Xiaoping decided to embrace free-market reforms while retaining one-party rule. Ren’s daughter, Meng Wanzhou, is the Huawei executive who was arrested in Vancouver. The U.S. government is deeply suspicious of Huawei and its connections to the Chinese government. A 2012 congressional report concluded that Huawei couldn’t prove its independence from government control. The report determined that Huawei and another firm, ZTE, provided “a wealth of opportunities for Chinese intelligence agencies to insert malicious hardware or software implants into critical telecommunications components and systems.” Even if company executives refused to help their government commit nefarious acts, the report noted, all it would take is recruiting a few technicians to do the dirty work. Chinese law appears to require cooperation with any request under the guise of state security. The arrest may complicate the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with China, given that Chinese authorities are angry about the treatment of such a high-profile executive. But this collision of interests will turn out to be a good test of Chinese intentions. Trade is one facet of a complex relationship. Both sides will be better off if President Donald Trump can negotiate a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping without getting distracted by a criminal case that will proceed on the merits. As for companies like Huawei, the Chinese government has a choice. It can encourage companies in sensitive industries to open themselves to outside scrutiny and investment. It also can insist that companies like Huawei respect the law — U.S. sanctions against Iran included. Or China can allow companies like Huawei to stay in the shadows, untrusted by the United States and other Western governments. There are plenty of other telecom companies willing to sell sensitive equipment and play by the rules. Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook. Submit a letter to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou attends a bail hearing in Vancouver while she awaits extradition to the United States. She is charged by Canadian and American prosecutors with conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions in order to commit evasion of United States sanctions against Iran so as to conduct business with Iran.

WASHINGTON — William Barr, who served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, has emerged as a leading contender for that job in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. That’s according to a person involved in the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because no selection to lead the Justice Department has been announced. Trump has been known to change his mind on personnel decisions. The appointment is especially sensitive now as special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which the department oversees, is showing signs of entering its final stages. Barr was attorney general between 1991 and 1993. Trump forced out Attorney General Jeff Sessions in November and elevated Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, to acting attorney general. The Washington Post first reported that Barr was a leading candidate.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In another senior staff shake-up inside his often turbulent administration, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he has picked the two people he wants to be the next U.S. attorney general and the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He said he will nominate William Barr, who was attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush in the 1990s, to fill that top job again at the U.S. Justice Department. Barr would replace Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who has been in that position since Trump forced out Jeff Sessions as attorney general a month ago. Trump also said he will put forward State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as ambassador to the United Nations. Nauert, a former host at Fox News Channel, would replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would resign at the end of this year. Both appointments would require U.S. Senate confirmation. Trump, speaking to reporters outside the White House, also said he would make a personnel announcement concerning the Pentagon on Saturday. “It will have to do with the joint chiefs of staff, the succession,” he told reporters outside the White House, suggesting he may name a new top U.S. military officer. Separately, CNN reported on Friday that John Kelly is expected to resign in coming days as White House chief of staff, citing unnamed sources. Reuters has not independently confirmed the report. The proposed changes come as the Republican president faces another difficult stretch. Democrats are promising aggressive oversight of Trump’s administration and business activities when they take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January following their gains in last month’s elections. Special Counsel Robert Muller is continuing to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, any collusion between Moscow and Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice. More details of the inquiry were set to emerge in court filings on Friday. Barr, who was attorney general under Bush from 1991 to 1993 and has worked in the private sector since then, would oversee Mueller’s probe if the Senate confirms him in the job again. Barr is likely to face pressure at his confirmation hearings to show he would protect Mueller from political interference. Critics of Trump have long been concerned that the president wants to end the Mueller probe. Trump, who has repeatedly denounced the investigation as a “witch hunt,” denies any collusion with Russia or any obstruction of justice. Russia denies U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that it meddled in the 2016 election campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. Barr also may face scrutiny about past comments questioning the political affiliations of Mueller’s team and supporting Trump’s decision last year to fire FBI Director James Comey. “I hope he will use the opportunity to unambiguously commit, should he be confirmed, to upholding the rule of law,” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said on Twitter. Trump called Barr “a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man,” in remarks to reporters as he left for an out-of-town event. “He was my first choice from Day One. Respected by Republicans and respected by Democrats. He will be nominated for United States Attorney General and hopefully that process will go very quickly,” Trump said. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney who is currently acting head of the Justice Department, has drawn criticism for past business ventures and critical comments about the Mueller investigation before he joined the department. Trump mocked and belittled Sessions for more than a year, angry at Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia probe because he had worked for Trump’s election campaign. If she is confirmed to the U.N. ambassador post, Nauert would bring little diplomatic experience to a highly visible international role. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, praised Nauert as “one of the United States’ strongest voices on the global stage.” Democrats were less enthusiastic. “She’s clearly not qualified for this job, but these days it seems that the most important qualification is that you show up on Donald Trump’s TV screen,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on CNN. Other nations with veto power on the U.N. Security Council are all represented by ambassadors with decades of foreign policy experience. Nauert would succeed Haley, a former South Carolina governor who also had little experience in world affairs before she took the job. Haley insisted that she be made a member of Trump’s Cabinet and his National Security Council to bolster her power within the administration. Bringing Nauert aboard in a sub-cabinet role could diminish the position, said Stephen Pomper, a former Obama administration official.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he will nominate William Barr, the late President George H.W. Bush's attorney general, to serve in the same role. Trump made the announcement while departing the White House for a trip to Missouri. He called Barr "a terrific man" and "one of the most respected jurists in the country." "I think he will serve with great distinction," Trump said. If confirmed by the Senate, Barr would succeed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was forced out by Trump in November following an acrimonious tenure. Sessions' chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, is currently serving as acting attorney general. Trump's fury at Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation — which helped set in motion the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller — created deep tensions between Trump and his Justice Department. He sometimes puts the word "Justice" in quotes when referring to the department in tweets and has railed against its leaders for failing to investigate his 2016 campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, as extensively as he would like. Democrats will presumably seek reassurances during confirmation proceedings that Barr, who as attorney general would be in a position to oversee Mueller's investigation, would not do anything to interfere with the probe. The investigation appears to be showing signs of entering its final stages, prompting a flurry of tweets from the president Thursday and Friday. But an attorney general opposed to the investigation could theoretically move to cut funding or block certain investigative steps. Barr was attorney general between 1991 and 1993, serving in the Justice Department at the same Mueller oversaw the department's criminal division. Barr later worked as a corporate general counsel and is currently of counsel at a prominent international law firm, Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Still, while in private practice, Barr has occasionally weighed in on hot-button investigative matters in ways that could prompt concerns among Democrats. He told The New York Times in November 2017, in a story about Sessions directing his prosecutors to look into actions related Clinton, that "there is nothing inherently wrong about a president calling for an investigation" — though Barr also said one should not be launched just because a president wants it. He also said there was more reason to investigate a uranium deal approved while Clinton was secretary of state in the Obama administration than potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. "To the extent it is not pursuing these matters, the department is abdicating its responsibility," Barr told the newspaper. He also wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in May 2017 defending Trump's decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey, one of the actions Mueller has been examining for possible obstruction of justice. He was quoted two months later in a Post story expressing concern that members of Mueller's team had given contributions to Democratic candidates. "In my view, prosecutors who make political contributions are identifying fairly strongly with a political party," Barr said. "I would have liked to see him have more balance on this group." Barr had been on a White House short list of contenders for several weeks, said a person with knowledge of internal discussions who was not authorized to speak publicly. But some inside the White House were concerned that Barr was too aligned with establishment GOP forces. Trump said Friday Barr had been his "first choice from Day One."[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In another senior staff shake-up inside his often turbulent administration, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he has picked the two people he wants to be the next U.S. attorney general and the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. FILE PHOTO: Spokesperson Heather Nauert (L) speaks as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a dialogue with reporters in his plane while flying from Panama to Mexico, October 18, 2018. Brendan Smialowski/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo He said he will nominate William Barr, who was attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush in the 1990s, to fill that top job again at the U.S. Justice Department. Barr would replace Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who has been in that position since Trump forced out Jeff Sessions as attorney general a month ago. Trump said he will put forward State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as ambassador to the United Nations. Nauert, a former Fox News Channel host, would replace Nikki Haley, who said in October she would resign at the end of this year. Both are likely to face tough questions at their Senate confirmation hearings. Democrats called Nauert unqualified and said they were concerned about Barr’s independence. Republicans said they were pleased with both nominees. Trump also said he would make a personnel announcement concerning the Pentagon on Saturday, telling reporters outside the White House, “It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the succession.” Trump was expected to name the Army’s top general, Mark Milley, as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the country’s top military position, U.S. officials told Reuters. Separately, two sources told Reuters that John Kelly is expected to resign in coming days as White House chief of staff after months of speculation. The proposed changes come as the Republican president faces another difficult stretch. Democrats are promising aggressive oversight of Trump’s administration and business activities when they take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January following their gains in last month’s elections. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is continuing to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, any collusion between Moscow and Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice. More details of the inquiry were set to emerge in court filings on Friday. Barr, who was attorney general under Bush from 1991 to 1993 and has worked in the private sector since then, would oversee Mueller’s probe if the Senate confirms him in the job again. He is likely to face pressure at his confirmation hearings to show he would protect Mueller from political interference. Critics of Trump have long been concerned that the president wants to end the Mueller probe. Republicans, who control the Senate, said Barr was well qualified. Senator Chuck Grassley called him a “talented, well-respected lawyer.” “There is no one more capable or qualified for this role,” Trump said at a law-enforcement conference in Kansas City. Trump, who has repeatedly denounced the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt,” denies any collusion with Russia or any obstruction of justice. Russia denies U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that it meddled in the 2016 election campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. ‘STEEP HILL TO CLIMB’ Barr also may face scrutiny about past comments questioning the political affiliations of Mueller’s team and supporting Trump’s decision last year to fire FBI Director James Comey. “Given President Trump’s demonstrated lack of regard for the rule of law and the independence of the American justice system, his nominee for attorney general will have a steep hill to climb in order to be confirmed by the Senate,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney who is currently acting head of the Justice Department, has drawn criticism for past business ventures and critical comments about the Mueller investigation before he joined the department. Trump mocked and belittled Sessions for more than a year, angry at Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia probe because he had worked for Trump’s election campaign. If she is confirmed to the U.N. ambassador post, Nauert would bring little diplomatic experience to a highly visible international role. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, praised Nauert as “one of the United States’ strongest voices on the global stage.” Democrats were less enthusiastic. “She’s clearly not qualified for this job, but these days it seems that the most important qualification is that you show up on Donald Trump’s TV screen,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on CNN. Other nations with veto power on the U.N. Security Council are all represented by ambassadors with decades of foreign policy experience. Nauert would succeed Haley, a former South Carolina governor who also had little experience in world affairs before she took the job. Haley insisted that she be made a member of Trump’s Cabinet and his National Security Council to bolster her power within the administration. In other staff changes, White House political director Bill Stepien and public liaison director Justin Clark are leaving their jobs to help Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, the campaign said. Trump’s White House has had the highest turnover of senior-level staff of the past five presidents, according to figures compiled by the Brookings Institution think tank.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Friday he had chosen former U.S. Attorney General William Barr to once again lead the Justice Department, a role that would put him in charge of the federal probe into Russian election interference. If confirmed by the Senate, Barr would take over from Matthew Whitaker, who has been serving in an acting capacity since Trump forced out Jeffrey Sessions a month ago. Whitaker had been Sessions' chief of staff. Barr was "my first choice from day one," and "a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man," Trump said, speaking to reporters outside the White House. Barr, a lawyer who was previously attorney general from 1991 to 1993 under the late President George H.W. Bush, has defended Trump's controversial decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 when Comey was leading the Russia probe. After Comey's firing, Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over that investigation, which includes any possible collusion between Moscow and Trump's 2016 election campaign, and any potential obstruction of justice. The Russia probe has long infuriated Trump, who calls it a witch hunt and who has denied any collusion or any obstruction of justice. Barr has said there is more reason to investigate potential wrongdoing by Trump's campaign opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, than there is to probe any potential collusion. Barr has said political donations show Mueller's team of professional prosecutors tilt uncomfortably to the left. On Twitter, Trump calls them "17 Angry Dems." "I would have liked to see him have more balance on this group," Barr told the Washington Post in July 2017. As attorney general, Barr would have ultimate responsibility for the Russia probe, unless he recuses himself. Sessions recused himself from overseeing the investigation. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Moscow worked to influence the election and tip it in Trump's favor. Russia has denied any interference. Barr's comments on Mueller and Clinton could stir opposition from Senate Democrats, but the nomination will almost certainly not come up for a vote until next year. Republicans will control the chamber with a 53-47 majority in the new Congress convening in January. "I do think he's worthy of consideration. I am concerned he has said some negative things about the Special Counsel's office and some of the prosecutors he had in place," Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told MSNBC on Thursday after Barr's name surfaced. Klobuchar is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the nomination. In an opinion piece in the Washington Post last year, Barr argued that Comey usurped the authority of top Justice Department officials when he announced the outcome of an FBI probe into Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, and that Trump was right in firing him. At the time of Comey's announcement, both Clinton and Trump were candidates for president. When Trump fired Comey, the initial reason given by the White House was his poor handling of the FBI investigation into Clinton's emails. Barr, however, did not attack the Russia probe itself, which he said was being conducted with a thoroughness that appeared lacking in the Clinton email investigation. "Comey's removal simply has no relevance to the integrity of the Russian investigation as it moves ahead," Barr wrote. Comey said in 2016, after a year-long FBI investigation into the email issue, that while Clinton had been careless in her handling of her emails the agency was not recommending charges. Clinton expressed regret for her decision to use a private server but said she violated no rules. Barr has expressed sympathy for Trump's calls to take a second look at whether Clinton may have broken the law, telling the Washington Post in November 2017: "I do think that there are things that should be investigated that haven't been investigated." That same month, he told the New York Times he thought there was more reason to investigate Clinton for any role she may have played in approving a uranium deal when she was secretary of state than any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. "To the extent it is not pursuing these matters, the department is abdicating its responsibility," he said. This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.[SEP]Trump nominates William Barr to be new attorney general Washington, Dec 7 (EFE).- US President Donald Trump said Friday he will nominate William Barr to be the new attorney general, a post the jurist previously held between 1991 and 1993. If confirmed by the Senate, the 68-year-old Barr will succeed Jeff Sessions, who was forced out by Trump on Nov. 7. “He was my first choice from day one, respected by Republicans and respected by Democrats,” Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for Kansas City, Missouri, where he is scheduled to give a speech Friday at the Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference. “He will be nominated for the United States attorney general and hopefully that process will go very quickly,” the president added. Sessions stepped down amid non-stop criticism from Trump and was replaced on an interim basis by his chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker. The relationship between Trump and Sessions soured due to the latter’s decision in early March 2017 to recuse himself from any involvement in Justice Department investigations regarding alleged Russian interference in the presidential election or potential collusion by the Trump campaign with Moscow. Sessions did so after questions arose about the then-senator’s contacts with the Russian ambassador in 2016 while he had a role in Trump’s campaign. “The Russia Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself…I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined…and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!” Trump tweeted on June 5, 2018. Less than three months after Sessions’ decision, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein named a former FBI director, Robert Mueller, as special counsel in the Russia investigation. That appointment came on May 17, just eight days after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading that agency’s Russia probe. Barr, who served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, could oversee Mueller’s investigation if confirmed. US intelligence agencies accuse Russia of interfering with the 2016 campaign to favor Trump over his rival, Hillary Clinton. Trump denies any collusion and Moscow denies meddling in the 2016 election.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In another senior staff shake-up inside his often turbulent administration, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he has picked the two people he wants to be the next U.S. attorney general and the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He said he will nominate William Barr, who was attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush in the 1990s, to fill that top job again at the U.S. Justice Department. Barr would replace Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who has been in that position since Trump forced out Jeff Sessions as attorney general a month ago. Trump also said he will put forward State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as ambassador to the United Nations. Nauert, a former host at Fox News Channel, would replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would resign at the end of this year. Both appointments would require U.S. Senate confirmation. Trump, speaking to reporters outside the White House, also said he would make a personnel announcement concerning the Pentagon on Saturday. “It will have to do with the joint chiefs of staff, the succession,” he told reporters outside the White House, suggesting he may name a new top U.S. military officer. Separately, CNN reported on Friday that John Kelly is expected to resign in coming days as White House chief of staff, citing unnamed sources. Reuters has not independently confirmed the report. The proposed changes come as the Republican president faces another difficult stretch. Democrats are promising aggressive oversight of Trump’s administration and business activities when they take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January following their gains in last month’s elections. Special Counsel Robert Muller is continuing to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, any collusion between Moscow and Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice. More details of the inquiry were set to emerge in court filings on Friday. Barr, who was attorney general under Bush from 1991 to 1993 and has worked in the private sector since then, would oversee Mueller’s probe if the Senate confirms him in the job again. Barr is likely to face pressure at his confirmation hearings to show he would protect Mueller from political interference. Critics of Trump have long been concerned that the president wants to end the Mueller probe. Trump, who has repeatedly denounced the investigation as a “witch hunt,” denies any collusion with Russia or any obstruction of justice. Russia denies U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that it meddled in the 2016 election campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. Barr also may face scrutiny about past comments questioning the political affiliations of Mueller’s team and supporting Trump’s decision last year to fire FBI Director James Comey. “I hope he will use the opportunity to unambiguously commit, should he be confirmed, to upholding the rule of law,” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said on Twitter. Trump called Barr “a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man,” in remarks to reporters as he left for an out-of-town event. “He was my first choice from Day One. Respected by Republicans and respected by Democrats. He will be nominated for United States Attorney General and hopefully that process will go very quickly,” Trump said. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney who is currently acting head of the Justice Department, has drawn criticism for past business ventures and critical comments about the Mueller investigation before he joined the department. Trump mocked and belittled Sessions for more than a year, angry at Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia probe because he had worked for Trump’s election campaign. If she is confirmed to the U.N. ambassador post, Nauert would bring little diplomatic experience to a highly visible international role. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, praised Nauert as “one of the United States’ strongest voices on the global stage.” Democrats were less enthusiastic. “She’s clearly not qualified for this job, but these days it seems that the most important qualification is that you show up on Donald Trump’s TV screen,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on CNN. Other nations with veto power on the U.N. Security Council are all represented by ambassadors with decades of foreign policy experience. Nauert would succeed Haley, a former South Carolina governor who also had little experience in world affairs before she took the job. Haley insisted that she be made a member of Trump’s Cabinet and his National Security Council to bolster her power within the administration. Bringing Nauert aboard in a sub-cabinet role could diminish the position, said Stephen Pomper, a former Obama administration official.[SEP]WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday he will nominate William Barr, the late President George H.W. Bush’s attorney general, to serve in the same role. Trump made the announcement while departing the White House for a trip to Missouri. He called Barr “a terrific man” and “one of the most respected jurists in the country.” “I think he will serve with great distinction,” Trump said. If confirmed by the Senate, Barr would succeed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was forced out by Trump in November following an acrimonious tenure. Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, is currently serving as acting attorney general. Trump’s fury at Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation — which helped set in motion the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller — created deep tensions between Trump and his Justice Department. He sometimes puts the word “Justice” in quotes when referring to the department in tweets and has railed against its leaders for failing to investigate his 2016 campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, as extensively as he would like. Democrats will presumably seek reassurances during confirmation proceedings that Barr, who as attorney general would be in a position to oversee Mueller’s investigation, would not do anything to interfere with the probe. The investigation appears to be showing signs of entering its final stages, prompting a flurry of tweets from the president Thursday and Friday. But an attorney general opposed to the investigation could theoretically move to cut funding or block certain investigative steps. Barr was attorney general between 1991 and 1993, serving in the Justice Department at the same Mueller oversaw the department’s criminal division. Barr later worked as a corporate general counsel and is currently of counsel at a prominent international law firm, Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Still, while in private practice, Barr has occasionally weighed in on hot-button investigative matters in ways that could prompt concerns among Democrats. • Lawyers want porn star Stormy Daniels to pay Trump $340K in legal fees • Trump says next meeting with Kim Jong Un likely in January or February He told The New York Times in November 2017, in a story about Sessions directing his prosecutors to look into actions related Clinton, that “there is nothing inherently wrong about a president calling for an investigation” — though Barr also said one should not be launched just because a president wants it. He also said there was more reason to investigate a uranium deal approved while Clinton was secretary of state in the Obama administration than potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. “To the extent it is not pursuing these matters, the department is abdicating its responsibility,” Barr told the newspaper. He also wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in May 2017 defending Trump’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey, one of the actions Mueller has been examining for possible obstruction of justice. He was quoted two months later in a Post story expressing concern that members of Mueller’s team had given contributions to Democratic candidates. “In my view, prosecutors who make political contributions are identifying fairly strongly with a political party,” Barr said. “I would have liked to see him have more balance on this group.” Barr had been on a White House short list of contenders for several weeks, said a person with knowledge of internal discussions who was not authorized to speak publicly. But some inside the White House were concerned that Barr was too aligned with establishment GOP forces. Trump said Friday Barr had been his “first choice from Day One.”[SEP]People familiar with Trump's deliberations told The Washington Post that Barr is the favorite to take over the job of US Attorney General. Sessions resigned at Trump's request last month, and his Chief of Staff Matthew Whitaker has been the Acting US Attorney General. Barr, 68, served as US Attorney General in 1991-1993. On November 7, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at the request President Donald Trump. The president said in a statement that Whitaker would fill the role of acting US Attorney General until a permanent replacement is found. Three Democratic Senators have filed a lawsuit to challenge Trump’s appointment of Whitaker alleging that the president violated the Constitution’s appointments clause. Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns about Whitaker’s impact on the investigation of the Special Counsel, who is probing allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as well as possible coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign. READ MORE: Papadopoulos Says Just Days Before Jail He Never Flipped on Trump in Russiagate Sessions has long faced criticism from Trump for recusing himself from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. In 2016, former US Attorney General William Barr supported Donald Trump’s nominee, Jeff Sessions, for the post Barr once held.[SEP]William Barr, who served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, has emerged as a leading contender for that job in President Donald Trump's Cabinet.That's according to a person involved in the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because no selection to lead the Justice Department has been announced.Trump has been known to change his mind on personnel decisions.The appointment is especially sensitive now as special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, which the department oversees, is showing signs of entering its final stages.Barr was attorney general between 1991 and 1993. Trump forced out Attorney General Jeff Sessions in November and elevated Sessions' chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, to acting attorney general.He's also a New York City native, growing up on the Upper West Side. His parents were faculty members at Columbia University, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees in government.Barr received his law degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.Since leaving government, Barr has worked in senior corporate positions and as a lawyer with a Washington firm.------------

U.S. President Donald Trump nominates William Barr to be the new United States Attorney General, a position he held under George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993. Heather Nauert, a former journalist and the incumbent Spokesperson for the United States Department of State, is proposed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Winner of party vote tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor and Europe’s most powerful politician Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a staunchly Catholic conservative career politician, has been elected as the successor to Angela Merkel as leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats. Kramp-Karrenbauer won by just 25 votes following a nail-biting second round run-off against her main opponent, the multi-millionaire businessman Friedrich Merz. Wiping away tears, Kramp-Karrenbauer said she would accept the post, and thanked the party for its support and trust in her, insisting she would give new impetus to the party as it seeks to claw back the millions of voters it has lost to rightwing populists and the Greens in recent years. “We should harness the boost this competition has given us, and use it to propel the party’s success,” she said. Merkel bows out to applause as CDU votes on successor Read more Dubbed a mini-Merkel - a title she is determined to discard - Kramp-Karrenbauer was not officially endorsed by the chancellor, but was clearly her favourite, having been propelled by her to the position of the party’s general secretary in February. But in a veiled sign of her support earlier in the day, Merkel made a point of praising Kramp-Karrenbauer for her contribution to the CDU’s electoral success during a valedictory speech to the party on Friday morning. The result is seen as making it more likely that Merkel will be able to see out her fourth term until 2021. She has expressed her determination to stay on as chancellor for the remaining three years of her term in office and 56% of Germans support her decision to do so, polls show. Kramp-Karrenbauer had won the first round of voting, securing 45% or 450 votes, and went on to win 517 votes in the second. The vote followed a nail-biting contest after Merkel announced in late October she was stepping down as party chief but intended to continue as chancellor until the next elections. Merz, 63, an economics lawyer who was ousted as parliamentary leader of the CDU by Merkel in 2002, this time received 482 votes in the second round, and 392 in the first. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Friedrich Merz delivers a speech to delegates at the party’s annual conference on Friday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images He had taken the party by surprise after parachuting in from his high-powered job in the banking industry, insisting he could win back many of the voters the party has lost to rightwing populism. His supporters said Merz would have been the more courageous option because he was determined to take the party away from the centre ground where Merkel had firmly kept it during her 18 years at the helm. The vote marks a new era for the party, founded in 1945, which has provided Germany with a chancellor for 50 years of the last seven decades. Merkel told the party faithful on Friday it was “time for a change”. Kramp-Karrenbauer - or AKK as she is popularly known, not least because many Germans find her double-barrelled name difficult to pronounce - will now be viewed as a potential future chancellor if the CDU wins the next election in 2021. The mother of three, a self-professed strict Catholic who has served as state leader of Saarland and before that was its interior minister, has a total of 18 years’ leadership experience, all of which stood her in good stead to win the vote. The third candidate in the running, Jens Spahn, 38, refused to withdraw his candidature, despite pressure from party colleagues to do so when it was clear that support for him was weak. Made health minister in Merkel’s government six months ago, he had been considered a frontrunner for several years to succeed Merkel but was pushed aside when Merz decided to throw his hat into the ring and won the support of party heavyweights, such as the president of the Bundestag and Merkel’s former economics minister Wolfgang Schäuble. Play Video 1:09 'It was a great honour': Merkel receives standing ovation after farewell speech – video Spahn secured a higher than expected 157 votes out of 999, but was not eligible for the second round. Over 1,000 party delegates were eligible to vote on what was described as the most momentous decision for the party in nearly 50 years and one that would decide the future direction not only of the CDU, but also of the country and the continent. The party has faced a dilemma, to either keep itself on the course set by Merkel – who was determined to secure the centre ground and has turned the CDU into a champion of gay marriage, a minimum wage and a quota for women in politics - or to take it more to the right in an attempt to win back the voters lost to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). In Kramp-Karrenbauer it has arguably chosen a safer option than Merz, not least because she is likely to have an easier relationship with Merkel in the chancellery than Merz, who is seen as having a grudge against Merkel. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s victory is a sign that the party wants to continue on the path set for it by Merkel. Nevertheless, Kramp-Karrenbauer has repeatedly said she would forge her own path, and is decidedly more socially conservative than her predecessor. She told party delegates she was “not a mini version” of Merkel, but her “own person”. “I have read a lot about what I am and who I am: ‘mini’, a copy, simply ‘more of the same’. Dear delegates, I stand before you as I am and as life made me and I am proud of that,” she said. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kramp-Karrenbauer reacts after being announced the winner of the party leadership contest. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters Although she supported Merkel’s open-door migration policy in 2015, Kramp-Karrenbauer is in favour of tightening migration, she is against same-sex marriage and has argued for more restrictions placed on doctors carrying out abortion. But she also takes a liberal approach to other issues, voting in favour of a minimum wage, and supporting a women’s quota. Some say she is still largely an unknown quantity, having played out most of her political life in Saarland. Thousands of CDU members descended on Hamburg for the spectacle, as well as over 1,600 accredited journalists and hundreds of diplomats and political observers. Watching from the sidelines, Udo Tappe, a long-time CDU member described it as the most exiting moment for the party in decades. “My heart was with AKK, my head with Merz,” the 77-year-old retired Hamburg estate agent admitted. “I think that Kramp-Karrenbauer is better in that she has a lot more political successes behind her than Merz, but I wonder how she will stand up to the likes of autocrats like Erdogan and Putin, which Merkel did well.” Earlier in the day Merkel fought back tears after CDU delegates gave her a 10-minute standing ovation after she delivered an emotional speech marking the end of her leadership, which she said had been both “challenging” and “a joy”. • This article was amended on 11 December 2018. In the first round, Jens Spahn secured 157 votes, not 175 as an earlier version said.[SEP]Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is elected new leader of Merkel's party HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is elected new leader of Merkel's party.[SEP]Germany’s ruling centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has backed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as its new leader, choosing evolution over revolution after its most passionate leadership race in half a century. After a long day of emotion and suspense, a shell-shocked Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer took to the party conference stage in Hamburg. Wiping away tears, she promised to unite the party and restore trust in mainstream politics as Angela Merkel stood down after 18 years as CDU leader. “I accept the election result and thank all for their trust,” she said after a tight leadership race that she said “gave us all a boost”. Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected with 517 out of 999 delegate votes in a runoff, after failing to secure a majority in the first round. Her rival Friedrich Merz, a conservative-liberal former Merkel rival, attracted 482 votes and urged all to offer their “full support for our new leader”. “The last weeks were a perfect lesson in democracy,” he said. In a tacit acknowledgment of the tight vote – with just 35 votes separating them – Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer promised to work closely with Mr Merz and Jens Spahn, the federal health minister and third-place candidate. In a passionate speech before the vote Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer challenged perceptions she was a continuity candidate or “mini” Merkel and promised “courage for change” to lead Germany out of its comfort zone. “This Europe, this Germany, this world needs a strong CDU and that is what we are fighting for,” said Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer. In a careful side-swipe at a chancellor criticised of tranquilising her party, Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer promised faster decision-making that heeded grassroots concerns. “We need a strong party that debates and thinks,” she said. “We have 420,000 members, they know things, they want things. We just have to let them.” The new CDU leader has promised to work closely with Dr Merkel until she stands down – by 2021 at the latest. Friday’s vote in Hamburg opens the door to the new CDU leader, known to all as AKK, as Germany’s next chancellor. The 53-year-old said she was her own woman, with her own style, but knew the difficulties of combining work and family as a mother of three and political leader of 18 years. “Leadership depends on inner strength, not volume,” she said, a dig at Mr Merz and acknowledgment her conciliatory style echoes Dr Merkel. On her watch, she said, Germany would leave its comfort zone, and drive on European integration with a European security council and European army. The new CDU leader faces a series of challenges: unite the party, drag support up from at 28 per cent, beat back a growing far-right challenge and salvage Berlin’s struggling grand coalition with the Social Democratic Party. Earlier on Friday, after 6,815 days and a final, 10-minute standing ovation, a tearful Dr Merkel bowed out as leader. Wearing her trademark awkward smile, Dr Merkel urged the party she has headed since April 2000 to “start a new chapter” and leave Hamburg “well-equipped, motivated and united”. “I wasn’t born as a chancellor or party leader, truly . . . but I’m filled with a great feeling of thanks, it was a joy and an honour,” she said, her voice catching with emotion for a split second. The outgoing leader delivered a humorous, thoughtful and self-critical speech. She acknowledged her own failings, in particular how staff and party colleagues were “driven demented” by her hesitation over decisions and her conflict aversion towards political rivals. From climate change to globalised trade, her successor faced a long list of challenges. And, in a final riposte to her critics, she said she was “proud” of her controversial decision to keep German borders open three years ago to more than one million refugees and asylum seekers. She mentioned Brexit in just seven words and delivered a double dig at US president Donald Trump. Two days after attending the funeral of George HW Bush, Dr Merkel thanked Bush for resisting triumphalism at the cold war’s end, and warned against abandoning the postwar multilateral order in favour of politics as “deals”. As a farewell present the party gifted Dr Merkel a baton dedicated to “world politics’ most important conductor”. Halfway through her ovation, a visibly relieved Dr Merkel urged delegates to sit down and get to work, saying: “We have a lot to do.”[SEP]Hamburg: German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hand off leadership of her party Friday after nearly two decades at the helm, with the race wide open between a loyal deputy and a longtime rival. The contest’s outcome is expected to be crucial in deciding whether Merkel, Europe’s most influential leader, can realise her stated goal of completing her fourth term in 2021 and then leaving politics. Merkel, 64, is quitting the helm of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after a series of poll setbacks rooted in controversy over her liberal refugee policy. “I’m very grateful that I could be party chairwoman for 18 years -- it is a very, very long time and the CDU of course had its ups and downs,” Merkel said as she arrived at the conference venue in Hamburg. “But we won four national elections together... and I am happy I can remain chancellor.” Merkel has led Germany since 2005, and moved the party and country steadily toward the political centre. More generous family leave, an exit from nuclear power and an end to military conscription were among her signature policies. The two main candidates, CDU deputy leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (known as AKK) and corporate lawyer Friedrich Merz, are locked in a battle over whether to embrace or break with the veteran chancellor’s legacy. A third contender, Health Minister Jens Spahn, 38, an outspoken critic of Merkel’s 2015 decision to welcome more than one million asylum seekers to Germany, is seen as being in a distant third place. While AKK, 56, is viewed as a keeper of the flame and similar to Merkel with an even temper and middle-of-the-road policies, Merz, 63, has become the torchbearer for those seeking a more decisive break with the chancellor. “The Merkel era is palpably coming to an end,” political journalist and AKK biographer Kristina Dunz said. “Merz could be tempted to see his revenge and lunge for power (as soon as next year).” This week Merz, who has insisted in the face of widespread scepticism that he could work well with Merkel, won the backing of powerful former finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, now the parliamentary speaker. Both men are seen as harbouring longstanding grudges against the chancellor, after she thwarted Schaeuble’s ambition to become German president and Merz’s desire to remain CDU parliamentary group leader several years ago. “Schaeuble’s manoeuvre shows: the CDU of the old Germany is trying to make a comeback,” news weekly Der Spiegel said. “It is the CDU of the (former chancellor Helmut) Kohl years, in which men like Schaeuble and Merz barked orders like military officers and women usually made the coffee.” National broadsheet Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Schaeuble’s move signalled that the CDU’s long-festering divisions, thinly veiled by unity behind Merkel, could well break out in the open after the conference. “The CDU of the Merkel years is falling apart,” it said. “Opposing camps are forming.” Few observers have dared to predict how the 1,000 delegates -- political and party office holders -- will vote. AKK is believed to have Merkel’s strong backing but much will depend on how deep and widespread the longing is for a stronger conservative profile. Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a close Merkel ally, criticised Schaeuble’s vocal support for Merz as divisive and threw his weight behind AKK as a centrist force who can keep voters from drifting to the extremes. “Since Wolfgang Schaeuble has now opened the floodgates, I can say that I am convinced that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has the best chance to unite the CDU and win elections,” Altmaier told regional newspaper Rheinische Post. Whoever wins will face towering challenges for the party, which is currently drawing around 28 percent at the polls, far below the around 40 percent enjoyed during Merkel’s heyday. It has lost support to the right, in the form of the upstart anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, and the resurgent Greens. Meanwhile Germany’s oldest party, the Social Democrats (SPD) -- junior partners in Merkel’s “grand coalition” -- are mired in crisis. Regardless of which course the CDU charts, it is ironically the SPD that could decide Merkel’s fate. The party has long languished in Merkel’s shadow and could well decide to jump ship before 2021 to seek to avert further vote debacles.[SEP](HAMBURG, Germany) — Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been elected as the new leader of Merkel’s center-right party. Kramp-Karrenbauer narrowly defeated Friedrich Merz, a one-time Merkel rival, at a congress of the Christian Democratic Union in Hamburg on Friday. She won 517 votes to Merz’s 482 in a run-off. A third candidate, Health Minister Jens Spahn, was eliminated in a first round of voting. The 56-year-old Kramp-Karrenbauer has been the CDU’s general secretary, in charge of day-to-day political strategy, since February. She was previously a popular governor of western Saarland state. She now inherits the task of improving the CDU’s political fortunes and trying to win back voters from rivals to the right and left, while working with Merkel as chancellor until Germany’s next election.[SEP](HAMBURG, Germany) — German conservatives on Friday elected an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel to become her party’s new leader — giving her the challenge of opening a new chapter and improving the party’s electoral fortunes after 18 years under Merkel. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, narrowly defeated one-time Merkel rival Friedrich Merz at a congress of the center-right Christian Democratic Union. The result points to policy continuity, and Kramp-Karrenbauer should be able to work well with Merkel as she serves out her term as chancellor. Kramp-Karrenbauer won a runoff vote by 517 votes to Merz’s 482 after a third candidate, Health Minister Jens Spahn, was eliminated in a first round of voting. Kramp-Karrenbauer, previously the CDU’s general secretary, embraced Merkel and was quick to call for unity after the vote, saying “there is a place in this party” for her defeated leadership rivals. Merkel announced in October she would give up the party’s reins but plans to remain chancellor until her current term ends in 2021. However, it’s possible that Germany’s next general election could come earlier. Kramp-Karrenbauer — often known as “AKK” — will be the favorite to run for chancellor in the next election, though that isn’t automatic. She becomes only the eighth leader of the CDU since World War II. All but two of her predecessors served as chancellor. She was the closest of the three candidates to Merkel’s centrist stance, though she is no Merkel clone and has consistently shown a greater willingness to cater to conservative rhetoric. In recent weeks, the new party leader sought to put a careful distance between herself and Merkel without disavowing her, saying she has had “very lively discussions” with the chancellor on various subjects. She has talked tough on immigration issues, proposing a lifelong entry ban to Europe for asylum-seekers convicted of serious crimes. But she has warned that endlessly rehashing debates about Merkel’s decision to allow in large numbers of migrants in 2015 is a turn-off for voters. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s pitch centered on her own lengthy experience in regional government, which saw her become the first woman to become a German state’s interior minister, or top security official, and serve as governor of western Saarland state. She gave up that job in February to become the CDU general secretary, in charge of day-to-day strategy. Kramp-Karrenbauer says she knows how to win elections, having defied expectations to win re-election in Saarland by a wide margin last year. Merkel has been CDU leader since 2000 and chancellor since 2005. She has moved her party relentlessly to the center, dropping military conscription, accelerating Germany’s exit from nuclear energy and introducing benefits encouraging fathers to look after their young children. She also allowed the introduction of gay marriage, which Kramp-Karrenbauer was more vehement in opposing. In a farewell speech as leader, Merkel said Friday that “our CDU today is different from the year 2000, and that is a good thing.” She also celebrated Germany’s balancing its budget in recent years and its response to the eurozone debt crisis. For years, Merkel’s popularity lifted the CDU and its Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union. In the 2013 election, they won 41.5 percent of the vote and only just fell short of an outright parliamentary majority. At present, the center-right bloc is polling around or below 30 percent. Merkel’s fourth-term governing coalition with the center-left Social Democrats has lurched through a series of crises since taking office in March, and the CDU has lost supporters both to the liberal Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany. Merkel, however, recalled that the CDU was in a deep crisis when she took over in 2000, mired in a party financing scandal surrounding ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl. “We are in demanding times today, no doubt about that,” she said. “But … we faced an hour of destiny for the Christian Democratic Union 18 years ago.” “We kept a cool head,” she said. “We showed everyone.” “I wasn’t born as chancellor or as party leader,” she said. “I have always wanted to do my government and party jobs with dignity, and one day to leave them with dignity … now it is time to open a new chapter.” Merkel was greeted by a long standing ovation, with some delegates holding up “Thank you, boss” placards.[SEP]HAMBURG (Reuters) - Germany’s Christian Democrats elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on Friday to replace Angela Merkel as party leader, a decision that moves her into pole position to succeed Europe’s most influential leader as chancellor. Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, is Merkel’s protege and was the continuity candidate favored by the party elite. She won the leadership with 517 votes out of 999 votes cast by delegates. Her rival, Friedrich Merz, won 482 votes in a run-off. A former state premier in Saarland, where she led a three-way coalition, Kramp-Karrenbauer has a reputation for uniting support across the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and a talent for striking alliances with other parties. Sometimes dubbed “mini Merkel”, Kramp-Karrenbauer is admired by the CDU upper echelons for her appeal across the party. “I have read a lot about what I am and who I am: ‘mini’, a copy, simply ‘more of the same’. Dear delegates, I stand before you as I am and as life made me and I am proud of that,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said in a passionate speech to the congress. Playing up her experience in regional government, she added to cheers and loud applause: “I learned what it is to lead - and above all learnt that leadership is more about being strong on the inside than being loud on the outside.” Merkel said in October she would step down as party chief but remain chancellor, an effort to manage her exit after a series of setbacks since her divisive decision in 2015 to keep German borders open to refugees fleeing war in the Middle East. During the leadership campaign, Merz delighted rank-and-file CDU members hungry for a more clearly defined party after 13 years of consensus-type leadership under Merkel by calling for tax cuts and a more robust approach to tackling the far right. But the party delegates - many of them career politicians - preferred Kramp-Karrenbauer, often known by her initials, AKK. “She is a safe bet: a centrist candidate who does not threaten nasty surprises,” said Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of weekly Die Zeit. “Merz was just a bit too free-market, pro-American and pro-defense. Also, his pitch to the convention was wooden compared to AKK’s passionate appeal. Still, he forced her into a run-off, which suggests that AKK will preside over a divided party.” There was jubilation as the result of the run-off was announced. A tearful Kramp-Karrenbauer thanked her rivals and invited them to share the stage with her in a show of party unity, which delegates applauded. The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Merkel’s ruling coalition, congratulated Kramp-Karrenbauer and offered to work constructively with her. “You’ve got big shoes to fill,” SPD leader Andrea Nahles wrote on Twitter. “Good luck! Now it’s time to solve problems: shoring up the future of pensions, recognizing the value of work, strengthening cohesion in Europe. I offer good teamwork.” The hardline Left party and the far-right Alternative for Germany lamented what they saw as the dawn of “Merkel 2.0”. Merkel, 64, has presided over Europe’s most populous country and powerful economy for 13 years. Earlier, an emotional Merkel bowed out as party leader, telling the congress: “It has been a great pleasure for me, it has been an honor.” Kramp-Karrenbauer has differentiated herself from Merkel on social and foreign policy by voting in favor of quotas for women on corporate boards and taking a tougher line on Russia. She told Reuters last week that Europe and the United States should consider blockading Russian ships over the Ukraine crisis. She also took a more cautious stance on the future of Europe than Merz, who said Germany should “contribute more” to the European Union as it benefits from a euro common currency that is “too weak for our economy”. But on what lies ahead for the CDU, Kramp-Karrenbauer said when campaigning: “I have no particular recipe.” That practical, non-ideological approach is similar to the style Merkel has employed as chancellor. Party insiders say Kramp-Karrenbauer gets on well with Merkel. “The chemistry is good,” said one senior CDU official.[SEP]HAMBURG (Reuters) - Germany’s Christian Democrats elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on Friday to replace Angela Merkel as party leader, a decision that moves her into pole position to succeed Europe’s most influential leader as chancellor. Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, is Merkel’s protege and was the continuity candidate favored by the party elite. She won the leadership with 517 votes out of 999 votes cast by delegates. Her rival, Friedrich Merz, won 482 votes in a run-off. A former state premier in Saarland, where she led a three-way coalition, Kramp-Karrenbauer has a reputation for uniting support across the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and a talent for striking alliances with other parties. Sometimes dubbed “mini Merkel”, Kramp-Karrenbauer is admired by the CDU upper echelons for her appeal across the party. “I have read a lot about what I am and who I am: ‘mini’, a copy, simply ‘more of the same’. Dear delegates, I stand before you as I am and as life made me and I am proud of that,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said in a passionate speech to the congress. Playing up her experience in regional government, she added to cheers and loud applause: “I learned what it is to lead - and above all learnt that leadership is more about being strong on the inside than being loud on the outside.” Merkel said in October she would step down as party chief but remain chancellor, an effort to manage her exit after a series of setbacks since her divisive decision in 2015 to keep German borders open to refugees fleeing war in the Middle East. There was jubilation as the result of the run-off was announced. A tearful Kramp-Karrenbauer thanked her rivals and invited them to share the stage with her in a show of party unity, which delegates applauded. Earlier, an emotional Merkel bowed out as party leader, telling the congress: “It has been a great pleasure for me, it has been an honor.” Kramp-Karrenbauer has differentiated herself from Merkel on social and foreign policy by voting in favor of quotas for women on corporate boards and taking a tougher line on Russia. She told Reuters last week that Europe and the United States should consider blockading Russian ships over the Ukraine crisis. But on what lies ahead for the CDU, Kramp-Karrenbauer said when campaigning: “I have no particular recipe.” During the campaign, she took a more cautious stance on the future of Europe than Merz, who said Germany should “contribute more” to the European Union as it benefits from a euro common currency that is “too weak for our economy”. Last month, Kramp-Karrenbauer told a business conference: “With every wish to take Europe forward with a German-French nucleus, the proposals must always fit with German interests.” Party insiders say she gets on well with Merkel. “The chemistry is good,” said one senior CDU official.[SEP]HAMBURG: Chancellor Angela Merkel 's party is meeting to elect a new leader who could help shape Germany's political direction for the next generation.A close ally of Merkel's and a one-time rival are considered favorites for the job to lead the center-right Christian Democratic Union.Merkel announced in October she would give up the reins in her party, though she plans to serve her current term as chancellor.Three high-profile contenders have toured Germany to drum up support.Friday's vote pits CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a Merkel ally, against Friedrich Merz , a former leader of the party's parliamentary group who stands for a more conservative approach and has been away from front-line politics for a decade.Health Minister Jens Spahn , another Merkel critic, is considered the outsider.[SEP]The Latest: Merkel says her party must look to the future HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — The Latest on the election of a successor to Angela Merkel as Christian Democratic Union party leader (all times local): Chancellor Angela Merkel has celebrated her 18 years at the helm of Germany's main center-right party in her final speech as leader, urging members to show unity as it opens a new chapter. In a speech Friday before the Christian Democratic Union elects a new leader, Merkel recalled that she took office in 2000 when the party was in a deep crisis. She said that "we kept a cool head" and "we showed everyone" by recovering. Merkel told a party congress in Hamburg that "our CDU today is different from the year 2000, and that is a good thing." She said the party must not look to the past but the future. Her half-hour speech was greeted with a several-minute standing ovation. Some delegates held up placards saying "Thank you, boss!" Chancellor Angela Merkel's party is meeting to elect a new leader who could help shape Germany's political direction for the next generation. A close ally of Merkel's and a one-time rival are considered favorites for the job to lead the center-right Christian Democratic Union. Merkel announced in October she would give up the reins in her party, though she plans to serve her current term as chancellor. Three high-profile contenders have toured Germany to drum up support. Friday's vote pits CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a Merkel ally, against Friedrich Merz, a former leader of the party's parliamentary group who stands for a more conservative approach and has been away from front-line politics for a decade. Health Minister Jens Spahn, another Merkel critic, is considered the outsider.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer succeeds Angela Merkel as the new chairperson of the Christian Democratic Union, one of the major political parties in Germany.

A team of scientists discovered an exoplanet that resembles an inflated balloon, not just because it is shaped like one, but because it is filled with helium. The international team of astronomers, including experts from the University of Geneva, said the unique exoplanet, about the size of Neptune and four times larger than Earth, has an average temperature of 1,022 degrees Fahrenheit. The discovery of thousands of unique exoplanets orbiting the universe is not a scientific breakthrough anymore. This particular discovery, however, was exciting for the scientific community because this was the first time in 18 years that they were able to observe exactly how helium escapes from one gaseous exoplanet’s atmosphere. Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe. In 2000, scientists theorized that helium could be the perfect signal from which they could observe and study the atmosphere of exoplanets. It was only this year that they were able to witness how helium behaves. The study, published in the journal Science on Dec. 6, was able to calculate a numerical simulation for how helium moves and why, from humans’ point of view, this gas became like a tail trailing a star or other cosmic bodies. The numerical simulation was able to track the exact trajectory of helium atoms escaping a cosmic body. "Helium is blown away from the day side of the planet to its night side at over 10'000 km/h because it is such a light gas, it escapes easily from the attraction of the planet and forms an extended cloud all around it,” Vincent Bourrier, co-author of the study, explained. As for the unique balloon-like shape of the discovered exoplanet, the study said this could be explained by how the exoplanet was positioned in relation to its star. "We suspected that this proximity with the star could impact the atmosphere of this exoplanet," Romain Allart, first author of the study, said. The exoplanet was affected by the stellar radiation coming from the star, illuminating how the helium escapes to space. Since 2000, experts knew that helium was extremely hard to spot from space since they are located in the infrared that previous instruments could no longer detect. For this present study, however, the team of international scientists used a telescope equipped with a new feature, a spectrograph called Carmenes. Christophe Lovis, another co-author of the study, added that the result of their observation also helped in promoting the appreciation for the Carmenes as an integral tool in scientific studies. With the study, he hoped that more telescopes with Carmenes feature will be deployed in different locations across the world.[SEP]A helium exoplanet inflated like a balloon, research shows. Credit: Denis Bajram Astronomers have discovered a distant planet with an abundance of helium in its atmosphere, which has swollen to resemble an inflated balloon. An international team of researchers, including Jessica Spake and Dr. David Sing from the University of Exeter, have detected the inert gas escaping from the atmosphere of the exoplanet HAT-P-11b—found 124 light years from Earth and in the Cygnus constellation. The remarkable breakthrough was led by researchers from the University of Geneva, who observed the exoplanet using the spectrograph called Carmenes, installed on the 4-metre telescope at Calar Alto, Spain. For the first time, the data revealed the speed of helium atoms in the upper atmosphere of the exoplanet, which is equivalent in size to Neptune. The helium is in an extended cloud that is escaping from the planet, just as a helium balloon might escape from a person's hand. The research team believe that the ground-breaking study could open up new understandings of the extreme atmospheric conditions found around the hottest exoplanets. The research is published in the leading journal, Science, on December 6 2018. Jessica Spake, part of Exeter's Physics and Astronomy department said: "This is a really exciting discovery, particularly as helium was only detected in exoplanet atmospheres for the first time earlier this year. The observations show helium being blasted away from the planet by radiation from its host star. Hopefully we can use this new study to learn what types of planets have large envelopes of hydrogen and helium, and how long they can hold the gases in their atmospheres." Helium was first detected as an unknown yellow spectral line signature in sunlight in 1868. Devon-based astronomer Norman Lockyer was the first to propose this line was due to a new element, and named it after the Greek Titan of the Sun, Helios. It has since been discovered to be one of the main constituents of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in our Solar System. It is also the second most common element in the universe and was long- predicted to be one of the most readily-detectable gases on giant exoplanets. However, it was only successfully found in an exoplanet atmosphere earlier this year, in a pioneering study also led by Jessica Spake. For this new study, the research team used the spectrograph, Carmenes, to pull apart the star's light into its component colours, like a rainbow, to reveal the presence of helium. The 'rainbow' data, called a spectrum, also tells us the position and speed of helium atoms in the upper atmosphere of HAT-P-11b, which is 20 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun. Romain Allart, Ph.D. student at the University of Geneva and first author of the study said: "We suspected that this proximity with the star could impact the atmosphere of this exoplanet. The new observations are so precise that the exoplanet atmosphere is undoubtly inflated by the stellar radiation and escapes to space." Artist impression video of a WASP-69b with its helium tail orbiting its host star. Credit: Gabriel Perez Diaz (IAC) These new observations are supported by a state-of-the-art computer simulation, led by Vincent Bourrier, co-author of the study and member of the European project FOUR ACES, used to track the trajectory of helium atoms. Vincent Bourrier explained: "Helium is blown away from the day side of the planet to its night side at over 10,000 km an hour. Because it is such a light gas, it escapes easily from the attraction of the planet and forms an extended cloud all around it." It is this phenomenon that makes HAT-P-11b so inflated, like a helium balloon. The first detection of helium earlier this year, led by University of Exeter researchers, opened a new window to observe the extreme atmospheric conditions reigning in the hottest exoplanets. These new observations from Carmenes demonstrate that such studies, long thought feasible only from space, can be achieved with greater precision from ground-based telescopes equipped with the right kind of instruments. Explore further Helium detected in exoplanet atmosphere for the first time More information: R. Allart el al., "Spectrally resolved helium absorption from the extended atmosphere of a warm Neptune-mass exoplanet," Science (2018). Journal information: Science R. Allart el al., "Spectrally resolved helium absorption from the extended atmosphere of a warm Neptune-mass exoplanet,"(2018). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/ … 1126/science.aat5879[SEP]A newly discovered exoplanet 124 light-years away is just full of hot air, according to a new study. HAT-P-11b, about the size of Neptune and four times larger than Earth, was found in the Cygnus constellation. The planet is considered a “warm Neptune,” with an average temperature of 1,022 degrees Fahrenheit. For reference, Neptune is the farthest planet in our solar system from the sun, making it one of the coldest, and its average temperature is negative 353 degrees Fahrenheit. HAT-P-11b is 20 times closer to its star than Earth is to the sun. Its atmosphere is full of helium, swollen like an inflated balloon. And much like a balloon caught in the wind, helium is escaping from the atmosphere in an extended cloud. Helium, although rare on Earth, is the second most common element in the universe after hydrogen. It’s present in Jupiter and Saturn and is widely thought to be detectable in the atmospheres of exoplanets. But it was only found in the atmosphere of a gas giant exoplanet called WASP-107b this year. The helium itself was hard to detect because the infrared signature of the element is out of the range for instruments used. Now, for the first time, scientists were able to have detailed observation of how helium is escaping from this gaseous exoplanet’s atmosphere. The study was published Thursday in the journal Science. “Helium is blown away from the day side of the planet to its night side at over 10,000 kilometers an hour,” said Vincent Bourrier, study co-author and member of the European Research Council’s Future of Upper Atmospheric Characterisation of Exoplanets with Spectroscopy project. “Because it is such a light gas, it escapes easily from the attraction of the planet and forms an extended cloud all around it.” What enabled this discovery? A new instrument called Carmenes, which is on the 4-meter ground-based telescope at the observatory of Calar Alto in Andalusia, Spain. Carmenes is a spectrograph, which separates a star’s light into the colors that make it up — not unlike a rainbow. This uncovers the spectrum, a measurement of the number of colors that compose this light. Though humans can’t see any color beyond red when looking at this resolution with the naked eye, the Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared eye can see hundreds of colors. Carmenes can pick up more than 100,000 colors within the infrared. The spectrum allowed scientists to pick out not only helium’s signature but the position and speed of the element’s atoms within HAT-P-11b’s upper atmosphere. “This is a really exciting discovery, particularly as helium was only detected in exoplanet atmospheres for the first time earlier this year,” Jessica Spake, study author and Ph.D. student in the University of Exeter’s Physics and Astronomy Department, said in a statement. “The observations show helium being blasted away from the planet by radiation from its host star. Hopefully we can use this new study to learn what types of planets have large envelopes of hydrogen and helium, and how long they can hold the gases in their atmospheres.” Spake also led the first pioneering detection of helium on WASP-107b this year. So why is Hat-P-11b balloon-like? The planet’s close distance to its star seems to be the main culprit. “We suspected that this proximity with the star could impact the atmosphere of this exoplanet,” said Romain Allart, first author on the study and Ph.D. student at the University of Geneva. “The new observations are so precise that the exoplanet atmosphere is [undoubtedly] inflated by the stellar radiation and escapes to space.” The research team believes that this detection, combined with the other one from earlier in the year, will open up a new way to observe the extreme atmospheres of some of the hottest exoplanets — and that these observations can be done using ground-based telescopes outfitted with innovative instruments. “These are exciting times for the search of atmospheric signatures in exoplanets,” said Christophe Lovis in a statement. Lovis is the study’s co-author and a senior lecturer at the University of Geneva. “This result will enhance the interest of the scientific community for these instruments. Their number and their geographical distribution will allow us to cover the entire sky, in search for evaporating exoplanets.”[SEP]Although helium is a rare element on Earth, it is ubiquitous in the Universe. It is, after hydrogen, the main component of stars and gaseous giant planets. Despite its abundance, helium was only detected recently in the atmosphere of a gaseous giant by an international team including astronomers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland. The team, this time led by Genevan researchers, has observed in detail and for the first time how this gas escapes from the overheated atmosphere of an exoplanet, literally inflated with helium. The results are published in Science. Helium is the second most abundant element in the Universe. Predicted since 2000 as one of the best possible tracers of the atmospheres of exoplanets, these planets orbiting around other stars than the Sun, it took astronomers 18 years to actually detect it. It was hard to spot due to the very peculiar observational signature of helium, located in the infrared, out of range for most of the instruments used previously. The discovery occurred earlier this year, thanks to Hubble Space Telescope observations, which proved difficult to interpret. Team members from UNIGE, members of the National Centre for Competence in Research PlanetS, had the idea of pointing another telescope equipped with a brand-new instrument - a spectrograph called Carmenes. A spectrograph decomposes the light of a star into its component colours, like a rainbow. The "resolution" of a spectrograph is a measure indicating the number of colours that can be revealed. While the human eye cannot distinguish any colour beyond red without an adapted camera, the infrared eye of Hubble is capable of identifying hundreds of colours there. This proved sufficient to identify the coloured signature of helium. The instrument Carmenes, installed on the 4-metre telescope at the observatory of Calar Alto in Andalusia, Spain, is capable to identify more than 100'000 colours in the infrared! This high spectral resolution allowed the team to observe the position and speed of helium atoms in the upper atmosphere of a gaseous Neptune-size exoplanet, 4 times larger than the Earth. Located in the Cygnus (the Swan) constellation, 124 light-years from home, HAT-P-11b is a "warm Neptune" (a decent 550°C!), twenty times closer to its star than the Earth from the Sun. "We suspected that this proximity with the star could impact the atmosphere of this exoplanet" says Romain Allart, PhD student at UNIGE and first author of the study. "The new observations are so precise that the exoplanet atmosphere is undoubtedly inflated by the stellar radiation and escapes to space", he adds. These observations are supported by numerical simulation, led by Vincent Bourrier, co-author of the study and member of the European project FOUR ACES*. Thanks to the simulation, it is possible to track the trajectory of helium atoms: "helium is blown away from the day side of the planet to its night side at over 10'000 km/h", Vincent Bourrier explains. "Because it is such a light gas, it escapes easily from the attraction of the planet and forms an extended cloud all around it". This gives HAT-P-11b the shape of a helium-inflated balloon. This result opens a new window to observe the extreme atmospheric conditions prevailing in the hottest exoplanets. The Carmenes observations demonstrate that such studies, long thought feasible only from space, can be achieved with greater precision by ground-based telescopes equipped with the right kind of instruments. "These are exciting times for the search of atmospheric signatures in exoplanets", says Christophe Lovis, senior lecturer at UNIGE and co-author of the study. In fact, UNIGE astronomers are also heavily involved in the design and exploitation of two new high-resolution infrared spectrographs, similar to Carmenes. One of them, called SPIRou, has just started an observational campaign from Hawaii, while the UNIGE Department of astronomy houses the first tests of the Near Infrared Planet Searcher (NIRPS), which will be installed in Chile at the end of 2019. "This result will enhance the interest of the scientific community for these instruments. Their number and their geographical distribution will allow us to cover the entire sky, in search for evaporating exoplanets", concludes Lovis. *FOUR ACES, Future of Upper Atmospheric Characterisation of Exoplanets with Spectroscopy, is a project funded by a Consolidator grant of the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions's 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement n°724427).[SEP]A distant planet the size of Neptune has been discovered about 124 light years away from Earth by a team of astronomers. The international research team, led by the University of Geneva, say the planet has an atmosphere filled with helium. This has caused the planet to swell to the shape of a balloon. The inert gas was detected leaking from the planet’s atmosphere in the same way as ‘a helium balloon might escape from a person’s hand’. Dr Jessica Spake, from the University of Exeter’s physics and astronomy department, said: ‘This is a really exciting discovery, particularly as helium was only detected in exoplanet atmospheres for the first time earlier this year. ‘The observations show helium being blasted away from the planet by radiation from its host star. Hopefully we can use this new study to learn what types of planets have large envelopes of hydrogen and helium, and how long they can hold the gases in their atmospheres.’ The planet has been named HAT-P-11b and is in the Cygnus constellation. As part of the study, researchers used a spectrograph in Spain to measure how much light the planet blocked from its host star when it passed in front of it. The instrument then pulled apart the star’s light into its component colours, like a rainbow. As helium absorbs light of a specific wavelength, the researchers detected a large cloud of the gas surrounding the planet blocking out much more light than the planet itself. Computer simulations were used to track the trajectory of the helium atoms. Vincent Bourrier, who led the computer simulation, said: ‘Helium is blown away from the day side of the planet to its night side at over 10,000kph. ‘Because it is such a light gas, it escapes easily from the attraction of the planet and forms an extended cloud all around it.’ It is this phenomenon that gives it the balloon shape. The planet’s upper atmosphere is 20 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun. Romain Allart, a University of Geneva PhD student and first author of the study, said: ‘We suspected that this proximity with the star could impact the atmosphere of this exoplanet. ‘The new observations are so precise that the exoplanet atmosphere is undoubtedly inflated by the stellar radiation and escapes to space.’ The research team believe the study could lead to a greater understanding of extreme atmospheric conditions around the hottest exoplanets. Helium was only successfully found in the atmosphere of an exoplanet earlier this year in a study led by University of Exeter researchers.[SEP]To detect the atmosphere of the giant exoplanet WASP-69b, the scientists used the CARMENES instrument, which is installed on the 3.5-meter telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory (located in Almería, Spain). This spectrograph simultaneously covers the visible wavelength range and the near-infrared at high spectral resolution. This has made it possible to reveal the composition of the atmosphere of this exoplanet and to draw conclusions about the speed of the helium particles that leave the gravitational field of the planet and the length of the tail they produce. The planet was observed during a transit, when it passed in front of its host star. During this event, the planet and its atmosphere eclipse part of the starlight. "We observed a stronger and longer-lasting dimming of the starlight in a region of the spectrum where helium gas absorbs light," says Lisa Nortmann, a researcher at the IAC and lead author of the article published today in the journal Science. "The longer duration of this absorption allows us to infer the presence of a tail," she adds. But this is not the only result described in the article. The authors have also analyzed four other planets in a similar way. These are the hot exoplanets HD 189733b and HD 209458b, which have a mass similar to that of Jupiter, the extremely hot giant planet KELT-9b and the warm Neptune-sized exoplanet GJ 436b. The analysis does not show extensive helium exospheres around the last three planets, which defies previous theoretical predictions. The hot Jupiter HD 189733b, on the other hand, does reveal a clear signal of absorbing helium, although here, the helium envelope is more compact and does not form a tail. The team also investigated the host stars of the five exoplanets using data from the European Space Agency's Multi-Mirror X-Ray Mission (ESA XMM-Newton). They detected helium in the atmospheres of those planets that receive the largest amount of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet radiation from their host stars. "This is a first big step toward finding out how exoplanet atmospheres evolve over time, and what the distribution of masses and radii of the observed population of super-Earth and mini-Neptune planets could result from," says Enric Pallé, IAC researcher and co-author of the publication. The results of such studies could confirm that extreme radiation from the host star can strip the gaseous envelope of giant planets (similar to Jupiter or Neptune) and turn them into rocky planets with densities similar to Venus or Earth. "In the past, studies of atmospheric escape, like the one we have seen in WASP-69b, were based on space-borne observations of hydrogen in the far ultraviolet, a spectral region of very limited access and strongly affected by interstellar absorption," says Michael Salz, a researcher at the University of Hamburg and first author of a companion publication by the same team, which focuses on the details of the detection in HD 189733b to be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. "Our results show that helium is a very promising new tracer to study atmospheric escape in exoplanets." This new line of research will enable the community of researchers specializing in characterization of exoplanet atmospheres to compare the evaporation processes in a large sample of planets and answer questions such as whether planets with ultra-short orbital periods are actually the evaporated nuclei of ancient hot Jupiters. The CARMENES instrument was developed by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions, including the IAC. It was designed to search for terrestrial type planets in the habitable zone of M-stars, the region around a star where conditions allow the existence of liquid water. The results published today demonstrate the ability of the instrument to contribute significantly to the exoplanet atmosphere research field. Explore further: Helium detected in exoplanet atmosphere for the first time More information: L. Nortmann el al., "Ground-based detection of an extended helium atmosphere in the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-69b," Science (2018). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/ … 1126/science.aat5348[SEP]The gas tail is made up of helium particles that escape the planet's atmosphere and streak out into space. Astronomers studying a famous exoplanet that goes by the name of WASP-69b have stumbled upon a peculiar find. It seems that the massive exoplanet, a gas giant first sighted in 2014, is sporting a comet-like tail composed of helium particles that originated in its own atmosphere, reports Phys.org. This puzzling discovery was made by scientists from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in the Canary Islands, Spain, who scoped out the planet’s atmosphere with the help of the 3.5-meter telescope stationed at the Calar Alto Observatory in Almeria. The scientists used the telescope’s CARMENES instrument to take a good look at WASP-69b and found out that the exoplanet is losing helium gas, which is agitated by the radiation coming from its parent star and breaking through the planet’s gravitational field. In a paper published today in the journal Science, the team argued that this strange occurrence is due to a phenomenon called atmospheric escape, in which gas particles from a planet’s atmosphere leak into outer space. A similar thing is happening to Earth’s atmosphere as well, the Inquisitr recently reported, and an orbital mission is gearing up to launch later this month to study the phenomenon in depth. According to NASA, WASP-69b weighs slightly more than Jupiter and circles its parent star once every 3.9 days. The IAC team observed the exoplanet while it was passing in front of its star. This passage is also known as transit and normally causes the starlight to dim, which typically leads to new exoplanet discoveries via what astronomers call the transit method. As expected, WASP-69b blocked the star’s light during transit. While this is nothing out of the ordinary, the revelation came once the team noticed that the starlight was blocked at specific wavelengths of the spectrum associated with helium absorption. “We observed a stronger and longer-lasting dimming of the starlight in a region of the spectrum where helium gas absorbs light,” said IAC astronomer Lisa Nortmann, who led the research. Since CARMENES is capable of seeing both visible and near-infrared light simultaneously and at high resolution, the observations enabled the team to determine the composition of the exoplanet’s atmosphere. At the same time, the astronomers were able to infer the speed of the helium particles that were escaping the planet’s gravity and to estimate the length of the gas trail left behind. The video below, released by IAC earlier today, shows a simulation of WASP-69b in transit around its star, displaying the comet-like tail of helium particles that trail behind it. The case of WASP-69b was measured up against those of four other exoplanets: two hot Jupiters, HD 189733b and HD 209458b; a hot Neptune called GJ 436b; and the hottest planet ever discovered, the ultrahot Jupiter KELT-9b. As the Inquisitr previously reported, KELT-9b was found in 2017 and has smoldering surface temperatures of up to 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, HD 189733b is the first exoplanet whose transit was sighted in X-rays, notes NASA, whereas HD 209458b is the first alien world whose atmosphere was detected by Earth-bound scientists. After comparing the transits of all five exoplanets, Nortmann’s team uncovered traces of helium in the atmospheres of the planets most battered by X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation coming from their parent stars. However, the analysis showed that only WASP-69b and HD 189733b exhibited “a clear signal of absorbing helium” — although, in the case of HD 189733b, “the helium envelope is more compact and does not form a tail,” explains the IAC. The findings suggest that it could be possible for highly active stars to strip gas giants, such as Jupiter and Neptune, of their gaseous envelope, turning them into rocky worlds with the same kind of density as Venus or Earth. By extrapolation, it might also be feasible for planets with ultra-short orbital periods, that are nestled very close to their parent stars, to actually be the evaporated nuclei of ancient hot Jupiters. “In the past, studies of atmospheric escape, like the one we have seen in WASP-69b, were based on space-borne observations of hydrogen in the far ultraviolet, a spectral region of very limited access and strongly affected by interstellar absorption,” said study co-author Michael Salz, a researcher at the University of Hamburg. “Our results show that helium is a very promising new tracer to study atmospheric escape in exoplanets.” A separate study focusing on the discovery regarding HD 189733b is due for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.[SEP]Within these rainbows of light, or spectra, are the signatures of the elements. Helium's spectral signature is particularly susceptible to absorption by the environment that exists in the gulf between stars. Because of this, the element was only discovered for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet last year by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Scientists from the University of Geneva announce that a previously-known Neptune-sized exoplanet, HAT-P-11b, has a slowly-escaping helium atmosphere.

Image copyright CNSA Image caption Artwork: The Chang'e-4 rover will explore a huge impact basin on the far side China has launched the first mission to land a robotic craft on the far side of the Moon, Chinese media say. The Chang'e-4 mission will see a static lander and rover touch down in Von Kármán crater, located on the side of the Moon which never faces Earth. The payload blasted off atop a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The mission will pave the way for the country to deliver samples of Moon rock and soil to Earth. The landing will not occur until early January, when the probe will descend on thrusters and touch down on the rugged terrain of the lunar far side. Von Kármán crater is of interest to scientists because it is located within the oldest and largest impact feature on the Moon - the South Pole-Aitken Basin. This was probably formed by a giant asteroid impact billions of years ago. The landers will characterise the region's geology and the composition of rock and soil. Because of a phenomenon called "tidal locking", we see only one "face" of the Moon from Earth. This is because the Moon takes just as long to rotate on its own axis as it takes to complete one orbit of Earth. Though often referred to as the "dark side", this face of the Moon is also illuminated by the Sun and has the same phases as the near side; "dark" in this context simply means "unseen". Image copyright NASA Image caption The lunar far side has a thicker crust and is more heavily cratered than the near side The far side looks rather different to the more familiar near side. It has a thicker, older crust that is pocked with more craters. There are also few of the "mare" - dark basaltic "seas" created by lava flows - that are evident on the near side. The powerful impact that created the South Pole Aitken Basin may have punched through the crust down to the Moon's mantle layer. Chang'e-4's instruments could examine whether this was the case, shedding light on the early history of our only natural satellite. Seed experiment The mission will also characterise the "radio environment" on the far side, a test designed to lay the groundwork for the creation of future radio astronomy telescopes on the far side, which is shielded from the radio noise of Earth. The static lander will carry a 3kg (6.6lb) container with potato and arabidopsis plant seeds to perform a biological experiment. The "lunar mini biosphere" experiment was designed by 28 Chinese universities. "We want to study the respiration of the seeds and the photosynthesis on the Moon," Liu Hanlong, chief director of the experiment and vice president of Chongqing University, told the state-run Xinhua news agency earlier this year. Image copyright CNSA Image caption China's Yutu rover, part of the Chang'e-3 mission, explored the Moon in 2013 Xie Gengxin, chief designer of the experiment, told Xinhua: "We have to keep the temperature in the 'mini biosphere' within a range from 1 degree to 30 degrees, and properly control the humidity and nutrition. We will use a tube to direct the natural light on the surface of Moon into the tin to make the plants grow." Because the landers on the far side have no line of sight with our planet, they must send data back via a relay satellite named Queqiao, launched by China in May this year. The probe's design is based on that of its predecessor, Chang'e-3, which deployed landing craft to the Moon's Mare Imbrium region in 2013. However, it has some important modifications. China's lunar ambitions The lander is carrying two cameras; a German-built radiation experiment called LND; and a spectrometer that will perform the low-frequency radio astronomy observations. The rover will carry a panoramic camera; a radar to probe beneath the lunar surface; an imaging spectrometer to identify minerals; and an experiment to examine the interaction of the solar wind (a stream of energised particles from the Sun) with the lunar surface. The mission is part of a larger Chinese programme of lunar exploration. The first and second Chang'e missions were designed to gather data from orbit, while the third and fourth were built for surface operations. Chang'e-5 and 6 are sample return missions, delivering lunar rock and soil to laboratories on Earth. Follow Paul on Twitter.[SEP]China plans to launch a spacecraft to the far side of the moon this month. The Chang’e-4 spacecraft is scheduled to take off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan on December 8 carrying a lander and rover, which will touch down on the lunar surface. No spacecraft has ever touched down on the surface of the moon’s far side. The mission is to explore and study the crater-marked far side of the moon, conducting the first radio astronomy experiments from that region, reports Scientific American. Chang’e-4 is the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) latest move in its lunar aspirations. In 2013, Chang’e-3 performed a “soft” landing on the surface. In the years that followed, CNAS announced its plan to build a moon base, launching a satellite to relay communications from the lander on the lunar surface to Earth, circumventing the moon’s mass. If the touchdown is successful for the Chang’e-4 rover, it will be tasked with mapping the area around its landing site. Equipped with a ground-penetrating radar, the rover will measure the subsurface layers. A near and infrared spectrometer will allow it to measure the mineral makeup of the lunar soil. These measurements may help geologists better understand the geological dynamics of the moon’s evolution. The CNSA has not made Chang’e-4’s landing site public, though Zongcheng Ling, a planetary scientist at Shandong University and member of the mission team, told Scientific American that the most probable location is Von Kármán, a more than 115-mile wide crater. Part of Chang’e-4 mission is in preparation for future crewed missions and the CNAS’s desired moon base. Among its experiments will be one to study whether certain seeds sprout and photosynthesize in a controlled environment on the moon’s low-gravity surface. “When we take the step towards long-term human habitation on the Moon or Mars, we will need greenhouse facilities to support us, and will need to live in something like a biosphere,” Anna-Lisa Paul, a horticultural scientist at the University of Florida, told Scientific American. This specific experiment will aim to verify studies conducted no the International Space Station, which determined that potato and thale-cress grow normally in controlled low-gravity environments but not in environments with gravity as low as the moon’s. The CNAS has another mission, Chang’e-5, slated to launch in 2019. Chang’e-5’s mission will be to bring back samples collected by the rover.[SEP]The suite of instruments on the rover and the lander include cameras, ground-penetrating radar and spectrometers to help identify the composition of rocks and dirt in the area. And China's space agency has collaborated with other countries. One instrument was developed at Kiel University in Germany; another was provided by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. The instruments will probe the structure of the rocks beneath the spacecraft, study the effects of the solar wind striking the lunar surface. Chang'e-4 will also test the ability of making radio astronomy observations from the far side of the moon, without the effects of noise and interference from Earth. According to the Xinhua News Agency, Chang'e-4 is also carrying an intriguing biology experiment to see if plant seeds will germinate and silkworm eggs will hatch in the moon's low gravity. How will the spacecraft communicate with Earth? Because the moon blocks radio signals from our planet, the Chinese launched a satellite, called Queqiao, in May.It is circling high over the far side of the moon, and will relay messages between Earth and the Chang'e-4 lander. How do I watch the launch? There has been no announcement of live coverage of the launch. If The New York Times learns of a live video stream from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China, it will be posted to nytimes.com before the launch. When will Chang'e-4 land on the moon? China's space agency has not announced a landing date, though some expect that will be the first week of January, when the sun will be shining over the far side of the moon, an important consideration because Chang'e-4 is solar-powered. Zhang Xiaoping, an associate professor from Space Science Institute/Lunar and Planetary Science Laboratory of Macau University of Science and Technology, said that the spacecraft would follow the Chang'e-3's trajectory. That means it would arrive in three to five days and then orbit the moon for several days (13 in the case of Chang'e-3) while preparing for the landing, he said. Wait, I thought the far side of the moon was dark. The far side is not dark all of the time. The first new moon of 2019 is Jan. 6. That's when you cannot see the moon because the dark side — the side that is in shadow facing away from the sun — is facing Earth. And when the near side of the moon is dark, the far side is awash in bright sunshine. Why is China so secretive about all of this? Chinese officials have talked about Chang'e-4 in public, but their interactions with journalists more resemble the carefully managed strategy used by the Soviet program during the Cold War rather than the more open publicity by NASA and many other space agencies. That way, the Chinese, like the Soviets, could boast about the successes and downplay any failures. What does Chang'e mean? In Chinese mythology, Chang'e is the goddess of the moon. Other missions have been named after her, too. Chang'e-1 and 2 went into orbit around the moon but did not land. Chang'e-1 was launched in 2007. Chang'e-2 followed in 2010. The next step in China's moon program is for the Chang'e-5 robotic spacecraft to land on the moon and then bring rock samples back to Earth for additional study. Chang'e-5 was supposed to head to the moon before Chang'e-4, but a launch failure of the large Chinese rocket needed to carry it to space delayed the mission until at least 2019. Who else is planning to go to the moon? Next year, the Indian government is planning to launch a mission, Chandrayaan-2, that includes an orbiter, a lander and a rover. SpaceIL, an Israeli team that was a finalist in the Google Lunar X Prize, is also still aiming to send a robotic lander to the moon early next year, even though the $20 million (U.S.) prize has expired. NASA announced last week that nine companies will compete for robotic missions to carry science experiments to the moon. The space agency said the first of those could go as early as 2019, but most of the companies said they would not be ready until 2021. Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, has praised the Chang'e-4 mission as exciting, and at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany in October, talked of possible collaboration with the Chinese space agency. Federal laws limit any NASA interaction with the Chinese.[SEP]China used a Long March 3B rocket to launch the lunar mission into space at the southwestern Xichang satellite launch centre early Saturday, according to Xinhua News Agency. The craft, Chang'e 4, is named after the Chinese goddess of the moon; it features a lunar station and a lunar rover. The launch was made possible due to state moon research funding provided by the China National Space Administration, which will enable the Asian state to rapidly expand its space capacities. READ MORE: China May Be World's First Country to Deliver Space Probe to Far Side of Moon Two years prior to the recent launch, China's Chang'e 3 craft landed successfully on the moon. The new rover resembles its predecessor but, according to developers, is the lightest robotic vehicle in its class. The model was further developed because the terrain of the far side of the Moon is much more complex.[SEP]China is heading to an unknown lunar landscape. If all goes to plan, it will become the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. The Chang’e 4 mission, which includes both a lander and a rover, is scheduled to take off today at 1830 GMT from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is yet to announce a specific landing date. The mission’s main task is to land on the far side of the moon, which never faces us because the moon and Earth are tidally locked by gravity. Previous lunar probes have only studied this side from orbit. “We will get a close-up look of the far side of the moon,” says Clive Neal at University of Notre Dame, who is not involved in the mission. Getting a good view of the craters on its surface could teach us much more about the history of the solar system, he says. The mission is much harder than landing on the moon’s near side, because all signals from Earth will be blocked by the moon, making it impossible to control the lander directly. To address the problem, CNSA launched a satellite, Queqiao, in May this year. Queqiao is now at a spot in space known as L2, where the Earth and moon’s gravitational pull perfectly balances out. This gives it line of sight to both stations on the ground and the lander, so it can signal back and forth once Chang’e 4 reaches the moon. But there is one perk of being inaccessible from Earth: the far side of the moon is free from radio wave pollution from our TVs and power lines. CNSA researchers hope that studying this region will prepare them to send a radio telescope to the far side of the moon, where it could pick up weak radio signals from space. “They are hoping to make some maps of this radio-dark sky for the first time,” says Matthew Siegler at the Planetary Science Institute in Texas who is also not involved. Chang’e 4 will also act as a test-bed for other future endeavours on the moon, including potential colonisation. The lander is carrying a box containing water, oxygen and nutrients alongside potato seeds and silkworm eggs. The plan is to see if these organisms can thrive in a contained environment on the moon.[SEP]China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing BEIJING: China launched a rover early Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing´s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said. The Chang´e-4 lunar probe mission -- named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology -- launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency. The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang´e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain. "Chang´e-4 is humanity´s first probe to land on and explore the far side of the moon," said the mission´s chief commander He Rongwei of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the main state-owned space contractor. "This mission is also the most meaningful deep space exploration research project in the world in 2018," he said, according to state-run Global Times. Unlike the near side of the moon that is "tidally locked" and always faces the earth, and offers many flat areas to touch down on, the far side is mountainous and rugged. It was not until 1959 that the Soviet Union captured the first images of the heavily cratered surface, uncloaking some of the mystery of the moon´s "dark side". No lander or rover has ever touched the surface there, positioning China as the first nation to explore the area. "China over the past 10 or 20 years has been systematically ticking off the various firsts that America and the Soviet Union did in the 1960s and 1970s in space exploration," said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "This is one of the first times they´ve done something that no one else has done before." It is no easy technological feat -- China has been preparing for this moment for years. A major challenge for such a mission is communicating with the robotic lander: as the far side of the moon always points away from earth, there is no direct "line of sight" for signals. As a solution, China in May blasted the Queqiao ("Magpie Bridge") satellite into the moon´s orbit, positioning it so that it can relay data and commands between the lander and earth. Adding to the difficulties, Chang´e-4 is being sent to the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole region -- known for its craggy and complex terrain -- state media has said. The probe is carrying six experiments from China and four from abroad. They include low-frequency radio astronomical studies -- aiming to take advantage of the lack of interference on the far side -- as well as mineral and radiation tests, Xinhua cited the China National Space Administration as saying. The experiments also involve planting potato and other seeds, according to Chinese media reports. Beijing is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022, and of eventually sending humans to the moon. The Chang´e 4 mission is a step in that direction, significant for the engineering expertise needed to explore and settle the moon, McDowell said. "The main thing about this mission is not science, this is a technology mission," he said. Chang´e-4 will be the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu ("Jade Rabbit") rover mission in 2013. Once on the moon´s surface, the rover faces an array of extreme challenges. During the lunar night -- which lasts 14 earth days -- temperatures will drop as low as minus 173 degrees Celsius (minus 279 Fahrenheit). During the lunar day, also lasting 14 earth days, temperatures soar as high as 127 C (261 F). The rover´s instruments must withstand those fluctuations and it must generate enough energy to sustain it during the long night. Yutu conquered those challenges and, after initial setbacks, ultimately surveyed the moon´s surface for 31 months. Its success provided a major boost to China´s space programme. Beijing is planning to send another lunar lander, Chang´e-5, next year to collect samples and bring them back to earth. It is among a slew of ambitious Chinese targets, which include a reusable launcher by 2021, a super-powerful rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a moon base, a permanently crewed space station, and a Mars rover. "Our country´s successful lunar exploration project not only vaults us to the top of the world´s space power ranks, it also allows the exploration of the far side of the moon," said Niu Min, an expert on China´s space programme. The project, he said in an interview with local website Netease, "greatly inspires everyone´s national pride and self-confidence".[SEP]China seems to be planning to send a spacecraft to the far side of the Moon this month. The Chang'e-4 spacecraft is slated for a December 8 take off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. The spacecraft will be carrying a lander and a rover, that is said to touch down the surface on the lunar surface. No spacecraft has ever touched down on the surface of the moon's far side. The lander and rover will be exploring and study the crater-marker far side of the Moon. The mission also includes the first radio astronomy experiments, reported Scientific American. Chang'e-4 is the China National Space Administration's (CNSA) new move to fulfill its lunar aspirations. Back in 2013, the Chang'e-3 landed on the surface, which was followed by the announcement of a moon base. If the new Chang'e-4 rover manages to successfully land on the surface, it will map the area around its landing site. The rover will measure the subsurface layer leveraging its ground-penetrating radar. The CNSA hasn't revealed the landing site of the rover, though Zongcheng Ling, a planetary scientist at Shandong University, told Scientific American that the rover is most likely to land in Von Kármán, a 115-wide crater. The Chang'e-4 is also assigned to prepare for future crewed missions and the CNAS's desired moon base. The rover will also study the growth of certain seeds sprout in a controlled on the moon's low-gravity surface. "When we take the step towards long-term human habitation on the Moon or Mars, we will need greenhouse facilities to support us, and will need to live in something like a biosphere," Anna-Lisa Paul, a horticultural scientist at the University of Florida, told Scientific American. Besides, the CNAS is also planning to launch the Chang'e-5 next year. The rover will be sent to collect and bring back the samples to Earth.[SEP]Beijing: China launched a rover early on Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said. The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain. “Chang’e-4 is humanity’s first probe to land on and explore the far side of the moon,” said the mission’s chief commander He Rongwei of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the main state-owned space contractor. “This mission is also the most meaningful deep space exploration research project in the world in 2018,” He said, according to state-run Global Times. Unlike the near side of the moon that is “tidally locked” and always faces the earth, and offers many flat areas to touch down on, the far side is mountainous and rugged. It was not until 1959 that the Soviet Union captured the first images of the heavily cratered surface, uncloaking some of the mystery of the moon’s “dark side.” No lander or rover has ever touched the surface there, positioning China as the first nation to explore the area. “China over the past 10 or 20 years has been systematically ticking off the various firsts that America and the Soviet Union did in the 1960s and 1970s in space exploration,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “This is one of the first times they’ve done something that no one else has done before.” It is no easy technological feat — China has been preparing for this moment for years. A major challenge for such a mission is communicating with the robotic lander: as the far side of the moon always points away from earth, there is no direct “line of sight” for signals. As a solution, China in May blasted the Queqiao (“Magpie Bridge”) satellite into the moon’s orbit, positioning it so that it can relay data and commands between the lander and earth. Adding to the difficulties, Chang’e-4 is being sent to the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole region — known for its craggy and complex terrain — state media has said. The probe is carrying six experiments from China and four from abroad. They include low-frequency radio astronomical studies — aiming to take advantage of the lack of interference on the far side — as well as mineral and radiation tests, Xinhua cited the China National Space Administration as saying. The experiments also involve planting potato and other seeds, according to Chinese media reports. — AFP[SEP]Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BEIJING: China launched a rover early yesterday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said. The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2.23am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency. The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain. “Chang’e-4 is humanity’s first probe to land on and explore the far side of the moon,” said the mission’s chief commander He Rongwei of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the main state-owned space contractor. “This mission is also the most meaningful deep space exploration research project in the world in 2018,” He said, according to state-run Global Times. Unlike the near side of the moon that is “tidally locked” and always faces the earth, and offers many flat areas to touch down on, the far side is mountainous and rugged. It was not until 1959 that the Soviet Union captured the first images of the heavily cratered surface, uncloaking some of the mystery of the moon’s “dark side”. No lander or rover has ever touched the surface there, positioning China as the first nation to explore the area. “China over the past 10 or 20 years has been systematically ticking off the various firsts that America and the Soviet Union did in the 1960s and 1970s in space exploration,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “This is one of the first times they’ve done something that no one else has done before.” It is no easy technological feat – China has been preparing for this moment for years. A major challenge for such a mission is communicating with the robotic lander: as the far side of the moon always points away from earth, there is no direct “line of sight” for signals. As a solution, China in May blasted the Queqiao (Magpie Bridge) satellite into the moon’s orbit, positioning it so that it can relay data and commands between the lander and earth. Adding to the difficulties, Chang’e-4 is being sent to the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole region – known for its craggy and complex terrain – state media has said. The probe is carrying six experiments from China and four from abroad. They include low-frequency radio astronomical studies – aiming to take advantage of the lack of interference on the far side – as well as mineral and radiation tests, Xinhua cited the China National Space Administration as saying. The experiments also involve planting potato and other seeds, according to Chinese media reports. Beijing is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022, and of eventually sending humans to the moon. The Chang’e 4 mission is a step in that direction, significant for the engineering expertise needed to explore and settle the moon, McDowell said. “The main thing about this mission is not science, this is a technology mission,” he said. Chang’e-4 will be the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu (Jade Rabbit) rover mission in 2013. — AFP[SEP]China is set to launch the world's first mission to the far side of the moon. Its Chang'e 4 robotic spacecraft is scheduled to lift off Friday at around 1:30 p.m. ET (2:30 a.m. in China, on Saturday, Dec. 8), Space.com reported. The spacecraft will launch atop a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Plans call for Chang'e 4, which carries both a lander and a lunar rover, to touch down on the moon in early January. "Anything we land on the moon is significant, but this one is especially so," David Paige, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said of the mission. It is a successor to China's Chang'e 3 mission, which successfully placed a lander and rover on the moon's Earth-facing side in 2013. Chang'e 4's planned landing site lies within the South Pole-Aitken basin. The sprawling basin, which is 8 miles deep and more than 1,500 miles across, is one of the moon's largest and oldest impact craters. "This crater has the potential to tell us something about the creation of the Earth and moon system — how the moon formed, as well as how the early solar system evolved," Paige said. "Understanding exactly when this basin formed and how it relates to other lunar impact basins is key." The lander and rover are each equipped with cameras. The rover also sports a ground-penetrating radar instrument designed to help scientists gain an understanding of the moon’s geological history as well as a spectrometer to study its chemical composition. Chang’e 4 won't be returning any moon rocks to Earth, but a successor mission planned for 2019, Chang'e 5, will. This would be the first time that materials from the moon have been brought back to Earth since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 mission in 1976. "These missions are taking place in rapid succession, and that also demonstrates the resolve of this program to move forward toward the eventual goal of putting Chinese astronauts on the lunar surface," Bradley Jolliff, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, told NBC News MACH in an email. China has also announced plans to launch a rover to Mars in 2020, as well as additional crewed missions to low-Earth orbit. China had been constructing its own space station, Tiangong-2. But a rocket glitch in July 2017 derailed the effort, and China is now planning to de-orbit the 8.6-ton space lab next summer, Space News reported. In April, China's defunct Tiangong-1 space station plummeted through Earth's atmosphere and burned up over the Pacific Ocean. China, the U.S. and Russia are the only nations to have successfully landed spacecraft on the moon. Want more stories about the moon? • Scientists discover water ice on moon's surface. Here's why that's big news.

The China National Space Administration successfully launches Chang'e 4 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center which will attempt the first ever robotic landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019.

ROME: - Six people were killed and about 60 people were hospitalised after stampede at a rap concert in a nightclub near the city of Ancona in eastern Italy, a fire department spokesperson told Sputnik on Saturday. Earlier in the day, the Repubblica newspaper reported that six people had been killed and around 120 injured in the incident. “Our work on the scene was completed, we helped the victims to leave the building. Death toll at the moment is six. Now there are law enforcement officers who find out the causes of the incident. We were told that about 60 people had been taken to hospitals,” the spokesperson said.–Sputnik He repeated an earlier reported version of the incident, according to which the panic and stampede at the concert had been triggered by someone using pepper spray during the event. Earlier, local police chief Oreste Capocasa said that about 35 people had been injured in the incident, including 12 in serious condition. Lives of some of those injured were in danger, he added.[SEP]Italian police investigating a deadly disco stampede said they have found a pepper spray can and were questioning dozens of witnesses following accounts of a teenage boy spraying an irritating substance, triggering a rush by the crowd to flee. It is not known if the can found was the one whose spray apparently set off the stampede at around 1am on Saturday among a crowd awaiting a rapper’s performance in the Lanterna Azzurra (Blue Lantern) disco in Corinaldo, a small town in the Marche region of east-central Italy, Police Colonel Cristian Carrozza of the Ancona Carabinieri told reporters. He also declined to confirm Italian media reports that a 16-year-old boy had been identified as the sprayer and would be questioned by juvenile court officials. Five teenagers, all minors, and a woman who had accompanied her 11-year-old daughter to the concert, died in the crush as fleeing concertgoers toppled over a railing at the top of a 1.5m (4.9ft) cement ramp outside an exit. The railing gave way, sending young people tumbling over it and landing on top of each other below. On Saturday, prosecutors and Italy’s premier and interior minister told reporters that nearly 1,400 tickets had been sold, while the disco could safely hold only 870 people, and the capacity of the concert room was about 460. On Sunday, Carrozza said a count of ticket stubs indicated that about 600 tickets had been used for entry. It was unclear if other people might have got in without having tickets checked by disco personnel. One of the DJs, Marco Cecchini, told reporters he was sure that more than just one room of the disco was open, in addition to the one with the 460-person capacity. “I’ve done 40-50 evenings in that place, and, sincerely, there weren’t so many people. I’d estimate maybe 800-900 people, but all the rooms were open,” the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Cecchini, who is the son of one of the disco’s managers, as saying. Several parents whose children had gone to the concert on Saturday brought police mobile phones to show videos of the disco’s premises in case the images could help in the investigation, ANSA said. Many parents and patrons have said the disco was jam-packed. Carrozza said that on Saturday, police had taken accounts from more than 80 people, and many more concertgoers were being questioned on Sunday. Seven of the more than 50 people injured in the stampede remained in a critical condition on Sunday while the remaining patients had either already been discharged or were about to be discharged after their condition had improved, doctors said. Meanwhile, interior minister Matteo Salvini has insisted that safety codes for public places should be rigorously respected, and police overnight shut down two discos in the south, near the port city of Salerno, for apparent overcrowding.[SEP]ROME — Italian police investigating a deadly disco stampede said Sunday they found a pepper spray can and were questioning dozens of witnesses following accounts by concertgoers that a teenage boy had sprayed an irritating substance, triggering the mad rush by the crowd to flee. It wasn't known if the can found was the one whose spray apparently set off the stampede about 1 a.m. Saturday in a crowd awaiting a rapper's performance in the Lanterna Azzurra (Blue Lantern) disco in Corinaldo, a small town in the Marche region of east-central Italy, the Carabiniere paramilitary police commander of Ancona province, Col. Cristian Carrozza, told reporters. He also declined to confirm Italian media reports that a 16-year-old boy had been identified as the sprayer and would be questioned by juvenile court officials. Five teens, all juveniles, and a woman who had accompanied her 11-year-old daughter to the concert, died in the crush of fleeing concertgoers who toppled over a railing atop a cement ramp outside an exit. The railing gave way, sending young people tumbling over it and landing atop of each other in the area below the ramp, about 5 feet below. On Saturday, prosecutors and Italy's premier and interior minister told reporters that nearly 1,400 tickets had been sold, while the disco could safely hold only 870 people, with the capacity of the room of the concert itself set at about 460. On Sunday, Carrozza said a count of ticket stubs indicated that about 600 tickets were used for entry. It was unclear if others might have gotten in without having tickets checked by disco personnel. One of the DJs, Marco Cecchini, told reporters he was sure that more than just one room of the disco was open, in addition to the one with the 460-person capacity. "I've done 40-50 evenings in that place, and, sincerely, there weren't so many people. I'd estimate maybe 800-900 people, but all the rooms were open," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Cecchini, who is the son of one of the disco's managers, as saying. Several parents whose children had gone to the concert on Saturday brought police cellphones to show videos of the disco's premises in case the visuals could help in the investigation, ANSA said. Many parents and patrons have said the disco was jam-packed. Carrozza said that on Saturday police had taken accounts from more than 80 people, and many more concertgoers were being questioned on Sunday. Seven of the more than 50 people injured in the stampede remained in critical condition Sunday while the remaining patients were either already discharged or about to be discharged after their condition improved, doctors said. After Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insisted that safety codes for public places be rigorously respected, police overnight shut down two discos in the south, near the port city of Salerno, for apparent overcrowding.[SEP]Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy ROME (AP) — Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy.[SEP]ROME — Italian police investigating a deadly disco stampede said Sunday they found a pepper spray can and were questioning dozens of witnesses following accounts by concertgoers that a teenage boy had sprayed an irritating substance, triggering the mad rush by the crowd to flee. It wasn't known if the can found was the one whose spray apparently set off the stampede about 1 a.m. Saturday in a crowd awaiting a rapper's performance in the Lanterna Azzurra (Blue Lantern) disco in Corinaldo, a small town in the Marche region of east-central Italy, the Carabiniere paramilitary police commander of Ancona province, Col. Cristian Carrozza, told reporters. He also declined to confirm Italian media reports that a 16-year-old boy had been identified as the sprayer and would be questioned by juvenile court officials. Five teens, all juveniles, and a woman who had accompanied her 11-year-old daughter to the concert, died in the crush of fleeing concertgoers who toppled over a railing atop a cement ramp outside an exit. The railing gave way, sending young people tumbling over it and landing atop of each other in the area below the ramp, about 5 feet below. On Saturday, prosecutors and Italy's premier and interior minister told reporters that nearly 1,400 tickets had been sold, while the disco could safely hold only 870 people, with the capacity of the room of the concert itself set at about 460. On Sunday, Carrozza said a count of ticket stubs indicated that about 600 tickets were used for entry. It was unclear if others might have gotten in without having tickets checked by disco personnel. One of the DJs, Marco Cecchini, told reporters he was sure that more than just one room of the disco was open, in addition to the one with the 460-person capacity. "I've done 40-50 evenings in that place, and, sincerely, there weren't so many people. I'd estimate maybe 800-900 people, but all the rooms were open," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Cecchini, who is the son of one of the disco's managers, as saying. Several parents whose children had gone to the concert on Saturday brought police cellphones to show videos of the disco's premises in case the visuals could help in the investigation, ANSA said. Many parents and patrons have said the disco was jam-packed. Carrozza said that on Saturday police had taken accounts from more than 80 people, and many more concertgoers were being questioned on Sunday. Seven of the more than 50 people injured in the stampede remained in critical condition Sunday while the remaining patients were either already discharged or about to be discharged after their condition improved, doctors said. After Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insisted that safety codes for public places be rigorously respected, police overnight shut down two discos in the south, near the port city of Salerno, for apparent overcrowding.[SEP]Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy ROME (AP) — Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy.[SEP]Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy ROME (AP) — Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy.[SEP]Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy ROME (AP) — Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy.[SEP]Six people were killed and dozens injured in a stampede at a nightclub on Italy's Adriatic coast Saturday, authorities said. An Italian fire brigades official told NBC News that it is believed the stampede was the result of a panic sparked by someone using pepper spray at the venue in the town of Corinaldo. Some 800 people were at the event. A police official said a popular Italian rapper, Sfera Ebbasta, was performing at the Lanterna Azzurra nightclub Saturday night. The dead included three girls, two boys and a woman who had accompanied her daughter to the venue, police said. At least 12 people were in serious condition, police said, while another 40 sustained less serious injuries. Firefighters gave first aid to survivors, stretched out on the road outside the club, in the aftermath. A teenager told the ANSA news agency that at least one of the emergency exits was locked when he tried to flee. Ancona Firefighters Cmdr. Dino Poggiali told Italian media that it was too early to know if any safety violations at the club played a role in the incident but an investigation will be conducted. The bodies of the trampled victims were all found near a low wall inside the disco, he added. "It was a mess. The bouncers were getting the persons out," an unidentified witness told RAI state radio. "I went out the main door. People fell, one after the other, on top of each other. Absurd." Another witness told RAI they smelled something acidic inside the club moments before running out. Police said the case is "complex" and it's unclear what, if any, substance was sprayed. Performer Sfera Ebbasta wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply pained" by the tragedy, thanked rescuers and offered his "affection and support" to the families of the dead and the injured. Out of respect to them, he cancelled some promotional appearances. The rapper added he wanted everyone to "to stop and think how dangerous and stupid it is to use pepper spray in a discotheque." Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted that a moment of silence would be held Saturday at the Piazza del Popolo in Rome to honor those who died. "One can't die this way," he said, adding that those responsible for the incident will be held accountable. The country's head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, demanded "full light be shone on what happened, ascertaining any responsibility and negligence." "Citizens have the right to safety wherever they are, in workplaces as well as places of entertainment," Mattarella said in a statement. "Safety must be assured with special commitment in places where crowds gather, through rigorous inspection and checks. One cannot die this way." At the Vatican, Pope Francis bowed his head in silent prayer after he told some 30,000 pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter's Square that he was praying "for the young people and the mamma" as well as for the many injured. Italian high schools are usually open on Saturdays, but schools were closed this weekend for the Dec. 8 national holiday of the Immaculate Conception. That could have made it more likely that young teenagers were at the disco.[SEP]Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy ROME (AP) — Italy's ANSA news agency: 6 dead and more than 100 injured in a stampede at a night club in central Italy.

Six people are killed and dozens more injured in a human stampede as frantic concertgoers try to exit a packed Lanterna Azzurra club in Corinaldo in Ancona Province, Marche, Italy, after pepper spray is reportedly fired inside the club.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Two buses have crashed head-on on a highway in Bolivia's highlands, leaving at least 17 people dead and 10 injured. Police say passengers were trapped in the wreckage of the buses, which collided Saturday in Bolivia's Andes Mountains near the town Achacachi, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of La Paz. A police report said the accident was caused by excessive velocity and did not rule out that one bus had invaded the lane of the other. "Firefighters reached the scene to see what had happened. The people were trapped in the vehicles," Col. Pablo Garcia, direct of transit in El Alto, told radio Erbol. Advertisement Deadly bus accidents are common in Bolivia's highlands where narrow highways sometimes wind through mountain ranges near steep precipices.[SEP]Two buses have crashed head-on on a highway in Bolivia's highlands, leaving at least 17 people dead and 10 injured https://t.co/tYLEpvkjZO[SEP]TRAGEDY: Police at the scene of a single-vehicle crash on the Pacific Highway near Glenugie, where two people were killed and another seriously injured. TRAGEDY: Police at the scene of a single-vehicle crash on the Pacific Highway near Glenugie, where two people were killed and another seriously injured. Frank Redward TWO people have been killed in a single-vehicle crash on the Pacific Highway near Glenugie this evening, while another person has been seriously injured. About 7.45pm on Sunday night, a vehicle was travelling south on the Pacific Highway, Glenugie, when it left the road, crashed through a fence, and rolled. Two men in the car died at the scene while a female passenger was trapped in the vehicle for a short time. She has now been released and is expected to be airlifted to hospital by the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter which was tasked to the incident. Police from Coffs/Clarence Police Area Command remain on the scene conducting inquiries. Both southbound lanes of the Pacific Highway are currently closed, with a contraflow in place. Delays are expected. Any witnesses are urged to contact police. Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report crime via NSW Police social media pages.[SEP]TRAGEDY: Police at the scene of a single-vehicle crash on the Pacific Highway near Glenugie, where two people were killed and another seriously injured. TRAGEDY: Police at the scene of a single-vehicle crash on the Pacific Highway near Glenugie, where two people were killed and another seriously injured. Frank Redward TWO people were killed in a single-vehicle crash on the Pacific Highway near Glenugie on Sunday night, while another person has been seriously injured. About 7.45pm on Sunday night, a vehicle was travelling south on the Pacific Highway, Glenugie, when it left the road, crashed through a fence, and rolled. Two men in the car died at the scene while a female passenger was trapped in the vehicle for a short time. She has now been released and is expected to be airlifted to hospital by the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter which was tasked to the incident. Police from Coffs/Clarence Police Area Command remained on the scene conducting inquiries. Any witnesses are urged to contact police. Traffic diversions were still in place by Monday morning at the scene of the crash, with contra flow traffic control in place at Halfway Creek to allow motorists to travel through the area, however delays were expected until at least the afternoon. Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report crime via NSW Police social media pages.[SEP]An afternoon crash on Highway 7 between Black Diamond and Okotoks claimed the life of a teenage girl and sent two people to hospital. According to RCMP officials, a Chevrolet SUV and a Pontiac Bonnyville collided head-on shortly after 3:30 p.m. at a location approximately two kilometres east of Black Diamond. A 17-year-old girl from Turner Valley who had been the driver of the Pontiac was pronounced dead at the crash site. EMS transported a 14-year-old male, who had been a passenger in the car, by ground ambulance to the Alberta Children's Hospital. The teenager's injuries and condition have not been confirmed. STARS AIr Ambulance transported the driver of the SUV, a woman in her 40's, from the crash scene to the Foothils Medical Centre in Calgary in serious, life threatening condition. Highway 7 was closed in both directions at the crash site for several hours but reopened to traffic at around 7:00 p.m.[SEP]Highway 627 west of Edmonton was impassable Friday evening after what RCMP called a serious collision. The crash happened near Highway 627 and Range Road 265. The area was closed for emergency response and Stony Plain RCMP expected detours to be in place for several hours. More to come...[SEP]A section of State Highway 6 was closed for a time in northern Southland after a crash north of Lumsden this afternoon. A police spokeswoman said emergency services were called to the scene after a car rolled about 5:06pm. The highway was closed for a time between Bixter Rd and Nokomai Rd near Mid Dome. The NZ Transport Agency advised around 6.20pm that one lane was open, and caution was advised. NZTA said it was reportedly a serious incident.[SEP]A North Mankato woman was injured in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 169 between Kasota and Mankato. The Minnesota State Patrol says the crash happened at around 10:39 p.m. Thursday night. Valerie Marie Schugel, 31, was southbound on Highway 169 in a 2005 Dodge Caravan that that crashed into the cable median barrier after swerving to avoid deer. Schugel was transported to Mayo Clinic Mankato with non-life threatening injuries. Click here to LIKE River 105 on Facebook[SEP]Emergency crews are on the scene of an afternoon crash on Highway 7 between Black Diamond and Okotoks. According to RCMP officials, two vehicles collided head-on shortly after 3:30 p.m. at a location approximately two kilometres east of Black Diamond. The number of patients and the extent of their injuries has not been confirmed. Highway 7 is closed in both directions at the crash site and traffic is being diverted.[SEP]A sheriff’s rescue helicopter airlifted a motorcycle rider injured in a crash on Highway 39 north of Azusa to a local trauma center on Sunday. The crash at 11:52 a.m. occurred near mile marker 34, in an area of twisting roadway a few miles south of Falling Springs. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department paramedics were airlifted to the scene of the crash, where they treated the rider who went down in the middle of the highway. The rider was then flown to a nearby hospital.Highway 39 was shut down during the rescue. There was no information available Sunday about what caused the crash or the condition of the rider.

Two buses crash head-on on a highway in Achacachi, Bolivia, leaving at least 17 people dead and 10 injured.

Unlike other people interviewed by Mueller who served on the Trump transition team, Kelly joined Trump's staff much later. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is reported not to be on speaking terms with Donald Trump anymore, was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team as part of the Russia probe, CNN reported on Friday. Earlier today, per the Inquisitr, reports emerged that Kelly, whose relationship with Trump has apparently taken a turn for the worse, was set to leave the White House in the coming days. It is apparently a mutual decision, although Kelly was allegedly becoming increasingly frustrated with Trump repeatedly bypassing the protocols established by the retired Marine Corps general since taking over as the White House Chief of Staff in July 2017. Now, on the heels of reports claiming that Kelly is leaving the White House because his relationship with Trump is no longer “sustainable,” CNN is reporting that Robert Mueller’s team questioned John Kelly. The subject of this questioning, per CNN, lies in relation to the investigation as to whether or not Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI director James Comey. It is a departure of sorts from the other subjects questioned by Mueller’s team — in that Kelly was not part of the Trump transition team — and it is therefore believed that Mueller’s team kept the questions restricted to the “obstruction” angle. Some of the details as to what Kelly might have been questioned about have also been reported. For instance, Mueller’s team was most interested in knowing Kelly’s recollection of an episode that reportedly took place after some reports had detailed how Trump had gone about firing Comey. White House counsel Emmet Flood was reportedly hesitant to let Mueller’s team have an interview with Kelly — but finally relented after establishing “ground rules” which stated that the special counsel’s team could only question the retired Marine Corps general on the “obstruction” angle, and nothing more. Also on Friday morning, Mueller’s team is set to file sentencing memos on former Trump associates Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, both of whom have pleaded guilty to several crimes. The report, which is unreleased at the time of writing, has already prompted a response from the president on Twitter. He accused Mueller’s investigation of being steeped in “conflicts of interest” in a Twitter barrage Friday morning, leading former CIA director John Brennan to characterize Trump’s behavior as “increasingly desperate.”[SEP]Washington (CNN) John Kelly is expected to resign as White House chief of staff in the coming days, two sources familiar with the situation unfolding in the West Wing tell CNN. Seventeen months in, Kelly and President Donald Trump have reached a stalemate in their relationship and it is no longer seen as tenable by either party. Though Trump asked Kelly over the summer to stay on as chief of staff for two more years , the two have stopped speaking in recent days. Trump is actively discussing a replacement plan, though a person involved in the process said nothing is final right now and ultimately nothing is final until Trump announces it. Potential replacements include Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, who is still seen as a leading contender Kelly has been on the verge of resigning or being fired before, only to bounce back every time. But aides feel the relationship can't be salvaged this time. Trump is becoming increasingly concerned about Democrats taking over the House in January, and has privately said he needs someone else to help shape the last two years of his first term, which he predicts will be politically focused. He has complained repeatedly that Kelly is not politically savvy. The expected departure would end a tumultuous tenure for Kelly, who was brought on to bring order to the White House but whose time as chief of staff has often been marked by the same infighting and controversy that has largely defined Trump's presidency from its beginning. Many of the storms in which Kelly became embroiled were by his own making.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In another staff shake-up of his often turbulent administration, President Donald Trump said on Friday he had picked the two people he wants to be the next U.S. attorney general and next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Trump said he will nominate former Attorney General William Barr to fill the top job at the U.S. Justice Department again, and that he will put forward State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as ambassador to the United Nations. Both are posts that have to be confirmed by the Senate. Trump also said he would make another personnel announcement on Saturday. “It will have to do with the joint chiefs of staff, the succession,” he told reporters outside the White House, suggesting he may name a new top U.S. military officer. Separately, CNN reported on Friday that John Kelly is expected to resign as White House chief of staff in coming days, citing unnamed sources. Reuters has not independently confirmed the report.[SEP]President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that his chief of staff John Kelly would be leaving the position by the end of the year. Trump made the announcement on the White House South Lawn before departing for the Navy vs. Army football game. "John Kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. We will announce who will be taking John's place," Trump said, adding that there might be an interim chief of staff. "I appreciate his service very much." Kelly's departure has been expected, according to sources within the White House. His tenure has been marred by conflict since he took the position in the summer of last year. Reports have described disagreements between Kelly, the president and West Wing staff. Recent clashes with first lady Melania Trump made his already tenuous position even more so, NBC News reported last month. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, initially began his tenure in the Trump administration serving as the secretary of Homeland Security. He was tapped by Trump as chief of staff in July 2017 after his predecessor, Reince Priebus, was ousted following six months on the job. During his time in the West Wing, speculation mounted that Kelly has been frustrated and exhausted by his role and Trump's temperament. Among the leading candidates to replace him is Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers. Outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement that Kelly was departing "what is often a thankless job" and called him a "force for order." “John Kelly is a patriot. Service to America is part of his DNA, and our country is better for his duty at the White House," Ryan said. Trump also announced on Saturday that he had picked Gen. Mark Milley as his nominee to succeed Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Mark Milley, he is a great gentleman, he’s a great patriot, he’s a great soldier," Trump said Saturday. On Friday, Trump announced he plans to nominate William Barr for attorney general. Milley and Barr both must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming the positions. If confirmed by the Senate, it would be Barr's second stint as head of the Justice Department. He served as attorney general from 1991 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush.[SEP]BUENOS AIRES: President Donald Trump will attend the state funeral of former president George H W Bush, who has died at 94, the White House said Saturday. Trump's spokeswoman said: "A state funeral is being arranged with all of the accompanying support and honours. The president will designate Wednesday, December 5th as a National Day Of Mourning. He and the first lady will attend the funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. ALSO READ | PM Narendra Modi hails George HW Bush as leading statesman passionate about strong Indo-US ties Bush, the 41st American president, died at home in Houston on Friday. Trump did not attend the funeral of Bush's wife Barbara, the matriarch of the family, who died in April. The invitation-only service at St Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston included Bush's successor Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, as well as other former senior officials. The White House attributed Trump's absence to his desire to avoid disruptions, though First Lady Melania Trump was present. A book published last year said Bush voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and called Donald Trump a "blowhard" who was driven by "a certain ego. " The revelations were contained in historian Mark Updegrove's "The Last Republicans. I don't like him," the elder Bush told Updegrove in May 2016 before the elections in November of that year "I don't know much about him, but I know he's a blowhard. And I'm not too excited about him being (our) leader. His son George W Bush left his ballot blank and said of Trump: "This guy doesn't know what it means to be president. The book's title was inspired by the younger Bush's concerns that he had been "the last Republican president" -- not just because Clinton was seen as favourite to win the election, but because Trump represented a major break from traditional conservatism. Trump was not invited to the funeral of another prominent Republican critic, the late senator John McCain who died in August. McCain's daughter Meghan delivered a powerful rebuke to Trump at the funeral, telling mourners: "The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.[SEP]White House Chief of Staff John Kelly will step down by the end of this year, US President Donald Trump has said, confirming that he will announce a replacement “over the next day or two”. The 68-year-old retired Marine Corps general has been President Trump’s Chief of Staff since July 31, 2017. In the first seven months of the Trump administration, Kelly was the secretary of Homeland Security. “John Kelly will be leaving – I don’t know if I can say ‘retiring’. But, he’s a great guy. John Kelly will be leaving at the end of the year,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday. “We will be announcing who will be taking John’s place…I shall be announcing that over the next day or two. But, John will be leaving at the end of the year. He has been with me almost two years now,” Trump said. Nick Ayers, the 36-year-old chief of staff to the vice-president Mike Pence, is Kelly’s likely successor. There were reports that the relationship between Trump and Kelly had deteriorated to such an extent that the two were no longer on speaking terms. Kelly, who was brought in by Trump after he fired Reince Priebus, has been instrumental in bringing in a sense of discipline inside the White House. Kelly was one of the several generals appointed by Trump to key roles, including defense secretary Jim Mattis, and former national security advisers Michael Flynn and HR McMaster. According to a report in ‘The Wall Street Journal’, the relationship between Kelly and Trump had completely broken down, leading the president to tell an associate to “stop calling John” and to instead “call Nick, he’s my guy”. Veteran journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his bestselling book ‘Fear’ that Kelly called Trump an “idiot” at the head of a “Crazytown” administration. Kelly, however, denied such reports and stayed in post. In France in November for events marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war, Kelly visited an American cemetery outside Paris while Trump remained in the city, the White House insisting rain made a presidential visit impractical. Kelly’s exit from the White House is the latest in a series of reshuffles in the Trump administration. On Friday, Trump said he will nominate William Barr his attorney general, replacing Matthew Whitaker who was named acting attorney general only a month ago. Whitaker replaced Jeff Sessions in the top Justice Department post. Sessions was fired after months of being attacked and ridiculed by the president on November 7. Trump appointed State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as the US’ next ambassador to the UN, replacing Indian-origin Nikki Haley who said in October that she would step down at the end of the year. McMaster was replaced on March 22 with John Bolton as the national security adviser. Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency chief quit on July 5. Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson was fired by Trump on March 13 after rifts between them. On Friday, Trump tweeted that Tillerson was “dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell”. James Comey, the FBI director, who led the Russia probe before Mueller, was fired by Trump in May last year. Michael Flynn resigned in February last year as Trump’s national security adviser. Earlier in the day, Trump nominated General Mark Milley as his next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s top military advisor. If confirmed by the Senate, Gen Milley would replace General Joe Dunford who is scheduled to retire next summer. Milley currently is Chief of Staff of the Army. Trump described Gen Milley as a “great gentleman and a great patriot”.[SEP] • President Donald Trump said Saturday that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is on his way out. • Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn that Kelly will be leaving “at the end of the year” and he will announce his replacement in the next day or two. • Trump said last month he was considering several Cabinet changes, though he wouldn’t say if Kelly was included in the positions he was questioning. • Despite Kelly saying in June he would be with Trump until 2020, clashes within the White House in recent months cast doubt on Kelly’s future with the administration. President Donald Trump said Saturday that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is on his way out of the administration. Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn that Kelly will be leaving “at the end of the year” and he will announce his replacement in the next day or two. Trump added that Kelly had been with him for two years and is “a great guy.” Business Insider has reached out to the White House for comment and will update this post with any response. Nick Ayers, who currently serves as Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, has long been suspected as Kelly’s likely replacement. Reports that Trump wanted to replace Kelly with Ayers have dated back to 2017. Recent reports said Kelly was planning to resign in early December after a feud with Trump became so bad that the two were not on speaking terms. Kelly told staffers in July that he would stay on until 2020, but clashes with Trump seemed to cast doubt on that resolution. In November, it was reported that Kelly may leave his position soon over repeated clashes with the first lady Melania Trump. NBC News reported that Kelly refused to promote some of her aides, prompting Trump to tell his chief of staff to give the first lady what she wanted. A spokeswoman for the first lady then told INSIDER that Kelly and Melania Trump had “a very positive relationship.” Rumors of Kelly’s departure swirled again after Trump abruptly requested Attorney General Jeff Sessions‘ resignation a day after the midterms. In a Fox News interview last month, Trump railed against the rumors as “disgusting fake news” that reported the potential staff shakeup “like it’s fiction,” before saying he was considering up to five Cabinet changes. “I have three or four or five positions that I’m thinking about,” Trump said. “Of that, maybe it’s going to end up being two. But I need flexibility.” Trump then praised Kelly and admitted that clashes with Kelly, most recently after the chief of staff’s office had neglected personnel requests from first lady Melania Trump’s office, had worn on their relationship. “We get along well,” Trump said. “There are certain things I love that he does, and there are certain things I don’t like that he does that aren’t his strength.” Trump then admitted Kelly would most likely not be with the administration for the 2020 election. “I haven’t even thought about John in terms of this,” he added. “But John at some point is going to want to move on.” This story is developing. Please check back for updates.[SEP]White House chief of staff John Kelly is expected to resign soon, according to multiple reports. READ MORE: Donald Trump won’t commit to keeping John Kelly as chief of staff Sources told CNN that Kelly and U.S. President Donald Trump have stopped speaking and that Kelly will resign “in the coming days.” Kelly, a retired general and the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has been chief of staff since July 2017. He replaced Reince Priebus, who had held the job for six months. READ MORE: Nick Ayers, 36, could replace John Kelly as Donald Trump’s chief of staff Nick Ayers, who is currently chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, is the front-runner to replace Kelly, according to Axios and ABC News. In an interview on Fox News in November, Trump wouldn’t commit to keeping Kelly on, saying there were “certain things that I don’t like that he does.” WATCH: Trump says happy with ‘most of’ his cabinet, calls Mueller investigation a ‘hoax’ once more “There are a couple of things where it’s just not his strength. It’s not his fault. It’s not his strength,” Trump said. Trump had earlier pledged publicly that Kelly would remain through his first term in office, though many in the West Wing were skeptical. For his part, Kelly has joked that he didn’t want to leave his position at Homeland Security, but that he “did something wrong and God punished me.” WATCH: ‘I did something wrong and God punished me’: John Kelly jokes about tenure in White House *More to come[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that chief of staff John Kelly will leave his job by year’s end amid an expected West Wing reshuffling reflecting a focus on the 2020 re-election campaign and the challenge of governing with Democrats reclaiming control of the House. Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, is Trump’s top choice to replace Kelly, and the two have held discussions for months about the job, a White House official said. An announcement was expected in the coming days, the president told reporters as he left the White House for the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. Kelly had been credited with imposing order on a chaotic West Wing after his arrival in June 2017 from his post as homeland security secretary. But his iron first also alienated some longtime Trump allies, and he grew increasingly isolated, with an increasingly diminished role. Known through the West Wing as “the chief” or “the general,” the retired Marine Corps four-star general was tapped by Trump via tweet in July 2017 from his perch atop the Homeland Security Department to try to normalize a White House riven by infighting and competing power bases. “John Kelly will leaving — I don’t know if I can say retiring — but he’s a great guy,” Trump said. “John Kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. We’ll be announcing who will be taking John’s place — it might be on an interim basis. I’ll be announcing that over the next day or two, but John will be leaving at the end of the year. … I appreciate his service very much.” Kelly had early successes, including ending an open-door Oval Office policy that that had been compared to New York’s Grand Central Station and instituting a more rigorous policy process to try to prevent staffers from going directly to Trump. But those efforts also miffed the president and some of his most influential outside allies, who had grown accustomed to unimpeded access. Kelly’s handling of domestic violence accusations against the former White House staff secretary also caused consternation, especially among lower-level White House staffers, who believed Kelly had lied to them about when he found out about the allegations. Lauding Kelly, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the country was “better for his duty at the White House.” He called Kelly “a force for order, clarity and good sense.” Trump and Ayers were working out terms under which Ayers would fill the role and the time commitment he would make, the White House official said. Trump wants his next chief of staff to agree to hold the job through the 2020 election. Ayers, who has young triplets, had long planned to leave the administration at the end of the year, but he has agreed to serve in an interim basis through the spring of 2019. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters. Word of Kelly’s impending departure comes a day after Trump named his picks for attorney general and ambassador to the United Nations, and two senior aides shifted from the White House to Trump’s campaign. In any administration, the role of White House chief of staff is split between the responsibilities of supervising the White House and managing the man sitting in the Oval Office. Striking that balance in the turbulent times of Trump has bedeviled both Kelly and his predecessor, Reince Priebus. White House aides say Trump has developed confidence in Ayers, in part by watching the effectiveness of Pence’s largely independent political operation. Ayers also earned the backing of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and son-in-law and senior advisers, for taking on the new role, White House officials said. The Georgia native’s meteoric rise in GOP politics included a successful stint at the Republican Governors Association, time as campaign manager for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s failed White House bid and consultant work for dozens of high-profile Republicans, including Pence. Ayers, 36, would be the youngest chief of staff since 34-year-old Hamilton Jordan served under Jimmy Carter. Kelly is 68. Trump had discussed replacing Kelly on multiple occasions, including following the negative publicity surrounding Kelly’s handling of domestic violence accusations against then-White House staff secretary Rob Porter. Some lower-level White House staffers believed Kelly had lied to them about when he knew of the allegations and when he made clear to Porter that he’d have to leave. Trump had often tossed around potential replacements, but sensitive to charges that his administration has been marked by record turnover, he said in July that he would keep Kelly in the job through 2020. But inside the White House, it was viewed largely as an attempt to clamp down on speculation about Kelly’s fate during the midterm elections, rather than a true vote of confidence. Kelly, too, made no secret of the trials of his job, and often joked about how working for Trump was harder than anything he’d done before, including on the battlefield. In private, Kelly, whom friends said took the job out of a sense of duty to his country, cast himself as safeguarding the public from an impulsive and mercurial president. Reports of those conversations infuriated the president, who is especially sensitive of attacks on his competence and perceptions he is being managed. At an event celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kelly joked that he missed everyone in the department “every day,” offering a deadpan eye roll and smile that drew laughs and applause. “At six months, the last thing I wanted to do was walk away from one of the great honors of my life, being the secretary of Homeland Security, but I did something wrong and God punished me, I guess,” he joked. Kelly, who had threatened to quit on several occasions, told friends he would be happy if he lasted until his one-year anniversary: July 28. Associated Press writers Michele Salcedo and Catherine Lucey contributed to this report. Follow Miller on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller and Colvin at https://twitter.com/colvinj[SEP]President Donald Trump on Friday accelerated a long-anticipated shake-up of his Cabinet in the wake of the midterm elections, naming new picks for attorney general and U.N. ambassador amid widespread speculation that the embattled White House chief of staff John Kelly could soon depart. Trump confirmed his choices of William Barr to lead the Justice Department and Heather Nauert for the United Nations post as he left the White House, speaking to reporters over the din of whirring blades from Marine One. If confirmed by the Senate, Barr will take over for acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker. An unfettered Trump installed him in place of the ousted Jeff Sessions less than 24 hours after the polls closed on Nov. 6 in the first move of an expected overhaul of Cabinet secretaries and senior White House aides. After a CNN report Friday morning that Kelly could be stepping down in a matter of days, Trump did not pause long enough to take questions from reporters, though he teased he would make another big personnel announcement Saturday at the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. "I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession," Trump said. Kelly was not at work Friday morning, though an ally said he was simply taking a day off and would be at the White House for a holiday staff dinner Friday night. The lights were off in his West Wing office. He has not been asked to resign, this person said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about a personnel matter. Among White House officials, however, there is broad consensus that his days as chief of staff are numbered. One senior administration official said Friday that it's clear Kelly will be leaving though said it's not certain that the departure was imminent as CNN reported. The official requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Trump has engaged in talks with Nick Ayers, the vice president's chief of staff, about taking over the position, advisers said. The president often remarks on Kelly's lack of political skills and has told advisers in recent days that he needs a more political chief of staff for his reelection. Ayers, a sharp-elbowed and ambitious Georgia operative, fits the bill, advisers said. But the story line of Kelly's departure has been protracted for so many months that White House aides often now just shrug. "Sure, Trump says he wants him gone, and Kelly swears and leaves and says he's not coming back. But then he comes back," said one former senior administration official, who requested anonymity to offer a candid assessment. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, has been the president's top aide since late July 2017. Trump has chafed at Kelly's management style and resisted some of his moves to instill discipline in the West Wing and contain chaos. In recent months, the chief of staff's power has ebbed, with administration policies and decisions being guided more by the president's gut instincts than by Kelly's processes. Washington has been abuzz with rumors about Kelly's job status have been rampant at various moments during his 16-month tenure. But this past summer, Kelly sought to quiet speculation that he was nearing the exist because of tensions with Trump by telling senior staff that he intended to remain as chief of staff through Trump's 2020 reelection campaign. Trump and Kelly have privately argued at times and complained about one another to confidants, sometimes in colorful language. But the two men are generational peers have a measure of respect for one another, and they have bonded over their shared ideology, especially on immigration issues, and their mutual grievances toward the media and political establishment. Trump has long admired Kelly for his military valor, but his lack of political experience and interest in campaign strategy has made him an imperfect fit leading the staff of a president who lives and breathes politics. As Trump prepares for his 2020 reelection campaign, some advisers have counseled him to replace Kelly with a sharper operative who can steer the administration through the daily - and hourly - political fights sure to come. Trump had nothing but praise for the two new Cabinet members who he announced Friday that he would nominate for the Senate. He told reporters that Barr, who led the Justice Department under former president George H.W. Bush, was "my first choice since day one" and said is "a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man." Nauert, 48, joined the State Department last year with no government experience after a career as an anchor and correspondent at Fox News. “She’s very talented, very smart, very quick, and I think she’s going to be respected by all,” Trump said.

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly is set to resign by the end of the month according to U.S. President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would nominate four-star Army General Mark Milley to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the implementation of the decision to open all ground combat units to women on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Trump said on Twitter that Milley, currently the Army chief of staff, would take over as the top U.S. military commander from Marine General Joseph Dunford at a date to be determined. “I am thankful to both these incredible men for their service to our country,” Trump said on Twitter. Later on Saturday, departing the White House for Philadelphia for the annual Army-Navy football game, Trump told reporters that Milley is “a great gentleman, he’s a great patriot, he’s a great soldier.” Trump’s announcement comes months earlier than expected. Dunford would normally remain as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until a scheduled Oct. 1, 2019, handover. Speaking to that point, Trump said without elaborating, “They usually give quite a bit of notice for a lot of reasons.” A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that indications were that Dunford would complete his term, but he referred questions on the matter to the White House. “General Dunford congratulates General Milley on his selection as the nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has served with General Milley in peacetime and in combat and has the highest regard for his leadership,” said Colonel Patrick Ryder. A spokesman for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews, said, “We are aware of the president’s nomination and share his confidence” in Milley. Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Milley “a great choice” to succeed Dunford. Milley is “a battle-tested commander and Pentagon reformer who will be a worthy successor to General Dunford,” Graham said in a statement. He called Dunford “one of the most dedicated officers I’ve ever known.”[SEP]President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “I am pleased to announce my nomination of four-star General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff of the United States Army — as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing General Joe Dunford, who will be retiring,” Trump posted on Twitter Saturday morning. “I am thankful to both of these incredible men for their service to our Country!” Trump said the date of transition is still to be determined. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, who took on the role in 2015, is expected to serve out his term, which expires later next year. The chairman is the highest-ranking military officer in the country and serves as the principal military adviser to the President. It is a role that requires Senate confirmation. Milley interviewed with Trump for the position on November 14 for more than an hour, a source told CNN. In his more than 35 years in the military, Milley has commanded units with the 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne and served multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was the head of the US Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and was assigned to review the investigation of former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by the Taliban for five years after leaving his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Milley made the decision to charge Bergdahl in 2015 with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, for which Bergdahl ultimately received a dishonorable discharge but avoided prison time. Milley was nominated to the position of Army chief of staff by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in August 2015. After becoming Army chief of staff, Milley helped oversee the Army’s transition away from large-scale counterinsurgency campaigns in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, focusing instead on challenges from Russia and China. A native of Massachusetts, Milley holds degrees from Princeton University and Columbia University. If confirmed, Milley will be the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to serve a single four-year term, a new policy made law in 2017.[SEP]Trump to make announcement on Joint Chiefs of staff WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he'll be making an announcement on Saturday concerning the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump, who often likes to build drama and suspense by teasing his decisions, tells reporters at the White House Friday that he's going to be making an announcement at Saturday's Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. He says: "I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession." Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be done his second term in 2018. Dunford was nominated to the post in 2015 by former President Barack Obama. Trump nominated him for a second two-year term last year.[SEP]President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he’s picked a battle-hardened commander who oversaw troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to be the nation’s next top military adviser. If confirmed by the Senate, Gen. Mark Milley, who has been chief of the Army since August 2015, would succeed Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dunford’s term doesn’t end until Oct. 1. Trump said the date of transition is yet to be determined. Trump tweeted the announcement, saying “I am pleased to announce my nomination of four-star General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff of the United States Army – as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing General Joe Dunford, who will be retiring. I am thankful to both of these incredible men for their service to our Country!” Dunford is a former commandant of the Marine Corps and commander of coalition troops in Afghanistan. Milley commanded troops during several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump’s decision, which he announced before leaving Washington to attend the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, caught some in the Pentagon by surprise on Friday. Normally an announcement on a new chairman wouldn’t be expected until early next year. The officials said the Air Force chief, Gen. David Goldfein, was also a strong contender for the job, but they indicated that Milley has a very good relationship with the president. Trump hinted earlier Friday that he would make an announcement on Saturday, when he attends the game and is expected to perform the coin toss to decide which team gets the ball first. “I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession,” he said. Milley is known as a charismatic, outgoing leader who has not been afraid to offer candid and sometimes blunt assessments to Congress. Last year he admonished the House Armed Services Committee for its inability to approve a defense budget, slamming it as “professional malpractice.” And in 2016, he told lawmakers, in answer to a direct question, that women should also have to register for the draft now that they are allowed to serve in all combat jobs. As the Army’s top leader, he helped shepherd the groundbreaking move of women into front-line infantry and other combat positions, while warning that it would take time to do it right. More recently, he has worked with his senior officers to reverse a shortfall in Army recruiting when the service fell far short of its annual goal this year. He also played a role in one of the Army’s more contentious criminal cases. While serving as head of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Milley was assigned to review the case of former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who abandoned his post in Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban for five years. Milley made the early decision to charge Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Bergdahl was eventually found guilty, reduced in rank to private, dishonorably discharged and fined $10,000, but was spared any additional prison time. A native of Winchester, Massachusetts, and a fervent supporter of the Boston Red Sox and other city teams, Milley received his Army commission from Princeton University in 1980. An infantry officer by training, he also commanded Special Forces units in a career that included deployments in the invasion of Panama in 1989, the multinational mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina to implement the Dayton Peace Accords, and the Iraq war. The Milley move starts a series of military leadership changes in coming months, including successors in 2019 for Adm. John Richardson as the chief of Naval Operations, Gen. Robert Neller as commandant of the Marine Corps, and Air Force Gen. Paul Selva as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Trump also will pick a replacement for Milley as Army chief. Goldfein began his term as Air Force chief of staff in 2016, so wouldn’t be expected to step down until the summer of 2020.[SEP]Trump picks Army chief of staff as next top military adviser WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he's picked a battle-hardened commander who oversaw troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to be the nation's next top military adviser. If confirmed by the Senate, Gen. Mark Milley, who has been chief of the Army since August 2015, would succeed Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dunford's term doesn't end until Oct. 1. Trump said the date of transition is "to be determined." Trump used an early morning tweet to reveal his choice. "I am thankful to both of these incredible men for their service to our Country!" he said. Dunford is a former commandant of the Marine Corps and commander of coalition troops in Afghanistan. Milley commanded troops during several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dunford's spokesman, Col. Patrick Ryder, said all indications are that Dunford will serve his full term. Ryder referred other questions to the White House. He said Dunford congratulated Milley on his nomination. "He has served with Gen. Milley in peacetime and in combat and has the highest regard for his leadership." Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that Milley was "a battle-tested commander and Pentagon reformer who will be a worthy successor" to Dunford. That committee would consider a Joint Chiefs nomination. The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee praised Milley for his "direct, insightful military assessments based upon his intellect and years of experience." Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, also noted that the Joint Chiefs chairman serves Congress as well as the president and defense secretary. Trump's decision, announced before leaving Washington for the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, had caught some in the Pentagon by surprise when unofficial word spread Friday after he had tweeted that a succession announcement was coming. Normally an announcement on a new chairman wouldn't be expected until early next year. Officials had said the Air Force chief, Gen. David Goldfein, was also a strong contender for the job. Milley is known as a charismatic, outgoing leader who has not been afraid to offer candid and sometimes blunt assessments to Congress. Last year he admonished the House Armed Services Committee for its inability to approve a defense budget, slamming it as "professional malpractice." In 2016, he told lawmakers, in answer to a direct question, that women should also have to register for the draft now that they are allowed to serve in all combat jobs. As the Army's top leader, he helped shepherd the groundbreaking move of women into front-line infantry and other combat positions, while warning that it would take time to do it right. More recently, he has worked with his senior officers to reverse a shortfall in Army recruiting when the service fell far short of its annual goal this year. He also played a role in one of the Army's more contentious criminal cases. While serving as head of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Milley was assigned to review the case of former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who abandoned his post in Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban for five years. Milley made the early decision to charge Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Bergdahl was eventually found guilty, reduced in rank to private, dishonorably discharged and fined $10,000, but was spared any additional prison time. A native of Winchester, Massachusetts, and a fervent supporter of the Boston Red Sox and other city teams, Milley received his Army commission from Princeton University in 1980. An infantry officer by training, he also commanded Special Forces units in a career that included deployments in the invasion of Panama in 1989, the multinational mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina to implement the Dayton Peace Accords, and the Iraq war. The Milley move starts a series of military leadership changes in coming months, including successors in 2019 for Adm. John Richardson as the chief of Naval Operations, Gen. Robert Neller as commandant of the Marine Corps, and Air Force Gen. Paul Selva as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Trump also will pick a replacement for Milley as Army chief. Goldfein began his term as Air Force chief of staff in 2016, so wouldn't be expected to step down until the summer of 2020.[SEP]Saturday was a day of politics and football for President Donald Trump, who announced the departure of his chief of staff, nominated a new top military adviser and then threw fist pumps at this year’s Army-Navy football game. PHILADELPHIA — Saturday was a day of politics and football for President Donald Trump, who announced the departure of his chief of staff, nominated a new top military adviser and then threw fist pumps at this year’s Army-Navy football game. The commander in chief flew to Philadelphia for the 119th meeting in the storied rivalry between the service academies, and officiated the coin toss at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Navy called “tails,” and that’s what it was when Trump’s flipped coin landed on the turf. Navy elected to kick off. Before the game, parachute jumpers floated onto the field — the Army ones displaying the American and service flags and the Navy ones waving banners that said “Forged by the Sea” and “Fear the Goat” — a reference to the Navy’s mascot. Cheers rose up from the stands when each landed. Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis stood silent during an invocation and a moment of silence for former President George H.W. Bush, who died recently died at age 94. Trump and Mattis both received loud cheers and applause from members of the two armed services. Military jets and helicopters flew overhead, and the teams stormed the field to a deafening roar. Like previous commanders in chief, Trump switched sides at halftime in a show of impartiality. During the second half, he sat between Vice Adm. Ted Carter Jr. and Richard V. Spencer, secretary of the Navy. He sat on the Army side first between Mark Esper, the secretary of the Army, and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the current chief of the Army and Trump’s nominee to succeed Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump tweeted the nomination Saturday before he left the White House. As the theme from “Rocky” blared from speakers, Trump greeted soldiers and shook hands with Mike Thornton, a retired U.S. Navy Seal and recipient of the Medal of Honor. The first quarter was barely underway when Army scored the first touchdown of the game, prompting a thumb’s up and fist pumps from the president, who sat on the 50 yard line. Before he left the White House, Trump told reporters that chief of staff John Kelly would step down at year’s end. The president was expected to soon name a replacement, and a White House official said Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, was Trump’s top choice. Trump, who saw the Army-Navy contest in 2016 as president-elect, is the 10th sitting president to go to the game. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first, in 1901. No. 22 Army (9-2) is in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 1996. The Black Knights have won seven in a row and have defeated Navy (3-9) two straight years. The series began in 1890, and Navy leads 60-51-7. Trump has made a spate of personnel announcements. He announced Friday that he’ll nominate William Barr, who served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, to the same role in his administration. Trump also announced that State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert is his pick to replace Nikki Haley as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. After the first of the year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Nauert, who has been criticized for her thin diplomatic resume. Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, who is in line to be the next chairman of the committee, flew to the game on Air Force One with his wife, Vicki. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., also was aboard.[SEP]Gen. Mark Milley (Photo Credit: Department of Defense)(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is expected to name Army Gen. Mark A. Milley to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to senior administration officials. As the country’s top-ranking military official, Milley would replace current Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who entered the role in October of 2015 under the Obama administration and is expected to serve until September of next year. Dunford has not publicly announced he is leaving his post. President Barack Obama, during his time in office, announced his nominations for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff five months before they took the role. The predecessors never stepped down and were serving out their full terms. Departing the White House on Friday, Trump teased an announcement related to the Joint Chiefs that he said would be made at the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia on Saturday. “I have another one for tomorrow that I’m going to be announcing at the Army-Navy game,” he told reporters. “I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession.” The change comes as Trump is also likely to replace chief of staff, John Kelly, in the coming days, senior sources told ABC News. Milley is currently the 39th Chief of Staff of the Army, assuming duty in August 2015 after serving as the Commandant of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Most recently, the general accompanied Trump to the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in France this November to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I. The Winchester, Massachusetts native received his commission from Princeton University in 1980 and later received Master’s Degrees from Columbia University and the U.S. Naval War College. His numerous overseas deployments include one tour in Iraq and three tours in Afghanistan – once as the Deputy Commanding General for U.S. Forces Afghanistan. He has also commanded the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and served as a Military Assistant to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Milley stepped into the role as Army Chief of Staff at a time when the U.S. was ending over a decade of counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and re-aligning the military to focus more on near-peer competitors like China and Russia. As chief, he oversaw the creation of the Army’s Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) in Afghanistan, designed to reduce the strain on special forces. He also managed the establishment of Army Futures Command, which consolidated the Army’s modernization process. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon during a press conference about the new command, Milley said, “We’re in the midst of a change in the very character of war.” President Donald Trump is expected to name Army Gen. Mark A. Milley to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to senior administration officials. Add Trump Administration as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Trump Administration news, video, and analysis from ABC News. As the country’s top-ranking military official, Milley would replace current Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who entered the role in October of 2015 under the Obama administration and is expected to serve until September of next year. Dunford has not publicly announced he is leaving his post. President Barack Obama, during his time in office, announced his nominations for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff five months before they took the role. The predecessors never stepped down and were serving out their full terms. President Donald Trump shakes hands with U.S. Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley during a Rose Garden, May 1, 2018, at the White House in Washington.more + Departing the White House on Friday, Trump teased an announcement related to the Joint Chiefs that he said would be made at the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia on Saturday. President Donald Trump walks to Marine One prior to departing from the South Lawn of the White House for a trip to Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 7, 2018.more + “I have another one for tomorrow that I’m going to be announcing at the Army-Navy game,” he told reporters. “I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession.” The change comes as Trump is also likely to replace chief of staff, John Kelly, in the coming days, senior sources told ABC News. Milley is currently the 39th Chief of Staff of the Army, assuming duty in August 2015 after serving as the Commandant of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Most recently, the general accompanied Trump to the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in France this November to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, right, with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Pentagon, Aug. 28, 2018 in Washington. more + The Winchester, Massachusetts native received his commission from Princeton University in 1980 and later received Master’s Degrees from Columbia University and the U.S. Naval War College. His numerous overseas deployments include one tour in Iraq and three tours in Afghanistan – once as the Deputy Commanding General for U.S. Forces Afghanistan. He has also commanded the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and served as a Military Assistant to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Milley stepped into the role as Army Chief of Staff at a time when the U.S. was ending over a decade of counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and re-aligning the military to focus more on near-peer competitors like China and Russia. As chief, he oversaw the creation of the Army’s Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) in Afghanistan, designed to reduce the strain on special forces. He also managed the establishment of Army Futures Command, which consolidated the Army’s modernization process. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon during a press conference about the new command, Milley said, “We’re in the midst of a change in the very character of war.”[SEP]Trump to make announcement on Joint Chiefs of staff WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he'll be making an announcement on Saturday concerning the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump, who often likes to build drama and suspense by teasing his decisions, tells reporters at the White House Friday that he's going to be making an announcement at Saturday's Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. He says: "I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession." Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be done his second term in 2018. Dunford was nominated to the post in 2015 by former President Barack Obama. Trump nominated him for a second two-year term last year.[SEP]Gen. Mark Milley (Photo Credit: Department of Defense)(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has announced the nomination of Army Gen. Mark A. Milley to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As the country’s top-ranking military official, Milley would succeed current Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who entered the role in October of 2015 under the Obama administration and is expected to serve until September. Dunford has not publicly announced he is leaving his post. The president announced the nomination on Twitter Saturday. President Barack Obama, during his time in office, announced his nominations for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff five months before they took the role. The predecessors never stepped down and were serving out their full terms. Departing the White House on Friday, Trump teased an announcement related to the Joint Chiefs that he said would be made at the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia on Saturday. “I have another one for tomorrow that I’m going to be announcing at the Army-Navy game,” he told reporters. “I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession.” The change comes as Trump is also likely to replace chief of staff, John Kelly, in the coming days, senior sources told ABC News. Milley is currently the 39th Chief of Staff of the Army, assuming duty in August 2015 after serving as the Commandant of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Most recently, the general accompanied Trump to the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in France this November to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I. The Winchester, Massachusetts native received his commission from Princeton University in 1980 and later received Master’s Degrees from Columbia University and the U.S. Naval War College. His numerous overseas deployments include one tour in Iraq and three tours in Afghanistan – once as the Deputy Commanding General for U.S. Forces Afghanistan. He has also commanded the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and served as a Military Assistant to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Milley stepped into the role as Army Chief of Staff at a time when the U.S. was ending over a decade of counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and re-aligning the military to focus more on near-peer competitors like China and Russia. As chief, he oversaw the creation of the Army’s Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) in Afghanistan, designed to reduce the strain on special forces. He also managed the establishment of Army Futures Command, which consolidated the Army’s modernization process. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon during a press conference about the new command, Milley said, “We’re in the midst of a change in the very character of war.” President Donald Trump is expected to name Army Gen. Mark A. Milley to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to senior administration officials. Add Trump Administration as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Trump Administration news, video, and analysis from ABC News. As the country’s top-ranking military official, Milley would replace current Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who entered the role in October of 2015 under the Obama administration and is expected to serve until September of next year. Dunford has not publicly announced he is leaving his post. President Barack Obama, during his time in office, announced his nominations for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff five months before they took the role. The predecessors never stepped down and were serving out their full terms. Departing the White House on Friday, Trump teased an announcement related to the Joint Chiefs that he said would be made at the annual Army-Navy game in Philadelphia on Saturday. “I have another one for tomorrow that I’m going to be announcing at the Army-Navy game,” he told reporters. “I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession.” The change comes as Trump is also likely to replace chief of staff, John Kelly, in the coming days, senior sources told ABC News. Milley is currently the 39th Chief of Staff of the Army, assuming duty in August 2015 after serving as the Commandant of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Most recently, the general accompanied Trump to the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in France this November to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I. The Winchester, Massachusetts native received his commission from Princeton University in 1980 and later received Master’s Degrees from Columbia University and the U.S. Naval War College. His numerous overseas deployments include one tour in Iraq and three tours in Afghanistan – once as the Deputy Commanding General for U.S. Forces Afghanistan. He has also commanded the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and served as a Military Assistant to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Milley stepped into the role as Army Chief of Staff at a time when the U.S. was ending over a decade of counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and re-aligning the military to focus more on near-peer competitors like China and Russia. As chief, he oversaw the creation of the Army’s Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) in Afghanistan, designed to reduce the strain on special forces. He also managed the establishment of Army Futures Command, which consolidated the Army’s modernization process. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon during a press conference about the new command, Milley said, “We’re in the midst of a change in the very character of war.”[SEP]College football fans, military leaders and members of the Trump administration gathered in Philadelphia on Saturday for the 119th annual Army-Navy game. The game kicked off with a coin toss performed by President Donald Trump, which landed in favor of the Navy. At the game, Trump was joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Army Mark Esper and Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer, according to the White House. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, who currently serves as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the man picked by Trump to succeed him, current US Army chief of staff Gen. Mark Milley, were also present. Ahead of the game, Air Force One did a fly-by at Lincoln Financial Field as it approached Philadelphia. The flight path into Philadelphia International Airport goes near the stadium, but Air Force One flew closer to the stadium and dipped its right wing before landing. Trump’s appearance at the game comes amid another staff shakeup for his administration. Earlier in the day, Trump announced his current chief of staff, John Kelly, would be leaving his position at the end of the year.

President Trump announces his nomination of army general Mark A. Milley to succeed marine general Joseph Dunford as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

France's interior minister says the protest violence in Paris is "under control" despite scattered tensions, but is calling it "totally unacceptable." Interior Minister Christophe Castaner says 135 people were injured in the protests Saturday, including 17 police officers. He says "exceptional" security measures led to police putting nearly 1,000 people in custody. Casataner estimated there were 10,000 yellow vest protesters in Paris on Saturday, among some 125,000 protesters around the country. Protesters smashed store windows and set fires around Paris and clashed with police, who fired tear gas throughout the day in the French capital.​ Police were searching people throughout zones of central Paris and confiscating goggles and gas masks from journalists who use them to protect against tear gas while covering demonstrations. Police barred some provincial "yellow vest" protesters from boarding trains to Paris in an effort to prevent a repeat of last week's rioting. Eiffel Tower closed amid more Paris protests: The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum will be among the dozens of popular tourist attractions shuttered in Paris as French authorities tighten security to prevent another outbreak of violence following three weeks of anti-government protests. 1:47 A group of four protesters who came to Paris from Normandy on Saturday said they saw people wearing yellow vests turned away at train stations all along their route. They said fellow protesters trying to reach Paris from Toulouse in southern France reported the same problems. A national police spokesperson said officers stationed at train stations around the country are under orders to verify all passengers and turn away any carrying equipment that could be used to "cause damage to people or property." Three Associated Press journalists had gas masks and protective goggles confiscated by police despite carrying government-issued press cards. The equipment allows journalists to cover violence between police and protesters when tear gas is fired. Protesters face off with police on the Champs-Elysées on Saturday. (Christian Hartmann/Reuters) Last weekend, more than 130 people were injured and over 400 were arrested in the worst street violence seen in Paris in decades. Since the unrest began on Nov. 17 in reaction to a sharp increase in diesel taxes, four people have been killed in violence related to the protests. The ongoing protests have led Global Affairs to issue a travel advisory to Canadians travelling to France. It's telling them to avoid areas where the demonstrations are taking place because "acts of vandalism and violence are very likely." Saturday's 'yellow vest' protests:[SEP]Police fired tear gas canisters and pepper spray at 'yellow vest' protesters in central Paris and other parts of France on Saturday during demonstrations against the high cost of living. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner added that 125,000 "yellow vest" protesters had turned out to demonstrate around France on Saturday. Police detained 1,385 of them after they found weapons such as hammers, baseball bats and metal petanque balls on them. About 89,000 police officers were on duty on Saturday. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe called on Saturday evening for fresh dialogue with representatives of the "yellow vest" movement staging protests across France, promising the government would address concerns over rising living costs. "The dialogue has begun and it must continue," Philippe said in a televised statement. "The president will speak, and will propose measures that will feed this dialogue." Philippe on Friday evening met a delegation of self-described "moderate" yellow vest protesters who have urged people not to join the protests. Some 8,000 police officers have been deployed in the capital city to avoid a repeat of last Saturday's mayhem, when rioters torched cars and looted shops off the Champs Elysees boulevard, and defaced the Arc de Triomphe monument with graffiti directed at President Emmanuel Macron. 181204074149922 The Eiffel Tower and other tourist landmarks in Paris were shut on Saturday, shops were boarded up to avoid looting and street furniture removed to prevent metal bars from being used as projectiles. Macron's government has warned that the protests will be hijacked by "radicalised and rebellious" crowds and become the most dangerous yet, after three weeks of demonstrations. The president had announced earlier this week that the planned hikes in petrol and diesel taxes, which sparked the protests, would be cancelled outright. But prominent protesters have said they will descend on Paris anyway, with a broader set of economic demands, including lower taxes, higher salaries, cheaper energy costs, better retirement provisions and even Macron's resignation. Protesters, using social media, have billed the weekend as "Act IV" in a dramatic challenge to Macron and his government's policies. Castaner said that he expected radical elements to be present in Paris and that "the past three weeks have given birth to a monster that has escaped its creators". But protesters believe they are fighting for a fair cause. "There is a rising of the people's rage and it's caused by a single reason - the government's policies that only look to take from the poor to keep for the rich," Taha Bouhafs, an activist in Paris, told Al Jazeera. This grassroots movement made President Macron suspend a fuel tax increase. Here's what you need to know about France's "yellow vest" protests. pic.twitter.com/ut4u3dQLxz — AJ+ (@ajplus) December 7, 2018 Violence and anarchy Authorities say the protests have been hijacked by far-right and anarchist elements bent on violence and stirring up social unrest, in a direct affront to Macron and the security forces. An Elysee official has said intelligence suggested that some protesters would come to the capital "to vandalise and to kill". The United States' embassy has issued an advisory to Americans in Paris to "keep a low profile and avoid crowds", while Belgium, Portugal and the Czech Republic advised citizens planning to visit the capital over the weekend to postpone their visit. 181204060535226 Eric Drouet, one of the initiators of the protests, called on people to protest on the roads and motorways surrounding Paris, "where there is nothing to break and nothing to destroy" but where they can "shout out" their anger. Macron, who has not spoken in public since he condemned last Saturday's disturbances while at the G20 summit in Argentina, will address the nation early next week, his office said. On Friday evening, he visited a group of police officers in their barracks outside Paris. Navigating his biggest crisis since being elected 18 months ago, Macron has left it largely to Philippe to deal in public with the turmoil and offer concessions. But he is under pressure to speak more as his administration tries to regain the initiative following three weeks of unrest that are the worst since the 1968 student riots. The French retail federation on Friday put the cost of the protests to its members at close to $1bn, according to the Financial Times.[SEP]PARIS (AP) - France's interior minister says the protest violence in Paris is "under control" despite scattered tensions but is calling it "totally unacceptable." Interior Minister Christophe Castaner says 135 people were injured in the protests Saturday, including 17 police officers. He says "exceptional" security measures allowed nearly police to put nearly 1,000 people in custody. Casataner estimated there were 10,000 yellow vest protesters in Paris on Saturday, among some 125,000 protesters around the country. Protesters smashed store windows and set fires around Paris and clashed with police, who fired tear gas throughout the day in the French capital.[SEP]The Latest on anti-government protests in France and neighboring countries (all times local): France's interior minister says the protest violence in Paris is "under control" despite scattered tensions but is calling it "totally unacceptable." Interior Minister Christophe Castaner says 135 people were injured in the protests Saturday, including 17 police officers. He says "exceptional" security measures allowed nearly police to put nearly 1,000 people in custody. Casataner estimated there were 10,000 yellow vest protesters in Paris on Saturday, among some 125,000 protesters around the country. Protesters smashed store windows and set fires around Paris and clashed with police, who fired tear gas throughout the day in the French capital. Dozens of French riot police backed by an armored vehicle are charging protesters on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, firing tear gas beneath the sparkling lights of one of the world's most elegant avenues. Demonstrators in yellow vests carried a huge banner calling for President Emmanuel Macron to resign and for France to hold an emergency election. Protesters appeared to throw flares as police responded with tear gas. The confrontation came after a day of tension across Paris on Saturday and unprecedented police efforts to prevent new violence. The yellow vest movement started as a protest over a fuel tax rise but has expanded into an amorphous protest movement that French authorities are struggling to contain. The police chief of Imperia, a northwestern Italian coastal town on the highway toward France, says yellow-vested French protesters have blocked the border with Italy near the town of Ventimiglia. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Police Chief Cesare Capocasa as saying the protest was causing a 6-kilometer (nearly 4-mile) backup of traffic in both directions on Saturday afternoon. He was quoted as saying that "we're on the scene to try to manage the situation in a balanced way." Yellow vest protesters are angry at France's high taxes and at French President Emmanuel Macron. A march for the environment is unfolding peacefully in Paris and other cities in France, parallel to the violent "yellow vest" protests that have put much of the city in lockdown. The "March for Climate" was a more diverse crowd, with far more women and older people and a handful of children. The "yellow vest" protests are overwhelmingly male, with just a few women for the hundreds of men pouring through the streets. A handful of people in yellow vests had joined the quiet march by mid-afternoon. One sign read "No climate justice without fiscal and social justice." Clashes have broken out between "yellow vest" protesters and police in the port neighborhood of Marseille, in the south of France. An Associated Press journalist saw the fighting break out at midday at the port, one of the city's main tourist sites. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured. The "yellow vest" protests started as a revolt against a gas tax increase but have since grown to envelop an array of grievances against living standards and President Emmanuel Macron. Belgian police are firing tear gas and water cannons at stone-throwing yellow-vested protesters near the country's government offices and parliament. Protesters smashed street signs and traffic lights near a police barricade blocking access to the office of Prime Minister Charles Michel, as they chanted slogans calling on him to resign. They threw paving stones, fireworks, flares and other objects at police. Brussels police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere says around 400 protesters are gathered in the area. About 100 have been detained, many for possessing dangerous objects like fireworks or wearing clothing that could be used as protection in clashes with police. In the Netherlands, about 100 protesters gathered in a peaceful demonstration outside the Dutch parliament in The Hague. At least two protesters were detained by police in central Amsterdam. Paris police are firing water cannons on yellow-vested protesters throwing flares and setting fires in one of the French capital's main shopping districts. Scattered clashes are continuing around the city as the protesters seek to reach the presidential palace and demand President Emmanuel Macron's resignation. While the situation is tense, police appear to have it more under control than a week ago, when rioting and looting overwhelmed Paris security forces. The latest flashpoint is not far from the flagship buildings of France's most famed department stores, Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, and near the Palais Garnier opera house. Protesters uprooted trees on one of the neighborhood's "grands boulevards" and set them on fire, while others hurled flares and other projectiles at rows of riot police. Like several neighborhoods of Paris, the area is largely locked down, with many stores shuttered for fear of violence. Overall police estimate there are about 8,000 yellow vest protesters in Paris on Saturday, down from last week. Meanwhile the government deployed 8,000 police in the city, as part of exceptional security measures aimed at preventing a repeat of last week's rioting, which injured 130 people and struck a new blow to France's global image. Belgian police are scuffling with yellow-vested protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel as hundreds of marchers try to enter the European quarter of Brussels. Police used pepper spray on a small group of men who threw street signs, bottles and other objects as they tried to break through a barricade near the European Parliament. Walking behind a banner marked "social winter is coming," the protesters have been chanting "(French President Emmanuel) Macron, Michel resign." The rallies, which started at different locations around the city and converged on the European quarter, have disrupted road and rail traffic. Dozens of people were searched at stations. Police have warned people to stay away from the area. Police are seizing protective equipment from journalists and barring some provincial "yellow vest" protesters from boarding trains to Paris, as part of exceptionally stringent security measures to prevent a repeat of last week's rioting. A group of four protesters who came to Paris from Normandy on Saturday told The Associated Press that they saw people wearing yellow vests turned away at train stations all along their route. They said fellow protesters trying to reach Paris from Toulouse in southern France reported the same problems. A national police spokesman said officers stationed at train stations around the country are under orders to verify all passengers and turn away any carrying equipment that could be used to "cause damage to people or property." Three Associated Press journalists had gas masks and protective goggles confiscated by police despite carrying government-issued press cards. The equipment allows journalists to cover violence between police and protesters when tear gas is fired. Paris police have fired tear gas on a group of yellow-vested protesters trying to march on the French presidential palace and are pushing them back with shields. Crowds of protesters first tried to march down the Champs-Elysees avenue toward the Elysee palace but were prevented by rows of police. So a group of a few hundred took side streets and tried to get past a police barricade, and police fired back with tear gas. Most of the protesters remain peaceful, and there are no signs so far of the rioting and looting that marked a similar protest last Saturday and prompted fears of greater violence this week. Crowds were also gathering across town around the Bastille plaza. Authorities have detained 343 people already Saturday amid exceptional security and filtration measures. Police are searching people throughout zones of central Paris and confiscating goggles and gas masks from journalists who use them to protect against tear gas while covering demonstrations. A crowd of "yellow vest" protesters is marching down the Champs-Elysees avenue in central Paris surrounded by exceptional police security amid fears of new violence. Hundreds of people gathered early Saturday around the Arc de Triomphe, which was damaged in rioting a week ago. They then started walking peacefully down the avenue, lined with high-end shops normally bustling before the Christmas holidays but boarded up this Saturday amid worries of more looting or other damage. A Paris police spokesman said more than 170 people have already been detained Saturday on suspicion they were planning violence, though most were later released. President Emmanuel Macron's government is deploying 89,000 security forces around the country for Saturday's protests against his reforms. The French yellow vest protest movement is crossing borders, with demonstrations planned in neighboring Belgium and in the Netherlands. Neither country has proposed a hike in fuel tax — the catalyst for the massive and destructive demonstrations in France in recent weeks. Hundreds of police officers are being mobilized in Brussels Saturday, where yellow vest protesters last week clashed with police and torched two police vehicles. More than 70 people were detained. Some rallies are taking place outside the main European Union institutions, which are closed Saturdays. Some could be held in the city center on what is a major Christmas shopping weekend. Jan Dijkgraaf, editor of a Dutch "resistance newspaper" is calling for peaceful protests in the Dutch cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Paris monuments and shopping meccas are locked down and tens of thousands of police are taking position around the country, fearing worsening violence in a new round of anti-government protests. President Emmanuel Macron's government has warned that Saturday's "yellow vest" protests in Paris will be hijacked by "radicalized and rebellious" crowds and become the most dangerous yet after three weeks of demonstrations. Authorities are deploying barricade-busting armored vehicles and 8,000 police in the capital alone, part of 89,000 security forces fanned out around France. The Eiffel Tower and Louvre are shut along with hundreds of stores and businesses, fearing damage after rioting last Saturday that saw 130 people injured and the worst urban unrest in Paris in decades. The protesters are angry at Macron and high taxes, among other problems.[SEP]French minister: 135 people have been injured in protests Saturday; nearly 1,000 protesters are in custody PARIS (AP) — French minister: 135 people have been injured in protests Saturday; nearly 1,000 protesters are in custody.[SEP]Clashes, tear gas, barricades and broken windows have been the sights in the French capital as the Yellow Vest protests rage throughout the country for the fourth week in a row. Hundreds were detained and dozens injured.A total of 125,000 people demonstrated across France , including 10,000 in Paris. Authorities saidthroughout the country.Saturday's clashes appeared to be even more heated and violent than last week's ones, RT's Charlotte Dubenskij, who has been reporting from the middle of Paris mayhem, said."In previous protests, the police have generally tried to hold back from deploying tear gas and even when they had objects pelted at them by the protesters, they've held back until they feel that's too much," she said.Several hours into the protests, trucks armed with water cannon arrived in the heart of the capital.Violence unfolded as severalBeefing up its presence, law enforcement also deployed armored vehicles belonging to the French Gendarmerie - the military police. The hardware was stationed right next to the Arc de Triomphe,which last week saw one of the fiercest battles between police and rioters.This is the fourth consecutive Saturday of Yellow Vest protests, withScores of people were also injured during the heavy-handed police response. Officers also suffered injuries while trying to handle the situation., which triggered the rallies. The unrest, however, is still far from losing steam. The demonstrators are billing their action on Saturday as "Act IV. Stay on the course" and are[SEP]A total of 118 people and 17 police officers were injured during Saturday’s Yellow Vest protests across France, the French Interior Minister said late Saturday. Around 125,000 people participated in the nationwide protests, said Interior Minister Christophe Castaner in a press meeting. Castaner said that 974 people were arrested during the protests. Security measures were tight in France ahead of the demonstrations. Dozens of armored vehicles and 89,000 troops -- including 8,000 in Paris – were on duty. On Saturday, protesters wearing bright yellow vests -- dubbed the Yellow Vests -- gathered along the famous Champs-Elysees in the capital Paris, where stores, restaurants, and banks were shut down due to violence. French police used pepper spray against Yellow Vest protesters along the Champs-Elysees. During Saturday's protests, the tension between demonstrators and the police flared up from time to time. Thousands of yellow vest protesters have been gathering in major French cities including Paris since Nov. 17 to protest President Emmanuel Macron's controversial fuel tax hikes and the deteriorating economic situation. The demonstrators, who generally live in rural areas due to high rents in the cities, have called on Macron to cut fuel taxes and ease their economic difficulties. According to a recent survey, 84 percent of the French people -- mostly from the middle-income group -- support the protests. Fuel prices in France have risen more than 20 percent this year. This article has been adapted from its original source.[SEP]PARIS (AP) — French minister: 135 people have been injured in protests Saturday; nearly 1,000 protesters are in custody.[SEP]Act IV (Act 4), the name given to the fourth weekend of protests in France, is just around the corner and the French government and police authorities are busy preparing in an attempt to keep the violence and destruction down to a minimum. from an "extreme core of several thousand" coming to the French capital. The French presidency revealed on Wednesday that it fears there will be "major violence" The interior ministry has spoken of the likely presence of the "extreme-right who dream of a revolution and the extreme-left who advocate insurrection". And they are concerned their numbers will be boosted by youths from the poor Paris suburbs, some of whom took advantage of the mayhem to loot stores last weekend, according to police. And then there's the fringes of the yellow vest movement which appears to have become more radicalized in recent weeks. As a result the French PM said "exceptional means" will be devoted to keeping order across the country on Saturday. A total of 89,000 police officers - up from the initial figure of 656,000 - and law enforcement staff will be deployed across France on Saturday, 8,000 of whom will be in the French capital. The PM confirmed that 12 armored vehicles from the gendarmes military police will also be deployed to the capital, but the decision whether or not to send them onto the streets will be taken on the day. "Given what has happened it is absolutely necessary to take all the possible measures to stop the rioters taking hold of this movement," said Jérôme Bonner, a police spokesperson. In all, some 79 police units, including CRS riot police officers, are set to be mobilised in the capital on Saturday December 8th compared to the 50 who were on the streets last weekend. And there is a new strategy -- this time police officers have been instructed not just to be mobile but also to directly engage with protesters, meaning that the situation could be even more violent than the riots seen last weekend. "We are going to try to intervene as quickly as possible at the flash points to arrest the main thugs to try to suffocate the violence," said Denis Jacob from the police union Alternative Police. The city's police chiefs have promised that officers from all units will be present, including the French Anti-Crime Squad known as the BAC, the territorial brigades and all Paris police station staff will be on duty on Saturday. Even units not accustomed to carrying out everyday police work, such as the SDLII, which fights illegal immigration, will have 500 officers on the ground. A crisis unit for police officers confronted with "particularly violent incidents" has been created, according to reports in the French press in order to offer officers legal assistance if necessary. All emergency services will also be mobilized on Saturday. Security will also be tight on the French capital's public transport network, with transport police officers stationed at railway stations and Metro stations. Meanwhile, the capital's transport operator RATP is already planning to divert or suspend dozens of bus lines around the Champs-Élysées, as well as at Porte Maillot near Neuilly-sur-Seine in the western suburbs of the capital, Trocadéro, near Opera, Hotel de Ville and Gare du North and Gare de l'Est. French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday urged politicians and union officials to launch a "call for calm", with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe echoing that call in parliament and urged politicians to be responsible. "What is at stake is the safety of the French people and our institutions. I call here for responsibility," said Philippe. "All the actors in this public debate, politicians, union leaders, editorialists and citizens, will be accountable for their statements in the coming days," he added. In a move they hoped would help appease protesters the government announced it was completely scrapping the planned fuel tax hikes for 2019, yet it appears demonstrators are unsatisfied and are ready to push for more concessions that will help boost their spending power. The anxiety of the French authorities is evident in view of the prospect of another day of violence in the heart of the capital which is still under the shock of last weekend's riots. There have been dozens of calls to demonstrate in Paris on social media on Saturday, with many naming the Champs-Elysees -- the scene of riots on December 1st -- as the meeting point. For more information on what the protester's have in store for Paris this weekend CLICK HERE[SEP]The rumble of armored police trucks and the hiss of tear gas filled central Paris on Saturday, as French riot police fought to contain thousands of yellow-vested protesters venting their anger against the government in a movement that has grown more violent by the week. A ring of steel surrounded the president’s Elysee Palace — a key destination for the protesters — as police stationed trucks and reinforced metal barriers throughout the neighborhood. Stores along the elegant Champs-Elysees Avenue and the posh Avenue Montaigne boarded up their windows as if bracing for a hurricane but the storm struck anyway Saturday, this time at the height of the holiday shopping season. Protesters ripped off the plywood protecting the windows and threw flares and other projectiles. French riot police repeatedly repelled them with tear gas and water cannon. Saturday’s yellow vest crowd was overwhelmingly male, a mix of those bringing their financial grievances to Paris — the center of France’s government, economy and culture — along with groups of experienced vandals who tore steadily through some of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods, smashing and burning. Police and protesters also clashed in other French cities, notably Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux, and in neighboring Belgium. Some protesters took aim at the French border with Italy, creating a huge traffic backup near the town of Ventimiglia. The French government’s plan was to prevent a repeat of the Dec. 2 rioting that damaged the Arc de Triomphe, devastated central Paris and tarnished the country’s global image. It did not succeed, even though it was better prepared. Although Saturday’s protest in the French capital started out quietly, tear gas choked the Champs-Elysees Avenue by early evening. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that 135 people had been injured and 974 taken into custody amid protests around the nation. Paris police headquarters counted 71 injuries in the capital, seven of them police officers. An estimated 125,000 people demonstrated around France while 10,000 took their anger to the streets of Paris, double the number in the capital last week, the interior minister said. Toughening security tactics, French authorities deployed 8,000 security officers in the capital alone, among the 89,000 who fanned out around the country. A Starbucks near the Champs-Elysees was smashed wide open and people were seen stepping over broken glass and serving themselves to beverages. The window of a nearby bank was smashed in with a wrought-iron decoration used to encircle city tree trunks. All of the city’s top tourist attractions — including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum — shut down for the day, fearing the kind of damage that hit the Arc de Triomphe a week ago. Christmas markets and soccer matches were cancelled. Subway stations in the city center closed and the U.S. embassy warned citizens to avoid all protest areas. Yet in a sign of the financial disconnect that infuriates many of the protesters, a few blocks from the famed boulevard, people were sitting in Paris cafes, drinking cocktails and chatting. Amid the melee, President Emmanuel Macron remained invisible and silent, as he has for the four weeks of a movement that started as a protest against a gas tax hike and metamorphosed into a rebellion against high taxes and eroding living standards. The mayor of the city of Saint-Etienne, a town in southeast France hit by violence Saturday, castigated Macron for failing to speak out, saying it “feeds the resentment.” “This silence becomes contempt for the nation,” the mayor, Gael Perdriau, of the opposition conservative party, said on BFMTV. “He has a direct responsibility in what is happening. He can’t remain closed up in the Elysee.” France’s yellow vest protesters have political stances ranging from the far right to the far left but the leaderless group is united in its sense that Macron and his government are out of touch. “We are here to tell (Macron) our discontent. Me, I’m not here to break things because I have four children,” said protester Myriam Diaz. “But I still want to be here to say ‘Stop, that’s enough.'” Some protesters sang the French national anthem — “The Marseillaise” — as they confronted phalanxes of police in heavy riot gear. One protester in Paris showed an Associated Press reporter a fresh wound on his jaw, saying a rubber bullet fired by charging police had glanced his face. “I was running with my hands up. They charged,” said Ludovic, a 38-year-old cabinetmaker from the eastern city of Colmar. He only gave his first name, saying he feared being tracked by security authorities. He said he was fleeing the Champs-Elysees, choked with tear gas, when police moved in. Even as blue armored trucks rumbled over cobblestone streets in Paris, a larger environmental march took place peacefully Saturday toward the city’s Republique Plaza. A scattering of yellow vests, as well as women, children and retirees, were among the 17,000 people marching to demand action against climate change. One sign read “No climate justice without fiscal and social justice.” Cyril, a 25-year-old garbage truck driver, came from Normandy with three others. He said he earns only 1,430 euros ($1,625) a month despite working 45 hours a week and has decided not to have children because doesn’t feel he can earn enough to raise them. This was his third weekend of protesting in Paris. “I’ve come to defend myself,” he said, adding that he thought Macron’s mistake was trying to reform the French economy too quickly. “He’s done more in 18 months than the others in 30 years.” Macron on Wednesday agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike, which aimed to wean France off fossil fuels and uphold the Paris climate agreement. Many economists and scientists say higher fuel taxes are essential to save the planet from worsening climate change, but that stance hasn’t defused the anger among France’s working class. Late Saturday, after announcing that the violence in Paris had been “contained,” Castaner, the interior minister, took a victory stroll down the Champs-Elysees. Tear gas had dissipated and a standoff was over. It had pitted a line of security forces, backed by two armored vehicles, against protesters, some lobbing objects and cherry bombs to taunt police. Protesters also blocked roads, traffic roundabouts and highway tollbooths elsewhere in France and offshoot movements emerged in Belgium and the Netherlands. Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannon Saturday at yellow-vested protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel. The protesters in Brussels threw paving stones, road signs, fireworks, flares and other objects at police and about 100 were detained. Across the ocean, U.S. President Donald Trump seized the moment to once again criticize the 2015 Paris climate accord that he is abandoning. “People do not want to pay large sums of money … in order to maybe protect the environment,” he tweeted.

125,000 people demonstrate across France, according to the Minister of the Interior, with about 89,000 police officers on duty. 1,385 people are detained. Tear gas and pepper spray are used against the protesters and 135 people are injured.

related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 3 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said his government would continue as a minority administration after the biggest party in his coalition quit on Saturday in a row over signing the U.N. migration compact. BRUSSELS: Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said his government would continue as a minority administration after the biggest party in his coalition quit on Saturday in a row over signing the U.N. migration compact. Michel, a French-speaking liberal, said he "took note" of the departure of the Flemish N-VA from the four-party coalition formed in 2014 and would reshuffle posts - a particularly complex task in bilingual Belgium, as French- and Dutch-speakers must by law have an equal number of ministerial posts. Advertisement Advertisement With a federal election due anyway in May, many observers expect no immediate change to that electoral calendar. In a move critics have described as an opening shot in that election campaign, the right-wing N-VA, which is the biggest party in parliament, said it was pulling its ministers from the coalition after Michel refused its demand that he rescind a plan to sign the U.N. migration compact in Marrakesh on Monday. Michel had secured a large parliamentary majority last week in favour of maintaining Belgium's support of the United Nations text, which since it was agreed by all U.N. states bar the United States in July has run into criticism from European politicians who say it could increase immigration to Europe. The N-VA faces electoral losses in its Dutch-speaking region to the harder-right, anti-immigration Vlaams Belang. Its leader Bart De Wever, the mayor of Belgium's second city Antwerp, had issued Michel an ultimatum that it would quit the government if he signed the non-binding U.N. declaration. Advertisement Advertisement A crisis cabinet meeting on Saturday night was cut short when two N-VA ministers, Interior Minister Jan Jambon and Migration Minister Theo Francken, walked out. Michel said he would replace N-VA ministers with lower-ranked state secretaries and maintain a minority coalition involving his French-speaking liberal MR and two Flemish parties, the centre-right CD&V and Open VLD. At least six EU states - mostly in formerly Communist eastern Europe - have already shunned the accord to regulate the treatment of migrants worldwide, a sign of how the bloc has turned increasingly restrictive on accepting refugees and migrants alike since a 2015 spike in arrivals. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Daniel Wallis)[SEP]"If the government decides to bind itself [to the document] in Marrakesh, we will not accept it. Tomorrow, Charles Michel will leave as a prime minister of 'Swedish coalition' and will land as a prime minister of 'Marrakesh' coalition," N-VA leader Bart De Wever said as quoted by the party's press service. The Belgian ruling coalition is called Swedish because the official colors of its member parties resemble a Swedish flag. The N-VA members hold among others posts of defense minister, interior minister and state secretary for asylum policy and migration in the country's parliament. READ MORE: EU Expands Frontex Mandate to Work in Third Countries The UN Global Compact for Migration represents the international community's attempt to establish a common global approach to all aspects of international migration. The pact comprises 23 objectives for better managing migration at local, national, regional, and global levels. The global compact is expected to be formally endorsed at an intergovernmental conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on December 10-11.[SEP]Centraal in ons cookiebeleid staat respect voor uw privacy. Via de link "Meer informatie" onderaan verneemt u welke cookies we gebruiken en kan u specifiek instellen voor welke doeleinden u cookies aanvaardt. Deze website maakt net zoals de meeste websites gebruik van cookies. Via deze cookies verzamelen wij en derde partijen informatie over uw bezoek en interesses. Op deze manier is het mogelijk om het gebruik van onze site te analyseren, de inhoud van de website te personaliseren, u relevante advertenties te tonen en sociale media functies te integreren. Zo houden we het voor u op elk moment interessant. HLN en uw cookies Websites hanteren technologieën om het gebruiksgemak te verhogen en de website zo interessant mogelijk te maken voor elke bezoeker. Bekendste voorbeelden van dit soort technologieën zijn cookies. 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Michel will remain in place as prime minister for now. But his "orange-blue" coalition doesn't have a parliamentary majority without the Flemish nationalists, raising the possibility he may not be able to finish his mandate. Belgium faces regional, federal and European elections in May. The N-VA on Saturday formally broke ranks over the U.N. migration compact, an international agreement the Belgian parliament, minus the N-VA and far-right Vlaams Belang, has committed to signing but that has attracted strong criticism from right and far-right parties across Europe. Michel called a crunch-time ministerial meeting late on Saturday as a last attempt to break the deadlock, after days of crisis talks. But N-VA members of government walked out of the meeting after half an hour. "We formally stated that we don't agree to this [U.N.] pact," party chief Bart De Wever told reporters at a press conference shortly after. Dueling late-night press conferences late Saturday night created confusion over whether key ministries were still held by the N-VA or rendered vacant. Speaking to the press, Michel said he "took note of the N-VA's decision to leave the government" and would represent a minority government without the Flemish nationalists when heading to Marrakesh. "I think that, formally speaking, we are stepping down. We said that if the coalition goes to Marrakech, it will be without us," Jambon told VRT on Sunday. The government will pursue "firm but humane" migration policies, Vice Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Sunday. "No one in this government wants to pursue an open border policy," he added, disputing the N-VA's claim parties had formed a "Marrakech coalition." The N-VA "suddenly" took a different view on the country's position in the world, De Croo said. "To me, it's a question of our principles." This story has been updated. Read this next: Steve Bannon in Brussels: UN migration pact already ‘dead’[SEP]Brussels — Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel is now at the helm of a minority government after the Flemish nationalist party on Sunday quit the ruling coalition over his support of a UN migration pact widely opposed by anti-immigrant populists. The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the largest of the coalition’s four parties, had earlier threatened to leave if Michel backed the accord, which has become a cause celebre for right-wing parties across Europe. Belgium’s King Philippe accepted the resignations of the N-VA’s ministers on Sunday after meeting with Michel at the royal palace, according to a statement. Michel also presented the king with the list of replacements for the departing N-VA ministers in the interior, finance, defence and migration portfolios. With the departure of the Flemish party, Michel lacks a parliamentary majority with five months to go before legislative elections scheduled for late May. “I regret that it has come to this,” Michel told the RTL-TVI television channel. He said that a “responsible coalition” had been set up and called for “dialogue with parliament”, warning of a looming risk of early elections, which he said could “stymie the country for a year”. Addressing a news conference later in the day, Michel said the weakened government’s three priorities would be purchasing power, security and climate policy. Interior minister and N-VA member Jan Jambon had confirmed earlier Sunday that he and the party’s other ministers would step down. “It’s clear,” he told national broadcaster RTBF, following hours of uncertainty.[SEP]Belgium's far-right New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party quit Prime Minister Charles Michel's coalition government over his decision to sign a U.N. accord on migration, Interior Minister and N-VA member Jan Jambon said Sunday. The decision will leave Michel as head of a minority government. Belgian media reported that Michel was reshuffling his cabinet to replace three ministers from the N-VA who have resigned. Minister for Health and Social Affairs Maggie de Block will inherit the asylum and migration portfolio, a post she had previously held, according to the VRT broadcaster. Vice premier Alexander De Croo is to take over as finance minister from Johan Van Overtveldt. Secretary of State Peter de Crem will be promoted to interior minister, taking over from Jan Jambon, while Denis Ducarme, whose portfolio includes agriculture, is to become defence minister, according to VRT. Michel was meeting on Sunday with King Philippe, who has accepted the resignation of the three ministers.[SEP]Belgium Interior Minister Jan Jambon of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) confirmed on Sunday (9/12/2018) that he, along with the party’s other ministers would resign over disagreement with Prime minister Charles Michel over signature of Global Comapact on migration in Marrakesh, Morocco, at UN-led conference scheduled for Monday, December 10. “It’s clear,” he told to RTBF, following hours of uncertainty. The decision means Charles Michel will lead a minority government for the five months before parliamentary elections scheduled for late May. He will now have to appoint ministers to replace those held by the N-VA — which had been the largest of the coalition’s four parties — including the interior, finance, defence and migration portfolios. In power for four years, the coalition has often been riven over the N-VA’s anti-migration positions. Party leader Bart De Wever issued an ultimatum to Michel on Saturday night, suggesting the N-VA would leave the coalition if the Prime minister flew to a UN conference in Marrakesh on Sunday to endorse the pact. Michel stood firm, saying he would represent Belgium in Marrakesh as the “head of state of a responsible coalition”. A ‘last attempt’ cabinet meeting was held late Saturday, but failed to overcome the differences between the parties. The non-binding UN accord, which would promote a common global approach to migrant flows, has become notorious for European anti-immigration parties. It was initially supported by all four parties in Belgium‘s coalition, but the N-VA changed its position in late October. The crisis had been going on for several weeks before bursting into the open when Prime minister Michel, a Liberal, turned to parliament after failing to unite his government behind the pact. The N-VA and the far-right Vlaams Belang party voted against the accord. The draft UN pact lays down 23 objectives, claiming to open up legal migration and better management of a global flow of 250 million people in need. The United States refused the talks on the pact last year, joined by a number of European countries like Hungary, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Australia, and Croatia.[SEP]Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel was left leading a minority administration on Sunday after the Flemish nationalist party quit the ruling coalition over his support of a UN migration pact. The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the largest of the coalition's four parties, had earlier threatened to leave if Michel backed the accord, which has become a cause celebre for European anti-immigration parties. Belgium's King Philippe accepted the resignations of the N-VA's ministers on Sunday after meeting with Michel at the royal palace, according to a statement. Michel also presented the king with the names of those who would replace the N-VA ministers in the interior, finance, defence and migration portfolios. The departure of the Flemish party means Michel will lack a parliamentary majority for five months ahead of legislative elections scheduled for late May. Interior minister and N-VA member Jan Jambon had confirmed earlier Sunday that he and the party's other ministers would step down. "It's clear," he told national broadcaster RTBF, following hours of uncertainty. In power for four years, the coalition has often been riven over the N-VA's anti-migration positions. Party leader Bart De Wever issued Michel an ultimatum on Saturday night, suggesting that the N-VA would quit the coalition if the prime minister flew to a UN conference in Marrakesh on Sunday to endorse the migration pact. "If we no longer have a voice in this government... there is no point in continuing," he said. Michel stood firm, saying he would represent Belgium in Marrakesh as the "head of state of a responsible coalition". A last-gasp cabinet meeting was held late Saturday, but failed to overcome the differences between the parties. The non-binding UN accord, which would promote a common global approach to migrant flows, was initially supported by all four parties in Belgium's coalition. But the N-VA changed its mind in late October. The crisis had been rumbling for several weeks before bursting into the open on Tuesday when Michel turned to parliament after failing to unite his government behind the pact. The liberal prime minister has steadfastly defended the pact, saying the international "credibility" of Belgium was at stake. On Thursday, a majority of parliament supported the accord, but the N-VA and the far-right Vlaams Belang party voted against. French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Steve Bannon, a former advisor to US President Donald Trump, denounced the UN pact at an event hosted by Vlaams Belang in Brussels on Saturday. "The country that signs the pact obviously signs a pact with the devil," Le Pen said. The draft UN pact lays down 23 objectives to open up legal migration and better manage a global flow of 250 million people, three percent of the world population. The United States dropped out of talks on the pact last year and countries such as Hungary, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Australia have rejected it. The pact is expected to be ratified at the UN headquarters in New York on December 19.[SEP]Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel relaunched his government on Sunday as a minority administration after the biggest party in his coalition quit in a dispute over signing the U.N. migration compact. BRUSSELS: Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel relaunched his government on Sunday as a minority administration after the biggest party in his coalition quit in a dispute over signing the U.N. migration compact. Michel met King Philippe to remould his government as a three-party coalition of his French-speaking liberal MR and two Flemish parties, the centre-right CD&V and Open VLD, after the departure of the Flemish N-VA following four years together. With a federal election due anyway in late May, many observers see no immediate need for an early vote. Michel told a news conference with his remaining ministers that the government would focus in the remaining months on the economy, defending Belgium's interests ahead of Brexit, security and climate change. He also said he would speak with members of parliament to see how his minority government, with just 52 of 150 seats, could proceed, without saying which other parties he saw as potential allies. The N-VA's exit left Michel with three ministerial posts to fill, along with portfolios, such as immigration, held by N-VA's two state secretaries. Alexander De Croo, one of the deputy prime ministers, will become finance minister, Pieter De Crem, a former defence minister, becomes interior minister, while foreign minister Didier Reynders will add defence to his portfolio The right-wing N-VA, which is the biggest party in parliament, pulled its ministers from the coalition after Michel refused its demand that he not sign the U.N. migration compact in Marrakesh on Monday, in a move critics see as an opening shot in the election campaign. Michel had secured a large parliamentary majority last week in favour of maintaining Belgium's support of the United Nations text, with support from the opposition socialists and greens. Since it was agreed by all U.N. states bar the United States in July, the text has run into criticism from European politicians who say it could increase immigration to Europe. The N-VA risks electoral losses in its Dutch-speaking region to the harder-right, anti-immigration Vlaams Belang. Its leader Bart De Wever issued Michel an ultimatum that it would quit the government if he signed the non-binding U.N. declaration. At least six EU states - mostly in formerly Communist eastern Europe - have already shunned the accord to regulate the treatment of migrants worldwide, a sign of how the bloc has turned increasingly restrictive on accepting refugees and migrants alike since a 2015 spike in arrivals.[SEP]Belgium's Flemish nationalist party said on Sunday it will quit the ruling coalition, leaving Prime Minister Charles Michel as the head of a minority government after a row over a UN migration pact. Interior Minister Jan Jambon of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) confirmed on Sunday that he and the party's other ministers would step down. "It's clear," he told national broadcaster RTBF, following hours of uncertainty. The decision means Michel will lead a minority government for the five months before parliamentary elections scheduled for late May. He will now have to appoint ministers to replace those held by the N-VA -- which had been the largest of the coalition's four parties -- including the interior, finance, defence and migration portfolios. In power for four years, the coalition has often been riven over the N-VA's anti-migration positions. Party leader Bart De Wever issued an ultimatum to Michel on Saturday night, suggesting the N-VA would leave the coalition if the prime minister flew to a UN conference in Marrakesh on Sunday to endorse the pact. Michel stood firm, saying he would represent Belgium in Marrakesh as the "head of state of a responsible coalition". A last-gasp cabinet meeting was held late Saturday, but failed to overcome the differences between the parties. The non-binding UN accord, which would promote a common global approach to migrant flows, has become a cause celebre for European anti-immigration parties. It was initially supported by all four parties in Belgium's coalition, but the N-VA changed its mind in late October. The crisis had been rumbling for several weeks before bursting into the open on Tuesday when Michel, a liberal, turned to parliament after failing to unite his government behind the pact. The N-VA and the far-right Vlaams Belang party voted against the accord. The draft UN pact lays down 23 objectives to open up legal migration and better manage a global flow of 250 million people, three percent of the world population. The United States dropped out of talks on the pact last year and countries such as Hungary, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Australia have rejected it.

Prime Minister Charles Michel says that the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party quits the coalition. N-VA cites its disagreement over the signing of the United Nations Global Compact for Migration. Michel plans to continue with a minority cabinet until the next scheduled election.

A Delta IV rocket, carrying the Parker Solar Probe, lifts off from launch complex 37 at the Kennedy Space Center, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Parker Solar Probe will venture closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft and is protected by a first-of-its-kind heat shield and other innovative technologies that will provide unprecedented information about the Sun. The scheduled launch of a rocket carrying a reconnaissance satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County that was originally scheduled for Friday and reset for Saturday was called off at T-minus 7 seconds due to a problem detected by the Terminal Countdown Sequencer Rack, according to United Launch Alliance. The launch was not immediately rescheduled. Prior launches from Vandenberg have created spectacular light displays over the Southern California and the southwestern United States. The United Launch Alliance rocket was initially set to take off at 8:19 p.m. Friday, but roughly three hours before launch time, it was scrubbed due to "an issue with a redundant communication link between the control center and launch site.'' If liftoff had been successful Saturday, the launch would have been the second rocket to take off this week from Vandenberg AFB. Hawthorne-based SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the base Monday, carrying 64 satellites into orbit. The latest launch is being carried out by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. ULA's Delta IV Heavy rocket will carry a secretive satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. "We are proud to launch this critical payload in support of our nation's national security mission,'' Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of government and commercial programs, said in a statement. "As the nation's premiere launch provider, the teams have worked diligently to ensure continued mission success, delivering our customer's payloads to the precise orbits requested.'' According to the company, the Delta IV Heavy rocket includes three Rocketdyne liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines that can produce a combined 2.1 million pounds of thrust. ULA has carried out 27 launches for the National Reconnaissance Office over the past 12 years. Copyright City News Service[SEP]United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket launched Saturday with the mysterious NROL-71 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from SLC-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A series of technical and weather-related scrubs hampered the launch attempts, prior to a lengthy stand down to fix a hydrogen leak that scrubbed the final attempt of 2017 with just seconds remaining in the count. With the issue fixed, the launch was realigned for January 19, with the window opening at 11:05 AM local time (19:05 UTC). Launch occurred slightly into the window at 11:10 AM local time. Like most activities conducted by the United States National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), specifics of the NRO Launch 71 (NROL-71) mission were classified. The NRO is the organization that operates America’s fleet of reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering satellites, using a variety of spacecraft types and surveillance techniques to support national defense and security. Despite the classified nature of their operations, a combination of information published by the NRO itself and other government sources, leaks and observation of the satellites’ orbits and behavior has allowed different groups of satellites to be characterized and their purpose determined. Analysis of hazard areas published for maritime and aviation safety in advance of every launch, combined with a comparison of the type of rocket to be used to those that have orbited previous satellites, allows most NRO satellites to be identified before they even leave the ground – although occasionally a mission will throw a curveball. NROL-71 has proven one such mission. Before the launch time and hazard areas were published it was a safe bet that this launch would add a new member to the NRO’s fleet of KH-11, or Crystal, imaging satellites. Also formerly codenamed Kennen, Key Hole 11 (KH-11) spacecraft collect incredibly high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface and transmit them back to the ground for analysis. Originally developed in the 1970s, but upgraded over time, the KH-11 is among the largest satellites that the NRO operates and requires one of America’s most powerful rockets, the Delta IV Heavy, to place it into orbit. The near-polar sun-synchronous orbits used by Crystal satellites dictate that they must be launched from California, as to launch from Florida would either require the rocket to fly – and potentially drop debris – over land, or to avoid this by making a dogleg maneuver which would affect its performance. As Crystal is the only type of satellite to have launched aboard a Delta IV Heavy from the West Coast, the launch was widely expected to carry a replacement for the oldest satellite in the constellation. But instead of the south-westerly trajectory required to reach Crystal’s sun-synchronous orbit, hazard areas for the NROL-71 mission show that the rocket will follow a south-easterly track towards an orbit inclined at about 74 degrees. Aside from a 2010 technology demonstration mission, no US military satellite has operated in an orbit close to this inclination since 1971. That 2010 mission was STPSat-2, which was flown in a 72-degree orbit by the Space Test Program to test sensors and data relay systems in space. It is unlikely to be related to the NROL-71 mission. Before 1971 a 75-degree orbit was used for a small proportion of the NRO’s fleet of KH-4 Corona imaging satellites as well as seven “heavy ferret” electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) satellites and two photoreconnaissance satellites of the short-lived KH-6 Lanyard project. The Soviet Union operated Zenit photoreconnaissance satellites in 73-degree orbits from 1966 until 1989, along with ELINT, calibration, communications and geodesy satellites in similarly-inclined orbits whose launches were continued by Russia until the early 2000s. The use of a Delta IV Heavy means that the NROL-71 payload must either by too heavy to be deployed by any of the other rockets qualified to carry out the NRO’s most expensive and critical missions or destined for a sufficiently high orbit as to require the services of this behemoth rocket. The only high orbits typically of value for reconnaissance are an elliptical Molniya orbit, which allows eavesdropping satellites to loiter over high latitudes for much of their time, and geostationary orbit. NROL-71 will target neither of these – Molniya orbits require a precise inclination of 63.4 degrees, while geostationary trajectories require that the rocket launch almost due East which is not practical from Vandenberg – meaning that its payload is likely a heavy satellite. Despite the unusual orbit, a KH-11 is still a likely candidate for the identity of the NROL-71 payload. The less-inclined orbit could allow the satellite to spend more time over lower latitudes instead of passing over the polar oceans and icecaps. Not having the satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit would also allow it to view areas of interest at different times of the day with objects on the surface casting shadows in different directions. A Crystal in such an orbit could be intended to compliment the sun-synchronous element of the constellation, or may signal a move away from SSO for this program. If NROL-71 does deploy a Crystal satellite, it will be the seventeenth such spacecraft to launch. The KH-11 was developed as a continuation to the long-running series of Key Hole satellites that had begun with early Corona imaging spacecraft in the 1950s. It was the first Key Hole not to use film capsules, downlinking images electronically instead of physically sending them back to Earth for processing. The first KH-11, OPS 5705, was deployed by a Titan rocket in December 1976. Initially KH-11 operated alongside the film-return KH-8 Gambit and KH-9 Hexagon satellites, which provided high-resolution and wide-area imaging capabilities respectively, but eventually the new satellites assumed both of these roles. The design of the Hubble Space Telescope was reportedly influenced by Crystal, with Hubble’s mirrors being designed to take advantage of production techniques – and possibly hardware – developed for the reconnaissance programme. The KH-11 satellites are also said to have similar proportions and appearance to Hubble. Four distinct “blocks” of KH-11 satellites have been identified. The first two blocks consisted of five and four satellites respectively, launched aboard Titan III(34)D rockets. Block III was designed to be launched by the Space Shuttle, however following the loss of Challenger polar-orbit Shuttle missions were abandoned and the Titan IV rocket was developed instead. The most recent upgrade, Block IV, was first flown in 2001. The fourteenth Crystal mission, NROL-20 or USA-186, was launched by the final Titan IV rocket and was expected to be the last KH-11 to fly. The National Reconnaissance Office had intended to procure a next-generation optical imaging satellite through its Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) program, but after this collapsed the agency purchased two additional KH-11s, built in part from leftover spares, to serve as a stopgap until a new system could be developed. When the first of these launched, aboard a Delta IV Heavy in 2011, its mission patch bore the Latin inscription “melior diabolus quem scies” – better the devil you know. More recent rumors have suggested that the NRO has opted to buy a fifth generation of Crystal satellites instead of developing a replacement from scratch. These could incorporate more modern technologies and benefit from the increased performance of Delta IV over Titan IV to carry more fuel, which would allow them to maintain lower orbits than their predecessors. If NROL-71 is a KH-11, it will certainly be the first member of this new generation. Another possibility is that NROL-71 may be a successor to the stealthy Misty imaging satellites that were launched in 1990 and 1999. Believed to be an offshoot of the Crystal series, the first Misty satellite was USA-53, deployed from Space Shuttle Atlantis during 1990’s STS-36 mission. After deployment, USA-53 shed debris – leading to reports that it had failed – and maneuvered to a different orbit. During its lifetime, amateur observers lost track of – and subsequently rediscovered – Misty several times with the last sighting in 1997. A second Misty, USA-144, was launched in May 1999 aboard a Titan IV(404)B. After deployment the satellite released a decoy and then disappeared – despite the efforts of the amateur satellite watching community, USA-144 was never found. It is unclear whether this spacecraft is still in orbit. The Misty satellites operated in orbits with significantly lower inclination than Crystal: USA-53 used a 65-degree orbit and USA-144 was deployed into a 63-degree orbit, although its final destination is unknown. They are believed to be among the most expensive satellites ever launched, and development of a third Misty satellite was canceled in the mid-2000s due to the project’s cost. Observations of the NROL-71 payload, which is expected to be named USA-289 once it reaches orbit, will likely reveal more about its identity and mission. A lack of observations could point towards it being another Misty satellite. The Delta IV Heavy that was used for the NROL-71 mission is the heaviest rocket currently certified to carry out national security launches of this nature. A two-stage vehicle, Delta IV consists of a Common Booster Core (CBC) first stage and a Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS), which both burn cryogenic propellant: liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It’s a beautiful day for remote camera setup here at historic SLC-6 (designed as a shuttle pad!). Delta IV Heavy is sitting ready to muscle NRO-71 into orbit tonight. @NASASpaceflight @ulalaunch @torybruno @NatReconOfc pic.twitter.com/OExMQ03CTz — Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer) December 7, 2018 The rocket can be flown in five different configurations depending on the mass and dimensions of its payload and the target orbit. The smallest of these, the Delta IV Medium, used a four-meter diameter upper stage and no boosters, while three Medium+ versions – M+(4,2), M+(5,2) and M+(5,4) added two or four solid rocket motors and in the latter two cases a five-meter upper stage. The Delta IV Heavy uses three Common Booster Cores strapped together, with the center core operating at partial thrust for much of its flight to extend its burn beyond that of the two outboard cores. It is the only version of the Delta that is expected to continue flying past the end of next year, as the Medium configuration has already been retired and the Medium+ versions of the rocket are being phased out. United Launch Alliance will instead focus on offering launch services in these classes with its Atlas V rocket, before introducing a new rocket – Vulcan – to replace both Atlas and Delta in the family. The launch used the west-coast Delta IV launch pad, Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) at Vandenberg Air Force Base. SLC-6 was originally developed in the 1960s for the Titan family of rockets, specifically to support the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) military space station. When MOL was canceled, SLC-6 was mothballed. It would later be reconstructed to support Space Shuttle missions to polar orbits, however risk reduction following the Challenger accident eliminated these plans and the complex once again went unused. The first launch from SLC-6 finally came in August 1995, when Lockheed launched the first flight of the Lockheed Launch Vehicle 1 (LLV-1), which would later be named Athena. This launch failed, and while the next launch from the pad successfully placed NASA’s Lewis satellite into orbit the payload suffered an unrecoverable malfunction three days later. This, along with another launch failing in April 1999, led to a myth that the launch pad was cursed. The fourth and final Athena mission from SLC-6, in August 1999, successfully delivered a healthy satellite to orbit. Boeing began converting SLC-6 for its Delta IV rocket in the early 2000s. Delta first used the complex in June 2006 and has made seven launches from Vandenberg prior to this mission, two of which have been in the Heavy configuration. This will be the first west-coast launch for a Delta IV Heavy with RS-68A engines, an upgraded version of the RS-68 Overall, this launch will be the thirty-eighth flight of Delta IV and the eleventh Heavy. The NROL-71 launch began with the ignition of the RS-68A engines that power the three Common Booster Cores. The starboard core ignited seven seconds before the scheduled liftoff, with the port and center boosters igniting two seconds later at T-5. This staggered ignition is intended to mitigate a fireball that can form around the rocket on startup as a result of hydrogen boiling off the rocket. Liftoff occurred at the zero mark in the countdown. After pitching over onto a south-easterly azimuth of about 168 degrees, Delta IV passed through the area of maximum dynamic pressure – Max-Q – shortly before it reaches Mach 1 – the speed of sound – 82 seconds into the flight. The three CBCs powered the rocket for the first three minutes and fifty-six seconds of the flight, with the port and starboard boosters burning at full thrust and the center core at partial thrust. When the two outboard cores depleted their propellant, their engines shut down, and the spent cores separated two seconds later. Once the port and starboard boosters separated, the center core throttled up and burned at full power for most of the remaining two minutes of first-stage flight. Seven seconds after main engine cutoff (MECO), the first stage was jettisoned and the second stage entered its prestart sequence. The RL10B-2 engine ignited twelve seconds after stage separation. Eleven seconds later, Delta IV’s payload fairing separated from the nose of the rocket, exposing the payload to space for the first time. Owing to the classified nature of this mission, United Launch Alliance has not published a timeline for mission events following fairing separation and as is normal for NRO flights all official coverage of the mission is expected to conclude at this point other than a press release confirming a successful launch some time after spacecraft separation. The second stage will likely make a single burn, lasting around 12 minutes, before separating its payload into low Earth orbit. An additional launch hazard area to the northwest of Vandenberg suggests that the second stage will be deorbited into the Pacific shortly after separation. The next launch for both United Launch Alliance and the Delta IV will be the Medium+(5,4) configuration will be used for the last time to loft a Wideband Global Satcom communications satellite for the US Air Force. The next Delta IV Heavy mission is expected to fly from Vandenberg in mid-2020.[SEP]United Launch Alliance will use a Delta IV Heavy rocket to launch the NROL-71 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. This will be 132nd mission for United Launch Alliance and ULA's second Delta IV Heavy launch in less than four months. It is the 382nd Delta launch since 1960, the 38th for a Delta IV rocket since 2002 and the 11th Delta IV Heavy. This comes a day after SpaceX's successful launch on a mission to resupply the International Space Station. Though the cargo-packed Dragon spacecraft made it safely to orbit and is scheduled to arrive at the ISS around 6 a.m. Saturday, the 156-foot-tall rocket stage did not share the same fate – instead of Landing Zone 1, it automatically targeted a wet landing in the Atlantic Ocean about two miles offshore. USA TODAY will stream the Delta IV Heavy rocket launch live in the player above.[SEP]The launch of a massive rocket carrying out a mission for the U.S. agency responsible for spy satellites was called off just seconds ahead of liftoff on Saturday. United Launch Alliance, a contractor for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), was expected to launch a Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the NROL-71 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday evening. The launch was initially delayed, then called off about 7.5 seconds before liftoff. The company said there was “an unexpected condition during terminal count.” READ MORE: SpaceX says top secret spy satellite disappearing not its fault “The team is currently reviewing all data and will determine the path forward. A new launch date will be provided when available,” ULA said. A previous launch attempt was aborted on Friday due to an issue with a communication link between the control centre and launch site. The NRO is responsible for developing, launching and operating U.S. intelligence satellites. It described the NROL-71 as a “national security payload designed, built and operated by the NRO.”[SEP]The launch of the Delta IV Heavy rocket, carrying a reconnaissance satellite, was called off on Saturday evening seven seconds before liftoff, United Launch Alliance (ULA) said. According to the company, the mission was put on hold due to “an unexpected condition” in one of the computing systems. The launch was supposed to take place at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite was originally to be launched into space on Friday but that attempt was also abruptly called off due to a technical malfunction.[SEP]The countdown stopped 7 seconds before liftoff Saturday as a Delta IV Heavy rocket sat poised on its launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base for a second attempt to launch a spy satellite into orbit on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office. United Launch Alliance scrubbed a planned launch in the final seconds after detecting a problem, ULA said via Twitter. A previous attempt to launch the 233-foot-tall rocket on Friday was scrubbed about three hours before launch. Small flames could be seen igniting at the base of the engines before they quickly disappeared The rocket remained still. With favorable weather conditions, Saturday’s launch was originally slated for 8:06 p.m., but a brief stop in the countdown to troubleshoot a problem pushed the liftoff back to 8:15 p.m., the company said. All systems were “go” until the countdown was halted just seven seconds before liftoff after a problem was detected, ULA said. The attempt was cancelled for the night, but it was not clear when ULA will try again. The rocket carries a secret payload. It is set to deploy a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. ULA is working in conjunction with the Air Force’s 30th Space Wing on the launch, dubbed NROL-71.[SEP]LOMPOC, Calif. — Just seconds before the planned liftoff of a Delta IV Heavy rocket with the NROL-71 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, an automatic abort of the launch sequence was triggered. With only a minor issue earlier in the countdown, the Dec. 8, 2018, launch attempt of United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket seemed ready to fly with the classified NROL-71 payload at 8:15 p.m. PST (11:15 p.m. EST / 04:15 GMT Dec. 9) from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base. However, just as the engines were about to start and excess hydrogen gas burn off began—a hold was called, which would ultimately scrub the launch. “The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy carrying the NROL-71 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office was scrubbed today due to an unexpected condition during terminal count at approximately 7.5 seconds before liftoff,” a ULA statement reads. “The team is currently reviewing all data and will determine the path forward.” Within minutes, the launch team verified the rocket, launch pad and payload were in a safe configuration. Shortly thereafter, it was recommended that the 233-foot (71-meter) tall, triple-core rocket be emptied of its liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant. This was the second attempt to get the NROL-71 mission off the ground (the first was on Dec. 7). ULA has not announced when its next launch attempt will occur. This was slated to be the company’s 38th Delta IV rocket (the 11th “Heavy” variant) since the vehicle’s debut in 2002. Should the rocket launch before the end of the year, it will be the final flight for ULA in 2018, capping off with nine missions—five Atlas V’s, three Delta IV’s (two if NROL-71 is delayed to 2019) and the final flight of the venerable Delta II rocket. Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a blog about the International Space Station, called Orbital Velocity. He met with members of the SpaceFlight Insider team during the flight of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the MUOS-4 satellite. Richardson joined our team shortly thereafter. His passion for space ignited when he watched Space Shuttle Discovery launch into space Oct. 29, 1998. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized his true calling was communicating to others about space. Since joining SpaceFlight Insider in 2015, Richardson has worked to increase the quality of our content, eventually becoming our managing editor. @TheSpaceWriter[SEP]If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member . If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further. A dramatic automatic abort 7.5 seconds before the planned liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket Saturday night kept the towering launcher on the pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with a top secret spy payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The 233-foot-tall (71-meter) rocket was counting down to launch at 8:15 p.m. PST Saturday (11:15 p.m. PST; 0415 GMT Sunday), but an automated sequencer detected a technical issue and triggered an abort. “Hold hold hold,” a member of the ULA launch team declared on the countdown net. A burst of flame appeared at the base of the rocket, a normal occurrence in the final seconds of a Delta 4 countdown as sparklers activate near the engines to burn off excess hydrogen gas before ignition, a measure aimed at eliminating the risk of a fireball or explosion. It was not immediately clear whether any of the rocket’s three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A main engines started their ignition sequences, but a statement later released by ULA said the computer-controlled countdown sequencer ordered an abort at T-minus 7.5 seconds. In the statement, ULA said the abort was “due to an unexpected condition during terminal count at approximately 7.5 seconds before liftoff. “The team is currently reviewing all data and will determine the path forward. A new launch date will be provided when available,” ULA said. The Delta 4-Heavy is made up of three Delta 4 first stage boosters bolted together, each with an RS-68A engine burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. ULA commands the three RS-68A engines to start in a staggered sequence, beginning with the starboard engine at T-minus 7 seconds, followed two seconds later by ignition of the center and port engines. The timing of the abort at T-minus 7.5 seconds suggests the countdown stopped around a half-second before the first of the Delta 4-Heavy’s three main engines was supposed to ignite. ULA’s launch team quickly “safed” the rocket, disarmed ordnance, and drained the Delta 4-Heavy of its supply of cryogenic propellants. The launch team did not set a new target launch date, but officials were instructed to plan for an extended turnaround after Saturday night’s scrub, and the Delta 4-Heavy flight was expected to be delayed at least a few days. A similar cutoff in the final seconds of a Delta 4 countdown in 2010 resulted in a three-day slip to resolve the problem responsible for the abort — and replace the hydrogen burn-off sparklers on the pad — before the rocket successfully launched from Cape Canaveral with a GPS navigation satellite. The upcoming mission from Vandenberg, located around 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, is codenamed NROL-71 by the National Reconnaissance Office, which owns the U.S. government’s classified intelligence-gathering satellites. The NRO has not released any information about the spacecraft aboard the Delta 4-Heavy, but independent observers of NRO space launches believe the payload is heading for an unusual, high-inclination orbit, and is likely a new Keyhole-type high-resolution optical imaging satellite, with an Earth-pointing telescope capable of capturing extremely detailed imagery of sites around the world for review by government intelligence analysts. The Delta 4-Heavy is ULA’s biggest rocket, and can loft up to 51,950 pounds (23,560 kilograms) of payload mass to a 120-mile-high (200-kilometer) low Earth orbit inclined 90 degrees to the equator. The heavy-lift variant of the Delta 4 rocket has launched 10 times to date. The NROL-71 mission will be the 11th flight of a Delta 4-Heavy, and the 38th mission overall for the Delta 4 family since November 2002. It will also be ULA’s ninth and final launch of the year, following five Atlas 5 launches, a pair of Delta 4s, and the final liftoff of the company’s now-retired Delta 2 rocket. A launch attempt for the NROL-71 mission Friday night was scrubbed after the Delta 4 team encountered a problem with a communications link between the control center and the rocket associated with the holdfire system.[SEP]The planned launch of a 233-foot-tall, 1.6-million-pound United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket on Friday was delayed about three hours before it was set to blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base with a top secret satellite, authorities said. National Reconnaissance Office Launch 71, or NROL 71, was scheduled to lift off at 8:19 p.m., ULA said in a written statement. But the company “scrubbed” the launch in favor of trying again 24 hours later, ULA said via Twitter. The launch will be the private space launch company’s 132nd mission, and its second Delta IV Heavy launch in under four months. The mission is being flown in conjunction with the Air Force’s 30th Space Wing. ULA plans to live stream the launch beginning 20 minutes before liftoff.[SEP]"The launch of #DeltaIVHeavy carrying the #NROL71 mission for the @NatReconOfc was scrubbed today due to an unexpected condition during terminal count. The team is reviewing all data and will determine the path forward. A new launch date will be provided when available," the company said on Twitter. READ MORE: Delta II US Carrier Rocket With New Generation Satellite Lifts Off (VIDEO) The launch was to be carried out at 20.15 local time Saturday (04.15 GMT Sunday) from the US Air Force Base Vanderberg in California. The Delta IV rocket is the fourth generation of the Boeing Delta family of launch vehicles. The Delta IV was developed as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program to launch commercial satellites and US Air Force satellites.

The ULA launch of a Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the NROL-71 mission is called off 7 seconds before liftoff time.

Atlanta United’s extraordinary opening chapter came to the ideal conclusion for hometown fans on Saturday night, as an MLS record 73,019 crowd saw them defeat Portland 2-0 to win MLS Cup, in only their second year of existence. Josef Martinez eased any local memories of infamous Atlanta sporting collapses with a typical poacher’s goal just before half-time, and then with a keen but limited Portland team pushing for a comeback, Franco Escobar finished off a 54th minute set piece at the back post, to tilt the mood in the stadium into decidedly celebratory mode. Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) MVP! MVP! MVP! Cool. Calm. Collected. @JosefMartinez17 opens the scoring in #MLSCup https://t.co/ZWD8CQVRC8 With coach Tata Martino leaving to take the Mexico job, and inspirational playmaker Miguel Almiron parlaying his own extraordinary tenure in MLS into a likely move to the Premier League, the coming off-season was always likely to represent an inflection point for an Atlanta project that has steamrollered into the league as both a competitive and cultural force. At times, even as they have dominated opponents with their high-speed attack, and racked up more points than any other team playing during their short history, that competitive aspect has almost been taken for granted amid the focus on the sheer spectacle of the Atlanta United phenomenon. But make no mistake, in a town without a major sporting championship since 1995, it mattered that the end of the beginning came with a win. Yet this was also an extraordinary spectacle for the league. Grateful MLS executives may wonder what they have done to deserve this. The last time Portland Timbers appeared in an MLS Cup final, in 2015, they won the title in front of 21,747 fans in Columbus. Now the Timbers found themselves competing in front of a crowd larger than any of the last four Super Bowls, in a state of the art stadium, against a team who didn’t exist three short years ago. Atlanta fans are not shy about reminding the rest of the league about the benchmarks they have set. Before the game kicked off, a giant tifo banner of a steam train was hoisted in the main supporters’ section. Barreling at full speed, it was emblazoned with the legend “MLS 3.0”. Presumably we were to imagine this train rumbling over flattened timbers, and in truth, the Timbers could do little to derail Atlanta, on a night when their usual plan of well-drilled containment and countering looked inadequate. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brad Guzan celebrates as Atlanta’s victory is confirmed. Photograph: Jason Getz/USA Today Sports Both teams started cautiously, befitting the stakes of a final, and Portland perhaps saw a little more of the ball than they may have anticipated early in the game. But Atlanta were the clear aggressors, pushing their overlapping wide players forward trying to pull Portland out of shape, and not shy about sending long balls over the top to test the honesty of Larrys Mabiala and Liam Ridgewell at the heart of the Portland defense. Still, clear chances were at a premium for both sides, until Atlanta forced a breakthrough from nothing in the 39th minute. Michael Parkhust, the Atlanta captain had lost all four MLS Cups he had played in – the last one in Portland’s 2015 win over his Columbus Crew SC team. Now he had the decisive touch in bringing the Cup to Atlanta. With Portland trying to play the ball out of the back in risky fashion, Parkhurst pounced on a loose touch from Jeremy Ebobisse. His lunging tackle touched the ball towards Josef Martinez on the edge of the box. The Venezuelan’s quick touch and thought left a flailing Ridgewell stranded, before Martinez neatly stepped around Jeff Attinella to place the ball into an empty net. Portland have made something of a habit of second-half comebacks in this playoff run, not least when Sebastian Blanco’s gut punch of a golazo turned around the Western Conference final. For a brief flash in the early moments of the second half they looked like they might be about to play themselves into this game as well, but then Almiron’s free kick was flicked on by Martinez to meet Escobar’s sprint to the back post, and when the defender placed the ball across Attinella for 2-0, the result rarely looked in doubt. Portland kept working, but their attacks increasingly looked like backdrops for the curtain calls Atlanta’s stars were taking as the minutes ran down. Man of the match Martinez was subbed out for Hector Villalba in the 86th minute, to an ovation that was perhaps only exceeded by the one for Almiron, in the 90th minute. It looks likely to be the last minute Almiron plays as an Atlanta player – bigger stages await. Though on the evidence of tonight, not much bigger.[SEP]Atlanta– Nicknamed “The Five Stripes” Atlanta United defeats the Portland Timbers 2-0 Saturday night inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Atlanta United got things going in the 39th minute with a goal by Josef Martinez to give Atlanta 1-0 lead before the half. In the second half Atlanta strikes again, Franco Escobar in the 54th minute give Atlanta United a 2-0 lead to cruise with that score. Atlanta finishes the season with a 21-7-6 record with 69 points. This is the first MLS Cup Title in Team History. Atlanta United formed in 2014 and started playing their first MLS game in 2017.[SEP](Reuters) - Atlanta United FC capped off a spectacular rise when they won the Major League Soccer (MLS) Cup final on Saturday, beating Portland Timbers 2-0 in front of 73,019 festive fans. In just their second year in the league, Atlanta dominated the Timbers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, scoring a goal in each half. MLS’ most valuable player Josef Martinez settled Atlanta’s nerves by scoring in the 39th minute, his 35th goal of the season. The Venezuela striker also had an assist in the second goal early in the second half, flicking on a glancing header to full back Franco Escobar, who ghosted in at the far post to score from point-blank range. The victory provided a perfect send-off for Atlanta coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, who is leaving to take charge, according to multiple media reports, of the Mexico national team.[SEP]ATLANTA, Georgia – The Portland Timbers ousted FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium on Halloween. They knocked off rival Seattle Sounders at a hostile CenturyLink Field. They fought back to beat top-seeded Sporting Kansas City on a chilly night at Children’s Mercy Park. But it wasn’t Portland’s night in Atlanta Saturday. Three years after hoisting the MLS Cup trophy in Columbus, the Timbers weren’t able to reclaim the championship. Portland’s magical 2018 MLS Cup Playoff run came to an end Saturday in the 2018 MLS Cup as the club fell 2-0 to Atlanta United in front of an MLS-record 73,019 fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Atlanta was heavily favored heading into Saturday’s game. The Eastern Conference powerhouse earned an incredible 69 points during the regular season and finished as the runner-up for the MLS Supporters’ Shield. Behind 31 goals from MLS MVP Josef Martinez, Atlanta also led the league with 70 goals over their 34-game campaign. Ahead of Saturday’s game, statistical website FiveThirtyEight gave Atlanta a 77 percent chance of winning their first MLS Cup trophy. The Timbers were happy to embrace the underdog label. After upsetting three teams on the road en route to the MLS Cup game, Portland believed that it could get the job done away from home once again. Atlanta was far from dominant in the first half of Saturday’s championship match. Neither team managed to take a shot until the 23rd minute when former Timber and current Atlanta midfielder Darlington Nagbe sent the ball over the net. But Atlanta didn’t need to wait for a moment of individual brilliance in the attack to score the opening goal Saturday. They just needed to take advantage of a sloppy moment on defense from the Timbers. Portland forward Jeremy Ebobisse took a heavy touch in the midfield in the 39th minute, enabling Atlanta defender Michael Parkhurst to make a sliding tackle. The ball shot out toward the box where it got past Liam Ridgewell before landing at the feet of Martinez. Martinez dribbled around Timbers goalkeeper Jeff Attinella and slotted in his 35th goal of the year to give Atlanta a big 1-0 lead. Franco Escobar put the game all but out of reach in the 54th minute. Miguel Almiron placed a beautiful free kick into the box for Martinez, who flicked a header on for Escobar. Escobar slid in and scored to give Atlanta the 2-0 lead. The cheers from the crowd, who stayed on their feet throughout the entire game, were deafening. Despite disappointment of Saturday’s loss, the Timbers can still be proud of their success in 2018. With a new coach in Giovanni Savarese and a handful of new players, Portland came together late in the year to make an unexpected run to the MLS Cup. Portland has had a history of success over the last six years. Since 2013, the Timbers have finished first in the Western Conference during the regular season twice, reached the Western Conference Championship series three times and made a run to the MLS Cup twice, winning the MLS Cup trophy in 2015. But after celebrating their first MLS Cup on the field in Columbus in 2015, the Timbers were forced to watch Atlanta hoist the coveted trophy Saturday night.[SEP]The title drought is over in Atlanta: The city's soccer club, Atlanta United, won the championship of Major League Soccer on Saturday night with a 2-0 victory over the Portland Timbers. It marked the city's first major sports title since the Braves won baseball's World Series in 1995. Josef Martinez and Franco Escobar scored for United, while goalkeeper Brad Guzan made some clutch saves. "It's not every day you get to win a title," Guzan said. "To be a part of this is truly special." When the match was over, a record crowd of more than 73,000 fans celebrated at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium -- while the rock band Queen's song, "We Are The Champions," played. "Most of us aren't from here, so we don't know the pain that they've been through," said United captain Michael Parkhurst, who broke his own title drought after playing on four runner-up teams. "I'm just happy that we could come through for them tonight. I know there were a lot of anxious and stressed-out fans." Portland was seeking its second MLS championship after winning the cup in 2015. They had eliminated Dallas, Seattle and Kansas City before losing in the final. Atlanta, in just its second season in the league, had beaten New York City FC and then the New York Red Bulls to earn the right to host the championship. The championship was Atlanta's second in soccer: The Atlanta Chiefs claimed the title in the old North American Soccer League in 1968. The Associated Press contributed to this story.[SEP]It all comes down to this. The final match of the season kicks off as Atlanta United FC takes on the Portland Timbers in the 2018 MLS Cup. The game will be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where there is expected to be a new MLS Cup record crowd. Sportsbooks list Atlanta United at -225 to win (bet $225 to win $100), while Portland is an underdog at +575 (risk $100 to win $575). A draw is listed at +360 after 90 minutes of play, and the Over/Under for total goals scored is 2.5. Before you lock in your 2018 MLS Cup picks, you'll wan't to see who SportsLine's Roger Gonzalez is picking. Gonzalez grew up playing competitive soccer before becoming one of the world's foremost soccer journalists. After covering soccer all over the globe -- a Champions League final in Italy, Copa America, professional leagues in Argentina -- Gonzalez returned to the U.S. as CBS Sports' top soccer expert. He has his finger on the pulse of MLS teams. Now, Gonzalez has analyzed Saturday's MLS Cup 2018 from every possible angle to reveal a strong money-line pick that he's only sharing at SportsLine. Gonzalez is well aware that Atlanta United features the most explosive attack in Major League Soccer. In fact, the Five Stripes scored 70 goals this season, the most by any club. Striker Josef Martinez won the 2018 MLS Golden Boot trophy, finishing with 31 regular-season goals, nine more than Zlatan Ibrahimovic's 22. And Atlanta gets the benefit of hosting the 2018 MLS Cup on Saturday, where the Five Stripes have lost just two games this season. But just because the United feature an explosive offensive attack doesn't mean there's value in backing them on the money line. Portland has flourished on the road in the 2018 MLS playoffs. The Timbers defeated FC Dallas away from home in the knockout stage and beat the arch-rival Sounders at CenturyLink Field in a dramatic penalty shootout in the Western Conference Semifinal. Portland then beat the top-seed Sporting Kansas City on the road, 3-2, to help the Timbers advance to their second MLS Cup final since 2015. Now, the Timbers get a chance to win their second MLS Cup championship in franchise history on Saturday. Portland had success against Atlanta earlier this season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Timbers led Atlanta 1-0 at halftime before eventually tying 1-1 in their only meeting this season back in June. We can tell you Gonzalez is leaning over 2.5 goals, and he's also identified a critical x-factor that makes one side of the money line a strong value. He's only sharing what it is, and who to back, at SportsLine. So who wins the 2018 MLS Cup? And what critical x-factor makes one side of the money line a major value? Visit SportsLine now to get Roger Gonzalez's exclusive Atlanta vs. Portland pick for the 2018 MLS Cup, all from an esteemed soccer expert who has his finger on the pulse of the MLS, and find out.[SEP]Back before the start of the 2012 season, MLS commissioner Don Garber issued a cautionary note about the “ghost of the NASL” and how it still “haunts the corridors of MLS”. When more than 70,000 people cram into Mercedes-Benz Stadium this Saturday, to watch Atlanta United host Portland Timbers in the MLS Cup final, it will be a spectacle that suggests that ghost has long since been exorcised. Certainly, Atlanta’s arrival into the league represented a quantum leap for MLS on multiple fronts. Everything from crowd numbers, to the profile of the club’s first head coach, Tata Martino, to their training facilities, represented unprecedented benchmarks for any MLS team, let alone an expansion side. It’s meant that whatever happens on the field on Saturday, we will witness one of the most significant domestic soccer games in US history. That Atlanta are hosting a team, in Portland, who have given us some of the most memorable images of fan culture over the past decade, only enriches that set up. Yet the ghost of the NASL will still be in the building – though perhaps as a more benign spirit than the tortured (and bankrupt) one Garber invoked. Garber was fretting about the boom-and-bust spending of the 1970s NASL, and attempting to cast the modest growth of MLS in the years following its own brush with disaster in 2002, as a necessary precaution against a similar fate. But there’s another version of events that sees current MLS success stories like Atlanta and Portland as building on the past and drawing some of their cultural presence from everything that went before them. Atlanta and Portland are former NASL cities who each appeared in Soccer Bowls in the 1970s, and the construction of their soccer cultures has been shaped over decades of complicated histories with the sport. Both teams arrived in MLS (Atlanta in 2017, Portland in 2011) as seemingly fully formed cultural presences from day one. To critics and rivals that was enough to see them as suspect hipster novelties, untested by lean years. But that doesn’t tell the full story. Both cities have had complex soccer trajectories over the years since their NASL days. Yet somehow, via the indoor game, college sports, and some extraordinary individuals, a small but distinct grassroots culture was maintained that both the current MLS organizations have been able to tap into. It has also meant crossover between the two cities. When Portland hosted the 2014 MLS All-Star game during the period when their crowds and tifo displays made them the darlings of the league, I spent half-time interviewing future Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank in an executive box at the stadium, as he thoughtfully took in the scene with his family. Gesturing to the raucous crowds at Portland’s intimate converted baseball stadium, he outlined the plans for his new joint-purpose NFL/MLS stadium in Atlanta, to ensure a similar atmosphere for his new soccer team, and spoke hopefully about the remarkably long planning runway his new team were on. Given the struggles of the then still-existing NASL Atlanta Silverbacks and the rather mixed record of NFL owner-patrons of MLS teams, even ones as savvy as Blank, few expected the nascent Atlanta United to take off from that runway at the speed they have. But as the months ticked by towards launch, the new team kept hitting their marks, from branding, to season ticket sales, to the appointment of the former Barcelona and Argentina coach Martino, to the signings of Miguel Almiron and Josef Martinez, who broke the league’s goalscoring record this season. Yet it’s wrong to characterize what’s happened in Atlanta as only a highly moneyed startup — for United, and the Timbers, their current standing represents a 50-year overnight success. Modern Atlanta soccer arguably has its roots in a burst of interest that followed the 1966 World Cup. Back in the late 1960s, at the now demolished Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, weekdays would see two men, Phil Woosnam and Clive Toye, pull a pair of desks out of a locker room into the stadium tunnel. They would plug in a couple of phones and complete the assembly of the Atlanta Chiefs first “office”, as the more serious business of baseball went on around them. From that modest starting point, the Chiefs would become one of the success stories of the early NASL – winning the title in 1968. That same year they silenced Manchester City’s Malcolm Allison after the team he’d derided as “fourth division standard” beat the champions of England twice on their summer tour. Attendances were never high by the eye-watering standards of the modern Atlanta United – who average more than 50,000 fans a game – but those who were there were witnessing some key moments in American soccer history. Woosnam, the Chiefs’ first team coach, moved on to become an inspirational commissioner of the NASL, and Toye would go on to make his name running the New York Cosmos during the Pele inspired heyday of league and club. In their absence, Atlanta soccer would stumble until United’s emergence. Yet throughout the struggles a certain folk memory of the sport lived on, and has added a grain of authenticity to Atlanta United’s life in the city. Portland Timbers, too, stand on the shoulders of those who came before, and as an organization have always leaned into their past. In 2012, a few months after Garber’s “ghost of the NASL” remark, their fans hoisted a stadium wide tifo honoring Clive Charles, who as a former player for the Timbers in the NASL days, had gone on to build a powerhouse soccer program at the University of Portland (starting the career of Kasey Keller among others). The wording on the banner read: “Legends are born when the previous are surpassed”. And it was a message not only to visiting Seattle fans, but to the rest of the league, that in only their second year as an MLS team, Portland were not new to this. Now, in 2018, the Timbers visit Atlanta, hoping to play spoilers to the hosts’ own second year of existence. If they do, Atlanta’s response to adversity, on what’s otherwise been a relentless two-year upswing, could become one of the most telling inflection points in their history. But win or lose, they’re not new to this either. There will be ghosts in the house.[SEP]Atlanta United has home-field advantage and enjoyed the better regular season, but the Portland Timbers have been road warriors all postseason and will look for another win in an enticing MLS Cup final. The two conference champions meet at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where more than 70,000 are expected to watch the league crown its 23rd champion. The two sides played to a 1-1 draw in their only regular-season meeting, which was also in Atlanta earlier this year. Both boast a host of South American talent, with Atlanta featuring single-season-record goal-scorer Josef Martinez and playmaker Miguel Almiron, among others; Portland, meanwhile, counters with a Diego Valeri, Sebastian Blanco and Diego Chara midfield. The match will be the final one in Atlanta for manager Tata Martino, who has already announced he'll be leaving the club. For his counterpart, Giovanni Savarese, the match marks his fifth final in six seasons as a manager, with the previous four coming in NASL with the New York Cosmos. Stay tuned here for live updates and highlights of goals and key plays throughout the match : Here are the lineups for both sides: Portland is seeking its second title in four seasons, while Atlanta is looking to win in just its second year of existence.[SEP]Atlanta United and the Portland Timbers meet in the final match of the season. 90 minutes to decide the MLS Cup winner. With just one last game to go, there are plenty of storylines and key matchups that will determine the course those 90 minutes take. Will Atlanta’s relentless attack prove unstoppable one more time? Or will Portland’s stellar defensive shape nullify the Atlanta firepower? This matchup is a delicious clash of styles, with Atlanta United actually playing right into the hands of how Portland has progressed this season. The Timbers owned the third-least possession of all MLS teams this season, while Atlanta held the most. This will make for a fascinating 90 minutes to see how the fifth-seeded Timbers can hold off Atlanta and look for goals of their own. Portland relied on this defensive midfield pairing against Sporting KC in the semifinals, helping keep Kansas City choked off in the danger area outside the top of the box. It’s likely that Giovanni Savarese deploys both together yet again in the finals, but even if only one plays, whoever is on the field will have the responsibility of keeping Miguel Almiron locked down, and force the creative weight on those behind him – like Julian Gressel and Darlington Nagbe. While both those players are talented – Gressel in particular has come on strong of late – neither is as important to this team as Almiron, and stopping his marauding will be priority number one. This is the most obvious battle that Portland must win if the Timbers are to pull off yet another upset. There is some serious MLS experience among this matchup. With Jeremy Ebobisse coming on strong of late for Portland, Valeri has moved back into a more creative role, but he still remains the Timbers’ biggest goalscoring threat. Portland as a team scored the joint-most headed goals in the league this regular season with 14 as well as ranking third in the league on set-piece goals, so Parkhurst and Larentowicz, alongside Argentinian Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, will need to be mistake-free in the air. But guarding the aerial threat will hardly be enough to keep Valeri under wraps. His creativity not only opens up teammates, but can also create chances for himself out of seemingly nothing. The experienced Atlanta defense cannot allow Valeri to open space on his own, as the possessional advantage Atlanta will almost certainly enjoy should limit the amount of opportunities Portland can create. Therefore, the Atlanta defense needs to make Valeri earn his chances and not allow them to magically appear out of nothing. Atlanta succumbed to a 1-1 draw the first time these teams met, as Portland locked Atlanta down at Mercedes-Benz Stadium despite a huge possessional advantage for the hosts. Why? They limited Atlanta’s attack and completed a number of deep key passes from the midfield area on the counter. 23-year-old Eric Remedi wasn’t around for that first meeting in late June, only arriving two weeks later in the summer transfer window. The Argentinian midfielder immediately slotted into the starting lineup and has played every single league minute since his first start on July 29. His presence will be critical if Atlanta is to neutralize the Portland counter, as he will not only be tasked with keeping the speedy Portland forwards at bay, but also not giving away needless fouls that would allow Portland to enjoy set-piece opportunities, which often go hand-in-hand with counters. It goes without saying that if Portland is to play its desired style and let Atlanta control the ball, goalkeeper Jeff Attinella must be on top of his game. The 30-year-old American has been here before, but only as a backup, forced to watch from the bench as Nick Rimando couldn’t lead Real Salt Lake to victory on penalties in 2013. Now with the starting job and a popular cheer from the home fans, “Jeff Jeff Jeff” will need to stand tall to keep Portland in the match.[SEP]Atlanta United, a.k.a. "The 5 Stripes," a.k.a. ATL UTD, has done the unthinkable and won the Major League Soccer Cup in just two years. The expansion MLS team defeated the Portland Timbers by a score of 2-0 tonight, here in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The two goals were scored by Franco Escobar and Josef Martinez. There will be a parade Monday, December 10, at 10 a.m. on Peachtree Street, running through Downtown and Midtown Atlanta. It will start at the corners of Peachtree Street and Baker Street, and will end in The Home Depot Backyard at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with a pep rally that will start at noon. Arthur Blank, as well as Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Governor Nathan Deal will be in attendance, along with many other ATL VIPs and fans. Make sure you're there!

In its second season, Atlanta United FC wins the MLS Cup, defeating the Portland Timbers 2–0 in front of a record crowd of 73,019 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

A helicopter has crashed in eastern Sudan, killing a state governor and at least four other officials. The helicopter exploded in flames after it hit a communications tower as it tried to land in the remote Al-Qadarif state, witnesses are quoted by AFP news agency as saying. No official reason has yet been given for the crash. A number of people were taken to hospital for treatment, state media reported, without giving more details. Among the dead are Al-Qadarif governor Mirghani Saleh, his cabinet chief, the local police chief and agriculture minister, the reports added. Sudan's military fleet includes many aircraft bought from the former Soviet Union. Eight people were injured in October when two of its planes collided on the runway at the airport in the capital, Khartoum. In September, two pilots were killed when a military jet crashed near Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city.[SEP]KHARTOUM (Reuters) - At least seven local government officials were killed in a helicopter crash in Sudan’s eastern al-Qadarif state on Sunday, state news agency SUNA reported. The state’s governor and three security officials were among the dead. A number of people were also injured in the incident, SUNA said. The officials had been carrying out a security tour of the province. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. State TV earlier reported that a plane, not a helicopter, had crashed. Al-Qadarif state is known for its farmland and agricultural projects.[SEP]At least 5 officials dead in Sudan helicopter crash KHARTOUM: A helicopter crashed Sunday in eastern Sudan, killing at least five local officials who were on board, state media reported. Witnesses said the helicopter caught fire after hitting a communications tower as it tried to land in a field in the state of Al-Qadarif. “Flames and thick dark smoke rose from the aircraft,” one of the witnesses, Adam Hassan, said. Al-Qadarif governor Mirghani Saleh, his cabinet chief, the local minister of agriculture as well as the local police chief and head of border guards were killed, state television said.It did not give details about the circumstances of the crash near the border with Ethiopia, or say if there were any survivors. Sudan’s state news agency SUNA gave a slightly higher toll of six government officials killed. It said an unspecified number of other people were taken to hospital for treatment, without providing further details.Most of Sudan’s military and civilian fleet consists of old Soviet-made aircraft, and the country has suffered a series of crashes in recent years, with the military frequently blaming technical problems and bad weather. In October eight people were injured in a collision between two Sudanese army planes on the runway at Khartoum airport. Weeks earlier in September, two pilots were killed when their military jet crashed near Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city on the west bank of the Nile. That accident came days after a military helicopter crashed and caught fire on landing in Darfur, though all passengers were rescued.[SEP]At least seven people have died following a helicopter crash in Sudan’s Gadaref State in the east. Sudan’s state news agency Suna reported that the governor of Gadaref, the state agriculture minister, and other senior security officials were among the victims in Sunday’s helicopter crash. The state officials had been on a security inspection trip when the helicopter crashed as the pilot tried to land at the airport. Sudan’s aircraft, most of them Soviet-made, are in poor condition. This state of affairs has led to a number of crashes over the last few years. However, the military has instead blamed the crashes on bad weather and technical problems. In October, eight people were injured in a collision between two Sudanese army planes on the runway at Khartoum airport, the East African reported. Two pilots were killed in September when their military jet crashed near Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city on the west bank of the Nile. And only days earlier a military helicopter crashed and caught fire upon landing in Darfur with all passengers surviving. For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.[SEP]At least seven local government officials have been killed in a helicopter crash in Sudan’s eastern Gadarif state. The state’s governor and three security officials were among the dead, the country’s official news agency, SUNA, reported on Sunday. Governor Mirghani Salih was travelling from the city of Gadarif heading to Gallabat, Ashorooq TV reported. Both cities are in Gadarif. A number of people were also injured in the incident, SUNA said. The officials were carrying out a security tour of the province. Witnesses said the helicopter caught fire after hitting a communications tower as it tried to land in a field in Gadarif, which known for its farmland and agricultural projects. “Flames and thick dark smoke rose from the aircraft,” one of the witnesses, Adam Hassan, told AFP news agency. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. State TV earlier reported that a plane, not a helicopter, had crashed. Most of Sudan’s military and civilian fleet consists of old Soviet-made aircraft, and the country has suffered a series of crashes in recent years, with the military frequently blaming technical problems and bad weather. In October, eight people were injured in a collision between two Sudanese army planes on the runway at Khartoum airport. Weeks earlier in September, two pilots were killed when their military jet crashed near Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city on the west bank of the Nile. That accident came days after a military helicopter crashed and caught fire on landing in Darfur, though all passengers were rescued.[SEP]At least five local government officials have been killed in a plane crash in Sudan's eastern al-Qadarif state, state TV reports. Those killed included the state's governor and its minister of agriculture. Several crashes have occurred in Sudan in recent years. In 2017, four passengers were injured after bad weather caused their plane to crash in South Sudan and hit into a fire truck upon landing and burst into flames.[SEP]At least five local government officials were killed in a plane crash in Sudan’s eastern al-Qadarif state on Sunday, state TV reported. ALSO READ: Three miners dead, 10 trapped in collapsed mine The state’s governor and three security officials were among the dead. A number of people were also injured in the incident, SUNA said. The officials had been carrying out a security tour of the province. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. Al-Qadarif state is known for its farmland and agricultural projects. Know if news is factual and true. Text 'NEWS' to 22840 and always receive verified news updates.[SEP]Click to print (Opens in new window) Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) KHARTOUM: A helicopter crashed yesterday in eastern Sudan, killing at least five local officials who were on board, state media reported. Witnesses said the helicopter caught fire after hitting a communications tower as it tried to land in a field in the state of Al-Qadarif. “Flames and thick dark smoke rose from the aircraft,” one of the witnesses, Adam Hassan, said. Al-Qadarif governor Mirghani Saleh, his cabinet chief, the local minister of agriculture as well as the local police chief and head of border guards were killed, state television said. It did not give details about the circumstances of the crash near the border with Ethiopia, or say if there were any survivors. It said an unspecified number of other people were taken to hospital for treatment, without providing further details. Most of Sudan’s military and civilian fleet consists of old Soviet-made aircraft, and the country has suffered a series of crashes in recent years, with the military frequently blaming technical problems and bad weather. In October eight people were injured in a collision between two Sudanese army planes on the runway at Khartoum airport. — AFP[SEP]KHARTOUM, Dec 9 (Reuters) - At least five local government officials were killed in a plane crash in Sudan’s eastern al-Qadarif state on Sunday, state TV reported. Those killed included the state’s governor and its minister of agriculture. (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; writing by Lena Masri; editing by Gareth Jones)[SEP]KHARTOUM: A helicopter crashed on Sunday in eastern Sudan, killing at least five local officials who were on board, state media reported. Witnesses said the helicopter caught fire after hitting a communications tower as it tried to land in a field in the state of Al-Qadarif. "Flames and thick dark smoke rose from the aircraft," one of the witnesses, Adam Hassan, said.

A helicopter crash in eastern Sudan kills Al-Qadarif state governor Mirghani Saleh and at least four other officials.

Image copyright Off-Road Adventures/via REUTERS Image caption A snow storm struck the US south-eastern states over the weekend A heavy snowstorm has swept through US south-eastern states, killing at least three people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. A state of emergency has been declared in North Carolina, with some areas reporting as much as 0.5m (18.5ins) of snow over the weekend. One man died after a tree fell on his car. A search is under way for a driver whose vehicle was found in a river. Thousands of flights were also cancelled across the region. Image copyright Twitter/Bryce Sigmon/via REUTERS Image caption A boathouse in North Carolina destroyed by the storm 'A dangerous system' Snow, sleet and freezing rain continues to impact the South. At a news conference on Monday, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said "a year's worth of snowfall fell in some places in a day". More than 300,000 people were affected by electricity outages in the Carolinas, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia on Sunday, while storm warnings remained in place in the south-east "especially North Carolina and Virginia", the National Weather Service (NWS) said in a tweet. The storm was expected to move off the coast on Monday, although the NWS's lead forecaster Michael Schichtel warned it would continue to be "a dangerous system". "It's slow to move off the Carolinas but a saving grace is that it won't hit New England," he told Reuters news agency. Image copyright Rod Wilbourn/via REUTERS Image caption Snow hits a porch in Banner Elk, North Carolina In some areas, so much snow fell the weight brought power lines crashing down. But the main danger appeared to be on the roads. Almost 60 crashes were reported in Virginia, state police told local media, with the number rising to 672 in North Carolina as of Monday morning. NWS officials warned of black ice forming on roads on Monday and into Tuesday. Gov Cooper emphasised that the roads could "turn into ice rinks" even as the storm passes. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Hundreds of road accidents were reported On Monday, the governor confirmed three storm-related deaths, saying the snow "turned into a nightmare and tragedy". A man was killed in a suburb of Charlotte when a tree fell on his car. A second person was taken to hospital following the accident, WRAL.com said. A woman receiving hospice care in the western part of the state also died during the storm. Near Winston-Salem, another individual died of a heart condition on the way to a shelter, according to the governor's office. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A snow storm struck the US south-eastern states over the weekend Gov Cooper urged residents to check on their loved ones and neighbours, particularly senior citizens. The North Carolina National Guard remains active. The troops rescued 20 people in Wilkesboro, Brig Gen Todd Hunt said at the news conference, and continue to assist with road clearing and traffic accidents. Several hundred miles east, in Kinston, divers were searching for another driver, whose tractor-trailer apparently crashed into the Neuse River. Officials were alerted after debris was spotted on a bridge over the river, ABC12 said.[SEP]A winter storm unleashed snow and freezing rain on large swath of the southern United States on Saturday and threatened to bring treacherous conditions to the East Coast. Approximately 25 million people in 13 states could be impacted by the snow and rain. Across the United States, nearly 800 flights were canceled and nearly 10,000 were delayed, according to flight tracking website Flight Aware. A state of emergency was declared in North Carolina and Virginia as the winter storm, which was over parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee as of Saturday afternoon, continued to head east. During a press conference, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned that the state anticipated the storm could cause up to half a million power outages. "Tonight and tomorrow, it’s time to hunker down and stay safe ... this weekend is not the time to see a winter wonderland," Cooper said. Along the southern side of the storm, flooding was a concern in warmer states, from southeastern Texas to parts of Georgia. Approximately 14 million people were under winter weather advisories across the southern and eastern United states. Winter storm warnings were in effect along the northern side of the storm, including in parts of western North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, upstate South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, southern West Virginia, and northeastern Georgia, according to the National Weather Service. The heaviest snowfall, which is expected to begin Saturday and continue until Monday, will affect northwest North Carolina and southern Virginia, according to the NWS Prior to moving east, the storm had already dropped several inches of snow in southern states. In Lubbock, Texas, approximately 9.5 inches of snow had fallen as of 9 a.m. CST (10 a.m. ET) on Saturday, according to the NWS. The Texas Department of Transportation warned travelers to drive with caution, and advised people to stay home if possible. In other parts of Texas, flood watches were canceled following heavy rainfall from the storm.[SEP]Forecasted Winter Weather Conditions in the Southeastern United States may impact travel to/from/through the destination(s) listed below. Check flight status frequently for up-to-the-minute info about your flight plans, or get updates sent directly to your mobile device or by email with One-Time Flight Notification.[SEP]Over the past month in Michigan, It has been colder than average with more snow than average. An index developed to track how current winter conditions compare to other winters shows this early winter has been severe to extreme across much of Michigan. The Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI) was developed to combine snow, cold and duration of those weather conditions to quantify how severe a winter feels. The index factors in the specific location for ranking severity. Marquette, MI could have much more snow than Detroit, MI and still be experiencing a mild winter while Detroit has an extreme winter. The results are based on what locals typically experience. The AWSSI is showing all Michigan cities it ranks in either extreme (purple) or severe (blue). The exception is Detroit, colored in yellow, meaning it has experienced an average severity of winter so far. The information is then broken down into individual sites. The AWSSI incorporates the length of winter by using some temperature levels to start the winter clock ticking. Obviously we’ve had the timer ticking on winter already. Just above is a current example using Saginaw. The winter conditions have added up enough to put Saginaw in the extreme category for winter up to this point. Notice though how quieter winter weather this past week has allowed the AWSSI to drift toward the lesser severe category, and average isn’t that far off. The difference between the degree of severity categories is small now since winter is early. Notice how the spreads widen later in winter. Here’s a link to click on your city and see how winter is pacing in severity. Detroit has an average winter so far. Lansing, Grand Rapids, Muskegon and Houghton Lake are pacing at a severe winter. Saginaw, Alpena, Sault Ste Marie and Marquette have all experienced an extreme early winter, according to the AWSSI. With the milder, quieter weather coming over the next two weeks, the severity categories at all locations will move more toward average. Detroit could even drop into the mild winter category by Christmas. If you thought you were feeling very wintry already, you are correct if you go along with the AWSSI. And I do feel it’s a good index to quantify how severe a winter is at a location.[SEP]Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. Dec 9 (Reuters) - A powerful winter storm that struck the U.S. Southeast over the weekend killed at least one motorist, left more than 310,000 customers without power and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights on Sunday. A winter storm warning remained in effect for most of North Carolina, Virginia and southern West Virginia as at least an additional 2 inches (5 cm) of snow and sleet were expected to fall overnight and into Monday after more than a foot (30 cm) of snow fell over the weekend.Authorities reported hundreds of spinouts and collisions across the region as snow, sleet and freezing rain covered roadways across the region on Sunday.Divers searched for a driver whose 18-wheeler was found in a river in Kinston, North Carolina on Sunday morning, a NBC affiliate in Raleigh reported. WRAL-TV also reported that a driver was killed outside of Charlotte when a tree fell on a car.More than 310,000 customers were without power in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia on Sunday evening, Poweroutage.us reported.The storm prompted more than 1,000 flight cancellations at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, the sixth-busiest airport in the country, and other airports across the region, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on Sunday that the state of emergency would remain in effect and that the North Carolina National Guard had been activated to help with the response.The effects of the storm could last for days in the state, officials warned.In North Raleigh, residents woke up to several inches of snow that blanketed roads, cars and homes. Many people took to Twitter to share photos of the unusually harsh weather, and the hashtag #Snowmageddon2018 was trending on Twitter on Sunday morning.In South Carolina, snow gave way to sleet and rain as temperatures hovered around freezing, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division said on Twitter.The storm formed earlier this week off the Texas coast and moved east, lashing parts of Arkansas and Tennessee with icy rain. Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>[SEP]A massive winter storm containing rain, sleet, and snow is sweeping the southeastern United States, leaving more than 300,000 without power and 1,500 flights canceled. Governors in several states—including Virginia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma—declared a state of emergency before winter storm Diego hit to allow use of state funding and resources to combat the increasing threat of icy roads, heavy snowfalls, and power outages. The National Weather Service (NWS) tweeted Sunday morning that heavy snow would fall across southern Virginia and the western and central parts of North Carolina and freezing rain would “develop” over South Carolina: The storm, which is expected to last until Monday, has wreaked havoc upon commuters traveling on the road and in the air, with many people reporting hazardous driving conditions and canceled flights: Forecasters predict that North Carolina could receive up to 12 inches of snow in the more mountainous areas of the state, and coastal areas of the southeast could see flooding. The city of Lubbock, Texas, received more than ten inches of snowfall, one of the highest recorded totals on record for the area. State officials have warned residents to stay off the roads and put together emergency kits to weather the storm, “Virginians should take all necessary precautions to ensure they are prepared for winter weather storm impacts,” said Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. “This weekend isn’t the time to head out to see the winter wonderland. Stay safe where you are. Getting out on dangerous roads could put your life at risk,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said, urging residents to be vigilant about the changing weather conditions. Airlines and power companies are also on alert as the storm develops throughout the country. Power companies are forecasting massive storm-related power outages, and airlines have preemptively canceled flights. The largest electric company in North Carolina, Duke Energy, predicted the state would have more than 500,000 power outages, and American Airlines announced that it canceled nearly 1,000 flights scheduled for Sunday ahead of the storm.[SEP]Mastering your thermostat could save you a bundle this winter[SEP](CNN) — A winter storm tearing through the Southeast threatens to keep residents stuck at home with days of dangerous driving conditions, canceled flights and power outages. Sunday will bring more than 12 inches of snow to the southern and central Appalachians, the National Weather Service said. Snowfall could total 12 to 20 inches over the Appalachians and into the Carolinas by Monday — when the storm is expected to move off the coast, the agency said. “Snowfall amounts in some locations will likely exceed a foot and result in several days of difficult or impossible travel, extended power outages, and downed trees,” the agency said. The storm has knocked out power for 216,578 customers in the southeastern United States. The bulk of the outages are in North Carolina, where 102,383 customers don’t have power while in South Carolina it’s 52,191. About 62,000 don’t have power in both Alabama and Georgia. More than 1,000 Sunday flights into and out of North Carolina’s Charlotte Douglas International Airport have been canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. The airport is the second-largest hub of American Airlines, which has “reduced its operations” because of the weather, the airport said. American Airlines and its regional partners canceled 225 flights Saturday, 1,100 for Sunday and 300 for Monday, the airline said in a statement. The Charlotte airport said it expects scattered cancellations through Monday morning, with the majority expected to be of small, regional planes. About 13 million people remain under winter weather alerts in Arkansas, Tennessee and the Carolinas. The governors of Virginia and North Carolina have declared states of emergency. The National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg measured 2.5 inches of snow as of 4:30 a.m. Sunday. A half an hour later, the Greenville County Emergency Management’s Twitter page said that 14,189 customers were without power. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, authorities declared a statewide emergency Friday ahead of the storm. “Snow may be beautiful but it can also be treacherous and I urge North Carolinians to take this storm seriously and get ready for it now,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. Many churches in the Charlotte area have preemptively canceled Sunday services, CNN affiliate WSOC reported, and the city of Charlotte is prepping emergency shelters. Grocery store shelves have been cleared of bread, milk and other staples. “This storm comes at a time of year when North Carolinians are usually hearing carols about snow, not actually seeing it. But this time, the real thing is headed our way and North Carolina is getting prepared,” Cooper, the North Carolina governor, said, according to WSOC in Charlotte. “A winter storm’s not a Christmas carol snow. It’s serious, and you need to take steps now to get your family ready.” Before moving east, the moisture-heavy storm walloped Texas, causing downpours and flash flooding along the southern edge of the state and snow and ice in the north. As the moisture moves eastward, it is colliding with a high-pressure system over the Ohio Valley that is funneling cold air into the region. “It’s kind of a big deal,” CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar said. “It’s December. This is not the time of year that they would typically get this stuff.” Houston experienced flooding after 4 to 6 inches of rain fell on Friday night, with some drivers forced to abandon their cars on major highways, reported CNN affiliate KTRK. After the heavy rain in Lubbock, Texas, many community activities were disrupted. The city holiday parade was postponed and Texas Tech rescheduled all Saturday final exams until Sunday, CNN affiliate KCBD reported. Lubbock also saw 10 inches of snow — 2 inches more than the city usually gets in a whole year. “They crushed their yearly average in 24 hours,” CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera said. The Lubbock Police Department tweeted late Saturday that black ice and freezing fog were beginning to form on areas of Interstate 27. Police said they were “working about 20 wrecks due to these dangerous conditions.”[SEP]U.S. winter storm knocks out power to 190,000 in North Carolina A powerful winter storm that hit the U.S. Southeast over the weekend knocked out power for more than 190,000 customers in North Carolina, officials said on Sunday.[SEP]The staff of Community Services from South Boston’s Police Station C-6 brings winter coats – generously supplied by the Stone Foundation – to the Paraclete Center on E Street. These will keep their students warm all this winter long. Thank you, and Merry Christmas.

Severe winter storms in the southeastern United States kill three people and leave 310,000 others without power.

An animal considered a Canadian icon has resurfaced in Italy after an absence of more than 500 years. A beaver was captured on camera in northeast Italy, marking the first sighting of the animal in that country since 1471. Scientists were observing otters last week when the male beaver was seen walking into frame. While the beaver was valued in Canada for its pelt, the animal was widely hunted and eaten in Italy and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages and considered white meat — the same as fish — so Catholics could eat them on Fridays. The animal didn't make a return to Central Europe until the 1980s, when conservationists reintroduced the species with beavers from northern Russia. Scientists believe the beaver caught on camera is likely a descendant of a group that was introduced by conservationists to the Danube river, which runs through a large swath of Eastern and Central Europe. The European beavers are a distinct species, different from Canadian beavers.[SEP]HP isn't a name you normally associate with digital photography. So what makes the printer and scanner company think it's got what it takes to go up against the big traditional brands such as Olympus, Canon or Nikon? Just as history students sometimes make great accountants, Hewlett Packard's strength here is thinking outside the box. Because of this there's a number of features on the R707 that we haven't seen before in a digital camera. The first is the built-in red eye reduction. Now instead of connecting it to a computer then starting up your photo editing suite and then fixing the red eye, you can do the whole lot in the camera on the fly. This of course has a number of advantages mainly that you can fix the red-eye and then print straight from the camera without the need of a PC or Mac. The second thing that we've never seen in a digital camera before is an image advisor. Rather than just giving you a histogram, which for the most part nobody understands, the camera analyses your images, and in words, explains how you might go about improving the shot for next time. We tested this in macro mode without a tripod. Sure enough the suggestion was that our images were slightly blurry. The advice was that our picture could be improved by steadying the camera as well as making sure there was a better light source. Beyond this, the camera also contains a built-in manual in case you get stuck or need help when you're out in the field. Novelty features aside the camera has been revamped in both style and usability since any previous outings. The menu system is a breeze to use and the buttons on the rear of the camera surrounding the 1.5in colour LCD all spell out what they do without any real thought. The LCD was clear to see in most conditions, including one of the bright sunny winter days that we tested the camera on. In fact the only problem we can see (although didn't suffer from) is the location of the two shutter buttons on the top of the camera. The larger of the two (see images) is the still capture, while the smaller one is for movie mode. A quick press of the wrong one and you've missed your shot. The camera has also had a styling overhaul as well and the camera is half brushed stainless-steel and half high impact rubber giving the camera a durable feel to it. The result is a compact that is not only comfortable to use, but also one that feels sturdy enough to be carried about on holiday or down the pub. Connecting to the PC is either via USB2.0 or with an optional camera dock (reviewed here). As this camera is geared towards the novice user, the R707 sports 10 shooting modes. While not the plethora that normally accompany a Canon or Pentax model (12-14) the 10 should still be enough, if you remember them to suit a picture you are taking: Auto, Aperture priority AE, Portrait, Action, Landscape, Beach and Snow, Sunset, Panorama, Document, Custom ('My Mode'), and Movie (with sound). To save all your images on the camera comes with 32Mb of memory built-in with the option of expanding this with an additional SD card. The only annoying feature we found was that with a SD card in the camera, you weren't able to access the internal memory without taking the card out. It's really the only blot we could find on the model. All these features are great, but if the camera's image quality is poor then what's the point. Luckily for HP it has concentrated as much on the stylish and feature of the model as it has on the image quality. With 5 megapixels at its disposal, the images were detailed. Hewlett Packard also boasts that the R707 features Adaptive Lighting Technology (ALT), which automatically adjusts high-contrast photos to bring faces out of shadows and details out of backgrounds. The photos we took in our tests were well balanced with vivid yet natural colours, proving that this marketing speak actually does make a difference. However in our test shots we did find that large blocks of colour lost some detail (see inside of blue jacket in sample shots) but nothing that would be too concerning at standard print sizes. The focus managed to capture the detail we wanted rather than picking up stray elements in the picture. The flash did have a tendency to overwork when subjects were close by, and it's a shame you can't decrease the setting manually. The 3x zoom (35-117 equivalent to 35mm) is standard in a camera of this styling and means that it would be ideal for parties and general pictures rather than capturing images from afar. The camera offered fast start up, fast zoom and fast save times to the internal memory. The two complaints we have are firstly the save time to the SD card as it wasn't very fast. Take three or four shots in succession and you'll have a camera that is out of action for some time as the buffer works away to clear itself. Secondly, the flash can occasionally overcompensate. However, if you aren't planning lots of action shots or those featuring you and your friends in dimly lit environments (like a nightclub and so on) then this offers plenty to the novice digital photographer looking to learn their first digital camera rather than just being confused all the time. As a compact point and shoot the R707 has three good elements. 1. Good looks, 2. Incredibly easy to use and, 3. A picture quality to match the first two.[SEP]Nikon has announced a world's first for the camera world – a compact coupled with a built-in projector. The Coolpix S1000pj is a move that's certain to shake up both the projector and camera market, Nikon believes that the camera can project images up to 40 inches in size (and as low as 5 inches) and there's also a remote control in the package, so you can set up your own image slideshow on the go. The camera itself holds a 12MP sensor, 5x optical zoom and a 2.7-inch TFT LCD. ISO levels can be cranked up to 3200 at full res. As with every compact out at the moment, you can reduce image blur in-camera and there's also a whole host of other features, including a Skin Softening function – which will make your leathery looking grandmother look like Cameron Diaz in no time. The Nikon S1000pj is out in September and will set you back £399. And if you want to read if it's any good, the folks at T3 online have been busy and put up a hands-on with the camera already.[SEP]Can you help to find missing man Dayle Rostron? The 26-year-old was last seen leaving his home in Hemel Hempstead at around 6.15pm on Wednesday, (December 5). He is described as being white, around 5ft 11in tall, of medium build with ginger hair. Mr Rostron was last seen wearing a black corduroy jacket with a woollen collar, a plain black t-shirt, black tracksuit bottoms with a grey stripe, and black trainers with white soles. He may have also been wearing a dark grey beanie hat with a white tag and was carrying a black rucksack. He has a silver nose ring and tattoos on his forearm, shoulder and leg. If you have information about Dayle’s whereabouts please contact police on 101, if you are with Dayle now or have seen him in the last few moments please call 999.[SEP]Police have launched a search for a missing 79-year-old man, who was last seen with his dog. David Collins, who is described as being 5ft 9 inches tall, was last seen in the Buckley area in Flintshire. He has a white beard and was last seen wearing a grey striped beanie hat, a dark blue jacket and dark blue trousers. He was last seen walking his dog. North Wales Police have not revealed exactly how long he is thought to have been missing for. If anyone has seen David or know of his whereabouts, phone 101 quoting W174685.[SEP]After the success of Stree, producer Dinesh Vijan announces a quirky comedy named 'Bala' starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar After the success of Stree, producer Dinesh Vijan announces a quirky comedy named 'Bala' starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar. The film has Ayushmann as a prematurely balding guy and Bhumi as a dusky small-town girl. After Dum Laga Ke Haisha and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, the duo who are gearing up to complete a hat-trick will reunite for this quirky laugh riot. The film will be directed by Amar Kaushik who directed one of this year's biggest hits, the horror-comedy Stree. The film is expected to roll in March 2019 and is set to release in September same year. Bala revolves around a guy who is balding prematurely and a dusky girl who is grappling with her own complexes brought on by her complexion. "Through their journey, the film impresses on the fact that most of us are usually attracted to outward beauty and don't go beyond that to understand the real person. That's one of the reasons so many relationships are falling apart today!" says Dinesh. The maker of off-beat entertainers like Stree and Irrfan Khan's educative Hindi Medium, Dinesh reasons, "It's a hilarious story but at the same time, it makes you think. The two characters are very interesting and easy to relate with, so is their small-town milieu." Quiz him on whether the 34-year-old actor was the obvious choice, Dinesh insists that Ayushmann is second to none in this quirky space given his comic timing and his interestingly innovative films, from Vicky Donor and Dum Laga Ke Haisha to Shubh Mangal Savdhaan and Badhaai Ho. "I'm really happy to be doing our film with Ayushmann." he asserts. And will the role call for prosthetics? "Partly," admits Dinesh, saying that they are getting the best guys in the business from the West to come down and set the look for the character. "I can't wait to get started," he says excitedly. He's equally excited to collaborate for the first time with Bhumi, pointing out that she's a terrific actress with an interesting body of work. "In this film too she has an author-backed role of a modern-day woman trying to feel beautiful in a country that has long celebrated fair and lovely," he asserts. Confirming the news, Amar said, "I am completely in love with the way the script of Bala is shaping up and really excited about having Ayushmann and Bhoomi on board with us, two of the most talented actors of our times. Bala is going to be a fun and a very relatable film for the audience, bringing fore problems that many of us face everyday. Associating with Dinesh and the team of Maddock Films once again is just so lovely and also emotional after the super experience we had on Stree." When asked Dinesh, Why is the film titled, Bala? He adds Ayushmann's character in the film is named Bala. "It's his nickname really but I thought it was an apt title. It is also a tongue-in-cheek pun on his life story. Bal Aa Aaa Aaa," says laughingly. Also Read: Ayushmann Khurrana: Films I'm Doing Are Extension Of My Street Theatre Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates[SEP]Seeing the success of the ultra-slim compact cameras, Sony has decided to release one of its own - the DSC-T1. This 5 mega pixel camera is the size of a pack of cards - but is performance affected by cramming so much into such a small space? We took a look to find out. Cased in metal, the camera’s biggest asset is the large 2.5” LCD display on the rear of the camera. This achievement isn’t without its downside. Those looking for an optical viewfinder will be disappointed, as the camera doesn’t have one. The front boasts a non-protruding Carl Zeiss lens protected by a sliding cover. The camera is connects to PC or Mac using a USB2.0 docking station. While this makes for easy and fast connection to a computer, Sony has failed to allow you to directly connect a USB cable. This lack of connection means that if you are hoping to connect it to a friend’s machine, the docking station has to come with you. Throw in the very large and cumbersome power supply unit and you’ve got a camera that’s not as portable as it first appears. Inside the body, the camera offers 5.1 mega pixels, 8 scene modes and presets for white balance, focuses, ISO settings up to 400 and the usual black & white or sepia effects. The modes do offer some help when taking pictures and the auto mode will adjust the DSC-T1 to the relevant setting for the job at hand. Images themselves gave mixed results with the DSC-T1 having issues with focusing. This produced pictures that were often slightly blurred - see some of our sample shots. However when the camera got it right, the results were very good, clear, crisp with well balanced colours. The macro mode proved very good, although the camera was very sensitive to camera shake at that range. If you are looking for a style camera with 5 mega pixels then this is currently the only one out there, however you have to ask whether you really need that many pixels for the job that this camera is likely to be employed for. Canon's Ixus I might have one less mega pixel down, however it comes across as a better camera, plus you get more images for your memory card and faster saving times. In a market that is fast adopting the PC model, more pixels doesn't mean better photographs. There are just too many worrying elements here that put together don't make for a perfect camera.[SEP]Pocket-lint is among the first in Europe to get access to the new R817 5 megapixel digital camera from HP. So does it build on the popular R707 range or should Hewlett Packard stick to the photo printers and business desktop machines? We climbed a volcano to find out- but unlike Dangerman adventures, brought it back to tell the tale HP is continuing its push its into the digital camera market with little sign of stopping and it’s easy to see why. The more digital photos taken, the greater chance someone, like you, is going to want to print them out. As Hewlett Packard offers a bigger range of photo printers than ever before, the compelling reason to get you taking those pictures in the first place is blatantly apparent. In steps the R817, a small compact camera that tries it’s hardest to stand alongside the Canons and Nikons of this world. The body and design, while reduced considerably since the last outing in the R707, is still a tiny bit chunky and clunky. Thumb groves have been carved out of the design making it comfortable to hold, but for some reason we could never get past the image of a clay model still sitting in the studio waiting for approval. That’s not to say its bad. It’s just not spectacular. The front of the camera offers the 5x Pentax optical zoom lens - more than most, and the rear houses the 2.5in screen, which while large, isn’t sun reflective. What makes matters worse is that like many camera manufacturers, HP has opted not to include an optical viewfinder. Take this model to the beach, or anywhere sunny for that matter, and you’ll be finding yourself shooting pot luck. Get past the design and the camera is geared toward the digital camera newcomer. The list of scene modes is as long as your arm as is the cameras built in features. 15 optimised shooting modes including action, landscape and ‘burst’; get great results at concerts and plays with theatre mode. HP pride themselves on making things easier for those who don’t necessarily know how to and the inclusion of red-eye reduction, imaging enhancing and other such gems is welcomed. New to the R817 is the ability to take panoramic images and then stitch them in-camera negating the need for software and a nearby PC. On its own the idea doesn’t seem like something digital photographers are screaming out for, but then add it to HP’s new Photosmart 385 printer that can print 10cm x 30cm panoramic prints direct from a memory card and you can see why the option and technology suddenly increases in usefulness. Images are saved down onto the camera’s 32Mb of internal memory - never enough - and the quality is as you’d expect for a 5 megapixel camera in this class. The Pentax lens does its job and the results are bright and crisp. Skin tones, masses of the same colour and contrasting edges don’t show any major issues on our test shots. However, a faster shutter reaction time would have been helpful (we tried taking a picture of a whale surfacing for air and it ended up being a bit hit and miss as to whether or not we got the shot- unlike the glossy ad campaign for a rival brand). So should you be ditching the Canon compact and becoming a HP photographer? If you are new to digital photography it's certainly worth a look as the consumer angle is very refreshing. The camera will happily give you image advice on the shots you've taken, plus includes a manual in the camera for any simply queries and the whole approach to the menu system is one of ease. Combine this with the ability to print panoramic shots straight to a printer to re-live that APS experience, but with a better quality print, and HP is offering a really good package here. However, for the more advanced photographers out there looking for a good field camera it's probably best to stick with a model from the big boys.[SEP]Sony has officially announced the arrival of its latest super-zoom camera, the Cyber-shot HX1. The 9.1MP shooter makes use of an Exmor CMOS sensor – which helps with speedy picture taking – 20x optical zoom and the ability to record Full HD video clips. The camera also houses a tilt-angle 3.0-inch LCD. With these kind of stats it is plain to see why the Cyber-shot HX1 is being touted as Sony's flagship camera model. To help with image processing, the Exmor sensor – which was last seen in Sony's Alpha range of cameras – works alongside a BIONZ image processor. According to Sony, this technology "delivers outstanding images with reduced noise, especially when shooting in high ISO settings." The HX1 also boasts a new camera mode: 'Sweep Panorama'. Turn this on and the camera will stitch together an extra-wide, high resolution image from the shots you take. For those who want to take HD movies with the camera and have a Bravia TV setup, you'll be pleased to hear that the camera uses BRAVIA Sync, which brings quick and easy playback of your movies. Although no prices have been announced, expect the HX1 to hit shelves in April.[SEP]The F10 boasts the companies new, 1/1.7-inch Super CCD HR sensor that uses a full 6.3-million gross pixels rather than the interpolated, dual pixel elements of yore. Fujifilm's Super CCD technology has been with us for some time now and it just keeps getting better and to prove the point the F10 has its best incarnation yet in a camera of this class. Look over the camera which, it has to be said, seems a tad conservative design wise given many of today's stylish-looking models, it is still quite svelte and very well made with an all-mental body that oozes class. A large four-position switch on the top plate switches the camera between its scene, auto and manual shooting modes and the excellent 640x480-pixel, 30fps with sound movie capture setting; a central shutter release button completes the top plate controls apart from… A power switch, which sits adjacent to the four-way controller and must be held down for around a second to switch the camera on preventing accidental activation. On the camera's back, a large 2.5in and 115,000-pixel screen hogs the real estate, pushing all the other camera controls over to the right. These are quite small and the four-way controller has a central Menu/OK button. A playback button (which, like the power button, can be held for around a second when the camera's off to activate playback without opening the lens) and an ‘F' button are above the four way control. The ‘F' button accesses the camera's separate menus for image size and quality settings and is simple to use. The camera lacks the usual gamut of scene modes plumping instead for four basic scene modes (portrait, landscape, sports and night scene modes) and a natural light mode. There's an auto shooting mode for, well, point and shooting plus a manual position that provides an extended menu system offering slightly more advanced settings for exposure compensation to +/-2EV in 1/3rd f-stop steps and white balance control. There's no control for shutter or apertures though. All of these must be mastered through a slow and initially fiddly menu system that takes some getting used to. However, the menu glitches are more than outweighed by the camera's performance, which is pretty much class-leading in terms of responsiveness, lack of shutter lag and the rechargeable battery life - in our tests it lasted up to 500 shots on a single charge in normal shooting. If you switch to a neat High Speed shooting mode, the focusing speed is dramatically increased and the effective focus distance is altered slightly from 1m to infinity (you can get from 7.5cm in ‘normal' macro shooting for example) and it reduces the battery life significantly too but you still get around 300-shots on a single charge, still very respectable. My test bore this out as a single charge lasted almost a week worth of snapping including reviewing and plenty of flash work too. The built in flash is quite good, though it overpowered some of my closer portraits, and the recycle time is very slow indeed when compared to the speediness of the rest of the camera. Image quality can be summed up quite succinctly as excellent. The level of detail outstrips many of the 7-megapixel digicams on the market. This fact is largely due to the very nice, sharp, F2.8 to F5, 3x optical zoom lens that gives a focal range from 36mm to 108mm (35mm equiv.), it has to be said however, that it's still a fairly standard lens range for today's digital compacts. Colour and exposure is consistent and spot on, focusing is similarly reliable and noise, or lack thereof, is superbly controlled. Even at the camera's top ISO 1600 sensitivity setting, you get a noise level normally arrived at ISO 400 on other digital cameras. Only very slight pixel fringing on contrast boundaries are image demerits of note.

A beaver is seen in Northern Italy on camera, a species that has not been seen in the country since 1471.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Mike and Bob Bryan are set to reunite as a doubles combination next month in New Zealand when the brothers begin their 21st season on the ATP Tour. Bob Bryan has been sidelined since injuring his hip in the lead-up to the French Open, and Mike paired with fellow American Jack Sock to win the Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles and the ATP Finals, taking the world No. 1 ranking on his own. With Bob back to full fitness, the 40-year-old twins will reunite for the ASB Classic hardcourt tournament in Auckland before heading to Melbourne for the Australian Open. The Bryan brothers have won 114 doubles titles together, more than any other pairing, and have held the No. 1 doubles ranking jointly for 438 weeks. They have won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles together and a further 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles between them, adding an Olympic gold medal in 2012. But they have yet to win a match in Auckland. "We are stoked to be coming back to Auckland," the brothers said in a joint statement."We've got a bit of a point to prove. "We've won 114 titles together but are yet to get the W in Auckland. We've got to change that. Here's hoping 2019 can be our year."[SEP]WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A man accused of killing 22-year-old British tourist Grace Millane made his first appearance in a New Zealand court Monday. The 26-year-old man stared at the ground while a judge addressed him during the brief appearance at the Auckland District Court. The man has not yet entered a plea on murder charges and the court has temporarily blocked his name from being published. Millane’s father, David Millane, traveled to New Zealand last week after his daughter vanished, and Judge Evangelos Thomas addressed him and other family members. “I don’t know what to say to you at this time, but your grief must be desperate,” he said, according to television station Three. “We all hope justice will be fair and swift and ultimately bring you some peace.” The case has riveted people both in Britain and New Zealand. Described by her father as fun-loving and family-oriented, Millane had been traveling in New Zealand as part of a planned yearlong trip abroad that began in Peru. She went missing Dec. 1 and failed to get in touch with her family on her birthday the next day, or on the days that followed, which alarmed them. Before she vanished, Millane had been staying at a backpacker hostel in Auckland and left some of her belongings there. Detective Inspector Scott Beard said she met a man for a couple of hours in the evening before surveillance cameras showed them entering the CityLife hotel at about 9:40 p.m. A week after Millane disappeared, police detained a man for questioning and later charged him with murder. On Sunday, police found a body they believe is that of Millane in a forested area about 10 meters (33 feet) from the side of the road in the Waitakere Ranges near Auckland. Police believe Millane’s body was taken to the area in a rental car that was later left in the town of Taupo. The suspect’s lawyer, Ian Brookie, applied on Monday for name suppression on the basis his client needed it for a fair trial, an argument that Judge Thomas rejected on the basis of open justice. Brookie appealed, triggering the man’s name to be temporarily suppressed. The man is scheduled to make his next court appearance Jan. 23.[SEP]Pictures have been released by New Zealand Police of a hired car that could help officers piece together what happened in the final moments of Grace Millane's life. The search for the 22-year-old from Wickford was called off after a body was found in a section of bush on Scenic Drive in the Waitakere Ranges this morning (Sunday, December 9) . Yesterday (Saturday, December 8), police revealed that Grace's disappearance was being treated as a homicide investigation. They also confirmed that a 26-year-old man, who was speaking to police in connection with Grace's disappearance, would be charged with her murder when he appears at Auckland District Court tomorrow (Monday, December 10). Earlier today, detective inspector Scott Beard revealed the search had been called off after officers found a body. He said: "Since early this morning a scene examination has been underway in a section of bush on Scenic Drive in the Waitakere Ranges. "This area was identified late last night as a location of interest as a result of our investigative work. "I can now advise that shortly after 4pm today, we located a body which we believe to be Grace. "The formal identification process will now take place, however based on the evidence we have gathered over the past few days, we expect that this is Grace. "Obviously this brings the search for Grace to an end. It is an unbearable time for the Millane family and our hearts go out to them. "The investigation will continue though for some time yet." Images of a red Toyota were released online earlier today, with DI Beard asking anyone who saw the car on Monday (December 3) between 6am and 9.30am in West Auckland to call police immediately. He added: "The focus now is to piece together exactly what happened to a young girl, who came to this country on her own. "I am releasing two photographs of a 2016 red Toyota Corolla hatchback. "This car was hired from a central Auckland rental car company. We need to hear from anyone who saw this car last Monday morning between 6am and 9.30am in the West Auckland area. "Anyone who saw the vehicle is asked to call us on 0800 676 255. "Finally, I would like to thank the investigation team for their long hours of hard work over the past few days. "We will be pleased to be giving Grace back to her family." For the latest updates on this breaking news incident, follow our live blog here.[SEP]New Zealand police said Sunday they found a body they believe to be that of missing 22-year-old British tourist Grace Millane. Police said the body was in a forested area about 10 meters (33 feet) from the side of the road in the Waitakere Ranges near Auckland. Tourist Grace Millane has been missing since Dec. 1, and failed to contact her family on her birthday Dec. 2. On Saturday, a 26-year-old man was charged with murder in her case after he was detained for questioning. He is due to make his first court appearance on Monday. Millane was on a planned yearlong trip abroad that began in Peru. She arrived in New Zealand last month and was last seen entering a central Auckland hotel with a man on the evening of Dec. 1. Detective Inspector Scott Beard told reporters near the crime scene in the Waitakare Ranges that police believe Millane's body was taken to the area in a rental car that was later left in the town of Taupo. Police spent several hours searching the area, which they cordoned off and where they put up a tent, before making the announcement. "This area was identified late last night as a location of interest as a result of our investigative work," Beard said. "I can now advise that a short time ago, we located a body, which we believe to be Grace. A formal identification process will now take place, however, based on the evidence we have gathered over the past few days, we expect that this is Grace." Millane's father David Millane traveled from Britain to New Zealand last week. "It is an unbearable time for the Millane family, and our hearts go out to them," Beard said. Before she vanished, Millane had been staying at a backpacker hostel in Auckland, and she left some of her belongings there. Beard said she met a man for a couple of hours on the evening of Dec. 1 before surveillance cameras showed them entering the CityLife hotel at about 9:40 p.m. Her family was surprised and worried when she didn't contact them on her birthday or get in touch over on the days that followed. After arriving in New Zealand on Friday, David Millane spoke with media. "Grace is a lovely, outgoing, fun-loving, family-oriented daughter," he said, adding that she was usually in touch with her family every day. "She arrived here on the 20th of November, and has been bombarding us with numerous photographs and messages of her adventures," Millane said. "We are all extremely upset, and it's very difficult at this time to fully describe the range of emotions we are going through."[SEP]The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand police said Sunday they found a body they believe to be that of missing 22-year-old British tourist Grace Millane. Police said the body was in a forested area about 10 meters (33 feet) from the side of the road in the Waitakere Ranges near Auckland. Tourist Grace Millane has been missing since Dec. 1, and failed to contact her family on her birthday Dec. 2. On Saturday, a 26-year-old man was charged with murder in her case after he was detained for questioning. He is due to make his first court appearance on Monday. Millane was on a planned yearlong trip abroad that began in Peru. She arrived in New Zealand last month and was last seen entering a central Auckland hotel with a man on the evening of Dec. 1. TRENDING: Memo to Mitch McConnell: Come January, Confirm ALL the Judges Detective Inspector Scott Beard told reporters near the crime scene in the Waitakare Ranges that police believe Millane’s body was taken to the area in a rental car that was later left in the town of Taupo. Police spent several hours searching the area, which they cordoned off and where they put up a tent, before making the announcement. “This area was identified late last night as a location of interest as a result of our investigative work,” Beard said. “I can now advise that a short time ago, we located a body, which we believe to be Grace. A formal identification process will now take place, however, based on the evidence we have gathered over the past few days, we expect that this is Grace.” Millane’s father David Millane traveled from Britain to New Zealand last week. “It is an unbearable time for the Millane family, and our hearts go out to them,” Beard said. Before she vanished, Millane had been staying at a backpacker hostel in Auckland, and she left some of her belongings there. Beard said she met a man for a couple of hours on the evening of Dec. 1 before surveillance cameras showed them entering the CityLife hotel at about 9:40 p.m. Her family was surprised and worried when she didn’t contact them on her birthday or get in touch over on the days that followed. After arriving in New Zealand on Friday, David Millane spoke with media. “Grace is a lovely, outgoing, fun-loving, family-oriented daughter,” he said, adding that she was usually in touch with her family every day. “She arrived here on the 20th of November, and has been bombarding us with numerous photographs and messages of her adventures,” Millane said. “We are all extremely upset, and it’s very difficult at this time to fully describe the range of emotions we are going through.” The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. 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He added that Millane's family, including her father who has flown to New Zealand on Friday, has been informed. Asked how the father was doing, Beard said, "Any father, any parent in this situation would struggle."[SEP]WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A man accused of killing 22-year-old British tourist Grace Millane made his first appearance in a New Zealand court Monday. Media reports say the 26-year-old man stared at the ground while a judge addressed him during the brief appearance at the Auckland District Court. The man has not yet entered a plea on murder charges and his name has been temporarily suppressed. The case has riveted people both in Britain and New Zealand. Described by her father as fun-loving and family-oriented, Millane had been travelling in New Zealand as part of a planned yearlong trip abroad that began in Peru. She went missing Dec. 1, and police on Saturday detained a man for questioning.[SEP]The man accused of killing British backpacker Grace Millane was described today as a ‘blatant liar’ by a former flatmate as he appeared in court on a murder charge. The suspect, 26, once shared a flat with three journalism graduates in Auckland and he was asked to leave after just six weeks after his three female flatmates became ‘uncomfortable’ when he was present. One of the flatmates who asked to be identified by her middle name Rose now lives in London, but said she was sickened when she learned of the accused man’s identity. ‘It almost made me ill’ she said. ‘I remembered him immediately from when we all shared a flat together in Auckland in 2016. ‘He was a fantasist and a liar. I caught him out big time and it made the three of us very unhappy that he was in our home.’ Rose, 23, said he arrived at their flat in Auckland after responding to a flat share advertisement and paid the first month rent in advance as was required. ‘He told us that his parents were big in buying up property and restaurants in Australia and we believed him’ she said. ‘But then he later told us that he was negotiating to buy a restaurant in The Viaduct in Auckland. But I knew that had to be a lie. ‘The restaurant is owned by my family and I knew my relative wasn’t selling up.’ Rose said this startled her and the other two women and they felt more uncomfortable when the suspect would drink heavily, although he was never aggressive or made any sexual advances towards them. ‘His chest would come out and he would be brash. His persona would change completely and he would be speaking with a different voice.’ The three women, who had not asked for references prior to welcoming him into the flat, said after being asked to leave, he said his mother had died and he needed to return to Australia anyway. ‘We later found out that she was alive and he stayed on in Auckland. ‘He left without paying a month’s rent he owed us. And two days later he came back into the flat while we were out.’ Rose said a bigger shock came when she visited her family restaurant and found him there. ‘He was working as a bar man and I could see he was a fantasist who built his life on small connections he made. ‘By working in my relative’s restaurant, he had created this story about buying it for his family. But he was just lying. ‘When he saw me, he just walked out and nobody heard from him again. ‘I feel so sorry for Grace. It made me feel sick this morning when I heard.’ It comes as it was revealed earlier today that Grace Millane posted a chilling final picture of one of her works of art containing a reference to 'death' just weeks before her murder in New Zealand. The backpacker, 22, from Essex, posted a picture on her Instagram account of a watercolour human skull with the caption: 'Two can keep a secret, if one of them is dead'. The quote is a reference to the theme song of the hit TV show, Pretty Little Liars, which follows the lives of four girls after their friend vanishes. Just weeks after uploading the cryptic social media post Grace vanished from her hotel in Auckland and was found dead on Sunday in the countryside outside the city. Grace, who was a keen artist having studied advertising, posted the image on her page Art by Millane - and it has since received thousands of likes and shares. A 26-year-old man appeared in court in Auckland on Monday morning charged with her murder on December 1-2. Yesterday, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made an emotional apology on behalf of the country to Grace's family. Addressing Ms Millane's family, she said: 'I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they would be experiencing and feeling right now. 'My thoughts and prayers are with her father David, who is in the country, her mother Gillian, who cannot be here, and her wider family, friends and loved ones. 'From the Kiwis I have spoken to, there is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga [a Maori term meaning kindness and generosity] especially to those who are visiting our shores.' Her voice cracking with emotion, the PM added: 'So on behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace's family. Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that.' It remains unclear how the suspect and Ms Millane met or what the possible motive for the killing might be. Police took the 26-year-old man into custody earlier this week and have charged him with Ms Millane's murder. The suspect cannot currently be named in New Zealand or on social media due to a court order, the New Zealand Herald reported. Detective Inspector Scott Beard said Ms Millane's body was found near Scenic Drive, which leads through the Waitakere Ranges, a popular parkland west of Auckland. She was discovered about ten yards from the side of the road, hidden in bushland, with her body believed to have been taken there in a rented red Toyota Corolla. The red Toyota was then rented out again to persons unrelated to the investigation, and it was eventually seized by police some 190 miles from Auckland, in the small tourist town of Taupo.[SEP]Man accused of killing tourist appears in New Zealand court WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A man accused of killing 22-year-old British tourist Grace Millane made his first appearance in a New Zealand court Monday. The 26-year-old man stared at the ground while a judge addressed him during the brief appearance at the Auckland District Court. The man has not yet entered a plea on murder charges and the court has temporarily blocked his name from being published. Millane's father, David Millane, traveled to New Zealand last week after his daughter vanished, and Judge Evangelos Thomas addressed him and other family members. "I don't know what to say to you at this time, but your grief must be desperate," he said, according to television station Three. "We all hope justice will be fair and swift and ultimately bring you some peace." The case has riveted people both in Britain and New Zealand. Described by her father as fun-loving and family-oriented, Millane had been traveling in New Zealand as part of a planned yearlong trip abroad that began in Peru. She went missing Dec. 1 and failed to get in touch with her family on her birthday the next day, or on the days that followed, which alarmed them. Before she vanished, Millane had been staying at a backpacker hostel in Auckland and left some of her belongings there. Detective Inspector Scott Beard said she met a man for a couple of hours in the evening before surveillance cameras showed them entering the CityLife hotel at about 9:40 p.m. A week after Millane disappeared, police detained a man for questioning and later charged him with murder. On Sunday, police found a body they believe is that of Millane in a forested area about 10 meters (33 feet) from the side of the road in the Waitakere Ranges near Auckland. Police believe Millane's body was taken to the area in a rental car that was later left in the town of Taupo. The suspect's lawyer, Ian Brookie, applied on Monday for name suppression on the basis his client needed it for a fair trial, an argument that Judge Thomas rejected on the basis of open justice. Brookie appealed, triggering the man's name to be temporarily suppressed. The man is scheduled to make his next court appearance Jan. 23.[SEP]New details about the man accused of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane can now be revealed. The 26-year-old will appear in the Auckland District Court today. Ms Millane was last seen on CCTV on Saturday, December 1 entering the CityLife Hotel in central Auckland with a 26-year-old man who was now in police custody. The New Zealand Herald has viewed court documents that state who the man is, what he is alleged to have done and where he is from. Until he has appeared in court his name cannot legally be published. This is to allow for any applications for interim name suppression to be made and is standard when a person has not yet appeared before a judge. But the Herald can reveal that the man is alleged to have murdered Grace between December 1 and 2. The man is listed as living on Queen St - the same address as CityLife Hotel where Millane was last seen alive. His occupation is not listed. Millane's body was found in a section of bush just 10m off Scenic Drive in West Auckland's Waitakere Ranges yesterday. She was found a week after her 22nd birthday. The Essex woman, who recently graduated from university, came to New Zealand as part of a year-long solo OE. She arrived in Auckland just days before she was killed. Millane was last seen on CCTV on Saturday, December 1 entering CityLife Hotel with a 26-year-old man. That man has been charged with her murder. Police have not confirmed how the pair met. Detective Inspector Scott Beard yesterday released two photos of a 2016 red Toyota Corolla hatchback linked to Millane's death. The car was hired from a central Auckland rental company just before lunchtime last Sunday and was later found in Taupo. The investigation team were now calling on anyone who saw the vehicle in the West Auckland area between 6am and 9.30am last Monday, December 3, to contact them. Beard, visibly emotional after delivering the news to Millane's family and then the media that a body had been found, said the focus of the investigation was now to piece together exactly what happened to the young woman. "It is an unbearable time for the Millane family and our hearts go out to them," he said. Beard said Millane's body was found as a result of "investigative work". Yesterday a team of 18 police officers, including forensic experts, spent the morning gathering evidence in a patch of manuka and scrub off a layby not far from the Waitakere dam carpark. Officers dressed in white overalls were seen exiting the bush carrying clear bags. Large tents were erected on the side of the road and there were numerous police cars, both marked and unmarked. By 4pm they had found her body. "The formal identification process will now take place, however based on the evidence we have gathered over the past few days, we expect that this is Grace," said Beard. Since news broke that Millane's body had been recovered, support for her family has been swelling around the world. In New Zealand a number of vigils to honour Millane are being planned. In Auckland a peace walk is also being organised for this Saturday, along Queen St in the CBD. Grace Millane embarks on a year-long solo OE, starting in South America at the end of October, before she arrives in New Zealand on November 20. She travels around the upper North Island, including Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga. Grace arrives in Auckland and checks into the Base Backpackers Hostel. Grace makes contact with her family - the last time they will hear from her after daily messages back and forth. Grace is captured on CCTV leaving Andy's Burgers & Bar, on the first level of SkyCity, at 7.15pm. Later, at 9.41pm, Grace is captured again on CCTV, entering the CityLife Hotel on Queen St with a man. Family become concerned after Grace doesn't respond to messages wishing her a happy 22nd birthday. Detective Inspector Scott Beard says police have "grave fears" for her safety. Just after 3pm, police take in to custody the man, 26, Grace was with at the hotel and find a "vehicle of interest". At 5pm, Beard announces the investigation is now a homicide inquiry. A body believed to be Grace is found in the Waitakere Ranges.

The body of missing tourist Grace Millane is found outside of Auckland, New Zealand.

Armenians are casting their votes in early parliamentary elections Sunday. Reformist leader Nikol Pashinian, 43, swept to power in May after weeks of anti-government protests that forced the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who was also a former president of Armenia. Sargsyan’s ruling Republican Party, however, blocked Pashinian’s bid to become prime minister, resulting in more protests. The Republican Party then decided to back Pashinian for what it said was the good of the nation. Armenia Pashinian became prime minister, but recently stepped down so parliament could be dissolved for the early election. He remains Armenia’s acting prime minister. Analysts expect him to be re-instated in office, with his My Step alliance in control of parliament. Pashinian, a former newspaper editor who had been imprisoned for his activism, has promised to maintain close ties with Russia and fight corruption. He has also pledged to “step up cooperation with the United States and European Union.”[SEP]The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political rival, Serzh Sarkisian, were among early voters in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, in snap parliamentary elections on December 9. The landmark vote comes after a peaceful change of government prompted by April protests.[SEP]The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party’s Central Committee congratulates the citizens of the Republic of Armenia on conducting fair, free and transparent snap parliamentary elections. Regardless of the results, this election is a victory not only for Armenian citizens, but for all Armenians. For decades, through the use of violence, fraud, and election rigging, the rights of Armenian citizens have been restored today as they had the opportunity to not only vote for their favorite candidates again, but also ensure that every vote is meaningful. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest achievements of the velvet revolution. We hope that this election will be the beginning of a new political culture in Armenia. One based on democratic principles, where the overriding struggle will not be based on an individual or a group’s narrow interest, but rather one of policy and ideological outlook. We also congratulate the victorious parties and hope the newly elected National Assembly and future government will immediately immerse themselves with overcoming the many challenges facing the country, for the sake of a democratic, socially just and prosperous Armenia. was last modified: by[SEP]Polls in Armenia to elect members of parliament in the first vote after the velvet revolution closed at 8:00 pm on Sunday, December 9. According to data provided by the Central Electoral Commission, 1.025 million (39.54%) eligible voters cast ballots in Armenia’s parliamentary elections as of 17:00 pm. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan swept to power after months of peaceful protests and a civil disobedience campaign as tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country demanding the resignation of former authorities. Election campaign launched across Armenia on November 26 with leaders of parties and alliances traveling to the various provinces of the country for 12 days through December 7. Eleven political forces were running in elections, including two blocs – Im Kayl “(My Step) and Menk (We) – as well as nine parties – Prosperous Armenia, National Progress, Christian Democratic Revival, Sasna Tsrer, Rule of Law, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Bright Armenia, the Republican Party of Armenia, Citizen’s Decision Social-Democratic Party. Pashinyan resigned on October 16 after sweeping to power back in May. My Step, led by Pashinyan himself, is expected to get a majority in the new legislature.[SEP]Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $5.75 and last traded at $5.80, with a volume of 15226892 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $5.97. SNAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Pivotal Research raised Snap from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Friday, October 12th. Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Snap from $17.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 11th. Wedbush set a $12.00 price objective on Snap and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 23rd. Zacks Investment Research cut Snap from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 16th. Finally, Aegis lowered their price target on Snap from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 21st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.02 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.79 and a beta of -0.46. Snap (NYSE:SNAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 25th. The company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.05. Snap had a negative return on equity of 49.42% and a negative net margin of 131.39%. The company had revenue of $297.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $283.54 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Snap Inc will post -1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year. In related news, CFO Timothy R. Stone sold 8,619 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.29, for a total value of $80,070.51. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,224,343 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,374,146.47. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Jerry James Hunter sold 97,656 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.42, for a total value of $626,951.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,767,834 shares in the company, valued at $11,349,494.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,224,747 shares of company stock worth $15,082,625. Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new position in Snap in the 2nd quarter worth $138,000. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC bought a new position in Snap in the 2nd quarter worth $138,000. Ingalls & Snyder LLC bought a new position in Snap in the 2nd quarter worth $140,000. Aperio Group LLC bought a new position in Snap in the 2nd quarter worth $142,000. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. purchased a new stake in Snap in the 2nd quarter worth $152,000. 23.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. COPYRIGHT VIOLATION NOTICE: “Snap (SNAP) Sets New 12-Month Low at $5.75” was reported by Macon Daily and is owned by of Macon Daily. If you are viewing this piece on another website, it was stolen and reposted in violation of US and international copyright laws. The correct version of this piece can be accessed at https://macondaily.com/2018/12/07/snap-snap-sets-new-12-month-low-at-5-75.html. Snap Inc operates as a camera company in the United States and internationally. The company offers Snapchat, a camera application that helps people to communicate through short videos and images. It also provides Camera, a tool to personalize and add context to Snaps; Friends Page that allows to creating and watching stories, chatting with groups, making voice and video calls, and communicating through a range of contextual stickers and Bitmojis; and Discover that helps to surface the most interesting stories from publishers, creators, and the community, based on a user's subscriptions and interests. Receive News & Ratings for Snap Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Snap and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.[SEP]YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Preliminary results in Armenia's snap parliamentary election show the electoral bloc of the country's new leader winning an overwhelming majority. A preliminary count from all precincts posted on the website of the Armenian Central Election Commission on Monday show Nikol Pashinian's My Step bloc with more than 70 percent of the vote. A 43-year-old former journalist, Pashinian took over as prime minister in May after spearheading massive protests that forced his predecessor to step down. He had pushed for an early parliamentary election to win control of the chamber that was dominated by his political foes. The former ruling Republican Party was shown polling less than 5 percent, which means it will be unlikely to make it into parliament. The results have yet to be officially announced.[SEP]Armenia to hold snap polls after parliament fails to elect PM The electoral bloc of Armenia's acting prime minister Nikol Pashinian won a landslide victory in Sunday's snap parliamentary elections, which were triggered by the reformist leader seeking to cement his political authority in the post-Soviet country. The bloc led by Pashinian's Civil Contract party had 70.45 percent of the vote, and trailing in distant second place with 8.37 percent was the Prosperous Armenia party, according to results from 90 percent of precincts, the central election commission said. The centrist My Step bloc also includes the Mission Party headed by rights activist Manuk Sukiasyan. A small liberal pro-Western party, Bright Armenia, also cleared an electoral threshold with 6.33 percent of the votes, the commission said. Pashinian became prime minister in May after spearheading weeks of peaceful anti-government rallies that ousted veteran leader Serzh Sarkisian. The 43-year-old former journalist has pledged to root out endemic corruption and address widespread poverty, earning him supporters in the impoverished landlocked nation of about three million people. "After the elections, we will be developing Armenian democracy and make an economic revolution happen," Pashinian told reporters after casting his ballot. Pashinian's reform drive had been stalled for months by opposition from Sarkisian's then-ruling Republican Party, which dominated the National Assembly until his calculated resignation triggered parliament's dissolution last month. The Republican Party took 4.56 percent in Sunday's elections, failing to clear the five-percent threshold to make it into parliament. At a polling station in central Yerevan voters expressed optimism about the political change promised by Pashinian and vented their anger at former corrupt officials. "Thanks to the revolution, we will finally have fair elections," 72-year-old pensioner Parzik Avetisyan told AFP. "I voted for the positive change promised by Nikol (Pashinian)," he added. Another voter, 52-year-old painter Garnik Arakelyan, said: "I want all those corrupt officials who for many years were robbing and humiliating people to be jailed." Turnout was 48.63 percent when polls closed at 8 p.m. (1300 GMT), the election commission said. Last week, Pashinian promised "the best elections Armenia has ever seen," without ballot stuffing or voter intimidation. Parliamentary polls had not been scheduled to be held until 2022. Analysts say Pashinian sought new elections while he is at the peak of his popularity. In September, his bloc scored a landslide victory in municipal elections, winning more than 80 percent of the vote in the capital Yerevan, where nearly 40 percent of the former Soviet Republic's population lives. "The elections were called on the wave of a revolutionary euphoria," analyst Gevorg Poghosyan told AFP. "But after the polls, that sentiment will inevitably weaken and Pashinian and his team will face a reality check." On foreign policy, Pashinian has said Armenia will "further strengthen (our) strategic alliance with Russia and, at the same time, step up cooperation with the United States and European Union". Nine political parties and two electoral blocs were competing for mandates in the 101-seat National Assembly. A party needs at least five percent of the vote to be elected to parliament, while an electoral bloc must clear a seven-percent barrier. But -- regardless of how many votes they win -- opposition parties will take at least 30 percent of parliamentary seats, according to Armenia's electoral law. More than 2.6 million people were eligible to vote in the election monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.[SEP]The electoral bloc of Armenia's acting premier Nikol Pashinian was in the lead according to early results in Sunday's snap parliamentary elections triggered by the reformist leader, who is aiming to cement his political authority in the post-Soviet country. The bloc led by Pashiniayn's Civil Contract party had 70.25 percent of the votes, and in second place with 9.15 percent was the Prosperous Armenia party, according to results from 25 percent of precincts, the central election commission said. The 43-year-old former journalist became prime minister in May after spearheading weeks of peaceful anti-government rallies that ousted veteran leader Serzh Sargsyan. However Pashinian's reform drive was stalled for months by opposition from Sargsyan's ruling party which dominated parliament. After weeks of political manoeuvring by the prime minister and more street protests, the parliament was dissolved last month. Pashinian's party is expected to get a majority in the new legislature, allowing him to push ahead with his campaign to reshape the South Caucasus nation's political landscape and spark an "economic revolution." "We will turn Armenia into an industrial, high-tech, export-oriented country," Pashinian told supporters at a rally last week, pledging "the best elections Armenia has ever seen" and ruling out ballot stuffing and voter intimidation. Last month, Pashinian stepped down as prime minister to pave the way for snap elections under a clause in Armenian law. He is currently acting prime minister. Observers expect him to return to the post with his party in control of parliament. Parliamentary elections had not been scheduled to be held until 2022. Pashinian has pledged to root out endemic corruption and address widespread poverty, earning him supporters in the impoverished landlocked nation of about three million people. "He organized this revolution well and intelligently," construction worker Georgi Grigoryan said of Pashinian. "We all hope that now everything will work out well." On foreign policy, Pashinian has said Armenia will "further strengthen (our) strategic alliance with Russia and, at the same time, step up cooperation with the United States and European Union." Analysts say Pashinian sought new elections while he is at the peak of his popularity. In September, his bloc had a landslide victory in municipal elections, winning more than 80 percent of the vote in the capital Yerevan, where nearly 40 percent of the former Soviet Republic's population lives. "The elections were called on the wave of a revolutionary euphoria," analyst Gevorg Poghosyan told French Press Agency (AFP). "But after the polls, that sentiment will inevitably weaken and Pashinian and his team will face a reality check." While many in Armenia have high expectations, others already started to complain about slow progress. "I will be voting for Pashinian, because I believe he will jail all the corrupt officials who were pillaging the state for many years," Iveta Bakhshyan, a 43-year-old flower vendor in Yerevan, told AFP. Meanwhile, pensioner Simon Martirosyan, 67, said he will not vote for Pashinian's party because "they failed to achieve any tangible results." "Nothing has changed in my life during the seven months of Pashinian's rule, people are not better off," he told AFP in Yerevan. Nine political parties and two electoral blocs are competing for mandates in the 101-seat legislature. A party needs at least five percent of the votes to get elected in the parliament, while an electoral bloc must clear a seven-percent barrier. Polls opened at 0400 GMT and will close at 1600 GMT. Results are expected to be released in the early hours on Monday.[SEP]Baku. 15 October. REPORT.AZ/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has arrived in the Azerbaijani occupied city Shusha, Report infroms citing Armenian press. It was reported that he met with the leaders of separatist regime and visited Shusha.[SEP]Voter turnout at the start of Armenia's snap parliamentary elections following the legislature's dissolution last month has been average, election monitors said on Sunday. According to the Armenian Central Electoral Commission, a total of 636,055 (24.53 percent) eligible voters had cast their ballots before 2 pm.

Armenian citizens vote in the country's first ever snap election and the first one since the Velvet Revolution.

Media playback is not supported on this device O'Sullivan wins record seventh UK title to make history - best shots Ronnie O'Sullivan won the UK Championship for a record seventh time by outclassing Mark Allen 10-6 in York. O'Sullivan retained his title to move to 19 World, UK and Masters trophies - surpassing Stephen Hendry's record in the 'Triple Crown' events. A run of six frames in a row allowed the Englishman to dominate the final. Northern Ireland's Allen rallied to trail 9-6, but O'Sullivan closed out the match with a break of 78 to collect the trophy and the £170,000 top prize. Five-time world champion O'Sullivan sat out the 2015 event, but has dominated at the Barbican in recent years, claiming three titles since 2014. He has now won a remarkable 27 of his 28 matches here since 2014, the only blemish being his 2016 final loss against Mark Selby. O'Sullivan was tied with Steve Davis on six tournament victories but this win - 25 years after his first triumph - takes him past his fellow Englishman. 'The Rocket' celebrated by tipping a bottle of water over his head and jumped into the crowd after being presented with the trophy. "History is fantastic," O'Sullivan told BBC Sport. "It's amazing, I can't believe it. "I played very well, but I still had to convince myself because that is how hard it felt. It's great to create history, great to beat Steve Davis' record. "It's amazing to beat my hero Stephen Hendry's record. He was the ultimate player. I've still got eight world titles to get, so I'm chasing that one." Media playback is not supported on this device The greatest ever - the life and times of Ronnie O'Sullivan O'Sullivan continues to rule Despite turning 43 during the tournament, world number three O'Sullivan looks to be improving with age and is the most feared, most consistent and most successful player on tour by a distance. He has been vocal regarding the amount of travelling players have to do for events across Britain, Europe and Asia, and has spoken about wanting to form a breakaway tour in order to continue competing. This was just his third out of a possible nine ranking events this season. His record, though, is superb - winning here, reaching the final of the Northern Ireland Open and semi-finals of the English Open. His triumph at the invitational Shanghai Masters in September made him the first snooker player to pass £10m in prize money and he also won the aptly named Champion of Champions event in Coventry. His first victory in the UK Championship, aged 17, made him the youngest winner of a ranking event - a record which still stands - and he has further landmarks in his sight. O'Sullivan is now just two ranking titles short of Hendry's overall record of 36, and the 101 break he made in the second frame was the 986th century of his career, 14 short of the 1,000 mark, which no player has achieved before. Despite his advancing years, he will also close further on Selby's world number one ranking with a deep run at the Scottish Open which begins on Monday, and will chase an eighth Masters title at Alexandra Palace next month. Allen unable to come up with the goods World number seven Allen came into the tournament in good form after winning the International Championship last month, and defeated former world champions Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham en route to the final. But he has now lost two finals in York, the first to Judd Trump in 2011, and Northern Ireland's long wait for a first UK champion since Alex Higgins in 1983 goes on. Masters champion Allen was not at his best in the tournament, and loose safety play and missed opportunities were heavily punished by his final opponent. "Ronnie played awesome, particularly in the first session," said Allen. "I did not feel like I did that much wrong. I got punished and fell 6-2 behind and his long game was devastating, so was his safety. "It is up to me to go away, practise and try and get closer to Ronnie's level. He is by far and away ahead of everyone else. "I still fancied it at 9-6, even though you are relying on him to make mistakes. I was never giving up. "I hate losing and I will never be happy with second but there are lots to be positive about." The story of the match The pair shared the first four frames in rapid fashion, O'Sullivan making breaks of 101 and 85, while Allen stroked in a 74. But 'The Rocket' took control with further breaks of 66, 57 and 65 as he won five frames in a row. O'Sullivan started the evening session by pinching a scrappy ninth frame, though Allen stopped his opponent's run of frames with breaks of 56 and 105. However, O'Sullivan snatched a 23-minute tactical battle to go two from victory. There looked to be no way back when Allen broke down on 45 with O'Sullivan compiling a cool 57 clearance in response. Allen missed the 10th red when on for a maximum 147 break but won the 14th frame and pulled another back before O'Sullivan crossed the line with a 78 break. O'Sullivan's 2018-2019 season 10-16 September: Shanghai Masters - Won 15-21 October: English Open - Semi-finals 5-11 November: Champion of Champions - Won 12-18 November: Northern Ireland Open - Runner-up 27 November-9 December: UK Championship - Won Still the mean to beat - analysis Former world champion John Parrott: Every time he looked like being challenged O'Sullivan pulled away again. He's a snooker player for all ages. I never thought we'd be seeing him like this when he was 17 years old winning his first UK Championship, but here he is 25 years later and still the man to beat after all these years.[SEP]For a record seventh time in his career, Ronnie O’Sullivan won the UK Championship in York on Sunday. Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed a record seventh UK Championship in York on Sunday with a 10-6 victory over Mark Allen. O’Sullivan reeled off six successive frames to take control of the final, and although Allen battled valiantly he could not stop the Englishman defending his title. Victory moves O’Sullivan to 19 World, UK and Masters trophies in his career, moving him past Stephen Hendry for ‘Triple Crown’ events. A break of 78 sealed the title for O’Sullivan, who will now have his sights set on reaching 1,000 career century-breaks, the 43-year-old having moved to 986 with a 101 in frame two.[SEP]Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed a record-breaking seventh UK Championship title with a 10-6 victory over Mark Allen at the York Barbican on Sunday. His triumph, which came a quarter of a century after he won his first United Kingdom crown as a 17-year-old, also saw O’Sullivan nudge ahead of Stephen Hendry with 19 ‘triple crown’ titles – comprising the World and UK Championships and the Masters. The 43-year-old reeled off six consecutive frames to establish a four-frame advantage at the interval and despite a brief rally by his opponent he wrapped up victory with a break of 78. It capped a tumultuous tournament for O’Sullivan, who had threatened to launch a breakaway tour then required a final-frame decider to edge past veteran Ken Doherty in round two. But O’Sullivan was in imperious form against Allen, who was looking to add a second major title to the Masters he won in January, yet had expressed dissatisfaction with his performances all week. The Northern Irishman took a scrappy opener then moved ahead again with a break of 74 after O’Sullivan had eased level with a break of 101 in the second frame of the match. But then it was all O’Sullivan, as he proceeded to punish a series of costly errors by Allen and reel off six frames in succession. A superb long red set O’Sullivan up to draw level again with a break of 85, and he went ahead with two 50-plus breaks in the next after Allen had missed a black off its spot. A loose safely let O’Sullivan in to make it 4-2 with a break of 57, a brilliant long blue paved the way to extend his lead to three frames, and when Allen missed an easy red in a potentially pivotal eighth, there seemed no way back. Ronnie O’Sullivan has now won more UK titles than Steve Davis (Anna Gowthorpe/PA) It was business as usual at the start of the evening session as O’Sullivan took the first frame with ease to move into a 7-2 advantage, although Allen responded well to stop his opponent’s streak at six. Allen’s first century of the match reduced the deficit to 7-4 but O’Sullivan took the next two frames, including a brilliant clearance of 63 to extinguished his opponent’s 59-point advantage, to move within one frame of victory. There was almost a remarkable twist as Allen responded with nine reds and nine blacks to threaten a 147 in the next, and despite stalling on 72 he followed up with 59 to pull back to 9-6 before O’Sullivan finished in style.[SEP]Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed a record-breaking seventh UK Championship title with a 10-6 victory over Mark Allen at the York Barbican last night. His triumph, which came a quarter of a century after he won his first United Kingdom crown as a 17-year-old, also saw O’Sullivan nudge ahead of Stephen Hendry with 19 ‘triple crown’ titles – comprising the World and UK Championships and the Masters. The 43-year-old reeled off six consecutive frames to establish a four-frame advantage at the interval and despite a brief rally by his opponent he wrapped up victory with a break of 78. It capped a tumultuous tournament for O’Sullivan, who had threatened to launch a breakaway tour then required a final-frame decider to edge past veteran Ken Doherty in round two. But O’Sullivan was in imperious form against Allen, who was looking to add a second major title to the Masters he won in January, yet had expressed dissatisfaction with his performances all week. The Northern Irishman took a scrappy opener then moved ahead again with a break of 74 after O’Sullivan had eased level with a break of 101 in the second frame of the match.[SEP]RONNIE O’SULLIVAN produced an incredible long pot in his UK Championship snooker final win against Mark Allen. Ronnie O’Sullivan secured his record-breaking seventh title at York’s Barbican Centre yesterday in his 10-6 masterclass against Allen. The result meant The Rocket moved to 19 World, UK and Masters trophies – surpassing Stephen Hendry’s record in the “Triple Crown” events. And he did it in some style. Footage from the fifth frame shows O’Sullivan lining up a tricky long shot on the red. The target ball was lying to the left of the far pocket, sitting tantalisingly close to the cushion. It meant the 42-year-old needed to hit it in precisely the right place to get it into the pocket without rebounding off the cushion. But O’Sullivan managed it with ease. As the red sailed into the bottom right pocket, the commentator exclaimed: “That is fantastic, it really is. “It’s not only the pot, it’s the control of the cue ball.” More than 6,500 people have seen the video since it was posted to World Snooker’s Twitter page. “Marvellous control of the cue ball,” one wrote. Another commented: “The best in the world.”[SEP]Ronnie O'Sullivan brilliantly ripped up the snooker history books in York on Sunday night. A rampant Rocket made it a record 19 successes in snooker's three major tournaments by being the first to win a seventh Betway UK Championship title. O'Sullivan, 43, stormed to a 10-6 win over reigning Masters champion Mark Allen at the Barbican Centre to continue a blistering campaign. The world No 3 is at war with supremo Barry Hearn over formats and venues on tour - and last week even threatened he could stage breakaway 'Champions League' events. That triggered a furious response from Hearn, who branded his box office talisman 'pathetic, ridiculous and selfish'. But on the table O'Sullivan, who pocketed £170,000 on Sunday, has won three of the five events he has played this season - and also reached a final and a semi-final. A limited schedule is working, and O'Sullivan has now edged ahead of boyhood idol Steve Davis on UK wins - and has 19 Triple Crown triumphs, one clear of long-time rival Stephen Hendry. O'Sullivan celebrated by tipping a glass of water over his head. He said: 'History is fantastic. It's amazing. 'It is great to beat the Nugget, Steve Davis', record of six UK titles, and to beat my hero Stephen Hendry's record of 18 Triple Crown titles. 'To be involved in a final against Mark, who is an unbelievable competitor... if he doesn't win the worlds, I will be surprised. He has talent and bottle in abundance. 'It's great to create history and beat Stephen's records. I still have eight world titles to get. 'My strike average is better than other sportsmen. Roger Federer and Tiger Woods have four majors to go at. I only have three! 'I want to support the fans. I will play with a smile on my face. 'I don't set myself limits. I will play as many tournaments as I can. I want to compete and enjoy it.' Allen, 32, who earns £75,000, said: 'I am a part of history I didn't really want. You have to appreciate what Ronnie does. 'To beat the records of Davis and Hendry means he is something special. Hopefully he p***** off on this breakaway tour! 'I felt alright earlier, but there are extremely fine margins. Playing Ronnie is the ultimate examination of your abilities.' O'Sullivan's big breakthrough came at the UK in 1993 at the age of 17 years and 358 days - and this marked the perfect 25th year anniversary. Hendry, another strong candidate in a small field for best player of all-time, won his 18 majors in 11 years - less than half the time. And he still holds two huge records - the mark of seven world titles at the Crucible, and 36 ranking titles with O'Sullivan now just two adrift of that one on 34. O'Sullivan, watched by artist pal Damien Hirst on Sunday, values style as well as trophies. His tennis hero Roger Federer has won 20 slams, while the Rocket's golf idol Tiger Woods is back on 14 majors. Allen, 32, could take consolation from his £75,000 runners-up prize, equalling his career-high ranking of No 6, and a superb 2018 that saw him also win the International Championship in China. But it was a second loss in the UK final having gone down to Judd Trump back in 2011. Allen, who trailed 7-2, trimmed the deficit with breaks of 56 and 105, but O'Sullivan cleared up from 59-6 down in frame 13 and soon closed out the contest. Meanwhile the draw for January's Dafabet Masters, the next Triple Crown tournament on the calendar, was made in York on Sunday night. Seven-time Masters champion O'Sullivan will play former world champion Stuart Bingham in the first round. And defending champion Allen could have been handed a far tougher test than an out-of-form Belgian Luca Brecel.[SEP]Has there ever been a more...apathetic is the wrong word, but ever been a champion sportsperson who gives the outward impression that they could take or leave being a champion, more than Ronnie O’Sullivan. Upon being asked how great it would be to surpass Steve Davis’s mark if six UK Championships, O’Sullivan noted that he would be “over the moon”, but also that if he didn’t get it done this year, then there’s always next year. It will take quite the comeback from Mark Allen to make him wait 12 months: O’Sullivan goes into this evening session requiring four of the potential 11 frames to retain the title and bring his personal collection to seven. In a sense, it’s probably this sort of match that has led to O’Sullivan’s on again, off again relationship with snooker: he’s on his way to winning the second-most prestigious title in the game, and he’s barely broken metaphorical sweat. Still, if Allen takes a few early frames we could be in for a longer evening. Stick around to find out.[SEP]UK CHAMPIONSHIP SNOOKER: How much will the winner of tonight's Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Mark Allen final land? O'Sullivan is the defending champion at the York Barbican and is the big favourite for victory. He's breezed through to the final when he faces Northern Ireland potter Mark Allen. The final is played over two sessions and is a best of 19 frames contest. And on offer is a whopping cheque for the winner. How much does the UK Championship snooker winner make? O'Sullivan or Allen will take home a mega £170,000 for winning the tournament. For The Rocket, a victory will edge him ahead of Stephen Hendry's 18 Triple Crown wins. The two are currently tied on the same amount, but a win for O'Sullivan will put him as the standalone leader on 19. “It would be great to win a seventh title here, it would be special. “If it doesn’t happen then I’ve always got next year or the year after. I’ve still got plenty of time. “It would be great to beat Hendry’s Major record. But if I beat that then everyone will be going on about Hendry’s World Championship record so it never ends. “It’s not my main goal. My main goal is to be in a great match. Snooker will always be the winner. I’m proud that I’m still playing and still competing in big events after all these years.” O’Sullivan has amazingly lost just one match the last four times he’s entered the event – the 2016 UK Final to world No.1 Mark Selby. And that record looks like continuing - with his opponent Allen claiming he's 'not playing well' despite reaching the final. BBC pundit Stephen Hendry said: "Mark said to us last night that he thinks he is playing rubbish. "If he was playing confident and well, the fact he has had long matches wouldn't matter. The fact that he isn't 100% confident in his game, together with having tough matches, might be starting to take it's toll."[SEP]Ronnie O’Sullivan ripped up snooker’s record books last night after winning the Betway UK Championship. In the week the five-time world champion suggested a Champions League-style breakaway snooker tour, O’Sullivan proved to be in a league of his own with a stunning 10-6 win over Masters champion Mark Allen. Not only did the 43-year-old’s victory at the York Barbican complete the ‘Magnificent Seven’ – breaking Steve Davis’s previous record of six UK victories – but he also surpassed Stephen Hendry’s record haul of 18 Triple Crown trophies. Last night’s win – coming 25 years since the then 17-year-old Chigwell potter first claimed his opening UK title – also saw O’Sullivan pocket £170,000 to swell his prize money earnings to over £500,000 from just five tournaments this season. World Snooker chief Barry Hearn claims no individual is bigger than the sport, but O’Sullivan – who has already claimed Shanghai Masters and Champion of Champions trophies this season – comes as close to that distinction as is humanly possible. At 43 he is still pure box office, snooker’s poster boy, and it seems only a matter of time before O’Sullivan wins another three ranking titles to break Hendry’s record haul of 36. Victory yesterday was never in doubt, after he reeled off six successive frames to come from 2-1 behind to lead 7-2. Northern Ireland’s Allen was never likely to roll over and make it a formality, but O’Sullivan was not to be denied as he celebrated victory with a huge fist-pump to the packed Barbican crowd. He said: “(To create) history is amazing, I can’t beleve it. “It’s great to create history, great to beat the Nugget’s record, amazing to beat my hero’s record – Stephen Hendry, who was the ultimate player – but I have still got eight world titles to get, I will be chasing that.” Yesterday afternoon’s opening exchanges were of the highest quality. Allen nudged into a 2-1 advantage before being swept aside as O’Sullivan reeled off the next five frames to take a 6-2 lead into last night’s final session in their best-of-19 contest. The first frame saw O’Sullivan take the advantage, but Allen – in his second UK final, after losing to Judd Trump in 2011 – engineered a snooker on the final red to pinch the frame. If that was a chance for both players to sound each other out, they came out punching with some quickfire punches to head into the mid-session interval locked at 2-2. O’Sullivan knocked in a 101 break – his 986th career century – Allen responded with 74. before his opponent rallied with an 85. All three breaks were founded on glorious long-range opening reds, warmly applauded by the sell-out York crowd. Tickets for next year’s tournament had gone on sale hours earlier, but those inside the Barbican were witnessing pure snooker magic. World No 7 Allen produced a rare mistake, missing the black off its spot when attempting to open up the pack of reds. The only surprise was that O’Sullivan needed two attempts to win the frame, following up an opening 54 with a 66 clearance. The defending champion’s 57 break, after some tactical jousting, made it 4-2, and after O’Sullivan opened with a 49 break in the next frame, Allen missed a pink to the centre pocket to fall three frames behind. Both players had chances in the final frame of the afternoon session – the difference between trailing 5-3 and 6-2 a huge psychological swing – but were guilty of leaving reds hanging over the pocket. But it was O’Sullivan who showed his composure to take a 6-2 lead into the evening after a 65 break. It was a daunting proposition facing Allen, against a player who has cruised through a favourable draw in York. Apart from a narrow 6-5 second-round win over veteran Ken Doherty, world No 3 O’Sullivan has lost just four frames in fives matches. He whitewashed Zhou Yuelong 6-0, and triumphed 6-1 against Luke Simmonds, Jack Lisowski, Martin O’Donnell and Tom Ford. Allen, in comparison, had a much tougher route to the final, the 32-year-old having to overcome former world champions Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham, as well as world No 15 Stephen Maguire. O’Sullivan made it six successive frames on their return to the Barbican arena last night, before Allen showed his fighting spirit. A 56 break was quickly followed by a 105 clearance –sparked by an astonishing three-ball plant on a red – to cut the deficit to 7-4. But O’Sullivan held his nerve with a 46 break to restore the four-frame cushion, before the mid-session interval. Allen was first in the points on their return, with a 45 break, but O’Sullivan cleared the table with a 57-point haul – including a stunning pink to the corner – to snatch the frame and pull away to 9-4. The chance of a maximum 147 was a real possiblilty for the Irishman after nine blacks, but Allen missed the 10th red, although breaks of 72, 68 and 59 helped him win back-to-back frames but it was only delaying the inevitable. O’Sullivan got in first in frame 16 with a long red, and he fired in a 78 break to confirm a 10-6 win and his place in snooker history.[SEP]Ronnie O'Sullivan vowed to continue making snooker history after becoming the first player to win seven UK Championship titles with a 10-6 victory over Mark Allen in York. O'Sullivan's triumph saw him surpass the previous record he shared with Steve Davis, as well as edging past Stephen Hendry to win a 19th 'triple crown' title - comprising the World and UK Championship and the Masters. O'Sullivan said: "It's great to make history. To beat Davis's record and to beat Stephen Hendry, who is my hero and the ultimate player, is just crazy. "I never thought I would be chasing these kinds of records. I just want to get my head down and play but I don't want to stop there - I want to put in some distance and make it harder for the next guy to overtake me." O'Sullivan's triumph, which came a quarter of a century after he first won the title as a 17-year-old, crowned a tumultuous week in which he threatened to launch a breakaway tour and needed a final frame decider to nudge past Ken Doherty in round two. There were no such fears on Sunday as O'Sullivan reeled off six consecutive frames to turn an early 2-1 deficit to the reigning Masters champion into a 7-2 lead. After years of threatening to walk away from the sport, O'Sullivan, who celebrated his 43rd birthday in the middle of the tournament, now appears thoroughly intent on committing himself to his sport for the long-term. He added: "I was playing for the fans today. It's payback time - they have supported me for so long and they go through it all with me so I just need to play with a smile on my face. "I am not setting myself any limits. I will play as many tournaments as I think I can play, whether they are big or small. It's just about playing and trying to enjoy it, because it's a fantastic sport." Allen had made a promising start to the match, sandwiching a 101 from O'Sullivan in the second frame, but he was ultimately cast adrift by the favourite's six-frame burst heading into the evening session. The Northern Irishman rallied well, winning two consecutive frames including a first century of his own to pull back to 7-4, but O'Sullivan took the next two, including a brilliant clearance of 63 to move within one frame of victory. The mutual respect between the pair at the end was obvious, with O'Sullivan tipping Allen to go on to end his long search for a world title, while Allen described his opponent as the best player of all time. "I congratulated him at the end, not just for the win but for making history," said Allen. "To beat Steve Davis's record and to beat Stephen Hendry's 19 shows where Ronnie is and there's no question in my mind he's the greatest ever. "I didn't feel like I did much wrong but I got really punished for it. That's the fine margins and Ronnie's game was really devastating in that first session. "That's why you play the game, and it's up to me to go away and try to get closer to Ronnie's level but at the moment he's by far and away better than everyone else." If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Ronnie O'Sullivan wins a record seventh UK Championship snooker title after defeating Mark Allen 10–6 in the final at the Barbican Centre, York.

Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald needed one catch to pass Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for the most receptions with one team in a career. It felt as if it would never happen on Sunday against the Detroit Lions. Finally, midway through the third quarter Josh Rosen connected with Fitzgerald for his 1,282nd reception. He finished the day with five catches for 55 yards. No player in @NFL history has more catches with one team than @LarryFitzgerald has in our uniform.#ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/j4uGpfuIBU — Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) December 9, 2018 JUST IN: Larry Fitzgerald has set a new NFL record for most catches with a single team. DETAILS: https://t.co/vAWphLOYJb pic.twitter.com/wXwjx6WFvp — ABC15 Sports (@abc15sports) December 9, 2018 And there it is: With his first catch of the game – a 14-yarder from Josh Rosen – @LarryFitzgerald passed Jerry Rice & now has more catches with one team than any player in @NFL history (1,282) #DETvsAZ pic.twitter.com/E85dRtCD56 — Mark Dalton (@CardsMarkD) December 9, 2018 His first reception? It happened in September of 2004 on a flea flicker. Josh McCown to Emmitt Smith back to McCown to Fitzgerald.[SEP]Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald needed one catch to pass Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for the most receptions with one team in a career. It felt as if it would never happen on Sunday against the Detroit Lions. Finally, midway through the third quarter Josh Rosen connected with Fitzgerald for his 1,282nd reception. He finished the day with five catches for 55 yards. His first reception? It happened in September of 2004 on a flea flicker. Josh McCown to Emmitt Smith back to McCown to Fitzgerald.[SEP]Larry Fitzgerald may be the most under-appreciated great wide receiver in NFL history. Sure, football fans know he’s caught a lot of passes tucked away in Arizona and can recite his big plays in 2009’s Super Bowl loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. What he’s not is a guy whose name generally comes up alongside Jerry Rice and Randy Moss when discussing the greatest receivers of all time. And he should be. The Cardinals receiver with glue traps for hands added a stat to the NFL record Sunday to bolster his case for that pantheon, logging the most career catches by a receiver with one team. His 14-yard grab in the third quarter Sunday against the Detroit Lions was the 1,282nd of his career, passing Rice, who caught 1,281 with the 49ers during his storied stint in San Francisco. The feat speaks to his greatness as a wide receiver and his loyalty to the Cardinals franchise. “You have to want to stay in a place and the organization, team, coaches have to want you to be here,” Fitzgerald told reporters. “It’s a two-way street. I’m appreciative of the Bidwill family for giving me the shot to continue to play and call Arizona home. It means a lot to me.” Fitzgerald was part of one great playoff run with that Cardinals team that suffered heartbreak in the Super Bowl in 2009. But besides that season, he’s largely been sheltered in the obscurity of a largely mediocre Cardinals’ franchise that’s been to the playoffs in just four of his 15 NFL seasons. While it’s admirable to show loyalty to the franchise that’s treated him well, it’s a a shame he never felt the pull to leave Arizona for a competitive franchise or a great quarterback. Just imagine Fitzgerald teaming up with Tom Brady in New England or Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, two quarterbacks with Hall of Fame careers largely played without Hall of Fame receiving help. Fitzgerald did it with mostly terrible quarterbacks Meanwhile, Fitzgerald has made his iron-clad Canton case playing with a past-his-prime Kurt Warner and a motley cast of Cardinals quarterbacks that’s included Drew Stanton, Kevin Kolb and John Skelton. In doing so, he’s racked up the third-most catches in league history (1,286), trailing Rice and Tony Gonzalez, and the second-most receiving yards (17,108) behind Rice. Rice’s numbers (1,549 catches for 22,895 yards) appear unassailable. Those stats combined with his three Super Bowl rings and Super Bowl MVP award put him in a class by himself. But any conversation about the next tier of all-time greats that doesn’t include Fitzgerald isn’t a worthy one. More from Yahoo Sports: • Report: Cowboys’ Jason Garrett tried to lure Jason Witten out of ‘Monday Night Football’ booth • Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray will honor Athletics contract, according to agent • Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh on potential NFL return: ‘I’m not going anywhere’ • Bulls suffer worst loss in franchise history mere days after firing Fred Hoiberg[SEP]It took until the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions, but Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald has made history. His first catch of the game was No. 1,282 of his career, which set the NFL record for the most receptions by any player for a single team. He passes Jerry Rice, who had 1,281 catches for the San Francisco 49ers. It was a 14-yard throw from Rosen to Fitzgerald and it also extended his streak of games with a catch to 223, which is the second-longest such streak in league history. Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio.[SEP]Veteran wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald passed Jerry Rice's record for the most receptions for a single team. He secured his 1,282nd career reception for the Cardinals against the Lions Sunday. The 35-year-old Fitzgerald, who is in his 15th season with Arizona, beat Rice's mark on his first catch of the game. He nabbed a pass from rookie quarterback Josh Rosen, who was just seven years old when Fitzgerald made his first reception with the Cardinals. Rice spent 16 seasons in San Francisco before making stops in Oakland and Seattle. At the end of the 2004 season — his 20th in the league — Rice was planning on joining the Broncos organization for a one-year deal, but decided to retire.[SEP]The Arizona Cardinals star receiver passed Rice on Sunday for most catches with one team in NFL history. Fitzgerald's 14-yard catch with 5 minutes, 48 seconds left in the third quarter against the Detroit Lions gave him 1,282 catches in his 15 seasons with the Cardinals. Rice had 1,281 with the 49ers. Fitzgerald was drafted by the Cardinals third overall in 2004. He's signed four contracts over his 15-year career with a handful of extensions added throughout. Fitzgerald, 35, is in the last year of his current deal.[SEP]A few plays before, the crowd started preemptively cheering: "LAR-RY, LAR-RY." Late in the third quarter, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald had yet to snag a catch. He'd been targeted just once. He could hear the crowd, and he knew why they were getting impatient. History was on the line. A few plays later, they cheered again. He made it. With 5:48 left in the third quarter, Fitzgerald became all-time. It was his 1,282nd catch with the Cardinals. No player in NFL history has had more receptions with one team. Fitzgerald's 14-yard reception set the league record and extended his streak to 224 games with a reception. Setting the record in front of the home crowd was one highlight for the team in the 17-3 loss to the Lions. Fitzgerald hadn't yet processed what the record meant in the context of a loss. "I don't know. My mind is not there," Fitzgerald said. "I am just frustrated with the way things turned out. It is just frustrating." Fitzgerald passed Jerry Rice, who had 1,281 catches with the 49ers over 16 years. He ended the day with five catches on nine targets for 55 yards. His other four catches all came in the fourth quarter. "Detroit actually just dealt with him pretty aggressively pretty early," quarterback Josh Rosen said. "They kind of laid off of that in the second half, which is why he started to get his catches. They took him away and tried to make a couple of plays with some other guys, and it didn't work out, but it did down the stretch." Fitzgerald was targeted just once in the first half. Detroit often double-teamed him. Lions coach Matt Patricia thinks Fitzgerald can never be totally shut down, so they just wanted to contain him for as long as possible. "Coach (Paul) Pasqualoni and that defense, third downs, I got bracketed quite a few times and they had some over-the-top coverage," Fitzgerald said. "They had a good game plan for us." As the Cardinals dropped another game, Fitzgerald was quiet after the game. The future Hall of Famer is collecting records, but he would trade them for some wins. "When I am done, I think I can look back and reflect on it," Fitzgerald said on passing Rice. "Now is not the time. Being 3-10 is not a good feeling. I don't feel celebratory." There were a few things he could still appreciate in the moment. It's meaningful to Fitzgerald to spend all that time with the same team, and he knows this particular record is a testament to that. He said he's grateful for the chance to keep playing, for the coaches and front office that keep him there, and for the fans that keep supporting him. Plus, the game gave him a chance to see more of what the other wide receivers can do. Rookie Trent Sherfield led all receivers with 77 yards on five catches. He was targeted seven times, including one the team would like to take back. On third and 14 in the third quarter, Rosen looked for Sherfield to his right. Darius Slay undercut the route, intercepted Rosen and ran it back 67-yards for the Lions' first touchdown of the day. Sherfield said his chemistry with Rosen has been getting better. At that point, Rosen had already connected to Sherfield twice on third down for conversions. Sherfield's shortest catch of the day was still good for 11 yards. "I thought he stepped up," Wilks said. "He came up with some key catches for us." Sherfield wasn't the only undrafted rookie stepping up. Jalen Tolliver saw his first NFL action, and caught both passes thrown his way for a total of 22 yards. His first reception at the pro level was a 10-yard pickup on third down. J.J. Nelson added 43 yards on three catches. Even in the loss, Fitzgerald was pleased with what he saw out of the young receivers. "I was really happy to see those guys perform," Fitzgerald said. "Right now, when you are eliminated from the playoffs, that is all you can do is just build. Every single day you go out to work. ... They come to work and really give it their best. It matters to them, they care. We are just trying to hold a standard." • None Cardinals fail to build on momentum, flounder offensively in loss to Lions • None Cardinals offense manages to underachieve against Lions despite low expectations • None Instant replay: Cardinals' offense fails to show up in lackluster loss to Lions[SEP]Sunday brought another loss for the Cardinals in a season filled with them, but there was a memorable moment before the Lions sealed their 17-3 win. Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald‘s first catch of the day gave him 1,282 for his career and that moved him past Jerry Rice for first place on the list of most catches with one team over the course of a career. Fitzgerald said after the game that he didn’t feel “celebratory” because of the loss, but the Lions were certainly in the mood to give the wideout some applause. Lions cornerback Nevin Lawson said he’d tell his kids that he got to face Fitzgerald and running back LeGarrette Blount called him one of the “special people” in the world. Cornerback Darius Slay called him “amazing” and cornerback Quandre Diggs also praised his opponent. “I wish they stopped the game. He needs that,” Diggs said, via ESPN.com. “Man, he’s the man. He’s the man, brother. Any time you can share the field with a Hall of Famer and anybody so humble as him, man, it’s a blessing. I’m just thankful to be here and to be able to compete against guys like that.” There aren’t many reasons to watch the Cardinals this season, but the chance to see Fitzgerald play wide receiver is right at the top of the list.[SEP]TEMPE, Ariz. — The Arizona Cardinals have double-digit losses for the first time since 2012. Just when the Cardinals looked as if they truly had improved — with a win at Green Bay — they fell flat in a 17-3 home loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday. That left them at 3-10, tied with the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders for the worst record in the NFL and back in the thick of the battle for next year’s No. 1 draft pick. Unless the Cardinals can win one of their final three games — at Atlanta, at home against the Los Angeles Rams and at Seattle, Arizona will match the worst record since the franchise moved from St. Louis to Arizona in 1988. The 2000 Cardinals finished 3-13, with Vince Tobin fired seven games into the season and replaced by Dave McGinnis. The franchise didn’t have a winning record again until a surprising run to the Super Bowl in 2008. First-year coach Steve Wilks indicated he’s balancing giving young players a long look while still playing to win. He said he’s emphasizing playing for pride. “Very important. That’s the word that we are using from a pride standpoint,” he said. “You may say, ‘You’re not playing for anything,’ but you’re playing for pride. These guys in here are professionals, and they want to win just like the coaches. So, we have to find a way to turn this thing around this week and go to Atlanta and get a win. ” Wilks said he watched tape of the game twice Monday, and was encouraged to find the team still played hard. “I wanted to go back again because I wanted to see certain things,” he said. “I thought the guys played hard, and that’s what I told them. We gave ourselves a chance to win; we just didn’t finish.” Wilks thought the defence played well, until Detroit’s game-clinching 75-yard touchdown drive, aided by missed tackles and Arizona penalties. The Lions’ plan was to take Larry Fitzgerald out of the game with persistent double-teams. So it was the third quarter before he caught his first pass, which put him ahead of Jerry Rice for most receptions for one team. He ended up with five to put him at 1,286 for his career. “It is a two-way street in this business,” he said of the record. “You have to want to stick with a place, organization, or team and the coaches have to want you to be here. It is a two-way street. I am appreciative of the opportunity and to the Bidwill family for giving me the shot to continue to play. I call Arizona home and it means a lot to me.” But Fitzgerald really wasn’t in any mood to discuss his latest landmark. “When I am done, I think I can look back and reflect on it,” he said. “Now is not the time. Being 3-10 is not a good feeling. I don’t feel celebratory.” Now Fitzgerald will have to endure the remainder of what looks to be the worst of his 15 seasons in Arizona. It also may well be his last, and not at all the way he wanted to go out.[SEP]Fitzgerald caught five of nine targets for 55 yards during Sunday's 17-3 loss to Detroit. Fitzgerald made history Sunday, passing Hall-of-Fame wideout Jerry Rice for the most receptions (1,286) for any one team in NFL history. However, the veteran nonetheless had trouble taking advantage of a plus matchup against a weak Lions secondary. Most of his struggles are connected to the uninspiring play of rookie quarterback Josh Rosen, though. Since it doesn't seem wise to expect Rosen to pick up his play anytime soon, it may not be wise to look to Fitzgerald for reliable production either. After all, he's only topped 50 receiving yards in two other games this season.

In American football, Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals passes Jerry Rice to become the all-time receptions leader with one team.

Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights: River Plate beat Boca Juniors to lift cup Juan Quintero's stunning extra-time strike helped River Plate come from a goal down to record a historic victory over 10-man Boca Juniors in Madrid and win the Copa Libertadores. Quintero scored in the 109th minute of the second leg between the fierce Argentine rivals before team-mate Gonzalo Martinez wrapped up a 3-1 victory on the night for River - and a 5-3 win on aggregate. Martinez ran the ball into an empty net with the last kick of the game after Boca keeper Esteban Andrada had been caught upfield at a corner. That ended a dramatic extra-time period, which had started with the sending-off of Boca midfielder Wilmar Barrios for a second bookable offence - a two-footed challenge on Exequiel Palacios. Martinez's goal completed a dramatic turnaround in a match moved more than 6,000 miles from Buenos Aires, in Argentina, to the Spanish capital after its postponement in November, when Boca's team bus was attacked by River fans, causing injury to players and staff. Dario Benedetto had fired Boca into the lead shortly before half-time at Real Madrid's Bernabeu Stadium. Benedetto finished off a devastating counter-attack and celebrated by sticking his tongue out at River defender Gonzalo Montiel. Former Barcelona striker Lucas Pratto equalised for River in the second half, when he slotted home a cutback at the end of a slick passing move. The crowd spent the majority of the match standing up - and many River fans were seen crying with delight when their team equalised. Those supporters were delirious with joy as their team came back to win in the additional half an hour. It was the first time in the 58-year history of the Copa Libertadores that the two great Buenos Aires rivals have faced each other in the two-legged final, with the first leg, on 11 November, ending in a 2-2 draw. Benedetto celebrated his goal by sticking his tongue out at River Plate defender Gonzalo Montiel The build-up to this hugely anticipated fixture was full of controversy after the second leg - originally scheduled for 24 November - was postponed as a result of the bus attack. Boca players suffered cuts from broken windows when their team bus was attacked by River fans and were also affected by the tear gas used by police to disperse the crowds. A number of players, including Boca's Carlos Tevez - the former Manchester City, Manchester United and Juventus striker - reportedly suffered from dizziness and vomiting. Boca argued River should have been disqualified from the competition, but a late attempt to postpone Sunday's rescheduled second leg match was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas). The Copa Libertadores is the showpiece club competition in South America, equivalent to the Champions League in Europe, and there were several household names in attendance at the Bernabeu, including Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Juventus' Pablo Dybala. Why was it played in Madrid? Media playback is not supported on this device Football final postponed after team bus attack The two Buenos Aires sides met in front of 72,000 fans at the Bernabeu, where the match was moved in an attempt to avoid further crowd disturbance. However, the decision to move the final of South America's biggest football competition to another continent was hugely criticised, with a number of fans unable to travel because of the cost of the trip. River Plate and Boca Juniors were each given 5,000 tickets, but only 4,000 fans from each club flew to Spain. Another 20,000 tickets, which were first available to Real Madrid members, sold out within hours. Inside the Bernabeu, a vacant block of seats acted as a buffer between the two sets of supporters. The road outside was closed for the entire day and around 2,500 police officers were on duty. Thousands of fans gathered in Buenos Aires to watch the game in Argentina's capital and Boca Juniors fans celebrated wildly after Benedetto's opener Tevez was among those who challenged the decision and he told BBC's World Service it was "embarrassing for the people". "They took away our dream of playing the final in our country," said Tevez. The head of South American football, Alejandro Dominguez, told the BBC that Madrid was the only city where it was realistic to host the postponed second leg. "Madrid is an exceptional decision in exceptional circumstances," he said. "We found out that there is a big population of Argentineans living in Spain. In fact, it's the biggest outside Argentina. There are 350,000 Argentinean people living in Spain so we wanted to give the opportunity to them to live this match and feel it. "And the Bernabeu Stadium is like the Mecca of football in the world." Extraordinary final produces dramatic finish The build-up to the match may not have centred on the football - but the final produced one of the most exciting games of the season. Both teams attacked with intensity and aggression and the drama played out until the very end. River battled to come from behind and ensure it went to extra-time, and then Barrios' sending off changed the dynamic of the game. Boca were forced to change tack but they still attacked, leaving spaces at the back for River to exploit in an end-to-end and tense half-an-hour. Quintero's goal lit up the show but Boca almost equalised at the finish when Leonardo Jara's thunderous volley smacked the outside of the post. Boca keeper Andrada then left his goal free as he challenged for the ball at a corner before Martinez raced away to score River's third with the last kick of the game. River's players fell to the ground at full-time in disbelief. Half-and-half scarves and Europop Mani Djazmi, BBC World Service Many fans of these clubs described the decision to play the match in Madrid as a betrayal of South American football by those who govern it. As if that wasn't bad enough, two of the worst affectations of European football blighted the build-up to the match even more. The dreaded half-and-half scarf had spread even as far as the Superclasico, and before the match the symphony of River and Boca fans - who hadn't occupied the same stadium for six years - was drowned out by Europop. But, when the music was switched off, the sound from behind each goal did its best to overcome the suffocating hum of neutral observers. Still, when the fans needed to catch their breath, there were patches of near featureless, generic ambivalence resembling an FA or World Cup final, when those who really care are seriously outnumbered by those who don't. And at least, in this European staging of a very South American occasion, when the River Plate captain Leonardo Ponzio went to lift the trophy, he was greeted with the River Plate anthem instead of that song by Queen. Boca Juniors' players celebrate scoring the opening goal in Madrid River Plate's players celebrate the equalising goal in the second half There were tears in the stands as River Plate fans celebrated their equalising goal River Plate players were jubilant when Quintero's strike hit the back of the net in extra-time[SEP]River Plate battled back to beat arch Argentine rivals Boca Juniors 3-1 in extra-time in an unforgettable and unique Copa Libertadores final match second leg. River Plate battled back to beat arch Argentine rivals Boca Juniors 3-1 in extra-time in an unforgettable and unique Copa Libertadores final match second leg. The match was played in Madrid after violence had seen the original game postponed. Dario Benedetto put Boca Juniors ahead at the end of a bruising first half at a raucous Santiago Bernabeu stadium which was equally split between supporters of the two teams. But the game witnessed barely a hint of crowd trouble. However, River Plate who also came back twice in the 2-2 draw in the first leg at Boca Juniors’ Bombonera stadium, levelled in the 68th minute. They scored through striker Lucas Pratto after a superb team move. River Plate, whose coach Marcelo Gallardo was banned from the sidelines, were given a huge advantage when Boca Juniors’ Colombian midfielder Wilmar Barrios was sent off. They seized this advantage which came in the third minute of extra-time through a sizzling strike from his compatriot Juan Fernando Quintero in the 109th minute. Gonzalo Martinez sealed victory, 5-3 on aggregate, at the death with a tap in after Boca Juniors’ entire team had poured forward in search of an equaliser. “I didn’t think about it,” Quintero said of his goal. “Camilo (Mayada) passed it to me and I looked for space and then hit it. It was a lovely goal and you have to celebrate it.” Martinez added: “We were the only team out there that tried to win. We played the whole match in their half of the field.” River Plate’s victory means they will represent South America in the FIFA Club World Cup which kicks off on Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates. It also guarantees them bragging rights over their neighbours for many years to come. The club are expected to fly directly to the Middle East but striker Lucas Pratto said the players would take some time to celebrate before their first match on Dec. 18. “We want to enjoy this because I don’t think we’ll win another Cup against Boca like this,” said Pratto. The game was controversially moved 10,000 kilometres away from River’s Monumental Stadium to Madrid as Boca Juniors’ team bus had been ambushed before the originally scheduled game. This left several Boca Juniors’ players injured from the impact of the smashed windows and from tear gas which had been fired by police. It meant that instead of a home game with the exclusive presence of River Plate supporters, Real Madrid’s Bernabeu was equally divided between fans of both sides. Also, it showed a highly unusual situation in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s equivalent of the UEFA Champions League. The final was the first in the 58 years of the competition to be played outside of Latin America and the first between Argentina’s two biggest clubs. It provoked furious protests from both clubs, their fans and leading figures in Argentine football. River Plate decried the loss of home advantage Boca Juniors had enjoyed in the first leg, while Boca Juniors claimed they should have been awarded the trophy by default. They pointed at when they were thrown out of the competition in 2015 when River Plate players were attacked with pepper spray at halftime. There was also a deep sense of irony at the fact a competition named in honour of the liberators of south America was to be played in the home of their former rulers. In spite of the controversy, a total of 10,000 fans made the long journey over from Argentina for the occasion. The nation’s considerable expatriate communities across Europe (250,000 reside in Spain alone) also flooded into the Spanish capital, creating a carnival atmosphere that was mostly cordial. The VIP box was stuffed with the biggest names in the game, from FC Barcelona captain Lionel Messi to Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone. There was also forward Antoine Griezmann, FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez. Spanish police had mounted the biggest ever security operation for a football match in the country, deploying over 4,000 personnel including more than 2,000 police officers. The security costs were countered by a considerable windfall for the city, which local government officials put at an estimated minimum 55 million euros.[SEP]The second and final leg of the Copa Libertadores will finally commence at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Boca Juniors taking on rivals River Plate. Following an attack on the bus of Boca Juniors outside the Estadio Monumental, the fixture was postponed before being eventually moved to the home of Real Madrid. With the scoreline finely poised with a 2-2 aggregate, follow all the action live with Sportsmail's TOM FARMERY.[SEP]MADRID (AP) — Madrid turned into Buenos Aires for a night Sunday, with tens of thousands of Argentine fans transforming Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu into a stadium of their own. River Plate fans were the only ones celebrating in the end, both at home and in Spain, after the historic victory over fierce rival Boca Juniors in the twice-suspended final of the Copa Libertadores. River came from behind to beat the rival 3-1 in the second leg after extra time to win South America’s equivalent of the Champions League 5-3 on aggregate. One of the most anticipated matches in South American soccer finally came to a conclusion, nearly a month after the first leg was played in Argentina. The final capped one of the most embarrassing chapters in South American soccer, which saw its leaders unable to stage the historic match on the continent. The second leg had to be played in the Spanish capital after it was marred by fan violence in Buenos Aires two weeks ago, when Boca players were injured before the game after River fans attacked the team bus with rocks, bottles and wood. Soccer great Lionel Messi and FIFA President Gianni Infantino were among those at the “superclasico” at the Bernabeu, which saw the Argentine fans chanting throughout the match in a unique scene at the traditional European stadium. It was River’s fourth Copa Libertadores title, and first since 2015. Boca Juniors remained on six titles and missed a chance to tie Argentina’s Independiente as the competition’s most successful club. “River was the better team throughout the entire tournament,” said Matias Biscay, River’s assistant coach who replaced the suspended Marcelo Gallardo. “Our team played against the toughest opponents and knew how to overcome them. And in the final against our rival we were superior in both matches.” After reaching 1-1 after 90 minutes on Sunday, River went ahead when Juan Fernando Quintero scored four minutes into the second half of extra time, and Gonzalo “Pity” Martinez added a third goal in the final minutes of the high-profile match. Dario Benedetto had opened the scoring in normal time just before halftime for Boca, and Lucas Pratto equalized for River in the 67th. Boca had Wilmar Barrios sent off early in extra time and then had Fernando Gago leave the field near the end because of an injury. The first leg at Boca’s La Bombonera Stadium in Buenos Aires ended 2-2. Rival fans were separated for security reasons with more than 25,000 from each club expected at the Bernabeu, and many making the expensive trip from Argentina. Only supporters of the home team were allowed in the matches in Argentina to avoid fan violence. It wasn’t a full house, though, with 62,000 attending the match at the around 80,000-capacity stadium. There were empty sections behind both goals. “It’s difficult to talk about the fans right now,” Boca Juniors coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said. “We couldn’t win the Copa for them. They endured a lot to come here from all different parts of the world. It was incredibly sad in the changing room. It hurts a lot for me not to win the Copa, especially because of the fans.” Quintero scored with a shot from the edge of the area after a well-coordinated attack past the Boca defense. Martinez allowed the celebrations to begin when he scored into an open net in the final seconds as Boca goalkeeper Esteban Andrada had gone to the opposite area to try to equalize on a corner. Just seconds earlier, Leonardo Jara had a chance to score for Boca and send the match into a penalty shootout, but his shot struck the post to the desperation of the team’s fans. Benedetto had opened the scoring with a beautiful goal on a counterattack in the 43rd. After receiving a superb throughball from midfielder Nahitan Nandez, Benedetto cleared a defender and entered the area with only goalkeeper Franco Armani to beat, then calmly finished with a shot into the corner. He appeared to taunt a River player as he ran to celebrate with his teammates. River got the equalizer after a pass from Ignacio Fernandez to Pratto, who scored with a low shot from near the penalty spot. The Nov. 24 second leg was initially postponed for one day after the Boca team bus was attacked outside River’s Monumental Stadium. South American soccer governing body CONMEBOL eventually said the game couldn’t be played in Argentina because of security concerns. The match in Madrid was played amid strict security measures. Supporters from both clubs took over the city streets throughout the weekend and had been near the Bernabeu since early Sunday. No major incidents between fans had been reported in the city, which was picked from several bidders in part because it has one of the largest Argentine populations outside of Argentina. Spanish authorities said a 68-year-old fan had a heart attack while going to the match and was hospitalized in critical condition. River fans celebrated the title at the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires, and the ones in Madrid were expected to take the team’s red-and-white colors to an iconic plaza in the capital. With the victory, River Plate will represent South America in FIFA’s Club World Cup this month.[SEP]Around 4,000 police, security guards and stewards will be on duty at the Santiago Bernabeu for today’s Copa Libertadores final – but a pre-match stroll through Madrid tells a rather different story, writes William Pugh in Madrid. South America’s biggest club match – between bitter Argentinean rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors – will be played in the Spanish capital after the violent scenes forced organisers to postpone the fixture and move it 6,238 miles away. Rocks and missiles were thrown and two players, including Boca captain Pablo Perez, were hospitalised and some of the team arrived at the stadium in severe distress having ingested pepper spray. Unfortunately the shocking scenes that sparked the recent debacle are not uncommon in South American football, and even less so in the Boca-River ‘Superclasico’. In one particularly notable incident in 2015, Boca were expelled from the Copa Libertadores after their fans attacked River players with pepper spray on the field of play. The over passionate, flare wielding, fight seeking stereotype of fans of Argentina’s two biggest clubs is unfortunately not one entrenched in myth. The reality behind it was a major contributing factor in the away supporters ban, introduced in Argentina in 2014. And there is a long running, deep rooted, sporting, social and political divide that exists between Boca and River. Be in no doubt, this is the bitterest of rivalries and one that far transcends the football field on which it is should be played out. However, half a world away fans seemed happy to mix in the build-up to kick-off. Buenos Aires based Boca fan Nicolas Wilamovsky, 24, is in Madrid with his two River supporting best friends. “We are best friends from Monday to Saturday but on the day of the match… no,” he said. “However, it is a football match tomorrow not a war where you are trying to kill people but some people approach it with that sentiment and that ruins it for the rest.” As seen in many walks of life, it appears the negative attention garnered by a minority has painted a distorted picture of the reality for the majority. The streets of Madrid conveyed a rarely reported narrative on Saturday. They were full of Boca and River fans intermingling with one another. Friends and family, talking, laughing and taking in the occasion. There is obviously still friendly ribbing as succinctly demonstrated by Esteban Carignano, 48, the Boca supporting uncle of River fan Enzo Carignano, 23, with whom he has travelled to the game. When pressed on why he supports Boca and his nephew River, with a wry smile to Enzo, Uncle Esteban calmly explained: “Por que soy mas inteligente.” Because I am more intelligent. The pair were both born in Argentina and have travelled from their homes in Gran Canaria and Germany respectively. Enzo left Argentina when he was five and was pragmatic about the rivalry as his uncle repeatedly emphasised the fact that his best friend is a River fan. He said: “There is a stereotype in Europe that everyone (River and Boca fans) hates each other but that’s not true. Obviously I would never throw a stone at my uncle or anyone I considered a friend.” The pair are two of seemingly very few pleased that the match was moved to Madrid. Estaban explained: “For us it’s brilliant the game is being held here otherwise we would not have been able to go.” Enzo won’t be sitting with his uncle at the game but for him it’s the stuff of fantasy. He said: “It is my first ever River match. It’s a dream that my first match is the Copa Libertadores final. When you are Argentinian you always dream of seeing a River v Boca game. As soon as the draw was made and we saw it was going to be in Madrid, my uncle said we were going and that was it.” However, not all relationships remain untested by team loyalty. River fan Samuel Rojo, 20, is outnumbered by the three Boca supporting friends he travelled from Buenos Aires with but that did not stop him rolling his eyes with disdain as his companions vehemently questioned why River weren’t thrown out of the tournament for the recent attack, as their own side were in 2015. “It’s a lot different!” Rojo exclaimed. He continued amidst protests: “In 2015 the Boca fans attacked the players with pepper spray on the pitch but last month the River fans only threw rocks and it was outside the stadium. The police were the ones who used pepper spray!” The friends clearly disagreed and an awkward tension rose among the group who spent over £3,000 collectively on the trip. However, it was swiftly contextualised by Boca fan Ignacio Lopez, 22. He said: “Everyone is friends with everyone in the city, but when it comes to football, you have to represent your team.” After another heated discussion on which team the new venue benefits the most, the difficulty in picking friendship or your team became clear. Given the match may see some Boca and River fans sitting in the same parts of the stadium, Juan Portero, 23, was unsure if his friendship with Mr Rojo could stand the test. He said: “I don’t know how I would react if I was in the same part of the stand as my River friend and he shouted for a goal in my face. If it was last minute it I would probably punch him in the face.” Mr Portero made a final intriguing point around which much has been written during this saga. He said: “I don’t think there will be any trouble on Sunday because in Argentina, there are no consequences from the police because of the corruption but they (trouble making fans) know that if they throw any rocks in Madrid they are going straight to prison.” When pressed on political intertwinements in matters involving the two teams, the young friends were all in agreement. Boca-River is politics and politics is Boca-River. The current Argentine president Mauricio Macri is the former president of Boca and often analogises about football in his political speeches but Mr Rojo thinks the recent ugly scenes will work against him in the red and white half of the capital. He said: “No one from River Plate will be voting for Macri in the next election. It was the police that he controls that let the incident happen and that lost them the opportunity to see the second leg in their own country. He stole a match from us.” There is little more sub-textual material you could add to this story to make today’s game any more of an occasion. This is the last two-legged final of the Copa Libertadores, it’s the first time Boca Juniors and River Plate have faced each other in the final in the competition’s 58-year history, the tie is finely poised at 2-2, the additional drama surrounding it after the bus attack has drawn focus and debate from across the globe and it all comes down to 90 minutes of football at one of world football’s most iconic stadiums tonight. However, whether you are the River fan who refused an interview because he still hadn’t told his wife in Buenos Aires where he was. Whether you are Gonzalo Juarez, 55, now in Madrid having left his home in Canada with his son nearly three weeks ago to see the second leg at El Monumental. Or whether you are one of the fans who possesses the desire to hurt others in the name of your football team. Tonight is just a football match. Perhaps, as Mr Juarez described: “a once in a lifetime football match,” but a football match nonetheless. The love and friendship between rivals on display in Madrid is far more important than that.[SEP]SUNDAY’S SECOND LEG of the Copa Libertadores final between bitter Argentine rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate went to extra time after a 1-1 draw in Madrid left the two-leg contest level 3-3 on aggregate. Dario Benedetto put Boca ahead at the Santiago Bernabeu just before half-time, but River equalised through Lucas Pratto on 68 minutes. Subscribe to our new podcast, Heineken Rugby Weekly on The42, here:[SEP]Juan Quintero failed in European football but on Sunday earned his greatest success on European soil, scoring a stunning extra-time strike to lead River Plate to Copa Libertadores final victory against their most bitter rivals, Boca Juniors. The rights and wrongs — mainly wrongs — of South America's equivalent of the Champions League being controversially switched to the Spanish capital will be debated, but at the end of it all, River's name is on the trophy for a fourth time. Quintero, coming off the bench, inspired their comeback after Boca took the lead, the Colombian No 10 producing a career highlight goal to settle a tense and wrought affair. Boca took the lead when Nahitan Nandez played a pass which sliced through the broken glass and broken dreams, the days, 15 of them, and the distance, 6,000 miles, as well as River's defence, to find Dario Benedetto, who finished brilliantly. Argentina and Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi, watching on from a box at Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu, would have been proud of the ball himself. But River equalised with a slick team goal of their own, dispatched by Lucas Pratto, which sent the game to extra-time, fitting for a final which simply refused to end. Wilmar Barrios's red card at the start of extra-time twisted the clash in River's favour and Quintero took full advantage. The playmaker could not make it at Porto or Rennes but has slowly reconstructed his career in his homeland, going on to impress at the Russia World Cup, before settling one of the most drawn-out finals in history, with Piti Martinez's third the icing on the cake. Away goals don't count in Copa Libertadores finals, so the spiky 2-2 draw at Boca's Bombonera stadium a month ago was just an aperitif. Everything was riding on this match. River coach Marcelo Gallardo, not on the sidelines due to a suspension for ignoring a previous suspension in the semi-final, described the decision to move the game to Madrid as a robbery, a 'total disgrace'. That was at least one thing both sides could agree on. This match, of all matches, being played in Europe upset everybody. If one of the most famous taunts in the rivalry was River fans flying a giant inflatable pig in a Boca kit over furious supporters, the cash cow this game became was an insult to both sets of fans. 'They took away our dream of playing the final in our country,' said Boca striker Carlos Tevez. The venue was switched after being twice-postponed a fortnight ago, because River fans attacked Boca's team bus outside the Monumental stadium with rocks and injured players who were cut by the shattered glass. Other Boca stars were left dizzy and vomiting after being hit by tear gas used by police to clear fans from the area. Captain Pablo Perez was taken to hospital after the incident with splinters of broken glass in his eye. He started in Madrid, and should have scored after 10 minutes but volleyed straight at Franco Armani. Even though most thought it should still be played in Latin America, those with the power thought otherwise. Fans forked out extortionate sums to trek to Europe to watch the game, one of the most eagerly awaited matches in football history, with this year being first time these arch-rivals have met in the final of the Copa Libertadores, the 'final to end all finals'. Even though both clubs came from the same neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, La Boca, before River moved to the more affluent Nunez district, it is a rivalry which divides a nation. Madrid was on red alert. Around 4,000 security personnel were on duty - nearly double the number deployed for Spain's own Clasico. The biggest ever security operation for a match in the capital. Dangerous hooligans arrived and were deported. 'I was just going to Spain for Christmas,' claimed one, insisting he had no intention of attending the game. But the preamble passed without incident. Drums were beaten, songs were chanted, beer was drunk, flares lit, umbrellas wielded, and the game kicked off this time. There wasn't much football. The game was being played with hearts and lungs but not brains. Perez went close again but his shot was deflected inches wide by Milton Casco. The breakthrough came a minute before half-time, when Boca sliced River open on the counter. Uruguay midfielder Nandez produced that inch-perfect through-ball for Benedetto to dispatch, the striker keeping the coolest head in the stadium. River started the second half well with Nacho Fernandez sending a piledriver inches wide of Esteban Andrada's post and were furious when they were not given a penalty after the goalkeeper felled Pratto. As striker and stopper clashed, it looked a penalty but the forward was penalised, harshly, for dangerous play. River threw Colombia's mercurial playmaker Juan Quintero on in reaction. And the equaliser came. It was another rare moment of quality, a slick team move that undid Boca's defence with a string of passes, and Pratto was on hand to slam home Fernandez's cut-back. Wilmar Barrios's red card two minutes into extra time gave River full control and ultimately Quinteros's quality told. Boca finished with nine as Fernando Gago limped off injured after all the changes were made, goalkeeper Andrada spent huge swathes of time in River's half and was eventually punished, Martinez breaking clear and running the ball into the empty net.[SEP]MADRID (AP) — Fans and players from fierce Argentine rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors are getting ready for the Copa Libertadores final later Sunday after the biggest game in South American club soccer was relocated to the neutral setting of Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. The scheduled kickoff is at 8:30 p.m. local time (1930 GMT). The hotly awaited match — the equivalent of Europe's Champions League — was postponed and transferred from Buenos Aires to the Spanish capital after River fans attacked Boca's team bus on Nov. 24 ahead of the second leg. The first leg at Boca's La Bombonera Stadium in Buenos Aires ended 2-2. Spanish police are using a security perimeter of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) between Boca and River fans around the stadium. No incidents between fans have been reported so far as they shared public transport while heading for the game. At Boca's fan zone, supporters threw confetti in their team's color of blue and yellow. Horacio Sanchez, who came from Argentina for the decider, said he didn't expect any less enthusiasm from fans even in Madrid in December. "Boca fans are Boca fans anywhere. We do it all for Boca, we brought a great atmosphere to Madrid. It is not just like Argentina, but it is near," he said. A few blocks away, Claudio Aguilar was wrapped in a River flag as he waited for his team to leave the hotel. He had just come from Plaza de Cuzco, where other supporters were spinning red and white umbrellas in the air. "It cost me a lot to be here, but I do anything for River. This final does not have the same taste, it is far from home and I can't fulfill my dream of celebrating with my neighbors on the streets of our city. But we have to win, maybe we will never play a Libertadores final against Boca again," he said. Boca is chasing its seventh South American title, while River seeks its fourth.[SEP]It's two weeks overdue, but the Copa Libertadores final second leg between Boca Juniors and River Plate finally gets underway in Madrid on Sunday. After fan violence caused the original match in Buenos Aires to be postponed and then relocated, thousands of travelling fans are now in Spain to watch their favourite teams go at it in the 'Superclasico.' Supporters of both sides took to the streets of Madrid to party and enjoy themselves before the fierce rivalry resumed in the evening. With the kickoff looming, fans are now starting to squeeze into the stadium for the match. Outside the stadium, a huge police presence is keeping an eye on proceedings, with multiple security checkpoints and thousands of personnel on hand, including police horses, and even armored personnel carriers. People are being searched on their way into the ground, to make sure they're not bringing anything into the stadium they're not supposed to. The two most popular Argentine football clubs, both based in the capital, who have a rivalry going back over a century, are meeting in the Copa Libertadores final, the most prestigious tournament in South American club football. This particular meeting is even more tense than usual, as they have never previously met in the final of what is the South American equivalent of the Champions League. The match is finely poised at 2-2, after the first leg which was played at Boca Juniors' stadium, La Bombonera. However the second leg, which was set to be played on November 24 at River Plate's Estadio Monumental, had to be postponed after the Boca Juniors bus was attacked en route to the stadium. Windows were smashed, and tear gas which was used to try and repel the attackers then drifted inside the coach and affected some of the players too. Several team members had to be taken to hospital, and the rest were in no fit state to play the match. The match was eventually rescheduled and moved to Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium, in the hope that fewer travelling fans would mean less violence surrounding the match. Each team had 25,000 tickets to sell, with only 5,000 available to people living in Argentina. Neither club managed to sell their full allocation. Travelling fans are paying out around £1,800 in travel, living, and ticket costs. Multiple arrests were made as the violence continued after the Boca bus made it to the stadium before the original second leg. There are reports of a 4,000-strong security team made up of police, guards, and stewards in Madrid ensuring that the match on Sunday runs smoothly. Marca say Florenino Perez left Real Madrid’s game at Huesca at half-time to make it back to the Santiago Bernabeu for tonight’s Copa Libertadores final. With various dignitaries coming to watch the game, he had to be there to greet them. Prime minister Pedro Sanchez will be there, along with Barcelona star Lionel Messi, Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann, FIFA chief Gianni Infantino and other big names. If River Plate win the match, their fans will be celebrating at Puerta del Sol square, where the city normally holds its New Year's celebrations. If Boca Juniors win, their fans will celebrate at the city's Plaza Colon, which is a mile away from where River fans will be congregating. River Plate have won the Copa Libertadores three times, most recently in 2015. Boca Juniors have won it six times before, and are seeking their seventh win, which would tie them with Independiente as the competition's most successful club. However, the last time they won a continental trophy was back in 2007. So far, the crowds gathered in Madrid have remained peaceful, with swathes of blue and yellow for the Boca supporters and red and white for the River Plate fans. Blue and yellow smoke and flares mark the Boca fans at their fan zone around Nuevos Ministerios on Paseo de la Castellana south of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Similar red and white smoke can be seen near the Eurostar Tower Hotel, where the River Plate team is staying. Fans are chanting, banging drums, and generally having a good time as they prepare for the huge match on Sunday night. Hundreds of Boca Juniors fans gathered outside the team hotel on Saturday night chanting 'it doesn't matter where you play, we will always follow you.' Although it is all friendly for now, security forces are said to be on high alert, as a group of 400 to 500 violent fans are expected to be in Madrid. To show just how fierce the rivalry between the two clubs is, the number of security personnel is nearly double that which is normally used for matches between Real Madrid and Barcelona.[SEP]River Plate won the Copa Libertadores for a fourth time by coming from behind to beat rivals Boca Juniors 3-1 in extra-time of their controversially-rearranged final in Madrid. Juan Quintero all but settled a keenly-fought encounter at the Bernabeu with a stunning strike after 109 minutes before Gonzalo Martinez broke away for a third, securing a 5-3 aggregate success, in the dying moments. Boca had taken a first-half lead through Dario Benedetto but River hit back through Lucas Pratto and Boca's hopes were badly hit after Wilmar Barrios was sent off early in extra-time for a two-footed challenge on Exequiel Palacios. River ended the match victorious but the saga of this final, postponed and moved to Spain after Boca's team bus was attacked by rival fans in Buenos Aires, may not be over. Boca failed to get the fixture suspended at the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Saturday but their attempts to have River disqualified could continue. Boca were much the better side early on and almost went ahead when River's Jonathan Maidana sliced a clearance over his own bar. The ball rebounded off players from the resulting corner and fell to Pablo Perez shot at Franco Armani. Boca's next opportunity also came from a set-piece after Benedetto drilled a shot into the wall. The ball broke for Perez on the right but his goalbound effort was deflected over. River thought they should have had a penalty for a push on Milton Casco but Boca threatened again through Lisandro Magallan and Carlos Izquierdoz. Armani also had to be alert to punch away a dangerous Sebastian Villa cross in front of Benedetto. Gonzalo Martinez shot well over for River, who then squandered another opening before Boca broke to take the lead. In a breathless passage of play, Boca goalkeeper Esteban Andrada gave away the ball but River failed to take advantage and Cristian Pavon released Benedetto with a brilliant through ball. Benedetto skipped over a challenge from Maidana and showed great composure to beat Armani. River were much more positive in the second half. They pieced together a good move soon after the restart as Pratto teed up Ignacio Fernandez but he shot narrowly wide. River continued to dominate but without creating clear-cut chances until Pratto swept home the equaliser after a fine move in the 68th minute. The game then became scrappy with frequent stoppages and drifted into extra-time, which got off to an explosive start when Barrios earned a second yellow card for a poor challenge on Exequiel Palacios. River proceeded to dominate possession and their breakthrough came early in the second extra period. They pieced together a series of passes and Quintero struck with a ferocious shot from the edge of the area that went in off the underside of the bar. Boca responded by sending on Carlos Tevez, the former Manchester United and city forward. River had a scare almost immediately as Camilo Mayada went close to heading into his own net but Armani reacted quickly. Leonardo Jara hit a post for Boca in a frantic finish but they were punished for throwing men forward as River broke to score a third through Martinez in stoppage time.

In international football, River Plate wins the Copa Libertadores by beating Boca Juniors 3–1 in extra-time (aggregate score 5–3). The final is played at the Bernabéu stadium in Madrid.

LAS VEGAS -- Harold Baines was given a save as big as any Lee Smith ever posted. In a vote sure to spark renewed cries of cronyism at Cooperstown, Baines surprisingly was picked for the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday after never coming close in any previous election. "Very shocked," the career .289 hitter said on a conference call. Smith, who held the major league record for saves when he retired, was an easy pick when the Today's Game Era Committee met at the winter meetings. It took 12 votes for election by the 16-member panel -- Smith was unanimous, Baines got 12 and former outfielder and manager Lou Piniella fell just short with 11. George Steinbrenner, Orel Hershiser, Albert Belle, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Davey Johnson and Charlie Manuel all received fewer than five votes. Smith and Baines both debuted in Chicago during the 1980 season. Smith began with the Cubs and went on to record 478 saves while Baines started out with the White Sox and had 2,866 hits. Baines had 384 home runs and 1,628 RBIs in a 22-year career -- good numbers, but not stacking up against the greats of his day. He never drew more than 6.1 percent of the vote in five elections by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, far from the 75 percent required. "I wasn't expecting this day to come," the six-time All-Star said. The Hall's board-appointed panel included longtime White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. "I'm glad he was on that committee this year to help to get into the Hall of Fame," Baines said. Six-time All-Star Harold Baines on getting his call to the Baseball Hall of Fame: "I wasn't expecting this day to come." Getty Images Reinsdorf praised his former player in a statement. Baines currently serves as a team ambassador in the community-relations department of the White Sox. "So happy for Harold. He's a great player and a great human being," Reinsdorf said. "I am so honored that I was a member of the committee. He deserved to be in long ago. I am just so excited. "Not only was Harold one of my favorite players to watch, but I have nothing but admiration for him as a player and as a human being," he said. Tony La Russa, Baines' first big league manager, also was on the panel that elected him. In the past, Phil Rizzuto and Bill Mazeroski were among the players who benefited from friendly faces on Veterans Committees to reach the Hall. That panel has been revamped over the years, and the Today's Game Era group was created as part of changes in 2014. "The era committees were established as a sort of a court of appeals for an opportunity in the event that over time it was felt that maybe somebody slipped through the cracks," Hall president Jeff Idelson said. "And in the case of someone who received 6 percent of the vote in the BBWAA election, the reason that may have happened could be for many, many reasons." Sponsored: HOF memorabilia If you are a fan of Baines or Smith or have a fan on your Holiday list, ESPN's shopping partner eBay has plenty of memorabilia of each player. Harold Baines on eBay Lee Smith on eBay Disclaimer: ESPN gets a commission on any sales driven through eBay. Baines, now 59, had a smooth, consistent, left-handed stroke. But he never finished higher than ninth in an MVP vote, and never was among the top five American League hitters in the yearly batting race. His single-season high was 29 home runs at a time when lots of players hit more. Smith's fastball helped him become a seven-time All-Star in an 18-year-old career. Known for his slow trudges from the bullpen to the mound, he owned the saves record when he retired during the 1997 season while with Montreal. Trevor Hoffman and then Mariano Rivera reset the mark. Smith never reached 51 percent in 15 BBWAA elections. Still, he kept believing his day would come. "I'm pretty patient, though, and I think I waited long enough. But it's sweeter," he said on a conference call. "You look at those things, well, OK, who's on the ballot this year? Who's on the ballot next year? But I'd never, never, never give up hope. "And then when they started with the second-chance ballot, I thought my chances got a little better. This probably today was probably the [most] nervous I've been with this Hall of Fame voting thing," he said. Smith became the seventh pitcher who primarily was a reliever to make the Hall, joining Hoffman, Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter and Hoyt Wilhelm. The 61-year-old has long worked for the San Francisco Giants as a minor league pitching coach and instructor. Baines was a designated hitter for much of his career after knee trouble ended his days in the outfield. DHs have struggled to gain backing from Hall voters. Baines joined Frank Thomas as the only players in the Hall who spent more than half their games as a DH. "Everything I hear or read is DH is really not part of the game, I guess," Baines said. "But I disagree. But maybe this will open up the doors for some more DHs." Both closers and DHs could see the numbers increase again very shortly. Rivera is eligible for the first time and big-hitting DH Edgar Martinez will be back on the ballot when results of the next BBWAA election are announced Jan. 22. Induction ceremonies are scheduled for July 21 at Cooperstown, New York. Between now and then, there's certain to be more debate about who else should be in the Hall. Drug-tainted Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are on the upcoming BBWAA ballot, influential players' union head Marvin Miller has been denied seven times by various committees, and admitted steroids user Mark McGwire wasn't among Sunday's candidates.[SEP]Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to baseball Hall of Fame LAS VEGAS (AP) — Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to baseball Hall of Fame.[SEP]The Baseball Hall of Fame's Today's Game Era Committee selected Chicago icons Harold Baines and Lee Smith for enshrinement in Cooperstown, New York, it was announced Sunday. Baines and Lee were joined by Albert Belle, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Orel Hershiser, Davey Johnson, Charlie Manuel, Lou Piniella and George Steinbrenner as candidates on the ballot. Twelve votes from the 16-person committee were needed for election during baseball's winter meetings in Las Vegas. Next summer's ceremony will be July 21. Results from the Baseball Writers' Association of America voting will be announced Jan. 22.[SEP]LAS VEGAS — Longtime closer Lee Smith and smooth-swinging Harold Baines were elected to the baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. Former outfielder and manager Lou Piniella fell one vote short. Results of the 16-member Today’s Game Era Committee were announced at the winter meetings. It took 12 votes for election — Smith was unanimous, Baines got 12 and Piniella had 11. Smith and Baines both debuted in Chicago during the 1980 season. Smith began with the Cubs and went on to post a then-record 478 saves while Baines started out with the White Sox and had 2,866 hits. George Steinbrenner, Orel Hershiser, Albert Belle, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Davey Johnson and Charlie Manuel all received fewer than five votes. Baines was a .289 hitter with 384 home runs in a 22-year career. He never drew more than 6.1 percent in five elections by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, far from the 75 percent required. “I wasn’t expecting this day to come,” the six-time All-Star said. The Hall board-appointed panel included longtime White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and Baines said he was grateful for his support. Hall members Greg Maddux, Roberto Alomar, Joe Morgan, Bert Blyleven, Pat Gillick, Tony La Russa, John Schuerholz, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torre also were on the panel. Smith’s fastball helped him become a seven-time All-Star in an 18-year-old career. He owned the major league record for saves when he retired during the 1997 season while with Montreal, and Trevor Hoffman and then Mariano Rivera reset the mark. • Rockies’ mainstay Jerry Weinstein, winner of the 2018 Tony Gwynn Award, is a baseball polymath • Baseball Hall of Fame ballots: Tracking votes for former Rockies Larry Walker and Todd Helton Smith, who never reached 51 percent in 15 BBWAA elections, became the seventh pitcher who mostly was a reliever to make the Hall. Baines was a designated hitter for much of his career, and DHs have struggled to gain backing from Hall voters. Both closers and DHs could see the numbers increase again very shortly. Rivera is eligible for the first time and big-hitting DH Edgar Martinez will be back on the ballot when results of the next BBWAA election are announced Jan. 22. Induction ceremonies are scheduled for July 21 at Cooperstown, New York.[SEP]Harold Baines and Lee Smith were elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, MLB.com's Chad Thornburg reported. According to Thornburg, Baines received 12 of 16 votes from the Today's Game Era Committee, which was the minimum number of votes required to earn passage to the Hall of Fame. Smith, meanwhile, received 16 yes votes. Reaction to the news was mixed, to say the least: Baseball Reference's JAWS metric helps evaluate a Hall of Fame resume. It takes a player's seven best single-season WAR and averages it against his career WAR. Smith's supporters can point to the fact that he sits higher than Bruce Sutter, Trevor Hoffman and Rollie Fingers in JAWS among relief pitchers, per Baseball Reference. Sutter, Hoffman and Fingers have all been enshrined in Cooperstown, New York. Smith retired with a 3.03 ERA and 478 saves, which were the most all-time when he stepped away from the game after the 1997 season. Hoffman and Mariano Rivera have since surpassed him. While Smith isn't generally remembered as a dominant closer—not in the way Rivera and Dennis Eckersley are—his Hall of Fame honor isn't entirely undeserved. Baines, on the other hand, is a head-scratcher. He was a career .289 hitter with 384 home runs and 1,628 RBI, the last two of which rank 65th and 34th all-time. According to FanGraphs, Baines had two seasons with at least 3.0 WAR. To put that into perspective, Carlos Delgado had seven 3.0-plus-WAR seasons and lasted one year before failing to collect enough support to even remain on the Hall of Fame ballot. More than anything, Baines wasn't a player who helped define the era in which he played. Baines spent 22 seasons in MLB. In only four of those seasons did he receive an MVP vote, and he never finished higher than ninth. Baines epitomized a player seemingly destined for the proverbial "Hall of Very Good" rather than Cooperstown. The criticism toward his election is likely only beginning.[SEP]Finally! After waiting for more than 15 years, Lee Smith is a Hall of Famer. The towering righthander, whose speed befitted his size, was one of two players chosen Sunday in a vote by a special Veterans Committee that considered a 10-man ballot. The decision was announced on the eve of the Baseball Winter Meetings in Las Vegas. Smith, who spent the maximum 15 years on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot, held the career record for saves for 13 years before Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman passed him. But he pitched for eight clubs, an odyssey that hurt his chances with the BBWAA electorate. He had 478 saves in 18 seasons, reaching the All-Star Game seven times. He even finished in the top five for Cy Young Award voting – a rare achievement for a reliever – three different seasons. He’ll be joined in Cooperstown next July by Harold Baines, who just missed 3,000 hits in a career that stretched 22 seasons, primarily with the Chicago White Sox. Primarily used as a designated hitter because of weak knees, Baines was an RBI machine, finishing his career with 1,628. Only 33 other players in the history of the game had more. A two-time winner of the Edgar Martinez Award, then called the Designated Hitter of the Year, Baines made the All-Star team six times and had 2,866 hits. The selections were surprising on a ballot that also contained the names of owner George Steinbrenner, managers Davey Johnson, Lou Piniella, and Charlie Manuel; and former postseason stars Orel Hershiser, Will Clark, Albert Belle, and Joe Carter. Steinbrenner, whose Yankees won seven world championships and 11 American League pennants during his often-controversial 37-year as owner, has now been rejected by Veterans Committee four times. This year’s selections were made by a 16-man panel representing Today’s Game, one of four eras committees that meet on a rotating basis. Twelve votes are required for election, in keeping with the Hall of Fame’s policy of 75 per cent approval. Finalists for the ballot were named by a Historical Overview Committee reviewing owners, executives, managers, umpires, and retired players whose biggest impact on the game came between 1988 and the present. When the Today’s Game committee meets for its next vote in 2021, some of the same names could be reconsidered. The other Veterans Committees are Modern Baseball (1970-87), Golden Days (1950-59), and Early Baseball (prior to 1950). Today’s Game and Modern Baseball both meet twice within a five-year span. Smith pitched for the Cubs, Cards, Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Angels, Reds, and Expos, while Baines played for the White Sox, Rangers, A’s, Orioles, and Indians. The selection of Smith is especially timely because Rivera, now the lifetime saves leader with 652, is the leading candidate in the BBWAA vote that will be announced on Jan. 22. Only a relative handful of relief pitchers have followed Hoyt Wilhelm, the first one chosen, into the Hall of Fame. Baines could also have a partner from his primary position since Edgar Martinez, who topped 70 per cent of the vote last year, is likely to top the 75 per cent plateau in the writers’ vote. If the writers choose four candidates, the Class of 2019 will match the Class of 2018, which had six electees for the first time since 1971.[SEP]LAS VEGAS – Lee Smith, who ranks third all-time in career saves and played one season with the Reds, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Sunday through the Today’s Game Era ballot. Smith pitched in 43 games for the Reds in 1996, posting a 3-4 record and 4.06 ERA in the second-to-last season of his career. Smith finished with 478 career saves, including two with the Reds. Harold Baines, a longtime outfielder and designated hitter for the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles, was also elected to the Hall of Fame. More: Harold Baines, Lee Smith elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame More: What to watch as the Cincinnati Reds head to the Winter Meetings Both players will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 21 alongside any players elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote in January. Smith, who played eight seasons with the Chicago Cubs and four with the St. Louis Cardinals, received 100 percent of the vote from the 16-member Today’s Game Era committee. His highest voting percentage on the BBWAA ballot was 50.6 percent in 2012. Former Reds managers Lou Piniella and Davey Johnson were among the 10 people considered on the Today's Game Era ballot. Piniella received 11 votes, one shy of election to the Hall of Fame. Piniella managed the Reds to their most recent World Series title in 1990. Johnson received fewer than five votes. Piniella will be eligible to be a Today's Game Era candidate again in 2021.[SEP]LAS VEGAS — The Today’s Game Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame — which used to be known as the Veterans Committee — met here at the Winter Meetings today and voted on the ten candidates for this year’s induction class. The results: Harold Baines and Lee Smith have been elected. They’re Cooperstown bound. Candidates needed 12 of 16 possible votes from the Today’s Game committee. Smith reportedly got 16 out of 16. Baines received 12 out of 16. Lou Piniella, also on the ballot, fell one short at 11. No one else got as many as five votes. Baines played for 22 seasons, amassed 2,866 hits and made the All-Star Game six times. He was a fantastically consistent hitter, posting an OPS+ of 108 or greater every single season between the ages of 22 and 40. He was also a durable player, not missing a whole heck of a lot of time to either injury or ineffectiveness until his late 30s. Even then he managed to hang around until he was 42-years-old. In the early part of his career, with the Chicago White Sox, he was the star of the team and the face of the organization. Smith was one of the first of the single-inning closers, setting the standard for what we now think of as the best relievers in the game. He was big and intimidating. He threw hard. And when it was all said and done he held the all-time record for saves with 478 upon his 1998 retirement. He’s now third behind Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman in that category. He led the league in saves four times and led the league in games finished three times. He had six seasons in which he averaged more than ten strikeouts per nine innings which was a much greater feat in his day than it is today. Baines and Smith certainly have had their supporters over the years, but it’s not unfair to say that their election is at least something of a surprise. For all of the pros in Baines’ column as listed above, it has to be said that Baines will be one of the weaker inductees in some time. He led the league in exactly one offensive category in his long career: slugging percentage in 1984. He was rarely a top-10 finisher in the most important offensive categories. His highest finish in MVP balloting came in 1985 when he came in ninth. While Baines may have meant a lot to the White Sox in the first part of his career there is no way one can honestly argue that he was ever the best player in the game or even one of the best five, six or, usually, ten. His failure to rank highly in hitting categories is especially notable given that over 1,600 of his 2,830 career games came at DH. He was certainly not thought of as a Hall of Famer by the men and women who covered him during his day: he was on the BBWAA ballot five times and never received more than 6.1% of the vote. He fell off the ballot in 2011 when he received 4.8%. Smith was a stronger candidate by most measures. In addition to helping transform the role of relief pitchers in the game, he did end his career as the all-time leader in the statistic that, for better or worse, defines closers. The BBWAA likewise thought more highly of him, leaving him on the ballot for a full 15 years, at times gaining over 50% of the vote. No matter what one may say about their cases now, however, the vote is in and each of them will be Hall of Famers come next July. Not making the cut were the other eight nominees: Albert Belle, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Orel Hershisher, Davey Johnson, Charlie Manuel, Lou Piniella, and George Steinbrenner. The Today’s Game Committee consisted of 16 voters: Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven, Pat Gillick, Tony La Russa, Greg Maddux, Joe Morgan, John Schuerholz, Ozzie Smith, Joe Torre, Al Avila, Paul Beeston, Andy MacPhail, Jerry Reinsdorf and media members Steve Hirdt, Tim Kurkjian, and Claire Smith. Hall of Fame Weekend 2019 will be held July 19-22, with the Induction Ceremony on Sunday, July 21. Inductees voted in by the Baseball Writers Association of American will be revealed on January 22, 2019.[SEP]Congratulations to Harold Baines for making the Baseball Hall of Fame. He doesn’t deserve it, of course, but it’s an awesome honor nonetheless. Baines was a very good baseball player who managed to play 22 seasons, thanks large in part to designated hitting. Such longevity afforded him the opportunity to amass some impressive raw totals in the hits, home runs, and, uh, plate appearances. The Veterans Committee, in its limited wisdom, elected Baines and Lee Smith — another somewhat confounding choice — to sit as equals in Cooperstown. To be elevated to the same level as Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Cy Young. To be elevated over Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, and all the other so-called morally unfit candidates so unqualified to rub shoulders with the bust of noted good guy Ty Cobb. It’s a joke. It may be an intentional troll as well, the last dying breath of those who hold pitcher’s wins and batting average sacrosanct. A “screw you” to the analytical community, or any other sane person who looks at Baines’ stats and critically concludes he has no business in the Hall of Fame. Smith and Baines, combined with Jack Morris’ selection last year, are a disturbing trend. Baines is the most ridiculous of the lot. Look at his stats in detail. They put him among some unfortunate company of worst selection ever. Just a cursory look at his page reveals one bold number. This is a man who made two All-Star teams during his final 12 years in baseball. A man who posted a 38.7 WAR, a one-dimensional player whose greatest attribute was perseverance. There is more to baseball than numbers on the page. But was there ever a time when Baines was considered one of the top 10 hitters in the game? Top 20? Top 30? Want to put Baines into the Hall of Fame? Fine. But I’m done — and you should consider being done as well — in debating any future player’s candidacy. I simply don’t care anymore. Cooperstown is the new public office and deep political cynicism has sunken in. Why be worked up about Baines when Bonds isn’t in? Why get all red-faced when Lou Whitaker, vastly superior to so many inducted, sits there with no chance of getting in? The Baseball Hall of Fame matters a lot less than it did yesterday, cheapened by the Veterans Committee. There’s some irony in the fact they are submarining some of the sanctity of the game they think they are upholding. So congratulations to Baines and those who voted him in. And congratulations to myself for not caring anymore.[SEP]Harold Baines answered the phone and learned he was a Hall of Famer. So were many others around the baseball world. In fact, in the hours after his selection by a Hall-picked panel was announced Sunday at the Mandalay Bay resort, a lot of conversations at the winter meetings started the exact same way: “Harold Baines?” No one doubted Baines was a top player — a six-time All-Star with 1,628 RBIs, 384 home runs and 2,866 hits. “I had a great career. I’m very proud of it,” he said. But a couple other numbers stood out, too. Baines never drew more than 6.1 per cent in five elections by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, far from the 75 per cent required. In the key WAR stat compiled by baseballreference.com, Baines’ lifetime total was tied for 545th. Behind the likes of Placido Polanco, Jim Sundberg and Rafael Furcal in wins above replacement, not to mention Gil Hodges, Dick Allen, Don Mattingly, John Olerud and dozens more. The vote by the Today’s Game Era Committee was sure to spark renewed cries of cronyism at Cooperstown. Especially because the 16-member panel appointed by the Hall board included longtime Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. “I’m glad he was on that committee this year to help to get into the Hall of Fame,” Baines said. Baines spent nearly all of his first 10 seasons with the White Sox and currently serves as a team ambassador in their community relations department. “So happy for Harold. He’s a great player and a great human being,” Reinsdorf praised in a statement. “I am so honoured that I was a member of the committee. He deserved to be in long ago. I am just so excited.” “Not only was Harold one of my favourite players to watch, but I have nothing but admiration for him as a player and as a human being,” he said. Tony La Russa, Baines’ first big league manager, also was on the panel that elected him. In the past, Phil Rizzuto and Bill Mazeroski were among the players who benefited from friendly faces on Veterans Committees to reach the Hall. That panel has been revamped over the years, and the Today’s Game Era group was created as part of changes in 2014. “The era committees were established as a sort of a court of appeals for an opportunity in the event that over time it was felt that maybe somebody slipped through the cracks,” Hall President Jeff Idelson said. “And in the case of someone who received 6 per cent of the vote in the BBWAA election, the reason that may have happened could be for many, many reasons.” It took 12 votes for election by the panel — longtime reliever Lee Smith was unanimous, Baines got 12 and former outfielder and manager Lou Piniella fell just short with 11. George Steinbrenner, Orel Hershiser, Albert Belle, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Davey Johnson and Charlie Manuel all received fewer than five votes. Baines, now 59, had a smooth, consistent, left-handed stroke. But he never finished higher than ninth in an MVP vote, and never was among the top five AL hitters in the yearly batting race. His single-season high was 29 home runs at a time when lots of players hit more. As this vote approached, his name drew little-to-no buzz in debates over who might be selected. “I wasn’t expecting this day to come,” the career .289 hitter said. Baines became a designated hitter after knee trouble ended his days in the outfield, and DHs have struggled to gain backing from Hall voters. Baines joined Frank Thomas as the only players in the Hall who spent more than half his games as a DH. “Everything I hear or read is DH is really not part of the game, I guess. But I disagree. But maybe this will the open up the doors for some more DHs,” Baines said. Both closers and DHs could see the numbers increase again very shortly. Mariano Rivera is eligible for the first time and big-hitting DH Edgar Martinez will be back on the ballot when results of the next BBWAA election are announced Jan. 22. Induction ceremonies are scheduled for July 21 at Cooperstown, New York. Between now and then, there’s certain to be more discussion about who else should be in the Hall. Drug-tainted Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are on the upcoming BBWAA ballot, influential players’ union head Marvin Miller has been denied seven times by various committees, and steroids user Mark McGwire wasn’t among Sunday’s candidates.

In Major League Baseball, the Hall of Fame announces the first members of its 2019 induction class, with Harold Baines and Lee Smith voted in by one of four special committees. They, along with any players elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America in January 2019, will be formally inducted at the Hall's facility in Cooperstown, New York on July 21, 2019.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Governor of India’s central bank, Urjit Patel, resigned abruptly on Monday after a months-long tussle over policy with the government that has raised concerns about the bank’s independence as a national election nears. FILE PHOTO: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel pauses during a news conference after a monetary policy review in Mumbai, India, December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo Government officials have been pressuring the Reserve Bank of India to allow some bad-debt-laden public sector banks to lend more easily, and pushed for it to hand over some of its surplus reserves to help fund the fiscal deficit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which must call national polls by May, faces anger in rural communities because of slumping farm incomes, and broader concerns about a lack of jobs growth in small businesses that are finding it hard to get banks to lend them money. Getting control of the reserves would give the government more flexibility in spending on welfare policies and farm support schemes. Patel cited “personal reasons” for his decision to immediately step down. His resignation came four days before an RBI board meeting, and at a sensitive time for the government. On Tuesday, votes in key state elections are due to be counted, with exit polls suggesting the BJP could suffer some major defeats at the hands of the opposition Congress party. That scenario, and Patel’s resignation, are expected to roil Indian markets. On Monday, forward contracts tracking the rupee against the dollar outside of market hours INRNDFOR= posted their biggest fall in more than five years. That added to earlier losses caused largely by concerns - triggered by the state exit polls - that next year’s election might end with a defeat for the pro-business Modi and a weak coalition government, leading to policy uncertainty. Investors will want to know quickly who Patel’s replacement will be, and how that will affect the direction of financial and monetary policy, analysts said. There was no clear frontrunner, but one name being mentioned was former Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia who retired at the end of November. While not commenting directly on Patel’s exit, Moody’s Investors Service said on Monday any signs the government was attempting to curtail the RBI’s independence would be a credit negative. “We currently assume that the RBI will continue to pursue price and financial stability and implement policies towards these goals,” the agency said in an emailed statement. Patel announced his departure in a short statement on the RBI’s website in which he said that “on account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately”. Modi suggested he had not wanted Patel to leave. On Twitter, the Indian leader praised Patel as a “thorough professional with impeccable integrity”. “He steered the banking system from chaos to order and ensured discipline. Under his leadership, the RBI brought financial stability,” Modi tweeted. “He leaves behind a great legacy. We will miss him immensely.” BUILDING FOR MONTHS Even before Patel's announcement, the 10-year benchmark Indian government bond yield IN10YT=RR rose the most since September, and stocks posted their worst close in four weeks, with the broad NSE index .NSEI losing 1.9 percent. The pressure on him had been building for some months. The government has made clear it was not happy with the RBI’s policies and stacked its board with pro-BJP representatives. Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who did not take an extension after his term ended in September 2016, said Indians should be concerned about what was happening. “We should go into the details on why there was an impasse which forced (Patel) to take this ultimate decision,” Rajan told the ET NOW television channel. “The strength of our institution is really important.” Within the RBI there was a combination of anxiety and relief at the announcement. “It was very shocking... Morale of employees is very down,” said one RBI official who has been with the central bank for more than a decade. “This is very sad moment.” But another official said Patel was often inaccessible to key financial market players and had stifled discussion within the RBI, and that now it might be possible to open up more. “Finally things will come to peace. I can talk more openly,” this official said. The officials asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. ARGENTINE WARNING The rift between the government and the central bank became very public in late October when RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya warned in a speech that undermining a central bank’s autonomy could be “catastrophic”. He referred to a meltdown in Argentina’s financial markets in 2010 after a struggle between the government and the central bank over who controlled the bank’s reserves. Last week, Patel declined to answer reporters’ questions about the rift with the government, which former government officials and analysts said they were convinced was a major factor in his decision to quit. Slideshow (2 Images) There was speculation a month ago that Patel might quit over the government pressure, but the rumours eased after the two sides reached an uneasy truce ahead of last month’s RBI board meeting. “The timing just before this week’s board meeting suggests that there’s still a huge gap between the government and RBI positions on key issues,” said A. Prasanna, head of research at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership in Mumbai. “Markets will now hope that the government has a plan of action ready so as to restore calm.”[SEP]Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel on Monday resigned from the post citing personal reasons. “On account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately. It has been my privilege and honour to serve in the Reserve Bank of India in various capacities over the years,” he said in a brief statement. Patel took charge as the RBI governor on 4 September 2016 after Raghuram Rajan resigned from the post on 19 June of that year. Patel’s term as RBI governor was to end in September 2019.[SEP]The Governor of India’s central bank, Urjit Patel, resigned abruptly on Monday after a months-long tussle over policy with the government that has raised concerns about the bank’s independence as a national election nears. Government officials have been pressuring the Reserve Bank of India to allow some bad-debt-laden public sector banks to lend more easily, and pushed for it to hand over some of its surplus reserves to help fund the fiscal deficit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which must call national polls by May, faces anger in rural communities because of slumping farm incomes, and broader concerns about a lack of jobs growth in small businesses that are finding it hard to get banks to lend them money. Getting control of the reserves would give the government more flexibility in spending on welfare policies and farm support schemes. Patel cited “personal reasons” for his decision to immediately step down. His resignation came four days before an RBI board meeting, and at a sensitive time for the government. On Tuesday, votes in key state elections are due to be counted, with exit polls suggesting the BJP could suffer some major defeats at the hands of the opposition Congress party. That scenario, and Patel’s resignation, are expected to roil Indian markets. On Monday, forward contracts tracking the rupee against the dollar outside of market hours INRNDFOR= posted their biggest fall in more than five years. Investors will want to know quickly who Patel’s replacement will be, and how that will affect the direction of financial and monetary policy, analysts said. There was no clear frontrunner, but one name being mentioned was former Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia who retired at the end of November. While not commenting directly on Patel’s exit, Moody’s Investors Service said on Monday any signs the government was attempting to curtail the RBI’s independence would be a credit negative. “We currently assume that the RBI will continue to pursue price and financial stability and implement policies towards these goals,” the agency said in an emailed statement. Patel announced his departure in a short statement on the RBI’s website in which he said that “on account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately”. Modi suggested he had not wanted Patel to leave. On Twitter, the Indian leader praised Patel as a “thorough professional with impeccable integrity”. “He steered the banking system from chaos to order and ensured discipline. Under his leadership, the RBI brought financial stability,” Modi tweeted. “He leaves behind a great legacy. We will miss him immensely.” Even before Patel’s announcement, the 10-year benchmark Indian government bond yield rose the most since September, and stocks posted their worst close in four weeks, with the broad NSE index losing 1.9 percent. The pressure on him had been building for some months. The government has made clear it was not happy with the RBI’s policies and stacked its board with pro-BJP representatives. Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who did not take an extension after his term ended in September 2016, said Indians should be concerned about what was happening. “We should go into the details on why there was an impasse which forced (Patel) to take this ultimate decision,” Rajan told the ET NOW television channel. “The strength of our institution is really important.” Within the RBI there was a combination of anxiety and relief at the announcement. “It was very shocking… Morale of employees is very down,” said one RBI official who has been with the central bank for more than a decade. “This is very sad moment.” But another official said Patel was often inaccessible to key financial market players and had stifled discussion within the RBI, and that now it might be possible to open up more. “Finally things will come to peace. I can talk more openly,” this official said. The officials asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.[SEP]“I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately. It has been my privilege and honour to serve in the Reserve Bank of India in various capacities over the years,” Mr. Patel said.[SEP]After a fractious faceoff with the Narendra Modi-led government over the liquidity crunch in the economy, the RBI Governor Urjit Patel resigned on Monday from his post with immediate effect citing ‘personal reasons’. Urjit Patel’s resignation, which came 10 months ahead of his term, is being seen a result of trust deficit between the central bank and the ruling government. According to many experts, this development can trigger a major crisis in the politico-economic sphere of the country. In the recent past, several media reports said that Urjit Patel could resign after the government’s decision to invoke the never-used-before special powers under Section 7 of the RBI Act to initiate consultation on a range of issues such as the Prompt Correct Action (PCA) norms, among others. Urjit Patel was appointed the 24th governor of the RBI on September 2016 for a three-year term and was heavily criticised for his silence on demonetisation, which was announced just 2 months after his appointment. Check Financial Express’ continuing coverage on Urjit Patel’s resignation as RBI Governor What happens now Urjit Patel resigns as RBI Governor; now, what’s next? Even as most saw Reserve Bank of India and Modi government reaching truce, RBI Governor Urjit Patel tendered his resignation on Monday. He cited ‘personal reasons’ behind the exit. However, the sudden decision to quit has raised a couple of pressing worries. First, how will the stock markets react? Second, and the most important, who will be the next RBI Governor? Moody’s on Urjit Patel: Govt attempt to curtail RBI Independence credit negative Patel’s resignation came just 4 days ahead of the December 14 meeting of the Reserve Bank that could have discussed issues of simmering differences with the government. Hope for smooth transition with approach acceptable to all: India Inc on RBI Governor’s resignation India Inc Monday said it hopes for a smooth transition and “an approach acceptable to all” after RBI Governor Urjit Patel’s resignation, citing liquidity and credit offtake issues in the financial sector. Patel, who had a run in with the government over autonomy of the central bank, Monday resigned from his post. RBI reduced to a government department Urjit Patel’s resignation shows up the govt in a poor light, of one unwilling to accept an independent RBI Governor. Urjit Patel: The vigilant owl flies out in protest, as the nest comes under attack Patel’s three-year tenure was scheduled to end early September 2019 and he had hinted at rate cuts in the future if the RBI continues to see a dip in inflation. Urjit Patel exit adds to India’s risk as PM Modi gears up for vote Urjit Patel’s shock exit as governor of the Reserve Bank of India dealt investors another bout of monetary policy uncertainty when they were already bracing for an electoral test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Urjit Patel’s resignation roils nervous India markets Urjit Patel quit on Monday citing personal reasons, a decision that some investors took as a new fissure in the Reserve Bank of India’s relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Urjit Patel resignation: Expect markets volatility for some time While both the stock and markets could settle down should a new RBI governor be appointed soon, the fact is India’s markets have been performing poorly in 2018, being hugely over-valued even as corporate earnings have been very ordinary. Sebi, exchanges step up vigil as volatility looms over state poll results, RBI Governor’s exit Capital markets regulator Sebi and the stock exchanges have stepped up their surveillance systems to keep manipulative forces in check amid an extreme volatility expected on Tuesday due to the sudden resignation of RBI Governor Urjit Patel and the state assembly results. Urjit Patel resigns: Govt’s push for more power to RBI board was the trigger In a terse statement issued after the end of market hours, Patel, the 24th RBI governor, who had 268 days to go before his three-year term ends on September 4 2019, cited ‘persons reasons’ for the decision. Urjit Patel resignation: Power erosion may have weighed on RBI chief’s exit decision Urjit Patel’s surprise resignation as the RBI governor seems to have been precipitated by the long-simmering tussle between the government and the central bank over a raft of vexed issues. Urjit Patel resigns as RBI governor; cites personal reasons On account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately, said Urjit Patel. Conflict between RBI and government not new: Here’s what happened in past The longest-serving RBI governor to resign was Benegal Rama Rau (July 1, 1949 to January 14, 1957) who was forced to quit after differences with the then finance minister TT Krishnamachari. Here’s what PM Modi said about Urjit Patel after his resignation as RBI governor Urjit Patel steered the banking system from chaos to order and ensured discipline. Under his leadership, the RBI brought financial stability, PM Modi said. Rahul Gandhi on Urjit Patel’s exit: We have to stop BJP’s assault on institutions The opposition seized the opportunity to launch a fusillade at the central government accusing it of assaulting and undermining India’s institutions, from CBI to RBI, and resolved to “work together to defeat the BJP, RSS combination.” RBI Governor Urjit Patel’s resignation ‘severe blow’ to nation’s economy, says former PM Manmohan Singh Former prime minister Manmohan Singh Monday termed RBI Governor Urjit Patel’s resignation as “very unfortunate” and said it was a “severe blow” to the country’s economy. Singh said it will be “foolhardy” to diminish institutions for short-term political gains. Urjit Patel eased out by Centre to bring in someone ‘more pliable’, says Arvind Kejriwal Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday alleged that RBI governor Urjit Patel was eased out by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre to bring in a “more pliable” person to fill the post. “RBI governor Urjit Patel has been eased out since he refused to allow the Modi govt to plunder Rs three lakh crore of RBI reserves,” he said. Urjit Patel’s resignation will be bad for economy, warns Subramanian Swamy; gives this advice to PM Modi Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy on Monday warned that Urjit Patel’s resignation as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor will be bad for the economy. RBI Governor’s “forced” exit blot on India’s monetary and banking system: Congress BJP government has unleashed a defacto financial emergency. The country’s reputation and credibility is now at stake,” senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said. Raghuram Rajan reacts to Urjit Patel’s resignation; says ‘Dr Patel has made a statement’ Raghuram Rajan on Monday reacted to Urjit Patel’s decision to step down as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor and said that he has made a statement that the autonomy of the central bank should not be undermined.[SEP]Raghuram Rajan on Monday reacted to Urjit Patel’s decision to step down as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor and said that he has made a statement that the autonomy of the central bank should not be undermined. Raghuram Rajan on Monday reacted to Urjit Patel’s decision to step down as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor and said that he has made a statement that the autonomy of the central bank should not be undermined. “Believe resignation of RBI Governor Urjit Patel is a matter of great concern. Resignation by a government servant is a note of protest when faced with circumstances they cannot deal with,” Raghuram Rajan told ET Now.[SEP]MUMBAI (Reuters) - Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel resigned for “personal reasons” on Monday, a decision analysts linked to intense pressure on the central bank from the government to ease regulatory curbs. “On account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately,” Patel said in a statement on the RBI website after financial markets had closed. Analysts said the dispute between the RBI and the government could have been a major factor in Patel’s decision to resign. “Quite clearly the resignation of Urjit Patel shows that nothing has changed,” Yashwant Sinha, a former finance minister and member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, told CNBC-TV18. “The resignation is a clear sign of the government trying to interfere with the working of the RBI,” he added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has put pressure on the RBI to ease its regulatory curbs on some banks, increase liquidity and relax capital norms as it faces a slowing economy ahead of general elections due by May. RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said in a speech in October that undermining a central bank’s autonomy could be “catastrophic”, prompting a public dispute that added to the rift between the bank and government. The Modi government has stacked the RBI’s 18-member board with its own nominees, in what critics say is a move to exert greater control over the central bank’s regulatory powers. On Twitter, Modi praised Patel as a “thorough professional with impeccable integrity”. “He steered the banking system from chaos to order and ensured discipline. Under his leadership, the RBI brought financial stability,” Modi tweeted. “He leaves behind a great legacy. We will miss him immensely.” There was speculation a month ago that Patel might quit over the government pressure, but the rumors eased after the government and central bank reached an uneasy truce ahead of a RBI board meeting last month. Patel resigned before results from crucial state elections are declared on Tuesday and ahead of an RBI board meeting on Friday. “The timing just before this week’s board meeting suggests that there’s still a huge gap between the government and RBI positions on key issues,” said A. Prasanna, head of research at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership in Mumbai. “Markets will now hope that the government has a plan of action ready so as to restore calm.” Patel’s resignation is expected to roil financial markets on Tuesday. Investors will want to know who is Patel’s replacement and how that will affect the direction of financial and monetary policy, analysts said. “Markets certainly will be concerned unless there is further clarification that comes through tonight,” said R. Sivakumar, head of fixed income at Axis Mutual Fund. “I think tomorrow and over the next few days we can expect heightened volatility in the markets,” he added.[SEP]In giving a terrific shock to the Narendra Modi led NDA government, Reserve Bank Of India Governor Dr. Urjit Patel has resigned from his position. RBI governor’s unexpected resignation from the post will certainly set fire to opposition’s plans to question the government‘s monetary policies including demonetization and GST. The opposition will, without doubt, raise this as a political issue and the government will have to answer it. The winter session of parliament is also starting this week and the government will be questioned in both the houses of the parliament also. The apex bank and the central government were engaged in a cold war for the last few months.[SEP]Patel, who took charge of the central bank on September 4, 2016, resigned from the post of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor with immediate effect on Monday, citing "personal reasons" Reacting to RBI Governor Urjit Patel's sudden resignation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday appreciated his services to the nation and said it was a pleasure working with him. "The government acknowledges with a deep sense of appreciation the services rendered by Urjit Patel to this country, both in his capacity as the Governor and the Deputy Governor of the RBI. It was a pleasure for me to deal with him and benefit from his scholarship," Jaitley tweeted. "I wish Patel all the very best and many more years of public service," he said in another tweet. Patel, who took charge of the central bank on September 4, 2016, resigned from the post of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor with immediate effect on Monday, citing "personal reasons". "On account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately," he said in a statement released by the RBI. Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Except for the change in the headline, the story has been provided "AS-IS," "AS AVAILABLE, without any verification or editing from our side. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.[SEP]Urjit Patel steps down as RBI governor with immediate effect New Delhi, Dec 10: Urjit Patel, has stepped down as governor of the Reserve Bank of India, with immediate effect. In a statement, he said that he is stepping down due to personal reasons. 'On account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately. It has been my privilege and honour to serve in the Reserve Bank of India in various capacities over the years, ' a statement by Patel read. He further said that the support and hard work of the RBI staff, officers and management has been the proximate driver of the Bank's considerable accomplishments over the years. I take this opportunity to express gratitude to my colleagues and directors of the RBI Central Board and wish them all the best for the future, Patel also said. There was speculation for sometime about Patel quitting following differences between the RBI and the government. It began when RBI deputy governor, Viral Acharya delivered a speech in which he had spoken about the need to ensure independence of the central bank. Also Read | In Marathon meeting, RBI agrees to ease liquidity, increase credit to MSMEs Over the past few months several contentious issues have cropped up between the RBI and the government. The main problem was when the government demanded that the RBI shell out more dividend from its reserves. Further, the government officials on the RBI's board pushed for the relaxation of the promotion corrective action framework being used to nurse weak banks back to health. The government and the RBI were also at loggerheads over the suggestion to set up a payment regulator outside the purview of the RBI.

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Urjit Patel, resigns abruptly.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the UK can unilaterally revoke its withdrawal from the EU. The court found that if the UK does decide to revoke Article 50 and stop the Brexit process it would remain in the EU as a member state and the revocation must be decided following “democratic process”. In a statement, the ECJ said: “In today’s judgment, the full court has ruled that, when a member state has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, as the UK has done, that member state is free to revoke unilaterally that notification. “That possibility exists for as long as a withdrawal agreement concluded between the EU and that member state has not entered into force or, if no such agreement has been concluded, for as long as the two-year period from the date of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, and any possible extension, has not expired.” It added: “The revocation must be decided following a democratic process in accordance with national constitutional requirements. This unequivocal and unconditional decision must be communicated in writing to the European Council.” The ECJ ruling comes ahead of tomorrow’s crunch vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The court ruled, contrary to the UK Government’s position, that the case is “relevant and not hypothetical”. However, the UK Government has said its policy is not to revoke Article 50. The case was brought by a cross-party group of Scottish politicians, Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, SNP MP Joanna Cherry and MEP Alyn Smith, and Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project. They argued that unilateral revocation is possible and believe it could pave the way for an alternative option to Brexit, such as a People’s Vote to enable remaining in the EU. Lawyers representing the Council of the European Union and from the European Commission argued that revocation is possible but would require unanimous agreement from all member states. The case was originally heard by the Court of Session in Edinburgh and two attempts by the UK Government to appeal against the referral to the European Court were rejected. The case will be referred back to the Court of Session, where judges are expected to “frank” the decision and declare the European Court’s answer to be the law on the matter. Mr Wightman hailed the “momentous” ruling, saying: “It is now clear that the UK can, if it chooses, change its mind and revert to our current EU membership arrangements. “MPs now know that stopping Brexit altogether is an option open to them before the end of the Article 50 period. “Parliament can now back a People’s Vote in the knowledge that a Remain outcome could be acted on unilaterally, should that be what people decide.” Environment Secretary Michael Gove told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We voted very clearly - 17.4 million people sent a clear message that we wanted to leave the European Union and that means also leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. “So, this case is all very well but it doesn’t alter either the referendum vote or the clear intention of the Government to make sure that we leave on March 29.”[SEP]Image copyright ECJ Image caption The case was heard by all 27 European judges last month The European Court of Justice has ruled the UK can cancel Brexit without the permission of the other 27 EU members. The ECJ judges ruled this could be done without altering the terms of Britain's membership. A group of anti-Brexit politicians argued the UK should be able to unilaterally halt Brexit, but they were opposed by the government and EU. The decision came as Theresa May announced a Commons vote on whether to approve her deal would be postponed. MPs had been widely expected on Tuesday to reject the EU withdrawal agreement negotiated by Mrs May. But she pre-empted their decision, saying the vote would be deferred to a later date so she could seek "further assurances" from EU leaders about the application of the Irish border backstop. In a subsequent statement to MPs, Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay said the government noted the ECJ ruling but insisted "our policy has not changed". He said the UK would be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019, under the terms of the EU's Article 50 process, and had "absolutely no intention" of overturning the 2016 Brexit vote. "The government's firm and long held policy is that we will not revoke the Article 50 notice," he said. What was the court case about? The case was brought by a cross-party group of Scottish politicians and the Good Law Project who wanted to know whether the UK could revoke the decision to leave the EU without getting approval from the other member states. They believed that if the ruling went in their favour, it could pave the way for an alternative option to Brexit, such as another referendum. Image caption A group of politicians brought the case including (from top left) Catherine Stihler MEP; Joanna Cherry MP; David Martin MEP; (from bottom left) Alyn Smith MEP; Ross Greer MSP and Andy Wightman MSP Both the UK government and the EU had been against it going to the ECJ. The EU warned that it would set a dangerous precedent by encouraging other countries to announce they were leaving in an attempt to secure better membership terms, before cancelling their withdrawal. The UK government's lawyers also argued that the case was purely hypothetical as "the UK does not intend to revoke its notification" and those politicians behind it wanted to use the case as "political ammunition to be used in, and to pressure, the UK Parliament". What does the ruling say? The ECJ ruled that the UK can unilaterally revoke its withdrawal from the EU, broadly following the non-binding opinion given last week by a senior ECJ official - the advocate general. The statement from the court said the ability for a member state to change its mind after telling the EU it wanted to leave would last as long as a withdrawal agreement had not been entered into, or for the two-year period after it had notified the bloc it was leaving. If that two-year period gets extended, then a member state could change its mind during that extra time too. The court said the UK would be able to stay on the same terms it has now, so it would not be forced to join the euro or the Schengen area - where there are no passport controls between countries. But the decision to stay must "follow a democratic process". The member state would then have to write to the EU to notify them of the "unequivocal and unconditional" decision. The ECJ said it made the ruling to "clarify the options open to MPs" ahead of voting on Mrs May's deal. How have campaigners reacted? The politicians involved hope the victory will increase the chances of Brexit being called off completely, potentially through another referendum. Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer - one of the politicians who launched the case - said: "This is a massive moment at the start of a vital week, pointing to a clear way out of the Brexit mess." And the SNP's Alyn Smith, who was also involved in the case, said: "A bright light has switched on above an exit sign." Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project which took the case to the court, said that the ruling was "arguably the most important case in modern domestic legal history". "It is up to MPs to remember what they came into politics for and find the moral courage to put the country's interests before private ambition," he added. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon - who backed Remain - said the ruling meant it was "now open to the House of Commons" to extend Article 50 to allow time for another vote. And Lib Dem Brexit spokesman Tom Brake tweeted that it was the "best news possible" and said it was now "full steam ahead for a People's Vote". What about their critics? Environment Secretary Michael Gove, a prominent Brexiteer, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme those calling for a second vote were "people who never accepted that first vote, who didn't accept that democratic mandate and who want to overturn it". "We don't want to stay in the EU. We voted very clearly, 17.4 million people sent a clear message that we want to leave the European Union, and that means also leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice," he added. "So, this case is all very well, but it doesn't alter the referendum vote or the clear intention of the government to make sure that we leave on 29 March." Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the BBC people would be "shocked and very angry" if any government delayed leaving the EU and it was "certainly not the intention of the government". Brexiteer Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg hailed the decision as the right one, but told LBC radio: "I think this government would find it very difficult to remain the government if it went away from what it said in its manifesto and the referendum result." What does the EU say? A spokeswoman for the European Commission said it would "take note" of the judgement, but there was an "agreement on the table". "As President [Jean-Claude] Juncker said, this deal is the best and only deal possible. We will not renegotiate," he said. "Our position has therefore not changed and as far as we are concerned the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union on the 29 March 2019." How does the ruling affect the meaningful vote? BBC Brussels correspondent Adam Fleming said the ruling made staying in the EU "a real, viable option" and that may "sway a few MPs" in the way they vote. But he said "a lot would have to change in British politics" to see the UK remain in the EU, with Mrs May and the government having to change its mind to make it a "political reality".[SEP]The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the UK can unilaterally revoke its withdrawal from the EU. The court found that if the UK does decide to revoke Article 50 and stop the Brexit process it would remain in the EU as a member state and the revocation must be decided following "democratic process". In a statement, the ECJ said: "In today's judgment, the full court has ruled that, when a member state has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, as the UK has done, that member state is free to revoke unilaterally that notification. "That possibility exists for as long as a withdrawal agreement concluded between the EU and that member state has not entered into force or, if no such agreement has been concluded, for as long as the two-year period from the date of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, and any possible extension, has not expired." It added: "The revocation must be decided following a democratic process in accordance with national constitutional requirements. This unequivocal and unconditional decision must be communicated in writing to the European Council." The ECJ ruling comes ahead of Tuesday's crunch vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal. The court ruled, contrary to the UK Government's position, that the case is "relevant and not hypothetical". However, the UK Government has said its policy is not to revoke Article 50. The case was brought by a cross-party group of Scottish politicians, Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, SNP MP Joanna Cherry and MEP Alyn Smith, and Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project. They argued that unilateral revocation is possible and believe it could pave the way for an alternative option to Brexit, such as a People's Vote to enable remaining in the EU. Lawyers representing the Council of the European Union and from the European Commission argued that revocation is possible but would require unanimous agreement from all member states. The case was originally heard by the Court of Session in Edinburgh and two attempts by the UK Government to appeal against the referral to the European Court were rejected. The case will be referred back to the Court of Session, where judges are expected to "frank" the decision and declare the European Court's answer to be the law on the matter.[SEP]The UK can stop Brexit by unilaterally revoking its withdrawal from the EU, the European Court of Justice has ruled. The EU's top court in Luxembourg has been considering the question whether the United Kingdom can decide not to proceed with leaving. Lawyers in the EU argued that the UK should require a vote of other member states, while the government in Britain said the court should not rule on the question. The advocate general of the court Manuel Campos Sánchez-Bordona gave his opinion last week which is not often overturned by the judges. A spokeswoman for the court said: "In today's judgment, the Full Court has ruled that, when a Member State has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, as the UK has done, that Member State is free to revoke unilaterally that notification. "That possibility exists for as long as a withdrawal agreement concluded between the EU and that Member State has not entered into force or, if no such agreement has been concluded, for as long as the two-year period from the date of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, and any possible extension, has not expired." First Minister Nicola Sturgeon responded to the ruling on Twitter by saying: "So an extension of Article 50 to allow time for another vote, followed by revocation of Article 50 if the outcome is Remain seems to be an option that is now open to the House of Commons. "[SEP]EU judges delivered a boost for Remainer rebels today by ruling that Britain can unilaterally cancel Brexit. The European Court of Justice decided that Article 50 can be withdrawn by the UK without permission from other member states. Britain would keep its current terms of membership if it quit the process - meaning keeping the rebate, the opt out from the Euro and exemptions from the Schengen passport-free zone. The ruling by the 27 EU judges will fuel tensions ahead of the crunch vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal tomorrow. It will encourage hopes from pro-EU MPs that a second referendum can be held to stop the UK from leaving the bloc altogether. The case to decide whether an EU member state such as the UK can decide on its own to revoke the Article 50 withdrawal process was brought by a cross-party group of Scottish politicians. They are Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, Joanna Cherry MP and Alyn Smith MEP of the SNP, and Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project. Ms Cherry said: 'I'm delighted that we now know definitively that there is an option to stay in the EU. 'The UK government has ignored Scotland's vote to remain and all compromises suggested by the Scottish Government. 'They also fought us every inch of the way in this case, so it's a particularly sweet irony that Scottish parliamentarians and the Scottish courts have provided this lifeline to the UK parliament at this moment of crisis.' First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: 'Important judgment from ECJ - Article 50 can be unilaterally revoked by UK.' She added: 'So an extension of Article 50 to allow time for another vote, followed by revocation of Article 50 if the outcome is Remain seems to be an option that is now open to the House of Commons.' People's Vote campaigner Dame Margaret Beckett said: 'This is confirmation that it is still up to us to decide whether we want to keep the existing deal we've got in the EU rather than accept a bad deal negotiated by the Government. 'What has happened in the last week is that any prospect of no deal has been removed by amendments allowing Parliament to take control, while we now all know beyond any doubt that we can stay in the EU - it's not too late.' Liberal Democrat Tom Brake said: 'The ECJ has made clear that the UK can stop Brexit unilaterally. The Government can therefore prevent a chaotic no-deal. 'For the sake of people's livelihoods, the Prime Minister must end the uncertainty and rule out a no-deal.' Best for Britain chief Eloise Todd said the court ruling meant 'our future is in our hands'. She said: 'As the Prime Minister tries every desperate measure to get her deal through the Parliament, MPs need to recognise that when her deal is defeated they should move as quickly as possible to give the people of this country the final say on whether to stay in or leave the EU.' The winners argued in court that unilateral revocation was possible. They believe it could pave the way for an alternative option to Brexit, such as a People's Vote to enable remaining in the EU. However, legal representatives for the UK Government claimed the case is inadmissible as it deals with a hypothetical situation, since the Government's policy is not to revoke Article 50. Lawyers representing the Council of the European Union and from the European Commission meanwhile argued that revocation is possible but would require unanimous agreement from all member states. Last week the court's Advocate General rejected the idea that approval is needed from the European Council. Instead, Manuel Campos Sanchez-Bordona said Article 50 allows the 'unilateral revocation of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, until such time as the Withdrawal Agreement is formally concluded'. The case was originally heard by the Court of Session in Edinburgh and two attempts by the UK Government to appeal against the referral to the European court were rejected. Once the ECJ has delivered its ruling the case will be referred back to the Court of Session, where judges are expected to 'frank' the decision and declare the European Court's answer to be the law on the matter.[SEP]EU Court Rules That The UK Can Unilaterally End Brexit The European Court of Justice has ruled that that member states can withdraw unilaterally from leaving the EU while they are still in the negotiating period. This confirms that the UK can revoke its Article 50 notice without having to consult the rest of the EU.[SEP]The European Court of Justice has confirmed, today December 10, that the UK can revoke Article 50 and put a stop, at least temporarily, to the Brexit process. This leaves the door open for a possible second referendum on Britain’s withdrawal form the European Union, and even the abandonment of Brexit altogether. The decision comes after last week’s legal opinion, by the court’s advocate general, that Britain did not need to consult the other EU member states before deciding to withdraw Article 50. The court’s opinion was summarised as: “The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU.” The decision comes after a case was taken by a group of anti-Brexit Scottish politicians. Article 50 was originally triggered in March 2017, which began a two-year period for discussion and negotiation that was due to come to an end in March of next year, at which point, the UK is due to officially leave the EU. But the ruling by the Court of Justice now means that Article 50 can be revoked at the behest of the British government, and the March deadline ignored. The agreement, if accepted, would keep the UK in a similar customs and trading relationship as exists currently – an outcome that’s looking increasingly unlikely. It’s thought the May will not have the necessary support to the get the agreement passed, with opposition coming from opposition parties, coalition partners and her own backbenchers. In particular, the Northern Irish backstop, and the customs and trading arrangements proposed in the agreement, are thorns in the side for hard-line Brexiteers in her own party, and the Democratic Unionist Party, with whom she is in coalition.[SEP]The EU’s top court has ruled the UK can revoke Article 50 and halt Brexit without the permission of other member states. A judgement by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Monday gives the UK the right to unilaterally withdraw its notification to leave the EU. Judges ruled revoking Article 50 is possible until the UK's withdrawal agreement enters into force or - if no deal is reached between London and Brussels - until the end of the two-year Article 50 negotiating period. The UK could even decide to reverse Brexit within "any possible extension" to the Article 50 period, the court said. In addition, if Article 50 is revoked, the UK could remain in the EU under the current terms of its membership, judges ruled. This would allow the UK to keep its rebate on EU budget contributions, continue to opt-out of justice and home affairs legislation, and remain outside of the passport-free Schengen area and the euro single currency. Withdrawing the Article 50 notification, made by Prime Minister Theresa May in March 2017, must be done in accordance with the UK's "national constitutional requirements" and should be "unequivocal and unconditional". The court's ruling noted this would represent "a sovereign decision to retain its status as a member state of the EU", while judges highlighted a principle that a member state cannot be forced to leave the EU against its will. The judgement by the Luxembourg court comes on the eve of a House of Commons vote on Mrs May's Brexit deal, which is expected to be roundly rejected by MPs. There are suggestions the government could yet pull the vote if she remains on course for a heavy defeat. Monday's ruling follows an opinion delivered last week by the ECJ's advocate general Campos Sanchez-Bordona, who told the court it should allow the UK to withdraw its notice of intent to leave the bloc. The case, which the UK government tried to prevent, was brought by a cross-party group of Scottish politicians and was heard by judges last month. The group included SNP MP Joanna Cherry, SNP MEP Alyn Smith, Labour MEPs David Martin and Catherine Stihler, Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, and barrister Jolyon Maugham. Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake and Labour MP Chris Leslie were listed as additional parties in court documents. Mr Leslie, who is campaigning for a second EU referendum, described Monday's ruling as a "massive, game-changing moment". He told Sky News: "If the British people, potentially through a people's vote, want to reverse out of this process, they now have that right. "And that, I think, will electrify the debate, certainly in parliament. "This notion that the prime minister has put up which somehow is an ultimatum, you have to take her deal or there's no deal, that is no longer the case. "It is now legally certain that, if the British people want, they can change their minds." However, Environment Secretary Michael Gove - a leading figure in the Brexit campaign - stressed the ruling would not prevent the UK leaving the EU next year. "We don't want to stay in the EU. We voted very clearly - 17.4million people sent a clear message that we want to leave the EU and that means also leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "So, this case is all very well but it doesn't alter either the referendum vote or the clear intention of the government to make sure that we leave on 29 March. "And the most effective way of leaving is to support the deal the prime minister has proposed."[SEP]Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union can be divided into two parts. The first recognises the right of a member state to withdraw from the European Union. The second establishes the procedure that the withdrawing member state and the EU institutions have to follow to manage that withdrawal. Article 50 says that the member state has to notify the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union. However it does not say whether, once such notification has been made, such intention may be revoked and membership retained. This was the issue under consideration in a case brought before the European Court of Justice. The court has now ruled that a withdrawing member state may revoke its intention to withdraw from the EU unilaterally. The key word here is “unilaterally”. In this context, it means that the revocation decision is not subject to the unanimous consent of the European Council, the European institution representing the member states. However, it’s important to note that the court added that the decision to revoke Article 50 must be “unequivocal and unconditional”. This means that the member state has to make it clear that it wishes to maintain its EU membership. This is not about extending the Article 50 process to extend the Brexit transition period beyond March 2019. That would still require agreement from the EU member states. Rather, a notification revoking Article 50 means not leaving the EU at all. In other words, it would stop Brexit. Of equal importance is timing. The court said a member state can only revoke Article 50 while its withdrawal agreement with the EU, which sets outs the terms of departure, has not yet entered into force. If the withdrawal agreement has not been concluded, revocation may take place during the two-year period that starts when Article 50 is triggered, or even beyond the two-year period if the remaining member states decide to grant such an extension. In Brexit terms, this means that the UK can revoke Article 50 unilaterally before its agreement enters into force or, if it does not enter in force, until March 29 2019. It can also revoke it after that date if the European Council agrees to extend the transition period of Article 50 beyond 29 March 2019. The ECJ case originally started in a Scottish court, which asked the Court of Justice to clarify the issue of revocation of the intention to withdraw from the EU. Given the misrepresentation given by Brexit supporters about the Court of Justice and their sudden hostility towards it, it’s important to remember that the Court of Justice interprets and applies EU law. It does not, nor can it, interpret or apply national law. This has always been the case since its establishment in 1952. This was a challenging case because the the UK was the first country to ever trigger Article 50, so there was no legal precedent to rely on when making a decision. If the text of the law is silent, should it be implied that a particular conduct is allowed because it is not expressly prohibited, or should it be implied that it is not allowed because it is not expressly permitted? In this typical interpretative dilemma, the court reasoned that if EU law recognises the sovereign choice of a member state to leave the EU, then revoking that intention should also be seen as a sovereign decision. It also noted that “given that a state cannot be forced to accede to the European Union against its will, neither can it be forced to withdraw from the European Union against its will”. In this regard, the court noted that if a member state cannot unilaterally revoke its decision to leave the EU, then this would amount to allowing the expulsion of a member state. Indeed, the court noted that when drafting what eventually would become Article 50, a number of amendments to allow the EU to expel member states were rejected. This further supports the conclusion that a member state is entitled to reverse its decision unilaterally. The ECJ ruling is not surprising. Legally speaking, it would have been much harder to justify the opposite conclusion. It is also in line with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which allows revocation of a decision to withdraw from an international treaty. The immediate implication is that the EU member states are not allowed to interfere with the United Kingdom’s future course of action, for example by setting new conditions for allowing the UK to remain in the EU. However, like many domestic and international rulings, it has an internal political implication: it adds a further option to the current ones on the table. The pressure taken off from the EU is now entirely on the UK. A revocation decision would run counter to the outcome of the UK referendum. It would be unpalatable, unattractive, and risky, but so are the other choices. By approving the withdrawal agreement, the UK becomes a rule-taker with no voice. By rejecting the withdrawal agreement, it faces serious and radical economic disruption. Either way, the ultimate decision must be made through the British political system. The ECJ ruling is another stark reminder of this enormous responsibility.[SEP]EU judges delivered a boost for Remainer rebels today by ruling that Britain can unilaterally cancel Brexit. The European Court of Justice decided that Article 50 can be withdrawn by the UK without permission from other member states. Britain would keep its current terms of membership if it quit the process - meaning keeping the rebate, the opt out from the Euro and exemptions from the Schengen passport-free zone. The ruling will fuel tensions ahead of the crunch vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal tomorrow. It will encourage hopes from pro-EU MPs that a second referendum can be held to stop the UK from leaving the bloc altogether. The case to decide whether an EU member state such as the UK can decide on its own to revoke the Article 50 withdrawal process was brought by a cross-party group of Scottish politicians. They are Labour MEPs Catherine Stihler and David Martin, Joanna Cherry MP and Alyn Smith MEP of the SNP, and Green MSPs Andy Wightman and Ross Greer, together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project. Ms Cherry said: 'I'm delighted that we now know definitively that there is an option to stay in the EU. 'The UK government has ignored Scotland's vote to remain and all compromises suggested by the Scottish Government. 'They also fought us every inch of the way in this case, so it's a particularly sweet irony that Scottish parliamentarians and the Scottish courts have provided this lifeline to the UK parliament at this moment of crisis.' Liberal Democrat Tom Brake said: 'The ECJ has made clear that the UK can stop Brexit unilaterally. The Government can therefore prevent a chaotic no-deal. 'For the sake of people's livelihoods, the Prime Minister must end the uncertainlty and rule out a no-deal. 'It is clear any Brexit will make people poorer and reduce the UK's standing in the world. MPs should not only vote down Theresa May's deal, but back a People's Vote with the option to remain in the EU.' The winners argued in court that unilateral revocation was possible. They believe it could pave the way for an alternative option to Brexit, such as a People's Vote to enable remaining in the EU. However, legal representatives for the UK Government claimed the case is inadmissible as it deals with a hypothetical situation, since the Government's policy is not to revoke Article 50. Lawyers representing the Council of the European Union and from the European Commission meanwhile argued that revocation is possible but would require unanimous agreement from all member states. Last week the court's Advocate General rejected the idea that approval is needed from the European Council. Instead, Manuel Campos Sanchez-Bordona said Article 50 allows the 'unilateral revocation of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, until such time as the Withdrawal Agreement is formally concluded'. The case was originally heard by the Court of Session in Edinburgh and two attempts by the UK Government to appeal against the referral to the European court were rejected. Once the ECJ has delivered its ruling the case will be referred back to the Court of Session, where judges are expected to 'frank' the decision and declare the European Court's answer to be the law on the matter.

The Court of Justice of the European Union rules that an EU member state's invocation of Article 50 TEU is unilaterally revokable.

LONDON — After an embarrassing setback in Parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May was touring European capitals on Tuesday, meeting with leaders and looking for some way to shore up support back home for her agreement on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. British lawmakers had been scheduled to vote on the agreement on Tuesday, but after a debate in which it came under attack not only from the opposition but also from many members of her own Conservative Party, Mrs. May delayed the vote on Monday, acknowledging that her plans had faced defeat “by a significant margin.” Her retreat undermined the tenuous hold on power by a prime minister whose opponents, both inside and outside her party, have been speaking openly about trying to topple her. It also left Britain’s exit from the European Union, or Brexit, in limbo, with lawmakers and analysts alike saying it was anyone’s guess what would happen next. On Tuesday afternoon, Parliament is to hold an emergency debate on the postponement of the vote, called by Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party — essentially a chance for lawmakers to vent their discontent.[SEP]Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May announces Tuesday's planned Brexit deal will not go ahead: "I've listened very carefully" Prime Minister Theresa May has called off Tuesday's crucial vote on her Brexit deal so she can go back to Brussels and ask for changes to it. As it stands the deal "would be rejected by a significant margin" if MPs voted on it, she admitted. But she said she was confident of getting "reassurances" from the EU on the Northern Ireland border plan. But European Council President Donald Tusk said the remaining 27 EU countries would not "renegotiate" the deal. While EU leaders would be willing to "discuss how to facilitate UK ratification" of the withdrawal agreement at Thursday's summit in Brussels, he suggested the controversial Northern Irish backstop, which the DUP and many Tories want removed, would remain in place. The prime minister's U-turn came after she and senior ministers had spent days insisting the vote would go ahead, despite the scale of opposition from MPs being obvious. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How the mace drama unfolded It prompted angry scenes in the Commons, with MPs from all sides complaining that the government had denied them the right to have any say in the move. Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, who accused Mrs May of "losing control of events" and "disregarding" MPs, was granted an emergency debate in the Commons on Tuesday while Commons Speaker John Bercow said the government's handling of the issue had been "regrettable". And Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, was expelled from the Commons after grabbing the ceremonial mace and trying to take it out of the chamber. He was stopped by an officer of the House who returned it to its place on the table. In other Brexit developments Any indication of a new timeline for vote? Theresa May refused to say when the Commons vote on her deal would now be held - saying it would depend how long fresh talks with the EU last. Some MPs called for it to come back to the Commons before Christmas, but Mrs May would only say the final deadline for the vote was 21 January. She said the the UK's departure date from the EU - 29 March next year - was written into law and the government was "committed" to delivering on it. Conservative Remainer Justine Greening said she hoped the PM would not wait until 28 March before holding the vote. Will Labour now table a vote of no confidence in the PM? Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jeremy Corbyn says the government has "lost control" and was in "complete disarray". Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had been hoping to force a general election if Mrs May had lost Tuesday's planned vote, by tabling a vote of no confidence. In his reaction to Mrs May's announcement that the vote would be delayed, he urged the PM to stand down because her government was now in "chaos". But Labour has rejected calls from the SNP, the Lib Dems and some of its own MPs, to hold a vote of no confidence in the prime minister on Tuesday. A Labour Party spokesperson said: "We will put down a motion of no confidence when we judge it most likely to be successful. "It is clear to us that Theresa May will not renegotiate the deal when she goes to Brussels, and will only be asking for reassurances from EU leaders. "When she brings the same deal back to the House of Commons without significant changes, others across the House will be faced with that reality. "At that point, she will have decisively and unquestionably lost the confidence of Parliament on the most important issue facing the country, and Parliament will be more likely to bring about the general election our country needs to end this damaging deadlock." What do critics not like about the deal? Dozens of Conservative MPs had been planning to join forces with Labour, the SNP, the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the DUP to vote down Mrs May's deal. The Tory rebels and the DUP do not like the Northern Ireland "backstop", a legally-binding proposal for a customs arrangement with the EU, which would come into force if the two sides cannot agree a future relationship which avoids the return of a visible Northern Ireland border. Tory MPs say it is unacceptable because it would result in new regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and could continue indefinitely, because the UK would not be able to leave without the EU's approval. How did Theresa May defend the delay? Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May asks MPs: ‘Does this House want to deliver Brexit?’ The prime minister vowed to put the deal to a vote but said there was no point at this stage because it would have been defeated. She told MPs she would be speaking to EU leaders ahead of a summit later this week, about the "clear concerns" expressed by MPs about the backstop. And she would also be "looking closely at new ways of empowering the House of Commons to ensure that any provision for a backstop has democratic legitimacy". Mrs May wants to enable MPs to place obligations on the government "to ensure that the backstop cannot be in place indefinitely". She again rejected all other alternatives that have been proposed to her deal - including a further referendum and leaving without a deal. Her deal "gives us control of our borders, our money and our laws - it protects jobs, security and our Union", she said. "It is the right deal for Britain. I am determined to do all I can to secure the reassurances this House requires, to get this deal over the line and deliver for the British people," she added. Asked by Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable if EU leaders would be ready to ditch the backstop, she said they had shown they were aware of MPs' concerns that the backstop should be temporary. "A number of European leaders I've spoken to have indicated that they are open to discussions to find a way to provide reassurance to members of this House on that point," she added. Tory rebel and DUP reaction Leading Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said in a statement that Mrs May lacked the "gumption" to put her "undeliverable" deal before MPs. "This is not governing, it risks putting Jeremy Corbyn into government by failing to deliver Brexit. We cannot continue like this. The prime minister must either govern or quit." Mr Rees-Mogg is trying to get enough Tory MPs to submit letters of no confidence in the PM to trigger a leadership contest. Graham Brady, who receives those letters as chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, said some MPs were angry and others were "fidgety" but many were glad not to be "going through the motions of a needless defeat". "We've just seen the PM doing the right thing but also quite bravely standing up... and making her case to an angry opposition," he added. The deputy leader of the DUP - the Northern Ireland party whose backing Theresa May needs to win key votes - Nigel Dodds, said the situation was "quite frankly a bit of a shambles" and the PM was paying the price for crossing her "red lines" when it came to Northern Ireland. He told Mrs May: "Come back with the changes to the withdrawal agreement or it will be voted down." DUP leader Arlene Foster said she had told the prime minister in a phone call that the "backstop must go". What is the EU saying? Theresa May's deal has been agreed with the EU - but it needs to be backed by the UK Parliament if it is to become law ahead of the UK's departure. Mrs May has also been speaking to EU leaders about re-opening the withdrawal agreement, something both sides have previously ruled out. European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said the EU would not renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement. "As President Juncker said, this deal is the best and only deal possible," she said. The BBC's Brussels reporter Adam Fleming said Mrs May was "trying get more legal oomph behind the language" in the withdrawal agreement about the EU using "best endeavours" to get a trade deal which would remove the need for the backstop to be used.[SEP]The BBC is reporting that Theresa May could be delaying a vital vote on the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement which is scheduled to take place tomorrow (December 11). The Prime Minister is expected to give a speech outside Downing Street at 3.30pm today, where it is understood she will announce that tomorrow’s vote is being delayed. That will be followed by a statement from Commons leader Andrea Leadsom - and then a statement from the Brexit secretary on Article 50. Two cabinet sources have told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg Tuesday’s planned Brexit vote will be delayed. There is not yet any official confirmation of the move, and Downing Street had been insisting the vote would go ahead despite Mrs May being widely expected to lose it. But a third Cabinet source has told the BBC the vote is “definitely off”. The vote, which is likely to not pass through parliament due to political divisions, would see MPs voting on Theresa May’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and whether the country should press ahead with Theresa May’s Brexit.[SEP]The UK can unilaterally revoke its withdrawal from the EU, the European Court of Justice has ruled. A spokeswoman for the court said: "In today's judgment, the Full Court has ruled that, when a Member State has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, as the UK has done, that Member State is free to revoke unilaterally that notification. "That possibility exists for as long as a withdrawal agreement concluded between the EU and that Member State has not entered into force or, if no such agreement has been concluded, for as long as the two-year period from the date of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, and any possible extension, has not expired." The spokeswoman continued: "The revocation must be decided following a democratic process in accordance with national constitutional requirements. This unequivocal and unconditional decision must be communicated in writing to the European Council." Monday's ruling upheld a finding by ECJ advocate general Manuel Campos Sanchez-Bordona, who said last week that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty allows the "unilateral revocation of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, until such time as the Withdrawal Agreement is formally concluded". He rejected the contention that the mechanism for a member state to quit the trade bloc could only be reversed following a unanimous decision of the European Council. It comes the day before Theresa May is due to attempt to get her Brexit Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament. In Monday's ruling the judges ruled that a country's decision to revoke Article 50 after notifying the EU of its decision to withdraw "reflects a sovereign decision to retain its status as a Member State of the European Union, a status which is neither suspended nor altered by that notification", the spokeswoman added.[SEP]British Prime Minister Theresa May has postponed a vote in parliament on her plan for Britain's exit from the European Union, after it became clear her government was facing a massive defeat. This was another tumultuous day in British politics. Parliament was headed toward a historic vote on a deal for Brexit tomorrow, but it faced almost certain defeat. So today, Prime Minister Theresa May pulled the plug. PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY: We will therefore defer the vote scheduled for tomorrow and not proceed to divide the House at this time. SHAPIRO: That leaves the U.K. uncertain about how it will leave the European Union as the March 29 deadline for the country's exit draws closer. NPR London correspondent Frank Langfitt is with us again. Hi, Frank. SHAPIRO: Rough day for the prime minister. She's been working on this deal to leave the EU for two years. Her ministers and she had been saying the vote would definitely take place tomorrow. How does she explain this about-face? LANGFITT: Well, Ari, she said what everybody kind of knew, and that is she did not have the votes, which is an understatement. People thought she could've lost this by up to a hundred votes, which would put her - would've put her job in even more jeopardy than it already is. It's not clear when or if she can actually get the support she needs, and there's no new date for a vote. So things are really, really uncertain right now. SHAPIRO: Where does this leave Prime Minister May's plan for exiting the European Union, a plan that had a lot of support from other European countries? LANGFITT: Yeah, they signed off on it. She has said she's going to go back to the European Union to explain why members of Parliament don't like her deal, which, by the way - the EU knows all this. But the EU has said it's not going to reopen this agreement. So it puts certainly the prime minister in a very difficult position. Donald Tusk - he's the president of the European Council. He said today, we are ready to discuss how to facilitate U.K. ratification. That could mean some reassuring language - but definitely not reopening this thing. We have less than four months to go before the U.K. leaves the EU, and it's not really clear how this is going to play out. This could go well past Christmas. We're just not sure. SHAPIRO: Well, remind us what makes this deal so unpopular. Why do so many people in Parliament oppose it? LANGFITT: Yeah, well, if the U.K. and the EU can't figure out a way to avoid building new customs posts on the island of Ireland, as we've discussed before, one scenario would have Northern Ireland ending up in a much closer customs arrangement with the European Union than with the United Kingdom. Of course the United Kingdom - Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom. And the U.K. wouldn't have any unilateral way to end this, so they're afraid that they could kind of get stuck in this arrangement for a long time. Now, many British politicians understandably see this as undermining basically the union of the United Kingdom. Now, Nigel Dodds is a deputy leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party. This is what he had to say in the House of Commons today. NIGEL DODDS: Does she not get it by now that the withdrawal agreement legally binding text is unacceptable to this House? And she cannot pretend going on defending the deal when she knows that if the vote had taken tomorrow, it would've been overwhelmingly defeated. SHAPIRO: So, Frank, explain what options Theresa May has now. It seems unlikely that she can get the support to pass this deal, and the EU says they're not open to negotiating a different deal. What can she do? LANGFITT: A lot of people think that she's playing for time. I was talking to Anand Menon, and he's professor of European politics at King's College in London. And he thinks what she's going to do is go back to Brussels and get the EU basically to spell out that they won't give a better deal to any different prime minister, and that could help her fend off her many potential challengers. And then what she might do is turn around and pressure members of Parliament and basically say, you know, if you don't take this deal, my deal, you risk leaving the EU with no deal at all, leading to an economic calamity. And here's what Anand Menon said. ANAND MENON: If she decides that actually we're not going to have this vote until January, that really does increase the pressure because we're getting to the point at which no deal is looking increasingly likely just by mistake because we're getting so close to that legal date of the 29th of March. At that point, it will be this deal or no deal. SHAPIRO: Just briefly, Frank, how much of a threat is this to Prime Minister May's leadership? LANGFITT: It's tough. Brexiteers in her own party have been threatening for months to challenge her. Labour has also threatened, but it says it's not going to call a no-confidence vote unless it knows it has a good chance of winning, which it doesn't at the moment. LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Ari.[SEP]British Prime Minister Theresa May says Parliament vote on Brexit deal scheduled for Tuesday will be delayed LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May says Parliament vote on Brexit deal scheduled for Tuesday will be delayed.[SEP]Following months of political wrangling, MPs will finally decide whether or not to approve Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan in what has been called the “meaningful vote”. Mrs May has so far failed to convince large members of politicians, including Conservative Party members, of her vision for the EU Withdrawal Agreement The stakes for tomorrow’s vote were raised further after a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling this morning said the UK can now cancel Brexit without requiring permission from the rest of the European Union (EU). A 27-judge panel ruled shortly after 8am: “The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU." This means if politicians reject Mrs May’s deal tomorrow, Labour could try to push for a general election or a second referendum on Brexit. What time is Brexit vote on 11th December 2018? Six amendments on Brexit are scheduled to start at 7pm on Tuesday, December 11, with the "meaningful vote" following. A House of Commons spokesman told Express.co.uk a result on the “meaningful vote” on Brexit could be expected at about 8.30pm. The vote is the common name given to Section 13 of the UK’s European Union Withdrawal Act 2018, which puts into law that the deal must be approved first by Parliament. READ MORE: BREXIT LIVE: HOW THERESA MAY COULD BE SAVED FROM DISASTER BY BENN’S NO-DEAL AMENDMENT If the vote is passed, the draft deal will still need to be put to the House of Lords for approval. But if MPs go against it, the government will get a second chance to try to push it through a few days later. Labour has already said it opposes Mrs May’s deal and is likely to call a general election straight away. They will need the support of 100 opposition members to do so - a difficult proposition. A second referendum is much more likely although Brexiteers are hugely opposed to this being put on the table. Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt earlier warned British lawmakers there would be “real risks” if they vote down Theresa May’s deal tomorrow. Although he said Mrs May was not happy with all the conditions, including the controversial backstop arrangement, it remained the only viable option. Mr Hunt said: “(But) it gives the vast majority of things that people voted for and there are real risks if we don't grab this opportunity while we have it.”[SEP]LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May says Parliament vote on Brexit deal scheduled for Tuesday will be delayed.[SEP] • Theresa May wants the EU to sign a declaration on the Brexit backstop to reassure angry MPs in Westminster. • The prime minister is set to ask Brussels to make a strong commitment to avoiding the backstop coming into effect. • On Tuesday the government was accused of planning this statement, or addendum, weeks before the meaningful vote debate got underway. • A Cabinet source told Business Insider that May’s government discussed an addendum last month. • The prime minister allegedly promised to add an addendum to the Brexit deal to stop Cabinet Brexiteers resigning. • A spokesperson for the prime minister said this was “not true.” LONDON – Theresa May promised her Cabinet a new text on the Brexit backstop to accompany the Withdrawal Agreement weeks before the meaningful vote debate got underway, a Cabinet source has told Business Insider. The prime minister is currently in talks with EU leaders in an attempt to secure what she described as “additional reassurance on the backstop,” expected to come in the form of an addendum to the Brexit withdrawal deal, confirming that the EU does not want to use the backstop and is committed to finding alternative arrangements. The backstop is controversial in Westminster because it could keep the UK in a customs union with the EU indefinitely while Northern Ireland would stay in parts of the single market, creating new border checks with Great Britain. The move to seek an addendum to accompany the Withdrawal Agreement comes after May pulled the House of Commons vote on the deal on Monday, saying that she had listened to MPs’ concerns about the backstop. However, a Cabinet source told BI that Downing Street officials had in fact instructed civil servants to work on a draft addendum soon after Dominic Raab quit as Brexit Secretary last month, weeks before the meaningful vote debate. Pro-Brexit ministers told May they’d stay in government if “she got changes to the political declaration to include putting other things on the table than the backstop, and the addendum to give us ways out of the backstop,” one Cabinet source told BI. “They were then drafted by civil servants after [Dominic] Raab left,” they added. This was in anticipation of a backlash from MPs and as a way of persuading pro-Brexit members of Cabinet – like Penny Mordaunt, Chris Grayling and Andrea Leadsom – to not resign from government. A spokesperson for the prime minister described the claim as “not true” on Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday Labour MP Stephen Doughty accused the government of drafting a new text to accompany the Brexit deal “weeks before” the parliamentary debate on the meaningful vote started last week. “Can he tell me, has any member of the Cabinet seen or discussed a draft of addendum that the prime minister is seeking at any point over the last few weeks before the prime minister decided to postpone the debate? Has any member of the cabinet seen or discussed it?” Doughty asked government minister David Lidington. Lidington, May’s de facto deputy prime minister, did not deny Doughty’s accusation, telling him: “He will certainly understand that I am not going to discuss the cabinet discussions that take place within Cabinet meetings.” Doughty, a supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, said the government is “treating Parliament and the people of this country with contempt, hiding the truth from them and attempting to force their Brexit withdrawal agreement on the country through backroom deals and behind-closed-doors horsetrading.”[SEP]It is meant to be a watershed week; the moment when Theresa May - after two years of negotiating in Brussels, Westminster and within her own cabinet - asks parliament to back her Brexit deal. But with just 48 hours from the planned meaningful vote it is far from clear whether it will go ahead at all, in the face of what is looking like a catastrophic defeat that threatens to bring down her premiership - and her government too. Senior sources have told me that the vote is going ahead "as it stands" but say in reality the prime minister and her chief whip haven't made the decision yet as to whether to postpone vote or not. I'm told her inner circle are likely to make the final decision on Monday night after the fourth day of debate on her Brexit deal in the Commons. There are various options that the prime minister's team are weighing up as we go into a critical week for Mrs May - and for the country too. The first question they are surely asking is how big will the defeat be and what could then flow from a hundred-plus rebellion on the Tory benches? A catastrophic defeat will undoubtedly plunge her premiership, already hanging by a thread, into a full-blown crisis. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn could seize on the mayhem and table a motion of no confidence in her government as early as Tuesday night. It's hard to see how Labour could actually get such a vote across the line given it would rely on the DUP voting with republican Corbyn over unionist May. But there is a very slim chance of a defeat - and that could bring about a Labour/SNP minority government by Christmas, although some Labour sources tell me its more likely that Mr Corbyn will table a censure motion instead. This is designed to express in the strongest possible terms disapproval in the prime minister or in her government. The DUP are far likelier to go for this - perhaps hoping to help oust Mrs May as Conservative leader - then move with Labour to bring the Tory government down. A huge defeat could also, from her own party, precipitate a confidence vote in her leadership. There has already been one failed coup in the last month, but some in the party feel that a resounding defeat on her landmark policy has to result in her departure as PM and would-be successors - Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Esther McVey - were lining up this weekend to offer their own Brexiteer pitch to the party as they circle the prime minister. But Mrs May also has to consider what might happen with both her DUP and Brexiteer colleagues on Tuesday if she did - against the odds - win the vote, points out one senior source. Brexiteers might be so furious that they'd trigger a confidence ballot anyway, while the DUP might be so furious that they do back Mr Corbyn to bring her down. After all, her confidence and supply partners have made it clear they cannot support the government if the Brexit deal goes through as it stands. That means Mrs May must find more concessions if she wants to remain in No 10. Which brings me neatly to No 10's Plan B. And that isn't whether to back a Norway style Brexit or pivoting to a second referendum - yet. It is rather what Mrs May could try to do in the coming days to win over support for her deeply unpopular deal. One option is - as her Brexiteers and the DUP keep telling her - to return to Brussels to seek more concessions. A source tells me Mrs May could postpone the deal and return ahead of the European Council summit on Thursday for emergency talks with Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker. "It's not impossible she will go early to try and negotiate ahead of the Council," said one figure, pointing out that colleagues who have publicly opposed the deal need something to help them climb back down the ladder This could be a time limit on the backstop or a unilateral exit clause. Both will be supremely difficult to negotiate. Another option might be to use parliamentary procedure to avoid a crushing defeat. MPs will vote on up to six amendments to the meaningful vote before Mrs May's plan is voted on and a couple of them - if selected by the Speaker - could kill off the prime minister's motion. The one to watch is an amendment laid by the chair of the Brexit select committee, Hilary Benn. He has drafted an amendment that blocks both a no-deal Brexit and kills off Mrs May's motion. If passed, it would stop the meaningful vote even taking place and has the advantage of avoiding an enormous defeat, as it would be Remainers such as former attorney general Dominic Grieve who might vote for this rather than the Brexiteers. The scale of her defeat could fall back from 100 plus to under 20. But it does kill off her deal, which is something she will not want to happen. With options like these, it might be better to press pause and there have been a couple of clues in the past week that No 10 is laying the ground for a dignified retreat. One came on Thursday when the submarine-like Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful 1922 backbench committee, surfaced to urge the prime minister to delay the deal, saying "most of us would like to see an agreement being reached" but that this would require more time. The other clue was the collapse of the much-vaunted TV debate between Mrs May and Mr Corbyn, originally scheduled for Sunday night. Called off after the two party leaders disagreed on the format and channel for the head-to-head, it also means Mrs May hasn't nailed her colours to the mast with the public should she decide to pull the vote at the 11th hour. There is perhaps one thing her team are sure of as they enter into uncharted political and constitutional waters this week - those around her remain convinced the prime minister will not resign, no matter what. Of course, MPs may try this week to take that decision out of her hands, all the more reason to avoid a crushing - perhaps fatal - parliamentary defeat.

Prime Minister Theresa May announces the deferral of the meaningful vote on the UK's negotiated withdrawal agreement from the European Union that was scheduled for tomorrow.

A migrant family looks at the border fence that divides the United States and Mexico near Las Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, after jumping the fence to enter the United States at San Ysidro, Calif., on December 2. Photo by Ariana Drehsler/UPI | License Photo Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Leaders from 164 countries adopted a global pact Monday to improve the world's response to migration flows, but the United States walked away. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration gives migrants access to basic services and aims to prevent human smuggling through anti-trafficking efforts. It also seeks to eliminate discrimination and safeguard conditions that ensure decent work and facilitate safe and dignified returns. "The compact only reaffirms that migrants should enjoy human rights and independently of their status," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the start of a two-day conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Monday. The United States did not support the non-binding pact, which has been in the works for two years. A year ago, the Trump administration said it was "inconsistent with U.S. immigration and refugee policies." Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at the time, "it is is the primary responsibility of sovereign states to help ensure that migration is safe, orderly and legal." Other countries that backed out included Australia, Hungary, Austria, Latvia, Poland and the Dominican Republic. The latest Gallup survey found that 15 percent of the world's adults, about 750 million people, would like to move to another country if they had the opportunity. The survey talked to 453,122 adults in 152 countries from 2015 to 2017. That's up from 13 percent between 2010 and 2012. The United States remains the top destination for migrants. The Trump administration took a stand against caravans of Central American migrants who arrived at the border in the last few weeks, deploying the military and threatening to close the border if the groups crossed. At one point, U.S. border officers used tear gas on migrants as they approached the border. Now, thousands of migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, have put their names on a list to start the political asylum process, which could take months. German Chancellor Angela Merkel supports the pact. "Migration is a natural phenomenon," Merkel said. "It happens all the time all over the world. If it happens legally, it's a good thing." Guterres said 80 percent of migrants take safe, orderly routes but still risk death as they cross deserts, oceans and rivers. There's also the risk of falling in with human smugglers, he said. "Whether their movement is voluntary or forced; and whether or not they have been able to obtain formal authorization for movement, all human beings must have their human rights respected and their dignity upheld," the United Nations head said. "To deny this, and to vilify any group of people, is the road to dehumanization and horror." Experts say there are 258 million migrants seeking asylum worldwide -- 3 percent of the world's total population. The number could increase from population growth, trade, rising inequality and climate change. Children of the migrant caravan[SEP]More than 150 countries will join a United Nations conference to adopt a global pact to better handle migrant flows, a senior U.N. official said on Sunday, less than the number that initially worked on the plan. MARRAKESH, Morocco: More than 150 countries will join a United Nations conference to adopt a global pact to better handle migrant flows, a senior U.N. official said on Sunday, less than the number that initially worked on the plan. In July, all 193 U.N. members except the United States finalised the so-called Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration to better handle migration. Since then, the text has come under fire from European politicians who say it could increase immigration. At least six European Union members - mostly in formerly Communist Eastern Europe - have shunned the accord U.N. Special Representative for International Migration Louise Arbour said more than 150 governments had registered for the event in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh set to adopt the accord on Monday, without giving details. The pact is not legally binding but can provide very useful guidance for countries facing migration, she told a news conference. "Many challenges will stand in the way of its implementation, not least the toxic and ill-informed narrative that too often persists when it comes to migrants," she said. In the latest political turmoil over the pact, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel relaunched his government on Sunday as a minority administration after the biggest party in his coalition quit in a dispute over signing the compact. The right-wing N-VA pulled its ministers after Michel refused its demand that he not agree to the pact. Also on Sunday, Chile's Interior Ministry Subsecretary Rodrigo Ubilla told El Mercurio newspaper that the country's representatives would not attend the event, saying: "We have said that migration is not a human right. Countries have a right to determine the entry requirements for foreign citizens." In November, Austria's right-wing government, which holds the EU presidency, said it would also withdraw, saying the accord would blur the line between legal and illegal migration. Australia also said in November would not sign up to the migration agreement because it would compromise its hardline immigration policy and endanger national security. nL4N1XV663 Among other leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose 13-year chancellorship has been marked by her open-door migrant policy, will attend the event. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is a framework for cooperation and aims to reduce illegal migration, help integrate migrants and return them to their home countries.[SEP]A total of 164 UN member-countries attending the two-day Intergovernmental Conference on Migration on Monday in Marrakech, Morocco unanimously adopted the Global Compact for Migration. A total of 164 UN member-countries attending the two-day Intergovernmental Conference on Migration on Monday in Marrakech, Morocco unanimously adopted the Global Compact for Migration. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that 18 Heads of States and Governments, 81 ministers as well as civil societies, public and private sector representatives, among others are participating in the conference. There was no dissenting voice when Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita, President of the conference, put forward the question for the adoption of the document. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the 72nd and 73rd UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, in their speeches, explained the reasons and processes leading to the negotiation of the compact by the UN-member states. The participating presidents of Spain, Albania, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Panama, Comoros all expressed support for the Global Compact. So also did German Chancellor Angel Merkel and the Prime Ministers of Belgium, Portugal, Demark, Kingdom of Eswatini, Hellenic Republic and Secretary of state of the Holy Sea. Most speakers noted that the Compact was timely, coming on the day of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They stressed the need to guarantee the human rights of migrants and create conditions for countries of origin, transit and destination to better cooperate. Later at a news briefing, the UN secretary-general said the unanimous adoption of the Global Compact was an emotional moment for him, having been directly involved with migration issues in his official functions back in the years as a civil society volunteer. He said with better international cooperation, it would be possible to invest much more in countries of origin and create conditions for people to have an option to stay in their own country and build their lives. Guterres said: “I do believe that better international cooperation will also open the way for more opportunities for legal migration, taking into account the needs of markets, demography and the situation of different countries in the world. “I believe that this Compact will also help substantially in creating the conditions for a more balance development in countries of origin, avoiding the forced migration.” He said the document, as adopted by the conference, would be sent to the General Assembly for endorsement. As the conference continues on Tuesday, more nations are expected to make presentations on the immediate next steps leading to the implementation of the Compact. The Compact, negotiated over a period of 18 months, is the first-ever agreement to cover all dimensions of international migration in a comprehensive manner. The Global Compact for Migration is a non-legally binding document grounded in values of state sovereignty, responsibility-sharing, non-discrimination and human rights. It recognises that a cooperative approach is needed to optimise the overall benefits of migration, while addressing its risks and challenges for individuals and communities in countries of origin, transit and destination. It comprises 23 objectives for better management of migration at local, national, regional and global levels. The Global Compact for Migration aims to mitigate the adverse drivers and structural factors that hinder people from building and maintaining sustainable livelihoods in their countries of origin; It intends to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities migrants face at different stages of migration by respecting, protecting and fulfilling their human rights and providing them with care and assistance. The Compact seeks to address the legitimate concerns of states and communities, while recognising that societies are undergoing demographic, economic, social and environmental changes at different scales that may have implications for and result from migration Furthermore it strives to create conducive conditions that enable all migrants to enrich societies through their human, economic and social capacities, and thus facilitate their contributions to sustainable development at the local, national, regional and global levels.[SEP]Global Compact for Migration Backed by Most of the World MARRAKECH, Morocco, Dec 10 2018 (IPS) - Safe, orderly and regular migration received support today, Dec. 10, with the adoption by 164 countries of the first-ever inter-governmentally negotiated agreement to cover all dimensions of international migration. After a few last-minute hitches, including more international tension and argument than was welcome, the intergovernmental conference taking place in the Moroccan city of Marrakech agreed to a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), a proactive document that will guide States on all matters related to migration. Well timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the historic adoption of the GCM was presided over by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres who urged countries to treat the Compact as an obligation to human rights that will benefit all. “We are not establishing a new right to migrate. No. There is not a right for anyone to go anywhere at any time according to his or her whim,” Guterres said during the official ceremony to adopt the Compact. “What we are establishing is the obligation to respect the human rights of migrants—which of course is absolutely obvious when we at the same time celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It would be unconceivable to exclude migrants from the scope of the Universal Declaration.” The conference was preceded by increasing concerns about certain U.N. member States not supporting the Compact. Some declined outright to participate and adopt the Compact, while others said their final decision must await further internal deliberation. The United States was the most notable and voluble naysayer, condemning the compact and labelling it a violation of national sovereignty. “We believe the Compact and the process that led to its adoption, including the New York Declaration, represent an effort by the United Nations to advance global governance at the expense of the sovereign right of States to manage their immigration systems in accordance with their national laws, policies, and interests,” the U.S. government said in a national statement released on the eve of the conference. Other countries who bridled against the compact or refused to sign it include Hungary, Australia, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Italy, Switzerland and Chile. “It will make an enormous positive impact in the lives of millions of people—migrants themselves, the people they leave behind and the communities that will then host them,” said Louise Arbour, the U.N. Special Representative for International Migration. “This of course will depend on capturing the spirit of today’s event to move to the implementation of the multiplicity of initiatives that this Global Compact will permit member states to put in place. I am delighted to echo the words of the Secretary-General: it is a wonderful occasion, really a historic moment and a really great achievement for multilateralism.” The adopted Compact lays out 23 objectives covering all aspects of migration, with each having a general goal and catalogue of possible actions that can be implemented by member states. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has drawn enormous criticism for her decision to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees from places like Syria and Afghanistan to her country. It is a decision that may well have cost her another term in power as she recently announced she will not seek re-election. However, Merkel remarked that the adopted Compact is “about nothing less than the foundation of our international cooperation.” Such potential significance has attracted to the conference, in addition to high-powered diplomats and officials, approximately 400 non-governmental organizations from civil society, the private sector and academia, and over 700 registered press. The ceremony adopting the Compact also included speaker Cheryl Perera, a prominent representative of migrant communities, and founder of OneChild, a non-governmental organization which seeks to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children abroad. She called for an end to the drivers of irregular migration on the large scale, and for better protection of migrants on the smaller scale. “We must do better together,” Perera said. “It is important that we involve the private sector, specifically the national airlines, hotels and others to protect children from trafficking.”[SEP]As world leaders meet in Morocco to adopt the Global Migration Compact, a senior UN official says the document is a re-affirmation of the values and principles embodied in the UN Charter and in international law. Ms Louise Arbour, the UN Special Representative for International Migration and Secretary-General of the Intergovernmental Conference on Migration, said this on Sunday in Marrakech, Morocco. Arbour made the remark at a news briefing on the eve of the two-day Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. She said the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration would forever change the way the international community manage human mobility. The envoy saluted the efforts of the Kingdom of Morocco in creating an inspiring environment to launch “one of the defining projects of our generation’’. “The Marrakech Compact will remain the reference for all future initiatives dealing with cross-border human mobility,’’ she said. She announced that UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, would declare the conference open while other speakers would include the President of the General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés; President of the International Organisation of Employers, Erol Kiresepi and the co-founder of One-Child organisation, Cheryl Perera. According to Arbour, more than 150 governments represented by their Heads of States, Heads of Government or senior officials are expected to participate in the conference. In addition to government officials, over 700 partners, including high-level representation from civil society and the private and public sectors as well as migrants would engage in discussions about innovative partnership opportunities, collaboration and cross-sectoral initiatives with governments. Arbour said the conference would focus on encouraging creative and cooperative thinking around the full range of the Compact’s objectives with specific discussions on implementation, innovation and partnerships. “A plenary debate would provide Member-States with the opportunity to formally announce initiatives and confirm their political commitments to the Compact,’’ she said. Meanwhile, the conference programme showed that two dialogues would run parallel to the plenary, bringing together high-level panellists from different sectors. The speakers include Ms Madeleine Albright, Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, Mr Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Ms Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Others are Dr David Fine, Global Head of McKinsey’s Public and Social Sector Practice, Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, for Liberian President and Chair of the High-Level Panel on International Migration in Africa, Ms Manuela Carmena Castrillo, Mayor of Madrid, Dr Joanne Liu, President of Doctors without Borders and Mr Tarik Yousef, Director of the Brookings Doha Centre. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is the first-ever, inter-governmentally negotiated agreement to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner. It was born out of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 2016. It is the culmination of 18 months of discussions and consultations among the Member States and other actors, including national and local officials, civil society, private and public sectors and migrants themselves. It provides a platform for cooperation on migration. However, it is not legally binding and therefore, no new legal obligations arise under domestic or international law for participating States. The text is an agreed outcome from the intergovernmental negotiations and it is for each State to determine its next steps.[SEP]MARRAKECH, Morocco -- Top UN officials and government leaders from about 150 countries are uniting around an agreement on migration, while finding themselves on the defensive about the non-binding deal amid criticism and a walkout from the United States and some other countries. The Global Compact for Migration has proven a test for globally minded policymakers who want to ensure safe and orderly migration of people displaced by issues like war, economic necessity and climate change. They have run into stiff political headwinds, mostly in parts of the West that want national borders to remain sacrosanct. German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres among the biggest names in Marrakech for the two-day conference that is set to agree, but not sign, the compact by acclamation shortly after the opening Monday.[SEP]MARRAKECH, Morocco — The Latest on the U.N. migration conference (all times local): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sought to dispel “falsehoods” and “myths” over an international agreement on safe, humane and orderly migration. The U.N. chief spoke at the start of a two-day international conference about the “Global Compact on Migration,” moments before about 150 countries were set to agree to it by acclamation. The United States and at least seven other countries have pulled out amid concerns about migrant flows and national sovereignty. Guterres called the compact a “road map to prevent suffering and chaos” aimed to benefit everyone. He said over 60,000 migrants have died on the move since 2000, calling that “a source of collective shame.” He said the pact won’t allow the U.N. to impose migration policies on member states and is not a legally-binding treaty. He said most migration is not from the South to the “global North,” but among states in the south, and added that it was not true that developed countries don’t need migration. Guterres said he hoped that countries not present would join one day. Top U.N. officials and government leaders from about 150 countries are uniting around an agreement on migration, while finding themselves on the defensive about the non-binding deal amid criticism and a walkout from the United States and some other countries. The Global Compact for Migration has proven a test for globally minded policymakers who want to ensure safe and orderly migration of people displaced by issues like war, economic necessity and climate change. They have run into stiff political headwinds, mostly in parts of the West that want national borders to remain sacrosanct. German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres among the biggest names in Marrakech for the two-day conference that is set to agree, but not sign, the compact by acclamation shortly after the opening Monday. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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The Norwegian humanitarian organization that works in more than 30 countries added: "We regret that the formal review will only take place every four years, which we fear will not be sufficient to ensure necessary action." More than 160 countries have agreed on a nonbinding U.N. migration accord that seeks to ensure the safe, orderly and humane movement of people around the world, over the outspoken disapproval of the United States and several other countries. High-level government delegates including German Chancellor Angela Merkel have given their backing to the U.N.'s Global Compact for Migration approved by acclamation by 164 countries Monday, culminating years of efforts supported by U.S. President Barack Obama but rejected by the Trump administration. Defenders say migration can help national economies by rejuvenating the workforce in aging rich countries and by providing a needed source of cash to poorer countries through remittances. They say orderly migration will save lives. Opponents say the pact could challenge national sovereignty and they fear an influx of migrants. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sought to dispel "falsehoods" and "myths" over an international agreement on safe, humane and orderly migration. The U.N. chief spoke at the start of a two-day international conference about the "Global Compact on Migration," moments before about 150 countries were set to agree to it by acclamation. The United States and at least seven other countries have pulled out amid concerns about migrant flows and national sovereignty. Guterres called the compact a "road map to prevent suffering and chaos" aimed to benefit everyone. He said over 60,000 migrants have died on the move since 2000, calling that "a source of collective shame." He said the pact won't allow the U.N. to impose migration policies on member states and is not a legally-binding treaty. He said most migration is not from the South to the "global North," but among states in the south, and added that it was not true that developed countries don't need migration. Guterres said he hoped that countries not present would join one day. Top U.N. officials and government leaders from about 150 countries are uniting around an agreement on migration, while finding themselves on the defensive about the non-binding deal amid criticism and a walkout from the United States and some other countries. The Global Compact for Migration has proven a test for globally minded policymakers who want to ensure safe and orderly migration of people displaced by issues like war, economic necessity and climate change. They have run into stiff political headwinds, mostly in parts of the West that want national borders to remain sacrosanct. German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres among the biggest names in Marrakech for the two-day conference that is set to agree, but not sign, the compact by acclamation shortly after the opening Monday.[SEP]MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — The Latest on migration issues (all times local): The leader of a U.N. migration conference that has been snubbed by the Trump administration and at least seven other governments has lashed out at “misinformation” about an agreement on migration backed by about 150 countries. Louise Arbour says she expects the Global Compact for Migration to “stand the test of time.” She defended the economic and humanitarian upsides of legal, safe migration and the contributions of around 258 million migrants worldwide today. She told reporters: “It creates no right to migrate. It places no imposition on states … It is not legally binding.” At least 100 ministers or government leaders are expected for the two-day conference opening Monday in Marrakech, Morocco, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Arbour said Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and the U.S. have “pulled out.” As Morocco prepares to host the signing of a landmark global migration agreement, hundreds of migrants are languishing in a Casablanca camp rife with hunger, misery and unsanitary conditions. These sub-Saharan Africans who dream of going to Europe are a symbol of the problems world dignitaries are trying to address with the U.N.’s first migration compact being finalized at a conference in Marrakech on Monday and Tuesday. Rising numbers of migrants live in the makeshift camp on a soccer field near a busy Casablanca bus station. Scant food, lack of heat, no sanitation, lice and respiratory infections are the main worries at the Oulad Ziane camp. Morocco is a major source of Europe’s migrants but is also a transit country and magnet for other Africans fleeing poverty.[SEP]Nearly 85 percent of the countries at the United Nations agreed Monday on a comprehensive yet non-binding accord to ensure safe, orderly and humane migration. USA Today reports that the debate over the Global Compact for Migration, the first of its kind, has proven to be a pivotal test of the UN-led effort to stop dangerous and illegal movements across borders, which have made a worldwide business out of smuggling people. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a migration conference in Marrakech, Morocco: “Unregulated migration bears a terrible human cost: a cost in lives lost on perilous journeys across deserts, oceans and rivers; and a cost in lives ruined at the hands of smugglers, unscrupulous employers and other predators.” He added that “more than 60,000 migrants have died on the move since the year 2000,” calling the numbers “a source of collective shame.” The conference capped off efforts set in motion two years ago when all 193 UN member states, including the U.S., adopted a declaration saying that no country can manage international migration on its own and agreed to work on a global compact. The Trump administration pulled out of the accord a year ago. It claimed that parts of the compact clashed with “U.S. immigration and refugee policies.”

164 countries adopt the non-binding Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Marrakech, Morocco.

The man accused of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane was jeered in court as his identity was revealed publicly for the first time. The man accused of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane was jeered in court as his identity was revealed publicly for the first time. Jesse Kempson (26) was called a “scumbag” by a heckler in the public gallery during his first appearance before a judge at Auckland's District Court in New Zealand, according to The Telegraph. Kemspon, who has been charged with murder, appeared in a blue boiler suit and sat close to the family of his alleged victim, whose body was found dumped in woodland close to a busy road on Sunday. It emerged that he left a comment underneath one of Ms Millane's Facebook pictures calling her: "Beautiful very radiant" (sic) just 11 minutes before she was last seen. Kempson looked at the judge for most of the 90 minutes he was in court, nodding that he understood when spoken to, his eyes only occasionally flicking towards the cameras on the other side of the court. His next appearance will be in the High Court on January 23. Ms Millane, 22, went missing from a hostel in Auckland on December 1 and a body was found in the Waitakere Ranges on Sunday. New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern has given an emotional apology to the family of British backpacker Grace Millane, saying: "Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that." Speaking to reporters about the death, Ms Ardern said: "I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they would be experiencing and feeling right now. "My thoughts and prayers are with her father David, who is in the country, her mother Gillian, who cannot be here, and her wider family, friends and loved ones. "From the Kiwis I have spoken to, there is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga (a Maori term meaning kindness and generosity) especially to those who are visiting our shores." Appearing to become choked with emotion, the PM added: "So on behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace's family. "Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that." Earlier on Monday in court, Judge Evangelos Thomas told members of the Millane family, who were in court: "Your grief must be desperate. "All of us hope justice for Grace is fair, swift and ultimately brings you some peace." Documents submitted to the court suggested police believe the University of Lincoln graduate was killed between December 1 and 2, her birthday. A charge sheet also listed Kempson as living at the hotel where she was last seen alive. Detectives said they had identified a "location of interest" after the investigation led them to a spot on Scenic Drive, a country road about 12 miles west of the city centre, on Saturday night. Speaking at the scene on Sunday afternoon, Detective Inspector Scott Beard said investigators had "located a body which we believe to be Grace" about 10 metres from the roadside. The last confirmed sighting of Ms Millane was at 9.41pm on December 1, the day before her birthday, at the Citylife Hotel, when she was seen with a "male companion". Since arriving in New Zealand from Peru on November 20, she had been in near-daily contact with her family. Police received a missing person report on Wednesday and began a major search and public campaign that saw dozens of calls made to a helpline. Ms Millane's father, David Millane, flew to Auckland and made a public appeal for help finding his daughter, who he described as "lovely, outgoing, fun-loving (and) family-orientated". Her brother, Declan Millane, paid tribute by sharing pictures on social media of him and his sister, adding the lyrics of You Are My Sunshine. He wrote on Instagram: "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away."[SEP]WELLINGTON (AFP) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern choked back tears on Monday (Dec 10) while offering a heartfelt apology to the family of murdered British backpacker Grace Millane, as the man accused of killing the young traveller made his first court appearance. Her voice cracking with emotion, Ms Ardern said there was a collective feeling of shame in the South Pacific nation over the fate of Ms Millane, whose body was found on Sunday in parkland just outside Auckland. "There is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga," she said, using the Maori word for welcoming others. "So on behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace's family - your daughter should have been safe here and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that." Ms Ardern told reporters at her weekly media conference that New Zealanders were heartbroken for Ms Millane's family and were feeling her death personally. Ms Millane disappeared on Dec 1, on the eve of her 22nd birthday, and her family's worst fears were confirmed when her body was found on Sunday. The death has shocked New Zealand, which is usually regarded as a safe place to travel and averages less than 50 homicides a year in a population of 4.8 million. A 26-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced Auckland District Court on Monday and was charged with her murder. Wearing a blue prison-issue boiler suit, he was not required to enter a plea and was remanded in custody until Jan 23. Ms Millane was on a year-long worldwide holiday after graduating from university and had been in New Zealand for two weeks after travelling around South America for more than a month. It was her first solo overseas trip and her family became alarmed when she failed to maintain her habit of staying in daily contact. Police had previously said she was last seen alive entering an inner-city hotel in Auckland with a man. Her father David flew to New Zealand after she went missing and issued an emotional appeal for information relating to his "fun-loving, outgoing and family-orientated" daughter. Judge Evangelos Thomas opened Monday's brief court proceedings by addressing the family, Radio New Zealand reported. "I do not know what to say to you, your grief must be desperate," he said. "All of us hope justice is fair and swift and ultimately brings you some peace."[SEP]WELLINGTON, Dec 10 — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern choked back tears Monday while offering a heartfelt apology to the family of murdered British backpacker Grace Millane, as the man accused of killing the young traveller made his first court appearance. Her voice cracking with emotion, Ardern said there was a collective feeling of shame in the South Pacific nation over the fate of Millane, whose body was found yesterday in parkland just outside Auckland. “There is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga,” she said, using the Maori word for welcoming others. “So on behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace's family — your daughter should have been safe here and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that.” Ardern told reporters at her weekly media conference that New Zealanders were heartbroken for Millane's family and were feeling her death personally. Millane disappeared on December 1, on the eve of her 22nd birthday, and her family's worst fears were confirmed when her body was found yesterday. The death has shocked New Zealand, which is usually regarded as a safe place to travel and averages less than 50 homicides a year in a population of 4.8 million. A 26-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced Auckland District Court on Monday charged with her murder. Wearing a blue prison-issue boiler suit, he was not required to enter a plea and was remanded in custody until January 23. Millane was on a year-long worldwide holiday after graduating from university and had been in New Zealand for two weeks after travelling around South America for more than a month. It was her first solo overseas trip and her family became alarmed when she failed to maintain her habit of staying in daily contact. Police had previously said she was last seen alive entering an inner-city hotel in Auckland with a man. Her father David flew to New Zealand after she went missing and issued an emotional appeal for information relating to his “fun-loving, outgoing and family-orientated” daughter. Judge Evangelos Thomas opened Monday's brief court proceedings by addressing the family, Radio New Zealand reported. “I do not know what to say to you, your grief must be desperate,” he said. “All of us hope justice is fair and swift and ultimately brings you some peace.” — Reuters[SEP]'Murdered' British backpacker Grace Millane made a chilling final Instagram post - featuring a skull painting and a quote about death. Grace, an advertising graduate and talented artist, is believed to have been killed between December 1 and 2, court documents show. She vanished from a hostel in Auckland, New Zealand, where a 26-year-old man today appeared in court charged with her murder. Only weeks before her death, Grace, 22, had uploaded her last post to her Instagram art page - a watercolour artwork of a human skull. She had captioned the image "Two can keep a secret, if one of them is dead" - a quote from the theme song of the hit TV show, Pretty Little Liars, which follows the lives of four girls after their friend vanishes. The post was made on the Art By Millane page - where Grace would upload images of her impressive artwork - on October 23. It has since been 'liked' and commented on by hundreds of users, with one writing: "Omg such a beautiful talented lady." Another posted: "Your artwork is amazing! You've touched so many here in NZ young angel x RIP beautiful x." Grace, whose other artworks include depictions of an elephant, a giraffe, a dog, an 'emotionless face' and a 'burnt gun', had been in near-daily contact with her family before her disappearance. This morning, a man appeared at Auckland District Court, charged with murdering her between December 1 and 2, her birthday. A body - said to be Grace's - wasn't discovered until Sunday, meaning the young woman may have 'lay dead' for up to one week. Sitting only feet away from the backpacker's family during the court hearing, the suspect was branded a "scumbag" from the public gallery. The man cannot be named in New Zealand for legal reasons. Although a judge refused an interim name suppression, he decided to appeal the decision. It means he will keep his anonymity in the country for at least 21 more days. Speaking to members of Grace's family in court today, Judge Evangelos Thomas said: "Your grief must be desperate. All of us hope justice for Grace is fair, swift and ultimately brings you some peace." The suspect was living at the hotel where the University of Lincoln graduate was last seen alive, according to a charge sheet. As he was taken back to the cells by prison officers after the hearing someone in the public gallery yelled: "Scumbag," MailOnline reports. Earlier today, it emerged a post-mortem had been carried out on Grace, after the body was found in the Waitakere Ranges. However, her cause of death will not be revealed as the results of the examination are not being released, officers in New Zealand said. Detective Inspector Scott Beard, of the Auckland City Police, said: "The enquiry team working on the murder of English tourist Grace Millane have continued investigations throughout the day. "The scene examination on Scenic Drive is ongoing and will continue tomorrow. "The 0800 number has received a number of calls from people with information about the 2016 red Toyota Corolla hatchback. "Police would like to hear from anyone who travelled along Scenic Drive on Monday 3 December, between 6am and 9.30am. "The vehicle was rented for a 24-hour period and was returned to a central Auckland rental car company on Monday 3 December at lunchtime." DI Beard added: "The post-mortem examination has been carried out today. We will not be releasing the results of this examination." Detectives earlier said they had identified a "location of interest" after the investigation led them to a spot on Scenic Drive, a country road about 12 miles west of the city centre, on Saturday night. Speaking at the scene on Sunday afternoon, Detective Inspector Scott Beard said investigators had "located a body which we believe to be Grace" about 10 metres from the roadside. The last confirmed sighting of Grace was at 9.41pm on December 1 at the Citylife Hotel, when she was seen with a "male companion". Since arriving in New Zealand from Peru on November 20, the young woman, from Essex, had been in regular contact with her loved ones. Police received a missing person report on Wednesday and launched a major search and public campaign, which saw dozens of calls made to a helpline. Grace's dad, David Millane, flew to Auckland and made a public appeal for help finding his "lovely" and "family-orientated" daughter. Her brother, Declan Millane, paid tribute by sharing pictures on social media of him and his sister, adding the lyrics of You Are My Sunshine. He wrote on Instagram: "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away." A stretch of the road was closed on Sunday while forensics officers scoured the area. Two large blue and white tents had been erected, with investigators wearing white overalls seen nearby. Scenic Drive snakes through dense rainforest in the Waitakere Ranges, which lie to the west of Auckland. The spot where police found the body was in the vicinity of the Waitakere Reservoir and dam, a beauty spot with hiking trails. Earlier, New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern gave an emotional apology to the backpacker's family. Ms Ardern said: "Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that." Speaking to reporters, she added: "I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they would be experiencing and feeling right now. "My thoughts and prayers are with her father David, who is in the country, her mother Gillian, who cannot be here, and her wider family, friends and loved ones. "From the Kiwis I have spoken to, there is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga (a Maori term meaning kindness and generosity) especially to those who are visiting our shores."[SEP]GRACE MILLANE’S suspected killer Jesse Kempson called her “beautiful and radiant” hours before she died it emerged as he appeared in court charged with her murder. Grace, 22, vanished while on a round-the-world trip as she visited New Zealand – disappearing just before her birthday from the Citylife Hotel, Auckland. Kempson was living at the same hotel where she was last seen alive. He was met with chants of "scumbag" from the public gallery as he appeared wearing a blue prison jumpsuit at Auckland District Court. The 26-year-old is charged with murdering the backpacker, from Essex, between December 1 and 2. It has also emerged the two had contact before the killing, with him saying to her “beautiful, very radiant” in a comment on Facebook. Her body was discovered over the weekend near a beauty spot on the outskirts of Auckland – and a post mortem was carried out today, cops confirmed. “All of us hope justice for Grace is fair, swift and ultimately brings you some peace” Judge Evangelos Thomas told members of the Millane family, who were in court: "Your grief must be desperate. "All of us hope justice for Grace is fair, swift and ultimately brings you some peace." New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern gave an emotional apology to the family of Grace, saying: "Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that." Speaking to reporters about the death, Ms Ardern said: "I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they would be experiencing and feeling right now." The last confirmed sighting of Ms Millane was at 9.41pm on December 1, the day before her birthday, at the Citylife Hotel, when she was seen with a "male companion". Since arriving in New Zealand from Peru on November 20, she had been in near-daily contact with her family. Police received a missing person report on Wednesday and began a major search and public campaign that saw dozens of calls made to a helpline. Ms Millane's father, David Millane, flew to Auckland and made a public appeal for help finding his daughter, who he described as "lovely, outgoing, fun-loving (and) family-orientated". Details have begun to emerge about his personal life following his arrest, with him reportedly estranged from his family after his parents separated. New Zealand media organisation Stuff reported that his grandfather had helped raise him and was struggling to come to terms with the allegations. It has not yet been revealed how the pair met or the possible motive for the alleged murder. Kempson's paternal grandmother told the news website he had spent time living in Australia. Detectives said they had identified a "location of interest" after the investigation led them to a spot on Scenic Drive, a country road about 12 miles west of the city centre, on Saturday night. Speaking at the scene on Sunday afternoon, Det Insp Beard said investigators had "located a body which we believe to be Grace" about 10 metres from the roadside. Two large blue and white tents had been erected and investigators wearing white overalls were seen nearby. Scenic Drive snakes through dense rainforest in the Waitakere Ranges, which lie to the west of Auckland. The spot where police found the body is in the vicinity of the Waitakere Reservoir and dam, a beauty spot with hiking trails.[SEP]Choking back tears, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken the unusual step of apologising to the family of murdered British traveller Grace Millane on behalf of the country. Millane had been travelling around New Zealand as part of a year-long OE. Her body has been recovered and a man charged with her murder. Speaking at her post-Cabinet press conference today, Ardern said the murder was a tragedy. • 'Hell of a lot of work' still to do "On behalf of New Zealand, I would like to apologise to Grace's family, your daughter should have been safe here and she wasn't and I'm sorry for that," Ardern said. "I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they would be experiencing and feeling right now. My thoughts and prayers are with her father David who is in the country, her mother Gillian who cannot be here, and her wider family and friends and loved ones. "From the Kiwis I have spoken to, there is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga, especially those visiting our shores. "On behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace's family." Her voice cracking, Ardern said: "Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that." Ardern said that it was "not necessarily" the Prime Minister's place to apologise on behalf of the country. "It's just something I sense that New Zealanders may have wanted to convey, and I'm in a position perhaps where I'm able to convey that. "We pride ourselves on being a place where people are welcome and where they're safe, and that hasn't happened in this case. I feel the sense that New Zealanders found it quite personal." She acknowledged she also felt the tragedy personally. "I don't think I'm alone in feeling that way. I think all New Zealanders will just feel their heart breaking for that family." The alleged killer appeared in Auckland District Court today as a post mortem examination was carried out to establish when and how exactly Millane died. Millane arrived in Auckland on November 30. The next night she was captured on CCTV footage entering the CityLife hotel in the CBD with a 26-year-old man. He allegedly murdered Millane some time that night, or the next day - which was her 22nd birthday. Nine days later her body was found in an area of bush in West Auckland's Waitakere Ranges. Ardern said she had advised the Millane family through the police that the Government is prepared to do anything that would be of assistance.[SEP]New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern choked back tears Monday while offering a heartfelt apology to the family of murdered British backpacker Grace Millane, as the man accused of killing the young traveller made his first court appearance. Her voice cracking with emotion, Ardern said there was a collective feeling of shame in the South Pacific nation over the fate of Millane, whose body was found Sunday in parkland just outside Auckland. “There is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga,” she said, using the Maori word for welcoming others. “So on behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace’s family — your daughter should have been safe here and she wasn’t, and I’m sorry for that.” Ardern told reporters at her weekly media conference that New Zealanders were heartbroken for Millane’s family and were feeling her death personally. Millane disappeared on December 1, on the eve of her 22nd birthday, and her family’s worst fears were confirmed when her body was found on Sunday. The death has shocked New Zealand, which is usually regarded as a safe place to travel and averages less than 50 homicides a year in a population of 4.8 million. A 26-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced Auckland District Court on Monday charged with her murder. Wearing a blue prison-issue boiler suit, he was not required to enter a plea and was remanded in custody until January 23. Millane was on a year-long worldwide holiday after graduating from university and had been in New Zealand for two weeks after travelling around South America for more than a month. It was her first solo overseas trip and her family became alarmed when she failed to maintain her habit of staying in daily contact. Police had previously said she was last seen alive entering an inner-city hotel in Auckland with a man. Her father David flew to New Zealand after she went missing and issued an emotional appeal for information relating to his “fun-loving, outgoing and family-orientated” daughter. Judge Evangelos Thomas opened Monday’s brief court proceedings by addressing the family, Radio New Zealand reported. “I do not know what to say to you, your grief must be desperate,” he said. “All of us hope justice is fair and swift and ultimately brings you some peace.”[SEP]Kempson, 26, was called a “scumbag” by a member of the public gallery as he left the dock at Auckland District Court on Monday, during a trial for the murder of 22-year-old backpacker Grace Millane. The accused killer sat just a few metres away from Ms Millane’s family during the 90-minute trial, and did not speak during the court proceedings. Speaking to Ms Millane's family in court, Judge Evangelos Thomas said: “I don't know what to say to you at this time, but your grief must be desperate. “We all hope justice will be fair and swift and ultimately brings you some peace.” Kempson will appear in court again on January 23, and will remain in custody until then. New Zealand police discovered Ms Millane’s body on Sunday morning, following a nationwide search for the missing backpacker. The 22-year-old travelled in New Zealand on a solo trip after visiting Peru in November, but alarms were raised when she failed to contact her family. Ms Millane was last seen with Kempson at CityLife hotel in Auckland on December 1 at 9.40pm local time, a day before she went missing, CCTV footage revealed. Minutes before the pair were seen together, Kempson commented on Ms Millane’s Facebook photo, calling her “beautiful and radiant”. Prosecutors claim Kempson killed Ms Millane that night, or the day after on 2 December - which would have been her 22nd birthday. Kempson’s grandmother described him as a “very confused young man”. The 26-year-old was raised by his grandparents as a child following his parents split, but lived with his mother in Sydney when he was a teenager. His grandfather told Stuff.co.nz: “He was a nice kid, but he sort of fell out with everybody, which is what happens with broken up marriages.” Kempson, who is a father-of-one, had become estranged with his family and his father revealed he had not spoken to his son for two years because of a “a difference in opinion on life”. New Zealand’s Prime Minister made a heartfelt apology on behalf of the nation, addressing Ms Millane’s family. She said: “I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they would be experiencing and feeling right now. “My thoughts and prayers are with her father David, who is in the country, her mother Gillian, who cannot be here, and her wider family, friends and loved ones. “From the Kiwis I have spoken to, there is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga (a Maori term meaning kindness and generosity) especially to those who are visiting our shores.' “So on behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace's family. Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that.”[SEP]A man has appeared in court in New Zealand charged with the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane. Here is a timeline of how her round-the-world trip turned into tragedy (all times local). – November 20: The Lincoln University graduate arrives in New Zealand, having visited Peru on the first leg of her travels. – November 30: Posts her last tweet, quipping: “I think travelling has changed me I just brought some blue jeans.” – December 1, around 7pm: Seen on Victoria Street in central Auckland. – December 1, 7.15pm: Seen on CCTV at Sky City, an entertainment complex and casino on Victoria Street. – December 1, 9.41pm: Seen at the Citylife Hotel on Queen Street, around 250m from Sky City, with a “male companion”. – December 2, just before noon: A red Toyota Corolla hatchback is hired from a central Auckland rental firm. – December 3, between 6.30am and 9.30am: The car is thought to have been driven in western Auckland. – December 3, noon: The car is returned to the rental company. – December 5: Ms Millane is reported missing to City of Auckland Police. – December 6: Police appeal for the public’s help finding the backpacker. – December 7: After arriving in Auckland her father, David Millane, makes an emotional plea for help finding his daughter. Police reveal they have spoken to the male companion and he is a person of interest. The man was not taken into custody and police said there was no evidence of foul play. – December 8, 3pm: A 26-year-old man is taken into custody at a central Auckland address by police. – December 8, 5pm: Police announce that they have obtained evidence that suggests Ms Millane has been killed and they have seized a “vehicle of interest”. – December 8, evening: Police identify a “place of interest” on Scenic Drive, a road in the wooded Waitakere Ranges around 12 miles west of central Auckland. December 9: Police announce they are searching an area on Scenic Drive, near the Waitakere Reservoir. December 9, shortly after 4pm: Police find a body they believe to be Ms Millane in vegetation around 10m from the road. December 10: The suspect appears in court in Auckland.[SEP]New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has given an emotional apology to the family of British backpacker Grace Millane, saying: “Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn’t, and I’m sorry for that.” Ms Millane, 22, went missing from a hostel in Auckland on December 1 and a body was found in the Waitakere Ranges on Sunday. A 26-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with murder and appeared in an Auckland court on Monday. Speaking to reporters about the death, Ms Ardern said: “I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they would be experiencing and feeling right now. READ MORE: Devastated brother of Grace Millane pays tribute after backpacker’s body found “My thoughts and prayers are with her father David, who is in the country, her mother Gillian, who cannot be here, and her wider family, friends and loved ones. “From the Kiwis I have spoken to, there is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality, on our manaakitanga (a Maori term meaning kindness and generosity) especially to those who are visiting our shores.” Appearing to become choked with emotion, the PM added: “So on behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace’s family. “Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn’t, and I’m sorry for that.” Earlier on Monday her alleged murderer, who can not be named, faced court for the first time. Judge Evangelos Thomas told members of the Millane family, who were in court: “Your grief must be desperate. “All of us hope justice for Grace is fair, swift and ultimately brings you some peace.” Documents submitted to the court suggested police believe the University of Lincoln graduate was killed between December 1 and 2, her birthday. A charge sheet also listed the suspect as living at the hotel where she was last seen alive. READ MORE: Grace Millane: New Zealand police to charge man with murder of backpacker Detectives said they had identified a “location of interest” after the investigation led them to a spot on Scenic Drive, a country road about 12 miles west of the city centre, on Saturday night. Speaking at the scene on Sunday afternoon, Detective Inspector Scott Beard said investigators had “located a body which we believe to be Grace” about 10 metres from the roadside. The last confirmed sighting of Ms Millane was at 9.41pm on December 1, the day before her birthday, at the Citylife Hotel, when she was seen with a “male companion”. Since arriving in New Zealand from Peru on November 20, she had been in near-daily contact with her family. Police received a missing person report on Wednesday and began a major search and public campaign that saw dozens of calls made to a helpline. Ms Millane’s father, David Millane, flew to Auckland and made a public appeal for help finding his daughter, who he described as “lovely, outgoing, fun-loving (and) family-orientated”. Her brother, Declan Millane, paid tribute by sharing pictures on social media of him and his sister, adding the lyrics of You Are My Sunshine. He wrote on Instagram: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern makes a public apology to the family of Grace Millane, who was murdered in Auckland on 1 or 2 December 2018, saying that "your daughter should have been safe here".

It was not known if the can was the one whose spray set off the stampede at about 1 a.m. Saturday in the Lanterna Azzurra (Blue Lantern) disco in Corinaldo. A paramilitary police commander declined to confirm reports that a 16-year-old boy had been identified as the sprayer.[SEP]Transcript for 2 criminal investigations after 6 killed during concert in Italy And news tonight about the deadly stampede in Italy. Police launching two criminal investigations into the chaos. Two people died. Authorities believe the club was overcrowded. The crush of people likely ignited by somebody using pepper spray. Here's Julia Macfarlane. Reporter: This was the moment the horror unfolded. Investigators are reviewing this bystander's footage of the accident at that Italian nightclub late Friday. New details tonight. Italian police tell ABC news two parallel criminal investigations are now under way. One, the suspected use of an irritant spray, such as mace or pepper spray, that is believed to have started the stampede. The other, violations of the nightclub's occupancy restrictions. The venue was only supposed to hold around 800 people. That night, almost 1,400 tickets had been sold for the event. However, it's not clear how many people were in attendance. Ticket sales are disorganized in Italy. Events are often oversold. It's one theory that investigators are looking into, as footage circulates of the disco's walkway, crumbling under the weight of so many people rushing out all at once. Police haven't confirmed reports in Italian media that a minor is suspected of spraying that irritant substance, sparking the panic, but they have told ABC news that a statement will be released tomorrow. Tom?[SEP]A pepper spray intended for use on violent prisoners in England and Wales has been approved despite being used in non-violent incidents more than a third of the time in a recent trial, contravening official guidance, the Guardian has learned. The Pava incapacitant spray, which is notably stronger than CS gas, causes acute pain if sprayed directly into the eyes. One officer described its effects as “unbearable, like your skin peeling off” after being affected when it was deployed. Last December a six-month pilot project was launched in four prisons – Hull, Preston, Risley and Wealstun – where, it was stated, Pava would be used as a “personal protection aid for officers to use reactively to defend themselves or others against serious attack”. A report on the trial said the spray was used 50 times in the pilot jails, including 18 times to stop prisoner-on-staff assaults and 14 times to stop prisoner-on-prisoner assaults. The remaining 18 incidents comprised eight cases of passive non-compliance, seven of aggressive non-compliance, two of active self-harm and one unspecified “incident at height” – all of which were non-violent and outside the stated guidelines. The report found that levels of violence continued to rise in the four jails where Pava was tested. Despite those findings, the spray will now be issued to all officers in state-run jails. Staff in private sector prisons will not be allowed to use it. Discussions are taking place between the prison service and the Prison Officers Association about equipping staff in female and juvenile prisons. The incapacitant spray, dispensed from a hand-held canister containing a solution of pelargonic acid vanillylamide, has an effective range of up to four metres. It has been approved by the Home Office for use by police forces since 2004. In October the prison service announced that the trials had been successful and the use of Pava would be rolled out across all prisons in England and Wales. The evaluation report on the trials has not been been published, but Rob Allen, the co-director of Justice and Prisons, obtained a copy via a freedom of information request. The report says: “Some staff were developing an over-reliance on Pava as a way of resolving conflict and used the spray to enforce rules and gain compliance when it was not clearly the last resort, or when more time could have been spent talking [to the prisoner].” Those using Pava were positive about the spray, even though staff were affected by its use on 13 occasions. The report said staff played down their descriptions of the impact of the spray on prisoners, describing it as a “minor use of force”. Rates of violence in prisons in England and Wales are at an all-time high and rising. The report said: “Overall violence levels continued to rise across all the pilot jails during the period of the trials.” John Podmore, a former prison governor who ran jails in the high-security estate, argued that the use of Pava would only escalate conflict. He asked why the report had not been made public, saying: “Justice minister Rory Stewart promised that the prison service would be more transparent. So why was this report kept under wraps?” A Prison Service spokesperson said Pava incapacitant spray helped prevent serious harm to staff and prisoners, as well as being an additional tool when dealing with violent offenders. “Prison officers must complete specialist training before being allowed to carry the spray, ensuring it is only used professionally, safely and lawfully,” the spokesperson said.[SEP]ROME — Italian police investigating a deadly nightclub stampede said Sunday they found a pepper spray can and were questioning dozens of witnesses after accounts by concertgoers that a teenage boy had sprayed an irritating substance, causing the mad rush by the crowd to flee. It wasn’t known whether the can found was the one that apparently set off the stampede about 1 a.m. Saturday in a crowd awaiting a rapper’s performance in the Lanterna Azzurra (Blue Lantern) disco in the small town of Corinaldo, said the Carabiniere paramilitary police commander of Ancona province, Col. Cristian Carrozza. He also declined to confirm Italian media reports that a 16-year-old boy had been identified as the sprayer and would be questioned by juvenile court officials. Five teenagers, all juveniles, and a woman who had accompanied her 11-year-old daughter to the concert, died in the crush of fleeing concertgoers who toppled over a railing atop a cement ramp outside an exit. The railing gave way, sending young people tumbling over it and landing on top of each other in the area below the ramp, about 1.5 feet below. On Saturday, prosecutors and Italy’s premier and interior minister told reporters that nearly 1,400 tickets had been sold, while the disco could safely hold only 870 people, with the capacity of the room of the concert itself set at about 460. On Sunday, Carrozza said a count of ticket stubs indicated that about 600 tickets were used for entry. It was unclear if others might have gotten in without having tickets checked by club personnel. One of the DJs, Marco Cecchini, said he was sure that more than just one room of the disco was open, in addition to the one with the 460-person capacity. “I’ve done 40-50 evenings in that place, and, sincerely, there weren’t so many people. I’d estimate maybe 800-900 people, but all the rooms were open,” the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Cecchini, who is the son of one of the disco’s managers, as saying. Several parents whose children had gone to the concert Saturday brought cell phones to police to show videos of the disco’s premises in case the visuals could help in the investigation, ANSA said. Seven of the more than 50 people injured in the stampede remained in critical condition Sunday, while the remaining patients were either already discharged or about to be discharged after their condition improved, doctors said. After Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insisted that safety codes for public places be rigorously respected, police overnight shut down two discos in the south, near the port city of Salerno, for apparent overcrowding. Frances D’Emilio is an Associated Press writer.[SEP]According to the La Repubblica, the teenager who could have used the pepper spray has been found thanks to witness accounts. The prosecutors working on the case have not talked to the suspect yet. READ MORE: Panic, Stampede in Italian Club Leave at Least 6 Dead, Dozens Injured (PHOTOS) The reports come after a stampede occurred at a rap concert that took place in the nightclub early on Saturday. Six people, including five minors, were killed and around 60 others were hospitalized. The panic was reportedly caused by a pepper spray used by one of the guests.[SEP]omersukrugoksu/iStock(ROME) — Six people are dead and at least 120 people are injured after being trampled by a panicked crowd running out of an Italian disco. The stampede occurred at the Lanterna Azzurra in Madonna del Piano di Corinaldo, near Ancona — a city on the Adriatic coast, east of Florence — during a concert for Italian rapper Sfera Ebbasta. Witnesses said that panic ensued when an acrid smell started permeating the disco between midnight and 1 a.m. local time, according to Italian news agencies. Some compared it to mace or pepper spray, though police officials said they were not ready to confirm those details. The six people who died included five minors and an adult. The adult, identified only as Eleonora, had gone to the concert with her daughter, who survived, according to Italian news agency Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA), the nation’s largest wire service. All six who died were crushed by others who had fallen five feet off a walkway outside of one of the disco’s emergency exits, Ancona Police Chief Oreste Capocasa told ABC News. Capocasa said that the railings on the walkway collapsed, causing concertgoers to fall. Capocasa said that firefighters and magistrates were investigating whether there was overcrowding. The disco could only fit 870 people but 1,400 tickets to the concert were sold, he said. He said that authorities are still trying to piece together the sequence of events, and whether the spraying of some sort of substance sparked the panic. “We could not because after such a tragic event, witnesses weren’t in a fit state to remember well what happened,” he said. “They have not confirmed that this happened but many have confirmed that something like that happened.” Those who were injured were taken to one of three hospitals in the area. Of the 120 injured, 12 remain in serious condition and seven are fighting for their lives, ANSA reported. Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini called the incident a “mix of irresponsibility and avidity.” Two investigations have now been opened: one to determine who sprayed the pepper-like substance and another for overcapacity at the disco.[SEP]Due stupide bravate hanno creato il panico oggi in altrettante scuole di Pavia e del Cremonese. Due episodi che non hanno prodotto conseguenze gravi, ma che lasciano pensare ad un assurdo spirito di emulazione dopo la tragedia avvenuta nella notte tra venerdì 7 e sabato 8 dicembre in una discoteca di Corinaldo (Ancona), che ha provocato la morte di cinque giovani e una mamma. Sulla stessa linea il ministro dell'Istruzione, Marco Bussetti, per il quale si potrebbe anche vietarne l'uso a scuola, ma «non è questione di portarlo o no, è l'uso che se ne fa. Basta tenerlo all'interno. Tante donne hanno dovuto utilizzarlo per difesa personale, ad esempio». L'Associazione nazionale funzionari polizia chiede il divieto di vendita ai minori di 18 anni, numero identificativo su ogni bomboletta che consenta un abbinamento con l'acquirente, possibilità di vendita solo in armerie o in apposti esercizi espressamente autorizzati che avranno l'onere di identificare con documento l'acquirente. Anche Cosimo Maria Ferri (Pd) sollecita la regolamentazione della vendita e dell'uso dello spray, «disciplinandone l'accesso in luoghi pubblici e manifestazioni». Per il segretario nazionale di Sinistra italiana Nicola Fratoianni «è giunto il momento di dire che la diffusione delle armi e degli strumenti di offesa come gli spray non garantisce la sicurezza, al contrario provoca disastri. È giunto il momento di vietarne la vendita libera». Ultimo aggiornamento: 11 Dicembre, 08:22 © RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA[SEP]A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of causing the stampede at a nightclub in the town of Corinaldo, near Ancona in central Italy, this weekend in which six people were killed. Media reports said the suspected use of a pepper spray-like substance sparked panic during the concert. "The cause may have been the dispersal of a stinging substance, the young people fled and trampled over each other. Sadly, six people died and dozens are injured," the fire service said in a statement on Twitter. As the crowd panicked, people ran for the three emergency exits, one of which led to a small bridge and the car park, according to a preliminary investigation. The force of the fleeing crowd made a railing collapse and dozens of people fell, crushing those below to death. The 15-year-old is suspected of involuntary manslaughter and causing bodily harm, youth crime court prosecutor Giovanna Leboroni said at a press conference in Ancona. Ancona Chief Prosecutor Monica Garulli said seven others are also under investigation: four owners of the venue and three businesspeople who ran it. Investigators are also looking into whether the club sold more tickets to the event than the venue could hold. Three witnesses said that the suspect, who has not been named by police, had released pepper spray. Another witness reportedly claimed that the spray was used to disable a person and steal their gold chain. Police have not ruled out that the fumes came from another source, noting that a large number of clubbers suffered ill effects. However, a can of pepper spray was found in the club. Gangs have used pepper spray to steal from people at public events in Italy about 20 times in the past two years. In June last year one person was killed and 1,526 injured when a gang using pepper spray caused panic among crowds watching a football match on a large screen in Turin. And yesterday, teenagers hospitalised classmates by using pepper spray in schools in two separate, apparently 'copycat' incidents. 33 students from a school in Pavia were taken to hospital yesterday, local media reports, after pepper spray or a similar substance was used, and another five were hospitalised in Cremona when a 14-year-old girl sprayed classmates in the gym’s changing room. READ ALSO: Two dead, several injured in petrol station explosion near Rome[SEP]ROME — Italian police investigating a deadly disco stampede said Sunday they found a pepper spray can and were questioning dozens of witnesses Sunday following accounts by concertgoers that a teenage boy had sprayed an irritating substance, triggering the mad rush by the crowd to flee. It wasn’t known if the can found was the one whose spray apparently set off the stampede about 1 a.m. Saturday in a crowd awaiting a rapper’s performance in the Lanterna Azzurra disco in Corinaldo, a small town in east-central Italy, police said. A police official also declined to confirm Italian media reports that a 16-year-old boy had been identified as the sprayer and would be questioned by juvenile court officials. Five teens and a woman who had accompanied her 11-year-old daughter to the concert died in the crush of fleeing concertgoers who toppled over a railing atop a cement ramp outside an exit. Seven of the more than 50 people injured in the stampede remained in critical condition Sunday, doctors said. On Saturday, prosecutors and Italy’s premier and interior minister told reporters that nearly 1,400 tickets had been sold, while the disco could safely hold only 870 people.[SEP]Italian police investigating a deadly disco stampede said they found a pepper spray can and were questioning dozens of witnesses yesterday following accounts by concertgoers that a teenage boy had sprayed an irritating substance, triggering the mad rush by the crowd to flee. Italian police investigating a deadly disco stampede said they found a pepper spray can and were questioning dozens of witnesses yesterday following accounts by concertgoers that a teenage boy had sprayed an irritating substance, triggering the mad rush by the crowd to flee. It wasn't known if the can found was the one whose spray apparently set off the stampede at about 1am Saturday in a crowd awaiting a rapper's performance in the Lanterna Azzurra (Blue Lantern) disco in Corinaldo, a small town in the Marche region of east-central Italy, the Carabiniere paramilitary police commander of Ancona province, Colonel Cristian Carrozza, told reporters. He also declined to confirm Italian media reports that a 16-year-old boy had been identified as the sprayer and would be questioned by juvenile court officials. Five teens, all juveniles, and a woman who had accompanied her 11-year-old daughter to the concert, died in the crush of fleeing concertgoers who toppled over a railing atop a cement ramp outside an exit. The railing gave way, sending young people tumbling over it and landing atop of each other in the area below the ramp, about 1.5 meters below. On Saturday, prosecutors and Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told reporters that nearly 1,400 tickets had been sold, while the disco could safely hold only 870 people, with the capacity of the room of the concert itself set at about 460. Yesterday, Col Carrozza said a count of ticket stubs indicated about 600 tickets were used for entry. It was unclear if others might have gotten in without having tickets checked by disco personnel. One of the DJs, Marco Cecchini, told reporters he was sure that more than just one room of the disco was open, in addition to the one with the 460-person capacity. "I've done 40-50 evenings in that place, and, sincerely, there weren't so many people. I'd estimate maybe 800-900 people, but all the rooms were open," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Mr Cecchini, who is the son of one of the disco's managers, as saying. Seven of the more than 50 people injured in the stampede remained in critical condition yesterday while the remaining patients were either already discharged or about to be discharged after their condition improved.

Thirty-three people are hospitalized in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy, after pepper spray was fired inside the gym of a school. This is the second pepper spray-related incident in the country in three days. On 8 December, six people died when someone fired the spray inside a nightclub, causing a stampede.

Mikhail Popkov has become Russia's most prolific serial killer A Russian serial killer nicknamed the "werewolf" who is serving a life sentence for killing 22 women has been convicted of 56 more murders. Former policeman Mikhail Popkov, one of Russia's most prolific serial killers, was found guilty of killing 56 people between 1992 and 2007 by a court in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. He confessed to 59 murders but investigators had not managed to prove three of the crimes took place, according to local reports. Popkov was found guilty of raping 10 of the victims and was given a second life sentence on top of the one he is already serving. He was convicted in 2015 of killing 22 women. Advertisement Prosecutors said Popkov had a "pathological attraction to killing people", while Russian media nicknamed him "the werewolf" and the "Angarsk maniac". He killed his victims with a hammer or axe after offering them rides late at night, sometimes in a police car, while he was off duty around his home city of Angarsk near Irkutsk. Popkov told journalists last year that he viewed himself as a "cleaner" who was purging his city of prostitutes. He said he had targeted women who were drunk or he viewed as immoral. Some of his victims were prostitutes and drug addicts, but most were ordinary women with families. Popkov was finally caught in 2012 after investigators DNA-tested people who drove cars matching tyre tracks found at the crime scenes. He later showed police where he had buried his victims' bodies. Popkov has become Russia's most prolific killer in at least the past century, with the number of murders exceeding that of "chessboard killer" Alexander Pichushkin, who murdered 48, and Andrei Chikatilo, who killed 52.[SEP]A Siberian policeman who raped and killed women after offering them late-night rides was found guilty of dozens more murders Monday, making him Russia's most prolific serial killer of recent times. A court in the city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov guilty of 56 murders between 1992 and 2007, sentencing him to a second life term. He was already in prison after being convicted of killing 22 women in 2015. Popkov offered rides to women late at night, sometimes in his police car, while off-duty around his city of Angarsk near Irkutsk. He killed them using weapons including a hammer and an axe, then dumped their bodies in the woods, at the side of the road and in a local cemetery. He was also found guilty of raping 10 of the women. Popkov described himself as a "cleaner" who was purging his home city of prostitutes. All but one of his victims were women between the ages of 16 and 40. His other victim was a policeman. The grey-haired 54-year-old appeared in court in prison uniform, his head bowed, Russian television showed. He will be sent to a prison that is exclusively for convicts serving life terms, nicknamed the "Black Dolphin." As part of his sentence — a rare case in Russia of a convicted murderer being given a second life sentence — Popkov was also deprived of his police pension. Prosecutors have described Popkov as having "a pathological attraction to killing people" but he was ruled sane enough to stand trial. Investigators had suspected a policeman was behind the crime because of the way the killer carefully covered his tracks. The murders took place while he was a serving police officer and after he left the force in 1998. Popkov was caught in 2012 after investigators re-examined the case and carried out DNA testing of residents, focusing on those who drove a make of car that matched tracks found at crime scenes. In a 2017 interview with Russia's Meduza website, Popkov said he gave women lifts and targeted those who were drunk or living in a way he saw as immoral, saying that "any society condemns the behaviour of a debauched woman". While already in jail, he confessed to 59 further murders but was convicted only of 56 on Monday because investigators had not managed to prove three of the crimes took place, Interfax news agency reported, citing the court's press service. Investigators said they uncovered the remains of some of the victims' bodies based on Popkov's account, as well as finding murder weapons including axes, chisels and knives. The number of killings for which he has been convicted exceeds the totals of several notorious murderers in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. "Chessboard Killer" Alexander Pichushkin was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for 48 murders and Andrei Chikatilo was convicted of 52 Soviet-era murders.[SEP]IRKUTSK, Russia -- A Siberian policeman who raped and killed women after offering them late-night rides was found guilty of dozens more murders on Monday, making him Russia's most prolific serial killer of recent times. A court in the city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov guilty of 56 murders between 1992 and 2007, sentencing him to a second life term. He was already in prison after being convicted of killing 22 women in 2015. Popkov, dubbed "the Werewolf" and the "Angarsk maniac" by Russian media, offered rides to women late at night, sometimes in his police car, while off-duty around his city of Angarsk near Irkutsk, 2,600 miles east of Moscow. His murderous spree initially went unnoticed during a period of rampant mafia killings in the crime-ridden city. He killed his victims using weapons including a hammer and an axe, then dumped their bodies in the woods, at the side of the road and in a cemetery. He was also found guilty of raping 11 of the women. Popkov described himself as a "cleaner" who was purging his home city of prostitutes. All but one of his victims were women between the ages of 16 and 40. His one male victim was a policeman he gave a ride to late at night and killed in a forest. The grey-haired 54-year-old appeared in court in prison uniform, his head bowed. He will be sent to a prison that is exclusively for convicts serving life terms, nicknamed the "Black Dolphin". As part of his sentence -- a rare case in Russia of a convicted murderer being given a second life sentence -- Popkov was also deprived of his police pension. He intends to appeal against the sentence, regional prosecutor Alexander Shkinev told Russian news agencies. Prosecutors on Monday described Popkov as having "a pathological attraction to killing people" and "homicidal mania with sadistic elements," but he was ruled sane enough to stand trial. Investigators had suspected a policeman because of the way the killer carefully covered his tracks. The murders took place while he was a serving police officer and after he left the force in 1998. Popkov was caught in 2012 after investigators re-examined the case and carried out DNA testing of residents, focusing on those who drove a make of car that matched tracks found at crime scenes. In a 2017 interview with Russia's Meduza website, Popkov said he gave women lifts and targeted those who were drunk or living in a way he saw as immoral, adding that "any society condemns the behaviour of a debauched woman". While in jail, he confessed to 59 further murders but was convicted only of 56 on Monday because investigators had not managed to prove three of the crimes took place, Interfax news agency reported, citing the court's press service. Investigators said they uncovered the remains of some of the victims' bodies based on Popkov's account, as well as finding murder weapons including axes, screwdrivers and knives. The number of killings for which he has been convicted exceeds the totals of several notorious murderers in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. "Chessboard Killer" Alexander Pichushkin was jailed for life in 2007 for 48 murders, mostly of elderly men he met in a Moscow park. He aimed to kill one person for each of the 64 squares on the chessboard. Andrei Chikatilo was convicted of 52 Soviet-era murders that were sexually motivated. He was known as the "Butcher of Rostov" after the area of southern Russia where he was most active. He was executed in 1994, before Russia imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. Popkov reportedly boasted to cellmates that he had committed more murders than Chikatilo.[SEP]A former policeman in Russia has been convicted of murdering 56 women, bringing the number he is believed to have killed to at least 78. Mikhail Popkov, from the eastern Siberian city of Angarsk, was found guilty of the murders between 1994 and 2000 and was sentenced to life in prison. Popkov, who was arrested in 2012, is already serving life for 22 other killings. The verdict makes him Russia's most prolific serial killer in at least the past century. Local police have for years been investigating murders in the Irkutsk region, where dozens of women were raped and killed in secluded spots. Psychiatric tests run on Popkov have concluded that he is sane.[SEP]The court in the Siberian city of Irkutsk finds Mikhail Popkov 'guilty of killing 56 people between 1992 and 2007,' the Irkutsk regional prosecutor's office says MOSCOW, Russia – A Russian court on Monday, December 10, found a former policeman guilty of 56 murders, while he is already serving a life sentence for killing 22 women, making him one of Russia's most prolific serial killers. The court in the Siberian city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov "guilty of killing 56 people between 1992 and 2007," Irkutsk regional prosecutor's office said in a statement. Prosecutors said Popkov "has a pathological attraction to killing people." He was also found guilty of raping 10 of the victims. He received a second life sentence on top of the one he is already serving and was also formally deprived of his pension as an ex-policeman. Popkov in 2015 was found guilty of killing 22 women. He later confessed to 59 further murders but was convicted only of 56 on Monday because the investigators had not managed to prove three of the crimes took place, Interfax news agency reported citing the court's press service. He killed his victims after offering them rides late at night, sometimes in a police car, while he was off-duty around his home city of Angarsk near Irkutsk. The number of killings for which he has been convicted exceeds the total of several notorious murderers in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. "Chessboard killer" Alexander Pichushkin was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for 48 murders and Andrei Chikatilo was convicted of 52 Soviet-era murders. – Rappler.com[SEP]MOSCOW: A former police officer jailed for murdering 22 women received a second life sentence on Monday for the murder of 56 more people, making him one of modern Russia's deadliest serial killers. Dubbed the "maniac of Angarsk" after his home city in Siberia, 54-year-old Mikhail Popkov drove victims to secluded spots where he killed them with axes, knives or screwdrivers. Some were also raped. He was detained in the Russian Far East in 2012 two decades after he began his killing spree and was sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2015 for 22 murders and 2 attempted murders. He confessed to 60 more crimes, including 59 murders, after he was convicted. Investigators said on Monday that Popkov had provided evidence allowing officers to exhume the remains of victims killed 15-20 years ago, along with their personal effects and the weapons he had used to kill them. Investigators said Popkov's victims were women aged from 16 to 40. He also killed one man, a fellow police officer. A state prosecutor told the court that Popkov had a phenomenal ability to recall minute details of his crimes, including the clothes, tattoos, and jewellery worn by his victims, RIA news agency reported. Andrei Chikatilo, known as the Rostov Ripper, was convicted in 1992 of killing over 50 people. He was executed. In 2007, supermarket worker Alexander Pichushkin was convicted of killing 48 people. He became widely known as the chessboard killer as he had hoped to put a coin on every square of a 64-square chessboard for each of his victims.[SEP]A Russian court on Monday found a former policeman guilty of 56 murders, while he is already serving a life sentence for killing 22 women, making him one of Russia's most prolific serial killers. The court in the Siberian city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov "guilty of killing 56 people between 1992 and 2007," Irkutsk regional prosecutor's office said in a statement. Prosecutors said Popkov "has a pathological attraction to killing people." He was also found guilty of raping 10 of the victims. He received a second life sentence on top of the one he is already serving and was also formally deprived of his pension as an ex-policeman. Popkov in 2015 was found guilty of killing 22 women. He later confessed to 59 further murders but was convicted only of 56 on Monday because the investigators had not managed to prove three of the crimes took place, Interfax news agency reported citing the court's press service. He killed his victims after offering them rides late at night, sometimes in a police car, while he was off-duty around his home city of Angarsk near Irkutsk. The number of killings for which he has been convicted exceeds the total of several notorious murderers in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. "Chessboard killer" Alexander Pichushkin was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for 48 murders and Andrei Chikatilo was convicted of 52 Soviet-era murders. 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In January 2015, he was found guilty of the murder of 22 women and the attempted murder of two women between 1994 and 2000 and was sentenced to life in prison. Popkov was charged in March 2017 with murdering 59 more women after authorities said he confessed to the crimes. But Popkov was convicted of 56 murders only on December 10 because investigators could not prove that three of the crimes actually took place. Authorities said he committed some of the killings while on duty, using his police car and uniform to trap his victims. Andrei Chikatilo was convicted in 1992 and executed in 1994 for raping, butchering, and in some cases cannibalizing as many as 52 people. "Chessboard Killer" Aleksandr Pichushkin was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for 48 murders. Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax[SEP]MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Russia's eastern Siberia on Monday convicted a former policeman of murdering 56 women, bringing the number he is believed to have killed to at least 78. The court found Mikhail Popkov, from the eastern Siberian city of Angarsk, guilty of the murders between 1994 and 2000 and sentenced him to life in prison. Popkov, who was arrested in 2012, is already serving life for 22 other killings. Read more: Serial killers tend to gravitate to similar jobs — and some of them might surprise you The verdict makes him Russia's most prolific serial killer in at least the past century. Local police have for years been investigating murders in the Irkutsk region, where dozens of women were raped and killed in secluded spots. In order to help the probe, authorities ended up taking DNA samples from 230,000 residents of Angarsk. Sperm found on one of the victims led the investigators to the killer. Psychiatric tests run on the police lieutenant who retired in 1998 have concluded that he is sane. Read more: 9 serial killers from around the world you may not have heard of Popkov's lawyer told Russian news agencies that his 54-year-old client would appeal the verdict as well as the motion to strip him of his police pension, which he has been receiving despite the 2015 guilty verdict.[SEP]IRKUTSK: A Siberian policeman who raped and killed women after offering them late-night rides was found guilty of dozens more murders on Monday, making him Russia’s most prolific serial killer of recent times. A court in the city of Irkutsk found Mikhail Popkov guilty of 56 murders between 1992 and 2007, sentencing him to a second life term. He was already in prison after being convicted of killing 22 women in 2015. Popkov offered rides to women late at night, sometimes in his police car, while off-duty around his city of Angarsk near Irkutsk, 4,200 kilometres (2,600 miles) east of Moscow.His murderous spree initially went unnoticed during a period of rampant mafia killings in the crime-ridden city. He killed his victims using weapons including a hammer and an axe, then dumped their bodies in the woods, at the side of the road and in a cemetery. He was also found guilty of raping 11 of the women.Popkov described himself as a “cleaner” who was purging his home city of prostitutes. All but one of his victims were women between the ages of 16 and 40. His one male victim was a policeman he gave a ride to late at night and killed in a forest.The grey-haired 54-year-old appeared in court in prison uniform, his head bowed. He will be sent to a prison that is exclusively for convicts serving life terms, nicknamed the “Black Dolphin”. As part of his sentence — a rare case in Russia of a convicted murderer being given a second life sentence — Popkov was also deprived of his police pension. He intends to appeal against the sentence, regional prosecutor Alexander Shkinev told Russian news agencies. Prosecutors on Monday described Popkov as having “a pathological attraction to killing people” and “homicidal mania with sadistic elements,” but he was ruled sane enough to stand trial. Investigators had suspected a policeman because of the way the killer carefully covered his tracks.The murders took place while he was a serving police officer and after he left the force in 1998.

Russian serial killer and former policeman Mikhail Popkov is convicted of an additional 56 murders between 1992 and 2007. All of his victims were women.

A convicted paedophile has been found guilty of the “babes in the wood” murders at the end of a retrial that drew on scientific advances in forensics 32 years after two schoolgirls were killed. Russell Bishop had been accused of sexually assaulting and strangling Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in October 1986 in woods about half a mile from Moulsecoomb, the area of Brighton where both girls lived. The guilty verdicts were described as marking the end of a 32-year fight for justice for the girls’ families, who hugged each other and wept in court on Monday as the jury delivered its verdict. “Time stood still for us in 1986. To us them beautiful girls will always be nine years old. They will never grow up,” said Michelle Hadaway, Karen’s mother, who described Bishop as an “evil monster”. “What people like Bishop inflict on the families of their victims is a living death,” she added. Lee Hadaway, Karen’s father, died in 1998. In a joint statement, the Fellows family said: “The guilty verdict doesn’t bring Nicola and Karen back, but we know that other children are now safe from the hands of Russell Bishop.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Russell Bishop. Photograph: Sussex police/PA After demonstrating that there was new and compelling evidence against Bishop in the form of scientific material, the prosecution had shown the jury how he attempted to conceal his crimes through lies, said the Crown Prosecution Service. This included DNA evidence which provided what the CPS described as a “one-in-a-billion” DNA match linking Bishop to a sweatshirt which was at the scene of the murders. The case had never been closed and had become the largest and longest-running inquiry in the history of Sussex police. A retrial was made possible after Bishop’s 1987 acquittal on the same charges was quashed at the court of appealin light of new evidence. Bishop, who was not present to hear he was being convicted on the 31st anniversary of his original acquittal, will be required to appear when he is sentenced on Tuesday after the eight-week trial. It also emerged on Monday that Bishop’s former partner could face a perjury investigation over her conduct at his murder trial at Lewes crown court in 1987. Jennifer Johnson had initially identified the sweatshirt which was found discarded along Bishop’s route home in Brighton as belonging to him, but then denied it in court. She was not called by the prosecution in the second trial but another of Bishop’s former partners said he had been violent towards Johnson. Nigel Pilkington, a CPS lawyer, suggested the result of the 1987 trial could have been “wholly different” if Johnson had not changed her story. “Obviously if somebody has not told the truth in a case which has been a miscarriage of justice for 32 years, that’s a serious matter, if it turns out to be so. But we will wait to see if police make a decision to investigate,” he added. Both Karen and Nicola had been afraid of the dark and the latter’s father had banned her from playing in an area known as Wild Park, even saying the “bogeyman” lived there, the court was told. However, Bishop spotted the two nine-year-olds playing in the park near their home at around dusk on 9 October 1986 and seized his opportunity, the prosecution said. During the attack, he punched Nicola in the face, to “subdue” or “punish” her for being disrespectful to his teenage girlfriend earlier that day, suggested Brian Altman QC. The court heard that as well as the DNA evidence, fibre transfers linked the sweatshirt to the girls, the murder scene and Bishop’s home. Dried red paint on the sleeve was matched to a flake on Nicola’s neck and Karen’s T-shirt, providing “very strong support” they had recent contact with the garment. There were also hundreds of ivy hairs on the sweatshirt like those at the scene of the murders. As well as the evidence from the sweatshirt, a DNA match to Bishop was found on Karen’s left forearm, jurors heard. Bishop had returned to live in the Brighton area after his acquittal, but less than three years later, in February 1990, committed offences involving the attempted murder, kidnapping and indecent assault of a seven-year-old girl in the Whitehawk area of the city. She survived and identified Bishop as her attacker, the jury was told. This, together with other evidence, led to his conviction for that crime in December 1990. During the trial this year, Bishop tailored his defence to the new evidence and claimed he had touched the girls to feel for a pulse on the day after the killings, when he had joined the search for them and was nearby when they were found. However, two teenagers who had spotted the bodies insisted that he could not have come close. Acting on instructions, Bishop’s defence team had also cast suspicion on Nicola’s father, Barrie Fellows, suggesting that police spent decades investigating the wrong man. The 69-year-old was reduced to tears during the trial by the claims against him. The defence team also cast doubt on the new evidence, suggesting it could have been contaminated. Det Supt Jeff Riley described Bishop as a “wicked” paedophile. He said: “I still feel it’s a shadow over Brighton to this day. I’m very proud of the investigation we have put together. We have been meticulous. We have never given up on this investigation.”[SEP]A man cleared of killing two schoolgirls more than 30 years ago has been found guilty of their murders following a second trial. Russell Bishop was acquitted of the murders of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in 1987 - 31 years to the day today - in a case referred to as 'the Babes in the Wood'. Cleared of their murders, Bishop went on to attack a seven-year-old girl within three years, leaving her for dead in 1990, but she survived. A second trial regarding the two schoolgirls was ordered in light of new forensic evidence which linked Bishop, 52, to the deaths in 1986. Bishop denied murdering the pair, who were both afraid of the dark, but was today found guilty at the Old Bailey following a trial which began on October 15. Jurors deliberated for just two and a half hours. In his closing speech, prosecutor Brian Altman QC Altman told jurors: "This defendant walked those two girls to their deaths. "We ask you to put right a 32-year-old injustice by returning verdicts of guilty." Nicola and Karen were sexually assaulted and strangled in a woodland den in Wild Park, Brighton, in October 1986. The Babes in the Wood moniker, inspired by the popular fairytale and pantomime, was coined by the Press to describe how nine-year-olds Nicola and Karen were found huddled together in a woodland den. It emerged in the retrial that the 18-year-olds who found the girls never actually saw the bodies and made up the description, partly to provide comfort to their families. Within three years of their deaths, Bishop was jailed for life for the kidnap, sexual assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl at Devils Dyke on the South Downs. Mr Altman highlighted similarities between the two cases, while defence barrister Joel Bennathan QC asserted there were also differences. On the 1990 attack, Mr Bennathan said: "They are awful offences, and anyone coming to this who did not have the benefit of Your Lordship's directions would probably think you don't come back from that. "You don't do what happened to that little girl in 1990 and pop up in a trial and expect a fair trial. "Once you know what happened in 1990 that will do, that's enough, don't worry about the rest. "Ladies and gentlemen, we say no." Lorna Heffron, the families’ spokeswoman, said: “Nicola and Karen. Our beautiful girls. We will never forget their smiles that would light up a room. Their laughter. Their cheekiness. “During the past eight weeks, we have endured re-living the horrific details of their murders and we have learned an awful lot about the true meaning of heartbreak all over again. “We stand here as two families united in our grief. United in our fight for justice. And now united in our elation at today’s guilty verdict. We are extremely relieved and grateful that our 32 years hard fought battle has been a success, finally getting the rightful long-awaited justice for both of our girls. “We want to thank our police teams and counsel, who have been fantastic during the past couple of decades. If it wasn’t for their efforts and dedication working with us, we wouldn’t be stood here today. "Together we have changed history with this ‘double jeopardy’ ruling and we finally have the correct outcome – Russell Bishop remains behind bars where he belongs. “The guilty verdict doesn’t bring Nicola and Karen back, but we know that other children are now safe from the hands of Russell Bishop. He is a monster. A predatory paedophile. Russell Bishop truly is evil personified.” Mr Bennathan suggested Bishop had cut short his evidence in the trial because he was "wound up" by the prosecutor. He said: "The 1990 offences are an entirely proper area of questioning but it is also blindingly obvious from the word go it was winding Mr Bishop up." Likewise, asking Bishop about "deeply personal" love letters to a 13-year-old girl while he was in jail awaiting trial in 1987 was also winding him up, the barrister asserted. Bishop chose not to attend court to hear the closing speeches in the trial. Nigel Pilkington, Senior District Crown Prosecutor in CPS South East, said: “Today’s guilty verdicts mark the end of a 32-year fight for justice for the families of Karen and Nicola. “In order to bring Russell Bishop to justice, the CPS demonstrated to the Court of Appeal there was new and compelling evidence against him in the form of forensic material. “The prosecution then showed the jury how Bishop attempted to conceal his crimes through his lies and, crucially, modern forensic science. "This included DNA evidence which provided a one-in-a-billion DNA match to a sweatshirt Bishop was wearing and which was at the scene of the murders. “Our thoughts today are with Karen and Nicola’s families, who have shown remarkable resilience throughout this ordeal over the last 32 years.” In 2003, Parliament changed the law to allow acquitted defendants to face trial again if there was "new and compelling evidence".[SEP]The “babes in the wood” killer, Russell Bishop, has been jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 36 years for the murder or two schoolgirls more than three decades ago. Bishop, now 52, sexually assaulted and strangled Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in October 1986, when they were nine, in woods about half a mile from Moulsecoomb, the area of Brighton where the girls lived. Sentencing him at the Old Bailey, in London, on Tuesday, Mr Justice Sweeney said: “I have no doubt that you were a predatory paedophile. The terror that each girl must have suffered in their final moments is unimaginable.” The breakthrough in the longest running case in the history of Sussex police came when scientific advances led to DNA evidence providing what the Crown Prosecution Service described as a “one-in-a-billion” match linking Bishop, a convicted paedophile, to a sweatshirt found at the scene of the murders. Bishop had been found not guilty in 1987 but after the new evidence emerged the acquittal was quashed, paving the way for a retrial. On Monday, after an eight-week trial, Bishop was convicted, ending the families’ 32-year fight for justice. Bishop returned to live in the Brighton area after his acquittal, but less than three years later, in February 1990, he committed offences involving the attempted murder, kidnapping and indecent assault of a seven-year-old girl in the Whitehawk area of the city. After she identified Bishop as her attacker, he was convicted in December 1990. The court heard that fibre transfers linked Bishop’s sweatshirt to Karen and Nicola, the murder scene and his home. The court heard that he punched Nicola in the face to “subdue” or “punish” her for being disrespectful to his teenage girlfriend earlier that day. Bishop tried to explain the forensic evidence by claiming he had touched the girls to feel for a pulse on the day after the killings, when he had joined the search for them and was nearby when they were found. However, two teenagers who had spotted the bodies insisted he could not have been that close to them. Bishop’s defence team, under his instructions, also cast suspicion on Nicola’s father, Barrie, reducing the 69-year-old to tears. In a victim impact statement, Karen’s mother, Michelle, described Bishop as an “evil monster” and said having to go through a second trial was “traumatic and heartbreaking”. Sue Eismann, Nicola’s mother, said the death of her daughter had turned her world upside down and spoke of her “sheer hate” for Bishop.[SEP]Bishop denied murder, claiming the evidence could have been contaminated. Tests on a sample from Karen’s left forearm also revealed a “one in a billion” DNA match to Bishop. A sweatshirt discarded on Bishop’s route home was linked to the defendant by DNA, while fibre, paint and traces of ivy placed it at the murder scene in Wild Park. While serving life for attempted murder, Bishop, now 52, was ordered to face a fresh trial under the double jeopardy law in light of a DNA breakthrough. His fresh conviction will see him serve a minimum of 36 years for the two murders. Bishop was 20 years old when he sexually assaulted and strangled the girls in a woodland den in Brighton. He was cleared of their murders in 1987 but within three years went on to kidnap, molest and strangle a seven-year-old girl. PA Ready News UK Nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway were found dead in a woodland den in Brighton in 1986 But the jury rejected his defence and convicted him at the Old Bailey after just two and a half hours, on the anniversary of Bishop’s original acquittal. Bishop refused to attend court for his sentencing at the Old Bailey. Sentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney said: “I have no doubt that you were a predatory paedophile. “The terror that each girl must have suffered in their final moments is unimaginable.” Members of the girls’ families wept and hugged each other after the verdict. Karen’s mother Michelle Hadaway said Bishop was an “evil monster”. In a victim impact statement, she said: “Finally justice has been done and Bishop has been seen as the evil monster he really is. “On October 15 this year he was tried for the second time. That trial has lasted for a couple of months and has finally led to conviction. This is the result we should have had 31 years ago. Having to go through a second trial has been traumatic and heartbreaking for me and my family.” Sue Eismann, Nicola’s mother, told how her world “turned upside down” after the death of her daughter. On her feelings about Bishop, she said: “I have lived with the pain, the loss and sheer hate towards him for what he had done for the last 32 years. “Russell Bishop is a horrible, wicked man. No child is safe if he is allowed to be free.” Barrie Fellows said the loss of Nicola destroyed his relationship with his wife, saying it “tore us apart”. On the false accusations he has faced over the murders, he said: “Thirty-two years is a long time to be suspected of murdering your daughter. When they arrested and charged Russell Bishop I thought that would be the end and we would get some closure. It did not pan out like that. “Since the trial began I have been through every feeling imaginable from hope to sheer dread. “Words cannot describe how I feel about Russell Bishop and the effect it has had on people’s lives.” Members of the girls’ families were embraced by jurors who had all turned up to see Bishop sentenced in his absence. Afterwards, Detective Superintendent Jeff Riley, of Sussex Police, said: “Russell Bishop is a truly wicked man and the life sentence with a minimum term of 36 years reflects the true magnitude of the terrible crimes against these two young girls. “Bishop will hopefully spend the remainder of his life behind bars where he truly belongs and never darken the streets of Brighton again. “This significant term of imprisonment will of course never make up for the loss of Karen and Nicola but I hope their families will take some comfort from it.” - 1984: Russell Bishop is arrested for the Grand Hotel bombing but later found not to be connected. - October 9 1986: Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway go missing while out playing in Wild Park, Brighton, after school. Bishop is seen in the area shortly before. - October 10 1986: Bishop and his dog Misty join the search which ends when two 18-year-olds find their bodies in a woodland den. - October 31 1986: Bishop, who had already been spoken to by police, is formally arrested and interviewed under caution. - December 3 1986: He is remanded in custody after being charged with the murders. - December 7 1987: Bishop’s 16-year-old girlfriend Marion Stevenson first is plied with champagne and interviewed by the News of the World (NotW) at a hotel. - December 10 1987: Bishop is acquitted of the murders. - December 13 1987: NotW publishes a story in which Stevenson claims she saw a video of Nicola in bed with a man and that Bishop’s home had been bugged. - 1988: Stevenson first alleges to police that Nicola’s father Barrie Fellows watched a video of his daughter being abused by the lodger Dougie Judd. - February 4 1990: Bishop abducts a seven-year-old girl and sexually assaults and throttles her, leaving her for dead at Devil’s Dyke. - December 13 1990: Bishop is convicted of her attempted murder and sentenced to life. - December 20 1993: The Pinto sweatshirt is taken to Aldermaston to be examined by forensic scientists. DNA testing at this stage is unsuccessful. - February 1994: Bishop serves an unsuccessful writ against Sussex Police and gives evidence at the High Court. - 1998: Karen’s father Lee Hadaway dies without seeing his daughter’s killer brought to justice. - July 23 2002: The Pinto is submitted to the Forensic Science Service to examine a bloodstained cuff, prompted by a Parole Board hearing. - 2003: The law on double jeopardy is passed, paving the way for Bishop’s acquittal to be quashed if new evidence can be found. - August 2003: Results of DNA testing on the Pinto indicate more than two contributors, but are considered unsuitable for comparison against the National DNA Database. - December 2005: More forensic work is carried out and fibres provide “very strong support” for the suggestion the Pinto was linked to Bishop’s home. Hairs from the Pinto are also linked to Bishop. But the CPS concluded the evidence is not yet strong enough for a retrial. - 2007: Stevenson is interviewed again by police and gives conflicting accounts about the Nicola video. Barrie Fellows and Dougie Judd are interviewed but never charged with any offence. - 2011: A further forensic review is led by LGC Limited in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. - August 2012: Cold case specialist Roy Green, from LGC, receives boxes of retained material from the Forensic Archive, including tapings from the post-mortem examinations of the girls. - November 2013: Detective Superintendent Jeff Riley is appointed senior investigating officer in the cold case. Green informs police he has an almost complete DNA profile matching Bishop on the right cuff of the Pinto. - Mid-2015: Senior scientific adviser Rosalyn Hammond concludes the DNA on the cuff cannot be relied on, due to the possibilities of inadvertent transfer. - June 2015: Green finds fibres and DNA linking Bishop and the victims to the Pinto sweatshirt. Bishop’s DNA was found on a swab from Karen’s left forearm. Dr Louisa Marsh connects the girls to the Pinto by paint flecks, also connected with Bishop’s paintwork. - May 10 2016: Bishop is taken from Frankland prison and re-arrested for the murders. - December 12 2017: Bishop is ordered to stand trial for the murders a second time under double jeopardy rules in light of “new and compelling evidence”. - February 2018: Bishop makes his first appearance at the Old Bailey and denies the murders. - October-December 2018: Bishop goes on trial for the murders. - December 10 2018: Bishop is convicted at the Old Bailey of the crimes, on the 31st anniversary of his acquittal in 1987.[SEP]Babes in the Woods killer Russell Bishop has been described as an “evil monster” by the families of his two young victims as their 32-year fight for justice came to an end. Bishop was 20 years old when he sexually assaulted and strangled nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in a woodland den in Brighton. He was cleared of their murders on December 10 1987 but within three years went on to kidnap, molest and throttle a seven-year-old girl, leaving her for dead at Devils Dyke on the edge of the Sussex seaside city. While serving life for attempted murder, Bishop, now 52, was ordered to face a fresh trial under the double jeopardy law in light of a DNA breakthrough. A sweatshirt discarded on Bishop’s route home was linked to the defendant by DNA while fibre, paint and ivy hairs placed it at the murder scene in Wild Park. Tests on a sample from Karen’s left forearm also revealed a “one in a billion” DNA match to Bishop. Bishop denied murder, claiming the evidence could have been contaminated. But the jury rejected his defence and convicted him at the Old Bailey after just two and a half hours, on the anniversary of Bishop’s original acquittal. Members of the girls’ families wept and hugged each other as the the verdict was delivered. Afterwards, Karen’s mother Michelle Hadaway said Bishop was an “evil monster”. She said: “After 32 years of fighting, we finally have justice for Karen and Nicola. “Time stood still for us in 1986. To us them beautiful girls will always be nine years old. They will never grow up. “What people like Bishop inflict on the families of their victims is a living death.” The Fellows family said: “The guilty verdict doesn’t bring Nicola and Karen back, but we know that other children are now safe from the hands of Russell Bishop. “He is a monster. A predatory paedophile. Russell Bishop truly is evil personified.” The case, dubbed Babes in the Woods murders, shocked the nation in 1986 and blighted the tight-knit community of Moulsecoomb, on the edges of the South Downs in Brighton. It is believed to be the oldest double jeopardy case and Sussex Police’s longest-running murder inquiry. Nicola was a friendly, outgoing girl who would speak her mind, while Karen was sensible, but could also be cheeky, according to their parents. Both were afraid of the dark and Nicola’s father had banned her from playing in Wild Park, even saying the “bogeyman” lived there, the court heard. At around dusk on October 9 1986, Bishop spotted the girls playing in the park near their home and seized his opportunity, the prosecution said. During the attack, he punched Nicola in the face, to “subdue” or “punish” her for being disrespectful to his teenage girlfriend earlier that day, Brian Altman QC suggested. The prosecutor pointed out Bishop’s violent nature, saying he slapped his partner Jennie Johnson when she was pregnant with their second child. The day after the killings, Bishop joined the desperate search for the children, claiming his dog Misty was a trained tracker. He was nearby when two 18-year-olds spotted the bodies and rushed ahead of a police officer. Afterwards, he gave conflicting accounts to police and produced a series of fake alibis. But he described details of the murder scene which only the killer could have known, including foam around the mouth of one of the girls. In the original trial, the prosecution said the girls must have been killed before 6.30pm, by which time Bishop had been seen heading home on foot and the girls were spotted outside a fish and chip shop. But in the retrial, jurors heard the time of death could have been later and Bishop simply doubled back to intercept the children, both of whom he knew. Bishop tailored his defence to the new forensic evidence, claiming he touched the girls to feel for a pulse, even though the 18-year-olds insisted he never got near. Acting on instructions, his defence team cast suspicion on Nicola’s father Barrie, suggesting police spent 32 years investigating the wrong man. During the two-month trial Nicola’s father Mr Fellows, 69, had been reduced to tears over the claims against him. Bishop’s defence also cast doubt on the forensic evidence, suggesting it could have been contaminated. In his 1987 trial, Ms Johnson denied the blue sweatshirt belonged to her partner in the witness box, having previous identified it. In light of the guilty verdict, Sussex Police has refused to rule out investigating her for perjury 31 years later. While Bishop refused to attend court for the verdict, mothers Mrs Hadaway, 61, and Susan Eismann, 69, sat through harrowing evidence for a second time. Karen’s heartbroken father Lee Hadaway died without seeing his daughter’s killer brought to justice. Adjourning sentencing until Tuesday, Mr Justice Sweeney paid tribute to the families’ “extraordinary diginity” throughout the trial. Nigel Pilkington, of Crown Prosecution Service South East, said Bishop was an “extremely dangerous man” who had been convicted on “overwhelming and incontrovertible” evidence. He said: “He is a violent predatory paedophile and he gets cross when you call him that. He also considers himself to be a victim in the sense of the 1990 conviction.” He said Bishop had tried to blame Nicola’s father to create “the most havoc” possible, adding: “There is not a shred of evidence against Barrie Fellows, not realistically at all.” He said: “I still feel it’s a shadow over Brighton to this day. I’m very proud of the investigation we have put together. We have been meticulous. “We have never given up on this investigation.”[SEP]Paedophile Russell Bishop has been handed a life sentence after being convicted of the 1986 Babes in the Woods murder in Brighton. Bishop, 52, was sentenced to life in prison at the Old Bailey today (December 11) and must serve a minimum of 36 years. Yesterday (December 10), a jury found him guilty of murdering nine-year-olds Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in Wild Park, Moulsecoomb 32 years ago. Related stories: Russell Bishop found guilty of murdering two schoolgirls in Brighton – 30 years after being acquitted Families of murdered Brighton schoolgirls ‘united in grief’ after Russell Bishop is convicted He was convicted of killing the girls this week having previously been acquitted of their murders more than 30 years ago. A change in the law on double jeopardy and new forensic evidence meant the case could go before a jury for the second time. Bishop had been serving a life sentence after being convicted of kidnapping, indecent assault and attempted murder for a separate case involving a girl in Brighton in 1990. Lorna Heffron, the spokeswoman for Karen and Nicola’s families, said: ““We stand here as two families united in our grief. United in our fight for justice. And now united in our elation at today’s guilty verdict. We are extremely relieved and grateful that our 32 years hard fought battle has been a success, finally getting the rightful long-awaited justice for both of our girls. “We want to thank our police teams and counsel, who have been fantastic during the past couple of decades. If it wasn’t for their efforts and dedication working with us, we wouldn’t be stood here today. Together we have changed history with this ‘double jeopardy’ ruling and we finally have the correct outcome – Russell Bishop remains behind bars where he belongs. “The guilty verdict doesn’t bring Nicola and Karen back, but we know that other children are now safe from the hands of Russell Bishop. He is a monster. A predatory paedophile. Russell Bishop truly is evil personified.”[SEP]Babes in the Woods "monster" Russell Bishop has been jailed for at least 36 years for the murders of two schoolgirls 32 years ago. The 52-year-old convicted paedophile was found guilty of killing nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, bringing to an end two families' long fight for justice. Bishop was 20 years old when he sexually assaulted and strangled the girls in a woodland den in Brighton in October 1986. He was cleared of their murders on December 10 1987 but within three years went on to kidnap, molest and throttle a seven-year-old girl, leaving her for dead at Devils Dyke. While serving life for attempted murder, Bishop, now 52, was ordered to face a fresh trial under the double jeopardy law, in light of a DNA breakthrough. A Pinto sweatshirt discarded on Bishop's route home was linked to the defendant by DNA, while fibre, paint and ivy transfers placed it at the scene. Tests on a sample from Karen's left forearm also revealed a "one in a billion" DNA match to Bishop. Bishop responded by trying to cast suspicion on Nicola's devastated father Barrie. He tailored his evidence to counter the new forensic evidence, claiming to have touched the bodies to feel for a pulse after they were found by two 18-year-olds. But jurors took just two-and-a-half hours to see through the web of lies and convict Bishop on the "overwhelming" evidence on the 31st anniversary of his acquittal. Bishop refused to attend court for his sentencing at the Old Bailey. Handing him a life sentence on Tuesday with a minimum term of 36 years, Mr Justice Sweeney said: "I have no doubt that you were a predatory paedophile. "The terror that each girl must have suffered in their final moments is unimaginable." Members of the girls' families wept and hugged each other after the verdict. Karen's mother Michelle Hadaway said Bishop was an "evil monster". In a victim impact statement, she said: "Finally Justice has been done and Bishop has been seen as the evil monster he really is. "On October 15 this year he was tried for the second time. That trial has lasted for a couple of months and has finally led to conviction. This is the result we should have had 31 years ago. Having to go through a second trial has been traumatic and heartbreaking for me and my family." Sue Eismann, Nicola's mother, told how her world "turned upside down" after the death of her daughter. On her feelings about Bishop, she said: "I have lived with the pain, the loss and sheer hate towards him for what he had done for the last 32 years. "Russell Bishop is a horrible, wicked man. No child is safe if he is allowed to be free." Barrie Fellows said the loss of Nicola destroyed his relationship with his wife, saying it "tore us apart". On the false accusations he has faced over the murders, he said: "Thirty-two years is a long time to be suspected of murdering your daughter. When they arrested and charged Russell Bishop I thought that would be the end and we would get some closure. It did not pan out like that. "Since the trial began I have been through every feeling imaginable from hope to sheer dread. "Words cannot describe how I feel about Russell Bishop and the effect it has had on people's lives."[SEP]Paedophile Russell Bishop has been handed a life sentence after being convicted of the 1986 Babes in the Woods murder in Brighton. Bishop, 52, was sentenced to life in prison at the Old Bailey today (December 11) and must serve a minimum of 36 years. Yesterday (December 10), a jury found him guilty of murdering nine-year-olds Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in Wild Park, Moulsecoomb 32 years ago. Related stories: Russell Bishop found guilty of murdering two schoolgirls in Brighton – 30 years after being acquitted Families of murdered Brighton schoolgirls ‘united in grief’ after Russell Bishop is convicted He was convicted of killing the girls this week having previously been acquitted of their murders more than 30 years ago. A change in the law on double jeopardy and new forensic evidence meant the case could go before a jury for the second time. Bishop had been serving a life sentence after being convicted of kidnapping, indecent assault and attempted murder for a separate case involving a girl in Brighton in 1990. Lorna Heffron, the spokeswoman for Karen and Nicola’s families, said: ““We stand here as two families united in our grief. United in our fight for justice. And now united in our elation at today’s guilty verdict. We are extremely relieved and grateful that our 32 years hard fought battle has been a success, finally getting the rightful long-awaited justice for both of our girls. “We want to thank our police teams and counsel, who have been fantastic during the past couple of decades. If it wasn’t for their efforts and dedication working with us, we wouldn’t be stood here today. Together we have changed history with this ‘double jeopardy’ ruling and we finally have the correct outcome – Russell Bishop remains behind bars where he belongs. “The guilty verdict doesn’t bring Nicola and Karen back, but we know that other children are now safe from the hands of Russell Bishop. He is a monster. A predatory paedophile. Russell Bishop truly is evil personified.” After sentencing, Detective Superintendent Jeff Riley said: “Russell Bishop is a truly wicked man and the life sentence with a minimum term of 36 years reflects the true magnitude of the terrible crimes against these two young girls. “Bishop will hopefully spend the remainder of his life behind bars where he truly belongs and never darken the streets of Brighton again. “This significant term of imprisonment will of course never make up for the loss of Karen and Nicola but I hope their families will take some comfort from it.”[SEP]After 32 years, paedophile Russell Bishop has finally been convicted of the "babes in the wood" murders after advanced forensic techniques revealed his DNA linked him to his young victims through a discarded sweatshirt. The jury heard new evidence showed he had left skin flakes containing his DNA - a billion-to-one match - on the arm of the girls he sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in a woodland den. Nigel Pilkington, senior lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "The pathologist took a taping from Karen's left forearm that has been kept in the archive as a matter of historical fact. "It's just been there. It's like a piece of Sellotape, you can't see anything. "There is no blood there, but after 32 years it revealed its secret which is that it contained Bishop's DNA." In police interviews in 1986 and on his rearrest in 2016, Bishop changed his story several times about whether he touched the girls' bodies after joining the two young men who found them. Confronted with the new evidence of his DNA on Karen's arm, he eventually claimed he had taken her pulse to see if she was still alive. In a bid to ensure Bishop did not get away with the girls' murder again, Sussex Police brought in the same cold case forensics team which had helped convict the racist killers of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. In retesting the sweatshirt, investigators found another billion-to-one match to Bishop's DNA. They also found its fibres on the clothes of victims Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway and fibres from their clothes on the sweatshirt. The sweatshirt had on it Bishop's hairs and fibres from clothes taken from his home. It also contained fragments of maroon paint from a car he had resprayed. Similar paint fragments were also found on the girls' clothes. The sweatshirt was spotted by searchers on grass not far from the murder scene in Wild Park and on Bishop's route home from there. He claimed the sweatshirt was not his. There was other forensic evidence from an expert from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, who examined ivy hairs found on the sweatshirt and the girls' clothes. She concluded they matched ivy that grew prolifically in the den where the bodies were found. Prosecutor Brian Altman said: "The science alone is quite simply so overwhelming as to prove not only that this defendant wore the sweatshirt, but also that it was worn by him when he killed those two girls." Also crucial in the prosecution case was the evidence that three years after his original acquittal for the murders, Bishop kidnapped, sexually assaulted and tried to kill another young girl. Unusually, jurors were given details of the conviction, for which Bishop is still in jail. None of this would have counted for anything until the scrapping of the double jeopardy law in 2005. The abolition meant that suspects could in future be tried twice for the same offence, so long as there was "new, compelling, reliable and substantial evidence".[SEP]A convicted paedophile who was found guilty of murdering two nine-year-old girls in 1986 has been jailed for life. Russell Bishop, 52, was tried for the second time over the deaths of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway when new evidence linked him to the crime after he was cleared of their murders in 1987. The girls were sexually assaulted and strangled in a den in Wild Park, Brighton, more than three decades ago. He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years. Bishop declined to attend the Old Bailey to hear his sentencing. He was initially acquitted of the murders but tests revealed a "one-in-a-billion" DNA match from a sample taken from Karen's left forearm. A Pinto sweatshirt which had been discarded on Bishop's route home was linked to him by DNA, while fibre, paint and ivy transfers placed it at the scene of the crime. Their mothers described Bishop, who was aged 20 at the time, as an "evil monster" after 32 years of fighting for justice. Speaking after the Old Bailey verdict, 31 years to the day Bishop was first acquitted, Karen's mother Michelle Hadaway said she was "relieved". Although Bishop, a former roofer, was originally cleared of the "babes in the wood" murders, within three years he was sentenced to life for the kidnap, sexual assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl at Devil's Dyke on the South Downs. Giving evidence earlier in the trial, Bishop said he feared he would be blamed when he joined the search to find the girls on 10 October 1986. He told jurors he had been wrongly arrested in connection to a bombing at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, and said he had been "sickened" when he first saw the victims' bodies in the woods after the girls had been found. He had also tried to cast suspicion on Nicola's father Barrie. A jury at the Old Bailey took just two-and-a-half-hours to convict Bishop. Mr Justice Sweeney said: "I have no doubt that you were a predatory paedophile. "The terror that each girl must have suffered in their final moments is unimaginable." Sue Eissman, Nicola's mother, said: "I have lived with the pain, the loss and sheer hate towards him for what he had done for the last 32 years. "Russell Bishop is a horrible, wicked man. No child is safe if he is allowed to be free." Mr Fellows, Nicola's father, who had been accused of the murders, said: "Thirty-two years is a long time to be suspected of murdering your daughter. When they arrested and charged Russell Bishop I thought that would be the end and we would get some closure. It did not pan out like that. "Since the trial began I have been through every feeling imaginable from hope to sheer dread. "Words cannot describe how I feel about Russell Bishop and the effect it has had on people's lives."

Russell Bishop is convicted of the murder of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows. He had been tried and found not guilty of the crimes in 1987, but the acquittal was quashed as new evidence in the form of DNA was now available. Bishop had been convicted in December 1990 of the abduction, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl in February of that year.

KYODO NEWS - Dec 10, 2018 - 15:10 | Urgent, All, Japan Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, his close aide Greg Kelly and the Japanese automaker were indicted Monday over an alleged underreporting of about 5 billion yen ($44.5 million) of Ghosn's remuneration in the company's financial statements during the five years through March 2015. Ghosn and Kelly were also served fresh arrest warrants the same day for continuing the misconduct through March 2018, a move which may lead to up to an additional 20 days of detention through Dec. 30 and sparking further criticism from overseas over what is viewed as harsh treatment of the once-admired businessman. Ghosn, 64, who is credited with having rescued Nissan from near-bankruptcy in the 1990s, was arrested by prosecutors on Nov. 19 on a charge of violating a financial law by making misstatements in the reports for the five fiscal years from fiscal 2010. Kelly, a 62-year-old former Nissan representative director, was also arrested along with Ghosn for conspiracy. Japanese law sets detention limits for a suspect of 22 days for an arrest warrant served by prosecutors. The deadline for the two executives' initial detention period is Monday, but a fresh arrest warrant would allow the prosecutors to keep them in custody at a Tokyo detention center for a longer period and conduct further interrogation. In total, Ghosn is suspected of having failed to report around 9 billion yen of his pay. Japan's securities watchdog, meanwhile on Monday, filed a criminal complaint against Ghosn, Kelly and Nissan over the 5 billion yen of underreporting. The detention of Ghosn and Kelly and their prolonged interrogation without the presence of a lawyer have sparked some criticism outside Japan. While visits by people from outside the detention center are restricted, lawyers and embassy officials are allowed to meet them. Ghosn and Kelly have admitted to the prosecutors that the former chairman's remuneration was not entirely stated in the reports, but have claimed that it was not necessary to do so because how much he would receive after his retirement had yet to be settled, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. The prosecutors believe the payments were fixed as they have obtained documents on his post-retirement compensation signed by Ghosn. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa was also found to have signed documents on post-retirement payments crafted by Kelly. The prosecutors have questioned Saikawa on a voluntary basis, believing he knows why and how they were created. Ghosn has told the prosecutors he did not report the full amount because he did not want company workers to become unmotivated after learning about his high pay package, according to the sources.[SEP]Carlos Ghosn, the powerful auto executive who recently lost his role as chairman of Nissan, has been formally indicted on charges that he underreported his income to Japanese authorities. The Nissan Motor Co. as well as a top aide to Ghosn also were indicted, accused of assisting in the financial misconduct, state broadcaster NHK reports. Ghosn, who was arrested and ousted as chairman after the allegations were made last month, was detained without charges for 22 days — the maximum length allowed under Japanese law. But he's not tasting freedom yet. In addition to indicting him on Monday, authorities also served him a fresh arrest warrant, based on their belief that Ghosn's alleged fraud lasted longer than originally believed. That will allow authorities to detain and interrogate Ghosn for three more weeks, Kyodo News Agency reports. Ghosn was a titan in the automobile industry. He was venerated for orchestrating a remarkable turnaround at Nissan, which was edging near bankruptcy when he took the reins. And he simultaneously led Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi, arranging the three companies into a powerful, successful alliance. Mitsubishi removed Ghosn from his post as chairman after his arrest. But his future at Renault is not yet clear. The case has brought international scrutiny to Japan's judicial system, which has a conviction rate of more than 99 percent after indictment. France 24 spoke to lawyer and former prosecutor Nobuo Gohara about the factors driving that astonishing figure. " Few judges are willing to deliver an innocent verdict. And this has led to some false convictions," he said. "The biggest problem is the so-called hostage-based criminal justice system. Suspects who insist on their innocence tend to remain in custody for a long time. This is linked to Japan's high confession rate, and the assumption that a suspect who denies wrongdoing deserves to suffer disadvantage." Even a high-profile scandal involving prosecutors caught tampering with evidence has not led to real reforms, Gohara says. Last month, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial saying Ghosn's arrest "ought to trouble anyone concerned with due process and corporate governance in Japan." The Journal asked why Nissan wasn't aware of the alleged financial misconduct earlier, why the "publicly available facts" are so opaque, and why this case is being handled much more aggressively than recent accounting scandals at Toshiba and Olympus. Both the Journal and Gohara also criticized the Japanese media, which regularly publishes leaked details about alleged criminal behavior, and has continued to do so in Ghosn's case.[SEP]TOKYO – Japanese media reported Monday that prosecutors have added to charges against Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, extending his detention following his arrest on Nov. 19. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it had filed criminal complaints against Ghosn and another Nissan executive, Greg Kelly. A commission official said Monday that Nissan, Ghosn and Kelly were suspected of falsifying millions of dollars’ worth of Ghosn’s income. In Japan, a company can be charged with wrongdoing. The prosecutors say Ghosn is suspected of underreporting his income by 5 billion yen ($44 million) over five years. The allegations newly reported on Monday would increase that amount by 4 billion yen ($36 million). Some kind of action by the prosecutors had been expected because the detention period allowed for allegations disclosed earlier was to end on Monday. More: Board of Japanese automaker Nissan fires Carlos Ghosn as chairman More: Mitsubishi Motors fires Carlos Ghosn as chairman following arrest Kelly, 62, is suspected of having collaborated with Ghosn. Kelly’s attorney in the U.S. says he is asserting his innocence. Both men were dismissed from their managerial roles at Nissan following their arrests. Ghosn was sent to Nissan by its partner Renault SA of France in 1999. He led a dramatic turnaround the near-bankrupt Japanese automaker. But Ghosn’s star-level pay has drawn attention since executives in Japan tend to be paid far less than their international counterparts. Only Ghosn’s attorneys and embassy officials from Lebanon, France and Brazil, where he has citizenship, have been allowed to visit him. More: Nissan's Carlos Ghosn reportedly used car maker's money to buy personal homes, pay sister[SEP]Carlos Ghosn, who was fired last month as chairman of Nissan Motor Co., a close aide and Nissan itself were indicted Monday and accused of concealing as much as $45 million in Ghosn's income and using Nissan funds to buy personal homes abroad, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported. Ghosn (pronounced "Gohn"), who is already in jail in Tokyo in connection with the case, could face up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted. The formal charges came the same day Ghosn and his former chief of staff, Greg Kelly, would have had to have been released after 22 days of detention had they not been charged or arrested under a new warrant, Kyodo reported. Ghosn and Kelly were fired last month after Nissan said an internal investigation, prompted by a whistleblower, had found serious misconduct; they were arrested Nov. 19 on suspicion of having failed to report all of their income over five years. Nissan said at the time that "numerous other significant acts of misconduct have been uncovered — such as personal use of company assets — and Kelly's deep involvement has also been confirmed." Ghosn and Kelly have admitted to prosecutors that Ghosn's pay wasn't fully reported, but they claimed that it didn't have to be because it could have been recorded as compensation after his retirement, Kyodo reported, citing sources with knowledge of the investigation. Ghosn has been credited with rescuing Nissan from near-bankruptcy in 1999, when Groupe Renault bought a stake in Nissan and installed Ghosn to turn it around after it had run up massive amounts of debt. Nissan quickly recovered under his leadership, and Ghosn was soon elevated to chief executive not only of Nissan but also of the parent Renault-Nissan Alliance, making him a superstar in the automotive world.[SEP]TOKYO—Japanese prosecutors on Monday indicted former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn on charges of underreporting his compensation on five years of Nissan’s financial reports, Kyodo News reported. In addition, Nissan as a company was indicted over the same charges, Kyodo said. A Nissan representative declined to comment.[SEP]Monday morning Japanese prosecutors issued fresh indictments for Carlos Ghosn and his close aide Greg Kelly. However, it wasn't just the duo who masterminded the underreporting of Ghosn's income that got indicted, but prosecutors have also announced an indictment against the corporate entity of Nissan Motor Co, according to Fortune. While already jailed on previous charges, Ghosn and Kelly were reportedly re-arrested, this time formally charged with additional counts of financial misconduct alongside their employer. Newest charges allege an additional $38 million (4.2 billion JPY) in underreported income from 2015 until 2018, a number which joins the original accusation of $44 million (5 billion yen) in fraudulently obtained income from 2010 until 2015. Nissan confirmed its indictment, by issuing a statement parallel to the charges levied against the corporation. “Making false disclosures in annual securities reports greatly harms the integrity of Nissan’s public disclosures in the securities markets, and the company expresses its deepest regret,” said Nissan, “Nissan will continue its efforts to strengthen its governance and compliance, including making accurate disclosures of corporate information.” Since his initial arrest in mid-November, Nissan has ousted Ghosn as board chairman, a decision which was swiftly matched by Mitsubishi. The remaining alliance partner, Renault, declined to dethrone Ghosn. According to reports, Ghosn planned to bring a proposal to Nissan's board which would end the former-CEO's hiatus from being Nissan's management team, effectively overthrowing current CEO Hiroto Saikawa. However, his plans were foiled after tips from a whistleblower resulted in Nissan's investigation, and ultimately Ghosn's arrest. Over a length spanning nearly nine years, a total figure of $82 million was not reported by Ghosn, who allegedly hid the income by instructing Kelly to circulate memos internally rather than formally report the income on Nissan's financial statements. The income when then funneled through a series of Nissan-established entities staged in tax haven countries and poured into houses and condos around the world. If convicted, Ghosn and Kelly could face up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $89,000 (10 million JPY), or potentially both. Nissan faces a fine of up to $6.2 million (700 million JPY).[SEP]Prosecutors have charged Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, another executive and the automaker itself for allegedly violating financial laws by underreporting income. The charges imposed Monday involve allegations Ghosn’s pay was underreported by about 5 billion yen (US$44 million) in 2011 through 2015. The prosecutors said earlier the allegations were the reason for Ghosn’s arrest on Nov. 19. The arrest of an industry icon admired both in Japan and around the world has stunned many and raised concerns over the Japanese automaker and the future of its alliance with French carmaker Renault. The prosecutors issued statements Monday outlining new allegations against Ghosn and Greg Kelly, the other executive. Those are of underreporting another 4 billion yen (US$36 million) in 2016 through 2018. Nissan as a company was not mentioned in the latest allegations, which did not give details about the income thought to have been underreported. In Japan, a company can be charged with wrongdoing. A court date is still undecided as the prosecutors continue to question Ghosn and Kelly. The maximum penalty for violating Japan’s financial laws, as the prosecutors allege, is 10 years in prison, a 10-million-yen (US$89,000) fine, or both. Some kind of action by the prosecutors had been expected because the detention period allowed for the allegations disclosed earlier was to end on Monday. Nissan confirmed the charges against it in a statement and vowed to strengthen its governance and compliance. “Nissan takes this situation extremely seriously,” it said. “Making false disclosures in annual securities reports greatly harms the integrity of Nissan’s public disclosures in the securities markets, and the company expresses its deepest regret.” Kelly, 62, an American, is suspected of having collaborated with Ghosn. Kelly’s attorney in the U.S., Aubrey Harwell, told The Associated Press earlier this month that his client is asserting his innocence. He said insiders at Nissan and outside experts had said the handling of the income reporting was legal. Ghosn was ousted as Nissan chairman and Kelly lost his representative director title following their arrests. They both remain on Nissan’s board pending a shareholder’s meeting. Ghosn, 64, was sent to Nissan by its partner Renault SA of France in 1999. He led a dramatic turnaround of the near-bankrupt Japanese automaker. But his star-level compensation drew attention since executives in Japan tend to be paid far less than their international counterparts. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference Monday that relations between Japan and France are unshakable despite concerns over the future of Nissan’s alliance with Renault after Ghosn’s indictment. “It is important to maintain stability in the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance, which is a symbol of industrial co-operation between Japan and France,” he told a televised news conference Monday, adding that Japan will promote improved corporate governance in line with global standards. It is typical in the Japanese legal system for there to be little access to comment by suspects. Prosecutors have also said little. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it had filed criminal complaints against Ghosn, Nissan and Kelly, paving the way for the prosecutors to charge them. A commission official said Monday that Nissan, Ghosn and Kelly were suspected of falsifying reports on millions of dollars’ worth of Ghosn’s income. Nissan has said that an internal investigation found three types of misconduct: underreporting income to financial authorities, using investment funds for personal gain and illicit use of company expenses.[SEP]Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, another executive and the carmaker itself have been charged by prosecutors in Tokyo with under-reporting income. The charges imposed on Monday involve allegations Ghosn’s pay was under-reported by about five billion yen (£34 million) over five years. The prosecutors had said earlier that the allegations were behind Ghosn’s November 19 arrest. They added a new set of allegations on Monday against Ghosn and another executive, Greg Kelly, of under-reporting another four billion yen (£28 million) for more recent years. Nissan as a company was not mentioned in the latest allegations. In Japan, a company can be charged with wrongdoing. Some kind of action by the prosecutors had been expected because the detention period allowed for the allegations disclosed earlier was to end on Monday. Kelly, 62, is suspected of having collaborated with Ghosn. Kelly’s lawyer in the US said he is asserting his innocence. He has been ousted as Nissan chairman and Kelly lost his representative director title following their arrests, but they both remain on the board. Ghosn, 64, was sent to Nissan by its partner Renault SA of France in 1999 and led a dramatic turnaround of the near-bankrupt Japanese carmaker. But Ghosn’s star-level pay drew attention since executives in Japan tend to be paid far less than their international counterparts. Only Ghosn’s lawyers and embassy officials from Lebanon, France and Brazil, where he has citizenship, have been allowed to visit him. Nissan said in a statement: “Nissan takes this situation extremely seriously. Making false disclosures in annual securities reports greatly harms the integrity of Nissan’s public disclosures in the securities markets, and the company expresses its deepest regret.” The statement said Nissan would work to improve its corporate governance and compliance, “including making accurate disclosures of corporate information”. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it had filed criminal complaints against Ghosn, Nissan and Kelly. A commission official said on Monday that Nissan, Ghosn and Kelly were suspected of falsifying reports on millions of dollars’ worth of Ghosn’s income.[SEP]TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo prosecutors indicted Nissan Motor along with its ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn, domestic media reported on Monday, shifting the focus of the financial misconduct scandal to the Japanese automaker and its CEO's responsibility. Ghosn was arrested on Nov. 19 on suspicion of conspiring to understate his compensation by about half of the actual 10 billion yen ($88 million) over five years from 2010. Nissan, which fired Ghosn as chairman a few days later, has said the misconduct was masterminded by the once-celebrated executive with the help of former Representative Director Greg Kelly, who was indicted along with Ghosn, according to the reports. Nissan itself was indicted on Monday for making false statements in annual reports, they said. Tokyo authorities also plan to re-arrest the two executives, sources said, declining to be named as they were not authorized to speak with media. Media reports have said the fresh crime was for three additional years of under-reported income. The two would then remain in custody without bail. The Tokyo prosecutors' office said it could not comment. Nissan said earlier that it was cooperating with the prosecutors' office and providing them with information related to misconducts. A separate source said there were concerns running through the company that Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa and others may also be indicted. Analysts have said it could be difficult for Nissan to avoid blame, whether it turns out that other executives had knowledge of Ghosn's misconduct, or that the company lacked adequate internal controls. "Normally, if it's falsifying the financial filings, the company as well as the perpetrator is charged. That's not surprising. It's to be expected," said prominent lawyer and former prosecutor Nobuo Gohara. "Now suddenly the issue of CEO Saikawa becomes bigger. It becomes difficult to overlook Saikawa's role in all of this. That becomes the main focus now." Ghosn and Kelly have not made any statement through their lawyers, but Japanese media reported that they have denied the allegations. Calls to Ghosn's lawyer, Motonari Otsuru, at his office went unanswered.[SEP]The Latest: Nissan says taking charges against it seriously TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on charges against former Nissan Motor Co. chairman Carlos Ghosn following his arrest on suspicion of underreporting income (all times local): Nissan Motor Co. says in a statement that it is taking "extremely seriously" charges made against it, its former chairman Carlos Ghosn and another executive. The automaker issued the statement Monday after it, Ghosn and Greg Kelly were indicted on charges of violating the Japan Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, by allegedly making false disclosures in annual securities reports. It said, "Nissan takes this situation extremely seriously. Making false disclosures in annual securities reports greatly harms the integrity of Nissan's public disclosures in the securities markets, and the company expresses its deepest regret." The statement said Nissan would work to improve its corporate governance and compliance, "including making accurate disclosures of corporate information." Tokyo prosecutors charged Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, another executive and the automaker itself with underreporting income. The charges imposed Monday involve allegations Ghosn's pay was underreported by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) over five years. The prosecutors had said earlier that the allegations were behind Ghosn's Nov. 19 arrest. The prosecutors added a new set of allegations Monday against Ghosn and Greg Kelly, the other executive, of underreporting another 4 billion yen ($36 million) for more recent years. Nissan as a company was not mentioned in the latest allegations. In Japan, a company can be charged with wrongdoing. Japanese media say prosecutors have added to charges against Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, extending his detention following his arrest on Nov. 19. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it had filed criminal complaints against Ghosn and another Nissan executive, Greg Kelly. A commission official said Monday that Nissan, Ghosn and Kelly were suspected of falsifying millions of dollars' worth of Ghosn's income. In Japan, a company can be charged with wrongdoing. Kyodo News Service and other Japanese media reported Monday that prosecutors added more allegations of underreported income. The fresh allegations allow them to extend the period of Ghosn's detention. Some kind of action by the prosecutors had been expected as the detention period allowed for the allegations disclosed earlier ends on Monday. Japanese media say Tokyo prosecutors have charged Nissan former chairman Carlos Ghosn with underreporting his income. Another executive and Nissan Motor Co. also were charged. Prosecutors would not immediately confirm the reports Monday by Kyodo News service and other media. They were due to brief media later in the day. The prosecutors say Ghosn is suspected of underreporting his income by 5 billion yen ($44 million) over five years. In Japan, a company can be charged with wrongdoing. Some kind of action by the prosecutors had been expected as the detention period allowed for the allegations disclosed so far ends on Monday. Nissan executive Greg Kelly is suspected of having collaborated with Ghosn. Kelly's attorney in the U.S. says he is asserting his innocence.

Nissan, the company's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, and an aide are indicted on charges that Ghosn underreported about ¥5 billion ($44.5 million) of his income. Ghosn's arrest warrant is renewed.

EDMONTON — Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr wants to be granted a Canadian passport to travel to Saudi Arabia and permission to speak to his controversial sister. Khadr, who is now 32, will be back in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton Thursday to apply for changes to his bail conditions which were imposed while he appeals war crime convictions by a U.S. military commission. An affidavit by Khadr filed with the court says the impact of his bail conditions are mainly psychological — a daily reminder of what he went through. “I feel like the indefinite and potentially endless detention that I suffered in Guantanamo Bay is continuing,” he wrote. “I hope that there will be some end to this process, but there is none in sight.” Khadr spent years in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay after he was caught when he was 15 and accused of tossing a grenade that killed special forces soldier Christopher Speer at a militant compound in Afghanistan in 2002. I feel like the indefinite and potentially endless detention that I suffered in Guantanamo Bay is continuing He says in his affidavit that he would like to be able to speak on the phone or over Skype to his sister Zaynab Khadr. He is also asking to perform the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia which is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims once in their lifetime. “For this reason, I would like to apply for a Canadian passport,” he said in the document. Zaynab Khadr has spoken in favour of al-Qaida and was investigated in Canada more than a decade ago for helping the terrorist network, but she was never charged. “My sister Zaynab is not presently in Canada,” Khadr said in the document. “She is living with her husband and family. As far as I am aware, she is not in any sort of trouble.” The rules of Khadr’s bail allow him to meet with her but only in the presence of his bail supervisor or one of his lawyers. Khadr also needs permission to travel outside Alberta, and has made several trips to Toronto both to visit his family and deal with a civil lawsuit there to enforce a judgement granted against him in Utah. In his affidavit, Khadr said he has been volunteering with an organization that helps refugees integrate into the community and has earned his high school diploma. Khadr said he is happily married and was accepted into a nursing program, but has been unable to devote himself to study due to his legal issues. “My reintegration into the community has been filled with happiness and not bitterness,” he wrote. “I have no anger towards anyone and I have been getting on with my life. I have made many friends, and I am proud and happy to be a Canadian citizen living in Canada. “I have not gotten into any trouble of any kind with the authorities.” His case has ignited sharp and divisive debate among Canadians over terrorism, human rights and the rule of law since the summer of 2017 when it was revealed the federal government had settled a lawsuit filed by him for a reported $10.5 million. The payout followed a ruling by Canada’s Supreme Court in 2010 that Khadr’s charter rights were violated at Guantanamo and that Canadian officials contributed to that violation.[SEP]Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr wants to be granted a Canadian passport to travel to Saudi Arabia and permission to speak to his controversial sister. Khadr, who is now 32, will be back in the Court of Queen's Bench in Edmonton Thursday to apply for changes to his bail conditions which were imposed while he appeals war crime convictions by a U.S. military commission. An affidavit by Khadr filed with the court says the impact of his bail conditions are mainly psychological — a daily reminder of what he went through. "I feel like the indefinite and potentially endless detention that I suffered in Guantanamo Bay is continuing," he wrote. "I hope that there will be some end to this process, but there is none in sight." Khadr spent years in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay after he was caught when he was 15 and accused of tossing a grenade that killed special forces soldier Christopher Speer at a militant compound in Afghanistan in 2002. He says in his affidavit that he would like to be able to speak on the phone or over Skype to his sister, Zaynab Khadr. He is also asking to perform the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims once in their lifetime. "For this reason, I would like to apply for a Canadian passport," he says in the document. Zaynab Khadr has spoken in favour of al-Qaeda and was investigated in Canada more than a decade ago for helping the terrorist network, but she was never charged. "My sister Zaynab is not presently in Canada," Khadr said in the document. "She is living with her husband and family. As far as I am aware, she is not in any sort of trouble." The rules of Khadr's bail allow him to meet with her but only in the presence of his bail supervisor or one of his lawyers. Permission to leave Alberta Khadr also needs permission to travel outside Alberta, and has made several trips to Toronto both to visit his family and deal with a civil lawsuit there to enforce a judgment granted against him in Utah. In his affidavit, Khadr said he has been volunteering with an organization that helps refugees integrate into the community and has earned his high school diploma. Khadr said he is happily married and was accepted into a nursing program, but has been unable to devote himself to study due to his legal issues. "My reintegration into the community has been filled with happiness and not bitterness," he wrote. "I have no anger towards anyone and I have been getting on with my life. I have made many friends, and I am proud and happy to be a Canadian citizen living in Canada. "I have not gotten into any trouble of any kind with the authorities." His case has ignited sharp and divisive debate among Canadians over terrorism, human rights and the rule of law since the summer of 2017 when it was revealed the federal government had settled a lawsuit filed by him for a reported $10.5 million. The payout followed a ruling by Canada's Supreme Court in 2010 that Khadr's charter rights were violated at Guantanamo and that Canadian officials contributed to that violation.[SEP]EDMONTON — Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr wants to be granted a Canadian passport to travel to Saudi Arabia and permission to speak to his controversial sister. Khadr, who is now 32, will be back in the Court of Queen's Bench in Edmonton Thursday to apply for changes to his bail conditions which were imposed while he appeals war crime convictions by a U.S. military commission. An affidavit by Khadr filed with the court says the impact of his bail conditions are mainly psychological — a daily reminder of what he went through. "I feel like the indefinite and potentially endless detention that I suffered in Guantanamo Bay is continuing," he wrote. "I hope that there will be some end to this process, but there is none in sight." Khadr spent years in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay after he was caught when he was 15 and accused of tossing a grenade that killed special forces soldier Christopher Speer at a militant compound in Afghanistan in 2002. He says in his affidavit that he would like to be able to speak on the phone or over Skype to his sister Zaynab Khadr. He is also asking to perform the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia which is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims once in their lifetime. "For this reason, I would like to apply for a Canadian passport," he said in the document. Zaynab Khadr has spoken in favour of al-Qaida and was investigated in Canada more than a decade ago for helping the terrorist network, but she was never charged. "My sister Zaynab is not presently in Canada," Khadr said in the document. "She is living with her husband and family. As far as I am aware, she is not in any sort of trouble." The rules of Khadr's bail allow him to meet with her, but only in the presence of his bail supervisor or one of his lawyers.[SEP]Most of us would have taken the money and run. But not Omar Khadr. He’s back and asking for more. Last summer, when word got out that the government quietly gave the convicted killer $10.5 million, was the last time we had the Khadr debate. Now that Khadr is headed to an Edmonton courthouse on Thursday to ask for his bail conditions to be eased, the debate will rear up all over again. You know the one. Terrorist or child soldier? Victim or villain? Etc. Etc. There’s little in the latest news that is going to advance that conversation. Opinions are hardened. Lines are drawn. What Khadr is seeking is for two restrictions to be dropped: He wants to apply for a Canadian passport so he can visit Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. He also wants to be able to speak unhindered to his sister Zaynab Khadr, who is out of the country. Right now, he can only interact with her if his lawyer or a bail supervisor is present. It’s that second one that’s a window into one of the lesser acknowledged problems with Khadr. The lack of public remorse. The lack of clear regret. And I’m not referring to his regrets at throwing the grenade that killed U.S. army medic Christopher Speer and blinded soldier Layne Morris. While Khadr confessed to those crimes he’s now saying it was under duress, that he didn’t do it and he’s now appealing that conviction. So even if you believe he did it you shouldn’t expect him to show regret for something he’s now arguing he didn’t do it. No, it’s his broader lack of remorse at the entire situation that’s the problem. Khadr’s saga did not begin with the United States taking him into custody (where, don’t forget, he was promptly patched up by their top-notch medics). It began when his father Ahmed Khadr decided to become an extremist, a pal of Osama Bin Laden’s, a financier of Al Qaeda, someone arrested in connection with a deadly Islamabad embassy bombing. And it also began when the father brought the kids along into the family business, making them members of what’s been called Canada’s first family of terror. Where is the remorse for that? When is Khadr going to speak out against that troubled state of affairs? Khadr is asking the courts to let him speak to a sister who had Bin Laden at one of her weddings and who mourned his passing, who defended the 9/11 attacks and who appeared in court to support the Toronto 18 accused. Yet the affidavit Khadr has filed in court doesn’t seem to mention any sort of regret about any of this. It’s like he refuses to publicly acknowledge this entire part of his personal story. “I feel like the indefinite and potentially endless detention that I suffered in Guantanamo Bay is continuing,” Khadr writes in the affidavit. It’s all about him. Of course, family is complicated. It’s possible to have family members commit heinous crimes or for them to hold dreadful and despicable views and still love them. But it’s also not unreasonable for the public to expect you to acknowledge that those crimes, those views, are wrong. We haven’t really seen this from Khadr. To be exceedingly generous here, I don’t expect Khadr to totally throw his kith and kin under the bus. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand he offer some sort of a hat tip to the fact that Zaynab is an undesirable character before we make it easier for him to communicate with her. After all, her sketchy views and past is the reason he’s not allowed to speak alone with her in the first place. Even the pro-Omar, child soldier crowd can’t be blind to this obvious problem. In a CBC documentary from 2015, Toronto Star correspondent Michelle Sheppard suggests that what the adult Omar wishes he could do is have a conversation with his now deceased father, to challenge him about why he sent his son out into battle. That’s a reasonable point to make. Maybe he does feel that way. The only problem is Khadr himself, who also appears in the documentary, doesn’t seem to make this point. Last year, during another CBC appearance, Khadr is directly asked this question – if he’s angry about his family having first put him in this position – and he declines to answer the question. “It’s tough sometimes. But it’s family, you know?” he says. Yes, we all know. Family is complicated. That’s not enough though. He’s asking for bail restrictions to be eased to talk to a sister who approved of 9/11. He’s going to have to do better than that. He’s going to have to clearly and firmly distance himself from his family’s extremism. Until then, he shouldn’t expect any further leniency from the courts and he certainly shouldn’t expectation any from the public.[SEP]Why didn’t you take the money and just disappear? This time, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee wants to be granted a Canadian passport to travel to Saudi Arabia and permission to speak to his controversial sister. WATCH above as Anthony Furey puts Khadr’s latest request in perspective in a new episode of Furey Factor. What do you think? Tweet and Facebook us your thoughts! And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel.[SEP][SEP][SEP][SEP]If you’re still paying for an extended Sears warranty, you’re not the only one. In a report the CBC has interviewed several former customers who are still on the hook for the now worthless warranties. The old Sears credit cards are now owned by ScotiaBank, which told the CBC it has no obligations to service the warranties. Omar Khadr looking for changes to bail conditions He will be asking an Edmonton court on Thursday to alter his bail conditions to also allow him to speak to his sister. Khadr is on bail while he appeals U.S. war crime convictions stemming from a since retracted confession that, when he was 15-years-old, he threw a grenade in Afghanistan that killed an American soldier in 2002. PM looking to mainland Europe for Brexit support Theresa May is looking to Germany for support to change the Brexit deal. The British Prime Minister will be meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel today. Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on March 29th but has run into a number of roadblocks, including May delaying a vote on the deal that was supposed to happen today because it would have been defeated in Parliament. The federal government has brought in a mediator to close out the Canada Post labour dispute. Elizabeth MacPherson has two weeks to work out a deal with the union before she can put a settlement in place through binding arbitration. Postal delivery delays caused by the recent rotating strikes are expected to last into next month. Google+ is getting mothballed much sooner than first planned. That’s thanks to a second bug the company said revealed the data of 52.5 million users to developers in November. A bug back in March, which Google announced in October, compromised as many as 500,000 accounts. A controversial reality show about the Canada Border Services Agency may be making a comeback. An agency spokesperson has told the CBC that it’s looking at reviving Border Security: Canada’s Front Line. This comes two years after the privacy commissioner ruled a migrant worker’s rights were violated by the CBSA during the filming of a raid in Vancouver at a construction site.

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr asks for a Canadian passport to travel to Saudi Arabia and speak with his sister Zaynab Khadr.

PARIS (Reuters) - France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Monday announced wage rises for the poorest workers and tax cuts for pensioners in further concessions meant to defuse weeks of often violent protests that have challenged his authority. In his first national address following France’s worst unrest for years, Macron sought to restore calm and struck a humble tone after accusations his governing style and economic policies were fracturing the country. But he refused to reinstate a wealth tax and to back down on his reform agenda, which he said would proceed in 2019 with overhauls of pensions, unemployment benefits and public expenditures. “We will respond to the economic and social urgency with strong measures, by cutting taxes more rapidly, by keeping our spending under control, but not with U-turns,” Macron said in the 13-minute TV address from the Elysee Palace. His response came 48 hours after protesters fought street battles with riot police, torching cars and looting shops - the fourth weekend of protests for the so-called “yellow vest” movement which started as a revolt against high fuel costs. In measures that are likely to cost billions to state coffers, Macron said people on the minimum wage would see their salaries rise by 100 euros ($113.76) a month in 2019 without extra costs to employers. His labor minister said this would be achieved by government topping up small salaries. Pensioners earning less than 2,000 euros per month will see this year’s increase in social security taxes scrapped, Macron said, going back on a measure that had particularly hurt his popularity with older voters. “The effort we asked for was too big and was not fair.” “I TAKE MY RESPONSIBILITY” Asked whether the budget deficit would be kept below the EU limit of 3 percent, an Elysee official said France had some wiggle room on spending if a one-off tax rebate, which inflates its deficit by 20 billion euros in 2019, was not taken into account. Olivier Dussopt, junior minister for public accounts, said on BFM TV the measures would cost 8-10 billion euros ($9.1-$11.4 billion). Macron faced a delicate task: he needed to persuade the middle class and blue-collar workers that he heard their anger over a squeeze on household spending, without being exposed to charges of caving in to street politics. The 40-year old former investment banker was also under pressure to make amends about cutting remarks he has made about the costs of welfare that critics say made him look aloof and arrogant. French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a special address to the nation, his first public comments after four weeks of nationwide 'yellow vest' (gilet jaune) protests, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France December 10, 2018. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS “No doubt over the past year and a half we have not provided answers that were strong and quick enough. I take my share of responsibility,” he said. “I may have given the impression that I did not care about that, that I had other priorities. I also know that I have hurt some of you with my words.” Political opponents, who have largely failed so far to tap into the discontent from the leaderless “yellow vest”, criticized Macron’s response as insufficient. “Emmanuel Macron thought he could hand out some cash to calm the citizen’s insurrection that has erupted,” said Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the far-left La France Insoumise. “I believe that Act V (of the protests) will play out on Saturday,” he said, referring to a new round of protests planned this weekend. One of the faces of the “yellow vest” movement appeared unconvinced as well. “In terms of substance, these are half measures. We can feel that Macron has got a lot more to give,” Benjamin Cauchy, who met the French leader last week, told France 2 television. (Graphic: impact of unrest on stocks tmsnrt.rs/2RDxLXu) Slideshow (5 Images) (Graphic: impact of unrest on bonds tmsnrt.rs/2JRSanb) (Graphic: French economic growth tmsnrt.rs/2zQhrf0)[SEP]EMBATTLED FRENCH PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron has announced a €100 per month increase in the minimum wage from next year in a major concession to “yellow vest” protesters who have roiled the country. The minimum wage was set at €1,498 per month pre-tax in 2018 and €1,185 after tax. Macron also rolled back most of an unpopular increase in taxes on pensioners which was introduced by his government. In an address to the nation, the 40-year-old former investment banker also struck a more humble tone than usual as he sought to address criticism of his style of leadership. “I know that I have hurt some of you with my statements,” he said. He stressed, however, that the protests by mostly low-income people in small town or rural France were the result of long-term problems. “Their distress doesn’t date from yesterday. We have ended up getting used to it,” he said. “These are forty years of malaise that have come to the surface,” he added. With the protesters vowing to remain at the barricades until their demands are met, Macron’s first public remarks on the crisis in over a week were billed as the most important of his presidency. Le Parisien newspaper hailed the speech as Macron’s “moment of truth” on its front page, warning that if he failed to appease the anger, “France will enter a dangerous period of political instability”. Earlier today, he held four hours of crisis talks at the presidential palace with government ministers, parliamentary leaders, business and labour representatives and regional officials. Elected in May 2017 on a promise to revitalise the sluggish French economy, Macron had voted not to be swayed by street protests. In an attempt to quell the revolt, the government agreed last week to cancel a planned increase in anti-pollution fuel taxes — the spark behind the protests in car-dependent rural and suburban France. But the move was seen as too little, too late by the protesters, who held a fourth round of protests on Saturday to press for further concessions on reducing inequality. The month-long campaign of nationwide road blockades and weekend protests in Paris, three of which degenerated into destruction and looting, have taken a toll on the French economy. The central bank has halved its fourth-quarter growth forecast to just 0.2% from 0.4%, far below the 0.8% growth needed to meet the government’s full-year target of 1.7%. Protests continued up and down the country today, including near Vichy, central France, where a tax office was padlocked by yellow vests who also stopped trucks going in and out of a L’Oreal cosmetics factory. High school students also continued to demonstrate in and around their schools, forcing 40 of them to close. The students have latched on to the yellow vest movement to protest educational reforms, along with plans by Macron to reintroduce a month-long “national service” for young people aged 16 or 17. Embattled French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to offer fresh concessions on Monday to try end the yellow vest protests that have shaken the country and taken a heavy toll on its economy.[SEP]Following four weeks of "Yellow Vest" protests which have erupted into violence at times, French President Emmanuel Macron indicated Monday that his government can no longer ignore the demands of hundreds of thousands of citizens—announcing a minimum wage increase and a cancellation of a tax on retirees, but still refusing to relent on one of his most widely-criticized tax reforms. In a pre-recorded televised address, Macron told the country that the minimum wage would be raised by €100, or $113, per month. As part of the "concrete measures" he said must happen to alleviate the suffering of low- and middle-income French households, a planned tax on pensions under €2,000 will be canceled and overtime pay will be tax-free. The announcement follows weeks of protests which first began in rural areas but have spread across the country, with Parisian officials calling for a lockdown over the weekend after more than 100,000 protesters poured into the city's streets. More than 1,200 demonstrators were arrested on Saturday. On social media, some observers applauded the extreme measures taken by the demonstrators and pointed out that Macron would have been able to ignore the demands of the Yellow Vests if they hadn't forced him to relent. The exact focus of the protests has shifted since they began in mid-November, but central to the message of the Yellow Vests is anger over what they see as Macron's government "for the rich." The government was forced to suspend a fuel tax last week, addressing the original reason for the demonstrations. Commuters from rural areas had grown angry that they would be far more affected by Macron's climate policy than corporate polluters and wealthy people in Paris and other cities. By the time Macron announced that the tax would be delayed, healthcare workers and students had joined the demonstrations to decry working conditions and education reforms. Macron's address Monday appeared as an urgent attempt to regain control and trust in a country where more than two-thirds of French voters now approve of the Yellow Vests. "I may have given you the impression that this was not my concern, that I had other priorities," Macron told the nation. "I take my share of responsibility." But Macron refused to budge on his massive cut to the government's "wealth tax," which he introduced last year, cutting the taxes of the richest French households by 70 percent. Previously, organizers denounced Macron's concession regarding the fuel tax as offering the French only "crumbs," and the Yellow Vests suggested Monday that while they've noted their progress, with the "wealth tax" cuts still in place, they hope for further movement from the president. Thierry Paul Valette, an organizer of the demonstrations, told France 24 that the minimum wage hike represents the "start of dialogue certainly." "Meanwhile," he said, "we continue the mobilizations."[SEP]President Emmanuel Macron addressed the French nation Wednesday, promising a 100 euro a month increase in the minimum wage, tax-free overtime pay, and year-end bonuses following the Yellow Vest protests. The French leader immediately denounced the violence of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) at the beginning of his speech, saying “The events of recent weeks in France and overseas have deeply troubled the nation. They have mingled legitimate claims and an unacceptable level of violence,” Le Monde reports. Macron went on to add that, “calm and the Republican Order must prevail” and noted that he understood the anger of the protesters in contrast to those committing violence who he described as having legitimate anger over and have “no hope” due to their financial situations where many are struggling to get by. The first concrete proposal from the French leader was a 100 euro per month increase in the minimum inter-professional growth wage (SMIC) formally known as the guaranteed minimum wage, which will begin in the new year. Next, Macron stated that there would be changes to the Generalized Social Contribution (CSG), a levy which is used to pay for social security, saying that he would cancel payment increases for retirees making less than 2,000 euros per month. “I will ask all employers who can, to pay an end-of-year bonus to employees, which will be tax-free,” Macron added and went on to add that overtime work will not be subject to taxes or other charges starting in 2019. Addressing the Yellow Vests directly Macron said, “I do not forget that there is anger, indignation, and many French people share it,” and took responsibility saying, “I was able to hurt some of you with my comments.” After promising to work with businesses and mayors across the country in the coming weeks, Macron concluded his speech saying, “We will not resume the course of our lives without anything having changed. We are at a historic moment for our country. My only concern is you. My only fight is for you. Our only battle is for France.” Far-left France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, a key supporter of the Yellow Vests, commented on the speech saying, “To the indignation of the large number against the fact that some have everything and others nothing, the president thought that a distribution of money would suffice to calm the current citizen uprising.” “In all that has been announced by Macron, everything will be paid by the people; nothing will be paid by the rich,” he said and called on protesters to gather again on Saturday for “Act V” of the protests which he described as a “moment of great mobilization.” In an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV, a Yellow Vest protester also reacted to the speech saying to Macron, “If you still have respect for your people, resign.” The speech comes after four weeks of protests that have seen some of the worst levels of rioting and violence in France in decades, including this past weekend when over a thousand protestors were arrested and violence occurred not only in Paris but spread across the country to Bordeaux and Toulouse.[SEP]Facing exceptional protests, French President Emmanuel Macron is promising to speed up tax relief for struggling workers and to scrap a tax hike for retirees. The actions were the pledges Macron made on Monday night in his first public comments since protests against his presidency devolved into rioting in the French capital. The French leader reiterated earlier promises to raise the minimum wage and pledged to abolish taxes on overtime pay starting Jan. 1, several months before schedule. He also said a tax hike pensioners faced would be scrapped. All of the measures offered had been demanded by the yellow-vested protesters who have led four weeks of increasingly radicalized demonstrations against Macron's presidency, seen as favoring the rich.[SEP]Trying to quell violent protests across France's major cities, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday introduced a series of new measures he hopes will chart a path out of the political crisis and put an end to the anti-government demonstrations. In a 13-minute speech from the Elysée Palace, Macron declared "a state of social and economic emergency," offering a handful of concessions to his critics, including promises to deliver tax relief for the poor and to cancel a tax increase on retirees. It was his first public address after a week of silence, during which the gilets jaunes — yellow vests — protests continued to wreak havoc and mayhem on the streets of Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Dijon and Toulouse for the fourth weekend in a row. Macron's plan to placate the yellow vests included a 100 euro per month minimum wage hike — equivalent to $114 per month — set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019. He paired the raise with the elimination of tax on overtime and end-of-the-year bonuses, and he encouraged employers "who can" to give bonuses as a way of helping to solve the social crisis in France. He also rescinded a planned tax on pensions that are under 2,000 euro per month. These were among a wide range of demands by the yellow vests protesters, whose movement has gained widespread support after initially rallying against Macron's proposed fuel tax that was supposed to go into effect in January. Macron cancelled the fuel tax last week hoping it would appease protesters and put an end to the rioting and looting in many cities. In the four weeks since they started, the violent demonstrations have caused millions of euros in damages — in Paris alone, the city estimated the Dec. 1 protest caused about 3.4 million euros (nearly $4 million U.S.) in damage. And NPR's Jake Cigainero reported the French commerce federation said businesses have lost at least a billion euros (more than $1.1 billion U.S.) in sales. The president, who has been accused by the yellow vests of being arrogant, out of touch and committed only to representing the interests of the rich, addressed France's struggling middle class and pensioners in soothing and sympathetic tones in the prerecorded speech on Monday. He said he understands the anger against his government runs deep and has been decades in the making. "I may have given you the impression that this was not my concern, that I had other priorities. I take my share of responsibility. I know I have hurt some of you with my words," Macron said. Macron's move to raise wages appeared to go against advice from Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud, who on Sunday told the Associated Press, "there will be no boost for the Smic (minimum wage)," because "it destroys jobs." Cigainero reported that French television station BFM TV, showed yellow vests protesters watching the most anticipated speech of Macron's presidency huddled around small television sets in makeshift encampments. One of them, Alain Bouché, acknowledged the president had made concessions but told the network yellow vest members will decide if Marcon's emergency measures will be enough to stop the demonstrations. "If they're proposing it now, the government could have done it weeks ago," Bouché said. "So why did they wait until there was conflict and violence?" Although he admitted he is partly to blame for the protests, the president condemned the violence seen at yellow vest demonstrations. He said calm and order must reign. "No anger justifies attacking a police officer, a gendarme, or damaging a shop or public building. When violence is unleashed, freedom ends," Macron said. He ended the brief speech by saying he would meet mayors region by region to chart a new program. Then he addressed an issue that has not come up on the long list of demands by the yellow vests: He said his government would take measures to control immigration in what appears to be an attempt to prevent the narrative from being hijacked by the far right.[SEP]French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pledged to cut taxes for pensioners and raise the minimum wage in January but refused to reinstate a wealth tax, as he sought to respond to a wave of protests that have challenged his authority. PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pledged to cut taxes for pensioners and raise the minimum wage in January but refused to reinstate a wealth tax, as he sought to respond to a wave of protests that have challenged his authority. "We will respond to the economic and social urgency with strong measures, by cutting taxes more rapidly, by keeping our spending under control, but not with U-turns," Macron said in a TV address to the nation.[SEP]Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to cut taxes for pensioners and raise the minimum wage in January but refused to reinstate a wealth tax, as he sought to respond to a wave of protests that have challenged his authority. "We will respond to the economic and social urgency with strong measures, by cutting taxes more rapidly, by keeping our spending under control, but not with U-turns," Macron said in a TV address on Monday night. It was the first time he had addressed the nation since the anti-tax protests that resulted in riots in Paris began a month ago. He acknowledged "anger and indignation" among the public over the cost of living, but he also said "no indulgence" would be given to people behind the protest violence. He said "no anger justifies" attacking police or looting stores, saying both threaten France's cherished liberty.[SEP]The Latest on anti-government protests in France (all times local): President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged he's partially responsible for the anger that has fueled weeks of protests in France, an unusual admission for the leader elected last year. In a televised address to the nation, Macron said: "We probably have not been able for a year-and-a-half to bring quick enough and strong enough responses." Macron also acknowledged he may have given an impression "not to care" about the concerns of ordinary citizens and "might have hurt" some people with his comments. Macron is perceived by many in France as arrogant, for instance telling an unemployed man he could find a job if he "crosses the street" and advising a retiree not to complain. Facing exceptional protests, French President Emmanuel Macron is promising to speed up tax relief for struggling workers and to scrap a tax hike for retirees. The actions were the pledges Macron made on Monday night in his first public comments since protests against his presidency devolved into rioting in the French capital. The French leader reiterated earlier promises to raise the minimum wage and pledged to abolish taxes on overtime pay starting Jan. 1, several months before schedule. He also said a tax hike pensioners faced would be scrapped. All of the measures offered had been demanded by the yellow-vested protesters who have led four weeks of increasingly radicalized demonstrations against Macron's presidency, seen as favoring the rich. French President Emmanuel Macron is promising "all means" will be used to restore calm after the disruptive protests that have deeply shaken the nation. On Monday night, Macron addressed France for the first time since anti-tax protests around the country turned into rioting in Paris. Trying to sound gentle and calming, Macron acknowledged "anger and indignation" among members of the public over the cost of living. But he also said "no indulgence" would be given to people behind the protest violence. He said "no anger justifies" attacking police or looting stores, saying both threaten France's cherished liberty. Union representatives say French President Emmanuel Macron gave no information about the measures he is going to announce in a televised address to the nation in the evening. Secretary general of the moderate workers union CFDT Laurent Berger said "we had no answer" about the president's declaration. "We will listen to him with a lot of interest, lots of expectations and some concern as well given the situation," he said. Macron met in his presidential palace with local and national politicians, unions and business leaders to hear their concerns. The morning meeting stretched past lunch and lasted over four hours. Yves Veyrier, secretary general of the left-wing workers union FO, said "we will listen to him to see if we have been heard." Macron is expected to announce a series of measures to reduce taxes and boost purchasing power in a televised speech on Monday evening. French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to speak to the nation at last, after increasingly violent protests against his leadership. Macron is meeting Monday morning with local and national political leaders, unions and business leaders to hear their concerns after four weeks of protests that started in struggling provinces and spread to rioting in the capital. In the evening, he will give a national televised address in which he is expected to propose potential solutions. He hasn't spoken publicly in more than a week, aggravating tensions. The "yellow vest" protesters' demands have mushroomed to include an end to other taxes, a rise in the minimum wage — and Macron's resignation. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on RTL radio Monday that the fallout from protests could cost the economy 0.1 percent of gross domestic product.[SEP]PARIS (AFP) - The French government will on Tuesday (Dec 11) try to convince lawmakers and the public that President Emmanuel Macron's speech met the demands of the "yellow vest" movement, even as many demonstrators said they were disappointed and vowed to press on with their protest. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe will detail for MPs the measures unveiled on Monday in Macron's televised address to the nation seeking to defuse the revolt that has triggered violent protests across the country. Just after the President's speech, many protesters announced their determination to continue their blockades and called for a "fifth act" throughout France on Saturday. It would be the fifth consecutive Saturday of national protests since the movement started on Nov 17. The protests, which have seen rioting in Paris and other cities and taken a heavy financial toll, are the biggest challenge for Macron since the former investment banker came to power in May 2017 promising to revitalise the economy. Since then, his popularity has fallen with critics saying he favours the rich and alienates people struggling, especially in provincial France. Speaking before the National Assembly, the Prime Minister is expected to outline on Tuesday the main measures announced by Macron: a €100 (S$156) increase in the minimum wage and rolling back most of an unpopular increase in taxes on pensioners which were introduced by his government. It is not yet clear how the measures will be financed. Macron will on Tuesday meet representatives of the banking sector and the following day with big companies to ask them to "participate in the collective effort", probably through tax measures. The social measures announced on Monday will cost "between €8 billion and €10 billion, we are in the process of clarifying it, to see also how we will finance it," said Olivier Dussopt, secretary of state to the ministry of public accounts. Macron's speech from the Elysee Palace was presented as a decisive moment for the President. A sombre-looking President told the nation, "I accept my share of responsibility" for the crisis. The former investment banker struck a more humble tone than usual as he sought to address criticism of his style of leadership. "I know that I have hurt some of you with my statements," he said. Macron stressed, however, that the protests by mostly low-income people in small town or rural France were the result of long-term problems. "Their distress doesn't date from yesterday. We have ended up getting used to it," he said. "These are 40 years of malaise that have come to the surface." Among the measures Macron announced was a €100 monthly increase in the minimum wage as of next year, for which businesses would not have to foot the bill. Macron's government had previously suggested that any increase in the minimum wage would destroy jobs rather than help create them. The 40-year-old centrist also called on all businesses "that can afford it" to give employees a one-off "end of year bonus" which would be tax free. In another move to appease protesters' anger, Macron said he would do away with all wage taxes on overtime work. Macron on Monday held four hours of crisis talks with government ministers, parliamentary leaders, business and labour representatives and regional officials. He had previously vowed that unlike his predecessors he would not be swayed by street protests. But in an initial attempt to quell the revolt now in its fourth week, the government agreed last week to cancel a planned increase in anti-pollution fuel taxes - the spark behind the "yellow vest" protests in car-dependent rural and suburban France. But the move was seen as too little, too late by the protesters, who held a fourth round of demonstrations on Saturday to press for further concessions on reducing inequality. Reactions to Macron's speech from the "yellow vests" were hard to judge as the movement is leaderless and has refused to come under the sway of political parties or trade unions. Some protesters, interviewed on French television, acknowledged that Macron had made some "concessions", but added that these were "insufficient" to call the protests off. "This time, there really is some progress. My smile got bigger and bigger as he spoke," said Erwan, one of the movement's "spokesmen" in the north-western town of Rennes. But, for Pierre-Gael Laveder, in the eastern town of Montceau-les-Mines, "Macron hasn't taken the full measure of what is going on". "Every one of his announcements was booed and the first overall reaction was 'he thinks we are fools'," Laveder added.

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the country following the yellow vests protests. While refusing to reinstate a wealth tax or back down on the current reform agenda, he promises an increase to the minimum wage and to remove some taxes on low income earners.

Armenia's My Step Alliance led by acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan won the country's snap parliamentary election held on Dec. 9, winning 70.43 percent of the votes, according to the Central Election Commission on Monday. With 100 percent of the votes counted, the ruling Republican Party of ex-president Serzh Sargsyan only achieved 4.70 percent, failing to exceed the 5 percent threshold necessary to enter parliament.[SEP]Acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s My Step Alliance won the country's snap parliamentary election with over 70 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission said Monday after 100 percent of ballots were counted. "The My Step bloc received 884,400 votes which accounts for 70.45 percent. The Prosperous Armenia party is second with 8.37 percent of the vote (103,800). The Bright Armenia party is third with 6.37 percent of the vote (just over 80,000)," the commission said in a statement on its website, having counted ballots from all 2,010 polling stations. Meanwhile, Armenia's former ruling Republican Party for the first time failed to cross the 5-percent threshold to get into the country's parliament, having ensured only 4.7 percent of the vote. The Republican Party had seats in all successive parliaments from 1995 until now. The Armenian police have received 144 reports of suspected irregularities during the Sunday snap parliamentary elections, the chief of the inspection department of the country’s police said. READ MORE: Pashinyan Invites Renowned US Economist to Restore Armenia’s Economy “On the election day, the police have registered 144 reports, including 58 of them reporting offenses and 86 others not containing obvious indications of crime, but which are subject to verification,” Col. Ashot Sargsyan said at the Central Electoral Commission (CEC)’s briefing. On November 1, the country's president signed a decree to dissolve the parliament after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is seeking to refresh Armenia's political system, resigned in late October in order to give a formal reason for the dissolution of the parliament and thus force early elections. READ MORE: Kremlin Hopes Alliance With Armenia Remains Principle for Both Countries[SEP]YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia’s acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan bolstered his authority in the former Soviet republic as his political bloc won early parliamentary elections which were assessed as democratic. Armenian acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan speaks at news briefing in Yerevan, Armenia December 10, 2018. REUTERS/Hayk Baghdasaryan/Photolure My Step Alliance, including Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party, won 70.4 percent of Sunday’s vote based on results from all polling stations, the Central Election Commission said on its website. Results showed that two moderate opposition parties - Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia - got enough votes to clear the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Monday that the elections respected fundamental freedoms. “The general absence of electoral malfeasance, including of vote-buying and pressure on voters, allowed for genuine competition,” the statement said. Pashinyan came to power in May after weeks of mass protests against corruption and cronyism. The former newspaper editor, who was jailed for stirring up unrest in 2008, marked a dramatic break from the cadre of rulers who have run Armenia since the late 1990s. He stepped down in October so parliament could be dissolved ready for the early election but remained as acting prime minister. “We are not afraid of a challenge of having constitutional majority at the parliament,” Pashinyan told a news conference on Monday, adding that his power was restricted by “rule of law and free media”. He said one of the first steps for a new legislature would be making changes to the South Caucasus country’s tax code in order to give local entrepreneurs more freedom and attract foreign investment. The former ruling Republican Party received 4.70 percent of the vote, not enough to enter parliament. Former high-ranking officials were sacked and some arrested following the change of power. An appeals court ordered the detention of former President Robert Kocharyan on Friday on charges of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order. Kocharyan was Armenia’s second president, serving from 1998-2008, when mass protests erupted over a disputed election. Pashinyan promised there would be no major shifts in Armenian foreign policy and has offered assurances that he will not break with Moscow. “Our country is not under any influence,” he said, adding that Armenia would continue its cooperation with the European Union, although had no plans to join NATO. Armenia hosts a Russian military base and is a member of Russia-led military and economic alliances. Armenian acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan speaks at news briefing in Yerevan, Armenia December 10, 2018. REUTERS/Hayk Baghdasaryan/Photolure Pashinyan also suggested he would stick with existing policies on the long-running issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. A mountainous part of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh is run by ethnic Armenians who declared independence from Baku during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991. Though a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia still regularly accuse each other of conducting attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Azeri-Armenian border.[SEP]YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Soon after the preliminary vote count results of the general election of Armenia were released by the country’s Central Electoral Commission, news media from around the world shifted their spotlight on Armenia. “Armenia’s acting prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has bolstered his authority after his political bloc won early parliamentary elections,” the Guardian said. “Armenian citizens created a revolutionary majority at the parliament,” the British daily newspaper quoted Pashinyan as saying at his bloc’s HQ after the first results were published. Sputnik News noted that the Republican Party of Armenia, the former ruling party, for the first time failed to cross the 5-percent threshold to get into the country's parliament, garnering only 4.7 percent of the vote. “Acting Armenian PM's bloc easily wins parliamentary vote”, Reuters reported. “Armenia's acting PM Nikol Pashinyan wins by landslide”, said Euronews, referring to the overwhelming 70,43% of votes garnered by My Step Alliance, which includes Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party. Nearly 40 foreign news media have accredited at the foreign ministry to cover the general election. Foreign ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan said earlier on Facebook the foreign news outlets have accredited more than 80 journalists. "After the elections, we will be developing Armenian democracy and make an economic revolution happen," France24 quoted Pashinyan telling reporters after casting his ballot on December 9 in Yerevan. “Armenians appeared to overwhelmingly back protest leader and current acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in early parliamentary elections on Sunday”, reported the German Deutsche Welle. The newspaper notes that the former ruling party “suffered a massive defeat and came in at just over 4 percent, according to the early results. “ The Turkish press also covered the election, with TRT World quoting Pashinyan as saying : "An economic revolution is our top priority," after voting. Iran’s PressTV noted Pashinyan’s “landslide victory”, that enabled the premier to “consolidate his authority months after he rose to power”. The Central Electoral Commission of Armenia has released the preliminary results from all 2010 polling stations in the country of the general election vote. According to the CEC, caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s My Step Alliance has won a landslide victory with 70,43 % - with 884,456 votes. The Republican Party of Armenia garnered only 4,70% - 59,059 votes. Citizens Decision Social-Democratic Party received 0,68%, with 8530 votes. Bargavatch Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia) Party received 8,27%, with 103,824 votes. The ARF, or the Dashnaktsutyun, garnered 3,89% with 48,811 votes. Lusavor Hayastan (Luminous Armenia) Party got 6,37% - 80,024 votes. 2619 voters (0,50%) cast ballots for the Christian-People’s Rebirth Party. The National Progress Party and the Menk (We) Alliance garnered 0,51% (6456 votes) and 2,00% (25,174) respectively. Orinats Yerkir Party (Rule of Law) garnered 0,99% with 12,389 votes, and the Sasna Tsrer Pan-Armenian Party got 1,82% with 22,862 votes. According to preliminary information the turnout was 48.63%. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan[SEP]Armenia's acting prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, bolstered his authority as his political bloc won early parliamentary elections in the former Soviet country on Sunday, the Central Election Commission's (CEC) results showed. My Step Alliance, which includes Mr Pashinyan's Civil Contract Party, won 70.4 percent of the vote based on results from all polling stations, the CEC said on its website. Results showed that two moderate opposition parties - Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia - got enough votes to clear the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament. Mr Pashinyan came to power in Armenia in May after weeks of mass protests against corruption and cronyism. The former newspaper editor, who was jailed for fomenting unrest in 2008, marked a dramatic break from the cadre of rulers who have run Armenia since the late 1990s. He stepped down in October so parliament could be dissolved ready for the early election but remained the acting prime minister. "Armenian citizens created a revolutionary majority at the parliament," Mr Pashinyan told reporters at his bloc's headquarters after first results were published. "If this trend continues, the majority won't face any problems in implementing legislative changes," he said.[SEP]YEREVAN: The electoral bloc of Armenia's acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan won a landslide victory in Sunday's snap parliamentary elections, which were triggered by the reformist leader seeking to cement his political authority in the post-Soviet country. The bloc led by Pashinyan's Civil Contract party had 70. 45 per cent of the vote, and trailing in distant second place with 8.37 per cent was the Prosperous Armenia party, according to results from 90 per cent of precincts, the central election commission said. The centrist My Step bloc also includes the Mission Party headed by rights activist Manuk Sukiasyan. A small liberal pro-Western party, Bright Armenia, also cleared an electoral threshold with 6.33 per cent of the votes, the commission said. Pashinyan became prime minister in May after spearheading weeks of peaceful anti-government rallies that ousted veteran leader Serzh Sarkisian. The 43-year-old former journalist has pledged to root out endemic corruption and address widespread poverty, earning him supporters in the impoverished landlocked nation of about three million people. "After the elections, we will be developing Armenian democracy and make an economic revolution happen," Pashinyan told reporters after casting his ballot. Pashinyan's reform drive had been stalled for months by opposition from Sarkisian's then-ruling Republican Party, which dominated the National Assembly until his calculated resignation triggered parliament's dissolution last month. The Republican Party took 4.56 per cent in Sunday's elections, failing to clear the five-percent threshold to make it into parliament. At a polling station in central Yerevan voters expressed optimism about the political change promised by Pashinyan and vented their anger at former corrupt officials. "Thanks to the revolution, we will finally have fair elections," 72-year-old pensioner Parzik Avetisyan told AFP. "I voted for the positive change promised by Nikol (Pashinyan)," he added. Another voter, a 52-year-old painter Garnik Arakelyan, said: "I want all those corrupt officials who for many years were robbing and humiliating people to be jailed. " Turnout was 48.63 per cent when polls closed at 8:00 pm (1300 GMT), the election commission said. Last week, Pashinyan promised "the best elections Armenia has ever seen", without ballot stuffing or voter intimidation. Parliamentary polls had not been scheduled to be held until 2022. Analysts say Pashinyan sought new elections while he is at the peak of his popularity. In September, his bloc scored a landslide victory in municipal elections, winning more than 80 per cent of the vote in the capital Yerevan, where nearly 40 per cent of the former Soviet Republic's population lives. "The elections were called on the wave of a revolutionary euphoria," analyst Gevorg Poghosyan told AFP. "But after the polls, that sentiment will inevitably weaken and Pashinyan and his team will face a reality check. " On foreign policy, Pashinyan has said Armenia will "further strengthen (our) strategic alliance with Russia and, at the same time, step up cooperation with the United States and European Union". Nine political parties and two electoral blocs were competing for mandates in the 101-seat National Assembly. A party needs at least five per cent of the vote to be elected to parliament, while an electoral bloc must clear a seven-percent barrier. But -- regardless of how many votes they win -- opposition parties will take at least 30 per cent of parliamentary seats, according to Armenia's electoral law. More than 2.6 million people were eligible to vote in the election monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.[SEP]Armenia's acting prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, is on his way to bolstering his authority as his political bloc appeared to have taken a clear lead in elections in the ex-Soviet country on Sunday, the Central Election Commission's (CEC) preliminary results showed. YEREVAN: Armenia's acting prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, is on his way to bolstering his authority as his political bloc appeared to have taken a clear lead in elections in the ex-Soviet country on Sunday, the Central Election Commission's (CEC) preliminary results showed. My Step Alliance, which includes Pashinyan's Civil Contract Party, won over 70 percent of the vote based on results from more than 50 percent of the polling stations, the CEC said on its website. Results showed that two moderate opposition parties got enough votes to enter parliament as they had cleared the 5 percent threshold.[SEP]YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia’s acting prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, is on his way to bolstering his authority as his political bloc appeared to have taken a clear lead in elections in the ex-Soviet country on Sunday, the Central Election Commission’s (CEC) preliminary results showed. My Step Alliance, which includes Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party, won over 70 percent of the vote based on results from more than 50 percent of the polling stations, the CEC said on its website. Results showed that two moderate opposition parties got enough votes to enter parliament as they had cleared the 5 percent threshold.[SEP]My Step Alliance, which includes Pashinyan's Civil Contract Party, won 70.4% of the vote based on results from all polling stations, the CEC said on its website, Euro News reported. Results showed that two moderate opposition parties - Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia - got enough votes to clear the 5% threshold to enter parliament. Pashinyan came to power in Armenia in May after weeks of mass protests against corruption and cronyism. The former newspaper editor marked a dramatic break from the cadre of rulers who have run Armenia since the late 1990s. He stepped down in October so parliament could be dissolved ready for the early election but remained the acting prime minister. "Armenian citizens created a revolutionary majority at the parliament," Pashinyan told reporters at his bloc's headquarters after first results were published. "If this trend continues, the majority won't face any problems in implementing legislative changes," he said. After a change of power in the South Caucasus country of around 3 million people, Pashinyan's government sought to initiate changes to the electoral code. But the move was blocked by the former ruling Republican Party, which dominated the parliament. The Republican Party received 4.70% of the vote and it was not clear whether it managed to enter parliament. Under Armenia's constitution, 30% of seats in parliament must go to opposition parties.[SEP]Acting Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s bloc ‘My Step’ has won 70.4 percent of the vote based on results from all polling stations, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on its website. The ‘My Step’ alliance includes Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party. The Prosperous Armenia and the Armenian Renaissance parties have entered the parliament, scoring 8.27 percent and 6.37 percent of the vote respectively, TASS reports. The Republican Party of Armenia, the former leading party, failed to surpass the five percent mark, scoring just 4.7 percent of the vote. The Dashnakthutyun faction received 3.89 percent of votes. Other parties involved in the parliamentary election received less than two percent of the vote. Voter turnout at the early parliamentary polls on Sunday was 48.63 percent, according to the CEC. Turnout for previous parliamentary elections was 60.84 percent.

Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's My Step Alliance bloc wins 70.4% of the vote.

[SEP]NASA’s Voyager 2 is probing the space between the stars. For only the second time in recorded history, humans have sent a spacecraft outside the heliosphere, the protected circle of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun, and presumably Matthew McConaughey (ho-yay, Interstellar joke) . The little spacecraft is now 11 billion miles from Earth. Since information takes about 16.5 hours to travel from the spacecraft to Earth–even moving at the speed of light–scientists figured out that the probe crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere on November 5, thereby crossing over into an area of space known as the heliopause, which the NASA press office poetically describes as the place where “the hot solar wind meets the cold, dense interstellar medium.” Space enthusiasts will remember that Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause in 2012, however Voyager 2’s passage is remarkable because it is outfitted with instruments like a cosmic ray subsystem and a magnetometer that will provide first-of-its-kind observations about the nature of interstellar space. According to NASA, Voyager’s Plasma Science Experiment (PLS), which stopped working on Voyager 1 back in 1980, “uses the electrical current of the plasma to detect the speed, density, temperature, pressure and flux of the solar wind,” giving scientists their first hint of what’s happening inside and now outside the heliosphere. While the probes have left the heliosphere, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 won’t leave the solar system for some 300 years, as it extends beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, a fact that is being included only because it’s fun to write the word Oort.[SEP]NASA said Monday that Voyager 2 exited the region of the sun's influence last month. The spacecraft is now beyond the outer boundary of the heliosphere, some 11 billion miles from Earth. It's trailing Voyager 1, which reached interstellar space in 2012. Interstellar space is the vast mostly emptiness between star systems.[SEP]NASA’s Voyager 2 probe has left the protective bubble around the Sun and is flying through interstellar space, becoming the second human-made object to travel so far, the US space agency said on Monday. The announcement came six years after its twin spacecraft, Voyager 1, broke the outer boundary of the heliopause, where the hot solar wind meets the cold, dense space between stars, known as the interstellar medium. Voyager 2 is now more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometres) from Earth, having passed the boundary on November 5. Related: NASA spacecraft lands on Mars after six months “This time is even better for us,” said Nicky Fox, director of the heliophysics division at NASA, noting that one instrument, called the Plasma Science Experiment (PLS), is still functioning on Voyager 2. “To have the Voyagers sending back information about the edge of the Sun’s influence gives us an unprecedented glimpse of truly uncharted territory.” The same instrument on Voyager 1 stopped working in 1980. The two spacecraft, which look like a combination of a satellite dish and an old television set with rabbit ear antennas, were launched in 1977 on a mission to explore planets in our solar system. The twin probes have left the heliosphere, but have not yet left the solar system, “and won’t be leaving anytime soon,” NASA said in a statement. Related: First SpaceX mission with astronauts set for June 2019 “The boundary of the solar system is considered to be beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, a collection of small objects that are still under the influence of the Sun’s gravity.” NASA says it will take about 300 years for Voyager 2 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, and possibly 30,000 years to fly beyond it. “We’re looking forward to what we’ll be able to learn from having both probes outside the heliopause,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The two spacecraft were designed to last five years and study Jupiter and Saturn. “Both spacecraft are very healthy if you consider them senior citizens,” said Suzanne Dodd, Director for the Interplanetary Network Directorate, as the science results were unveiled at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in the US capital. A key concern is a power, and NASA has to keep shutting down instruments to reserve power. But they may have five to 10 years left of life, she said. Each spacecraft carries a Golden Record of Earth sounds, pictures and messages, which aims to serve as evidence of Earth’s civilization.[SEP](CNN) — NASA’s Voyager 2 probe, launched in 1977, is now more than 11 billion miles from Earth and has reached interstellar space, the agency said Monday. This is the second time a human-made object has reached this part of space. And it’s an incredible feat for a spacecraft designed to last five years. Voyager 2 is now NASA’s longest-running mission, with 41 years under its belt. This boundary is where hot solar wind meets cold interstellar space, and it’s called the heliopause. Mission scientists compared data from instruments on Voyager 2 to determine that the actual date of the crossing was November 5, when the solar wind particles around the probe dipped greatly, meaning it left the heliosphere. “There is still a lot to learn about the region of interstellar space immediately beyond the heliopause,” Voyager project scientist Ed Stone said in a statement. Voyager 1, launched just a few weeks after Voyager 2, crossed the same boundary in 2012 and exited the heliosphere, a bubble of magnetic fields and particles created by the sun. However, just because the probes have left the heliosphere doesn’t mean they have left our solar system. Its boundary is the outermost edge of the Oort Cloud, a group of small objects influenced by the gravity of our sun. The mission scientists believe that it would take Voyager 2,300 years to reach the inner edge of the cloud and 30,000 years to fly past it completely. Voyager 2 carries something unique: the Plasma Science Experiment instrument. This instrument stopped working on Voyager 1 in 1980, but it’s still operating on Voyager 2. The instrument will be able to take unprecedented observations in this part of interstellar space and send them back to mission scientists. The scientists can still communicate with Voyager 2, even in interstellar space, but the data takes about 16.5 hours to travel back to Earth. “Voyager has a very special place for us in our heliophysics fleet,” Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement. “Our studies start at the Sun and extend out to everything the solar wind touches. To have the Voyagers sending back information about the edge of the Sun’s influence gives us an unprecedented glimpse of truly uncharted territory.” The probes are now “senior citizens,” but they’re in “good health” considering their age, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said Monday. The greatest concerns about keeping the probes operating are power and thermal. Voyager 2 loses about 4 watts of power a year, and mission scientists have to shut off systems to keep instruments operating. The cameras for both probes are no longer on. Voyager 2 is very cold — about 3.6 degrees Kelvin and close to the freezing point of hydrogen — causing concerns about the probe’s thruster. Trades between power and thermal will continue to keep it operating as long as possible. “There is a lot of science data ahead, and we anticipate we can operate for five to six or almost 10 more years, just not with all instruments on,” Dodd said. “There are difficult decisions ahead, but those will be made with getting the most science value back. My personal goal is to get them to last 50 years total.” Voyager 2 launched August 20,1977, 16 days before Voyager 1. Both probes are landmark missions that continue the journey of exploration in unexplored territory, the agency said. Both were designed as five-year missions to study Jupiter and Saturn up close, and when those were successful, flybys were added for Uranus and Neptune. Remote-control programming allowed the spacecraft to keep flying well beyond their intended targets and explore more of the “final frontier.” Both probes still carry Golden Records containing pictures, messages and sounds from Earth because the spacecraft could outlast human civilization by billions of years. “I think we’re all happy and relieved that the Voyager probes have both operated long enough to make it past this milestone,” Dodd said. “This is what we’ve all been waiting for. Now, we’re looking forward to what we’ll be able to learn from having both probes outside the heliopause.”[SEP]NASA’s Voyager 2 probe has left the solar system and entered interstellar space, making history for being only the second man-made object to ever do so. Voyager 2 exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun – on November 5, scientists have determined after studying data from instruments on board. It is currently estimated to be over 11 billion miles from Earth, and the Voyager 2 team are still able to communicate with it, although it takes about 16.5 hours for information to travel from the spacecraft back to Earth. NASA will detail their findings at a news conference at 11 am EST (8 am PST) today at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Washington. The spacecraft’s Plasma Science Experiment (PLS) instrument provided NASA with key data that confirmed it has crossed the threshold of the heliopause, where hot solar wind meets cold and dense interstellar medium. It detected a sharp fall in the speed of solar wind particles and hasn’t picked up any solar wind flow since. Although Voyager 1 crossed the same threshold in 2012, it did so without the PLS. Voyager 2 is carrying other important instruments that can conduct groundbreaking observations into this border and beyond. The spacecraft left Earth in 1977 on a mission to study the outer planets, including Jupiter and Neptune. Since completing this initial mission, it has been studying the outer reaches of our solar system. The device is expected to continue to transmit radio signals as it explores interstellar space until 2025. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story![SEP]Welcome to the history books, Voyager 2. NASA launched the probe back in 1977 and all these decades later it's finally stepped out into the space between the stars. It joins Voyager 1, which entered interstellar space in 2012. NASA announced on Monday that Voyager 2 has left the heliosphere, an area the agency describes as a "vast bubble around the sun and the planets dominated by solar material and magnetic fields." Data shows the probe crossed over on Nov. 5 and is now 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from Earth. Voyager 2 carries an instrument called the Plasma Science Experiment (PLS) that detects the properties of solar wind. NASA noticed the PLS saw a serious decline in the speed of solar wind particles on Nov. 5. After that, it picked up no solar wind flow, indicating the probe's entry into interstellar space. "Our studies start at the sun and extend out to everything the solar wind touches," says Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA . "To have the Voyagers sending back information about the edge of the Sun's influence gives us an unprecedented glimpse of truly uncharted territory." Voyager 2 launched a couple weeks before Voyager 1, and both have long outlived their original five-year missions to study Jupiter and Saturn. NASA scientists are now excited to learn what the probes can teach us about the realm beyond the heliosphere boundary. Besides passing the interstellar milestone, Voyager 2 is also NASA's longest running mission. The space agency hopes it will be able to collect data from the spacecraft until at least 2025.[SEP]In 1977, Voyager 2 launched from Earth to carry out an unprecedented mission to the outer solar system. Today, NASA reported that the 41-year-old spacecraft has reached interstellar shores, more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away, to begin a new phase of its mission between the stars. Mission controllers were alerted to Voyager 2 entering interstellar space in November when its instruments detected a dramatic change in the space particles surrounding the spacecraft. Interstellar space lies just beyond the heliosphere, across a boundary called the heliopause. The heliosphere can be thought of as a magnetic bubble that's created by the sun, inflated by the solar wind — streams of charged particles that are continuously blowing into the heliosphere from the sun's lower atmosphere. The heliopause is the outermost region of the heliosphere, akin to the surface of a bubble, which separates the hot, tenuous solar wind from the cold and dense environment of the interstellar medium. When monitoring data collected by Voyager 2's Plasma Science Experiment (PSE) on Nov. 5, 2018, the mission detected a very sharp decline in the quantity of high-energy particles associated with the solar wind. Three other instruments that measure space particles also detected a rapid decrease in solar wind particles and a sharp increase in cosmic rays; all evidence that pointed to Voyager 2 having left the solar wind and transitioning into an entirely different environment. Voyager 1 had already prepped us for this. In 2012, Voyager 1 also detected a steep decline in solar wind particle counts, signifying that it was the first of the pair to reach interstellar space. The PSE instrument stopped working for Voyager 1 in 1980, however, so Voyager 2 has been able to gather more in-depth information than its twin during this historic moment. "There is still a lot to learn about the region of interstellar space immediately beyond the heliopause," said Ed Stone in the accompanying NASA/JPL press release. Stone is a Voyager project scientist who has been working on the Voyager program since 1972 and is now 82 years old. The Voyager probes are the only spacecraft capable of taking "in-situ" measurements of this enigmatic region, measurements that are going to be used to complement observations by other missions located a little closer to home. For example, NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) that is in Earth orbit is observing the interface between the heliosphere and interstellar space and trying to help astrophysicists understand how the interstellar medium interacts with the heliosphere as our solar system travels through interstellar space. With the help of Voyager 2's PSE, we can better understand the remote observations made by IBEX. It's worth emphasizing that neither of the Voyager probes have physically left the solar system; they have left the heliosphere and entered interstellar space, but they have not escaped our star system, despite what some headlines have indicated. Some estimates suggest they won't do so for another 30,000 years! Our sun's gravitational influence reaches far beyond the heliopause, and countless billions of frozen objects occupy a region stretching as far away as 100,000 AU from the sun. One astronomical unit (or AU) is the average distance from the sun to Earth. At 11 billion miles, Voyager 2 is more than 122 AU away from Earth — which is still a very long way away, but certainly not beyond the solar system. As a comparison, Pluto's average distance from the sun is "only" 40 AU! It's the length of time it takes to communicate with the Voyagers that underscores just how far away they are, however. It takes nearly 17 hours for a radio signal, traveling at the speed of light from Earth, to reach Voyager 2 — as a comparison, it takes a little more than eight minutes for light to travel from the sun to Earth. Voyager 2 was launched in Aug. 20, 1977, 16 days before Voyager 1 and both were tasked with touring the outer solar system's planets. Now, 41 years later, the pair of robotic space explorers have left the planets far behind and represent humanity's first baby steps into the mysterious interstellar expanse. The science they continue to send back to Earth gives us a taste of the interstellar ocean and will prepare us if we, too, take that plunge to travel to other stars, and become a star-hopping species in the distant future.[SEP]NASA's Voyager 2 has become only the second human-made object to reach the space between stars. NASA said Monday that Voyager 2 exited the region of the sun's influence last month. The spacecraft is now beyond the outer boundary of the heliosphere, some 18 billion kilometres (11 billion miles) from Earth. It's trailing Voyager 1, which reached interstellar space in 2012. Interstellar space is the vast mostly emptiness between star systems. According to NASA, the Voyagers are still technically in our solar system. Scientists maintain the solar system stretches to the outer edge of the so-called Oort Cloud. It will take thousands of years for the spacecraft to get that far. Despite the great distance, flight controllers are still in contact with Voyager 2. The Voyagers launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1977.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voyager 2, a NASA probe launched in 1977 and designed for just a five-year mission, has become only the second human-made object to enter interstellar space as it continues its marathon trek billions of miles (km) from Earth, scientists said on Monday. Data from instruments aboard the spacecraft showed it crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere, a protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields produced by the sun, on Nov. 5, the U.S. space agency said. The boundary crossed by the intrepid probe as it journeys a bit more than 11 billion miles (18 billion km) from Earth is called the heliopause, a place where the hot solar wind runs up against the interstellar medium, the soup of stuff residing between the stars of our Milky Way galaxy. “This is a very exciting time again in Voyager’s 41-year journey, so far, of exploring the planets and now the heliosphere and entering interstellar space,” Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at Caltech, told a news briefing. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977, 16 days before its twin probe Voyager 1, which reached interstellar space in 2012. Voyager 2’s instrument called the Plasma Science Experiment (PLS) is able to provide observations of the nature of this region of space. While Voyager 1 is still going strong on its own journey in interstellar space, its PLS stopped working in 1980. The Voyager probes were designed to last five years and study the giant gas planets Jupiter and Saturn. Their refusal to die has also let them study Uranus and Neptune, the solar system’s outermost giant planets. Both probes carry a phonograph record. The gold-plated copper disk bears sounds, images and spoken greetings in multiple languages to depict Earth’s diversity of life and culture, intended to communicate with potential extraterrestrial beings who may encounter them. The two probes have not officially exited the solar system, whose outermost region is a shell called the Oort Cloud comprised of numerous small icy objects still under the sun’s gravitational influence. “I often get asked, ‘So, is this it for Voyager? You’ve crossed out of the heliopause. Is it done? Are we finished?’ Absolutely not. This is really, for me, the beginning of a new era of heliophysics science,” said Nicola Fox, director of the heliophysics division at NASA headquarters. “We are fortunate enough to have two very brave sentinels that have left our heliosphere and are out truly looking at the other side of the boundary,” Fox added.

NASA announces that Voyager 2 entered into the interstellar medium after exiting the heliosphere on November 5.

STRASBOURG, France — A massive manhunt involving hundreds of police and soldiers was underway Wednesday for a suspected extremist who yelled “God is great!” in Arabic during a shooting spree around one of Europe’s most famous Christmas markets. The assault in the eastern French city of Strasbourg killed two, left one person brain dead and injured 12 others, authorities said. Police union officials identified the suspected assailant as Frenchman Cherif Chekatt, a 29-year-old with a thick police record for crimes including armed robbery and monitored as a suspected religious radical by the French intelligence services. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss details of the large and ongoing investigation into the attack that set France on edge anew. The suspect’s parents and two brothers, also known for radicalism, have been detained, according to a judicial official. Reflecting Strasbourg’s international nature, the dead included a Thai tourist, and an Italian was reportedly among the wounded. The U.S. government, among others, warned citizens in the area to be vigilant. The city is home to the European Parliament and considers itself a capital of Europe — and promotes itself as the “capital of Christmas.” Some 720 members of the security forces were hunting for the suspected gunman Wednesday. Prosecutor Remy Heitz said the suspect was shot in the arm during an exchange of fire with French soldiers during his rampage in the city center on Tuesday. He then took a taxi to another part of the city, boasting of the attack to the driver. There, he exchanged more gunfire with police and disappeared. Heitz said the man attacked his victims with a handgun and a knife. Previously, French authorities had said the assailant killed three people, but Heitz said two people were confirmed dead while the third was brain dead. A further 12 people were injured, six of them gravely. Witnesses described shots and screams after the gunman opened fire around the Christmas market Tuesday evening. They also reported that the assailant yelled “God is great!” in Arabic during the attack, the prosecutor added. For several hours swaths of the city were under lockdown. Senior Interior Ministry official Laurent Nunez said the suspect had been radicalized in prison and had been monitored by French intelligence services since his release in late 2015, because of his suspected religious extremism. Nunez said on France-Inter radio that police sought to arrest the man on Tuesday morning, hours before the shooting, in relation to an attempted murder. He was not at home but five other people were detained, authorities said. Heitz said police seized a grenade, a rifle and knives during the operation. The government raised the security alert level and sent police reinforcements to Strasbourg, where hundreds of police and soldiers were involved in the search. A terrorism investigation was opened, but the motive of the attack is unclear. At Chekatt’s apartment, in an outer neighborhood of Strasbourg, the lock of the door was broken at his apartment. Police were guarding the building. A neighbor, who asked not to be named because the gunman was still at large, said he was rarely home. She said she last saw him Monday from her window, which looks out on a common hallway, and he was with another man. Young men from the apartment block said they knew him as someone who seemed destabilized by his time in prison. “You can just tell,” said one, lightly touching the side of his head. They, too, feared being publicly named because the gunman is still being hunted by police. The suspected attacker’s more than two dozen convictions also included crimes in Germany and Switzerland, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press. The German government says it has stepped up controls on the country’s border with France following the attack, but sees no change to the threat level in Germany. Strasbourg’s Christmas market attracts visitors from around the world. A Thai national, 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, was one of the two killed, according to a Thai Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. The English-language website of the newspaper Khao Sod said Anupong was the owner of a noodle factory in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok, and also sold clothes in the Thai capital’s garment district. It quoted his uncle as saying he and his wife had originally planned to visit Paris, but the “yellow vest” protests there prompted them to change plans and go to Strasbourg instead. Italian media say Antonio Megalizzi, 28, was among the wounded, and is in critical condition. Italian daily La Repubblica reports that he was in Strasbourg to follow the European Parliamentary session. The attack is a new blow to France, which saw a wave of Islamic extremist killings in 2015 and 2016. It came amid a month of protests against President Emmanuel Macron that have blocked roads around the country, led to rioting in the capital and put heavy strain on police. While authorities urged people in the area to stay inside after Tuesday’s attack, Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries told BFM television Wednesday that “life must go on” so that the city doesn’t cede to a “terrorist who is trying to disrupt our way of life.” Many of Europe’s deadliest terror attacks in recent years have taken place in France. In response to Tuesday’s shooting, the government decided to take the country’s attack risk up a level on the official threat index. Leicester and Corbet reported from Paris. Angela Charlton in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Kaweewit Kaewjinda in Bangkok and Colleen Barry in Milan also contributed to this report.[SEP]Hundreds of security forces have combed eastern France for a 29-year-old man suspected of opening fire near Strasbourg’s famous Christmas market. Tuesday night’s attack at the Christmas market in Strasbourg killed two people, left a third brain-dead and injured 12, and was a stark reminder to a nation wounded by previous assaults that terrorism remains a threat, even as anti-government protests roil the country. National police distributed a photo of the wounded fugitive, identified as Cherif Chekatt, with the warning: “Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene.” France raised its three-stage threat index to the highest level and bolstered troops around France. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told politicians that the French native, born in Strasbourg, had run-ins with police starting at age 10 and his first conviction at age 13. Chekatt had been convicted 27 times, mostly in France but also in Switzerland and Germany, for crimes including armed robbery. He had been flagged for extremism and was on a watch list, but the interior minister said “the signs were weak”. “It’s a large zone and the search is difficult,” senior Interior Ministry official Laurent Nunez said on France-Inter radio. Strasbourg is on the border with Germany, where the suspect was convicted in 2016 of breaking into a dental practice and a pharmacy in two towns. Prosecutor Remy Heitz said the man attacked with a handgun and a knife about 8pm local time on Tuesday, and was shot in the arm during an exchange of fire with soldiers during his rampage. He then took a taxi to another part of the city, boasting of the attack to the driver, and later exchanged more gunfire with police and disappeared, Mr Heitz said. Witnesses described shots and screams after the gunman opened fire and yelled “God is great!” in Arabic, the prosecutor added. Swaths of the city were under lockdown for hours. The dead included a Thai tourist, 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, according to Thai Foreign Ministry and the website of the Khao Sod newspaper. It quoted his uncle as saying he and his wife had originally planned to visit Paris, but the protests there prompted them to change plans and go to Strasbourg instead. One Italian was reported to be among the wounded. Italian media said Antonio Megalizzi, 28, was in critical condition. Italian daily La Repubblica reported he was in Strasbourg to follow the session of the European Parliament. After initially reporting that three people had died, authorities revised that and said one was brain-dead, while 12 people were wounded, six of them gravely. About 720 police, soldiers and Swat team officers in Strasbourg were being reinforced with 500 more soldiers and another 1,300 in the coming days to guard public places, especially other Christmas markets, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said after a crisis meeting. The attack in the heart of old Strasbourg, near its famous cathedral and within the Christmas market that draws many tourists, unsettled the border city that also is home to the European Parliament. The German government said it had stepped up controls on the border with France but did not change its threat level. “All terrorist attacks touch all of France, and it’s plain to see each of the attacks have hit a highly symbolic point or moment,” Mr Philippe told parliament. He listed violence since 2015 that killed more than 200: at the Charlie Hebdo satiric newspaper, a Kosher store, restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Paris; along the famed seaside promenade in Nice; and even inside a church in a quiet suburb of the northern city of Rouen, among others. Strasbourg’s Christmas market “is a family and brotherly celebration that speaks about hope and what unites us. It’s this celebration that was hit yesterday by a terrorist act,” he said. The city was in mourning, with candles lit at the site of the attack, and the Christmas market was closed at least through Thursday, according to regional prefect Jean-Luc Marx. The attack came as President Emmanuel Macron sought to take back control of the nation after a month of anti-government protests that have spread violence across the country. It came only 24 hours after he broke a long public silence and appealed for calm amid the mushrooming “yellow vest” protest movement that seeks a better standard of living for ordinary citizens. He offered a package of measures, but it was not clear if that would halt the weekend protests. “The terrorist threat is still at the core of our nation’s life,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux quoted Mr Macron as saying at the weekly Cabinet meeting. Interior Ministry official Mr Nunez said Chekatt had been radicalised in prison and had been monitored by French intelligence services since his release in late 2015, because of his suspected religious extremism. Mr Nunez told France-Inter that police went to his apartment in an outer neighbourhood of Strasbourg on Tuesday morning. Authorities said he was not there, although five other people were detained. Police seized a grenade, a rifle and knives in the operation, Mr Heitz said.[SEP]BERLIN (AFP) - The suspect in the deadly shooting attack at a Christmas market in eastern France was jailed for burglary in Germany but was not deemed a potentially dangerous Islamist, German authorities said on Wednesday (Dec 12). "For us, he was a blank slate," said a spokeswoman of the Federal Criminal Police Office, which handles cases related to terrorism. An interior ministry spokeswoman also said that there has been no indications suggesting an Islamist link to the suspect. The 29-year-old suspect was sentenced to two years and three months for burglaries in the southwestern city of Mainz and in Baden-Wuerttemberg state farther south, and jailed in 2016. "He served a year in Germany before being expelled to France," a spokesman from Baden-Wuerttemberg's interior ministry told AFP. According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, the man broke into a dentist practice in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate state, in 2012, making away with cash, stamps and gold used for teeth fillings. Four years later, he hit a pharmacy in the Lake Constance town of Engen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, pocketing cash. German authorities were on the lookout for the fugitive "along the Rhine" river region, the ministry spokesman said. "But at the moment we do not believe that he has crossed into the country," he added. The gunman opened fire Tuesday evening at the famed Strasbourg Christmas market, which draws thousands of visitors every year. The shooting left two people dead and 13 wounded. French authorities said the attacker had been on their list of extremists and "is actively being hunted by security forces". Meanwhile, German police said they have released three people earlier detained following tipoffs from the public following the Strasbourg attack. The three were in a taxi with French licence plates which was halted on the A1 motorway close to the city Bremen, a police spokesman in Delmenhorst told national news agency DPA. Police said they have been freed after investigations ruled out any connection to the attack in Strasbourg. Police also denied an earlier report that one of the three was masked.[SEP]Two people have been murdered and another 12 injured after a terrorist opened fire at a famous Christmas market in Strasbourg. The gunman had been flagged as a possible extremist previously and a massive manhunt is now underway as France raised its terror alert. It was unclear if the market – a popular gathering place and the nucleus of an al-Qaida-linked plot in 2000 – was the intended target. The assailant got inside a security zone around the venue and opened fire from there, Mayor Roland Ries said on BFM television. Initial reports said that four people had been killed and that figure was dropped to three and then again to two. It is not known why there was confusion among the authorities over the number of dead. The market, France’s largest, is set up around the city’s cathedral during the Christmas season. Authorities did not give a motive for the shooting, though prosecutors said they had opened a terrorism investigation. Strasbourg, located in eastern France, is home to the European Parliament, one of several places put on an emergency lockdown after the shooting. The prefect of the Strasbourg region said the man identified as the alleged gunman was on a watch list of potentially radicalised people. Authorities did not name him publicly or provide details such as his age and nationality. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who travelled to Strasbourg, said the suspect had convictions in France and Germany for crimes unrelated to terrorism and served time in prison. He did not elaborate. Hours before the shooting, French gendarmes went to the suspect’s home to arrest him, but he wasn’t there, Stephane Morisse of police union FGP said. They found explosive materials during a search, he said. Many of Europe’s deadliest terror attacks in recent years took place in France. In response to Tuesday’s shooting, the government decided to take the country’s attack risk up a level on the official threat index and to send security reinforcements to Strasbourg, Castaner said early Wednesday. Strasbourg, a city about 310 miles east of Paris on France’s border with Germany, promotes itself as the ‘Capital of Christmas’ and the market set up around the local cathedral is a holiday tradition. Two years ago, a Tunisian man drove a hijacked truck into a busy Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people in the German capital. Some 350 officers and two helicopters were searching for the assailant, who had been radicalised for ‘several years’ and confronted law enforcement officers twice, exchanging fire, while he ‘sowed terror,’ Castaner said. More than seven hours after the bloodshed, the regional prefect said 11 other people were injured, five of them seriously, downgrading Castaner’s earlier count of 12 injured. The shooter was also shot and wounded by soldiers guarding the Christmas market, according to the FGP union’s Morisse. French military spokesman Col. Patrik Steiger said the shooter didn’t seem to be aiming at soldiers patrolling in and around the market, but appeared to target civilians instead. Witnesses described hearing gunshots, screams and shouts of police officers ordering people to stay indoors before the area fell silent and the officers fanned out. ‘I heard two or three shots at around 7.55 p.m., then I heard screams. I got close to the window. I saw people running. After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time,’ Yoann Bazard, 27, who lives in central Strasbourg. ‘I thought maybe it’s firecrackers,’ he said, speaking by phone. ‘And then, as it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams. … There were police or soldiers shouting `Get inside!’ and `Put your hands on your head.” Freelance journalist Camille Belsoeur was at a friend’s apartment when they heard the gunfire, which she at first mistook for firecrackers. ‘We opened the window. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots,’ Belsoeur said. Other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted `Go home! Go home!” to those outside, he said. Another witness, Peter Fritz, told the BBC one of the people killed was a Thai tourist who was shot in the head and didn’t respond to lengthy attempts to revive him. ‘We tried our best to resuscitate him. We applied CPR. We dragged him into a restaurant close by,’ Fritz said. He said it took more than 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, during which time an emergency doctor advised by telephone ‘that any further efforts would be futile.’ The victim ‘is still here in this restaurant but we have abandoned all hope for him,’ Fritz said. France has been hit in recent years with high-profile extremist attacks, including the coordinated attacks at multiple Paris locations that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds in November 2015. A 2016 truck attack in Nice killed dozens. Tuesday’s attack followed four weeks of protests against President Emmanuel Macron that have stretched the police forces deployed to clear blocked roads and to quell rioting, looting and other protest-related mayhem. Macron adjourned a meeting at the presidential palace Tuesday night to monitor the emergency, his office said. The president tweeted ‘Solidarity of the whole nation for Strasbourg, our victims, their families’ and at midnight presided over a meeting at the Interior Ministry’s crisis centre. The office of the Paris prosecutor, who is in charge of France’s terror investigations, said the Strasbourg probe was being conducted on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise. The latter charge suggests officials do not exclude links between the shooter and an extremist cell. Authorities urged the public to remain indoors at the height of the drama. People dining out at restaurants were held in place for hours. So were thousands of basketball fans who attended a game at a sports stadium and European Union lawmakers in the locked down Parliament. They eventually were allowed to leave the buildings. People with nowhere to go were offered shelter in a gymnasium, the prefect tweeted. The Christmas market is set to stay closed Wednesday, when flags in Strasbourg will be flown at half-staff in mourning for the people killed, Mayor Ries said. The attack revived memories of a new millennium terror plot targeting Strasbourg’s Christmas market. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a plot to blow up the market on the New Year’s Eve ushering in 2000.. The Algerian and French-Algerian suspects – including an alleged associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden – went on trial in October on charges they were involved in the foiled plot for the attack. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to nine years.[SEP]A shooting at France’s largest Christmas market left three dead and 12 wounded Tuesday in what is now being investigated as a terror attack. The gunman, who has not been apprehended, opened fire around 7 p.m. in Place Kleber square in Strasbourg, French news network BFMTV reported. Video posted by the UK Mirror shows screaming shoppers fleeing as shots ring out in the distance. Officials have not revealed the shooter’s name, but have said he has a criminal record and is on France’s “S” watchlist of suspected extremists. He was due to be arrested earlier in the day for a separate attempted murder, sources told the AP. BFM reported the gunman is 29 and a native of Strasbourg. Meanwhile, France’s counter-terror prosecutor was en route to Strasbourg and is exploring charges for murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise. Christmas markets are a popular target for Islamist terror attacks, such as the 2016, ISIS-inspired truck crash in a Berlin holiday market that left 12 dead and 50 injured. Want news about Europe delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Europe Daily newsletter. 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Others who have been flagged under the system include Amedy Coulibaly who killed four hostages at a siege in a Kosher supermarket in 2015, days after the Charlie Hebdo shooting. – Interior minister Christophe Castaner said the suspect was known to police services and had served time in prison in France and Germany for common law offences. – BFMTV said the suspect was known to be part of radicalised networks in Strasbourg and was a “repeat offender” and a “delinquent”. – His home was subject of a search on Tuesday morning as part of investigations into a robbery. He was not in but grenades were found.[SEP]A man who had been flagged as a possible extremist sprayed gunfire near the famous Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg on Tuesday, killing three people, wounding up to a dozen and sparking a massive manhunt when he got away. France immediately raised its terror alert level. It was unclear if the market — a popular gathering place and the nucleus of an al-Qaida-linked plot in 2000 — was the intended target. The assailant got inside a security zone around the venue and opened fire from there, Mayor Roland Ries said on BFM television. The market, France's largest, is set up around the city's cathedral during the Christmas season. Authorities did not give a motive for the shooting, though prosecutors said they had opened a terrorism investigation. Strasbourg, located in eastern France, is home to the European Parliament, one of several places put on an emergency lockdown after the shooting. The prefect of the Strasbourg region said the man identified as the alleged gunman was on a watch list of potentially radicalized people. Authorities did not name him publicly or provide details such as his age and nationality. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who traveled to Strasbourg, said the suspect had convictions in France and Germany for crimes unrelated to terrorism and served time in prison. He did not elaborate. Hours before the shooting, French gendarmes went to the suspect's home to arrest him, but he wasn't there, Stephane Morisse of police union FGP said. They found explosive materials during a search, he said. Many of Europe's deadliest terror attacks in recent years took place in France. In response to Tuesday's shooting, the government decided to take the country's attack risk up a level on the official threat index and to send security reinforcements to Strasbourg, Castaner said early Wednesday. Strasbourg, a city about 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Paris on France's border with Germany, promotes itself as the "Capital of Christmas" and the market set up around the local cathedral is a holiday tradition. Two years ago, a Tunisian man drove a hijacked truck into a busy Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people in the German capital. Some 350 officers and two helicopters were searching for the assailant, who had been radicalized for "several years" and confronted law enforcement officers twice, exchanging fire, while he "sowed terror," Castaner said. The death toll stood at three early Wednesday, the minister said. Two police union officials said earlier there were four victims. Officials did not explain the conflicting numbers. More than seven hours after the bloodshed, the regional prefect said 11 other people were injured, five of them seriously, downgrading Castaner's earlier count of 12 injured. The shooter was also shot and wounded by soldiers guarding the Christmas market, according to the FGP union's Morisse. French military spokesman Col. Patrik Steiger said the shooter didn't seem to be aiming at soldiers patrolling in and around the market, but appeared to target civilians instead. Witnesses described hearing gunshots, screams and shouts of police officers ordering people to stay indoors before the area fell silent and the officers fanned out. "I heard two or three shots at around 7:55 p.m., then I heard screams. I got close to the window. I saw people running. After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time," Yoann Bazard, 27, who lives in central Strasbourg. "I thought maybe it's firecrackers," he said, speaking by phone. "And then, as it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams. ... There were police or soldiers shouting 'Get inside!' and 'Put your hands on your head.'" Freelance journalist Camille Belsoeur was at a friend's apartment when they heard the gunfire, which she at first mistook for firecrackers. "We opened the window. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots," Belsoeur said, Other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted 'Go home! Go home!'" to those outside, he said. Another witness, Peter Fritz, told the BBC one of the four people killed was a Thai tourist who was shot in the head and didn't respond to lengthy attempts to revive him. "We tried our best to resuscitate him. We applied CPR. We dragged him into a restaurant close by," Fritz said. He said it took more than 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, during which time an emergency doctor advised by telephone "that any further efforts would be futile." The victim "is still here in this restaurant but we have abandoned all hope for him," Fritz said. France has been hit in recent years with high-profile extremist attacks, including the coordinated attacks at multiple Paris locations that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds in November 2015. A 2016 truck attack in Nice killed dozens. Tuesday's attack followed four weeks of protests against President Emmanuel Macron that have stretched the police forces deployed to clear blocked roads and to quell rioting, looting and other protest-related mayhem. Macron adjourned a meeting at the presidential palace Tuesday night to monitor the emergency, his office said. The president tweeted "Solidarity of the whole nation for Strasbourg, our victims, their families" and at midnight presided over a meeting at the Interior Ministry's crisis center. The office of the Paris prosecutor, who is in charge of France's terror investigations, said the Strasbourg probe was being conducted on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise. The latter charge suggests officials do not exclude links between the shooter and an extremist cell. Authorities urged the public to remain indoors at the height of the drama. People dining out at restaurants were held in place for hours. So were thousands of basketball fans who attended a game at a sports stadium and European Union lawmakers in the locked down Parliament. They eventually were allowed to leave the buildings. People with nowhere to go were offered shelter in a gymnasium, the prefect tweeted. The Christmas market is set to stay closed Wednesday, when flags in Strasbourg will be flown at half-staff in mourning for the people killed, Mayor Ries said. The attack revived memories of a new millennium terror plot targeting Strasbourg's Christmas market. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a plot to blow up the market on the New Year's Eve ushering in 2000.. The Algerian and French-Algerian suspects — including an alleged associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden — went on trial in October on charges they were involved in the foiled plot for the attack. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to nine years.[SEP]The Strasbourg gunman yelled “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic) as he opened fire on people enjoying an evening out at a Christmas market, the Paris public prosecutor told reporters. Rémy Heitz said two people had been killed and one left brain-dead after the attack in the eastern French city on Tuesday. Twelve were wounded, six seriously. The man, named by local media as Chérif Chekatt, was known to authorities as having been radicalised in prison. The 29-year-old was armed with a gun and a knife and escaped the area in a taxi, Mr Heitz said. The attacker boasted to the driver – who has spoken to police – that he had killed 10 people, and said he had been injured in a firefight with soldiers. Four people connected to the suspect had been detained overnight in Strasbourg, Mr Heitz added. Sources close to the investigation quoted by Reuters news agency said they were the suspect’s mother, father and two brothers. • Strasbourg shooting: What we know so far • Face to face with the gunman Hundreds of officers are currently involved in the search for the gunman. France’s Deputy Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez earlier acknowledged he may no longer be in France. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the country had moved to a high level of alert, expanding police powers and increasing vigilance. He added that border controls had been strengthened and security at all Christmas markets would be stepped up. The mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, has said the Christmas market will be closed on Wednesday and flags lowered to half-mast at the local town hall. The attack unfolded at around 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday close to Strasbourg’s famed Christmas market near one of the central squares, Place Kléber, which attracts thousands of visitors at this time of year. A woman called Audrey told France’s BFM TV how she came face to face with the killer after watching him shoot a man in the head. The gunman then opened fire for a second time, and another man fell to ground. Her friends began to run to safety, but Audrey was frozen to the spot. The gunman turned, and faced her – but then he too ran. “Why didn’t he shoot at me?” she told the TV channel. “I don’t know. I think I was extremely lucky. As everyone was screaming he fled.” According to Mr Heitz, as he fled he came into contact with four soldiers. He began firing at them and they fired back, apparently injuring him. How did he escape? He managed to reach a taxi which drove him away from the scene and dropped him in the vicinity of the police station in Neudorf, the area where he lives which sits on the border between Germany and France. When he got out the vehicle, he fired at police officers. What do we know about the gunman? According to police – who refer to him as Chérif C – the gunman was born in Strasbourg and was already known to the security services as a possible terrorist threat. He was the subject of a “fiche S”, a watchlist of people who represent a potential threat to national security. He also had 27 convictions spanning across France, Germany and Switzerland, and has spent considerable time in prison as a result. Police were seeking him on Tuesday morning in connection with another case, but did not find him at home. However Mr Nuñez said his crimes had never been terrorism-related. But, he added, it was during one period in prison that he was indentified as having become radicalised. “The fact he was a ‘fiche S’ did not pre-judge his level of dangerousness,” Mr Nuñez told France Inter. A search of his home revealed a grenade, a rifle, four knives, two of which were hunting knives, and ammunition. What about the victims? Thai media have named Anupong Suebsamarn, 45, as one of the dead. He is believed to have been on holiday with his wife. Not much else is known yet, apart from the fact no children were hurt and one soldier was slightly injured by a ricocheting bullet. Strasbourg has been the target of jihadist plots in the past. Not only does it have one of France’s oldest Christmas markets, but it is the official seat of the European Parliament. That parliament was in session at the time of Tuesday evening’s attack. In 2000, the Christmas market was at the centre of a failed al-Qaeda plot. Ten Islamist militants were jailed four years later for their part in the planned New Year’s Eve attack. Security has been tight there ever since the 2015 Paris attacks. However, MEPs were determined to carry on the morning after the attack, with German MEP Jo Leinen posting a picture of singing and Christmas lights in the European Parliament. BBC[SEP]STRASBOURG, France — A man who had been flagged as a possible extremist sprayed gunfire near the city of Strasbourg’s famous Christmas market Tuesday, killing three people, wounding 12 and sparking a massive manhunt. France immediately raised its terror alert level. It was unclear if the market – a popular gathering place that was the nucleus of an al-Qaida-linked plot in 2000 – was the intended target. The assailant got inside a security zone around the venue and opened fire from there, Mayor Roland Ries said on BFM television. Authorities did not give a motive for the shooting, though prosecutors said they had opened a terrorism investigation. Strasbourg is home to the European Parliament, one of several places that was locked down after the shooting. Authorities said they had identified a suspect, and he had a criminal record. The prefect of the Strasbourg region said the man also was on a watch list of people who had potentially radicalized. No other details about him were disclosed. Hours before the shooting, French gendarmes went to the suspect’s home to arrest him, but he wasn’t there, Stephane Morisse of police union FGP said. They found explosive materials during a search, he said. France, where most of Europe’s worst terror attacks of recent years took place, was raising its terror alert level and sending security reinforcements to Strasbourg, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said early Wednesday. The attack in Strasbourg came two years after a Tunisian man drove a hijacked truck into a busy Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people. Strasbourg, which promotes itself as the “Capital of Christmas,” is located on France’s border with Germany, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Paris. The market is set up around the city’s cathedral during the Christmas season. Some 350 security forces and two helicopters were searching for the alleged assailant, who had been radicalized for “several years” and confronted law enforcement officers twice while he “sowed terror” in Strasbourg, Castaner said. The death toll stood at three early Wednesday, he said. Two police union officials said earlier there were four victims. Officials did not explain the conflicting numbers. A dozen more people were wounded, half of them in “absolute emergency” critical condition, Castaner said. The shooter was also shot and wounded by soldiers guarding the Christmas market, according to Stephane Morisse of police union FGP. French military spokesman Col. Patrik Steiger said the shooter didn’t seem to be aiming for the soldiers patrolling in and around the market, but appeared to target civilians instead. Witnesses described hearing gunshots, screams and shouts of police officers ordering people to stay indoors before the area fell silent and the officers fanned out. “I heard two or three shots at around 7:55 p.m. (1855 GMT), then I heard screams. I got close to the window. I saw people running. After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time,” Yoann Bazard, 27, who lives in central Strasbourg. “I thought maybe it’s firecrackers,” he said, speaking by phone. “And then, as it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams. … There were police or soldiers shouting ‘Get inside!’ and ‘Put your hands on your head.'” Freelance journalist Camille Belsoeur was at a friend’s apartment when they heard the gunfire, which she at first mistook for firecrackers. “We opened the window. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots,” Belsoeur said, Other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted ‘Go home! Go home!'” to those outside, he said. Another witness, Peter Fritz, told the BBC one of the four people killed was a Thai tourist who was shot in the head and didn’t respond to lengthy attempts to revive him. “We tried our best to resuscitate him. We applied CPR. We dragged him into a restaurant close by,” Fritz said. He said it took more than 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, during which time an emergency doctor advised by telephone “that any further efforts would be futile.” The victim “is still here in this restaurant but we have abandoned all hope for him,” Fritz said. France previously endured several high-profile extremist attacks, including the coordinated attacks at multiple Paris locations that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds in November 2015. A 2016 truck attack in Nice killed dozens. President Emmanuel Macron adjourned a meeting at the presidential palace Tuesday night to monitor the emergency, his office said, indicating the gravity of the attack. Castaner and the Paris prosecutor, who is in charge of anti-terror probes in France, headed to Strasbourg. The prosecutor’s office said the investigation was being conducted on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise charges, suggesting officials think the alleged shooter may have links to extremists. In multiple neighborhoods of Strasbourg, the French Interior Ministry urged the public to remain indoors. Local authorities tweeted for the public to “avoid the area of the police station,” which is close to the city’s Christmas market. European Parliament spokesman Jaume Duch said that “the European Parliament has been closed and no one can leave until further notice.” It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were inside. The attack revived memories of a new millennium terror plot targeting Strasbourg’s Christmas market. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a plot to blow up the market on the New Year’s Eve ushering in 2000.. The Algerian and French-Algerian suspects – including an alleged associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden – went on trial in October on charges they were involved in the foiled plot for the attack. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to nine years.[SEP]This article is more than 8 months old This article is more than 8 months old France has upgraded its security threat level as hundreds of police hunted a gunman who shot three people dead and injured 12 others in a terror attack on Strasbourg’s celebrated Christmas market on Tuesday evening. Six hours after the gunman disappeared after firing at passers-by in the busy city centre, the interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said the government had raised the risk level to the highest category. The move would strengthen border controls and bolster protection of Christmas markets and other events. In a statement, Castaner said the gunman had opened fire in three different places in the city before engaging in firefights with patrolling soldiers. “He fought twice with our security forces,” Castaner said. French media reported the man, who was injured in one of the exchanges, then jumped in a taxi and disappeared. Police immediately cut off major roads in and out of the city and launched a massive operation involving 350 police gendarmes and soldiers, as well as helicopters, to find him. French security services said they had identified the gunman as a 29-year-old born in Strasbourg, known to police and also on the “Fiche S” list of potential security threats. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Picture taken with a mobile phone shows rescuers treating an injured person on the streets of Strasbourg. Photograph: Francois D’astier/AFP/Getty Images French media reported that gendarmes had attempted to arrest the man for a separate crime at his home in the Neudorf district of south-east Strasbourg earlier on Tuesday. The suspect was not home, but officers reportedly found grenades in his apartment. Shortly before 8pm local time, the man, armed with an automatic rifle, walked over one of the city’s many bridges around the Grand Île toward the Christmas market, which attracts millions of visitors every year. Witnesses said the man fired a first volley of rounds and then walked down the street before opening fire again. Local resident Yoann Bazard said he heard “two or three shots” and screams; and when he went to his window he saw people running. “After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time. There were two or three episodes like that ... As it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams.” Freelance journalist Camille Belsoeur said he was at a friend’s apartment in the city centre and at first mistook the gunfire for firecrackers. “We opened the window. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots,” he said. He said other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted “Go home! Go home!” to those outside. One of the dead was said to be a Thai tourist who was shot in the head outside a restaurant. Staff and diners tried to save him but were unsuccessful. Six of the injured were reported to be in a critical condition. The anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor’s office declared the incident to be an act of terrorism and announced an inquiry had been opened into “murder and attempted murder in relation to a criminal enterprise”. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, immediately held a crisis meeting at the interior ministry in Paris. The gunman reportedly shot at soldiers patrolling as part of the nationwide Operation Sentinelle, the French military operation introduced in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in and around Paris in January 2015, and was injured when they fired back. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rescuers at the scene of gun attack near Strasbourg Christmas Market. Photograph: Murielle Kasprzak/AFP/Getty Images Police asked residents in the centre of Strasbourg to stay at home bars and restaurants were ordered to close and not let customers leave. Hours after the shootings, thousands of people remained unable to leave city centre restaurants, bars, libraries, and other public buildings following police orders for everyone to stay off the streets. About 5,000 people were stuck inside the local sports stadium. The BBC reported the order was lifted in the early hours of Wednesday. The European parliament, which is sitting in Strasbourg, was put on lockdown, and the parliament’s safety awareness division sent a message to MEPs advising those dining in the city centre to “please stay inside and don’t go out”. “[A] decision has been taken, as a precautionary measure, to close the European parliament building in Strasbourg. We ask you to stay calm and safe within [European parliament] premises,” it read. Later, Antonio Tajani, the president of the parliament, said it would not be ‘“intimidated” by terrorism. Antonio Tajani (@EP_President) I express all my sorrow for the victims of the Strasbourg attacks. This Parliament will not be intimidated by terrorist or criminal attacks. Let us move on. We will continue to work and react strengthened by freedom and democracy against terrorist violence. Several MEPs in city centre restaurants reported hearing gunfire. The Yorkshire and Humber MEP Richard Corbett tweeted that he was dining in the city “where shots (were) fired”. The restaurant was “not letting anyone in or out”, he added. Theresa May said she was “shocked and saddened” by the “terrible” attack in Strasbourg. “My thoughts are with all of those affected and with the French people,” the British prime minister tweeted. The local prefecture tweeted that people should avoid the area near the city’s police headquarters and that all access to the A35 motorway bisecting the city was blocked. Police in Germany said they were strengthening controls at the Franco-German border near Strasbourg. The police force of Baden-Württemberg, a state in south-west Germany bordering Strasbourg, tweeted they were taking the extra measures at the border because of the shooting. The transnational tramway between France and Germany was suspended. In the early hours of Wednesday, local prefect Roland Ries announced the Christmas market would be closed on Wednesday and all local cultural events cancelled. France remains on high alert after suffering a wave of attacks commissioned or inspired by Islamic State militants in 2015 and 2016, which killed more than 200 people. Strasbourg’s Christmas market, which started in 1570, is one of France’s most popular seasonal events. The “Grande Ile” where the market is held is surrounded by water, on one side the main channel of the River Ill and the other by the Canal du Faux-Rempart, is accessible only by bridges. Since the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, the event has been held under high security. Access to the area is controlled and visitors bags are searched. Vehicles are banned from the area. In 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. The perpetrator, Anis Amri, a Tunisian who had failed to gain asylum in Germany, was killed four days later in a shootout with police near Milan in Italy. The attack comes during a period of intense tension across France after four weeks of civil unrest by anti-government protesters from the gilets jaunes movement.

A gunman kills two people and injures 14 others in a mass shooting in Strasbourg, France, during the annual Christmas market. The shooter flees the scene but is identified by police as a known extremist. The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism.

Five U.S. Marines missing after their aircraft collided last week over the ocean off Kochi Prefecture were declared dead Tuesday, the Marine Corps said in a statement announcing the end of its search and rescue operations. “After an update from the Joint Personnel Recovery Center, and a review of all available information, I have made the determination to end the search and rescue operations for the crew of our KC-130J aircraft which was involved in a mishap off the southern coast of Japan and to declare that these Marine warriors are deceased,” Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, the III Marine Expeditionary Force’s commanding general, said in the statement. Smith said the KC-130’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders had not been located, “making it premature to speculate about wreckage recovery.” Search operations, which also included vessels from the Self-Defense Forces, the Japan Coast Guard and the Australian military, began almost immediately after the KC-130 tanker plane collided with an F/A-18 fighter jet in midair during routine training early Thursday. Two marines from the fighter jet were rescued on the day of the crash, but one later was pronounced dead. Both aircraft were based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The U.S. military has categorized the crash as a “Class A” accident, the most severe category in its four-level scale. “Every possible effort was made to recover our crew and I hope the families of these selfless Americans will find comfort in the incredible efforts made by U.S., Japanese and Australian forces during the search,” Smith said. U.S. Forces Japan head Lt. Gen. Jerry Martinez echoed this sentiment, thanking Japan and Australia for their efforts. “I am incredibly proud of and grateful for the efforts of the U.S. military along with our Japanese and Australian partners,” Martinez said. “Support from the Japan Self Defense Forces and Coast Guard was immediate and life-saving, and I thank them for their professionalism, dedication and robust support throughout this massive operation.” The U.S. Marines said the cause of the crash is currently under investigation, but noted that it is unclear whether aerial refueling was underway when the accident occurred. Difficult refueling maneuvers would have been complicated by a lack of sunlight and the weather at the time. During such maneuvers, the smaller fighter approaches from the rear of the KC-130, which has a fuel line trailing behind. An extendable nozzle is then “plugged-in” to allow fuel to flow. Accidents involving U.S. military aircraft have become a sensitive topic in Japan in recent years after a spate of crashes — especially in Okinawa Prefecture, which is home to the bulk of U.S. military facilities in the country. In June, a U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jet crashed in waters off Okinawa during a routine training mission. The pilot successfully ejected and was safely recovered by an Air Self-Defense Force search and rescue team. In November last year, a C-2 cargo plane carrying 11 passengers and supplies from the base at Iwakuni to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed in the Philippine Sea during an annual bilateral maritime field-training exercise with the MSDF. Eight people aboard the plane were rescued, but three died in the accident.[SEP]TOKYO -- The U.S. military has declared five missing crew members dead after their refueling plane collided with a fighter jet last week off Japan's southern coast. The search for the five, joined by Japanese and Australian forces, was halted Tuesday, and the cause of the crash is still under investigation, the Marines said in a statement. The five crew members were on a KC-130 refueling aircraft that collided Thursday with an F/A-18 Hornet during regularly scheduled training. It wasn't clear whether the aircraft were practicing refueling when the mishap occurred, officials said. The two crew members from the F/A-18 were recovered after the accident, but one died. The U.S. Marines said the survivor was in fair condition. The military said in a statement that the next of kin of the five Marines have been notified and that their identities would be released within 24 hours of that notification. The crew members of the refueling aircraft were based at Iwakuni air station near Hiroshima as part of the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152, whose call sign is Sumo. "All of us in the Sumo family are extremely saddened following the announcement of the conclusion of search and rescue operation," the squadron's commanding officer, Lt. Col. Mitchell T. Maury, said in the statement. "We know this difficult decision was made after all resources were exhausted in the vigorous search for the Marines." "Our thoughts are heavy and our prayers are with all family and friends of all five aircrew," Maury said. A Litchfield Park, Arizona woman told CBS Phoenix affiliate KPHO-TV her son was among the missing. Rosa Bennett told CBS Phoenix affiliate KPHO-TV Maximo Flores, 27, had a heart of gold and a smile that could light up a room. "Oh, he was just very sweet. Always happy real smart and just a good guy," she remarked. The Marines said the FA-18 pilot who lost his life was Capt. Jahmar F. Resilard, 28, of Miramar, Florida. Lt. Col. James Compton called Resilard an "effective and dedicated leader who cared for his Marines and fellow pilots with passion." His decorations include the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal and National Defense Service Medal. The crash was the latest in recent series of accidents involving the U.S. military deployed to and near Japan. Last month, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea southwest of Japan's southern island of Okinawa, though its two pilots were rescued safely. In mid-October, a MH-60 Seahawk also belonging to the Ronald Reagan crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors.[SEP]Five Marines missing in a mid-air crash last week are dead. The U.S. Marine Corps declared the Marines dead yesterday. They were lost when two planes collided during a refueling exercise off the coast of Japan. Another Marine was recoverd but died from his injuries and one was rescued in fair condition.[SEP]TOKYO, Japan — The U.S. military said Tuesday that five missing crew members have been declared dead after their refueling plane collided with a fighter jet last week off Japan's southern coast, and that search and recovery operations have been halted. The five were on a KC-130 Hercules refueling aircraft that collided last Thursday with an F/A-18 Hornet during regular training. The warplanes crashed into the sea south of Japan's Shikoku island. Two crew members in the F/A-18 were recovered after the accident, but one died. The U.S. Marines said the survivor was in stable condition when rescued. The search, joined by Japanese and Australian forces, was halted Tuesday, and the cause of the crash is still under investigation, the Marines said in a statement. It said the identities of the five people declared dead will be released after their next of kin are notified. The Marines earlier identified the dead pilot of the F/A-18 as Capt. Jahmar Resilard, 28, of Miramar, Florida. The crew members of the refueling aircraft were based at Iwakuni air station near Hiroshima as part of the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152, whose call sign is Sumo. "All of us in the Sumo family are extremely saddened following the announcement of the conclusion of search and rescue operation," the squadron's commanding officer, Lt. Col. Mitchell T. Maury, said in the statement. "We know this difficult decision was made after all resources were exhausted in the vigorous search for the Marines." "Our thoughts are heavy and our prayers are with all family and friends of all five aircrew," Maury said. The Marines statement said it has not been confirmed whether the two planes were involved in aerial refueling when the collision occurred. The crash is the latest in a series of recent accidents involving U.S. military forces deployed in and near Japan. Last month, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea southwest of Japan's southern island of Okinawa, though its two pilots were rescued. In mid-October, a MH-60 Seahawk also belonging to the Ronald Reagan crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors. Two years ago, a MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft Osprey crashed during a night-time refueling exercise off the southern island of Okinawa, injuring two crew members. More than 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan under a security pact.[SEP](TOKYO) — The U.S. military has declared five missing crew members dead after their refueling plane collided with a fighter jet last week off Japan’s southern coast, and halted search and recovery operations. The five crew members were on a KC-130 refueling aircraft that collided last Thursday with an F/A-18 Hornet during regularly scheduled training. Two crew members in the F/A-18 were recovered after the accident, but one died. The U.S. Marines said the survivor was in stable condition when rescued. It said in a statement that the identities of the five people declared dead will be released after their next of kin are notified. The crew members were based at Iwakuni air station near Hiroshima.[SEP]The U.S. military said Tuesday that five missing crew members have been declared dead after their refueling plane collided with a fighter jet last week off Japan's southern coast, and that search and recovery operations have ended after finding only one survivor. The five were on a KC-130 Hercules refueling aircraft that collided last Thursday with an F/A-18 Hornet during regular training. The warplanes crashed into the sea south of Japan's Shikoku island. Two crew members in the F/A-18 were recovered after the accident, but one died. The U.S. Marines said the survivor was in stable condition when rescued. The search, joined by Japanese and Australian forces, was halted Tuesday, and the cause of the crash is still under investigation, the Marines said in a statement. It said the identities of the five people declared dead will be released after their next of kin are notified. The Marines earlier identified the dead pilot of the F/A-18 as Capt. Jahmar Resilard, 28, of Miramar, Florida. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a message of condolences to U.S. President Donald Trump, while praying for a speedy recovery of the injured. Abe thanked American troops for their dedication and vowed to cooperate with Trump to further strengthen their alliance to promote regional peace and stability. "The loss of the outstanding members of U.S. Marine Corps is my deepest regret, and I myself and the Japanese people share deep sorrow of the American people," Abe said. "Japan-U.S. alliance is supported by the dedication of each U.S. military personnel, and I offer my heartfelt condolences to the victims." The crew members of the refueling aircraft were based at Iwakuni air station near Hiroshima as part of the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152, whose call sign is Sumo. "All of us in the Sumo family are extremely saddened following the announcement of the conclusion of search and rescue operation," the squadron's commanding officer, Lt. Col. Mitchell T. Maury, said in the statement. "We know this difficult decision was made after all resources were exhausted in the vigorous search for the Marines." "Our thoughts are heavy and our prayers are with all family and friends of all five aircrew," Maury said. The Marines statement said it has not been confirmed whether the two planes were involved in aerial refueling when the collision occurred. The crash is the latest in a series of recent accidents involving U.S. military forces deployed in and near Japan. Last month, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed into the sea southwest of Japan's southern island of Okinawa, though its two pilots were rescued. In mid-October, a MH-60 Seahawk also belonging to the Ronald Reagan crashed off the Philippine Sea shortly after takeoff, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors. Two years ago, a MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft Osprey crashed during a nighttime refueling exercise off the southern island of Okinawa, injuring two crew members. More than 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan under a security pact.[SEP]Five U.S. Marines who were missing and declared dead after a collision involving a fighter jet and another military plane off the coast of Japan last week were identified Wednesday. The Marines said that circumstances of the accident are still under investigation. "It is with heavy hearts that we announce the names of our fallen Marines," Marine Corps Lt. Col. Mitchell T. Maury said in a statement. Maury is the commander of the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152, to which the five Marines were assigned. "They were exceptional aviators, Marines, and friends whom will be eternally missed. Our thoughts and prayers remain with their families and loved ones at this extremely difficult time," he said. Seven Marines were involved and six of those died in the accident that occurred when a KC-130 refueling aircraft carrying five crew members and an F/A-18 fighter jet carrying two others collided. Both aircraft crashed into the sea about 200 miles off the coast on Dec. 6. Two Marines were rescued after the crash, one of whom, Capt. Jahmar Resilard of Miramar, Florida, later died. The Marine who survived was treated and released from the hospital, Marines spokesman Capt. Christopher Harrison said Wednesday. The five Marines who were missing and declared dead were identified Wednesday as: Col. Kevin R. Herrmann, 38, of New Bern, North Carolina; James M. Brophy, 36, of Staatsburg, New York; Staff Sgt. Maximo A. Flores, 27, of Surprise, Arizona; Daniel E. Baker, 21, of Tremont, Illinois; and William C. Ross, 21, of Hendersonville, Tennessee. The Marines will make every effort to salvage the aircraft and recover the bodies of the missing Marines, Maj. Eric Flanagan said in an email Wednesday. "Every possible effort was made to recover our crew and I hope the families of these selfless Americans will find comfort in the incredible efforts made by U.S., Japanese, and Australian forces during the search," Lt. Gen. Eric M. Smith, commander of U.S. Marine Forces Japan, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon local time (Monday night ET). The Marine Corps previously confirmed that the aircraft, both of which were assigned to units of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi, Japan, were conducting a training mission when the accident occurred. Herrmann served 16 years in the Marine Corps and was promoted to lieutenant colonel posthumously. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, the Marines said. Brophy served 12 years in the Marines and is survived by his wife, son and daughter; Flores served nine years and is survived by his wife; Baker served two years and is survived by his parents; and Ross also served two years and is survived by his mother and father, the Marine Corps said. Aerial refueling was part of the training mission, but it is unclear whether that was ongoing at the time of the accident, Flanagan said.[SEP]TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The US military stated that five American Marines who have been missing since two US Aircraft collided off the southern coast of Japan are dead. US Marine Corps Lt Gen Eric Smith, commanding general, III Marine Expeditionary Force, made the announcement Tuesday, after five days of search and rescue operations for the missing US marines were concluded. 'Every possible effort was made to recover our crew and I hope the families of these selfless Americans will find comfort in the incredible efforts made by US, Japanese, and Australian forces during the search,' Smith said on Facebook. The next-of-kin for the five deceased Marines have been notified, but the US military did not reveal their identities. A KC-130 Hercules tanker and an F/A-18 Hornet jet crashed about 200 miles off the coast of Japan on December 6 during a regularly-scheduled training. The military did not confirm reports that the mishap occurred during mid-air refueling exercise. The circumstances of the mishap are currently under investigation. The United States Marine Corps confirmed that one of the two marines who were rescued after the accident also succumbed to his injuries, raising the death toll to six. The aircraft had reportedly taken off from Iwakuni, in southern Japan, one of the biggest U.S. air bases in East Asia. This is the third crash of U.S. military aircraft in about two months, raising concerns within Japan about accidents involving the U.S. military. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX[SEP]JAPAN — Five U.S. Marines who were missing after two aircraft collided mid-air off the coast of Japan on Thursday morning have been declared dead, the U.S. Marine Corps said. The U.S. military called off its search for the Marines on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Marine Expeditionary Force. “The Marine Corps has pronounced the five remaining Marines involved in the F/A-18 and KC-130 aviation mishap deceased,” the Marine Corps said in a statement. “The change in status comes at the conclusion of search and rescue operations.” The identities of the Marines have not been released, but the Marine Corps said their next of kin have been notified. “Every possible effort was made to recover our crew, and I hope the families of these selfless Americans will find comfort in the incredible efforts made by the U.S., Japanese, and Australian forces during the search,” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, said in the statement. U.S., Japanese and Australian forces conducted more than 800 hours of air and maritime search operations, covering more than 35,000 square miles of ocean, US Forces Japan said in a statement. The five Marines were among seven crew aboard two aircraft — a KC-130 and F/A-18 — that collided Thursday at 1:42 a.m. local time about 200 miles (320 kilometers) off the coast of Japan. The planes had launched from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, the Marine Corps said in a statement. The death toll from the accident now stands at six. Two Marines were rescued following the crash. One of them, Capt. Jahmar F. Resilard, 28, later died, the Marine Corps said. The Marine Corps initially said the accident occurred during an aerial refueling that was part of routine training, but on Tuesday said it is “not confirmed” that refueling was ongoing when the collision occurred. The primary mission of a KC-130 is airborne refueling. The cause of the crash is under investigation. The two planes belonged to the U.S. Marine Corps, assigned to the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force. While the cause of Thursday’s crash is under investigation, it comes a year after a spate of incidents — most involving ships assigned to the U.S. 7th Fleet — that included the deaths of 17 sailors. In August 2017, Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin was relieved of his duty as the commander of 7th Fleet following a deadly collision between the destroyer USS John S. McCain and a merchant ship off Singapore that left 10 U.S. sailors dead. In June the same year, the guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald, also of the 7th Fleet, collided with a cargo ship off Japan, killing seven U.S. sailors. Those two fatal collisions were “avoidable” and “numerous failures occurred on the part of leadership,” a Navy report concluded November last year. Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee as part of an investigation into the series of fatal crashes and collisions at sea, the Navy’s No. 2 officer, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William Moran, said the Navy was trying to do too much with too little. “We continue to have a supply-and-demand problem which is placing a heavy strain on the force,” said Moran. “All of these things culminate with this notion we aren’t big enough to do everything we’re being tasked to do.” Surveys of sailors aboard the Japan-based guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh carried out between June 2015 and August 2017 pointed to severe morale problems. One sailor described serving aboard the ship as being akin to being on “a floating prison,” according to surveys obtained via the Freedom of Information Act by Navy Times. In the wake of the incidents, the U.S. Navy began reevaluating its operations and included efforts to improve conditions for sailors and personnel, according to the Navy Times in April. Still, accidents have continued. Most recently, a U.S. Navy helicopter crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan in the Philippine Sea in October, injuring 12 personnel on board.[SEP]The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. TOKYO (AP) — The U.S. military has declared five missing crew members dead after their refueling plane collided with a fighter jet last week off Japan’s southern coast, and halted search and recovery operations. The five crew members were on a KC-130 refueling aircraft that collided last Thursday with an F/A-18 Hornet during regularly scheduled training. Two crew members in the F/A-18 were recovered after the accident, but one died. The U.S. Marines said the survivor was in stable condition when rescued. It said in a statement that the identities of the five people declared dead will be released after their next of kin are notified. The crew members were based at Iwakuni air station near Hiroshima. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Five U.S. Marines who were missing after two aircraft collided mid-air off the coast of Japan on December 6 are declared dead.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 11) — After 117 years, the Balangiga bells have arrived in Manila Tuesday morning, marking a historic moment for Philippine-U.S. relations. The three bells arrived at the Villamor Air Base at around 10:30 a.m., coming from an American military base in Okinawa, Japan. Two of these came from Wyoming, where the U.S. government formally turned them over in a ceremony led by Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis last November 15. The third bell was located in a U.S. military museum in South Korea. Prior to their shipment to Okinawa, the bells were first brought to Philadelphia where they underwent refurbishing and restoration. Joseph Felter, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, was with the bells in flight. U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, in a speech during the handover ceremony, said returning the historic bells was the "right thing to do." "The return of the bells of Balangiga lets us reflect on the U.S.-Philippine relationship -- where we have been, where we are, where we are going. Having now served over two years as U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, I am convinced that our relationship remains ironclad, consecrated by the service and sacrifice of the Americans and Filipinos who fought side by side for freedom," Kim said. The U.S. Embassy said replica of the bells will be put up in the F.E. Warren airbase in Wyoming, as a response to American veterans who opposed the handover. The handover was made possible after U.S. President Donald Trump signed the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act of 2018, enabling the U.S. Defense Department to facilitate the bells' return. Historians believe one of the bells signaled the attack the Filipinos launched against American troops stationed in Balangiga town in Eastern Samar on September 28, 1901. The attack, which killed 48 American soldiers, was reportedly in retaliation for the oppressive treatment Filipinos experienced in the hands of foreign soldiers. The U.S. soldiers retaliated, destroying the town and killing thousands of Filipino soldiers and locals in what came to be known as the Balangiga Massacre, according to historical accounts. The American soldiers seized all three bells from the Balangiga Church, and a 1557 cannon as "war booty." Former President Fidel Ramos rallied but failed to get the bells back in the 1990s, even after personally raising his concern with then U.S. President Bill Clinton who was in Manila en route to Indonesia in 1994. Former President Fidel Ramos rallied but failed to get the bells back in the 1990s, even after personally raising his concern with then U.S. President Bill Clinton who was in Manila en route to Indonesia in 1994. President Rodrigo Duterte renewed the call for the bells' return during his 2017 State of the Nation Address. However, the U.S. embassy said the return was a byproduct of efforts put in by U.S. and Philippine officials. "It was decades worth of work and protest from the veterans, and the legal issues that came with it," U.S. Embassy Spokesperson Molly Koscina said Monday. "It was not due to any particular event or statement." President Duterte did not attend the handover, but he is expected to be at the turnover of the bells to Balangiga officials in Samar on December 15.[SEP]After 117 Years, Balangiga Bells Will Be Returned To The Philippines During the U.S.-Philippine war, American troops carted off church bells as war trophies. More than a century later, the Bells of Balangiga are now being returned.[SEP]MANILA, Philippines – For over a century, the Bells of Balangiga have not rung in the Philippines, a silence that the president last year called “painful.” Now, the revered bells will once again be heard in the country. Hundreds of Filipino villagers in 1901, armed with bolos and disguised as women, used one of Balangiga town’s church bells to signal the start of a massive attack that wrought one of the bloodiest single-battle losses of American occupation forces in the Philippines. The U.S. Army brutally retaliated, reportedly killing thousands of villagers, as the Philippine-American War raged. After the violence, the Americans took three church bells as spoils of war that Filipinos would demand for decades to be handed back. On Tuesday, a giant U.S. Air Force cargo aircraft brought the Bells of Balangiga back to the Philippine capital in a poignant ceremony that saw U.S. defense officials and the American ambassador to Manila return the war relics 117 years after they were seized. A military brass band played the Philippine national anthem, followed by “The Star Spangled Banner.” The treaty allies then swept aside a dark episode in their long relationship with joint photographs and handshakes. “It is my great honor to be here at this closing of a painful chapter in our history,” U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim said. “Our relationship has withstood the tests of history and flourishes today.” U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has said the handover is an important gesture of friendship and is in America’s national security interest. Some U.S. veterans and officials had opposed the return of the bells, calling them memorials to American war dead. At Tuesday’s handover ceremony at a Philippine air force base, the bronze bells stood atop a red platform like silent symbols of a bygone era of hostilities, as American and Philippine flags flapped in the wind. Officials from both sides called for a minute of silence for the war dead. The bells are revered by Filipinos as symbols of national pride, and their arrival on a U.S. C-130 plane and the ceremony were shown live on national TV. Two of the bells had been displayed for decades at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the third was with the U.S. Army in South Korea. After being colonized by Spain for more than three centuries, the Philippines became a U.S. possession in 1898 in a new colonial era that began with the outbreak of the Philippine-American War. American occupation troops seized the bells from a Catholic church following an attack by machete-wielding Filipino villagers, who killed 48 U.S. soldiers in Balangiga, on central Samar island off Leyte Gulf, according to Filipino historian Rolando Borrinaga. The Americans retaliated, with a general, Jacob Smith, ordering troops to shoot villagers older than 10 and turn the island into a “howling wilderness,” Borrinaga said. Thousands of villagers were reported to have been killed. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has had an antagonistic attitude toward the U.S. and has revitalized ties with China and Russia, asked Washington in his state of the nation address last year to “return them to us, this is painful for us.” “Give us back those Balangiga bells. … They are part of our national heritage,” Duterte said in the speech, attended by the U.S. ambassador and other diplomats. Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said at Tuesday’s ceremony that with the resolution of the issue, “It’s time for healing, it is time for closure, it is time to look ahead as two nations should with a shared history as allies.” Duterte has referred to violence by Americans in Balangiga and on southern Jolo island in the early 1900s in public criticism of the U.S. government after it raised concerns about his brutal crackdown on illegal drugs in which thousands have died. A breakthrough on the bells issue came with an amendment to a U.S. law banning the return of war relics and memorials to foreign countries. That allowed the homecoming of the Balanggiga bells, said Lorenzana, who saw the bells last year in Wyoming, where he was notified by Mattis of the U.S. decision. Philippine officials led by Duterte are to turn over the bells on Saturday to officials and the church in Balangiga, a small coastal town where villagers, some in tears, applauded while watching troops on TV screens pry open the wooden crates containing the bells. “The Bells of Balangiga will once again peal, it will still remind the people of Balangiga of what happened in the town square more than a century ago,” Lorenzana said. “But we would also look at that history with more understanding and acceptance.” Associated Press journalists Bullit Marquez and Cecilia Forbes contributed to this report.[SEP]MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte will no longer attend the handover of the Balangiga Bells scheduled on Tuesday in Villamor Air Base in Pasay City, Malacañang said on Monday. Instead, the President will attend the program for the repatriation of the three bells (the two removed from Wyoming and one removed from South Korea) to town officials of Balangiga, Eastern Samar on Saturday. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said this decision came upon recommendation of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. “The President, upon the recommendation of Secretary of National Defense Delfin N. Lorenzana, will no longer be attending the handover of the Balangiga bells scheduled tomorrow, December 11, in Villamor Air Base,” Panelo said in a press statement. “The President will instead be in Samar on December 15, Saturday, to turn over the bells to Balangiga officials,” he added. Lorenzana, in an interview, did not give any specific reason for the change in Duterte’s schedule. He said Duterte was originally scheduled to attend the handover of the Balangiga bells from the US and skip its turnover to Balangiga officials. Earlier, the defense chief described the bells’ return to its homeland as a closure to the dark episode in US-Philippine relations. Malacañang has expressed enthusiasm for the return of the bells which were taken by US soldiers as “war booty” during the Filipino-American War over a century ago. “The Palace enthusiastically awaits the arrival of the Balangiga Bells in the country on Tuesday, December 11,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a press statement. In his second State of the Nation Address last year, Duterte sought for the return of the three church bells taken from Balangiga town in Eastern Samar following the “Balangiga Massacre” in 1901. In August this year, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) bared that the details of the possible return of the Balangiga Bells after US Defense Secretary James Mattis notified the US Congress of their intention to return them despite opposition from some American lawmakers. PNA-northboundasia.com[SEP]The Balangiga Bells are finally back home 117 years after American soldiers took them from a church in Eastern Samar as war booty MANILA, Philippines – After over a century, the Balangiga Bells are finally back home in the Philippines. The US plane carrying the historic bells arrived past 10:30 am at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City on Tuesday, December 11. Ove the decadres, the Philippine government had repeatedly asked its ally to return the historic bells, which were taken by American soldiers from a church in Balangiga town, Eastern Samar, in 1901 as war booty. After President Rodrigo Duterte asked the US to return the 3 bells during his 2017 State of the Nation Address, the US said it would consider the request, and later agreed to give up the bells to forge a stronger friendship with the Philippines. The bells would be formally turned over to Philippine authorities Tuesday afternoon, during a ceremony where Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana and US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim would be present. The bells would finally be home when it arrives in Balangiga town on Friday, December 14. They're not just bells: Before they were carted off, the bells tolled in the church of Balangiga town. Filipinos rang them in 1901 to signal the start of a surprise attack against American troops during the Philippine-American War. Armed with machetes, Filipinos killed 48 out of 78 American soldiers in Balangiga, handing the US Army one of its biggest defeats at the time. The Americans retaliated with a campaign to kill Filipino males over the age of 10 in the town. US military officers ordered their troops to turn Balangiga into a "howling wilderness." Philippine historians estimated that at least 10,000 Filipinos were killed during the retaliatory attack. What the bells mean: For the Philippines, the bells symbolize Filipinos' courage to stand up to foreign colonizers, while Americans see them as a memorial in honor of their soldiers who were killed at the time. The US called its act of returning the bells “a demonstration of US commitment to the friendship and partnership, and the alliance” with the Philippines. For the Philippine defense department, the bells’ long-awaited return is a cue to "heal the wounds" left by the 1901 incident. “In this ever-changing world, it is time to heal the wounds of the past, move on, and look to the future,” it said. – Rappler.com[SEP]MANILA: Church bells seized from the Philippines by US troops as war trophies over a century ago were returned on Tuesday, in a bid to turn the page on a difficult chapter between the historical allies. Giving back the three so-called Balangiga bells meets a decades-old demand from the former US colony at a time when the two nations’ ties have been rattled by President Rodrigo Duterte’s pivot to China. “Returning these bells is the right thing to do,” US Ambassador Sung Kim said at a sober handover ceremony on a Manila airfield, where a cheer went up when the bells were pulled from wooden crates. “It is my great honour to be here at the closing of a painful chapter in our history,” he told the crowd that included people who had lobbied for years to bring the bells home. The bells will be sent back later this week to the church in the central town of Balangiga where they were looted by US soldiers avenging a surprise attack that killed 48 of their comrades on September 28, 1901. In reprisal, the US commander Jacob Smith ordered the surrounding island of Samar be turned into a “howling wilderness”, resulting in the slaughter of thousands of Filipinos and Balangiga’s razing. The return of the bronze bells has been divisive with some US veterans and lawmakers, who see them as a tribute to fallen American troops, while the Philippines hails them as a symbol of its struggle for independence. Two of the bells had been on display in the US state of Wyoming and the other in South Korea until being restored and flown to a Manila air base on Tuesday aboard an American military cargo plane. “It is time for healing. It is time for closure. It is a time to look ahead as two nations should with shared history and as allies,” Philippine Secretary of Defence Delfin Lorenzana said. “After 117 years the sound of the bells will once again ring,” he added. Manila’s push for the bells’ repatriation began in the 1990s and has had backing from Philippine presidents as well as from the Catholic Church and historians, but also supporters in the US. Duterte, 73, bluntly called on Washington in a 2017 speech — where Kim was in the audience — “Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are not yours.” Within months of winning the presidency in mid-2016 he signalled his intention to split with the Philippines’ former colonial master and end a standoff with Beijing over the disputed South China Sea. The president did not attend Tuesday’s handover, but is due to speak at a ceremony on Saturday in Balangiga when the bells will be given back to the church. — AFP[SEP]After 117 Years, Balangiga Bells Will Be Returned To The Philippines During the U.S.-Philippine war, American troops carted off church bells as war trophies. More than a century later, the Bells of Balangiga are now being returned. It has been more than a century since American soldiers seized three church bells from a town in the Philippines. That was back during the Philippine-American War in 1901. Today, those bells are being returned. NPR's Julie McCarthy has been following the odyssey of the bells and watched as they returned. And she joins us now to tell us this story. Hey, Julie. MARTIN: Can you just start off by telling us why these bells were taken in the first place? MCCARTHY: Well, it's 1901. Picture this - the United States is the colonial power in the Philippines, but the Filipinos fight for independence. And before long, you've got a full-blown U.S.-Philippine War on your hands, where 200,000 people are dead. Now, in this small place called Balangiga, the U.S. occupiers start jailing the men, abusing the women, destroying the food supply. And what do the locals do? They stage a revolt. And what do they do to use a signal to launch it all? The bells of St. Lawrence the Martyr Church. The local fighters end up killing two-thirds of the American unit, arguably the worst loss in the U.S.-Philippine War. The U.S. retaliates. They're told to turn the place into a howling wilderness. They do, and they carry off the bells as they go as booty. MARTIN: Wow. So what do these bells represent for the Philippines? MCCARTHY: Well, I guess you can imagine after a tale like that, the bells of Balangiga come to be seen as a symbol of resistance - the struggle for independence. They signaled a revolt against the imperial Americans, who ended up being slaughtered. And certainly for President Duterte - Rodrigo Duterte - these are, no question, a symbol of resistance. He has sort of staked out a claim, resisting the American administration where he can. And he has made this a point of owning these bells. He said last year in his State of the Union that, I want these bells back. We should demand them to come back. And a historian said to me, he's the winner out of all of this. Now, it's hoped that this will also smooth relations by bringing the two sides closer, but for how long really is the question. MARTIN: Right. But I imagine this was an incredible scene. I mean, what was it like when the bells came home? MCCARTHY: Oh, it was really wonderful. It was full of emotion and joy and pride. And it was full of history. The bells were flown in a cargo plane - the Spirit of Macarthur, the general who commanded the troops who liberated the Philippines during World War II. The U.S. had taken the bells when they were the colonial power and when the Philippines was battling for them for independence. So these bells sort of track the whole relationship, really, in some ways - or the start of that relationship. And in anticipation of their arrival, things got even more charged when these burly servicemen couldn't break into the crates. And when they finally broke into them and then hoisted them into the public view, there was a big round of applause. They are in great condition, by the way. And yeah, and the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, said that lot of people had had a hand in bringing these bells, from the highest levels of government to scholars to retired U.S. personnel. And he talked about how it reflected the U.S.-Philippine relationship. Here he is. SUNG KIM: Our shared history is enduring and deeply personal. It is my great honor to be here at this closing of a painful chapter in our history. MARTIN: A painful chapter, but Julie, just real quick - why'd take so long? MCCARTHY: Well, as one Navy captain who was very involved in this said to me, it takes a long time to change the sentiments and attitudes. And people had fierce feelings about this. Everybody was bound up in a sense of valor on their own side, as they described it. MARTIN: NPR's Julie McCarthy with a remarkable story. Thank you so much for sharing that, Julie. We appreciate it.[SEP]TACLOBAN CITY — For the people of Balangiga, Eastern Samar, watching the live coverage of bells’ arrival at the Villamor Air Base on Tuesday is like unboxing an early Christmas gift. The nearly 200 local government workers led by Mayor Randy Garza stopped their work Tuesday morning to watch on television the blow-by-blow account of the bells’ arrival, said Balangiga town tourism, culture and arts officer Fe Campanero. “It was very emotional. We’re like little kids who were excited to see what’s inside the wooden box unloaded from the C-130 plane. Nobody who is alive in Balangiga saw the actual bells after the American soldiers took them as war booties. We only saw it in photographs,” Campanero said. The streets of Balangiga town were quiet Tuesday morning as all residents watched the historic arrival of the three bells taken by American soldiers as war trophies. A group of Balangiga natives based in Manila also gathered at the Villamor Air Base to personally witness the handover ceremony, Campanero said. “The bells’ return symbolizes genuine friendship between the US and Philippines. If the bells signaled the attack in 1901, in this modern time it continues to ring in our hearts encouraging us to move forward as a community,” she added. Campanero’s great-great-grandmother Casiana Nacionales, who died at the age of 125 in 1953, was one of those who plotted the attack against American soldiers. “She went out of the church and waved rosary beads to signal the ringing of bells for the attack.” The Balangiga Encounter happened on Sept. 28, 1901, when residents, led by Valeriano Abanador, initiated an attack against US soldiers. The villagers killed 54 American soldiers using bolos. It was the biggest defeat of the foreign troop during the Philippine-American war. Nacionales’ brother, Eugenio, who was jailed in 1901 was one of the commanders of the local warriors. Eugenio was reportedly among the 2,500 Filipinos killed by the US retaliatory attack. The Americans took the Balangiga bells after they turned the town into a “howling wilderness”. Two of the three bells used to be enshrined at Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming while the third bell was at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea. The people of Balangiga expect the bells’ arrival in their town on Dec. 15, with President Rodrigo Duterte gracing the ceremony. “We are ready since everything has been planned for weeks but we expect last minute changes since the President is coming,” Campanero said. Officials from the Presidential Management Staff, Presidential Security Group, Roman Catholic Church parish, and local government unit will meet on Wednesday to discuss more details. Sarwell Meniano/PNA)[SEP]BY the time this column comes out, the Balangiga Bells would have already completed its journey from the time it became a symbol of Filipino bravery and resistance against foreign occupation, to be­ing taken as war booty by Ameri­can soldiers in 1901, to finally re­turning to Philippine soil. I welcome the decision of the US government to finally return the Balangiga bells to its rightful place in Philippine and world history. It is a decision 117 years late but very significant nevertheless. The Philippine government has announced that after the military ceremony held last November 15 at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, where two of the church bells are located, the bell will finally return to its home on December 11. As early as 2007, when I was still in the Senate, I filed Senate Resolution No. 177, “Expressing the Sense of the Senate for the Return to the Philippines of the Balangiga Bells which were taken by the US Troops from the Town of Balangiga, Province of Samar in 1991.” I believed then, and more so now, that the church bells were a part not only of the proud history of the country but also of the lives of the Filipinos because despite their poverty, the people and the church raised enough money to have the bells cast. The bells symbolized the bravery of the Filipinos amidst foreign aggression as it served to signal the people of Balangiga to fight for their freedom, thus the surprise attack against American soldiers by the Waray revolutionaries. Then during his second State of the Nation Address, President Duterte demanded from the United States the return of the bells of Balangiga which their troops appropriated as spoils of war. The return of the bells signify an important period in the long, complicated history of Philippine-American relations. In a way, the bells encapsulate this relationship. It was forged in war strengthened by peace and complicated by shifting global dynamics. It is also significant that the bells are being returned at a time when the Philippines under the Duterte administration has undertaken a major shift in its foreign policy. It has established cordial relations with non-traditional allies like China and Russia while maintaining its ties with the US. One can look at it that way – at a time when we are asserting our sovereignty in the global stage by reassessing our relations with our former colonial master, one of the symbols of our people’s struggle for independence and sovereignty is being returned to its rightful place. I hope that the return of the bells would reignite our people’s appreciation of the sacrifice made by our heroes in order to secure our freedom. I hope that the return of the bells would remind our people of the important role of history in determining our present and future. Balangiga is a clarion call for us to renew our commitment to ensuring a strong, independent Filipino nation with its feet firmly on its historical roots and its eyes set on a bright future. Finally, the rightful owners of the bells – the people of Balangiga, Samar; the Diocese of Borongan – of which Balangiga is a parish; and the Filipino nation – will receive a sense of historical justice.[SEP]American and Filipino officials on Tuesday hailed a “bright future” and the end to a dark episode in their nations’ longtime alliance as the United States brought back to Philippine soil three bells looted from a local church in 1901. After a U.S. Air Force plane carrying the Bells of Balangiga landed in Manila, the American ambassador to the Philippines signed them over to Filipino Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a ceremony filled with symbolism. “The return of the Bells of Balangiga lets us reflect on the U.S.-Philippine relationship – where we have been, where we are, where we are going,” U.S. envoy Sung Kim said during a handover witnessed by kin of Filipinos who were killed by American forces in the sacking of Balangiga town, in the central Philippines, during the Philippine-American War 117 years ago. American troops at the time claimed the church bells as war booty. The bells were symbolically flown in on a U.S. military cargo plane named after late American Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who once famously declared that he would return to liberate the Philippines – a U.S. colony at the time – from Japanese occupation during World War II. Kim said the ties binding the two allies were “ironclad” and “consecrated by the service and sacrifice of the Americans and Filipinos who fought side-by-side for freedom.” “On behalf of the United States, it is my great honor to be here at this closing of a painful chapter in our history,” he said. “The bells’ return reflects the strong bonds and mutual respect between our nations and our people. It demonstrates our determination to honor the past and the sacrifices made together by Filipinos and Americans. And it heralds our bright future as friends, partners, and allies.” While Kim noted that past Philippine presidents had worked to have the bells returned, President Rodrigo Duterte took the Americans to task over them. The president’s rhetoric and threats to sideline Washington while the Philippines sought closer ties with U.S. rivals China and Russia were largely seen as having sped up legal work needed to repatriate the church bells. “The history of these bells spans the entire relationship between the United States and the Philippines. In the process, they have touched many lives. And their return underscores the enduring friendship between our countries, our shared values and shared sacrifices,” Kim said. The bells soon will be reinstalled at the Church of San Lorenzo de Martir in Balangiga, Samar province, a fitting Christmas gift to the mostly Catholic town that was pining for the return of the historical artifacts. With the bells finally back on Philippine soil, both countries can now move on, Lorenzana said. “They are going back to where they belong. It is time for healing. It is time for closure. It is time to look ahead as two nations should which shared history as allies,” the Philippine defense chief said. “There’s no need to argue who is wrong and who is right. But it is safe to say these bells come to symbolize a painful episode in the history both the Philippines and U.S.,” he said. Duterte will be present during the handover of the Balangiga bells on Saturday in Eastern Samar. In the town of Balangiga, residents were excited for the historic homecoming of the three bells, and local officials have tightened the security in time for the arrival ceremony. For the first time in more than a century, the bells will peal to mark this year’s nine dawn Masses before Christmas. “We are praying we will have a good weather on the day of arrival,” said Fe Campanero, a town tourism officer, adding that the bells will be open for a public viewing for locals and tourists after the turnover. The bells of Balangiga were considered war trophies by the U.S. Army after reprisals that followed the infamous Balangiga Massacre on Sept. 28, 1901. The massacre was ordered to avenge the deaths of 45 American soldiers who were attacked by Filipino guerrillas. The bells were taken by American soldiers because they were used to signal a surprise attack by Filipino revolutionaries. After being removed from the Philippines, one of the bells wound up with the U.S. 9th Infantry regiment at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea, while the two others ended up were at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo. President Duterte used the story of the Balangiga Massacre to cast aspersions on the U.S. government after it questioned his administration’s war on drugs that has left thousands dead since mid-2016. He then demanded the return of the bells, and accused Washington of being hypocritical for calling him out on alleged rights abuses when the American military had committed past atrocities.

The Balangiga bells, stolen during the massacre in Balangiga in 1901 during the Philippine–American War, were returned to the Philippines after 117 years under the possession of the United States.

Five dead, four wounded in shooting at Catholic cathedral in Brazil "It was frightful," a witness told the GloboNews channel. "He entered and shot randomly at people. They were all praying."[SEP]MANILA— Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato said the Philippine government is checking whether there are Filipino casualties in two separate gun attacks in Brazil and France on Wednesday. No immediate reports of affected Filipinos from the Philippine Embassy in Brasilia and Philippine Consulate in Strasbourg were released yet, but Cato said the foreign posts have monitored the deadly shooting incidents that took place in Campinas and Strasbourg. “We have monitored the shooting at the Metropolitan Cathedral in the city of Campinas near São Paulo. The Philippine Embassy in Brasilia will be sending us a report on this unfortunate incident,” he said in a text message to reporters. “We are also monitoring a shooting incident in Strasbourg, France,” he added. A gunman opened fire inside the church in Campinas near Brazil’s most populous city, São Paulo, killing five and wounding several others. The perpetrator then killed himself before police could arrest him. Meanwhile, the gunman in Strasbourg remains at large after killing three and injuring at least a dozen people. According to reports, the shooting advanced toward the Grand Rue, one of the city’s main shopping streets. Some areas, including the European Parliament, were placed into lockdown with the public taking shelter inside the establishments and restaurants in the city. Joyce Ann L. Rocamora/PNA-northboundasia.com[SEP]Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Catholic cathedral in Campinas was the scene of a horrific attack A gunman opened fire in a Catholic cathedral near Brazil's most populous city, São Paulo, killing five people and wounding several others. The attack happened towards the end of a midday service in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Campinas city, police say. The gunman, carrying a revolver and a pistol, rose from his seat and started shooting randomly, Brazil's O Globo News reports. He then killed himself in front of the altar before police could arrest him. The motive for the attack is not yet clear. Neither the gunman nor his victims have been identified. Image copyright Reuters Image caption People were killed during a Mass Major Adriano Augusto told O Globo News that the gunman stood up shortly after the prayers had ended. "He first hit the people on the bench behind him," Major Augusto said. "Apparently he shot in several directions, not directed at anyone specifically." Most of those who were hit were elderly, the newspaper reports. There is some confusion over the exact number of fatalities, with some reports putting the number at four. Police officers outside the cathedral immediately entered after hearing the shots. Paramedics could be seen treating people at the scene. Ambulances rushed the wounded to hospital. The archdiocese of São Paulo said on its Facebook page that the killings had caused "deep pain", and that the cathedral would remain shut while the police investigation was carried out. Campinas is an industrial city some 100km (62 miles) north-west of São Paulo.[SEP]By AFP - Dec 11,2018 - Last updated at Dec 11,2018 Aerial view showing people gathering outside the Cathedral of Campinas, 90 km northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Tuesday, after a man opened fire during mass and killed at least five people before committing suicide (AFP photo) SAO PAULO — A gunman opened fire in a cathedral in the southeastern Brazilian city of Campinas, near Sao Paulo, on Tuesday, killing at least five worshippers before committing suicide, police said. Paramedics told media the man fired a revolver and a .38-caliber pistol inside the cathedral, also wounding several people before killing himself. The motive of the shooting and the identity of the gunman were not immediately known. “An individual entered a church and opened fire on several people,” a police spokesperson said. “Currently the information we have is six deaths and three wounded,” the spokesperson said, declining for the moment to say whether the gunman was included in the toll. However, television images showed the body of the gunman, lying inside the cathedral, holding a discharged pistol in his right hand. Paramedics were also seen treating several people outside the cathedral and there were multiple police cars in the street. “Everybody ran out. You can imagine that I’m shocked,” one woman who was attending the mass told Globo TV. The archdiocese of Sao Paulo said on its Facebook page that the killings provoked “deep pain” and added that the cathedral would be closed for as long as required for the police investigation. A police officer told Globo TV that most of those in the cathedral at the time were elderly. “He opened fire on innocent people. It’s a big tragedy,” the officer said. Last year, Brazil registered a record 63,880 murders. Its homicide rate of 30.8 per 100,000 inhabitants is three times higher than the level the UN considers to meet the definition of “endemic violence”. Seventy per cent of murders in Brazil are committed with firearm, according to a monitoring group, Forum for Public Security. The country’s incoming president, Jair Bolsonaro, who takes office on January 1, easily won November elections on a platform that included promises to ruthlessly crack down on crime and ease gun laws to allow “good” people to defend themselves.[SEP]A gunman opened fire Tuesday in a cathedral in the southeastern Brazilian city of Campinas near Sao Paulo, killing four worshippers before committing suicide as police shot at him, officials said. Paramedics told reporters the man fired a revolver and a .38-caliber pistol inside the cathedral at 1:00 pm (1500 GMT) as a sparsely attended mass was taking place, also wounding several people before killing himself. The motive of the shooting was not immediately known. Police speaking to the G1 news website identified the gunman as a 49-year-old who resided in Valinhos, a town near Campinas. "A man opened fire randomly on people inside until police intervened and shot at the gunman who then killed himself," the Security Secretariat for the state of Sao Paulo said in a statement. In addition to the gunman, four other people died and another four were wounded, it added. The secretariat said footage from the cathedral's security cameras would be analyzed. News magazine Veja posted footage from one of the cameras inside the cathedral showing the gunman firing a handgun at worshippers as they sat in pews, moving toward his targets as he shot and headed to the altar. Some survivors were seen running out the door. Two police officers then entered with pistols drawn and moved out of the frame. "I had started to celebrate mass at 12:15 pm and at the end of the mass, a man entered and shot at his victims. Nobody was able to do anything," priest Amaury Thomazi said in a video published on social media. Images broadcast on television showed the lifeless body of the gunman, wearing a blue t-shirt, lying inside the cathedral, holding a discharged pistol in his right hand and a revolver tucked into his jeans. Paramedics treated several people outside the cathedral and there were multiple police cars in the street. "Everybody ran out. You can imagine that I'm shocked," one woman who was attending the mass told Globo TV. The archdiocese of Sao Paulo said on its Facebook page that the killings provoked "deep pain" and added that the cathedral would be closed for as long as required for the police investigation. A police officer told Globo TV that most of those in the cathedral at the time were elderly. "He opened fire on innocent people. It's a big tragedy," the officer said. Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world. Last year, it registered a record 63,880 murders. Its homicide rate of 30.8 per 100,000 inhabitants is three times higher than the level the UN considers to meet the definition of "endemic violence." Seventy percent of murders in Brazil are committed with firearms, according to the Forum for Public Security monitoring group. The country's incoming president, Jair Bolsonaro, who takes office on January 1, easily won November elections on a platform that included promises to ruthlessly crack down on crime and ease gun laws to allow "good" people to defend themselves.[SEP]At least four people were killed and four others wounded after a gunman opened fire in a cathedral in the southeastern Brazilian city of Campinas on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The assailant then killed himself after security forces wounded him, said authorities. Police identified the shooter as Euler Fernando Gandolfo, a 49-year-old systems analyst with no previous criminal record. Campinas police chief Jose Henrique Ventura said the injured were taken to a hospital and were reportedly out of danger. The incident took place at 1 pm local time (8.30 pm Indian time). Gandolfo was carrying a revolver and a .38-caliber pistol, AFP reported. “A man opened fire randomly on people inside until police intervened and shot at the gunman who then killed himself,” the Security Secretariat for the state of Sao Paulo said in a statement. Ventura said security cameras showed Gandolfo enter the cathedral and sit down among worshippers who stayed behind to pray after midday mass. A while later, started shooting at people. Ventura said police officials stationed in the plaza outside rushed into the cathedral after hearing the gunshots. Gandolfo then ran to the altar while firing at police and was hit in the side. Ventura said the gunman fell to ground and shot himself in the head. He had two guns with 28 rounds left when he died. The police are yet to establish a motive behind the attack. “I had started to celebrate mass at 12.15 pm and at the end of the mass, a man entered and shot at his victims,” said priest Amaury Thomazi in a video published on social media. “Nobody was able to do anything.” The archdiocese of Sao Paulo on its Facebook page said that the killings provoked “deep pain”, adding that the cathedral would be closed for as long as needed for police investigation. Brazil last year registered 63,880 murders and its murder rate of 30.8 per 1,00,000 citizens is three times higher than the level the United Nations considers to meet the definition of “endemic violence”. President Jair Bolsonaro, who takes office in January, won the elections last month and plans to relax gun legislation to allow Brazilians to arm themselves against criminals.[SEP]A gunman opened fire in a cathedral in the southeastern Brazilian city of Campinas, near Sao Paulo, on Tuesday, killing at least five worshippers before committing suicide, the police said. Paramedics told media the man fired a revolver and a .38-caliber pistol inside the cathedral, also wounding several people before killing himself. The motive of the shooting and the identity of the gunman were not immediately known. "An individual entered a church and opened fire on several people," a police spokesperson said. "Currently the information we have is six deaths and three wounded," the spokesperson said, declining for the moment to say whether the gunman was included in the toll. However, television images showed the lifeless body of the gunman, wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, lying inside the cathedral, holding a discharged pistol in his right hand. Television also showed paramedics attending several people outside the cathedral and multiple police cars in the street. For the latest News & Live Updates on Election Results from each assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for updates.[SEP]A gunman entered a Catholic cathedral in the Brazilian city of Campinas on Tuesday and fatally shot four people attending midday mass before killing himself at the altar, fire department officials said. Four elderly people were seriously wounded by the man, who began shooting at the congregation with two guns, according to a spokesman with the fire department in Campinas, an industrial city 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo, where the shooting took place. “It was frightful,” witness Alexandre Moraes told the GloboNews channel. “He entered and shot randomly at people. They were all praying.” The wounded were taken to a hospital in Campinas. Firemen at the scene said they had not identified the gunman. Brazil had nearly 64,000 murders last year - more than any other country, according to the United Nations. However, random mass shootings are relatively rare, with few American-style shootings in schools or other public areas.[SEP]BRASILIA (Reuters) - A gunman entered a Catholic cathedral in the Brazilian city of Campinas on Tuesday and shot dead four people before killing himself, the GloboNews TV channel has reported. At least three people were wounded and taken to the hospital in Campinas, an industrial city 100 kilometres northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest metropolis. Firemen at the scene said they had not identified the gunman who shot down people as they prayed.[SEP]SÃO PAULO, Brazil — A man in a cathedral in southern Brazil opened fire at the end of Mass on Tuesday, killing four people and injuring four more before killing himself, according to the authorities and witnesses. The shooting took place around 1:20 p.m. at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Campinas, a Roman Catholic church in a wealthy agricultural city about 60 miles from São Paulo, a spokesman for the Campinas Firefighters Department said. He said the authorities did not know what motivated the shooter, who was armed with one pistol and one revolver.

A gunman kills four people and injures four others at a Catholic cathedral in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. The gunman commits suicide after the attack.

Legislation comes ahead of a referendum on recreational marijuana use in next two years This article is more than 8 months old This article is more than 8 months old New Zealand’s government has passed a law that will make medical marijuana widely available for thousands of patients over time, after years of campaigning by chronically ill New Zealanders who say the drug is the only thing that eases their pain. The legislation will also allow terminally ill patients to begin smoking illegal pot immediately without facing the possibility of prosecution. The health minister, David Clarke, said thousands of New Zealanders were living with chronic and end-of-life pain and the evidence that marijuana could safely help ease their suffering was sound. 'Watching our mates drop dead': New Zealand's synthetic cannabis crisis Read more The law would also pave the way for New Zealand companies to manufacture medicinal cannabis products for both the local and international market, an industry which is being touted as a potential game-changer for deprived Māori communities on the east coast of the North Island, who hope to turn the thriving illegal industry into a thriving legal one. “People nearing the end of their lives should not have to worry about being arrested or imprisoned for trying to manage their pain,” Clarke said. “This is compassionate and caring legislation that will make a real difference to people … they can use illicit cannabis without fear of prosecution.” The measures come ahead of a planned referendum on recreational marijuana use, which the government has pledged to hold within two years, as part of their confidence and supply agreement with coalition partner the Greens. The new law allows much broader use of medical marijuana, which was previously been highly restricted and subject to approval by the health minister. The campaign to make marijuana legal applauded the government for passing the legislation within their first year in office. “New Zealanders will take this as encouragement that we don’t need to be stuck in the past,” said Sandra Murray, campaign manager for the #makeitlegal campaign. “We are now only two steps behind the rest of the world when it comes to sensible cannabis laws and with the upcoming referendum, we are on track to become an example of how to get it right.” Marijuana use is common in New Zealand and police largely turn a blind eye to small, recreational use of the drug, with some politicians even admitting to using it in their youth. Chlöe Swarbrick (@_chloeswarbrick) Today Aotearoa New Zealand finally passed legislation to create a legal, local #medicinalcannabis scheme. #nzpol pic.twitter.com/Pwfesu4ncS The opposition National party said the government had decriminalised cannabis “by stealth”, and slammed the move as “lazy and dangerous”. “We support medicinal cannabis but strongly oppose the smoking of loose leaf cannabis in public. Smoked loose leaf is not a medicine,” said the Nationals’ spokesperson on health, Shane Reti. Patients wanting to use marijuana for conditions like chronic pain will have to wait a year until a new set of regulations, licensing rules and quality standards are put in place.[SEP]MOSCOW: New Zealand's parliament on Tuesday passed a bill authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes for chronically and terminally ill people, local media reported. The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported that the bill, which gives terminally ill people legal defense for using cannabis products, passed its third reading with the support of all coalition partners except the National Party of New Zealand, which slammed the initiative to decriminalize cannabis. According to the previous version of the bill, the medical use of marijuana could be authorized only for people with a year or less left to live. During the bill's second reading on November 29, New Zealand Health Minister David Clark made several adjustments, expanding the legal defence to all people needing palliative relief, the newspaper noted. According to the newspaper, cannabis-based drugs will be available by prescription, and the law will come into force as soon as it receives royal assent.[SEP]New Zealand passes law allowing broader access to medical marijuana, but most patients will have to wait New Zealand's Government has passed a law that will make medical marijuana widely available for thousands of patients over time. The legislation will also allow terminally ill patients to begin smoking illegal pot immediately without facing the possibility of prosecution. The measures come ahead of a planned national referendum on recreational marijuana use. The Government has pledged to hold the referendum some time over the next two years, but has not yet set a date or finalised the wording. The new law allows patients much broader access to medical marijuana, which was previously highly restricted. But most patients will have to wait a year until a new set of regulations, licensing rules and quality standards are put in place. The law will also allow medical marijuana products to be manufactured in New Zealand for both domestic and overseas markets. Health Minister David Clark said in a statement the new law would help ease suffering. "This will be particularly welcome as another option for people who live with chronic pain," he said. He said the 25,000 people who are in palliative care with terminal illnesses did not have time to wait for the new scheme, and so the law provided a legal defence for them to use illegal marijuana. But the Opposition's health spokesman, Shane Reti, said the new law was "lazy and dangerous" because it does not provide details of the planned medical marijuana scheme, and would also allow some people to start smoking pot in public. "We support medicinal cannabis but strongly oppose the smoking of loose-leaf cannabis in public," Dr Reti said. Dr Reti said the new law amounted to decriminalising marijuana by stealth.[SEP]WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand's government has passed a law that will make medical marijuana widely available for thousands of patients over time. The legislation passed Tuesday will also allow terminally ill patients to begin smoking illegal pot immediately without facing the possibility of prosecution. The measures come ahead of a planned national referendum on recreational marijuana use. The government has pledged to hold that referendum some time over the next two years, but has not yet set a date or finalized the wording. The new law allows much broader use of medical marijuana, which was previously highly restricted. But patients wanting to use marijuana for conditions like chronic pain will have to wait a year until a new set of regulations, licensing rules and quality standards are put in place.[SEP]The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported that the bill, which terminally ill people legal defence for using cannabis products, passed its third reading with the support of all coalition partners except the National Party of New Zealand, which slammed the initiative to decriminalise cannabis. READ MORE: South Korea — First East Asian Country to Legalize Medical Marijuana During the bill's second reading on 29 November, New Zealand Health Minister David Clark made several adjustments, expanding the legal defence to all people needing palliative relief, the newspaper noted. According to the newspaper, cannabis-based drugs will be available by prescription, and the law will come into force as soon as it receives royal assent.[SEP]New Zealand's parliament approved on Tuesday a bill that will allow the medicinal use of marijuana, making it possible for patients with chronic pain to acquire the drug with a prescription. The Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill, which passed the third and final reading in parliament and will soon become law, classifies cannabidiol (a chemical in marijuana) as a prescription medicine instead of a controlled drug.[SEP]New Zealand’s Government has passed a law that will make medical marijuana widely available for thousands of patients over time. The legislation will also allow terminally ill patients to begin smoking illegal pot immediately without facing the possibility of prosecution. The measures come ahead of a planned national referendum on recreational marijuana use. The Government has pledged to hold the referendum some time over the next two years, but has not yet set a date or finalised the wording. The new law allows patients much broader access to medical marijuana, which was previously highly restricted. But most patients will have to wait a year until a new set of regulations, licensing rules and quality standards are put in place. The law will also allow medical marijuana products to be manufactured in New Zealand for both domestic and overseas markets. Health Minister David Clark said in a statement the new law would help ease suffering. “This will be particularly welcome as another option for people who live with chronic pain,” he said. He said the 25,000 people who are in palliative care with terminal illnesses did not have time to wait for the new scheme, and so the law provided a legal defence for them to use illegal marijuana.[SEP] • New Zealand made marijuana legal for terminally ill patients with a new law passed on Tuesday. • The Health Minister David Clark says it will give 25,000 people relief from pain in their final days. • The government has promised a referendum on full legalization by 2020, and one study suggests 2/3 people are in favour of some kind of legalization. • Many signs point to New Zealand joining Canada and Venezuela, the two countries which have fully legalized the drug already. New Zealand passed a law on Tuesday which will relax marijuana laws, and allow terminally ill patients to use the drug. The government has promised to follow the move with a full referendum on making recreational weed legal. The new law, the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill, means that some 25,000 terminally ill or ill patients can use marijuana products to alleviate pain without fear of arrest, Health Minister David Clark said. The law also means that marijuana products can be manufactured in New Zealand for both domestic and overseas markets, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The new law increases New Zealand's chances of being the third country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana, after Canada and Venezuela, as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised a referendum on the issue before 2020. Read more: How smoking cannabis can affect your sleep for better or worse If the vote goes ahead, polls suggest it could result in legalization. Support is growing, with two thirds of people reportedly pro-full, or pro-partial decriminalization, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation. The government's centre-right opposition, the New Zealand National Party, oppose the new law. Dr. Shane Reti, a health spokesman for the party, called it "lazy and dangerous" because people will start smoking up in public, AP said. The new bill, which passed the third reading on Tuesday, will become law after receiving assent from the Governor-General, the final, ceremonial part of the legislative process.[SEP]A bill that gives terminally ill people a legal defence for using illicit cannabis products has passed its third reading in Parliament today. The Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill also gives them a defence to possess utensils for using cannabis. That defence comes into force as soon as the bill receives royal assent. The National Party, which flip-flopped on its support for the bill, today called it decriminalisation of cannabis by stealth and voted against it. But it passed with the support of all coalition partners. The bill passed just shy of a year since it was introduced to Parliament as part of the Government's 100-day plan improve access to medicinal cannabis for terminally ill people and those in chronic pain. Last month, during the bill's second reading, Health Minister David Clark made changes to the bill that expanded the defence to all people needing palliative relief, rather than just those with a year or less to live, as it previously was. The changes also created a requirement for regulations for the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme to be in place no later than one year after the law comes into effect, allaying concerns that it could take as long as 2020 before the regulatory framework was in place. It made clear that cannabis varieties already in New Zealand could be used for medicinal products, prompting at least one therapeutic cannabis company to call for illicit growers to come forward with their unique strains. National supported the Government's bill at first reading but then pulled its support in July with its own bill which it said set out a more comprehensive and well-researched regime for the use of medicinal cannabis. It then supported the bill at second reading, with a condition that loose-leaf cannabis not be included, and that aspects of its own bill were included. National's associate health spokesman Shane Reti's bill contained more detail around regulating the regime but Clark said Reti's proposals had been considered and rejected on the advice of health officials and clinicians. Following the bill's passing, Clark said the statutory defence would be available to around 25,000 people who could benefit from palliative care. "This is compassionate and caring legislation that will make a real difference to people living in pain and nearing the end of their lives," Clark said in a statement. "Today's vote in Parliament clears the way for the creation of a Medicinal Cannabis Scheme that will allow New Zealand companies to manufacture medicinal cannabis products for both the local and international market." Those medicinal products will be available on prescription. Reti said the Government had decriminalised marijuana by stealth. "The Government's Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill which has passed today allows the smoking of loose-leaf cannabis in public and does not provide the details or framework for a permanent medicinal cannabis scheme. "We support medicinal cannabis but strongly oppose the smoking of loose leaf cannabis in public. Smoked loose leaf is not a medicine," Reti said. Green Party drug law reform spokeswoman Chloe Swarbrick said the bill provided certainty and clarity to patients and their whānau. "Too many New Zealanders are going into debt to access expensive big pharma products, or being turned into criminals in having to access an unregulated black market for cannabis," Swarbrick said in a statement. "Today we move towards delivering on something the Greens have worked on for decades. Today is for champions and advocates like Helen Kelly, Rose Renton, Rebecca Reider, Nandor Tanczos and so many more bold and brave New Zealanders," she said.[SEP]The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s government on Tuesday passed a law that will make medical marijuana widely available for thousands of patients over time. The legislation will also allow terminally ill patients to begin smoking illegal pot immediately without facing the possibility of prosecution. The measures come ahead of a planned national referendum on recreational marijuana use. The government has pledged to hold the referendum some time over the next two years, but has not yet set a date or finalized the wording. The new law allows patients much broader access to medical marijuana, which was previously highly restricted. But most patients will have to wait a year until a new set of regulations, licensing rules and quality standards are put in place. The law will also allow medical marijuana products to be manufactured in New Zealand for both domestic and overseas markets. TRENDING: Comey Admits His FBI Didn’t Bother To Corroborate Majority of Dossier Health Minister Dr. David Clark said in a statement the new law will help ease suffering. “This will be particularly welcome as another option for people who live with chronic pain,” he said. He said the 25,000 people who are in palliative care with terminal illnesses didn’t have time to wait for the new scheme, and so the law provided a legal defense for them to use illegal marijuana. “People nearing the end of their lives should not have to worry about being arrested or imprisoned for trying to manage their pain,” Clark said. But the opposition’s health spokesman, Dr. Shane Reti, said the new law is “lazy and dangerous” because it doesn’t provide details of the planned medical marijuana scheme, and would also allow some people to start smoking pot in public. “We support medicinal cannabis but strongly oppose the smoking of loose-leaf cannabis in public,” Reti said. “Smoked loose-leaf is not a medicine.” Reti said the new law amounted to decriminalizing marijuana by stealth. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

New Zealand's government passes an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to allow chronic and terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis without facing the possibility of prosecution.

A man who was Tasered at the gates of Parliament on Tuesday has been arrested under the Mental Health Act. Witnesses heard a scream and then shouting as police ran towards the man inside Carriage Gates in the shadow of Big Ben, just yards from where Pc Keith Palmer was stabbed to death last year. The man, described as dark skinned and wearing an olive-coloured shirt, was immediately detained by uniformed officers. He was Tasered and struck with a baton by officers inside the precincts and then pinned to the ground just yards inside the gates. One report said the man had gained access to the Parliamentary estate. He was handcuffed and bundled into a police van, and driven away. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "A man was arrested by Carriage Gates, inside the Palace of Westminster, on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site at around 11.55hrs on Tuesday, 11 December. "A Taser was deployed. Enquiries into the circumstances continue."[SEP]A man was Tasered at the gates of Parliament just yards from the location where Pc Keith Palmer was stabbed to death last year. Witnesses heard a scream and then shouting as police ran towards the man just yards inside carriage gates in the shadow of Big Ben. The man, described as dark skinned and wearing an olive-coloured shirt, was immediately detained by uniformed officers. He was tasered and struck with a baton by officers inside the precincts and then pinned to the ground just yards inside the gates. The man was understood to be Tasered on the Parliament side of the gates when he was tasered by police. One report said the man had gained access to the Parliamentary estate by jumping over the railings next to carriage gates. The man - described as in his 20s - was handcuffed and bundled into a police van, and driven away. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "A man was arrested by Carriage Gates, inside the Palace of Westminster, on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site at around 11.55hrs on Tuesday, 11 December. "A Taser was deployed. Enquiries into the circumstances continue."[SEP]A man has been tasered by police inside the Palace of Westminster . Journalists tweeting from the scene described a heavy police presence and a man being “pinned to the ground” inside Carriage Gates, where an attacker in 2017 broke into Parliament before killing P Keith Palmer. Reuters pictures showed armed police using a stun gun on the man on the cobbled forecourt inside the British parliament’s main Carriage Gates. The man was later handcuffed as police pointed a gun at the man’s head and could later be seen being held against a fence inside the entrance to the Houses of Parliament. In a statement, the Met Police said a man had been arrested on “suspicion of trespassing at a protected site”. It is not thought to be terror related. Police were deployed to St Stephen’s courtyard to secure the area and redirect staff elsewhere on the estate. The Commons Press Office later tweeted saying the situation was now over. Last March Khalid Masood drove a 4x4 down Westminster Bridge, hitting pedestrians before crashing outside the Houses of Parliament and stabbing two police officers around the same area as today’s incident. In August, a man was arrested after driving a car into pedestrians and cyclists before ramming into barriers outside the parliament building in what police said appeared to be a terrorism attack. Since the attacks, security at the site has been beefed up, with a permanent armed presence at the entrance. Tory MP Penny Mordaunt tweeted in praise of the police, saying she was “always in awe at [their] professionalism, courage and dedication”.[SEP]A man was Tasered at the gates of Parliament just yards from the location where Pc Keith Palmer was stabbed to death last year. Witnesses heard a scream and then shouting as police ran towards the man just yards inside carriage gates in the shadow of Big Ben. The man, described as dark skinned and wearing an olive-coloured shirt, was immediately detained by uniformed officers. He was tasered and struck with a baton by officers inside the precincts and then pinned to the ground just yards inside the gates. The man was understood to be Tasered on the Parliament side of the gates when he was tasered by police. One report said the man had gained access to the Parliamentary estate by jumping over...[SEP]Parliament is in lockdown and there is a heightened police presence on the estate, after an alleged intruder was reportedly tasered by armed police within the estate by Carriage Gates, having made it a few meters inside. Two police cars are now parked outside. UPDATE: ITV’s Paul Brand has taken a photo of what appears to be the police holding the alleged intruder. The situation seems to be under control. UPDATE II: The intruder has now been taken away in a police van, and the Metropolitan Police have released this statement: “A man was detained and arrested by Carriage Gates inside the Palace of Westminster on suspicion of trespassing at a protected site, at around 11.55hrs on Tuesday, 11 December. A Taser was deployed. Enquiries into the circumstances continue.”[SEP]The Palace of Westminster has been put into lockdown after an intruder allegedly made it through the gates. Reporters at the scene described seeing police running towards the Carriage Gates after hearing a scream. Witnesses described seeing a Taser being deployed and a man pinned to the ground. The man then pushed up against the fence by officers as he was being arrested before being led away. Around a dozen police officers were inside the gates with the man. A clear plastic bag containing a pair of trainers could be seen on the ground nearby. A Scotland Yard spokesman said they were unable to confirm what had happened but would be issuing a statement shortly. The man was later taken away in a police van after being arrested on suspicion of trespassing at a protected site. It is not known why the man breached the gates but Scotland Yard said they do not believe the incident is terror related.[SEP]POLICE HAVE ARRESTED a man at the gates outside the Palace of Westminster this morning, the Met Police confirmed. A man was detained and arrested by Carriage Gates on suspicion of trespassing at a protected site at around 11.55am today. A taser was deployed, police said, and enquiries into the circumstances continue. “Always in awe at the professionalism, courage and dedication of the police who guard the Palace of Westminster. Thank you all.”[SEP]An extraordinary week in the United Kingdom Parliament took a dramatic turn Tuesday morning, with reports claiming the Palace was placed under security alert as an intruder attempted to make his way past the site’s gates. Witnesses who took to the Twitter micro-blogging platform reported seeing police rushing to the main Carriage Gate entrance, scene of the 2017 Westminster terror attack where unarmed Police Constable Keith Palmer was stabbed to death by Islamist extremist Khalid Masood. A scream was heard, and a young male was tasered before being arrested and led away by police officers. Among the four officers immediately on the scene were two armed men from the protection squad patrolling the palace and two ordinary constables, one carrying a baton. Scotland Yard, the headquarters of London policing, released a statement confirming the basic facts of the event without giving any further detail. They said: “A man was detained and arrested by Carriage Gates inside the Palace of Westminster on suspicion of trespassing at a protected site, at around 11.55hrs on Tuesday, 11 December. “A Taser was deployed. Enquiries into the circumstances continue.” While the Palace of Westminster — which is home to both houses of the UK Parliament — has been the target of several terror attacks in the past and is the scene of an ongoing anti-Brexit demonstration, there has been no suggestion the arrested intruder Tuesday is related to either of those ongoing security concerns.[SEP]Armed police tasered an intruder and pinned him to the ground after he got in through the gates of Parliament this morning. The man was bundled to the cobbles just inside Carriage Gates, not far from where Westminster terror attack Khalid Masood murdered PC Keith Palmer last year, just before midday today. The suspect made it a few metres into the Parliamentary estate before he was stopped and Tasered to the ground. He was reportedly heard shouting 'coming for you politicians' before he was put in a police van and driven away. It is understood the incident is not currently being treated as terror-related. One witness told The Independent: 'I heard police shouting – at first I thought they were just shouting at tourists to stay back – but there was a guy stood just inside the gates facing [away from Parliament]. 'He was just stood there with his arms out being approached by lots of police and wasn't responding to the screams. I heard a crack, which I guess was the Taser because I saw the Taser wires after, and he went down and very quickly they were all on him.' Pictures from the scene show the man - who was wearing a black cap, a green jacket and jeans - pinned to the ground with three officers around him. One of the policemen was aiming a gun at his head, another had used the Taser and a third held a baton. Another eyewitness said: 'I saw a guy fall to the floor and he was on the floor surrounded by armed officers. He was shouting something. 'He had been Tasered, you could see the wires. I did not hear the police shouting anything, but that could be because of all the commotion. 'They handcuffed him and got him to his feet, then unzipped his jacket to see if he had anything hidden on him 'Everybody was just watching, surprised that something like this was happening. Two armed police cars, BMW X5s turned up and armed police came out of the grounds and told us to get back. They then set up cordons around the entrance.' Tourists gathered around the Carriage Gates and took photos as the suspect was led away. Many political journalists also rushed to the scene from their offices in the Houses of Parliament. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'A man was detained and arrested by Carriage Gates inside the Palace of Westminster on suspicion of trespassing at a protected site, at around 11.55am on Tuesday, 11 December. 'A Taser was deployed. Enquiries into the circumstances continue.' A House of Commons spokesman said: 'We are aware of a situation outside the Palace of Westminster that was handled by the Met Police and is now over.' The Palace of Westminster estate carried on as usual during this morning's incident. 'There hasn't been a lockdown at any point,' a House of Commons spokesman told MailOnline. All public roads also remained open as officers restrained the suspect and led him away. Luke Pollard MP tweeted: 'Media are reporting an incident in Parliament. Me and my team in Westminster are safe and well. A timely reminder of the dedication and professionalism of the Police who keep our democracy safe. Thank you.'[SEP]A man has been arrested by armed police near an entrance to the Houses of Parliament. Armed cops used a stun gun to restrain a man inside the grounds of parliament in Westminster on Tuesday, a Reuters photographer who witnessed the incident said. The photographer said police shouted: "Stop. Get down." The man could be seen being held against a fence inside the Carriage Gates entrance to the Houses of Parliament. Around a dozen police officers were inside the gates with the man. The man was later handcuffed as police pointed a gun at the man's head. A clear plastic bag containing a pair of trainers could be seen on the ground nearby. A spokesperson for the House of Commons said: "We are aware of a situation outside the Palace of Westminster that was handled by the Met Police and is now over. We cannot provide any further details." In March 2017, Khalid Masood killed four people on nearby Westminster Bridge and stabbed an unarmed police officer to death near Carriage Gates before being shot dead. In August, a man was arrested after driving a car into pedestrians and cyclists before ramming into barriers outside the parliament building in what police said appeared to be a terrorism attack.

In the United Kingdom, a man is tasered by police at the gates of the Palace of Westminster. The area is placed on lockdown.

PHILADELPHIA -- Bill Cosby's lawyers filed a list of nearly a dozen alleged trial errors Tuesday as they appeal his sexual assault conviction and three- to 10-year prison term. The defense asked to have the 81-year-old disgraced comedian released from a suburban Philadelphia prison while his appeal proceeds, but their pleas have so far been rejected. Bill Cosby leaves the courtroom in handcuffs after being sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison for sexual assault, Sept. 25, 2018. KYW-TV A jury convicted Cosby at a spring retrial of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004, in what became the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. The lawyers said trial Judge Steven O'Neill had an alleged feud with a pretrial witness, the ex-prosecutor who had declined to charge Cosby a decade earlier. And they said his decisions to preside over the case, let five other accusers testify, air Cosby's prior deposition testimony about quaaludes and dismiss the ex-prosecutor's promise not to charge him are mistakes that warrant a new trial. "The trial court erred in failing to disclose his bias against District Attorney (Bruce) Castor, and in failing to recuse himself, prior to determining (his) credibility," wrote lawyer Brian Perry of Harrisburg, the latest of more than a dozen lawyers to represent Cosby in the case. The entertainer, who is legally blind, spends his days in a one-man cell and private day room, in a new state prison about 20 miles from his sprawling estate near Philadelphia, where the crime occurred. In a deposition in Constand's 2005 civil suit, Cosby called the 2004 encounter consensual and his feelings for her romantic. Constand considered him a mentor with close ties to her boss at Temple, where she worked for the women's basketball team. She was about 30 and Cosby, a Temple trustee, about 66. The key issues raised on appeal Tuesday include: Testimony from other accusers Legal experts believe Cosby's best shot on appeal may be the judge's decision, without comment, to hear from five other accusers when he'd allowed just one at Cosby's first trial in 2017, when the jury deadlocked. The law permits "prior bad act" witnesses only in very limited circumstances, usually to show a "signature" crime pattern. In Cosby's case, all five women said they thought they'd been drugged and molested. The defense called their testimony "too remote in time" and "too dissimilar" to Constand's accusation. Judge's supposed feud with witness As Cosby's sentencing neared, his wife Camille filed an ethics complaint against O'Neill over his supposed feud with Castor, who had declined to charge Cosby in 2005 and said he'd made a binding "agreement" that Cosby would never be charged. Castor became a key pretrial witness for the defense. But O'Neill found no evidence his decision was binding on his successors. Damning deposition testimony The judge allowed prosecutors to use several excerpts from Cosby's damaging deposition in Constand's related 2005 lawsuit, which ended with Cosby paying Constand a $3.4 million settlement. Juror Harrison Snyder later told ABC-TV the deposition - in which Cosby admitted getting Quaaludes to give women before sex - was the key evidence that made him think he was guilty. "Sexually violent predator" designation Cosby, once revered as "America's Dad" for playing the beloved Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," could spend a decade in prison, given the way O'Neill fashioned his sentence. The three-year minimum appears well within the 1- to 4-year state guidelines. But O'Neill attached an unusual 10-year maximum, which could keep Cosby from getting parole unless he acknowledges his sexual offenses and completes sex-offender therapy. O'Neill, based in part on expert testimony about other accusers, judged Cosby a "sexually violent predator" and said his wealth and power made it possible he could still reoffend. The label makes Cosby subject to police registration and community alerts should he be released from prison.[SEP]Bill Cosby’s lawyers have filed a list of 11 alleged trial errors as they try to undo his sexual assault conviction and three- to 10-year prison term. Bill Cosby’s lawyers have filed a list of 11 alleged trial errors as they try to undo his sexual assault conviction and three- to 10-year prison term. The lawyers filed a motion on Tuesday saying Pennsylvania trial Judge Steven O’Neill had a feud with a key pre-trial witness, the former county prosecutor who declined to arrest Cosby a decade earlier. And they say his decisions to let five other accusers give evidence, air some of Cosby’s deposition from the accuser’s lawsuit and dismiss the promise not to charge Cosby are grounds for a new trial. A jury convicted the 81-year-old Cosby this spring of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004, in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. The legally blind comedian is housed in a new state prison about 20 miles from his Philadelphia-area estate.[SEP]Follow CBSPHILLY Facebook | Twitter PHILADELPHIA (CBS/AP) — Bill Cosby‘s lawyers have filed a list of 11 alleged trial errors as they try to undo his sexual assault conviction and three- to 10-year prison term. According to the motion filed on Tuesday, Pennsylvania trial Judge Steven O’Neill had a feud with a key pretrial witness, the former county prosecutor who declined to arrest Cosby a decade earlier. Prosecutors: Bill Cosby’s Bid For New Trial Is ‘Meritless’ Cosby’s lawyers also say O’Neill’s decisions to let five other accusers testify, air some of Cosby’s deposition from the accuser’s lawsuit and dismiss the promise not to charge Cosby are grounds for a new trial. Back in October, Cosby’s trial judge rejected his bid for a new trial or sentencing hearing after “an exhausting review” of post-trial motions, prompting Cosby’s wife, Camille, to again accuse O’Neill of bias against her husband. Bill Cosby Sentenced To 3-10 Years Behind Bars For Sexual Assault Camille Cosby in a statement again insists O’Neill should have stepped down because his wife has advocated for sex assault victims. O’Neill has said that has no bearing on his work. A jury convicted the 81-year-old Cosby this spring of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004, in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. The legally blind comedian is housed in a new state prison about 20 mile (32 kilometers) from his Philadelphia-area estate.[SEP]PHILADELPHIA — Bill Cosby’s lawyers have filed a list of 11 alleged trial errors as they try to undo his sexual assault conviction and three- to 10-year prison term. The lawyers filed a motion Tuesday saying Pennsylvania trial Judge Steven O’Neill had a feud with a key pretrial witness, the former county prosecutor who declined to arrest Cosby a decade earlier. And they say his decisions to let five other accusers testify, air some of Cosby’s deposition from the accuser’s lawsuit and dismiss the promise not to charge Cosby are grounds for a new trial. A jury convicted the 81-year-old Cosby this spring of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004, in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. The legally blind comedian is housed in a new state prison about 20 mile (32 kilometres) from his Philadelphia-area estate.[SEP]Bill Cosby's lawyers detailed nearly a dozen alleged legal errors Tuesday, including the judge's decision to send the case to trial, as they appeal his sexual assault conviction and three- to 10-year prison term.They've also asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this month to release the 81-year-old disgraced comedian from a state prison near Philadelphia while the appeal proceeds.The lawyers said trial Judge Steven O'Neill had a feud with a pretrial witness, the ex-prosecutor who had declined to charge Cosby in 2005. And they said his decisions to assign himself the case, let five other accusers testify, air Cosby's prior deposition testimony about quaaludes and dismiss the ex-prosecutor's promise not to charge Cosby are mistakes that warrant a new trial."The trial court erred in failing to disclose his bias against District Attorney (Bruce) Castor, and in failing to recuse himself, prior to determining (his) credibility," wrote lawyer Brian Perry of Harrisburg, the latest of more than a dozen lawyers to represent Cosby in the case.A jury convicted Cosby at a spring retrial of drugging and molesting a Temple University employee in 2004, in what became the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on Tuesday's filing.Cosby - whose estimated fortune from his TV shows, comedy tours and product pitches once topped $400 million - was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting accuser Andrea Constand. The entertainer, who is legally blind, spends his days in a one-man cell and private day room, in a new state prison about 20 miles from his sprawling estate near Philadelphia, where the crime occurred.In a deposition in Constand's 2005 civil suit, Cosby called the 2004 encounter consensual and his feelings for her romantic. Constand considered him a mentor with close ties to her boss at Temple, where she worked for the women's basketball team. She was about 30 and Cosby, a Temple trustee, about 66. The key issues raised on appeal Tuesday include:------[SEP]Bill Cosby's lawyers detailed nearly a dozen alleged legal errors Tuesday, including the judge's decision to send the case to trial, as they appeal his sexual assault conviction and three- to 10-year prison term. They've also asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this month to release the 81-year-old disgraced comedian from a state prison near Philadelphia while the appeal proceeds. The lawyers said trial Judge Steven O'Neill had a feud with a pretrial witness, the ex-prosecutor who had declined to charge Cosby in 2005. And they said his decisions to assign himself the case, let five other accusers testify, air Cosby's prior deposition testimony about quaaludes and dismiss the ex-prosecutor's promise not to charge Cosby are mistakes that warrant a new trial. "The trial court erred in failing to disclose his bias against District Attorney (Bruce) Castor, and in failing to recuse himself, prior to determining (his) credibility," wrote lawyer Brian Perry of Harrisburg, the latest of more than a dozen lawyers to represent Cosby in the case. A jury convicted Cosby at a spring retrial of drugging and molesting a Temple University employee in 2004, in what became the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on Tuesday's filing. Cosby — whose estimated fortune from his TV shows, comedy tours and product pitches once topped $400 million — was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting accuser Andrea Constand. The entertainer, who is legally blind, spends his days in a one-man cell and private day room, in a new state prison about 20 miles from his sprawling estate near Philadelphia, where the crime occurred. In a deposition in Constand's 2005 civil suit, Cosby called the 2004 encounter consensual and his feelings for her romantic. Constand considered him a mentor with close ties to her boss at Temple, where she worked for the women's basketball team. She was about 30 and Cosby, a Temple trustee, about 66. The key issues raised on appeal Tuesday include: Legal experts believe Cosby's best shot on appeal may be the judge's decision, without comment, to hear from five other accusers when he'd allowed just one at Cosby's first trial in 2017, when the jury deadlocked. The law permits "prior bad act" witnesses only in very limited circumstances, usually to show a "signature" crime pattern. In Cosby's case, all five women said they thought they'd been drugged and molested. The defense Tuesday called their testimony "too remote in time" and "too dissimilar" to Constand's accusation. As Cosby's sentencing neared, his wife Camille filed an ethics complaint against O'Neill over his supposed personal and political feud with Castor. O'Neill, in the pretrial hearing, had found no evidence that Castor's decision not to charge Cosby was binding on his successors. The defense Tuesday said Cosby relied on Castor's promise in agreeing to testify — and potentially incriminate himself — in Constand's civil suit. The judge allowed prosecutors to use several excerpts from Cosby's damaging deposition in Constand's 2005 lawsuit, which ended with a $3.4 million settlement. Juror Harrison Snyder later told ABC-TV the deposition - in which Cosby admitted getting Quaaludes to give women before sex - was the key evidence that made him think he was guilty. Cosby, once revered as "America's Dad" for playing the beloved Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," could spend a decade in prison, given the way O'Neill fashioned his sentence. The three-year minimum appears well within the 1- to 4-year state guidelines. But O'Neill attached an unusual 10-year maximum, which could keep Cosby from getting parole unless he acknowledges his sexual offenses and completes sex-offender therapy. O'Neill, based in part on expert testimony about other accusers, judged Cosby a "sexually violent predator" and said his wealth and power made it possible he could still reoffend. The label makes Cosby subject to police registration and community alerts should he be released from prison.[SEP](Reuters) - Attorneys for Bill Cosby outlined their grounds on Tuesday for appealing his sexual assault conviction, citing what they called errors in legal procedure that may have biased the jury and warrant a new trial for the once-beloved comedian. The 81-year-old performer, best known for his role as the lovable family man and physician on the hit television sitcom "The Cosby Show," was found guilty by a Pennsylvania jury in April of drugging and sexually assaulting a onetime friend in 2004. It marked the first such criminal conviction of a celebrity accused of sexual misconduct since the #MeToo movement that has brought down dozens of powerful, privileged men in American media, politics and business since the autumn of 2017. In September, the trial judge, Steven O'Neill, designated Cosby a "sexually violent predator" under Pennsylvania law, requiring the entertainer to register as a sex offender for life, and sentenced him to a term of three to 10 years in prison. Cosby, who is married, has insisted all along that any sexual encounters he had were consensual. He was found guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. In an eight-page filing laying out the basis of their appeal, Cosby's lawyers focused on several instances they said introduced bias into the trial, including the judge's refusal to excuse a juror that the defense argued was unable to be fair and impartial. The defense asserted that the juror in question had stated an inclination to believe Cosby guilty at the outset of the trial and that fellow jurors were never interviewed to determine whether they had heard the comment or were swayed by it. In addition, according to the filing, O'Neill failed to recuse himself or disclose a biased relationship with Bruce Castor, a former Montgomery County district attorney with whom defense lawyers said the judge had a confrontation. Cosby's lawyers have argued that Castor promised in 2005 that Cosby would not be prosecuted if he agreed to sit for a sworn deposition in a civil suit brought against him by his accuser, former Temple University administrator Andrea Constand. That deposition, in which Cosby acknowledged giving sedatives called Quaaludes to young women for purposes of having sex with them, was unsealed a decade later, and Castor's successor, District Attorney Kevin Steele, cited it as a crucial piece of evidence when criminal charges were brought. The judge should not have allowed Cosby's civil deposition testimony about Quaaludes to be introduced in his criminal trial, the defense said, arguing it was not relevant to Constand's allegations and was highly prejudicial because it included statements regarding the illegal act of giving a narcotic to another person. Cosby's attorneys also faulted the judge for allowing prosecutors to call as witnesses other accusers whose allegations, the defense argued, were too remote in time and too dissimilar to Constand's allegations. Moreover, the defense asserted that a prosecution expert who testified relied on hearsay evidence of about 50 additional women who had leveled sexual misconduct allegations against Cosby. Under the state's appeals process, the trial judge will write an opinion by explaining his reasoning for the rulings the defense has challenged, and the matter will ultimately be decided by Pennsylvania's appellate-level Superior Court. A representative for the prosecution did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing.[SEP]Cosby, once revered as "America's Dad" for playing the beloved Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," could spend a decade in prison, given the way O'Neill fashioned his sentence. The three-year minimum appears well within the 1- to 4-year state guidelines. But O'Neill attached an unusual 10-year maximum, which could keep Cosby from getting parole unless he acknowledges his sexual offenses and completes sex-offender therapy. O'Neill, based in part on expert testimony about other accusers, judged Cosby a "sexually violent predator" and said his wealth and power made it possible he could still reoffend. The label makes Cosby subject to police registration and community alerts should he be released from prison.[SEP]By Michael R. Sisak, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Prosecutors and the defence began the difficult task of picking a jury for Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial Monday amid a powerful #MeToo movement that has pierced the consciousness of the men and women who will sit in judgment of the 80-year-old comedian. All but one of the 120 potential jurors who answered questions about their background and views told a judge they had heard or seen something about #MeToo, the cultural campaign that’s been exposing sexual misconduct in the entertainment and news industries. Jury selection got off to an exceedingly slow start, with a single juror seated and three-quarters of the pool dismissed for cause — primarily because the prospective jurors already had formed an opinion about Cosby’s guilt or innocence. In contrast, five jurors were picked on opening day of Cosby’s first trial. • Cosby lawyers ask for ban on slogan-filled items at retrial Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually molesting a Temple University women’s basketball administrator at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He says the sexual encounter with Andrea Constand was consensual. His last trial ended in a hung jury. The former TV star once known as “America’s Dad” for his portrayal of kindly Dr. Cliff Huxtable on his NBC hit The Cosby Show was in the courtroom as jury selection got underway. The first and only juror to be selected Monday indicated he had no knowledge of the case and wouldn’t let what he’s heard about #MeToo influence his ability to be impartial. He was one of only 10 prospective jurors to indicate they hadn’t heard anything about the charges against Cosby. More than half said they already had made up their minds about Cosby, and all of them were dismissed. In all, prosecutors and the defence removed a total of 91 potential jurors before breaking for the day, leaving only 28 from this group to fill the remaining 17 slots. A second group of 120 potential jurors was to be brought to the courthouse Tuesday. Judge Steven O’Neill made several rulings in the case but said they wouldn’t be public until Tuesday morning. Among the key issues that need to be sorted out before opening statements is a defence request to allow testimony from a woman who says Constand spoke of framing a celebrity before she went to police with allegations Cosby drugged and molested her. The judge also has to decide whether the jury can hear details about the 2006 financial settlement Cosby reached with Constand. O’Neill told the jury pool the trial could last more than a month, adding the panel would be sequestered in a “very nice” hotel. About half said the length of the trial would pose a hardship. The jury in Cosby’s first trial deadlocked last June, months before #MeToo started toppling famous men in rapid succession, among them movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, Today show host Matt Lauer, actor Kevin Spacey and Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken. Veteran lawyers and jury consultants say #MeToo could cut both ways for Cosby, making some potential jurors more hostile and others more likely to think men are being unfairly accused. Last year’s trial was mostly a case of he-said-she-said. For the retrial, a judge has ruled that jurors can hear from five additional accusers, giving prosecutors a chance to portray Cosby as a serial predator. The jury questioning revealed some potential witnesses, including Dawn Staley, the South Carolina women’s basketball coach who was Constand’s boss at Temple; Temple board President Patrick O’Connor, who represented Cosby in Constand’s 2005-06 lawsuit against him; and Judge Risa Vetri Ferman, the former district attorney who charged Cosby just before she left office in 2015. The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.[SEP]And they say his decisions to let five other accusers testify, air some of Cosby's deposition from the accuser's lawsuit and dismiss the promise not to charge Cosby are grounds for a new trial.

The lawyers of Bill Cosby file a list of nearly a dozen alleged trial errors as they appeal his sexual assault conviction and three-to-10-year prison term.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday said that parties seeking extradition of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou from Canada should ensure the process is not politicized.[SEP]VANCOUVER/BEIJING (Reuters) - Canada confirmed on Tuesday that one of its citizens was detained in China but said it saw no explicit connection to the arrest in Vancouver of a top executive at Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co. Confirmation of the detention came soon after the executive, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, returned to a packed Vancouver courtroom for a bail hearing in a case that has angered Beijing. Canadian analysts had predicted China would retaliate after Meng’s arrest last week at the request of U.S. authorities. Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who now works in China for a conflict resolution think tank, was the person detained, two sources said. Meng, 46, faces U.S. accusations that she misled multinational banks about Huawei’s control of a company operating in Iran, putting the banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions and incurring severe penalties, court documents said. If extradited to the United States, Meng would face charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, the court heard. Huawei, which makes smartphones and network equipment, and its lawyers have said the company operates in strict compliance with applicable laws. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he was “deeply concerned” about the detention of a Canadian, adding that there was “no explicit indication at this moment” that it was linked to the arrest of Huawei’s CFO. But Guy Saint-Jacques, Canada’s former ambassador to China, asked by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp whether the Kovrig detention was a coincidence, said: “In China there are no coincidences ... If they want to send you a message they will send you a message.” Concern was also evidenced in Washington where the U.S. State Department is considering a travel advisory for China to caution U.S. citizens, two sources familiar with the matter said. Meng’s arrest has roiled markets over fears it will exacerbate U.S.-China tensions in trade negotiations that both sides have agreed must be concluded by March 1. The arrest came in connection with a U.S. investigation into an alleged scheme to use the global banking system to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran, according to people familiar with the probe. China has threatened severe consequences unless Canada releases Meng immediately. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the matter is one for the courts to decide. Canadian businesses operating in China are starting to feel the chill already, and the signing of one major deal has been postponed, a source said. China’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Public Security did not respond immediately to questions regarding Kovrig’s detention sent via fax. Kovrig works for the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict resolution think-tank which said it was seeking his prompt and safe release. Tuesday is the third day of bail hearings in a British Columbia court, where a judge will weigh final issues in determining whether Meng should be freed on bail while awaiting extradition proceedings. Speaking at a Beijing forum on Tuesday, the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said the government kept constant watch on the safety of citizens abroad, though he did not specifically mention Meng’s case. “For any bullying that wantonly violates the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens, China will never sit idly by,” state television quoted him as saying. The Canadian provincial court judge on Monday rolled the proceedings over to Tuesday because he wanted to hear more about who would take responsibility for Meng’s actions if she were released. Meng’s lawyer David Martin had offered her husband as surety, but the judge and the public prosecutor questioned whether he could perform this duty as he is not a resident of British Columbia. Huawei is the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment and second-biggest maker of smartphones, with revenue of about $92 billion last year. Unlike other big Chinese technology firms, it does much of its business overseas.[SEP]OTTAWA: Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday (Dec 12) warned the United States not to politicize extradition cases, a day after President Donald Trump said he could intervene in the affair of a Chinese executive detained in Canada at Washington's request. Freeland also told reporters that a second Canadian citizen could be in trouble in China. Authorities in China are already holding former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was detained on Monday. China has strongly protested the arrest in Vancouver on Dec 1 of Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. Meng has been accused by US prosecutors of misleading multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions, putting the banks at risk of violating US sanctions. She has said she is innocent. Trump told Reuters on Tuesday he would intervene in the US Justice Department's case against Meng if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China. But the legal process should not be hijacked for political purposes, Freeland said. "Our extradition partners should not seek to politicize the extradition process or use it for ends other than the pursuit of justice and following the rule of law," Freeland said when asked about Trump's comments. Others also questioned whether Trump might be misusing the extradition request. "This is a legal issue and one that appears properly executed but your comments can only diminish an important extradition agreement we have with our next door neighbor," said Bruce Heyman, an ex-U.S. ambassador to Canada who was appointed by President Barack Obama, Trump's predecessor. Meng was released on bail by a Canadian court on Tuesday. The United States has not yet made a formal extradition petition. Once it does, if a Canadian judge rules in favor of the request, Canada's justice minister must decide whether to extradite Meng to the United States. Freeland expressed deep concern over the Kovrig case and said a second unnamed Canadian had made contact with Canadian authorities to say Chinese officials were asking him questions. Canada has not been able to make contact with him since, she added. Officials said earlier they have no indication from Beijing that Kovrig's detention was tied to Canada's arrest of Meng. But they have seen an uptick in anti-Canadian sentiment online and in China, an official said, and have communicated concerns about diplomatic staff safety to the Chinese government, which beefed up security in response. "We have in general informed our personnel in Beijing and in our consulates to take extra precautions," an official said.[SEP]A former Canadian diplomat has been detained in China, two sources said on Tuesday, just hours before a top executive at Chinese telecoms giant Technologies was set to return to a Vancouver courtroom for a bail hearing that has angered Beijing. It was not immediately clear if the cases were related, but Canadian analysts had already predicted China would retaliate after the arrest of CFO at the request of US authorities. The former diplomat is Michael Kovrig. He works for the Crisis Group, which said it was seeking his prompt and safe release. Canadian officials said they were not immediately able to confirm that Kovrig was in detention. China's Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Public Security did not respond immediately to questions faxed about Kovrig's detention. China has threatened severe consequences unless Canada releases Meng immediately. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the matter is one for the courts to decide. Tuesday will be the third day of bail hearings in a British Columbia court, where a judge will weigh final issues in determining whether Meng should be freed on bail while awaiting extradition proceedings. Canadian businesses operating in China are starting to feel the chill and the signing of one major deal has been postponed, a well-placed source said.[SEP]VANCOUVER/BEIJING (Reuters) - Canada confirmed on Tuesday that one of its citizens was detained in China but said it saw no explicit connection to the arrest in Vancouver of a top executive at Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co. Confirmation of the detention came soon after the executive, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, returned to a packed Vancouver courtroom for a bail hearing in a case that has angered Beijing. Canadian analysts had predicted China would retaliate after Meng’s arrest last week at the request of U.S. authorities. Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who now works in China for a conflict resolution think tank, was the person detained, two sources said. Meng, 46, faces U.S. accusations that she misled multinational banks about Huawei’s control of a company operating in Iran, putting the banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions and incurring severe penalties, court documents said. If extradited to the United States, Meng would face charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, the court heard. Huawei, which makes smartphones and network equipment, and its lawyers have said the company operates in strict compliance with applicable laws. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he was “deeply concerned” about the detention of a Canadian, adding that there was “no explicit indication at this moment” that it was linked to the arrest of Huawei’s CFO. But Guy Saint-Jacques, Canada’s former ambassador to China, asked by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp whether the Kovrig detention was a coincidence, said: “In China there are no coincidences ... If they want to send you a message they will send you a message.” Concern was also evidenced in Washington where the U.S. State Department is considering a travel advisory for China to caution U.S. citizens, two sources familiar with the matter said. Meng’s arrest has roiled markets over fears it will exacerbate U.S.-China tensions in trade negotiations that both sides have agreed must be concluded by March 1. The arrest came in connection with a U.S. investigation into an alleged scheme to use the global banking system to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran, according to people familiar with the probe. China has threatened severe consequences unless Canada releases Meng immediately. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the matter is one for the courts to decide. Canadian businesses operating in China are starting to feel the chill already, and the signing of one major deal has been postponed, a source said. China’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Public Security did not respond immediately to questions regarding Kovrig’s detention sent via fax. Kovrig works for the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict resolution think-tank which said it was seeking his prompt and safe release. Tuesday is the third day of bail hearings in a British Columbia court, where a judge will weigh final issues in determining whether Meng should be freed on bail while awaiting extradition proceedings. Speaking at a Beijing forum on Tuesday, the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said the government kept constant watch on the safety of citizens abroad, though he did not specifically mention Meng’s case. “For any bullying that wantonly violates the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens, China will never sit idly by,” state television quoted him as saying. The Canadian provincial court judge on Monday rolled the proceedings over to Tuesday because he wanted to hear more about who would take responsibility for Meng’s actions if she were released. Meng’s lawyer David Martin had offered her husband as surety, but the judge and the public prosecutor questioned whether he could perform this duty as he is not a resident of British Columbia. Huawei is the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment and second-biggest maker of smartphones, with revenue of about $92 billion last year. Unlike other big Chinese technology firms, it does much of its business overseas.[SEP]Meng Wanzhou was detained at the request of the U.S. during a layover at the Vancouver airport In this courtroom sketch, Meng Wanzhou, left, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies speaks to her lawyer David Martin during a bail hearing at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, on Monday, December 10, 2018. (Jane Wolsak/The Canadian Press) President Donald Trump says he would consider intervening in the Justice Department’s case against a top Chinese executive if it would be in the interest of U.S. national security and help forge a trade deal with China. Trump told Reuters in an interview Tuesday at the White House that if he thinks it would be good for what will “certainly be the largest trade deal ever made” he would intervene if necessary. A Canadian court granted bail on Tuesday to the top executive of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. She was arrested at the United States’ request in a case that has set off a diplomatic furor among the three countries and complicated high-stakes U.S.-China trade talks. A Canadian judge is setting a string of conditions on a top Chinese executive facing possible extradition to the U.S. while releasing her on $10 million Canadian-dollar bail. Meng Wanzhou is required her to wear an ankle bracelet, surrender her passports, stay in Vancouver and its suburbs and confine herself to one of her two Vancouver homes from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Justice William Ehrcke of the Supreme Court of British Columbia says he is satisfied Meng, a well-educated businesswomen with letters of reference, does not pose a flight risk. Meng is the chief financial officer of telecommunications giant Huawei and also the daughter of its founder. She was detained at the request of the U.S. during a layover at the Vancouver airport on Dec. 1 — the same day that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping of China agreed to a 90-day cease-fire in a trade dispute that threatens to disrupt global commerce. READ MORE: Canada-China relations turn icy over arrest of Chinese exec The U.S. has accused Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It also says that Meng and Huawei misled banks about the company’s business dealings in Iran. On Monday, China detained a former Canadian diplomat in Beijing in apparent retaliation. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.[SEP]VANCOUVER/BEIJING (Reuters) - Canada confirmed on Tuesday that one of its citizens was detained in China but said it saw no explicit connection to the arrest in Vancouver of a top executive at Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co [HWT.UL]. Confirmation of the detention came soon after the executive, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, returned to a packed Vancouver courtroom for a bail hearing in a case that has angered Beijing. Canadian analysts had predicted China would retaliate after Meng’s arrest last week at the request of U.S. authorities. Meng, 46, faces U.S. accusations that she misled multinational banks about Huawei’s control of a company operating in Iran, putting the banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions and incurring severe penalties, court documents said. Saying he was “deeply concerned,” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale confirmed that Canada was aware a Canadian citizen was detained in China, but he provided no details on who it was. Goodale said there was “no explicit indication at this moment” that the Canadian’s detention was linked to the arrest of Huawei’s CFO. Canadian officials have relayed their concerns to Chinese authorities about the detention. The Canadian foreign ministry issued a statement saying the government “is seized with this case.” A source directly familiar with the matter said this language was unusual for consular cases and showed a high level of concern. Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig was the person detained, two sources had said earlier. Kovrig works for the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict resolution think-tank which said it was seeking his prompt and safe release. China has threatened severe consequences unless Canada releases Meng immediately. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the matter is one for the courts to decide. China’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Public Security did not respond immediately to questions regarding Kovrig’s detention sent via fax. Tuesday is the third day of bail hearings in a British Columbia court, where a judge will weigh final issues in determining whether Meng should be freed on bail while awaiting extradition proceedings. Canadian businesses operating in China are starting to feel the chill, and the signing of one major deal has been postponed, a source said. “The consequences have already begun,” the source said, noting that a Canadian firm had been due to ink a major agreement in the next few weeks. “The local partner, a Chinese private-sector actor, has told the Canadian partner that now is not a good time to sign,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. Speaking at a Beijing forum on Tuesday, the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said the government kept constant watch on the safety of citizens abroad, though he did not specifically mention Meng’s case. “For any bullying that wantonly violates the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens, China will never sit idly by,” state television quoted him as saying. The Canadian provincial court judge on Monday rolled the proceedings over to Tuesday because he wanted to hear more about who would take responsibility for Meng’s actions if she were released. Meng’s lawyer David Martin had offered her husband as surety, but the judge and the public prosecutor questioned whether he could perform this duty as he is not a resident of British Columbia. The arrest has roiled markets over fears it will exacerbate tensions between the United States and China in trade negotiations that both sides have agreed must be concluded by March 1. In June 2014, Chinese businessman Su Bin was picked up on a U.S. warrant in Canada, where he had been attempting to establish residency. Shortly afterward a Canadian citizen in China was arrested and charged with spying. Kevin Garratt spent two years in detention before being deported. Huawei is the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment and second-biggest maker of smartphones, with revenue of about $92 billion last year. Unlike other big Chinese technology firms, it does much of its business overseas. Huawei and its lawyers have said the company operates in strict compliance with applicable laws.[SEP]The Chinese executive of Huawei who was arrested in Canada and facing possible extradition to the US has thanked her supporters on social media after being granted bail Tuesday evening. Meng Wanzhou, 46, wrote on Chinese messaging platform WeChat: 'I am in Vancouver and have returned to be with my family. I am proud of Huawei. I am proud of my motherland. Many thanks to everybody who has cared about me.' A screen shot of the post is circulating by the Chinese media and is currently trending. Along with the words, Meng also shared a Huawei advertisement which shows the feet of a ballet dancer and a Chinese slogan reading 'what lied behind greatness is suffering'. Meanwhile, pictures from Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) show Meng, the daughter of Chinese billionaire and Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, leaving the court through a side door at British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver at around 8pm local time. Wearing a maroon down jacket and a hoodie, Meng appeared nearly five hours after the court granted her bail, reported CBC. Surrounded by security staff, she did not say anything to reporters before being led into a black car to take her back to her home in Vancouver. A Canadian judge granted bail to the top Chinese executive who was facing possible extradition to the US yesterday. After three days of hearings, Meng Wanzhou was released on bail of C$10million (US$7.4million) - on the condition she surrender her two passports and agree to wear an ankle bracelet. She will have to stay in Vancouver and its suburbs and confine herself to one of her two Vancouver homes from 11pm to 6am. The chief financial officer and vice chairman of telecommunications giant Huawei - the world's second largest smartphone maker - had asked for bail in exchange for putting up her husband, children and C$11million (US$8.23million) in real estate as sureties. Wanzhou was detained at the request of the US during a layover at the Vancouver airport on December 1 - the same day that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping of China agreed to a 90-day cease-fire in a trade dispute that threatens to disrupt global commerce. Justice William Ehrcke granted her bail Tuesday evening, according to the Associated Press. After the news of the Meng's release broke, President Trump indicated that the move - which is expected to placate angry Chinese officials - could be part of a broader trade deal with China. When asked if he would intervene with the Justice Department in her case, Trump told Reuters: 'Whatever's good for this country, I would do. 'If I think it's good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made – which is a very important thing – what's good for national security – I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary.' Trump also said the White House has spoken with the Justice Department about the case, as well as Chinese officials. 'They have not called me yet. They are talking to my people. But they have not called me yet,' he said when asked if he has spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the case. Meng's lawyer said his team worked overnight Monday to make changes to its bail plan to help satisfy concerns that have been raised about her release. David Martin said the defense contacted four potential sources to offer sureties for Huawei's CFO and prepared affidavits after the judge and a federal prosecutor questioned whether Meng's husband would be a suitable person to ensure she complies with any bail conditions. Martin said one person who is proposed to offer a financial guarantee is a realtor who met Meng in 2009 and sold two properties to the couple. The man has pledged his home, valued at C$1.8million (US$1.3million), and said he understands he would lose it if Meng violated the conditions of her release. Martin also read from the affidavit of another man who said he worked at Huawei in China in the mid-1990s and got to know Meng on a personal level. He vouched for Meng's character to comply with any conditions imposed by the British Columbia Supreme Court and has pledged C$500,000 (US$373,000) from the equity on his home in Vancouver, which is valued at C$1.4million (US$1million). Ehrcke questioned whether Liu Xiaozong could provide a surety because he is on a six-month visitor's visa to Canada and the form to provide the financial guarantee says it must be provided by a resident of British Columbia. A surety is a guarantor responsible for ensuring she meets bail terms and who would legally be liable to pay fines if she did not. Wanzhou said she has ties to Vancouver going back 15 years. She and her husband Liu own two homes in the city, and she even had a Canadian permanent residency permit that she has since renounced. Liu, said to be Wanzhou's second husband, used to be Huawei's representative in Mexico, according to a recent column on Shanghai's Jiefang Daily newspaper. He currently works as the chairman of Depu Education, a private international school in China's Chongqing city, the article claimed. It is rumored that the school, aimed to recruit children from rich Chinese families, was co-founded by Wanzhou and Xiaozong with an investment of 1 billion yuan (US$145million). Xiaozong, who was at the hearing, has offered the residences and C$1million (US$747,468) in cash - for a total value of C$15million (US$11million) - as a surety for his wife's release, the court heard. However a Canadian judge yesterday voiced doubts that Liu could act as his wife Meng's 'surety' - a guarantor responsible for ensuring she meets bail terms and who would legally be liable to pay fines if she did not. The issue of the surety was central to the postponing of the hearing on Monday - with Ehrcke saying he would not make a decision until both sides addressed 'the necessity and/or strong desirability of a surety being a resident of the province.' Liu, whose visitor visa expires in February, is a risky surety from the prosecutors point of view because he is not a resident of Canada and therefore may not be present for the extradition proceedings which may last years. The US wants Meng to face allegations of fraud as it says Huawei used unofficial subsidiary Skycom to do business with Iranian telecommunications companies between 2009 and 2014 in violation of sanctions. Meng has denied the allegations through her lawyer in court, promising to fight them if she is extradited for face charges in the United States. The case has fueled US-China trade tensions and roiled financial markets. The US has accused Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment to Iran in violation of US sanctions. It also says Meng and Huawei misled banks about the company's business dealings in Iran. In response to the bail hearings, China slammed the 'inhumane' treatment of Wanzhou, amid reports of her ill-health. The country's foreign minister on Tuesday also vowed to protect its citizens abroad. Beijing will 'spare no effort' to protect against 'any bullying that infringes the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens,' Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a conference in Shanghai. Wang didn't mention the 46-year-old Huawei executive, but a ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said Wang was referring to cases of all Chinese abroad, including Meng. Huawei is the second-largest smartphone creator in the world after South Korean Samsung and ahead of Apple. Meng is alleged to have conspired in helping Huawei avoid US sanctions on Iran. Martin has said she should be granted bail before her extradition hearing because of severe hypertension and concerns about her health. In a 55-page sworn affidavit, Meng said she has been treated in hospital for hypertension since her arrest. 'I continue to feel unwell and I am worried about my health deteriorating while I am incarcerated,' the affidavit read. Meng also said she had suffered numerous health problems, including surgery for thyroid cancer in 2011. Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang expressed fury over Wanzhou's treatment, citing China's state-run Global Times newspaper as reporting that 'it seems that the Canadian detention facility is not offering her the necessary health care.' 'We believe this is inhumane and violates her human rights,' Lu said at a regular press briefing. Canadian Crown prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley has asked for bail to be denied, saying Meng faces serious criminal accusations of fraud and poses a flight risk. Wanzhou is specifically accused of lying to bankers about Huawei's use of a covert subsidiary to sell to Iran, putting multinational banks at risk of breaching US sanctions, and incurring severe penalties. 'Underneath the core of the fraud, a financial institution in the US is being induced to violate sanctions against Iran,' Gibb-Carsley said. If convicted, she faces more than 30 years in prison. The extradition process could take months, even years, if appeals are made in the case. 'I wish to remain in Vancouver to contest my extradition and I will contest the allegations at trial in the US if I am ultimately surrendered,' she said. Martin told the court: 'Given her unique profile as the face of a Chinese corporate national champion, if she were to flee or breach her order in any way in these very unique circumstances, it does not overstate to say she would embarrass China itself.' He had a tracking bracelet on hand in case she was immediately released. 'Someone here on a visitor's visa is not a resident of B.C. It's as simple as that, isn't it?' Justice Ehrcke asked David Martin in court. Ehrcke said he was unsure how Xiaozong could serve as his wife's surety if he had no authority order that Liu to remain in Canada. 'It would be a frustrating and unfortunate exercise if I were to make an order and then you find that there is no suitable surety,' Ehrcke said. 'If the conditions can't be fulfilled, she's held in custody so I'm thinking ahead to make sure that you don't find yourself potentially in that situation.' Meng's arrest has rocked stock markets and inflamed tensions amid a truce in the US-China trade war. Analysts say the incident - the same day that presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day tariffs truce - could be used as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations between the United States and China.[SEP]President Donald Trump said he would intervene in the case of Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou if it would help win a trade deal with China. “If I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made – which is a very important thing – what’s good for national security – I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary,” Trump said Tuesday in an Oval Office interview with Reuters. Meng was arrested earlier this month at the request of U.S. authorities, who are demanding her extradition and allege she conspired to defraud banks to unwittingly violate U.S. sanctions by clearing transactions linked to Iran. On Tuesday, she was granted a $7.5 million bail by a Canadian court, allowing her to return to her Vancouver home as extradition proceedings continue. Trump also told Reuters the White House has spoken with the Justice Department about the case, along with Chinese officials. Asked if he has spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the matter, Trump responded, “They have not called me yet. They are talking to my people. But they have not called me yet.” The arrest has threatened to disrupt U.S.-Chinese relations even as the two nations’ leaders seek to negotiate a trade deal that would scale back a series of tariffs that have been implemented this year. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to protest the arrest on Sunday. The minister said U.S. actions have violated the “legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens,” according to a posting on the ministry website. DM An increasingly rare commodity, quality independent journalism costs money, though not nearly as much as its absence can cost global community. No country can live and prosper without truth - that's why it matters. Every Daily Maverick article and every Scorpio exposé is proof of our dedication to this unshakeable mission. Investing in our news media is by far the most effective investment into South Africa's future. 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"The US messaging is undoubtedly having an influence (in Europe)... if not directly then definitely because it has helped create a hostile environment," a Huawei executive told Reuters, adding that many in Huawei were "shell-shocked" by the arrest of the daughter and heir apparent of founder Ren Zhengfei. Huawei and its lawyers have said it operates in strict compliance with applicable laws, and is confident that both the Canadian and US legal systems "will reach a just conclusion". Washington's long campaign to convince the world that Huawei's ties to Beijing make the network equipment it sells to telecoms firms a security risk has already taken its toll. Meng's arrest has raised concerns that European countries in particular could follow the United States, Australia and New Zealand in restricting Huawei's access to those markets. Huawei, which has repeatedly denied accusations it facilitates Chinese espionage operations, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Of Huawei's 22 commercial contracts for next-generation 5G telecom networks, 14 are in Europe, where nearly every major carrier on the continent is a customer. In Britain alone, Huawei says it has spent GBP 1.3 billion ($1.65 billion) on investment and procurement over the last five years. Europe, Middle East and Africa was Huawei's biggest region for sales outside China last year, its annual report says, accounting for CNY 164 billion, or 27 percent, of total sales. Huawei says it employs more than 11,000 people in Europe, including 1,900 in research and development, and spends "billions of euros per year" in procurement from the region. Until recently its position in Europe seemed secure, with governments resisting US pressure to block Huawei. But there have been signs of a mood change, with some German government officials arguing that Huawei should be banned, Reuters reported last month. In Britain, a critical government agency report prompted Huawei to announce that it would spend $2 billion (roughly Rs. 14,400 crores) on a security overhaul. Meanwhile, Japan's top telecom operators, including Softbank Group, are re-evaluating possible use of Huawei equipment for upcoming 5G networks, Kyodo News reported. Huawei is already trying to assuage European fears, including the spending proposal to Britain's National Cyber Security Council, the company executive said. It has also opened a laboratory to enable source code reviews in Germany and has plans to open another in at least one other European country. And on Monday, Huawei assured the Danish government's Defence Committee that its equipment was safe amid scrutiny of its role as a supplier to the nation's largest telecom carrier. Sales ban fears Risks for customers, as well as for Huawei, are heightened by the possibility that the sanctions investigation in the United States could lead to a ban on the purchase of US components. Such a ban nearly put ZTE Corp out of business before it was lifted. At a summit for its vendor partners in early November, Huawei published a list of 92 "core suppliers." Of these, 33 were from the United States and include household names like Intel, Qualcomm, and Oracle, as well as lesser-known industry players like Seagate, Marvell, and Wind River. Although Huawei has its own semiconductor division, making it somewhat less vulnerable than ZTE, even that operation depends on US design software. "Many of the products sold to Huawei by American suppliers cannot be easily substituted with made-in-China alternatives," Stewart Randall, who tracks China's semiconductor industry at Shanghai-based consultancy Intralink, said. The possibility of a ban on US companies supplying components and software further raises the risks for carriers relying on Huawei gear. "In the worst case, if Huawei is found to have been involved, the United States will likely immediately impose an export ban on Huawei, forcing its business to come to a halt," brokerage Jefferies said in a report.

Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei who was arrested in Canada for a extradition request from the United States for alleged US sanction violation against Iran, is granted bail with restrictions by a Canadian judge.

The Latest: Canada raises detention of citizen with China TORONTO (AP) — The Latest on the detention of a former Canadian diplomat in China (all times local): Canada's Global Affairs Department says it's aware of the detention of a Canadian citizen in China and has raised the case with the Chinese government. The department says in a statement it is "seized with this case" and is providing consular assistance to the family of the Canadian. It declined to say more or state his name. But a person familiar with the matter says former diplomat Michael Kovrig was detained Monday night in Beijing during one of his regular visits to the city. The person spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak publicly on the matter. The detention follows Chinese warnings to Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport. Canada's public safety minister says the government is deeply concerned about a Canadian detained in China — confirming that a former Canadian diplomat is being held in Beijing amid a dispute between the two counties over Canada's arrest of a Chinese executive. Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday the government is sparing no effort to look after the Canadian's safety. The comment came in response to a question about reports that former diplomat Michael Kovrig had been arrested in China, though he did not mention him by name. The detention follows Chinese warnings to Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport. Goodale said there is no explicit indication at this point that the cases are related and he said Canada is working to determine why he was detained. A former Canadian diplomat has been detained while visiting Beijing. A person familiar with the matter says Michael Kovrig was detained Monday night in Beijing during one of his regular visits to the city. The person spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak publicly on the matter. The International Crisis Group said earlier Tuesday it was aware of reports that its North East Asia senior adviser has been detained. The Hong Kong-based Kovrig had served as the political lead for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's trip to that city in 2016. The Brussels-based non-governmental organization said in a statement that it's doing everything possible to obtain additional information about Kovrig's whereabouts and that it will work to ensure his prompt release. The detention comes after China warned Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport. It's unclear if there's any link between the cases. The International Crisis Group said Kovrig has been one of its full-time experts since February 2017.[SEP]Shanghai/Beijing: A former Canadian diplomat has been detained in China, two sources said on Tuesday, and his current employer, the International Crisis Group, said it was seeking his prompt and safe release. Michael Kovrig's detention comes after police in Canada arrested the chief financial officer of China's Huawei Technologies on December 1 at the request of US authorities, a move that has infuriated Beijing. It was not immediately clear if the cases were related, but the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver has stoked fears of reprisals against the foreign business community in China. "International Crisis Group is aware of reports that its North East Asia senior adviser, Michael Kovrig, has been detained in China," the think tank said in a statement.[SEP]A Victoria woman who spent 10 years working alongside a former Canadian diplomat detained in China says she's shocked at news of his arrest. News broke Tuesday that Michael Kovrig, currently the North East Asia senior adviser for the International Crisis Group, was arrested for unspecified reasons in China. Kovrig is an ex-diplomat who once worked as a lead on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's 2016 visit to Hong Kong. His arrest came after China warned Canada of consequences relating to the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport at the behest of U.S. officials, but it's not yet clear if there's a link between the cases. Katie McGowan lives in Victoria but spent 10 years working in China alongside Kovrig on various projects as a business strategist. She said she's stunned, since Kovrig was such an ambassador for China. "He is such a great guy, he's an advocate for China, he has studied the Chinese language, he loves the Chinese culture," McGowan told CTV News. She said in her opinion, Kovrig's arrest is a direct retaliation for Meng's arrest at the Vancouver airport. "My hope would be that we can remember that it's America that perhaps triggered this, and the timing is very suspicious," she said. "We just signed NAFTA 2.0 and it's got the clause in there in section 32.10 that says we have to let them know if we do deals with China, and Trump's just strong-armed into trying to get them to do a deal by March 2019." She said she hopes both Canadian and Chinese officials remember their long history of cooperation in dealing with the Kovrig situation. "We've been friends for a long time," she said. "That's a long history there." Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said the arrest "has our attention" and Trudeau said the government has been in touch with Chinese diplomats.[SEP]TORONTO (AP) - A former Canadian diplomat reportedly has been arrested in China. The International Crisis Group said Tuesday it’s aware of reports that its North East Asia senior adviser Michael Kovrig has been detained. The Brussels-based non-governmental organization said in a statement that it’s doing everything possible to obtain additional information about Kovrig’s whereabouts and that it will work to ensure his prompt release. The Globe and Mail in Toronto and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported the arrest, citing unnamed sources. Reports of Kovrig’s detention come after China warned Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver’s airport. It’s unclear if there’s any link between the cases. The International Crisis Group said Kovrig has been one of its full-time experts since February 2017. According to the organization’s website, Kovrig previously worked as a Canadian diplomat in Beijing and Hong Kong and at the United Nations. Former Canadian Liberal leader Bob Rae said it’s clear why he’s been detained.[SEP]A former Canadian diplomat has been detained in China, two sources said on Tuesday, and his current employer, the International Crisis Group, said it was seeking his prompt and safe release. Michael Kovrig’s detention comes after police in Canada arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities, a move that infuriated Beijing. READ MORE: Meng Wanzhou family photos hint at the Huawei CFO’s life in Vancouver It was not immediately clear if the cases were related, but the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver has stoked fears of reprisals against the foreign business community in China. “International Crisis Group is aware of reports that its North East Asia Senior Adviser, Michael Kovrig, has been detained in China,” the think-tank said in a statement. “We are doing everything possible to secure additional information on Michael’s whereabouts as well as his prompt and safe release,” it added. China’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Public Security did not respond immediately to questions faxed earlier about Kovrig’s detention. The exact reason for the detention was not immediately clear. The Canadian embassy declined to comment, referring queries to Ottawa. Calls to Kovrig’s phones were not answered. Kovrig, a Mandarin speaker, has been working as a full-time expert for the International Crisis Group since February 2017.[SEP]The Latest: Canada raises detention of citizen with China TORONTO (AP) — The Latest on the detention of a former Canadian diplomat in China (all times local): Canada's Global Affairs Department says it's aware of the detention of a Canadian citizen in China and has raised the case with the Chinese government. The department says in a statement it is "seized with this case" and is providing consular assistance to the family of the Canadian. It declined to say more or state his name. But a person familiar with the matter says former diplomat Michael Kovrig was detained Monday night in Beijing during one of his regular visits to the city. The person spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak publicly on the matter. The detention follows Chinese warnings to Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport. Canada's public safety minister says the government is deeply concerned about a Canadian detained in China — confirming that a former Canadian diplomat is being held in Beijing amid a dispute between the two counties over Canada's arrest of a Chinese executive. Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday the government is sparing no effort to look after the Canadian's safety. The comment came in response to a question about reports that former diplomat Michael Kovrig had been arrested in China, though he did not mention him by name. The detention follows Chinese warnings to Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport. Goodale said there is no explicit indication at this point that the cases are related and he said Canada is working to determine why he was detained. A former Canadian diplomat has been detained while visiting Beijing. A person familiar with the matter says Michael Kovrig was detained Monday night in Beijing during one of his regular visits to the city. The person spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak publicly on the matter. The International Crisis Group said earlier Tuesday it was aware of reports that its North East Asia senior adviser has been detained. The Hong Kong-based Kovrig had served as the political lead for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's trip to that city in 2016. The Brussels-based non-governmental organization said in a statement that it's doing everything possible to obtain additional information about Kovrig's whereabouts and that it will work to ensure his prompt release. The detention comes after China warned Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport. It's unclear if there's any link between the cases. The International Crisis Group said Kovrig has been one of its full-time experts since February 2017.[SEP]TORONTO (AP) — A former Canadian diplomat reportedly has been arrested in China. The International Crisis Group said Tuesday it's aware of reports that its North East Asia senior adviser Michael Kovrig has been detained. The Brussels-based non-governmental organization said in a statement that it's doing everything possible to obtain additional information about Kovrig's whereabouts and that it will work to ensure his prompt release. The Globe and Mail in Toronto and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported the arrest, citing unnamed sources. Reports of Kovrig's detention come after China warned Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport. It's unclear if there's any link between the cases. The International Crisis Group said Kovrig has been one of its full-time experts since February 2017. According to the organization's website, Kovrig previously worked as a Canadian diplomat in Beijing and Hong Kong and at the United Nations. Former Canadian Liberal leader Bob Rae said it's clear why he's been detained.[SEP]A former Canadian diplomat has reportedly been detained in China and his current employer says it is working for his "prompt and safe release". The International Crisis Group said it was "aware of reports" of Michael Kovrig's detention. Details are not yet clear. The news comes days after Canadian authorities arrested a top executive of the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in Vancouver. It is not known if there is a link between the two cases. Tensions between Canada and China have been high over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, on Saturday 1 December. Mr Kovrig had previously worked as a diplomat in Beijing, Hong Kong and at the UN in New York. Canada's ministry of foreign affairs has not confirmed the report by Reuters news agency, which cited two unnamed sources. Mr Kovrig has been working since February 2017 as North East Asia senior advisor for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank that focuses on conflict reduction research. He worked with Canada's foreign affairs ministry between 2010 and 2016 and was posted in Hong Kong and Beijing between 2012 and 2016. Ms Meng faces extradition to the US on charges of fraud related to sanctions-breaking business dealings with Iran. She could be jailed for up to 30 years if found guilty. China has demanded that Canada release of Ms Meng or face consequences. She is scheduled to appear on Tuesday in the Supreme Court of British Columbia for the third day of her bail hearing. Her husband has offered C$15m ($11m; £9m) - C$1m in cash and the couple's two homes in Canada - as surety for Ms Meng's release. Canadian Crown prosecutors have asked for bail to be denied because they believe the wealthy executive poses a flight risk. China's foreign ministry also insisted on Tuesday that Canada failed to promptly notify Beijing immediately about Ms Meng's arrest, according to a state media report.[SEP]TORONTO (AP) - A former Canadian diplomat reportedly has been arrested in China. The International Crisis Group said Tuesday it's aware of reports that its North East Asia senior adviser Michael Kovrig has been detained. The Brussels-based non-governmental organization said in a statement that it's doing everything possible to obtain additional information about Kovrig's whereabouts and that it will work to ensure his prompt release. The Globe and Mail in Toronto and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported the arrest, citing unnamed sources. Reports of Kovrig's detention come after China warned Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport. It's unclear if there's any link between the cases. The International Crisis Group said Kovrig has been one of its full-time experts since February 2017. According to the organization's website, Kovrig previously worked as a Canadian diplomat in Beijing and Hong Kong and at the United Nations. Former Canadian Liberal leader Bob Rae said it's clear why he's been detained.[SEP]OTTAWA — A second Canadian is missing in China after alerting foreign affairs officials that he was being questioned by Chinese authorities, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday. The information comes mere days after the Beijing Bureau of State Security rounded up a Canadian diplomat, who is on a leave from his job, in a move that escalated an ongoing diplomatic dispute between the two countries. Freeland told reporters Wednesday the government has been unable to make contact with the second Canadian since he raised concerns with officials. She said the government doesn’t know where the man is being detained, but has raised the case with Chinese authorities. Freeland added that the government is in touch with the missing man’s family, but declined to say anything more about his case. “It’s a situation that’s, perhaps, delicate,” she said in French. “And I want to respect this individual and his family.” On Monday, China took Michael Kovrig into custody after Beijing warned Ottawa of severe consequences for its recent arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of tech giant Huawei. Meng was arrested in Canada earlier this month at the request of the United States, which is hoping to have her extradited over allegations she tried to bypass American trade sanctions on Iran and lied to U.S. banks about her actions. A senior government official said China confirmed to Canada very early Wednesday the Beijing Bureau of State Security had detained Kovrig. Ottawa, however, doesn’t know what the allegations against him are and does not know where he is, the official said. The Beijing News has reported that Kovrig “was suspected of engaging in activities that endanger China’s national security.” Kovrig’s former boss in China said he would have been under the close watch of Chinese authorities years ago as he travelled the country and talked to dissidents on behalf of Canada’s government. He took on political-reporting assignments on highly sensitive subjects, said Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador in Beijing. Saint-Jacques said Kovrig tried to “get the pulse” of many groups, such as displaced Tibetans scattered around China and Muslim minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused by the international community — including Canada — of mass detentions. “He went to remote locations trying to meet with people from these communities to try and understand what they were going through, in terms of the challenges they faced, protecting their cultures,” Saint-Jacques said in an interview. “So, all of this, obviously, would have attracted the attention of security people.” The former ambassador added that Chinese authorities have extensive files on all diplomats in China, especially those, like Kovrig, who speak fluent Mandarin. Kovrig gave up diplomatic immunity when he took an unpaid leave of absence from Global Affairs Canada in late 2016 at the end of his posting. A senior government official, briefing reporters Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said he remains a federal government employee. Saint-Jacques said Kovrig, who served under him in China between 2014 and 2016, loved the country and chose to stay. In February 2017, Kovrig continued reporting on some of the touchiest subjects involving China after he joined the International Crisis Group as an adviser. His work for the non-governmental organization has covered a range of subjects, including the North Korean nuclear crisis, China’s relationship with the U.S. and its expanding presence in Africa. A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said earlier in the day that the International Crisis Group, where Kovrig has been a Hong-Kong-based analyst, is not registered in China and alleged its activities in the country are illegal. Because Kovrig’s group is not registered as a non-governmental organization in China, Lu Kang added that “once its staff become engaged in activities in China, it has already violated the law.” Lu also repeated China’s demand for Meng’s immediate release. Saint-Jacques says he has a lot of sympathy for Kovrig, whom, based on his experience observing past cases, he believes is already enduring long interrogations by Chinese authorities. He said they typically take detainees to secret locations, where they are monitored 24 hours a day with the lights always kept on. Saint-Jacques said Kovrig will likely face sleep and food deprivation as well as interrogations at all hours. “They try to create as much psychological pressure as possible to make you crack,” said Saint-Jacques. “This will go on until they are satisfied, until they extract a confession. We have known people who are ready to admit to anything just to get out of there.” He added that Kovrig likely won’t be officially charged and arrested until after this process, which can take months or more. “In the Chinese system, once you are officially charged — in 99.9 per cent of the cases you are also found guilty,” he said. “So, the odds are against you.”

International Crisis Group confirm one of it's worker Michael Kovrig is detained in People's Republic of China. Kovrig is a former Canadian diplomat and his detainment come after the China warned Canada of severe consequences if Meng was not released.

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan forces abandoned a remote district in the west of the country, leaving the area to Taliban insurgents after the government failed to resupply dozens of troops stationed there, provincial officials said on Wednesday. Local officials said the Shebkoh district of Farah province, bordering Iran, has been under Taliban siege for months, making it difficult for the government to send reinforcements. Mosa Nazari, deputy governor of Farah, said Afghanistan’s military leadership faced difficulty supplying and reinforcing the troops in Shebkoh district and it had been decided to withdraw in order to avoid casualties. “The plan to leave the district was there for months and it was finally decided,” Nazari told Reuters, adding that the forces withdrew all ammunition and vehicles to the provincial capital of Farah. U.S. military advisers have regularly pressed Afghan commanders to concentrate their forces and avoid exposed outposts that are difficult to defend and supply. The Taliban, fighting to drive out foreign forces and re-impose its version of strict Islamic Law, said in a statement the Afghan government abandoned the district after a heavy firefight overnight, and the group seized an amount of ammunition. A sparsely populated province, Farah has been the scene of intense fighting since the beginning of the year. Afghan forces have suffered heavy losses, including the killings of dozens of well-armed elite special forces there. Shebkoh is a route for narcotics being smuggled from Helmand, the main source of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, to Farah and Iran. Afghan officials have accused Tehran, which the United States says is trying to extend its influence in western Afghanistan, of providing the insurgents with money, modern weapons and explosives. Iran denies the accusation. Areas of western Afghanistan have seen heavy fighting in recent days. Last week, at least 14 Afghan soldiers were killed and 20 captured when Taliban fighters attacked an outpost in Shindand district in Herat, the province neighboring Farah. Afghan and foreign forces have recently increased air strikes, targeting and killing senior Taliban commanders, including the powerful shadowy governor of Helmand province last week. U.S. diplomatic efforts to begin peace talks with the Taliban have picked up with appointment by Washington of Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Kabul, as a special peace envoy.[SEP]Afghan forces abandoned a remote district in the west of the country, leaving the area to Taliban insurgents. The government had failed to re-supply dozens of troops stationed there, provincial officials said on Wednesday. The Shebkoh district of Farah province, bordering Iran, has been under Taliban siege for months. Mosa Nazari, deputy governor of Farah, said Afghanistan’s military leadership faced difficulty reinforcing the troops and it had been decided to withdraw in order to avoid casualties. “The plan to leave the district was there for months and it was finally decided,” Nazari told Reuters. The forces withdrew all ammunition and vehicles to the provincial capital of Farah, he said. The Taliban said in a statement the government abandoned the district after a heavy firefight overnight, and the group seized an amount of ammunition.[SEP]Safiullah Taye - At last month's Geneva Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan, it was clear that the presidential elections were less than five months away. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani put a lot of effort into making sure he appeared to be the right man for his job. He took the opportunity to read out a list of achievements in the areas of security, women's rights, justice and the anti-corruption effort. As usual, international donors applauded the achievements, re-affirmed their support for the Afghan government, and pledged more military and humanitarian aid. But President Ghani did not stop there. He also announced a "roadmap to peace" his administration had prepared in order to launch peace talks with the Taliban. As part of that plan, he announced the formation of a 12-members team, headed by presidential chief of staff Salam Rahimi, to engage in direct negotiations with the Taliban. Ghani made it clear that the peace process has to be "Afghan-owned and Afghan-led", implying his administration cannot be excluded from the process. The Afghan president has been facing major challenges at home, suffering a number of major failures on the political and security fronts. Against the backdrop of a deteriorating situation at home, launching and owning a peace process seems to be the only achievement that can ensure his political survival and potential re-election next year. In this sense, the conference in Geneva was an opportunity for him to convince the international community that the Afghan government possesses the operational capacity to bring the Taliban to political reconciliation through diplomatic means. Ghani also declared that he was running in the next presidential race in order to "finish the job" and warned the international community of dire consequences if his reforms and peace plan were abandoned. But by linking his presidential bid to the success of peace talks, Ghani is making a risky move. Past attempts to start talks with the Taliban by both him and former President Hamid Karzai have failed and he is already facing a number of challenges that put his success in doubt. First and foremost, the Taliban have demonstrated a number of times that they do not see a reason to negotiate with Ghani; they see him as a Western puppet and prefer to reach out directly to major international players, including the United States. Second, Ghani's peace initiative has been criticised by different stakeholders, including Afghan political figures and some factions of the civil society. The critics have repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of transparency over the terms of negotiations and have warned against concluding a deal that would roll back some of the achievements that have been made in recent years in areas such as girls' education, political participation and economic development. Third, there are some players in the international community who are already looking into direct engagement with the Taliban, bypassing Ghani's administration. Russia and the US, for example, have recently held talks with the Taliban, without actively engaging the Afghan government. Ghani tried hard to undermine the Moscow-sponsored conference on Afghanistan - initially scheduled for August - by refusing to participate; when Russia made clear its commitment to it, he asked for it to be postponed. In November, when the Russians pushed forward with the event, despite Ghani's protestations, he was forced to send an unofficial representative. A month earlier, the US strategically kept the Afghan government out of its meeting with the Taliban in Doha. US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad met representatives from the Taliban and discussed a number of issues, including the withdrawal of US troops. By engaging directly with the Taliban, countries like the US and Russia are able to pursue their own geopolitical interests. The US is eager to stabilise Afghanistan and secure its continuing presence in the country to stave off Chinese, Iranian and Russian influence in the region. And Russia is seeking to reassert itself in Afghanistan after a 30-year absence to potentially curtail the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on its southern flank and to open another front in its soft confrontation with the US. But by conducting direct talks with the Taliban, the two countries demonstrate that they perceive Ghani's administration as weak and incapable of undertaking a viable peace process. Thus, the international community, led by the US and Russia, are effectively shunning the Afghan government and taking over negotiating peace on its behalf. This is not only bad news for Ghani himself, who is hoping to use the peace talks as leverage for his re-election, but also for the Afghan state in general. External actors bypassing elected bodies in the country could be significantly damaging to Afghanistan's political institutions. It would delegitimise the Afghan government and legitimise an armed group which has wreaked havoc in the country for decades. In other words, if the peace process proceeds along the unilateral paths that the US and Russia have taken up, this would result in a weaker Afghan government (whether Ghani-led or not) which would undermine whatever peace agreement is eventually reached. Afghanistan needs a strong state to ensure stability and security, not a weak one. The only way forward should be for the international community to channel any peace initiative through the Afghan government and institutions. The Afghan people must be part of the process for peace to truly be achieved. They must also be free to decide who gets to lead this effort on their behalf - Ghani or someone else - when the elections are held next April.–Al Jazeera

The Afghan National Army abandons the western Shib Koh District after the government failed to resupply troops stationed there. The district, which borders Iran, is now effectively under Taliban control.

A convoy of Afghan forces was targeted by a suicide attack in Paghman district in the west of Kabul on Tuesday morning, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) confirmed. The MoI spokesman Najib Danish said that at least four security force members and eight civilians including two women were were killed and six security force members and three civilians were wounded in the incident. The explosion occurred at around 9:20am Kabul time in Bala Chinar area in Paghman district when security forces were passing through the area and were targeted by a car bomb explosion, Danish said. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Health spokesman Wahid Majroh told TOLOnews that six people were killed and six other were wounded in the explosion. Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.[SEP]Kabul: The death toll from a suicide bombing targeting a security forces convoy outside Kabul early Tuesday jumped to 12, officials said, with eight civilians killed in the latest Taliban-claimed attack near the Afghan capital. The car bomb follows a wave of deadly violence against Afghan forces across a year in which insurgents have inflicted record-high casualties on security personnel in the war-torn country. "Twelve people including four members of the security forces were killed," ministry of interior deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP. Kabul police confirmed the casualties, adding that women and children were among the dead. "The blast took place in Paghman district west of Kabul as the convoy was returning from an overnight operation," interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP. The ministry of interior and a seperate security official requesting anonymity confirmed the assailant had used a car bomb to target the convoy. Afghan security forces, beset by killings and desertions, have been struggling to beat back insurgents from Islamic State as well as the Taliban since US-led NATO mostly left them on their own three years ago. In November President Ashraf Ghani said nearly 30,000 Afghan soldiers and police officers have been killed since 2015 - a figure far higher than anything previously acknowledged. Earlier in December, Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie - who has been nominated to lead the US military's Central Command - said the death rate among Afghan forces will no longer be sustainable unless urgent measures are taken to address recruiting and training issues. The early morning attack in Kabul came just hours after an overnight assault on a checkpoint in Afghanistan district of southern Kandahar province by Taliban fighters killed at least eight Afghan police officers according to the provincial media office. "The fighting lasted several hours, 11 Taliban were also killed," the office added. The uptick in violence comes as Washington continues to press for a negotiated end to the 17-year conflict. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad - who is currently canvassing the region to build support for potential peace talks - expressed hopes that a deal to end the war could be struck before the Afghan presidential election scheduled for April. At an international conference on Afghanistan in Geneva in November, Ghani also said a 12-person Afghan negotiating team has been prepared for peace talks. But the Taliban, who have previously insisted they will only speak with US officials, rejected Ghani's overtures, calling the government in Kabul "impotent" and a "waste of time".[SEP]KABUL: The death toll from a suicide bombing targeting a security forces convoy outside Kabul early Tuesday jumped to 12, officials said, with eight civilians killed in the latest Taliban-claimed attack near the Afghan capital. “Twelve people including four members of the security forces were killed,” ministry of interior deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. Kabul police confirmed the casualties, adding that women and children were among the dead. The blast took place in Paghman district west of Kabul as the convoy was returning from an overnight operation, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said. The ministry of interior and a separate security official requesting anonymity confirmed the assailant had used a car bomb to target the convoy.[SEP]MOSCOW - The number of people killed in a Tuesday suicide blast in the Afghan capital of Kabul increased from four to 12, local media reported. Nine more people were injured, the 1TV broadcaster reported, citing the Afghan Interior Ministry. The explosion occurred earlier in the day in the Paghman district, on the outskirts of Kabul. According to Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish, the attack targeted a car carrying Afghan servicemen. Security officials confirmed that a suicide bomber targeted security forces convoy in Paghman district of Kabul. A convoy of Afghan forces was targeted by a suicide attack in Paghman district in the west of Kabul on Tuesday morning, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) confirmed. The MoI spokesman Najib Danish said that at least four security force members and eight civilians killed in the incident. The explosion occurred at around 9:20am Kabul time in Bala Chinar area in Paghman district when security forces were passing through the area and were targeted by a car bomb explosion, Danish said. Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, Zabihullah Mujahed, the Taliban spokesman, claimed 23 Afghan and US forces have been killed in this attack in Paghman. Meanwhile, eight Afghan security officers have been killed in clashes with the Taliban militants, local media reported on Tuesday, citing provincial authorities. According to the TOLOnews broadcaster, the clashes occurred in the Arghistan district of Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kandahar late on Monday. As many as 11 Taliban militants have been eliminated during the clashes, the news outlet added, citing Aziz Ahmad Azizi, the Kandahar province governor’s spokesman. Afghanistan has long been in a state of turmoil, with the government fighting the Taliban radical movement, which has been holding vast territories in rural areas under its control and regularly launches offensives on major cities. The situation has been exacerbated by the activities of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia), which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2015.[SEP]12 killed in suicide attack on security forces convoy in Kabul AT-KABUL: A Taliban suicide bomber targeting convoy of theAfghan security forces at the outskirts of Kabul—the capital city, has killed 12,while the same other received injures, security official said Tuesday. Kabul Police Spokesman Basir Mujahid told Afghanistan Times that four security forces and eight civilians inducing two women were killed in Paghman district in western Kabul when a suicide bomber struck a security convoy. Spokesman for Ministry of Interior said a bomber, driving a car, rammed into security forces vehicle in Bala Chenar area of Paghman at around 9:20am, local time. Another spokesman of the Interior Ministry Nasrat Rahimi said the terrorist act was conducted by a white color corolla model vehicle full of explosives. However, a security forces at condition of anonymity said that the target was a team of National Directorate of Security (NDS) operatives. The Taliban insurgent group has claimed responsibility for the attack. It has been years now that Afghanistan has been suffering from long-decades of war, and its security forces struggling to counter attacks from the Taliban, Islamic State, and other militant groups.[SEP]KABUL — An Afghan official says the death toll from a suicide bombing on the outskirts of Kabul on Tuesday has climbed to 12. Nasrat Rahimi, the Interior Ministry’s deputy spokesman, says Wednesday that four security forces and eight civilians, including two women and two children, were killed in the suicide car bombing, which targeted a security convoy. He says 12 other people were wounded. The Taliban, who effectively control nearly half the country and carry out daily attacks on security forces, claimed the bombing.[SEP]KABUL: The death toll from a suicide bombing targeting a convoy of security forces outside Kabul early Tuesday jumped to 12, officials said, with several civilians killed in the latest Taliban-claimed attack near the Afghan capital. “Twelve people including four members of the security forces were killed,” ministry of interior deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP. Kabul police confirmed the casualties. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but the Taliban and a Daesh affiliate have both carried out attacks in the capital. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban attacked a checkpoint in the southern Kandahar province late Monday, killing eight police. Aziz Ahmad Azizi, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said 11 insurgents were killed in the battle. The Taliban control nearly half of Afghanistan and carry out daily attacks that mainly target security forces.[SEP]KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan official says the death toll from a suicide bombing on the outskirts of Kabul on Tuesday has climbed to 12. Nasrat Rahimi, the Interior Ministry’s deputy spokesman, says Wednesday that four security forces and eight civilians, including two women and two children, were killed in the suicide car bombing, which targeted a security convoy. He says 12 other people were wounded. The Taliban, who effectively control nearly half the country and carry out daily attacks on security forces, claimed the bombing. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]At least 12 people were killed and another six injured after a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of security forces in Kabul early on Tuesday, officials said, in the latest bloody Taliban-claimed attack in the Afghan capital. The blast took place in Paghman district in western Kabul as the convoy was returning from an overnight operation, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP. “It is still not clear whether the attacker was on foot or driving a vehicle,” the spokesman added. Another security official requesting anonymity said the assailant had used a car bomb to target the convoy. Attacks on Afghan forces by the Taliban and the militant Islamic State group have been inflicting record-high casualties on security personnel this year. Afghan security forces, beset by killings and desertions, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since United States-led Nato mostly left them on their own three years ago. In November, President Ashraf Ghani said nearly 30,000 Afghan soldiers and police officers have been killed since 2015, a figure far higher than anything previously acknowledged. Earlier this month, Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie — who has been nominated to lead the US military’s Central Command — said the death rate among Afghan forces will no longer be sustainable unless urgent measures are taken to address recruiting and training issues. The early morning attack in Kabul came just hours after an overnight assault on a checkpoint in Arghistan district of southern Kandahar province by Taliban fighters killed at least eight Afghan police officers according to the provincial media office. “The fighting lasted several hours, eleven Taliban were also killed,” the office added. The uptick in violence comes as Washington continues to press for a negotiated end to the 17-year conflict.— AFP[SEP]A convoy of Afghan security forces was targeted by a suicide bomber in Paghman district in west Kabul on Tuesday morning in which four persons were killed. Ministry of Interior spokesperson Najib Danish said the explosion took place in Bala Chinar area in Paghman district at around 9.20 am while a convoy of security forces was passing through the area. "It is still not clear whether the attacker was on foot or driving a vehicle," he told Al-Jazeera. Taliban has claimed the responsibility for the suicide blast. The attack comes hours after an overnight assault was carried out by Taliban fighters on a checkpoint in Arghistan, a district in southern Kandahar province. According to the provincial media office, at least eight police officers were killed in the attack. (ANI)

The Taliban claims responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 12 people, including 8 civilians in Kabul.

Source: Xinhua| 2018-12-13 04:56:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Two suspects were shot dead on Wednesday after one of them threw a grenade at law enforcement officers in the Republic of Ingushetia in southern Russia, local media reported. The attack happened at a shopping center in Nazran City at around 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT), when officers were trying to detain the perpetrators suspected of involvement in terrorism. The explosion of the grenade injured two officers, who have been hospitalized. An investigative task force is working at the scene of the incident.[SEP]Two Israeli police officers were stabbed in Jerusalem and neutralised the attacker with return fire, the law enforcement agency's press service said. "Two policemen were evacuated from the scene with minor injuries and in a state of moderate severity. The injured officers gave a decisive rebuff to the attacker and neutralised him", the press release said. The name and condition of the attacker are still unknown, he is reportedly a Palestinian. "Units respond, terrorist shot. Heightened security in area", police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a tweet. READ MORE: Stabbing in Israel: Casualties Reported, Attacker Shot in Jerusalem's Old City The most recent attack committed by a Palestinian took place on 9 December when seven people were injured and a baby died in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank. Such attacks have been repeatedly committed by Palestinians and qualified by the Israeli authorities as acts of terrorism.[SEP]National Guard servicemen involved in counter-terrorism operations have frequently been targeted by militants in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region. Late last month, a gunman was killed in the nearby Krasnodar region after opening fire on two National Guard officers in a service car. Two National Guard servicemen were injured by a grenade explosion while detaining armed suspects at a shopping mall in Russia’s southern republic of Ingushetia on Wednesday evening. The latest attack happened at a shopping center in the Ingush town of Nazran at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the local branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement Thursday. The two armed suspects reportedly resisted arrest by shooting at the National Guard officers attempting to detain them, before throwing an RGD grenade that injured the law enforcement officials. The suspects were reportedly injured from the explosion and died from their wounds, the Investigative Committee said. The National Guard said in a statement that the injured officers were being treated at a local hospital for their wounds. Investigators said they have launched a probe into the attempted murder of law enforcement officials.[SEP]Russian police are on a manhunt for unknown attackers who reportedly threw a grenade at two police officers near a mall in the southern Republic of Ingushetia. The seriously injured officers have been taken to hospital.The Ingushetia police have confirmed that two of its servicemen were injured outside a shopping center in the city of Nazran on Wednesday.The officers were trying to detain two men, who resisted arrest and threw a grenade at them. Other reports said the policemen were sitting in a parked car at the time of the attack.The perpetrators were reportedly killed by return fire and are being identified.[SEP]Russian police are on a manhunt for an unknown attacker who reportedly threw a grenade at two police officers at a marketplace in the southern Republic of Ingushetia. The seriously injured officers have been taken to hospital. The law enforcers suffered multiple shrapnel wounds to their hands and legs, a source told Tass. “They remain conscious. Their condition is of moderate severity, non-critical,” he added. According to other reports, the officers were sitting in a parked car when a lone attacker tossed a grenade at it.[SEP]Russian authorities say they have detained seven people suspected of financially supporting two extremist organizations in the Middle East. Russia's Investigative Committee said on December 13 that the suspects had been apprehended in and around the Moscow region and the three North Caucasus regions of Chechnya, Daghestan, and Ingushetia. They were suspected of sending at least 38 million rubles ($570,000) to militants of the Islamic State (IS) group and the Al-Nusra Front – Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate until 2016 -- since 2010. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said the seven suspects were detained following a joint operation by the FSB, the Investigative Committee, and the National Guard. Also on December 13, authorities in Ingushetia said that two suspected terrorists were killed overnight after one of them threw a grenade at police in the city of Nazran. Two officers were wounded in the attack, officials said. Violence is common in the North Caucasus, where Islamic militants have been mounting frequent attacks against police, public officials, and moderate Muslims. In June 2015, Islamic militants in the North Caucasus announced in an Internet video post that they had pledged allegiance to the IS. Russia estimates some 2,000 citizens, mostly from the North Caucasus, have fought alongside IS in Syria. Organized crime, business turf wars, political disputes, and clan rivalry also contribute to the bloodshed in the region. With reporting by TASS and Interfax[SEP]A MAN has been shot by police in Cooktown in Far North Queensland. The 40-year-old was shot and injured after police were called to a disturbance at Savage St about 9.45am. Early investigations suggest the man confronted officers with a knife before a single officer fired at the man. The officers supplied first aid, police said, before the man was taken to Cooktown Hospital for treatment. A police spokeswoman said the man's condition was unknown at this stage. Ethical Standards have launched an investigation, which will be overseen by the Crime and Corruption Commission.

Two police officers are injured after a man throws a grenade at them at a shopping centre in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia. The attacker and his accomplice are later shot dead.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Cardinal Pell faces trial in Australia on sex abuse charges Two cardinals facing allegations linked to sexual abuse have been removed from Pope Francis's inner circle, the Vatican said. Australia's George Pell and Chile's Francisco Javier Errazuriz will no longer sit on the Council of Cardinals, set up by the pope as an international advice body. The pair were absent from the last meeting of the group in September. A spokesperson said the Pope wrote to them both in October to thank them. Cardinal Pell, who remains the Vatican treasurer, faces trial on sexual abuse charges in Australia - accusations the cardinal strenuously denies. His Chilean colleague, Francisco Javier Errazuriz, faces accusations that he covered up alleged child abuse while serving as Archbishop of Santiago, claims he also denies. Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya has also left the group, spokesman Greg Burke said. The 79-year-old recently retired from his role as archbishop of Kinshasa, and has not been implicated in any scandals. The group, known as C9, has no plan to immediately fill its three empty seats, Mr Burke reportedly said.[SEP]Pope Francis has removed two prominent clerics from the Council of Cardinal advisers he established five years ago. The Australian and Chilean cardinals, who were among nine princes of the Catholic Church-appointed special counselors to the pope, were implicated in the sexual abuse scandals in the Church. Just two months before a scheduled meeting to discuss how to move forward in the clerical sexual abuse scandals, the removal of the two prominent cardinals is seen as a further embarrassment to the Catholic Church. The Vatican on Wednesday said Pope Francis had written in October to Australian Cardinal George Pell and Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz of Chile thanking them for their work on the council. Pell, a 77-year-old who used to be the Vatican's finance minister, left his job with an indefinite leave of absence to stand trial in his country on sexual abuse charges. The 85-year-old Errazuriz, who used to be archbishop of Santiago, has been accused of covering up abuse. Both men deny the allegations. The Vatican provided no explanation for the removal of the cardinals and no mention was made of the sexual abuse allegations. The recently retired 79-year-old archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, also departed from the Council, although he had not been implicated in any scandal. "After a five-year term, these three have now passed out. For the moment, the pope has not named new cardinals in their place," said Vatican spokesman Greg Burke. Pope Francis established the Council of Cardinals in 2013 to help with reforms he wanted implemented in the various Vatican departments. That work of the council is close to completion. Additionally, Church authorities are working on a new document that outlines the work and mission of the various congregations within the government of the Church. The document is expected to be ready soon.[SEP]Vatican City: Pope Francis has removed two cardinals from his informal cabinet amid the Catholic Church's sex abuse and cover-up scandal, shedding embarrassing advisers ahead of a high-stakes Vatican summit on abuse early next year. The Vatican said on Wednesday that Francis in October had written to Cardinal George Pell and Chilean Cardinal Javier Errazuriz thanking them for their five years of service on the so-called Group of Nine, or C-9. Francis also bid farewell to Congolese Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, who hasn't been implicated in the scandal but at age 79 recently retired as archbishop of Kinshasa. Pell, 77, took leave from his job as the Vatican's economy minister to stand trial in Australia on historic charges of sex abuse, which he denies.[SEP]VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has removed two cardinals from his informal Cabinet after they were implicated in the Catholic Church’s sex abuse and cover-up scandal, shedding embarrassing advisers ahead of a high-stakes Vatican summit on abuse early next year. The Vatican said Wednesday that Francis in October had written to Chilean Cardinal Javier Errazuriz and Australian Cardinal George Pell thanking them for their five years of service on the so-called Group of Nine, or C-9. Francis also bid farewell to Congolese Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, who hasn’t been implicated in the scandal but at age 79 recently retired as archbishop of Kinshasa. Errazuriz, 85, has been accused by Chilean abuse survivors of having covered up for predator priests while he was archbishop of Santiago, a charge he has denied. Pell, 77, took leave from his job as the Vatican’s economy minister to stand trial in his native Australia on historic charges of sex abuse, which he denies. Their continued presence on the C-9 had been a source of scandal for Francis, given the explosion of the abuse and cover-up crisis this year. Francis himself was implicated in the scandal after he strongly defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering for the country’s most notorious predator priest – a position he took apparently on Errazuriz’s advice.[SEP]Australian Cardinal George Pell has been removed from the Vatican’s informal cabinet by Pope Francis. The Vatican said Wednesday that Francis in October had written to Chilean Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, Congolese Cardinal Laurent Mongengwo and Australian Cardinal George Pell thanking them for their five years of service on the so-called Group of Nine, or C-9. Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, who at age 79 recently retired as archbishop of Kinshasa. Cardinal Pell is facing prosecution for historical sexual offences in the County Court of Victoria. He denies the charges. Francis appointed the C-9 in 2013 to help him reform the Vatican and reorganise its bureaucracy. That work is wrapping up, with the finalising of a new document outlining the work and mission of the various congregations that make up the universal government of the 1.2 billion-strong church. A statement from the Vatican press office noted that the cabinet members asked Francis in September to reflect on the future composition, structure and work of the C-9, taking into consideration especially the advanced ages of some of its members. Though he has been away from Rome since announcing his leave of absence in June 2017, Pell technically remains prefect of the Vatican’s economy secretariat. The Pope was shedding advisers ahead of a high-stakes Vatican summit on abuse early next year. Errazuriz, 85, has been accused by Chilean abuse survivors of having covered up for predator priests while he was archbishop of Santiago, a charge he has denied. Pell, 77, took leave from his job as the Vatican’s economy minister to stand trial in Australia on historic charges of sex abuse, which he denies. Francis himself was criticised after he strongly defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering for the country’s most notorious predator priest - a position he took apparently on the advice of Errazuriz. After Francis realised his errors and apologised, he summoned the presidents of all the world’s bishops conferences to Rome for a three-day meeting in February to discuss protecting young people from paedophiles. That summit has taken on enormous weight given the eruption of the scandal in the US. The Vatican said the three cardinals wouldn’t be replaced on the council.[SEP]Australian Cardinal George Pell has been removed from Pope Francis’ inner circle of advisers. The Vatican has confirmed Cardinal Pell, 77, is one of three cardinals who was not reappointed to the Council of Cardinals, known as the C9, which provides high-level international advice to the Pope. A former Archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, Cardinal Pell retains his role as Treasurer to the Vatican, its third-highest position, although he has been on a leave of absence for 18 months. Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz and Congolese Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya were also not reappointed. Cardinal Errazuriz, 85, has been accused of covering up sexual abuse in his homeland of Chile while he was the Archbishop of Santiago. Cardinal Monsengwo, 79, has recently retired from his role as Archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and was not subject to any allegations or controversies. The Vatican said the Pope had decided in late October not to reappoint the three cardinals at the end of their five-year tenures. The Pope’s decision came after a meeting of the C9 in September, which none of the three men attended. However, the Vatican only announced the Pontiff’s decision on Wednesday. Cardinal Pell has been in Australia since July last year. He has health problems which prevent him undertaking long-haul flying and he has not been attending C9 meetings. The Pope is not considering replacing the men at this time, reducing the C9 to C6, according to a bulletin released on Wednesday during another meeting of the Council of Cardinals at Vatican City in Rome. “Following the request expressed from the Cardinals, at the end of the 26th meeting of the Council of Cardinals, following a reflection on the work, the structure and the composition of the same council, keeping also in consideration the advanced age of some members, the Pope, at the end of October, has written to his Eminence Cardinal George Pell, to his Eminence the Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz and to his Eminence the Cardinal Laurent Monsignor Pasinya thanking them for their work in the past five years,’’ the Vatican said. “Considering the timing of the work of the council it is not planned to nominate new members at the moment.’’ Also yesterday, the Director of the Vatican Press Office, Greg Burke, made the following statement, when asked for a comment on Cardinal Pell and the ongoing prosecution for historical child sexual offences in the County Court of Victoria. Cardinal Pell denies the charges. “The Holy See has the utmost respect for Australian judicial authorities.”[SEP]Pope Francis has demoted two cardinals over sexual abuse allegations, the BBC reports. The Vatican was said to have identified the Cardinals as: Australia’s George Pell and Chile’s Francisco Javier Errazuriz, were removed from the Pope’s inner circle and will no longer sit on the Council of Cardinals, set up by the pope as an international advisory body. Both demoted cardinals were absent from the last meeting of the group in September. A spokesperson said the Pope wrote to them both in October to thank them. Cardinal George Pell, who remains the Vatican treasurer, faces trial on sexual abuse charges in Australia. He strenuously denies the accusations. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, from Chile, has also been accused of covering up alleged child abuse while serving as Archbishop of Santiago. He, however, denied the accusations.[SEP]ROME—Pope Francis has removed the three oldest members of his advisory Council of Cardinals, two of them prelates tainted by scandals related to the Catholic Church’s crisis over clerical sex abuse. The Vatican announced Wednesday that the pope had written in October to Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77; Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, 85; and Congolese Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, 79, “thanking them for their work over the last five years” and relieving them from their roles on the council.[SEP]VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has removed two cardinals who have been hit by scandals from his group of close advisers, the Vatican said on Wednesday. The two are Cardinal George Pell of Australia and Francisco Javier Errázuriz of Chile. Both have been the subject of allegations related to sexual abuse — accusations they have denied. A third cardinal who had been a member of the so-called C-9, Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was also leaving the group, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told a briefing on the C-9’s latest meeting, which ended on Wednesday. He said that the pope had written to the trio in October, thanking them for their work. None of the three attended the latest meeting. Pell has taken an indefinite leave of absence from his job as the Vatican’s economy minister to defend himself from prosecution for historical child sexual offences in Australia. Victims of sexual abuse in Chile have accused Errázuriz of covering up abuse by others.[SEP]Pope Francis has removed from his group of close advisers two cardinals hit by sexual abuse scandals, including his economy minister, Australian George Pell, the Vatican said on Wednesday. Pell has taken an indefinite leave of absence from his job as head of the Secretariat for the Economy, one of the most powerful posts in the Vatican, to defend himself from prosecution for historical child sexual offences in Australia. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said: “The Holy See has the utmost respect for Australian judiciary. We are aware that a suppression order is in place (on media reporting on judicial procedures) and we intend to respect it.” Asked if Pell, 77, was still economy minister, Burke suggested he was, saying there had been no announcement to the contrary. The other member removed from the so called C-9 – a group of nine cardinals that meets periodically with the pope in Rome – is Francisco Javier Errázuriz of Chile. Errázuriz, 85, the former archbishop of Santiago, has been accused by abuse survivors in Chile of discrediting victims and not investigating their cases, which he denies. Chile’s sexual abuse scandal prompted all of the country’s 34 bishops to offer their resignation to the pope who has so far accepted seven. A third C-9 cardinal, Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, 79, of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was also leaving the group, Burke told a briefing on the C-9’s latest meeting, which ended on Wednesday. None of the three attended. Burke said the six remaining members – from Italy, Honduras, the United States, and India, would continue to advise the pope. There were no immediate plans to appoint new members, he said. The pope told Reuters last June in an interview that he planned to use the five-year anniversary of the C-9 to “to renew it a bit”.

Pope Francis removes Australian prelate George Pell and Chilean prelate Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa from the Council of Cardinal Advisers. Both are accused of covering up child sexual abuse scandals. Former Archbishop of Kinshasa Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya also leaves the Council for unrelated reasons.

INSIDE THE DEMILITARIZED ZONE -- Dozens of North and South Korean soldiers crossed over the world's most heavily armed border Wednesday as they inspected the sites of their rival's front-line guard posts to verify they'd been removed, part of inter-Korean engagement efforts that come amid stalled U.S.-North Korea nuclear disarmament talks. It was the first time since the Demilitarized Zone was created in 1948 to divide the two Koreas that troops from either side crossed the demarcation line peacefully, South Korea's Ministry of Defense noted. The inspections Wednesday were mostly symbolic -- the removals will leave South Korea with about 50 other DMZ posts and North Korea with 150, according to defense experts in South Korea, but they mark an extraordinary change in ties from last year, when North Korea tested a series of increasingly powerful weapons and threatened Seoul and Washington with war. Soldiers from the two Koreas exchanged cigarettes and chatted as they inspected the dismantlement or disarmament of 22 guard posts -- 11 from each country -- inside the Demilitarized Zone that forms 155-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide border. A small group of journalists was allowed to enter the zone to watch a South Korean team leave for a North Korean guard post Wednesday morning and a North Korean team come to a South Korean guard post later in the day. Seven helmeted South Korean soldiers wearing backpacks, one carrying a camera and another a camcorder, approached the line separating the northern and southern sides of the DMZ. North Korean troops then walked in a row down a hill to meet them. The soldiers from the rival Koreas exchanged handshakes before moving up the hill together to go to the dismantled North Korean guard post. How have sanctions impacted the people of North Korea? Other groups of South Korean soldiers simultaneously visited 10 other North Korean guard posts. They inspected whether the guard posts and any underground structures have been completely dismantled and whether all troops, weapons and other equipment have been withdrawn, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry. Hours later, seven North Korean soldiers clad in olive-green uniforms crossed the same borderline and were then escorted by South Korean troops to the concrete and steel debris of a destroyed South Korean post. North Korean teams also visited 10 other South Korean sites. South Korea's liberal president, Moon Jae-in, the driving force behind the current engagement effort, watched parts of the verification broadcast live at an underground bunker in Seoul. Moon called the work "a new milestone" in inter-Korean history that was "unimaginable in the past," according to his office. North Korean soldiers allowed South Korean soldiers to use stethoscope-like equipment to inspect whether there were any underground tunnels below the site, South Korean presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters. The Demilitarized Zone was originally created as a buffer between the countries at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. But contrary to its name, the DMZ has become the world's most heavily fortified frontier after the rival Koreas planted an estimated 2 million mines, deployed combat troops and heavy weapons and set up layers of barbed wire fences. Where does the promise to denuclearize the Korean peninsula stand? When the leaders of the Koreas met in Pyongyang in September, they agreed to lower military tensions along their border, including the withdrawal of some DMZ guard posts, halting live-fire exercises near the border, demilitarizing their shared border village of Panmunjom and removing mines at a DMZ area to launch joint searches for Korean War dead. Conservatives in South Korea have criticized the deals, saying Seoul shouldn't have agreed to such conventional arms reduction programs because North Korea's nuclear threat remains unchanged. U.S.-led nuclear diplomacy aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear program has reported little progress since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump met for a summit in Singapore in June. North Korea has made a vague disarmament pledge, and some experts say the North's turn to diplomacy after last year's string of weapons tests is aimed at weakening U.S.-led sanctions.[SEP]Seoul: Soldiers from North and South Korea crossed into each other’s territory peacefully for the first time on Wednesday, Seoul said, as they began checking the dismantlement of guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone. The North invaded the South in 1950, triggering the Korean War, and Seoul went on to change hands four times as Pyongyang’s Chinese-backed forces and the US-led UN troops supporting the South fought their way up and down the peninsula and back again. The conflict ended in an armistice in 1953, leaving the two technically still in a state of war, but a rapid reconciliation has taken place this year. The South’s President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un, leader of the nuclear-armed North, agreed to remove a limited number of guard posts along their heavily-fortified frontier at a September summit in Pyongyang, among other measures. North Korea blew up 10 of its facilities in November, while the South tore 10 down on its own side using excavators. South Korean inspectors visited each of the guard posts on the North’s side on Wednesday to make sure they had been dismantled and all firearms and troops removed, Seoul’s defence ministry said. North Korean inspectors carried out the same process at the South’s bunkers in the afternoon, it added. Video footage showed armed South Korean soldiers shaking hands with North Korean personnel at the military demarcation line in the centre of the DMZ, before crossing to the other side. Led by the North Koreans, the Southerners walked along a path where the North’s guard posts had once stood, soldiers from both sides taking photos and filming the process as they chatted. “This marks the first time since the division that the soldiers of the North and South… are peacefully crossing the military demarcation line,” the ministry said in a statement. The North is known to have more guard posts — which include both surface structures and underground elements — and according to Yonhap news agency it now has around 150 in the DMZ, with the South having about 50. Despite its name, the area around the DMZ is one of the most fortified places on earth, replete with minefields and barbed-wire fences. But under the plans to ease tensions agreed in Pyongyang, the two Koreas have demilitarised the border truce village of Panmunjom, leaving it manned by 35 unarmed personnel from each side. Officially called the Joint Security Area (JSA), the enclave is the only spot along the 250-kilometre (155-mile) frontier where soldiers from the two Koreas and the US-led UN Command stand face to face. (AFP)[SEP]North Korean soldiers move to inspect a dismantled guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone, while a South Korean soldier stands guard in the central section of the border on Dec 12, 2018. SEOUL - Soldiers from North and South Korea crossed into each other's territory peacefully for the first time on Wednesday (Dec 12), Seoul said, as they began checking the dismantlement of guard posts in the Demilitarised Zone. The North invaded the South in 1950, triggering the Korean War, and Seoul went on to change hands four times as Pyongyang's Chinese-backed forces and the US-led UN troops supporting the South fought their way up and down the peninsula and back again. The conflict ended in an armistice in 1953, leaving the two technically still in a state of war, but a rapid reconciliation has taken place this year. The South's President Moon Jae-in and Mr Kim Jong Un, leader of the nuclear-armed North, agreed to remove a limited number of guard posts along their heavily-fortified frontier at a September summit in Pyongyang, among other measures. North Korea blew up 10 of its facilities in November, while the South tore 10 down on its own side using excavators. South Korean inspectors visited each of the guard posts on the North's side on Wednesday to make sure they had been dismantled and all firearms and troops removed, Seoul's Defence Ministry said. North Korean inspectors carried out the same process at the South's bunkers in the afternoon, it added. North Korean soldiers working near the Military Demarcation Line to construct a tactical road to support a joint war remains recovery project in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas in Cheorwon. Video footage showed armed South Korean soldiers shaking hands with North Korean personnel at the military demarcation line in the centre of the DMZ, before crossing to the other side. Led by the North Koreans, the Southerners walked along a path where the North's guard posts had once stood, soldiers from both sides taking photos and filming the process as they chatted. "This marks the first time since the division that the soldiers of the North and South... are peacefully crossing the military demarcation line," the ministry said in a statement. The North is known to have more guard posts - which include both surface structures and underground elements - and according to Yonhap news agency, it now has around 150 in the DMZ, with the South having about 50. Despite its name, the area around the DMZ is one of the most fortified places on earth, replete with minefields and barbed-wire fences. But under the plans to ease tensions agreed in Pyongyang, the two Koreas have demilitarised the border truce village of Panmunjom, leaving it manned by 35 unarmed personnel from each side. Officially called the Joint Security Area (JSA), the enclave is the only spot along the 250-kilometre frontier where soldiers from the two Koreas and the US-led UN Command stand face-to-face. The dovish Mr Moon has pursued a policy of engagement with the North, in increasing contrast to Washington, which insists pressure should be maintained on Pyongyang until it denuclearises.[SEP]Dozens of North and South Korean soldiers have crossed over the world’s most heavily armed border as they inspected the sites of rival frontline guard posts to verify they had been removed. The checks were part of Korean engagement efforts that come amid stalled US-North Korea nuclear disarmament talks. Soldiers from the two Koreas exchanged cigarettes and chatted as they inspected the dismantlement or disarmament of 22 guard posts — 11 from each country — inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that forms their 155-mile long border. The inspections were mostly symbolic, as the removals will leave South Korea with about 50 other DMZ posts and North Korea with 150, according to defence experts in South Korea. But they mark an extraordinary change in ties from last year, when North Korea tested a series of increasingly powerful weapons and threatened Seoul and Washington with war. A small group of journalists was allowed to enter the zone to watch a South Korean team leave for a North Korean guard post and a North Korean team come to a South Korean guard post later in the day. Seven helmeted South Korean soldiers approached the line separating the northern and southern sides of the DMZ. North Korean troops then walked in a row down a hill to meet them. The soldiers from the rival Koreas exchanged handshakes before moving up the hill together to go to the dismantled North Korean guard post. Other groups of South Korean soldiers simultaneously visited 10 other North Korean guard posts. They inspected whether the guard posts and any underground structures have been completely dismantled and whether all troops, weapons and other equipment have been withdrawn, according to Seoul’s Defence Ministry. Hours later, seven North Korean soldiers clad in olive-green uniforms crossed the same borderline and were then escorted by South Korean troops to the concrete and steel debris of a destroyed South Korean post. North Korean teams also visited 10 other South Korean sites. South Korea’s liberal president, Moon Jae-in, the driving force behind the current engagement effort, watched parts of the verification broadcast live at an underground bunker in Seoul. Mr Moon called the work “a new milestone” in inter-Korean history that was “unimaginable in the past”. North Korean soldiers allowed South Korean soldiers to use stethoscope-like equipment to inspect whether there were any underground tunnels below the site, South Korean presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters. The Demilitarised Zone was originally created as a buffer between the countries at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. But contrary to its name, the DMZ has become the world’s most heavily fortified frontier after the rival Koreas planted an estimated 2 million mines, deployed combat troops and heavy weapons and set up layers of barbed wire fences. When the leaders of the Koreas met in Pyongyang in September, they agreed to lower military tensions along their border, including the withdrawal of some DMZ guard posts, halting live-fire exercises near the border, demilitarising their shared border village of Panmunjom and removing mines at a DMZ area to launch joint searches for Korean War dead.[SEP]In scenes that would have been unthinkable just a year ago, soldiers from North and South Korea shake hands across their joint border. Officials crossed into each other’s territories peacefully for the first time as they began to dismantle guard posts in the demilitarised zone. The North invaded the South in 1950, triggering the Korean War. The conflict ended in an armistice in 1953, leaving the two sides technically still in a state of war. However this year there has been a rapid reconciliation and moves have been made to demolish a number of guard posts along their heavily-fortified frontier. The North exploded 10 of its facilities while its southern neighbour excavated a further ten on their side. It is the first step in a military pact reached in September between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Today teams from each of the countries inspected the other side’s work, looking for secret tunnels where firearms could have been hidden. A statement read: ‘This marks the first time since the division that the soldiers of the North and South are peacefully crossing the military demarcation line.’ A year ago, such a joint operation by some 77 officials from the two sides would have been unthinkable. North Korea’s repeated missile tests and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September 2017, in defiance of U.N. and U.S. warnings, had stirred fears of war. But things have changed at a head-spinning pace over the past 12 months. In a New Year message last year, Kim extended an olive branch to old enemy South Korea, then sent a team to the Winter Olympics there in February, and held three summits with Moon over the course of the year. Kim also met U.S. President Donald Trump for an unprecedented summit in Singapore in June. Moon said the removal of the border guard posts and Wednesday’s two-way verification exercise marked a ‘new milestone’ in the 65-year division of the peninsula. ‘It’s something we couldn’t even imagine in the past that the South and the North build trails in the Demilitarised Zone where they confronted each other, and pull out the guard posts and transparently verify it,’ Moon told aides after watching a broadcast of the inspection. He added that the atmosphere was ‘cordial’ and soldiers chatted and shared cigarettes. Moon is hoping to host Kim in Seoul for their fourth summit, perhaps as early as this month, but North Korea has been aloof amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States.[SEP]South Korea says a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Seoul before the end of the year is unlikely. Kim promised to visit the South Korean capital “in the near future” when he hosted President Moon Jae-in for their third summit of this year. But a statement issued Thursday by the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential residence, quoted a senior adviser to President Moon as saying a visit by Kim Jong Un would be “difficult.” A visit by Kim would be the first by a North Korean leader to South Korea since the Korean Peninsula was divided after World War II. Analysts say North Korea is cautious about giving a fixed date for Kim’s visit, because of security concerns in South Korea and the stalled negotiations with the United States over its nuclear weapons program. The Blue House statement says Kim Jong Un could still visit Seoul early next year.[SEP]Black-and-white photographs showing the horror and heroes of the Korean War have come to life thanks to digital colourisation. These incredible images show many different sides of the war between North and South Korea, which started in 1950 and ended with an armistice in 1953. One photo shows a memorial service for fallen U.S. soldiers on the front line, another a young John Glenn - who would go on to become the first man to orbit the Earth as an astronaut and later a U.S. Senator. Other striking shots show soldiers and vehicles struggle through snowy conditions, a US soldier giving a young Korean child a gift and a brave bagpiper on a hill. The original black and white photographs were painstakingly colourised by electrician Royston Leonard, 55, from Cardiff, Wales, with each snap taking between four and five hours to complete. 'Adding colour brings to life the horror of war, of the trenches and not just another old black and white photo from long ago,' he said. 'We must never forget and teach all our children so that it never happens again. The pictures are not nice but then nor is sending loved ones to war.' Proud tradition: A lone bagpipe player is seen standing above two soldiers. His nationality is not clear, however the bagpipe is most commonly associated with the Scottish Highlands. While a majority of the Western soldiers who fought and died in the Korean War were from the U.S., thousands of British and Commonwealth troops also served The Korean War was sparked by communist North Korea invading South Korea following a series of clashes by the border. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea, with China and the Soviet Union providing assistance to the North. The fighting ended on 27 July, 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war.[SEP]SEOUL: Soldiers from North and South Korea crossed into each other’s territory peacefully for the first time on Wednesday, Seoul said, as they began checking the dismantlement of guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone. The North invaded the South in 1950, triggering the Korean War, and Seoul went on to change hands four times as Pyongyang’s Chinese-backed forces and the US-led UN troops supporting the South fought their way up and down the peninsula and back again. The conflict ended in an armistice in 1953, leaving the two technically still in a state of war, but a rapid reconciliation has taken place this year. The South’s President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un, leader of the nuclear-armed North, agreed to remove a limited number of guard posts along their heavily-fortified frontier at a September summit in Pyongyang, among other measures. North Korea blew up 10 of its facilities in November, while the South tore 10 down on its own side using excavators. South Korean inspectors visited each of the guard posts on the North’s side on Wednesday to make sure they had been dismantled and all firearms and troops removed, Seoul’s defence ministry said.[SEP]SEOUL: Soldiers from North and South Korea are set to verify the dismantlement of guard posts in the demilitarised zone Wednesday (Dec 12), Seoul said, after crossing into each other's territory peacefully for the first time. The removal of 20 posts along the heavily-fortified frontier was one of the steps agreed at a September summit between the South's President Moon Jae-in and the North's leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, part of a rapid reconciliation drive on the peninsula. In November, North Korea blew up the 10 facilities while the South tore down 10 on its own side using excavators. Seoul's defence ministry said early Wednesday that South Korean inspectors will visit each of the guard posts on the North's side to verify their dismantlement and to ensure that all firearms and troops have been removed. North Korean inspectors will carry out the same process at the South's bunkers, it added. "This marks the first time since the division that the soldiers of the North and South ... are peacefully crossing the military demarcation line," the ministry said in a statement. The dovish Moon has pursued a policy of engagement with its isolated, nuclear-armed neighbour, in increasing contrast to Washington, which insists pressure should be maintained on Pyongyang until it denuclearises. Despite its name, the area around the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) is one of the most fortified places on earth, replete with minefields and barbed-wire fences. But under plans to ease tensions agreed in Pyongyang, the two Koreas have demilitarised the border truce village of Panmunjom, leaving it manned by 35 unarmed personnel from each side. Officially called the Joint Security Area (JSA), the enclave is the only spot along the 250km frontier where soldiers from the two Koreas and the US-led UN Command stand face to face.[SEP]On Wednesday, soldiers from North and South Korea made several peaceful crossings into each other's territory for the first time since the countries were divided. The soldiers were inspecting the dismantlement of 22 guard posts — 11 from both countries — inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the buffer zone between both countries, which, contrary to its name, is the world's most heavily fortified border. It was mostly a symbolic gesture, since many more guard posts still remain, but as South Korea's president Moon Jae-in pointed out, the action was "a new milestone" in inter-Korean history that was "unimaginable in the past." Just like the photos and video footage of soldiers chatting and sharing cigarettes contribute to changing the image both countries have of each other, another type of imagery unites them as well, as the exhibition "Rückkehr von Jeong Seon – Alter Meister, Neue Geister" (Return of Jeong Seon – Old Master, New Minds) in Berlin shows. Mount Kumgang, or Geumgangsan, which translates as Diamond Mountain, has always been a muse for Koreans. Poets and artists have been celebrating it in their works since well before the Middle Ages. One Korean painter most famously revolutionized art through his depictions of the peak: Jeong Seon (1676-1759), who is credited as the father of "True View" landscape painting. The label refers to landscape painting techniques specifically portraying Korean scenery. Before him, "Korean artists were all orientated towards China. Jeong Seon was the first artist who made it popular to paint Korean landscapes," explains the exhibition's curator, Kwang Lee from the international art association Kunstverein 64 e.V. However, since the mountain is located in North Korea, South Koreans were unable to visit their treasured site for 50 years, after the Korean peninsula was divided in 1948. North Korea progressively opened it to South Korean tourists starting in 1998. Jeong Seon's approach still influences Korean artists from the North and the South to this day, and the show that opened at the Berlin Office of the Representation of the State of Saxony on Wednesday is the first official German exhibition to display works from both sides of the border, displaying painters inspired by the ideas of the old master. Holding the exhibition in a state building also served to represent the ties between Germany and Korea. Germany's own experience of division and its peaceful reunification provide an inspiring model for Korea. With the upcoming the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2019, different special projects with Korea will aim to consolidate the already important ties between the two countries, says Hartmut Koschyk, co-president of the German-Korean Forum. He cites for example an upcoming digital game that will allow users in Berlin and Seoul to reflect on borders and divisions, called "Mauerspechte – von der DMZ zur Berliner Mauer" (Wall-Woodpeckers — from the DMZ to the Berlin Wall). Kwang Lee first came to Germany 20 years to study art in Europe without thinking much about the parallels between both countries. It is through her professor at the Düsseldorf Arts Academy, artist Markus Lüpertz, that she began reflecting upon her identity, about Korean traditions and the common aspects in German and Korean history. The parallels can also be drawn in the countries' artistic production. Just like in former East Germany, Kwang Lee points out, the artists from North Korea work under the tight control of the regime, promoting the state's official ideology. For example, the landscapes painted by these artists are "not as personal" as the South Korean interpretations; the North Korean artworks rather serve as a direct demonstration of how powerful these mountains are, says the exhibition's curator. North Korean artists mainly work in an enormous complex in Pyongyang, the Mansudae Art Studio, which is basically one of the largest art factories in the world. Some 1,000 artists and 3,000 assistants produce works for Kim Jong Un's regime, churning out propaganda monuments, paintings and even the Kim pins worn by all North Koreans. While the way art is produced is obviously distinct in both parts of Korea, hopes that a shared cultural heritage may contribute to improving diplomatic ties is not only a concept celebrated in Berlin. During his visit to Kim Jong Un in North Korea last September, South Korean President Moon Jae-in was guided around the massive art studio. In a guest book, Moon wrote: "I wish that art would become a bridge connecting South and North Korea as one." The exhibition "Rückkehr von Jeong Seon – Alter Meister, Neue Geister" runs through January 30, 2019 at the Vertretung des Freistaates Sachsen beim Bund in Berlin.

Soldiers from North Korea and South Korea peacefully cross the Korean Demilitarized Zone for the first time since it was created in 1953.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Mr Maduro said that Venezuela had the resources and the determination to fight back Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of plotting to kill him and topple his government. He told reporters that US National Security Adviser John Bolton was personally involved in the plot, but did not produce any evidence. President Trump has labelled the leftist leader a dictator and has imposed sanctions. Earlier this week the US criticised the arrival of two Russian bombers in Venezuela. The Russian Tupolev Tu-160 bombers are capable of carrying nuclear weapons. What did Maduro say? "John Bolton has been assigned with the job organising my assassination, deploying foreign troops and imposing a transitional government in Venezuela," he told journalists at the Miraflores presidential palace. The Venezuelan people were prepared to fight back, with the help of "friendly countries," he added, Mr Maduro has previously accused the US as well as Colombia and the Venezuelan opposition of plotting to kill him. What was behind the visit by Russian bombers? The US is increasingly concerned by his government's links with Russia, China and other countries that have differences with the Trump administration. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Russian bombers' visit amounted to "two corrupt governments squandering public funds". Image copyright AFP Image caption Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino (first row, second from left) welcomed the Russians The Russian government called his words "completely inappropriate". The long-range strategic bombers landed at Simón Bolívar airport outside of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, on Monday along with two other Russian planes. Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino said they were part of air force exercises with its Russian allies: "This we are going to do with our friends, because we have friends in the world who defend respectful, balanced relations." The White House said it had been informed by Russia that the bombers would leave Venezuela on Friday. How deep is Venezuela's economic crisis? More than two million people have fled Venezuela since 2014, about 7% of the country's population. Venezuela says the US has waged an economic war to put an end to almost 20 years of socialism in the country. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Where mothers give away their babies Mr Maduro blames the US policies and sanctions for the high inflation and shortage of food, medicines and other goods. On Monday, the American tyre maker, Goodyear, announced it was halting operations in the country. "Our goal had been to maintain its operations, but economic conditions and US sanctions have made this impossible," said Goodyear in a statement. Its employees in Venezuela have each been given 10 tyres as part of their severance payment. A number of foreign firms, including Kellogg and Clorox, have pulled out of Venezuela, citing a growing economic crisis and US sanctions.[SEP]Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused US National Security Advisor John Bolton of preparing a plot to overthrow and murder him He also has called out the Colombian leader Ivan Duque as being Bolton’s accomplice. At a press conference broadcast on his Facebook page, Maduro said: .”John Bolton leads the plan to unleash violence and conduct a coup to introduce a transitional government. Bolton is preparing a plan of my assassination. He is training, in various places, mercenary and paramilitary units’ forces jointly with Colombia, whose president Ivan Duque is an accomplice of this plan” “Bolton is preparing a plan for my assassination.” RT reports: Trump’s national security adviser has organized the training of mercenaries and paramilitary units “in various places” to be used against Venezuela, he said. Maduro claimed that more than 730 armed thugs are ready to launch provocations and to attack military bases in Venezuela. According to the Venezuelan leader, Bolton’s plot is being carried out with the heavy involvement of Colombia, with its president Ivan Duque being “his accomplice.” Maduro then slammed Duque as Washington’s puppet, who “can’t even go to the toilet without permission from the US ambassador in Bogota.” In early August, blasts were heard as Maduro attended a military parade in the capital, Caracas. The Venezuelan authorities announced that it was a failed assassination attempt against the president, which involved drones carrying bombs. Other reports insisted that the panic actually was caused by an explosion of household gas. Maduro returned to that incident during his press-conference, saying that he had “no doubts that the drones were prepared in Colombia under the supervision of [then Colombian president Juan Manuel] Santos, but on the direct order from the White House.” Colombia’s Foreign Ministry has said it “categorically rejects” Maduro’s accusations as well as his “unconvincing, disrespectful and slanderous words about an imaginary war that Colombia plans to start” against Venezuela. US President Donald Trump’s administration has been vocal about its desire to see the socialist president removed from power in oil-rich Venezuela. Washington has branded Maduro a “dictator,” responsible for a crackdown on the country’s opposition. Several high-ranked US officials even mulled what they called a “humanitarian intervention” into the country. Last year, the US imposed harsh sanctions against Venezuela’s officials and its economy, including the oil sector. The American pressure contributed to the severe social and economic crisis as the nation was hit by hyperinflation, the devaluation of the national currency and a shortage of basic necessities. The collapse of living standards has forced more than three million to people leave the country this year in search of a better life elsewhere in Latin America, according to the UN.[SEP]Maduro: US adviser John Bolton heading plan to assassinate me Caracas, Dec 12 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday that White House National Security Adviser John Bolton is heading a US plan to assassinate him and put an end to the so-called Bolivarian Revolution under way in the South American country since 1999. “Today, I come once again to denounce the plot being prepared by the White House to violate Venezuelan democracy, to assassinate me and to impose a dictatorial government in Venezuela,” the head of state said at a press conference. Maduro said that the alleged conspirators “recently” designated Bolton to head the plot “to fill Venezuela with violence and to seek foreign military intervention, a coup d’etat, to assassinate President Maduro and to impose what they call a transitory government council.” According to the Venezuelan leader, Bolton has been assigning missions to Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro “for military provocations in southern Venezuela, on the border” shared by the two nations. Brazilian Vice President-elect “Hamilton Mourao … every day establishes the pattern for what the policy of that government will be … every day says he’s going to invade Venezuela, that Brazil is going to use its military forces,” Maduro claimed. The Chavista leader said that, on the other hand, “one almost never hears a word” from Bolsonaro and he predicted that “there will be peace and cooperation” between the two countries despite the fact that the Brazilian vice president, he said, is a “crazy coward.” However, Maduro reiterated that Bolton’s plan to kill him “is already under development” and, to accomplish it, “he’s preparing several places where mercenary and paramilitary forces are being trained together with Colombia.” “The Colombian government of Ivan Duque … does not want diplomatic or political relations, or communication with Venezuela’s legitimate government. It’s complicit in John Bolton’s plan to bring violence to our country and thus I denounce it, and our armed forces had to be more and more prepared,” Maduro stressed. He said that a paramilitary group called G8 is training in Colombia’s Norte de Santander province, and that a total of 734 Colombian and Venezuelan mercenaries are being trained to undertake “false positive” activities, that is making attacks on military units along the border and engaging in escalating violence to confuse public opinion and justify other military actions against Venezuela. He also said that forces are being trained at Eglin Air Force Base in the US with the mission conducting of a “surgical attack” on Venezuelan air and military bases.[SEP]Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday that White House National Security Adviser John Bolton is heading a US plan to assassinate him and put an end to the so-called Bolivarian Revolution under way in the South American country since 1999. "Today, I come once again to denounce the plot being prepared by the White House to violate Venezuelan democracy, to assassinate me and to impose a dictatorial government in Venezuela," the head of state said at a press conference.[SEP]Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro lashed out Wednesday at what he said was a plot to assassinate him directed by the White House — and involving the right-wing governments of Colombia and Brazil. Maduro accused US National Security Advisor John Bolton of personally directing a plan to sow chaos on Venezuelan soil, with the aim of overthrowing his socialist government. The Venezuelan leader told foreign correspondents in Caracas that his government had “good information” that Bolton had been “assigning missions for military provocations on the border.” “I come again to denounce the plot which is being prepared from the White House to violate Venezuelan democracy, to assassinate me and to impose a dictatorial government in Venezuela,” he said. Troops were being trained in the United States and Colombia to carry out the plot, he alleged. US President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart Ivan Duque have been sharply critical of Maduro’s leftist regime, and Trump in October hinted at a potential military response to resolve Venezuela’s crippling economic crisis. “Mr John Bolton has been assigned as chief of the plan, of the plot, to fill Venezuela with violence and seek a foreign military intervention, a coup d’etat, and impose what they call a transitional government council,” said Maduro, who said he had corroborating foreign sources for his claims. “Brazil’s military forces want peace. Nobody in Brazil wants the incoming government of Jair Bolsonaro to engage in a military adventure against the people of Venezuela,” Maduro said. The Venezuelan leader had already castigated Washington in a speech on Sunday, saying it planned to carry out a coup with support from Colombia, although on that occasion he did not mention Brazil. Bolton and Bolsonaro met late last month in Rio de Janeiro — the first high-level meeting between a senior US official and the far-right leader, who takes office on January 1. Maduro raised Washington’s ire this week by announcing military exercises on Venezuelan soil with the participation of Russia, which sent two nuclear-capable long-range bombers to Caracas. The move drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He said the deployment was a case of “two corrupt governments squandering public funds, and squelching liberty and freedom while their people suffer”. Russia sent the planes following a visit to Moscow last week by Maduro for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who expressed support for the beleaguered socialist government. Maduro, 55, begins a second six-year term on January 10, having won elections in May that were boycotted by the opposition.[SEP]"John Bolton leads the plan to unleash violence and conduct a coup to introduce a transitional government. Bolton is preparing a plan of my assassination. He is training, in various places, mercenary and paramilitary units' forces jointly with Colombia, whose president Ivan Duque is an accomplice of this plan," Maduro said at a press conference broadcast on his Facebook page. "An attempt to undermine Venezuela's democratic life and to carry out a coup d'etat against the constitutional, democratic regime in our country has been launched under the coordination from the White House," Maduro was quoted as saying by the AVN news agency on 9 December. The president added that in the coming days, he would hold a press conference to provide details on the alleged plans of Washington to carry out a coup in Venezuela. In early August, Maduro was attending a military parade in Caracas, when his speech was interrupted by what the Venezuelan authorities said was a failed assassination attempt involving explosive drones. Maduro claimed in October that the United States had allegedly instructed Colombia to organize his assassination.[SEP]Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused US National Security Advisor John Bolton of preparing a plot to murder him, and also has called out Colombian leader Ivan Duque as Bolton's accomplice."John Bolton is leading the plan to unleash violence and conduct a coup to introduce a transitional government" in Venezuela, Maduro said at press-conference, which was broadcast live on his Facebook page. "."Trump's national security adviser has organized the training of mercenaries and paramilitary units "in various places" to be used against Venezuela, he said.Maduro claimed thatand to attack military bases in Venezuela.According to the Venezuelan leader, Bolton's plot is being carried out with the heavy involvement of Colombia, with its president Ivan Duque being "his accomplice." Maduro then slammed Duque as Washington's puppet, who "can't even go to the toilet without permission from the US ambassador in Bogota.". Other reports insisted that the panic actually was caused by an explosion of household gas.Maduro returned to that incident during his press-conference, saying that he had "no doubts that the drones were prepared in Colombia under the supervision of [then Colombian president Juan Manuel] Santos, but on the direct order from the White House."Colombia's Foreign Ministry has said it "categorically rejects" Maduro's accusations as well as his "unconvincing, disrespectful and slanderous words about an imaginary war that Colombia plans to start" against Venezuela.Last year, the US imposed harsh sanctions against Venezuela's officials and its economy, including the oil sector. The American pressure contributed to the severe social and economic crisis as the nation was hit by hyperinflation, the devaluation of the national currency and a shortage of basic necessities.The collapse of living standards has forced more than three million to people leave the country this year in search of a better life elsewhere in Latin America, according to the UN.[SEP]Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro unleashed a hailstorm of serious accusations against the Trump administration and specifically National Security Advisor John Bolton on Wednesday, telling a press conference that Bolton is currently planning to overthrow and to kill him. Maduro said at the press conference, which was broadcast on his Facebook page, that Bolton is in the midst of "preparing a plan of my assassination" using "mercenary and paramilitary" forces from neighboring countries. The embattled and globally isolated Venezuelan president went into some degree of detail during the remarks outlining what he says is a conspiracy against him: Maduro has made the charge that Washington is seeking his assassination a number of times, especially after only months ago in early August he evaded a bizarre assassination attempt involving C4-laden drones at a military ceremony in Caracas. A constant theme of Maduro's has been that the United States would use Columbia to carry out the plot, which he emphasized in allegations made in October. His Wednesday remarks followed prior weekend comments claiming a coup attempt was in the works. Venezuela's official AVN news agency quoted him on December 9 as saying, “An attempt to undermine Venezuela’s democratic life and to carry out a coup d’etat against the constitutional, democratic regime in our country has been launched under the coordination from the White House.” The president announced that in the coming days he would hold another press conference to reveal further details of the alleged assassination plans, which should be interesting considering international reports are nothing his consistent lack of evidence when he brings forth such charges. However, a bombshell New York Times report published in September suggested Maduro is perhaps right to be paranoid. The report detailed several secret meetings between the Trump administration and Venezuela military officers to talk about potential coup plans, but according to Times sources "the coup plans stalled". It had reportedly involved a "clandestine channel" ordered by the White House prior to last summer to set up contacts with "rebellious officers" bent on bringing about regime change with the help of Washington.[SEP]Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro lashed out Wednesday at what he said was a plot to assassinate him directed by the White House -- and involving the right-wing governments of Colombia and Brazil. Maduro accused US National Security Advisor John Bolton of personally directing a plan to sow chaos on Venezuelan soil, with the aim of overthrowing his socialist government. The Venezuelan leader told foreign correspondents in Caracas that his government had "good information" that Bolton had been "assigning missions for military provocations on the border." "I come again to denounce the plot which is being prepared from the White House to violate Venezuelan democracy, to assassinate me and to impose a dictatorial government in Venezuela," he said. Troops were being trained in the United States and Colombia to carry out the plot, he alleged. US President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart Ivan Duque have been sharply critical of Maduro's leftist regime, and Trump in October hinted at a potential military response to resolve Venezuela's crippling economic crisis. "Mr John Bolton has been assigned as chief of the plan, of the plot, to fill Venezuela with violence and seek a foreign military intervention, a coup d'etat, and impose what they call a transitional government council," said Maduro, who said he had corroborating foreign sources for his claims. "Brazil's military forces want peace. Nobody in Brazil wants the incoming government of Jair Bolsonaro to engage in a military adventure against the people of Venezuela," Maduro said. The Venezuelan leader had already castigated Washington in a speech on Sunday, saying it planned to carry out a coup with support from Colombia, although on that occasion he did not mention Brazil. Bolton and Bolsonaro met late last month in Rio de Janeiro -- the first high-level meeting between a senior US official and the far-right leader, who takes office on January 1. Maduro, 55, begins a second six-year term on January 10, having won elections in May that were boycotted by the opposition.[SEP]Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has accused the US of attempting to assassinate him, claiming he has uncovered a plot that leads directly to the White House. Mr Maduro repeated his frequent warning that a US invasion is imminent - this time giving some details but no evidence. He accused President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton of overseeing a plot to replace him with a dictator. He alleged that Washington is using "dirty dollars, bled from the US empire" to train 734 mercenaries with in neighboring Colombia to carry out the plot. "I have no doubts that the US administration including John Bolton has plans for Venezuela," Mr Maduro said on state TV. "I also have absolute and unending faith in Venezuela's armed forces." Venezuela is in a historic economic crisis after two decades of socialist rule. The United States has imposed financial sanctions on Mr Maduro and dozens of top officials to press for what it calls a return to democracy.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accuses United States National Security Advisor John R. Bolton of personally leading a plot to assassinate him, declining to provide evidence.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would intervene with the U.S. Justice Department in the case against a Chinese telecommunications executive if it would help secure a trade deal with Beijing. “If I think it’s good for the country, if I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made – which is a very important thing – what’s good for national security – I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary,” Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with Reuters in the Oval Office. Trump expressed optimism that he could strike a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two countries struggle to resolve a dispute that has contributed to recent U.S. stock market declines and raised questions about whether economic turmoil could beset the president in the new year. At the request of U.S. authorities, Huawei Technologies Co. executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested earlier this month in Vancouver on charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. The arrest came the same day Trump and Xi declared a 90-day truce in their trade war during summit talks in Buenos Aires. Trump, who wants China to open up its markets to more American-made products and stop what Washington calls the theft of intellectual property, said he had not yet spoken to Xi about the case against Huawei’s executive. Over the course of the 30-minute interview, Trump also addressed the controversy surrounding the Oct. 2 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying he stood firmly beside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite accusations that he was the mastermind of it. Trump refused to comment on whether the crown prince was complicit in the murder, but he provided perhaps his most explicit show of support for MbS, as the prince is known, since Khashoggi’s death more than two months ago. “He’s the leader of Saudi Arabia. They’ve been a very good ally,” Trump said. Asked if standing beside Saudi Arabia means also standing by the crown prince, Trump said, “Well, at this moment, it certainly does.” While Trump has condemned the murder of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist who was often critical of MbS, he has given the benefit of the doubt to the prince with whom he has cultivated a deep relationship. Trump again reiterated on Tuesday that MbS “vehemently denies” involvement in a killing that has sparked outrage around the world. Despite Trump’s desire to maintain close ties to Saudi Arabia, several of his fellow Republicans have joined Democrats in blaming the crown prince for Khashoggi’s death and backing legislation to respond by ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led war effort in Yemen, imposing new sanctions and stopping weapons sales. Last month, the CIA assessed that MbS ordered the killing. In the wake of his meeting with Xi in Buenos Aires, Trump said during the interview that trade talks with Beijing were under way by telephone, with more meetings likely among U.S. and Chinese officials. He said the Chinese government was once again buying large quantities of U.S. soybeans, a reversal after China in July imposed tariffs on U.S. supplies of the oilseed in retaliation for U.S. duties on Chinese goods. “I just heard today that they’re buying tremendous amounts of soybeans. They are starting, just starting now,” Trump said. Commodity traders in Chicago, however, said they have seen no evidence of a resumption of soybean purchases by China, which last year bought about 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports in deals valued at more than $12 billion. Already fraught, relations between the United States and China have been further complicated by the arrest of Meng, 46. She faces U.S. accusations she misled multinational banks about Huawei’s control of a company operating in Iran, putting the banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions and incurring severe penalties, court documents said. If extradited to the United States, Meng would face charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions. A Canadian court on Tuesday granted Meng bail while she awaits an extradition hearing Trump has intervened on behalf of a Chinese company before. Earlier this year he revisited penalties for Chinese company ZTE Corp for lying to the U.S. after the company pleaded guilty to violating U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran, saying the telecom maker is a big buyer for U.S. suppliers. Trump said Meng could potentially be released. “Well, it’s possible that a lot of different things could happen. It’s also possible it will be a part of negotiations. But we’ll speak to the Justice Department, we’ll speak to them, we’ll get a lot of people involved,” he said. Asked if he would like to see Meng extradited to the United States, Trump said he wanted to first see what the Chinese request. He added, however, that Huawei’s alleged practices are troubling. “This has been a big problem that we’ve had in so many different ways with so many companies from China and from other places,” he said. On the domestic front, Trump waved off concerns that he could face the possibility of impeachment when Democrats, intent on greater oversight of the president, take command of the U.S. House of Representatives in January. “It’s hard to impeach somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong and who’s created the greatest economy in the history of our country,” he said. “I think people would revolt if that happened.” Trump said the accusations in the probe on whether his campaign colluded with Russia in 2016 amounted to “peanut stuff.” Payments that he allegedly made to an adult film actress and a former Playboy model through then-lawyer Michael Cohen were not a violation of campaign finance law, he added. “Michael Cohen is a lawyer. I assumed he would know what he’s doing. You rely on somebody. Hey, he was a lawyer. Number one: it wasn’t a campaign contribution. If it were, it’s only civil. And even if it’s only civil, there was no violation based on what we did,” Trump said.[SEP]Michael Cohen (left), US President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, attends his sentencing hearing in New York on Wednesday with attorney Guy Petrillo in this courtroom sketch. Graphic: Reuters[SEP]NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, was sentenced to a total of three years in prison on Wednesday for his role in making illegal hush-money payments to women to help Trump’s 2016 election campaign and lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan sentenced Cohen to three years for the payments, which violated campaign finance law, and to two months for the false statements to Congress. The two terms will run concurrently. Cohen pleaded guilty to the campaign finance charge in August and to making false statements in November.[SEP]US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen delivered a blistering attack on his ex-boss as he was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for multiple crimes including paying “hush money” to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. Cohen, 52, Trump’s longtime “fixer,” said he was taking responsibility for his personal crimes and “those implicating the President of the United States of America.” Cohen’s lawyers had asked for no jail time after he admitted tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, illegal campaign contributions and making false statements to Congress. But Pauley said Cohen — as a lawyer — “should have known better” and sentenced him to three years in federal prison, ordering him to surrender to custody by March 6. “Each of these crimes standing alone warrant considerable punishment,” Pauley said, adding that Cohen was “motivated by personal greed and ambition.” Before the judge passed his sentence Cohen addressed the court. “Today is the day that I am getting my freedom back,” he said. “I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen that I deeply admired,” he said. Cohen referenced a tweet from Trump calling him “weak,” saying his “weakness was a blind loyalty to Donald Trump.” Cohen pleaded guilty to charges brought by federal prosecutors in New York and by the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether any members of Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow. Among the counts against Cohen was making “hush money” payments to silence two women threatening to go public during the 2016 presidential election campaign with claims they had affairs with Trump. Cohen told prosecutors the payments totaling $280,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal were made “in coordination with and at the direction” of Trump. Both women have claimed to have had sexual encounters with Trump before he was the Republican candidate for president and prosecutors have characterized the payments as illegal campaign contributions intended to influence the election. “Cohen deceived the voting public by hiding alleged facts that he believed would have had a substantial effect on the election,” prosecutors said. Trump this week sought to minimize the importance of the payments saying they were a “simple private transaction” and that they were “wrongly” being called campaign contributions. “Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced,” Trump tweeted. “WITCH HUNT!” In a sentencing memo, the special counsel’s office said Cohen had “gone to significant lengths” to assist their investigation. Last month Cohen acknowledged that he lied to Congress about his contacts with Russia about building a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen, wearing a dark suit with a light blue tie, arrived for the sentencing with his wife, son and daughter, who was walking with a crutch. For 12 years, Cohen was vice president of The Trump Organization, the umbrella company for Trump’s real estate businesses, and one of the principal confidants of the New York billionaire. Investigators raided Cohen’s offices and New York home in April and he admitted in August to hiding about $4 million in revenue from his taxi business from the tax authorities. For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.[SEP]Michael Cohen, a lawyer who made his career protecting President Donald Trump, was sentenced to 36 months in prison Wednesday for dodging taxes, lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws.A federal judge in New York sentenced Cohen for making illegal hush-money payments to two women to protect Trump during the campaign - a scandal that could damage Trump's presidency. Other crimes for which Cohen will be sentenced include tax evasion and lying to Congress about the president's past business dealings in Russia.Some of Cohen's crimes, his attorneys said, were motivated by overenthusiasm for Trump, rather than any nefarious intent.He has pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about his work on a proposal to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow, hiding the fact that he continued to speak with Russians about the proposal well into the presidential campaign.Cohen also pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws by helping orchestrate payments to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said they had sexual encounters with Trump while he was married.For weeks, Cohen's legal strategy appeared to revolve around persuading the court that he is a reformed man who abandoned longtime friendships and gave up his livelihood when he decided to cut ties with the president and speak with federal investigators. Cohen's lawyers have said in court filings that their client could have stayed on the president's side and angled himself for a presidential pardon.New York prosecutors have urged a judge to sentence Cohen to a substantial prison term, saying he'd failed to fully cooperate and overstated his helpfulness.They've asked for only a slight reduction to his sentence based on his work with the office of special counsel Robert Mueller and prosecutors looking into the campaign finance violations in New York.A probation-only sentence, they said, is unbefitting of "a man who knowingly sought to undermine core institutions of our democracy.""While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks, or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows. He did so by orchestrating secret and illegal payments to silence two women who otherwise would have made public their alleged extramarital affairs" with Trump, prosecutors wrote.Prosecutors said Cohen orchestrated payments to McDougal and Daniels at Trump's direction.Trump, who insists the affairs never happened, said Monday in a tweet that the payments to the women were "a simple private transaction," not a campaign contribution. And if it was campaign contribution, the president said, Cohen is the one who should be held responsible."Lawyer's liability if he made a mistake, not me," Trump wrote, adding, "Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!"A sentence of hard time would leave Cohen with little to show for his decision to plead guilty, though experts said Wednesday's hearing might not be the last word on his punishment.Cohen could have his sentence revisited if he strikes a deal with prosecutors in which he provides additional cooperation within a year of his sentence, said Michael J. Stern, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit and Los Angeles."Few things spark a defendant's renewed interest in cooperating faster than trading in a pair of custom Italian trousers for an off-the-rack orange jump suit," he said.Annemarie McAvoy, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said prosecutors appear to be angry at Cohen for limiting his cooperation."It could be a tactic to try to break him like they've tried to do with (Paul) Manafort," McAvoy said, referring to Trump's former campaign chairman. "It kind of shows they're putting the screws to him. If they're not mad at him, he didn't give them what they wanted."Cohen's transition from Trump's fixer-in-chief to felon has been head-spinning.He once told an interviewer he would "take a bullet" for Trump. But facing prosecution for evading $1.4 million in taxes, Cohen pleaded guilty in August, pledged to cooperate with Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election and changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat.Judge Pauley, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Bill Clinton, may allow Cohen to begin serving any prison term he receives at a later date. But legal experts said Cohen could also be taken into custody immediately."If I were advising him, I'd encourage him to bring his toothbrush to court," said Stern.Cohen's lawyers have asked for no prison time, saying he has suffered enough already."The greatest punishment Michael has endured in the criminal process has been the shame and anxiety he feels daily from having subjected his family to the fallout from his case," his attorneys wrote in a court filing last month. "The media glare and intrusions on all of them, including his children, the regular hate correspondence and written and oral threats, the fact that he will lose his law license, the termination of business relationships by banks and insurers and the loss of friendships, are but some of this fallout."[SEP]NEW YORK -- The latest on the sentencing of Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for President Donald Trump (all times local): A judge says Michael Cohen's co-operation with prosecutors "does not wipe the slate clean" of his crimes. U.S. District Judge William Pauley III made the comments Wednesday as he handed down a three-year prison sentence to the former lawyer for President Donald Trump. Pauley said that Cohen "appears to have lost his moral compass" and that the lawyer "should have known better" than to dodge taxes, lie to Congress and violate campaign finance laws. The 52-year-old Cohen pleaded guilty to those offences. He said Wednesday he takes "full responsibility" for the crimes he admitted committing. But he also said his "blind loyalty" to Trump made him feel a duty to "cover up" the president's "dirty deeds." Trump had called for a tough sentence for Cohen, whom he labeled a liar. President Donald Trump's former lawyer has been sentenced to three years in prison. U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III said Wednesday that Michael Cohen deserved a harsh punishment for crimes including tax evasion, lying to Congress and arranging illicit payments to silence women who posed a risk to Trump's presidential campaign. The judge rejected arguments by Cohen's lawyers that he should be spared jail time because he co-operated in multiple federal investigations involving Trump. Cohen said his "blind loyalty" to Trump made him feel a duty to "cover up" the president's "dirty deeds." Cohen's crimes included evading $1.4 million in taxes and misleading Congress about his talks with Russians about a Trump skyscraper project in Moscow. Trump had called for a tough sentence for Cohen, whom he labeled a liar. President Donald Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen says his "blind loyalty" to Trump led Cohen to "cover up his dirty deeds." Cohen said at his sentencing Wednesday that he takes "full responsibility" for the crimes he admitted committing. But he went on to say his allegiance to Trump led him "to take a path of darkness instead of light." Cohen has pleaded guilty to dodging taxes, lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws. Cohen, who used to be the president's self-described fixer, could get about four to five years in prison. His lawyer is arguing for leniency, noting Cohen's co-operation with prosecutors investigating whether Russians attempted to influence Trump's campaign. But a prosecutor on the case against Cohen says Cohen's crimes showed a pattern of deceit, brazenness and greed. A prosecutor with special counsel Robert Mueller's office says President Donald Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen "has provided consistent and credible information about core Russia-related issues under investigation." Jeannie Rhee didn't elaborate on that information as she spoke Wednesday at Cohen's sentencing. But she did say that Cohen "has sought to tell us the truth, and that is of the utmost value to us." The 52-year-old Cohen served as Trump's personal lawyer and self-described fixer. Cohen has pleaded guilty to dodging taxes, lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws. Cohen could get about four to five years in prison, but his lawyer is arguing for leniency. His attorney, Guy Petrillo, says Cohen "came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in our country" when he co-operated with prosecutors. A defence lawyer says Michael Cohen "came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in our country" when he co-operated with prosecutors investigating whether Russians attempted to influence President Donald Trump's campaign. Cohen's lawyer, Guy Petrillo, told a judge Wednesday that Cohen "stood up to power and influence." Petrillo spoke as Cohen faced sentencing after pleading guilty to dodging taxes, lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws. Cohen could get four to five years in prison, but his lawyers are arguing for leniency. The outspoken lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels has turned up at the federal courthouse in Manhattan where Michael Cohen is scheduled to be sentenced for crimes including a hush-money payment to the performer. Michael Avenatti represented Daniels in a legal dispute with Cohen in which she sought to be released from the non-disclosure agreement. Avenatti has bashed Cohen for months on cable television, saying President Donald Trump's former lawyer deserves to go to prison. Cohen's sentencing will begin Wednesday at 11 a.m. Cohen pleaded guilty to evading $1.4 million in taxes, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. Prosecutors say the $130,000 payment Cohen made to Daniels exceeded legal limits. His lawyers say some of his crimes were motivated by overenthusiasm for Trump. New York prosecutors have urged a judge to give Cohen substantial prison time. President Donald Trump's former lawyer has arrived at the courthouse in Manhattan where he is scheduled to be sentenced for evading taxes, lying to Congress, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. Michael Cohen was accompanied Wednesday by his wife and two college-aged children. He didn't stop to speak with a crowd of reporters. Cohen is facing the possibility of four years in prison. His lawyers have asked for leniency. They say some of his crimes were motivated by overenthusiasm for Trump. New York prosecutors have urged a judge to give Cohen substantial prison time. He also admitted misleading Congress about a Trump real estate project in Moscow and orchestrating prohibited payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump. A lawyer who made his career protecting President Donald Trump is set to learn whether co-operating with federal investigators will lessen his punishment for dodging taxes, lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws. Michael Cohen's sentencing hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. at a courthouse in Manhattan. He could get around four years in prison. His lawyers have asked for leniency. They say some of his crimes were motivated by overenthusiasm for Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about a Trump real estate project in Moscow and orchestrating prohibited payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump. New York prosecutors have urged a judge to give Cohen a substantial prison term. This is a breaking news update. See earlier story below NEW YORK -- Michael Cohen, a lawyer who made his career protecting U.S. President Donald Trump, is set to learn Wednesday whether his decision to co-operate with federal investigators will lessen his punishment for crimes including making illegal hush-money payments to two women during the 2016 campaign -- a scandal that could damage Trump's presidency. Cohen said nothing to reporters as he arrived at court for his sentencing, where U.S. District Judge William Pauley III is set to decide whether the attorney will get leniency or years in prison for campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress about the president's past business dealings in Russia. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Cohen, 52, stands to get about four years in prison, but his lawyers have argued for leniency. Some of Cohen's crimes, they said, were motivated by overenthusiasm for Trump, rather than any nefarious intent. He has pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about his work on a proposal to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow, hiding the fact that he continued to speak with Russians about the proposal well into the presidential campaign. Cohen also pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws by helping orchestrate payments to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said they had sexual encounters with Trump while he was married. Daniels' outspoken lawyer, Michael Avenatti, also turned up for Cohen's sentencing. Avenatti represented Daniels in a legal dispute with Cohen, in which she sought to be released from an agreement prohibiting her from talking about the alleged affair. Avenatti has bashed Cohen for months on cable television, saying Trump's ex-lawyer deserves to go to prison. Meanwhile, Cohen looked relaxed as he sat in court awaiting the proceeding, occasionally looking at papers on the table in front of him. For weeks, Cohen's legal strategy appeared to revolve around persuading the court that he is a reformed man who abandoned longtime friendships and gave up his livelihood when he decided to cut ties with the president and speak with federal investigators. Cohen's lawyers have said in court filings that their client could have stayed on the president's side and angled himself for a presidential pardon. New York prosecutors have urged a judge to sentence Cohen to a substantial prison term, saying he'd failed to fully co-operate and overstated his helpfulness. They've asked for only a slight reduction to his sentence based on his work with the office of special counsel Robert Mueller and prosecutors looking into the campaign finance violations in New York. A probation-only sentence, they said, is unbefitting of "a man who knowingly sought to undermine core institutions of our democracy." "While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks, or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows. He did so by orchestrating secret and illegal payments to silence two women who otherwise would have made public their alleged extramarital affairs" with Trump, prosecutors wrote. Prosecutors said Cohen orchestrated payments to McDougal and Daniels at Trump's direction. Trump, who insists the affairs never happened, said Monday in a tweet that the payments to the women were "a simple private transaction," not a campaign contribution. And if it was campaign contribution, the president said, Cohen is the one who should be held responsible. "Lawyer's liability if he made a mistake, not me," Trump wrote, adding, "Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!" A sentence of hard time would leave Cohen with little to show for his decision to plead guilty, though experts said Wednesday's hearing might not be the last word on his punishment. Cohen could have his sentence revisited if he strikes a deal with prosecutors in which he provides additional co-operation within a year of his sentence, said Michael J. Stern, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit and Los Angeles. "Few things spark a defendant's renewed interest in co-operating faster than trading in a pair of custom Italian trousers for an off-the-rack orange jump suit," he said. Annemarie McAvoy, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said prosecutors appear to be angry at Cohen for limiting his co-operation. "It could be a tactic to try to break him like they've tried to do with (Paul) Manafort," McAvoy said, referring to Trump's former campaign chairman. "It kind of shows they're putting the screws to him. If they're not mad at him, he didn't give them what they wanted." Cohen's transition from Trump's fixer-in-chief to felon has been head-spinning. He once told an interviewer he would "take a bullet" for Trump. But facing prosecution for evading $1.4 million in taxes, Cohen pleaded guilty in August, pledged to co-operate with Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election and changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat. Judge Pauley, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Bill Clinton, may allow Cohen to begin serving any prison term he receives at a later date. But legal experts said Cohen could also be taken into custody immediately. "If I were advising him, I'd encourage him to bring his toothbrush to court," said Stern. Cohen's lawyers have asked for no prison time, saying he has suffered enough already. "The greatest punishment Michael has endured in the criminal process has been the shame and anxiety he feels daily from having subjected his family to the fallout from his case," his attorneys wrote in a court filing last month. "The media glare and intrusions on all of them, including his children, the regular hate correspondence and written and oral threats, the fact that he will lose his law license, the termination of business relationships by banks and insurers and the loss of friendships, are but some of this fallout."[SEP]Michael Cohen, who as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer once vowed he would “take a bullet” for his boss, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for an array of crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to two women that he says was done at the direction of Trump. The sentence was in line with what federal prosecutors asked for. Sentencing guidelines called for around four to five years behind bars, and prosecutors asked in court papers that Cohen be given only a slight break. He is ordered to surrender March 6. Cohen, standing alone at the defense table, shook his head slightly and closed his eyes briefly as the sentence was announced by the judge. U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III said Cohen deserved modest credit for his decision over the summer to admit guilt and cooperate in a federal investigation of efforts by Russians to influence the presidential election, but his assistance “does not wipe the slate clean.” “Somewhere along the way Mr. Cohen appears to have lost his moral compass,” the judge said. “As a lawyer, Mr. Cohen should have known better.” Cohen told the judge just before he was sentenced that loyalty to Trump led him astray. “It was my blind loyalty to this man that led me to take a path of darkness instead of light,” he said. “I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.” Cohen’s lawyers had argued for leniency, saying he decided to cooperate with investigators rather than hold out for a possible pardon. “He came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in our country,” Cohen’s lawyer, Guy Petrillo, told the judge during the hearing. Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty in August to evading $1.4 million in taxes related to his personal businesses. In the part of the case with greater political repercussions, he also admitted breaking campaign finance laws in arranging payments in the waning days of the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom said they had sexual encounters with Trump. Cohen became the first — and so far, only — member of Trump’s circle during two years of investigations to go into open court and implicate the president in a crime, though whether a president can be prosecuted is a matter of legal dispute. Last month, Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s business dealings in Russia. He admitted hiding the fact that he was negotiating a proposal to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow well into the presidential campaign. He said he lied out of devotion to Trump, who had insisted during the campaign that he had no business ties whatsoever to Russia. The sentence was the culmination of a spectacular rise and fast fall of a lawyer who attached himself to the fortunes of his biggest client, helped him get elected president, then turned on him, cooperating with two interconnected investigations: one run by federal prosecutors in New York, the other by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into Russian efforts to influence the race for the White House. At the sentencing hearing, a prosecutor in Mueller’s office, Jeannie Rhee, said Cohen has “sought to tell us the truth and that is of the utmost value to us.” “He has provided consistent and credible information about core Russia-related issues under investigation,” she said without elaborating. It remains to be seen how much damage Cohen’s cooperation will do to Trump. Legal experts said Cohen could get his sentence reduced if he strikes a deal with prosecutors to tell them more. The defense team said Cohen’s tax crimes were unsophisticated, and his campaign violations and lies to lawmakers were motivated by overenthusiasm for Trump, rather than any nefarious intent. But the New York-based prosecutors who handled the case had urged the judge to sentence Cohen to a substantial prison term and said he failed to fully cooperate with investigators. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos said Cohen’s crimes showed a “pattern of deceit, brazenness and greed.” He called for a sentence that sends a message that “even powerful, privileged individuals cannot violate these laws with impunity.” In their court filing, the prosecutors left no doubt that they believe Cohen arranged the hush-money payments at Trump’s direction, saying the maneuver was part of an effort to “influence the election from the shadows.” Trump, who insists the affairs never happened, argued on Twitter that the payments to the women were “a simple private transaction,” not a campaign contribution. And if it was a prohibited contribution, Trump said, Cohen is the one who should be held responsible. “Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me,” Trump wrote, adding, “Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!” Trump had repeatedly called for a tough sentence for Cohen, whom he labeled a liar. Cohen has had at least seven meetings with Mueller’s team, which said in court papers that Cohen provided “relevant and useful” information about attempts by Russian figures to influence Trump’s campaign. In the hush-money case, prosecutors said, Cohen arranged for the parent company of the National Enquirer to pay $150,000 to McDougal. He also paid $130,000 to Daniels and was reimbursed by Trump’s business empire. Prosecutors said the McDougal payment violated federal law against corporate campaign contributions, while the money that went to Daniels exceeded the $2,700 limit on campaign donations.[SEP]NEW YORK — Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s one-time fixer, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money during the presidential campaign to conceal his boss’ alleged sexual affairs, telling a judge that “blind loyalty” led him to cover up Trump’s “dirty deeds.” Separately, the legal and political peril surrounding Trump appeared to deepen when prosecutors announced that another piece of the investigation had fallen into place: The parent company of the National Enquirer acknowledged dispensing some of the hush money in concert with the Trump campaign to fend off a scandal that could have damaged his White House bid. Cohen, 52, shook his head slightly and closed his eyes as a judge pronounced his sentence for evading taxes, lying about Trump’s business dealings and violating campaign-finance laws in buying the silence of two women who claimed they had sex with the candidate. Cohen and federal prosecutors have said the payments were made at Trump’s direction to influence the election. “It was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light,” said Cohen, a lawyer who once boasted he would “take a bullet” for Trump. “Time and time again, I thought it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than listen to my voice.” The twin developments represented a double dose of bad news for the president, who ignored reporters’ questions about Cohen during an appearance at the White House later in the day. Implicated: Cohen is the first and, so far, only member of Trump’s circle during two years of investigations to go into open court and implicate the president in a crime, though whether a president can be prosecuted under the Constitution is an open question. In a possible sign of further trouble for the president, Cohen said he will continue cooperating with prosecutors, and one of his legal advisers said Cohen is also prepared to tell “all he knows” to Congress if asked. At the sentencing, defense attorney Guy Petrillo pleaded for leniency in light of Cohen’s cooperation with investigators, saying, “He came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in our country.” U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III said Cohen deserved modest credit for his decision over the summer to admit guilt and cooperate in the federal investigation of efforts by Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election, but his assistance “does not wipe the slate clean.” “Somewhere along the way Mr. Cohen appears to have lost his moral compass,” the judge said. The judge also ordered Cohen to pay $1.39 million in restitution to the IRS, forfeit $500,000 and pay $100,000 in fines. He was ordered to report to prison March 6 and left court without comment. The prison sentence was in line with what prosecutors asked for. Sentencing guidelines called for around four to five years, and the government asked in court papers that Cohen be given only a slight break. Emotional: Cohen got choked up near the end of his remarks and paused briefly to compose himself. His daughter, seated behind him, sobbed throughout. As he returned to his seat, he ran his hand across her cheek. The sentence was the culmination of a spectacular rise and fast fall of a lawyer who attached himself to the fortunes of his biggest client, helped him get elected president, then turned on him, cooperating with two ‘interconnected investigations: one run by federal prosecutors in New York, the other by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation. Cohen pleaded guilty in August to evading $1.4 million in taxes related to his personal businesses. In the part of the case with political repercussions, he also admitted violating the law in arranging payments in the closing days of the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. Last month, he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress by concealing that he was negotiating a proposal to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow deep into the presidential campaign season. He said he lied out of devotion to Trump, who had insisted during the campaign that he had no business ties whatsoever to Russia. Beyond the guilty pleas, it is unclear exactly what Cohen has told prosecutors or what he has left to say, though a prosecutor in Mueller’s office, Jeannie Rhee, said in court Wednesday that Cohen has “provided consistent and credible information about core Russia-related issues under investigation.” She did not elaborate. Legal experts said Cohen could get his sentence reduced if he strikes a deal with prosecutors to tell them more. In the hush-money case, prosecutors said, Cohen arranged for American Media Inc., the parent of the pro-Trump National Enquirer, to pay $150,000 to McDougal to buy and bury her story. He also said he paid $130,000 to Daniels and was reimbursed by Trump’s business empire. Prosecutors said those secret payments were not reported as campaign contributions and violated the ban on corporate contributions and the $2,700 limit on donations by an individual. Shortly after Cohen’s sentencing, federal authorities announced a deal not to prosecute AMI, which has been cooperating in the investigation. As part of the deal, AMI admitted making the payment to McDougal “in concert” with the Trump campaign to protect him from a story that could have hurt his candidacy. Trump had denied any sexual relationship with the women and argued on Twitter earlier this week that the payments to the women were “a simple private transaction,” not a campaign contribution. And if it was a prohibited contribution, Trump said, Cohen is the one who should be held responsible. “Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me,” Trump wrote, adding, “Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!” Trump’s legal culpability could hinge on whether the payments to the women were, in fact, made at his direction, and whether he intended them to influence the election. In a case with some parallels, prosecutors in 2011 charged former Sen. John Edwards with funneling nearly $1 million in under-the-table campaign contributions to hide his pregnant lover during his 2008 run for president. Edwards had argued that the payments were a personal matter — intended to keep the matter secret from his wife — and had nothing to do with the election. A jury acquitted the Democrat on one charge and deadlocked on other counts. He wasn’t retried. Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who played a major role in exposing the hush-money discussions, said outside the courthouse: “We will not stop until the truth is known relating to the conduct of Donald Trump.” But he added: “Let me be clear, Michael Cohen is neither a hero nor a patriot” and “deserves every day of the 36-month sentence he will serve.” Associated Press writer Jim Mustian contributed to this report. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump offered up a handful of legal arguments in a series of tweets on Thursday distancing himself from former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who was sentenced to prison on Wednesday for arranging 2016 hush-money payments to women who say they had affairs with the married president. Cohen admitted his actions were aimed at influencing the election in violation of campaign finance laws and said they were directed by Trump. But the president said in his tweets he never told Cohen to break the law and that the payments were unrelated to the campaign. The early-morning tweets came as the legal pressure on Trump intensified. Also on Wednesday, federal prosecutors in New York announced they had reached a cooperation deal with National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc, which admitted making a hush payment to a former Playboy model to prevent her from going public with Trump affair allegations before the 2016 election. Trump has offered a shifting defence on the payments, first saying in April he did not know about them. Later, he seemed to acknowledge the payments were made, but said they were unrelated to campaign finances, as he said again in the latest tweets. Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet for Trump,” was sentenced in New York to three years in prison for orchestrating the payments in violation of campaign finance laws before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He called the payments part of the “dirty deeds” he did at Trump’s behest. Federal prosecutors said Trump ordered the payouts to protect his campaign from the allegations of sexual affairs. Trump wrote on Twitter: “I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. It is called ‘advice of counsel.’ ... This was not campaign finance.” The president continued: “Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me.” The main defence Trump and his lawyers have put forth in recent weeks is that the payments were not subject to campaign finance laws because they were aimed at protecting his personal reputation and would have been made even if he had not been a candidate for president. His claim on Twitter to have relied on advice of counsel was new though, but legal experts expressed scepticism it would work. Jessica Levinson, a professor of election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, explained that the defence, often invoked by corporations in complex transactions, depends on a party relying on lawyers in good faith. But, if Trump had wanted legal advice on this issue, he would have sought out specialised campaign finance lawyers rather than Cohen, Levinson said. Trump’s campaign did have such specialised counsel, a team of election lawyers from Jones Day led by Don McGahn, who would go on to serve as White House counsel. Justice Department policy is not to indict a sitting president, but some legal experts have said Trump could be charged after leaving office. Democrats and other critics also have raised the issue of impeachment by Congress. Trump has denied the affairs. He has also denied the main focus of the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller: whether his campaign colluded with Moscow in its meddling in the 2016 campaign. The Kremlin has denied that any meddling occurred. Trump has routinely blasted the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt.” Mueller referred the Cohen prosecution to federal prosecutors in New York earlier this year. Prosecutors on Wednesday also said the publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid had struck a deal to avoid charges over its role in one of the payments made “in concert” with Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen, who also pleaded to tax evasion and lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Organization building in Moscow, in court on Wednesday said his “blind loyalty” led him to cover up for Trump. Cohen is the latest Trump associate to be swept up in Mueller’s investigation following Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, among others. In an interview with Reuters this week, Trump slammed Cohen for cooperating with prosecutors and said he was unconcerned about possible impeachment. He also called any of his potential business dealings with Russia “peanut stuff.”[SEP]US President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen delivered a blistering attack on his former boss as he was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for multiple crimes. "It was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds," Cohen said as he pleaded for leniency before US District Judge William H. Pauley III. Cohen, 52, said he was taking responsibility for his crimes "including those implicating the President of the United States of America." Cohen's lawyers had asked for no jail time after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, illegal campaign contributions, and making false statements to Congress. But Judge Pauley sentenced Cohen to three years in jail. Among the charges against Cohen was making "hush money" payments to two women who had threatened to go public during the 2016 presidential election campaign with claims they had affairs with Trump. Trump this week sought to minimize the importance of the payments saying they were a "simple private transaction" and that they were "wrongly" being called campaign contributions.

Michael Cohen, the former lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, is sentenced to three years in prison for making illegal hush money payments to two women with whom Trump allegedly had affairs, and a concurrent sentence of two months for making false statements to Congress about a possible Trump Tower deal in Russia.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Police are investigating accusations by over 200 women that a self-proclaimed Brazilian faith healer, who became a celebrity after appearing on a show hosted by Oprah Winfrey, sexually abused them while they were seeking spiritual guidance and treatment. A follower of Brazilian spiritual healer Joao Teixeira de Faria, known as "John of God", is seen at "healing center" in his spiritual center, in Abadiania, Brazil December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado Prosecutors have requested the arrest of João Teixeira de Faria, known as “John of God”, from a court in Abadiania, a small town in central Brazil where he has his spiritual center, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. Since the first accusation was aired on television on Friday, 258 women - some of them foreigners - have come forward accusing Faria of abuses, according to the prosecutors’ office for the state of Goias where Abadiania is located. Faria, who became internationally famous when Winfrey broadcast a report on his psychic healing methods in 2013, maintained on Wednesday that he is innocent, in his first comments since the scandal began. He denied the accusations and said he would comply with the law. The first accusation was made on a TV Globo program on Friday by Dutch choreographer Zahira Maus who said Faria sexually assaulted her. Globo TV spent three months investigating the story and interviewed a dozen other women who said they had been abused by the healer. Faria’s fame has been boosted by supposedly miraculous surgeries he claims to have performed with his hands and without anesthesia. Winfrey said in a statement that she visited Faria’s center in 2012 to explore his controversial healing methods for an episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” that aired the following year, she said. “I empathize with the women now coming forward and hope justice is served,” she said. The scandal has shocked the town of Abadiania, whose economy has become dependent on the tourism brought by Faria’s healing center, which opened in 1976. Thousands of Brazilians and foreigners flocked there but the industry has now come to a halt. Some followers of Faria have rejected the accusations and harassed reporters who descended on the town on Wednesday for the first public appearance of the healer since the scandal broke, receiving him with loud cheers and applause. “Brothers and my dear sisters, I thank God for being here. I want to comply with Brazilian law. I am in the hands of the law,” he told them in a brief appearance. “John of God is still alive,” he said.[SEP]More than 200 women have accused Brazil’s most famous medium and spiritual healer of sexual abuse in a case that is becoming the country’s first major post-#MeToo scandal. João Teixeira de Faria, 76, known as João de Deus, or John of God, has attended Brazilian presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer, pop stars and celebrities. But in television interviews broadcast on Friday, five women alleged sexual abuse – and then the floodgates opened, and prosecutors have now received more than 200 complaints. Patrícia Otoni, one of five prosecutors on a taskforce established on Monday in the state of Goiás, where the alleged abuses took place, said some of the allegations “are over 10 years old” but that others were “more current”. Another prosecutor, Luciano Miranda, told Brazilian TV that potential crimes included rape and sexual abuse. De Faria denies the charges and a spokesman said he was being tried by the media in an atmosphere of hysteria. Since 1976, De Faria has performed healing ceremonies and “spiritual surgeries” at the Dom Inácio de Loyola house in Abidiânia, a town of 15,000 people 100km from the capital, Brasília. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come each year, including some of the most famous actors – mediums, healers and spiritualists are revered in Brazil, a country teeming with religions. In 2012, De Faria was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. While the attendance is free, he often prescribes “medicines” sold in the same centre, which accepts donations. In allegations so far reported in Brazilian media, women claimed De Faria took them into a private room then abused them. Dutch choreographer Zahira Lieneke Mous, 34, first revealed the abuse she alleged had happened four years ago on Facebook. Last Friday she described it to TV Globo’s Pedro Bial on his chatshow, which also broadcast interviews with three other women whose identities were hidden. Mous claimed she had gone to De Faria looking to cure a sexual trauma and was taken into a private room and made to masturbate him. Afterwards, she said she was given a gemstone. She said she returned to the house and was given special privileges. On another occasion, she alleged De Faria raped her. She said she hesitated in coming forward out of fear. “We don’t have to feel ashamed. He needs to feel ashamed,” she said. On the same show, American “spiritual guide” Amy Biank, who took groups of foreign visitors to see Abidiânia in the early 2000s, claimed she had entered a room where a kneeling woman was being forced to perform oral sex on De Faria. After she reported what she had seen to employees, she received death threats, she said. Mário Rosa, a spokesman for De Faria, said he denied the accusations and there should have been an investigation before allegations were broadcast on primetime television. “We declare his innocence. We respect the right of the women to make these testimonies, but we do not recognise these testimonies as true,” he said. André Pacheco, 42, a Rio businessman on his seventh visit to Abidiânia since De Faria cured a depression, said that buses of people were still arriving at the centre. “I have not met anyone in the city who has pointed the finger and said, he is guilty,” he said. “Mr João is a very powerful medium.” On Wednesday De Faria appeared at the Dom Inácio de Loyola house, where a queue of expectant visitors awaited him along with a melee of reporters. He said he was innocent, local media reported, and stayed just 10 minutes.

Prosecutors in Goiás, Brazil request the preventive detention of medium João de Deus over more than 200 allegations of sexual abuse. João de Deus became internationally famous in 2013, when his controversial psychic healing methods were broadcast on Oprah Winfrey's show Oprah's Next Chapter.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May: 'We now need to get on with the job of delivering Brexit' Prime Minister Theresa May has won a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party by 200 to 117. After securing 63% of the total vote, she is now immune from a leadership challenge for a year. Speaking in Downing Street, she vowed to deliver the Brexit "people voted for" but said she had listened to the concerns of MPs who voted against her. Her supporters urged the party to move on but critics said losing the support of a third of MPs was "devastating". The prime minister won the confidence vote with a majority of 83, with 63% of Conservative MPs backing her and 37% voting against her. The secret ballot was triggered by 48 of her MPs angry at her Brexit policy, which they say betrays the 2016 referendum result. The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said the level of opposition was "not at all comfortable" for the prime minister and a "real blow" to her authority. Speaking shortly after the result was announced, Mrs May said she would be fighting for changes to her Brexit deal at an EU summit on Thursday. "I am pleased to have received the backing of my colleagues in tonight's ballot," she said. "Whilst I am grateful for that support, a significant number of colleagues did cast a vote against me and I have listened to what they said." She spoke of a "renewed mission - delivering the Brexit people voted for, bringing the country back together and building a country that really works for everyone". How have Conservative MPs reacted? Jacob Rees-Mogg, who led calls for the confidence vote, said losing the support of a third of her MPs was a "terrible result for the prime minister" and called on her to resign. Brexit-backing Tory MP Mark Francois told the BBC it was "devastating" that more than half of backbenchers not serving in the government had abandoned the prime minister. "In the cold light of day when people reflect on that number - 117 - it's a massive number, far more than anyone was predicting. I think that will be very sobering for the prime minister. I think she needs to think very carefully about what she does now." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, announces May survive confidence vote Transport Secretary Chris Grayling conceded there were "lessons" for the prime minister and the party in the result but former cabinet minister Damian Green said it was a "decisive" victory for the prime minister, which should allow her to "move on and get on with the job in hand". Conservative grandee Nicholas Soames urged Brexiteers to "throw their weight" behind the PM as she sought to address the "grave concerns" many MPs had about aspects of the EU deal. The result was greeted by cheers and applause from Tory MPs as it was announced by backbench Tory chairman Sir Graham Brady. The prime minister still faces a battle to get the Brexit deal she agreed with the EU through the UK Parliament, with all opposition parties and, clearly, dozens of her own MPs against it. What are the opposition saying? Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the vote had "changed nothing". "Theresa May has lost her majority in Parliament, her government is in chaos and she's unable to deliver a Brexit deal that works for the country." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May: How the PM fought through Brexit battles Labour has said it will table a no-confidence motion that all MPs - not just Conservatives - will be able to vote in when they felt they had a chance of winning it, and forcing a general election. The SNP's Stephen Gethins urged Labour to "step up to the plate" and call a vote of no confidence in Mrs May, accusing the government of "playing games with people's lives". DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said his party, which helps keep Mrs May in power, was still concerned about the Irish backstop plan, which most MPs were against. "I don't think this vote really changes anything very much in terms of the arithmetic," he told BBC News. But he said the DUP would not support a no-confidence motion in Parliament at this stage. PM pledges not to fight next election Mrs May earlier vowed to fight on to deliver her Brexit deal, which she argues is the only option for leaving the EU in an orderly way on 29 March. But in a last-minute pitch to her MPs before the vote she promised to stand down as leader before the next scheduled election in 2022. While "in her heart" she wanted to fight another election as leader, she realised her party did not want her to. However, she resisted calls to name a firm date for her departure. If she had lost the confidence vote Mrs May would have been forced to stand down as Conservative Party leader, and then as prime minister. But she is now expected to travel to a summit in Brussels on Thursday to continue trying to persuade EU leaders to change the deal - they have previously said it cannot be renegotiated. The outcome of the vote was welcomed by Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who said avoiding a no-deal exit from the EU was their "shared goal".[SEP]British Prime Minister Theresa May Faces No Confidence Vote From Her Party Theresa May is fighting to keep her job as members of her party seek to oust her in a no-confidence vote. This comes in the wake of her failed efforts to win support for Brexit plan.[SEP]Theresa May wins leadership challenge after vowing to fight efforts to oust her. Theresa May wins leadership challenge after vowing to fight efforts to oust her. BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May has won a confidence vote against her after vowing to fight efforts to oust her from the job. The party room erupted in cheers when Conservative party chairman Graham Brady declared the party "does have confidence in Theresa May as leader". Ms May won the vote 200-117. Earlier Ms May warned outside 10 Downing St that a change of Prime Minister would put the UK's future at risk and could halt Brexit. She declared she would stay on to "finish the job," but later told Tory MPs that she would not be leading the Conservative party into the next general election. Three black metal boxes were taken to a room for counting after Conservative politicians spent two hours voting earlier today. The more than 300 paper ballots they cast were counted by hand. Ms May needed a majority vote to hold onto her position as prime minister and Conservative Party leader. Earlier, at least 175 Conservative Party politicians indicated support for Ms May as they headed into the vote, based on public statements in the media and social media. Ms May needed to secure a simple majority - 158 of 315 politicians - to remain leader. In a dramatic development Ms May said she would stand down before the next election, after she has steered Brexit through. "In my heart I would like to lead the party into the next election, but I accept that won't happen," she said. Some ministers were reportedly in tears after the PM's announcement. Ms May refused to put an exact date on when she will stand down despite calls for her to go as soon as Britain formally leaves the EU. In a defiant press conference outside 10 Downing Street, Ms May said changing Conservative leaders would "put our country's future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it" and could lead to Brexit being delayed or prevented. "Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more division," the PM said, warning that leadership challenge threatens to hand power to Labour. The PM said any new leader would have to extend the March 29 deadline for Britain's exit from the European Union. "A new leader wouldn't be in place by the January 21 legal deadline, so a leadership election risks handing control of the Brexit negotiations to opposition MPs in parliament," Ms May said. "A new leader wouldn't have time to renegotiate a withdrawal agreement and get the legislation through parliament by March 29, so one of their first acts would have to be extending or rescinding Article 50, delaying or even stopping Brexit when people want us to get on with it."[SEP]Theresa May has survived the vote of no confidence against her. The result, announced in the last couple of minutes, was 200 in her favour, to 117 against.[SEP]LONDON– British Prime Minister Theresa May has won a confidence vote by Conservative Party lawmakers that could have brought her leadership to an abrupt end. In secret ballot on Wednesday, 200 lawmakers backed May and 117 voted against her. The result means May can keep her positions as party leader and prime minister while continuing an uphill battle to win parliamentary approval for her Brexit plan. Her victory means fellow Conservatives cannot challenge her for another year. May could still face a challenge in Parliament if the opposition Labour Party seeks a confidence vote in the House of Commons over the EU divorce plan. She plans to lobby European Union leaders for changes to the proposed divorce deal, which is unpopular with many lawmakers.[SEP]Conservative Party MPs in Britain began two hours of voting Wednesday on a no-confidence motion in Prime Minister Theresa May, initiated by anti-EU lawmakers opposed to her Brexit plan. The British leader, who earlier vowed to fight "with everything I've got", needs a majority of her MPs -- 159 -- to back her in the vote to remain in Downing Street. The result is expected around 9:00 pm (2100 GMT).[SEP](LONDON) — Conservative lawmakers in Britain will hold a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday that will see her removed as party and government leader if she loses. Graham Brady, who heads a committee overseeing Conservative leadership contests, said he had received letters from at least 48 lawmakers asking for a vote. As a result, he said, “the threshold of 15 percent of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded.” Brady said the vote would be held in Parliament Wednesday evening, with the results announced soon after. The announcement throws Britain’s already rocky path out of the European Union, which it is due to leave in March, into further chaos. Many Tory lawmakers have been growing angry with May over her handling of Brexit, and the challenge comes days after she postponed a vote to approve a divorce deal with the EU to avoid all-but-certain defeat. If she loses the confidence vote, May must step down and there will be a contest to choose a new leader. She will remain leader, and prime minister, until the successor is picked. If she wins, she can’t be challenged again for a year. Supporters of Brexit say May’s deal fails to deliver on the clean break with the bloc that they want. Pro-Brexit legislators Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker said in a joint statement that “in the national interest, she must go.” But Cabinet colleagues rallied to May’s support. Home Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted that a leadership contest, with Brexit little more than three months away, “will be seen as self-indulgent and wrong. PM has my full support and is best person to ensure we leave EU on 29 March.”[SEP]Prime Minister and Conservative leader Theresa May is tonight facing a vote of no confidence. It comes after Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, confirmed he had received the 48 letters of no confidence from Tory MPs required to trigger a ballot on the leadership. However the Prime Minister has vowed to fight an effort to oust her as Conservative leader and Prime Minister "with everything I've got". In a dramatic early morning statement outside the door to 10 Downing Street, Mrs May warned a change of Prime Minister would put the UK's future at risk and could delay or halt Brexit. She insisted she would stay on to "finish the job" she has set herself as Prime Minister - but later announced she would not lead the party into the next general election. The vote will take place between 6pm and 8pm on Wednesday, with the result announced soon afterwards. Mrs May needs to secure the votes of 158 MPs - half the parliamentary party plus one - to remain as Conservative leader, though a vote of 100 or more against her will raise questions about whether she can continue. If she wins, another challenge cannot be mounted against her position as Tory leader for a year. Follow the latest updates from the ballot and results announcement in our blog below[SEP]Two local Conservative MPs have publicly declared their support for Theresa May ahead of this evening’s (Wednesday) vote of confidence in her leadership. Victoria Atkins MP (Louth & Horncastle) and Matt Warman MP (Boston & Skegness) both declared their support for the Prime Minister this morning, shortly after it was revealed that the required number of letters had been sent in to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee, to trigger the vote. Ms Atkins said: “At this critical time in our nation’s history, the Prime Minister has my full support to serve in the interest of my constituents and country.” Meanwhile, Mr Warman tweeted: “Tonight I’ll vote to support Theresa May, the most steadfast, resilient Prime Minister. “Today the country deserves better than a self-involved Conservative Party.” If Theresa May wins tonight’s secret ballot of Conservative MPs, then she will remain party leader and she will be immune from any further leadership challenge for the next 12 months. However, if she loses the vote, then the party will launch a leadership contest to replace her. • More on this story as we have it.[SEP]The SNP have scrapped plans to put down a motion of no confidence in Theresa May's government according to reports in The National. The party had said they would file a motion of no confidence but plans have been dropped amid fears that such a move could backfire. Prior to Theresa May's confidence vote, Ian Blackford had urged Jeremy Corbyn to issues a notice of no confidence, stating that if not, the SNP would file instead. READ MORE: Ian Blackford calls for Theresa May to resign at PMQs According to reports however, the SNP will only file such a deal if Theresa May returns from the European Council summit without any major changes in her deal. The SNP have admitted that they are closely monitoring the situation, but fear that following a victory for Mrs May last night, they fear she could also win a confidence vote in the Commons. A source told The National: “The situation is being kept under review. “We are not doing anything today. The focus is on what the Tories do. So we’ll see what happens next.” “The Tories were spinning it and trying to make out the vote would be close. But there was a feeling it was never going to be close. “People I spoke to were saying the number of votes against her would be between 70 and 100 tops. READ MORE: SNP gives Jeremy Corbyn until end of day to file no-confidence motion “The Tories will spin this as a surprise result – that she did far better than expected. A great result for them. The story hitting the front pages will be that she is sent off to Brussels having crushed the dissenters in her party. “Our focus now is to shift to Monday when she comes back. So if she comes back from Brussels with nothing or with some changes but nothing of substance, it could be game on again.” According to rules in parliament, a minority party can table a motion of no confidence in the government, but it wouldn't take precedent over government business. Labour are understood to be considering putting down such a motion, but are waiting until the Prime Minister returns from Brussels before any action will be considered. The article originally appeared in our sister paper, The National

By a vote of 200 to 117, British Prime Minister Theresa May survives a motion of no confidence within the Conservative Party.

Suspected jihadists on motorcycles have killed at least 42 people during a series of attacks on Tuareg nomadic camps in Mali, local leaders said Thursday. Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, a Tuareg self-defence official, said the attacks took place Tuesday and Wednesday in the sprawling West African nation's eastern Menaka region. The victims, who included children as young as eight, were members of his group known as MSA, which has been fighting militants with ties to the Islamic State group who are active in the region. This week's violence risks setting off a new cycle of intercommunal clashes in the Menaka region, where 100 civilians have already been killed this year. In September, similar motorcycle gangs attacked a nomadic community near Mali's border with Niger, killing at least 12 civilians. Canadian troops Canada currently has about 250 personnel deployed in the region of Gao, about 300 km from where the latest attacks took place. About 10 Canadian Forces staff are also stationed in the capital Bamako. Canadian troops arrive at a UN base in Gao, Mali, on June 25. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press) Planned attacks thwarted Meanwhile, Malian authorities said Thursday they had arrested four men accused of planning attacks before the end of the year in several major West African capitals. Malian intelligence services said the men "were preparing to carry out attacks on certain sensitive targets" in the cities of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Bamako in Mali and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. The statement implicated the men in March attacks in Ouagadougou and said their group had become "a recruitment operation" for Islamic-inspired militants. The intelligence services also said a preliminary investigation "proved that the four terrorists also participated in the kidnapping of Colombian nun Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez" who was abducted in February 2017.[SEP]Tuareg leader: Suspected jihadists on motorcycles kill at least 42 in Mali's eastern Menaka region BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Tuareg leader: Suspected jihadists on motorcycles kill at least 42 in Mali's eastern Menaka region.[SEP]BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Tuareg leader: Suspected jihadists on motorcycles kill at least 42 in Mali’s eastern Menaka region.[SEP]BAMAKO, Mali — A Tuareg leader says suspected jihadists on motorcycles have killed at least 42 people in Mali's eastern Menaka region during a series of attacks on their nomadic camps. Moussa Ag Acharatoumane of the Tuareg self-defense group said Thursday that children as young as eight were among the victims of the attacks Tuesday and Wednesday. The region in the sprawling West African nation is home to a number of extremist groups, including those with links to Islamic State militants. Meanwhile, authorities say at least four suspected jihadists were arrested last week by Malian special forces. They say the men were preparing to carry out attacks in the cities of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Bamako in Mali and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso at the end of the year.[SEP]BAMAKO, Mali — Tuareg leader: Suspected jihadists on motorcycles kill at least 42 in Mali’s eastern Menaka region. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]BAMAKO, Mali (AP) - Suspected jihadists on motorcycles have killed at least 42 people during a series of attacks on Tuareg nomadic camps in Mali, local leaders said Thursday. Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, a Tuareg self-defense official, said the attacks took place Tuesday and Wednesday in the sprawling West African nation's eastern Menaka region. The victims, who included children as young as eight, were members of his group known as MSA, which has been fighting militants with ties to the Islamic State group who are active in the region. This week's violence risks setting off a new cycle of intercommunal clashes in the Menaka region, where 100 civilians have already been killed this year. In September, similar motorcycle gangs attacked a nomadic community near Mali's border with Niger, killing at least 12 civilians. Meanwhile, Malian authorities said Thursday they had arrested four men accused of planning attacks before the end of the year in several major West African capitals. Malian intelligence services said the men "were preparing to carry out attacks on certain sensitive targets" in the cities of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Bamako in Mali and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. The statement implicated the men in March attacks in Ouagadougou and said their group had become "a recruitment operation" for Islamic-inspired militants. The intelligence services also said a preliminary investigation "proved that the four terrorists also participated in the kidnapping of Colombian nun Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez" who was abducted in February 2017.[SEP]The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Suspected jihadists on motorcycles have killed at least 42 people during a series of attacks on Tuareg nomadic camps in Mali, local leaders said Thursday. Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, a Tuareg self-defense official, said the attacks took place Tuesday and Wednesday in the sprawling West African nation’s eastern Menaka region. The victims, who included children as young as eight, were members of his group known as MSA, which has been fighting militants with ties to the Islamic State group who are active in the region. This week’s violence risks setting off a new cycle of intercommunal clashes in the Menaka region, where 100 civilians have already been killed this year. In September, similar motorcycle gangs attacked a nomadic community near Mali’s border with Niger, killing at least 12 civilians. Meanwhile, Malian authorities said Thursday they had arrested four men accused of planning attacks before the end of the year in several major West African capitals. Malian intelligence services said the men “were preparing to carry out attacks on certain sensitive targets” in the cities of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Bamako in Mali and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. The statement implicated the men in March attacks in Ouagadougou and said their group had become “a recruitment operation” for Islamic-inspired militants. TRENDING: Starting Tomorrow, Gun-Owners in New Jersey Will Be Charged with Felony for High Capacity Magazines The intelligence services also said a preliminary investigation “proved that the four terrorists also participated in the kidnapping of Colombian nun Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez” who was abducted in February 2017. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, a Tuareg self-defense official, said the attacks took place Tuesday and Wednesday in the sprawling West African nation's eastern Menaka region. The victims, who included children as young as eight, were members of his group known as MSA, which has been fighting militants with ties to the Islamic State group who are active in the region.[SEP]To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.[SEP]BAMAKO - Gunmen on motorbikes have killed more than 40 Tuareg civilians this week in north Mali, where clashes over land and scarce water are common, an official said on Thursday. The violence compounds an already dire security situation in the desert region used by jihadist groups to launch attacks in Mali and across West Africa. The identity of the assailants was unknown, but disputes between the nomadic Tuareg and herder Fulani ethnic groups have killed several hundred and displaced thousands this year. Menaka town mayor Nanout Kotia told Reuters 43 Tuareg died in a village 20km away over the past two days. “Armed men riding motorbikes attacked several nomadic campsites in Tinabaw. They shot indiscriminately at the population,” Kotia told Reuters, saying security forces had been sent to the area. Mali’s main Tuareg separatist group, the Coordination of Azawad Movements, said 47 Tuareg civilians were killed in the Tinabaw area. Nobody has claimed responsibility. Mali has been in turmoil since Tuareg rebels and loosely allied Islamists took over its north in 2012, prompting French forces to intervene to push them back the following year. They have since regained a foothold in the north and centre, tapping into ethnic rivalries to recruit new members.

Jihadists on motorcycles kill around 42 people in a series of attacks targeting Tuareg camps in Mali.

Israel has arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank, and a Palestinian was killed in clashes with troops, as the Israeli military pressed ahead with a crackdown after a pair of deadly shootings blamed on Hamas militants. Israel has arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank, and a Palestinian was killed in clashes with troops, as the Israeli military pressed ahead with a crackdown after a pair of deadly shootings blamed on Hamas militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Mahmoud Nakhla, 18, was shot in the abdomen and died at a medical centre in Ramallah as Israeli soldiers clashed with dozens of Palestinians throwing rocks. Earlier on Friday, Israeli forces arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank as the army intensified a crackdown a day after Palestinian assailants killed two soldiers in an attack on a bus stop. In a fresh wave of violence, an Israeli soldier was severely wounded by a Palestinian assailant who attacked him with a rock, while Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators outside Ramallah, the military said. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Jewish settlers beat up a Palestinian bus driver, the man’s family said, while Palestinian Authority forces violently broke up a demonstration by supporters of the rival Hamas movement. The unrest came a day after a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a West Bank bus stop, killing two soldiers before speeding away in a vehicle. Israel responded by setting up checkpoints, closing roads and beefing up security in a broad manhunt for the assailant. Earlier in the week, another Palestinian gunman carried out a similar drive-by shooting outside a nearby settlement, wounding seven people, including a pregnant woman whose baby later died after being delivered prematurely. A Hamas official said 100 members of the group, including legislators and other senior figures, were arrested this week, including 70 arrested overnight and throughout the day on Friday. The Israeli military confirmed the overnight arrests. As Israel was burying the soldiers killed in Thursday’s shooting, another soldier was severely wounded near a West Bank settlement after a Palestinian struck him on the head with a rock, knocking him unconscious, the military said. The army said it appeared the soldier was also stabbed, and Israeli forces were searching for the suspect. Elsewhere in the West Bank, a group of Israelis beat up a Palestinian bus driver, Nidal Sake, near a West Bank settlement late on Thursday, Israeli police said. Thaer Sake, the bus driver’s brother, said a group of Jewish teenagers blocked the bus with their car and forced themselves on board, striking the driver several times before fleeing. He said his brother remained in hospital with severe bruises and a broken eye socket. Police said they were investigating and trying to find the perpetrators. On Friday afternoon, street clashes erupted between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli forces outside Ramallah, with protesters slinging rocks and Israeli soldiers responding with tear gas and stun grenades to break up the crowd. The Palestinian Healthy Ministry said two protesters were wounded by bullets, one critically. The tensions also spilled over into internal Palestinian fighting in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron, where 50 activists waving Hamas flags in celebration of the militant group’s 31st anniversary confronted Palestinian Authority forces and blocked traffic following noon prayers. An Associated Press cameraman saw Palestinian police harshly beat Hamas activists with clubs, injuring five and arresting 15. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and Hamas are fierce rivals. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Mr Abbas’s forces in 2007 after winning legislative elections the previous year, and attempts to reconcile have repeatedly failed. Friday’s unrest capped a deadly week that claimed seven lives, including the Israeli baby, a 60-year-old Palestinian businessman and three Palestinian assailants, two of them members of Hamas. The latest shootings prompted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to boost troop levels in the West Bank, order detentions of Hamas activists and call for the demolition of the homes of assailants within 48 hours. Amid the manhunt, Israeli forces encircled Ramallah, the Palestinians’ usually quiet centre of government and commerce. To prevent what it called “copycat attacks”, the army set up checkpoints, searched cars and blocked roads in an unusual show of force that reflected the severity with which Israel views the shootings. “Our guiding principle is that whoever attacks us and whoever tries to attack us will pay with his life,” Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday. Mr Abbas, meanwhile, accused Israel of creating a “climate” of violence by conducting frequent military raids in Palestinian cities. He also accused Israel of incitement against him.[SEP]Israeli forces arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank overnight as the army intensified a crackdown in response to a pair of deadly shootings believed to have been carried out by Hamas militants, officials said Friday. Some 70 Hamas members, including lawmakers, were arrested this week, including about 40 overnight, said a Hamas official in the West Bank. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing arrest by Israel. The Israeli military confirmed the overnight arrests. The arrests came as Israel's military accelerated its search for the Palestinian gunman who opened fire the day before on a West Bank bus stop, killing two soldiers. The shooting occurred just a short distance from the scene of another drive-by shooting earlier this week that wounded seven Israelis and caused the premature delivery of a baby boy that later died. As Israel prepared to bury the two soldiers killed in Thursday's shooting, another soldier was severely wounded near a West Bank settlement after a Palestinian struck him in the head with a rock, knocking him unconscious, the military said. The army said it appeared the soldier was also stabbed. It said Israeli forces were searching for the suspect. Thursday's shooting topped off a deadly week that claimed seven lives, including the Israeli newborn, a 60-year-old Palestinian businessman and three Palestinian assailants, two of them members of the Islamic militant Hamas group. The latest shootings prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to beef up troop levels in the West Bank, order detentions of Hamas activists and call for demolishing the homes of assailants within 48 hours. Amid the tense manhunt, Israeli forces encircled Ramallah, the Palestinians' typically quiet center of government and commerce. To prevent what it called "copycat attacks," the army set up checkpoints, searched cars and blocked roads in an unusual show of force that reflected the severity with which Israel views the shootings. "Our guiding principle is that whoever attacks us and whoever tries to attack us will pay with his life," Netanyahu said Thursday. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of creating a "climate" of violence by conducting frequent military raids in Palestinian cities. He also accuses Israel of incitement against him. Israeli officials accuse Hamas of being behind the recent attacks. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, praised Thursday's shooting and confirmed that two people killed by Israel this week were members of its military wing. But it has stopped short of claiming responsibility for their attacks. The latest string of West Bank violence comes amid years-long diplomatic paralysis, diminishing hopes for peace and escalating Palestinian frustration with the policies of President Donald Trump, who Palestinians accuse of unfair bias toward Israel. Peace talks have stalled throughout Netanyahu's decade-long tenure, while Israeli settlements in the West Bank have expanded, incensing Palestinians. The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip for their future independent state.[SEP]Israeli forces kept up a manhunt Friday for a Palestinian who shot dead two soldiers in the occupied West Bank, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced rightwing pressure for a strong response. Thursday's shooting was the latest incident shattering months of relative calm in the West Bank, where 400,000 Israelis live in settlements alongside more than 2.5 million Palestinians. It was the third deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank in two months and set off demonstrations by settler groups against Netanyahu, whose rightwing government depends on their support. Israeli media speculated Friday about the possibility of a new Palestinian "intifada," or uprising, against Israel's occupation of the West Bank. In Thursday's attack, a gunman got out of his car and opened fire on soldiers and others outside a settlement in the central West Bank, killing two and seriously injuring another two Israelis before fleeing. In response the army locked down the city of Ramallah, home to secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, while calling in reinforcements. Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces erupted in different parts of the West Bank, including inside Ramallah during army raids. Settlers shouting for revenge threw stones at Palestinian vehicles, while an Arab bus driver was beaten by ultra-Orthodox Jews in Modiin Illit settlement, according to Israeli media reports. In overnight raids, the army said it arrested 40 Palestinians, most of them affiliated to the Islamist movement Hamas which has claimed responsibility for two recent shooting attacks. It has not yet claimed Thursday's attack, though Israeli officials point the finger of blame in its direction. The army did not say it had made arrests linked directly to the latest attack. At a checkpoint near the Beit El settlement on Friday morning, a soldier was moderately wounded after a man hit him with a rock before fleeing, the army said. Friday threatened to be another tense day with Palestinian movements, including Hamas, calling for protests in the West Bank after weekly prayers. Israel has controlled the West Bank since seizing it in a 1967 war. Settlements are considered illegal by the international community and are seen as one of the greatest obstacles to peace, though Israel disputes this. Hamas, for its part, has controlled the Gaza Strip since seizing it from Abbas's forces in 2007. While Abbas's Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, Hamas cells still operate in the territory. On Thursday, Hamas claimed responsibility for two shooting attacks that killed three Israelis, including a baby. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said Thursday that the West Bank had "opened a new page" in the movement's conflict with the Jewish state. Netanyahu's coalition government, which has only a one-seat majority in parliament, relies on the support of pro-settler parties. Rightwing protesters in Jerusalem late Thursday booed Netanyahu, while an MP from the far-right Jewish Home urged him to close all West Bank roads to Palestinians or have "blood on his hands". Hugh Lovatt, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the situation was reminiscent to the buildup to the 2014 Gaza war. "What adds further danger is that we are heading into elections in Israel in 2019, so Netanyahu will have to take a more forceful hand," Lovatt told AFP. "He has long run on his security credentials, saying he keeps Israel safe, and his only real challenge comes from the right." Netanyahu, whose Likud bloc heads the government, responded Thursday by announcing new measures to support settlements, but Yediot Aharonot newspaper said he would need to respond forcefully. "When the settler lobby raises an outcry, the Likud ministers break into a sweat," it said.[SEP]The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank, and a Palestinian was killed in clashes with troops, as the Israeli military pressed ahead on Friday with a crackdown following a pair of deadly shootings blamed on Hamas militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that Mahmoud Nakhla, 18, was shot in the abdomen and died at medical center in Ramallah, as Israeli soldiers clashed with dozens of Palestinians throwing rocks. Earlier Friday, Israeli forces arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank as the army intensified a crackdown a day after Palestinian assailants killed two soldiers in an attack on a bus stop. In a fresh wave of violence, an Israeli soldier was severely wounded by a Palestinian assailant who attacked him with a rock, while Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators outside Ramallah, the military said. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Jewish settlers beat up a Palestinian bus driver, the man’s family said, while Palestinian Authority forces violently broke up a demonstration by supporters of the rival Hamas movement. Friday’s unrest came a day after a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a West Bank bus stop, killing two soldiers before speeding away in a vehicle. Israel responded by setting up checkpoints, closing roads and beefing up security in a broad manhunt for the assailant. Earlier in the week, another Palestinian gunman carried out a similar drive-by shooting outside a nearby settlement, wounding seven people, including a pregnant woman whose baby later died after being delivered prematurely. A Hamas official said some 100 members of the group, including lawmakers and other senior figures, were arrested this week, including 70 arrested overnight and throughout the day on Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing arrest by Israel. The Israeli military confirmed the overnight arrests. As Israel was burying the soldiers killed in Thursday’s shooting, another soldier was severely wounded near a West Bank settlement after a Palestinian struck him in the head with a rock, knocking him unconscious, the military said. The army said it appeared the soldier was also stabbed. It said Israeli forces were searching for the suspect. Elsewhere in the West Bank, a group of Israelis beat up a Palestinian bus driver, Nidal Sake, near a West Bank settlement late Thursday, Israeli police said. Thaer Sake, the bus driver’s brother, said that a group of Jewish teenagers blocked the bus with their car and forced themselves on board, striking the driver several times before fleeing, according to his brother’s account. He said his Nidal remained hospitalized Friday with severe bruises and a broken eye socket. Police said they were investigating and trying to find the perpetrators. On Friday afternoon, street clashes erupted between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli forces outside Ramallah, with protesters slinging rocks and Israeli soldiers responding with tear gas and stun grenades to break up the crowd. The Palestinian Healthy Ministry said two protesters were wounded by bullets, one critically. The tensions also spilled over into internal Palestinian fighting in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron, where some 50 activists waving Hamas flags in celebration of the militant group’s 31st anniversary confronted Palestinian Authority forces and blocked traffic following Muslim noon prayers. An Associated Press cameraman saw Palestinian police harshly beat Hamas activists with clubs, injuring five and arresting 15. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and the Islamic Hamas are fierce rivals. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’ forces in 2007 after winning legislative elections the previous year, and attempts to reconcile have repeatedly failed. Friday’s unrest capped a deadly week that claimed seven lives, including the Israeli newborn, a 60-year-old Palestinian businessman and three Palestinian assailants, two of them members of the Islamic militant Hamas group. The latest shootings prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to boost troop levels in the West Bank, order detentions of Hamas activists and call for demolishing the homes of assailants within 48 hours. Amid the tense manhunt, Israeli forces encircled Ramallah, the Palestinians’ typically quiet center of government and commerce. To prevent what it called “copycat attacks,” the army set up checkpoints, searched cars and blocked roads in an unusual show of force that reflected the severity with which Israel views the shootings. “Our guiding principle is that whoever attacks us and whoever tries to attack us will pay with his life,” Netanyahu said Thursday. Abbas, meanwhile, has accused Israel of creating a “climate” of violence by conducting frequent military raids in Palestinian cities. He also accuses Israel of incitement against him. Israeli officials accuse Hamas of being behind the recent attacks. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, praised Thursday’s shooting and confirmed that two people killed by Israel this week were members of its military wing. But it has stopped short of claiming responsibility for their attacks. The latest string of West Bank violence comes amid years-long diplomatic paralysis, diminishing hopes for peace and escalating Palestinian frustration with the policies of President Donald Trump, who Palestinians accuse of unfair bias toward Israel. Peace talks have stalled throughout Netanyahu’s decade-long tenure, while Israeli settlements in the West Bank have expanded, incensing Palestinians. The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip for their hoped-for independent state. Meanwhile in Gaza, 75 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire as thousands demonstrated along the perimeter fence separating Gaza from Israel, the Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of the figures. Hamas has orchestrated such demonstrations on a weekly basis since March, demanding an end to a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the territory. Over 175 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed during the protests. DeBre reported from Jerusalem. AP writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]Israeli forces on Friday arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank as the army intensified a crackdown in response to a pair of deadly shootings believed to have been carried out by Hamas militants. In a fresh wave of violence, an Israeli soldier was severely wounded by a Palestinian assailant who attacked him with a rock, while Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators outside Ramallah, the military said. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Jewish settlers beat up a Palestinian bus driver, the man's family said, while Palestinian Authority forces violently broke up a demonstration by supporters of the rival Hamas movement. Friday's unrest came a day after a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a West Bank bus stop, killing two soldiers before speeding away in a vehicle. Israel responded by setting up checkpoints, closing roads and beefing up security in a broad manhunt for the assailant. Earlier in the week, another Palestinian gunman carried out a similar drive-by shooting outside a nearby settlement, wounding seven people, including a pregnant woman whose baby later died after being delivered prematurely. A Hamas official said some 100 members of the group, including lawmakers and other senior figures, were arrested this week, including 70 arrested overnight and throughout the day on Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing arrest by Israel. The Israeli military confirmed the overnight arrests. As Israel was burying the soldiers killed in Thursday's shooting, another soldier was severely wounded near a West Bank settlement after a Palestinian struck him in the head with a rock, knocking him unconscious, the military said. The army said it appeared the soldier was also stabbed. It said Israeli forces were searching for the suspect. Elsewhere in the West Bank, a group of Israelis beat up a Palestinian bus driver, Nidal Sake, near a West Bank settlement late Thursday, Israeli police said. Thaer Sake, the bus driver's brother, said that a group of Jewish teenagers blocked the bus with their car and forced themselves on board, striking the driver several times before fleeing, according to his brother's account. He said his Nidal remained hospitalized Friday with severe bruises and a broken eye socket. Police said they were investigating and trying to find the perpetrators. On Friday afternoon, street clashes erupted between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli forces outside Ramallah, with protesters slinging rocks and Israeli soldiers responding with tear gas and stun grenades to break up the crowd. The Palestinian Healthy Ministry said two protesters were wounded by bullets, one critically. The tensions also spilled over into internal Palestinian fighting in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron, where some 50 activists waving Hamas flags in celebration of the militant group's 31st anniversary confronted Palestinian Authority forces and blocked traffic following Muslim noon prayers. An Associated Press cameraman saw Palestinian police harshly beat Hamas activists with clubs, injuring five and arresting 15. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and the Islamic Hamas are fierce rivals. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas' forces in 2007 after winning legislative elections the previous year, and attempts to reconcile have repeatedly failed. Friday's unrest capped a deadly week that claimed seven lives, including the Israeli newborn, a 60-year-old Palestinian businessman and three Palestinian assailants, two of them members of the Islamic militant Hamas group. The latest shootings prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to boost troop levels in the West Bank, order detentions of Hamas activists and call for demolishing the homes of assailants within 48 hours. Amid the tense manhunt, Israeli forces encircled Ramallah, the Palestinians' typically quiet center of government and commerce. To prevent what it called "copycat attacks," the army set up checkpoints, searched cars and blocked roads in an unusual show of force that reflected the severity with which Israel views the shootings. "Our guiding principle is that whoever attacks us and whoever tries to attack us will pay with his life," Netanyahu said Thursday. Abbas, meanwhile, has accused Israel of creating a "climate" of violence by conducting frequent military raids in Palestinian cities. He also accuses Israel of incitement against him. Israeli officials accuse Hamas of being behind the recent attacks. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, praised Thursday's shooting and confirmed that two people killed by Israel this week were members of its military wing. But it has stopped short of claiming responsibility for their attacks. The latest string of West Bank violence comes amid years-long diplomatic paralysis, diminishing hopes for peace and escalating Palestinian frustration with the policies of President Donald Trump, who Palestinians accuse of unfair bias toward Israel. Peace talks have stalled throughout Netanyahu's decade-long tenure, while Israeli settlements in the West Bank have expanded, incensing Palestinians. The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip for their hoped-for independent state.[SEP]Jerusalem (CNN) Two Israeli soldiers were shot dead Thursday at a bus stop on a main road in the Israeli-controlled part of the West Bank, the Israeli military said. A third soldier and a fourth person were wounded in the incident, according to officials. Israel's army said in a statement that the gunman stepped out of a vehicle and opened fire before fleeing the scene. The army was focusing its search for the gunman in the nearby Palestinian city of Ramallah, and said it had closed entry points to the city. The fatal attack came on a day of heightened tension in the West Bank and Jerusalem. A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces at Al-Bireh, close to Ramallah, after the army said he had attempted a car-ramming assault on Israeli soldiers, one of whom was lightly injured. Read More[SEP]Israel has arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank, and a Palestinian was killed in clashes with troops, as the Israeli military pressed ahead with a crackdown after a pair of deadly shootings blamed on Hamas militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Mahmoud Nakhla, 18, was shot in the abdomen and died at a medical centre in Ramallah as Israeli soldiers clashed with dozens of Palestinians throwing rocks. Earlier on Friday, Israeli forces arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank as the army intensified a crackdown a day after Palestinian assailants killed two soldiers in an attack on a bus stop. In a fresh wave of violence, an Israeli soldier was severely wounded by a Palestinian assailant who attacked him with a rock, while Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators outside Ramallah, the military said. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Jewish settlers beat up a Palestinian bus driver, the man’s family said, while Palestinian Authority forces violently broke up a demonstration by supporters of the rival Hamas movement. The unrest came a day after a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a West Bank bus stop, killing two soldiers before speeding away in a vehicle. Israel responded by setting up checkpoints, closing roads and beefing up security in a broad manhunt for the assailant. Earlier in the week, another Palestinian gunman carried out a similar drive-by shooting outside a nearby settlement, wounding seven people, including a pregnant woman whose baby later died after being delivered prematurely. A Hamas official said 100 members of the group, including legislators and other senior figures, were arrested this week, including 70 arrested overnight and throughout the day on Friday. The Israeli military confirmed the overnight arrests. As Israel was burying the soldiers killed in Thursday’s shooting, another soldier was severely wounded near a West Bank settlement after a Palestinian struck him on the head with a rock, knocking him unconscious, the military said. The army said it appeared the soldier was also stabbed, and Israeli forces were searching for the suspect. Elsewhere in the West Bank, a group of Israelis beat up a Palestinian bus driver, Nidal Sake, near a West Bank settlement late on Thursday, Israeli police said. Thaer Sake, the bus driver’s brother, said a group of Jewish teenagers blocked the bus with their car and forced themselves on board, striking the driver several times before fleeing. He said his brother remained in hospital with severe bruises and a broken eye socket. Police said they were investigating and trying to find the perpetrators. On Friday afternoon, street clashes erupted between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli forces outside Ramallah, with protesters slinging rocks and Israeli soldiers responding with tear gas and stun grenades to break up the crowd. The Palestinian Healthy Ministry said two protesters were wounded by bullets, one critically. The tensions also spilled over into internal Palestinian fighting in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron, where 50 activists waving Hamas flags in celebration of the militant group’s 31st anniversary confronted Palestinian Authority forces and blocked traffic following noon prayers. An Associated Press cameraman saw Palestinian police harshly beat Hamas activists with clubs, injuring five and arresting 15. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and Hamas are fierce rivals. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Mr Abbas’s forces in 2007 after winning legislative elections the previous year, and attempts to reconcile have repeatedly failed. Friday’s unrest capped a deadly week that claimed seven lives, including the Israeli baby, a 60-year-old Palestinian businessman and three Palestinian assailants, two of them members of Hamas. The latest shootings prompted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to boost troop levels in the West Bank, order detentions of Hamas activists and call for the demolition of the homes of assailants within 48 hours. Amid the manhunt, Israeli forces encircled Ramallah, the Palestinians’ usually quiet centre of government and commerce. To prevent what it called “copycat attacks”, the army set up checkpoints, searched cars and blocked roads in an unusual show of force that reflected the severity with which Israel views the shootings. “Our guiding principle is that whoever attacks us and whoever tries to attack us will pay with his life,” Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday. Mr Abbas, meanwhile, accused Israel of creating a “climate” of violence by conducting frequent military raids in Palestinian cities. He also accused Israel of incitement against him.[SEP]Israel locks down Ramallah after two soldiers shot dead RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: A Palestinian shot dead two Israeli soldiers at a bus stop in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the military said, with the army locking down the city of Ramallah amid a manhunt. The attack came hours after security forces killed two Palestinians, with fears of wider unrest. In another incident, a Palestinian stabbed two Israeli border police in Jerusalem´s Old City before being shot dead, in the bloodiest 24 hours to hit the West Bank and Jerusalem in months. The Israeli army said a Palestinian exited his car at a bus stop near the Ofra settlement in the West Bank before opening fire on soldiers and civilians. Two soldiers were killed and at least two other people, including another soldier, were wounded, the army said, with the attacker fleeing. An AFP photographer saw two men who appeared to be soldiers lying on the ground, before their bodies were covered up. "We are searching for the terrorist. We will find him," the military said on Twitter. Following the attack, the army circled the nearby city of Ramallah, home to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. Entrances and exits to the city were sealed and the army entered multiple neighbourhoods, AFP correspondents said. Clashes broke out in multiple spots. The shooting came only hours after Israeli forces killed two Palestinians allegedly responsible for West Bank attacks that claimed the lives of three Israelis, including a baby. The armed wing of Palestinian movement Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel in Gaza since 2008, claimed the two Palestinians as its "fighters." One of them was Salah Barghouti, a 29-year-old accused of shooting seven Israelis on Sunday, also at a bus stop near the Ofra settlement. The Shin Bet Israeli internal security service said that other members of Barghouti´s group, all of them affiliated with Hamas, had been arrested overnight. A woman who was seven months pregnant was among those wounded in that attack. Doctors tried to save her baby boy with an emergency caesarean but he died on Wednesday and was laid to rest in Jerusalem.[SEP]Israeli forces kept up a manhunt Friday for a Palestinian who shot dead two soldiers in the occupied West Bank, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced rightwing pressure for a strong response. Thursday's shooting was the latest incident shattering months of relative calm in the West Bank, where 400,000 Israelis live in settlements alongside more than 2.5 million Palestinians. It was the third deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank in two months and set off demonstrations by settler groups against Netanyahu, whose rightwing government depends on their support. Israeli media speculated Friday about the possibility of a new Palestinian "intifada," or uprising, against Israel's occupation of the West Bank. In Thursday's attack, a gunman got out of his car and opened fire on soldiers and others outside a settlement in the central West Bank, killing two and seriously injuring another two Israelis before fleeing. In response the army locked down the city of Ramallah, home to secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, while calling in reinforcements. Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces erupted in different parts of the West Bank, including inside Ramallah during army raids. Settlers shouting for revenge threw stones at Palestinian vehicles, while an Arab bus driver was beaten by ultra-Orthodox Jews in Modiin Illit settlement, according to Israeli media reports. In overnight raids, the army said it arrested 40 Palestinians, most of them affiliated to the Islamist movement Hamas which has claimed responsibility for two recent shooting attacks. It has not yet claimed Thursday's attack, though Israeli officials point the finger of blame in its direction. The army did not say it had made arrests linked directly to the latest attack. At a checkpoint near the Beit El settlement on Friday morning, a soldier was moderately wounded after a man hit him with a rock before fleeing, the army said. Friday threatened to be another tense day with Palestinian movements, including Hamas, calling for protests in the West Bank after weekly prayers. Israel has controlled the West Bank since seizing it in a 1967 war. Settlements are considered illegal by the international community and are seen as one of the greatest obstacles to peace, though Israel disputes this. Hamas, for its part, has controlled the Gaza Strip since seizing it from Abbas's forces in 2007. While Abbas's Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, Hamas cells still operate in the territory. On Thursday, Hamas claimed responsibility for two shooting attacks that killed three Israelis, including a baby. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said Thursday that the West Bank had "opened a new page" in the movement's conflict with the Jewish state. Netanyahu's coalition government, which has only a one-seat majority in parliament, relies on the support of pro-settler parties. Rightwing protesters in Jerusalem late Thursday booed Netanyahu, while an MP from the far-right Jewish Home urged him to close all West Bank roads to Palestinians or have "blood on his hands". Hugh Lovatt, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the situation was reminiscent to the buildup to the 2014 Gaza war. "What adds further danger is that we are heading into elections in Israel in 2019, so Netanyahu will have to take a more forceful hand," Lovatt told AFP. "He has long run on his security credentials, saying he keeps Israel safe, and his only real challenge comes from the right." Netanyahu, whose Likud bloc heads the government, responded Thursday by announcing new measures to support settlements, but Yediot Aharonot newspaper said he would need to respond forcefully. "When the settler lobby raises an outcry, the Likud ministers break into a sweat," it said.[SEP]Israel locks down Ramallah after two soldiers shot dead RAMALLAH: A Palestinian shot dead two Israeli soldiers at a bus stop in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the military said, with the army locking down the city of Ramallah amid a manhunt. The attack came hours after security forces killed two Palestinian murder suspects, with fears of wider unrest.In another incident, a Palestinian stabbed two Israeli border police in Jerusalem’s Old City before being shot dead, in the bloodiest 24 hours to hit the West Bank and Jerusalem in months. The Israeli army said a Palestinian exited his car at a bus stop near the Ofra settlement in the West Bank before opening fire on soldiers and civilians. Two soldiers were killed and at least two other people — including another soldier — were wounded, the army said, with the attacker fleeing. The shooting came only hours after Israeli forces killed two militants allegedly responsible for West Bank attacks that claimed the lives of three Israelis, including a baby. The armed wing of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which has fought three wars with zionist Israel in Gaza since 2008, claimed the two Palestinians as its “fighters.”

Two Israeli soldiers are killed and two others seriously wounded after a shooting at a bus stop in the Jewish settlement of Giv'at Asaf, West Bank.

Four Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in separate operations over the past 24 hours in the occupied West Bank, with the Israeli army announcing the city of Ramallah a closed military zone. The closure was announced following a shooting attack near the illegal settlement of Ofra east of Ramallah. Two Israeli soldiers were killed by an unknown Palestinian. According to local news agencies, the Palestinian fled the scene in his car. In a statement, the Israeli army said it is carrying out searches near the areas of the roads entering and exiting Ramallah. The Hamas movement, which governs the besieged Gaza Strip, saluted the shooting and in a statement said it proved "resistance" was still alive in the West Bank. "The flame of resistance in the West Bank will remain alive until the Israeli occupation is defeated from the entirety of our land, and we regain our full rights," Hamas said. For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to legalise thousands of Jewish settlement homes in the occupied West Bank that were built without Israeli permits. He also vowed to expedite the demolition of the Palestinian attackers' homes within 48 hours, increase detentions of Hamas members already in Israeli prisons and beef up Israeli forces in the region. "Our guiding principle is that whoever attacks us and whoever tries to attack us - will pay with his life," he said. "Our enemies know this and we will find them." Overnight killings The first of the killings came overnight on Wednesday when Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in separate operations over the span of six hours. They were suspects in alleged attacks on Israelis. In the pre-dawn hours on Thursday, Israeli forces also shot dead a Palestinian accused of killing two settlers in the West Bank last October, following a two-month manhunt. Ashraf Naalweh, 23, was killed during the arrest raid in Askar refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus Earlier, according to Palestinian security sources. The army has withheld his body. In another overnight raid on a West Bank village, Israeli forces shot dead Salah Omar Barghouti, who was suspected to be behind a drive-by shooting on Sunday, in which seven Israeli settlers were wounded near the Ofra settlement. Wafa said the 29-year-old Barghouti was driving his cab when Israeli soldiers opened fire at his vehicle near Surda, north of Ramallah, and that undercover Israeli forces seized his body. Army units raided the Barghouti residence in the village of Kobar, north of Ramallah, and arrested his father and brothers, Wafa reported. In the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man, Majd Muteir, after he injured two Israeli police officers in an alleged stabbing attack before dawn. One of the officers was moderately injured, the other lightly. Israeli forces prevented Palestinians from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for dawn prayers and were heavily present in the streets of the Old City. The fourth Palestinian was killed on Thursday afternoon, after an alleged car ramming attempt on a group of soldiers in Ramallah's twin city of al-Bireh. The man was identified as 60-year-old Hamdan Tawfiq al-Ardah. 'Serious security situation' Speaking from West Jerusalem, Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett said the events in the past 24 hours have been "very bloody - one that the occupied West Bank hasn't seen for a good deal of time". "We have the pretty extraordinary circumstance of the entire city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in Area A - where Palestinian administration is supposed to have at least nominal authority - has been sealed off as a closed military zone," he added. Regarding the alleged car ramming attack, Fawcett said that the official Palestine TV reported that "it might not have been a deliberate attack, [but] there might have been a loss of control instead." He added, "It's certainly a very serious security situation that is still prevailing in the occupied West Bank." A total of 56 Palestinians across the West Bank and Jerusalem were also arrested by the Israeli army early Thursday morning. In the aftermath of the overnight killings, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles with rocks on the busy Route 60 highway, south of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 69 Palestinians were injured in protests against the Israeli army raids into Ramallah and various other towns and villages in the West Bank. Undercover Israeli forces posing as Palestinians, known as Mustaribeen, were seen by locals roaming the streets of Beiteen village, northwest of Ramallah. The closures in the West Bank has led to Fatah, the ruling party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to announce their offices will be open for those who are unable to reach their homes. Additional reporting by Ibrahim Husseini[SEP]BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Police in Buffalo say a shoplifting suspect shot by a police officer as he charged at officers with a knife has died. Authorities say the shooting happened late Tuesday in the city's Black Rock neighborhood. Police say the suspect ran from an officer responding to a report of shoplifting at a supermarket. Investigators say the suspect ran through a backyard and climbed onto a garage roof. Police say an officer shot the man after he lunged at officers with a knife. The man was taken to Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo for surgery. Police say he died Wednesday afternoon. The officer involved in the shooting wasn't injured. Authorities aren't identifying the officer or the suspect.[SEP]BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Police in Buffalo say an officer shot and wounded a shoplifting suspect who charged at officers with a knife. Authorities say the shooting happened late Tuesday in the city’s Black Rock neighborhood. Police say the suspect ran after an officer saw him. Investigators say the suspect ran through a backyard and climbed onto a roof. Police say an officer fired at the man after he lunged at officers with a knife. The suspect was wounded and taken to Erie County Medical Center for surgery. He’s listed in critical condition Tuesday. The officer involved in the shooting was hospitalized in good condition. Authorities aren’t identifying the officer or the suspect.

A knife-wielding Palestinian assailant is shot dead in Jerusalem's Old City, after lightly injuring two police officers by stabbing them.

STRASBOURG, France -- The Latest on the attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France (all times local): The office of the Paris prosecutor, which handles terrorism cases in France, says a man killed in Strasbourg in a shootout with police has been identified as the main suspect in a Christmas market attack that killed three people. The man was identified as Charif Chekatt, a 29-year-old whom police had been searching for since Tuesday night's attack near Strasbourg's Christmas market, which also left 13 people wounded. Earlier, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had said police had been attempting to arrest a man fitting the suspect's description when the man turned around and opened fire on them. Police responded, killing the shooter. The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity online, says the Islamic State group's Amaq news agency is claiming the gunman who opened fire near a Christmas market in Strasbourg as a "soldier" of the group. The claim was published shortly after news emerged of a shootout with French police in Strasbourg Thursday night in which a man believed to be the suspect was killed. IS claims of responsibility have often been considered opportunistic in the past. French police had been searching for 29-year-old Charif Chekatt, the suspected shooter during the Tuesday night that killed three people and wounded 13. France's interior minister says the prosecutor in charge of terror-related investigations is heading to the scene of a police shootout in Strasbourg to confirm if a man killed by officers is the suspect in the attack near the city's Christmas market. Christophe Castaner said from Strasbourg late Thursday that police spotted an individual who matched the description of 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. He has been the focus of a massive manhunt since Tuesday's attack. Castaner says the moment they tried to arrest the man they spotted in the Neudorf neighbourhood, he started shooting. The minister says police returned fire, killing the man. Neudorf is where the suspect last was seen after the Tuesday attack that killed three people. Authorities say Chekatt was born in Strasbourg and appeared on a watch list of potential extremists. A top French official says a suspect has been killed in a shootout with police in Strasbourg, but hasn't been confirmed as the alleged gunman who killed three people near a Christmas market on Tuesday. The official, who could not be named because the operation was ongoing, said the suspect opened fire on police Thursday night, and police responded, killing him. A local police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the man who opened fire was armed with a pistol and a knife. The shooting occurred in the Neudorf neighbourhood, where police conducted a search earlier Thursday for Cherif Chekatt, a 29-year-old born in Strasbourg who police named as the suspected Christmas market gunman. The Paris prosecutor's office says a fifth person has been arrested and placed in custody in connection with the investigation into Tuesday's shooting near Strasbourg's Christmas market. The office said the man is a member of the "entourage" of main suspect Cherif Chekatt, 29, but not a family member. He was placed in custody on Thursday morning. The four others detained were Chekatt's parents and two of his brothers. Three people died in Tuesday's attack, and 13 people were also injured. A police operation has ended in the Strasbourg neighbourhood where a suspected gunman who killed three people and wounded 13 was last seen. There was no word on what, if anything, the Thursday evening operation had uncovered. A police official had earlier said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, had taken action on a "supposition only" that suspect Cherif Chekatt could have been hiding in a building in the area. The official could not be identified because he was not authorized to disclose details. Authorities said a taxi driver dropped Chekatt off Tuesday evening in the Neudorf neighbourhood, south of the eastern French city's centre, after the shooting near a Christmas market. AP journalists and a French police official say a police operation is going on in the Strasbourg neighbourhood where a suspected Christmas market gunman was last seen. One French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, are taking action on Thursday based on a "supposition only" that the suspect, 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, could be hiding in a nearby building. The official could not be identified because he was not allowed to disclose details on the investigation. Authorities said a taxi driver dropped Chekatt off Tuesday evening in the Neudorf neighbourhood, south of the eastern French city's centre, after the shooting near the Christmas market. He is believed to be the gunman who left three dead and 13 wounded in an attack that night. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Brussels where he is attending a European summit, said Interior minister Christophe Castaner will travel to Strasbourg on Thursday evening. This version corrects the spelling of the suspect's last name to Chekatt, not Chekkat. French security forces are trying to catch the suspected Strasbourg gunman "dead or alive" as the city in eastern France mourned with flowers and lit candles left at the site of the attack near its famous Christmas market. More than 700 officers were involved Thursday in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, who had a long criminal record and had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television. Asked about instructions given to police forces, Griveaux said the focus was on catching the suspect "as soon as possible," no matter whether he was dead or alive, and "put an end to the manhunt." Chekatt allegedly shouted "God is great!" in Arabic and sprayed gunfire during Tuesday's rampage near Strasbourg's Christmas market, which left three people dead and wounded 13 others.[SEP]STRASBOURG, France (AP) - The Latest on the attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France (all times local): AP journalists and a French police official say a police operation is going on in the Strasbourg neighborhood where a suspected Christmas market gunman was last seen. One French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, are taking action on Thursday based on a "supposition only" that the suspect, 29-year-old Cherif Chekkat, could be hiding in a nearby building. The official could not be identified because he was not allowed to disclose details on the investigation. Authorities said a taxi driver dropped Chekkat off Tuesday evening in the Neudorf neighborhood, south of the eastern French city's center, after the shooting near the Christmas market. He is believed to be the gunman who left three dead and 13 wounded in an attack that night. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Brussels where he is attending a European summit, said Interior minister Christophe Castaner will travel to Strasbourg on Thursday evening. French security forces are trying to catch the suspected Strasbourg gunman "dead or alive" as the city in eastern France mourned with flowers and lit candles left at the site of the attack near its famous Christmas market. More than 700 officers were involved Thursday in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, who had a long criminal record and had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television. Asked about instructions given to police forces, Griveaux said the focus was on catching the suspect "as soon as possible," no matter whether he was dead or alive, and "put an end to the manhunt." Chekatt allegedly shouted "God is great!" in Arabic and sprayed gunfire during Tuesday's rampage near Strasbourg's Christmas market, which left three people dead and wounded 13 others.[SEP]The man suspected of killing at least three people and wounding 13 others at Strasbourg’s famed Christmas market has been killed by French police, following a shoot-out not far from the scene of Tuesday’s attack. Cherif Chekatt, 29, was shot dead on Thursday evening, two days after he first disappeared sparking a massive manhunt involving hundreds of police officers, soldiers and anti-terror specialists from three European countries. French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said police recognized a man who looked like Chekatt walking on the street in Strasbourg’s Neudorf district on Thursday night and approached him. He opened fire on officers when they tried to question him, he said. “As I am speaking to you, I am thinking about the victims and the wounded. I am thinking of those close to them. I am thinking of Strasbourg and France that was hit by this terrible attack,” Castaner said. On Thursday, Strasbourg police said the death toll from the attack had risen to three, after one person succumbed to their injuries. Five people remain in serious condition with eight others suffering light injures. The hunt prompted a curfew in the eastern French city near the German border and forced the country to raise its national security threat level to its highest status: “emergency terror attack.” French prosecutors said the suspect shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “God is greatest,” at the time of the attack. “It’s relief for the people of Strasbourg to know that the attacker has been killed,” Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries said, adding that the Christmas market would reopen on Friday. The French National Police thanked the public for their assistance in finding Chekatt. “Thank you for your alerts which allowed us to find the wanted individual,” the National Police said on Twitter. Earlier on Thursday, Paris prosecutor’s office said that a fifth person was taken into custody in relation to the attack. “At this stage there are five people in custody,” a spokesperson said. Authorities said Chekatt entered the perimeter of the market, one of the oldest in Europe, by the city’s Corbeau Bridge and started shooting and stabbing passers-by on the Rue des Orfevres around 8 p.m., when many were in the middle of their Christmas shopping. Anti-terror police flooded the market and tried to arrest the suspected gunman. He exchanged fire with security forces, suffering an injury to his arm. The suspected gunman then jumped into a taxi and fled the scene, Heitz said. On Thursday, French police evacuated buildings and cordoned off the area close to where Chekatt had fled. The gunman’s father, mother and two brothers were also questioned by police, a source close to the investigation told CNN. Checkatt was already known to security services as a possible threat, police said. He has an extensive criminal background that includes 27 convictions in France, Germany and Switzerland, mostly for acts of robbery and violence. A spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Police, Cathy Maret, told CNN that Chekatt was well known to authorities there, having been arrested and convicted several times in Switzerland for crimes such as break-ins, theft and violence. He was not on their radar as a radical Islamist or for narcotics violations, she said. In 2017, he was deported from Germany to France after the Interior Ministry in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg confirmed he had been convicted of break-ins and serious theft in 2016 and spent time in a German prison. The German Federal Criminal Office said the suspect was not known in Germany as a radical Islamist. However, Chekatt was known to French prison officials for being radicalized and for his proselytizing behavior in detention in 2015, Paris prosecutor Heitz said, adding that he had been incarcerated multiple times. He was also on a French watch list called a “Fiche S” surveillance file. The “Fiche S” is a French terror and radicalization watch list that includes thousands of people, some of whom are under active surveillance, meaning they are on law enforcement’s radar. Hours before the attack, French gendarmes tried to bring Chekatt in for questioning but found he wasn’t home, a spokesperson for France’s National Police told CNN earlier this week, without providing further details. Chekatt was born in Strasbourg, according to CNN affiliate BFM.[SEP]PARIS (AP) — The French government spokesman says security forces are trying to catch the suspected shooter dead or alive, two days after an attack near Strasbourg’s Christmas market. Benjamin Griveaux said on CNews television that more than 700 officers are involved in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. Police have distributed a photo of the wounded fugitive. The attack in Strasbourg killed two, left one person brain dead and wounded 12 others. The government raised the terror alert level nationwide and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across France to help patrol streets and secure crowded events. Griveaux also called on the “yellow vest” protesters not to take to the streets, as some members of the movement have planned a fifth round of demonstrations on Saturday across France to demand tax relief.[SEP]STRASBOURG, France: French police on Thursday (Dec 13) shot dead a gunman who had been on the run since killing three people at Strasbourg's popular Christmas market, sources said. More than 700 French security forces had been hunting for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt since the bloodshed on Tuesday night. He was believed to have been injured after exchanging fire with soldiers during the attack, but managed to escape and had not been seen since getting out of a taxi in the Neudorf area of the northern French city. Minutes before the fatal shooting on Thursday, a helicopter with powerful searchlight flew over Neudorf. "He fired on a team of police who returned fire," a police source told AFP. Dozens of police vehicles converged on the area where police were applauded after the shooting. "Bravo!" some shouted as people gathered at the police cordon. Police in several other countries earlier joined the manhunt for Chekatt, a Strasbourg native and career criminal with at least 27 convictions in four European states. Authorities published Chekatt's picture late Wednesday with police describing him as dangerous and urging people not to approach him. A fifth person was detained by police for questioning on Thursday, in addition to the suspect's parents and two brothers who have been in custody since Wednesday. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who was due to visit the scene and give a news conference later Thursday, had announced that the Strasbourg Christmas market would reopen on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "the solidarity of the whole country" towards the victims as he arrived for a European summit in Brussels. "It is not only France that has been hit... but a great European city as well," he added, referring to the seat of the European parliament in the eastern French city that lies on the border with Germany. As police hunted Chekatt, the French government urged "yellow vest" protesters not to hold another round of demonstrations this weekend, given the strain on the country's security forces. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux called on the anti-government protesters to be "reasonable" and not protest again Saturday, after nearly four weeks of often violent demonstrations which has led the government to offer a range of financial relief to low earners. "Our security forces have been deployed extensively these past few weeks," Griveaux told CNews television. "It would be better if everyone could go about their business calmly on Saturday, before the year-end celebrations with their families, instead of demonstrating and putting our security forces to work once again," he added. The "yellow vest" protesters, known for their fluorescent high-visibility jackets, had called for a fifth round of protests this Saturday. The protests began on Nov 17 over fuel tax increases, but snowballed into a revolt over living standards as well as Macron's perceived indifference to the problems of ordinary citizens. Underscoring attempts to ease tensions, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe confirmed a proposed constitutional reform, which was to be debated in January, had been postponed to allow time for more discussions over local grievances. Some union leaders also put pressure on "yellow vests" not to demonstrate on Saturday so they would not overburden police as they dealt with security after the Strasbourg attack. But some "yellow vest" demonstrators dismissed calls to suspend protests. A 23-year-old protester was killed after he was hit by a truck on a roundabout in southern France near Avignon late on Thursday, the sixth person to have died during the weeks of demonstrations. Strasbourg's location in the heart of western Europe means that Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg can be easily reached by car or train, making the search for Chekatt more complicated. Swiss police had reinforced border checks, while German authorities also widely published the photo of the suspect, which showed him with dark hair, a short beard and a visible mark on his forehead. In 2016, a militant responsible for an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin was shot and killed only three days later in Milan in northern Italy after travelling through the Netherlands and France. The Strasbourg suspect, who lived in a rundown apartment block a short drive from the city centre, was flagged by French security forces in 2015 as a possible Islamic extremist. France has been hit by a wave of attacks from gunmen claiming allegiance to Al Qaeda or the Islamic State group since 2015, which have claimed the lives of 246 people before Tuesday's attack, according to an AFP toll. No group has claimed responsibility for the Strasbourg attack, but social media accounts used by Islamic State sympathisers have celebrated the killings.[SEP]STRASBOURG, France (AP) — A top French official says a man has been killed in a shootout with police in Strasbourg, but he has not been confirmed as the suspected gunman who killed three people near a Christmas market. The official, who could not be named because the operation was ongoing, said the dead man opened fire on police Thursday night and officers fired back, killing him. A local police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the man who opened fire was armed with a pistol and a knife. The shooting occurred in the Neudorf neighborhood of Strasbourg, where police searched intensively earlier Thursday for Cherif Chekatt, a 29-year-old suspected of being the Christmas market gunman. Chekatt is accused of killing three people and wounded 13 on Tuesday night. More than 700 officers were deployed to find Chekatt, who had a long criminal record and had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television. Asked about the instructions they received, Griveaux said the focus was catching Chekatt “as soon as possible,” dead or alive, and to “put an end to the manhunt.” Security forces, including the elite Raid squad, spent two hours searching in Neudorf on Thursday based on “supposition only” that Chekatt could have been hiding in a building nearby two days after the attack, a French police official said. Chekatt grew up in Neudorf. Chekatt allegedly shouted “God is great!” in Arabic and sprayed gunfire from a security zone near the Christmas market Tuesday evening. Authorities said he was wounded during an exchange of fire with security forces and a taxi driver dropped him off in Neudorf after he escaped. Prosecutors opened a terror investigation. More than 700 officers were deployed to find Chekatt, who had a long criminal record and had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television. Asked about the instructions they received, Griveaux said the focus was catching Chekatt “as soon as possible,” dead or alive, and to “put an end to the manhunt.” So far, five people have been arrested and remanded in custody in connection with the investigation, including Chekatt’s parents and two of his brothers. The Paris prosecutor’s office said the fifth, who was arrested Thursday at an undisclosed location, was a member of Chekatt’s “entourage” but not a family member. Police distributed a photo of Chekatt, with the warning: “Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene.” France has raised its three-stage threat index to the highest level since the attack and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across the country to help patrol streets and secure crowded events. French authorities said Chekatt, born in Strasbourg, appeared on a watch list of people flagged for extremist views. They said he had 27 criminal convictions, receiving the first at age 13. The people who died in the attack included a Thai tourist, 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry. Five of the wounded were in serious condition, the prefecture of the Strasbourg region said. French President Emmanuel Macron was in Brussels on Thursday for a European Union summit. EU leaders held a minute of silence for the latest victims of a mass shooting in France. Hundreds of people gathered in Strasbourg’s 500-year-old cathedral Thursday evening to mourn and seek comfort. “Evil does not prevail,” Archbishop Luc Ravel said. “And the message of Christmas has not been contradicted but rather confirmed by Tuesday’s dramatic night: Evil and good are both there, but in the end the good will have last word.” Strasbourg’s usually busy streets were eerily empty Thursday morning, with a heavy police and military presence. Some lit candles and brought flowers to a makeshift memorial at the site of the attack. “You can feel a very heavy atmosphere due all these events,” said resident Lucille Romance. “People are in a state of shock and are avoiding getting out of their house.” Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]Emergency services patrol at the center of the city of Strasbourg which is close following a shooting, eastern France, Tuesday Dec. 11, 2018. A shooting in the French city of Strasbourg killed at least two people and wounded more than others, officials said, sparking a broad lockdown and major security operation around a world-famous Christmas market. Authorities said the shooter remains at large. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias) (AP)[SEP]Emergency services patrol at the center of the city of Strasbourg which is close following a shooting, eastern France, Tuesday Dec. 11, 2018. A shooting in the French city of Strasbourg killed at least two people and wounded more than others, officials said, sparking a broad lockdown and major security operation around a world-famous Christmas market. Authorities said the shooter remains at large. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias) (AP)[SEP]Hundreds of police officers are hunting a gunman after three people were killed and 12 others wounded in a shooting in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. The suspect, who is known to security services, and is reportedly named Cherif Chekatt, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, escaped after exchanging fire with soldiers and armed police on Tuesday. He is believed to be injured. The shooting happened close to a popular Christmas market near one of the central squares, Place Kléber. France’s counterterrorism prosecutor has opened an investigation. However, the motive for the incident remains unclear. “He fought twice with our security forces,” French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said. Confirming that three people had died, Mr Castaner said that border controls had been strengthened and security at all Christmas markets would be stepped up, with 350 security agents hunting for the gunman. He added that France had raised its security alert level to “emergency attack”. Six of those reportedly injured on Tuesday were said to be in a serious condition, while six others suffered light injuries, police said. Police added that the 29-year-old suspect was born in Strasbourg and was already known to the security services as a possible terrorist threat.[SEP]Police Believe They Have Shot Dead Gunman In Strasbourg Christmas Market Shooting Police say they have shot dead the man they believe killed three people and critically injured six others in the French city of Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Chérif Chekatt, the perpetrator of an attack in Strasbourg, France, two days ago, which killed two and wounded 14, is found and killed by French police.

A Muslim man, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, left in a coma after Tuesday's shooting in Strasbourg, has died, his brother told Euronews. Kamal Naghchband was a 45-year-old mechanic who has three children, said his brother, Mokhtar Naghchband. He lived in France for 18 years and had French nationality, he added. "We are bereaved because our city of Strasbourg, an exemplary city in terms of living together, was hit hard by a murderous act," said Eyup Şahin, regional president of Strasbourg's Eyyûb Sultan Mosque, in a statement. At around 20h CET on Tuesday a single gunman opened fire on a street near Strasbourg's famous Christmas market. Two people died in the attack and another was declared brain dead, Paris prosecutor Remi Heitz said. At least 12 people were wounded, six seriously. The gunman, who is on the run, is on France's "fiche S" watchlist of individuals thought to pose a security risk to the country. French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced that the country's "Vigipirate" security threat level would be raised in light of the attack. Do you like what Euronews does? Click to sign up for our WhatsApp newsletter, a twice-daily selection of the top stories from around Europe.[SEP]According to a deputy police chief, the assailants planned to attack the rebel commander. A source in a local hospital said those wounded had been delivered to the facility. At the moment, no group claimed responsibility for the attack. READ MORE: 8 Dead, 10 Captured After Taliban Attacks Military Base in Afghanistan — Reports Addressing situation in the country, John Sopko, the head of the US Military's Special Inspector General on Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) stated earlier this month that even 'after 17 years of US and coalition effort and financial largesse, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest, least educated and most corrupt countries in the world'.

A Frenchman originally from Afghanistan who was wounded and left brain-dead from the attack dies from his injuries.

Yemen’s warring parties have agreed to an immediate ceasefire in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, the UN secretary general has said, in a potential breakthrough at the end of a week of peace talks in Sweden. Antonio Guterres said the agreement included the future deployment of UN-supervised neutral forces and the establishment of humanitarian corridors. Troops from both sides will withdraw from the entire Hodeidah area within a maximum of 21 days in a process overseen by a UN-chaired committee. A political framework for Yemen will be discussed in a next round of meetings, scheduled for late January. If implemented on the ground, the deal would represent a breakthrough because the port is the gateway for the bulk of humanitarian aid coming into the country, and has been the subject of intense fighting. Ceasefires have also been agreed at two other ports, Salif and Ras Issa. Guterres said the UN would play a key role when the troops withdrew. “It is obvious the UN will play an important role in the port, probably a monitoring role and the management of that port,” he said. This would help “facilitate the humanitarian flow of goods to the civilian population and it will improve the living conditions for millions of Yemenis”. The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said troops would withdraw from the port within days, and from the wider city in a second phase. He said the ceasefire was designed to open up the east-west road that connects Hodeidah to the capital, Sana’a “so that the humanitarian pipeline, which is crucial to the people of Yemen, can start delivering aid”. Agreements have also been reached on a mass prisoner swap and the easing of the siege of the south-western city of Taiz. Guterres said the UN security council would discuss the terms of a draft resolution designed to monitor and verify the troop withdrawal agreements on Friday. Western powers will offer to provide technology to monitor the redeployments, with an agreement that policing in Hodeidah becomes the responsibility of “local security forces in accordance with Yemini law”. He said the outcome of the talks in the Swedish town of Rimbo would mean “concrete results in the daily lives of Yemenis”. The UN-backed Yemeni government lost control of Hodeidah and Sana’a to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in 2015. Despite heavy military support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate, the government, which is based in Aden, has been unable to take back either city. Western backing for the Saudi-led war has frayed in the face of mass casualties, starvation and, more recently, allegations that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was instrumental in organising the killing of the Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. The agreements, sealed with a handshake between the two sets of negotiators but not any signatures, include the shoring up of the country’s central bank, which should eventually enable the payment of salaries to 1.2 million public sector workers. The plan raises questions about the capacity of the UN to administer Hodeidah port, including ensuring revenue from it is transferred to Yemen’s central bank. If it fails, the risk remains that fighting for control of the port will continue. Nearly 27% of the Houthi movement’s income comes from the port. The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who flew to Sweden to attend the final day of the talks, said: “It is now vital that the parties act in good faith and take urgent steps to implement these agreements.” Griffiths had never expected to reach an overall political settlement in this round of talks, the first since 2016, but he said the agreements covered the most sensitive, dangerous and difficult part of Yemen. He overcame obstacles to the talks ever starting, including the size of the Houthi delegations, its means of transport to Sweden and a demand that 50 of its most seriously injured fighters be flown to Oman for medical treatment. Despite the antagonism and brutality of the war, many of the talks in Sweden were conducted face to face. Pictures from inside the conference showed the two teams of negotiators smiling and shaking hands. Backing in the US Senate for the for the Saudi war in Yemen is declining rapidly, placing pressure on the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to urge Washington’s allies to negotiate an end to the conflict. With both sides suspicious that the other will not honour the agreements struck, Griffiths has tried to draw up detailed implementation plans in an attempt to prevent backsliding. In Hodeidah, Salem Jaffer Baobaid, an aid worker with Islamic Relief, said: “It is much quieter today. We are not sure what is going to happen, but any relief is welcome.” Baseem al-Janani, a local resident, said: “We have heard about the ceasefire, but we are very cautious. Today the Houthis dug new trenches, closed off and emptied some neighbourhoods. They do not seem like they are going to stop fighting.”[SEP]CAIRO — Yemen’s warring parties have agreed to terms for a cease-fire in the crucial port city of Hudaydah, the United Nations chief said on Thursday, announcing the biggest step toward peace in years for a war that has produced the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels have agreed to withdraw their forces from Hudaydah, the main conduit for humanitarian aid entering Yemen, and to implement a cease-fire in the surrounding province, Secretary General António Guterres told reporters. He made the announcement in Rimbo, Sweden, at the end of a week of negotiations intended to pave the way for full peace talks. Amid smiles and handshakes, representatives from the two sides also agreed to a prisoner exchange involving as many as 15,000 people, and to allow a humanitarian corridor into the city of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city. They agreed to meet again in January. The terms of the deal announced by Mr. Guterres were vague in places, with talk of a mutual “redeployment” to stop the fighting in Hudaydah, and a “leading role” for the United Nations in the city. Yemen’s foreign minister, Khaled al-Yamani, told reporters that the deal would come into force only if Houthis first vacated the city. Martin Griffiths, the United Nations envoy for Yemen, said he expected that to happen in a matter of days.[SEP]Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to a ceasefire covering the Red Sea port of Hodeida following peace talks in Sweden. Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to a ceasefire covering the Red Sea port of Hodeida following peace talks in Sweden. The United Nations secretary general said the rival parties have also agreed to a withdrawal of troops from the contested city. Antonio Guterres thanked the Yemeni delegations for what he called “an important step” and “real progress toward future talks to end the conflict”. He spoke at the closing ceremony for the talks in the Swedish town of Rimbo. Mr Guterres said to the Yemeni parties: “Thank you for coming here to discuss a better future for Yemen.” He said that the next round of talks is planned for the end of January. The four-year civil war, which pits the internationally recognised Yemeni government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, against the Iran-backed rebels known as Houthis, has made Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. According to the United Nations, 22 of its 29 million people are in need of aid. The two sides have for months been locked in a fight over Hodeida which is a key port for aid deliveries. The UN-sponsored talks had low expectations for halting the conflict immediately, but saw some progress with the agreement of a prisoner swap to include 15,000 people at the start of the discussions last week. Both sides have said they sought to build on goodwill for future talks, although it was unclear how far they have come in agreeing on a draft agreement given to them a day earlier to consider by UN envoy Martin Griffiths. The document consists of a set of proposals, including one for a political framework for a post-war Yemen, the reopening of the airport in the capital, Sanaa, and a proposal for Hodeida, a lifeline for millions of Yemenis dependent on international aid.[SEP]Houthi rebels have announced a ceasefire deal with the Yemeni government and withdrawal from the port city of Al-Hudaydah during UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden. "We agreed on an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of all sides in Al-Hudaydah under a UN committee's supervision," Houthi negotiator Jamal Amer said. He said the supervision of the city’s ports will be given to the UN. The UN-brokered talks kicked off in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, on Dec. 6 in an effort to end the 4-year military conflict in Yemen. Talks between the two warring parties tackle the release of captives, the fight in Al-Hudaydah, Yemen’s central bank, access to humanitarian aid and the Sanaa airport. As for the Sanaa Airport, Amer said an "initial agreement took place between the two parties on the opening of the airport… with the UN taking technical supervision of all the airports of Yemen." "However, the other side insists that the airport remains local," he said. There was no comment from the Yemeni government on the Houthi claim. Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa, and the key port city of Hudaydah. The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains. The violence has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure, including its health and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times. This article has been adapted from its original source.[SEP]United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said that warring factions in Yemen have agreed to a ceasefire in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Reuters reported. A pro-government alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have been fighting the Iranian-backed Shiite rebels in 2016, and Hodeida city is their latest battleground. Hodeida is a key entry point for imported food and aid. The groups concerned had been in Rimbo village of Sweden for a week for peace negotiations led by the United Nations. The United Nations chief said the deal included the deployment of neutral forces to the region and the setting up of humanitarian corridors. Stakeholders will discuss a political framework in the next round of meetings scheduled for January. The United Nations has described the war in Yemen as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”, with close to 75% of the country’s population requiring some form of humanitarian assistance and protection. In October, the international organisation had warned that Yemen could face the worst famine in a century if the Saudi Arabia-led coalition did not stop airstrikes, The Guardian reported. UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, told the BBC that 12 to 13 million civilians could starve to death. On October 30, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had called on all participants to end hostilities in Yemen.[SEP]UN chief: Yemen's warring sides agreed in Sweden to province-wide cease-fire in Hodeida, withdrawal of troops from port RIMBO, Sweden (AP) — UN chief: Yemen's warring sides agreed in Sweden to province-wide cease-fire in Hodeida, withdrawal of troops from port.[SEP]Warring sides in Yemen’s conflict have agreed to a cease-fire for the key port city of Hudaydah. The delegations from the Yemeni government and the Shi’ite Huthi rebels reached agreement on December 13 at the end of UN-brokered talks in Sweden aimed at ending nearly four years of civil war. The Red Sea port city of Hudaydah is the main lifeline for two-thirds of the country, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the cease-fire was crucial to getting aid to millions of Yemenis. The agreement will see "a mutual redeployment of forces from the port and the city and the establishment of a governorate-wide cease-fire," Guterres said. "The UN will play a leading role in the port and this will facilitate the humanitarian access and the flow of goods to the civilian population. And it will improve the living conditions for millions of Yemenis," he added. The agreement could "be a starting point for peace and for ending [the] humanitarian crisis in Yemen," the UN chief also said. The Yemeni government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia and its military allies, has been battling the Iran-backed Huthi rebels for nearly four years. Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, which has killed over 10,000 people and created what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Based on reporting by the BBC[SEP]The announcement of a ceasefire between Yemen’s warring parties in and around the key port of Hudaydah, was hailed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday as a deal which would improve the lives of millions of people. Speaking on the last day of UN-led talks in Sweden to decide the future of the war-torn country, where its people are in the grip of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, Mr. Guterres told those present that they had “the future of Yemen” in their hands. “You have reached an agreement on Hudaydah port and city, which will see a mutual re-deployment of forces from the port and the city, and the establishment of a Governorate-wide ceasefire,” he said, noting that the UN would play “a leading role” in the port. “This will facilitate the humanitarian access and the flow of goods to the civilian population. It will improve the living conditions for millions of Yemenis,” he insisted. Nearly four years after fighting escalated between the Government of Yemen and Houthi opposition movement, known officially as Ansar Allah, more than 24 million people – three-quarters of the population – need some form of assistance and protection. Some 20 million are food insecure and 10 million of these people do not know how they will obtain their next meal. While noting that “pending issues” have yet to be resolved, the UN chief said that representatives from the internationally-recognised Government of Yemen and the opposition had made “real progress” which had yielded “several important results”. These included a “mutual understanding to ease the situation in Taizz”, Mr Guterres said, in reference to the country’s third largest city. “We hope this will lead to the opening of humanitarian corridors and the facilitation of demining,” he added. On the previously-agreed issue of a mass exchange of prisoners, the UN Secretary-General noted that both delegations had drawn up a timeline and provided further details on when it might happen. This would allow “thousands - I repeat, thousands - of Yemenis to be reunited with their families,” Mr Guterres said, with UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, at his side. Looking ahead to a new meeting between both parties in the new year, the UN chief insisted that another “very important step for the peace process” had been agreed, namely a willingness to discuss a framework for negotiations. “You have agreed to meet again to continue to discuss this further at the end of January during the next round of negotiations,” Mr. Guterres said, adding that it was a “critical element” of a future political settlement to end the conflict. “We have a better understanding of the positions of the parties,” he added, noting their “constructive engagement”, while also crediting the Governments of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait for their “concrete support” in making the meeting happen. Welcoming the announcement on the Hudaydah ceasefire, the World Food Programme (WFP) underlined that the Red Sea port was “key” to importing some 70 per cent of Yemen’s humanitarian and 90 per cent of its commercial needs. “Any progress towards peace is good progress, as long as it helps the Yemeni people who have suffered so much in this conflict,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley, noting that what Yemen needed most was lasting peace. “Today’s announcement gives us hope that the World Food Programme’s work to feed 12 million severely hungry Yemenis may be made easier in the coming weeks and months.” Owing to the conflict, in recent weeks imports have decreased by about half at Hudaydah’s docks, WFP spokesperson Herve Verhoosel said. “In November, our target in Hodeidah Governorate was to reach 800 000 people in need of food assistance. This ceasefire will of course help us in our daily activities as the region is one of WFPs priorities.”[SEP]RIMBO, Sweden (AP) — UN chief: Yemen’s warring sides agreed in Sweden to province-wide cease-fire in Hodeida, withdrawal of troops from port.[SEP]Warring sides in Yemen's conflict have agreed to a cease-fire for the key port city of Hudaydah.aimed at ending nearly four years of civil war.The Red Sea port city of Hudaydah is the main lifeline for two-thirds of the country, andThe Yemeni government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia and its military allies, has been battling the Iran-backed Huthi rebels for nearly four years.Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, which has killed over 10,000 people and created what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

A UN-brokered ceasefire is agreed upon between the two warring factions in Al Hudaydah, Yemen. Troops from both sides will withdraw from the port city within three weeks to allow humanitarian aid coming into the country, which has been plagued by war and famine.

Buy Photo Pop music star Justin Bieber sits at court side wearing a Heat baseball cap during the game. Indiana Pacers play the Miami Heat in game #7 of the Eastern Conference Finals Monday, June 3, 2013, evening at American Airlines Arena in Miami FL. (Photo: Matt Kryger/IndyStar)Buy Photo People officially hate 2018 more than Justin Bieber. YouTube’s “Rewind 2018” video recapping the year in viral videos, trends and music has officially surpassed Bieber’s “Baby” for the most disliked YouTube video of all time – in the single week it’s been online. Since going live Dec. 6, the 2018 recap has racked up more than 11.5 million dislikes. Bieber’s “Baby” music video had previously held the record with 9.9 million dislikes, though those built up over a period of eight years. Redemption Story: Beech Grove Walmart fight: How a Navy veteran humiliated in viral video found redemption Slipping and Sliding: Avon 'ice-less' ice rink's bumper cars are first in the nation The 8-minute, multilingual video opens with a Will Smith intro, and includes shoutouts to K-pop, rappers Drake and Cardi B, Trevor Noah, John Oliver, "fierce and fabulous" drag culture, working moms and "all refugees and anyone looking for a home." Several movements also get their due, with the more than 130 YouTube celebrities who narrate the video commending conversations about mental health, "all women in 2018 finding their voices," and Asian representation in entertainment. Also featured: Fortnite, "Baby Shark" and, of course, reading the comments. So why do people hate the video so much? YouTubers, viewers and critics have criticized the video for excluding some of the most popular stars on the platform in favor of avoiding controversy. It's not an accurate portrait of the year, some argue, without appearances by some of the most popular YouTubers like Jake and Logan Paul and Shane Dawson. Logan Paul was criticized on social media after posting a New Year's Eve video of himself visiting Japan's suicide woods – and including footage of a man who had recently hanged himself. Dawson had joked about pedophilia in a 2013 "Shane and Friends" podcast. Despite scandal, Logan Paul still made the list of Forbes top 10 YouTube earners in 2018. (Photo: Getty Images) 2018 may not have been a banner year for YouTube's recap, but the platform didn't fare much better in 2017. "YouTube Rewind: The Shape of 2017" ranks as the 14th most-hated video of all time, with just over 2 million dislikes. Will the 2019 video give "Rewind 2018" a run for its money? Stay tuned. Email IndyStar reporter Sarah Bahr at sbahr@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @smbahr14. Read or Share this story: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2018/12/14/justin-biebers-baby-dethroned-most-disliked-video-youtube-rewind-2018/2309505002/[SEP]YouTube’s official look back at 2018 is now the most disliked YouTube video of all time. And all it took was one week to hit that milestone. officially premiered on the site on December 6. We reported just two days ago that at 7.7 million dislikes, or "thumbs down" votes, this year’s Rewind had officially become the on YouTube. Since then, the video has racked up a total of 10.3 million dislikes, surpassing the previous most disliked video, to become the most disliked YouTube video ever. To put things into perspective, Justin Bieber’s “Baby” video premiered on YouTube in February 2010. It took more than 8 years for Bieber’s music video to amass 9.8 million dislikes, a click on the thumbs down icon signaling a viewer’s distaste for a video. YouTube Rewind 2018 took about 8 days to surpass that number. Bieber’s “Baby” long held the crown for most disliked video. But even though it’s carried that title since 2011, the video actually has more likes than dislikes. On this year’s YouTube rewind video, however, dislikes make up over 80 percent of the like-to-dislike amount. Only about two million users have signaled that they like the video. Every year since 2010, YouTube has put together an official year in review video, an overview of the year’s most popular videos, moments, and creators. For many YouTube stars, the annual video functioned as an ode to the content creators who contributed most to the community that year. YouTube Rewind 2018 failed at doing that, according to many of the platform’s top creators. One of the major issues with this year’s YouTube Rewind, according to prominent members of the YouTube community, is that some of the platform's biggest stars, like PewDiePie, Shane Dawson, and Logan Paul are completely omitted from the video. Huge YouTube moments, like the popular livestreamed this past August, were also ignored. But the crux of the matter goes beyond just individual YouTubers being left out of the company’s year in review. Popular YouTube creator Marques Brownlee, who was featured in this year’s YouTube Rewind, explained in a video of his own how there’s now a major disparity in how the YouTube community views Rewind and how YouTube the company views Rewind. It basically boils down to advertising, as Brownlee points out. This year’s Rewind opted to boast about mainstream celebrities using the platform and traditional media outlets referencing YouTube memes as opposed to the controversial, and less advertiser-friendly, creators and moments that the YouTube community actually engages with. By disliking the video more than any other on the entire platform, the YouTube community is sending a clear message to the company concerning the content they care about. In a way, YouTube Rewind 2018 becoming the most disliked video of all time is a YouTube Rewind moment all of its own.[SEP]SALT LAKE CITY — YouTube’s own rewind video has become the most disliked video on its platform. What’s going on: This year’s YouTube Rewind video didn’t sit well with the YouTube community, and now it has been voted down as the most disliked video on the platform, The Verge reports. • The video overtakes the previous most-disliked video, Justin Bieber’s video for the song “Baby,” which has just under 10 million dislikes. Context: Bieber’s video needed eight years to amass that many dislikes. YouTube Rewind needed eight days, according to The Verge. What’s the problem?: The video depicts YouTube's broader creator community. But several of those YouTubers said the video doesn’t show the reality of YouTube stars. • “I think the problem with YouTube Rewind, at least how I see it, is pretty simple actually,” Marques Brownlee said in a YouTube video. “YouTubers and creators and audiences see it as one thing, and YouTube, who’s in charge of making it, sees it as something completely different.” • Others consider the video to be a big advertisement for YouTube’s top performing stars, Engadget reports. But also: Justin Bieber fans jumped in on the fun, though, adding more dislikes to Rewind as a way to take the “most disliked video” title away from Bieber’s song, BBC News reports. History: As The Verge notes, YouTube Rewind used to be a yearly video that showcased the highest of the platform. Now it seems to be drifting toward being a video representative of the narrative YouTube wants to show. • “Rewind is the culmination of that feeling,” according to The Verge. “The community, which was once celebrated by YouTube, no longer feels included in the culture YouTube wants to promote. It’s unclear what the company will do going forward, but one thing’s for certain: YouTube Rewind is no longer a celebratory moment the community looks forward to.”[SEP]Every year Google releases a YouTube video that celebrates top videos, people, music and moments on the platform. The YouTube Rewinds are generally feel-good videos. This year, however, is different. Google’s YouTube Rewind 2018 has become the most ‘disliked’ video in the history of the platform. Google’s YouTube Rewind 2018 features celebrities like Will Smith, John Oliver, Ninja, Trevor Noah, and popular blogger Marques Brownlee among others. Shortly after the video went live on the network, people started criticising it for not featuring the top moments. Brownlee in a series of tweets explained why the video was getting negative criticism. “The “problem” with YouTube Rewind is pretty simple, actually - the delta between what creators/audiences expect and what YouTube wants to show has never been more clear,” he said. Washington Post in its report pointed out that YouTube’s Rewind is supposed to celebrate top moments on the network in the year. For instance, YouTube’s Rewind video for 2012 featured Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” But Google’s approach to the platform may have changed over the years as its focus has shifted towards monetising the application. YouTube now faces competition from Facebook’s Watch and Instagram’s IGTV, two new platforms aggressively chasing internet influencers around the world. “Creators want YouTube Rewind to be a celebration of YouTubers and the biggest/best stuff on the platform that year. YouTube wants Rewind to be a couple minutes they can show to advertisers and say “look at all the great stuff over here that you want to spend your dollars on!” Brownlee said, hinting at YouTube’s growing ‘corporate’ approach to the video sharing network. Google’s YouTube Rewind 2018 has also beaten Justin Bieber’s “Baby” for the most disliked video on YouTube. According to YouTube’s own analytics platform, Baby had about 9 million dislikes whereas Rewind has already crossed 11 million mark.[SEP]To say that this year’s YouTube Rewind didn’t go over well with the YouTube community would be quite an understatement. This year’s Rewind, an annual video made by YouTube that’s supposed to encompass a year in YouTube culture, is officially the most disliked video on the platform. It has more than 10 million dislikes, overtaking Justin Bieber’s 2010 song “Baby,” which has just under 10 million dislikes. While it took Bieber’s video approximately eight years to rack up that dislike count, YouTube Rewind beat it in closer to eight days. It’s quite a feat, and a fascinating case of how an innocuous video used by YouTube’s marketing team to appeal to advertisers can have an adverse effect when it doesn’t put the community first. Since YouTube Rewind was first published on December 6th, the backlash has been loud and constant. Creators who starred in it, like Marques Brownlee, have addressed the controversy, while other YouTubers work on their own versions of Rewind they view as more authentic. The backlash directed at YouTube for this year’s Rewind boils down to a growing disparity between the platform’s true creator culture and the polished version that YouTube wants to present. “I think the problem with YouTube Rewind, at least how I see it, is pretty simple actually,” Brownlee said in a video. “YouTubers and creators and audiences see it as one thing and, YouTube, who’s in charge of making it, sees it as something completely different.” To understand why Rewind really affects creators, it’s important to understand how the video was first presented to the community in 2011. The first year YouTube decided to create a recap video, Rewind was narrated by Rebecca Black of “Friday” fame. The entire thing was a breakdown of the 10 most-watched videos — a straightforward highlight reel of what was popular, without any glossing over of strange, controversial, or otherwise less-savory behavior that YouTube might want to hide. Between 2011 and 2014, YouTube Rewind was on the same page as its culture. It incorporated the biggest moments, most influential creators, and funny memes that the community also celebrated. Things really started changing in 2015, when YouTube went from an amateur DIY platform to an entertainment staple, but the most noticeable grievances began in 2017 and continued into 2018, as YouTube backed away from creators it previously highlighted. It’s a facet of the divide between YouTube and its community that commentator and anchor Philip DeFranco gets to in his video about the backlash. “People are asking, ‘Where is PewDiePie?’ either him by himself or his battle with T-Series,” DeFranco said. “Where is Shane Dawson, who had arguably one of the biggest series on YouTube this year? What about a reference to KSI and Logan Paul making one of the biggest pay-per-view events ever?” DeFranco said it could be that YouTube simply isn’t aware of what its “real community” is doing. But they might also be intentional snubs. “An argument has been made that it’s an attempt by YouTube to distance themselves from any controversy,” he says. The end of 2016 started off one of YouTube’s most turbulent periods, which has continued until now, sloping and rising at certain times. New ad friendly policies were introduced, and creators rallied together to support each other and call out the platform. They were staring down the first wave of demonetization — an ongoing issue that pitted creators against the platform where a growing number of people were able to sustain themselves full time. Tensions grew. Things got worse in 2017 when PewDiePie, YouTube’s most popular creator, was caught in a controversy over anti-Semitic language appearing on his channel. Between then and now, YouTube faced some of its biggest issues with creators, including Logan Paul’s controversy surrounding his time in Japan’s Aokigahara Forest. Advertisers fled, and YouTube’s executives found themselves in a balancing act trying to appease both creators and advertisers. Emphasis was placed on late-night shows and celebrities who launched channels on the platform in an attempt to prove to advertisers they would be safe from scrutiny. In the process, YouTube creators felt increasingly shunned. Rewind is the culmination of that feeling. The community, which was once celebrated by YouTube, no longer feels included in the culture YouTube wants to promote. It’s unclear what the company will do going forward, but one thing’s for certain: YouTube Rewind is no longer a celebratory moment the community looks forward to.[SEP]In an ironic twist that was actually predictable, YouTube’s 2018 rewind has become the most disliked video on the platform. Once a title held by Justin Bieber’s clip for “Baby,” YouTube’s annual look back at the year’s breakout moments and top creators now has more than 10 million dislikes. Aside from the fact that the rewinds have become less of a fun mashup and more of a frenetically edited car crash, YouTuber Marques Brownlee offered this concise summary: There’s a fundamental disconnect between how creators and audiences see YouTube Rewind versus how YouTube sees YouTube Rewind. Brownlee, who was featured in this year’s recap, thoughtfully breaks down why everyone is hating on the video. His main point boils down to his belief that YouTube started thinking about YouTube Rewind as the perfect (and highly sanitized) showcase for advertisers. “YouTube Rewind turned into this, like, ‘Hey, check out all these advertiser-friendly things to spend your money on, all these super clean creators and these late-night show hosts and all these things that you want your ads next to,” Brownlee says in his video. “So, YouTube rewind in a way just turned into a giant ad for YouTube.”[SEP]YouTube set an embarrassing record for itself after its “Rewind” video beat Justin Bieber’s Baby music video to become the most disliked YouTube video. YouTube’s Rewind 2018 has received about 11 million dislikes within a week of it being published online. Many YouTube creators and fans pointed out the lack of connect between the platform and the YouTube community. Tech personality Marques Brownlee who appeared in the video addressed the issue on what went wrong with YouTube Rewind 2018. The biggest backlash however comes from PewDiePie’s community of fans. The comment section of YouTube Rewind 2018 shows a general response from people pointing out what’s wrong with the video. As you scroll through, you’ll see a lot users are arguing that PewDiePie should have been featured in the video. PewDiePie did get a sort of cameo in the video with his chair but sitting on it was the animated Jaiden. Even the YouTuber himself has been on YouTube’s tail making review and reaction videos on Rewind 2018. YouTube users are definitely on the prowl to increase the dislikes. One user even commented saying that people are un-disliking Justin Bieber’s Baby to increase the difference between the two. The 2010 music video currently has 9.8 million dislikes on YouTube. YouTube did respond to its video getting the most dislikes and said, “We hear what you’re saying, and we want to make next year better for all of you. Watch this space!” Felix Kjellberg aka ‘PewDiePie’ is the top independent YouTuber with over 76 million subscribers. The YouTube Rewind incident comes amid PewDiePie’s ongoing fight with Indian music label T-Series. The increasing subscriber count for T-Series has been threatening PewDiePie’s reign on YouTube.[SEP]The haters have spoken: In less than a week, YouTube Rewind 2018 — its year-in-review mashup — has registered the most dislikes of any video on the platform. As of Thursday (Dec. 13) morning, YouTube Rewind 2018 had notched 9.9 million dislikes after debuting Dec. 6. That pushed it above the previous record holder: Justin Bieber’s 2010 “Baby,” currently with 9.84 million dislikes. YouTube’s Rewind is billed as a celebration of internet culture, featuring “a variety of zeitgeist-defining personalities — from mainstream celebrities to the world’s top YouTube creators to viral video stars,” according to Google. This year’s installment featured Will Smith, “Fortnite” dances and gamer Ninja front and center, along with nods to memes like Bongo Cat and “the floss” dance as well as top-trending music including K-pop sensations BTS. Why the crashing wave of dislikes for YouTube Rewind 2018? Various theories have emerged. A big factor appears to be that a few popular — but controversial — YouTubers were excluded from Rewind. That includes PewDiePie, the gamer-comedian who runs the No. 1 most-followed independent YouTube channel now with over 76 million subscribers. (PewDiePie’s chair, however, makes a brief appearance.) PewDiePie’s Bro Army likely helped drive up the dislikes. He’s gained millions of new fans in the last few months as he rallies to fend off getting topped by T-Series. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, has courted controversy; his anti-Semitic-themed pranks last year prompted YouTube to cut business ties with him. “I remember [when] Rewind was something that, it seemed at least, like an homage to the creators that year,” PewDiePie comments in a Dec. 7 reaction video. “Now I’m almost glad I’m not in it, because it’s such a cringe-y video at this point. It’s so disconnected with the community and its creators.” Other big names omitted from YouTube Rewind 2018 were Shane Dawson (who released a highly viewed documentary series about Jake Paul) and Logan Paul, who’s been on the outs with YouTube after his over-the-line videos including one showing the dead body of a person who died by suicide. Celebrity appearances in YouTube Rewind 2018 include Will Smith, who opens the episode with a reference to his YouTube live-streamed bungee jump over the Grand Canyon to raise money for charity. Others included Trevor Noah, John Oliver, Marshmello, Adam Rippon and Trixie Mattel. It’s likely the more mainstream flavor of Rewind 2018 also fueled the haters. In addition, this year’s YouTube Rewind includes over 100 YouTube creators, including Marques Brownlee, Liza Koshy, James Charles, Casey Neistat, The Dolan Twins, Ninja, Lilly Singh, Emma Chamberlain, Markiplier, Lachlan, WhinderssonNunes, Fischer’s, Noor Stars, Pautips, and FAP TV. YouTube Rewind 2018 is set to an original music mashup from The Hood Internet featuring top songs and viral hits of the year including “I Like It,” “Idol,” “In My Feelings,” “High Hopes” and “Happier.” According to YouTube, Rewind videos have been viewed over 1 billion times since 2012, and the 2016 and 2017 editions were each viewed over 200 million times. The mashup videos have been produced for YouTube by digital studio Portal A since 2012. YouTube Rewind 2018 (watch below and at this link) has generated 120 million views in one week:[SEP]YouTube's annual Rewind videos have never been a favourite on the internet, but it plunged to a new low this year. The video is the most disliked video of the year and falls short of being the most disliked video on the website only by 0.8 million views. With nine million dislikes and 2.1 million likes, it is not far behind Justin Beiber's 'Baby' -- the most disliked video with 9.8 million dislikes. But, here's a fun ratio: Justin Beiber's 2010 video has more than two billion views, as opposed to the 114 million that YouTube's Rewind 2018 managed to garner. Looks like JB haters have finally found a new target! So, Rewind 2018 has ironically become the website's least popular video, and netizens have found respite in Google's 'Year In Search 2018'. Google was thanked for the heartwarming year-end video, and many users even commented on how it was better than YouTube Rewind 2018. Reportedly, the video's immense unpopularity is due to YouTube omitting some of the platform's biggest stars. Shane Dawson, Logan Paul, and PewDiePie don't make an appearance and clearly, the YouTube sensations' fans are furious. Although the video left out much of the YouTube community, it featured the likes of Will Smith, and creators Molly Burke, Liza Koshy, and Simone Giertz. PewDiePie has released a reaction video speaking about why he didn't feature in the Rewind video. There is criticism that the video is especially marketer and advertiser-friendly, with its references to K-pop and game 'Fortnite' all over the place.[SEP]The big picture: The community isn't happy with the direction YouTube has taken Rewind in 2018. As Marques Brownlee argues, the shift didn't happen overnight but has been trending in this direction over the past several years. The 2018 edition of Rewind, YouTube’s annual video montage featuring trends and memes of the past year, dropped on December 6. To say that it wasn’t well received by the community would be an understatement. In just one week’s time, YouTube Rewind 2018 has become the platforms most disliked video of all time. As of writing, it has amassed over 10 million dislikes compared to just 2.1 million likes. The second most disliked video of all time, the music video for “Baby” by Justin Bieber, has 9.91 million dislikes but took well over eight years to amass that total. YouTube Rewind 2018 has been viewed more than 121 million times as of mid-Thursday. Why so much hate for this year’s Rewind? As Variety points out, some are no doubt peeved over the exclusion of popular yet controversial YouTubers like PewDiePie, Shawn Dawson and Logan Paul. This year’s entry was also heavily influenced by Fortnite, dancing and other mainstream events. According to Marques Brownlee, who ironically enough was featured in this year’s Rewind, YouTube has gotten away from what made the series so special – focusing on the creators and the community – and turned it into a giant ad that appeals to advertisers. This is even more ironic considering the theme of this year’s Rewind – “Everyone Controls Rewind.” Brownlee also said the style of Rewind has been problematic and it’s “just kind of hard to watch.” In short, he believes YouTube is trying to cram too much stuff into a small window while keeping brand safety on a podium. His video is worth watching to gain further insight on the behind-the-scenes process and his perspective on the production.

YouTube Rewind 2018 becomes the most disliked YouTube video of all time, with well over 10 million dislikes, achieving the feat in a mere seven days.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Emergency workers pulled survivors from the wreckage A crash involving a high-speed train at a station in the Turkish capital Ankara has killed at least nine people and injured 47, Turkey's transport minister has said. Images from the scene showed emergency services working to rescue people from badly damaged carriages. Reports quoting local officials said the high-speed train had collided with another train, then an overpass. The accident occurred at about 06:30 local time (03:30 GMT). Image copyright Anadolu Agency Image caption Rescue workers search the wreckage for survivors The crash happened at the Marsandiz railway station, around 8km (5 miles) from Ankara's main station. At a news conference, Ankara governor Vasip Sahin said the train was travelling from Ankara to the southern city of Konya when it collided with a locomotive inspecting tracks at the station. Three train drivers were among nine people killed in the crash, according to Turkish Transport Minister Cahit Turhan. Turkey's state-funded Anadolu Agency reports that 206 passengers were on board the train. Three of the injured are said to be in a serious condition. Image copyright Anadolu Agency Image caption Rescue workers evacuate injured passengers after crash A large number of emergency workers arrived at the scene shortly after the collision, which occurred in snowy conditions. Search and rescue efforts are still under way. The Ankara state prosecutor's office says it has launched an official investigation into the cause of the crash. Image copyright EPA In a tweet (in Turkish), the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects quoted its Chairman Yunus Yener as saying that "signalling problems" had been flagged on the line "for some time". It added: "The accident is murder!" In July, 24 people were killed in Turkey when a train travelling from the north-western town of Kapikule en route to Istanbul derailed.[SEP]ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s state-run news agency says several people have been injured after a high-speed train crashed into an overpass in the capital Ankara. Anadolu Agency says two cars of the high-speed train derailed in the accident. The train was en route from Ankara to the central Turkish city of Konya. Several ambulances have been sent to the scene. The cause of the accident is not immediately known.[SEP]Turkey: Four killed, 43 injured in train crash in Ankara Ankara, Dec 13: Four people were killed and 43 others were injured in a crash involving a Turkish high speed train in Ankara on Thursday, Ankara Governor Vasip Sahin said. The incident happened when the train crashed into an overpass at a train station in the capital Ankara on Thursday morning, causing many casualties. The accident occurred at about 06:30 local time (03:30 GMT). Also Read | 5 killed as car runs over labourers sleeping on flyover in Hisar The train was reportedly beginning a journey from the station in Ankara to the city of Konya in western Turkey. Speaking to reporters at the crash site, Ankara Governor Vasip Şahin said the high speed train, which was traveling to the central province of Konya, had crashed into a locomotive which carries out track inspections.[SEP]ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Official: 4 dead, 43 injured in high-speed train accident in Turkish capital Ankara.[SEP]Firefighters and medics trying to rescue victims after a high-speed train crashed into a locomotive in Ankara. ANKARA Nine people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in Turkey when a high-speed train collided with a locomotive and crashed into a station platform and overpass in an Ankara suburb early yesterday, officials said. Rescuers worked to free people trapped under the mangled wreckage at Marsandiz train station, 8km from central Ankara. It was not clear at which speed the train and locomotive were travelling when the collision occurred. There was light snow on the tracks. The train had been heading from Ankara to the central Turkish province of Konya and was not due to stop at Marsandiz. Ankara Governor Vasip Sahin said the locomotive, which lay battered 20m further ahead, carried out track inspections. Three train drivers were among the nine killed in the crash, Transport Minister Cahit Turhan told reporters on the scene. There were 206 passengers on the high-speed train, according to state-owned Anadolu news agency, which also reported that the Ankara state prosecutor's office had launched an investigation. Turkey has been developing a network of high-speed rail links during President Tayyip Erdogan's 16-year-old rule. A previous train accident in 2014 in the southern Turkish province of Mersin, left 10 dead[SEP]At least seven people have died after a high-speed train hit a railway engine and crashed into a pedestrian overpass at a station in the Turkish capital of Ankara. At least 46 people were also injured when the crash happened on Thursday morning as the train travelled from Ankara to Konya. Rescue teams are searching for more survivors. Ankara governor Vasip Sahin said the high-speed train crashed into an engine that was checking the tracks at Marsandiz station in Ankara. “Our hope is that there are no other victims,” he said. Private NTV television said at least two carraiges derailed. Parts of the overpass collapsed on to the train. It was not immediately clear if a signalling problem caused the crash. Mr Sahin said a technical inspection has begun. In July, 10 people were killed and more than 70 injured when most of a passenger train derailed in north-western Turkey, after torrential rain caused part of the tracks to collapse. Last month, 15 people were injured when a passenger train collided with a freight train in the central province of Sivas.[SEP]ANKARA: Nine people were killed and nearly 50 injured in Turkey when a high-speed train collided with a locomotive and crashed into a station platform and overpass in an Ankara suburb early on Thursday, officials said. Rescuers worked to free people trapped under the mangled wreckage at Marsandiz train station, 8 km (5 miles) from central Ankara. It was not clear at which speed the train and locomotive were travelling when the collision occurred. There was light snow on the tracks. The train had been heading from Ankara to the central Turkish province of Konya and was not due to stop at Marsandiz. Ankara Governor Vasip Sahin said the locomotive, which lay battered 20 metres (22 yards) further ahead, carried out track inspections. Three train drivers were among the nine killed in the crash, Transport Minister Cahit Turhan told reporters on the scene. There were 206 passengers on the high speed train, according to state-owned Anadolu news agency, which also reported that the Ankara state prosecutor`s office had launched an investigation. Turkey has been developing a network of high-speed rail links during Tayyip Erdogan`s 16-year-old rule as it looks to ease the burden on increasingly congested highways.[SEP]ANKARA: Nine people were killed and nearly 50 injured after a high-speed train crashed into a locomotive in the Turkish capital on Thursday, officials said. Transport Minister Cahit Turhan told reporters in televised remarks that three of those killed were operators of the train. One of the victims died in hospital, he added. Turhan added that 47 people were injured and were in hospital for treatment. The fast train had been on its way from Ankara's main station to the central province of Konya and according to Hurriyet daily, there were 206 passengers on board. Earlier, the Ankara governor's office said three out of a total of 46 people had been seriously injured. Ankara governor Vasip Sahin said earlier on Thursday morning that four people had been killed. "This morning there was an accident after the 6. 30 high-speed train to Konya hit a locomotive tasked with checking rails on the same route," Sahin told reporters in televised remarks. Turhan said the accident took place six minutes after the train left Ankara as it entered the Marsandiz station. The governor said search and rescue efforts continued as "technical investigations" were underway to find out exactly what caused the crash in Yenimahalle district. He said information about the cause of the crash would be shared with the public when it is known. Images published by Turkish media showed some wagons had derailed and debris from the train scattered on the rail track, which was covered in snow. The windows of one wagon were completely broken while another wagon had been smashed after hitting the footbridge, which also collapsed, an AFP correspondent at the scene said. The Ankara public prosecutor launched an investigation into the crash, state news agency Anadolu reported. The Ankara to Konya high-speed route was launched in 2011 and was followed in 2014 with a high-speed link between Ankara and Istanbul. The accident comes after another rail disaster in July this year when 24 people were killed and hundreds more injured after a train derailed in Tekirdag province, northwest Turkey, due to ground erosion following heavy rains. Turkey's rail network has been hit by several fatal accidents in recent years. In March 2014, a commuter train smashed into a minibus on a railway track in the southern Turkish province of Mersin, which left 10 dead. In January 2008, nine people were killed when a train derailed in the Kutahya region south of Istanbul because of faulty tracks. Turkey's worst rail disaster in recent history was in July 2004 when 41 people were killed and 80 injured after a high-speed train derailed in the northwestern province of Sakarya.[SEP]These are external links and will open in a new window A crash involving a high-speed train at a station in the Turkish capital Ankara has killed at least four people and injured more than 40, the local governor said on Thursday morning. Images from the scene showed emergency services working to rescue people from badly damaged carriages. Reports citing local officials said the high-speed train had collided with another train, then into an overpass. The accident occurred at about 06:30 local time (03:30 GMT). The train was travelling from Ankara to the city of Konya in western Turkey. The crash happened at the Marsandiz railway station, around 8km (5 miles) from Ankara's main station. A large number of emergency workers arrived at the scene shortly after the collision, which occurred in snowy conditions. Local governor Vasip Sahin told reporters that "43 people were injured and unfortunately four of our citizens were found dead". In July, 24 people were killed in Turkey when a train travelling from the north-western town of Kapikuleen en route to Istanbul derailed.[SEP]By BURHAN OZBILICI and SUZAN FRASER , Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A high-speed train hit a railway engine and crashed into a pedestrian overpass Thursday at a station in the Turkish capital of Ankara, killing nine people and injuring dozens, officials said. The 6:30 a.m. train from Ankara to the central Turkish city of Konya collided head-on with the engine, which was checking the tracks at the capital’s small Marsandiz station, Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan told reporters after inspecting the site. The high-speed train, which the Anadolu Agency said was carrying 206 passengers, usually passes through that station without stopping. At least two cars derailed, hitting the station’s overpass, which then collapsed onto the train. Three engine drivers and six passengers were killed in the crash, Turhan said. One passenger died after being hospitalized while the others were killed at the scene. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 84 other people had sought medical help after the crash. Television footage showed emergency services working to rescue passengers from wrangled cars and debris. Hurriyet newspaper said sniffer dogs assisted efforts to find survivors. Turhan said later no one else was believed to be trapped. It wasn’t immediately clear if a signaling problem caused the crash. Authorities detained three state railway employees over suspected negligence and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed a thorough investigation. Passenger Ayse Ozyurt told the IHA news agency that the accident occurred 12 minutes after the train left the main station and that it had not yet gained its maximum speed. “The train was not fast at that time yet,” she said. “Suddenly, there was a frightening breakage … and the train was off the rail.” Konya, about 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of Ankara, is home to the tomb of the Sufi mystic and poet Jalaladdin Rumi, attracting thousands of pilgrims and tourists. The crash occurred during an annual week of remembrance for Rumi, when many travel to Konya to watch Whirling Dervishes, members of a Sufi sect, perform. Turkey has had a raft of train crashes this year. In July, 24 people were killed and more than 70 injured when most of a passenger train derailed in northwestern Turkey after torrential rains caused a section of the tracks to collapse. Last month, 15 people were injured when a passenger train collided with a freight train in Turkey’s central province of Sivas. This version corrects the death toll in a July 2018 train accident in northwestern Turkey. Twenty-four people were killed, not 10.

A high-speed train crashes at Marşandiz railway station in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least nine people and leaving dozens injured.

You may want to stay inside because heavy rainfall has caused flooding on the streets of Metro Vancouver. A video sent to Daily Hive shows heavy flooding in Dick’s Lumber parking lot located at Gilmore Street in Burnaby. A white car can be seen almost half-way submerged in water, in a video captured by Bel Dadwal. Things weren’t any better along nearby Still Creek Drive, where water reached the headlights of a sedan in the McDonald’s parking lot. The low-lying area frequently floods when there is heavy rainfall in the region. Maybe that Big Mac really wasn’t worth it. Location: McD parking lot along Still Creek Drive #bcstorm pic.twitter.com/LnPLDH9lLB — Gladys (@gvogstad) December 11, 2018 On Facebook, the BC SPCA in Maple Ridge made a public call for help on social media after its parking lot was completely flooded. Earlier today Environment Canada warned of “adverse weather conditions” in the following areas: Metro Vancouver – northeast including Coquitlam and Maple Ridge North Shore – including West Vancouver and North Vancouver A wind warning has also been issued for the following areas: Metro Vancouver – southeast including Surrey and Langley Metro Vancouver – southwest including Richmond and Delta The issue warns of strong winds clocking anywhere from 60 to 80 km/h and that are capable of causing damage. Winds of up to 70 km/h are also expected near the Juan de Fuca Strait. Fortunately, neither of these gusts are expected to carry over for longer than 24 hours. See also[SEP]Another powerful storm is headed for B.C.'s South Coast, triggering rainfall warnings in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and parts of Vancouver Island. Environment Canada is forecasting heavy rain will start pouring late Wednesday afternoon or early in the evening as a "moisture-laden frontal wave" reaches the region. Up to 6 cm of rainfall is expected in some areas of the mainland through Thursday, and Environment Canada cautions there could be more localized flooding. "Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads," the weather agency said in a warning. "If visibility is reduced while driving, turn on your lights and maintain a safe following distance. Watch for possible washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts." People in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, West Vancouver, North Vancouver and Abbotsford are all being told to be extra careful on the roads. Tuesday's storm caused issues across the region, washing out busy streets and flooding a SkyTrain station along TransLink’s Expo Line. Buildings in parts of Vancouver also suffered flood damage, and BC Ferries was forced to cancel a morning sailing from Tsawwassen to Victoria. On Vancouver Island, Environment Canada is forecasting up to 5 cm of rainfall between Qualicum Beach and Fanny Bay Wednesday, though the frontal wave is expected to depart overnight. To receive Environment Canada weather warnings and alerts straight to your phone, download CTV Vancouver's free Weather Watch app. Click here for more information, including how to download.[SEP]Another powerful storm is headed for B.C.'s South Coast, triggering rainfall warnings in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and parts of Vancouver Island. Environment Canada is forecasting heavy rain will start pouring Wednesday evening and Thursday as a "moisture-laden frontal wave" reaches the region. Up to 90 millimetres of rainfall is expected in some areas of the mainland through Thursday night, and Environment Canada cautions there could be more localized flooding. "Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads," the weather agency said in a warning. "If visibility is reduced while driving, turn on your lights and maintain a safe following distance. Watch for possible washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts." People in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, West Vancouver, North Vancouver and Abbotsford are all being told to be extra careful on the roads. On Vancouver Island, Environment Canada is forecasting up to 50 millimetres of rainfall between Qualicum Beach and Fanny Bay Wednesday, though the frontal wave is expected to depart overnight. Snow is possible further inland, including along the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt. A snowfall warning issued Wednesday suggests as much as 40 centimetres could fall by the time the storm has passed. The snow is expected to start Wednesday and intensify overnight, easing late Thursday evening. The warning is in effect for the Boundary, East and West Columbia, Fraser Valley, Fraser Canyon, Kootenay Lake, Nicola, Shuswap and West Kootenay regions of B.C. The storm comes a day after another downpour caused issues across Metro Vancouver, washing out busy streets and flooding a SkyTrain station along TransLink’s Expo Line. Buildings in parts of Vancouver also suffered flood damage, and BC Ferries was forced to cancel a morning sailing from Tsawwassen to Victoria. To receive Environment Canada weather warnings and alerts straight to your phone, download CTV Vancouver's free Weather Watch app. Click here for more information, including how to download.[SEP]A day after wind swept B.C.'s South Coast, delaying and cancelling some ferry sailings, Environment Canada has issued a new round of wind and rain warnings. A rainfall warning is in effect for East Vancouver Island from Nanoose Bay to Fanny Bay. The agency says heavy rain will develop late Wednesday afternoon or early evening, with up to 50 millimetres expected to fall between Qualicum Beach and Fanny Bay. The rainfall will ease overnight, but could lead to flash floods and water pooling on roads, Environment Canada warns drivers. Wind warnings are also in effect for north and west Vancouver Island. In the north, southwest winds of up to 90 kilometres an hour could hit exposed coastal sections of the island in the afternoon. On the west coast of the island, strong southwest winds will reach speeds of up to 80 km/h. The winds could toss around loose objects and cause damage to buildings, according to Environment Canada. They're expected to ease overnight as a frontal wave moves out of the region.[SEP]This week's winter storm is officially out in full force. Rain, wind and snowfall warnings are in effect for B.C.'s South Coast, from the west coast of Vancouver Island to the West Kootenay. Metro Vancouver, in particular, is in for a deluge of rain. Environment Canada says the following regions can expect between 70 and 90 millimetres of rain by Friday morning. Localized flooding and washouts near rivers and creeks are possible. The weather agency has forecast a dump of snow in these areas, which includes several major highways. Drivers are asked to slow down and be careful on the roads. • Coquihalla Highway (Hope to Merritt) — Up to 15 centimetres Gusts of 70-100 km/h are expected in these parts of the province on Thursday, particularly in the most exposed areas: The South Coast has been battered by winter weather this week. On Tuesday, pouring rain caused flooding, road closures, traffic disruptions and SkyTrain delays in Metro Vancouver.[SEP]VANCOUVER - Powerful winds are set to to sweep British Columbia on Friday with gusts of up to 100 kilometres an hour in some areas. Environment Canada has posted wind warnings for Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island and parts of the Interior. The national weather agency says it expects strong winds that may cause damage to buildings, such as damage to roof shingles and windows. The agency says winds in coastal areas will strengthen up to 70 kilometres an hour before the front moves inland and gusts reach 90 kilometres an hour. It says powerful winds of up to 100 kilometres an hour will hit Fraser Valley in the evening and diminish after midnight. It also says a very intense cold front will move across the southwest Interior Friday evening with winds as high as 90 kilometres an hour. Strong winds are also expected to develop in the central Interior late this afternoon with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour in Prince George. To receive Environment Canada weather warnings and alerts straight to your phone, download CTV Vancouver's free Weather Watch app. Click here for more information, including how to download.[SEP]VANCOUVER -- Powerful winds are set to sweep British Columbia on Friday with gusts of up to 100 kilometres an hour in some areas. Environment Canada has posted wind warnings for Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island and parts of the Interior. The national weather agency says it expects strong winds that may cause damage to buildings, such as damage to roof shingles and windows. The agency says winds in coastal areas will strengthen up to 70 kilometres an hour before the front moves inland and gusts reach 90 kilometres an hour. It says powerful winds of up to 100 kilometres an hour will hit Fraser Valley in the evening and diminish after midnight. The weather prompted BC Ferries to cancel several mid-day sailings on major routes that take passengers from the Vancouver area to the Nanaimo and Victoria areas. Environment Canada also says a very intense cold front will move across the southwest Interior Friday evening with winds as high as 90 kilometres an hour. Strong winds are also expected to develop in the central Interior late this afternoon with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour in Prince George.[SEP]For the third straight day, Environment Canada has issued wind warnings for parts of Vancouver Island. The warnings are in effect for Greater Victoria, the Southern Gulf Islands, west Vancouver Island and east Vancouver Island from Courtenay to Campbell River and Nanoose Bay to Fanny Bay. Environment Canada says yet another in a series of intense low-pressure storms will produce southeast winds of 70 kilometres an hour, with gusts of up to 90 km/h over exposed sections on the east coast of the island. Homeowners should protect against damage caused by loose objects being tossed around by the wind. The winds are expected to ease Friday night, Environment Canada says. Earlier in the week, a meteorologist for the agency said another storm was slated to move into the region Saturday evening into Sunday, with "storm after storm" expected next week.[SEP]As commuters slogged through an ugly rainstorm on Thursday morning, two otters found time to go for a leisurely swim on a flooded Burnaby road. Torrential rainfall flooded Still Creek Drive in the morning, leaving some vehicles — including an RCMP cruiser — stuck in the water. A Global BC cameraman helped one vehicle out of the water. Two otters, on the other hand, enjoyed the water, bobbing and floating along Still Creek Drive. A rainfall warning is in effect for much of Metro Vancouver. WATCH: Metro Vancouver rainfall warning: 70 to 90 mm of rain expected in some area Forecasters are predicting between 70 and 90 millimetres of rain to fall across parts of Metro Vancouver. Otters have been in the headlines as of late. A hungry river otter gained international attention after feasting on koi in Vancouver’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden. Vancouver Park Board brings in expert to deal with hungry otter Experts being called in to help capture rogue Vancouver otter[SEP]@NEWS1130Traffic Starting to flood out everywhere this is Kent & Fraser St., Vancouver its a swimming pool 🏊🏼🌊 pic.twitter.com/m5Tsgj7gT8 — Steven M (@thescriptclub) December 11, 2018 Maybe that Big Mac really wasn't worth it. Location: McD parking lot along Still Creek Drive #bcstorm pic.twitter.com/LnPLDH9lLB — Gladys (@gvogstad) December 11, 2018 Uh-oh, looks like someone ignored the "this section is closed" barrier. pic.twitter.com/NlKXkz5zng — Jennifer C (@flyingfingers73) December 11, 2018 Flash flooding on 11 December, 2018, caused severe transport problems in parts of Vancouver, Canada.Roads and highways were submerged. Local news reports said that emergency crews responded to at least 30 calls for vehicles in flood-related emergencies. The heavy rainfall also caused issues for transit services on the Expo Line (TransLink) service after tunnels were flooded.Environment Canada said that the heavy rain was brought by the first in a series of December storms that moved across coastal British Colombia.

Environment Canada issues rainfall and wind warnings in Metro Vancouver after severe flash flooding caused minor damage in the area.

Canada should distance itself from U.S. “hegemonism” and grant unconditional freedom to Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese executive detained in Vancouver on Washington’s request, the state-owned tabloid Global Times said in a Thursday editorial. Meng, the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of misleading banks about transactions linked to Iran, putting the banks at risk of violating sanctions. She was arrested on Dec. 1 and released on bail on Tuesday. She will be set free if the United States fails to submit a formal demand for her extradition within 60 days of her arrest. READ MORE: Freeland says countries that want to extradite from Canada ‘should not seek to politicize’ the process Meng has no criminal record anywhere in the world and her arrest violates a U.S.-Canada extradition agreement, the Global Times said, adding that Canada could end the crisis immediately by freeing Meng unconditionally, rather than acting as the “51st state” of the United States. “Canada should distance itself from U.S. hegemonism and fulfill its obligations to help maintain international order and protect human rights,” it said. WATCH: Chrystia Freeland comments on Meng Wanzhou case, possible detentions of Canadians in China Authorities in China are holding former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig on suspicion of engaging in activities that harm China’s national security. He was detained on Monday. The Global Times said there was no evidence that the arrest of Kovrig was in any way connected to the case, but said “the assumption is because Canada has gone too far and people naturally believe China will retaliate.” READ MORE: Freeland says a second Canadian may be facing difficulties in China after questioning by authorities Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland warned the United States on Wednesday not to politicize extradition cases, a day after President Trump said he would intervene in the case if it served national security interests. READ MORE: Trudeau’s justice minister will make final call on Meng Wanzhou extradition — if court approves it In another editorial on Thursday, the official China Daily newspaper accused the United States of manufacturing the diplomatic incident in order to serve political ends. “Washington is mistaken if it thinks it can take Meng hostage and ransom her for concessions in the upcoming trade talks,” it said.[SEP]SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Canada should distance itself from U.S. “hegemonism” and grant unconditional freedom to Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese executive detained in Vancouver on Washington’s request, the state-owned tabloid Global Times said in a Thursday editorial. Meng, the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies HWT.UL, has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of misleading banks about transactions linked to Iran, putting the banks at risk of violating sanctions. She was arrested on Dec. 1 and released on bail on Tuesday. She will be set free if the United States fails to submit a formal demand for her extradition within 60 days of her arrest. Meng has no criminal record anywhere in the world and her arrest violates a U.S.-Canada extradition agreement, the Global Times said, adding that Canada could end the crisis immediately by freeing Meng unconditionally, rather than acting as the “51st state” of the United States. “Canada should distance itself from U.S. hegemonism and fulfill its obligations to help maintain international order and protect human rights,” it said. Authorities in China are holding former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig on suspicion of engaging in activities that harm China’s national security. He was detained on Monday. The Global Times said there was no evidence that the arrest of Kovrig was in any way connected to the case, but said “the assumption is because Canada has gone too far and people naturally believe China will retaliate”. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland warned the United States on Wednesday not to politicize extradition cases, a day after President Trump said he would intervene in the case if it served national security interests. In another editorial on Thursday, the official China Daily newspaper accused the United States of manufacturing the diplomatic incident in order to serve political ends. “Washington is mistaken if it thinks it can take Meng hostage and ransom her for concessions in the upcoming trade talks,” it said.[SEP]Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat who currently works for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, has reportedly been detained in China while working on a research project pertaining to North Korea. Fears promptly arose that Kovrig was arrested in retaliation for Canada’s detention of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou and her possible extradition to the United States. The Canadian government expressed “concerns” about Kovrig’s detention but said on Tuesday it has “no explicit information” linking his plight to the arrest of Meng, wanted in the United States on charges of violating American sanctions against the government of Iran. Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and a member of the Chinese inner circle, was arrested at the Vancouver airport on December 1. A week later, the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned Canada’s ambassador and warned of “grave consequences that the Canadian side should be held accountable for” if Meng was not immediately released. The Wall Street Journal noted China has engaged in retaliatory arrests before: “I am feeling very concerned today,” David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador in China from 2009 to 2012, said Tuesday. “I know the position he occupied” at Canada’s embassy in Beijing, “and I know he has a great reputation.” While Mr. Mulroney said he has no first-hand knowledge of Mr. Kovrig’s case, “it is not beyond the Chinese” to retaliate after Ms. Meng’s arrest. Mr. Mulroney cited China’s decision in 2014 to detain two Canadians involved in humanitarian work near the North Korea border, shortly after a Chinese national, Su Bin, was arrested in Canada and later extradited to the U.S. Mr. Su would eventually plead guilty to conspiring to hack and steal sensitive data from Boeing Co. and other U.S. defense contractors; the Canadians, Kevin and Julia Garratt, were released and returned to Canada. “International Crisis Group is aware of reports that its North East Asia Senior Adviser, Michael Kovrig, has been detained in China. We are doing everything possible to secure additional information on Michael’s whereabouts as well as his prompt and safe release,” Korvig’s employer said in a statement quoted by Reuters, which noted the Chinese government has not responded to requests for comment on the case. The Washington Post quoted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stating on Tuesday that he is “aware of the Canadian detained in China” and promising his government is taking the case “very seriously.” Soon after news of Korvig’s detention broke, the U.S. State Department reportedly began considering an advisory against travel to China by U.S. citizens.[SEP]Chinese authorities are questioning former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig on suspicion of engaging in activities that harmed China’s national security. He was detained days after the arrest in Canada of a Chinese businesswoman. The state-run Beijing News said on Wednesday that Mr Kovrig, who works for the International Crisis Group (ICG), had become the subject of an investigation by the Beijing State Security Bureau. He was detained after police in Canada arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd on December 1 at the request of U.S. authorities, infuriating Beijing. The Canadian government has said it saw no explicit link to the Huawei case. “Canadian citizen Michael John Kovrig was on December 10 investigated in accordance with the law by the Beijing State Security Bureau on suspicion of engaging in activities that harm China’s state security,” the newspaper said in a brief report. The case is continuing to be investigated, it added without elaborating. Accusations of harming state security could cover a wide range of suspected crimes, and in China are often very vague when first levelled. The ICG, a think-tank focused on conflict resolution, said in an earlier statement Mr Kovrig was detained by state security officials in Beijing on Monday night. Diplomats in China said the apparent involvement of the secretive state security ministry, which engages in domestic counter-espionage work, among other things, suggests the government could be looking at levelling spying accusations. However, ICG President and Chief Executive Robert Malley said the group did not engage in such activity. “I don’t want to speculate as to what’s behind it but I am prepared to be categorical about what’s not behind it, and what’s not behind it is any illegal activity or endangering of Chinese national security,” Malley told Reuters, before the state media report came out. “Everything we do is transparent, it’s on our website. We don’t engage in secretive work, in confidential work.” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang, also speaking earlier in the day, said he had nothing he could say on the details of the case. He said the ICG was not registered in China as a non-government organisation (NGO) and Mr Kovrig could have broken Chinese law. “If they are not registered and their workers are in China undertaking activities, then that’s already outside of, and breaking, the law, revised just last year, on the management of overseas non-governmental organisations operating in China,” Lu said. The Ministry of Public Security, which has oversight over foreign NGOs, did not respond to a request for comment. China’s Ministry of State Security has no publicly available contact details. The foreign NGO law, which took effect in January, is part of a raft of new national security measures introduced under President Xi Jinping. “All foreigners that come to China, so long as they respect the law, have nothing to worry about,” Lu said. William Nee, China Researcher for Amnesty International’s East Asia Regional Office in Hong Kong, said Mr Kovrig’s detention was alarming, especially as it appeared to be the first time the law has been used to detain a foreign NGO worker. “We need to wait for the official explanation from the Chinese side, but this detention could have a chilling effect on the foreign NGO and business communities in terms of their feeling safe while travelling in China,” he told Reuters. Guy Saint-Jacques, Canada’s former Ambassador to China, was asked by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp on Tuesday whether the Kovrig detention was a coincidence after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. “In China there are no coincidences … If they want to send you a message, they will send you a message,” he said. A Western diplomat in China, who asked not to be identified, was even blunter: “This is a political kidnapping.” China had threatened severe consequences unless Canada released Ms Meng immediately and analysts have said retaliation for the arrest was likely. Ms Meng was granted bail by a Canadian court on Tuesday, 10 days after her arrest in Vancouver on U.S. claims that she misled multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions caused a diplomatic dispute. Mr Malley said Ms Kovrig, who was based in Hong Kong, had been working on issues related to Chinese foreign policy in Asia and Africa. “I’m just going to hope that whatever process is underway is going to be a fair one and one that will quickly show that there’s nothing against him,” he said. (Reuters/NAN)[SEP]Morneau: We have to separate Huawei case from our trade relationship with China Finance Minister Bill Morneau said he’s remaining focused on enhancing the trade relationship between Canada and China – and keeping that separate from the legal issues at hand – in the wake of escalating tensions over the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. “Our goal has to be to keep these things separate,” Morneau told BNN Bloomberg’s Amanda Lang in an interview from the Toronto Global Forum on Wednesday. “So we have to look at trade as something that’s in the important long-term interest of Canada and China, and look at the legal issue separately.” Morneau’s comments come one day after Meng was granted bail from a British Columbia judge and after U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with Reuters he would intervene in the Huawei situation if it meant securing a lasting trade deal with China. The finance minister said he can’t predict what might happen if Trump does step in, but re-emphasized Canada’s position of keeping the political and legal issues separate. Adding to concerns that the dispute between China, the U.S. and its allies could escalate further, it was revealed Tuesday former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig had been detained during a visit to Beijing. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters he saw “no explicit indication” the detention was linked to Meng’s case. “Obviously it’s a challenging situation that we’re in right now and we are making sure that we make appropriate representations to the Chinese government about the Canadian that’s been held in China – that’s important,” Morneau said. “And we will go forward and make representations as necessary and continue on a role of having enhanced trade relationships – that just has to be the right thing for us to do for Canada,” he added. “My job will really be very much to focus on how we can continue to have a strong relationship.”[SEP]TORONTO — A former Canadian diplomat has been detained while visiting Beijing amid a dispute between the two counties over Canada’s arrest of a Chinese executive at the request of the United States. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale on Tuesday confirmed the detention and said Canada is very concerned. Michael Kovrig, who previously was a diplomat in China and elsewhere, was taken into custody by the Beijing Bureau of Chinese State Security on Monday night during one of his regular visits to Beijing, said the International Crisis Group, for which Kovrig works as North East Asia adviser based in Hong Kong. Rob Malley, president of the non-government organization, said Canadian consular officers had not been given access yet to Kovrig. Malley said he thinks Kovrig was in Beijing on personal matters at the time of his arrest and was definitely not there for any illegal purpose or for any reason that would undermine Chinese national security. “I don’t think he had any reason to feel endangered,” Malley said. “He loved China, which was why he decided to take a leave of absence from the foreign affairs ministry in order to remain in China.” The Brussels-based group said it had not received any information about him since his arrest. The detention came after China warned Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver’s airport. A Canadian judge granted Meng bail Tuesday while she awaits possible extradition to the U.S. “We’re deeply concerned,” Goodale said in response to a question about Kovrig. “A Canadian is obviously in difficulty in China ... We are sparing no effort to do everything we possibly can to look after his safety.” Goodale said there was no explicit indication at this point that it was related to the Meng arrest. However, Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said he had no doubt Kovrig was detained in relation to the arrest of the Huawei executive. “In China there is no coincidence,” he said. “Unfortunately Canada is caught in the middle of this dispute between the U.S and China. Because China cannot kick the U.S. they turn to the next target.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada’s government has contacted Chinese officials about the detention. “We are engaged with the file (case), which we take very seriously,” he said. The International Crisis Group said Kovrig has been one of its full-time experts since February 2017. Its website says Kovrig previously worked as a Canadian diplomat in Beijing and Hong Kong and at the United Nations. Saint-Jacques, the former ambassador, said Kovrig was on leave from the embassy. He said Kovrig did deep political work when he was working for the embassy. That work would include travel and interviews with dissidents, he said. “In China there’s a very line between espionage and political reporting,” he said. Saint-Jacques said the department created a program 15 years ago so it would get more in-depth analysis. He noted that Kovrig was a former journalist whose embassy reports were well read in Ottawa. Kovrig wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he had served as the political lead on a visit Trudeau made to Hong Kong in September 2016. He worked in Canada’s consulate-general in Hong Kong at the time. Former Canadian Liberal Party leader Bob Rae said it was clear why Kovrig had been detained. Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Trudeau, said Chinese “retaliation against Canadian interests or Canadians would be unacceptable and pointless.” “It would have zero impact on judicial proceedings in Canada,” Paris tweeted. “Beijing should already know this from previous experience. Let cooler heads prevail.” Jorge Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to China, said Canada needs to take dramatic action. “I’d be summoning the entire Canadian consular Corp in China home for training. If that means they can’t issue visas in the meantime, certainly the Chinese would understand. These are special times,” he tweeted. Hu Xijin, editor in chief of China’s state-run newspaper Global Times, wrote on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo that there isn’t any evidence Kovrig’s detention was retaliation for Meng’s arrest. But he added that the current situation was “highly sensitive” because of a “American-Canadian conspiracy” to arrest Meng. “If people in the rest of the world make this association, it’s because Meng Wanzhou’s arrest was really way over the line. Naturally, people would think that China would take revenge,” Hu said. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]China's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday denied knowledge of the detention of a former Canadian diplomat, as Chinese citizens rejoiced over a Canadian court's decision to release a top Huawei Technologies executive on bail. The release of Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, prompted an outpouring of support on social media for her and her company, which is based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Zeng Yuan, a university student in Beijing, was among many who believe the detention of former diplomat Michael Kovrig was related to Meng's case. "It is a kind of declaration to the Canadian government," the finance student told The Associated Press. "This makes sense. China cannot sit and await its fate, and let them make ambiguous accusations against Chinese citizens." Meng was detained Dec. 1 at the request of the U.S., which accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. After three days of hearings, a British Columbia justice granted bail Tuesday of 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.5 million) to Meng, but required her to wear an ankle bracelet, surrender her passports, stay in Vancouver and its suburbs and confine herself to one of her two Vancouver homes from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. While declining to confirm Kovrig's detention, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the International Crisis Group, where Kovrig is a Hong-Kong-based analyst, was not registered in China and its activities in the country were illegal. "I do not have information to provide you here," he said. "If there is such a thing, please do not worry, it is assured that China's relevant departments will definitely handle it according to law." Because Kovrig's organization is not registered as a non-governmental organization in China, "once its staff become engaged in activities in China, it has already violated the law," Lu said. He repeated China's demand for the immediate release of Meng, whose father founded Huawei, a leading telecommunications equipment maker that has strong connections to the Chinese government and military. Meng's case has set off a diplomatic furor among the three countries and complicated high-stakes U.S.-China trade talks. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale confirmed Kovrig's detention The International Crisis Group said he was taken into custody Monday night by the Beijing Bureau of Chinese State Security, which handles intelligence and counterintelligence matters in the Chinese capital, Rob Malley, president of the Brussels-based group, said he thinks Kovrig was in Beijing on personal matters at the time of his arrest and was definitely not there for any illegal purpose or for any reason that would undermine Chinese national security. Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto and video producer Olivia Zhang in Beijing contributed to this story.[SEP]Donald Trump is not what you would call a paragon of circumspection or tact at the best of times, so it should perhaps come as no surprise, but the American president has now poured buckets of gasoline on what was already a geopolitical bonfire in the case of Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei chief financial officer detained in Vancouver earlier this month at the request of the U.S. Justice Department. It’s bad enough that Beijing’s macabre propaganda machinery has been churning out the most bloodcurdling threats of punishment and consequence-suffering that Canadians should be expected to endure for our impertinence in merely acting in accordance with the law and abiding by a U.S. extradition request to detain Meng on charges of fraud and evading sanctions in laundering money out of Iran by deception, via Skycomm, a Huawei proxy corporation. • 10/3 podcast: Canada gets on China’s bad side with arrest of Huawei executive • Huawei executive granted $10M bail while Trump says he may intervene in case if it helps China trade deal • ‘No coincidence’: Detention of Canadian in China looks like tit-for-tat response to Huawei executive’s arrest, say former ambassadors Quite apart from the casual contempt for due process, judicial independence and the rule of law implicit in his remarks on Tuesday, Trump gave every impression that Canada merely acted as an American lickspittle when the Mounties apprehended Meng during a Dec. 1 flight stopover at Vancouver International Airport. “If I think it’s good for the country, if I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made – which is a very important thing – what’s good for national security – I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary,” Trump said. With those words, Trump transformed the U.S. Justice Department’s evidence-rich case against Meng and a highly sensitive but otherwise fairly textbook extradition request into something more like a stack of high-stakes poker chips for him to play in his petty trade talks with Beijing. Trump has played this game before. In the case against another Chinese telecom giant, ZTE Corp, Trump lifted a seven-year ban on the company after it had pleaded guilty to violating U.S. sanctions law by re-selling American-made parts and software to Iran and North Korea. After paying an $892-million penalty, ZTE was given a reprieve by the White House after President Xi appealed directly to Trump. In exchange for a further $1 billion, and after sloshing around millions of dollars to Washington lobbyists close to Trump, ZTE was rewarded by having its ban lifted. Sleaziness of this type is America’s business and none of our concern, but Canada did not act on the Justice Department’s extradition request just so that American negotiators could up the ante in quarrels about tariffs, intellectual property and all those other Chinese trade irritants that Trump insists must be removed in order to make America great again. That’s not what the Canada-U.S. extradition treaty is for. Never mind that Trump had no idea about the Dec. 1 move to snag Meng. Never mind the State Department’s insistence that there was no connection between the U.S. Justice Department’s extradition request and Trump’s trade feud with Xi. The U.S. Justice Department’s case, which will have to be argued by Canadian government lawyers in extradition proceedings that will play out for months on end, is now tainted. It was clear from the start that the optics were going to be awkward. Meng was arrested the same day that Trump and Xi were meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina to settle the terms of a 90-day tariff-war truce to allow for trade negotiations. It was clear, too, that the case in Canada would be burdened by weird legal intricacies. Canada can’t extradite anyone to face charges for a crime that doesn’t have an extremely close parallel in Canadian law. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was already going to have to stickhandle the asymmetry between Canada’s relatively parochial and largely useless sanctions laws and the extraterritorial aspects of American far-reaching sanctions laws. Now, Wilson-Raybould has been put in the position of having to argue that the grubby ulterior motives Trump has slathered all over Meng’s case are wholly immaterial to the matter. In the meantime, Beijing is turning the screws on Canada. Michael Kovrig, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group (ICG) and a Canadian diplomat on leave, was nabbed by China’s Ministry of State Security in Beijing on Monday. According to a report in a Beijing newspaper, Kovrig is being investigated by state security officials on charges that he was involved in activities that “harm China’s national security.” China’s Foreign Ministry said earlier that if Kovrig was working for the ICG, he was committing a crime, because the ICG is not registered with the Chinese government. Kovrig was known to have strong views opposing Huawei’s involvement in the development of fifth-generation internet technologies in western countries. Nobody knew his whereabouts Wednesday. Said Brock University’s Charles Burton, himself a former diplomat in China: “My heart goes out to Mr. Kovrig … I believe that he will be tortured in interrogation.” As for Meng, who Chinese authorities say Canada “kidnapped,” she was released on a $10-million bail agreement Tuesday after hearings conducted in open court, where she was ably represented by competent counsel. Her family owns two mansions in Vancouver. Her father, Huawei’s president and founder, is a former People’s Liberal Army officer. While she awaits her formal extradition hearings, she will be confined to metro Vancouver. She will wear an electronic ankle bracelet, and will be monitored and escorted around by a blue-chip security company whose services she will pay for herself. All that was missing from her bail arrangement was a wine steward and an aromatherapist. She says she looks forward to spending quality time with relatives and reading novels. Meng’s case hasn’t just revealed Huawei to be the tool of the Chinese oligarchy and the menace to national security that Justin Trudeau’s government has been warned about, time and time again, by a succession of Canadian and American security and intelligence agencies – warnings the government has ignored. The whole thing has exposed the charade of Canada’s rotten China policy, with its cavalier inattention to the increasingly savage police-state conduct China exhibits at home and abroad, and its absurd pretensions about strengthening and deepening “win-win” relationships in Canada-China trade and diplomacy. The events of the past few days cannot be undone. They should serve as a bracing lesson, an opportunity to wholly rewrite Canada’s operating manual with China, a good thing, in the long run. But for now, Canadians are standing alone at the edge of an abyss, with a Chinese noose around our necks and American shivs sticking out of our backs. Terry Glavin is an author and journalist.[SEP]BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese authorities are questioning former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was detained days after the arrest in Canada of a Chinese businesswoman, on suspicion of engaging in activities that harmed China’s national security. The state-run Beijing News said on Wednesday that Kovrig, who works for the International Crisis Group (ICG), had become the subject of an investigation by the Beijing State Security Bureau. He was detained after police in Canada arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities, infuriating Beijing. The Canadian government has said it saw no explicit link to the Huawei case. “Canadian citizen Michael John Kovrig was on Dec. 10 investigated in accordance with the law by the Beijing State Security Bureau on suspicion of engaging in activities that harm China’s state security,” the newspaper said in a brief report. The case is continuing to be investigated, it added without elaborating. Accusations of harming state security could cover a wide range of suspected crimes, and in China are often very vague when first levelled. The ICG, a think-tank focused on conflict resolution, said in an earlier statement Kovrig was detained by state security officials in Beijing on Monday night. Diplomats in China said the apparent involvement of the secretive state security ministry, which engages in domestic counter-espionage work, among other things, suggests the government could be looking at levelling spying accusations. However, ICG President and Chief Executive Robert Malley said the group did not engage in such activity. “I don’t want to speculate as to what’s behind it but I am prepared to be categorical about what’s not behind it, and what’s not behind it is any illegal activity or endangering of Chinese national security,” Malley told Reuters, before the state media report came out. “Everything we do is transparent, it’s on our website. We don’t engage in secretive work, in confidential work.” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang, also speaking earlier in the day, said he had nothing he could say on the details of the case. He said the ICG was not registered in China as a non-government organisation (NGO) and Kovrig could have broken Chinese law. “If they are not registered and their workers are in China undertaking activities, then that’s already outside of, and breaking, the law, revised just last year, on the management of overseas non-governmental organisations operating in China,” Lu said. The Ministry of Public Security, which has oversight over foreign NGOs, did not respond to a request for comment. China’s Ministry of State Security has no publicly available contact details. The foreign NGO law, which took effect in January, is part of a raft of new national security measures introduced under President Xi Jinping. “All foreigners that come to China, so long as they respect the law, have nothing to worry about,” Lu said. William Nee, China Researcher for Amnesty International’s East Asia Regional Office in Hong Kong, said Kovrig’s detention was alarming, especially as it appeared to be the first time the law has been used to detain a foreign NGO worker. “We need to wait for the official explanation from the Chinese side, but this detention could have a chilling effect on the foreign NGO and business communities in terms of their feeling safe while travelling in China,” he told Reuters. Guy Saint-Jacques, Canada’s former ambassador to China, was asked by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp on Tuesday whether the Kovrig detention was a coincidence after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. “In China there are no coincidences ... If they want to send you a message, they will send you a message,” he said. A Western diplomat in China, who asked not to be identified, was even more blunt: “This is a political kidnapping.” China had threatened severe consequences unless Canada released Meng immediately and analysts have said retaliation for the arrest was likely. Meng was granted bail by a Canadian court on Tuesday, 10 days after her arrest in Vancouver on U.S. claims that she misled multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions caused a diplomatic dispute. Malley said Kovrig, who was based in Hong Kong, had been working on issues related to Chinese foreign policy in Asia and Africa. “I’m just going to hope that whatever process is under way is going to be a fair one and one that will quickly show that there’s nothing against him,” he said.[SEP]President Donald Trump said he would intervene in U.S. efforts to extradite Huawei Technologies Co. executive Meng Wanzhou if it helped him win a trade deal with China. “If I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made, which is a very important thing — what’s good for national security — I would certainly intervene, if I thought it was necessary,” Trump said Tuesday in an interview with Reuters. Meng was arrested earlier this month at the request of U.S. authorities, who allege she conspired to defraud banks to unwittingly violate U.S. sanctions by clearing transactions linked to Iran. On Tuesday, she was granted a $7.5 million bail by a Canadian court, allowing the Huawei chief financial officer to return to her Vancouver home as extradition proceedings continue. Trump told Reuters the White House was in communication with the Justice Department about the case, along with Chinese officials. Asked if he had spoken with President Xi Jinping about the matter, Trump responded: “They have not called me yet. They are talking to my people. But they have not called me yet.” The arrest has threatened to disrupt U.S.-Chinese relations even as the two nations’ leaders seek to negotiate a trade deal that would scale back a series of tariffs that have been implemented this year. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to protest the arrest on Sunday, accusing the U.S. of violating the “legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens.” Revelations Tuesday that a former Canadian diplomat had been detained during a visit to Beijing added to concerns that the dispute could escalate into a broader tit-for-tat between China and the U.S. and its allies. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters he saw “no explicit indication” Meng’s case was linked to the detention of Michael Kovrig, who now works as a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group in Hong Kong. Trump’s remarks appeared to undercut other officials in his administration who contended that Meng’s arrest — which came the same day he and Xi announced plans to break the trade impasse — was unconnected to the broader negotiations. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Sunday during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the case was a “criminal justice matter” and unrelated to trade talks. That message was echoed by Larry Kudlow, the head of Trump’s National Economic Council, who told “Fox News Sunday” that the Huawei case and the trade discussions were different “and I think President Trump and President Xi will continue to keep that difference.”

Chinese state media reports a second Canadian national, Michael Spavor, has been detained on suspicion of endangering state security, while the China foreign ministry say two Canadian nationals are detained in the country. The Spavor investigation follows the detention of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig on December 10 and Canada's December 1 arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

Image copyright Iran Human Rights Monitor Image caption The activist was protesting against his conditions in prison An Iranian political activist jailed for his messages on social media has died after spending 60 days on hunger strike, his family says. Vahid Sayadi Nasiri had been accused of insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other offences. He was released last March after serving two-and-a-half years in prison but detained again five months later. The activist demanded his transfer from a high-security unit of a prison in the city of Qom to a different location. Vahid Sayadi Nasiri was initially arrested in September 2015 and sentenced to eight years in prison for "insulting the supreme leader" and "propaganda against the state," according to the advocacy group Iran Human Rights Monitor. The charges were related to posts he had made on his Facebook page. He was later pardoned and released early. However he was arrested again in August, just months after his release, reportedly on similar charges. He began his hunger strike in October in protest at the conditions of his imprisonment and his lack of access to a lawyer, according to Iran Human Rights Monitor. He also said the principle of separation of prisoners' crimes was being violated as he was being held with ordinary criminals and was being attacked and harassed, the group said. Conditions in the Qom prison are described as harsh, correspondents say. The activist had reportedly been taken to hospital in the wake of his hunger strike. His sister, Elaheh, said the family had been informed by authorities of his death. No other details were immediately available.[SEP]An Iranian political activist jailed for his messages on social media has died after spending 50 days on hunger strike, his family says. Vahid Sayadi Nasiri’s sister, Elaheh, told RFE/RL that the authorities had informed the family that the activist had died in a hospital in the city of Qom on December 12. She said her brother went on hunger strike to protest against the conditions of his imprisonment and to demand his transfer from a high-security unit of a prison in Qom to Tehran’s Evin prison. Nasiri was initially arrested in September 2015 and sentenced to eight years in prison for “insulting” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and "propaganda against the state," according to the U.S.-based advocacy group Iran Human Rights Monitor. The charges stemmed from posts he had made on his Facebook page. Nasiri was released early in March after serving 2 1/2 years in prison, but was arrested again in August, reportedly on similar charges.[SEP]An Iranian political activist, detained in Qom Prison, died in his cell on Wednesday after a 60-day hunger strike. Vahid Sayadi Nasiri was jailed in 2015 and sentenced to eight years after he was accused of insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and spreading “propaganda against the state” on his Facebook account, according to the advocacy group Iran Human Rights Monitor. During his initial detention at Raja’i Shahr and Evin prisons, Iran Human Rights Monitor alleges that Sayadi Nasiri had been harassed by operatives linked to the Iranian regime. The group say he was attacked in May 2017 by a fellow prisoner, and again in February, this time by two offenders. Sayadi Nasiri was released in March having served two-and-a-half years of his sentence, but detained again in August 2018. He began his hunger strike in October in protest at the conditions of his imprisonment and his lack of access to a lawyer. According to Elaheh Sayadi Nasiri, his sister, Sayadi Nasiri had also requested that he be transferred to Evin Prison, on the outskirts of Tehran. the political activist had argued that being locked up alongside regular criminals was a violation of Iran’s regulations on the principle of separation of crimes. According to Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental group, authorities in Iran “routinely restrict detainees’ access to legal counsel.” The U.S. State Department advises potential travelers to the country that “Iranian authorities continue to unjustly detain and imprison U.S. citizens, including students, journalists, business travelers, and academics, on charges including espionage and posing a threat to national security.”[SEP]WASHINGTON -- The United States has condemned Tehran for the “unconscionable” death of a hunger-striking Iranian political activist who had been jailed for messages he wrote on social media. In a statement on December 13, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, who died on December 12, had been “arbitrarily detained” by Iranian authorities after his arrest four months ago. Nasiri had “no access to legal counsel, was held in inhumane conditions, and was charged with spurious national security offences such as ‘insulting the Supreme Leader,’” the statement said. Nasiri’s sister, Elaheh, told RFE/RL that the authorities had informed the family that the activist had died in a hospital in the city of Qom. She said her brother went on hunger strike to protest against the conditions of his imprisonment and to demand his transfer from a high-security unit of a prison in Qom to Tehran’s Evin prison. Nasiri was initially arrested in September 2015 and sentenced to eight years in prison for “insulting” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and "propaganda against the state," according to the U.S.-based advocacy group Iran Human Rights Monitor. The charges stemmed from posts he had made on his Facebook page. Nasiri was released early in March after serving 2 1/2 years in prison, but was arrested again in August, reportedly on similar charges. The State Department statement said he was “just one of many more unjustly detained prisoners held at the mercy of the Iranian regime’s whims.” “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the Iranian regime for its unceasingly flagrant human rights violations,” it said. “We demand that the regime stops subjecting Iranians who are peacefully voicing their opinions to brutal conditions and slow deaths and that it release all those unjustly imprisoned,” it added. The statement referred to two other detainees, Farhad Meysami -- who it said was also on hunger strike -- and Nasrin Sotoudeh. Meysami, a medical doctor, was detained in July for supporting women protesting against the hijab law that forces them to cover their hair and body in public. He has been reportedly on a hunger strike since August to protest the charges he faces and also the lack of access to a lawyer of his choosing. He reportedly is being held in a medical clinic at Evin prison, where he is being force-fed intravenously. Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer, was arrested in June after she represented several of the women detained for removing their head scarves in public to protest against the country’s Islamic dress code. The European Parliament on December 13 overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the Iranian government to “immediately and unconditionally” release Sotoudeh. Sotoudeh -- the co-winner of the European Parliament's 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought -- has denied all charges against her.[SEP]The death of a previously little-known Iranian dissident who was on a hunger strike to protest his detention by Iran has sparked an outcry from rights activists and other social media users. Family members told VOA Persian that prison authorities in the northern city of Qom telephoned them Wednesday to say that Vahid Sayyadi-Nasiri had died in a Qom hospital earlier that day. His mother and a brother said they later tried to locate his body but hospital staff told them it had been taken to a morgue at Qom’s main cemetery. The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) described Sayyadi-Nasiri as a 28-year-old real estate specialist who was critical of Iranian state policy on social media, but had little national name recognition until his death. Iran’s Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) said Iranian intelligence agents detained Sayyadi-Nasiri in Qom in July and authorities put him on trial in September on charges of disseminating propaganda against the state and insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It said a revolutionary court later sentenced him to 4½ years in prison. Rights groups said Sayyadi-Nasiri previously had served a two-year prison term on similar charges before being released in March this year. They said he began a hunger strike against his latest detention Oct. 13 to protest inhumane prison conditions and a lack of access to a lawyer and he died on the 60th day of his protest. In a Thursday report, Iranian judiciary news agency Mizan quoted Qom province’s chief prosecutor Shokrollah Bahrami as saying Sayyadi-Nasiri had been in poor physical health as a result of a liver disease and was transferred to a hospital, before dying there seven days later. Bahrami said the cause of the activist’s death was under investigation. CHRI said Sayyadi-Nasiri’s apparent death from a hunger strike heightened the urgency of resolving what it called “legitimate” grievances of other Iranian dissidents who have been on similar hunger strikes to protest their ongoing detentions. The group highlighted the case of 48-year-old Iranian physician and rights activist Farhad Meysami, who it said has been on a hunger strike at Tehran’s Evin prison since Aug. 1. Authorities had detained Meysami a day earlier for possessing books and badges protesting Iran’s Islamist policy of forcing women to wear a hijab in public. CHRI said Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, detained in June for expressing support for women who had been publicly protesting Iran’s compulsory hijab law, began a second hunger strike Nov. 26. It said she was protesting authorities’ refusal to allow Meysami, her friend, to receive hospital treatment. “Sayyadi-Nasiri’s death and the danger of more deaths are a result of a judicial system that is out of control and which has abandoned any semblance of defending the rule of law,” said CHRI executive director Hadi Ghaemi. “More deaths will come if the authorities persist with these unlawful imprisonments, their denial of due process and the inhumane incarceration conditions in Iran,” he added. Reports of Sayyadi-Nasiri’s death sparked further outrage on social media. Twitter users posted about 25,000 tweets with the hashtag #Vahid_Sayyadi_Nasiri in Farsi in a 24-hour period from Wednesday to Thursday, with many expressing sorrow for not previously having heard about his case. This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Ramin Haghjoo contributed to this report.

Iranian political activist Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, who was jailed for his messages on social media, dies after spending 60 days on hunger strike. He was accused of insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

A series of bomb threats have been reported in B.C.’s Okanagan. Businesses in Vernon, Penticton, Kelowna and Kamloops all reported receiving threats on Thursday afternoon. In Vernon, RCMP are investigating threats to an engraving shop at on Kalamaka Lake, a Ford Dealership on Parkway Place and a commercial building on 24th Street. Multiple bomb threats were received to three businesses in the 500 block of Duncan Avenue W. in Penticton. A business at 2062 Harvey Ave. in Kelowna was evacuated due to bomb threats, with fire and emergency services staged three blocks away. RCMP also evacuated a block on Seymour Street in Kamloops after a business there reported a bomb threat. It is unknown if the threats are connected to a series of bomb threats sent to dozens of schools, government buildings and other locations across the U.S. on Thursday. Law enforcement agencies have since dismissed those threats, which they said were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and are not considered credible. Some of the emails had the subject line: “Think Twice.” The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient’s building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin. “We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city,” the New York City Police Department’s counterterrorism unit tweeted. “These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time.” Other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam. The FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. More to come. — With file from Associated Press[SEP]The Cincinnati Police Department is monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city. These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide. According to the AP, businesses and schools across the U.S. were evacuated. Many of the threats came in the form of an email, demanding $20,000 in bitcoin, a digital currency. “You must pay me by the end of the working day, if you are late with the transaction the bomb will explode,” the email read. “We arent (sic) terrorists and do not assume any responsibility for acts of terrorism in other places." Authorities said they are not considered credible at this time. “Bomb threats are most commonly received via phone, but are also made in person, via email, written note, or other means. Every bomb threat is unique and should be handled in the context of the facility or environment in which it occurs. Facility supervisors and law enforcement will be in the best position to determine the credibility of the threat,” police said. Police say to follow these procedures:[SEP]DETROIT - Dozens of bomb threats being reported at news outlets, government buildings, banks, libraries, schools and other businesses across the U.S. on Thursday afternoon. In Detroit, the Guardian Building at 500 Griswold Street and the Wayne County Treasurer's Office at 400 Monroe Street in Downtown Detroit received bomb threats. Nothing was found. The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office said their office was made aware of a bomb threat sent by email Thursday in Ann Arbor. The Sheriff's Office is investigating. L'Anse Creuse High School - North also reported a threat. Students had already been dismissed. The FBI in Detroit released this statement: “We are aware of the recent bomb threats made in cities around the country, and we remain in touch with our law enforcement partners to provide assistance. As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety.” Around the country, Columbine High School, WNDU in Indiana and Capital University were among those evacuated for bomb threats. Oklahoma City police said at least 10 bomb threats had been reported in the city. There are reports of up to 12 in Chicago. Lincoln, Nebraska police said they've responded to six bomb threats. A Jewish Community Center in San Francisco was evacuated for a bomb threat. Threats were reported in Florida, Utah, Iowa, Maryland, New York, Virginia and North Carolina. The threats apparently stem from a mass email where an unknown writer demands bitcoin in exchange for safety. Here's what it looks like:[SEP]London police confirm they were among several police departments across the country which responded to bomb threats on Thursday, connected to emails that demanded Bitcoin payments. READ MORE: Bomb threats demanding bitcoin hit Australia, New Zealand; police call it a ‘scam’ The bomb threats in cities across Canada and the U.S. prompted evacuations at schools, businesses and public areas. Authorities say it appears in all cases that the scare was a crude extortion attempt. In London, city police say they responded to a report of a bomb threat at a restaurant on King Street around 1:50 p.m. Thursday afternoon. They say the restaurant was evacuated and searched, and nothing was found. Their investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, West Region OPP are investigating six threats including one in Middlesex Centre. Const. Max Gomez told 980 CFPL on Thursday that they believe the emails were hoaxes but police respond to every call to ensure public safety.[SEP](Reuters) - A rash of bomb threats were sent via email on Thursday to dozens of businesses and public buildings across the United States and Canada demanding payment in cryptocurrency, but none of the threats was immediately found to be credible, law enforcement officials said. Starting shortly before 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT), police departments in major U.S. cities coast to coast began reporting on Twitter that numerous local businesses had received the emails - awkwardly worded threats to set off a bomb unless a bitcoin payment of $20,000 were received. More than two hours into the security scare, no actual explosives had been found, authorities said. But the threats prompted brief evacuations of a Toronto subway station and a newspaper office in Raleigh, North Carolina. Some public schools and business also were evacuated as a precaution. Among the cities where bomb threats were reported by authorities on official Twitter accounts were New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Oklahoma City, Denver, Ottawa, and Calgary, Alberta. Police at the University of Wisconsin in Madison tweeted an image taken of one email threat found to be circulating that said in part: “Good day. There is an explosive device (lead azide) in the building where your company is conducted. It is assembled according to my guide. It is compact and it is covered up very carefully. It can not damage the structure of the building, but in case of its explosion you will get many wounded people.” Police in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, reported similar email threats received by several businesses there but had found “no credible evidence any of these emails are authentic.” The FBI has launched a query into the matter but the authenticity of the latest batch was not immediately confirmed, a law enforcement official told Reuters. “We are aware of threats being made in cities across the country,” Rukelt Dalberis, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles, told Reuters separately. “We remain in touch with our law enforcement partners. We encourage the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activities that could represent a threat.” Multiple U.S. law enforcement sources told Reuters that no actual explosives had surfaced in connection with any of the threats within the first couple of hours of the scare. A similar wave of emailed hoax bomb threats in December 2015 prompted officials in Los Angeles to close the city’s public school system, a move that national law enforcement officials later criticized as an overreaction. That threat came two weeks after a married couple inspired by Islamic State killed 14 people at a California county office building in a shooting rampage. A teenager with dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship was arrested in Israel in March 2017 for making bomb threats to more than 100 Jewish organizations and Jewish community centers (JCCs) in dozens of U.S. states over several months.[SEP]Dozens of bomb threats were emailed to news organizations, government institutions, schools and private businesses from coast to coast on Thursday, sparking evacuations, in what is now believed to be a nationwide hoax. The NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau said in a tweet that the agency is monitoring the bombs threats, but they are not considered credible. The NYPD later tweeted that there was an email 'being circulated containing a bomb threat asking for bitcoin payment.' The awkwardly phrased letter, obtained by ABC Eyewitness News, appears to have been written by a non-native English speaker, possibly with the aid of a translation app. It reads in part: 'there is an explosive device (Tetryl) in the building where your company is conducted. My requited person constructed the bomb according to my guide. It is small and it is hidden very carefully, it is not able to destroy the structure of the building, but if it detonates there will be many wounded people. The unidentified author of the letter, who stresses that he or she is not part of a terrorist organization, goes on to say that the device will be detonated if police presence or panic is detected. 'I want to propose your a bargain,' the letter continues. 'You pay me $20'000 in Bitcoin and explosive will not detonate... You must pay me by the end of the working day. If you are late with the payment explosive will detonate.' The thug then reassures the targeted business that the threat is 'nothing personal, if you don't send me the money and the bomb detonates, next time other commercial enterprises will transfer me a lot more, because it not not a one-time action.' According to the law enforcement agency, the purpose of the threat was to cause a disruption and possibly obtain money, Police said they have conducted searches at locations targeted by the treat but no devices have been found. The FBI stated that federal agents are also aware of the unfolding situation in cities across the US, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Detroit. 'As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety.,' a tweet from the federal agency read. One of the numerous locations in New York targeted by the threat was the prestigious Bronx Science High School, which was evacuated at 11am after receiving a bomb threat over the phone. The caller claimed that a pipe bomb hidden on campus would explode in 20 minutes. The Emergency Service Unit later determined that there was no bomb at the school. At least five locations in Manhattan were targeted and no fewer than 11 threats were made in Suffolk County on Long Island. Columbine High School in Colorado was placed on lockdown this morning after someone called in claim that multiple bombs had been planted inside the school, which was the site of the infamous 1999 shooting that claimed 13 lives. Penn State University in Pennsylvania notified students of a threat via a campus alert. Near Atlanta, people were ushered out of a courthouse. A spokesman for the Oklahoma City Police Department revealed that around a dozen specific email bomb threats with addresses in and around Oklahoma City were sent out Thursday. Some of the emails had the subject line: 'Think Twice.' Others opened with 'Better listen to me.' The Palm Beach County, Florida sheriff's office and the Boise, Idaho police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible. Boston police said in a statement they had confirmed that the Boston Opera House had received an email threatening to bomb the celebrated cultural institution. On the West Coast, two dozen threats were reported in Los Angeles, and in San Francisco a bank and a Jewish community center were evacuated as a precaution.[SEP]Bomb threats emailed to multiple locations across the country (CNN) — Dozens of businesses and institutions across the United States and Canada received email threats Thursday afternoon, prompting evacuations and sweeps of buildings. At this time it’s unclear if the threats — which have been received in San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Miami, Washington, DC and other locations nationwide — are connected. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they are aware of the threats and are working with law enforcement to provide assistance. “As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety,” the FBI said. Email threats also have been received in Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto, Canada. Vancouver Police Department Sgt. Jason Robillard tells CNN that businesses have received threats. He is not aware of any buildings that have evacuated. This email demanding $20,000 via Bitcoin was forwarded to CNN affiliate KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City by a viewer who received it at her business. It’s unclear whether everyone who received a threat on Thursday received the same email. The message was identical to an email warning posted on social media by the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Police Department and similar to descriptions of other threats posted on social media nationwide. The Cedar Rapids Police Department posted: “The Police Department has found NO CREDIBLE EVIDENCE that these emails are authentic. It appears to be a robo-email that has been sent throughout the area hoping to scam businesses out of money. We have also received information that businesses in surrounding counties may have also received this email.” CNN is not disclosing the names of the sender and recipient or specifics of the Bitcoin account. In Seattle, the University of Washington noted in a campus-wide alert that the FBI had “advised that the email is not a credible threat.” The Thurston County Courthouse in Olympia, Washington and the Park Record newspaper in Park City, Utah also received similarly threatening emails. People have been allowed back inside buildings at those locations, according to tweets on their verified Twitter accounts. In California, the Riverside Sheriff’s Office had “an influx of email threats” and is taking them seriously, although no threat has been substantiated. The San Francisco Police Department responded to reports of bomb threats at locations throughout the city. “We have received information that several other cities across the United States have received similar threats,” police said. Pennsylvania State Police are “investigating some bomb threats in the eastern part of the state,” a spokesman for the department tells CNN. “Penn State University Police, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is investigating a message received by individuals in multiple locations on campus and across the state,” the university said in a statement. “Police say this does not appear to be a legitimate threat, however, an investigation is ongoing.” University police later said the threat appears to be a hoax. The Chicago Police Department received 15 to 20 reports of emailed threats in the past few hours, according to Officer Jennifer Bryk. Director of Communications Anthony Guglielmi tweeted, “#ChicagoPolice are working with federal partners on the investigation, and at this time there is no elevated threat level for the city of Chicago.” Threats were also emailed to the Charlotte News & Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer newspapers in North Carolina. Dozens more threats continued to come in across the country later into the day, authorities reported.[SEP](Reuters) - A rash of bomb threats were sent via email on Thursday to dozens of businesses and public buildings across the United States and Canada demanding payment in cryptocurrency, but none of the threats was immediately found to be credible, law enforcement officials said. Starting shortly before 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT), police departments in major U.S. cities coast to coast began reporting on Twitter that numerous local businesses had received the emails - awkwardly worded threats to set off a bomb unless a bitcoin payment of $20,000 were received. More than two hours into the security scare, no actual explosives had been found, authorities said. But the threats prompted brief evacuations of a Toronto subway station and a newspaper office in Raleigh, North Carolina. Some public schools and business also were evacuated as a precaution. Among the cities where bomb threats were reported by authorities on official Twitter accounts were New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Oklahoma City, Denver, Ottawa, and Calgary, Alberta. Police at the University of Wisconsin in Madison tweeted an image taken of one email threat found to be circulating that said in part: “Good day. There is an explosive device (lead azide) in the building where your company is conducted. It is assembled according to my guide. It is compact and it is covered up very carefully. It can not damage the structure of the building, but in case of its explosion you will get many wounded people.” Police in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, reported similar email threats received by several businesses there but had found “no credible evidence any of these emails are authentic.” The FBI has launched a query into the matter but the authenticity of the latest batch was not immediately confirmed, a law enforcement official told Reuters. “We are aware of threats being made in cities across the country,” Rukelt Dalberis, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles, told Reuters separately. “We remain in touch with our law enforcement partners. We encourage the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activities that could represent a threat.” Multiple U.S. law enforcement sources told Reuters that no actual explosives had surfaced in connection with any of the threats within the first couple of hours of the scare. A similar wave of emailed hoax bomb threats in December 2015 prompted officials in Los Angeles to close the city’s public school system, a move that national law enforcement officials later criticized as an overreaction. That threat came two weeks after a married couple inspired by Islamic State killed 14 people at a California county office building in a shooting rampage. A teenager with dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship was arrested in Israel in March 2017 for making bomb threats to more than 100 Jewish organizations and Jewish community centres (JCCs) in dozens of U.S. states over several months.[SEP]Authorities say bomb threats sent Thursday to dozens of schools, government buildings and other locations across the U.S. appear to be a hoax. Law enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, which they said were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and are not considered credible. Some of the emails had the subject line: "Think Twice." The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient's building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin. "We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city," the New York City Police Department's counterterrorism unit tweeted. "These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time." In the Lehigh Valley, officials with the Bethlehem Fire Department Bomb Squad conferred with Palmer Township police on a threat Thursday but did not respond, fire Lt. Lucas Fuller said. He said he could not confirm whether this was connected to the threats nationwide. An Allentown Fire Department spokesman was unaware of his bomb squad responding to any threats Thursday. Along with the NYPD, other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam. The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff's office and the Boise, Idaho, police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible. The FBI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Across the country, some schools closed early and others were evacuated or placed on lockdown because of the hoax. Authorities said a threat emailed to a school in Troy, Missouri, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis, was sent from Russia. This Slate Belt landfill stinks. But did its stench carry all the way to the Lehigh Valley? The bomb threats also prompted evacuations at city hall in Aurora, Illinois, the offices of the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, a suburban Atlanta courthouse and businesses in Detroit. "Organizations nationwide, both public and private, have reported receiving emailed bomb threats today," Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shannon Banner said. "They are not targeted toward any one specific sector." Penn State University notified students via a text alert about threats to a half-dozen buildings and an airport on its main campus in State College, Pennsylvania. In an update, the school said the threat appeared to be part of a "national hoax." Officials at Columbine High School in Colorado were dealing Thursday with a bomb threat of a different sort. Students were being kept inside for the rest of the school day after someone called in a bomb threat against the school. The Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff's Office said the caller claimed to have placed explosive devices in the school and to be hiding outside with a gun. There is nothing to validate the threat was found at Columbine, where 12 students and a teacher were killed by two students in 1999, according to Sheriff's spokesman Mike Taplin. Two dozen other Colorado schools were also temporarily placed on lockout, meaning their doors were locked but classes continued normally, as the threat was investigated.[SEP]Authorities say bomb threats sent Thursday to dozens of schools, government buildings and other locations across Canada and the United States appear to be a hoax. So far, police in Canada are investigating threats in Winnipeg, Montreal, Calgary, Toronto, and Penticton, B.C. In Toronto, police say they've received 10 threats but there have been no signs of any bombs. Law enforcement agencies across the two countries dismissed the threats, which they said were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and are not considered credible. Some of the emails had the subject line: ``Think Twice.'' The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient's building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin. ``We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city,'' the New York City Police Department's counterterrorism unit tweeted. ``These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time.'' Other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam. The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff's office and the Boise, Idaho, police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible. The FBI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Across the country, some schools closed early and others were evacuated or placed on lockdown because of the hoax. Authorities said a threat emailed to a school in Troy, Missouri, about 55 miles (88 kilometres) northeast of St. Louis, was sent from Russia. The bomb threats also prompted evacuations at city hall in Aurora, Illinois, the offices of the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, a suburban Atlanta courthouse and businesses in Detroit. ``Organizations nationwide, both public and private, have reported receiving emailed bomb threats today,'' Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shannon Banner said. ``They are not targeted toward any one specific sector.'' Penn State University notified students via a text alert about threats to a half-dozen buildings and an airport on its main campus in State College, Pennsylvania. In an update, the school said the threat appeared to be part of a ``national hoax.'' Officials at Columbine High School in Colorado were dealing Thursday with a bomb threat of a different sort. Students were being kept inside for the rest of the school day after someone called in a bomb threat against the school. The Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff's Office said the caller claimed to have placed explosive devices in the school and to be hiding outside with a gun. There is nothing to validate the threat was found at Columbine, where 12 students and a teacher were killed by two students in 1999, according to Sheriff's spokesman Mike Taplin. Two dozen other Colorado schools were also temporarily placed on lockout, meaning their doors were locked but classes continued normally, as the threat was investigated.

Fake bomb threats are sent to dozens of businesses around Canada and the U.S., demanding ransoms in bitcoin. Some of the threats forced evacuations.

Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: In a move that could bring the long-festering political crisis in Sri Lanka to a close, a seven-judge bench of the country’s Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled that President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to dissolve Parliament on November 9 was unconstitutional and illegal, and had no force or effect in law. In a courtroom packed with lawyers, MPs, politicians and journalists, the judges further upheld that the President’s arbitrary action had violated the fundamental right of ‘equal protection of the law’ of the Petitioners, as well as the rights of citizens and parliamentarians, and ordered that the Gazette proclamation be quashed and pronounced null and void. In late October, President Sirisena had dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe days after the latter returned from a state visit to India, and replaced him with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, a pro-China strongman. When that decision was contested, Sirisena had dissolved parliament. Like India, the US, the EU and China urged a return to democratic principles, both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe had refused to step down, leading to a situation which brought governance in the island nation to a standstill. Thursday’s ruling comes a day after parliament-in session following an earlier temporary Supreme Court Ruling passed a vote of confidence in Wickremesinghe as PM, whose party and its allies have a simple majority. In a tweet, Wickremesinghe called on Sirisena to “promptly respect the judgment of the courts”. Though Rajapaksa remained silent, his son and MP Namal Rajapaksa tweeted: “We respect the decision of (Sri Lanka’s) Supreme Court, despite the fact that we have reservations regarding its interpretation.” If Sirisena rejects the Supreme Court’s decision, he could face impeachment proceedings.[SEP]Image copyright AFP Image caption The Supreme Court was packed with MPs, lawyers and journalists awaiting the judgment Sri Lanka's top court has ruled that the president's dissolution of parliament last month was unconstitutional, as a political crisis continues to grip the nation. President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed his prime minister and replaced him with former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa in late October. When that decision was contested, he dissolved parliament. The ruling could see sacked PM Ranil Wickremesinghe return to office. The legislature - which has been sitting after a temporary ruling from the Supreme Court - has already passed two no-confidence motions against Mr Rajapaksa. The controversial but popular leader was president at the end of Sri Lanka's nearly three decade-old civil war in 2009 and is accused of presiding over vast human rights abuses, which he denies. On Wednesday, the parliament passed a vote of confidence in Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister. His party and its allies have a simple majority in parliament - and have argued from the beginning that President Sirisena's actions, including calling a snap election nearly two years ahead of schedule, were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court on Thursday said the president could not dissolve parliament until it was four-and-a-half years through its five-year term. Correspondents say that if the president does not accept the top court's decision, it could lead to impeachment proceedings. However this would require the support of a two-thirds majority in parliament and a special inquiry by the Supreme Court. In a tweet, Mr Wickremesinghe called on President Sirisena to "promptly respect the judgment of the courts". He is yet to comment. Namal Rajapaksa, an MP and son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, tweeted: "We respect the decision of [Sri Lanka's] Supreme Court, despite the fact that we have reservations regarding its interpretation." Image copyright AFP Image caption Parliament voted for the reinstatement of Mr Wickremesinghe on Wednesday The political crisis, which began on 26 October when President Sirisena shocked the nation by suddenly sacking his PM, is being closely watched by the US, India, China and the European Union. The government has been in paralysis since an appeals court ruling last week that restrained Mr Rajapaksa from acting as prime minister, in a separate case brought by 122 MPs. The crisis - which has provoked brawls in parliament and sparked large protests - has hurt tourism, which makes up about 5% of the country's economy.[SEP]Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the dissolution of Parliament by Maithripala Sirisena was “unconstitutional”, in a major setback to the President whose controversial decisions have plunged the island nation into a constitutional crisis. A seven-member apex court bench said that the President cannot dissolve Parliament till Parliament completes a 4 1/2 year term, the Colombo Gazette reported. Sri Lanka is going through a major political crisis since October 26 when President Sirisena, in a controversial move, sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and installed former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place. He also dissolved Parliament and called for a snap election on January 5. Sirisena sacked the 225-member Parliament when it appeared that Rajapaksa would not be able to muster the support of 113 MPs. Wickremesinghe, on the other hand, commands a majority. As many as 13 petitions were filed against Sirisena’s November 9 order sacking the Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end. The Supreme Court on November 13 had issued an interim order ruling Sirisena’s gazette notification as temporarily illegal and halted the preparations for snap polls.[SEP]The Sri Lankan Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to dissolve Parliament on October 26 was illegal, AFP reported. A seven-member bench unanimously gave the verdict, saying that the president’s decision was unconstitutional. Security was heightened around the Supreme Court and a special task force deployed before the Supreme Court’s order, PTI reported. The island nation has been in a state of political turmoil since President Maithripala Sirisena ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president. He suspended Parliament to prevent a vote, then lifted the suspension, but dissolved it again in November and called for snap elections on January 5. Rajapaksa’s government lost two trust motions in Parliament. Around 13 petitions were filed against the president’s order. The petitioners included several political parties, organisations and activists. On November 13, the Supreme Court had issued an interim order ruling Sirisena’s gazette notification as temporarily illegal and had halted the preparations for snap polls, Sri Lankan website Ada Derana reported.[SEP]A seven-member apex court bench said that the President cannot dissolve Parliament till it completes its a four-and-half-year term Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled that the dissolution of Parliament by Maithripala Sirisena was "unconstitutional", in a major setback to the embattled President, whose controversial decisions plunged the island nation into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. A seven-member apex court bench said that the President cannot dissolve Parliament till it completes its a four-and-half-year term. The decision has laid to rest one of the many controversial moves which had complicated the constitutional crisis emanating from President Sirisena's decision on October 26 to sack the incumbent prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and install former president Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place. He also dissolved the 225-member Parliament and called for a snap election on January 5. Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever[SEP]COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The Sri Lankan Supreme Court’s chief administrator says a seven-member bench will deliver a much-anticipated verdict on whether it was legal for President Maithripala Sirisena to dissolve Parliament and call for fresh elections, moves that created a political crisis in the Indian Ocean island nation. The bench concluded hearings last week and reserved judgment for Thursday. The court stayed the Parliament’s dissolution in November. A verdict endorsing Sirisena’s moves could quickly end a political stalemate, precipitated by the president’s decision in October to sack the then-prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and suspend Parliament. Such an order would pave the way for the election of a new Parliament. However, if the court rules Sirisena’s actions were unconstitutional, the president will be under pressure to reappoint Wickremesinghe as prime minister.[SEP]Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday unanimously ruled that the dissolution of Parliament by Maithripala Sirisena was “unconstitutional”, in a major setback to the President whose controversial decisions plunged the island nation into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. A seven-member apex court bench said that the President cannot dissolve Parliament till it completes a 4 1/2 year term. Authorities beefed up the security around the Supreme Court and deployed the elite special task force in the area. The decision has laid to rest one of the many controversial moves which had complicated the political and constitutional crisis emanating from President Sirisena’s decision on October 26 to sack the incumbent prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and install former president Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place. Later, he also dissolved the 225-member Parliament and called for a snap election on January 5. Sirisena sacked the Parliament when it appeared that Rajapaksa would not be able to muster the support of 113 MPs to gain a simple majority. Wickremesinghe on the other hand commands a majority in the House. On Wednesday, Wickremesinghe proved his majority in Parliament, with 117 out of 225 lawmakers in Parliament voting to pass a confidence motion in his leadership. Rajapaksa has so far failed to prove his majority in Parliament. Sirisena has said that he has always taken decisions in the best interest of the country and the people. He had also said that he will honour the court’s decision. As many as 13 petitions were filed against Sirisena’s November 9 order sacking the Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end. The apex court’s decision has come as a serious blow to Sirisena after he had failed in his attempt to see Rajapaksa gaining majority in the assembly to oust Wickremesinghe. This would mean no snap parliamentary election could be called by Sirisena at least until February 2020. The Supreme Court on November 13 had issued an interim order ruling Sirisena’s gazette notification as temporarily illegal and halted the preparations for snap polls. The bench – extended to 7 from the original 3 when they issued the interim order – had marathon sessions over four days last week before reserving the order to this week. The current parliament could still call for a snap poll with a resolution passed with two thirds majority. Wickremesinghe had held his ground without leaving his official residence as he claimed his dismissal was illegal. He said the 19th amendment to the Constitution had made Sirisena powerless to remove a sitting prime minister. (PTI)[SEP]Sri Lanka was on the edge, ahead of the crucial Supreme Court ruling on President Maithripala Sirisena’s controversial sacking of Parliament and call for a snap election that pushed the country into unprecedented political turmoil. As many as 13 petitions were filed against the President’s November 9 order sacking the 225-member Parliament, almost 20 months before its term was to end, and setting the election date for January 5. The petitions have been filed by political parties including United National Party (UNP), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) and the All Ceylon People’s Congress.Organisations and activists such as the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Attorney Aruna Laksiri and also a member of Elections Commission Prof. S. R. H. Hoole have also filed petitions.The Supreme Court on November 13 had issued an interim order ruling Sirisena’s gazette notification as temporarily illegal and halted the preparations for snap polls. The hearing in the case was concluded last week as the court reserved its judgment. The judge bench consisting of Supreme Court Justices consisting of Chief Justice Nalin Perera, Priyantha Jayawardena, Prasanna Jayawardena, Sisira de Abrew, Vijith Malalgoda, Buwaneka Aluwihare and Murdu Fernando commenced hearing the petitions on the 4th of December.On the final day of hearing of the petitions, President’s Counsel S. Kanageswaran, representing the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan, presented submissions on behalf of the petitioners. He stated that the impunity conferred to the President of the country, under Article 35 of the Constitution, in civil or criminal proceedings has been inhibited to a certain extent by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.Pointing out that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution has made provisions to file lawsuits under Fundamental Rights against the executive and administrative actions of the President, he said that the official activities of the President can be queried before the court. Hence, the dissolution of the Parliament is also an official activity carried out by the President, it can be challenged before the court under the Fundamental Rights provisions, President’s Counsel Kanageswaran had further said.The rest of the attorneys appearing on behalf of the petitioners also presented submissions in this regard.The petitioners had presented submissions before the court in response to the submissions of the intermediate petitioners. Presenting submissions before the Supreme Court on the 5th of December, the Attorney General had stated that in accordance with Article 38 (02) of the Constitution, the Supreme Court does not have the legal authority to hear these fundamental rights petitions filed against the parliamentary dissolution. The Supreme Court last Friday (Dec. 7) concluded the hearing of the petitions filed challenging the Gazette notification dissolving the Parliament after four consecutive days of court hearings.Meanwhile, the interim order issued by the court, suspending the Gazette notification on the dissolution of Parliament, was extended until the verdict is delivered in the case. President Sirisena has said he will accept the Supreme Court’s ruling on the petitions filed against his gazette notification dissolving Parliament.“I look forward to the constitutional interpretation of the Supreme Court. Whatever it may be, I will take future political decisions accordingly, to the best interest of our motherland, not to the benefit of any person, group or party,” the president tweeted on Sunday. His remarks were apparently aimed at Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) with whom Sirisena was running the national unity government since 2015.The partnership ended on October 26 when Sirisena fired Wickremesinghe, triggering the political standoff.Since ousting Wickremesinghe, Sirisena has highlighted the “shortcomings” of the ex-premier in a bid to justify his sacking and dissuade his reinstatement. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has officially conveyed that the House does not recognise Rajapaksa as the legal prime minister until he proves his majority.[SEP]Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to dissolve parliament ahead of its term as illegal. On November 9, Sirisena dissolved parliament and called a general election for January 5 days after sacking Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and naming opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa to the post. However, the apex court Judge Sisira de Abrew rejected that decision and said, “President can’t dissolve parliament before four-and-half years.” The court verdict means parliament elections will be held as scheduled after February 2020 and raises the possibility of Wickremesinghe reinstated as prime minister since his coalition enjoys a majority in parliament.[SEP]The Supreme Court today ruled that President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to dissolve Parliament was unconstitutional and illegal. Chief Justice Nalin Perera goes on to state that the president cannot dissolve parliament at his own will or before the lapse of 4.5 years, if President wants to dissolve Parliament before 4.5 years, there must be a resolution passed by two-thirds majority in Parliament. The justices have now left the courtroom.

A seven-bench Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Sirisena's dissolution of Parliament on 9 November 2018 was unconstitutional.

Image copyright Virgin Galactic Image caption Virgin Galactic's plane will be carried to a height of 12,000m before its rocket ignites The latest test flight by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic successfully rocketed to the edge of space and back. The firm's SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship reached a height of 82.7km, beyond the altitude at which US agencies have awarded astronaut wings. It marked the plane's fourth test flight and followed earlier setbacks in the firm's space programme. Sir Richard is in a race with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to send the first fee-paying passengers into space. He founded the commercial spaceflight company in 2004, shortly after Mr Musk started SpaceX and Jeff Bezos established Blue Origin. In 2008, Virgin Galactic first promised sub-orbital spaceflight trips for tourists would be taking place "within 18 months". It has since regularly made similar promises to have space flights airborne in the near future. But delays and a fatal crash in 2014 prevented Sir Richard's original ambitions. On Thursday, the SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship took off from the Mojave Desert in California. The company said the space ship's motor burned for 60 seconds, travelling at 2.9 times the speed of sound as it gained height. The rocket carried two pilots and a mannequin named Annie as a stand-in passenger, as well as four research experiments for NASA. "Today we have shown Virgin Galactic can open space to the world," Sir Richard said. The US government has awarded astronaut wings to pilots who ventured farther than roughly 80km beyond earth's surface. But Thursday's flight did not breach the 100km Karman Line, which many organisations use to resolve debates about where space begins. While the trip marked a milestone for Virgin Galactic, the firm's rivals have already ventured farther - albeit without humans on board. SpaceX, in partnership with NASA, is planning crewed missions for early next year. Mr Bezos has also said Blue Origin plans to send its first crew to space in 2019. Virgin Galactic, which is charging $250,000 for a 90-minute flight, has said more than 600 people have bought tickets or put down deposits for an eventual voyage.[SEP]'An Indescribable Feeling': Virgin Galactic Makes Historic Trip To Edge Of Space Virgin Galactic says it has reached a rather lofty milestone. During a test flight Thursday morning in Mojave, Calif., a pair of pilots flying the company's SpaceShipTwo spacecraft hit an altitude of 51.4 miles. That height clears the 50-mile threshold that is sometimes considered the boundary of space. "Today, as I stood among a truly remarkable group of people with our eyes on the stars, we saw our biggest dream and our toughest challenge to date fulfilled," Virgin founder Richard Branson said in a statement released Thursday. "It was an indescribable feeling: joy, relief, exhilaration and anticipation for what is yet to come." The space tourism company's feat marks the first successful manned space flight launched on U.S. soil since NASA retired its space shuttle program in 2011. It has also earned the plane's pilots, Mark "Forger" Stucky and Frederick "CJ" Sturckow, commercial astronaut wings from the Federal Aviation Administration. "Like the early days of aviation, these commercial space flights take grit and innovation — the very attributes it takes to blaze a trail for generations to follow," the FAA said in its announcement. "It's that grit and innovation we want to recognize." It should be noted that Virgin is using one measure of where space begins — but it's not the only one. Perhaps the most common definition of space is the Karman Line, which is about 62 miles (100 km) above sea level. "In theory, once this 100 km line is crossed, the atmosphere becomes too thin to provide enough lift for conventional aircraft to maintain flight," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains, noting that many international organizations use the Karman Line as their own benchmark. "At this altitude, a conventional plane would need to reach orbital velocity or risk falling back to Earth." However you measure it, though, the flight represents a triumph for Virgin Galactic — and a stark change from just over four years ago, when the company grabbed headlines for a very different, altogether tragic reason. In October 2014, its spacecraft crashed during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, killing one of the pilots aboard and severely injuring the other. The National Transportation Safety Board's months-long investigation into the incident ultimately concluded that it was caused by human error — though, as NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reported at the time, "investigators found that SpaceShipTwo's design was also to blame." The believed that the ship should have had better safeguards to protect against such mistakes. So the company went to work on updating the design, ultimately rolling out the ship flown Thursday, which goes by the name VSS Unity. Earlier this year, the supersonic plane climbed to about 32 miles during its third-ever rocket-powered flight. "I've been so proud of the [Virgin Galactic] team, how they've responded to [the tragedy] and really moved forward with a sense of urgency," Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides told CNN Business two weeks ago. Unlike other rockets launched by NASA, Virgin's spacecraft does not make a vertical launch from a pad on the ground. Instead, it is carried into the sky by another, larger plane, which then detaches the craft and drops it like a bomb. Then, the VSS Unity activates its rockets to push itself even faster, turning upward at the same time. Thursday's test flight "saw a 60 second planned rocket motor burn which propelled VSS Unity to almost three times the speed of sound and to an apogee of 51.4 miles," the company explained in its news release. "As VSS Unity coasted upwards through the black sky and into space, Virgin Galactic Mission Control confirmed the news and congratulated the two astronaut pilots: 'Unity, Welcome to Space.' " The successful spaceflight is something of a coup for Virgin Galactic, which has been competing with other commercial space ventures — Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin among them — in what is increasingly becoming a crowded field. While SpaceX has had some high-profile launches of its own lately, Virgin Galactic says Thursday's flight marks "the very first time that a crewed vehicle built for commercial, passenger service, has reached space." The development also likely comes as welcome news to the prospective space tourists who have already invested heavily in tickets aboard the first official flights, whenever they get off the ground. The price for a single ticket runs up to a quarter of a million dollars.[SEP]Richard Branson's commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic literally soared to new heights during a Thursday morning test flight of its rocket-powered SpaceShipTwo space plane. It returned safely to Earth after the flight. "SpaceShipTwo, welcome to space," the company tweeted during live coverage of the flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The space claim is a bit of a gray area. SpaceShipTwo, named the VSS Unity, hitched a ride on Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo aircraft before separating and taking off under its own power. The winged spaceship reached 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers) above the surface of Earth and achieved a speed of Mach 2.9. The rocket motor burned for 60 seconds. NASA says space starts at roughly 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, but SpaceShipTwo's pilots likely experienced microgravity during the journey. Virgin Galactic can argue in favor of its claim to reaching space. The US Air Force awards astronaut wings to pilots who top the 50-mile mark. The VSS Unity carried four NASA-sponsored experiments on board, including a vibration-isolation platform and an experiment that simulates how the dusty surface of an asteroid reacts to an impact in microgravity. Virgin Galactic intends to eventually take space tourists on flights. Branson said in July he hopes to be one of the first passengers to go for a ride. Thursday's test flight gives Virgin Galactic a step up in the private space-tourism race. Elon Musk's SpaceX has ambitious plans to carry passengers around the moon and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is conducting rocket tests, but both rival companies have yet to carry humans into space. NASA tweeted its congratulations to Virgin Galactic for "successfully flying to suborbital space." This was Virgin Galactic's fourth powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo. "Overall the goal of this flight is to fly higher and faster than previous flights," Virgin Galactic said. Mission achieved. First published Dec. 18, 8:46 a.m. PT. Update, 9:58 a.m. PT: Adds NASA congratulations and more context on space tourism.[SEP]Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity soared into space Thursday and reached an altitude of more than 270,000 feet — past the 50-mile mark the U.S. government uses to define the edge of space. The Unity's fourth test flight began Thursday morning at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The spaceplane was attached to its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo, before being released. Its rocket motors were then ignited, helping to carry the spacecraft into the galaxy. Before its descent to Earth, it reached an altitude of 271,268 feet (51.4 miles). The craft, also known as SpaceShipTwo, was piloted by two veteran pilots, Mark "Forger" Stucky and C.J. Sturckow. Virgin Galactic's founder, Richard Branson, watched the flight from the ground with his son, Sam. Branson had promised to start taking tourists — about 800 people have paid $250,000 each for tickets — to the edge of space by the end of the year. But this test flight over the Mojave Desert carried only a pilot and co-pilot, according to Virgin Galactic. "We plan to burn the rocket motor for longer than we ever have in flight before, but not to its full duration," the company said ahead of Thursday's flight. "At the end stages of the rocket burn in the thin air of the mesosphere and with the speeds that we expect to achieve, additional altitude is added rapidly." The company's goal is to get to the Kármán line, the boundary between the upper atmosphere and outer space, where future space tourists will get to look back at Earth and experience weightlessness. "If all goes to plan our pilots will experience an extended period of micro-gravity as SpaceShipTwo coasts to apogee, although they will remain securely strapped in throughout," Virgin Galactic said before the flight. "They should also have some pretty spectacular views, which we look forward to sharing as soon as possible post flight." In July, during its third test flight, the spaceplane reached an altitude of 170,800 feet (32.3 miles), more than halfway to the goal of reaching the edge of space. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin also intend to take space tourists up on brief suborbital flights for a substantial fee. It's not clear if VSS Unity will be ready in time to hit Branson's goal of carrying paid customers by the end of December. It wouldn't be the first time the entrepreneur got ahead of himself. After establishing Virgin Galactic in 2004 he said it would be ready for passengers by 2007. This time around the company is at least hedging its bets. "Whether we complete all our objectives during the next flight or need to wait a little longer, we remain committed to completing the final stages of this extraordinary flight test program as quickly, but more importantly as safely, as possible," Virgin Galactic said in its statement.[SEP]Virgin Galactic reaches space for the first time during its 4th powered flight from Mojave, Calif. The aircraft called VSS Unity reached an altitude of 271,268 feet reaching the lower altitudes of space. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman) MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Virgin Galactic’s tourism spaceship climbed more than 50 miles high above California’s Mojave Desert on Thursday, reaching for the first time what the company considers the boundary of space. The rocket ship hit an altitude of 51 miles (82 kilometers) before beginning its gliding descent, said mission official Enrico Palermo. It landed on a runway minutes later. “We made it to space!” Palermo said. Thursday’s supersonic flight takes Virgin Galactic a big step closer to turning the dream of commercial space tourism into reality. The company aims to take paying customers on the six-passenger rocket, which is about the size of an executive jet. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson has said he wants to be one of the first on board. Branson greeted the two pilots after the test, declaring “Space is Virgin territory!” Virgin Galactic considers 50 miles (80 kilometers) the boundary of space because it is used by the U.S. Air Force and other U.S. agencies. That’s different than a long-held view that the boundary is at 62 miles (100 kilometers). Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides noted that recent research favors the lower altitude. At the start of the test flight, a special jet carrying the Virgin Space Ship Unity flew to an altitude near 43,000 feet (13,100 meters) before releasing the craft. The spaceship ignited its rocket engine and it quickly hurtled upward and out of sight of viewers on the ground. The spaceship reached Mach 2.9, nearly three times the speed of sound. The two test pilots — Mark “Forger” Stucky and former NASA astronaut Rick “CJ” Sturckow — will be awarded commercial astronaut wings, said Federal Aviation Administration official Bailey Edwards. “It was a great flight and I can’t wait to do it again,” said Sturckow, who flew on the space shuttle four times. Virgin Galactic’s development of its spaceship took far longer than expected and endured a setback when the first experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot. More than 600 people have committed up to $250,000 for rides that include several minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth far below. The endeavor began in 2004 when Branson announced the founding of Virgin Galactic in the heady days after the flights of SpaceShipOne, the first privately financed manned spacecraft that made three flights into space. Funded by the late billionaire Paul G. Allen and created by maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The prize was created to kick-start private development of rocket ships that would make spaceflight available to the public. When Branson licensed the SpaceShipOne technology, he envisioned a fleet carrying paying passengers by 2007, launching them from a facility in southern New Mexico called Spaceport America. But there were significant setbacks. Three technicians were killed in 2007 by an explosion while testing a propellant system at Scaled Composites LLC, which built SpaceShipOne and was building the first SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic. Then, in 2014, SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight by Scaled Composites when the co-pilot prematurely unlocked its unique “feathering” system and it began to deploy. The co-pilot was killed but the injured pilot managed to survive a fall from high altitude with a parachute. During descent, the craft’s twin tails are designed to rotate upward to slow it down, then return to a normal flying configuration before the craft glides to a landing on a runway. New versions of SpaceShipTwo are built by a Virgin Galactic sister company and flight testing is now in-house. Its previous test flight reached 32 miles (52 kilometers). Branson isn’t alone in the space tourism business: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is planning to take space tourists on suborbital trips, using the more traditional method of a capsule atop a rocket that blasts off from a launch pad. SpaceX’s Elon Musk recently announced plans to take a wealthy Japanese entrepreneur and his friends on a trip around the moon.[SEP]Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic just unveiled a new space plane that'll one day carry astronaut wannabees to the fringes of space. This vehicle will replace the one that fatally crashed more than a year ago and is supposed to be not only safer but also smarter this time around. Tickets to ride this thing are likely well out of your price range, but if you're still interested in what it's called, how it works, and what makes it different from the company's old spacecraft, we've explained all you need to know. New SpaceShipTwo: What is Virgin Galactic? Virgin Galactic is Virgin Group's spaceflight company founded by Sir Richard Branson in 2004. It is developing commercial spacecraft, with the purpose of providing suborbital spaceflights to paying space tourists. It also conducts suborbital launches for space science missions as well as orbital launches of small satellites. It eventually plans to provide orbital human spaceflights too. New SpaceShipTwo: What is VSS Enterprise? The VSS Enterprise was Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo spaceplane. It was built by Scaled Composites, named after the USS Enterprise from the Star Trek TV series, had its first flight in 2010, and was intended to be the first of five suborbital spacecraft for Virgin Galactic. It broke apart during its fourth flight in late 2014 due to a co-pilot error. Co-pilot Michael Alsbury died in the accident. New SpaceShipTwo: What is VSS Unity? Virgin Galactic unveiled its new SpaceShipTwo on 19 February 2016 at a ceremony at the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. Professor Stephen Hawking dubbed it the VSS Unity. This spacecraft will bring space tourists into sub-orbital space in the near feature. The VSS Unity replaced the SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise that crashed during a test flight in 2014. New SpaceShipTwo: Is VSS Unity different from VSS Enterprise? The VSS Unity is the first vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s manufacturing arm. It looks nearly identical to its predecessor and is able to launch and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere like before. It's also more automated, has new fail-safes to prevent pilots from making mistakes, and is equipped with a rocket engine that uses a different rubber-like fuel for more efficient combustion. These changes haven't been tested in flight. Over 700 engineers worked on the rocket. It is designed to carry up to six passengers and two crew members on a five-minute flight. During flight, the spaceship will be hauled beneath the wing of a larger aircraft and released at an altitude of about 45,000 feet. It'll soar before rocketing about 62 miles above Earth, at which point it will start falling back toward Earth. New SpaceShipTwo: How much does the trip cost? Virgin Galactic has not yet set a firm timeline for carrying tourists into space, but pre-sale tickets for the trip cost $250,000 (£160,000) each. Hundreds of people have already reserved a seat on the sub-orbital spaceplane, including celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie, and Justin Bieber. The VSS Unity will remain on the ground after its unveiling however, as it must go through "full-vehicle tests of her electrical systems and all of her moving parts," the company said on its website. New SpaceShipTwo: Will you need to wear a space suit? Virgin Galactic partnered with a high-end fashion brand known as Y-3 to ensure everyone aboard its space ships look mighty spiffy. Y-3 is a collaboration between Adidas and Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. It created sleek-looking apparel for future pilots, operations team members on the ground, and astronauts. The line features dark-coloured, lightweight material, with zippers going up the legs and torsos. Everything has a tight fit and is comfortable enough to support a natural seating position. Want to know more? Check out Virgin Galactic's blog posts (here and here) for more details.[SEP]A Virgin Galactic rocket plane reached space on Thursday and returned safely to the California desert, capping years of testing to become the first U.S. commercial human flight to breach Earth's atmosphere since America's shuttle program ended in 2011. The successful test flight presages a new era of civilian space travel that could kick off as soon as next year, with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic battling billionaire-backed ventures such as Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, to be the first to offer suborbital flights to fare-paying tourists. Branson, who said he personally put up $1 billion toward the roughly $1.3 billion development costs for Virgin's space businesses, told Reuters he viewed competition with Bezos and others as a race, though passenger safety was the top priority. "Today we get to enjoy the fact that we have put people into space before anybody else," Branson said. Virgin's twin-fuselage carrier airplane holding the SpaceShipTwo passenger spacecraft took off at 7:11 a.m. local time (1511 GMT) from the Mojave Air and Space Port, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Los Angeles. British billionaire Branson, wearing jeans and a leather bomber jacket with a fur collar, attended the take-off along with hundreds of spectators on a crisp morning in the California desert. After the rocket plane, also called the VSS Unity, reached an apogee of 51.4 miles (83 km) above Earth, a crying Branson hugged his son and high-fived and hugged other spectators. The plane reentered the atmosphere at 2.5 times the speed of sound and landed a few minutes later to cheers and applause, concluding roughly an hour's journey. One of the pilots handed Branson a small Earth stress ball when the two hugged. Thursday's test flight - the fourth mission during which VSS Unity flew under its own power - had pilots Mark Stucky and Frederick Sturckow onboard, four NASA research payloads, and a mannequin named Annie as a stand-in passenger. The next flight test is within the next couple of months, depending on data analysis from Thursday's flight, Virgin Galactic said. Branson has said Virgin's first commercial space trip with him onboard would happen "in months and not years." The carrier airplane hauled the SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket plane to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13.7 kms) and released it. Seconds later, SpaceShipTwo fired, catapulting it to more than 51 miles above Earth, high enough for the pilots to experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet. The ship's rocket igniting and vertical ascent through a cloudless sky could be seen from the ground. Virgin's latest flight test comes four years after the original SpaceShipTwo crashed during a test flight that killed the co-pilot and seriously injured the pilot, dealing a major setback to Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of the London-based Virgin Group. "It's been 14 long years to get here," Branson told reporters after the landmark flight. "We've had tears, real tears, and we've had moments of joy. So the tears today were tears of joy." Nearly 700 people have paid or put down deposits to fly aboard Virgin's suborbital missions, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and pop star Justin Bieber. A 90-minute flight costs $250,000. Virgin Galactic has received about $80 million in deposits from future astronauts, Branson said. Short sightseeing trips to space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket are likely to cost around $200,000 to $300,000, at least to start, Reuters reported in July. Tickets will be offered ahead of the first commercial launch, and test flights with Blue Origin employees are expected to begin in 2019. Branson added that he "would be delighted to offer Bezos a flight on Virgin" and for Bezos "to maybe offer me a flight" on New Shepard. Bezos' New Shepard has already flown to the internationally recognised boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space known as the Karman line at 62 miles (100 km) - though the Blue Origin trip did not carry humans. Virgin's Thursday launch did not go as high as the Karman line. Its pilots were aiming to soar 50 miles into the sky, which is the U.S. military and NASA's definition of the edge of space and high enough to earn commercial astronaut wings by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Other firms planning a variety of passenger spacecraft include Boeing Co, Elon Musk's SpaceX and late Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen's Stratolaunch. In September, SpaceX said Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo, would be the company's first passenger on a voyage around the moon on its forthcoming Big Falcon Rocket spaceship, tentatively scheduled for 2023. Musk, the billionaire CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Inc, said the Big Falcon Rocket could conduct its first orbital flights in two to three years as part of his grand plan to shuttle passengers to the moon and eventually fly humans and cargo to Mars. Looking to the future after the successful flight, Branson talked about the possibility of using his space plane to link international cities, offering orbital space flights, or potentially even building a Virgin hotel in space. "One thing leads onto another. I forever dream," he told Reuters. "Actually, I said to my son today, we were sitting in the cockpit (before the flight), and I said sometimes I think life is just one incredible dream." Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Mojave, California; Additional reporting by Irene Klotz in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Writing by Nick Zieminski; Editing by Leslie Adler.[SEP]Rob is a Verdict staff writer. You can reach him at robert.scammell@verdict.co.uk Yesterday Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic test flight successfully flew to the edge of space, marking a major milestone in the commercial space race. It is the first time VSS Unity, a SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered space plane, surpassed the 80km altitude at which NASA awards astronaut wings. According to Virgin Galactic, the space plane reached a maximum height of 82.7km, giving pilots Mark ‘Forger’ Stucky and C.J Stuckrow spectacular views of the curvature of Earth. Jet-powered aircraft WhiteKnightTwo acted as a mothership, carrying VSS Unity to an altitude of more than 43,000ft before releasing it. Pilots Stucky and Stuckrow then ignited VSS Unity’s rocket for 60 seconds, propelling it to a top speed of Mach 2.9 – nearly three times the speed of sound. There is no agreed international law defining the edge of space, but 100km above sea level commonly represents the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. While VSS Unity did not pass this, previous Virgin Galactic model SpaceShipOne surpassed this in 2004. It is a major success for Virgin Galactic after its previous SpaceShipTwo plane was destroyed during a test flight in 2014, resulting in the death of one of the craft’s two pilots. You can watch the spectacular video of Virgin Galactic’s space flight below. Video of Virgin Galactic space flight take off WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo took off from the Mojave Desert in California yesterday at 10am EST. Watch SpaceShipTwo return to Earth after the successful space flight SpaceShipTwo also carried payloads for NASA experiments, which put the spaceship close to the full weight it would be operating at during commercial flights. The spacecraft is fully reusable, with WhiteKnightTwo having now flown a total of 261 times and SpaceShipTwo 15 times. Virgin Galactic says it has sold hundreds of tickets to customers priced at $250,000 a pop, but the company plans to carry out more testing before commercial flights take place. Competitors SpaceX and Blue Origin have both sent rockets further into space, albeit without human passengers. Read more: Commercial space race: How close are Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin to taking tourists to space?[SEP]If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member . If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further. EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) after confirmation of a successful test flight. With two veteran test pilots at the controls, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane climbed to the edge of space for the first time Thursday in a major achievement for Richard Branson’s long-sought ambition to begin regular commercial hops with space tourists, and the first piloted flight by a U.S. vehicle above an altitude of 50 miles (80 kilometers) since the last space shuttle mission in 2011. The successful test flight Thursday propelled Virgin Galactic — founded by Branson in 2004 — closer to commercial service after a 14-year effort slowed by development problems, and a fatal crash in 2014 that set the program back more than three years. “Today, for the first time in history, a crewed spaceship, built to carry private passengers, reached space,” Branson said. “Today we completed our first revenue-generating flight and our pilots earned their commercial astronaut wings. Today, we have shown that Virgin Galactic really can open space to change the world for good. “We will now push on with the remaining portion of our flight test program, which will see the rocket motor burn for longer and VSS Unity fly still faster and higher towards giving thousands of private astronauts an experience which provides a new, planetary perspective to our relationship with the Earth and the cosmos,” Branson continued. “This is a momentous day, and I could not be more proud of our teams who together have opened a new chapter of space exploration.” The SpaceShipTwo vehicle, helmed by Virgin Galactic test pilots Mark “Forger” Stucky and Rick “C.J.” Sturckow, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port around 10:10 a.m. EST (7:10 a.m. PST; 1510 GMT) Thursday under a specially-designed four-engine carrier jet. The jet-powered mothership, named VMS Eve, took nearly an hour to climb to an altitude of 43,000 feet (about 13,100 meters) over the Mojave Desert, where it dropped the SpaceShipTwo vehicle, christened VSS Unity, at around 10:59 a.m. EST (7:59 a.m. PST; 1559 GMT). The rocket plane fell for a few seconds, then ignited its rear-mounted hybrid rocket motor for 60 seconds, propelling Stucky and Sturckow to a target altitude of more than 50 miles (80 kilometers). Virgin Galactic live-tweeted Thursday’s flight, providing play-by-play updates as the suborbital spaceship rocketed through the rarefied upper atmosphere, then soared into the nearly airless environment of space. The company did not provide a live webcast of Thursday’s test flight. VSS Unity reached a maximum altitude of 271,268 feet, or 82.7 kilometers, and a top speed of Mach 2.9 — nearly three times the speed of sound, according to Virgin Galactic. In a press release Tuesday, Virgin Galactic — founded by billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson — said the company was entering a new phase of testing on SpaceShipTwo, an upsized commercial version of the SpaceShipOne rocket plane that won the Ansari X Prize in 2004, becoming the first privately-funded spacecraft to carry a human to space. SpaceShipOne flew to an altitude of more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) on three occasions, first in June 2004, then on back-to-back quick-turnaround flights on Sept. 29 and Oct. 4, 2004. “During this phase of the flight program we will be expanding the envelope for altitude, air speed, loads, and thermal heating,” Virgin Galactic said in a statement announcing plans for Thursday’s SpaceShipTwo test flight. “We also plan to burn the rocket motor for durations which will see our pilots and spaceship reach a space altitude for the first time.” The reusable SpaceShipTwo rocket plane has a length of around 60 feet (18 meters), and a wingspan of 27 feet (8 meters). Once the rocket-powered portion of the flight was completed, and after a few minutes of weightlessness, Stucky and Sturckow steered the craft for a glide back to a runway landing at Mojave Air and Space Port, where VSS Unity touched down around 11:14 a.m. EST (8:14 a.m. PST; 1614 GMT). “Many of you will know how important the dream of space travel is to me personally,” Branson said in remarks on the flight line at Mojave. “Ever since I watched the moon landings as a child, I have looked up to the skies with wonder. We started Virgin nearly 50 years ago dreaming big and loving a challenge. Today, as I stood among a truly remarkable group of people with our eyes on the stars, we saw our biggest dream and our toughest challenge to date fulfilled. It was an indescribable feeling: joy, relief, exhilaration and anticipation for what is yet to come.” Stucky is a former U.S. Marine Corps and NASA test pilot, with more than 9,000 hours of flying time on a variety of aircraft, including the F-4, F-16 and F/A-18 fighter planes, along with a variant of the U-2 spy plane. Sturckow is a former NASA astronaut and a retired Marine Corps test pilot who flew on four space shuttle missions, and commanded two shuttle flights to assemble the International Space Station. VSS Unity is the second SpaceShipTwo vehicle to be built, following the loss of the VSS Enterprise rocket plane in a fatal crash in 2014 that killed Michael Alsbury, the craft’s co-pilot. Lead pilot Peter Siebold parachuted back to the ground after a harrowing fall from the stratosphere when VSS Enterprise lost control and broke apart moments after igniting its rocket motor on an atmospheric test flight. Engineers blamed pilot error for the accident, which occurred after Alsbury prematurely unlocked SpaceShipTwo’s feathering system, twin tail booms that are used to re-orient the rocket plane and slow it down for descent back into the dense, lower layers of the atmosphere. While the pilots did not command the feathering system to engage, the air flow at the ship’s altitude forced the booms to rotate toward their re-entry positions, leading to the craft’s disintegration at an altitude of more than 50,000 feet. The new SpaceShipTwo models, beginning with VSS Unity, have an added safety feature to prevent pilots from unlocking the tail fins too early. Virgin Galactic, through it subsidiary The Spaceship Company, took over development and construction of subsequent SpaceShipTwo vehicles from Scaled Composites after the crash. VSS Unity made its first captive carry test flight underneath the VMS Eve mothership in 2016, followed by a series of unpowered glide flights and three rocket-powered tests beginning in April, ahead of Thursday’s trip to the edge of space. Once the test flight program is completed, Virgin Galactic plans to relocate operational SpaceShipTwo flights to Spaceport America facility in New Mexico. The SpaceShip company is building additional SpaceShipTwo vehicles to allow for a higher flight rate after commercial service begins. Virgin Galactic has not announced a timetable for the first flight with paying passengers, or when Branson himself plans to climb aboard VSS Unity for a spaceflight. Here is a list of the VSS Unity’s powered test flights to date: • May 29: Apogee of 114,500 feet (34.3 kilometers); Top speed of Mach 1.9 SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry six passengers, along with two pilots, close to the boundary of space. Commercial flights of the vehicle are expected to fly to an altitude of at least 50 miles (80 kilometers). The U.S. Air Force and NASA awarded astronaut wings to pilots of the X-15 rocket plane who traveled to that altitude, but the Kármán line — the internationally-recognized boundary of space — lies at the 62-mile (100-kilometer) mark. But there has been a recent push to redefine the internationally-recognized boundary of space to the lower 80-kilometer mark, and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the world air sports governing body, announced Nov. 30 that it will reconsider the location of the boundary, which is useful for keeping scorecards and determining who and what vehicles have flown in space. “In the last few years there have been many scientific and technical discussions around this demarcation line for the ‘edge of space’ and variance around this as a boundary condition for recognition of ‘astronaut’ status,” the FAI said in a statement. “Recently published analyses present a compelling scientific case for reduction in this altitude from 100 kilometers to 80 kilometers,” the statement continued. “These analyses combine data/modeling from a number of differing perspectives (latitudinal variations during solar cycles, theoretical lift coefficients for different size/configuration satellites ranging from cubesats to the International Space Station, perigee/apogee elliptical analysis of actual satellite orbital lifetimes, etc.) to a level that has never been done before in relation to this issue.” The Kármán line is named for Theodore von Kármán, a pioneer in theoretical aerodynamics who co-founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The recent analyses of the boundary of space “also provide an accurate overview of some of the historical arguments and inadvertent misrepresentations of Kármán’s actual analyses and conclusions from over half a century ago,” the FAI statement continued. The air sports governing body said it would organize a workshop with the International Astronautical Federation in 2019 to “fully explore this issue with input and participation from the astrodynamics and astronautical community.” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astropyhsics who tracks rocket launches, is a proponent of changing the internationally-recognized threshold of space to the 80-kilometer altitude. McDowell tweeted after Thursday’s SpaceShipTwo flight that he plans to include the rocket plane’s first mission to space on his widely-referenced list of human spaceflights. “Stucky is the 568th human to fly above 80 km,” he tweeted, a list that includes professional astronauts and pilots of the X-15 rocket plane, which flew above the 80-kilometer mark in the 1960s. The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to award Stucky and Sturckow commercial astronaut wings after Thursday’s flight, joining SpaceShipOne pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie as the only pilots to achieve that distinction. Sturckow already flew above the 80-kilometer altitude on his four space shuttle missions. Four NASA-supported science experiments rode aboard SpaceShipTwo on Thursday, making it Virgin Galactic’s first revenue-generating flight. “The anticipated addition of SpaceShipTwo to a growing list of commercial vehicles supporting suborbital research is exciting,” said Ryan Dibley, Flight Opportunities campaign manager at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. “Inexpensive access to suborbital space greatly benefits the technology research and broader spaceflight communities.” The experiments flown Thursday included investigations studying the behavior of dust particles on low-gravity planetary surfaces and the response of plant tissue to microgravity. NASA also flew a demo payload to test fluid flow control technologies that could be used on thermal control and life support systems on future spacecraft, and a vibration isolation mounting interface designed to reduce disturbances during launch, re-entry and landing. Virgin Galactic is competing with Blue Origin, founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, in the suborbital space tourism and research market. While Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo vehicle uses an airborne release to fire into space and lands on a runway under manual pilot control, Blue Origin’s fully-automated New Shepard rocket and crew capsule takes off vertically from a launch pad, followed by a propulsive landing of the booster and a parachute-assisted return of the passenger-carrying module. Blue Origin has accomplished nine New Shepard flights since 2015 — all without passengers — including two in-flight tests of the rocket’s abort system, which could be activated to rapidly push the crew capsule away from a failing booster. The highest altitude achieved by a New Shepard flight to date is nearly 390,000 feet — almost 119 kilometers — thanks to an extra burst of energy provided by the capsule’s abort rocket during an escape test in July. Following a standard mission profile, the New Shepard has reached a maximum height of around 351,000 feet, or 107 kilometers. Several hundred would-be space tourists have paid deposits on $250,000 tickets to ride Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. Blue Origin has not yet started selling tickets for New Shepard. While Thursday’s flight was the first time a piloted U.S. vehicle has reached the 80-kilometer mark since the last space shuttle mission in July 2011, work continues in preparation for the first flight of an orbital-class U.S. crewed spacecraft. SpaceX and Boeing, each working under multibillion-dollar contracts with NASA, are developing human-rated capsules that could be ready to carry astronauts to the International Space Station next year.[SEP]Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flew higher than it ever has before, surpassing what the US Air Force considers the boundary of space, and marking the first manned flight to space from US soil since 2011. The United States has not sent any people to space since the US space shuttle program ended in 2011, and has relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. In the meantime, a commercial space race is underway as companies rush to build spacecraft that can carry astronauts and tourists into microgravity. Virgin Galactic marked a major milestone on Thursday in that race, as its spaceship made it to a peak height, or apogee, of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers), after taking off attached to an airplane from Mojave, California, then firing its rocket motors to reach new heights. "We made it to space," the company said on Twitter. "We travelled at 2.9 Mach on the way up to today. That's 2.9 times the speed of sound." The flight -- with two pilots on board -- was a major victory for the company headed by British tycoon Richard Branson, who is striving to send tourists to space at a cost of $250,000 per seat. The commonly accepted international definition of space is 62 miles high (100 kilometers), but the US Air Force considers the space boundary to be a bit lower, at 50 miles. Virgin Galactic has said it would use the US Air Force's definition of space as its standard. In July, after burning the rocket motor for 42 seconds, the VSS Unity reached a height of 32 miles. Commercial airplanes typically fly at an altitude of about six miles, while the orbiting International Space Station is some 250 miles high. Another US rocket company, Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is also working to send tourists to space, but using a small rocket to get there. Virgin's first flight date had been pushed back multiple times, following a test flight accident that killed a co-pilot in 2014. Branson told CNN in November he hoped to send people to space "before Christmas." More than 600 clients have already paid $250,000 for a ticket.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo successfully completes its fourth powered test flight with VSS Unity and reaches space at an altitude of 82.7 km (51.4 mi) but does not breach the 100 km (62 mi) Karman Line.

Chang’e-4 is second spacecraft in Chinese mission to land on far side of the moon China’s lunar lander Chang’e-4 has successfully entered orbit around the moon. After a voyage of 240,000 miles (385,000km) that lasted 110 hours, the spacecraft fired its retrorockets on 12 December while just 80 miles above the lunar surface. This placed it in a stable elliptical orbit, where it will stay until the landing attempt, which is expected next month. Chang’e-4 was launched on 7 December atop a Long March-3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China’s Sichuan province. Spacewatch: China readies for part one of mission to far side of the moon Read more It is the second spacecraft in the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) mission to attempt the first landing on the far side of the moon. The first spacecraft, a communications relay satellite called Queqiao, launched on 20 May and is now stationed in its operational orbit about 40,000 miles beyond the moon. A relay satellite is needed because once the lander is on the far side of the moon, it will not be in sight of Earth. A date for the landing attempt has not yet been announced but it is likely to take place in early January after mission controllers have tested all systems. The spacecraft carries experiments and instruments from a number of countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Sweden.[SEP]China’s Chang’e-4 lunar mission, the first-ever soft-landing endeavor on the lunar farside, launched successfully on 8 December at 02:23 Beijing time (7 December at 18:23 UTC) via a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The launch carried a lander and a rover toward the Moon. On 12 December at 8:45 Beijing time (16:45 UTC), the spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit, preparing for a landing in early January. The launch placed Chang’e-4 directly into a 200- by 420,000-kilometer Earth-Moon transfer orbit, similar to the paths of Chang’e-2, -3 and Queqiao. (Chang’e-1 orbited Earth 3 times before moving to an Earth-Moon transfer orbit). This type of transfer orbit typically takes 4 to 5 days, and navigators plan 2 or 3 trajectory correction maneuvers (TCMs) to adjust the path. Actually, Chang’e-4 required only one TCM: • The first TCM, which was planned for 8 December at about 19:42 Beijing time (11:42 UTC), was canceled because the trajectory was deemed accurate enough. • The second TCM was carried out on 9 December at 16:42 Beijing time December 9 (8:42 UTC). • The third TCM, which was planned for about 24 hours ahead of the braking maneuver (11 December at about 16:42 Beijing time or 8:42 UTC), was also canceled because the second maneuver had placed the vehicle on an accurate enough trajectory. Canceling maneuvers leaves reserve fuel on the spacecraft for the landing phase. During the Earth-Moon transfer phase, amateur radio astronomer Scott Tilley tracked Chang’e-4 several times. For example, he told us Chang’e-4 was about 366,000 kilometers away from Earth on 11 December at about 05:40 Beijing time (10 December at 21:40 UTC) and was on its expected orbit. (He is also keeping tabs on Chang'e-5 T1, still communicating with Earth from a stable lunar orbit.) Today, the China National Space Agency (CNSA) announced successful lunar orbit insertion via Xinhua news. The command for the braking maneuver burn was issued on 12 December at 16:39 Beijing time (08:39 UTC), and Chang’e-4 successfully inserted into lunar orbit with a perilune of about 100 kilometers at 16:45 (8:45 UTC). Now that Chang’e-4 has already entered lunar orbit, why is it waiting 20 more days to land? There are probably several reasons. Engineers have work yet to do to prepare for landing. They will test instruments, test the relay link with Queqiao, and so on. They may need to adjust the orbit in order to better target the landing, which must be more precise on the rugged farside than Chang’e-3’s in the flat nearside maria. They also have to wait for the Sun to rise in the landing region. The far side of the Moon is not the “dark side”, it has daytime and nighttime as we do. The difference is one lunar day is much longer, with about 14 earth days of daytime and about 14 earth days of nighttime. You can check to see where it is day and night on the Moon easily at the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter QuickMap website. Open up the Layers tab, choose “Overlays,” and then tap the “Sunlit Region” button. Here is the day and night region of lunar farside (left) and nearside (right) on 12 December at about 17:00 Beijing time (9:00 UTC). You can see that night is about to fall across the South Pole-Aiken Basin region, the target region of Chang’e-4’s landing. The Sun will rise again around the New Year, so Chang’e-4 will probably land in the first few days of January 2019. The slow pace of sunrise and sunset will control the activity of Chang’e-4’s rover. Recall that the Chang’e-3 rover, Yutu, could not work at night due to the cold environment. It first roved onto the surface on 15 December 2013 and stopped on 24 December as the sun set. It resumed activity on 11 January 2014 when daytime returned. The 180-kilometer-diameter crater Von Kármán (centered at 44.8°S 175.9°E) inside the South Pole-Aiken Basin seems to be the most likely landing site, although there seem to be other potential sites. But no matter where the exact location is, one thing is for sure: the topography of the landing site is much more rugged and complex than the flat Mare Imbrium, the landing site of Chang’e-3. According to the reports on Chinese television, the landing of Chang’e-4 is much more challenging and risky than Chang’e-3 because of the difficult topography. The lander has to autonomously assess its altitude and velocity relative to the surface in order to land safely, which is why landing regions that are flat over a broad area are preferred. Therefore, the landing strategy of Chang’e-4 will be a little different from Chang’e-3. Chang’e-4’s approach to landing will be much steeper, compared to the shallow landing trajectory of Chang’e-3. Compared to launch and orbit insertion, landing will be the real challenge for Chang’e-4. Hope everything goes well![SEP]A Chinese lander destined for the far side of the Moon - the side that always faces away from the Earth - has now entered lunar orbit, Space News reports. Early Wednesday morning, the spacecraft carrying the Chang'e-4 lander completed its journey from Earth, which took nearly five days, and settled into an elliptical orbit around the Moon. If the mission is successful, Chang'e-4 will be the first-ever lander to explore the so-called "dark side of the Moon". It'll rove the lunar surface, examine the Moon's composition, and even dabble in amateur gardening with a small pod that'll grow seeds and silkworm larvae. To communicate with the Earth, Chang'e-4 will bounce signals off a relay satellite launched earlier this year. Chinese officials haven't announced a firm date or location for the craft's landing, but it's expected to touch down in early January 2019, probably in the spacious Von Kármán crater. China is already planning Chang'e-5, the mission to come after Chang'e-4. If all goes according to plan, that will be China's first Moon mission to return samples back to Earth and it'll launch in late 2019. This article was first published on Futurity and is republished here under a CC BY 4.0 license. Read the original article.[SEP]CHINA’S Chang’e-4 probe decelerated and entered a lunar orbit yesterday, completing a vital step on its way to making the first soft landing on the far side of the moon. After traveling 110 hours from the Earth, an engine on the probe was ignited when it was 129km above the surface of the moon, said the China National Space Administration. The probe then slowed, and entered an elliptical lunar orbit at 100km above the surface. The probe, including a lander and a rover, was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket last Saturday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The control center will choose a proper time to land after testing communications. The Chang’e-4 mission will be a key step in revealing the mysterious far side of the moon. The scientific tasks of Chang’e-4 include low-frequency radio astronomical observation, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure, and measuring neutron radiation and neutral atoms. China has promoted international cooperation, with four scientific payloads of Chang’e-4 developed by scientists from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.[SEP]China launched the world's first mission to the far side of the moon today. The Chang'e 4 robotic spacecraft lifted off Friday at around 1:23 p.m. ET (2:23 a.m. in China, on Saturday, Dec. 8), the New York Times reported. The spacecraft launched atop a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Plans call for Chang'e 4, which carries both a lander and a lunar rover, to touch down on the moon in early January. "Anything we land on the moon is significant, but this one is especially so," David Paige, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said of the mission. It is a successor to China's Chang'e 3 mission, which successfully placed a lander and rover on the moon's Earth-facing side in 2013. Chang'e 4's planned landing site lies within the South Pole-Aitken basin. The sprawling basin, which is 8 miles deep and more than 1,500 miles across, is one of the moon's largest and oldest impact craters. "This crater has the potential to tell us something about the creation of the Earth and moon system — how the moon formed, as well as how the early solar system evolved," Paige said. "Understanding exactly when this basin formed and how it relates to other lunar impact basins is key." The lander and rover are each equipped with cameras. The rover also sports a ground-penetrating radar instrument designed to help scientists gain an understanding of the moon’s geological history as well as a spectrometer to study its chemical composition. Chang’e 4 won't be returning any moon rocks to Earth, but a successor mission planned for 2019, Chang'e 5, will. This would be the first time that materials from the moon have been brought back to Earth since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 mission in 1976. "These missions are taking place in rapid succession, and that also demonstrates the resolve of this program to move forward toward the eventual goal of putting Chinese astronauts on the lunar surface," Bradley Jolliff, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, told NBC News MACH in an email. China has also announced plans to launch a rover to Mars in 2020, as well as additional crewed missions to low-Earth orbit. China had been constructing its own space station, Tiangong-2. But a rocket glitch in July 2017 derailed the effort, and China is now planning to de-orbit the 8.6-ton space lab next summer, Space News reported. In April, China's defunct Tiangong-1 space station plummeted through Earth's atmosphere and burned up over the Pacific Ocean. China, the U.S. and Russia are the only nations to have successfully landed spacecraft on the moon. Want more stories about the moon? • Scientists discover water ice on moon's surface. Here's why that's big news.[SEP]Stephen Curry, winner of the 2018 Kyrie Irving Conspiracy Theory Award (note: not a real award), said on a podcast that he doesn’t think man has ever landed on the moon, and mentioned a few popular conspiracy theories about the landing being faked. Not surprisingly, that didn’t go over too well with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, more commonly known as NASA. After Curry’s comments about the moon landing started getting attention on Monday, the New York Times checked in with NASA. NASA has dealt with moon landing deniers and conspiracy theories before, and spokesman Allard Beutel was ready to give Curry a chance to change his mind. “We’d love for Mr. Curry to tour the lunar lab at our Johnson Space Center in Houston, perhaps the next time the Warriors are in town to play the Rockets,” said Allard Beutel, a NASA spokesman. “We have hundreds of pounds of moon rocks stored there, and the Apollo mission control. During his visit, he can see firsthand what we did 50 years ago, as well as what we’re doing now to go back to the moon in the coming years, but this time to stay.” An invitation to the NASA Space Center in Houston to look at moon rocks AND information about a future moon base? That’s an incredible offer from NASA. It’s not just about showing Curry proof of the moon landing, but educating him about how they managed to land men on the moon nearly 50 years ago, and what they hope to do on the moon in the future. But if looking at moon rocks isn’t enough proof for Curry, both England and Russia independently tracked Apollo 11 from takeoff to moon landing and back again. They can provide third-party evidence that man actually landed on the moon. And if he wants some tough love about the moon landing he can talk to 88-year-old Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, who once punched a moon landing denier in the face. Curry’s team, the Golden State Warriors, will play the Houston Rockets in Houston on March 13, 2019. As the NASA spokesman said, that would be the perfect time for Curry to visit the Space Center. Curry has yet to follow-up on his comments about the moon landing, but when he does, perhaps he’ll accept NASA’s invitation. More from Yahoo Sports: • Fired Packers coach makes puzzling Rodgers comment • RB Bell celebrates Steelers’ shocking loss to Raiders • Was this key play in ‘MNF’ game actually illegal? • Emotional final meeting for Wade and LeBron[SEP]Blood moons occur during total lunar eclipses, when the Earth lines up between the Moon and the Sun, casting the Moon in near shadow. The only light that then hits our celestial satellite’s surface arrives from the edges of the our atmosphere. The remaining light reflects an eerie red glow onto the Blood Moon’s surface – a phenomena that some believe heralds the end of times. And controversial American Pastor Begley believes key Biblical passages confirm this Super Blood Moon means the end of the world is nigh. One such “warning” is cited from the Book of Joel 2:31. The passage reads: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” And Pastor Begley points to another “ominous” message in the Book of Revelation 6:12. This states: “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.” Also in Acts 2:20: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come.” Pastor Begley said: “Is this an omen? READ MORE: Hunt for aliens ‘only just BEGINNING’ says top scientist “Is this a sign of things that will happen in those following two years? “Well, this is definitely a sign of the end times and America plays a key role in the end times. The evangelical preacher from Indiana added “the heavens are already shaking” and the “coming of the Lord is fast approaching.” And though pastor Begley refused to say categorically the world will burn in hellfire within a month, he suggested this is a possible outcome of the Blood Moon. READ MORE: Mars Deep Drill: NASA plan to dig 10km hole in ALIEN LIFE search - REVEALED How will the Blood Moon affect the Earth? Lunar eclipses, such as the Blood Moon, find the Sun and Moon at opposite sides of the Earth, putting the three astronomical bodies in the same orientation. When the sun and moon line up, it combines their gravitational pulls on the Earth’s seas. This causes higher high tides and lower low tides, known as Spring Tides. Additionally the moon is at perigee – the closest approach to the Earth – magnifying its gravitational pull and making tides more extreme. These Perigean Spring Tides occur around three or four annually.[SEP]Sputnik: So, professor, China has launched the first mission to land a robotic craft on the far side of the moon. That's according to the Chinese media. Why is it important to study the far side of the moon? How different is it from the observable part of our natural satellite? Ian Crawford: So, it's important to know that no spacecraft has ever landed on the far side of the moon yet. So, this will be the first in the whole history of the space age. That makes it quite interesting for the research I write. Of course, over the years we do now know the geology of the moon on the far side is a little bit different from the near side, where all the Apollo missions and all of the other landers from the space age up to this point have landed. The far side is different. The other thing, interesting about the far side is it contains the largest impact crater, known in the solar system the South Pole-Aitken basin, which is about 2,5 thousand kilometres in diameter, 12km deep, and this is the largest known in practice structure in the solar system and it's on the far side of the moon. Understanding that a bit more is also important for planetary science. That is where Chang'e-4 will bend, hopefully. Sputnik: As a professor of planetary science and astrobiology, what else about this particular landing makes you most excited? What else are you anticipating? Ian Crawford: I think, there are at least two answers. I mean, for space exploration just the fact that it is the first time anyone ever landed on the far side of the moon is a real milestone in space exploration. As we regard planetary geology, then I think the composition of the rocks in the South Pole-Aitken basin has a great interest, because the basin is so deep, 12km deep. It's exposed rocks from much deeper within the moon, then we all ever have been studied before. READ MORE: USSR Moon Rock Auction in New York City Nets $855,000 Sputnik: I believe that seeds have also been sent as part of an experiment to see if it's possible for living things to grow on the moon. What do you think about this? Any prospects there? Sputnik: We have known the moon to be inhospitable to life and yet this year scientists have been saying that they've discovered that conditions on the lunar surface could have supported simple life forms around, say, 4 billion years ago. What are the chances that this perception of a lifeless moon could change after this mission? Ian Crawford: Well, I do think, this mission will probably tell us much more about that. I mean, the moon is, you're right, a very inhospitable place at the moment. The life is impossible on the surface of the moon. Today, because the moon has never had an atmosphere and liquid water is impossible, the radiation environment is very bad. I think, the idea has been that in the distant past, when the moon was young, then it may have had a thin atmosphere, which would be thin by our standards, but perhaps similar to the current atmosphere that Mars has. READ MORE: Russian Space Agency Chief Wants to 'Check' If Americans Walked on the Moon Sputnik: You've mentioned the impact crater on the far side of the moon. What could that potentially reveal? What kind of secrets? Ian Crawford: Well, a deep interior of the moon…. because the impact basins, Aitken basin is 12km deep, then the rocks on the floor of it have been exposed from that depth within the moon, much deeper than any of the other sample sites that we have from the near site. A key geological interest will be to see, where this South Pole-Aitken basin has… the darkest deep of the lunar mantle, which ignites potentially of the… dug deep down into the lunar crust. Comparing the composition of those, rocks on the floor the South Pole-Aitken basin, where the rocks collected much closer to the surface, on the near side. It does potentially tell us quite a lot of the geological evolution of the moon, and the differentiation of the moon into its mantle and crust. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Ian Crawford and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.[SEP]Intangible Frequencies Of The Moon And The Human Mind Every spacial body emanates intangible frequencies that interact with the frequencies of the human body. The moon as such influences the mind - it influences the sub conscious mind which contains several impressions that determine subtle human characteristics, as well as the conscious mind. These impressions on the subconscious mind are a result of causes created over several lifetimes. These impressions are caused over several lifetimes and are stored in the subconscious mind. However, we might not be aware of these impressions but they exist in this latent mind. These are responsible for our thoughts and actions to a large extent. Our thoughts in the conscious mind and the impressions in the subconscious mind also have some subtle frequencies. The subtleness of the frequencies of the moon being more, they are more difficult to be noticed than the frequencies of the thoughts and expressions in the mind. On a full moon night, the frequencies emanated from the moon are more and the influence on the subconscious mind is greater. This is the perfect explanation for why some people have more thoughts flowing through their mind that go on to determine the actions they commit. The same is true with respect to a new moon day. Darkness emanates negative frequencies of Rajas and Tamas nature. Hence, there is more of negative energy on a new moon day, as the dark side of the moon faces the earth during this time. Similarly, on a full moon night, the basic Sattva frequencies are emanated. However, the frequencies on a full moon day are more active when there is brightness around than those on a new moon day. Hence, a heightened activity in the mind can be observed on a full moon day. Now, which thoughts become active depends from person to person. It can be the thoughts of the conscious as well as subconscious mind. For some people random thoughts might become active, for others it might be some specific thoughts that gain momentum. For instance, somebody who loves painting might be able to get more creative ideas on this day. When there are some pre dominant personality defects in people, such as anger, hatred, greed etc., they might surface during this time. The gravitational pull of the moon increases on full moon and new moon days. It is almost three times more than that on other days. Because of the gravitational pull of the moon, the Panchtattva (the five basic elements) get attracted towards the moon. The gaseous particles in these elements will get attracted faster towards the moon. Negative frequencies and energies generally exist in gaseous forms only. All the gaseous elements gain strength and thus negative energy spreads faster. The three times more pressure of the moon causes a three times increase in the effect of the negative energies. Hence, the increased effect of moon on mankind. The gravitational pull of the moon also has effects on the mind. Gravitation, depending on the fundamental vibrational frequency of the subconscious mind, affects different people differently. This is a proven fact that even science has attested. Thus, in the fundamental sense, the moon has effects and will continue to impact the functioning of the subconscious mind and thus, influence behaviour of human beings. On new moon days, people who want to perform negative activities such as occult rituals get supported by more of negative energies of Rajas and Tamas being predominant in the environment. Since there is excess of negative energy, it is considered inappropriate to perform auspicious activities on these days. So that predominant negative energies do not attack them. Since the moon radiates Raja-Tama energies on these days, there is a rise in the chances of such incidents (running away, anger, murder, suicide, black magic, etc.) more on a new moon day. Since the Tejtattva of the Sun which is the natural purification element, is not available on a new moon day, the negative energies get a sufficient opportunity to cause negative impact. On a full moon day, the moon does not radiate these Rajas-Tamas frequencies. Therefore, the negative energies do not get such support as on full moon days. However, there are more of negative frequencies on a new moon day, but the frequencies on a full moon day are more active than a new moon day. Thus, the negative energies take advantage of the increased gravitational pull and try to affect. But, the distress caused by these energies on a full moon day is much lesser than on a new moon day. Can Spirituality Protect From The Effects Of Full Moon And New Moon? The negative effects of a full moon can impact only the body, but it affects the mind too in case of a new moon night. Hence, the effect on a new moon night is more dangerous as it is not much apparent. Those who are spiritual practitioners, they are more equipped with positive energies known as Sattvik Gunas. Hence, they can easily notice when Rajsik and Tamsik changes happen in the environment. But the people who are themselves Rajsik or Tamsik in nature (who are less inclined towards spirituality) are not able to notice the changes. Overall, those inclined towards spiritual practices are able to counter the negative energies better than others. Hence, it is said that they can easily get God's help and protection from the negative energies, such as demons, ghosts, black magic, etc. Probably, that is why we are advised to practice more spiritual activities from two days prior to and two days after the new moon and full moon both. Most Read: The Significance Of The Three Gunas In Hinduism[SEP]China's mission to the dark side of the moon has successfully entered a stable orbit around our natural satellite. The 240,000 mile long (385,000km) journey took 110 hours to complete and saw Chang'e-4 enter into an elliptical orbit 80 miles above the surface. It is expected to land on the dark side of the moon at some point in early January, but the country's secretive space agency has not announced a set date. Retrorockets on the probe fired on 12 December to stabilise the spacecraft and slow it down. Chang'e-4 will target the South Pole-Aitken basin's Von Karman crater, the largest in the entire solar system at 15,000 miles (24,000km) across and eight miles deep. It took off from the Xichang satellite launch centre in Sichuan, south-west China at 6:30 GMT on December 7 atop a Long March-3B rocket. It is expected to perform a 'soft-landing' and land on the moon after completing its 27 day journey through space. Exploring the huge divot on the surface of the moon may shed new light on its history and geology by collecting rocks that have never been seen before. Researchers hope the huge depth of the crater will allow them to study the moon's mantle, the layer underneath the surface, of the moon. Chang'e-4 has been described as 'hugely ambitious' and heralded as a sign of China's growing intentions to rival the space exploration prowess of the US, Russia and the EU. To facilitate communication between controllers on Earth and the Chang'e-4 mission, China launched a relay satellite named Queqiao on 20 May and is now stationed in operational orbit about 40,000 miles beyond the moon. This will be the primary form of communication between Earth and the spacecraft. The probe and explorer will use Queqiao to get their findings back to China. As the landing is happening on the dark side of the moon it required its own satellite to be able to send information back. China's latest mission closely follows the touchdown of NASA's InSight spacecraft on Mars on Monday, at a site less than 400 miles (640 kilometres) from the American rover Curiosity, the only other working robot on Mars. The Chinese plan involves two missions. One places a satellite in orbit around the moon to provide a means of sending information and data back to Earth (left). The other part involves a lander and rover which will work together to explore the surface of the moon (right)

Chang'e 4 successfully enters orbit around the Moon ahead of a historic landing on the far side of the Moon in early 2019.

Islamic State extremists have withdrawn from their last urban stronghold in Syria after weeks of intensifying clashes with Kurdish-led fighters that have splintered the remnants of the group’s leadership and raised fresh questions about the fate of its founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Isis forces retreated to villages to the east of Hajin in the early hours of Friday after several days of US airstrikes, which allowed Kurdish proxy forces to sweep into the town on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Clashes continued throughout the day, and western observers cautioned that the militants may be attempting to regroup for a counter-assault. The fall of Hajin comes after the fight against Isis had stalled for several months, weighed down by the increasingly fraught politics of the seven-year war in Syria and its numerous spinoffs. Friction between two of its main protagonists, Turkey and the US, over Washington’s use of Kurdish proxies to lead the fight had been central to the slowdown, which raised fears that Isis was using it to consolidate after many months of withering losses. The US had been urging Kurdish leaders to send experienced members to lead its proxy force in Hajin against a diehard contingent of about 2,500 Isis veterans of battles in Iraq and Syria, which have stripped the group of cross-border lands it once controlled and forced it to revert to guerrilla warfare. The US presidential envoy in the fight against Isis, Brett McGurk, said this week that nearly every Isis member in Hajin is thought to have access to a suicide vest. Senior Isis leaders were believed to have sought refuge in Hajin over the summer, and Baghdadi is understood to have spent some time in the town since it became Isis’s de facto capital in late 2017. The surrounding province of Deir Ez-Zor was pivotal to the rise of Isis. Nearly 60% of the group’s revenues came from five nearby oilfields that were repeatedly attacked by US jets and quickly brought back online. The province was an essential hub for Baghdadi’s couriers, drivers and intermediaries as the oil trade surged from 2014-15, and was seen as one of the few places left in a crumbling caliphate where Isis fighters could lay low. Baghdadi is thought to have remained far from the fight in recent months, and western intelligence officials believe the fugitive leader to be in the northern half of Anbar province in neighbouring Iraq. Iraqi officials, however, suspect their quarry may have have been in Hajin more recently. “Most of the senior Isis leaders are based in Hajin,” said one senior official. “Moreover, the confessions of arrested Isis members all point to Baghdadi being there with his family.” Isis’s leadership structure has collapsed over the past two years, leaving local leaders and sleeper cells to act without higher instruction. In north-eastern Syria, the focal point of the fight against the organisation, there has been an increase in the number of attacks in areas that had been cleared by the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), particularly the city of Raqqa, which had been one of two main hubs of power, Mosul in Iraq being the other. The durability of the US-Kurdish alliance had been increasingly challenged since earlier this year, when the SDF suspended operations against Isis in eastern Syria as Turkey launched an operation to oust Kurdish forces from near its border in the country’s north-west. The SDF has drawn heavily from local Arab populations to anchor the fight against Isis, but its leaders come from the ranks of senior Kurdish officials. As the fight against Isis winds down, the Kurds of Syria’s north-east have been weighing their options. A pledge of ongoing US patronage and weapons has kept the SDF in the fight in Hajin, but doubts about Washington’s future intentions and loyalties are increasingly testing the alliance. Turkey’s announcement on Wednesday that it intends to send its military into north-eastern Syria poses a further challenge to the US-Kurdish pact. The US has described the planned move as unacceptable, but Ankara says it will defy the wishes of its Nato ally and will soon launch an operation aimed at pushing Kurdish groups allied to insurgents inside Turkey deeper into Syria. A spillover from the fight in Syria is also believed to have energised an Isis revival in Kirkuk and Salaheddin in Iraq, local officials say. The number of assassinations and roadside bombs, trademarks of earlier insurgencies, have increased sharply in recent months. Additional reporting by Nadia al-Faour[SEP]BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led fighters have captured the last town held by the Islamic State group, in the militants’ single remaining enclave in eastern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Syrian Democratic Forces took Hajin early on Friday after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town was taken, adding that some IS fighters are still holed up in small pockets on the edge of the town. The Kurdish-led Syrian fighters have been fighting to take Hajin and nearby villages in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour since Sept. 10. Over the past weeks, the offensive intensified with the arrival of reinforcements from northern Syria.[SEP]BEIRUT — U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters captured the last town held by the Islamic State group on Friday, after three months of ferocious battles in the militants' single remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists and Kurdish officials said. The fall of Hajin marks an end to the extremist group's hold over any significant urban area, which in three years shrank from large swaths of Iraq and Syria the militants once held to this small enclave near the two countries' shared border. The capture of Hajin does not, however, mark the end of the group, which still holds some villages nearby and has a scattered presence and sleeper cells in both countries. As the offensive by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces intensified over the past days under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, ISIL fighters withdrew south to areas east of the Euphrates River and west of SDF positions along the border with Iraq. Among the villages still held by extremists in the enclave are Sousa, Buqaan, Shaafah, Baghouz and Shajla. The latest push has also raised questions about the fate of ISIL leader and founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who has not been seen in public since he announced his self-styled caliphate in 2014 from a mosque's pulpit in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Last month, ISIL suffered a severe blow when the SDF said it captured Osama Owayed al-Saleh, a top aide to al-Baghdadi. "It is a very difficult battle," SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali told The Associated Press from Syria where he said ISIL fighters are still attacking Hajin. He added that most of ISIL fighters besieged in the enclave are among the most experienced gunmen who came to the area from Iraq and Syria. "There are still villages to be taken but Hajin was the most important as it was the base for commanders from where they directed military operations," Bali said. Iraqi Major Gen. Qassem Mohammed, in charge of operations in areas close to the Syrian border, said artillery strikes by the U.S.-led coalition on the Iraqi side of the border targeted Hajin and areas around it. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF took Hajin early in the morning, after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. It said some ISIL fighters withdrew to nearby villages and that fighting is still ongoing in fields outside Hajin as SDF fighters chase out the extremists. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town had been recaptured, adding that some ISIL fighters are still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin.[SEP]BEIRUT — U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led fighters captured the last town held by the Islamic State group on Friday, after days of intense battles in the militants’ single remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists said. The fall of Hajin is a blow to the extremists. The town was their main stronghold in the last pocket of land they control in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border. IS still holds some villages nearby. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting to take Hajin and the surrounding villages in Deir el-Zour province for over three months. In the past weeks, the offensive intensified with the arrival of reinforcements from northern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF took Hajin early in the morning, after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. It said some IS fighters withdrew to the villages and that fighting is still going in the fields outside Hajin as SDF fighters chase the extremists. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town was taken, adding that some IS fighters are still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin. The area was home to some 15,000 people, including 2,000 IS gunmen who have been fighting back with counteroffensives and suicide attacks. Over the past days, hundreds of civilians were able to flee the enclave toward areas controlled by the SDF east of the Euphrates River and government-controlled regions on the river’s west bank. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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As the offensive by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces intensified over the past days under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, IS fighters withdrew south to areas east of the Euphrates river and west of SDF positions along the border with Iraq. Among the villages still held by extremists in the enclave are Sousa, Buqaan, Shaafah, Baghouz and Shajla. The latest push has also raised questions about the fate of IS leader and founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who has not been seen in public since he announced his self-styled caliphate in 2014 from a mosque's pulpit in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Last month, IS suffered a severe blow when the SDF said it captured Osama Owayed al-Saleh, a top aide to al-Baghdadi. "It is a very difficult battle," SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali told The Associated Press by phone from Syria where he said IS fighters are still attacking Hajin. He added that most of IS fighters besieged in the enclave are among the most experienced gunmen who came to the area from Iraq and Syria. "There are still villages to be taken but Hajin was the most important as it was the base for commanders from where they directed military operations," Bali said. Iraqi Maj. Gen. Qassem Mohammed, in charge of operations in areas close to the Syrian border, said artillery strikes by the U.S.-led coalition on the Iraqi side of the border targeted Hajin and areas around it. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF took Hajin early in the morning, after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. It said some IS fighters withdrew to nearby villages and that fighting is still ongoing in fields outside Hajin as SDF fighters chase out the extremists. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town had been recaptured, adding that some IS fighters are still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin. Abu Layla said that disagreements among IS ranks over hierarchy between Iraqi and Syrian fighters helped "speed up the collapse" of the extremist group's defenses in Hajin. Nuri Mehmud, spokesman of the Syrian Kurdish militia known as People's Protection Units, or YPG, also the main component of the SDF, said "intense fighting" is still ongoing in small parts of Hajin. The area is home to some 15,000 people, including 2,000 IS gunmen who fought back with counteroffensives and suicide attacks. Over the past days, hundreds of civilians were able to flee the enclave toward areas controlled by the SDF east of the Euphrates River and government-controlled regions on the river's west bank. The Observatory said that since the SDF offensive began on Sept. 10, 922 IS gunmen, 539 SDF fighters and 324 civilians have been killed. The Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the SDF, denounced Turkey's threat of a military operation against the YPG and called on Syrians of all ethnic and religious groups to unite ahead of a possible Turkish attack. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified his criticism of U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish fighters, saying Friday that Turkey would clear the key northern town of Manbij. Over the summer, the two NATO allies had struck a "road map" to Manbij of the YPG, which Turkey considers a terror organization linked to an insurgency within its own borders. The Turkish presidency released a statement Friday saying Erdogan spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump and they agreed on the "need for more effective coordination" in Syria. Erdogan reiterated "Turkey's legitimate security concerns" regarding the YPG. Erdogan argued the U.S. has not kept its promises to push the YPG east of the Euphrates River. "If you don't take them out, we will also enter Manbij," he said. American troops are stationed in Manbij, which was cleared of IS in 2016, and Washington and Ankara recently started joint patrols around the town. Erdogan's threat comes days after he announced his military would launch a new cross-border operation into Syria "within a few days" to fight the YPG east of the Euphrates. On Thursday, a Turkish soldier was killed in the northwestern town of Afrin after an attack from nearby Tel Rifat. The Turkish military and allied Syrian opposition fighters took the town from the YPG earlier this year. Associated Press writers Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.[SEP]BEIRUT -- U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led fighters captured the last town held by the Islamic State group on Friday, after three months of ferocious battles in the militants' single remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists and Kurdish officials said. The fall of Hajin marks an end to the extremist group's hold over any significant urban area. The capture of Hajin, however, does not mark the end of the group, which still holds some villages nearby and has a scattered presence and sleeper cells in Iraq and Syria. As the offensive by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces intensified over the past days under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, Islamic State fighters withdrew south to areas east of the Euphrates river and west of Syrian Democratic Forces positions along the border with Iraq. Among the villages still held by extremists in the enclave are Sousa, Buqaan, Shaafah, Baghouz and Shajla. The latest push has also raised questions about the fate of Islamic State leader and founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who has not been seen in public since he announced his self-styled caliphate in 2014 from a mosque's pulpit in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Last month, the Islamic State suffered a severe blow when the Kurdish-led forces said they captured Osama Owayed al-Saleh, a top aide to al-Baghdadi. "It is a very difficult battle," Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustafa Bali said by phone from Syria where he said militant fighters were still attacking Hajin. He added that most of the Islamic State fighters besieged in the enclave were among the most experienced gunmen who came to the area from Iraq and Syria. "There are still villages to be taken but Hajin was the most important as it was the base for commanders from where they directed military operations," Bali said. Iraqi Maj. Gen. Qassem Mohammed, in charge of operations in areas close to the Syrian border, said artillery strikes by the U.S.-led coalition on the Iraqi side of the border targeted Hajin and areas around it. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurdish-led forces took Hajin early in the morning. It said some Islamic State fighters withdrew to nearby villages and that fighting was still ongoing in fields outside Hajin. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town had been recaptured, adding that some militant fighters were still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin. Abu Layla said that disagreements among Islamic State ranks over hierarchy between Iraqi and Syrian fighters helped "speed up the collapse." Nuri Mehmud, spokesman of the Syrian Kurdish militia known as People's Protection Units, also the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces, said "intense fighting" was still ongoing in small areas. The area is home to some 15,000 people, including 2,000 Islamic State gunmen who fought back with counteroffensives and suicide attacks. Over the past several days, hundreds of civilians were able to flee the enclave toward areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces east of the Euphrates River and government-controlled regions on the river's west bank. The Observatory said that since the Kurdish-led offensive began on Sept. 10, 922 Islamic State gunmen, 539 coalition fighters and 324 civilians have been killed. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified his criticism of U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish fighters, saying Friday that Turkey would clear the key northern town of Manbij. Over the summer, the two NATO allies had struck a "road map" to Manbij of the People's Protection Units, which Turkey considers a terror organization linked to an insurgency within its own borders. The Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces, denounced Turkey's threat of a military operation against the People's Protection Units and called on Syrians of all ethnic and religious groups to unite ahead of a possible Turkish attack. Information for this article was contributed by Zeynep Bilginsoy and Qassim Abdul-Zahra of The Associated Press.[SEP]BEIRUT — U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters are pushing deeper into an eastern town held by the Islamic State group, taking its main market amid intense fighting with the extremists in their last holdout. Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting to take the town of Hajin and nearby villages in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour since Sept. 10. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that IS defences “collapsed” in Hajin as the town’s main market was captured. The Observatory says SDF fighters were also able to evacuate some 600 civilians, many of them women and children, out of IS-held areas. Omar Abu Layla, of the activist-run DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group, confirmed the market was taken as well as the main mosque in Hajin.[SEP]The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led fighters captured the last town held by the Islamic State group on Friday, after days of intense battles in the militants’ single remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists said. The fall of Hajin is a blow to the extremists. The town was their main stronghold in the last pocket of land they control in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border. IS still holds some villages nearby. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting to take Hajin and the surrounding villages in Deir el-Zour province for over three months. In the past weeks, the offensive intensified with the arrival of reinforcements from northern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF took Hajin early in the morning, after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. It said some IS fighters withdrew to the villages and that fighting is still going in the fields outside Hajin as SDF fighters chase the extremists. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town was taken, adding that some IS fighters are still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin. The area was home to some 15,000 people, including 2,000 IS gunmen who have been fighting back with counteroffensives and suicide attacks. Over the past days, hundreds of civilians were able to flee the enclave toward areas controlled by the SDF east of the Euphrates River and government-controlled regions on the river’s west bank. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]US-backed, Kurdish-led fighters have captured the last town held by the Islamic State group after days of intense battles in the militants’ remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists said. US-backed, Kurdish-led fighters have captured the last town held by the Islamic State group after days of intense battles in the militants’ remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists said. The fall of Hajin is a blow to the extremists. The town was their main stronghold in the last pocket of land they control in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border. IS still holds some villages nearby. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting to take Hajin and surrounding villages in Deir el-Zour province for more than three months. In recent weeks, the offensive intensified with the arrival of reinforcements from northern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF took Hajin early in the morning after fierce fighting under the cover of air strikes by the US-led coalition. It said some IS fighters withdrew to the villages and fighting is still going in the fields outside Hajin as SDF troops chase the extremists. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed the town was taken, adding that some IS fighters are still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin. He said that in IS ranks, disagreements over hierarchy helped “speed up the collapse” of defences in Hajin. Nuri Mehmud, spokesman of the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG — the main component of SDF — said “intense fighting” is continuing in small parts of Hajin. The area was home to 15,000 people, including 2,000 IS gunmen who fought back with counter-offensives and suicide attacks. Over recent days, hundreds of civilians fled the enclave towards areas controlled by the SDF east of the Euphrates River and government-controlled regions on the river’s west bank. The Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the SDF, denounced Turkey’s threat of a military operation against the YPG and called on Syrians of all ethnic and religious groups to unite ahead of a possible Turkish attack. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified his criticism of US support for the Syrian Kurdish fighters, saying Turkey would clear the key northern town of Manbij. Over the summer, the two Nato allies had struck a “road map” for Manbij to remove the YPG, which Turkey considers a terror organisation linked to an insurgency within its own borders.[SEP]BEIRUT—U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led fighters captured the last town held by Daesh on Friday, after days of intense battles in the militants’ single remaining enclave in eastern Syria, activists said. The fall of Hajin is a blow to the extremists. The town was their main stronghold in the last pocket of land they control in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border. Daesh still holds some villages nearby. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting to take Hajin and the surrounding villages in Deir el-Zour province for over three months. In the past weeks, the offensive intensified with the arrival of reinforcements from northern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF took Hajin early in the morning, after fierce fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. It said some Daesh fighters withdrew to the villages and that fighting is still going in the fields outside Hajin as SDF fighters chase the extremists. Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group confirmed that the town was taken, adding that some Daesh fighters are still holed up in small pockets on the edge of Hajin. Aby Layla said that in Daesh ranks, disagreements over hierarchy and posts between Iraqi and Syrian fighters helped “speed up the collapse” of Daesh defences in Hajin. Nuri Mehmud, spokesman of the Syrian Kurdish militia known as People’s Protection Units or YPG — the main component of SDF — said “intense fighting” is still ongoing in small parts of Hajin. The area was home to some 15,000 people, including 2,000 Daesh gunmen who fought back with counteroffensives and suicide attacks. Over the past days, hundreds of civilians were able to flee the enclave toward areas controlled by the SDF east of the Euphrates River and government-controlled regions on the river’s West Bank. The Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the SDF, denounced Turkey’s threat of a military operation against YPG and called on Syrians of all ethnic and religious groups to unite ahead of a possible Turkish attack. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified his criticism of U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish fighters, saying Friday that Turkey would clear the key northern town of Manbij. Over the summer, the two NATO allies had struck a “road map” for Manbij to remove YPG, which Turkey considers a terror organization linked to an insurgency within its own borders. Erdogan argued the United States has not kept its promises to push YPG east of the Euphrates River. “If you don’t take them out, we will also enter Manbij,” he said. American troops are stationed in Manbij, which was cleared of Daesh in 2016, and Washington and Ankara recently started joint patrols around the town. Erdogan’s threat comes days after he announced his military would launch a new cross-border operation into Syria “within a few days” to fight YPG east of the Euphrates. On Thursday, a Turkish soldier was killed in the northwestern town of Afrin after an attack from nearby Tel Rifat. The Turkish military and allied Syrian opposition fighters took the town from the YPG earlier this year.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces seize control of Hajin, the last major town held by ISIL in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

PARIS — French security forces were trying to catch the suspected Strasbourg gunman dead or alive, an official said Thursday, two days after an attack near the city's Christmas market. Local authorities, meanwhile, increased the death toll to three. The attack wounded 13 others, including five in serious condition, the prefecture of the Strasbourg region said. More than 700 officers were involved in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, who had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television. Police have distributed a photo of Chekatt, who was wounded in an exchange of fire with security forces, with the warning: "Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene." The government raised the terror alert level nationwide and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across France to help patrol streets and secure crowded events. Griveaux also called on the "yellow vest" protesters not to take to the streets, as some members of the movement have planned a fifth round of demonstrations on Saturday across France to demand tax relief. Strasbourg was in mourning, with candles lit and flowers left at the site of the attack. The Christmas market was closed at least through Thursday, authorities said. On Wednesday evening, people prayed and sang in the nearby Protestant Church Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune. Pastor Philippe Eber said this is a moment "to think of those who died in this city because of violence. We also are thinking about all of those who weep for them, the families." Strasbourg resident Tassia Konstantinidis said "it's important to have a period of mourning and to remember the victims." The dead included a Thai tourist, 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said one Italian was among the wounded, in critical condition. The Europhonica radio consortium said Antonio Megalizzi, 28, was in Strasbourg to follow the session of the European Parliament. French authorities said that the suspect, born in Strasbourg, had run-ins with police starting at age 10 and his first conviction was at age 13. Chekatt had been convicted 27 times, mostly in France but also in Switzerland and Germany, for crimes including armed robbery. He had been flagged for extremism and was on a watch list.[SEP]STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Hundreds of police scoured eastern France on Thursday for a fugitive gunman behind a deadly Strasbourg Christmas market attack that left two people dead and six others fighting for their lives. France has raised its security threat to the highest level and police issued a wanted poster for Cherif Chakatt, the main suspect in the attack who was on an watchlist as a potential security threat. Authorities say the 29-year-old was known to have developed radical religious views while in jail. More than 700 police are involved in the second day of the manhunt, scouring Strasbourg, which lies on the west bank of the Rhine river, and the surrounding region. Police have set up checkpoints on the German border and questioning the suspect’s associates. Asked if police had been instructed to catch Chakatt dead or alive, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews: “It doesn’t matter. The best thing would be to find him as quickly as possible.” It took police four months to track down Salah Abdesalam, the prime surviving suspect from the November 2015 militant attack on Paris, in an apartment in Brussels. Witnesses told investigators that the suspect Chakatt cried out “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greater) as he opened fire on the Christmas market, a target Paris Prosecutor Remy Heitz suggested may have been chosen for its religious symbolism. Chakatt’s police file photo shows a bearded man of North African descent, a prayer bruise blemishing the center of his forehead. He has 27 criminal convictions for theft and violence, and has spent time in French, German and Swiss jails. Neighbors living on the housing estate where Chakatt family’s lived described the suspect as a typical young man who dressed in jogging pants and trainers rather that traditional Islamic robes. Two people were killed in the attack and a third person was brain-dead but on life support, the prosecutor said. Six other victims were fighting for their lives. The attack took place at a testing time for President Emmanuel Macron, who on Monday announced tax concessions to quell a month-long public revolt over living costs that spurred the worst unrest in central Paris since the 1968 student riots. Griveaux said a decision had yet to be taken on whether to ban another planned “yellow vest” protest in Paris. The last three consecutive Saturdays of riots in the capital that have seen cars torched, shops looted and the Arc de Triomphe defaced. “We’re simply saying at this stage that, given the events that are unfolding after the terrorist attack in Strasbourg, it would be preferable if everyone could go about a Saturday before the festive holidays in a quiet way,” Griveaux said.[SEP]Armed police have launched a security operation in Strasbourg as they hunt for a gunman suspected of attacking a Christmas market. The attack left three people dead and wounded 13 others, including five who are in a serious condition. More than 700 officers are involved in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt and prosecutors have opened a terror investigation into Tuesday’s attack. A police operation took place in the Strasbourg neighbourhood where Chekatt was last seen. A French police official said security forces, including the elite Raid squad, took action based on a “supposition only” that Chekkat could be hiding in a nearby building but the operation ended without any news of his capture. However, the Paris prosecutor’s office said a fifth person had been arrested and placed in custody in connection with the investigation. A spokesman said the man is a member of Chekatt’s “entourage” but not a family member and he was placed in custody on Thursday morning. The four others detained were Chekatt’s parents and two of his brothers. Asked about instructions given to police forces searching for Chekatt, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said the focus was on catching the suspect “as soon as possible,” no matter whether he was dead or alive, and “put an end to the manhunt”. Police have distributed a photo of Chekatt, who was wounded in an exchange of fire with security forces, with the warning: “Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene.” Chekatt allegedly shouted “God is great!” in Arabic and sprayed gunfire from a security zone near the Christmas market. The government raised the terror alert level nationwide and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across France to help patrol streets and secure crowded events. Mr Griveaux also called on the “yellow vest” protesters not to take to the streets, as some members of the movement have planned a fifth round of demonstrations on Saturday across France to demand tax relief. Strasbourg was in mourning, with candles lit and flowers left at the site of the attack. The Christmas market was closed at least again on Thursday. On Wednesday evening, people prayed and sang in the nearby Protestant Church Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune. Pastor Philippe Eber said this is a moment “to think of those who died in this city because of violence. We also are thinking about all of those who weep for them, the families”. Strasbourg resident Tassia Konstantinidis said “it’s important to have a period of mourning and to remember the victims”. The dead included Thai tourist Anupong Suebsamarn, who was 45. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said one Italian was among the wounded, in critical condition. The Europhonica radio consortium said Antonio Megalizzi, 28, was in Strasbourg to follow the session of the European Parliament when he was shot. French authorities said that the suspect, born in Strasbourg, had run-ins with police from the age of 10 and his first conviction was at 13. Chekatt had been convicted 27 times, mostly in France but also in Switzerland and Germany, for crimes including armed robbery. He had been flagged for extremism and was on a watch list.[SEP]French police are continuing their desperate search for the Strasbourg shooter two days after he turned a quaint Christmas market into a bloodbath. In total 720 police and gendarmes have been scouring a huge section of eastern France using helicopter sweeps, roadside checks, border surveillance and house searches, but have uncovered no trace of 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. Another 500 troops have been sent to guard public places including Christmas markets amid fears Chekatt will attack again, with 1,300 more due to join soon. There are also fears that he could have fled across the border into Germany, where he has a history of arrests. Officers have warned that Chekatt, who has been convicted 27 times starting when he was just 13, should be considered dangerous and not to approach him. Meanwhile it was revealed that 45-year-old Anupong Suebsamarn, who was shot dead at the market, had not intended to be in Strasbourg at the time. Suebsamarn had been planning to go to Paris with his wife, but had changed plans at the last minute because of the Yellow Vest protests, which have seen some of the city's busiest landmarks paralysed by rioting. After initially reporting that three people had died, authorities revised that and said one was brain-dead, while 12 people were wounded, six of them gravely. One Italian, 28-year-old Antonio Megalizzi, was reported to be in critical condition. Italian daily La Repubblica reported he was in Strasbourg to follow the session of the European Parliament. Meanwhile L'Est Républicain reported that two people from eastern France were injured in the attack, one of whom was shot in the back of the neck and was in intensive care. The other is an 18-year-old woman who has been operated on and is now recovering. Strasbourg-based art collective Mimir told Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace that two of their members, both musicians, were injured near the Savons d'Hélène café where they were performing. One of them, a percussionist, was shot in the neck and is in a coma. The second, a guitarist, was also injured, but less severely. A third man, also with links to Mimir is seriously wounded in the head. Amid the hunt for Chekatt, France raised its three-stage threat index to the highest level and bolstered troops around France. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that the French native, born in Strasbourg, had run-ins with police starting at age 10. Chekatt was mostly convicted in France but also in Switzerland and Germany, for crimes including armed robbery. He had been flagged for extremism and was on a watch list, but the interior minister said 'the signs were weak'. 'It's a large zone and the search is difficult,' senior Interior Ministry official Laurent Nunez said on France-Inter radio. Strasbourg is on the border with Germany, where the suspect was convicted in 2016 of breaking into a dental practice and a pharmacy in two towns. German lawyer Thomas Röder, who served as Chekatt's public defender, told Bild that he was a very religious man, but otherwise did not seem radicalised. He said: 'The only thing that attracted attention was his very religious attitude. He made a point of never taking alcohol or illegal drugs. 'It was also important to him that he did not have to eat pork in the prison. My client was actually a very sociable type, often joking.' Prosecutor Remy Heitz said the man attacked with a handgun and a knife about 8pm local time on Tuesday, and was shot in the arm during an exchange of fire with soldiers during his rampage. He then took a taxi to another part of the city, boasting of the attack to the driver, and later exchanged more gunfire with police and disappeared, Mr Heitz said. Witnesses described shots and screams after the gunman opened fire and yelled 'God is great!' in Arabic, the prosecutor added. Swaths of the city were under lockdown for hours. The attack in the heart of old Strasbourg, near its famous cathedral and within the Christmas market that draws many tourists, unsettled the border city that also is home to the European Parliament. The German government said it had stepped up controls on the border with France but did not change its threat level. 'All terrorist attacks touch all of France, and it's plain to see each of the attacks have hit a highly symbolic point or moment,' Mr Philippe told parliament. He listed violence since 2015 that killed more than 200: at the Charlie Hebdo satiric newspaper, a Kosher store, restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Paris; along the famed seaside promenade in Nice; and even inside a church in a quiet suburb of the northern city of Rouen, among others. Strasbourg's Christmas market 'is a family and brotherly celebration that speaks about hope and what unites us. It's this celebration that was hit yesterday by a terrorist act,' he said. The city was in mourning, with candles lit at the site of the attack, and the Christmas market was closed at least through Thursday, according to regional prefect Jean-Luc Marx. The attack came as President Emmanuel Macron sought to take back control of the nation after a month of anti-government protests that have spread violence across the country. It came only 24 hours after he broke a long public silence and appealed for calm amid the mushrooming 'yellow vest' protest movement that seeks a better standard of living for ordinary citizens. He offered a package of measures, but it was not clear if that would halt the weekend protests. 'The terrorist threat is still at the core of our nation's life,' government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux quoted Mr Macron as saying at the weekly Cabinet meeting. Interior Ministry official Mr Nunez said Chekatt had been radicalised in prison and had been monitored by French intelligence services since his release in late 2015, because of his suspected religious extremism. Mr Nunez told France-Inter that police went to his apartment in an outer neighbourhood of Strasbourg on Tuesday morning. Authorities said he was not there, although five other people were detained. Police seized a grenade, a rifle and knives in the operation, Mr Heitz said. Yellow Vest protesters urged to stay off the streets The French government has urged Yellow Vest protesters to hold off another round of demonstrations scheduled to take place in Paris this weekend. Spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said ministers decided against banning the marches outright, but asked people to be 'reasonable' amid a massive manhunt for Strasbourg shooter Cherif Chekatt. It comes after conspiracy theorists accused the government of staging the terror attack in order to quash the Yellow Vest movement. Yellow vest protesters clash with police firing tear gas during demonstrations in Paris last Saturday. French authorities have urged activists to cancel a march this weekend Writing in online forums, one protester said: 'You'll see next week there won't be a single yellow vest. Well played, Macron.' Another added: 'Coincidence, chance? Or just manipulation!', while a third said: 'They want to create fear so that people don't take to the streets.' President Emmanuel Macron has already offered the marchers a £9billion package of concessions including pay rises and tax cuts. But many complained that the measures were too little, too late, and vowed to continue with weeks of protests, which have often turned violent. 'Our security forces have been deployed extensively these past few weeks,' Griveaux said, while insisting that 'it's not up to us to say if the movement should be called off or not.' The request comes after conspiracy theorists accused the government of staging the Strasbourg attack in order to quash their movement In the wake of the Strasbourg attack, 'it would be better if everyone could go about their business calmly on Saturday, before the year-end celebrations with their families, instead of demonstrating and putting our security forces to work once again.' Last Saturday nearly 90,000 police were mobilised across the country for the protests, with 8,000 officers and a dozen armoured vehicles deployed in the capital where scores of stores, museums and monuments were closed. But protesters still smashed windows, looted stores and burned dozens of cars in many parts of the city.[SEP]STRASBOURG, France (AP) — A fourth person died Friday from wounds suffered in an attack on the Christmas market in Strasbourg, as investigators worked to establish whether the main suspect had help while on the run. The prosecutor's office announced the death three days after the attack in the eastern French city and a day after the suspected gunman was shot dead by police. Although they did not entirely clarify their announcement, prosecutors appeared to suggest that the person who died Friday was one of 12 wounded people and not another person who has been described as being brain dead. Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz, who handles terror cases throughout France, told a news conference that seven people are in police custody, including four family members of Cherif Chekatt and two who were detained on Thursday night. Chekatt, 29, was shot dead Thursday during a police operation in the Neudorf neighborhood of the city. "We want to reconstruct the past 48 hours in order to find out whether he got some support," Heitz said. The Strasbourg shooting was the latest in a series of deadly attacks that have claimed more than 200 lives in France since 2015. On Friday the Christmas market reopened for the first time since the attack amid tight security. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner attended the reopening and had a stroll to meet with shopkeepers. Access to the market has been reduced while extra police officers and military have been deployed to the site, in addition to private security guards. "This Christmas market is part of our history. It's part of our common events and belongs to all the French people," Castaner said. "And this morning, we wanted to show, as we walked down the lanes, that we always know how to get our head up again." Heitz gave more details about the police operation that led to Chekatt's death on Thursday evening after a two-day manhunt. He said the suspect was localized after police received two crucial tipoffs from Neudorf residents. Three officers patrolling in Neudorf ultimately spotted a man corresponding to the suspect's description. He noticed their vehicle and tried unsuccessfully to enter a building. When police officers identified themselves, Chekatt turned around and opened fire. "A projectile hit the vehicle above the left rear door, two police officers responded, shooting several times, and killed him," Heitz said. The immediate aftermath of the shootout between French security forces and the suspect was caught on camera from across the street, with video footage showing armed officers at the scene and the body of the man slumped in a doorway. More officers arrive at the scene soon after, followed by crime scene investigators. The Paris prosecutor's office formally identified the man as Chekatt, a Strasbourg-born man with a long history of convictions for various crimes, including robberies. Chekatt also had been on a watch list of potential extremists. He had his first conviction at 13, and had 26 more by the time he died at age 29. He served jail time in France, Germany and Switzerland. Witnesses said the gunman shouted "God is great!" in Arabic and sprayed gunfire from a security zone near the Christmas market on Tuesday. Security forces wounded the man in the arm but he managed to escape in a taxi.[SEP]French police officers gather near the dead body of a man lying in the doorway of a building after a shootout with police in Strasbourg, eastern France, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. The dead man was suspected of being the gunman who killed three people near a Christmas market in Strasbourg. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the dead man's identity hasn't been confirmed yet. But Castaner said the "individual corresponds to the description of the person sought since Tuesday night," 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. (AP Photo)[SEP]French security forces have said they are trying to catch the gunman suspected of attacking a Christmas market dead or alive. The attack in Strasbourg left three people dead and wounded 13 others, including five who are in a serious condition. More than 700 officers are involved in the manhunt for 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, who had been flagged for extremism, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said. Prosecutors have opened a terror investigation into Tuesday’s attack. Police have distributed a photo of Chekatt, who was wounded in an exchange of fire with security forces, with the warning: “Individual dangerous, above all do not intervene.” The government raised the terror alert level nationwide and deployed 1,800 additional soldiers across France to help patrol streets and secure crowded events. Mr Griveaux also called on the “yellow vest” protesters not to take to the streets, as some members of the movement have planned a fifth round of demonstrations on Saturday across France to demand tax relief. Strasbourg was in mourning, with candles lit and flowers left at the site of the attack. The Christmas market was closed at least again on Thursday. On Wednesday evening, people prayed and sang in the nearby Protestant Church Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune. Pastor Philippe Eber said this is a moment “to think of those who died in this city because of violence. We also are thinking about all of those who weep for them, the families”. Strasbourg resident Tassia Konstantinidis said “it’s important to have a period of mourning and to remember the victims”. The dead included Thai tourist Anupong Suebsamarn, who was 45. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said one Italian was among the wounded, in critical condition. The Europhonica radio consortium said Antonio Megalizzi, 28, was in Strasbourg to follow the session of the European Parliament when he was shot. French authorities said that the suspect, born in Strasbourg, had run-ins with police from the age of 10 and his first conviction was at 13. Chekatt had been convicted 27 times, mostly in France but also in Switzerland and Germany, for crimes including armed robbery. He had been flagged for extremism and was on a watch list.[SEP]France's interior minister on Friday dismissed a claim by the Islamic State group that it was responsible for a shooting spree at a Christmas market in Strasbourg after the gunman was shot dead by police, ending a 48-hour manhunt. STRASBOURG: France's interior minister on Friday (Dec 14) dismissed a claim by the Islamic State militant group that a gunman who killed four people at a Christmas market in Strasbourg was one of its "soldiers", as investigators sought to understand his motives. Attending the reopening of the Christmas market, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said a Twitter post by the IS propaganda wing saying Cherif Chekatt was one of its "soldiers" was "completely opportunistic". "We're dealing with a man who was consumed by evil," he told reporters after touring the famed market. President Emmanuel Macron was to visit later in the day after attending a European Union summit in Brussels, his office said. Officials praised the massive public help and quick police reaction that led to the death of 29-year-old Chekatt, a career criminal with 27 convictions in four countries, late on Thursday. He was tracked down at around 9pm (2000 GMT) when a police patrol spotted him on a street in the Neudorf district where he was last seen after his gun and knife attack on Tuesday night. Around 800 people called in tips to a hotline after the authorities released his name and photo on Wednesday night. Two calls in particular were "decisive" in finding Chekatt, France's anti-terror prosecutor Remy Heitz said. The information allowed police to cordon off an area while a helicopter equipped with a heat-seeking camera overflew the gardens. Spotted by a police patrol, Chekatt tried to escape by entering a building. Unable to get in the door, he turned and shot at the three officers with a handgun when they tried to approach. Two police officers returned fire and killed him, Heitz told a press conference in Strasbourg. Four people were killed and 12 injured, including one who has been declared brain-dead and another still in critical condition, according to the latest toll. Two more people were detained for questioning overnight, bringing to seven the number in custody, including Chekatt's parents and two brothers, Heitz said. Another brother, who like Chekatt was on France's anti-terror watchlist for suspected extremists, has been detained in Algeria, sources close to the inquiry told AFP. Police are now focusing their investigation on whether Chekatt had any help in carrying out his attack or while on the run. Questions remain over how Chekatt was able to evade the tight security perimeter set up around the Christmas market, which has long been a prime target for jihadist groups. Around 500 police, security agents and soldiers control access at checkpoints on the bridges leading to the river island, a UN World Heritage site, that houses the market. The goal is to "create a bubble with searches at the entry points," Mayor Roland Ries said after the attack, while regional government representative Jean-Luc Marx said he had not determined "any flaws in the security measures". Many residents, however, were not convinced after Chekatt managed to slip through the controls with a handgun and a knife. "It doesn't surprise me," said Emeline, 38, who works in the city centre. "You wear a heavy coat, put something in the bottom of your bag. You can bring in what you want." France has been on high alert since the start of a wave of militant attacks in 2015, which prompted a threefold surge in the security budget for the market, to €1 million. Chekatt, a Strasbourg native who lived in a rundown apartment block a short drive from the city centre, was flagged by French security forces in 2015 as a possible Islamic extremist. But Defence Minister Florence Parly rejected criticism that Chekatt's presence on the extremist watchlist should have prompted a more proactive reaction from the authorities. "You can't ... arrest someone just because you think he might do something," Parly told Radio Classique on Friday. 'WE CAN'T SEARCH EVERYONE' Strasbourg's deputy mayor Alain Fontanel admitted that despite patrols, plainclothes police, profilers and video surveillance, "the risks can be reduced, but not eliminated". "We can't pat down and search everyone, only carry out random checks," he said, adding that huge lines at checkpoints would only create a new potential target for terrorists. "Someone who wants to get in an area this big with a weapon can do it," he said. Such reasoning was little comfort to the residents and tourists who flock to the Strasbourg market. "We thought this would happen only in Nice or at the Bataclan, but here it is at home," said Sylvain, who works at another market in the city centre. He was referring to a truck attack which killed over 80 people at Bastille Day festivities in the French Riviera city of Nice in 2016, and the massacre in the capital's Bataclan concert hall in November 2015.[SEP]The death toll in an attack on Strasbourg’s Christmas market rose to three on Thursday as police searched through eastern France and manned checkpoints on the German border in a hunt for the suspect. Police issued a wanted poster for Cherif Chekatt, the main suspect in the attack, who was on a watchlist as a potential security threat. Authorities say the 29-year-old was known to have developed radical religious views while in jail. READ MORE: Trump cites Strasbourg Christmas market shooting as reason for U.S.-Mexico wall France has raised its security threat to the highest level in response to Tuesday evening’s shooting rampage, which Strasbourg’s mayor said was indisputably an act of terrorism. Two people were killed and a third victim who was hospitalized has now died, the Paris Prosecutor’s office said. A fourth victim has been declared brain-dead. At least 12 people were wounded, several of them critically. More than 700 police were taking part in the second day of the manhunt in Strasbourg, which lies on the west bank of the Rhine river, and the surrounding region. WATCH: Gunman kills at least three, wounds 11 others in Strasbourg, France Armed French and German police manned controls on either side of the Europe Bridge, which spans the frontier. Traffic on the French side was heavily backed up as officers inspected vehicles during the morning rush-hour. Police in the German town of Kehl, on the opposite riverbank, said they had received several reports of possible sightings on Wednesday but all were false leads. Asked if French police had been instructed to catch Chekatt dead or alive, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews: “It doesn’t matter. The best thing would be to find him as quickly as possible.” It took police four months to track down Salah Abdesalam, the prime surviving suspect from the November 2015 militant assault on Paris, in an apartment in Brussels. One hundred and thirty people were killed in that attack as well as seven gunmen and bombers. The Christmas market, a hugely popular attraction in the historic city, remained closed on Thursday. Witnesses told investigators that the suspect Chekatt cried out “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greater) as he opened fire on the market, a target Paris Prosecutor Remy Heitz suggested may have been chosen for its religious symbolism. WATCH: Police seen near city centre after gunfire in Strasbourg Chekatt’s police file photo shows a bearded man of North African descent, with a prayer bruise on the center of his forehead. He has 27 criminal convictions for theft and violence, and has spent time in French, German and Swiss jails. Neighbours on the housing estate where Chekatt family’s lived described the suspect as a typical young man who dressed in jogging pants and trainers rather than traditional Islamic robes. “He was a little gangster, but I didn’t see any signs of him being radicalized,” said one local association leader who declined to be named, standing outside Chekkat’s apartment building. READ MORE: At least 2 dead in shooting near Strasbourg Christmas market in France, gunman on the run The attack took place at a testing time for President Emmanuel Macron, who on Monday announced tax concessions to quell a month-long public revolt over living costs that spurred the worst unrest in central Paris since the 1968 student riots. Griveaux said a decision had yet to be taken on whether to ban another planned “yellow vest” protest in Paris. The last three consecutive Saturdays of riots in the capital have seen cars torched, shops looted and the Arc de Triomphe defaced. “We’re simply saying at this stage that, given the events that are unfolding after the terrorist attack in Strasbourg, it would be preferable if everyone could go about a Saturday before the festive holidays in a quiet way,” Griveaux said.[SEP]The Strasbourg Christmas market shooting has fanned the flames of a debate about how to keep Europe safe, with MEPs from opposite sides of the aisle providing RT with radically different views about what must be done.The deadly attack in the northeast French city, which killed two people and left more than a dozen wounded, seems to have had a profound effect on EU parliamentarians - many of whom were present when their Strasbourg-based headquarters was put on lockdown following the shooting.Greek MEP Stelios Kouloglou, a member of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left, said that his deep concern for those stuck on the streets of Strasbourg during the attack quickly turned into anger.The left-leaning MEP said that the parliament held a minute of silence for the victims of the attack - a practice that, according to him, was becoming far too frequent due to the regularity of similar attacks across Europe.He thinks what needs to be done is "changing policies to find the sources of terrorism and to attack the resources of terrorism."Hailing from the opposite end of the political spectrum, Christine Arnautu - a French MEP for right-wing National Rally, and the party's vice president for social affairs - also noted the solidarity displayed by parliamentarians following the attack. She warned, however, that candlelight vigils won't keep France safe."Everyone has showed compassion, all the deputies, because these incidents are very traumatizing. But when it comes to real solutions ... it is not enough to light up candles, to cry, to say, like they do all the time, 'je suis Charlie', 'je suis Strasbourg', 'je suis Bataclan.' No, we are France and we want France to live in peace."The suspected gunman in the attack - 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, who was born in Strasbourg but whose family roots trace back to Morocco - has rekindled a longstanding debate in Europe over immigration and integration.In order to create lasting security in Europe, the wars in the Middle East must be brought to an end, Kouloglou said. The Greek MEP also encouraged Europe to engage with "moderate Islam" and a stressed that stereotyping Muslims would only lead to more hate and violence.Arnautu urged France to expel all people currently on the country's terror watch list, noting that Chekatt had been flagged but was still not stopped from carrying out an attack. She also accused immigrants of not being sufficiently loyal to the French state.Ultimately, according to Arnautu, the Strasbourg attack should compel France to rethink its open borders with the rest of Europe, which has allowed for a "free circulation of people" resulting in "criminals" entering the country."It was said that this attacker has previously been in Germany or elsewhere. He might be crossing borders now. Every time we have such a tragedy, we get back to the topic of border control. For example tonight I believe the Franco-German border is controlled, but it's too late."Both parliamentarians believe something must be done to prevent further attacks on European soil - but a clash of ideologies may serve as a serious hurdle to comprehensive action that can be agreed upon.Returning to the issue of integration, the Greek MEP noted: "We don't have to blame refugees or immigrants. We have to blame ourselves."He said that painting Islam and refugees with such a wide brush would only lead to more tragedy.Arnautu, on the other hand, blamed Europe's left-leaning and liberal parties for the continent's security problems."There are ideologists, who, despite all the tragedy, the deaths we've been witnessing for the past six years, keep saying that we should be tolerant, we should live together," she said."No, we don't want to live together with them. And I think we will see a lot of bad things if we stay in this EU, instead of protecting our sovereignty."

An Italian journalist to the European Parliament who was wounded during a terrorist attack in Strasbourg, France, dies of his injuries, raising the death toll to four.

Six security officials have been killed in an attack in southwest Pakistan when their convoy came under heavy firing in a mountainous area near the border with Iran. Pakistan's restive Balochistan province has been hit by a number of attacks on security personnel, but the number of large-scale incidents had decreased significantly since 2016. The province's information minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi told the Reuters news agency on Friday that six members of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force in charge of security in the region were killed in "heavy" firing along a mountainous stretch of road in the Kech district. Fourteen others were wounded. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and the Baloch Raji Ajoie Sangar (BRAS), armed Baloch separatist groups, have both claimed responsibility for the attack, in statements emailed to Al Jazeera. Restive province Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, has often been at the centre of attacks by both religious armed groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban (also known as Pakistan Taliban), and armed ethnic Baloch separatists fighting for independence from Pakistan. 181127110104579 Last month, three men from the separatist Baloch Liberation Army stormed the Chinese embassy in Pakistan's southern metropolis of Karachi, killing two policemen. They were shot and killed by police before they could enter the complex with a car packed with explosives. Despite its rich mineral and natural gas reserves, Balochistan remains Pakistan's poorest province and is the site of a long-running rebellion by separatists who argue the state is taking over their lands. The separatists have also targeted Chinese-funded projects in the region. In July, a suicide bomber detonated in the middle of a crowded election rally in the province, killing 128 people, including electoral candidate Siraj Raisani. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the blast.[SEP]At least six Frontier Corps personnel killed, 14 others wounded in assault claimed by Baloch Liberation Army At least six paramilitary troops were killed on Friday when their convoy came under attack by unidentified gunmen in Balochistan province, officials said. The incident took place in the far-flung mountainous Kech district where soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) were on a routine patrol. “Six FC men embraced martyrdom while 14 others were wounded in the gun attack,” said Zahoor Buledi, provincial information minister. A senior official from the FC confirmed the attack and told AFP that a search operation has been launched in the area. A spokesman for the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack. Mineral-rich Balochistan province borders Afghanistan and Iran and is home to ethnic, Islamist and political insurgencies. China is investing in the area under a $54-billion project known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), upgrading infrastructure, power and transport links between its far-western Xinjiang region and Pakistan’s Gwadar port. Thousands of paramilitary troops are deployed in troubled areas of the country to carry out security checks and to help police in maintaining law and order. Violence in Pakistan has dropped significantly since the country’s deadliest-ever militant attack, an assault on a school in Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 150 people, most of them children.[SEP]At least six paramilitary troops were killed in southwestern Pakistan on December 14 when their convoy came under attack in a mountainous area near the border with Iran in the southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said. Balochistan has been the theater of several attacks on security personnel recently, but the number of large-scale incidents has decreased significantly since 2016. Six members of the Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary force in charge of security in the region were killed in "heavy" firing along a mountainous stretch of road in the Kech district, the province's information minister, Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, said. "Six FC men embraced martyrdom while 14 others were wounded in the gun attack," Buledi said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Islamist militants linked to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Islamic State have been operating in the mineral-rich province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. An indigenous ethnic Baloch insurgency is under way against the central government. Last month, three men from the separatist Baloch Liberation Army stormed the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan's southern metropolis of Karachi, killing four people, including two police officers. China is investing in the area under a $54 billion project known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which aims at upgrading infrastructure, power, and transport links between its western Xinjiang region and Pakistan's Gwadar port. Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP[SEP]QUETTA, Pakistan: Six security officials were killed in an attack in southwestern Pakistan on Friday when their convoy came under heavy firing in a mountainous area near the border with Iran. Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province has been hit by a number of attacks on security personnel but the number of large scale incidents has decreased significantly since 2016. The province's information minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi told Reuters that six members of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force in charge of security in the region were killed in "heavy" firing along a mountainous stretch of road in the Kech district. Fourteen others were wounded. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Islamist militants linked to the Taliban, al Qaeda and Islamic State have been operating in the province, which borders Iran as well as Afghanistan. It also has an indigenous ethnic Baluch insurgency fighting the central government. Last month, three men from the separatist Baloch Liberation Army stormed the Chinese embassy in Pakistan's southern metropolis Karachi, killing four people including two policemen. They were shot and killed by police before they could force their way in in a car packed with explosives. Baluchistan, which has rich mineral and natural gas reserves but remains Pakistan’s poorest province, is the site of a long-running rebellion by separatists who argue the state is taking over their lands and have targeted Chinese-funded projects. In July, a suicide bomber detonated in the middle of a crowded election rally in the province, killing 128 people including electoral candidate Siraj Raisani. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast.[SEP]ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday set up a two-member commission on water pollution in Balochistan, which will provide an initial report in 2 weeks. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar also directed authorities to install the water purification plant within a month in Bhagnari Bolan. The chief justice remarked that the Balochistan government should saw the video of a runway on which donkeys and people are watering from same place. He said people are drinking poison instead of water, the matter is serious, if I have to call the chief minister Balochistan or whole cabinet then I will, he added. The video of a dirty water pool in Bolan Bhagari was played in Supreme Court's Room Court No. 1. Chief Justice Saqib Nisar asked the Additional Advocate General Balochistan that the government should see Balochistan that what kind of water available to people, who are your masters? Why did not the Chief Secretary come? Chief Minister Balochistan, if visited there then could see the actual condition of the province. Meanwhile, member National Assembly Shah Zain Bhugti thanked the Chief Justice for taking notice of the matter. The CJ addressing Deputy Commissioner, Bolan said that you are watering poisonous water to people. You put 1200 million rupees in non-developmental activities, at least you people should have installed one water purification plants in the area, Justice Nisar added. He said that drinking water is not just the problem of people living there but whole Balochistan, will not let anyone to escape, I will call CM Balochistan, if I had to call all the cabinets, I would call. Subsequently, the court constituted a commission comprising, Amanullah Kanrani, President of Supreme Court Bar Association and Engineer Osman Babai and ordered them to make suggestions to resolve the water problem in Balochistan, moreover Irrigation and other departments will provide full support to the commission, court ruled.[SEP]At least six security personnel were killed during an anti-terror operation in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province. The terrorists had launched a bomb attack on a police vehicle in Turbat district, near the Iran border, while a raid was underway in a hideout.[SEP]Supreme Court has constituted a two member commission to finalize and submit a report on water scarcity in Balochistan within two weeks. The order was passed in Islamabad on Friday by a three-member bench of Apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar while hearing a case about non-availability of drinking water in Bolan area of Balochistan. The Commission will be headed by President Supreme Court Bar Association Amanullah Kanrani and Engineer Usman Maimai will be its member.[SEP]QUETTA, Pakistan — Pakistan’s military says a roadside bomb targeting security forces has killed six troops and wounded several others in the town of Buleda in Baluchistan province. In a statement Friday, the military says it also killed four “terrorists” after coming under attack during a raid on a militant hideout in the southwestern province. It provided no further details and did not identify the slain. Ethnic separatists have been waging a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan, where Pakistani and foreign militants also carry out attacks against security forces. Although Pakistan’s government claims it has quelled the Baluch separatists’ insurgency, violence has persisted in the province.[SEP]US pressurising Pakistan to do more: Rabbani KARACHI: The former Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani criticized the United States for pressuring Pakistan to ‘do more’ despite the country had suffered grave losses in terms of economic and human losses. Rabbani was speaking at the distinguished lecture series during the The Festival of Arts and Ideas, organized by Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) on Friday. He said America had never protected the interests of Pakistan; instead they had always been concerned about their own interests. “Once their interests are fully served, they show no qualms and leave us in the lurch,” said Mr. Rabbani. He criticized United States for putting Pakistan in the blacklist of religious freedom. Rabbani said United States wanted to make India as the regional policeman because it considered India as its strategic partner; however, such American design was not acceptable to Pakistan. He said Pakistan is a sovereign country and would accept anything that was agreed upon on equal terms. He said the mindset of Indian establishment is rigid and narrow, as it has sabotaged every good move from Pakistan. He referred to recent opening of Kartarpur route, which was a good gesture offered by Pakistan, yet, Indian foreign minister refused to attend the ceremony. He said India is involved in state-sponsored terrorism in Balochistan and elsewhere in Pakistan. He added the worst violations of human rights are being committed in Indian-occupied Kashmir where all international laws and norms were being broken up and the rest of the world was silent. He asked where was the conscience of the West on those violations in Kashmir where children, women and men are being killed and exposed to pellet guns. He said the Muslims in India are being attacked and killed on the pretext of eating beef. Rabbani said the ban on student unions divided students depriving them of the gift of critical thinking; due to lack of academic freedom .He said the Senate had passed a resolution demanding lifting of ban on students union, but no action was taken. Prof Zeliha Kocak Tufan, a member of Turkish Council of Higher Education discussed issues relating to higher education of her country. She said a total of 206 institutions offering higher education in which 140,000 students from various countries are admitted in the universities at Ankara and Istanbul. They included 1,822 students from Pakistan. She referred to an exchange programme under which 256 students and 171 faculty members were affiliated with Turkish universities. A panel discussion was held on leadership strategies for Pakistani business. Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh said Pakistan and Turkey have close friendly relations that are being strengthened day by day. He said SMIU has also a close association with Turkey because the Sultan of Turkey had given the title of `Effendi` to Hassanally, founder of SMI. Earlier, SMIU vice chancellor Dr. Muhammad Ali Shaikh presented shield to the guest speakers afterwards. An impressive show celebrated the life of author Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo. The students also presented the poetry of Sufi poets Rumi and Iqbal.[SEP]QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan said on Wednesday that CM’s Inception Team had identified over 600 development schemes which were found only on papers and did not exist anywhere in the province. Speaking at a ceremony organised by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Balochistan, to hand over looted money recovered by NAB from corrupt government officials, the chief minister said that these development schemes had been prepared by the previous government. The Director General of NAB, Balochistan, Muhammad Abid Javed, handed over a cheque for Rs600 million to the chief minister, recovered by NAB from different corrupt government officials. The chief minister said the present government had already announced zero tolerance for corruption and corrupt elements. “The future of millions of people of Balochistan is linked with our policies,” he said, adding that lack of sincerity in rooting out corruption by previous governments had multiplied problems of the masses and retarded the development of the province. “There should be no further space for corruption in the province,” Mr Khan said. “Our religion teaches us self-accountability and zero tolerance for corruption and without following teachings of our holy religion against corruption, we will continue to sink into the sludge of corruption which is the root cause of all evils the country and the province are facing at present,” he said. Referring to financial crisis the Balochistan government was now facing, Mr Khan said that pensioners’ bill of the provincial government had gone up to Rs21 billion while the total revenue of the province was Rs15bn. He said the Balochistan government needed $3bn to steer the province out of the financial woes. He stressed the need for utilising existing resources and regretted that despite having precious mineral, oil, gas and other natural resources, leaders of the country had been forced to visit other countries to seek loans and that was very embarrassing situation for the entire country”. Speaking on the occasion, NAB’s DG of Balochistan Muhammad Abid Javed held out an assurance to the provincial government that the bureau would not repeat the practice of sending letters to halt development funds of lawmakers and vowed to continue its efforts to recover government’s looted money from corrupt elements and deposit it in the government’s exchequer.

Six government officials are killed and 14 others are wounded in an attack in Balochistan, Pakistan. The BLA claims responsibility.

New York (CNN Business) The Weekly Standard, the magazine that espouses traditional conservatism and which has remained deeply critical of President Donald Trump, will shutter after 23 years, its owner Clarity Media Group announced Friday morning. The magazine will publish its final issue on December 17. The announcement came after the magazine's editor-in-chief, Stephen Hayes, met privately with Ryan McKibben, the chief executive and chairman of Clarity Media Group, a media holding company owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz. "For more than twenty years The Weekly Standard has provided a valued and important perspective on political, literary and cultural issues of the day," McKibben said in a press release. "The magazine has been home to some of the industry's most dedicated and talented staff and I thank them for their hard work and contributions, not just to the publication, but the field of journalism." Employees were told at an all staff meeting, which CNN obtained an audio recording of, that they would be paid through the end of the year, and that afterward they would receive severance which would range in scale depending on factors like seniority. To receive severance, however, employees would need to sign a strict non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreement. "I know it's an emotional day, but I want to tell you don't get on social media and attack anybody because it will put your severance in jeopardy," McKibben told employees in the meeting. Read More[SEP]The Weekly Standard, a conservative opinion magazine turned Never-Trump publication, will shut down, according to a Friday announcement from the publisher’s owner, Clarity Media Group. Earlier Friday, Weekly Standard editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes sat down with MediaDC chairman Ryan McKibben to discuss the magazine’s fate. Hayes sent a letter to employees notifying them of this morning’s meeting with McKibben, saying he was “not sure what today will bring” “This is a volatile time in American journalism and politics,” Hayes’ letter to staffers read. “Many media outlets have responded to the challenges of the moment by prioritizing affirmation over information, giving into the pull of polarization and the lure of clickbait.” Further, the magazine’s editor-in-chief said it was “profound honor” to work The Weekly Standard‘s roster of reporters, adding, “I’m proud that we’ve remained both conservative and independent, providing substantive reporting and analysis based on facts, logic and reason.” The magazine will post its final edition on December 17. “All good things come to an end. And so, after 23 years, does The Weekly Standard,” co-founder Bill Kristol wrote on Twitter. “I want to express my gratitude to our readers and my admiration for my colleagues. We worked hard to put out a quality magazine, and we had a good time doing so. And we have much more to do. Onward!” Earlier December, Hayes told staffers that he was uncertain about the magazine’s future amid sagging readership and a fruitless attempt to find a buyer. “The Weekly Standard has been hampered by many of the same challenges that countless other magazines and newspapers across the country have been wrestling with,” McKibben said in a statement, obtained by TheWrap. “Despite investing significant resources into the publication, the financial performance of the publication over the last five years — with double-digit declines in its subscriber base all but one year since 2013 — made it clear that a decision had to be made,” added McKibben. “After careful consideration of all possible options for its future, it became clear that this was the step we needed to take.” News of The Weekly Standard’s shuttering comes after its parent company announced that the Washington Examiner – also owned by Clarity Media Group – will relaunch its weekly print magazine with nationwide distribution and larger editorial focus. Media observers floated a possible merger between the two publications. The Weekly Standard, a once-influential neoconservative magazine, was co-founded by Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes in 1995 and published by Newscorp.[SEP]Last month, Kelly Jane Torrance, deputy managing editor of the Weekly Standard, provided some commentary for i24NEWS, an Israeli outfit. Savvy publications generally use such TV “hits” to promote their logos, the better to boost Web traffic, cachet, brand, etc. Here’s the branding that i24NEWS viewers beheld in the office space behind Torrance: Yes, that’s the Washington Examiner’s logo behind Torrance. Confusion of this sort will not linger. On Friday, the ownership of the Weekly Standard announced the highly expected closing of the magazine. “For more than twenty years The Weekly Standard has provided a valued and important perspective on political, literary and cultural issues of the day,” Ryan McKibben, president and CEO of Clarity Media, said in a news release. “The magazine has been home to some of the industry’s most dedicated and talented staff and I thank them for their hard work and contributions, not just to the publication, but the field of journalism.” Noting that the magazine has been buffeted by the same forces destroying other segments of U.S. media, McKibben added: “Despite investing significant resources into the publication, the financial performance of the publication over the last five years — with double-digit declines in its subscriber base all but one year since 2013 — made it clear that a decision had to be made. After careful consideration of all possible options for its future, it became clear that this was the step we needed to take.” [Conservatism needs a new Weekly Standard untainted by Trump] Prior to the meeting in which the plug received its official pulling, Editor in Chief Stephen F. Hayes told staff in an email: “This is a volatile time in American journalism and politics. Many media outlets have responded to the challenges of the moment by prioritizing affirmation over information, giving into the pull of polarization and the lure of clickbait. I’ll spare you the soapbox and the sanctimony. To put it simply: I’m proud that we’ve remained both conservative and independent, providing substantive reporting and analysis based on facts, logic and reason.” A little bit of history: The Weekly Standard launched in 1995 with money from mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. under the guidance of founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes. In 2009, Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz bought the publication and ran it under Clarity Media Group. McKibben boasted that the Weekly Standard was “one of the most highly respected publications of public policy and political commentary in America.” There was just one complication: Anschutz’s Clarity Media also owned the Washington Examiner, which was then a strange beast. Launched in 2005, it combined solid local news with conservative opinion columnists focused on national issues. The mix made no sense whatsoever. Nor did the business model, which involved free-of-charge saturation delivery of a conservative-tilted newspaper onto the lawns of some of the country’s most liberal communities. Arlington residents revolted over the delivery scheme. But the Washington Examiner didn’t have to make sense: It was funded by an oddball mogul. This was the company’s baby, a grand project poised to take root in as many as 60 cities across the country. Instead, losses took root. Local journalism a decade ago wasn’t much more profitable than it is today. In 2013, the Washington Examiner bagged the local stuff and retooled its shop to cover national politics and policy, along with a continued commitment to conservative opinion. Oh, but there was a problem: The same company had bought the Weekly Standard four years prior. Wasn’t there a problematic overlap going on here? Then-editor Stephen G. Smith (who has since left the company) told the Erik Wemple Blog in March 2013: In the years since, the brains around Anschutz have come to see something far different in the Weekly Standard: a subscription list. On Dec. 3, the company announced a relaunch of the Washington Examiner. While the print version has been available only to highflying decision-makers, the new Washington Examiner, noted the release, would seek a “nationwide subscriber footprint" with 44 issues per year. “Over the years, we’ve frequently been asked if individuals outside of the Beltway could subscribe to the publication,” said McKibben. “With this expansion and relaunch, our aim is for the new, national Washington Examiner to build on its position as a leader in providing a conservative perspective on the events of the day.” How important was it to Anschutz & Co. to clear the playing field for the Washington Examiner? Important enough that the owners declined to sell the Weekly Standard to an outside group. Better to shutter it, cannibalize it. “They’ve pretty much made clear that they will not sell the magazine even though there have been several expressions of serious interest,” said an informed source who, like others interviewed for this post, didn’t want to be named while the fate of the magazine was in limbo. Countered company spokeswoman Hannah Rimar: “Clarity explored a range of different possibilities for the future of the publication over the past year. A number of conversations were held with a variety of different parties about their interest in acquiring the publication but none led to any viable offers.” This month, after it announced the Washington Examiner re-relaunch, the company responded this way to inquiries about the impact on the Weekly Standard: "It is no secret that news organizations across the U.S. are dealing with an evolving business landscape. The Weekly Standard is dealing with these same issues. Clarity Media has been exploring a number of possibilities regarding the future of The Weekly Standard. At this time, Clarity does not have any news to share about its evaluation process.” Thus began the death watch of another vital news organ. Publications such as the Weekly Standard exist at the pleasure of donors, or someone rich. That’s just the reality of political journals and magazines, whether they’re on the right — like National Review and the American Spectator — or whether they’re on the left — like the New Republic. Publishers can send out mailers, launch cruises, pitch ads to prominent lobbies, but the reality always comes back colored in red. Conventional wisdom holds that a conservative journal does better under a Democratic president and vice versa, but former Weekly Standard publisher Terry Eastland tells the Erik Wemple Blog: “The conventional wisdom is not wrong, but when they do better, they’re doing bad.” Eastland declined to comment specifically on the Weekly Standard. So Clarity Media is bailing on a money-losing proposition. According to sources, the Weekly Standard’s annual losses fall in the seven-figure range — generally between $2 million and $5 million per year. The goal of the business side has always been to keep that number as low as possible, so as to avoid becoming a problem for the owner. During the Murdoch years — 1995 to 2009 — staffers report a smooth ride. Though Murdoch was famous for keeping an eye on the computer screens of his tabloid editors, the Weekly Standard operated with a glorious autonomy. The founders secured provisions in their contracts for editorial independence. “Rupert was great. He never interfered,” says a knowledgeable source. “I had a very good time there and the working conditions were, I don’t know, hospitable, supportive, whatever word you want to use,” recalls Matthew Rees, a former staff writer. That environment allowed the founders to carve out a distinct weekly journal. There was editorializing — neocon editorializing that cheered on the overseas projection of U.S. power and the disastrous Iraq War in particular; there were features; there was cultural commentary and book reviews; and there was spectacular writing and the occasional stinker. It was kind of an alt-weekly for conservative politics. According to informed sources, the new owner never really got that dimension of the Weekly Standard — that is, the magazine’s whimsical side and the longform work of Weekly Standard eminences such as Matt Labash and Andrew Ferguson. It did, however, subsidize the title for nearly a decade. With meddling, of course. Weekly Standard insiders say that Clarity was forever cramming the latest Internet trend down the throats of managers at the magazine, in an effort to goose the publication’s Web traffic. The directives met with opposition from editors. Thus the unflattering reference in Hayes’s memo to “clickbait.” Left intact was the Weekly Standard’s editorial independence, which it used famously to state the empirical — that President Trump was and is corrupt and incapable of executive assertion. In the remarkable splintering of conservative media over the past three years, the magazine has distinguished itself on this front with editorials and features that savage the Republican president. For instance, here’s the conclusion to a recent editorial on Trump’s worsening legal straits: Sounds a lot like the sort of material you might find on the editorial page of The Post or the New York Times. The workings of integrity are marvelous. Early coverage of Weekly Standard’s end explored the possibility that its end is related to its stance on Trump. Rimar responded to such talk this way: “This was a business decision. Any attempt to politicize it ignores the realities about The Weekly Standard’s unresolved financial struggles that began well before the current administration took office.” But subscriptions have gone down in recent years, including a 10 percent drop between 2016 and 2017. According to a magazine insider, the cancellations started raining down in the spring of 2016, as Trump was closing in on the Republican nomination. “There was probably the sense that our readership, the Weekly Standard readership, was more in line with the editors, but it turned out to be more mainstream Republicans watching Fox,” says the insider. Now the folks at the Washington Examiner will be getting more attention from ownership. They, too, are running a money-losing organization, according to informed sources. This is the third incarnation of the Washington Examiner, and let’s hope that it’s more durable than the first two. Clinton Foundation raises objections to reporting of the Hill’s John Solomon[SEP]Conservative magazine The Weekly Standard is closing down after 23 years. The publisher, Clarity Media Group, is citing fewer subscribers as the reason. The Weekly Standard was often critical of President Donald Trump. Founded by Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes and backed by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in 1995, it was acquired by Clarity Media Group in 2009. Clarity Media President and CEO Ryan McKibben said in a statement that the magazine had double-digit declines in its subscriber base all but one year since 2013. Denver-based Clarity also owns the Washington Examiner magazine, weekly magazine Colorado Politics and daily newspaper Colorado Springs Gazette.[SEP]The Weekly Standard, a conservative news outlet known for being unabashedly critical of President Donald Trump, announced Friday it is closing its doors after over two decades. Weekly Standard editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes tweeted: “I am profoundly disappointed in the decision to close The Weekly Standard. For nearly a quarter century TWS has provided an unapologetically conservative and fiercely independent voice on American culture and public affairs. The voice is needed now more than at anytime in our previous 23 years.” Hayes wrote in a message to employees obtained by CNN, “This is a volatile time in American journalism and politics.” “Many media outlets have responded to the challenges of the moment by prioritizing affirmation over information, giving into the pull of polarization and the lure of clickbait,” he continued. “I’m proud that we’ve remained both conservative and independent, providing substantive reporting and analysis based on facts, logic and reason.” Co-founder and editor-at-large Bill Kristol added: “All good things come to an end. And so, after 23 years, does The Weekly Standard. … We worked hard to put out a quality magazine, and we had a good time doing so.” Politico noted that Kristol, a regular guest commentator on MSNBC, became one of the more prominent faces in the “Never Trump” ranks during the 2016 Republican primary. He was among those adding his name to National Review’s list of conservatives against then-candidate Trump. Kristol’s animus carried over into the Trump administration, as exemplified by an October 2017 Twitter battle with Fox News political analyst Brit Hume. Hume described Kristol’s thread of tweets as the “never-Trump creed in full rhetorical flight.” In his tweets, the editor charged that conservatives were standing on the sidelines as Trump destroyed the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. CNN reported, based on “people familiar with the matter,” that the leadership of The Weekly Standard had butted heads with MediaDC, the publisher of the magazine, which is owned by Clarity Media Group. Hayes and Kristol reportedly asked for the opportunity to seek out new investors for the news outlet, but Clarity ultimately decided to close it down instead. The company, which also owns the Washington Examiner, is said to have wanted to retain The Weekly Standard’s subscriber list to support the launch of a new Examiner weekly magazine. Clarity released a statement on Friday announcing The Weekly Standard’s last issue will be on Monday. “For more than twenty years The Weekly Standard has provided a valued and important perspective on political, literary and cultural issues of the day,” said Ryan McKibben, president and CEO of Clarity Media. “The magazine has been home to some of the industry’s most dedicated and talented staff and I thank them for their hard work and contributions, not just to the publication, but the field of journalism.” “The Weekly Standard has been hampered by many of the same challenges that countless other magazines and newspapers across the country have been wrestling with,” McKibben said. “Despite investing significant resources into the publication, the financial performance of the publication over the last five years — with double-digit declines in its subscriber base all but one year since 2013 — made it clear that a decision had to be made. “After careful consideration of all possible options for its future, it became clear that this was the step we needed to take.” The New York Times reported that Hayes and Kristol are hoping to launch a publication similar to The Weekly Standard under a new banner. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine critical of the Trump administration, is closing after a 23-year run, its parent company said Friday. The D.C.-based publication, which helped shape conservative thought and rose to prominence during the George W. Bush administration, stood out among conservative outlets for its steadfast opposition to the Trump presidency. Co-founder William Kristol, who edited the magazine until late 2016, called himself a “Never Trumper.” The final edition of the magazine will publish on Dec. 17, said Clarity Media Group Inc., the owner of Weekly Standard publisher MediaDC. Weekly Standard subscriptions will be turned into subscriptions to sister magazine Washington Examiner, which will be redesigned and expanded on Jan. 1, Clarity Media said. The Washington Examiner was described by a Weekly Standard staffer as “friendlier to Trump” but not a cheerleader. A spokeswoman for Clarity Media declined to comment on that observation. Clarity Media CEO Ryan McKibben said in a statement that the financial performance of The Weekly Standard over the past five years “made it clear that a decision had to be made.” He said the publication “has been hampered by many of the same challenges that countless other magazines and newspapers across the country have been wrestling with.” Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard’s executive editor and also a founder, said the publication’s financial issues stemmed in part from its stance on President Trump. “We’ve discovered that criticism of Trump affects circulation negatively,” Mr. Barnes said in an interview. “That was definitely a factor.” Mr. McKibben said The Weekly Standard’s subscriber base shrank by double digits in percentage terms “all but one year since 2013.” The magazine claims a total of 90,000 subscribers, according to the MediaDC website. John Podhoretz, a Weekly Standard founder and contributing editor, on Friday tweeted that the magazine’s owner had agreed to let editor Steve Hayes find a buyer and that a New York venture-capital firm was willing to broker a sale but Mr. McKibben later instructed Mr. Hayes to cease all contact with the venture-capital firm. “Never in the annals of American publishing have I heard of such a thing,” Mr. Podhoretz wrote, stating that Clarity Media owner Philip Anschutz and Mr. McKibben “wouldn’t even entertain AN OFFER.” The Clarity Media spokeswoman said the company had “explored a range of different possibilities for the future of the publication over the past year. A number of conversations were held with a variety of different parties about their interest in acquiring the publication but none led to any viable offers.” Mr. Podhoretz, who is editor of Commentary magazine, declined to comment further. Mr. Anschutz, a billionaire entrepreneur, and Mr. Hayes couldn’t be reached for comment, and the Clarity Media spokeswoman said Mr. McKibben wasn’t available for further comment. The Weekly Standard, first published in September 1995 by News Corp, has provided both national and international coverage, and attracted some of the country’s leading conservative journalists. It was bought by Clarity Media in 2009. News Corp is the parent of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones. Mr. Barnes, one of The Weekly Standard’s founders, said he believes the publication will be remembered as a conservative magazine that was livelier than most, well written, and one that identified with the “younger conservative forces” in the Republican Party. “We supported tax reform, Paul Ryan, and an aggressive foreign policy that believed the U.S. should support the spread of democracy around the world,” he said. Mr. Barnes said President Trump had some supporters at the publication, including himself, but noted that Mr. Trump “divided conservative journalism. A number of people here believe we don’t need to love him personally but that he’s succeeding with tax reform, deregulation, and judges.” In a tweet Friday, Mr. Kristol, who is editor at large for the magazine, said: “All good things come to an end. And so, after 23 years, does The Weekly Standard.” Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com and David Marcelis at david.marcelis@wsj.com[SEP]The Weekly Standard, a conservative publication known for being critical of President Donald Trump and a key intellectual force behind the disastrous U.S. war in Iraq, is set to close after 23 years. Clarity Media Group, which owns Standard publisher MediaDC, announced Friday that the magazine’s final issue will publish on Monday, according to CNN. “For more than twenty years The Weekly Standard has provided a valued and important perspective on political, literary and cultural issues of the day,” Ryan McKibben, chairman of MediaDC, said in a press release. “The magazine has been home to some of the industry’s most dedicated and talented staff and I thank them for their hard work and contributions, not just to the publication, but the field of journalism.” Staffers have known something “bad” was coming since at least last week, when Clarity Media revealed it was “exploring a number of possibilities” for the publication, according to Politico. The magazine’s founder, William Kristol, had already publicly floated a possible sale or merger with its expanding sister publication, the Washington Examiner. Some say the Standard shuttered as a direct result of it resisting moving further right under the Trump administration. The New York Times said The Weekly Standard was in danger specifically because it found itself on the wrong side of Trump, and because editor-in-chief Stephen F. Hayes had a penchant for investigative reporting and banning “alt-right-style, partisan clickbait stories.” “And the outcome has called into question whether the conservative media world can abide journalism that questions the new orthodoxy,” the Times’ Jim Rutenberg wrote earlier this month. The paper’s most lasting legacy may be its role in promoting the Iraq War, as its editors wrote in the months after 9/11 that they hoped “the president will courageously decide to destroy Saddam’s regime.” “It is past time for the United States to step up and accept the real responsibilities and requirements of global leadership,” reads an editorial co-bylined by Kristol in January 2002. “We’ve already tried the alternative.”[SEP]The Weekly Standard is shutting down, owner Clarity Media Group announced Friday, ending one of the only conservative outlets that consistently stood in opposition to the style and politics of President Donald Trump. The magazine’s final issue, which was completed Thursday, will publish on Dec. 17, Clarity said in a press release. The decision was communicated to staff members at a 10:30 a.m. meeting. All staff members were terminated, with pay through the end of the year, a Clarity spokesperson confirmed, saying that the office will be closed on Friday. Severance is being offered by Clarity and its publishing arm, MediaDC, two staff members told POLITICO, contingent on them signing a non-disclosure agreement — a stringent condition from a media company that states on its website a mission to "inform and enlighten readers." “For more than twenty years The Weekly Standard has provided a valued and important perspective on political, literary and cultural issues of the day,” Clarity Media President and CEO Ryan McKibben said in the statement. “The magazine has been home to some of the industry’s most dedicated and talented staff and I thank them for their hard work and contributions, not just to the publication, but the field of journalism.” The decision to shutter came after more than a week of uncertainty for employees. Amid rumors of its possible demise, Clarity said 10 days ago that it was "exploring a number of possibilities" for the conservative journal, but executives have remained silent since then, including Clarity owner Philip Anschutz, the billionaire conservative donor. Rumors had been swirling about the Weekly Standard since Clarity announced that its sister publication, the Washington Examiner, would expand with a weekly conservative magazine with national distribution. With the new Examiner product positioned to take over the Weekly Standard’s corner, management decided to shutter the journal, rather than sell it or allow it to exist in some other form that could create a potential competitor to the newly expanded Examiner. While the Standard has positioned itself against Trump — its founding editor William Kristol has become one of the most prominent faces of the Never Trump movement — the Examiner has featured a range of opinions on the president. After being launched in 1995 by Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard became so influential during the administration of George W. Bush — as it cheered on the invasion of Iraq — that it became known as the in-flight magazine of Air Force One. But the journal has found itself out of sync with the conservative movement in the age of Trump. As recently as five years ago, the magazine’s print circulation numbered more than 100,000, but by last year, that number had dropped to 72,000, according to the auditing group BPA Worldwide. Between 2016 and 2017, when Trump took office, paid circulation dropped by about 7,000 or about 10 percent, according to the auditing group. Hayes and his allies had been seeking potential buyers for the Weekly Standard, but Clarity Media lost interest in a sale by this week, one person familiar with the situation said. Weekly Standard staff members feared — and expected — the worst heading into Friday morning’s meeting, but they remained in the dark about what exactly would happen. Even though Clarity asked editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes to arrange an all-staff meeting for Friday, details like the time were not nailed down until a few hours before the gathering started, meaning most staff learned of the meeting first by word of mouth, the person familiar with the situation said. In Clarity’s press release, McKibben blamed the business climate for media for the Weekly Standard’s demise, though the magazine has never been known as a big moneymaker. “The Weekly Standard has been hampered by many of the same challenges that countless other magazines and newspapers across the country have been wrestling with,” McKibben wrote. “Despite investing significant resources into the publication, the financial performance of the publication over the last five years — with double-digit declines in its subscriber base all but one year since 2013 — made it clear that a decision had to be made. After careful consideration of all possible options for its future, it became clear that this was the step we needed to take.” In an email to staff Friday morning, Hayes expressed thanks. “This is a volatile time in American journalism and politics,” he wrote. “Many media outlets have responded to the challenges of the moment by prioritizing affirmation over information, giving into the pull of polarization and the lure of clickbait. I’ll spare you the soapbox and the sanctimony. To put it simply: I’m proud that we’ve remained both conservative and independent, providing substantive reporting and analysis based on facts, logic and reason.” Kristol, who two years ago moved from his editor-in-chief role to be an editor at large, has publicly said that he intends to keep the Standard’s voice and style alive in some form. Editorial leaders from the magazine have been in discussion in recent days over what a possible successor publication might look like, two people familiar with the talks said. One possibility could be to expand a small conservative site called the Bulwark, which is published by the Defending Democracy Together Institute, a nonprofit with which Kristol is involved. He and Weekly Standard contributing editor Charlie Sykes already sit on the editorial board of the site, which currently lists just two editorial employees.[SEP]The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine critical of the Trump administration, is closing after a 23-year run, its parent company announced Friday. The publication, which helped shape conservative thought and rose to prominence during the George W. Bush administration, stood out among conservative outlets for its steadfast opposition to the Trump presidency. Co-founder William Kristol, who edited the magazine until late 2016, called himself a “Never Trumper.” The magazine suffered from the digital disruption that has transformed the media landscape as major marketers have increasingly embraced digital giants such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google that can offer massive scale and greater data analytics. “The Weekly Standard has been hampered by many of the same challenges that countless other magazines and newspapers across the country have been wrestling with,” said Ryan McKibben, CEO of Denver-based Clarity Media Group Inc., which owns Weekly Standard publisher MediaDC. “Despite investing significant resources into the publication, the financial performance of the publication over the last five years—with double-digit declines in its subscriber base all but one year since 2013—made it clear that a decision had to be made,” he said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Clarity Media said Mr. McKibben wasn’t available for further comment. Mr. Kristol didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In a tweet Friday, he said, “All good things come to an end. And so, after 23 years, does The Weekly Standard.” The magazine, first published in September 1995 by News Corp, has provided both national and international coverage, and attracted some of the country’s leading conservative journalists. It was bought by Clarity Media in 2009. News Corp is the parent of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones.[SEP]The Weekly Standard — the right-leaning magazine that has remained doggedly anti-Trump since the president’s election — is shutting down after 23 years. Staffers got the news at an all-hands meeting Friday morning that they were to clean out their desks by 5 p.m. The weekly will publish its last issue Dec. 17. Beforehand, editor-in-chief Steven Hayes had met privately with Ryan McKibben, CEO of the magazine’s parent company, Clarity Media. “The Weekly Standard has been hampered by many of the same challenges that countless other magazines and newspapers across the country have been wrestling with,” McKibben said in a Friday statement. “Despite investing significant resources into the publication, the financial performance of the publication over the last five years — with double-digit declines in its subscriber base all but one year since 2013 — made it clear that a decision had to be made,” he added. The publication was launched in 1995 by News Corp., which publishes The Post, with founding editor-in-chief Bill Kristol. In 2005, it was sold to Colorado-based conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz. The publication in recent years was one of the few conservative outlets that was sharply critical of many of the policies of President Trump. Kristol, most recently an editor-at-large, was an unabashed “Never Trump” pundit. Years earlier, Kristol had been a staunch backer of George W. Bush and the Iraq War. “This is a volatile time in American journalism and politics,” Hayes wrote in a letter to staffers. “Many media outlets have responded to the challenges of the moment by prioritizing affirmation over informations, giving into the pull of polarization and the lure of clickbait.” Initially, Anschutz and MediaDC, the subsidiary of Clarity that ran the Standard, said they would allow Hayes to search for a new buyer. But CNN reported earlier this month that Hayes was told recently the company was no longer interested in selling. Around that time, MediaDC was unveiling plans to take its weekly Washington Examiner from an inside-the-Beltway publication and transform it into a national conservative weekly. The Examiner had been generally more supportive of Trump in its editorial slant. The closure drew immediate criticism in some conservative media circles. Writing in Commentary, columnist John Podhoretz — who also writes for The Post — said he did not believe the criticism of Trump was the main reason its owners decided to kill off the Weekly Standard. “Rather, I believe the fissures in the conservative movement and the Republican Party that have opened up since Trump’s rise provided the company man with a convenient argument to make to the corporation’s owner, Philip Anschutz, that the company could perhaps harvest the Standard’s subscriber-base riches and then be done with it.” Staffers are being paid to the end of the year, but their severance packages are said to be contingent on signing non-disparagement clauses.

American conservative weekly opinion magazine The Weekly Standard announces that it will shut down this month after 23 years in print.

Bomb threats are being reported across the country. Six bomb threats have been reported in York County today, and 11 bomb threats are being investigated in Lancaster County, according to York County spokesman Mark Walters and the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office. A string of threats have been made nationwide today to universities, including Penn State buildings in State College, police departments and news outlets. It appears to be a electronic hoax that sent officers scrambling. The Penn State threats are reported to be a hoax, according to the Daily Collegian. Six businesses or organizations in York County have received the threats, Walters said. The locations include the city, and the townships of Jackson, Spring Garden, Springettsbury and York. Emails request money as part of the threat. All of the threats in Lancaster County have been cleared, according to a tweet from spokesman Brett Hambright. None of the ones in Lancaster had been deemed as credible, a news release states. Meanwhile, police in York County investigated a bomb threat at Eastern York Middle School earlier today. Students returned to class after K-9 units cleared the building. Lower Windsor Township police said the threat was not related to the other threats reported elsewhere. Also, a bomb threat was reported at the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 school building in Lebanon County this afternoon. In Lancaster County, the email-generated bomb threats were made mostly to businesses in the city and county, the release states. The 400 block of North Duke Street in the city was closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic for a period of time. More: UPMC Pinnacle plans to close its Lancaster hospital, unclear how many jobs affected More: Photos: Remembering the 2015 U.S. Women's Open in Lancaster The Lancaster County District Attorney is asking that anyone who receives a threat or similar correspondence to immediately call 911. Check back for more details. This is a developing story.[SEP]A wave of bomb threats made across the United States on Thursday, included several to schools and businesses in Monmouth and Ocean counties, as part of a hoax to extort bitcoins. The New York City Police Department deemed the widespread threats as not credible as law enforcement agencies throughout the country investigated. “We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city,” the New York City Counterterrorism Bureau said on Twitter. Threats were emailed to universities, police departments and news outlets from New York City to Dallas. Some of the emailed threats had the subject line: “Think Twice.” More: Ocean County Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. dies at 71 More: Toms River First Aid Squad captain saved from burning home; 4 pets are killed In New Jersey, threats were sent to schools and businesses. No injuries were reported. The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office responded to several threats they deemed not credible at public buildings. The prosecutor’s office did not specify which buildings. “General nature of the hoax is a demand for payment before close of business,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Bomb threats sweep the nation Thursday in the video above. The Jersey Shore Premium Outlets in Tinton Falls were evacuated Thursday night but it was unclear if it was related to the bomb threats. Ocean County College in Toms River also was impacted, as were at least three other sites in Ocean County including a small business, according to authorities. Maywood Furniture on Howcroft Road received one of the bomb threats, said Detective Sgt. Matthew Parodi. The threat caused the Bergen County Sheriff's Office to deploy its bomb squad to the building. The building was checked for explosive devices and the threat was deemed not credible. People were allowed back in Thursday afternoon, Parodi said. In Fair Lawn, both Radburn and Memorial middle schools received bomb threats via email, according to a post on Fair Lawn Schools Facebook page. Both schools were evacuated and students were moved to the Fair Lawn Jewish Center, on Norman Avenue, where they were dismissed at the regular dismissal time, according to the post. The threats in Fair Lawn were considered not credible after police and the Bergen County Sheriff's Office K-9 Unit investigated, Superintendent of Schools Nicholas J. Norcia said in a statement shared to the Facebook page for the district. In Verona, police responded to a bomb threat at the Huntington Learning Center, said Detective Sgt. Tim Banta. Surrounding businesses in the complex were evacuated while the Essex County Sheriff's Department bomb squad searched the building. The bomb squad ultimately deemed the threat not credible. A business on Main Street in Wyckoff also received a threat Thursday afternoon, with police evacuating the building and neighboring businesses, said Lt. Joseph Soto. Police closed off surrounding streets while the Bergen County Sheriff's Office responded with a K-9 unit to check for explosive devices. No explosives were found during the search. Linden High School was evacuated after a bomb threat was called in. No danger was found and all students and staff were safe, said Linden Public Schools and Linden Police Department. It was the second bomb threat the school received in a week. Students were sheltered in place following a similar threat Dec. 7. Detectives do not believe the threats are related, the release said. More: Ready for an attack: New Jersey trains to battle terrorism More: Manasquan schools opening delayed by possible 'swatting' incident Springfield police responded to several threats in the township. “These generic emails have been circulating to various organizations throughout Union County today and are being thoroughly investigated by multiple law enforcement agencies,” the department said in a statement. “At this time, we are advising the community that there is no credible threat associated with these emails, and there is no reason to be alarmed by the heightened police presence.” The string of bomb threats sent officers scrambling to sort out what appeared to be a nationwide electronic hoax. There were dozens of messages sent to schools, government buildings and other locations. “These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time,” read the post from the New York Police Department's Counterterrorism Bureau. While threats against schools are a perennial concern, at times causing schools to go into shelter-in-place or lockdowns, the widespread nature of Thursday's threats is uncommon. Columbine High School in Colorado, the site of a mass shooting in 1999, also had a seemingly unrelated bomb threat Thursday. Students were being kept inside for the rest of the school day after someone called in a bomb threat against the school, according to The Associated Press. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said the caller claimed to have placed explosive devices in the high school and was hiding outside with a gun, The Associated Press reported. The threat was deemed not credible.[SEP](CNN) Sandy Hook Elementary School was evacuated Friday due to a phoned-in bomb threat on the sixth anniversary of the massacre at the school that left 26 children and staff members dead. Newtown, Connecticut Police Lt. Aaron Bahamonde told CNN that police did not believe the threat was credible, but authorities and the principal decided to evacuate out of an abundance of caution. It was also easier to sweep an empty school building with bomb-sniffing dogs, he said. There was no danger to the public, Bahamonde added. The threat, which was phoned in around 9 a.m., is not believed to be connected to the threats that were received Thursday at dozens of locations across the United States and Canada, Bahamonde said. The school district decided that due to the tension and anxiety surrounding the mass shooting anniversary, it didn't make sense to have the students return to the building so they were sent home for the day. Newtown Superintendent Laorrie Rodrigue noted that district and school administrators were being cautious and sensitive to the date. Read More[SEP]NEWTON, Conn. – Newtown Police say a bomb threat caused Sandy Hook Elementary School to be evacuated. The children have been dismissed for the day. Thursday, there were a rash of bomb threats throughout the country, but police say they aren’t related, and that the threat was specific to the school. Police confirm that the children are safely off the property, and they are doing a sweep out of an abundance of caution. They do not believe it is a credible threat. The bomb threat comes on the six year mark of the Sandy Hook tragedy.[SEP]Sandy Hook Elementary School students have been sent home for the day after a bomb threat forced an evacuation on the sixth anniversary of the massacre that killed 20 first-graders and six educators. People attend an open house at the new Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. on July 29, 2016, built to replace the one that was demolished where 20 first graders and six educators were shot and killed in on Dec. 14, 201. The school was evacuated on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018 -- the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting -- after a bomb threat to the school. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) NEWTOWN, Conn. — Sandy Hook Elementary School students have been sent home for the day after a bomb threat forced an evacuation on the sixth anniversary of the massacre that killed 20 first-graders and six educators. Newtown police say the threat was made at about 9 a.m. Friday and the school was evacuated. Lt. Aaron Bahamonde says there’s a heightened level of anxiety in town on the anniversary and the school superintendent decided to cancel remaining classes. It’s unclear whether the threat was related to the bomb threats made nationwide Thursday. The school where the shooting happened on Dec. 14, 2012, was knocked down and a new building was constructed at the same site. Moments of silence were observed in Newtown and other places Friday morning in memory of the victims.[SEP](CNN) - Sandy Hook Elementary School was evacuated Friday due to a phoned-in bomb threat on the sixth anniversary of the massacre at the school that left 26 children and staff dead. Newtown, Connecticut, Police Lt. Aaron Bahamonde told CNN police did not believe the threat was credible, but authorities and the principal of the school decided to evacuate out of an abundance of caution. It was also easier to sweep an empty school building with bomb-sniffing dogs, he said. There is no danger to the public, Bahamonde added. The threat, which was phoned in around 9 a.m., is not believed to be connected to the threats that were received Thursday at dozens of locations across the United States and Canada, Bahamonde said. The school district decided that due to the tension and anxiety surrounding the mass shooting anniversary, it didn't make sense to have the students return to the building so they were sent home for the day. The school building in which the mass shooting took place was torn down several years ago. The new building, which stands on the same property, opened in 2016. Copyright 2018 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]Another grim report has arrived in a week full of tragic news related to gun violence. On Friday, a bomb threat forced students at Sandy Hook Elementary School to evacuate, according to the Associated Press. The incident came on the six-year anniversary of the shooting that led to the death of 26 people — including 20 children — at the Newtown, Connecticut school. Kids were escorted out when the threat came in at around 9 a.m. ET. In part because of a "heightened level of anxiety in town" due to the shooting anniversary, the superintendent decided to send students home for the rest of the day, police Lt. Aaron Bahamonde told the AP. "We are confident that everyone is going to be safe but we always have to investigate every threat," Bahamonde announced, per The Hartford Courant. "Out of an abundance of caution officers are checking the area and making sure the kids are safe as they are being dismissed." According to NBC, police in Newtown don't think that the incident was related to a multitude of bomb scares that occurred around the country on Thursday. Hospitals, businesses, and schools were targeted with the threats across the United States and Canada in places like New York City, Oklahoma City, and Montreal. Incoming governor Ned Lamont addressed the incident on Friday morning. "We were just informed that there was a credible bomb threat at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on the sixth anniversary of the massacre there," he told reporters, per the Courant. "Police are there investigating as best they can. It's a day that's going to live with us for a long time here in Connecticut." According to NBC CT, police believe that the threat was a hoax. They thoroughly searched the school grounds, found nothing, and left around 12 p.m. ET on Friday. Although the scare did not end up posing a threat to students, many on social media expressed their sympathy for the continued stress that Sandy Hook families are forced to face. "My heart is breaking," tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy, who represents Connecticut. "The kids from Sandy Hook should be in middle school today," March For Our Lives co-founder Matt Deitsch tweeted. He added, referring to the bomb scare: "6 year olds born after the massacre are hiding in the same school." On Dec. 14, 2012, a 20-year-old gunman entered Sandy Hook and murdered 20 first-graders and six school personnel before taking his own life. He primarily used a semi-automatic AR-15 that he'd taken from his mother, per Britannica. "The pain and heartache here is real and raw every day, but more so on dates like today," Sandy Hook Promise wrote in a statement, per ABC. "We condemn the acts of those who seek to extend the trauma and pain on students and families in our community." According to ABC, the bomb threat on Friday specifically referenced the fact that it was the massacre's sixth anniversary. "It's not unexpected that these anniversary dates bring out the evil in some people," Bahamonde said.[SEP]NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) - A bomb threat forced the evacuation of the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, a day of memorial services and moments of silence to mark the sixth anniversary of the massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators. Teachers and students at the school were sent home for the day after the threat was called in around 9 a.m., and police did a sweep of the building. But they said they did not believe the threat was a credible. Authorities said it specifically referenced the anniversary. "Obviously there's a heightened level of anxiety," police Lt. Aaron Bahamonde said. "It's not unexpected that these anniversary dates bring out the evil in some people." Bahamonde said police were trying to determine who made the threat. It wasn't immediately clear if it was related to bomb threats made nationwide Thursday. A 20-year-old gunman shot his way into the school on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, and killed the 26 victims before fatally shooting himself. The school building where the shooting happened was razed and a new one was built at the same site. Church bells in Newtown chimed in the morning, and all town offices were closed from 9:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. To honor the shooting victims, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered all state and U.S. flags in Connecticut to remain at half-staff, where they have been in honor of the late President George H.W. Bush. FILE - In this July 29, 2016 file photo, people attend an open house at the new Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., built to replace the one that was demolished where 20 first graders and six educators were shot and killed in on Dec. 14, 2012. The school was evacuated on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018 -- the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting -- after a bomb threat to the school. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) "The unthinkable tragedy that occurred on this day will forever have an impact - not only here in Connecticut, but throughout the entire nation," Malloy said in a statement. "I think about these innocent, young children and generous, kindhearted educators every single day. I will always keep them in my prayers."[SEP]Sandy Hook Elementary School was evacuated Friday morning – exactly six years after the deadly shooting that killed 20 children and six staff members. Police didn’t say what the threat was, but confirmed to WSFB News it was not related to the recent emailed bomb threats received across the U.S. and around the world, including Canada. READ MORE: Sandy Hook gunman describes ‘scorn for humanity’ in newly released documents Newtown police say the threat was made at about 9 a.m. Friday and the school was evacuated. While the threat was not deemed “credible,” Lt. Aaron Bahamonde says there’s a heightened level of anxiety in town on the anniversary and the school superintendent decided to cancel remaining classes. The governor-elect of Connecticut, Ned Lamont, confirmed the evacuation at a press conference Friday morning, NBC reporter Max Reiss said. The Newtown Action Alliance, which calls itself a grassroots group formed to bring change after the Sandy Hook shooting six years ago, confirmed the evacuation on Twitter. “Please stand with our community as we attempt to survive another tragic anniversary,” they wrote. In 2012, a gunman entered the school and opened fire on a Grade 1 class, marking one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. Twenty children and six adults died. Moments of silence were planned and flags are at half-mast in Connecticut to remember the victims. READ MORE: 5 years after the Sandy Hook shooting, mental health reforms await funding Earlier in the day, Lamont issued a statement on the anniversary of the school shooting. “Today, our state and country remember the innocent lives lost at Sandy Hook School. No words can describe the loss of these children and educators. No sense can be made of something so utterly senseless,” he wrote on Twitter. *with a file from the Associated Press[SEP]Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, was evacuated Friday morning after receiving a bomb threat on the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting that left 26 students and teachers dead. Newtown Police Department said it received a call around 9 a.m. ET that a bomb was at the school. Officers were sent to the school and conducted a search as a precaution, but do not believe the threat was credible. The school was evacuated as a precaution and students were sent home for the day. On Dec. 14, 2012, 20 first-grade students and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook by gunman Adam Lanza. He had shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, before going to the school and opening fire. He shot himself as police closed in. The threat comes one day after police departments across the country and in Canada were alerted to bomb threats sent to businesses, hospitals and other places. Authorities in both countries said the reported threats were either emailed or phoned in. On Friday morning, the Detroit Police Department said in a series of tweets that it was investigating multiple threats targeting two courthouses in the city and three hospitals. "At this time it is believed that these threats were received by phone," the department said, later adding that the department's bomb squad investigated four of the locations and did not find any explosive devices.

On the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting, the school is evacuated due to a bomb threat. It is not believed to be connected with the 2018 Bitcoin bomb threats.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo’s parliament voted on Friday to create a 5,000-strong standing army, a week after Serbia’s premier suggested the move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade. Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci walks past soldiers of Kosovo Security Force during the army formation ceremony in Pristina, Kosovo, December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Laura Hasani The move, coming 20 years after Kosovo Albanians’ uprising against Serbian rule and a decade after independence, was lauded as “historic” by the United States but NATO criticized it as unhelpful in efforts to ease tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. Legislation to transform the lightly armed Kosovo Security Force, which was created mainly for crisis response, civil defense and removal of ordnance from the 1990s conflict, into an army was approved by 105 deputies in the 120-seat assembly. Eleven minority Serb deputies boycotted the vote. Kosovo’s constitution mandates the creation of a national army but no action was taken for years while Pristina sought, in vain, to obtain the approval of Kosovo Serbs. The move is also strongly opposed by Kosovo Serbs’ patron Serbia, which has refused to recognize the independence of its former province and warned that a national Kosovo army could destabilize the Western Balkans. “I regret that this decision was made despite the concerns expressed by NATO,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement on Friday. “The North Atlantic Council will now have to re-examine the level of NATO’s engagement with the Kosovo Security Force,” he said. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was concerned by the move, said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq. “The Secretary-General calls on all parties concerned to exercise restraint and refrain from actions that could raise tensions and cause a further setback in the European Union-facilitated dialogue for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina,” Haq said in a statement. Though creating an army could take years, Serbian politicians maintain that it could be used to expel remaining Serbs from Kosovo - an accusation denied by Kosovo Albanian leaders who rely on European Union and U.S. support for reforms and development of the small, impoverished Balkan country. On Dec. 5, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic suggested one possible response by Belgrade could be military intervention. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will be inspecting troops along the Kosovo border over the next three days, his office said on Thursday. A NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo still has around 4,000 troops in the landlocked country. Balkans analysts, however, said any action by Serbia’s 28,000-strong army against Kosovo is highly unlikely given Belgrade’s aspirations to join the EU and that Brnabic’s remarks appeared to be a sop to Serbian nationalists. With the new law in place, Kosovo will set up a defense ministry and the future army is to be comprised of 5,000 active soldiers and 3,000 reservists. Pristina government officials said the process would last at least 10 years. Kosovo’s independence came almost a decade after a NATO air war halted a two-year counter-insurgency war by Serbian security forces that included arrests, killings and expulsions of ethnic Albanian civilians.[SEP]PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo’s parliament voted on Friday to create a 5,000-strong standing army, a week after Serbia’s premier suggested the move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade. The move, coming 20 years after Kosovo Albanians’ uprising against Serbian rule and a decade after independence, was lauded as “historic” by the United States but NATO criticised it as unhelpful in efforts to ease tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. Legislation to transform the lightly armed Kosovo Security Force, which was created mainly for crisis response, civil defence and removal of ordnance from the 1990s conflict, into an army was approved by 105 deputies in the 120-seat assembly. Eleven minority Serb deputies boycotted the vote. Kosovo’s constitution mandates the creation of a national army but no action was taken for years while Pristina sought, in vain, to obtain the approval of Kosovo Serbs. The move is also strongly opposed by Kosovo Serbs’ patron Serbia, which has refused to recognise the independence of its former province and warned that a national Kosovo army could destabilise the Western Balkans. “I regret that this decision was made despite the concerns expressed by NATO,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement on Friday. “The North Atlantic Council will now have to re-examine the level of NATO’s engagement with the Kosovo Security Force,” he said. Though creating such an army could take years, Serbian politicians maintain that it could be used to expel remaining Serbs from Kosovo - an accusation denied by Kosovo Albanian leaders who rely on European Union and U.S. support for reforms and development of the small, impoverished Balkan country. On Dec. 5, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic suggested one possible response by Belgrade could be military intervention. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will be inspecting troops along the Kosovo border over the next three days, his office said on Thursday. NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo still has around 4,000 troops in the landlocked country. Balkans analysts, however, said any action by Serbia’s 28,000-strong army against Kosovo is highly unlikely given Belgrade’s aspirations to join the EU and that Brnabic’s remarks appeared to be a sop to Serbian nationalists. With the new law in place, Kosovo will set up a defence ministry and the future army is to be comprised of 5,000 active soldiers and 3,000 reservists. Pristina government officials said the process would last at least 10 years. Kosovo’s independence came almost a decade after a NATO air war halted a two-year counter-insurgency war by Serbian security forces that included arrests, killings and expulsions of ethnic Albanian civilians.[SEP]related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 4 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. Kosovo's parliament voted on Friday to create a 5,000-strong standing army, a week after Serbia's premier suggested the move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade. PRISTINA: Kosovo's parliament voted on Friday to create a 5,000-strong standing army, a week after Serbia's premier suggested the move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade. The move, coming 20 years after Kosovo Albanians' uprising against Serbian rule and a decade after independence, was lauded as "historic" by the United States but NATO criticised it as unhelpful in efforts to ease tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. Legislation to transform the lightly armed Kosovo Security Force, which was created mainly for crisis response, civil defence and removal of ordnance from the 1990s conflict, into an army was approved by 105 deputies in the 120-seat assembly. Eleven minority Serb deputies boycotted the vote. Kosovo's constitution mandates the creation of an national army but no action was taken for years while Pristina sought, in vain, to obtain the approval of Kosovo Serbs. The move is also strongly opposed by Kosovo Serbs' patron Serbia, which has refused to recognise the independence of its former province and warned that a national Kosovo army could destabilise the Western Balkans. Though creating such an army could take years, Serbian politicians maintain that it could be used to expel remaining Serbs from Kosovo - an accusation denied by Kosovo Albanian leaders who rely on European Union and U.S. support for reforms and development of the small, impoverished Balkan country. On Dec. 5, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic suggested one possible response by Belgrade could be military intervention. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will be inspecting troops along the Kosovo border over the next three days, his office said on Thursday. NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo still has around 4,000 troops in the landlocked country. Balkans analysts, however, said any action by Serbia's 28,000-strong army against Kosovo is highly unlikely given Belgrade's aspirations to join the EU and that Brnabic's remarks appeared to be a sop to Serbian nationalists. With the new law in place, Kosovo will set up a defence ministry and the future army is to be comprised of 5,000 active soldiers and 3,000 reservists. Pristina government officials said the process would last at least 10 years. Kosovo's independence came almost a decade after a NATO air war halted a two-year counter-insurgency war by Serbian security forces that included arrests, killings and expulsions of ethnic Albanian civilians. Reflecting Washington's position as the biggest ally of Kosovo Albanians, U.S. Ambassador Philip Kosnett said Friday's vote was “historic” for Kosovo and pledged full U.S. support. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last week that idea of creating a Kosovo army "goes against the advice of many NATO allies and may have serious repercussions for Kosovo's future Euro-Atlantic integration".[SEP]Kosovo's parliament voted on Friday to create a 5,000-strong standing army, a week after Serbia's premier suggested the move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade. The move, coming 20 years after Kosovo Albanians' uprising against Serbian rule and a decade after independence, was lauded as "historic" by the United States but NATO criticised it as unhelpful in efforts to ease tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. Legislation to transform the lightly armed Kosovo Security Force, which was created mainly for crisis response, civil defence and removal of ordnance from the 1990s conflict, into an army was approved by 105 deputies in the 120-seat assembly. Eleven minority Serb deputies boycotted the vote. Kosovo's constitution mandates the creation of an national army but no action was taken for years while Pristina sought, in vain, to obtain the approval of Kosovo Serbs.[SEP]PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo’s Parliament overwhelmingly approved legislation on Friday to form an army, prompting criticism from NATO and European Union officials and angering neighboring Serbia, which said it was prepared to use its own army to protect ethnic Serbs in Kosovo. All 107 lawmakers present in Kosovo’s 120-seat Parliament, which is dominated by ethnic Albanian parties, voted to back the government’s plan to transform the 3,000-strong, lightly armed Kosovo Security Force into an army that would grow to 5,000 active troops and 3,000 reservists in the next decade. Kosovo Serb lawmakers did not attend the session. Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s president, said in the town of Trstenik in central Serbia on the eve of the vote, “Not a single act in the international law gives them the right to form an army.” “Everything that Pristina does — and evidently it does it all with support of the U.S. and Britain — is against the law,” Vucic added. Serbia’s foreign minister, Ivica Dacic, said that Belgrade would request an emergency U.N. Security Council session over what he said was “the grossest violation” of the resolution governing such a formation. “It is the most direct threat to peace and stability in the region,” Dacic said. Serbia’s prime minister, Ana Brnabic, said the formation of a Kosovo army ran counter to efforts at stability in the volatile Balkans. She added that she hoped Belgrade would not have to use any of its 28,000 troops to protect the Serbian minority in Kosovo, although “this is currently one of the options on the table.” Officials in Kosovo had sought to defuse anger ahead of the vote. “Our army comes in peace,” Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said on Thursday. He accused officials in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, of spreading false allegations through the government-controlled news media that a Kosovo army would be a threat to Serbs and its neighbors. “The narrative that Kosovo would use its military forces against Kosovo Serbs and its neighbors is an unfounded narrative,” Haradinaj said. “It’s a modern, multiethnic army that has grown up together with NATO and KFOR, their soldiers and officers in our country.” KFOR is the name of the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. There are about 5,000 such troops in Kosovo, including some 600 U.S. soldiers.[SEP]PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo's parliament on Friday overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army, angering Serbia which talked up the possibility of an armed intervention in response. NATO's chief called Kosovo's move "ill-timed" and urged dialogue to maintain peace in the war-scarred region. The 120-seat parliament voted with all present 107 lawmakers in favor of passing three draft laws to expand an existing 4,000 Kosovo Security Force and turn it into a regular lightly armed army. Ethnic-Serb community lawmakers boycotted the vote. Serbia insists that the new army violates a U.N. resolution that ended Kosovo's 1998-1999 bloody war of independence. It has warned bluntly that it may respond to the move with an armed intervention in the former province, with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic saying it was "one of the options on the table." On Friday, Nikola Selakovic, an adviser to the Serbian president, said the county could send in Serbian armed forces or declare Kosovo an occupied territory. In Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, Serb leader Goran Rakic said the new army was "unacceptable" and "showed clearly that Pristina does not want peace." Rakic urged Serbs in Kosovo to show "restraint and not respond to provocations." Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would mean a direct confrontation with thousands of NATO-led peacekeepers, including U.S. soldiers, stationed in Kosovo since 1999. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move not recognized by Belgrade or its ally Russia. Tensions have remained high between the two sides, and NATO and the European Union — which has led years-long talks to improve ties between the Balkan neighbors — expressed regret that Kosovo decided to go ahead with the army formation. "I reiterate my call on both Pristina and Belgrade to remain calm and refrain from any statements or actions which may lead to escalation," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. He said the alliance remains committed "to a safe and secure environment in Kosovo and to stability in the wider Western Balkans." He said they will "re-examine the level of NATO's engagement with the Kosovo Security Force." The new army will preserve its former name — Kosovo Security Force — but now with a new mandate. In about a decade the army will have 5,000 troops and 3,000 reservists, essentially operating as a security force handling crisis response and civil protection operations. Seeking to reassure Serbia and the international community, Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said the new army "will never be used against them (Serbs)." He added: "Serbia's army will now have a partner — Kosovo's army — in the partnership for peace process and it won't be a long time when we serve together." Serbia fears the move's main purpose is to chase the Serb minority out Kosovo's Serbian-dominated north, a claim strongly denied by Pristina. President Hashim Thaci said that the new army will be "multiethnic, professional and to serve all citizens, peace in Kosovo, the region and wherever in the world when asked." He called on the return to dialogue for normalizing ties with Serbia. The United States hailed Kosovo's parliamentary vote to form a new army as a first step and reaffirmed "its support for the gradual transition ... to a force with a territorial defense mandate, as is Kosovo's sovereign right." In a sign of defiance, Serbs in the north displayed Serbian flags on streets and balconies while NATO-led peacekeepers deployed on a bridge in the ethnically divided northern town of Mitrovica. Kosovo's 1998-1999 war ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign in June 1999 that stopped a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.[SEP]Lawmakers in Kosovo will vote on December 14 on whether to create a full-fledged army, a move that has inflamed tensions with its former wartime foe Serbia. The vote to convert Kosovo’s lightly armed emergency response force into a professional army is widely expected to pass. The move has received support from all parties in the ethnic-Albanian majority Western Balkan nation except lawmakers who represent the country’s 120,000-strong ethnic-Serb minority. Those lawmakers have boycotted parliament sessions on the matter. The United States has backed Kosovo's move, but it attempted to reassure those opposed to the action by insisting the process will take "many years.” The U.S. ambassador to Pristina, Philip Kosnett, said that “it is only natural for Kosovo as a sovereign, independent country to have a self-defense capability.” Officials estimate it will take up to a decade for the current Kosovo Security Force (KSF) to become a combat-ready army. However, the U.S. comments came hours after NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that Kosovo's plan was "ill-timed" and goes "against the advice of many NATO allies." Belgrade and ethnic Serbs in the Kosovo have vehemently opposed the creation of a Kosovar military, saying it would violate UN resolutions and be used against the country’s Serb minority -- a claim denied by officials in Pristina. Nationalist Serbian newspapers have warned the move could set off a new conflict. The daily Informer stated that "War with Kosovo will start on December 15," the day after parliament’s vote. Serbian officials have downplayed the possibility of war, but Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on December 13 said that the "situation will be considerably worsened" if Kosovo goes ahead with the decision. "We are not going to beat the war drums, but we will not allow anyone to purge and humiliate the Kosovo Serbs," Vucic said. Relations between Pristina and Belgrade have been tense since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Although more than 110 countries recognize Kosovo, Serbia does not. Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after NATO launched air strikes to stop the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serb forces during a two-year counterinsurgency war. Nearly two decades after the end of the conflict, the landlocked territory of 1.8 million people is still guarded by NATO troops. The current KSF is a 2,500-strong force trained by NATO and tasked with crisis response, civil protection, and ordinance disposal. Ahead of the vote, the KSF held exercises in the south while NATO-led peacekeepers deployed a convoy of combat vehicles in the north of Kosovo. Many of Kosovo's Serbs called it a provocation, but the NATO mission said it was a routine exercise. With reporting by AFP and AP[SEP]By Florent Bajrami and Llazar Semini, The Associated Press PRISTINA, Kosovo — Serbia talked up the possibility of an armed intervention in Kosovo Friday after the parliament in Pristina overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army, with Belgrade calling the move the “most direct threat to peace and stability in the region.” NATO’s chief called Kosovo’s move “ill-timed” and urged dialogue. The 120-seat parliament voted with all present 107 lawmakers in favor of passing three draft laws to expand an existing 4,000 Kosovo Security Force and turn it into a regular lightly armed army. Ethnic-Serb community lawmakers boycotted the vote. Serbia insists that the new army violates a U.N. resolution that ended Kosovo’s 1998-1999 bloody war of independence. It has warned bluntly that it may respond to the move with an armed intervention in the former province, with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic saying it was “one of the options on the table.” On Friday, Nikola Selakovic, an adviser to the Serbian president, said the country could send in Serbian armed forces or declare Kosovo an occupied territory. Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Serbia will seek an urgent session of the United Nations Security Council over the issue. In Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, Serb leader Goran Rakic said the new army was “unacceptable” and “showed clearly that Pristina does not want peace.” Rakic urged Serbs in Kosovo to show “restraint and not respond to provocations.” Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would mean a direct confrontation with thousands of NATO-led peacekeepers, including U.S. soldiers, stationed in Kosovo since 1999. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move not recognized by Belgrade or its ally Russia. Tensions have remained high between the two sides, and NATO and the European Union — which has led years-long talks to improve ties between the Balkan neighbors — expressed regret that Kosovo decided to go ahead with the army formation. “I reiterate my call on both Pristina and Belgrade to remain calm and refrain from any statements or actions which may lead to escalation,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. He said the alliance remains committed “to a safe and secure environment in Kosovo and to stability in the wider Western Balkans.” He said they will “re-examine the level of NATO’s engagement with the Kosovo Security Force.” The new army will preserve its current name — Kosovo Security Force — but now with a new mandate. In about a decade the army expects to have 5,000 troops and 3,000 reservists, and a 98-million euro ($111 million) annual budget. It will handle crisis response and civil protection operations — essentially what the current paramilitary force, which is lightly armed, does. Its main tasks would be search and rescue, explosive ordnance disposal, firefighting and hazardous material disposal. It’s not immediately clear how much more equipment or weapons the new army will have compared to the current force. Seeking to reassure Serbia and the international community, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said the new army “will never be used against them (Serbs).” He added: “Serbia’s army will now have a partner — Kosovo’s army — in the partnership for peace process and it won’t be a long time when we serve together.” Serbia fears the move’s main purpose is to chase the Serb minority out Kosovo’s Serbian-dominated north, a claim strongly denied by Pristina. President Hashim Thaci said that the new army will be “multiethnic, professional and to serve all citizens, peace in Kosovo, the region and wherever in the world when asked.” He called on the return to dialogue for normalizing ties with Serbia. The United States hailed Kosovo’s parliament vote to form a new army as a first step and reaffirmed “its support for the gradual transition … to a force with a territorial defense mandate, as is Kosovo’s sovereign right.” A U.S. embassy statement in Pristina urged Kosovo to continue “close coordination with NATO allies and partners and to engage in outreach to minority communities.” “Regional stability requires that Kosovo make genuine efforts to normalize relations with its neighbor Serbia, and we encourage both sides to take immediate steps to lower tensions and create conditions for rapid progress on the dialogue,” it said. In a sign of defiance, Serbs in the north displayed Serbian flags on streets and balconies while NATO-led peacekeepers deployed on a bridge in the ethnically divided northern town of Mitrovica. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also is to visit Serbian troops on the border with Kosovo in an apparent saber-rattling move. Kosovo’s 1998-1999 war ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign in June 1999 that stopped a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists. Semini reported from Tirana, Albania. Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec from Belgrade, Serbia contributed.[SEP]Serbia talks up armed intervention as Kosovo OKs new army PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Serbia threatened a possible armed intervention in Kosovo after the Kosovo parliament on Friday overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army. Belgrade called the move a "direct threat to peace and stability" in the Balkans and lashed out at the United States for supporting it. While NATO's chief called the action by Kosovo "ill-timed," the U.S. approved it as "Kosovo's sovereign right" as an independent nation that unilaterally broke away from Serbia in 2008. All 107 lawmakers present in the 120-seat Kosovo parliament voted in favor of passing three draft laws to expand an existing 4,000 Kosovo Security Force and turn it into a regular, lightly armed army. Ethnic Serb lawmakers boycotted the vote. Serbia insists the new army violates a U.N. resolution that ended Serbia's bloody crackdown on Kosovar separatists in 1998-1999. It has warned bluntly that it may respond with an armed intervention in its former province, with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic saying that's "one of the options on the table." On Friday, Nikola Selakovic, an adviser to the Serbian president, said the country could send in armed forces or declare Kosovo an occupied territory. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Serbia will seek an urgent session of the U.N. Security Council over the issue. The Security Council held closed consultations late Friday on the format of a meeting, possibly on Monday or Tuesday. Council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks were private, said Russia, a close ally of Serbia, wants an open meeting to be addressed by Serbia's president while European nations want a closed session. The decision will be made by Ivory Coast's U.N. ambassador, the current council president, the diplomats said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres affirmed the U.N.'s desire to maintain the Kosovo Force as the body that ensures the safety of Kosovo, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said late Friday. He said "the secretary-general calls on all parties concerned to exercise restraint and refrain from actions that could raise tensions and cause a further setback in the European Union-facilitated dialogue for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina." Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic visited Serbian troops near the border with Kosovo and later Vucic addressed the nation, denouncing the United States for its apparent support of a Kosovo army and praising allies Russia and China for their opposition to the move. He said that Kosovo and its "sponsor" — the U.S. — want to "quash" the Serbs, but that he won't allow it. Vucic says Serbia has been "brought to the edge" by Kosovo's decision and now has no choice but to "defend" itself. It was one of the strongest anti-American outbursts by Vucic, a former pro-Russian ultranationalist turned alleged pro-EU reformer. Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would mean a direct confrontation with thousands of NATO-led peacekeepers, including U.S. soldiers, who have been stationed in Kosovo since 1999. Russia denounced the move to form a Kosovo army, saying the ethnic Albanian force must be "disbanded" by NATO in Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move not recognized by Belgrade or Russia. Tensions have remained high between the two sides, and NATO and the European Union — which has led yearslong talks to improve ties between the Balkan neighbors — expressed regret that Kosovo decided to go ahead with the army formation. "I reiterate my call on both Pristina and Belgrade to remain calm and refrain from any statements or actions which may lead to escalation," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. He said the alliance remains committed "to a safe and secure environment in Kosovo and to stability in the wider Western Balkans." He said they will "re-examine the level of NATO's engagement with the Kosovo Security Force." The new army will preserve its current name — Kosovo Security Force — but now has a new mandate. In about a decade the army expects to have 5,000 troops and 3,000 reservists, and a 98 million-euro ($111 million) annual budget. It will handle crisis response and civil protection operations — essentially what the current paramilitary force, which is lightly armed, does. Its main tasks would be search and rescue, explosive ordnance disposal, firefighting and hazardous material disposal. It's not immediately clear how much more equipment or weapons the new army will have or need compared with the current force. Seeking to reassure Serbia and the international community, Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said the new army "will never be used against them (Serbs)." He added: "Serbia's army will now have a partner — Kosovo's army — in the partnership for peace process." Serbia fears the move's main purpose is to chase the Serb minority out of Kosovo's Serbian-dominated north, a claim strongly denied by the government in Pristina. Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said that the new army will be "multiethnic, professional and will serve all citizens, peace in Kosovo, the region and wherever in the world, when asked." He called on a return to dialogue for normalizing ties with Serbia. The United States hailed Kosovo's parliament vote to form a new army as a first step and reaffirmed "its support for the gradual transition ... to a force with a territorial defense mandate, as is Kosovo's sovereign right." A U.S. embassy statement in Pristina urged Kosovo to continue "close coordination with NATO allies and partners and to engage in outreach to minority communities." "Regional stability requires that Kosovo make genuine efforts to normalize relations with its neighbor Serbia, and we encourage both sides to take immediate steps to lower tensions and create conditions for rapid progress on the dialogue," it said. In a sign of defiance, Serbs in northern Kosovo displayed Serbian flags on their streets and balconies. NATO-led peacekeepers deployed on a bridge in the ethnically divided northern town of Mitrovica to keep the peace. Kosovo's 1998-1999 war ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign in June 1999 that stopped a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists. Semini reported from Tirana, Albania. Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.[SEP]PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Kosovo’s parliament on Friday overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army, angering Serbia which talked up the possibility of an armed intervention in response. NATO’s chief called Kosovo’s move “ill-timed” and called for dialogue to maintain peace in the war-scarred region. The 120-seat parliament on Friday voted with all present 107 lawmakers in favor of passing three draft laws to expand an existing 4,000 Kosovo Security Force and turn it into a regular lightly armed army. Ethnic-Serb community lawmakers boycotted the vote. Serbia insists that the new army violates a U.N. resolution that ended Kosovo’s 1998-1999 bloody war of independence. It has warned bluntly that it may respond to the move with an armed intervention in the former province, with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic saying it was “one of the options on the table.” On Friday, Nikola Selakovic, an adviser to the Serbian president, said the county could send in Serbian armed forces or declare Kosovo an occupied territory. Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would mean a direct confrontation with thousands of NATO-led peacekeepers, including U.S. soldiers, stationed in Kosovo since 1999, when Serbia lost control of its former province after a bloody crackdown against Kosovo Albanians. Seeking to reassure Serbia and the international community, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said “Kosovo’s army will never be used against them (Serbs).” He added: “Serbia’s army will now have a partner - Kosovo’s army - in the partnership for peace process and it won’t be a long time when we serve together.” Serbia fears the move’s main purpose is to chase the Serb minority out Kosovo’s Serbian-dominated north, a claim strongly denied by Pristina. President Hashim Thaci said that the new army will be “multiethnic, professional and to serve all citizens, peace in Kosovo, the region and wherever in the world when asked.” He called on the return to dialogue for normalizing ties with Serbia. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move not recognized by Belgrade, and tensions have remained high between the two sides. “I reiterate my call on both Pristina and Belgrade to remain calm and refrain from any statements or actions which may lead to escalation,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. He said the alliance remains committed “to a safe and secure environment in Kosovo and to stability in the wider Western Balkans.” He said they will “re-examine the level of NATO’s engagement with the Kosovo Security Force.” The new army will preserve its former name - Kosovo Security Force - but now with a new mandate. In about a decade the army will have 5,000 troops and 3,000 reservists, essentially operating as a security force handling crisis response and civil protection operations. The United States hailed Kosovo’s parliament vote to form a new army as a first step and reaffirmed “its support for the gradual transition … to a force with a territorial defense mandate, as is Kosovo’s sovereign right.” A U.S. embassy statement in Pristina urged Kosovo to continue “close coordination with NATO allies and partners and to engage in outreach to minority communities.” “Regional stability requires that Kosovo make genuine efforts to normalize relations with its neighbor Serbia, and we encourage both sides to take immediate steps to lower tensions and create conditions for rapid progress on the dialogue,” it said. In a sign of defiance, Serbs in the north displayed Serbian flags on streets and balconies while NATO-led peacekeepers deployed on a bridge in the ethnically divided northern town of Mitrovica. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also is to visit Serbian troops on the border with Kosovo in an apparent saber-rattling move. Kosovo’s 1998-1999 war ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign in June 1999 that stopped a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.

The Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo votes to create a proper army out of the lightly-armed Kosovo Security Force, with eleven minority Serb deputies boycotting the vote. While the United States lauds the decision, criticism has come from both NATO and the neighbouring country of Serbia.

Trump Announces Mick Mulvaney As Acting White House Chief Of Staff President Trump says director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney will be acting White House chief of staff, replacing John Kelly at the end of the year. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: President Trump has tapped his budget director to serve as the next White House chief of staff on an interim basis. Mick Mulvaney replaces John Kelly, who's leaving at the end of this month. The announcement comes after several other high-profile candidates turned down the job. This will be Trump's third chief of staff in less than two years. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us from the White House. Hi, Scott. SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Hi, Ari. SHAPIRO: We've heard Mick Mulvaney's name attached to a lot of titles in the last couple of years. Remind us who he is. HORSLEY: He is a former South Carolina congressman. The White House hopes that will be an asset for the administration with his former colleagues on Capitol Hill. He's known as a fiscal conservative even though as budget director he has overseen a ballooning federal deficit. He's been budget director since the beginning of the Trump administration, and he also did double duty for a time as director of the Consumer Financial Watchdog Agency, a watchdog that he tried to keep on a very short leash. His replacement at that job was just confirmed by the Senate last week, so Mulvaney maybe had some time on his hands. Trump announced his appointment as acting chief of staff this evening via Twitter. SHAPIRO: Tell us about that acting word before his title. Do we know if he's a candidate for the post permanently? HORSLEY: A senior administration official was asked about that acting designation tonight and simply said that's what the president wants. There is no expiration date on the title, so for all intents and purposes, Mulvaney is the chief of staff for the time being. The officials said the president tapped him for the acting post because he likes Mulvaney and they get along. And there is some precedent, Ari, for Trump giving someone a tryout in an acting position and then after a period of time just promoting them to the permanent post. SHAPIRO: The outgoing chief of staff, John Kelly, had a tough time during his 17 months in the job. And we know other people have said they've taken themselves out of the running. Do you think people are scared away from wanting this post? HORSLEY: Well, Kelly's experience may have frightened some folks off. You know, the retired Marine general came in with high hopes of instilling military discipline here at the White House, but the president himself doesn't like being corralled. And over time, Kelly's control of the West Wing waned. When Trump announced last Saturday that Kelly would be leaving at the end of the month, he thought he had a replacement all lined up, but the frontrunner, Vice President Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayres, abruptly dropped out. And as you mentioned, since then, we've had some other high-profile candidates say they're not interested, including former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, who's got his hands full with China talks. So it's possible Mulvaney can keep this job as long as he wants. The president said he looks forward to working with Mulvaney, and he also tweeted his thanks for outgoing chief of staff Kelly. SHAPIRO: NPR's Scott Horsley speaking with us from the White House. Thank you. HORSLEY: You're welcome. Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.[SEP]WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's next chief of staff faces a daunting task – managing a president who doesn't like to be managed. Whoever Trump picks will have to accommodate a boss who likes to stage events on a moment's notice, often overrides aides' advice, and makes policy and staff announcements by tweet. Trump has made the chief of staff "a more difficult job than it's ever been," said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution who specializes in White House staffing. Chris Whipple, author of "The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency," said, "Trump is a president for whom focus and discipline are anathema" – yet those are the very qualities any chief of staff needs to instill in any administration. "That's why it may be Mission Impossible," Whipple said. Trump and aides said the president is close to a decision, with candidates including presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, and former campaign aide David Bossie. "Really good ones," Trump said this week. "Terrific people. Mostly well known, but terrific people." One candidate for the job – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – issued a statement Friday saying “now is not the right time for me or my family to undertake this serious assignment." The selection process began Saturday after Trump announced that current Chief of Staff John Kelly would be leaving by the end of the year. A day later, however, Trump's favorite for the job – Nick Ayers, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence – turned down the presidential job and said he planned to leave the administration instead. The coming year will present new challenges for any chief of staff, given ongoing investigations of the administration, the Democratic takeover of the U.S. House, and Trump's tendency to chart his own course. Just two of the outside pressures: Special counsel Robert Mueller continues to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election. And federal prosecutors in New York have implicated Trump in a scheme to pay hush money to women who claim to have had affairs with him, with the goal of keeping them quiet during election season and evading campaign finance laws. Then there are the internal pressures that created problems for Trump's first two chiefs of staff, Reince Priebus and John Kelly. Both tried to give structure of Trump's schedule and restrict access to him, officials said. But Trump used his cellphone to reach out to friends and informal advisers, allowing them to go around the chief of staff to make their cases directly to the president. The results included sudden schedule or policy changes (and leaks to the news media). Trump will be the first president to have three chiefs of staff in less than two years, assuming the new person starts before the Jan. 20 anniversary of his 2017 inauguration. "The chief of staff job is very difficult in a normal time," said David Cohen, political scientist professor at the University of Akron. "Being chief of staff to Donald Trump is extremely challenging ... An impossible job became even more impossible." A good chief of staff tells presidents hard truths and things they don't want to hear, Cohen and other analysts said, but Trump has not always been receptive to that sort of thing. Trump has told aides he wants someone with a more political bent, both to cope with the Democratic House and to help prepare for the president's 2020 re-election campaign. "It's not enough to have just a 2020 campaign manager," Whipple said. The chief of staff should be "someone who can help you govern effectively." Trump has pushed back on the idea that some people don't want the job, saying he has a wealth of candidates for what has been, traditionally, one of the most sought-after jobs in government. Boris Epshteyn, former special assistant to Trump at the White House, said many are eager to take the job, and that Trump is "a great boss to work for and with." The president "gives those working for him a lot of leeway," said Epshteyn, now chief political analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group. "It's a job many people would be honored to have." Previous White House chiefs of staff have gone on to bigger and better things: • Future Vice President Dick Cheney served as chief of staff for President Gerald Ford. • James Baker, chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan, went on to be Treasury secretary and secretary of State (before returning to the chief's job for his long-term patron, President George H.W. Bush). Trump's men, Priebus and Kelly, probably haven't had their reputations enhanced by their White House service, analysts said, something their potential replacements will have to consider. "You can't ignore what two chiefs of staff went through," Dunn Tenpas said. She joked that Trump might as well change the title. "He's not hiring a chief of staff in the traditional sense," she said. "Just call it 'aide to the president.'"[SEP]Donald Trump has found his replacement for White House Chief of Staff. Six days after confirming John Kelly’s exit, the president named Mick Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, as the next successor. “I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration,” Trump wrote in his first of two statements on Twitter. “I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! John will be staying until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service!” he continued. Trump did not specify if Mulvaney, 51, will remain as director of the Office of Management and Budget. RELATED: Embattled Chief of Staff John Kelly Will Leave Job at End of the Year, Says Trump On Dec. 8, Trump told reporters at an Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia that Kelly will be leaving the administration at the end of the year. News of Kelly’s departure came after the retired general was expected to resign following a tumultuous battle in the White House with the president. Kelly held the position of chief of staff for nearly 17 months after he replaced Reince Priebus in July 2017. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, and Vice President Mike Pence’s top aide Nick Ayers all turned down the chief of staff position as reported by multiple outlets. RELATED: Trump Says ‘Over 10’ People Want to Be Chief of Staff Amid Reports of Struggle to Find Replacement On Thursday, Trump told Fox News that his choice for chief of staff would be “somebody that’s strong but I want somebody that thinks like I do.” Before news of Mulvaney’s appointment was made public, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is currently a senior advisor to the president, was a contender. Kushner, who is married to the president’s daughter and senior advisor Ivanka Trump, met with Trump on Wednesday to discuss the position, according to CBS. In addition, an anonymous source told Reuters that recently “numerous people” have recommended that Kushner fill the role because he is close to Trump and has had successes, like helping to create new trade deals with Canada and Mexico.[SEP]President Donald Trump named Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as acting White House Chief of Staff to replace outgoing General John Kelly on his Twitter account Friday evening. “I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration,” Trump wrote. He thanked Kelly for serving as Chief of Staff and welcomed Mulvaney as incoming Acting Chief of Staff. Kelly will serve until the end of the year. The president went on, “I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! John will be staying until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service!” A senior administration official told White House reporters of the Mulvaney announcement, “There’s no time limit. He’s the acting chief of staff, which means he’s the chief of staff. He got picked because the president liked him they get along.” The official referred to Mulvaney’s prior experience as a congressman. “He knows Congress. He knows Capitol Hill,” the official said. “He knows Congress. He knows Capitol Hill.” The official called Mulvaney “fiscally responsible.” According to the official, Mulvaney was informed of the decision separate from the president’s tweet and me with the president today at the White House. Further, the official said Kelly was pleased with the choice: “The current chief is happy. The current chief is fine. The current chief will stay till the end of the year.” Ross Vought will serve as Mulvaney’s replacement as OMB Director. “Mick was over here today working on budget stuff,” the official clarified. “They met face to face this afternoon.” The official responded to a question about why the president specified Mulvaney as “acting” chief: “Because that’s what the president wants.” Another administration official added, “We’ll see… It’s what the president wants right now and, if we have anything else we’ll let you know.” Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook[SEP]After a week of drama over the question of who would replace John Kelly as the White House chief of staff, Donald Trump has announced that he will name Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. “I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction,” Trump said in a tweet Friday afternoon. “Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration…I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! John will be staying until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service!” It’s unclear what exactly Trump means by “acting” chief of staff. The position is not a Senate-approved one, and the president can therefore appoint whoever he wants on a permanent basis. The choice of words may signal his and Mulvaney’s understanding of the appointment as a short-term one, but, according to the Associated Press, Mulvaney’s term will be open-ended. On Sunday, news outlets reported that Nick Ayers, Mike Pence’s chief of staff, declined an offer from Trump, as he was unwilling to commit to two years in the job as the president demanded. According to CNN, Ayers had wanted to be an “acting” chief of staff, to take the position on an interim basis for a few months. Trump rejected that counterproposal. Mulvaney, who also led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an body he once tried to eliminate, has long been a hardline conservative—he was elected to the House of Representatives as part of the Tea Party movement—and a fervent Trump supporter. In his role for the administration, he has worked to curtail regulations on financial institutions and, as budget director, slash the budget, particularly entitlement programs. (He once called cutting aid to the poor “compassionate.”) Mulvaney will be the president’s third chief of staff in two years. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, was fired by Trump last week. Trump’s first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, served for six months before leaving in July 2017. According to Bloomberg, OMB Deputy Director Russell Vought will replace Mulvaney as head of the office. Just hours before the Mulvaney announcement, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was rumored to be up for the chief of staff job, took himself out of the running, joining Rep. Mark Meadows in doing so. The string of rejections by potential candidates for one of the most powerful jobs in politics appeared to underline the image of chaos in the White House at a time when Trump is being investigated for his campaign’s ties to Russia and his own participation in hush payments to women who alleged affairs with him.[SEP]WASHINGTON (CBS NEWS) – The White House chief of staff sweepstakes is over for the moment — and Mick Mulvaney is the winner, President Trump announced on Twitter Friday. Mulvaney is currently the director of the Office of Management and Budget, a role he’ll be giving up for this job, and he was also recently the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He will replace outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly, who is set to leave at the end of the year.[SEP]Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John Kelly in new year WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John Kelly in new year.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John Kelly in new year.[SEP]Current White House budget director Mick Mulvaney has been appointed acting chief of staff to President Donald Trump.[SEP]I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 ....I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! John will be staying until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Office of Management & Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has been tapped to serve as the White House's acting chief of staff, President Donald Trump announced Friday."Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration...I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump tweeted.Trump deemed Mulvaney his "acting chief of staff" but it was not immediately clear what that meant for the length of his tenure.Mulvaney succeeds Gen. John Kelly, who is set to depart at the end of the year. Kelly's departure was announced Dec. 8.The president's first choice was Nick Ayers, the vice president's chief of staff, who bowed out after being unable to come to an agreement on how long he would serve in the post.

President Donald Trump appoints incumbent Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney as Acting White House Chief of Staff, to replace John F. Kelly at the end of the year.

At least seven civilians were killed and over 40 injured in Kashmir on Saturday after government soldiers shot at crowds of anti-India protesters. Indian troops surrounded a village in Kashmir's southern Pulwama region after being told that militants were hiding there, said Muneer Ahmed Khan, a local police officer, The militants emerged and exchanged gunfire with soldiers and counterinsurgency police. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Three rebels and a soldier were also killed in the clashes and a further soldier was wounded. The gun battle prompted angry protests in Indian administered Kashmir, where hundreds of people marched, chanting pro-militant slogans and calling for an end to Indian rule. Shape Created with Sketch. World news in pictures Show all 50 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. World news in pictures 1/50 10 September 2019 Local actors dressed as ancient warriors re-enact a scene from the 7th century battle of Kerbala during a ceremony marking Ashura in Iraq. Reuters 2/50 9 September 2019 A firefighter assesses the fire spreading across land on Long Gully Road in the town of Drake, Australia. A number of homes have been destroyed by bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland. EPA 3/50 8 September 2019 Damaged homes after hurricane Dorian devastated Elbow Key Island in Hope Town, Bahamas. The hurricane hit the island chain as a category 5 storm and battered them for two days before moving north. Getty 4/50 7 September 2019 An artist performs on Tverskaya street during celebrations marking the 872nd anniversary of the city of Moscow. AFP/Getty 5/50 6 September 2019 Children play football next to a defaced portrait of Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Harare on the day he died, aged 95. The former leader was forced to resign in 2017, after a 37-year rule, whose early promise was eroded by economic turmoil, disputed elections and human rights violations, has died. AP 6/50 5 September 2019 Authorities work at the scene of a train crash in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. According to media reports, more than 30 people were injured after a train hit a track at a crossing. EPA 7/50 4 September 2019 A police office removes burning tires from the road, as protesters set up fires to block traffic along Airport Road in Abuja, Nigeria. Reuters 8/50 3 September 2019 A riot police officer throws a teargas canister as looters make off with goods from a store in Germiston, east of Johannesburg, South Africa. Police had earlier fired rubber bullets as they struggled to stop looters who targeted businesses as unrest broke out in several spots in and around the city. AP 9/50 2 September 2019 A boat off the island of Santa Cruz in California burns in the early hours of Monday morning. More than 30 people were on board the boat, which is thought to have been on a three-day diving trip. EPA 10/50 1 September 2019 Flowers are laid in a hole in a wall as people gather in the gym of a school, the scene of the hostage crisis, in memory of victims on the fifteenth anniversary of the tragedy in Beslan, North Ossetia region, Russia. More than 330 people, including 186 children, died as a result of the terrorist attack at the school. AP 11/50 31 August 2019 A man sits in front of riot officers during the rally 'Calling One Hundred Thousands Christians Praying for Hong Kong Sinners' in Hong Kong, China. EPA 12/50 30 August 2019 A migrant forces his way into the Spanish territory of Ceuta. Over 150 migrants made their way into Ceuta after storming a barbed-wire border fence with Morocco. AFP/Getty 13/50 A beagle jumps through hoops during a show at the Pet Expo Championship 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. Although the four-day expo is primarily dog oriented it features a wide array of stalls catering to pet owners' needs as well as showcasing a variety of animals including reptiles, birds, ferrets, and rabbits. EPA 14/50 28 August 2019 Baby elephants rub their trunks against a tree at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. Countries that are part of an international agreement on trade in endangered species agreed on Tuesday to limit the sale of wild elephants, delighting conservationists but dismaying some of the African countries involved. AP 15/50 27 August 2019 Burning rubbles in the market of Bouake, central Ivory Coast, after a fire broke overnight. AFP/Getty 16/50 26 August 2019 French President Emmanuel Macron gestures as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, second from left, sits between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they take part in a meeting at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France. The Canadian Press via AP 17/50 25 August 2019 A Brazillian Air Force jet drops water to fight a fire in the Amazon rainforest in the state of Rondonia, Brazil. EPA 18/50 24 August 2019 A police officer prepares to strike a protester as clashes erupt during a pro-democracy march in Hong Kong's Kowloon Bay. AFP/Getty 19/50 23 August 2019 Oxfam activists in costumes depicting leaders of the G7 nations protest in Biarritz, France on the day before the summit is due to be held there. AFP/Getty 20/50 22 August 2019 A vendor sits as she sells models of the Hindu deity Krishna on display at a roadside ahead of the 'Janmashtami' festival in Chennai. 21/50 21 August 2019 A girl reacts next to Pope Francis as he leads the weekly general audience in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. Reuters 22/50 20 August 2019 A masked dancer takes part in the Nil Barahi mask dance festival, an annual event during which dancers perform while posing as various deities that people worship to seek blessings, in Bode, Nepal. Reuters 23/50 19 August 2019 Protesters take to the street to face off with Indonesian police in Manokwari, Papua. The riots broke out, with a local parliament building being torched, as thousands protested allegations that police tear-gassed and arrested students who supported the restive region's independence. AFP/Getty 24/50 18 August 2019 People survey the destruction after an overnight suicide bomb explosion that targeted a wedding reception in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least 63 people, mostly wedding guests from the Shi'ite Muslim community, were killed and more than 180 injured when a suicide bomber attacked a wedding hall. EPA 25/50 17 August 2019 A man retrieves his prize after climbing up a greased pole during a competition held as part of Independence Day celebrations at Ancol Beach in Jakarta. Indonesia is celebrating its 74th anniversary of independence from the Dutch colonial rule. AP 26/50 16 August 2019 Swiss pianist and composer Alain Roche plays piano suspended in the air at dawn during the 20th "Jeux du Castrum", a multidisciplinary festival in Switzerland. AFP/Getty 27/50 15 August 2019 Japan's Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako bow during a memorial service ceremony marking the 74th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War Two, in Tokyo, Japan. Reuters 28/50 14 August 2019 A woman walks with a Kashmir's flag to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir, during a ceremony to celebrate Pakistan's 72nd Independence Day at the Mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi, Pakistan. Reuters 29/50 13 August 2019 The extraordinary moment a volcano erupted, shooting luminous hot lava from the surface, as a lightning bolt striked the centre of the mountain. Photographer Martin Reitze, 55, captured rare images of volcanic ash escaping from the Ebeko volcano in Russia whilst the lightning froze the ash cloud in time. Martin, from Munich, was standing around a kilometre away from the northern crater of the volcano when it erupted. The volcano expert said: "The strong lightning which shows in the image is a very rare exception, as it was much stronger than usual." Martin Reitze/SWNS 30/50 12 August 2019 People swim in a public bath pool in Zalakaros, Hungary. Some regions of the country have been issued the highest grade of warning by the National Meteorological Service as the temperatures may reach 33-38 centigrade. EPA 31/50 11 August 2019 A pro-democracy protester is held by police outside Tsim Sha Tsui Police station during a demonstration against the controversial extradition bill in Hong Kong. AFP/Getty 32/50 10 August 2019 Muslim pilgrims make their way down on a rocky hill known as Mountain of Mercy, on the Plain of Arafat, during the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. AP 33/50 9 August 2019 Waves hit a sea wall in front of buildings in Taizhou, China's eastern Zhejiang province. China issued a red alert for incoming Super Typhoon Lekima which is expected to batter eastern Zhejiang province early on August 10 with high winds and torrential rainfall. AFP/Getty 34/50 8 August 2019 A herder struggles with his flock across a motorway at the city cattle market, ahead of the Eid al-Adha in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Eid al-Adha is the holiest of the two Muslims holidays celebrated each year, it marks the yearly Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) to visit Mecca, the holiest place in Islam. Muslims slaughter a sacrificial animal and split the meat into three parts, one for the family, one for friends and relatives, and one for the poor and needy. EPA 35/50 7 August 2019 Kazakh servicemen perform during a ceremony opening the International Army Games at the 40th military base Otar in Zhambyl Region, Kazakhstan. Reuters 36/50 6 August 2019 Paleontologist Naturalis Anne Schulp takes part in the construction of the skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus Rex called Trix in Naturalis in Leiden, The Netherlands. After a month-long tour of Europe, Trix is home in time for the opening of the new museum. AFP/Getty 37/50 5 August 2019 Flowers paying tribute to the eight-year-old boy who died after he was pushed under a train at Frankfurt am Main's station. The horrific crime happened last week and has led politicians to call for heightened security. AFP/Getty 38/50 4 August 2019 Mourners take part in a vigil near the border fence between Mexico and the US after a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso killed 20 people. The suspected gunman behind shooting is believed to be a 21-year-old white man called Patrick Crusius. Reuters 39/50 3 August 2019 Pramac Racing's rider Jack Miller in action during a practice session at the Motorcycling Grand Prix of the Czech Republic. The race will take place on 4 August. EPA 40/50 2 August 2019 An extremely rare Pink Meanie jellyfish on display at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town. The Pink Meanie was discovered during a nightlight jellyfish dive by the collections team in the waters around Robben Island and in Cape Town Harbour. Pink Meanies are jellyvorous, meaning they feed on other jelly species by reeling them in with their long tentacles. Discovering the Pink Meanie in its early ephyra stage meant the team could study its growth rate which turned out to be very quick as it grew to the metaephyra stage in about a week and a half. The Mexican pink meanie (Drymonema larsoni) was only discovered in the year 2000. A Mediterranean relative, known as the Big Pink Jellyfish (Drymonema dalmatinum) has been known to science since the 1800s but when spotted in 2014 it had been almost 70 years since the last sighting. These jellies are incredibly rare and this new South African species is no exception. EPA 41/50 1 August 2019 Palestinian men breathe fire on the beach as entertainment for children during the summer vacation in Gaza City. AFP/Getty 42/50 31 July 2019 A woman rows a boat through the lotus plants on the waters of Dal Lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. The lake is a popular tourist destination because of its floating gardens and lotus flowers. EPA 43/50 30 July 2019 An effigy of demon Ghantakarna is burnt to symbolize the destruction of evil and belief to drive evil spirits and ghost, during the Ghantakarna festival at the ancient city of Bhaktapur, Nepal. Reuters 44/50 29 July 2019 Hundreds of hot air balloons take part in the Great Line at the Mondial Air Ballons festival, in an attempt to break the 2017 record of 456 balloons aligning in an hour during the biggest meeting in the world, in Chambley, France. Reuters 45/50 28 July 2019 Anti-extradition bill protesters with umbrellas attend a rally against the police brutality in Hong Kong. EPA 46/50 27 July 2019 A general view of stalls closed following yesterday's volcanic eruption at the tourism area of Mount Tangkuban Parahu in the north of Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia. Reuters 47/50 26 July 2019 Protesters rally against a controversial extradition bill in the arrivals hall at the international airport in Hong Kong. AFP/Getty 48/50 25 July 2019 The pack rides in a valley during the eighteenth stage of the 106th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Embrun and Valloire. AFP/Getty 49/50 24 July 2019 Former special counsel Robert Mueller is sworn in to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the investigation into Russian Interference of the 2016 Presidential Election. Reuters 50/50 23 July 2019 People cool down at the fountains of Trocadero during a heatwave in Paris. EPA 1/50 10 September 2019 Local actors dressed as ancient warriors re-enact a scene from the 7th century battle of Kerbala during a ceremony marking Ashura in Iraq. Reuters 2/50 9 September 2019 A firefighter assesses the fire spreading across land on Long Gully Road in the town of Drake, Australia. A number of homes have been destroyed by bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland. EPA 3/50 8 September 2019 Damaged homes after hurricane Dorian devastated Elbow Key Island in Hope Town, Bahamas. The hurricane hit the island chain as a category 5 storm and battered them for two days before moving north. Getty 4/50 7 September 2019 An artist performs on Tverskaya street during celebrations marking the 872nd anniversary of the city of Moscow. AFP/Getty 5/50 6 September 2019 Children play football next to a defaced portrait of Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Harare on the day he died, aged 95. The former leader was forced to resign in 2017, after a 37-year rule, whose early promise was eroded by economic turmoil, disputed elections and human rights violations, has died. AP 6/50 5 September 2019 Authorities work at the scene of a train crash in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. According to media reports, more than 30 people were injured after a train hit a track at a crossing. EPA 7/50 4 September 2019 A police office removes burning tires from the road, as protesters set up fires to block traffic along Airport Road in Abuja, Nigeria. Reuters 8/50 3 September 2019 A riot police officer throws a teargas canister as looters make off with goods from a store in Germiston, east of Johannesburg, South Africa. Police had earlier fired rubber bullets as they struggled to stop looters who targeted businesses as unrest broke out in several spots in and around the city. AP 9/50 2 September 2019 A boat off the island of Santa Cruz in California burns in the early hours of Monday morning. More than 30 people were on board the boat, which is thought to have been on a three-day diving trip. EPA 10/50 1 September 2019 Flowers are laid in a hole in a wall as people gather in the gym of a school, the scene of the hostage crisis, in memory of victims on the fifteenth anniversary of the tragedy in Beslan, North Ossetia region, Russia. More than 330 people, including 186 children, died as a result of the terrorist attack at the school. AP 11/50 31 August 2019 A man sits in front of riot officers during the rally 'Calling One Hundred Thousands Christians Praying for Hong Kong Sinners' in Hong Kong, China. EPA 12/50 30 August 2019 A migrant forces his way into the Spanish territory of Ceuta. Over 150 migrants made their way into Ceuta after storming a barbed-wire border fence with Morocco. AFP/Getty 13/50 A beagle jumps through hoops during a show at the Pet Expo Championship 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. Although the four-day expo is primarily dog oriented it features a wide array of stalls catering to pet owners' needs as well as showcasing a variety of animals including reptiles, birds, ferrets, and rabbits. EPA 14/50 28 August 2019 Baby elephants rub their trunks against a tree at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. Countries that are part of an international agreement on trade in endangered species agreed on Tuesday to limit the sale of wild elephants, delighting conservationists but dismaying some of the African countries involved. AP 15/50 27 August 2019 Burning rubbles in the market of Bouake, central Ivory Coast, after a fire broke overnight. AFP/Getty 16/50 26 August 2019 French President Emmanuel Macron gestures as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, second from left, sits between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they take part in a meeting at the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France. The Canadian Press via AP 17/50 25 August 2019 A Brazillian Air Force jet drops water to fight a fire in the Amazon rainforest in the state of Rondonia, Brazil. EPA 18/50 24 August 2019 A police officer prepares to strike a protester as clashes erupt during a pro-democracy march in Hong Kong's Kowloon Bay. AFP/Getty 19/50 23 August 2019 Oxfam activists in costumes depicting leaders of the G7 nations protest in Biarritz, France on the day before the summit is due to be held there. AFP/Getty 20/50 22 August 2019 A vendor sits as she sells models of the Hindu deity Krishna on display at a roadside ahead of the 'Janmashtami' festival in Chennai. 21/50 21 August 2019 A girl reacts next to Pope Francis as he leads the weekly general audience in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. Reuters 22/50 20 August 2019 A masked dancer takes part in the Nil Barahi mask dance festival, an annual event during which dancers perform while posing as various deities that people worship to seek blessings, in Bode, Nepal. Reuters 23/50 19 August 2019 Protesters take to the street to face off with Indonesian police in Manokwari, Papua. The riots broke out, with a local parliament building being torched, as thousands protested allegations that police tear-gassed and arrested students who supported the restive region's independence. AFP/Getty 24/50 18 August 2019 People survey the destruction after an overnight suicide bomb explosion that targeted a wedding reception in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least 63 people, mostly wedding guests from the Shi'ite Muslim community, were killed and more than 180 injured when a suicide bomber attacked a wedding hall. EPA 25/50 17 August 2019 A man retrieves his prize after climbing up a greased pole during a competition held as part of Independence Day celebrations at Ancol Beach in Jakarta. Indonesia is celebrating its 74th anniversary of independence from the Dutch colonial rule. AP 26/50 16 August 2019 Swiss pianist and composer Alain Roche plays piano suspended in the air at dawn during the 20th "Jeux du Castrum", a multidisciplinary festival in Switzerland. AFP/Getty 27/50 15 August 2019 Japan's Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako bow during a memorial service ceremony marking the 74th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War Two, in Tokyo, Japan. Reuters 28/50 14 August 2019 A woman walks with a Kashmir's flag to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir, during a ceremony to celebrate Pakistan's 72nd Independence Day at the Mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi, Pakistan. Reuters 29/50 13 August 2019 The extraordinary moment a volcano erupted, shooting luminous hot lava from the surface, as a lightning bolt striked the centre of the mountain. Photographer Martin Reitze, 55, captured rare images of volcanic ash escaping from the Ebeko volcano in Russia whilst the lightning froze the ash cloud in time. Martin, from Munich, was standing around a kilometre away from the northern crater of the volcano when it erupted. The volcano expert said: "The strong lightning which shows in the image is a very rare exception, as it was much stronger than usual." Martin Reitze/SWNS 30/50 12 August 2019 People swim in a public bath pool in Zalakaros, Hungary. Some regions of the country have been issued the highest grade of warning by the National Meteorological Service as the temperatures may reach 33-38 centigrade. EPA 31/50 11 August 2019 A pro-democracy protester is held by police outside Tsim Sha Tsui Police station during a demonstration against the controversial extradition bill in Hong Kong. AFP/Getty 32/50 10 August 2019 Muslim pilgrims make their way down on a rocky hill known as Mountain of Mercy, on the Plain of Arafat, during the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. AP 33/50 9 August 2019 Waves hit a sea wall in front of buildings in Taizhou, China's eastern Zhejiang province. China issued a red alert for incoming Super Typhoon Lekima which is expected to batter eastern Zhejiang province early on August 10 with high winds and torrential rainfall. AFP/Getty 34/50 8 August 2019 A herder struggles with his flock across a motorway at the city cattle market, ahead of the Eid al-Adha in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Eid al-Adha is the holiest of the two Muslims holidays celebrated each year, it marks the yearly Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) to visit Mecca, the holiest place in Islam. Muslims slaughter a sacrificial animal and split the meat into three parts, one for the family, one for friends and relatives, and one for the poor and needy. EPA 35/50 7 August 2019 Kazakh servicemen perform during a ceremony opening the International Army Games at the 40th military base Otar in Zhambyl Region, Kazakhstan. Reuters 36/50 6 August 2019 Paleontologist Naturalis Anne Schulp takes part in the construction of the skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus Rex called Trix in Naturalis in Leiden, The Netherlands. After a month-long tour of Europe, Trix is home in time for the opening of the new museum. AFP/Getty 37/50 5 August 2019 Flowers paying tribute to the eight-year-old boy who died after he was pushed under a train at Frankfurt am Main's station. The horrific crime happened last week and has led politicians to call for heightened security. AFP/Getty 38/50 4 August 2019 Mourners take part in a vigil near the border fence between Mexico and the US after a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso killed 20 people. The suspected gunman behind shooting is believed to be a 21-year-old white man called Patrick Crusius. Reuters 39/50 3 August 2019 Pramac Racing's rider Jack Miller in action during a practice session at the Motorcycling Grand Prix of the Czech Republic. The race will take place on 4 August. EPA 40/50 2 August 2019 An extremely rare Pink Meanie jellyfish on display at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town. The Pink Meanie was discovered during a nightlight jellyfish dive by the collections team in the waters around Robben Island and in Cape Town Harbour. Pink Meanies are jellyvorous, meaning they feed on other jelly species by reeling them in with their long tentacles. Discovering the Pink Meanie in its early ephyra stage meant the team could study its growth rate which turned out to be very quick as it grew to the metaephyra stage in about a week and a half. The Mexican pink meanie (Drymonema larsoni) was only discovered in the year 2000. A Mediterranean relative, known as the Big Pink Jellyfish (Drymonema dalmatinum) has been known to science since the 1800s but when spotted in 2014 it had been almost 70 years since the last sighting. These jellies are incredibly rare and this new South African species is no exception. EPA 41/50 1 August 2019 Palestinian men breathe fire on the beach as entertainment for children during the summer vacation in Gaza City. AFP/Getty 42/50 31 July 2019 A woman rows a boat through the lotus plants on the waters of Dal Lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. The lake is a popular tourist destination because of its floating gardens and lotus flowers. EPA 43/50 30 July 2019 An effigy of demon Ghantakarna is burnt to symbolize the destruction of evil and belief to drive evil spirits and ghost, during the Ghantakarna festival at the ancient city of Bhaktapur, Nepal. Reuters 44/50 29 July 2019 Hundreds of hot air balloons take part in the Great Line at the Mondial Air Ballons festival, in an attempt to break the 2017 record of 456 balloons aligning in an hour during the biggest meeting in the world, in Chambley, France. Reuters 45/50 28 July 2019 Anti-extradition bill protesters with umbrellas attend a rally against the police brutality in Hong Kong. EPA 46/50 27 July 2019 A general view of stalls closed following yesterday's volcanic eruption at the tourism area of Mount Tangkuban Parahu in the north of Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia. Reuters 47/50 26 July 2019 Protesters rally against a controversial extradition bill in the arrivals hall at the international airport in Hong Kong. AFP/Getty 48/50 25 July 2019 The pack rides in a valley during the eighteenth stage of the 106th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Embrun and Valloire. AFP/Getty 49/50 24 July 2019 Former special counsel Robert Mueller is sworn in to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the investigation into Russian Interference of the 2016 Presidential Election. Reuters 50/50 23 July 2019 People cool down at the fountains of Trocadero during a heatwave in Paris. EPA Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but both countries claim the territory in its entirety. India maintains that Pakistan funds militants and separatists in the region. Protesters threw stones at Indian troops to help the militants escape. Government troops responded by shooting bullets, shotgun pellets and tear gas at the crowd. Nine civilians remain critically injured. Police officers said in a statement released later on Saturday that they regretted the killings and that the protesters had come "dangerously close" to the gun battle site. Residents accused soldiers of directly spraying gunfire into the crowds. "They fired at us as if they were practicing their guns,' said Shabir Ahmed, a local resident. Residents also claimed that at least two civilians, including a teenage boy, were killed further away. Indian soldiers in an armoured vehicle fired at a group of civilians on a roadside. As the vehicle jammed, one civilian was killed, local resident Ubaid Ahmed said. Saturday's deaths triggered further anti-India protests in the region. In recent years, younger Kashmiris have openly supported rebels advocating to break away from India. Tension has remained at a near-constant high in the region since July 2016, according to a briefing paper produced earlier this year by the UK parliament. Independent news email Only the best news in your inbox Independent news email Only the best news in your inbox Enter your email address Continue Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid Email already exists. Log in to update your newsletter preferences Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive morning headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts by email Update newsletter preferences On 8 July 2016, Burhan Wani, a 22-year-old militant leader, was killed by Indian security forces, prompting "the biggest outbreak of protest and violence" in the region since 2010, according to the report. A "war of words" broke out between India and Pakistan following the protests and tensions remained high throughout the next year. The International Crisis Group described 2017 as "the deadliest year since 2010 in Indian-administered Kashmir." Separatists in the region have called for three days of mourning and a general shutdown across the region following the latest unrest.[SEP]Indian security forces shot dead seven civilians and wounded dozens of others on Saturday during a protest over the killing of three militants in a gun battle in restive Kashmir, the authorities said. A defense spokesman, Col. Rajesh Kalia, said the police operation had been spurred in response to intelligence reports about the presence of militants in a village in Pulwama district, south of the state’s summer capital, Srinagar. “During the operation, militants fired upon troops, leading to a gun battle in which three militants were killed,” he said. A senior police officer told Reuters that large numbers of civilians then gathered at the site, leading to clashes between with security forces, in which seven people were killed and about 50 others injured. A witness, Mohammad Ayuob, said Indian troops had fired at the civilians when they tried to retrieve the body of a militant. Jammu and Kashmir is mainly Hindu India’s only Muslim-majority state. India and Pakistan both rule the region in part but claim it in full. India has accused Pakistan of fomenting trouble in its part of Kashmir, a charge that the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, denies. The Himalayan state has been particularly tense over the past few months as the Hindu nationalist party of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has pulled out of local government, leaving a power void. Widespread protests have broken out in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir over the killings. Security has been tightened and troops have rushed to potential hot spots. A curfew was imposed in Pulwama town and surrounding areas, according to news media reports. The separatist group Hurriyat Conference called for a three-day strike and protests across Kashmir. “Bullets and pellets rain,” its chairman, Mirwaiz Omar, posted on Twitter, adding that supporters would march toward an army cantonment on Monday so that the Indian government could “kill all of us at one time rather than killing us daily.” The authorities have suspended train services in the Kashmir Valley and shut down mobile internet services to try to prevent the unrest from spreading. Indian security forces say they have killed 242 militants this year. In addition, 101 civilians and 82 security officials have also died, according to officials. The death toll is the highest in more than a decade.[SEP]related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 4 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. Seven civilians died and dozens were injured when Indian security forces opened fire at people protesting the killing of three militants in a gun battle in restive Kashmir on Saturday, police said. SRINAGAR, India: Seven civilians died and dozens were injured when Indian security forces opened fire at people protesting the killing of three militants in a gun battle in restive Kashmir on Saturday, police said. Defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said an operation was launched in the morning in response to intelligence reports about the presence of militants in a village in Pulwama district, south of the state's summer capital Srinagar. "During the operation militants fired upon troops, leading to a gun battle in which three militants were killed," he said. A senior police officer, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said large numbers of local people then gathered at the site, leading to clashes between them and security forces in which seven people were killed and about 50 injured. An eyewitness, Mohammad Ayuob, told Reuters Indian troops fired at the locals when they tried to retrieve the body of a militant. Jammu and Kashmir is mainly Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state. India and Pakistan both rule the region in part but claim in full. India accuses Pakistan of fomenting trouble in its part of Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies. The Himalayan state has been particularly tense over the past few months as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party pulled out of local government, leaving a power void. Widespread protests have broken out in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir over the killings. Security has been tightened and troops rushed to potential hotspots. A curfew was imposed in Pulwama town and surrounding areas, according to media reports. The separatist group Hurriyat Conference called for a three-day strike and protests across Kashmir. "Bullets and pellets rain!" its Chairman Mirwaiz Omar tweeted, adding that their supporters would march towards an army cantonment on Monday so that the Indian government can "kill all of us at one time rather than killing us daily". Authorities have suspended train services in the Kashmir Valley and shut down mobile internet services to try and prevent the unrest from spreading. Indian security forces say they have killed 242 militants this year. In addition, 101 civilians and 82 security officials have also died, according to officials. The total death toll in violence is the highest in more than a decade.[SEP]Indian troops surrounded a village in the southern Pulwama area on a tip that militants were hiding there, police said. As the soldiers began a search operation, militants jumped out of a civilian home and took position in a vast apple orchard while firing at soldiers and counterinsurgency police, said Muneer Ahmed Khan, a top police officer. Three rebels and a soldier were killed in the exchange of gunfire while one soldier was also wounded, he said.[SEP]Indian Army Saturday confirmed killing three terrorists belonging to militant group Hijbul Mujahideen in Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir, including Zahoor Thokar. A soldier of Indian Army’s 55RR has also been martyred in the encounter. Zahoor Thokar, who was also known as Major Thokar, had run away from a territorial unit of Indian Army on 6 July last year along with his weapon, and he was reportedly involved in the brutal killing of another army soldier Aurangzeb in June this year. Soldiers from Indian Army’s 55 Rashtriya Rifles unit along with Jawans from 182nd and 183rd battalion of CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police have launched a cordon and search operation in Kharpora Sirnoo village in Pulwama district in South Kashmir, some 40 kilometers away from summer capital Srinagar following a tip off that led to this encounter. Security forces also faced protests during the operations as hundreds of protesters had gathered at the encounter site, pelting stones on security forces engaged in the operation. Internet Services have also been snapped in the region. The bodies of terrorists have been recovered along with the arms and ammunition.

Indian soldiers and counterinsurgency police exchange gunfire with militants in the southern district of Pulwama, resulting in the deaths of one soldier and three militants. The soldiers then opened fire on a crowd of anti-government protesters who gathered after the battle, killing seven civilians and injuring 40 others.

Authorities were yet to confirm the cause of the crash, but the police said excessive speed on the narrow road could be one of the reasons | Image for representation | Photo; Credit: Thinkstock; Kathmandu: At least 20 people died when a truck carrying mourners returning from a funeral ritual plunged around 400 metres (1,300 feet) onto a river bank in central Nepal, police said Saturday. Fourteen others were injured as the vehicle veered off an unpaved narrow road in a hilly area around 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of the capital Kathmandu on Friday. Police retrieved 18 bodies at the site. One person died while being taken to hospital and another during treatment, police official Bhimlal Bhattarai said. "Bodies were found scattered on the river bank and slope and we are still searching the incident site because the total number of people on board is still not known," said Bhattarai. Authorities were yet to confirm the cause of the crash, but the police said excessive speed on the narrow road could be one of the reasons. Deadly crashes are relatively common in the impoverished Himalayan nation because of poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.[SEP]Kathmandu: In a tragic incident at least 20 people killed when a truck carrying mourners returning from a funeral ritual plunged into a river bed in central Nepal, police said. The vehicle fell from 400 metre, police said on Saturday. Reports said 14 others were injured as the vehicle veered off an unpaved narrow road in a hilly area around 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of the capital Kathmandu. Eighteen bodies were recovered from the site. One person died while being taken to hospital and another during treatment, police official Bhimlal Bhattarai said. Reports said bodies were found scattered on the river bank. Search operation is going on. It was not known how persons were on board, said Bhattarai. The reason behind the mishap is yet to be confirmed. But police said excessive speed on the narrow road could be one of the reasons.[SEP][Nepal], Dec 14 (ANI): At least 18 people died while 16 others sustained injuries after a mini-truck plunged into a river from a height of approximately 400 metres in Central Nepal on Friday. The mini truck, ferrying passengers from Shikharbesi to Ghyangfedi in Nuwakot District, met with an accident at Dupcheshwor Rural Municipality, leaving 18 dead. Fatalities are expected to rise. "As of now we have got the report of 18 dead and 16 injured in the accident. The accident occurred at around 5 PM in the evening and we got the information about half an hour later. The death toll is expected to rise," Bhimlal Bhattarai, DSP at the District Police Office, Nuwakot, told ANI in a telephonic conversation. The ill-fated mini-truck is said to have been carrying at least 40 people. All passengers were returning from a funeral. The exact reason for the accident is yet to be ascertained.[SEP]Police: Truck carrying Nepal villagers from funeral veers off mountain road, killing at least 16 and injuring others KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Police: Truck carrying Nepal villagers from funeral veers off mountain road, killing at least 16 and injuring others.[SEP]KATHMANDU, Nepal — A truck veered off a mountain road in Nepal on Friday, killing at least 16 people and injuring many others. Villagers were returning from a funeral and travelling in an open truck when it went off the roadway, police said. The truck rolled about 500 metres (1,640 feet) on the mountain slope near Dupcheswor village, which is about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest of the capital, Kathmandu. Rescuers were working to help the injured and have recovered 16 bodies. The injured have been driven to hospitals for treatment. Freezing temperatures, darkness and the remote location were making rescue work difficult. Vehicle crashes are mostly blamed on poorly maintained vehicles and roads in the mountainous country of Nepal.[SEP]KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Police: Truck carrying Nepal villagers from funeral veers off mountain road, killing at least 16 and injuring others.[SEP]Truck veers off road in Nepal, killing at least 16 people KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Police say a truck veered off a mountain road in Nepal, killing at least 16 people and injuring many others. Police say villagers were returning from a funeral Friday and traveling in an open truck when it went off the roadway. Rescuers are working to help the injured and have recovered 16 bodies. The injured have been driven to hospitals for treatment. Vehicle crashes are mostly blamed on poorly maintained vehicles and roads in the mountainous country of Nepal.[SEP]KATHMANDU, NEPAL—Police say a truck veered off a mountain road in Nepal, killing at least 16 people and injuring many others. Police say villagers were returning from a funeral Friday and travelling in an open truck when it went off the roadway.[SEP]KATHMANDU, Nepal — Police: Truck carrying Nepal villagers from funeral veers off mountain road, killing at least 16 and injuring others. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

20 people died and 14 others are injured when a truck carrying mourners returning from a funeral ritual plunged around 400 metres (1,300 feet) onto a river bank in central Nepal.

Scott Morrison is criticised by the Opposition for his 'all risk and no gain' decision Australia has decided to formally recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but will not move its embassy from Tel Aviv until a peace settlement is achieved. Prime minister Scott Morrison said his nation would also recognise a future state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, but only after a deal has been reached on a two-state solution. Both Israel and the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital. "Australia now recognises West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel," Mr Morrison said in a speech in Sydney. "We look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical." Advertisement The opposition Labor party criticised Mr Morrison for putting "self-interest ahead of the national interest". "Recognising West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, while continuing to locate Australia's embassy in Tel Aviv, is nothing more than a face-saving exercise," shadow minister for foreign affairs Penny Wong said in a statement. "This is a decision which is all risk and no gain," she said, adding it puts Australia "out of step" with the international community. In an unexpected announcement in October, Mr Morrison said he was open to moving Australia's embassy from Tel Aviv. The shift in policy was viewed cynically because it came days before a crucial by-election in an electorate with a strong Jewish representation, a poll Mr Morrison's party subsequently lost. Australia became one of just a few governments around the world to follow US President Donald Trump's lead and recognise the contested city as Israel's capital. After Mr Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May, tens of thousands of Palestinians protested near the heavily-protected Israeli border. At least 62 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. The move also drew criticism from Muslim-majority neighbours such as Indonesia and Malaysia, threatening a free trade deal which has now been delayed. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move that is not internationally recognised. Israel considers East Jerusalem an indivisible part of its capital, while the Palestinians seek the area, home to the city's most sensitive holy sites, as the capital of a future state.[SEP]Israeli forces arrested 40 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank overnight during a manhunt for the perpetrator of a deadly attack, the army said on Friday. The West Bank, which Israel has occupied for more than 50 years, saw the third Palestinian shooting in two months Thursday, with an attacker killing two Israeli soldiers near a Jewish settlement before fleeing the scene. The army announced reinforcements after the attack and carried out raids in the nearby city of Ramallah, where Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is based, and other places. "Forces apprehended 40 suspects wanted for their involvement in terror activities, popular terror and violent riots targeting civilians and security forces," an army statement said. It said 37 of them were known to be members of Hamas, the Islamist group that claimed two recent gun attacks, although not Thursday's. The army did not announce any arrests in relations to Thursday's attack. Around 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank , including annexed east Jerusalem, which are considered illegal by the international community.[SEP]JERUSALEM: Israeli forces arrested 40 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank overnight during a manhunt for the perpetrator of a deadly attack, the army said on Friday (Dec 14). The West Bank, which Israel has occupied for more than 50 years, saw the third Palestinian shooting in two months Thursday, with an attacker killing two Israeli soldiers near a Jewish settlement before fleeing the scene. The army announced reinforcements after the attack and carried out raids in the nearby city of Ramallah, where Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is based, and other places. "Forces apprehended 40 suspects wanted for their involvement in terror activities, popular terror and violent riots targeting civilians and security forces," an army statement said. It said 37 of them were known to be members of Hamas, the Islamist group that claimed two recent gun attacks, although not Thursday's. The army did not announce any arrests in relations to Thursday's attack. Around 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank , including annexed east Jerusalem, which are considered illegal by the international community.[SEP]JERUSALEM: Israeli forces arrested 40 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank overnight during a manhunt for the perpetrator of a deadly attack, the army said on Friday (Dec 14). The West Bank, which Israel has occupied for more than 50 years, saw the third Palestinian shooting in two months Thursday, with an attacker killing two Israeli soldiers near a Jewish settlement before fleeing the scene. The army announced reinforcements after the attack and carried out raids in the nearby city of Ramallah, where Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is based, and other places. "Forces apprehended 40 suspects wanted for their involvement in terror activities, popular terror and violent riots targeting civilians and security forces," an army statement said. It said 37 of them were known to be members of Hamas, the Islamist group that claimed two recent gun attacks, although not Thursday's. The army did not announce any arrests in relations to Thursday's attack. Around 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank , including annexed east Jerusalem, which are considered illegal by the international community.[SEP]By AFP - Dec 14,2018 - Last updated at Dec 14,2018 A Palestinian demonstrator covers her face during confrontations with Israeli forces in Ramallah, near the housing units of Beit El, in the occupied West Bank, on Thursday (AFP photo) RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — A Palestinian shot dead two Israeli soldiers at a bus stop in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Israeli forces said, sparking army raids in the city of Ramallah during which a Palestinian was killed. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ‘legalise’ thousands of housing units considered unlawfully-built even by Israel. The attack came hours after Israeli forces killed two Palestinian murder suspects. In total six people were killed in the most violent 24 hours to hit the West Bank and Jerusalem in months. The Israeli forces said a Palestinian exited his car at a bus stop near the Ofra settlement in the West Bank before opening fire on soldiers and civilians. Two soldiers were killed and at least two other people — including another soldier — were wounded, the army said, with the attacker fleeing. “We are searching for the terrorist. We will find him,” the military said on Twitter. Following the attack, the army raided the nearby city of Ramallah, home to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Entrances and exits to the city were sealed and the forces entered multiple neighbourhoods, AFP correspondents said. Confrontations broke out in various spots and continued into Thursday evening. A 60-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, in what the army said was an attempted car ramming. The bus stop shooting came only hours after Israeli forces killed two Palestinians allegedly responsible for West Bank attacks that claimed the lives of three Israelis, including a baby. The armed wing of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel in Gaza since 2008, claimed the two Palestinians as its “fighters”. One of them was Salah Barghouthi, a 29-year-old accused of shooting seven Israelis on Sunday, also at a bus stop near the Ofra settlement. The Shin Bet Israeli internal security service said that other members of Barghouthi’s group, all of them affiliated with Hamas, had been arrested overnight. A woman who was seven months pregnant was among those wounded in that attack. Doctors tried to save her baby boy with an emergency caesarean but he died on Wednesday and was buried in Jerusalem. The mother remains in hospital in a serious condition. The other Palestinian killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday night had been suspected of shooting dead two Israelis in October. Ashraf Naalwa, 23, was killed when forces tried to arrest him near Nablus in the West Bank, Israel’s Shin Bet security service said. In another incident Thursday morning, a Palestinian stabbed two Israeli border guards in Jerusalem’s Old City before being shot dead. The violence came amid heightened tensions in the West Bank, with a former head of Shin Bet’s intelligence and research division saying it appeared to be a “new front” opened by Gaza’s rulers Hamas. While Abbas’ forces control Palestinian cities in the West Bank, some Hamas cells continue to operate. Since Sunday’s attack, Israeli forces have made a series of incursions into central Ramallah, where Abbas’ Palestinian Authority is based. Abbas himself condemned the anti-Israeli attacks but highlighted Israeli raids as a potential cause of anger. “The climate created by the policy of repeated intrusions into the cities, the provocations against the sovereignty of the president and the lack of a horizon for peace are what led to this unacceptable series of violence that we condemn and reject,” he said. Hebrew posters have been pasted in the West Bank over the past week inciting the killing of Abbas. Speaking on Thursday evening, Netanyahu vowed to legalise “thousands” of housing units built without even Israeli permits. All housing units are considered illegal under international law and are seen as a major obstacle to peace, but Israel draws a distinction between those it sanctions and those constructed without permission. “They think they can uproot us from our land, they will not succeed,” he said in a statement. Netanyahu also said they would seek to destroy the homes of Palestinian attackers within 48 hours. Israel seized control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Around 600,000 Israelis now live in housing units there considered illegal by the international community. Many Palestinians consider violence against Israelis in the West Bank to be a justified response to the growth of housing units on land they see as theirs.[SEP]SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia formally recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing decades of Middle East policy, but will not move its embassy there immediately, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday. “Australia now recognizes West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel,” Morrison said. “We look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical,” he told reporters in Sydney. Morrison said in October he was open to shifting Australia’s embassy from Tel Aviv. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in May delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinians and upset the wider Arab world and Western allies. Morrison’s unexpected announcement in October was viewed cynically because it came days before a crucial by-election in an electorate with a strong Jewish representation, a poll his party subsequently lost. It also drew criticism from Muslim-majority neighbors such as Indonesia and Malaysia, neither of whom formally recognize Israel’s right to exist. Arab countries worried that the move would unnecessarily inflame tensions in the Middle East. Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, including the eastern sector that it annexed after the 1967 Middle East war, and wants all embassies based there. The international community believes Jerusalem’s status should be resolved through negotiation. The status of Jerusalem, home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths, is one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians who want East Jerusalem recognized as the capital of a Palestinian state. Morrison said Australia would not move its embassy to West Jerusalem until the city’s final status was determined, but said trade and defense offices would be opened there. He confirmed Australia’s support for a two-state solution with a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. Izzat Salah Abdulhadi, head of the Palestinian Delegation to Australia, said endorsing two capitals signaled a genuine commitment to a two-state solution but said Israel would still regard Jerusalem as its “eternal and undivided capital”. “Recognition of any part of it before serious compromises and genuine concessions have been made will be seen, at least to some extent, as rewarding this intransigence,” he said in a statement emailed to Reuters. Indonesia’s foreign ministry spokesman, Arrmanatha Nasir, noted that Australia had not moved its embassy to Jerusalem and called on all members of the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state “based on the principle of two-state solutions”.[SEP]Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. SYDNEY- Australia formally recognizes west Jerusalem as Israel's capital, reversing decades of Middle East policy, but will not move its embassy there immediately, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday. "Australia now recognizes West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel," Morrison said. "We look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical," he told reporters in Sydney.Morrison said in October he was open to shifting Australia's embassy from Tel Aviv. President Donald Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in May delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinians and upset the wider Arab world and Western allies.Morrison's unexpected announcement in October was viewed cynically because it came days before a crucial by-election in an electorate with a strong Jewish representation, a poll his party subsequently lost.It also drew criticism from Muslim-majority neighbors such as Indonesia and Malaysia, neither of whom formally recognize Israel's right to exist. Arab countries worried that the move would unnecessarily inflame tensions in the Middle East.Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, including the eastern sector that it annexed after the 1967 Middle East war, and wants all embassies based there. The international community believes Jerusalem's status should be resolved through negotiation.The status of Jerusalem, home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths, is one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians who want east Jerusalem recognized as the capital of a Palestinian state.Morrison said Australia would not move its embassy to West Jerusalem until the city's final status was determined, but said trade and defense offices would be opened there.He confirmed Australia's support for a two-state solution with a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem."What we are saying is we've got to move this forward. The rancid stalemate has to be broken," he said. Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>[SEP]Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that his government will recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, he said Australia's embassy would not move from Tel Aviv, until a peace settlement was achieved. He added Australia also recognised the aspirations of the Palestinians to a state with a capital in East Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem is one of the most contested issues between Israel and the Palestinians. US President Donald Trump drew international criticism last year when he reversed decades of American foreign policy by recognising the ancient city as Israel's capital. The US embassy was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May. • Why Trump and Jerusalem was not about peace Mr Morrison's announcement comes after a period of consultation with politicians in Australia and allies abroad. "Australia now recognises West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel," said Mr Morrison, speaking in Sydney on Saturday. "We look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical ... and after final status determination." When the policy review was announced in October, it drew support from Israel, but criticism from the Palestinian side. Mr Morrison's predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, had ruled out following the US in moving Australia's embassy to Jerusalem. Two other countries - Guatemala and Paraguay - have announced they would also make the switch, but Paraguay later reversed the decision after a change of government. Why is the status of Jerusalem so contentious? The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel regards Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided" capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war - as the capital of a future state. Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and according to the 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, the final status of Jerusalem is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks. Since 1967, Israel has built a dozen settlements, home to about 200,000 Jews, in East Jerusalem. These are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. In December 2017, UN member states voted decisively at the General Assembly in favour of a resolution effectively declaring US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital to be "null and void" and demanding it be cancelled.[SEP]SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia formally recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing decades of Middle East policy, but will not move its embassy there immediately, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday. “Australia now recognizes West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel,” Morrison said. “We look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical,” he told reporters in Sydney. Morrison said in October he was open to shifting Australia’s embassy from Tel Aviv. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in May delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinians and upset the wider Arab world and Western allies. Morrison’s unexpected announcement in October was viewed cynically because it came days before a crucial by-election in an electorate with a strong Jewish representation, a poll his party subsequently lost. It also drew criticism from Muslim-majority neighbors such as Indonesia and Malaysia, neither of whom formally recognize Israel’s right to exist. Arab countries worried that the move would unnecessarily inflame tensions in the Middle East. Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, including the eastern sector that it annexed after the 1967 Middle East war, and wants all embassies based there. The international community believes Jerusalem’s status should be resolved through negotiation. The status of Jerusalem, home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths, is one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians who want East Jerusalem recognized as the capital of a Palestinian state. Morrison said Australia would not move its embassy to West Jerusalem until the city’s final status was determined, but said trade and defense offices would be opened there. He confirmed Australia’s support for a two-state solution with a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. “What we are saying is we’ve got to move this forward. The rancid stalemate has to be broken,” he said.[SEP]SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia formally recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing decades of Middle East policy, but will not move its embassy there immediately, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday. “Australia now recognizes West Jerusalem, being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel,” Morrison said. “We look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical ... and after final status determination,” he told reporters in Sydney. Morrison said in October he was open to shifting the embassy. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinians and upset the wider Arab world and Western allies.

Australia formally recognizes West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state but will not move its embassy from Tel Aviv until a peace settlement is reached with the Palestinians.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Chairman Michal Kurtyka was in high spirits as the conference reached agreement Negotiators in Poland have finally secured agreement on a range of measures that will make the Paris climate pact operational in 2020. Last-minute rows over carbon markets threatened to derail the two-week summit - and delayed it by a day. Delegates believe the new rules will ensure that countries keep their promises to cut carbon. The Katowice agreement aims to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below 2C. "Putting together the Paris agreement work programme is a big responsibility," said the chairman of the talks, known as COP24, Michal Kurtyka. "It has been a long road. We did our best to leave no-one behind." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption No more beef? Five things you can do to help stop rising global temperatures What did the delegates focus on? The summit accord, reached by 196 states, outlines plans for a common rulebook for all countries - regulations that will govern the nuts and bolts of how countries cut carbon, provide finance to poorer nations and ensure that everyone is doing what they say they are doing. Sorting out the rulebook sounds easy but is very technical. Countries often have different definitions and timetables for their carbon cutting actions. Poorer countries want some "flexibility" in the rules so that they are not overwhelmed with regulations that they don't have the capacity to put into practice. How years compare with the 20th Century average 2019 is on course to be in the top three warmest years 10 warmest years 10 coldest years 20th Century average Hotter Colder Months J F M A M J J A S O N D Source: NOAA Replay The idea of being legally liable for causing climate change has long been rejected by richer nations, who fear huge bills well into the future. A deadlock between Brazil and other countries over the rules for the monitoring of carbon credits threatened to derail the talks. Brazil had been pushing for a weaker set of rules on carbon markets, despite strong opposition from many other countries. These discussions have now been deferred until next year. Further tensions emerged last weekend, scientists and delegates were shocked when the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to the meeting "welcoming" a recent UN report on keeping global temperature rise to within the 1.5C limit. The report said the world is now completely off track, heading more towards 3C this century. In a compromise, the final statement from the summit welcomed the "completion" of the report and invited countries to make use of it. Is this enough? Laurence Tubiana, a key architect of the Paris agreement, and now with the European Climate Foundation, said the agreement was a big boost for the Paris pact. "The key piece was having a good transparency system because it builds trust between countries and because we can measure what is being done and it is precise enough," she told BBC News on the sidelines of this meeting. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Matt McGrath explains why we should care about climate change "I am happy with that. Nobody can say that's not clear, we don't know what to do, or that it's not true anymore. It's very clear," She said that countries like Russia- which had refused to ratify the Paris agreement because it wasn't sure about the rules - could no longer use that excuse. However some observers say the deal is not sufficiently strong to deal with the urgency of the climate problem. In the words of one delegate, "it's what's possible, but not what's necessary". What about cutting carbon faster? There has been a big push for countries to up their ambition, to cut carbon deeper and with greater urgency. Many delegates want to see a rapid increase in ambition before 2020 to keep the chances of staying under 1.5C alive. Right now, the plans that countries lodged as part of the Paris agreement don't get anywhere near that, described as "grossly insufficient" by one delegate from a climate vulnerable country. Business is also looking for a signal from this meeting about the future. "Companies are ready to invest and banks are ready to finance," said Carlos Salle from Spanish energy conglomerate, Iberdrola. "So we need that greater ambition in the policy to enable business to move further and faster."[SEP]KATOWICE, Poland (Reuters) - Nearly 200 countries overcame political divisions late on Saturday to agree on rules for implementing a landmark global climate deal, but critics say it is not ambitious enough to prevent the dangerous effects of global warming. After two weeks of talks in the Polish city of Katowice, nations finally reached consensus on a more detailed framework for the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to limit a rise in average world temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. “It is not easy to find agreement on a deal so specific and technical. Through this package you have made a thousand little steps forward together. You can feel proud,” Polish president of the talks Michal Kurtyka told delegates. After he struck the gavel to signal agreement had been reached, ministers joined him on the stage, hugging and laughing in signs of relief after the marathon talks. Before the talks started, many expected the deal would not be as robust as needed. The unity which underpinned the Paris talks has fragmented, and U.S. President Donald Trump intends to pull his country - one of the world’s biggest emitters - out of the pact. Related Coverage Climate talks pass baton in race to stop global warming At the 11th hour, ministers managed to break a deadlock between Brazil and other countries over the accounting rules for the monitoring of carbon credits, deferring the bulk of that discussion to next year, but missing an opportunity to send a signal to businesses to speed up their actions. Still, exhausted ministers managed to bridge a series of divides to produce a 156-page rulebook - which is broken down into themes such as how countries will report and monitor their national pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions and update their emissions plans. Not everyone is happy with everything, but the process is still on track and it is something to build on, several ministers said. “While some rulebook elements still need to be fleshed out, it is a foundation for strengthening the Paris Agreement and could help facilitate U.S. re-entry into the Paris Agreement by a future presidential administration,” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. COP24 President Michal Kurtyka is greeted after adopting the final agreement during a closing session of the COP24 U.N. Climate Change Conference 2018 in Katowice, Poland, December 15, 2018. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel AMBITION, AMBITION, AMBITION Some countries and green groups criticized the outcome for failing to urge increased ambitions on emissions cuts sufficiently to curb rising temperatures. Poorer nations vulnerable to climate change also wanted more clarity on how an already agreed $100 billion a year of climate finance by 2020 will be provided and on efforts to build on that amount further from the end of the decade. A statement by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who left the talks on Thursday, stressed the need for more work. “From now on, my five priorities will be: ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition and ambition,” it said. “And ambition must guide all member states as they prepare their (emissions cut plans) for 2020 to reverse the present trend in which climate change is still running faster than us.” A U.N.-commissioned report by the IPCC in October warned that keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C would need “unprecedented changes” in every aspect of society. Last week, Saudi Arabia, the Unites States, Russia and Kuwait refused to use the word “welcome” in association with the findings of the report. Slideshow (8 Images) The decision text now merely expresses gratitude for the work on the report, welcomes its timely completion and invites parties to use the information in it. For many low-lying states and islands at risk from rising sea levels, this is not strong enough but had to be accepted grudgingly in exchange for other trade-offs. During the two weeks of talks in Katowice - in the mining region of Silesia, a focus on the fossil fuel industry provided an unwelcome distraction for some countries and environmental groups which want to focus on cleaner energy. The conference itself has been hosted by coal-reliant Poland, which has sought to protect its mining industry. The U.S. administration’s only event in Katowice was seen as trying to rebrand coal as a potentially clean energy source.[SEP]UN Climate Change News, Katowice, 15 December – Governments have adopted a robust set of guidelines for implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The implementation of the agreement will benefit people from all walks of life, especially the most vulnerable. The agreed ‘Katowice Climate Package’ is designed to operationalize the climate change regime contained in the Paris Agreement. Under the auspices of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, it will promote international cooperation and encourage greater ambition. The guidelines will promote trust among nations that all countries are playing their part in addressing the challenge of climate change. The President of COP24, Mr. Michal Kurtyka of Poland, said: “All nations have worked tirelessly. All nations showed their commitment. All nations can leave Katowice with a sense of pride, knowing that their efforts have paid off. The guidelines contained in the Katowice Climate Package provide the basis for implementing the agreement as of 2020”. The Katowice package includes guidelines that will operationalize the transparency framework. It sets out how countries will provide information about their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that describe their domestic climate actions. This information includes mitigation and adaptation measures as well as details of financial support for climate action in developing countries. The package also includes guidelines that relate to: • None The process for establishing new targets on finance from 2025 onwards to follow-on from the current target of mobilizing USD 100 billion per year from 2020 to support developing countries • None How to conduct the Global Stocktake of the effectiveness of climate action in 2023 • None How to assess progress on the development and transfer of technology The UN’s Climate Chief, Ms. Patricia Espinosa said: “This is an excellent achievement! The multilateral system has delivered a solid result. This is a roadmap for the international community to decisively address climate change”. “The guidelines that delegations have been working on day and night are balanced and clearly reflect how responsibilities are distributed amongst the world’s nations”, she said. “They incorporate the fact that countries have different capabilities and economic and social realities at home, while providing the foundation for ever increasing ambition”, she added. The agreed guidelines mean that countries can now establish the national systems that are needed for implementing the Paris Agreement as of 2020. The same will be done at the international level. Functioning together, these systems will ensure that nations can act in an atmosphere of trust and assess progress of their climate actions. “While some details will need to be finalised and improved over time, the system is to the largest part place”, Ms. Espinosa said. The main issues still to be resolved concern the use of cooperative approaches, as well as the sustainable development mechanism, as contained in the Paris Agreement’s article 6. These would allow countries to meet a part of their domestic mitigation goals through the use of so-called “market mechanisms”. Market mechanisms provide flexible instruments for reducing the costs of cutting emissions, such as carbon markets. Here, the Paris Agreement recognizes the need for global rules to safeguard the integrity of all countries’ efforts. These global rules are important to ensure that each tonne of emissions released into the atmosphere is accounted for. In this way, progress towards the emission limitation goals of the Paris Agreement can be accurately measured. “From the beginning of the COP, it very quickly became clear that this was one area that still required much work and that the details to operationalize this part of the Paris Agreement had not yet been sufficiently explored”, explained Ms. Espinosa. “After many rich exchanges and constructive discussions, the greatest majority of countries were willing to agree and include the guidelines to operationalize the market mechanisms in the overall package”, she said. “Unfortunately, in the end, the differences could not be overcome”. Because of this, countries have agreed to finalise the details for market mechanisms in the coming year in view of adopting them at the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP25). The Fiji-led Talanoa Dialogue, a year-long inclusive dialogue around ambition as it relates to the Paris Agreement, concluded at COP24, with the Global warming of 1.5C report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a major input. “As the decision adopted indicates, there is a clear recognition of the IPCC’s role in providing scientific input to inform countries in strengthening their response to the threat of climate change”, Ms. Espinosa underlined. “I thank all experts for their hard work and important contribution to the IPCC’s work”, she added. The final High-Level session in Katowice resulted in the Talanoa Call for Action, which calls upon all countries and stakeholders to act with urgency. Countries are encouraged to factor the outcome of the dialogue into efforts to increase their ambition and to update their nationally determined contributions, which detail nations’ climate actions, in 2020. A High-Level stock-taking of actions taken before 2020 gave countries the opportunity to assess their current level of ambition. Another stock-taking is planned for 2019. “While there are clearly gaps that remain, the stock-take of actions taken before 2020 and the Talanoa Dialogue have clearly shown that the world has built a strong foundation for climate action under the Paris Agreement”, said Ms. Espinosa. Many developed countries pledged financial support to enable developing countries to act. This is especially important for the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund. Countries have sent significant positive signals towards GCF’s first formal replenishment, with Germany and Norway announcing that they would double their contributions. The engagement of multilateral development banks (MDBs), international organisations, businesses, investors and civil society at COP24 helped to build the political will towards the outcome in Katowice. Many made key announcements, that were critical to build momentum. These include: • None The World Bank’s pledge of $200 billion in climate action funding for the period 2021-2025; • None The MDBs announcement to align their activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement; • None The commitment by fifteen international organizations to make their operations climate neutral; • None The announcement by the C40 Cities coalition, which includes cities across the globe, to work with the IPCC to identify how the Global Warming of 1.5C report can apply to cities’ climate actions. Many more announcements were made and inspiring examples of climate action showcased at the Global Climate Action High-level events (For more information, see here). The next United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in Chile and consultations will provide clarity on the city and exact date of the conference in due course. With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development. For more information please contact: Follow UNFCCC on Twitter: @UNFCCC| español: @CMNUCC| | Francais: @CCNUCC | Deutsch: @UNKlima, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa on Twitter: @PEspinosaC UNFCCC on Facebook: facebook.com/UNclimatechange UNFCCC on LinkedIn: UNFCCC UNFCCC on Instagram: @UNFCCC[SEP](UPDATED) But environmental groups say the rulebook lacked the bold ambition needed to protect states already dealing with the severe effects of climate change KATOWICE, Poland (UPDATED) – Nations on Sunday, December 16, struck a deal to breathe life into the landmark 2015 Paris climate treaty after marathon United Nations (UN) talks that failed to match the ambition the world's most vulnerable countries need to avert dangerous global warming. Delegates from nearly 200 states finalized a common rule book designed to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius. (READ: Fighting climate change: What is the Paris Agreement?) "Putting together the Paris agreement work program is a big responsibility," said COP24 president Michal Kurtyka as he gavelled through the deal after talks in Poland that ran deep into overtime. "It has been a long road. We did our best to leave no one behind," he added. But states already dealing with devastating floods, droughts, and extreme weather made worse by climate change said the package agreed in the mining city of Katowice lacked the bold ambition to cut emissions the world needed. Egyptian ambassador Wael Aboulmagd, chair of the developing nations G77 plus China negotiating bloc, said the rule book saw the "urgent adaptation needs of developing countries relegated to a second-class status." Executive director of Greenpeace Jennifer Morgan said: "We continue to witness an irresponsible divide between the vulnerable island states and impoverished countries pitted against those who would block climate action or who are immorally failing to act fast enough." The final decision text was repeatedly delayed as negotiators sought guidelines that could ward off the worst threats posed by the heating planet while protecting the economies of rich and poor nations alike. (READ: [OPINION] What's at stake for the Philippines at COP24) "Without a clear rulebook, we won't see how countries are tracking, whether they are actually doing what they say they are doing," Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna told AFP. At their heart, negotiations were about how each nation funds action to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as how those actions are reported. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has recently backed down on anti-pollution fuel tax hikes in the face of country-wide "yellow vest" protests, said France must "show the way" as he welcomed the progress made at the talks. "The international community remains committed to the fight against climate change," he tweeted on Sunday. "Congratulations to the UN, scientists, NGOs (non-governmental organizations),, and all negotiators. France and Europe must show the way. The fight goes on," he said. Developing nations had wanted more clarity from richer ones over how the future climate fight will be funded and pushed for so-called "loss and damage" measures. This would see richer countries giving money now to help deal with the effects of climate change many vulnerable states are already experiencing. Another contentious issue was the integrity of carbon markets, looking ahead to the day when the patchwork of distinct exchanges – in China, the Europe Union, parts of the United States – may be joined up in a global system. The Paris Agreement calls for setting up a mechanism to guard against practices, such as double counting emissions savings, that could undermine such a market. A major sticking point, delegates eventually agreed on Saturday, December 15, to kick the issue down the road until next year. One veteran observer told AFP that Poland's presidency at COP24 had left many countries out of the process and presented at-risk nations with a "take it or leave it" deal. Progress had "been held up by Brazil, when it should have been held up by the small islands. It's tragic." One of the largest disappointments for countries of all wealths and sizes was the lack of ambition to reduce emissions shown in the final COP24 text. Most nations wanted the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to form a key part of future planning. It highlighted the need to slash carbon pollution by nearly half before 2030 in order to hit the 1.5C target. But the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Kuwait objected, leading to watered-down wording. The final statement from the Polish COP24 presidency welcomed "the timely conclusion" of the report and invited "parties to make use of it" – hardly the ringing endorsement many nations had called for. "There's been a shocking lack of response to the 1.5 report," Greenpeace's Morgan, told AFP. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who made 3 trips to Katowice over the course of the talks, said the world's climate fight was just beginning. "From now on my five priorities will be: Ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition," he said in a message read out by UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa. With the political climate process sputtering on well into its 3rd decade as emissions rise remorselessly, activists have stepped up grassroots campaigns of civil disobedience to speed up action. "We are not a one-off protest, we are a rebellion," a spokesman for the Extinction Rebellion movement, which disrupted at least one ministerial event at the COP, told AFP. "We are organising for repeated disruption, and we are targeting our governments, calling for the system change needed to deal with the crisis that we are facing," the spokesman added. – Rappler.com[SEP]Negotiators from around the world struck an eleventh-hour deal Saturday, laying out rules to implement the Paris Agreement and keep the landmark 2015 climate accord intact. The two-week, drawn-out fight that included a rehashing of old battles and the introduction of new ones stretched late into the night here at the COP 24 UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland. The pitched battle hints at challenges to come in the global fight against climate change as the world order continue to face a wave of political pressure that has put a strain on international cooperation. “It has been a long road,” said Polish Energy State Secretary Michał Kurtyka, who served as President of the conference. “This deal hangs in fragile balance, we will all have to give in order to gain.” The issues on the table in Katowice were largely technical questions centering on accounting, finance and seemingly arcane word choices that signal how aggressively countries will cut their emissions. But geopolitics never lurked far from the surface, and the urgency of climate change never proved great enough to keep the politics from bubbling up and disrupting proceedings. “People are pulling away at the edges of the multilateral system and you wonder whether or not it’s going to unravel further,” said Rachel Kyte, who headed the World Bank’s climate-change program and who now leads Sustainable Energy for All, before the final decision. “Is the beginning of something bigger? How do we cope with it?” The potential for disruption was clear from the beginning. The U.S., the world’s biggest economy and second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, promised to exit the Paris Agreement last year under President Trump’s direction. This left a void in leadership even as the U.S. officially remains in the talks until it’s eligible to withdraw in 2020. That void opened the door for others to rebel, particularly in places where climate change does not jive with the priorities of populist or authoritarian governments. In a highly-publicized affair, the U.S. held an event promoting fossil fuels, during which a White House official argued that the country was injecting a dose of “reality” in the face of “alarmism” around climate change. The event won the support of Australia, whose ambassador for the environment joined the panel. And a senior administration official said that other countries had conveyed that they appreciate the U.S. perspective even if they don’t feel comfortable stating so publicly. “They don’t talk about it as much,” said a senior administration official. But, “there’s an appreciation for the realism.” In another conflict, Brazil faced off against the rest of the world when it threatened to reject any deal because of language that would fix an accounting loophole that gives the country double credit for preserving forests in the Amazon. The rest of world protested, but Brazil refused to budge and in the final hours negotiators decided to punt the issue to a future conference. One of the biggest clamors of the conference came as four oil producing countries, including the U.S, Russia and Saudi Arabia, questioned the validity of climate science and refused to recognize the legitimacy of a report from the IPCC, the UN’s climate science body, showing the effects of climate change if temperatures rise more than 1.5°C. Changing geopolitics even hit in places where governments care deeply about the threat of climate change. The wave of populism in the European Union fractured the block, weakening its negotiating position. Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a longtime climate negotiations expert, cited political change in Italy, the ongoing Brexit fiasco and the weak positions of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emanuel Macron as contributing to the E.U.’s struggle to wrangle other countries. “There’s always some of these clashes, but it’s more acute here,” he says. And then there’s the U.S. relationship with China, which is in disarray over ongoing trade issues. The two countries, while often at odds in previous negotiations, often served as mediators between developing and developed countries and helped broker key deals. “There was a capacity to be a convener, each of us,” says Todd Stern, who served as the chief U.S. negotiator under Obama, of the U.S. and China. “That’s not available right now.” All of these disruptions helped push the talks long into overtime, with a mix of yawns and applause when Kurtyka finally called the conference to an end more than a day later than originally scheduled. The deal that resulted came as a relief: the multilateral approach to fighting climate change will live to see another day. At the same time, the new agreement left much to be desired from nearly all parties. “I trust that whenever you found dissatisfaction in one part of the text, it was balanced with satisfaction in another,” said Kurtyka. Perhaps more importantly, all but the most out-of-touch acknowledged that the deal leaves much work to be done if the world actually hopes to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, a level that the new IPCC report shows could wipe some countries off the map and cause widespread devastation across the planet. “Carbon emissions keep rising and rising,” Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives, told reporters before the deal was finalized. “All we seem to be doing is talking and talking and talking.” As countries continue to wind through the difficult international negotiation process, the obvious answer to make up for the gap caused by political disruption lies outside of the political system. Indeed, some local governments, businesses and apolitical multilateral organizations are already trying to take charge. For most of the two decades that the U.N. has held these meetings, talk has focused on how to make action on climate change happen at a nebulous point in the future. Now, in large part thanks to the Paris Agreement, that action has already begun. And, while the international system is doomed to be defined by the least common denominator, many cities, states and businesses have stepped up to the challenge. In the months leading up to this conference, the World Bank committed $200 billion in climate investments, a slew of businesses lobbied for market solutions to climate change and alliances of sub-national governments in Japan, Argentina and Mexico joined the U.S. in making commitments to fill the gap in their national governments’ efforts. “To combat climate change we need much much more than government,” says Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a central framer of the Paris Agreement. “It’s not for state only. It’s for society.” The only issue is that none of this is moving fast enough. The IPCC report shows that temperatures have already risen 1°C as a result of human activity and that figure will surpass 1.5°C as early as 2030 without a dramatic shift in direction. A lot of work is necessary to facilitate such a shift. And that’s going to be a huge challenge so long as political tensions persist.[SEP]Nearly 200 nations overcame political divisions on Saturday to agree on rules for implementing a landmark global climate deal, but critics say it is not ambitious enough to prevent the dangerous effects of global warming. READ MORE: World leaders gather for ‘impossible’ task of finalizing Paris climate agreement After two weeks of talks in the Polish city of Katowice, nations finally reached consensus on a more detailed framework for the 2015 Paris Agreement which aims to limit a rise in average world temperatures to “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. “It is not easy to find agreement on a deal so specific and technical. Through this package you have made a thousand little steps forward together. You can feel proud,” Polish president of the talks, Michal Kurtyka, told delegates. After he struck the gavel to signal agreement had been reached, ministers joined him on the stage, hugging and laughing in signs of relief after the marathon talks. WATCH: ‘We are off-track, we need more ambition’ on climate change action, says U.N.’s chief Before the talks started, many expected that the deal would not be as robust as is needed. The unity which underpinned the Paris talks has fragmented and U.S. President Donald Trump intends to pull his country – one of the world’s biggest emitters – out of the pact. Still, exhausted ministers managed to bridge a series of divides to produce a 156-page rulebook – which is broken down into themes, such as how countries will report and monitor their national pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions and update their emissions plans. However, an eight-page decision framework text was criticized by some countries and green groups for failing to urge increased ambitions on emissions cuts sufficiently to curb rising temperatures. READ MORE: Donald Trump slams Paris Agreement in tweet commenting on French riots “The majority of the rulebook for the Paris Agreement has been created, which is something to be thankful for,” said Mohamed Adow, international climate lead at Christian Aid. “But the fact countries had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line shows that some nations have not woken up to the urgent call of the IPCC report,” he added. A U.N.-commissioned report by the IPCC in October warned that keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5C would need “unprecedented changes” in every aspect of society. READ MORE: New U.N. report on climate change carries life-or-death warning Last week, Saudi Arabia, the Unites States, Russia and Kuwait refused to use the word “welcome” in association with the findings of the report. The decision text now merely expresses gratitude for the work on the report, welcomes its timely completion and invites parties to use the information in it. For many low-lying states and islands who are at risk from rising sea levels, this is not strong enough but had to be accepted grudgingly in exchange for other trade-offs. WATCH: We are confident ‘without question’ to reach Paris Agreement, says Liberals “There should be a direct link between the findings of the report and the specific actions that would underpin ambition both in terms of action and finance,” Simon Stiell, Grenada’s environment minister, told Reuters. “The challenges will be with some of the bigger players in terms of stepping up to their responsibilities and what is required to truly operationalise the Paris Agreement,” he added. At the eleventh hour, ministers managed to break a deadlock between Brazil and other countries over the accounting rules for the monitoring of carbon credits, deferring a bulk of that discussion to next year.[SEP]There were concerns that talks might fall apart, but officials saved the deal by punting a dispute with Brazil over carbon credit monitoring. Most of the discussions around that subject will take place in 2019. The pact will ideally keep the global average temperature increase to significantly less than 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels. It's not certain this is enough, though. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently published a report indicating that global warming is worse than thought, and would require "unprecedented changes" to keep the temperature in check. However much the Paris and Katowice deals might do to reduce emissions, they're based on an older understanding of the situation. As usual, there's also the question of those countries that refuse to play along. President Trump's intent to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement could hurt the strategy's effectiveness, even with cities and states vowing to honor the arrangement. Other countries that depend heavily on fossil fuel sales, such as Kuwait, Russia and Saudi Arabia, have also given the cold shoulder to the UN climate report. If the Paris participants achieve their targets, it'll be in spite of some prominent opposition.[SEP]Nations agree upon a set of rules to govern Paris climate accord after 2 weeks of UN climate talks.[SEP]On Saturday, officials from nearly 200 countries agreed to a set of guidelines to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change at the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland. Here’s what you need to know about the agreement, which is being called the Katowice Climate Package. What exactly is it? The new agreement lays out specific measures to fulfil the promises of the Paris Agreement. The terms of the agreement were hotly debated over several days by member countries before being agreed upon. The UN celebrated the Katowice Climate Package as the beginning of a “new era of global climate change action,” saying it will promote international cooperation on climate change, boost transparency among countries and benefit people from all walks of life. The new measures will be implemented in 2020. What was agreed to? The main achievements of the Katowice Climate Package include an agreement on how to report greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to reduce to them as well as a commitment from wealthy countries to provide financial assistance to poorer countries to help them in cutting emissions, prepare for things such as rising sea levels and pay for damages already caused by climate change. Officials from 196 countries have agreed to the Katowice Climate Package. Representing every corner of the globe, they include everyone from the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters, such as China and the United States, to middling powers like Canada to tiny Pacific island nations like Tuvalu. Wait, the U.S. is onboard? Although U.S. President Donald Trump has questioned the existence of climate change, pulled his country out of the Paris Agreement and promoted the use of coal, the U.S. not only agreed to the Katowice Climate Package but was also one of the biggest champions of creating transparency rules to ensure that no country will be able to shirk their emission-cutting commitments. Who represented Canada at the conference? Canada was primarily represented by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna. “Global problems require global solutions,” McKenna tweeted after the Katowice Climate Package had been finalized. “And somewhat unbelievably, countries around the world came together at (the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference) and stepped up. These days that isn't always the case. It should be celebrated and replicated!” Were there any sticking points? Many countries differed sharply in their views of how to make a functioning carbon credit market, which would aim to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions while raising money to help limit global warming. Talks on how to create an emissions trading system will be resumed at the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Chile. What else was left out? Large oil exporters like the U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait successfully blocked an attempt to include language about weaning the world off fossil fuels in the agreement. The final text of the agreement also lacks specific 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.[SEP]Nations agree upon a set of rules to govern Paris climate accord after 2 weeks of UN climate talks KATOWICE, Poland (AP) — Nations agree upon a set of rules to govern Paris climate accord after 2 weeks of UN climate talks.

Representatives from 196 nations agree on a rulebook to implement the Paris Agreement for climate change mitigation.