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Officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and China met in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday to discuss trade, development and solutions to end the region's relentless conflicts. The bitter relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan dominated the talks, with all three countries agreeing that a peaceful end to the war would have economic and trade benefits for the entire region. Pakistan and Afghanistan have long accused each other of failing to combat the Taliban and other armed groups that operate along their porous border. During a news conference after the trilateral talks, Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani said that Kabul had yet to see "tangible progress" from Pakistan "in the fight against terrorism". 181128100114901 He said Afghanistan wanted to see some "specific measures" from Islamabad to end the violence, without offering details Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Islamabad wanted a fresh start in its relationship with Afghanistan. "The time has come to move on, to stop pointing fingers, join hands for a future," Qureshi said. "If you want Pakistan to act for reconciliation then stop pointing fingers at Pakistan." "One Belt, One Road" China, which has hosted Taliban leaders in an effort to bring the warring sides to the negotiating table, sees an end to the war as critical to its "One Belt, One Road" policy of expanding trade links across Asia. It is the second such meeting of the three neighbouring countries. China is investing tens of billions of dollars in Pakistan, and the two have forged close economic ties. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a key cog of that policy, under which Beijing has pledged $60bn to build power stations, major highways, new and upgraded railways and higher capacity ports to help turn Pakistan into a major overland route linking western China to the world. Afghanistan's Rabbani said his country also wants to participate in the Chinese initiative. Efforts to end the Afghan conflict have accelerated since the appointment in September of US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has shuttled across the region in an effort to revive Afghan peace talks. He has reportedly held several meetings with the Taliban at their political office in the Gulf country of Qatar. The State Department has neither confirmed nor denied the talks. Afghanistan and the United States also accuse Islamabad of providing support to the Taliban fighting the Afghan government and international forces in the country. Pakistan rejects this accusation. On Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan confirmed that Islamabad was facilitating talks between the US and the Taliban. The talks are scheduled to begin on December 17, the Dawn newspaper reported. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump also asked Pakistan to help bring the Taliban to the negotiating table in Afghanistan.[SEP]Afghanistan is set to host a three-way meeting Saturday with neighbors China and Pakistan to discuss peace as well as economic and counterterrorism cooperation. Foreign ministers of the three countries will lead their respective delegations at the second round of the trilateral dialogue Beijing initiated last year to help ease Kabul's political tensions with Islamabad. Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi said, "An MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) is set to be signed." He did not elaborate. Pakistani officials say that a trilateral cooperation framework on counterterrorism is expected to be signed at the meeting. China, a close ally of Pakistan, has lately deepened its economic and political ties with Afghanistan. Beijing is actively using its influence to bring the two uneasy South Asian neighbors closer. Chinese officials say regional stability and security will discourage anti-China militants from causing trouble in the western Xinjiang region, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. China has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in Pakistan over the past five years as part of President Xi Jinping's global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Chinese and Pakistani officials say they are considering expanding the bilateral China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, to Afghanistan, through road and rail links to promote connectivity and economic development in the war-ravaged country. Beijing's ambassador to Islamabad, Yao Jing, told a seminar this week in Islamabad that BRI is aimed at boosting economic cooperation among regional countries. "China's message to the region is that our resources should be used for our own developments and prosperity. We should focus on curbing poverty and disease, which are our basic enemies," said the Chinese envoy. Pakistan says the expansion of CPEC to Afghanistan will give it better access to Central Asian markets for Pakistani exports. Political tensions, coupled with allegations that security agencies in both countries support militant groups that bring deadly attacks against one another, continue to strain relations between Kabul and Islamabad.[SEP]ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is in Kabul to attend tripartite talks between Pakistan, China and Afghanistan aimed at finding a solution to sustainable peace in Afghanistan. A Pakistani delegation led by the minister left for the Afghan capital on Sunday morning for the talks that would take place in three phases. According to Geo News, Afghanistan's political situation and reconciliation process with Taliban, regional cooperation and security would also come under discussion during the talks. Foreign ministers of three countries are scheduled to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, with Shah Mehmood Qureshi due to hold a separate meeting his Chinese counterpart. Before leaving for Kabul, Qureshi said the opening of tripartite negotiations was a welcome sign as both Pakistan and China desire peace and stability and betterment in Afghanistan. It is the second round of the foreign minister level talks that follow the first one that took place in Beijing last year.[SEP]ISLAMABAD: The second tier of Pakistan-China-Afghanistan trilateral dialogues is being held today (Saturday) in Kabul aimed at discussing regional peace and strengthening economic and counter-terrorism cooperation. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi reached Kabul earlier for the talks. He is representing the Pakistani delegation and is accompanied by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and other senior officials of the Foreign Office. The Chinese and Afghan foreign ministers are leading their delegations. A tripartite cooperation framework on counter-terrorism is expected to be signed at the meeting. As cited by sources, the talks will be held in three phases. The first phase will have discussion about the political situation in Afghanistan and the negotiation process with Taliban, whereas the second will discuss regional cooperation. The third phase will revolve around security cooperation, sources said. The three foreign ministers are also scheduled to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Meanwhile, FM Qureshi during his day-long visit will hold bilateral dialogue with his Chinese counterpart. The foreign minister, while speaking to the media ahead of his departure, welcomed the Chinese initiative of holding trilateral dialogue. "Both Pakistan and China desire peace, stability, prosperity and development in Afghanistan," he stated. "We are carrying the message of friendship and peace to Afghanistan," he added.[SEP]KABUL — Afghanistan, Pakistan and China are meeting in the Afghan capital to discuss trade, development and ending the region’s relentless conflicts. Shahussain Murtazawi, the deputy spokesman for the Afghan president, says envoys meeting Saturday will discuss everything from regional economic development to counterterrorism. It is the second such meeting of the three neighbouring countries. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is attending the meeting on his second visit to Kabul since assuming office. Pakistan and Afghanistan have long accused each other of failing to combat the Taliban and other militant groups that operate along their porous border. China has lent tens of billions of dollars to Pakistan and the two have forged close economic ties as part of Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” policy of expanding trade links across Asia.[SEP]Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan says the United States is scheduled to meet on Monday (Dec 17) with the Afghan Taliban and that Islamabad has facilitated the dialogue at Washington’s request. “The same U.S. that had been asking us to ‘do more’ is now asking Pakistan to facilitate its talks with the Afghan Taliban,” Imran Khan said as quoted by Pakistan Today. “When I used to say this matter cannot be resolved without dialogue, [they] would term me ‘Taliban Khan’,” said the PM, revealing that Pakistan had arranged talks between the US and Afghan Taliban on Dec 17. Khan made the remarks while addressing a ceremony to mark the 100-day ceremony of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. The Afghan government will not have any representative in the U.S.-Taliban talks in Pakistan; however, Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) told Ariana News that the Taliban are meeting the U.S. representatives to facilitate intra-Afghan dialogue. “The Taliban meet Americans, but eventually, the Afghan government and Taliban delegations will kick off talks to reach on a peace agreement,” said Qazi Amin Weqad, a member of the HPC. Sayed Akbar Agha, a former member of the Taliban, meanwhile, said that the United States asks Pakistan to put pressure on the Taliban to convince the armed group of allowing the U.S. to have base in Afghanistan while “Taliban is rejecting the issue.” This comes as Kabul today hosted a trilateral meeting with China and Pakistan aimed at opening talks with the Taliban to end the 17 years of war in Afghanistan.[SEP]KABUL/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, China and Afghanistan signed an anti-terrorism cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Saturday during the ongoing second trilateral ministerial dialogue in Kabul. The second round of Pakistan-Afghanistan-China trilateral dialogue is being held in Kabul to discuss peace as well as economic and counter-terrorism cooperation, reported Geo News on Saturday. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who is leading the Pakistani delegation at the dialogue signed the document along with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Yi and their Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani. The signing was witnessed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Earlier in the day while speaking at the opening session of the trilateral talk, FM Qureshi said that Pakistan, China and Afghanistan will have to collectively foil the designs of enemies of peace in the region. Speaking at the trilateral dialogue, the foreign minister stressed the need for bolstering regional cooperation in diverse sectors. Reaffirming commitment to eradication of terrorism, the foreign minister said, “Better border management between Pakistan and Afghanistan and intelligence sharing will be greatly beneficial for both the countries.” “Pakistan will continue to play facilitative role on Afghan reconciliation process,” he added. “We will do everything to support the growing momentum towards reconciliation provided others play their due role and share responsibility and create an enabling environment towards that end,” the foreign minister further said. Qureshi continued, “Pakistan has always supported dialogue process for peaceful resolution of Afghan conflict and our stance has now also been vindicated by the international community.” Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in his remarks said that his country desires to make the Afghan reconciliation process successful. “We will play our role to reduce trust deficit between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Yi said and added that his country also wants to further strengthen relations with Afghanistan and desires to make it part of CPEC. “We support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process,” the Chinese foreign minister said. This is the second meeting of the three foreign ministers after their kick-off meeting in Beijing last year. FM Qureshi is accompanied by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and other senior officials of the Foreign Office on his one-day official visit to Kabul. Further, during his day-long visit, the foreign minister will hold bilateral dialogue with his Chinese counterpart. Speaking to the media ahead of his departure, the foreign minister welcomed the Chinese initiative of holding trilateral dialogue. “Both Pakistan and China desire peace, stability, prosperity and development in Afghanistan,” he said. “We are carrying the message of friendship and peace to Afghanistan,” he added. The foreign minister stressed that peace is imperative to for the region to move forward on the path of sustainable development. The one-day Pakistan-China-Afghanistan trilateral talks held in Kabul Saturday yielded remarkable outcome since major players of upcoming polls in Afghanistan namely Dr Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah are in need of Pakistan’s support desperately for their contest. Pakistan and China both have assured generous assistance for the wellbeing of Afghan people as both have announced to some significant projects in this regard. China has announced to lay railway line from Kandahar to Herat and other places afterwards while Pakistan will hand over two most sophisticated hospitals next year with state-of-the-art equipments being built in neighbouring areas of Jalalabad and Logar. Highly placed diplomatic sources told The News/Jang Saturday evening that President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had meeting with visiting foreign ministers separately. They lack cordiality in their relationship. Chinese foreign minister has assured Islamabad and Kabul that it would provide arrangements for the comfort of each other side’s visitors on Chaman and Torkham borders entry points. The sources revealed that the trilateral meeting will have positive impact on the talks between Taliban and United States at an unknown place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today (Sunday). According to original schedule the same had to start a day earlier. It is likely that the talks would continue for two days as Pakistan has been facilitating it on the request of the United States. NNI adds: Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah has hailed Pakistan’s role in reconciliation process in Afghanistan. Talking to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Kabul Saturday, he thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the cooperation being extended by Pakistan to attain peace in his country. The Afghan chief executive expressed hope that the bilateral relations will touch new heights during the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan. On the occasion, the foreign minister said Pakistan will continue playing its positive and constructive role in reconciliatory process in Afghanistan. He said peace in Afghanistan is important not only for Pakistan and Afghanistan but it will have impact on the entire region. He said both the countries have been dealing with the menace of terrorism for over forty years. Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed confidence that the Pakistan-China-Afghanistan trilateral dialogue forum will prove useful for peace and stability in the region and social development.

Pakistani, Afghan and Chinese officials hold talks in Kabul aimed at ending the region's conflicts.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Saturday in an attempt to put an end to the weeks of political instability in the country, PTI reported. He signed the resignation letter at his home in Wijerama in Colombo. Ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to take oath on Sunday, according to The New Indian Express. Rajapaksa’s son Namal Rajapaksa had said on Friday that his father will step down the next day in interest of the “stability of the nation”. Namal Rajapaksa, a member of Parliament, had said the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and others will now work with President Maithripala Sirisena’s United People’s Freedom Alliance to form a broader coalition government. The island country has been in a state of political turmoil since Sirisena ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president, on October 26. 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 has lost two trust motions in Parliament. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ruled that Sirisena’s decision to dissolve Parliament was illegal and unconstitutional.[SEP]COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Supporters say disputed Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to resign in an attempt to end the country's political crisis. The decision Friday came a day after the Supreme Court ruled that President Maithripala Sirisena's decision to dissolve Parliament and appoint Rajapaksa as prime minister was unconstitutional. A look at how Sri Lanka has plunged into a political crisis and what could happen next: HOW IT CAME ABOUT The conflict began when Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed Rajapaksa, a former strongman president, in his place. Wickremesinghe said that Sirisena didn't follow the constitution in removing him and claimed to still be the lawful prime minister. Rajapaksa sought to secure a majority in Parliament but failed. In response, Sirisena dissolved Parliament and ordered new elections, but those actions were put on hold by the Supreme Court until it heard the case and delivered its judgment Thursday. After the court suspended the dissolution, Parliament reconvened and passed two no-confidence votes against Rajapaksa, but he held on to office with Sirisena's backing. Parliament also voted to block funds for him and his Cabinet. Lawmakers opposing Rajapaksa took the fight to the Court of Appeal, which suspended Rajapaksa and his Cabinet from functioning in their positions until it concludes the case. Rajapaksa asked the Supreme Court to end the suspension, but it rejected the request on Friday. Sirisena and Wickremesinghe are ideological opponents who formed a coalition to defeat Rajapaksa in 2015 elections. Rajapaksa, who was president from 2005 to 2015, is considered a hero by some in Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority because he oversaw the end of a 25-year civil war by crushing ethnic minority Tamil rebels in 2009. But his time in power was marred by allegations of war-time atrocities, corruption and nepotism. Sirisena had opposed Wickremesinghe's efforts to investigate alleged military abuses in the final days of the war. A pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, said Rajapaksa decided in a meeting with Sirisena to resign Saturday to allow the president to appoint a new government. Sirisena has resisted suggestions that he reappoint Wickremesinghe, but may now be compelled to do so since Wickremesinghe has shown he has the support of 117 lawmakers, a majority of the 225-member Parliament. Reappointing Wickremesinghe would allow a functioning government and Parliament. It would also allow lawmakers to dissolve Parliament by a two-thirds vote and hold new elections. Lawmakers could also attempt to impeach Sirisena on the basis of the Supreme Court ruling that his order to dissolve Parliament violated the constitution. But it may be difficult to obtain the required support of two-thirds of Parliament's members to approve an impeachment motion. Without a functioning government, the national budget for 2019 can't be approved. That means that after Jan. 1 there would be no funds for public programs and no salaries for government employees. A $1 billion foreign debt repayment is due early next year and it is not clear if that can be paid without a finance minister legally in place.[SEP]COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan lawmaker said that disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will resign Saturday to end the country’s political crisis. The pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, told reporters that Rajapaksa decided in a meeting Friday with President Maithripala Sirisena to resign to allow the president to appoint a new government. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks and is facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year. “Unless the prime minister resigns, another prime minister cannot be appointed. But the country needs to face situations that it needs to face in January; a country cannot function without a budget,” Abeywardena said. “Therefore Mr. Rajapaksa says that he will make a special statement tomorrow and resign from the position of prime minister.” The decision appears to have been hastened by a Supreme Court decision to extend a lower court’s suspension of Rajapaksa and his Cabinet. The top court put off the next hearing until mid-January, when it plans to rule on whether they should hold office after losing two no-confidence votes in Parliament. The country runs the risk of being unable to use state funds from Jan. 1 if there is no government to approve the budget. It also has a foreign debt repayment of $1 billion due in early January and it is unclear if it can be serviced without a lawful finance minister. Sri Lanka has been in political crisis since October, when Sirisena abruptly sacked then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa is a former strongman president who is considered by some as a war hero for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after a long civil war. But he lost a 2015 re-election bid amid allegations of wartime atrocities, corruption and nepotism. After his appointment as prime minister, he sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called new elections, but the Supreme Court struck down that move as unconstitutional. Sirisena has repeatedly rejected appeals to reappoint Wickremesinghe as prime minister, but may now be compelled to do so since Wickremesinghe has the support of 117 lawmakers in Parliament.[SEP]COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- A Sri Lankan lawmaker said that disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will resign Saturday to end the country's political crisis. The pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, told reporters that Rajapaksa decided in a meeting Friday with President Maithripala Sirisena to resign to allow the president to appoint a new government. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks and is facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year. "Unless the prime minister resigns, another prime minister cannot be appointed. But the country needs to face situations that it needs to face in January; a country cannot function without a budget," Abeywardena said. "Therefore Mr. Rajapaksa says that he will make a special statement tomorrow and resign from the position of prime minister." The decision appears to have been hastened by a Supreme Court decision to extend a lower court's suspension of Rajapaksa and his Cabinet. The top court put off the next hearing until mid-January, when it plans to rule on whether they should hold office after losing two no-confidence votes in Parliament. The country runs the risk of being unable to use state funds from Jan. 1 if there is no government to approve the budget. It also has a foreign debt repayment of $1 billion due in early January and it is unclear if it can be serviced without a lawful finance minister. Sri Lanka has been in political crisis since October, when Sirisena abruptly sacked then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa is a former strongman president who is considered by some as a war hero for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after a long civil war. But he lost a 2015 re-election bid amid allegations of wartime atrocities, corruption and nepotism. After his appointment as prime minister, he sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called new elections, but the Supreme Court struck down that move as unconstitutional. Sirisena has repeatedly rejected appeals to reappoint Wickremesinghe as prime minister, but may now be compelled to do so since Wickremesinghe has the support of 117 lawmakers in Parliament.[SEP]Rajapaksa set to quit as Sri Lanka's premier to end crisis COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan lawmaker said that disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will resign Saturday to end the country's political crisis. The pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, told reporters that Rajapaksa decided in a meeting Friday with President Maithripala Sirisena to resign to allow the president to appoint a new government. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks and is facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year. "Unless the prime minister resigns, another prime minister cannot be appointed. But the country needs to face situations that it needs to face in January; a country cannot function without a budget," Abeywardena said. "Therefore Mr. Rajapaksa says that he will make a special statement tomorrow and resign from the position of prime minister." The decision appears to have been hastened by a Supreme Court decision to extend a lower court's suspension of Rajapaksa and his Cabinet. The top court put off the next hearing until mid-January, when it plans to rule on whether they should hold office after losing two no-confidence votes in Parliament. The country runs the risk of being unable to use state funds from Jan. 1 if there is no government to approve the budget. It also has a foreign debt repayment of $1 billion due in early January and it is unclear if it can be serviced without a lawful finance minister. Sri Lanka has been in political crisis since October, when Sirisena abruptly sacked then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa is a former strongman president who is considered by some as a war hero for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after a long civil war. But he lost a 2015 re-election bid amid allegations of wartime atrocities, corruption and nepotism. After his appointment as prime minister, he sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called new elections, but the Supreme Court struck down that move as unconstitutional. Sirisena has repeatedly rejected appeals to reappoint Wickremesinghe as prime minister, but may now be compelled to do so since Wickremesinghe has the support of 117 lawmakers in Parliament.[SEP]COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s embattled Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Saturday, only a month and a half after taking office and giving the country’s president political space to prevent an imminent government shutdown. The South Asian island has been in political limbo since President Maithripala Sirisena in late October replaced former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with Rajapaksa, who was then twice sacked by parliament but had refused to resign. But as a government shutdown loomed, Rajapaksa put in his papers and said in a statement on Saturday that a change of government that “the people expected” has now been put off. “I have no intention of remaining as Prime Minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the President in any way, I will resign from the position of Prime Minister and make way for the President to form a new government,” Rajapaksa said in the statement. He emphasised the need for an election to resolve the county’s economic and political crisis and said the main challenge now was to form a government. He also spoke against what he described as the “destructive forces” of people seeking to restore their former offices. “We will bring the forces opposed to the country down to their knees by organising the people,” Rajapaksa said. Representatives of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe could not immediately be contacted. Wickremesinghe’s office on Friday said that Sirisena had called the former prime minister by telephone to invite him to be sworn back into office on Sunday. Sirisena had previously said he would not appoint Wickremesinghe “even if he has the backing of all 225 lawmakers in parliament”. The country’s parliament had voted to cut the budget for Rajapaksa and his ministers after Sirisena had refused to accept no confidence votes against Rajapaksa saying that due procedure was not followed. It remains unclear how Sirisena plans to end the political crisis that threatens to shut down the government on Jan. 1, by which time a temporary budget must be approved by parliament. The country’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected Rajapaksa’s bid for an injunction on a lower court’s order that barred him and his cabinet from carrying out their roles in government. Many foreign countries have refused to recognise Rajapaksa’s government. Credit rating agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor’s have downgraded Sri Lanka, citing refinancing risks and an uncertain policy outlook. Earlier this week, the island nation’s parliament passed a vote of confidence in favour of Wickremesinghe, as it sought his reinstatement as prime minister by the president to defuse the political crisis.[SEP]COLOMBO: Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was appointed as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena in a controversial move, resigned Saturday as two crucial Supreme Court decisions made the embattled former strongman’s efforts to cling to premiership untenable. Rajapaksa informed the lawmakers of United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) that he has resigned from the post, MP Shehan Semasinghe told reporters. Rajapaksa was appointed as the prime minister on October 26 by President Sirisena in a controversial move after sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe, which plunged the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a court order restraining Rajapaksa, 73, from holding the office of Prime Minister until it fully heard the case next month. The apex court on Thursday unanimously declared that the dissolution of Parliament by Sirisena was “illegal”. Pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, had told reporters that Rajapaksa decided in a meeting on Friday with President Sirisena to resign to allow the President to appoint a new government. Wickremesinghe is expected to take oath as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister on Sunday. President Maithripala Sirisena has reportedly agreed to reinstate ousted Prime Minister Wickremesinghe in the post after a discussion with him over the phone on Friday. PTI[SEP]Colombo, Sri Lanka: A Sri Lankan lawmaker said that disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will resign Saturday to end the country's political crisis. The pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, told reporters that Rajapaksa decided in a meeting Friday with President Maithripala Sirisena to resign to allow the president to appoint a new government. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks and is facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year. "Unless the prime minister resigns, another prime minister cannot be appointed. But the country needs to face situations that it needs to face in January; a country cannot function without a budget," Abeywardena said. "Therefore Mr. Rajapaksa says that he will make a special statement tomorrow and resign from the position of prime minister."[SEP]Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mahinda Rajapaksa attended a religious ceremony after resigning on Saturday Mahinda Rajapaksa has resigned as Sri Lanka's prime minister, seven weeks after he was appointed in a surprise move that sparked a political crisis. Mr Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's former president, signed his resignation letter in a ceremony at his house. Former PM Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to return to office on Sunday. The resignation could bring to an end a nearly two-month-long power struggle that has dented confidence in Sri Lanka's stability. "Since I have no intention of remaining as prime minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the president in any way, I will resign from the position of prime minister and make way for the president to form a new government," Mr Rajapaksa said in his resignation statement. In October, President Maithripala Sirisena sacked then prime minister Mr Wickremesinghe, replacing him with Mr Rajapaksa. Harin Fernando, a spokesman for Mr Wickremesinghe's party, told the BBC: "The president has agreed to swear in Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister tomorrow at 10am." He said this would end the political deadlock, remarking that the country and its economy had suffered "huge damage" since the crisis began 50 days ago. On Thursday, the Supreme Court said Mr Sirisena had acted illegally in November by dissolving parliament and calling snap polls with nearly two years to go until elections were due. Throughout the crisis, Mr Wickremesinghe has always maintained he is the rightful prime minister. The crisis, which has provoked brawls in parliament and sparked large protests, has been closely watched by regional power India, as well as the US, China and the European Union. Mr Rajapaksa, who dominated Sri Lankan politics for a decade until 2015, has an uneasy relationship with the West over the bloody end to the country's civil war in 2009, when thousands of civilians were killed. Both government forces and the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels are accused of grave human rights abuses and crimes. On Wednesday, 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 were unconstitutional. What are the roots of the saga? Mr Sirisena was once a party ally of Mr Rajapaksa, and served in his government. But in 2015, he teamed up with Ranil Wickremesinghe to defeat him in an election and the pair went on to form a coalition government. However the relationship between president and prime minister turned sour and Mr Sirisena in October turned on Mr Wickremesinghe, sacking him in favour of Mr Rajapaksa, his old ally-turned-rival-turned-ally. He called Mr Wickremesinghe arrogant and linked him to a controversial central bank bond sale, which is alleged to have led to the loss of 11bn Sri Lankan rupees ($65m; £50m). The president also alleged that a cabinet minister was involved in a plot to kill him and that police had obstructed an investigation.[SEP]Mahinda Rajapaksa signed what was called a 'resignation' letter at his residence in capital Colombo. Sri Lanka's disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has reportedly resigned from his post. (Photo: AP) Colombo: Sri Lanka's disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has reportedly resigned from his post, ending a period of turbulence in the country's parliamentary history where he clung on to power despite suffering no-confidence motions. Mahinda Rajapaksa signed what was called a 'resignation' letter at his residence in capital Colombo. Rajapaksa informed the lawmakers of United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) that he has resigned from the post, MP Shehan Semasinghe told reporters. Rajapaksa was appointed as the prime minister on October 26 by President Sirisena in a controversial move after sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe, which plunged the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a court order restraining Rajapaksa, 73, from holding the office of Prime Minister until it fully heard the case next month. The apex court on Thursday unanimously declared that the dissolution of Parliament by Sirisena was "illegal". Pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, had told reporters that Rajapaksa decided in a meeting on Friday with President Sirisena to resign to allow the President to appoint a new government. After Rajapaksa's resignation, Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to take oath as Sri Lanka's Prime Minister on Sunday. President Maithripala Sirisena has reportedly agreed to reinstate ousted Prime Minister Wickremesinghe in the post after a discussion with him over the phone on Friday, Colombo Page reported. Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) said that it was decided during the discussion that he will take oath as the Prime Minister on Sunday.

Mahinda Rajapaksa resigns as prime minister, effectively ending the constitutional crisis.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Many Ukrainians welcomed Constantinople's ruling earlier this year, holding a prayer in Kiev Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced the creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, marking a historic split from Russia. He said national security depended on "spiritual independence" from Russia. He was speaking at a special council of orthodox priests in Kiev, where a new leader of the church was selected. The Russian Orthodox Church cut ties with the spiritual authority of the world's Orthodoxy after it recognised the Ukrainian Church's independence. Russia also fears that its churches in Ukraine could be seized. Despite Russia banning priests from the branch of the Church loyal to Moscow from the event, two of its bishops were seen arriving for the council in Kiev. What happened in Kiev? The special council was held in the ancient St Sophia's Cathedral - one of Kiev's best known landmarks. Ukrainian clerics of different Orthodox denominations elected 39-year-old Metropolitan Epifaniy as the leader of the new church. Epifaniy is now expected to travel to Istanbul on 6 January to receive a special decree, a tomos, granting independence (autocephaly) to the new church from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. "This day will go into history as a sacred day... the day of the final independence from Russia," President Poroshenko told a crowd of thousands outside the cathedral. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Believers gathered outside the cathedral on Saturday Image copyright Reuters Image caption Orthodox clergymen conducted prayers ahead of the church council Ahead of the meeting, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called on religious and world leaders to protect believers and clergymen in Ukraine from what he called persecution. What is the dispute all about? The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been under the Moscow Patriarchate for centuries. But tensions within the church mounted after Ukraine became independent in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Before Sunday's council in Kiev, there were three Orthodox Church branches in Ukraine: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate) The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Now, priests from the Kiev Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Church become members of the new church - the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The drive for Ukrainian Orthodox independence intensified in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and Russia-backed separatists seized a big swathe of territory in eastern Ukraine. The Moscow branch of the Ukrainian Church has denied being a tool of the Kremlin, and says it has tried to bring about peace in eastern Ukraine. Image copyright Reuters Image caption St Sophia's Cathedral, pictured behind its huge bell tower, is one of Kiev's best known landmarks Earlier this year, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - seen as the first among equals in the world's Orthodoxy - overruled its decision dating back to 1686 to transfer its jurisdiction over Kievan Orthodox churches (known as the Kievan Metropolis) to Moscow. Now Moscow fears losing many of its 12,000 parishes in Ukraine. Constantinople holds sway over more than 300 million Orthodox Christians across the world. The Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest. Read more on related topics:[SEP]Epifaniy is the rector and professor of the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy. Bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Pereiaslav and Bila Tserkva Epifaniy (Serhiy Dumenko) has been elected head of the local Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Epifaniy has been elected at the unification council of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches held at Kyiv's St. Sophia Cathedral, according to an UNIAN correspondent. He was nominated by the Bishops' Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate on Thursday. He is the rector and professor of the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy.[SEP]"I congratulate everyone on setting up the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church which has been just created at St. Sophia’s," he said addressing the crowd in Sofiyskaya Square after the end of the ‘unification’ council. Metropolitan Epiphany of Pereyaslav and Belotserkovsk, who had earlier served as a bishop of the uncanonical Kiev Patriarchate, was elected head of the new church. Poroshenko recalled the words of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, saying: "As Taras Shevchenko once said Ukraine would not be drinking Moscow’s poison from the Moscow cup." ‘Unification’ council On Saturday, the St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev hosted a so-called ‘unification’ council held under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and brokered by the Ukrainian authorities. The council pursued a goal of creating a new local Orthodox Church estranged from the Moscow Patriarchate. The church will be formally granted an autocephalous status, but in fact, it will be under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The council was expected to consider two main issues, namely the new church’s charter and the election of its head. The organizers planned that representatives of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and two schismatic groups, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, will attend the council. Nonetheless, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church turned the invitation down lashing out at the council as illegitimate. On December 7, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod said that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople had no canonical right to convene any church meetings in Ukraine and that "neither the clergy nor the laity have been authorized to represent the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at that meeting." On Saturday, only two from 90 archbishops of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church attended the assembly. They are Metropolitan Alexander (Drabinko) of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vyshnevsky and Metropolitan Simeon of Vinnitsa and Barsky. Church crisis in Ukraine Kiev has attempted to create a Local Orthodox Church in Ukraine independent of the Moscow Patriarchate since 1991. In April 2018, Poroshenko wrote a personal letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople asking for autocephaly for the Ukrainian church. The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople decided at its meeting held on October 9-11 to proceed with granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church. It revoked the 1686 decision on transferring the Kiev Metropolitanate under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and announced plans to bring it back under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It also reinstated the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine, Filaret of the Kiev Patriarchate and Makariy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, to their hierarchical and priestly ranks. On October 15, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church said in response to that move that full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was no longer possible. On November 13, the Council of Bishops of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church held its meeting in Kiev Pechersk Lavra (the Kiev Monastery of the Caves). The Ukrainian Orthodox Church announced after the meeting it did not recognize Constantinople’s decisions on Ukraine and said it was severing full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church also spoke out against joining the process of granting autocephaly to Ukraine’s church and said it opposed its name change. On December 5, Poroshenko announced that the so-called unification council to create the Ukrainian autocephalous church would take place on December 15. He said that Patriarch Bartholomew had sent letters to bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church "inviting them to take part in that historic event.".[SEP]Ukraine on Saturday formally created a new national Orthodox church, breaking away from Russia's influence, as worsening political and military tensions between the two neighbors spills over to religion. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko confirmed the decision following a historic synod at Kyiv's Saint Sophia Cathedral when the country's Orthodox Council voted to establish the independent church. Poroshenko added that Metropolitan Epifany, of the Kiev Patriarchate church, was chosen as head of the new church: "This day will go down in history as the sacred day ... the day of the final independence from Russia," Poroshenko told a crowd awaiting the council's decision in central Kiev. Several thousand people had rallied outside the cathedral ahead of the synod in support of the move, which the Ukrainian president pushed for as part of his 2019 re-election campaign. Read more: What is the Orthodox Church? Attending Saturday's synod as a non-voting observer, Poroshenko told senior priests that the new church was "a question of our Ukrainian national security, of our statehood." Read more: Politics, powers, and struggle over Ukraine's Orthodox church The founding of a new Ukrainian Orthodox church had been in the works since Russia's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea following a pro-Western uprising in Kyiv. Moscow has also been widely accused of backing pro-Russian separatists battling the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has killed 10,000 people, according to United Nations estimates. A fresh crisis, last month, that saw Russia seize three Ukrainian navy ships and arrest 24 sailors in the waters around Crimea sent relations to new lows. The church's establishment received a boost in October when the spiritual leader of the global Orthodox Church — Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople — recognized Ukraine's independence from the Russian Orthodox Church. In doing so, he revoked a 332-year-old ruling that had placed Ukraine under the Patriarchate of Moscow. That decision led the Russian Orthodox Church to break off all ties with Constantinople, fearing that Kyiv would force Moscow-loyal churches and monasteries into its control. The Constantinople Patriarchate's leaders — based in Istanbul, Turkey — are widely considered to be the most influential in the global Orthodox hierarchy, which boasts some 300 million followers. Around half of them, however, are aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, which is considered to have close ties to the Russian state, especially under President Vladimir Putin's leadership. Read more: Greece's Orthodox Church and state consider divorce Despite the support of three Ukrainian church branches, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine of the Moscow Patriarchate — which comprises most priests, churches, and monasteries, has boycotted the meeting and has recommitted itself to Moscow's dominion. The Russian Orthodox Church still considers Ukraine its territory. If the attempt to create a unified Ukrainian Church is successful, it would be among the largest in the Orthodox world in terms of numbers of believers. Some 67 percent of Ukraine's 45 million population adheres to one or more strands of Orthodox Christianity. 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]Ukrainian Orthodox leaders on Saturday approved the creation of a unified church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected a leader to head the new church, officials said. The leader of the new autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be Metropolitan Epiphanius, a 39-year-old bishop from the Kiev Patriarchate. The vote, which was held Saturday at a closed-door synod in Kiev's St. Sophia Cathedral, is certain to anger authorities in Russia. "God heard our appeals and gave us this anticipated unity," Epiphanius told a crowd of thousands who had gathered outside the cathedral. He stressed that the new church's doors would be open to all, and encouraged Ukrainians to rally behind it. The newly formed community is now expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called "first among equals" of leaders of the world's Orthodox Churches. It has already drafted a charter for an independent Ukrainian church. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has made the creation of a new church a key campaign issue, attended the synod as a non-voting observer. "Ukraine was not, is not, and will not be the canonical territory of the Russian church," Poroshenko told the gathering of Orthodox officials on Saturday. He added that an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was now a matter of national security. "This is a question of Ukrainian statehood," Poroshenko said. "We are seizing spiritual independence, which can be likened to political independence. We are breaking the chains that tie us to the (Russian) empire." Poroshenko said he would travel with Epiphanius to Istanbul in January to receive an official Tomos from the head of global Orthodoxy granting the new church independence. Representatives of Ukraine's three Orthodox Churches attended the synod, but only two from the branch loyal to Moscow showed up. The Russian Orthodox Church has protested vigorously against Kiev's attempts to create an independent church. One Russian bishop — Metropolitan Hilarion in Volokolamsk — on Saturday compared the two representatives of the Moscow-backed church to Judas. A spokesman for Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, vowed Saturday that the Moscow Patriarchate will continue to work in Ukraine despite the creation of the new independent church. The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the pope and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics. Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected. As church tensions have grown, Ukraine's Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches in Ukraine and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several Ukrainian cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests in for questioning.[SEP]Ukrainian Orthodox leaders on Saturday approved the creation of a unified church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate and elected a leader to head that new church — a move that could exponentially raise tensions with neighboring Russia. The vote, held at a closed-door synod in Kiev's St. Sophia Cathedral, is the latest in a series of confrontations between Ukraine and authorities in Russia, including President Vladimir Putin's government. Ahead of the vote, the Russian Orthodox Church called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the pope and other spiritual leaders to protect Orthodox believers in Ukraine. The leader of the new autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be Metropolitan Epiphanius, a 39-year-old bishop from the Kiev Patriarchate. "God heard our appeals and gave us this anticipated unity," Epiphanius told a crowd of thousands who had gathered outside the cathedral on Saturday to hear the news. He stressed that the new church's doors would be open to all, and encouraged Ukrainians to rally behind it. Still spiritual leaders attending Saturday's synod couched their efforts to create an independent church in patriotic rhetoric. Father Sergei Dmitriev said — given Ukraine's ongoing conflicts with Russia — "we should have our own church, not an agent of the Kremlin in Ukraine." Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has made the creation of a new church a key campaign issue, attended the synod Saturday as a non-voting observer. "Ukraine was not, is not, and will not be the canonical territory of the Russian church," Poroshenko told the gathering, adding that creating an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was now a matter of national security. "This is a question of Ukrainian statehood," Poroshenko said. "We are seizing spiritual independence, which can be likened to political independence. We are breaking the chains that tie us to the (Russian) empire." Representatives of Ukraine's three Orthodox Churches attended the synod in Kiev, but only two from the branch loyal to Moscow showed up. One Russian bishop — Metropolitan Hilarion in Volokolamsk — on Saturday compared those two representatives of the Moscow-backed church to Judas, the biblical betrayer of Jesus. The newly formed community is expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called "first among equals" of leaders of the world's Orthodox Churches. Relations between Ukraine and Russia have been damaged by Russia's 2014 annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and its support for armed separatists fighting the government in eastern Ukraine. The church schism and a Nov. 25 naval clash in the Black Sea in which Russia seized three Ukrainian ships and detained 24 Ukrainian crewmen have caused them to deteriorate further. Saturday's religious rupture from the Russian Orthodox Church is a potent — possibly explosive — mix of politics, religious faith and national identity. Since the late 1600s, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine had been a wing of the Russian Orthodox Church rather than being ecclesiastically independent. Many Ukrainians, however, resented the implication that Ukraine was a vassal of Russia. The move Saturday raises deep concerns about what will happen to the approximately 12,000 churches in Ukraine that were under the Moscow Patriarchate. In recent years, about 50 churches in Ukraine under the Moscow Patriarchate have been forcibly seized and transferred to the Kiev Patriarchate, according to Metropolitan Antony Pakanich. Poroshenko said Saturday he would travel with Epiphanius to Istanbul in January to receive a Tomos — an official document — from the head of global Orthodoxy that grants the new church independence. The Ukrainian leader promised "to respect those who decide, for one reason or another," to remain with the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church — and also promised to protect those who choose to leave the Moscow Patriarchate and join the new church. A spokesman for Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, vowed Saturday that the Moscow Patriarchate will continue to work in Ukraine despite the creation of the new independent church. Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected. Dmitriev, a Ukrainian army priest, was once loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate but changed his allegiance to the Kiev Patriarchate after the Russian-affiliated church began refusing to hold funerals for Ukrainian soldiers who died fighting in eastern Ukraine. As church tensions have grown, Ukraine's Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches in Ukraine and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several Ukrainian cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests in for questioning. Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who has from time to time exhibited nationalist sympathies, lashed out at Putin for Ukraine's bid for religious autonomy. "What was forged over centuries was destroyed by Putin and his idiots in four years," Navalny wrote on Twitter. "Putin is an enemy of the Russian world."[SEP]Ukraine has created an Orthodox church of its own, proclaiming “independence from Moscow.” While the majority of its hierarchs represented schismatic “churches,” Kiev authorities have hailed a supposed “unity” they have achieved. The so-called “unity council” took place on Saturday in Kiev, with the country’s president Petro Poroshenko and other top officials in attendance. The overwhelming majority of participants represented two non-canonical entities – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the self-styled ‘Kiev Patriarchy’ and the so-called Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox Church. The two unrecognized entities have announced voluntary dissolution ahead of the event. Just two hierarchs from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy participated in event, metropolitan bishops Simeon and Aleksandr. The Church as a whole refused to partake in the gathering, denouncing it as schismatic. Metropolitan bishop Simeon even ran for the post of the head of the new entity, yet lost to ‘metropolitan’ Epiphany, who had been a hierarch within the unrecognized Kiev Patriarchate. The head of the schismatic entity –self-styled ‘patriarch’ Filaret– has received the lifetime title of ‘Honorary Patriarch’ within the new structure. The title appears to be not without clout, since it’s established in the charter of the new church, which was adopted at the gathering as well. It was not immediately clear what exact wording the document contains, since it was reportedly being actively negotiated until the last minute. The draft variant, however, which was unveiled earlier this month, made the new church fully subordinate to the Constantinople Patriarchate, regardless of all the talk about “independence.” Constantinople has already expressed its support for the new religious entity, confirming it will recognize it officially in early January, which likely means the adopted charter suits Patriarch Bartholomew well. The gathering, however, was swiftly denounced by the Russian Orthodox Church, which branded its decisions to be “void.” “The non-canonical gathering … under general the guidance of a layman and the country’s head, as well as a foreigner, who doesn’t know the local language, has picked a non-canonical ‘bishop’ to become an equally non-canonical ‘primate,’” deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate, Protoiereus Nikolay Balashov, said, adding that the whole event meant “nothing” to the Church. A similar opinion was voiced by the Belarusian Orthodox Church – subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate – which ruled out any official contacts with the new Ukrainian entity, calling it “evidently schismatic.”[SEP]Ukraine elected the head of a newly unified Orthodox Church this weekend, a move that the nation's president hailed as an important safeguard against future Russian aggression. The church aims for independence from the Russian Orthodox Church, and Saturday's election is just one step in a process that could take decades. Nearly 200 bishops, priests and other church officials elected 39-year-old Metropolitan Epiphanius on Saturday as the Ukrainian church's head. "Today is a truly historic event," Metropolitan Epiphanius said, according to The New York Times, "We were able to overcome various temptations, disagreements and unite in one church." Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, said the creation of an independent, national church is essential for national security because Russia is using churches in Ukraine as tools to spread propaganda and provide support for Russian fighters. Poroshenko is up for re-election next year, and critics argue his push for an autonomous church is a campaign ploy to bolster support. On Saturday, quoting a national poet, Poroshenko said that "Ukraine will no longer drink Moscow poison from the Moscow cup," and called the election of the church's head "the final acquisition of independence from Russia," reports the Times. The Times reports that Ukraine's split from the Russian Orthodox church threatens Moscow's "longstanding effort" to portray itself as the protector of all 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. Ukraine's churches have been beholden to Moscow for centuries, and Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, have "pursued a 'Russian World' alliance of states bound to Moscow by tradition, culture and religion." The Russian Orthodox Church could lose 30 to 40 percent of its 150 million-person membership in the split, according to the Times. Russia has responded to attempts to create an independent, unified church in Ukraine with condemnation, comparing it to the great schism of 1054 that divided western and eastern Christianity. The Kiev Patriarchate began after the collapse of the Soviet Union. "It favors European integration and champions an independent church but the Moscow Patriarchate denounces it as schismatic," reports Reuters. Religious divisions in Ukraine deepened and support for the Kiev Patriarchate grew after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. "That which was created over hundreds of years was destroyed by Putin and his idiots in four years," Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition figure, wrote on Twitter. "Putin is the enemy of the Russian World." In the run up to this weekend's election of an independent church leader, Ukrainian security services raided several Moscow-backed churches. According to Reuters, Ukraine "worries Russia is using the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to incite tensions as cover to invade." "The deliberate instigation by the Russian special services of inter-church conflicts in Ukraine, to be combined with provoking direct acts of terrorism, may become a pretext for open military invasion by the Russian Federation's armed forces of our country," Vasyl Hrytsak, the chief of Ukraine's security service, said, according to Reuters. The church split comes at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Last month, Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and 24 soldiers and security officers traveling through the Kerch strait between Russia and disputed Crimea. Over the weekend, the Times reported, "Ukrainian officials have been raising alarms about what they say is a huge buildup of Russian troops, tanks and artillery pieces along their border that could signal preparations for an invasion." Epiphanius is scheduled to travel next month to Istanbul to receive an official order granting autonomy to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Istanbul is the historical seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and gave its backing to the establishment of an independent, unified Orthodox church in Ukraine last October.[SEP]MINSK, Belarus — The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the Pope and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics. Ukraine's Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, and Ukrainian authorities have ramped up pressure on priests to support the move. The Ukrainian church has been part of the Russian Church for centuries, while enjoying broad autonomy, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pushed for the creation of an independent church. The newly formed community would then be expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called "first among equals" of leaders of the world's Orthodox churches that has already drafted a charter for an independent Ukrainian church. The Russian Church said on Friday that its Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to the UN secretary-general, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other spiritual leaders, urging them to help protect the clerics, believers and their faith in Ukraine. Merkel's spokesperson and the German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said they didn't immediately have any information on the letter. As church tensions have grown, Ukraine's Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests for questioning. Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected. Kirill's letter accused the Ukrainian government of hate speech and pressuring the clerics to take part in the Saturday gathering. "The numerous instances of discrimination against the Ukrainian Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate) give us the reason to fear far worse infringements of the rights and legitimate interests of Orthodox believers," the letter said. The Moscow Patriarchate's Ukrainian Church said on Friday that the security services forcibly delivered one senior cleric to Kyiv, reportedly for a conversation with the president.[SEP]Russian Orthodox church calls on UN for help in Ukraine MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called on the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, the pope and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics. Ukraine's Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, and Ukrainian authorities have ramped up pressure on priests to support the move. The Ukrainian church has been part of the Russian Church for centuries, while enjoying broad autonomy, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pushed for the creation of an independent church. The newly formed community would then be expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called "first among equals" of leaders of the world's Orthodox Churches that has already drafted a charter for an independent Ukrainian church. The Russian Church said on Friday that its Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to the U.N. secretary-general, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other spiritual leaders, urging them to help protect the clerics, believers and their faith in Ukraine. Merkel's spokeswoman and the German foreign ministry spokesman said they didn't immediately have any information on the letter. As church tensions have grown, Ukraine's Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests for questioning. Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected. Kirill's letter accused the Ukrainian government of hate speech and pressuring the clerics to take part in the Saturday gathering. "The numerous instances of discrimination against the Ukrainian Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate) give us the reason to fear far worse infringements of the rights and legitimate interests of Orthodox believers," the letter said. The Moscow Patriarchate's Ukrainian Church said on Friday that the security services forcibly delivered one senior cleric to Kiev, reportedly for a conversation with the president. In Kiev, about 100 people led by a Moscow-affiliated cleric were holding prayers near the Ukrainian parliament Friday morning to protest the creation of a new church. Some voiced fears that authorities will seize churches from the communities under the Moscow patriarchate and give them to the new church. Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko declares the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a new branch of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, separate from the Russian Orthodox Church, after Ukrainian clergy elected Metropolitan Epiphanius I as the head of the new church.

Donald Trump said Saturday that his interior secretary will be leaving soon — the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the US president’s turnover-plagued administration. “Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years,” Trump wrote on Twitter, highlighting the fact that Zinke’s tenure was substantially longer than that of some other former top officials in the administration. “Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation,” the president said, adding that a replacement would be announced next week. Read | OnePlus 6T McLaren edition now on sale in India; check price, specs and features The announcement on Zinke came just a week after another impending high-profile departure — that of Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly — was made public. Trump on Friday tapped Mick Mulvaney — the director of the Office of Management and Budget — to fill the chief of staff job on an acting basis, setting him up to be the third person to hold the post since the president took office in early 2017. A series of other top officials have left the Trump White House, including a secretary of state, two national security advisors, an attorney general and the head of the US environment agency. Zinke is one of several members of Trump’s cabinet to come under fire over expenditures, including reports that his department was spending nearly USD 139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in his office — a cost he later said he negotiated down to USD 75,000. He has also faced criticism over costly US Park Police helicopter flights last year that allowed him to return to Washington for a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence, and several other flights on non-commercial aircraft.[SEP]Washington: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who is facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will leave the administration at year's end, President Donald Trump said on Saturday. Trump, in tweeting Zinke's departure, said the former Montana congressman "accomplished much during his tenure" and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation. Zinke is leaving weeks before Democrats take control of the House, a shift in power that promised to intensify probes into his conduct. His departure comes amid a staff shake-up as Trump heads into his third year in office. The president on Friday named White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as his next chief of staff. Zinke, 57, played a leading part in Trump's efforts to roll back environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development. When he recently travelled to survey damage from California's wildfires, Zinke echoed Trump's claims that lax forest management was to blame in the devastation.[SEP]Donald Trump said Saturday that his interior secretary will be leaving soon -- the latest in a series of high-profile departures from an administration beset by turnover and alleged ethical failings. “Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years,” Trump wrote on Twitter, highlighting the fact that Zinke’s tenure was substantially longer than that of some other former top officials in the administration. “Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation,” the president said, adding that a replacement would be announced next week. The interior secretary is responsible for overseeing conservation and mineral extraction on public land that, if stitched together, would be larger than Mexico. But Zinke has been the target of a number of ethics investigations, making him a lightning rod for complaints from Democrats, who expressed no regrets over his impending departure. “Ryan Zinke was one of the most toxic members of the cabinet in the way he treated our environment, our precious public lands, and the way he treated the govt like it was his personal honey pot,” said Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. “The swamp cabinet will be a little less foul without him.” Zinke, a former Montana congressman, was the subject of various investigations linked to his real estate holdings in his home state and his actions in office. Along with Trump’s first environmental protection chief Scott Pruitt -- who resigned in July amid a series of scandals over ethical lapses and lavish spending -- Zinke helped spearhead a presidential push to sharply relax environmental regulations and expand energy production. The Zinke announcement came just a week after another impending high-profile departure -- that of Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly -- was made public. Trump on Friday tapped Mick Mulvaney -- the director of the Office of Management and Budget -- to serve as chief of staff on an acting basis, setting him up to be the third person to hold the post since the president took office in early 2017. A series of other top officials have left the Trump White House, including a secretary of state, two national security advisors and an attorney general, as well as Pruitt. Zinke is one of several members of Trump’s cabinet to come under fire over expenditures, including reports that his department was spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in his office -- a cost he later said he negotiated down to $75,000. He had been the subject of some 15 investigations, including one for allowing his wife to ride in government vehicles and another for taking a security detail with him on a vacation trip to Turkey, according to The Washington Post. He has also faced criticism over costly US Park Police helicopter flights last year that allowed him to return to Washington for a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence, and several other flights on non-commercial aircraft. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL who wore cowboy boots to the office and carried himself with a Western swagger, seemed to emulate Trump when under fire, lashing back rather than retreating. Last month, when a Democratic congressman said it was time for new leadership at the Interior Department, Zinke suggested in a tweet that his critic had a drinking problem. “It’s hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle,” he wrote, a comment that many in Washington thought crossed a line.[SEP]“The Trump administration will be announcing the new secretary of the Interior next week,” Trump said on Twitter. READ MORE: White House chief of staff John Kelly expected to resign within days: reports Zinke has come under scrutiny for his use of security details, chartered flights and a real estate deal. The Interior Department’s inspector general initiated at least seven investigations against Zinke, while another federal investigative agency opened as many as six other inquiries into Zinke’s behaviour, Bloomberg reported. WATCH: Several candidates being considered after Trump’s top pick for chief of staff turns down job Having formerly served as a Navy SEAL and as a Montana congressman, Zinke became known in the administration for championing “United States energy dominance,” aligning himself with Trump’s energy agenda, Bloomberg continues. READ MORE: Trump’s new chief of staff is a Tea Party man who lobbied for a job ‘no one wanted,’ reports say The departure follows Trump’s announcement on Dec. 8 that Chief of Staff John Kelly would be leaving at the end of this year, as well, adding another White House staffer to the administration’s long string of departures. Trump announced Friday that former budget head Mike Mulvaney would be replacing Kelly upon his departure.[SEP]WASHINGTON: Donald Trump said Saturday that his interior secretary will be leaving soon — the latest in a series of high-profile departures from an administration beset by turnover and alleged ethical failings. “Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years,” Trump wrote on Twitter, highlighting the fact that Zinke’s tenure was substantially longer than that of some other former top officials in the administration. “Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation,” the president said, adding that a replacement would be announced next week. The interior secretary is responsible for overseeing conservation and mineral extraction on public land that, if stitched together, would be larger than Mexico. But Zinke has been the target of a number of ethics investigations, making him a lightning rod for complaints from Democrats, who expressed no regrets over his impending departure. “Ryan Zinke was one of the most toxic members of the cabinet in the way he treated our environment, our precious public lands, and the way he treated the govt like it was his personal honey pot,” said Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. “The swamp cabinet will be a little less foul without him.” Zinke, a former Montana congressman, was the subject of various investigations linked to his real estate holdings in his home state and his actions in office. Along with Trump’s first environmental protection chief Scott Pruitt — who resigned in July amid a series of scandals over ethical lapses and lavish spending — Zinke helped spearhead a presidential push to sharply relax environmental regulations and expand energy production. The Zinke announcement came just a week after another impending high-profile departure — that of Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly — was made public. Trump on Friday tapped Mick Mulvaney — the director of the Office of Management and Budget — to serve as chief of staff on an acting basis, setting him up to be the third person to hold the post since the president took office in early 2017. A series of other top officials have left the Trump White House, including a secretary of state, two national security advisors and an attorney general, as well as Pruitt. Zinke is one of several members of Trump’s cabinet to come under fire over expenditures, including reports that his department was spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in his office — a cost he later said he negotiated down to $75,000. He had been the subject of some 15 investigations, including one for allowing his wife to ride in government vehicles and another for taking a security detail with him on a vacation trip to Turkey, according to The Washington Post. He has also faced criticism over costly US Park Police helicopter flights last year that allowed him to return to Washington for a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence, and several other flights on non-commercial aircraft. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL who wore cowboy boots to the office and carried himself with a Western swagger, seemed to emulate Trump when under fire, lashing back rather than retreating. Last month, when a Democratic congressman said it was time for new leadership at the Interior Department, Zinke suggested in a tweet that his critic had a drinking problem. “It’s hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle,” he wrote, a comment that many in Washington thought crossed a line.[SEP]WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (ZIN’-kee), who’s facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will leave the administration at year’s end. Trump tweets that Zinke “accomplished much during his tenure” and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation. Zinke, a former Republican congressman from Montana, is leaving weeks before Democrats take control of the House, a shift in power that promised to intensify probes into his conduct. Zinke played a leading part in Trump’s efforts to roll back environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development. His departure comes amid a staff shake-up as Trump heads into his third year in office. The president on Friday named budget director Mick Mulvaney as chief of staff[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who has aggressively sought to roll back Obama-era environmental protections, will be leaving his post at the end of the year, President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday, the latest high-profile departure from his administration. Trump did not give a reason for Zinke’s departure. However, the former Navy Seal and ex-congressman from Montana has faced scrutiny of his use of security details, chartered flights and a real estate deal. “Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation,” Trump said on Twitter. “The Trump administration will be announcing the new secretary of the Interior next week.” Zinke has run the Interior Department, which oversees America’s vast public lands, since early 2017. He has aggressively pursued Trump’s agenda to promote oil drilling and coal mining by expanding federal leasing, cutting royalty rates, and easing land protections despite environmental protests. Zinke, 51, was among Trump’s most active Cabinet members, cutting huge wilderness national monuments in Utah to a fraction of their size and proposing offshore oil drilling in the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic. He became a darling of the U.S. energy and mining industries and a prime target for conservationists and environmental groups. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer welcomed Zinke’s departure in a tweet: “Ryan Zinke was one of the most toxic members of the cabinet in the way he treated our environment, our precious public lands, and the way he treated the govt like it was his personal honey pot.” “The swamp cabinet will be a little less foul without him,” Schumer said. Jamie Williams, president of the non-profit Wilderness Society, said he expects Zinke’s deputy and likely successor, David Bernhardt, to continue with the “drill everywhere” agenda. “Deputy Secretary Bernhardt has made it his mission to stifle climate science and silence the public so polluters can profit,” said Williams. “Unfortunately, even with Secretary Zinke out, the Interior Department remains disturbingly biased in favor of special interests over the health of American communities and the public lands that they love.” Critics have questioned Zinke’s ethics and some of his moves triggered government investigations. In July, the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General began investigating a Montana land deal between a foundation Zinke set up and a development group backed by the chairman of oil service company Halliburton Co, which has business with the Interior Department. In late October, that investigation was referred to the U.S. Justice Department for a possible criminal investigation, according to multiple media reports. The Department of Justice and the Interior Department have declined to comment. There are two other investigations of Zinke’s conduct. Interior’s watchdog is examining whether the department purposely redrew the boundaries of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to benefit a state lawmaker who owns adjoining property. It is also probing Zinke’s decision to block casinos proposed by two Connecticut Native American tribes. Critics allege he made that move, overruling his staff’s recommendation, shortly after he met with lobbyists for MGM Resorts International, which owns a new casino in the region. Zinke has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Earlier this year, Interior’s inspector general wrapped up two other investigations related to Zinke’s travel expenses. Those probes found that a $12,000 private flight he took after a meeting with a professional hockey team could have been avoided and that the security detail he took on a family vacation to Greece and Turkey cost taxpayers $25,000. US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke arrives at the US Capitol prior to the service for former President George H. W. Bush in Washington, DC, USA, 03 December 2018. Shawn Thew/Pool via REUTERS Trump, who has repeatedly praised Zinke, said on Nov. 5 that he would look at the allegations. Zinke’s departure makes him the ninth Cabinet-level official to leave since Trump took office two years ago. Other departures have included Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt.[SEP]Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years. Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation....... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018 President Donald Trump says Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who's facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will leave the administration at year's end.Trump tweets that Zinke "accomplished much during his tenure" and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation.Zinke, a former Republican congressman from Montana, is leaving weeks before Democrats take control of the House, a shift in power that promised to intensify probes into his conduct.Zinke played a leading part in Trump's efforts to roll back environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development.His departure comes amid a staff shake-up as Trump heads into his third year in office. The president on Friday named budget director Mick Mulvaney as chief of staff.[SEP]A replacement to Ryan Zinke will be announced next week, says President Donald Trump WASHINGTON DC, USA – Donald Trump said Saturday, December 15, that his interior secretary will be leaving soon – the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the US president's turnover-plagued administration. "Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years," Trump wrote on Twitter, highlighting the fact that Zinke's tenure was substantially longer than that of some other former top officials in the administration. "Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation," the president said, adding that a replacement would be announced next week. The announcement on Zinke came just a week after another impending high-profile departure – that of Trump's chief of staff John Kelly – was made public. Trump on Friday, December 14, tapped Mick Mulvaney – the director of the Office of Management and Budget – to fill the chief of staff job on an acting basis, setting him up to be the third person to hold the post since the president took office in early 2017. A series of other top officials have left the Trump White House, including a secretary of state, two national security advisors, an attorney general and the head of the US environment agency. Zinke is one of several members of Trump's cabinet to come under fire over expenditures, including reports that his department was spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade 3 sets of double doors in his office – a cost he later said he negotiated down to $75,000. He has also faced criticism over costly US Park Police helicopter flights last year that allowed him to return to Washington for a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence, and several other flights on non-commercial aircraft. – Rappler.com[SEP]Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who is facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will leave the administration at year's end, President Donald Trump said Saturday. Trump, in tweeting Zinke's departure, said the former Montana congressman "accomplished much during his tenure" and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation. Zinke is leaving weeks before Democrats take control of the House, a shift in power that promised to intensify probes into his conduct. His departure comes amid a staff shake-up as Trump heads into his third year in office. The president on Friday named White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as his next chief of staff Zinke, 57, played a leading part in Trump's efforts to roll back environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development. When he recently traveling to survey damage from California's wildfires, Zinke echoed Trump claims that lax forest management was to blame in the devastation. He pushed to develop oil, natural gas and coal beneath public lands in line with the administration's business-friendly aims. But Zinke has been dogged by ethics probes, including one centered on a Montana land deal involving a foundation he created and the chairman of an energy services company that does business with the Interior Department. Investigators also are reviewing Zinke's decision to block two tribes from opening a casino in Connecticut and his redrawing of boundaries to shrink a Utah national monument. The Associated Press reported last month that the department's internal watchdog had referred an investigation of Zinke to the Justice Department. Trump told reporters this fall he was evaluating Zinke's future in the administration in light of the allegations. Asked by reporters last month whether he might fire Zinke, Trump said, "No, I'm going to look into any complaints." Zinke in November denied he already was hunting for his next job. "I enjoy working for the president," he told a Montana radio station. "Now, If you do your job, he supports you." "I think I'm probably going to be the commander of space command," Zinke said. "How's that one?" Zinke had a memorable administration debut when he rode a bay roan gelding to his first day of work in March 2017.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweets that Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke will quit his post at the end of the year.

We're dealing with a man who was consumed by evil," Castaner said 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 Cherif Chekatt was shot dead by police. Interior minister Christophe Castaner dismissed as "completely opportunistic" a Twitter post by the IS propaganda wing which claimed Chekatt, a career criminal with 27 convictions in four countries, was one of its "soldiers." "We're dealing with a man who was consumed by evil," Castaner said. Questions remain over how Chekatt was able to evade the tight security perimeter around the market. 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]French hunt for possible accomplices of Strasbourg attacker STRASBOURG, France (AP) — French police have killed the man who they believed attacked Strasbourg's Christmas market but investigators kept digging Friday for possible accomplices in a city known for a high concentration of potential extremists. A fourth victim of Tuesday night's attack on the biggest Christmas market in France died Friday. The dead included a Thai tourist and a 29-year-old Italian journalist. A dozen other people were wounded. The market reopened Friday in a bid to reclaim a festive spirit after being closed for two days after the attack. French President Emmanuel Macron paid a visit, arriving after a European summit in Brussels to offer his condolences to the wounded and victims' families and to salute security forces. He spoke with the three police officers who less than 24 hours earlier shot and killed Cherif Chekatt, the attack suspect. For three days, Macron has faced back-to-back national emergencies, dealing with the Christmas market attack and in the midst of a month of grassroots protests over the cost of living that have grown increasingly violent and have devastated parts of the French capital. The government has implored the French not to take to the streets Saturday, evoking the Strasbourg tragedy and the security situation that has strapped soldiers and police. Chekatt, the 29-year-old Strasbourg native, was killed Thursday night in a confrontation with three police officers in his childhood neighborhood after a massive manhunt. The depth of his radicalization and connections remained unclear, but his path seemed to reflect an increasingly common hybrid European extremist who moves from delinquency to sowing terror. The Islamic State group's Amaq news agency claimed Chekatt was a "soldier" of the group but Interior Minister Christophe Castaner rejected the claim as "totally opportunistic." Investigators are now trying to identify "eventual accomplices or co-authors who could have helped or encouraged him in preparing his move into action," prosecutor Remy Heitz, in charge of terrorism cases in France, told reporters at a news conference Friday. He said seven people were in custody, including four of Chekatt's family members and three in his "close entourage" — two of them detained Thursday night. "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. Like other attack sites, the Christmas market was heavy with symbolism. "This Christmas market is part of our history. It's part of our common events and belongs to all the French people," Castaner said during a walk-through at its reopening. "And this morning, we wanted to show, as we walked down the lanes, that we always know how to get our head up again." Macron suggested while in Brussels that authorities were working to clarify why Chekatt was not stopped beforehand. He had been on a French intelligence watch list for radicalism and was convicted 27 times for criminal offenses — the first time at age 13 — mainly in France but also in Germany and Switzerland. French police tried and failed Tuesday morning to arrest him in a case of attempted homicide. Macron told reporters Friday in Brussels that France should look at "the consequences" of any police failures and work on "what could be improved." Extremism is not a new phenomenon in Strasbourg, where more than 200 people are on watch lists for potential radicalization or already radicalized, a Strasbourg police official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity and that figure could not be officially confirmed. Strasbourg's Christmas market has been a previous target. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a foiled plot to blow up the market on New Year's Eve 2000. Six youths from Strasbourg have been arrested after returning home from Middle East battle zones, part of a group of 14 reported to have left to join the jihad. As early as 2012, Strasbourg had harbored Islamic militant cells planning action elsewhere in France. Heitz, the anti-terrorism prosecutor, provided more details about the police operation that led to Chekatt's death Thursday evening. He said two crucial tips came in from residents in Strasbourg's Neudorf neighborhood. Three officers patrolling in Neudorf then spotted a man corresponding to the suspect's description. Noticing their marked police car, the suspect tried unsuccessfully to enter a building. When police officers identified themselves, Chekatt turned abruptly and opened fire on them. Ganley reported from Paris. Samuel Petrequin in Paris and Angela Charlton in Brussels contributed.[SEP]France's interior minister on Friday dismissed a claim by Daesh terrorist 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.The city reopened the market on Friday, with officials praising the massive public help and quick police reaction that led to the death of suspected shooter Cherif Chekatt late on Thursday. Around 800 people had called in tips to a hotline after the authorities released his name and photo Wednesday night, including two which France's anti-terror prosecutor Remy Heitz called "decisive" in finding Chekatt. The information allowed police to home in on an area in the Neudorf neighborhood, where he tried to escape into a building after being spotted by a patrol. Unable to get in the door, he turned and shot at the three officers with a handgun when they tried to approach, two of whom returned fire and killed him, Heitz said at a press conference in Strasbourg. Two more people were detained for questioning overnight, bringing to seven the number in custody, including Chekatt's parents and two brothers, Heitz said. Police are now focusing their investigation on whether Chekatt had any help in carrying out his attack or while on the run, he added. The lights on the market's towering Christmas tree were illuminated Friday for the first time since the attack, as Interior Minister Christophe Castaner visited with stall owners and the hundreds of security forces members on site. He dismissed as "completely opportunistic" a Twitter post by Daesh propaganda wing which claimed Chekatt, a career criminal with 27 convictions in four countries, was one of its "soldiers." "We're dealing with a man who was consumed by evil," Castaner said. Questions remain over how Chekatt was able to evade the tight security perimeter set up around the Strasbourg Christmas market which has long been a prime target for militant groups. Around 500 police, security agents and soldiers control access at checkpoints on the bridges leading to the river island, a U.N. 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 which he used to kill three people and injure 13. "It doesn't surprise me," said Emeline, 38, who works in the city center. "You wear a heavy coat, put something in the bottom of your bag. You can bring in what you want." Defense Minister Florence Parly rejected criticism that Chekatt's presence on the country's so-called "S file" 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.[SEP]Hundreds of people turned out Friday for the funeral of Kamal Naghchband, a father-of-three who fled violence in Afghanistan only to be gunned down and killed in this week's Strasbourg Christmas market attack. Naghchband, 45, had fled strife in Afghanistan to build a new life in France but became one of four people killed when a jihadist gunmen attacked the market in the northeastern French city on Tuesday. "He was going to see the Christmas market and -- in front of his children -- he took a bullet," one of his cousins told AFP. Described by relatives as friendly and something of a joker, Naghchband survived a day in hospital in a coma before succumbing to his wounds. He was the joint manager of a garage near the Strasbourg mosque where he would go to pray and where his funeral was held on Friday. "Our brother martyr Kamal tells us 'enjoy the moments you have in this world to do good'", Imam Eyup Sahin said, standing before a coffin covered with a green cloth and a smiling portrait of Naghchband. "Do you think that Allah allows us to kill someone? It is impossible! Islam is a religion of peace (which) no act of terrorism can represent," he said. "The Prophet says 'he who kills a person, it is as if he had killed all humanity," continued the Imam. "The best human being," he added, is not "the one who is most helpful for Muslims, for Jews, Christians or atheists, but for all humanity". Naghchband had lived in France for around 20 years. According to his Facebook page, he was from Kabul and studied in Mazar-i-Sharif, in the north of the country. "He was charismatic, kind, and joked with everyone. People didn't go to his garage just to have their car repaired but to have coffee with him," said one relative. "He was very welcoming." After prayers, held in the courtyard of the mosque, Naghchband's body was covered with a French flag and carried before a large crowd of mourners to a cemetery in the south of the city. One unnamed mourner described Naghchband as a force for good, whatever ills befell him. "Whatever bad things were done to him, he only ever did good."[SEP]PARIS — Midfielder Mathieu Cafaro scored from a free kick midway through the second half as Reims beat Strasbourg 2-1 to move up to eighth place in the French league. Moussa Doumbia put Reims ahead after just seven minutes with a half-volley which went in off the post. Adrien Thomasson equalized shortly after halftime for Strasbourg but substitute Cafaro sealed victory in the 66th. Only four matches are going ahead this weekend, with another game moved to Tuesday and five postponed. Runaway league leader Paris Saint-Germain’s match at Dijon on Saturday was initially maintained before also being called off at the request of authorities. This is because police forces across the country are being stretched amid anti-government protests and in the wake of a deadly Christmas market attack this week in Strasbourg. A minute’s silence was being held at all soccer stadiums in France’s first and second divisions this weekend in memory of the victims and their families. Reims players showed their support by unfurling a banner in front of the Strasbourg fans which said “Strasbourg Toujours” (Strasbourg Forever). Strasbourg president Marc Keller looked emotional as he applauded Reims fans, and Strasbourg’s travelling fans held up two large black banners with nothing written on them. Sunday’s games are Nice vs. Saint-Etienne; Nimes vs. second-place Lille, and Lyon vs. Monaco. Caen vs. Toulouse will take place on Tuesday. The six matches were postponed last week amid security concerns about anti-government protests. Those are rescheduled for Jan. 15-16. PSG will play its match against Montpellier on Jan. 15, but it may now be pushed back to February since it clashes with PSG’s planned winter training camp in Qatar.[SEP]The state-run TV channel France 2 showed an interview with Abdelkrim Chekatt on Saturday night, two days after the son was killed in a confrontation with three police officers in his childhood neighborhood in Strasbourg following a massive manhunt. Four people died in the Tuesday night attack.[SEP]French hunt for possible accomplices of Strasbourg attacker STRASBOURG, France (AP) — French police have killed the man who they believed attacked Strasbourg's Christmas market but investigators kept digging Friday for possible accomplices in a city known for a high concentration of potential extremists. A fourth victim of Tuesday night's attack on the biggest Christmas market in France died Friday. The dead included a Thai tourist and a 29-year-old Italian journalist. A dozen other people were wounded. The market reopened Friday in a bid to reclaim a festive spirit after being closed for two days after the attack. French President Emmanuel Macron paid a visit, arriving after a European summit in Brussels to offer his condolences to the wounded and victims' families and to salute security forces. He spoke with the three police officers who less than 24 hours earlier shot and killed Cherif Chekatt, the attack suspect. For three days, Macron has faced back-to-back national emergencies, dealing with the Christmas market attack and in the midst of a month of grassroots protests over the cost of living that have grown increasingly violent and have devastated parts of the French capital. The government has implored the French not to take to the streets Saturday, evoking the Strasbourg tragedy and the security situation that has strapped soldiers and police. Chekatt, the 29-year-old Strasbourg native, was killed Thursday night in a confrontation with three police officers in his childhood neighborhood after a massive manhunt. The depth of his radicalization and connections remained unclear, but his path seemed to reflect an increasingly common hybrid European extremist who moves from delinquency to sowing terror. The Islamic State group's Amaq news agency claimed Chekatt was a "soldier" of the group but Interior Minister Christophe Castaner rejected the claim as "totally opportunistic." Investigators are now trying to identify "eventual accomplices or co-authors who could have helped or encouraged him in preparing his move into action," prosecutor Remy Heitz, in charge of terrorism cases in France, told reporters at a news conference Friday. He said seven people were in custody, including four of Chekatt's family members and three in his "close entourage" — two of them detained Thursday night. "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. Like other attack sites, the Christmas market was heavy with symbolism. "This Christmas market is part of our history. It's part of our common events and belongs to all the French people," Castaner said during a walk-through at its reopening. "And this morning, we wanted to show, as we walked down the lanes, that we always know how to get our head up again." Macron suggested while in Brussels that authorities were working to clarify why Chekatt was not stopped beforehand. He had been on a French intelligence watch list for radicalism and was convicted 27 times for criminal offenses — the first time at age 13 — mainly in France but also in Germany and Switzerland. French police tried and failed Tuesday morning to arrest him in a case of attempted homicide. Macron told reporters Friday in Brussels that France should look at "the consequences" of any police failures and work on "what could be improved." Extremism is not a new phenomenon in Strasbourg, where more than 200 people are on watch lists for potential radicalization or already radicalized, a Strasbourg police official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity and that figure could not be officially confirmed. Strasbourg's Christmas market has been a previous target. Ten suspected Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2004 for their role in a foiled plot to blow up the market on New Year's Eve 2000. Six youths from Strasbourg have been arrested after returning home from Middle East battle zones, part of a group of 14 reported to have left to join the jihad. As early as 2012, Strasbourg had harbored Islamic militant cells planning action elsewhere in France. Heitz, the anti-terrorism prosecutor, provided more details about the police operation that led to Chekatt's death Thursday evening. He said two crucial tips came in from residents in Strasbourg's Neudorf neighborhood. Three officers patrolling in Neudorf then spotted a man corresponding to the suspect's description. Noticing their marked police car, the suspect tried unsuccessfully to enter a building. When police officers identified themselves, Chekatt turned abruptly and opened fire on them. Ganley reported from Paris. Samuel Petrequin in Paris and Angela Charlton in Brussels contributed.[SEP]The state-run TV channel France 2 showed an interview with Abdelkrim Chekatt on Saturday night, two days after the son was killed in a confrontation with three police officers in his childhood neighborhood in Strasbourg following a massive manhunt. Four people died in the Tuesday night attack.[SEP]STRASBOURG: 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. The city reopened the market on Friday, with officials praising the massive public help and quick police reaction that led to the death of suspected shooter Cherif Chekatt late on Thursday. He was tracked down at around 9:00 pm (local time) when a police patrol spotted him on a street in a district where he was last seen after Tuesday night's attack. Around 800 people had called in tips to a hotline after the authorities released his name and photo Wednesday night, including two which France's anti-terror prosecutor Remy Heitz called "decisive" in finding Chekatt. The information allowed police to home in on an area in the Neudorf neighbourhood, where he tried to escape into a building after being spotted by a patrol. Unable to get in the door, he turned and shot at the three officers with a handgun when they tried to approach, two of whom returned fire and killed him, Heitz said at a press conference in Strasbourg. Two more people were detained for questioning overnight, bringing to seven the number in custody, including Chekatt's parents and two brothers, Heitz said. Police are now focusing their investigation on whether Chekatt had any help in carrying out his attack or while on the run, he added. The lights on the market's towering Christmas tree were illuminated Friday for the first time since the attack, as Interior Minister Christophe Castaner visited with stall owners and the hundreds of security forces members on site. He dismissed as "completely opportunistic" a Twitter post by the IS propaganda wing which claimed Chekatt, a career criminal with 27 convictions in four countries, was one of its "soldiers." "We're dealing with a man who was consumed by evil," Castaner said. Questions remain over how Chekatt was able to evade the tight security perimeter set up around the Strasbourg 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 which he used to kill three people and injure 13. "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 jihadist attacks in 2015, which prompted a threefold surge in the security budget for the market, to one million euros. Chekatt, a 29-year-old 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 country's so-called "S file" of extremists 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. 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 scores of 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. "I'm not going to forget this anytime soon. It's too painful.I'm not even sure I'm able to cry," he said.[SEP]Midfielder Mathieu Cafaro scored from a free kick midway through the second half as Reims beat Strasbourg 2-1 to move up to eighth place in the French league. Moussa Doumbia put Reims ahead after just seven minutes with a half-volley which went in off the post. Adrien Thomasson equalized shortly after halftime for Strasbourg but substitute Cafaro sealed victory in the 66th. Only four matches are going ahead this weekend, with another game moved to Tuesday and five postponed. Runaway league leader Paris Saint-Germain's match at Dijon on Saturday was initially maintained before also being called off at the request of authorities. This is because police forces across the country are being stretched amid anti-government protests and in the wake of a deadly Christmas market attack this week in Strasbourg. A minute's silence was being held at all soccer stadiums in France's first and second divisions this weekend in memory of the victims and their families. Reims players showed their support by unfurling a banner in front of the Strasbourg fans which said "Strasbourg Toujours" (Strasbourg Forever). Strasbourg president Marc Keller looked emotional as he applauded Reims fans, and Strasbourg's travelling fans held up two large black banners with nothing written on them. Sunday's games are Nice vs. Saint-Etienne; Nimes vs. second-place Lille, and Lyon vs. Monaco. Caen vs. Toulouse will take place on Tuesday. The six matches were postponed last week amid security concerns about anti-government protests. Those are rescheduled for Jan. 15-16. PSG will play its match against Montpellier on Jan. 15, but it may now be pushed back to February since it clashes with PSG's planned winter training camp in Qatar.

A Polish national who was wounded during a terrorist attack in Strasbourg, France, dies of his injuries, raising the death toll to five.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The cause of the explosion in Sapporo is not yet known A huge explosion and fire has hit a restaurant in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo. Japanese police say 42 people were injured in the explosion, with one of them in a serious condition. The cause of the explosion in the Toyohira district is not yet known. Some reports suggested a gas blast. Images on social media initially showed flames rising from the area with debris all around, and later firefighters tackling collapsed buildings. Police sealed off the area amid fears of more explosions. More than 20 fire engines were reportedly deployed. The emergency services were first alerted to the explosion at about 20:30 on Sunday (11:30 GMT). Japanese broadcaster NHK said the area affected had both residential and dining establishments and was about 3km south-east of the city centre. The Japan Times quoted one eyewitness as saying the explosion sounded like thunder. Another eyewitness told NHK that the blast had broken the windows of the restaurant he was working in, and that there were "many injured people". Officials warned that the number of injured could rise. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Officials warned that the number of injured could rise[SEP]A powerful blast ripped through a restaurant in northern Japan late Sunday, injuring 42 people, starting fires that took hours to bring under control and leading several neighbouring buildings to collapse, officials and reports said. [TOKYO] A powerful blast ripped through a restaurant in northern Japan late Sunday, injuring 42 people, starting fires that took hours to bring under control and leading several neighbouring buildings to collapse, officials and reports said. Images from the scene showed large flames and plumes of smoke rising in the night air after the blast in the northern city of Sapporo. The cause of the blast was still under investigation, police said. One witness reportedly said he had smelled gas after the explosion. A police official for the Hokkaido region told AFP "there are 42 injuries" but no one was killed. The Jiji Press agency said one of the injured was seriously hurt, suffering burns to his face, but none of the victims had life-threatening wounds. Several children were reportedly among those hurt in the explosion, which hit in the city's Toyohira district. "I heard a 'bang', which sounded like thunder, and my condo was shaken," a man in his 50s who lived nearby told The Japan Times. The building that housed the restaurant was heavily damaged, as were other nearby businesses, including a real estate company, Jiji said. National broadcaster NHK said it took firefighters several hours to extinguish the flames, with dozens of vehicles mobilised to deal with the accident. Police had initially warned of the possibility of secondary explosions, according to Kyodo, which described buildings collapsing following the incident around 8.30pm (1130 GMT). The city government had opened at shelter to house dozens of people whose homes were damaged in the blast.[SEP]Images from the scene show large flames and plumes of smoke rising in the night air after the blast in the northern city of Sapporo TOKYO, Japan – A powerful blast ripped through a restaurant in northern Japan late Sunday, December 16, injuring 42 people and starting fires that took hours to bring under control and leading several neighboring buildings to collapse, officials and reports said. Images from the scene showed large flames and plumes of smoke rising in the night air after the blast in the northern city of Sapporo. The cause of the blast was still under investigation, police said. One witness reportedly said he had smelled gas after the explosion. A police official for the Hokkaido region told the Agence France-Presse "there are 42 injuries" but no one was killed. The Jiji Press agency said one of the injured was seriously hurt, suffering burns to his face, but none of the victims had life-threatening wounds. Several children were reportedly among those hurt in the explosion, which hit in the city's Toyohira district. "I heard a 'bang,' which sounded like thunder, and my condo was shaken," a man in his 50s who lived nearby told The Japan Times. The building that housed the restaurant was heavily damaged, as were other nearby businesses, including a real estate company, Jiji said. National broadcaster NHK said it took firefighters several hours to extinguish the flames, with dozens of vehicles mobilised to deal with the accident. Police had initially warned of the possibility of secondary explosions, according to Kyodo, which described buildings collapsing following the incident around 8.30 pm (1130 GMT). The city government had opened a shelter to house dozens of people whose homes were damaged in the blast. – Rappler.com[SEP]TOKYO — More than 40 people were injured in an explosion Sunday night at a Japanese restaurant in northern Japan, police said. The explosion occurred in Sapporo, the capital city of Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido, and caused nearby apartment buildings and houses to shake. Police said 42 people were injured, most of them mildly, though one was in serious condition. They were rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment. The cause of the explosion, which occurred at a two-story restaurant in Sapporo’s Toyohira district, is under investigation, police said, adding that they had no further details. TV footage from Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed the restaurant in flames, with debris scattered on the ground. The footage later showed gray smoke billowing from the restaurant as dozens of firefighters poured water onto the building, which was charred and nearly collapsing. Windows on an apartment building next door were broken, and cars parked outside were partially covered with debris that had fallen on them. A witness told NHK that he smelled gas afterward. The broadcaster said the district office was to set up a shelter for neighbors of the restaurant to stay overnight so they could escape the smoke.[SEP]A powerful blast that ripped through a restaurant in northern Japan injured 42 people and caused serious damage to neighbouring buildings, forcing some residents into shelters, officials said. The explosion in Sapporo on Sunday night started fires and caused the partial collapse of some surrounding buildings. Images from the scene showed large flames and plumes of smoke rising in the night air, and witnesses described hearing a terrifying boom. The cause of the blast was still under investigation, police said. One witness reportedly said he had smelled gas after the explosion. A police official for the Hokkaido region told AFP that despite the large number of injuries, there had been no fatalities. The Jiji Press agency said one of those injured was seriously hurt, suffering burns to his face, but none of the victims had life-threatening wounds. Several children were reportedly among those hurt in the explosion. "I heard a 'bang,' which sounded like thunder, and my condo was shaken," a man in his 50s told The Japan Times. "There was an enormous sound, 'bang', then when I looked up at the sky it was filled with plumes of smoke," an elderly woman said in footage on public broadcaster NHK. The two-story wooden building that housed the restaurant, a real estate agency and a clinic was seriously damaged, a Sapporo fire department official told AFP. The fire from the blast spread to neighbouring buildings, and debris blasted out by the explosion shattered the windows of nearby apartments and restaurants, according to local reports. "We are investigating details about the damage together with police at the scene," the official said. National broadcaster NHK said it took firefighters several hours to extinguish the flames, with dozens of vehicles mobilised to deal with the accident. A 26-year-old female employee at the restaurant jumped from the first floor and broke her leg as she tried to escape the fire, media reports said. "I'm just relieved that she is alive," her sister, who rushed to the scene, told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. The blast happened around 8.30 pm (1130 GMT), and the city government opened a shelter to house dozens of people whose homes were damaged. "The number of evacuees grew to about 60 people around midnight, but now there are 10 people still in the evacuation centre," Sapporo official Yasuhiro Ishizuka told AFP. The explosion also caused a temporary black-out, with 250 buildings losing electricity, but power was later restored, he said. Many small and medium-sized older buildings in Japan are built partly or entirely from wood and are vulnerable to fires. In February, 11 people were killed in Sapporo after a fire broke out at a home for elderly people with financial difficulties.[SEP]Among the injured, a male employee of the real estate agency was said to in critical condition Tokyo: At least 42 people were injured in an explosion near a pub in Japan's Sapporo city, police said. The blast occurred at around 8.30 p.m. on Sunday in the city's Toyohira Ward, causing a fire which was only extinguished hours later at 2.10 a.m., reports The Japan Times. According to the police, the suspected gas explosion caused wooden buildings housing the Japanese-style pub, a real estate agency and a clinic to collapse Among the injured, a male employee of the real estate agency was said to in critical condition. The police suspect the explosion had occurred either at the pub or the real estate office. Windows of houses and restaurants near the site, which is located close to a subway station, were shattered. Many people who felt the blast said they thought it was an earthquake. A gas safety centre official who visited the blast site said five tanks of propane gas weighing 50 kg each were installed outside of the pub, while two 20 kg tanks were located outside the real estate office. Gas pipes in the buildings were confirmed to be damaged after the explosion. Sapporo, with almost 2 million people, is on Japan's large northern island of Hokkaido. 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]TOKYO, Japan: An explosion at a restaurant in northern Japan injured 42 people late Sunday, police said, with the blast reportedly causing surrounding buildings to collapse. Fires broke out following the incident in the northern city of Sapporo, Kyodo news agency said, and images from the scene showed large flames and plumes of smoke rising in the night air. A police official for the Hokkaido region told AFP "there are 42 injuries" but no one was killed. They are still investigating the cause which "would take some time". National broadcaster NHK said the flames were extinguished several hours after the fire broke out, with police and fire department officers still at the site. Earlier police warned of secondary explosions, according to Kyodo, which described buildings collapsing following the incident around 8.30 pm (1130 GMT).[SEP]SAPPORO: A powerful blast ripped through a restaurant in northern Japan late on Sunday (Dec 16), injuring 42 people, starting fires that took hours to bring under control and leading several neighbouring buildings to collapse. Images from the scene showed large flames and plumes of smoke rising in the night air after the blast in the city of Sapporo. The cause of the blast was still under investigation, police said. One witness reportedly said he had smelled gas after the explosion. A police official for the Hokkaido region told AFP "there are 42 injuries" but no one was killed. The Jiji Press agency said one of the injured was seriously hurt, suffering burns to his face, but none of the victims had life-threatening wounds. Several children were reportedly among those hurt in the explosion, which hit in the city's Toyohira district. The building that housed the restaurant was heavily damaged, as were other nearby businesses, including a real estate company, Jiji said. National broadcaster NHK said it took firefighters several hours to extinguish the flames, with dozens of vehicles mobilised to deal with the accident. Police had initially warned of the possibility of secondary explosions, according to Kyodo, which described buildings collapsing following the incident around 8.30pm (7.30pm Singapore time). The city government had opened a shelter to house dozens of people whose homes were damaged in the blast. "I heard a 'bang', which sounded like thunder, and my condo was shaken," a man in his 50s who lived nearby told The Japan Times. Other witnesses shared photos and videos of the incident on Twitter, showing the burning building and thick black smoke.[SEP]Firefighters putting out a blaze at the site of a restaurant that was razed by an explosion in Sapporo, northern Japan, yesterday. At least 42 people were injured in the blast at the two-storey Umi Sakura izakaya bar in Hiragishi district. One of the victims was seriously injured. Residents and diners at other establishments in the vicinity of the restaurant were ordered to evacuate from the area amid fears of further explosions. The blast was suspected to be a gas explosion. Photographs and video footage from the scene showed firefighters struggling to contain violent flames as emergency workers rescued restaurant employees and diners from the rubble of the 66-seat eatery, which was completely destroyed. SEE WORLD: Over 40 hurt in blast at Hokkaido bar[SEP]A huge explosion and fire has hit a restaurant in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo. Police say at least 41 people were injured in the explosion, with one of them in a serious condition.

A gas blast in a restaurant in Sapporo, Japan, injures 42 people.

Un pullman proveniente da Genova e diretto a Dusseldorf si è schiantato contro un muro nei pressi di Zurigo, in Svizzera. Nell'incidente è morta una 37enne italiana e 43 persone (tra cui i due autisti, anch'essi italiani) sono rimaste ferite, tre delle quali gravemente. Secondo la polizia locale, lo schianto si è verificato poco prima delle 4:15 sull'autostrada A3 . All'arrivo dei soccorsi, molti passeggeri erano ancora incastrati tra le lamiere . La donna morta si chiamava Nicoletta Nardoni e viveva nel Comasco, a Mozzate. Sposata, era mamma di due bambini ancora piccoli. Salita a bordo del pullman, secondo quanto si apprende, era diretta a Zurigo per fare visita a un familiare. In totale le persone a bordo del pullman erano 51, tra cui 16 italiani, uno svizzero, un tedesco, due colombiani, un giordano, un rumeno, un bosniaco, due albanesi, sei russi, due nigeriani, un ganese e una persona del Benin. La nazionalità dei rimanenti ancora non è stata resa nota. Secondo i media locali non vi sarebbero stati invece bambini. . Le cause dell'incidente sono ancora sconosciute. Secondo la Radio svizzera italiana, nella zona è caduta neve per tutta la mattina e i meteorologi hanno messo in guardia gli automobilisti sui pericoli provocati dal ghiaccio sulla strada. Il pullman apparteneva a una filiale dell'impresa di trasporti Flixbus. Al momento l'autostrada è bloccata in entrambi i sensi di circolazione tra Brunau e Wiedikon.[SEP]BERLIN (AP) - Zurich police say a tour bus on its way to Germany has crashed in Switzerland, killing one person and injuring 44 others. The dpa news agency reported Sunday that the Geneva-to-Duesseldorf bus crashed at 4:15 a.m. south of Zurich, a city in northern Switzerland that is the country's financial hub. Zurich canton (state) police say the bus went into a skid on the snowy road and crashed into a wall. They said one woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was killed and three people, including the driver, have serious injuries. A bus sits on a transport truck after an accident at the highway A3 near Zuerich, Switzerland, on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2018. According to police, one woman died in the accident, 44 people were injured. (Walter Bieri/Keystone via AP)[SEP]BERLIN — Zurich police say a tour bus on its way to Germany has crashed in Switzerland, killing one person and injuring 44 others. The dpa news agency reported Sunday that bus travelling to Duesseldorf from Genoa in Italy crashed at 4:15 a.m. south of Zurich, a city in northern Switzerland that is the country’s financial hub. Zurich canton (state) police say the bus went into a skid on the snowy road and crashed into a wall. They said one woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was killed and three people, including the driver, have serious injuries. Switzerland’s 20 Minuten news site quoted authorities saying the woman who died was 37-years-old and Italian.[SEP]BERLIN — Zurich police say a tour bus on its way to Germany has crashed in Switzerland, killing one person and injuring 44 others. The dpa news agency reported Sunday that the Geneva-to-Duesseldorf bus crashed at 4:15 a.m. south of Zurich, a city in northern Switzerland that is the country’s financial hub. Zurich canton (state) police say the bus went into a skid on the snowy road and crashed into a wall. They said one woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was killed and three people, including the driver, have serious injuries.[SEP]ZURIKH : One person died and 44 sustained injuries on Sunday following a bus crash outside the city of Zurich, local police reported following the incident. According to Zurich police, three people picked up severe injuries, while the other casualties are being treated for minor and moderate injuries. The crash occurred in the early morning in treacherous snowy conditions, police added. The bus, operated by a subsidiary of the German-owned firm Flixbus, was heading to the German city of Dusseldorf, from Genoa, Italy, the ATS news agency reported. Following the crash, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy to Switzerland, Stanislav Smirnov, told Sputnik that a Russian citizen who has suffered injuries as a result of a bus crash is in a serious condition. “One Russian citizen is currently in a serious condition. She is not transportable. The rest of the injured Russians will be able to leave the hospital as early as today. They have minor injuries, there are also fractures,” the spokesman said. A source in the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturism), in turn, told Sputnik that the agency was clarifying the information regarding the condition of the injured Russian nationals. “There is information indicating that the bus was not a tourist one but a regular one,” the source said, adding that it meant that the Russians who were on the bus were not traveling as part of an organized tour. According to the police, there were also passengers from Albania, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Jordan, Nigeria, Romania and Switzerland on the bus. The driver is among those in a serious condition.[SEP]A bus sits on a transport truck after an accident at the highway A3 near Zuerich, Switzerland, on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2018. According to police, one woman died in the accident, 44 people were injured. (Walter Bieri/Keystone via AP) (Walter Bieri)[SEP]An Italian woman was killed and 44 other people were injured early Sunday when their long-distance bus swerved and hit a wall on an icy motorway near Zurich, police said. Three people were severely injured, and one of the Italian drivers is in critical condition, police spokeswoman Rebecca Tilen said. The bus was en route from the Italian city of Genoa to Dusseldorf in Germany. "At the time of the accident, the motorway was covered with snow and ice, and it was snowing," Tilen told dpa, adding that investigators still have to determine the exact cause of the accident. The bus was operated by a subcontractor of Flixbus, a German company that offers intercity services. The vehicle had Italian license plates. "We extend our sympathies to the affected passengers and bus drivers as well as their families and friends," Flixbus said in a statement. "The safety of passengers and drivers is a top priority for Flixbus," the company added. There were 50 people on board in total, including the 37-year-old Italian woman and 16 of her compatriots. The passengers also included several travelers each from Russia, Germany, Nigeria, Colombia and Albania, as well as individuals from Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ghana, Jordan, Romania and Switzerland.[SEP]At least one person was killed and 44 injured after a passenger bus swerved and hit a wall on a motorway near the Swiss city of Zurich, police said, as cited by local media. The Russian embassy in Switzerland confirmed that at least ten of its nationals were injured in the accident. The bus was travelling from Italy’s Genoa towards Germany’s Dusseldorf. The deceased is a woman, but her nationality hasn’t yet been established.[SEP]A bus has skidded off a road and overturned amid wintry weather in southern Serbia, killing three people and injuring 32 others. The accident happened early on Sunday on the main highway near the town of Leskovac. Police say the bus had Macedonian licence plates. Doctors at the hospital in Leskovac say four of those hurt in the crash have serious injuries but they are not life-threatening. Serbia has been blanketed with snow this weekend, slowing down traffic. Meanwhile one person was killed and 44 were injured when their long-distance bus swerved and hit a wall on a motorway near Zurich. The bus was en route from the Italian city of Genoa to Dusseldorf in Germany, according to investigators.[SEP]The front of the bus was severely damaged. AFP/Swiss police of the Canton of Zurich (Kantonspolizei Zurich) One person died and 44 were injured when a bus crashed into a wall on a Swiss motorway early Sunday, police said. The accident happened on the motorway outside Zurich at roughly 4:15am, police in the Canton said in a statement. Three people were seriously hurt, while the rest suffered minor to moderate injuries, they added. The cause of the crash, was not immediately known. The vehicle, run by a subsidiary of the German-owned company Flixbus, was on route from the Italian city of Genoa to Dusseldorf, ATS news agency reported.

A bus crash in Zurich, Switzerland, kills one person and injures 44 others.

Sri Lanka has an undisputed prime minister for the first time in more than 50 days after one of the two men who have claimed to lawfully occupy the post was sworn in on Sunday, a day after his challenger resigned. Supporters of Ranil Wickremesinghe celebrated the defeat of a “coup” as he signed official papers in Colombo, marking the end of a crisis that had left the country without a prime minister or cabinet and on the precipice of a government shutdown. But analysts warned of more instability ahead for the Indian ocean island including the possibility of increased anti-western rhetoric and resentment towards the country’s Tamil minority. Wickremesinghe had planned to be sworn in at 11.16am on Sunday morning, an auspicious time according to the Sinhala tradition, but was delayed by the late arrival of Sri Lanka’s president, Maithripala Sirasena. It augured poorly for a political relationship that has turned toxic in the past 18 months, culminating in Sirasena’s surprise announcement in October that he was firing Wickremesinghe. Wickremesinghe said the day was a victory “for Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions”. Pictures from the ceremony posted on social media by Wickremesinghe’s allies – journalists were prevented from attending – showed the pair grinning with palms clasped towards each other. But Sirasena has spent six weeks trying to avoid the outcome, even trying to dismiss the entire parliament and call an election once it became clear his chosen successor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, could not command a majority of MPs. The Sri Lankan supreme court halted the election on Thursday, and on Friday extended a ban on Rajapaksa from exercising any official duties. It followed weeks of backroom dealing by Rajapaksa to confirm his leadership in parliament and, once that failed, efforts to disrupt the assembly by pelting opposing MPs with books, chairs and water mixed with chilli powder; scenes of chaos on the floor that were broadcast around the world. On Friday night, the impasse broke, with Rajapaksa signalling he was finally willing to resign from office, clearing the way for Wickremesinghe’s return. Rajapaksa said in a departing speech the popular momentum behind his party was irresistible and would soon return them to power. “What is now gathering against the enemies of the country is a country-wide political force that no one can stop,” he said. Some supporters have cast his aborted return as the result of a western-backed conspiracy against a leader who drew Sri Lanka closer to China during his earlier 10-year rule that ended in 2015. “We fought against foreign intelligence agencies such as CIA and MI6,” said Udaya Gammpilla on Saturday. “We knew it was a tough battle. Foreign diplomats cheered in parliament when the speaker pronounced that we did not have a majority. All of them can sleep well now.” Wickremesinghe’s government is likely to quickly pass a budget that will allow government services to resume and reassure the country’s lenders including the International Monetary Fund that it can finance its heavy external debts. Ratings agencies have downgraded the country in recent weeks as the political paralysis became entrenched. Hasnain Malik, the head of equity research at Exotix Capital, said markets would welcome the end of the standoff. “But it also means a return to the political paralysis which has held back growth over the last three years,” he said. “It seems that only an early election which results in a clear parliamentary majority for either Wickremasinghe or, more likely, Rajapaksa would resolve that.” “Not much will get transacted in terms of government business and policies,” agreed N Sathiya Moorthy, a director of the Delhi-based Observer Researcher Foundation. He said Wickremesinghe’s new ruling coalition was dependent on Tamil legislators and would be under pressure to accede to their demands. That, in turn, could be exploited by Rajapaksa, whose Buddhist nationalist party traditionally takes a hard line on Tamil demands for greater autonomy and accountability for crimes committed during the country’s three-decade long civil war. “Rajapaksa has already sounded the battle bugle on the Tamil issue,” Moorthy said.[SEP]COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's disputed prime minister announced Saturday that he would step aside, paving the way for his sacked predecessor to regain the position and apparently ending a political impasse that has paralyzed the government for nearly two months. Mahinda Rajapaksa's resignation signals the end of a crisis that began in October when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed Rajapaksa as his replacement. "Since I have no intention of remaining as prime minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the president in any way, I will resign from the position of prime minister and make way for the president to form a new government," Rajapaksa said in a televised statement. After his appointment as prime minister, Rajapaksa sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called new elections, but the Supreme Court struck down the move as unconstitutional. On Wednesday, Wickremesinghe secured the support of 117 lawmakers in a confidence vote in Parliament, forcing Sirisena to relent from his promise not to reappoint the man he had sacked. Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet will be sworn in on Sunday. Rajapaksa said, however, that he would continue to fight along with Sirisena's support to have an early election. "The change of government that the people expected has now had to be put off," he said. "But the people will definitely get the change they desire. No one can prevent that." Rajapaksa's resignation came a day after the Supreme Court extended a lower court's suspension of Rajapaksa and his Cabinet. The top court put off the next hearing until mid-January, when it planned to rule on whether they should hold office after losing two no-confidence votes in Parliament. It is uncertain if this case will continue now. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks since the Court of Appeal suspended Rajapaksa and his Cabinet and was facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year if a new government is not appointed quickly. The country faced the risk of being unable to use state funds from Jan. 1 if there was no government to approve the budget. It also has a foreign debt repayment of $1 billion due in early January, and it was unclear if it can be serviced without a lawful finance minister. Rajapaksa is a former strongman president who is considered by many a war hero for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after a long civil war. But he lost a 2015 re-election bid amid allegations of wartime atrocities, corruption and nepotism. Sirisena was health minister in Rajapaksa's Cabinet when he joined Wickremesinghe and ran against Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election. After winning the election, Sirisena formed a unity government with Wickremesinghe as prime minister, but had disagreements with his economic policies and his efforts to investigate alleged wartime atrocities.[SEP]United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on Sunday, ending a 51-day power tussle in the island nation that had crippled the government. Wickremesinghe, 69, was administered the oath of office by President Maithripala Sirisena, who had sacked him on October 26 in a controversial move which plunged the island nation into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. The UNP leader had refused to step down asserting that his sacking was illegal. His re-appointment comes a day after former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was installed as Prime Minister by President Sirisena, resigned Saturday, after two crucial Supreme Court decisions made his efforts to cling to premiership untenable. According to media reports, a new Cabinet will be sworn in on Monday. The Cabinet will consist of 30 members and include six Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians. Earlier, Wickremesinghe’s party said it was ready to work with President Sirisena, who was “misled by some groups” against the unity government. UNP deputy leader Sajith Premadasa said that he was not surprised that the President had agreed to appoint Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister again despite taking a firm position earlier that he will not appoint the UNP leader. “This showed the true character of the President,” he was quoted as saying by the Colombo Gazette. Premadasa said that the President was “misled by some groups who were against the unity Government” and this resulted in the President removing Wickremesinghe. “But now truth has prevailed,” he said. “The party is prepared to work with Sirisena again in the government.” Premadasa said, “The lessons from the incident must be used to strengthen the foundation of democracy and promote justice and fairness.” Rajapaksa, 73, had sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called snap elections on January 5. However, the Supreme Court overturned his decision and halted the preparations for snap polls. The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously declared that the dissolution of Parliament by Sirisena was “illegal”. The apex court on Friday also refused to stay a court order restraining Rajapaksa from holding the office of Prime Minister until it fully heard the case next month. Rajapaksa signed his resignation letter during a multi-religious service at his home that was attended by several lawmakers of United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), Buddhist and other religious leaders. After signing the resignation letter, Rajapaksa said that following the February 10 local government election, the aim of his party is to have a general election. However, he said that he has no intention of remaining as Prime Minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the President in any way, he resigned from the position of Prime Minister and made way for the President to form a new Government. Rajapaksa said that since a general election can no longer be held, the UPFA cannot implement any of the measures they had planned to take “to prevent the country from becoming another Greece.” Most of the countries had not recognised Rajapaksa’s government. The global credit rating agencies — the Fitch, the Standard & Poor’s and the Moody’s — had also downgraded Sri Lanka’s rating owing to the current political crisis.[SEP]Mahinda Rajapaksa has resigned this morning as Sri Lanka's prime minister amid a two-month long power tussle in the island nation, local media reported today. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was ousted by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, is set to return as the prime minister after taking oath on Sunday. President Sirisena has reportedly agreed to reinstate ousted Prime Minister Wickremesinghe in the post after a discussion with him over the phone on Friday, Colombo Page reported. Mr Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) said that it was decided during the discussion that he will take oath as the Prime Minister at 10 am on Sunday. The President removed Wickremesinghe from the post of Prime Minister on October 26 and appointed former president Rajapaksa as the Premier, plunging the country into an unprecedented crisis. Mr Wickremesinghe refused to accept the sacking and challenged it in a court and in the Parliament. The daily reported that a new Cabinet will be sworn in on Monday. The Cabinet will consist of 30 members and include six Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians, it said. Mr Rajapaksa's son on Friday announced that the former strongman will resign on Saturday, after two crucial Supreme Court decisions made the embattled leader's efforts to cling to premiership untenable. Sri Lanka's Supreme court on Friday refused to stay a court order restraining Rajapaksa, 73, from holding the office of Prime Minister until it fully heard the case next month. "To ensure stability of the nation, Former President @PresRajapaksa has decided to resign from the Premiership tomorrow after an address to the nation," Rajapaksa's son Namal tweeted. The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) with former president, SLFP and others will "now work to form a broader political coalition with President Sirisena", Namal, a lawmaker, added. The top court's Friday ruling came a day after it unanimously declared that the dissolution of Parliament by President Sirisena was "illegal".[SEP]Sri Lanka’s disputed prime minister resigned on Saturday, saying he wanted to end a long political impasse over his appointment and allow the president to form a new government. Sri Lanka’s disputed prime minister resigned on Saturday, saying he wanted to end a long political impasse over his appointment and allow the president to form a new government. Mahinda Rajapaksa signed a letter of resignation at his residence in Colombo, flanked by members of his party and blessed by Buddhist and other religious leaders in the presence of the media. It was not immediately clear if the letter had been handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena. Mr Rajapaksa said in a statement: “Since I have no intention of remaining as prime minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the president in any way, I will resign from the position of prime minister and make way for the president to form a new government.” He was to deliver an address to the nation later on Saturday in which he was expected to explain his resignation. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, a politician close to Mr Rajapaksa, told reporters on Friday that Mr Rajapaksa had decided to step down to end a crisis that began in October when Mr Sirisena sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Mr Sirisena then named Mr Rajapaksa the new premier, but Parliament twice rejected the appointment. Mr Rajapaksa’s resignation came a day after the Supreme Court extended a lower court’s suspension of him and his Cabinet. The top court put off the next hearing until mid-January, when it plans to rule on whether they should hold office after losing two no-confidence votes in Parliament. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks and is facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year if a new government is not appointed quickly. The country runs the risk of being unable to use state funds from January 1 if there is no government to approve the budget. It also has a foreign debt repayment of 1 billion US dollars (£794 million) due in early January, and it is unclear if it can be serviced without a lawful finance minister. Mr Rajapaksa is a former strongman president who is considered by some as a war hero for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after a long civil war. But he lost a 2015 re-election bid amid allegations of wartime atrocities, corruption and nepotism. After his appointment as prime minister, he sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Mr Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called new elections, but the Supreme Court struck down the move as unconstitutional. Mr Sirisena has repeatedly rejected appeals to reappoint Mr Wickremesinghe as prime minister, but has invited Mr Wickremesinghe, who has the support of 117 politicians in Parliament, to form a government.[SEP]Sri Lanka’s disputed prime minister resigned on Saturday, saying he wanted to end a long political impasse over his appointment and allow the president to form a new government. Mahinda Rajapaksa signed a letter of resignation at his residence in Colombo, flanked by members of his party and blessed by Buddhist and other religious leaders in the presence of the media. It was not immediately clear if the letter had been handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena. Mr Rajapaksa said in a statement: “Since I have no intention of remaining as prime minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the president in any way, I will resign from the position of prime minister and make way for the president to form a new government.” He was to deliver an address to the nation later on Saturday in which he was expected to explain his resignation. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, a politician close to Mr Rajapaksa, told reporters on Friday that Mr Rajapaksa had decided to step down to end a crisis that began in October when Mr Sirisena sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Mr Sirisena then named Mr Rajapaksa the new premier, but Parliament twice rejected the appointment. Mr Rajapaksa’s resignation came a day after the Supreme Court extended a lower court’s suspension of him and his Cabinet. The top court put off the next hearing until mid-January, when it plans to rule on whether they should hold office after losing two no-confidence votes in Parliament. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks and is facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year if a new government is not appointed quickly. The country runs the risk of being unable to use state funds from January 1 if there is no government to approve the budget. It also has a foreign debt repayment of 1 billion US dollars (£794 million) due in early January, and it is unclear if it can be serviced without a lawful finance minister. Mr Rajapaksa is a former strongman president who is considered by some as a war hero for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after a long civil war. But he lost a 2015 re-election bid amid allegations of wartime atrocities, corruption and nepotism. After his appointment as prime minister, he sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Mr Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called new elections, but the Supreme Court struck down the move as unconstitutional. Mr Sirisena has repeatedly rejected appeals to reappoint Mr Wickremesinghe as prime minister, but has invited Mr Wickremesinghe, who has the support of 117 politicians in Parliament, to form a government.[SEP]Colombo, Dec 16: Sri Lanka's sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was reinstated on Sunday, a legislator said, ending a 51-day political crisis in the island nation. Wickremesinghe's comeback is an embarrassment for President Maithripala Sirisena, who replaced him with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa following differences over policymaking and other issues. However, Rajapaksa failed to win a parliamentary majority and resigned on Saturday as a government shutdown loomed. Also Read | Mahinda Rajapaksa resigns as Prime minister of Sri Lanka The President removed Wickremesinghe from the post of Prime Minister on October 26 and appointed former president Rajapaksa as the Premier, plunging the country into an unprecedented crisis. Wickremesinghe refused to accept the sacking and challenged it in a court and in the Parliament. The apex court on Friday refused to stay a court order restraining Rajapaksa, 73, from holding the office of Prime Minister until it fully heard the case next month.[SEP]COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's president reappointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister on Sunday, nearly two months after firing him and setting off a long political stalemate in the South Asian island nation. The move promises to ease the crisis, but could also be the beginning of a difficult cohabitation between Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena, who are now in rival camps. A new Cabinet is expected to be sworn in soon. Wickremesinghe's United National Party said on its official Twitter account that Wickremesinghe took the oath before Sirisena. The swearing in took place privately, with only a few lawmakers in attendance. "Now I will assume duties of the office of prime minister," Wickremesinghe told cheering supporters gathered at his official residence after he was sworn in. "Unfortunately, during the past few weeks, the progress of this country and the development programs that we undertook were stalled," he said. "Not only that, the country went backward. Today we commit firstly to bring back normalcy and resuming the development program." Sirisena abruptly dismissed Wickremesinghe on Oct. 26 and appointed former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place. Wickremesinghe insisted his removal was unlawful. Rajapaksa, meanwhile, failed to get Parliament's approval, losing two no-confidence votes. Still, Rajapaksa continued to hold office with Sirisena's support, and his opponents went to court. The Court of Appeal suspended Rajapaksa and his Cabinet from functioning in their offices. Rajapaksa asked the Supreme Court to lift the suspension, but it refused and extended the suspension until mid-January, forcing Rajapaksa to resign on Saturday. Sri Lanka had been without a government from the time Rajapaksa was suspended by the Court of Appeal and was facing the danger of being unable to spend government money from Jan. 1 without a budget. It is also committed to repay $1 billion in foreign debts in January. "We can be proud of the way our Parliament and Supreme Court did their duties according to the law," Wickremesinghe said Sunday, adding that the Supreme Court had strengthened the freedom of the citizens by interpreting the law accurately. "We all need a normal life, we need our progress and it is to this that we are committed," he said. Sirisena was health minister in Rajapaksa's Cabinet when he defected to join Wickremesinghe and challenge Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election. After winning the election, he formed a government with Wickremesinghe as prime minister, but the two leaders started to have differences. Sirisena opposed Wickremesinghe's liberal economic policies and his moves to investigate alleged abuses during Sri Lanka's long civil war, which ended in 2009. He had insisted on not reappointing Wickremesinghe even though Rajapaksa lost the two no-confidence votes.[SEP]COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s disputed prime minister resigned on Saturday, saying he wanted to end a long political impasse over his appointment and allow the president to form a new government. Mahinda Rajapaksa signed a letter of resignation, flanked by lawmakers from his party and blessed by Buddhist and other religious leaders in the presence of media. It was not immediately clear if the letter had been handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena. “Since I have no intention of remaining as Prime Minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the President in any way, I will resign from the position of Prime Minister and make way for the President to form a new government,” Rajapaksa said in a statement. He was to deliver an address to the nation later Saturday in which he was expected to explain his resignation. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, a lawmaker close to Rajapaksa, told reporters on Friday that Rajapaksa had decided to step down to end a crisis that began in October when Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Sirisena then named Rajapaksa the new prime minister, but Parliament twice rejected the appointment. Rajapaksa’s resignation came a day after the Supreme Court extended a lower court’s suspension of Rajapaksa and his Cabinet. The top court put off the next hearing until mid-January, when it plans to rule on whether they should hold office after losing two no-confidence votes in Parliament. Sri Lanka has had no functioning government for nearly two weeks and is facing the prospect of being unable to pass a budget for next year if a new government is not appointed quickly. The country runs the risk of being unable to use state funds from Jan. 1 if there is no government to approve the budget. It also has a foreign debt repayment of $1 billion due in early January, and it is unclear if it can be serviced without a lawful finance minister. Rajapaksa is a former strongman president who is considered by some as a war hero for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 after a long civil war. But he lost a 2015 re-election bid amid allegations of wartime atrocities, corruption and nepotism. After his appointment as prime minister, he sought to secure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed. Sirisena then dissolved Parliament and called new elections, but the Supreme Court struck down the move as unconstitutional. Sirisena has repeatedly rejected appeals to reappoint Wickremesinghe as prime minister, but has invited Wickremesinghe, who has the support of 117 lawmakers in Parliament, to form a government.[SEP]Sri Lanka's disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigns, saying he wants to end political impasse COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigns, saying he wants to end political impasse.

Ranil Wickremesinghe is sworn in as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

Salome Zurabishvili was sworn in as Georgia's first female president on Sunday. Her inauguration marks the start of a new constitution which transforms her post into a largely ceremonial role. Paris-born Zurabishvili won a run-off vote last month with 59.6 percent of the ballot, according to the Central Election Commission. Turnout was 56.23 percent. Sunday's ceremony took place in the courtyard of an 18th-century manor that belonged to Georgia's penultimate king, Heraclius II. Read more: Georgia's first female president Attendees included former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered a ceasefire deal during Georgia's 2008 war with Russia Path to Europe Zurabishvili said in her inaugural speech that she would use her experience in France's diplomatic service, and previous role as Georgia's foreign minister, to promote her nation's aspirations to join the European Union and the NATO transatlantic military alliance. "The goal of my presidency is to make Georgia's democratic development and its path toward Europe irreversible," said the 66-year-old. "I will facilitate this process with the support of our strategic partner, the United States of America, and our European friends." Georgia signed an association agreement with the EU in 2014 as part of its efforts to diversify economic ties. Read more: EU offers Eastern Partnership members money, motivation Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea Georgia, melting pot of cultures Multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious: This is Georgia. The breathtakingly beautiful country between the Caucasus and the Black Sea is one of the oldest settlement areas of mankind. Today about 3.7 million people live in this small country with its magnificent nature and culture. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea The capital Tiblisi The metropolis of Tbilisi is Georgia's cultural centre. And it has been since the 5th century. The city has known Roman, Arab, Turkish, Persian and other conquerors. Russia invaded Georgia in 1799 and remained there until the end of the Soviet era. They all left their traces. Tbilisi celebrates the present day with new constructions such as the Peace Bridge and the Concert Hall (right). Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea Old town and fortress Since the 3rd century, the Narikala fortress has kept watch over the old town with the typical balconies and carvings on the houses. The panorama path up to the fortress leads through a labyrinth of alleys. The massive castle has seen conquerors come and go, was destroyed and rebuilt again and again. Only a lightning strike in the powder warehouse (1827) turned it into a ruin. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea Where the royals resided The Metekhi Virgin Mary Church can be seen on the steep bank of the Kura, which flows through Tbilisi. From the 12th century, the residence of the Georgian kings was located on this site, as is indicated by the equestrian monument next to the church. It depicts King Vakhtang Gorgasali, the founder of Tbilisi. In 1937, under Soviet rule, the residence was demolished. The church survived. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea 700 years of bathing culture The Abanotubani district with its hot thermal springs is considered the oldest part of Tbilisi. The springs have been used for 700 years. The Persian-style bathhouses were built later, in the 17th century. The bathing rooms are located under the domed brick vaults. A number of them are still in use today and are a popular meeting place to bathe and chat. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea 7,000 years of wine cultivation They are called Chinuri, Chichwi or Orbeluri. Grape varieties from Georgia enjoy an excellent reputation. The largest wine-growing areas are in the east of the country, in Kakheti. Archaeological finds prove that wine was cultivated in Georgia over 7,000 years ago. And even this very day wine is cultivated in amphorae. UNESCO declared this method an intangible cultural heritage. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea 70 years of Soviet rule When you travel through the country, you will encounter relics from Soviet era: Houses, factories, monuments or, as here, this viewing platform on a former military road near Kazbegi mountain. All of them stone testimonies. Georgia was part of the Soviet Union for 70 years - until 9 April 1991, when the people voted for independence in a referendum. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea Hiking in the Caucasus The most diverse landscapes and climate zones are concentrated in the most compact area; from the mountain villages of the Caucasus to the beaches of the Black Sea. Almost half of Georgia is covered with forest. Two thirds of the country is mountainous, with several 5,000 meter (16,404 ft) peaks. Numerous nature reserves and national parks make Georgia a worthwhile destination for hikers. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea A remote UNESCO World Heritage Site 2,200 meters above sea level, in the Great Caucasus, lies Ushguli - "Courageous Heart"; a community of four villages with roots dating back to the 16th century BC. Ushguli is considered to be the highest situated permanently inhabited place in Europe. Since 1996, the villages with their characteristic fortified towers have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea Vardzia – city in the rock Up to 50,000 people lived in the cave town of Vardzia. It lies in the south of Georgia. It was built in the 12th century as a fortress to defend against Turks and Persians. It was carved by hand with simple tools into a 500 meter high rock face, seven storeys above each other. There were bakeries, stables, a treasury and a church. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea The old capital of Kutaisi 160 kilometers from the Black Sea coast lies the old capital of Georgia, Kutaisi. It was the residence of the Georgian kings from the 10th century until 1122. Many are buried here. Churches, monasteries, palace ruins and the well-preserved medieval townscape make this city worth a visit. Today it is the economic and cultural center of West Georgia. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea Coastal town of Batumi The Black Sea coast. The climate is mild Mediterranean. The port city of Batumi, the third largest city in Georgia, beckons you to take a stroll along the beach. The promenade is flanked by art objects. It is not the only contrast. Between the derelict residential buildings, huge malls and luxury residential buildings are being built. A well-known real estate mogul has invested here: Donald Trump. Georgia - a holiday destination between the Caucasus and the Black Sea Hospitality & traditions More than twenty different ethnic groups live in Georgia, including Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Arameans, Jews and Greeks. They brought their traditions and customs with them. And the Georgians? They love their own traditions and do not miss a single festival to wear their traditional costumes. They celebrate passionately - with traditional music and dances. Folk festivals are always a spectacle. Author: Anne Termèche (sbc) Potatoes and protests Opposition parties had denounced her victory as fraudulent. Opposition supporters marched with sacks of onions and potatoes on Sunday to mock what they claim were government efforts to bribe voters by handing out free vegetables. Police blocked a convoy of cars and buses, which stretched for kilometers, on the road leading from the capital Tbilisi to the medieval town of Telavi, where Zurabishvili's ceremony was held. Clashes erupted between police officers and protesters as they tried to break through police ranks, reported the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 broadcaster. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors elections, said the election was administered well, but that state resources were misused in the campaign and "one side enjoyed an undue advantage." kw/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters) Watch video 26:04 Share Arts.21 - The Cultural Magazine Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/36T8F Arts.21 - The Cultural Magazine 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]Salome Zurabishvili was sworn in as the president of Georgia on December 16 after she won a runoff last month. The French-born candidate supported by the ruling Georgian Dream party becomes the first woman to hold the office in the Caucasian country. Outgoing President Giorgi Margvelashvili and the ailing Patriarch Ilia II, head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, also took part in the inauguration ceremony in the historic town of Telavi.[SEP]Georgia's first female president has been sworn in on Sunday after being elected with over 59 percent of the votes in late November. The oath-taking ceremony of the country’s first woman president Salome Zurabishvili was attended by Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Azerbaijan's Parliament Speaker Oktay Asadov were also among the participants. Zurabishvili, the fifth president of Georgia, said: "Georgia is facing big problems. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are under Russia's occupation." She called on Russia to recognize all international legal rights of Georgia and said it was a must for normal neighboring relations. After attending the ceremony, the Turkish vice president met Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze at the King Erekle II Palace and invited him to a High-Level Cooperation Council meeting in Turkey that will be held in first quarter of 2019. During the closed-door meeting, they discussed bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries. They agreed that recent energy and transportation lines have improved cooperation between Turkey and Georgia. Oktay and Bakhtadze also agreed to increase continuation of economic cooperation and joint projects. Later in day, Oktay also met Azerbaijan’s parliament speaker. They said the close relation between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev boosted bilateral ties. This article has been adapted from its original source.[SEP]VELISTSIKHE, GEORGIA—The first woman president of Georgia has been sworn into office amid continued protests from opposition figures who allege her election was tainted. President Salome Zurabishvili said during her inauguration speech on Sunday that she would work "to promote our country's integration process into NATO and the EU."[SEP]President-elect Salome Zurabishvili was sworn into office on Sunday in Telavi, Georgia. A former foreign minister, she was backed by the ruling Georgia Dream-Democratic Georgia Party and won nearly 60 percent of the votes in a runoff against Grigol Vashadze on November 28. A number of supporters of former President Mikheil Saakshvili were involved in scuffles with police as they were heading to Telavi to hold a protest rally there.[SEP](VELISTSIKHE, Georgia) — The first woman president of Georgia has been sworn into office amid continued protests from opposition figures who allege her election was tainted. President Salome Zurabishvili said during her inauguration speech on Sunday that she would work “to promote our country’s integration process into NATO and the EU.” Opposition activists clashed with police after authorities blocked access to the inauguration’s venue in the city of Telavi. Zurabishvili, a French-born former foreign minister, won a November 28 runoff against opposition candidate Grigol Vashadze. The government favored her in the race. The opposition alleges gross electoral violations occurred during the presidential election that make the outcome illegitimate. Observers for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have said the government was overly involved in the election campaign.[SEP]NONGPOH: The KSU, Nongpoh Circle, on Saturday elected new office bearers for 2018-21 at a function held at the Sajer Community Hall in Ri Bhoi. The newly-elected office bearers include its president, Bapynshngain Lyngdoh, vice president, Elevenson Makdoh, general secretary, Ronald Khongjoh besides others.[SEP]TELAVI, Georgia: Georgia on Sunday swore in its first female president, Salome Zurabishvili as opposition parties continue to denounce her election as fraudulent and demand snap parliamentary polls. The inauguration paved the way for a new constitution to come into force, transforming the country into a parliamentary republic with a largely ceremonial president. The event was held in the mediaeval town of Telavi in Georgia´s eastern winemaking region of Kakheti. French-born Zurabishvili, 66, took the oath of office in the courtyard of an 18th-century manor that belonged to Georgia´s penultimate king Heraclius II. "The goal of my presidency is to make Georgia´s democratic development and its path towards Europe irreversible," she said in an inaugural speech. "I will facilitate this process with the support of our strategic partner, the United States of America, and our European friends," she said. Opposition parties have refused to recognise Zurabishvili´s election and tried to hold a protest rally outside the royal residence. But the plan was thwarted by police, who on Sunday morning blocked a kilometres-long opposition motorcade on a road leading from the capital Tbilisi to Telavi. Pro-opposition Rustavi-2 TV channel reported that clashes briefly erupted between police officers and protesters as they tried to break through police ranks. Zurabishvili was elected as the ex-Soviet nation´s president last month. She defeated Grigol Vashadze, the candidate of an 11-party opposition alliance led by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili´s United National Movement. She was backed in the election by the ruling Georgian Dream party of Georgia´s ex-premier and billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili. Ivanishvili, Georgia´s richest man, stepped down as prime minister in 2013 after just a year in office but is still widely believed to be Georgia´s de facto ruler. His critics accuse him of "state capture". Former French diplomat Zurabishvili has said her election was a step forward for women and a move closer to Europe.[SEP]Telavi, Georgia: Georgia on Sunday swore in its first female president, Salome Zurabishvili as opposition parties continue to denounce her election as fraudulent and demand snap parliamentary polls. The inauguration paved the way for a new constitution to come into force, transforming the country into a parliamentary republic with a largely ceremonial president. The event was held in the mediaeval town of Telavi in Georgia´s eastern winemaking region of Kakheti. French-born Zurabishvili, 66, took the oath of office in the courtyard of an 18th-century manor that belonged to Georgia´s penultimate king Heraclius II. "The goal of my presidency is to make Georgia´s democratic development and its path towards Europe irreversible," she said in an inaugural speech. "I will facilitate this process with the support of our strategic partner, the United States of America, and our European friends," she said. Opposition parties have refused to recognise Zurabishvili´s election last month and tried to hold a protest rally outside the royal residence. But the plan was thwarted by police, who on Sunday morning blocked a kilometres-long opposition motorcade on a road leading from the capital Tbilisi to Telavi. Pro-opposition Rustavi-2 TV channel reported that clashes briefly erupted between police officers and protesters as they tried to break through police ranks. "Georgian Dream has taken away our constitution, our state institutions, our freedom of expression," defeated candidate Grigol Vashadze told journalists after a failed attempt to stage a protest in Telavi. Vashadze was the candidate of an 11-party opposition alliance led by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili´s United National Movement. Zurabishvili was backed in the election by the ruling Georgian Dream party of Georgia´s ex-premier and billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili. Ivanishvili, Georgia´s richest man, stepped down as prime minister in 2013 after just a year in office but is still widely believed to be Georgia´s de facto ruler. His critics accuse him of "state capture" as his loyalists hold key cabinet posts. Former French diplomat Zurabishvili has said her election was a step forward for women and a move closer to Europe. But opposition parties have refused to accept the result, pointing to instances of alleged vote-buying, multiple voting, voter intimidation, and ballot-stuffing in the November 28 election. On December 2, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets in Tbilisi against the election result, demanding snap parliamentary polls. Georgia´s leading rights groups denounced the electoral irregularities, which the US State Department said were "not consistent with the country´s commitment to fully fair and transparent elections." Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that while the election was "competitive" and candidates campaigned freely, it was concerned over "the misuse of state resources" by the ruling party. In what critics derided as "vote-buying" ahead of the election, Ivanishvili promised the government would drastically increase social spending and pledged to spend his own money to write off the bank loans of more than 600,000 people. Zurabishvili was born in France to a Georgian family who fled the Bolshevik regime to Paris in 1921. She studied international relations at the prestigious Paris Institute of Political Sciences before a 30-year career as a French diplomat, with postings to the United Nations, Washington and Chad. Her career in French diplomacy culminated in a posting to Tbilisi, where then-president Saakashvili appointed her as foreign minister. But Zurabishvili quickly made enemies in the ranks of the parliamentary majority, with MPs and a number of senior diplomats publicly accusing her of arrogance. She was sacked in 2005 after a year on the job, though thousands took to the streets of the capital to protest her dismissal. She then joined the opposition as a member of parliament and became one of Saakashvili´s fiercest critics. In her book "A Woman for Two Countries", published in France after her firing, she wrote: "Now, I have to engage in a political battle, which has never attracted me, which I never practised, which is being imposed on me." Zurabishvili will be Georgia´s last directly elected president as the country transitions to a parliamentary form of governance following a controversial constitutional reform. The Caucasus country´s next president will be elected in 2024 by a 300-member electoral college. Adopted in September 2017, the constitutional change was protested by all opposition parties which denounced it as favouring the ruling party.[SEP](Civil.Ge) — Salome Zurabishvili, 66, was sworn in as Georgia’s fifth president for a six-year term on December 16 in an oath-taking ceremony in the eastern Georgian town of Telavi. “I, the President of Georgia, before the God and the Nation, declare to observe the Constitution of Georgia, defend the independence, unity and indivisibility of the country, to perform faithfully the duties of the President, to take care for the security and welfare of the citizens of my country and for the revival and might of my nation and homeland,” Zurabishvili said, holding her hand on the Georgian constitution. After the oath-taking, Zurabishvili delivered the inauguration speech in presence of invited guests, foreign dignitaries, government members and lawmakers from the ruling party and Georgian soldiers. President Giorgi Margvelashvili attended the ceremony as well. The oath-taking ceremony marked entry into force of the new constitution, which completes the country’s transition from semi-presidential to parliamentary system of governance. The new constitution will further reduce president’s executive powers, a process launched in the 2010 constitutional amendments and finalized in the 2017 constitutional changes. This also marked the last time the head of state was elected through direct ballot. According to the new constitution, which entered into force upon Zurabishvili’s inauguration, the head of state will be elected by a 300-member Electoral College for a term of five years starting from 2024. A day before the oath-taking ceremony, on December 15, President-elect Salome Zurabishvili laid a wreath at the memorial of fallen Georgian soldiers at Heroes’ Square in Tbilisi. She also visited the Mtatsminda Pantheon, a cemetery of public figures in Tbilisi. The Presidential runoff was held on November 28. The ruling party-backed candidate Salome Zurabishvili obtained 59.52% of the votes, while her challenger – Grigol Vashadze of the United Opposition finished with 40.48% of the votes. Vashadze did not accept the election results, citing mass election fraud.

Salome Zurabishvili takes office as President of Georgia. Zurabishvili is the first woman in office and the last president to be elected by popular vote.

BHUBANESWAR: Pain, tragedy, emotion, drama, tears, will, determination, ambition, happiness, revenge, ecstasy, celebrations. Belgium lived almost each of those moments spread across the last two days; and when their time to rejoice came, God chose to tease them before gifting a success that they deservingly earned from hard work of over a decade. The Red Lions are the new men's hockey world champions. Their opponents, the Netherlands, settle for a painful second consecutive silver in a sudden-death (3-2) defeat.The goal-less regulation period was the first in the history of World Cup finals. But in a game where both the sides put up a defensive masterpiece of epic proportions, none deserved to concede, and it happened that way. It was 0-0 at full-time.The shootout unfolded in a fashion that can give Bollywood its new script. When it seemed the Belgians had won 3-2, technology came to the Dutch rescue. While the red shirts were celebrating in the left corner of the pitch, the video umpire upstairs was checking if the ball hit Arthur de Sloover's foot. It had. Belgium were asked to cut short their celebrations. Pirmin Blaak , the Dutch goalie, was punching the air. 3-2 became 2-2. It was not over yet.That sent the game to sudden death. Florent van Aubel beat Blaak to get Belgium ahead. Jeroen Hertzberger couldn't go past Vincent Vanasch. Now there was no stopping the Belgians. Red became the colour of the day.Simon Gougnard, who had lost his father on the morning of the semifinal against England, was in tears -- and understandably so. Tim Boon's eyes too welled up. This was the unbelievable moment they couldn't live in the 2016 Rio Olympics final against Argentina. On Sunday at the Kalinga Stadium, they ensured it wasn't a miss again. Belgium became the sixth team to win the World Cup.The victory was also a revenge of sorts -- for the 2017 European Championships defeat against the Dutch. The Belgians couldn't have done it on a bigger stage.Three-time champions Netherlands had lost the 2014 final to Australia. They will be dejected, but will accept that the better team won.And Dutch coach Max Caldas couldn't have expressed that in better words."First thing is to be good losers," he said after the match. "Shake the hands, say well done and move on."It was a tough match, a lot of ebb and flow. Belgium dominated the first quarter but couldn't breach the Dutch citadel. When the men in orange upped the ante, the Red Lions displayed their defensive prowess.Netherlands will rue missing the two penalty corners they earned. Belgium got none.Such effective were the two defensive structures that forwards from the both sides struggled to find an opponent's foot in the circle. It was neat tackling at its best.One man who was unperturbed during the shootouts was Belgium coach Shane McLeod. Captain Thomas Briels revealed why."'It (their victory) is written in the stars', he (McLeod) had said before the game," Briels told the media. "Even before the shootout he said it's written in the stars.""It's been a funny day," McLeod said. We had spoken pre-game...if the stars were aligned, we will be winning the World Cup."And the stars were actually aligned.Belgium's Arthur van Doren was named the 'Player of the Tournament', while the rest of the awards were given to:Best goalkeeperBest junior playerTop scorer awardFair play awardFans choice awardMaximum team goalsBest team goal celebration1. Belgium2. Netherlands3. Australia4. England5. Germany6. India7. Argentina8. France9. New Zealand10. China11. Canada12: Pakistan13: Spain14: Ireland15: Malaysia16: South AfricaNo. 6 is India's best finish at a World Cup after No. 5 in 1994 at Sydney, Australia.[SEP]BHUBANESWAR, India — Goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch proved the difference as Belgium beat the Netherlands 3-2 in a shootout to win the men’s field hockey World Cup final on Sunday. Vanasch helped to clinch Belgium’s first title when he forced Jeroen Hertzberger wide and the attacker’s shot went over in sudden death. The penalty shootout at Kalinga Stadium came after neither team had managed to break through in normal time. The Netherlands had knocked out defending two-time champion Australia in an epic semifinal on Saturday, while Belgium demolished England 6-0. It was Belgium’s third straight major final after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and 2017 European championship, where it lost to the Netherlands 4-2.[SEP]A gritty Belgium defeated former champions the Netherlands in sudden death in a thrilling summit clash to win their maiden men’s hockey World Cup title at the Kalinga Stadium in BHubaneswar on Sunday. Olympic silver medallist Belgium created history by eking out a 3-2 win in the penalty shoot-out after the final match of the game’s showpiece event ended in a goalless draw. It was a great day for Belgium hockey as the country registered its second biggest international title after the Olympics silver in Rio in 2016. In the last edition of the World Cup at The Hague in Netherlands, Belgium had finished fifth. The Netherlands, on the other hand, failed to match Pakistan’s record of a fourth world title for the second consecutive edition. The Dutch had finished runners-up to Australia four years ago in front of their home crowd. They last won a World Cup title way back in 1998 in Utrecht. Incidentally, it was the Netherlands’ second consecutive match that went to shoot-out in the tournament after their victory over Australia in the semi-finals on Saturday. In Sunday’s shoot-out, Belgium goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch outmatched his Dutch counterpart Pirmin Blaak by making four saves to hand his side their maiden World Cup title. There was hardly anything to separate the two sides in the shoot-out as they were levelled 2-2 after five tries. While Jeroen Hertzberger and Jonas de Geus scored for Netherlands, Florent van Aubel and Victor Wegnez were on target for Belgium. However, the shoot-out was not without drama as Belgium needed Arthur de Sloover to score from their fifth and last attempt to win the game and he did so, sending the Red Lions bench into wild celebrations. But the Dutch goalkeeper asked for a referral for a foot and the goal was later withdrawn after TV replays showed the ball indeed touch De Sloover’s feet while he was pushing it into the net past Blaak. The reversal meant that the match went into sudden death and Van Aubel was given the responsibility by Belgium to take the first opportunity and he duly converted it. It was then Netherlands’ turn to score and continue the sudden death but Hertzberger faltered this time as Belgium goalkeeper Vanasch came up with another brilliant save to hand his side the biggest win of their careers. Earlier in the day, Australia thrashed England 8-1 to claim the bronze medal. The title clash, which was witnessed by none other than cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, turned out to be a fierce contest between the two European sides. While the Netherlands took the early initiative and attacked continuously in the first two quarters, Belgium made a strong comeback after the change of ends. Belgium, though, had the first chance but Tom Boon’s deflection in the second minute went just wide. Minutes later, Hertzberger’s reverse struck the side-netting. It was a midfield slugfest between the two teams as both created chances but lacked the final touch inside the opposition circle. The Netherlands had two penalty corners in the match but the Red Lions defended stoutly to deny them any inroads. Belgium, on the other hand, failed to secure a single penalty corner in the game. Two minutes after half time, Belgium skipper Thomas Briels’ shot was saved by Dutch goalie Blaak. Belgium pressed hard in the final 10 minutes of the game, putting relentless pressure on the Dutch defence but a breakthrough eluded them.[SEP]Olympic silver medallists Belgium beat three-time champions the Netherlands via shootout in the final of the 2018 FIH Men's Hockey World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar on Sunday. The regulation time of the intense all-European final ended goalless, forcing the penalty shootout. In the shootout, three Belgian players converted from the spot, while only two Dutch players managed to beat the opposition goalie. In the semis, Belgium beat England 6-0, while the Netherlands beat India 3-1. This was the first time Belgium had managed to go past the semi-final stage, and they have lifted the most prestigious trophy in field hockey in their first ever final. Ranked third in the world, Belgium's tournament proper actually started in the second round. They finished second to hosts India in Pool C, then in the crossover, they defeated the most successful team in the tournament's history and four-time winners Pakistan 5-0, which was followed by the mauling of England. Then, in the final, they beat neighbours and second-most successful team. Earlier in the evening, history chasing Australia defeated England 8-1 in a one-sided third-place play-off to claim the bronze medal. In the last edition of the World Cup at The Hague in the Netherlands, Belgium had finished fifth. The Netherlands failed to match Pakistan's record of a fourth world title for the second consecutive edition. The Dutch had finished runners-up to Australia four years ago in front of their home crowd. They last won a World Cup title way back in 1998 in Utrecht. Incidentally, it was the Netherlands' second consecutive match that went to shootout in the tournament after their victory over Australia in the semi-finals on Saturday. In Sunday's shoot-out, Belgium goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch outmatched his Dutch counterpart Pirmin Blaak by making four saves to hand his side their maiden World Cup title. There was hardly anything to separate the two sides in the shoot-out as they were levelled 2-2 after five tries. While Jeroen Hertzberger and Jonas de Geus scored for the Netherlands, Florent van Aubel and Victor Wegnez were on target for Belgium. However, the shoot-out was not without drama as Belgium needed Arthur de Sloover to score from their fifth and last attempt to win the game and he did so, sending the Red Lions bench into wild celebrations. But the Dutch goalkeeper asked for a referral for a foot and the goal was later withdrawn after TV replays showed the ball indeed touch De Sloover's feet while he was pushing it into the net past Blaak. The reversal meant that the match went into sudden death and Van Aubel was given the responsibility by Belgium to take the first opportunity and he duly converted it. It was then Netherlands' turn to score and continue the sudden death but Hertzberger faltered this time as Belgium goalkeeper Vanasch came up with another brilliant save to hand his side the biggest win of their careers. The title clash, which was witnessed by none other than cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, turned out to be a fierce contest between the two European sides. While the Netherlands took the early initiative and attacked continuously in the first two quarters, Belgium made a strong comeback after the change of ends. Belgium, though, had the first chance but Tom Boon's deflection in the second minute went just wide. Minutes later, Hertzberger's reverse struck the side-netting. It was a midfield slugfest between the two teams as both created chances but lacked the final touch inside the opposition circle. The Netherlands had two penalty corners in the match but the Red Lions defended stoutly to deny them any inroads. Belgium, on the other hand, failed to secure a single penalty corner in the game. Two minutes after half time, Belgium skipper Thomas Briels' shot was saved by Dutch goalie Blaak. Belgium pressed hard in the final 10 minutes of the game, putting relentless pressure on the Dutch defence but a breakthrough eluded them.[SEP]Bhubaneswar: Belgium defeated Netherlands in the final to clinch Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018 title at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. With this, Belgium became the World Champion for the first time and the sixth team to win the Hockey World Cup. After both the teams failed to score in the regulation time, the final match ended in the penalty shootout 3-2 in favour of Belgium. For Belgium, Florent Van Aubel struck twice in the shootout while Victor Wegnez was on target once. Meanwhile, for the Netherlands Jeroen Hertzberger and Jonas de Geus scored once each. Netherlands lost the chance to win the fourth title. On the other hand, Pakistan still hold the record of most Hockey World Cup wins even though they won its last final in 1994.[SEP]Olympic silver medallists Belgium edged past three-time champions Netherlands 0(3)-0(2) via sudden death to win the FIH Hockey World Cup title at the Kalinga Stadium here on Sunday. Both teams failed to score in the regulation time and the match went to penalty shoot-outs in which Belgium proved superior. This is Belgium’s first ever World Cup title.[SEP]In the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018 Belgium defeated the Netherlands 3-2 in sudden death. Both the teams were at level 2-2 after five penalties. Belgium and the Netherlands were goal-less at full time. Australia and Germany had won two titles apiece since 2002. The three-time world champions Netherlands last won the title 20 years ago.[SEP]Belgium's national team won the 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup title for the first time in history, proving victor in the final match following a penalty shootout against the Netherlands, which finished 3-2 after a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation time. The Red Devils managed to frustrate the Netherlands offense, especially in the first quarter.[SEP]NEW DELHI: Belgium won a tense penalty shootout 3-2 against three-times champions Netherlands to win their first men's hockey World Cup title at Bhubaneswar's Kalinga Stadium on Sunday (Dec 16). A goalless stalemate in regulation time forced the shootout which also resulted in a 2-2 deadlock after five penalties each. Florent van Aubel then converted to put Belgium ahead before the Netherlands' Jeroen Hertzberger shot wide to dash their hopes of a fourth title as Belgium became the sixth nation to win the World Cup.[SEP]Belgium routed England 6-0 here Saturday to advance to a showdown in the field hockey World Cup final against the Netherlands, who had to dig deep to prevail over Australia in a penalty shootout after the teams were tied 2-2 at the end of regulation. Belgium, the Olympic silver medalists, controlled the game from start to finish and scored in each quarter, with Tom Boon getting his team on the board eight minutes into the contest.

In field hockey, Belgium wins the title, defeating the Netherlands 3–2 in a sudden death shootout. After regular playing time, the score was 0–0.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The US says it is committed to eradicating al-Shabab safe havens in Somalia The US military says it has killed 62 fighters from the Islamist group al-Shabab in six air strikes in Somalia. Four air strikes on Saturday killed 32 militants and a further two on Sunday killed 28, it said in a statement. These were the deadliest air attacks in Somalia since November 2017 when the US said it had killed 100 militants. Somalia has seen a sharp increase in the number of air strikes and casualties since President Donald Trump took office in the US in January 2017. A tally by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that at least 400 people have been killed in air strikes since the beginning of 2017, far more than the previous 10 years combined. The latest strikes bring to at least 40 the number carried out in Somalia so far this year, compared with 35 recorded in 2017. The US has a huge military base in neighbouring Djibouti, from where it launches attacks on the militants. Mr Trump gave the US military greater authority in March 2017 to attack militants in Somalia. Traditionally, US presidents have been wary of intervening in Somalia since 18 special forces soldiers died fighting militias in the capital Mogadishu in 1993, a battle dramatised in the film Black Hawk Down. 'Terrorist safe haven' No civilians were killed in the latest air strikes, which were carried out in co-ordination with the Somali government, the US military said. "Alongside our Somali and international partners, we are committed to preventing al-Shabab from taking advantage of safe havens from which they can build capacity and attack the people of Somalia," the US Africa Command said. Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has not yet commented on the latest strikes. Somalia-based security think tank the Hiraal Institute said in a report published in November that al-Shabab had been forced to change tactics following the upsurge in air strikes. The institute said the group was now conducting fewer mass attacks on military bases, but attacks on government offices and businesses which refused to pay it taxes had increased markedly. The US state department, in its most recent report on terrorism, described Somalia as a "terrorist safe haven" and said al-Shabab remained a threat, despite suffering setbacks. The group retained control over large parts of the country, and the ability to carry out high-profile attacks using suicide bombers, explosive devices, mortars and small arms, the report added.[SEP]The US has killed 62 militants in six air strikes in Somalia's south-central Banaadir province, the country's military says. The Africa Command (Africom) says four strikes were carried out on Saturday near Gandarsh, killing 34 militants, and two more on Sunday, which killed 28. "Africa Command and our Somali partners conducted these air strikes to prevent terrorists from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire and recruit for future attacks," Africom said in a statement. The air strikes, among the deadliest this year, did not kill any civilians, the statement said. The United States carries out regular air strikes in Somalia in support of a UN-backed government there, which has been fighting against an al-Shabaab insurgency for years. Last month, the US military said it had killed 37 militants. In Washington, the Pentagon cited 45 strikes against al-Shabaab militants this year after 35 strikes in 2017. As of August 2018, the Pentagon believes there were 3000 to 7000 al-Shabaab fighters and 70 to 250 Islamic State militants in Somalia, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning said during a media briefing.[SEP]NAIROBI: The U.S. military said on Monday it had killed 62 militants in six air strikes over the weekend in the vicinity of Gandarsh in Somalia's south-central Banaadir province. The military's Africa Command (Africom) said four strikes were carried out on Saturday, killing 34 militants, and two more on Sunday, which killed 28. "Africa Command and our Somali partners conducted these air strikes to prevent terrorists from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire and recruit for future attacks," Africom said in a statement. The air strikes, among the deadliest this year, did not kill any civilians, the statement said. "At this time we assess these air strikes did not injure or kill any civilians." The United States carries out regular air strikes in Somalia in support of a U.N.-backed government there, which has been fighting against an al Shabaab insurgency for years. Last month, the U.S. military said it had killed 37 militants. In Washington, the Pentagon cited 45 strikes against al Shabaab militants this year, after 35 strikes in 2017. As of August 2018, the Pentagon believes there were 3,000 to 7,000 al Shabaab fighters and 70 to 250 Islamic State militants in Somalia, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning said during a press briefing.[SEP]Washington, United States | AFP | The US military said Monday it has killed 62 militants from the jihadist Shabaab movement in six air strikes in Somalia. Four strikes on Saturday killed 34 militants and another two on Sunday killed 28, the US Africa Command said in a statement. The air attacks, in a coastal region south of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, were the deadliest in the country since November last year when the US said it had killed 100 militants. The strikes were conducted with “our Somali partners to prevent terrorists from using remote areas as safe havens to plot, direct, inspire and recruit for future attacks,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said, noting that no civilians had been killed or injured. The action brings to 45 the number of strikes the Pentagon has conducted against Shabaab so far in 2018, Manning said. Last year, the figure was 35. Manning attributed the increase to operations becoming more “efficient.” “We’re getting better. And because we’re getting better we’re able to … find, fix and eliminate those terrorist organizations,” Manning said. The surge in US operations in Somalia came after President Donald Trump in March 2017 loosened the constraints on the US military to take actions against alleged terrorists when they judge it is needed, without seeking specific White House approval. American forces are partnering with African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali national security forces in counterterrorism operations, and have conducted frequent raids and drone strikes on Shabaab training camps throughout Somalia. As of August, the Pentagon assesses there to be between 3,000 and 7,000 Shabaab fighters and 70 to 250 Islamic State Somalia fighters in the Horn of Africa nation.[SEP]NAIROBI (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday it had killed 62 militants in six air strikes on Saturday and Sunday in the vicinity of Gandarsh in Somalia’s south-central Banaadir province. The military’s Africa Command (Africom) said four strikes were carried out on Saturday, killing 34 militants, and two more on Sunday, which killed 28. “Africa Command and our Somali partners conducted these air strikes to prevent terrorists from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire and recruit for future attacks,” Africom said in a statement. The air strikes, among the deadliest this year, did not kill any civilians, the statement said. “At this time we assess these air strikes did not injure or kill any civilians.” The United States carries out regular air strikes in Somalia in support of a U.N.-backed government there, which has been fighting against an al Shabaab insurgency for years. Last month, the U.S. military said it had killed 37 militants.[SEP]The U.S. military over the weekend unleashed an intense air assault targeting al-Shabaab militants in Somalia, killing at least 62 in a series of strikes aimed at denying the terrorist group a safe haven from which to launch attacks. The strikes in the Gandarshe region of Somalia — which mark the latest step in a growing U.S.-led military campaign targeting the terrorist group in Africa — were conducted in coordination with the Somali government, U.S. Africa Command said in a statement early Monday morning. At least 34 militants were killed on Saturday and another 28 killed Sunday, Pentagon officials said. The military said no civilians were killed or injured in any of the six separate bombings. “All six airstrikes … targeted a known al-Shabaab encampment,” U.S. Africa Command said in the statement. “U.S. Africa Command and our Somali partners conducted these airstrikes to prevent terrorists from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire, and recruit for future attacks.” “We are committed to preventing al-Shabaab from taking advantage of safe havens from which they can build capacity and attack the people of Somalia,” the U.S. military said. “In particular, the group uses portions of southern and central Somalia to plot and direct terror attacks, steal humanitarian aid, extort the local populace to fund its operations, and shelter radical terrorists.” The U.S. in recent months has ramped up its air campaign against the terrorist group, which is affiliated with al Qaeda. There are estimated to be as many as 9,000 al-Shabaab fighters across Somalia. In addition to the continuing air strikes, there have also been clashes between al-Shabaab fighters and U.S. forces on the ground in Somalia. Last June, an American soldier was killed and another four wounded in a firefight with militants in southwestern Somalia.[SEP]The U.S. military says it carried out six airstrikes in the Gandarshe area of Somalia over the weekend, killing dozens of al-Shabaab rebels. Four of the strikes took place on Dec. 15, killing 34 people. Two more were conducted on Dec. 16, killing 28. The air attacks targeted Gandarshe, south of the capital, Mogadishu, the military said. No civilians were injured or killed in the attacks, it said. The strikes were carried out in close co-ordination with Somalia's government and were "conducted to prevent al-Shabaab from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire, and recruit for future attacks," said the U.S. military statement. The military's comments about the number of dead and that no civilians were killed haven't been independently verified. Al-Shabab uses parts of southern and central Somalia to plot and direct extremist attacks, steal humanitarian aid, extort the local populace to fund its operations, and shelter radicals, said U.S. military statement. With these attacks, the military has carried out at least 46 airstrikes this year against al-Shabaab, which is allied with al-Qaeda and is Africa's most active Islamic militant group. Al-Shabaab controls parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to stage deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other cities. The United States carries out regular airstrikes in Somalia in support of a UN-backed government there, which has been fighting against an al Shabaab insurgency for years. American airstrikes have picked up dramatically since U.S. President Donald Trump took office and approved expanded military operations in the Horn of Africa country. U.S. airstrikes have also targeted a small presence of fighters linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Several years ago, al-Shabab controlled large swaths of Somalia, including much of the capital city. The African Union forces succeeded in pushing the extremists from Mogadishu and most other major cities. However, al-Shabab continues to be active in Somalia's rural areas and launches suicide car bomb attacks in the capital. In October last year, a massive truck bomb killed more than 500 people.[SEP]U.S. airstrikes killed 62 militants in Somalia over the weekend, the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) said Monday. Six airstrikes against the Al-Qaeda affiliated al Shabaab group were carried out near the capital Mogadishu on Saturday and Sunday. “At this time we assess these airstrikes did not injure or kill any civilians,” Africom said in a statement. The airstrikes are amongst the deadliest this year, and are part of a military escalation in the east African country led by the Trump Administration with the support of the Somali government and the African Union, which has security forces stationed there. Somalia’s U.N.-backed government is at war with al Shabaab, which controls parts of the country. The group is suspected of carrying out a massive truck bombing in October 2017 which killed at least 587 people and wounded many more. The group also has a growing presence in Kenya. “Alongside our Somali and international partners, we are committed to preventing al Shabaab from taking advantage of safe havens,” Africom said in a statement on Monday. More than 500 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Somalia. However the U.S. has said its long-term aim is to transfer responsibility for security to the Somali government.[SEP]About 62 militants from the jihadist al-Shabab movement have been killed following six air strikes by the US Military in Somalia. The US military said Monday that four strikes on Saturday killed 34 militants and another two on Sunday killed 28. READ ALSO: Six Killed, 100 Injured As Fire Guts Hospital In Mumbai The air attacks, in a coastal region south of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, were the deadliest in the country since November last year when the US said it had killed 100 militants. According to a statement by the US Africa Command, all six airstrikes were “conducted to prevent al-Shabab from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire, and recruit for future attacks,”.[SEP]NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 17- Some 62 Al-Shabaab militants have been killed in Somalia during 6 air strikes by the United States forces. The airstrikes that were launched between Friday and Saturday last week targeted the militants within the vicinity of Gandarshe. The first airstrikes claimed the lives of 34 militants while 28 others were killed on Saturday according to a statement issued by the Germany based US-Africa Command. “Alongside our Somali and international partners, we are committed to preventing al-Shabaab from taking advantage of safe havens from which they can build capacity and attack the people of Somalia. In particular, the group uses portions of southern and central Somalia to plot and direct terror attacks, steal humanitarian aid, extort the local populace to fund its operations, and shelter radical terrorists,” the US-Africa command said in a statement. In the past, the US forces have been accused of killing civilians during such airstrikes, but none was killed according to a preliminary assessment, the Command says. Together with other AMISOM forces, the US said it conducted the airstrikes to prevent terrorists from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire, and recruit for future attacks in Somalia and the region. On October 16, an airstrike left 60 dead in Central Somalia. This was the deadliest attack since November 2017 when 100 terrorists were killed. In the past, the US forces have been accused of killing civilians during the air strikes. Since 2007, Al Shabaab has fought to overthrow successive internationally-backed governments in Mogadishu. It was in 2011 that the Al-Qaeda affiliated group was pushed out of Mogadishu, the Somali capital and subsequently from other key towns including the port city of Kismayu.

Six U.S. air strikes over the weekend kill at least 62 Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia, according to The Pentagon.

Three men held in Marrakech as suspicions grow that Islamists were behind killing of two Scandinavian women Danish intelligence services are investigating a video circulating on social media they believe could show the murder of two Scandinavian women killed in Morocco as fears mount that the tourists were killed by extremists linked to Islamic State. The Danish intelligence service, the PET, at first said it had authenticated the video but later rowed back, saying it was still being “examined”. The latest statement came as Moroccan authorities arrested three more suspects over the killings in the Atlas mountains, which have sent shockwaves through a popular tourist destination that has been relatively untouched by Islamist attacks. The Moroccan government spokesman, Mustapha El Khalfi, described the killings as a “criminal and terrorist act”. Investigators have released pictures of the three fugitives, who were identified as Rachid Afatti, Ouaziad Younes and Ejjoud Abdessamad. The three men were arrested in Marrakech as they tried to board a bus to the popular tourist resort of Agadir, according to a national security spokesman, Boubker Sabik, who said police were investigating whether they had terrorist affiliations. Investigators were in the process of “verifying the terrorist motive, which is supported by the evidence and the findings of inquiries”, the central judicial investigations office said. The men were seized with three long machete-like knives, a shorter blade, a slingshot and several mobile phones. Another suspect arrested in Marrakech on Tuesday had affiliations to an extremist group, Moroccan authorities said, and had apparently identified the others involved. Pictures of the three men arrested on the bus also appear to show at least one man bearing a striking similarity to one of four individuals who had recently posted on social media declaring his allegiance to Isis while posing under the group’s flag. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Composite image of the three arrested men, Rachid Afatti, left, Ouaziad Younes, centre, and Ejjoud Abdessamad. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images The discovery of machetes with handles wrapped with electrical tape under the seats of the bus will raise questions of whether they planned a second assault, perhaps in Agadir. The bodies of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were found on Monday in an isolated area near Imlil, which is on the route to Toubkal, north Africa’s highest peak and a popular hiking destination. According to some local media reports the killers had camped near their victims, about four miles’ hike from the nearest town, and fled the scene after the attack. The bodies were found on Monday by two French women who were hiking near the remote spot where Jespersen and Ueland had pitched their tent. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, left, and Maren Ueland. Photograph: vg “We took a picture to show the police where we found them and went down again,” one of the witnesses told the Norwegian tabloid VG. “We warned everyone we saw [in the nearby town of] Imlil from going there. I did not want more to see what we had seen.” In an earlier statement PET said Moroccan authorities had indicated that the killings may be related to Isis. That speculation was fuelled by claims on Morocco’s 2M television network that investigators had linked the first of the four people arrested over the murder to the terror group. Moroccan television broadcast an interview with the brother of one of the three men arrested on the bus who suggested his sibling had been “brainwashed” by militants. “He had no education and was brainwashed,” said the brother adding that his sibling had disappeared a week ago. “He was a normal guy, but was radicalised. What happened has nothing to do with Islam.” The latest claims over the motive came as fresh details emerged of the two women’s last days. They had stayed in a hostel where they encountered a local mountain guide, Rachid Imerhade, who said he had cautioned them about camping alone on their planned ascent of the Toubkal mountain. Moroccan media outlets reported that investigators also had video surveillance footage showing the suspects putting up a tent near the victims’ tent and leaving the area after the killings. The murders can be considered “politically motivated and thus an act of terror”, the Danish prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said on Thursday. He said “there are still dark forces that want to fight our values” and “we must not give in”. In Norway, the prime minister, Erna Solberg, said terrorism “is not the only lead that is being investigated in Morocco” but said the case still “emphasises the importance of combating violent extremism”. Jespersen had posted on Facebook about her upcoming trip before leaving. “Dear friends, I’m going to Morocco in December. Any of you guys who’s around by then or any mountain friends who knows something about Mount Toubkal?” In the videos that have been circulating, a voice can reportedly be heard speaking of the “enemies of Allah” several times and referring to “revenge for our brothers in Hajin”, referring to the last stronghold of Isis in Syria, which fell a few days ago. The two victims were friends from the University of South-Eastern Norway, where they were studying together. “What we know is that they were on a month-long, private holiday in Morocco. Our thoughts go to the families,” the university said. The killings have prompted concerns about the impact on Morocco’s tourist sector, which accounts for 10% of national income, as the kingdom’s relative security has been a major selling point.[SEP]The bodies of two Scandinavian women with cuts to their necks were found in a village in Morocco's High Atlas mountains on Monday, the interior ministry said. The tourists, a Danish woman and another from Norway, were found with "signs of violence" on their necks caused by a cutting device, the ministry said in a statement. It said an investigation had been launched into the "criminal act", without providing more details. The women's bodies were found in an isolated mountainous area 10 kilometres (six miles) from the tourist village of Imlil in the High Atlas range. Imlil is as a starting point for trekking and climbing tours of Mount Toukbal, the highest summit in North Africa. Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco's economy and the kingdom's second-largest employer, after agriculture.[SEP](AFP) — Moroccan authorities on Tuesday arrested a suspect following the murder of two Scandinavian tourists in the High Atlas mountains, the interior ministry said. Other suspects are being sought over the deaths of the two women — a Dane and a Norwegian — whose bodies were found on Monday with cuts to their necks, the ministry said. The bodies were discovered in an isolated mountainous area 10 kilometres (six miles) from the tourist village of Imlil in the High Atlas range. Imlil is a starting point for trekking and climbing tours of Mount Toukbal, the highest summit in North Africa. The suspect was arrested in the city of Marrakesh about 60 kilometres north of Imlil, the ministry said. The Danish victim, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, “had her throat cut,” her mother Helle Petersen was quoted by the Danish newspaper B.T. as saying. Her family had warned her against going to Morocco “because of the chaotic situation,” she added. According to Jespersen’s Facebook page, she had studied in Norway to be a guide. The other victim was 28 years old, according to Moroccan media. Security was stepped up in the region and hiking suspended following the discovery of the bodies, media said.[SEP]The bodies of two Scandinavian women have been found with cuts to their necks in a village in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains, a popular hiking destination. The tourists, from Denmark and Norway, were found with signs of violence on their necks caused by a cutting device, the interior ministry said in a statement. It said an investigation had been launched into what it called a criminal act, but provided no further details. The women’s bodies were found in an isolated mountainous area six miles (10km) from the tourist village of Imlil, which is a starting point for trekking and climbing tours to Mount Toubkal, the highest summit in north Africa. Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco’s economy and the country’s second-largest employer after agriculture.[SEP]RABAT, Morocco — Authorities in Morocco say the bodies of two Scandinavian women have been found in the Atlas Mountains, a popular hiking destination. According to a statement from the Interior Ministry, the women from Denmark and Norway were discovered on Monday with “evidence of violence on their necks” inflicted by a “cold weapon.” Their bodies were found in a “remote mountainous region” about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the centre of Imlil; the village typically is the starting point for treks to Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa. The Interior Ministry says an investigation was opened to “clarify the circumstances of this crime.”[SEP]vmargineanu/iStock(LONDON) — Two female tourists from Scandinavia have been found dead in Morocco, local police announced today. The bodies of the women, from Norway and Denmark were found near the town of Imlil in the High Atlas mountains with knife wounds to their necks. A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder, the Moroccan Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation said on Facebook. A man has been arrested in the major city of Marrakesh on suspicion of murder, but police are looking for possible accomplices, they added. The suspect is now in police custody. The bodies were found on Monday. Both the Norwegian and Danish foreign ministries confirmed to ABC News that the women had been found dead and they were in touch with local authorities. “The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been informed that a Norwegian and a Danish citizen have been found dead in the Atlas Mountains south of Marrakech,” Guri Solnerh, Communications Adviser at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told ABC News, using the French spelling of the city. “The deaths and victims’ identity has now been confirmed by local authorities.” “We are in contact with relatives and are providing consular assistance in accordance with established practices and framework for assistance in connection with deaths of Norwegian citizens abroad. Our embassy is in contact with local authorities and representatives from the embassy are present in Marrakech,” they added. A spokesperson for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirmed that the pair had been killed while “trekking in the Atlas Mountains.” “The Danish Police has notified the relatives to the Danish woman,” the spokesperson told ABC News, who also used the French spelling of one of Morocco’s largest cities. “The relatives have been offered consular assistance by the Consular Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Danish Embassy in Morocco. The Danish ambassador is currently in Marrakech to ensure the closest possible contact to the local Moroccan authorities.” Officials are yet to confirm the identities of either women. However, the University of Sørøst-Norge posted that two of their students had died in Morocco on Monday. The university set its flags to half mast in order to mourn the pair, they announced on twitter.[SEP]The bodies of two Scandinavian women have been found with their necks slashed in Morocco. The tourists, a Danish woman and another from Norway, were discovered with cuts to their necks in a village in Morocco's High Atlas mountains on Monday. Danish woman Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, has been named by local media as one of the victims who was travelling in the country with her friend. The Norwegian woman, who she was backpacking in Morocco with is said to be 28, but has not yet been named. They were found with 'signs of violence' on their necks caused by a cutting device, the interior ministry said. The pair had been both studying ‘outdoor activities and cultural guidance’ at a Norwegian college in the village if Bo, in Telemark, Danish newspaper BT reports. Ms Jespersen was said to have been from Denmark but living in Norway, according to her social media. The women's bodies were found in an isolated mountainous area six miles (10 kilometres) from the tourist village of Imlil in the High Atlas range. Moroccan officials said an investigation had been launched into the 'criminal act', without providing more details. Ms Jespersen's mother, Helle Jespersen, told BT the family was 'completely broken', after being told the news of her daughter's death just before Christmas. She was also described as 'adventurous' and 'always happy and positive' by her family, who had reportedly tried to get her to come home for the festive period. On November 21 Ms Jespersen wrote of her trip on Facebook: 'Dear friends, im going to Morocco in december. Any of you guys whos around by then or any mountain friends who knows something about Mount Toubkal?' She had also posted pictures from previous trips in which he is hiking in mountains as well as skiing and kayaking. Imlil is as a starting point for trekking and climbing tours of Mount Toukbal, the highest summit in North Africa. Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco's economy and the kingdom's second-largest employer, after agriculture.[SEP]A suspect has been arrested following the murder of two Scandinavian women in the High Atlas mountains, the interior ministry said today. The tourists, a Danish woman and another from Norway, were discovered with cuts to their necks in the tourist village of Imlil in Morocco's High Atlas mountains on Monday. Danish woman Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, has been named by local media as one of the victims who was travelling in the country with her friend. Norwegian Maren Ueland, 28, has also been named by local media as the second woman found dead. Other suspects are being sought over the deaths of the two women, Moroccan officials said today. They were found with 'signs of violence' on their necks caused by a cutting device, the interior ministry said. Both women's bodies were found in an isolated mountainous area six miles (ten kilometres) from the tourist village of Imlil in the High Atlas range. The man was arrested on suspicion of murder in the city of Marrakesh about 60 kilometres north of Imlil, the ministry said. He was being held in custody 'to determine the motive of the crime while investigations continue to arrest other individuals who have been identified and suspected of taking part in criminal acts', the central bureau of judicial investigation in Morocco said in a statement. They had both been studying 'outdoor activities and cultural guidance' at a college in the village of Bo, in Telemark, Norway, Danish newspaper BT reports. Ms Jespersen 'had her throat cut,' her mother Helle Petersen was quoted by the BT as saying. Her family had warned her against going to Morocco 'because of the chaotic situation', she added. According to Jespersen's Facebook page, she had studied in Norway to be a guide. Security was stepped up in the region and hiking suspended following the discovery of the bodies, local media said. Ms Jespersen was originally from Denmark but had been living in Norway for some time, according to her social media. Ms Ueland's mother, Irene, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK: 'The girls had taken all precautionary measures before embarking on this trip.' She said they had been studying together at the University of South-Eastern Norway and had gone backpacking for their Christmas holiday on December 9. Irene Ueland shared a picture on social media of her daughter and a huge dog with the caption, 'Our Maren' and two heart emojis. Moroccan officials said an investigation had been launched into the 'criminal act', without providing more details. Ms Jespersen's mother, Helle Jespersen, told BT the family was 'completely broken', after being told the news of her daughter's death just before Christmas. Ms Jespersen has been described as 'adventurous' and 'always happy and positive' by her family, who had reportedly tried to get her to come home for the festive period. On November 21, Ms Jespersen wrote of her trip on Facebook: 'Dear friends, im going to Morocco in december. Any of you guys whos around by then or any mountain friends who knows something about Mount Toubkal? [sic]' She had also posted pictures from previous trips in which he is hiking in mountains as well as skiing and kayaking. Imlil is as a starting point for trekking and climbing tours of Mount Toukbal, the highest summit in North Africa. Tourism is a cornerstone of Morocco's economy and the kingdom's second-largest employer, after agriculture.[SEP]The bodies of two Scandinavian women were found near a village in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains on Monday, Agence France-Presse reports. The women, from Denmark and Norway, had both suffered neck wounds caused by a cutting device, according to a statement from Morocco’s interior ministry. The women were found in a remote area about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from Imli, a settlement that is the starting point for treks up to Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in northern Africa. Neither of the women appear to have been publicly identified. According to the interior ministry, an investigation has been launched into the “criminal act.”[SEP]A suspect has been arrested in Morocco after two young Scandinavian women were found murdered with their throats cut in the Atlas Mountains, the interior ministry said. Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, a 24-year-old from Denmark, and an unidentified 28-year-old woman from Norway were found dead in a remote mountain area on Monday. Morocco’s interior ministry said it had arrested on person in Marrakesh on Tuesday, around 37 miles from where the women’s bodies were found. Both women were found “with evidence of violence to their necks,” the ministry said. Other suspects are still being sought, according to officials. The bodies were found around six miles from the village of Imlil, which is often the starting point for treks to Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa.

Two Scandinavian women on a backpacking holiday were found dead in Morocco with cuts to their necks. The bodies were found in an isolated area in the Atlas mountains, near the tourist village of Imlil, Marrakesh-Safi. 13 men are arrested with links to a Jihadist group.

Jackie Castillo, CNN Helen Regan , CNN Written by Catriona Gray from the Philippines claimed the Miss Universe crown for 2018 on Monday, beating contestants from 93 other countries. The 24-year-old Filipina-Australian has become the fourth Filipina to bring home the coveted title. Thailand's own Sophida Kanchanarin made it to the final 10, to huge cheers from the home crowd, but did not progress further. History and controversy Ahead of Monday's final, much attention was on Miss Spain, Angela Ponce, the first transgender contestant in the competition's history. "I'm competing because it's what I've wanted to do since I was a little girl," Ponce told Time ahead of the competition. "I'm showing that trans women can be whatever they want to be: a teacher, a mother, a doctor, a politician and even Miss Universe." Unfortunately for Ponce, however, she failed to make the top 20. Miss USA, Sarah Rose Summers, did make it to the finals -- but only just, and was eliminated before voting got down to the last 10. Angela Ponce of Spain competes in the swimsuit competition during the 2018 Miss Universe pageant in Bangkok on December 13, 2018. Credit: LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/AFP/Getty Images Last week, Summers sparked an online backlash when she posted a video commenting on the English-language abilities of two contestants. In a live Instagram video -- denounced as "condescending" and "xenophobic" -- the 24-year-old said Miss Vietnam H'Hen Nie is "so cute and she pretends to know so much English and then you ask her a question after having a whole conversation with her and she (nods and smiles)." Later in the video Summers appeared to express sympathy for Miss Cambodia, Rern Sinat, who she said, "doesn't speak any English and not a single other person speaks her language." "Can you imagine? Francesca (Miss Australia) said that would be so isolating and I said yes and just confusing all the time," Summers said. "Poor Cambodia." Responding to the backlash in an Instagram post, Summers said Miss Universe was "an opportunity for women from around the world to learn about each other's cultures, life experiences, and views." "In a moment where I intended to admire the courage of a few of my sisters, I said something that I now realize can be perceived as not respectful, and I apologize," Summers said, alongside a photo of her embracing her fellow contestants.[SEP]Miss Philippines, Catriona Gray has been crowned the winner of Miss Universe for the year 2018. Gray from Philippines won the title of Miss World by beating contestants from over 93 countries. The 24-year-old Filipina-Australian became the fourth woman from her country to bring home the coveted title at the 67th annual Miss Universe pageant held in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 16. Miss South Africa Demi, Leigh Nel-Peters and Miss Venezuela, Sthefany Gutiérrez rounded out the top three at the contest.[SEP]LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty Images(BANGKOK) — Miss Philippines, Catriona Gray, has been crowned the new Miss Universe. The 24-year-old Australia native beat out 93 contestants on Sunday night to take the title. She took the crown held by the outgoing Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters. The event took place at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand aired on Fox and was hosted once again by Steve Harvey and model Ashley Graham. It was the 67th time the pageant has been staged. Catriona, who works as a teacher’s assistant and is an HIV/AIDS advocate at Love Yourself PH, according to her Miss Universe biography, studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and holds a masters certificate in music theory. Miss South Africa Tamaryn Green came in second, while Miss Venezuela Sthefany Gutiérrez placed third.[SEP]There's a new Miss Universe in town! Miss Philippines Catriona Gray was crowned the winner of the 2018 Miss Universe pageant, which was held Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand. Miss South Africa Tamaryn Green was the first runner-up and Miss Venezuela Sthefany Gutiérrez was the second runner-up. Steve Harvey and Ashley Graham hosted the evening and were joined onstage by a special performance by Ne-Yo. Harvey returned as the emcee of the evening once again, despite his famous flub a few years ago after accidentally announcing the wrong winner at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant. Graham co-hosted the show last year as well. The women from around the world vying for the coveted tiara participated in a number of events, including a swimsuit and evening gown presentation.[SEP]She bests 93 other ladies in the Miss Universe 2018 pageant MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Catriona Gray from the Philippines was crowned Miss Universe 2018 on Monday, December 17 (Manila time), in Bangkok, Thailand. Catriona has long been a crowd favorite, touted by both casual and long-time pageant followers as a shoo-in for the crown. She previously competed in Miss World 2016 but failed to clinch the crown – she settled for a Top 5 placement instead. A familiar face in the Philippine modelling world, Catriona is also a martial artist, singer, and advocate. She was crowned Miss Universe Philippines 2018 during the Binibining Pilipinas pageant in March 2018. She was born in Cairns, Australia to a Scottish-born Australian father and Filipina mother. Miss Universe 2017 Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of South Africa passed the title on to Catriona. South Africa's Tamaryn Green was first runner-up while Venezuela's Sthefany Gutiérrez was 2nd runner-up. – Rappler.com[SEP]The Philippines' Catriona Gray was named Miss Universe 2018 in a competition concluding Monday in Bangkok, besting contestants from 93 other countries and delighting her home country. The 24-year-old Gray wore a sparkling red dress she said is inspired by a volcano in the Philippines as she was handed the crown to the delight of a roaring crowd that generally favored Southeast Asian contestants. She said she wore red because "when I was 13 my mom said she had a dream that I would win Miss Universe in a red dress.'' She said her mom cried when they saw each other after she won the competition. Gray edged out first runner-up Tamaryn Green of South Africa and third-place Sthefany Gutierrez of Venezuela. She succeeds Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of South Africa. In the Philippines, pageants are a popular attraction, and Gray's countrymen cheered wildly and jumped for joy when she was declared the winner. Celebrations were especially buoyant in Oas town in the northeastern province of Albay, from which Gray's Filipina mother hails. The office of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was quick to congratulate the winner. Gray is the fourth Filipina to be named Miss Universe. ​"Ms. Gray truly made the entire Philippines proud when she sashayed on the global stage and showcased the genuine qualities defining a Filipina beauty: confidence, grace, intelligence and strength in the face of tough challenges,'' he said in a statement from the presidential palace. "In her success, Miss Philippines has shown to the world that women in our country have the ability to turn dreams into reality through passion, diligence, determination and hard work.'' An early round of questioning touched on the issue of drugs, where Duterte's aggressive 'war on drugs' has taken thousands of lives, many in what critics charge were extrajudicial executions. Duterte raised even more controversy when he recently joked that he smoked marijuana to deal with the busy schedule of meetings with other Asian leaders at a regional summit. Asked what she thought about legalizing marijuana, Gray said: "I'm for it being used for medical use, but not so for recreational use. Because I think if people will argue, then what about alcohol and cigarettes? Everything is good but in moderation.'' This year's Miss Universe competition included the first-ever transgender contestant, Miss Spain Angela Ponce. She said in a video presentation that it was not important for her to win but was more important for her "to be here.'' One of the few controversies of this year's contest involved Miss United States Sarah Rose Summers seeming to mock contestants from Cambodia and Vietnam over their English language skills. Summers apologized. The finale was again hosted by Steve Harvey who infamously announced the wrong winner in the 2015 contest. Harvey joked briefly about the incident in exchanges with contestants and said "You all can't let that go'' and "I'm still here.'' The theme of the 67th Miss Universe pageant was "Empowered Women'' and was judged by seven women including former pageant winners, businesswomen, and a fashion designer. The contestants spent nearly a month in Thailand to compete in preliminary rounds wearing elaborate national costumes, visit famous tourist sites and even met the country's prime minister.[SEP]The Philippines’ Catriona Gray has been named Miss Universe 2018 in Bangkok, beating contestants from 93 other countries and delighting her home nation. Ms Gray wore a sparkling red dress she said was inspired by a volcano in the Philippines as she was handed the crown to the delight of a roaring crowd that generally favoured south-east Asian contestants. The 24-year-old singer and model said she wore red because “when I was 13 my mom said she had a dream that I would win Miss Universe in a red dress”. She said her mother cried when they saw each other after she won the competition, the 67th Miss Universe pageant. Ms Gray edged out first runner-up Tamaryn Green of South Africa and third-placed Sthefany Gutierrez of Venezuela. In the Philippines, pageants are a popular attraction, and Ms Gray’s victory sparked celebrations across the country. Celebrations were especially buoyant in Oas town in the north-eastern province of Albay, from which Ms Gray’s Filipina mother hails. According to Ms Gray, her gown’s design, with its lava colour and appearance, was influenced by Albay’s Mayon Volcano. Ms Gray’s father is Australian, and she was born and grew up in Cairns, Australia. She studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in the United States. The office of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was quick to congratulate Ms Gray, the fourth Filipina to be named Miss Universe. He said: “Ms Gray truly made the entire Philippines proud when she sashayed on the global stage and showcased the genuine qualities defining a Filipina beauty: confidence, grace, intelligence and strength in the face of tough challenges. “In her success, Miss Philippines has shown to the world that women in our country have the ability to turn dreams into reality through passion, diligence, determination and hard work.” An early round of questioning touched on the issue of drugs, a controversial issue in the Philippines where Mr Duterte’s aggressive war on drugs has taken thousands of lives, many in what critics charge were extrajudicial executions. Mr Duterte raised even more controversy when he recently joked that he smoked marijuana to deal with his busy schedule of meetings with other Asian leaders at a regional summit. Asked what she thought about legalising marijuana, Ms Gray said: “I’m for it being used for medical use, but not so for recreational use. Because I think if people will argue, then what about alcohol and cigarettes? Everything is good but in moderation.” This year’s Miss Universe competition included the first-ever transgender contestant, Angela Ponce of Spain. She said in a video presentation that it was not important for her to win but was more important for her “to be here”. One of the few controversies of this year’s contest involved Miss United States, Sarah Rose Summers, seeming to mock contestants from Cambodia and Vietnam over their English language skills. Summers apologised. The finale was again hosted by Steve Harvey, who infamously announced the wrong winner in the 2015 contest. He joked briefly about the incident in exchanges with contestants and said: “You all can’t let that go”, and: “I’m still here.” The theme of this year’s pageant was “Empowered Women” and was judged by seven women, including former pageant winners, businesswomen and a fashion designer.[SEP]Congratulations are in order for the new Miss Universe, Miss Philippines Catriona Gray. Miss South Africa Tamaryn Green was the first runner-up and Miss Venezuela Sthefany Gutiérrez was the second runner-up. The 2018 Miss Universe pageant was held in Bangkok, Thailand where nearly a hundred women from around the world vied for the coveted crown. Steve Harvey returned as the host and Ashley Graham co-hosted alongside Carson Kressley and Lu Sierra. The competition whittled down to the final 5 women, which included Gray, Miss Vietnam H'Hen Nie, Miss Canada Marta Magdalena Stepien, Miss South Africa Tamaryn Green and Miss Venezuela Sthefany Gutiérrez. In honor of Miss Philippines winning Miss Universe 2018, here are five things to know about Catriona Gray.[SEP]24-year-old Catriona Gray is a model and television personality in her native Philippines. The 24-year-old model, actress, TV host and seasoned beauty queen, who was born to an Australian father and a Filipina mother, took the top spot at the Miss Universe pageant held on Monday (Dec 17) in Bangkok. Miss South Africa Tamaryn Green was the first runner-up, while Miss Venezuela Sthefany Gutierrez was the second runner-up. Southeast Asian countries were also well-represented, with contestants from Indonesia and Thailand making it into the Top 20, while Miss Vietnam H'Hen Nie rounded out the Top 5. Gray wore a sparkling red dress, and said, "When I was 13, my mum said she had a dream that I would win Miss Universe in a red dress." According to the Associated Press, she said her mom cried when they saw each other after she won the competition. The office of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte congratulated the winner, saying in a statement: "Ms. Gray truly made the entire Philippines proud when she sashayed on the global stage and showcased the genuine qualities defining a Filipina beauty: confidence, grace, intelligence and strength in the face of tough challenges." "In her success, Miss Philippines has shown to the world that women in our country have the ability to turn dreams into reality through passion, diligence, determination and hard work." Gray is the fourth Filipina to be named Miss Universe. The show was hosted once again by comedian Steve Harvey together with model Ashley Graham, and featured a performance by R&B artist Ne-Yo. This year’s Miss Universe competition was the 67th annual event and represented 94 different countries and territories. READ: 18 Miss Universe national costumes other than Singapore’s that deserve attention[SEP]Bangkok: Australian-born model Catriona Gray of the Philippines has been named winner of the Miss Universe 2018 competition in Bangkok. She bested contestants from 93 other countries to claim the prize. The 24-year-old Gray wore a sparkling red dress she said is inspired by a volcano in the Philippines as she was handed the crown to the delight of a roaring crowd that generally favoured Southeast Asian contestants. She said she wore red because "when I was 13 my mom said she had a dream that I would win Miss Universe in a red dress." She said her mom cried when they saw each other after she won the competition, the 67th Miss Universe pageant.

Filipina-Australian model Catriona Gray is crowned Miss Universe at the IMPACT Arena in Thailand.

Image copyright MJRichardson/Geograph Image caption Maintenance of the two Severn bridges costs on average £6m a year Sunday marked the final day of a centuries-old tax of paying to cross between south Wales and south-west England before the toll is removed. Charges on the M4 and M48 Severn bridges will be axed on Monday - saving commuters as much as £1,400 a year. People have had to pay to cross the Severn Estuary, with its treacherous tides, since Roman times, be it in a car, in a train or on a ferry. The first written reference to the ferry is in a 12th Century document. "Monday will be a very historic day," said historian Anne Rainsbury. "It'll be the first time you can cross the Severn Estuary for free." The charge for vehicles has been scrapped after the bridges returned to public ownership last year. Image caption Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns paid the final toll on the M4 bridge Car drivers had to pay two shillings and sixpence each way after the first Severn bridge was opened by the Queen in 1966. Recently, the Severn toll spiralled to £5.60 - but the charge was just one way, westbound heading into south Wales. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The ferry was once the only way to cross the Severn estuary by car - so avoiding a two-and-a-half hour detour by road "It has been forever thus," added Ms Rainsbury, curator of Chepstow Museum on the Welsh side of the original bridge. "You've always had to pay someone; a ferryman, a railway company or a bridge toll collector to cross the Severn Estuary - so Monday's removal of the tolls is a hugely significant moment, especially in Wales." The first ferry crossing over the Severn Estuary - which has the second highest tidal range in the world - was between Aust and Beachley, essentially the path of the first bridge, on the narrowest width of the estuary. Image copyright Chepstow Museum/Tim Ryan Image caption The first recorded passenger ferry across the Severn Estuary is believed to be 1775 The first written reference to it is in a document from the 12th Century when the owner was the Lord of the Manor of Tidenham, part of the Chepstow Lordship. But the first recorded ferry crossing was in 1775, when it cost a coach with six horses an eye-watering 16 shillings to board the boat on the mile-long route known as the old passage. "It was a huge amount back then," said local historian Tim Ryan, who is trying to restore one of the old Severn ferries. Image copyright Chepstow Museum/Tim Ryan Image caption The Beachley-Aust ferry ran from 1931 until the original Severn bridge opened in 1966 "But if you could afford a coach and six horses, then you could afford the fee - and it would avoid a three-day, 55-mile trek around Gloucester to the nearest crossing of the river." There was a rival and more direct crossing two miles downstream at the so-called new passage, thought to be in operation from 1630, between Pilning and Portskewett. Both crossings - and a passenger ferry that ran directly between Chepstow and Bristol - were killed off when the Severn tunnel, then the world's longest under-sea rail tunnel, connecting London with south Wales opened in 1886. The advent of the motor car revitalised the Aust-Beachley ferry and it started again in 1926 - running for 40 years and finishing the day before the first Severn bridge was opened. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A picture of Bob Dylan waiting for the Severn ferry was on the cover of the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's documentary of Dylan Famously Bob Dylan used a 1966 picture of himself as he waited for the Severn ferry on the cover of his album No Direction Home - the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's documentary about the music icon. The Queen opened the £8m first bridge in 1966 while the second bridge, built three miles downstream across the Severn Estuary, was financed by a private consortium set up in 1992. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC archive: the day the Severn Bridge opened 50 years ago Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Demolition teams dismantle the bridge's toll booth The Second Severn Crossing - opened in 1996 and renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in July this year - cost £332m to construct, but the eventual repayments including debt repayments, interest and tax totalled more than £1.3bn. The removal of the Severn tolls is "history in the making", according to Anne Rainsbury, and will boost the Welsh economy by an estimated £100m. The M4 Prince of Wales Bridge is shut overnight as maintenance teams demolish the toll booths in readiness for toll-free free-flowing traffic. It will reopen free-flowing and toll-free before Monday morning's rush hour - at a time yet to be confirmed - but with a 50mph speed restriction on temporary narrow lanes. Shortly after the M4 bridge reopens on Monday, the M48 original Severn crossing will shut westbound until Wednesday for the tolls there to be dismantled. Further work will be carried out in 2019 to return both routes to a three-lane motorway with the usual 70mph speed limit.[SEP]Motorists can travel for free for the first time in 52 years on the two Severn bridges as the tolls are scrapped from Monday. The abolition comes as thousands of people are expected to make their journeys home for the festive period. Charges on the original Severn Crossing have been in place since 1966, when the fee stood at two shillings and sixpence – the equivalent of 12.5p in decimal currency today. They were then introduced on the second crossing – renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in April this year – when it opened 30 years later in 1996. The current fee for a car crossing from England into South Wales is £5.60, and regular commuters are expected to save more than £1,400 a year. The tolls were reduced on New Year’s Day 2018 after the bridges were returned to public ownership, but the Government resisted calls to immediately abolish crossing fees. The Government said scrapping of the tolls would provide an immediate benefit of over £100 million per year for Wales, and over a billion pounds of economic benefit over the next decade. Businesses will also benefit from strengthened links between communities ranging from west Wales to the south west of England by making it easier for consumers and employees to cross the border. The final driver to pay to cross over from England to Wales on Sunday was Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns. “The end of the tolls is a major milestone for the economies of south Wales and south west of England, and will remove historic barriers between communities,” Mr Cairns said. “Scrapping the tolls means an end to generations of people paying to simply cross the border and delivering this has been one of my key aims as Welsh Secretary. “A week before Christmas drivers will no longer have to pay every time they cross the border, meaning more money in their pockets, helping them with the cost of living and leaving them with and more cash to spend in their local areas.” Chris Graying, Secretary of State for Transport, added: “We made a commitment in the manifesto to deliver free crossings over the Severn and that’s exactly what we’re delivering. “This move will put £1,400 a year in the pockets of thousands of hard-working motorists and help transform the economy in the south west and South Wales creating new opportunities and helping drive future growth.” Earlier this year, more than 30,000 people signed a petition against the Second Severn Crossing being renamed after the Prince of Wales. The new title, which has the agreement of the Queen and Prime Minister Theresa May, was to recognise Charles’ 70th birthday year and 60 years since he became the Prince of Wales.[SEP]Motorists are to be granted a welcome early Christmas present as journeys over the Severn bridges get set to go free for the first time in 52 years. Sunday is the final day that the current fee of £5.60 will be required for cars heading from England into South Wales and work is being done to remove toll booths from the original Severn Crossing and the Prince of Wales Bridge. Both are undergoing changes to create a route that means drivers will no longer have to stop to pay, just as thousands of people prepare to travel home for the festive period. Hannah Milliner, general manager for the bridges at Highways England, said: "Work is needed to make sure that drivers can safely travel across the bridges without stopping to pay a toll, or waiting for a barrier to be raised. "The weekend we have chosen avoids peak period traffic and also means that the work will be complete so that drivers can make journeys free of charge over the festive period. "We would like to thank drivers in advance for their patience while we carry out this work and to ask them to plan ahead for any journeys they are considering." The Prince of Wales Bridge will reopen on Monday with three flowing lanes, although they will be narrowed with a reduced speed limit of 50mph for safety reasons. On Wednesday, the Severn Bridge will reopen with two free flowing lanes, again narrowed with a 50mph limit. Highways England plans to carry out further work on the bridges in 2019 to return both routes to a three lane motorway with the usual 70mph speed limit. Monday will be the first day since 1966 that a fee has not been required to journey over the original Severn Crossing, while the Prince of Wales Bridge has also required a toll since it opened in 1996. The newer crossing was named after the royal in April this year, despite more than 30,000 people signing a petition against the honour. Prime Minister Theresa May and the Queen had agreed on the title to recognise Charles' 70th birthday year and 60 years since he became the Prince of Wales. An estimated 25 million car journeys are made across the River Severn between England and Wales every year using the two bridges, costing motorists in cars and minibuses £5.60. Drivers in vans up to 3.5 tonnes, double-cab pick-ups and small buses with up to 17 seats are charged £11.20, while goods vehicles, lorries over 3.5 tonnes and buses with more than 17 seats pay £16.70.[SEP]MOTORISTS will be able to travel for free for the first time in 52 years on the two Severn bridges as the tolls are scrapped tomorrow. The abolition comes as thousands of people are expected to make their journeys home for the festive period. On Monday, the Prince of Wales bridge will have three free flowing lanes. These will be narrow lanes with a 50mph speed limit to ensure the safety of drivers. The M48 bridge will be fully closed westbound on December 17, reopening on Wednesday December 19 with two free flowing lanes. These will also have a 50mph speed limit. Further work will be carried out in 2019 to return both routes to a three-lane motorway with the usual 70mph speed limit. Hannah Milliner, general manager Severn bridges, Highways England, said: “This is a significant piece of work which is far more complex than simply removing toll booths. “We want to make sure that journeys can be completed safely and free of charge by the end of the year and will then focus on the next stage of work.” READ MORE: All you need to know about the Severn Bridge toll closures Other changes taking place include the closure of the M4 Rogiet Tag office. Information for Tag holders has been provided directly to account holders. Drivers can find more information about these changes from the Severn bridges website. Charges on the original Severn Crossing have been in place since 1966, when the fee stood at two shillings and sixpence - the equivalent of 12.5p in decimal currency today. They were then introduced on the second crossing - renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in April this year - when it opened 30 years later in 1996. The current fee for a car crossing from England into South Wales is £5.60, and regular commuters are expected to save more than £1,400 a year. The tolls were reduced on New Year's Day 2018 after the bridges were returned to public ownership, but the Government resisted calls to immediately abolish crossing fees. The Government said scrapping of the tolls would provide an immediate benefit of over £100 million per year for Wales, and over a billion pounds of economic benefit over the next decade. READ MORE: Removal of Severn bridge tolls will bring challenges to Chepstow town centre, meeting hears Businesses will also benefit from strengthened links between communities ranging from west Wales to the south west of England by making it easier for consumers and employees to cross the border. The final driver to pay to cross over from England to Wales today will be Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns. "The end of the tolls is a major milestone for the economies of south Wales and south west of England, and will remove historic barriers between communities," Mr Cairns said. "Scrapping the tolls means an end to generations of people paying to simply cross the border and delivering this has been one of my key aims as Welsh Secretary. "A week before Christmas drivers will no longer have to pay every time they cross the border, meaning more money in their pockets, helping them with the cost of living and leaving them with and more cash to spend in their local areas." Chris Graying, Secretary of State for Transport, added: "We made a commitment in the manifesto to deliver free crossings over the Severn and that's exactly what we're delivering. "This move will put £1,400 a year in the pockets of thousands of hard-working motorists and help transform the economy in the south west and South Wales creating new opportunities and helping drive future growth." Earlier this year, more than 30,000 people signed a petition against the Second Severn Crossing being renamed after the Prince of Wales. The new title, which has the agreement of the Queen and Prime Minister Theresa May, was to recognise Charles' 70th birthday year and 60 years since he became the Prince of Wales.[SEP]From today there will be no charge to get in and out of Wales. However, not everybody is happy with hauliers warning that it could increase traffic and costs to businesses. Hold-ups in crossing the river will mean businesses which rely on transporting goods across the waterway lose money, Road Haulage Association (RHA) chief executive Richard Burnett said. While he is in favour of abolishing crossing fees, Mr Burnett warned that any increase in transportation costs resulting from traffic would be passed on to customers. He said: ‘We welcome the abolition of tolls as operators are already working to incredibly tight margins.’ Hauliers ‘have no choice but to pass toll prices on to their customers,’ he added. ‘They then have to pass it on to theirs – everybody pays.’ However it is ‘essential that traffic remains free flowing’, he said, adding: ‘Congestion as a result of increased vehicle numbers will quickly cancel out any advantages resulting from a toll-free crossing. ‘The abolition of tolls on the Severn Bridge will inevitably increase the volume of traffic on this particular route.’ Gregg Griffiths, managing director of transport business Collier Haulage, based in Pontypool in South Wales, said the abolition of toll fees represents a ‘big saving’ for his business. He predicted the move will reduce costs to his firm by around £50,000 to £55,000 per year. ‘It will go straight on the bottom line,’ he said. ‘We probably cross it 10 times or more a day.’ Crossing the Severn bridges from England into South Wales in a lorry costs £16.70, with fees only applying in the westbound direction. The Government has claimed scrapping the tolls will provide an immediate boost of more than £100 million per year to the Welsh economy. Over the next decade this economic benefit will rise to more than £1 billion, it added. Tolls have applied to the original Severn Crossing since 1966 and the second crossing, renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in April this year, has always charged fees since it opened 30 years later in 1996. The current fee for a car crossing from England into South Wales is £5.60, and regular commuters are expected to save more than £1,400 a year. The tolls were reduced on New Year’s Day this year when the bridges returned to public ownership, although the Government initially declined to scrap the charges altogether. The final driver to pay to cross from England to Wales was Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns on Sunday, according to the Government. He said: ‘The end of the tolls is a major milestone for the economies of South Wales and the south-west of England and will remove historic barriers between communities. ‘Scrapping the tolls means an end to generations of people paying to simply cross the border and delivering this has been one of my key aims as Welsh Secretary. ‘A week before Christmas drivers will no longer have to pay every time they cross the border, meaning more money in their pockets, helping them with the cost of living and leaving them with and more cash to spend in their local areas.’ Transport Secretary Chris Grayling added: ‘We made a commitment in the manifesto to deliver free crossings over the Severn and that’s exactly what we’re delivering. ‘This move will put £1,400 a year in the pockets of thousands of hard-working motorists and help transform the economy in the South West and South Wales, creating new opportunities and helping drive future growth.’ Earlier this year, more than 30,000 people signed a petition against the Second Severn Crossing being renamed after the Prince of Wales. The new title, which has the agreement of the Queen and Prime Minister Theresa May, was to recognise Charles’ 70th birthday year and 60 years since he became the Prince of Wales.[SEP]Tourism chiefs have called for toll fees on British roads to be scrapped as two bridges linking England to Wales are to become free to use for the first time in history. Motorists can tomorrow pass over the Severn and Prince of Wales crossings, which both connect South Gloucestershire to Monmouthshire, without charge. Tolls on the original Severn bridge were introduced in 1966, while the second Severn crossing, which was renamed after Prince Charles, opened in 1996. Car drivers are charged £5.60 to pass over both bridges while it costs £16.70 for HGV motorists. At the Conservative Party conference in October, Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns declared both tolls would be lifted in a move he pledged would boost the Welsh economy by about £100 million a year. Tourism groups are pressing authorities to rescind further charges in the wake of the changes, arguing an end to tolls could help visitor numbers flourish across the UK. Kurt Janson, director of Tourism Alliance, said: “We welcome taking the toll off the Severn Bridge because that will remove a significant barrier for people using the bridge and therefore tourism flows in both directions to and from Wales. “We are in a globally competitive market where people are able to choose anywhere in the world to go on holiday, so it is important that destinations do everything they can to reduce the cost of visitors coming to their areas, so they can be more competitive, and one way of doing this to to get rid of toll charges.”[SEP]Motorists can now cross the two Severn bridges for free for the first time in 52 years as the tolls have officially been scrapped. The abolition of the crossing fee - which was confirmed earlier this year - comes in time for the thousands expected to make their journeys home for the festive period. Experts have estimated that regular commuters will save around £1,400 a year from the removal of the toll, while some businesses could pocket around £55,000 in transport costs. However, the Road Haulage Association has warned that an increase in congestion as a result of there being no crossing fee could increase costs for firms that would then be passed on to consumers. Charges on the original Severn Crossing have been in place since 1966, when the fee stood at two shillings and sixpence – the equivalent of 12.5p in decimal currency today. They were then introduced on the second crossing – renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in April this year – when it opened 30 years later in 1996. Drivers had more recently had to pay £6.70 to cross the bridges linking Wales and England via the M4 and M48 motorways, though this was reduced to £5.60 in January as the fee was no longer run by the government and was therefore VAT free. Ministers said scrapping of the tolls would provide an immediate benefit of over £100million per year for Wales, and over a billion pounds of economic benefit over the next decade. Chris Graying, Secretary of State for Transport, said the abolition would save regular bridge users £1,400 a year. The final driver to pay to cross over from England to Wales on Sunday was Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns. 'The end of the tolls is a major milestone for the economies of south Wales and south west of England, and will remove historic barriers between communities,' he said. 'Scrapping the tolls means an end to generations of people paying to simply cross the border and delivering this has been one of my key aims as Welsh Secretary. 'A week before Christmas drivers will no longer have to pay every time they cross the border, meaning more money in their pockets, helping them with the cost of living and leaving them with and more cash to spend in their local areas.' Chris Graying, Secretary of State for Transport, added: 'We made a commitment in the manifesto to deliver free crossings over the Severn and that's exactly what we're delivering. 'This move will put £1,400 a year in the pockets of thousands of hard-working motorists and help transform the economy in the south west and South Wales creating new opportunities and helping drive future growth.' Gregg Griffiths, managing director of transport business Collier Haulage, based in Pontypool in South Wales, said the abolition of toll fees represents a 'big saving' for his business. Crossing the Severn bridges from England into South Wales in a lorry costs £16.70, with fees only applying in the westbound direction - as they do for car drivers. Mr Griffiths predicted the move will reduce costs to his firm by around £50,000 to £55,000 per year. 'It will go straight on the bottom line,' he said. 'We probably cross it 10 times or more a day.' However, some have warned that the removal of the toll could increase traffic and costs to businesses. Richard Burnett, chief executive at the Road Haulage Association, said additional congestion at the crossing could means increase in transportation costs that would then be passed on to customers. He said: 'We welcome the abolition of tolls as operators are already working to incredibly tight margins.' Hauliers 'have no choice but to pass toll prices on to their customers,' he added. 'They then have to pass it on to theirs – everybody pays.' However it is 'essential that traffic remains free flowing', he said, adding: 'Congestion as a result of increased vehicle numbers will quickly cancel out any advantages resulting from a toll-free crossing. 'The abolition of tolls on the Severn Bridge will inevitably increase the volume of traffic on this particular route.' Earlier this year, more than 30,000 people signed a petition against the Second Severn Crossing being renamed after the Prince of Wales. The new title, which has the agreement of the Queen and Prime Minister Theresa May, was to recognise Charles' 70th birthday year and 60 years since he became the Prince of Wales.[SEP]Commuters celebrating the abolition of tolls across the Severn bridges are treating the scoop like a "really good pay rise". Many drivers dependent on the bridges to cross between England and Wales can now save upward of £1,000 on fees annually. Charges for crossing the bridges were scrapped on Monday, 52 years after they were built. Teacher Seb Leer is one of those who can live a little more comfortably now the changes have come into effect. Mr Leer travels between Bristol and Chepstow every day and believes the extra money in his pocket will in effect give him the biggest pay rise he has seen. Mr Leer, who has made the journey for more than two and a half years, works at The Dell Primary School. He told ITV News: "I've always said it's a small price to pay working at a school like this, but it does take its toll - something like £122 a month. "Over a year, as a teacher, that's cost me over a grand. "I've worked here for two and a bit years, so two grand I've spent just crossing a bridge." Mr Leer continued: "That's going to make a huge difference to just living comfortably in the future. "I'm just going to be able to enjoy myself a little bit more, relax and not be worried about bills going out at the end of the month and being skint." He added: "It's always very tight, so an extra £112 is going to be like a really good pay rise that I'm going to enjoy." Charges on the original Severn Crossing have been in place since 1966, when the fee stood at two shillings and sixpence - the equivalent of 12.5p in decimal currency today. They were then introduced on the second crossing - renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in April this year - when it opened 30 years later in 1996. The UK Government said scrapping the tolls will provide an immediate benefit of over £100 million per year for Wales.[SEP]Paying to enter south Wales on the motorway is ending as the Severn tolls are abolished after 52 years. The removal of the fee, which was £5.60 for a car, on the M4 and M48 bridges between south west England and Wales may save commuters up to £1,400 a year. The Queen opened the first bridge in 1966 and now 25 million journeys a year are made across both bridges. Toll booths on the M4 bridge have started to be taken down and will reopen toll-free "before rush hour". It is the first time in history that travellers will be able to cross the Severn Estuary that separates Monmouthshire and south Gloucestershire for free. • How the Severn Bridge Was Built It is predicted the toll removal will give a £100m boost to the Welsh economy but 100 toll collectors and administrative staff have been made redundant. The toll on the M4 and M48 bridges - paid as drivers head westbound into Wales - was initially reduced on New Year's Day in 2018 after they returned to public ownership. Wales' previous First Minister Carwyn Jones had called for the toll, which is worth up to £10m a month for the UK Government, to be scrapped straight away on 1 January 2018. But the Department for Transport said the fees collected in 2018 would help pay to phase out tolling and pay towards the estimated annual maintenance and operational cost bill of £15m. The UK Government has expressed concern that toll removal could see traffic rise by six million more vehicles a year which could increase congestion further along the M4 at Newport's infamous traffic bottleneck, the Brynglas Tunnels. But scrapping the Severn toll has been welcomed by businesses who claimed the "tax" was a barrier to trade. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said it will "help transform" the Severnside economy. The ending of tolls on the Severn crossings lifts not just a physical and financial barrier but also a psychological one. For those that have had to queue at the toll plaza, the frustration they feel at delays and charges can form a barrier than can give the impression that Wales is a less attractive place to do business - or to live or play. Those queues to enter Wales have at times been lengthy and that's not been a good advert for Wales for would-be tourists nor for potential investors. What toll removal does is make Wales and the south-west of England feel closer psychologically. Easier to commute, easier to shop, easier to trade. House buying patterns are already changing and commuting will follow. The big question is whether both sides of the bridges can be winners. The challenge for Wales is to make the most of being more easily connected to Bristol, the fastest growing city outside London. Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns, who paid the final toll over the second crossing on Sunday, said: "The end of the tolls is a major milestone for the economies of south Wales and south west of England, and will remove historic barriers between communities. "Scrapping the tolls means an end to generations of people paying to simply cross the border....meaning more money in their pockets, helping them with the cost of living and leaving them with and more cash to spend in their local areas." The toll removal has seen the ripple effects of the booming Bristol economy, reported to be second only to London in the UK, in south-east Wales. Average house prices have risen faster in the two Welsh Severnside towns of Chepstow and Caldicot - 16% and 12% respectively - than in any other UK town since it the July 2017 announcement that the tolls would be cut. Property experts Zoopla said Bristol it is the second most expensive area to buy a property in the UK - behind London - and only house prices in Manchester are rising quicker than in Bristol. The UK Government and the Welsh Government don't agree on many things these days. But ministers at both ends of the M4 support abolishing the tolls on the Severn bridge. They also agree that traffic flow will increase on both sides of the bridge when the tolls go. Where things get a little more tricky for ministers in Cardiff Bay is how they intend to cope with that extra traffic. In the past they've said it was part of the reason the M4 relief road is needed. But as the future of the £1.4 billion scheme hangs in the balance, the extra vehicles using that busy stretch of road could cause more of a headache for motorists. About 6,000 new properties are either planned or being built within 10 miles of both bridges on the Welsh side of the Severn Estuary, which is attracting an influx of people relocating from Bristol "to get more property for their money". "Over the last couple of years and in particular in the last 18 months, the three-bedroom market and four-bedroom has had a huge increase in prices," said Caldicot estate agent Nathan Reeks. "We've gone from, about £140,000 and we're now pushing to a quarter of a million pounds." But there are fears local roads and services like doctors and schools will not be able to cope with the "extra pressure" on infrastructure. And locals fear south Monmouthshire could become "gentrified" and make buying a house "extremely difficult" for those who have grown up in the area. "There's about 1,000 or so extra properties planned for the Chepstow area alone but that will stretch our doctors' surgeries, schools and other essential basic provision," said Monmouthshire councillor Armand Watts, whose ward includes the original Severn Bridge. "The roads around here are packed at rush hour as it is, add another 1,000 cars and we'll be gridlocked. Driving to Bristol will be the preferred choice as the train there from Chepstow is not direct so that's not going to be an attractive option. "And with house prices rising rapidly, it's becoming almost impossible for those to get on the property ladder in the place they call home. Local people need support otherwise we're in danger of becoming gentrified." But the toll removal is benefitting commuters and local workers as it "opens up enormous employment potential" in warehouses and offices on either sides of the Severn Estuary. "The bridge toll going is massive," said recruitment consultant Stuart Martin, whose Caldicot firm Castlegate has 5,000 clients. "For those lowest paid workers having to cross the bridge every day, it's a 10% pay rise at a stroke. In these times of austerity, that cannot be underestimated. "I've had a 40% rise of people from Bristol coming to me looking for work in south Wales. That financial roadblock to an open Severnside marketplace has gone." The M4's Prince of Wales bridge will reopen as a free-flowing toll-free bridge "before morning rush hour" - at a time to be confirmed by Highways England - but with a 50mph (80km/h) speed restriction on temporary narrow lanes. Shortly after the M4 bridge reopens later, the M48 original Severn crossing between Chepstow and Aust will shut westbound until 07:00 GMT Wednesday, for the tolls to be dismantled. Further work will be carried out in 2019 to return both routes to a three-lane motorway with the usual 70mph speed limit. The removal of the Severn tolls mean there are two remaining charges on British motorways - at the M25 Dartford Crossing at the River Thames and the M6 toll motorway in the West Midlands. Now the only remaining toll road in Wales is Pembrokeshire's Cleddau Bridge which connects Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven - but that fee will be scrapped in April.[SEP]Drivers crossing between England and Wales will have a few more quid in their pockets as the Severn Bridge tolls are scrapped from Monday. And pictures show workmen demolishing the tollbooths with excavators, saws, cranes and water jets, with work having started on Friday and continuing over the weekend. Tolls will no longer be charged from first thing on December 17, resulting in the potential loss of 100 jobs - but motorists will save £5.60 on a car crossing. Regular commuters are expected to save more than £1,400 per year, report Wales Online . The abolition comes as thousands of people are expected to make their journeys home for the festive period. Charges on the original Severn Crossing have been in place since 1966, when the fee stood at two shillings and sixpence - the equivalent of 12.5p in today's decimal currency. They were then introduced on the second crossing - renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in April this year - when it opened 30 years later in 1996. The Government said scrapping of the tolls would provide an immediate benefit of over £100 million per year for Wales, and over a billion pounds of economic benefit over the next decade. The final driver to pay to cross over from England to Wales on Sunday was Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns. He said: "The end of the tolls is a major milestone for the economies of south Wales and south west of England, and will remove historic barriers between communities. "Scrapping the tolls means an end to generations of people paying to simply cross the border and delivering this has been one of my key aims as Welsh Secretary. "A week before Christmas drivers will no longer have to pay every time they cross the border, meaning more money in their pockets, helping them with the cost of living and leaving them with and more cash to spend in their local areas." Chris Graying, Secretary of State for Transport, added: "We made a commitment in the manifesto to deliver free crossings over the Severn and that's exactly what we're delivering. "This move will put £1,400 a year in the pockets of thousands of hard-working motorists and help transform the economy in the south west and South Wales creating new opportunities and helping drive future growth." On Wednesday December 19, the Prince of Wales Bridge will reopen fully with two free-flowing lanes, with a 50mph speed limit to ensure the safety of drivers.

Tolls are scrapped for the Severn crossing bridges connecting England and South Wales, making travel across the River Severn free for all commuters for the first time in 800 years.

WARSAW — Backing down from a showdown with Brussels, Poland’s government reversed its purge of the country’s Supreme Court, as the president signed a law on Monday that will reinstate the judges who had been forced out of their jobs. It was a remarkable turnaround after months of Poland’s top officials saying they would resist pressure to stop the overhaul of the judiciary. The ruling party, Law and Justice, had put tightening its grip on the courts at the center of its agenda, claiming that it was vital to rid the courts of corrupt judges and Communist-era vestiges. The European Union sees the changes Poland has made to its judiciary in the last three years as a violation of the bloc’s core values, a threat to the rule of law and the end of judges acting as a check on political power. Last year, the union chastised Poland and took the first steps toward stripping the country of its voting rights in Brussels — a penalty that has never been used against a member nation. Poland’s concession on the Supreme Court is by no means the end of that conflict between the right-wing, nationalist Polish government and Brussels, but it represented a striking change in tone.[SEP]Polish President Andrzej Duda has signed legislation reinstating Supreme Court judges who were forced into early retirement despite the EU condemning their removal as a violation of democratic standards. Earlier on Monday, the European Court of Justice ruled that Poland needed to suspend a law that lowered the retirement age for Supreme Court judges, and to reappoint around two dozen justices who had been affected by the law. Duda signed the revisions that removed the early retirement provisions, presidential aide Pawel Mucha said late on Monday. The quick response comes amid a broader push by Poland’s conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, to ease tensions with the EU, AP reported.[SEP]WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's president signed legislation Monday that reinstates Supreme Court judges who were forced into early retirement despite the European Union condemning the removals as a violation of democratic standards. Earlier in the day, the EU's top court, the European Court of Justice, ruled that Poland needed to suspend a law that lowered the retirement age for Supreme Court judges and to put about two dozen justices the law had affected back on the bench. President Andrzej Duda signed the revisions that removed the early retirement provisions, presidential aide Pawel Mucha said late Monday. The quick response comes amid a broader push by Poland's conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, to ease tensions with the EU. Monday's ruling confirmed the Court of Justice's interim judgment from October ordering Poland to reinstate justices who were forced to step down when the retirement age was lowered from 70 to 65. The European Commission, which enforces EU law in member countries, had asked the court to review Poland's law. The commission viewed the forced retirements of the judges as erosions of judicial independence and democratic standards because it gave the legislative and executive branches of government unprecedented control over the courts. After the interim injunction, Poland's parliament passed the amended legislation to remove the early retirement provisions. Critics of the government welcomed the backtracking on the issue of the retirement age but argued more must be done to undo what they see as extensive damage to judicial independence under the Law and Justice. They say the ruling party's overhaul of the judicial system included capturing control of the Constitutional Court and a council that names judges, as well as other steps that increase its sway over the Supreme Court. Law and Justice came out of local elections this fall bruised in major cities, where many voters rejected the party's previous euroskeptic course. The EU is extremely popular among Poles, who have grown richer and gained unprecedented freedom to travel and to work abroad thanks to their country's EU membership. The party has given signs it is embracing a comparatively moderate, EU-friendly program as it gears up for elections to the EU's European Parliament in the spring and to the national parliament in the fall.[SEP]President Andrzej Duda has signed the amendment to the Supreme Court law that allows the judges who were sent to retirement after reaching 65 years of age to return to the court duties, informed the Deputy Chief of the President's Chancellery Paweł Mucha on Monday evening. EU court orders Poland to immediately suspend the laws on Supreme Court As Mucha announced, a more extensive communique in regard to president's decision should appear later on Monday or on Tuesday morning. Lower house of Polish parliament adopted the amendment on the 21st of November, two days later it was backed by the Senate. The bill later went to the president who, according to the law, has 21 days to ratify it. Monday, the 17th of December was the deadline. The amendment pertains to the Supreme Court law from December 2017, that entered into effect on April 3rd 2018. The new law allows the Supreme Court's and the Supreme Administrative Court's judges who were forced into retirement after reaching 65 years of age to return to fulfilling their duties in the position held on the 3rd of April 2018. "Service in the position of Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court judge is considered uninterrupted," reads the amendment. The judges falling in the scope of the amendment may, however, remain retired, as long as they submit a proper statement within 7 days from the day the new law becomes effective. Such statement must be submitted to the president via the National Council of the Judiciary. Timmermans: Poland needs to resolve all the issues; not only the Supreme Court There can be no... czytaj dalej » The amendment also assumes that if on its basis a judge who used to be the First President of the President of the Supreme Court return to his or hers duties, their tenure will be considered uninterrupted. The regulation pertains to the First President of the Supreme Court Małgorzata Gersdorf, as well as Presidents of two of the courts chambers - Stanisław Zabłocki and Józef Iwulski. The European Court of Justice ruled earlier on Monday that Poland must immediately suspend a new law that lowered the age of retirement of its Supreme Court judges, provisionally backing the European Commission in its battle with Warsaw. The top court had already asked Poland in an interim judgment in October to halt the overhaul of its Supreme Court and to reinstate judges forced into early retirement. The court on Monday backed this ruling, saying the suspension of the Polish law was justified.[SEP]The European Court of Justice ruled on Monday that Poland must "immediately" suspend judicial reforms that imposed earlier retirement ages on justices of its Supreme Court. The April law backed by Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party lowered the judges' retirement age from 70 to 65, allowing them to stay on past that age only if they gained the permission of President Andrzej Duda. The measure would have forced about 40 percent of the court's judges, including Chief Justice Małgorzata Gersdorf, into early retirement. The government argued the measure was needed to rid the court of communist-era holdovers, but the European Commission challenged the law as a danger to the EU's legal order. Critics said the law violated the Polish constitution and was an attempt to purge the court and bring it under tighter political control. In October, the ECJ issued a provisional ruling that the application of the law be frozen, pending a full hearing before the court, and the judges forced out were allowed to return to work. Monday's ruling confirmed that interim measure. The final judgment will come at a later date. In Monday's ruling, the EU's top court found that the Commission's arguments about Poland's actions were not unwarranted, and that otherwise "the independence of that court may not be ensured" until the ECJ issues its verdict on the Commission's challenge. It added that the EU's legal system "could be seriously and irreparably affected" if the law is allowed to continue in force. Last month, PiS reversed some of the changes to the Supreme Court law. The ruling party has also taken a much more pro-EU public stance, a recognition of the broad popularity of being a member country. Read this next: Theresa May holds the line as MPs demand early Brexit vote[SEP]The European Union's top court has ruled Poland must immediately suspend a law that forced some Supreme Court judges to retire, drawing a line under a dispute between Warsaw and Brussels. Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party had already agreed to scrap the law that lowered the judges' retirement age after the European Court of Justice issued an interim judgement against the legislation in October. The Eurosceptic and nationalist PiS initially pushed through a range of new powers after coming to power in 2015 that rights groups and EU officials said threatened the rule of law and increased the government's control over Polish courts. PiS originally argued the changes were needed to improve the efficiency of the courts and rid the country of a residue of communism. But it has shown signs of softening its position on a number of issues as it prepares for national elections next year. President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the ruling party, said late on Monday he had approved revamped legislation to reverse the change to the judges' retirement age.[SEP]EU court orders Poland to suspend law on removal of judges WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The European Union's top court has ruled Poland must immediately suspend a law that lowered the retirement age for Supreme Court judges. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Monday confirmed an interim judgment from October to reinstate judges who had been forced into early retirement earlier this year. The court's steps reflect support for the European Commission, which enforces EU law in the 28 member states, in an ongoing standoff with Poland. The commission viewed the forced early retirement of some two dozen judges as erosions of judicial independence and democratic standards because it gave the legislative and executive branches of government unprecedented control over the courts. After the interim injunction, Poland's parliament passed amended legislation to remove the early retirement provisions but that still awaits presidential approval.[SEP]Polish President Andrzej Duda signed legislation late Monday reinstating around two dozen Supreme Court judges forced into early retirement. Earlier in the day, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had ordered Poland to immediately suspend a law that lowered the retirement age from 70 to 65. The Polish parliament passed a revision to the law in late November following an interim ECJ order in October . The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, had asked the bloc's top court to review the legislation over concerns the reforms gave the government control of the judiciary. The EU has been in a bitter dispute with Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party since it made sweeping changes to the judiciary after coming to power in 2015. The government says that the changes were necessary to make the Supreme Court more efficient. The standoff triggered the EU to launch proceedings against Poland over concern about judicial independence and the rule of law that could see Warsaw lose its voting rights in the bloc. Critics welcomed the government's reversal, but say PiS has exerted control over top courts and a council that appoints judges. Monday's court ruling upheld an interim order. A final ECJ decision is expected next year. Every 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]Polish president Andrzej Duda has backtracked on a controversial law that suspended members of the country's supreme court after an international backlash and protests across the country. The government pushed through an amendment on Monday suspending parts of the law that forced judges into early retirement, a rare example of the country stepping back from a conflict with the EU and adopting a more conciliatory approach. Mr Duda put his signature to the amendment just hours after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) - an EU body - ordered Poland to reinstate supreme court judges who had been forced to retire or face financial penalties. The law, which came into effect in July, saw 22 supreme court judges forced to quit their posts before the expiration of the constitutional term. The law was criticised for being a legal veil for a government-orchestrated purge of judges who did not align politically with the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), and thousands protested in cities across the country. Mr Duda on Tuesday suggested that Poland was implementing the injunction only to relieve pressure from Brussels for now, not because it agreed with the decision politically, and that the ruling would not derail the government's programme.[SEP]The EU's top court on Monday upheld a ruling ordering Warsaw to suspend a law lowering the retirement age of its Supreme Court judges amid concerns about Poland's judicial independence. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) had ordered Poland on October 19 to suspend the law before finalising the "interim measure" on Monday. "Poland must immediately suspend the application of the provisions of national legislation relating to the lowering of the retirement age for Supreme Court judges," the ECJ said in a statement. "The pleas of fact and law raised by the (European) Commission justify granting interim measures," the Luxembourg-based court said. The Commission, the EU's executive arm, has been locked in a bitter battle over sweeping judicial changes introduced by Poland's rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) government since it took office in 2015. The showdown has led the EU to trigger unprecedented proceedings against Poland over "systemic threats" to the rule of law that could eventually see its EU voting rights suspended. In early October, the Commission took Poland's government to the ECJ for lowering the age at which Supreme Court judges must retire from 70 to 65. On October 19, the court ordered Poland to suspend the law "pending the making of an order closing the interim proceedings". The court, which upheld the interim measures on Monday, is expected to make a permanent decision in the case next year. On November 21, Poland's parliament bowed to the EU court ruling. But the legislation reversing the Supreme Court retirement law has not yet been promulgated. Under Polish law, President Andrzej Duda has until midnight Monday to sign the legislation into law.

Polish President Andrzej Duda signs into law the bill, passed by the Parliament of Poland three weeks ago, reinstating the Supreme Court judges who had been forced out of their jobs when legislation to lower the judges's mandatory retirement age was enacted in July. This addresses one of the issues that has been in dispute with the European Union.

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Hailing from China, the 160-million-year-old fossils are of two different pterosaurs, one of which is newly discovered. Strange feathery creatures In depth analysis shows that as well as fur - which has been suggested before - the flying reptiles had feathers like some dinosaurs, including the theropods. "If I just saw these fluffy bits on their own, I would swear they were from a theropod dinosaur," said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, who was not part of the study. "This means feathers were not a bird innovation, not even a dinosaur innovation, but evolved first in a much more distant ancestor. "The age of dinosaurs was full of all sorts of strange feathery creatures!" Image copyright Baoyu Jiang, Michael Benton et al./Nature Ecology Image caption Are these feathers? The researchers found that the pterosaurs had four different kinds of covering, including fuzzy, fur over most of their body; and, on parts of the head and wings, three types of fibres similar to modern feathers. The fluff and feathers are likely to have been important in heat regulation and aerodynamics. "These structures on the pterosaur make it look a bit like a fruit bat, or something like that, a fuzzy hairy creature," said Prof Benton, who worked on the discovery with colleagues in China. "They fly with great out-stretched bony wings that carry a substantial membrane, a bit like a bat." Flight in the Jurassic skies Questions still remain over whether these are true feathers. If they are, it would suggest that feathers appeared millions of years earlier than previously thought. Alternatively, feathers could have evolved twice during the course of evolution. Insects were the first group to achieve the ability to fly: they developed wings at least 320 million years ago. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates - animals with a backbone - to evolve powered flight, about 230 million years ago. The research is published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Follow Helen on Twitter.[SEP]The US-based luxury watchmaker Fossil Group has announced the launch of its seven products across its six brands in India. "At Fossil, it is our endeavor to provide our customers with the best of both, fashion and technology. With the launch of next Generation of smartwatches, we have amplified the technological features on the wrist while maintaining our aesthetically fashioned designs, creating an experienced individual to each consumer. We are certain they will enjoy it", says Managing Director, Johnson Verghese. The newly launched products include Fossil Gen 4 Smartwatch Venture HR and Explorist HR for Fossil, Skagen Falster 2 for Skagen, Michael Kors Access Runway for Michael Kors, Emporio Armani Connected for Emporio Armani, A|X Armani Exchange Connected for Armani Exchange and Diesel Full Guard for Diesel. The new product line comes with features like touchscreen digital display, Bluetooth technology, wireless syncing and magnetic charging, compatibility with iOS 9.3+ and Android 4.4+ (excluding Go edition) and long battery life. It is powered with Wear OS by Google and running Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 Platform. Gautam Sharma, Vice President Brand Strategy - APAC says, "Since our entry into the smartwatch market three years ago, it has been Fossil's mission to meld technology and design. 2018 has been our biggest leap so far: by adding significant features in terms of technology, without compromising our design ethos, Fossil's new generation of smartwatches provides consumers with one device for all their lifestyle needs. The smartwatches have features like a heart rate sensor, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light, and microphone. "We are excited to finally launch the fourth generation of our Fossil Group products into India. This new collection comes with several new features, including a heart rate monitor, GPS and swimproof. With wellness being such a strong part of our daily lives, we know that our fans will fall in love with our new lines," Sharma said. According to a company functions like Heart Rate, and GPS will give users a 360-holistic way to track all parts of their lives while keeping true to the authentic creative spirit of innovative watch design that Fossil was founded on more than 30 years ago.

160 million-year-old fossil anurognathid pterosaurs are discovered that show feathery coverings, suggesting either deep common ancestry with theropod dinosaurs or independent coevolution.

A newly discovered object is the most-distant body ever observed in the solar system — and the first object ever found orbiting at more than 100 times the distance from Earth to the sun. The discovery team nicknamed the object "Farout," and its provisional designation from the International Astronomical Union is 2018 VG18. Preliminary research suggests it's a round, pinkish dwarf planet. The same team spotted a faraway dwarf planet nicknamed "The Goblin" in October. "All that we currently know about 2018 VG18 is its extreme distance from the sun, its approximate diameter, and its color," David Tholen, a researcher at the University of Hawaii and part of the discovery team, said in a statement. "Because 2018 VG18 is so distant, it orbits very slowly, likely taking more than 1,000 years to take one trip around the Sun." [The Evidence for 'Planet Nine' in Our Solar System (Gallery)] The location of 2018 VG18 compared to the orbits of other solar system objects. It lives up to its nickname "Farout"! (Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Carnegie Institution for Science) Farout is 120 astronomical units (AU) from the sun — one AU is the distance between Earth and the sun, which is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). The object is more than 3.5 times the current distance between Pluto and the sun (34 AU), and it outpaces the previous farthest-known solar system object, the dwarf planet Eris, which is currently about 96 AU from the sun. NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft recently entered interstellar space at about 120 AU, leaving the sun's "sphere of influence" called the heliopause, where bodies experience the solar wind. To be clear: The record Farout now holds is for the most-distant solar system body ever observed. That doesn't mean no other objects get farther away from the sun than 120 AU. In fact, we know some that do. The dwarf planet Sedna gets more than 900 AU away on its highly elliptical orbit, for example, and there are probably trillions of comets in the Oort Cloud, which lies between about 5,000 AU and 100,000 AU from the sun. Farout was first spotted using the Subaru 8-meter telescope in Hawaii in November, and then a follow-up measurement in early December by the Magellan telescope in Chile confirmed its existence. According to those observations, the object is likely about 500 km across, which would mean it's spherical and a dwarf planet. Its pinkish color suggests it's an ice-rich body, according to the statement. Artist's concept of the newly discovered object 2018 VG18, nicknamed Farout, which researchers think is likely a pinkish dwarf planet. At 120 AU, the object is the farthest body ever found in the solar system. (Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Carnegie Institution for Science) The research team is scoping out these ultradistant objects to search for the gravitational influence of a theorized super-Earth-size Planet Nine, also called Planet X, that researchers have posited orbits in the extreme reaches of the solar system. The movements of several distant bodies have suggested the existence of this planet, which would be extremely faint and hard to locate. "2018 VG18 is much more distant and slower moving than any other observed solar system object, so it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit," Scott Sheppard, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., and member of the discovery team, said in the statement. "But it was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme solar system objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do. The orbital similarities shown by many of the known small, distant solar system bodies was the catalyst for our original assertion that there is a distant, massive planet at several hundred AU shepherding these smaller objects." Views from the Subaru telescope that led to the discovery of 2018 VG18, visible moving between the two frames at center. (Image credit: Scott S. Sheppard/David Tholen) Because the proposed Planet 9 is so distant — between hundreds and thousands of AU, researchers told Space.com, the planet can alter the orbits of objects far too distant to be strongly influenced by the inner solar-system planets. That means that looking for trends in the orbits of objects like Farout can point the way to the mysterious planet, giving researchers hints of where to look for it and chances to test the powerful telescopes that might someday spot it. "This discovery is truly an international achievement in research using telescopes located in Hawaii and Chile, operated by Japan, as well as a consortium of research institutions and universities in the United States," Chad Trujillo, a researcher at Northern Arizona University and the third member of the discovery team, said in the statement. "With new wide-field digital cameras on some of the world's largest telescopes, we are finally exploring our Solar System's fringes, far beyond Pluto." Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com.[SEP]A Hawa‘i astronomer was part of a team of astronomers has discovered the most-distant body ever observed in the Solar System. It is the first known Solar System object that has been detected at a distance that is more than 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun. The new object was announced on Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center and has been given the provisional designation 2018 VG18. The discovery was made by the University of Hawai‘i’s David Tholen, Carnegie’s Scott S. Sheppard, and Northern Arizona University’s Chad Trujillo. 2018 VG18, nicknamed “Farout” by the discovery team for its extremely distant location, is at about 120 astronomical units (AU), where 1 AU is defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The second-most-distant observed Solar System object is Eris, at about 96 AU. Pluto is currently at about 34 AU, making 2018 VG18 more than three-and-a-half times more distant than the Solar System’s most-famous dwarf planet. 2018 VG18 was discovered as part of the team’s continuing search for extremely distant Solar System objects, including the suspected Planet X, which is sometimes also called Planet 9. In October, the same group of researchers announced the discovery of another distant Solar System object, called 2015 TG387 and nicknamed “The Goblin,” because it was first seen near Halloween. The Goblin was discovered at about 80 AU and has an orbit that is consistent with it being influenced by an unseen Super-Earth-sized Planet X on the Solar System’s very distant fringes. The existence of a ninth major planet at the fringes of the Solar System was first proposed by this same research team in 2014 when they discovered 2012 VP113, nicknamed Biden, which is currently near 84 AU. 2015 TG387 and 2012 VP113 never get close enough to the Solar System’s giant planets, like Neptune and Jupiter, to have significant gravitational interactions with them. This means that these extremely distant objects can be probes of what is happening in the Solar System’s outer reaches. The team doesn’t know 2018 VG18’s orbit very well yet, so they have not been able to determine if it shows signs of being shaped by Planet X. “2018 VG18 is much more distant and slower moving than any other observed Solar System object, so it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit,” said Sheppard. “But it was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme Solar System objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do. The orbital similarities shown by many of the known small, distant Solar System bodies was the catalyst for our original assertion that there is a distant, massive planet at several hundred AU shepherding these smaller objects.” “All that we currently know about 2018 VG18 is its extreme distance from the Sun, its approximate diameter, and its color,” added Tholen “Because 2018 VG18 is so distant, it orbits very slowly, likely taking more than 1,000 years to take one trip around the Sun.” The discovery images of 2018 VG18 were taken at the Japanese Subaru 8-meter telescope located atop Maunakea in Hawai‘i on Nov. 10, 2018. Once 2018 VG18 was found, it needed to be re-observed to confirm its very distant nature. (It takes multiple nights of observing to accurately determine an object’s distance.) 2018 VG18 was seen for the second time in early December at the Magellan telescope at Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. These recovery observations were performed by the team with the addition of graduate student Will Oldroyd of Northern Arizona University. Over the next week, they monitored 2018 VG18 with the Magellan telescope to secure its path across the sky and obtain its basic physical properties such as brightness and color. The Magellan observations confirmed that 2018 VG18 is around 120 AU, making it the first Solar System object observed beyond 100 AU. Its brightness suggests that it is about 500 km in diameter, likely making it spherical in shape and a dwarf planet. It has a pinkish hue, a color generally associated with ice-rich objects. “This discovery is truly an international achievement in research using telescopes located in Hawaii and Chile, operated by Japan, as well as by a consortium of research institutions and universities in the United States,” concluded Trujillo. “With new wide-field digital cameras on some of the world’s largest telescopes, we are finally exploring our Solar System’s fringes, far beyond Pluto.” The Subaru telescope is owned and operated by Japan and the valuable telescope access that the team obtained was thanks to a combination of time allocated to the University of Hawai‘i, as well as to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) through telescope time exchanges between the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).[SEP]A team of astronomers has discovered the most extreme trans-Neptunian object in the outer reaches of the Solar System. Dubbed “Farout,” the object is more than 120 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Excitingly, given preliminary estimates about its size, it could actually be a dwarf planet—but it’s still too small to qualify as the elusive Planet X. The newly discovered object was announced earlier today by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. Many more years of observations will be required to fully characterize the object and its orbital path, but the IAU has added it to its database under the provisional name 2018 VG18, along with its coordinates and observational notes. Farout, as it’s been nicknamed, was discovered by astronomer Scott S. Sheppard from the Carnegie Institution for Science and his colleagues at the University of Hawaii and Northern Arizona University. Farout was first observed on November 10, 2018 by astronomers using the Japanese Subaru 8-meter telescope located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The object was re-observed in early December with the Magellan telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. These multiple observations, in addition to confirming the object, were used to establish its path across the night sky, along with its size, brightness, and color. This extreme trans-Neptunian object is about 120 astronomical units (AU) from Earth, where 1 AU is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun (about 92 million miles, or 149 million kilometers). Farout is so far out that light from the Sun takes 16 hours and 40 minutes to travel the 11-billion-mile (18-billion-kilometer) distance. “2018 VG18 is the first object found beyond 100 AU in our Solar System,” Sheppard told Gizmodo. “It moves so slow, that it will take a few years to see enough motion of the object to determine its orbit around the Sun.” Sheppard and his colleagues wouldn’t be surprised if a single year on Farout lasts more than 1,000 Earth years. Pluto, by comparison, is about 34 AU from the Sun, so Farout is 3.5 times more distant. Other extreme trans-Neptunian objects include Eris at 96 AU and Goblin, which was discovered earlier this year, at 90 AU. Astronomers don’t know much about Farout’s physical characteristics because it’s so faint. “Based on its brightness and distance, it is likely about 500 to 600 km (310 to 372 miles) in diameter. At this size, gravity will dominate over any material strength the object might have, and thus it should be spherical in shape,” said Sheppard. “This would make it a dwarf planet. The color of the object is pinkish to red in color, which suggests it has an icy surface. Ice usually turns reddish in color after being irradiated for long periods of time from the Sun’s radiation.” Farout was discovered as part of the search for the elusive Planet Nine, sometimes called Planet X. This hypothetical planet is thought to exist in the outer reaches of the Solar System because of the way other Kuiper Belt objects are orientated. But as Sheppard pointed out, Farout doesn’t qualify as Planet X, which is thought to be much bigger. “Planet X needs to be several times larger than Earth in order to gravitationally push the other smaller objects around and shepherd them into similar types of orbits,” explained Sheppard. “Planet X is also likely even further away, at a few hundred AU.” It’s reasonable to wonder how this object managed to stray so far from the Solar System’s planetary pack; astronomers won’t know the answer to this question until Farout’s orbit can be determined. “If its orbit brings it closer in at some point, like near Neptune or one of the other giant planets, then it likely got scattered outwards to its current location and orbit by gravitationally interacting with the planet like Neptune,” said Sheppard. “If its orbit never brings it into the giant planet region in our Solar System, then it becomes a big question of how it got out there. This would suggest Planet X pulled it out to this large distance.” Either result would be exciting; the first would help us to better understand the history of the Solar System, while the second would offer added proof that Planet X actually exists. As a fun, final aside, sending a probe to Farout isn’t a terribly far out idea (relax, I’m wrapping up). Currently, the New Horizons probe is scheduled to visit Ultima Thule, a distant Kuiper Belt object, on New Year’s Day, and is traveling at about 36,350 miles per hour (58,500 kilometers per hour). At that speed, it would take a similar probe anywhere from between 35 to 40 years to reach Farout from Earth. Perhaps something for NASA to think about when planning for the next generation of space missions.[SEP]Astronomers have discovered the most distant body ever observed in our Solar System. Nicknamed 'Farout', the new object was announced by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center and has been given the provisional designation 2018 VG18. It is about 120 astronomical units (AU), where 1 AU is defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and the first known Solar System object detected at a distance of more than 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT FAROUT? Nicknamed 'Farout', the new object was announced by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center and has been given the provisional designation 2018 VG18. It is about 120 astronomical units (AU), where 1 AU is defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Its brightness suggests that it is about 310 miles in diameter, likely making it spherical in shape and a dwarf planet. It has a pinkish hue, a color generally associated with ice-rich objects. 'All that we currently know about 2018 VG18 is its extreme distance from the Sun, its approximate diameter, and its color,' said the University of Hawaii's David Tholen. Its brightness suggests that it is about 310 miles in diameter, likely making it spherical in shape and a dwarf planet. It has a pinkish hue, a color generally associated with ice-rich objects, the researchers say. 'Because 2018 VG18 is so distant, it orbits very slowly, likely taking more than 1,000 years to take one trip around the Sun.' The discovery images of 2018 VG18 were taken at the Japanese Subaru 8-meter telescope located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii on November 10, 2018. The second-most-distant observed Solar System object is Eris, at about 96 AU. Pluto is currently at about 34 AU, making 2018 VG18 more than three-and-a-half times more distant than the Solar System's most-famous dwarf planet. The discovery was made by Carnegie's Scott S. Sheppard, the University of Hawaii's David Tholen, and Northern Arizona University's Chad Trujillo. 2018 VG18 was discovered as part of the team's continuing search for extremely distant Solar System objects, including the suspected Planet X, which is sometimes also called Planet 9. The team doesn't know 2018 VG18's orbit very well yet, so they have not been able to determine if it shows signs of being shaped by Planet X. '2018 VG18 is much more distant and slower moving than any other observed Solar System object, so it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit,' said Sheppard. 'But it was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme Solar System objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do. 'The orbital similarities shown by many of the known small, distant Solar System bodies was the catalyst for our original assertion that there is a distant, massive planet at several hundred AU shepherding these smaller objects.' 2018 VG18 was seen for the second time in early December at the Magellan telescope at Carnegie's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. These recovery observations were performed by the team with the addition of graduate student Will Oldroyd of Northern Arizona University. Over the next week, they monitored 2018 VG18 with the Magellan telescope to secure its path across the sky and obtain its basic physical properties such as brightness and color. The Magellan observations confirmed that 2018 VG18 is around 120 AU, making it the first Solar System object observed beyond 100 AU.[SEP]Astronomers have discovered another small object in the outer solar system, the most distant solar system object yet known. Another first … it’s the first solar system object to be detected at a distance of more than 100 times Earth’s distance from the sun. The new object has been given the provisional designation 2018 VG18. Astronomers have given it the nickname Farout. Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution of Science, David Tholen of the University of Hawaii and Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University co-discovered the object. The discovery images of 2018 VG18 were taken at the Japanese Subaru 8-meter telescope located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii on November 10, 2018. By tracking its movement through space, the astronomers can calculate that 2018 VG18 lies at a distance of about 120 astronomical units, or Earth-sun units. A statement from these astronomers explained: The second-most-distant observed solar system object is Eris, at about 96 AU. Pluto is currently at about 34 AU, making 2018 VG18 more than 3 1/2 times more distant than the solar system’s most-famous dwarf planet. 2018 VG18 was discovered as part of the team’s continuing search for extremely distant solar system objects, including a suspected Planet X (with the X standing for unknown), also sometimes called Planet 9. Indeed, it’s the Planet 9 possibility that makes this new discovery of another small object in the outer solar system so tantalizing. After all, there must be many small outer solar system bodies, moving through space, unknown to earthly astronomers. Finding them is a big deal to the Planet 9 search because the orbits of these small, outer bodies are clues to Planet 9’s whereabouts, if, indeed, it exists. This same group of astronomers – Sheppard, Tholen and Trujillo – recently discovered another small, outer body that’s been labeled 2015 TG387 and nicknamed The Goblin, because it was first seen near Halloween 2018. Their statement explained: The Goblin was discovered at about 80 AU and has an orbit that is consistent with it being influenced by an unseen super-Earth-sized Planet X on the solar system’s very distant fringes … 2015 TG387 and 2012 VP113 never get close enough to the solar system’s giant planets, like Neptune and Jupiter, to have significant gravitational interactions with them. This means that these extremely distant objects can be probes of what is happening in the solar system’s outer reaches. The team doesn’t know 2018 VG18’s orbit very well yet, so they have not been able to determine if it shows signs of being shaped by Planet X. How long will it take to learn more about 2018 VG18’s orbit? Years! That’s because 2018 VG18 is so distant. Remember your Astronomy 101? The more distant the object from our sun, the slower it moves in orbit around the sun. As the most distant object yet found in our solar system, 2018 VG18 has the distinction of being slower-moving than any other observed solar system object. So, Sheppard explained: … it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit. But it was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme solar system objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do. Read more about this discovery via Carnegie Institution for Science Bottom line: 2018 VG18 is the most distant object yet known in our solar system. It’s a small body, 120 times Earth’s distance from the sun, but it may have a big role to play in the discovery of a large, as-yet-unknown Planet X (aka Planet 9). EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast! Want to see 2018’s brightest comet? How to see comet 46P/Wirtanen[SEP]Scientists have discovered the most-distant body ever observed in our solar system — located over 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun. The new object, discovered by Scott S Sheppard from Carnegie Institution for Science, David Tholen from University of Hawaii, and Chad Trujillo from Northern Arizona University in the US, has been given the provisional designation 2018 VG18. 2018 VG18, nicknamed “Farout” by the team for its extremely distant location, is at about 120 astronomical units (AU), where 1 AU is defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The second-most-distant observed solar system object is Eris, at about 96 AU. Pluto is currently at about 34 AU, making 2018 VG18 more than three-and-a-half times more distant than the solar system’s most-famous dwarf planet. 2018 VG18 was discovered as part of the team’s continuing search for extremely distant solar system objects, including the suspected Planet X, which is sometimes also called Planet 9. In October, the same group of researchers announced the discovery of another distant solar system object, called 2015 TG387 and nicknamed “The Goblin,” because it was first seen near Halloween. The Goblin was discovered at about 80 AU and has an orbit that is consistent with it being influenced by an unseen Super-Earth-sized Planet X on the solar system’s very distant fringes. The existence of a ninth major planet at the fringes of the solar system was first proposed by this same research team in 2014 when they discovered 2012 VP113, nicknamed Biden, which is currently near 84 AU. 2015 TG387 and 2012 VP113 never get close enough to the solar system’s giant planets, like Neptune and Jupiter, to have significant gravitational interactions with them. This means that these extremely distant objects can be probes of what is happening in the solar system’s outer reaches. The team doesn’t know 2018 VG18’s orbit very well yet, so they have not been able to determine if it shows signs of being shaped by Planet X. “2018 VG18 is much more distant and slower moving than any other observed solar system object, so it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit,” said Sheppard. “But it was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme solar system objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do,” he said. “The orbital similarities shown by many of the known small, distant solar system bodies was the catalyst for our original assertion that there is a distant, massive planet at several hundred AU shepherding these smaller objects,” he added. “All that we currently know about 2018 VG18 is its extreme distance from the Sun, its approximate diameter, and its colour,” said Tholen. “Because 2018 VG18 is so distant, it orbits very slowly, likely taking more than 1,000 years to take one trip around the Sun,” he said. The discovery images of 2018 VG18 were taken at the Japanese Subaru 8-metre telescope located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii on November 10, 2018. 2018 VG18 was seen for the second time in early December at the Magellan telescope at Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Over the next week, researchers monitored 2018 VG18 with the Magellan telescope to secure its path across the sky and obtain its basic physical properties such as brightness and colour. The Magellan observations confirmed that 2018 VG18 is around 120 AU, making it the first Solar System object observed beyond 100 AU. Its brightness suggests that it is about 500 km in diameter, likely making it spherical in shape and a dwarf planet. It has a pinkish hue, a colour generally associated with ice-rich objects.[SEP]A team of astronomers has discovered the most-distant body, 2018 VG18, nicknamed “Farout” by the discovery team for its extreme location –the most distant observed in our Solar System. It is the first known Solar System object that has been detected at a distance that is more than 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun. “All that we currently know about 2018 VG18 is its extreme distance from the Sun, its approximate diameter, and its color,” said University of Hawaii astronomer David Tholen.”Because 2018 VG18 is so distant, it orbits very slowly, likely taking more than 1,000 years to take one trip around the Sun.” The new object was announced on Monday, December 17, 2018, by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center and has been given the provisional designation 2018 VG18. The discovery made by Carnegie’s Scott S. Sheppard, Tholen, and Northern Arizona University’s Chad Trujillo, was reported today by the Carnegie Institution for Science. 2018 VG18 is at about 120 astronomical units (AU), where 1 AU is defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The second-most-distant observed Solar System object is Eris, at about 96 AU. Pluto is currently at about 34 AU, making 2018 VG18 more than three-and-a-half times more distant than the Solar System’s most-famous dwarf planet. 2018 VG18 was discovered as part of the team’s continuing search for extremely distant Solar System objects, including the suspected Planet X, which is sometimes also called Planet 9. In October, the same group of researchers announced the discovery of another distant Solar System object, called 2015 TG387 and nicknamed “The Goblin,” because it was first seen near Halloween. The Goblin was discovered at about 80 AU and has an orbit that is consistent with it being influenced by an unseen Super-Earth-sized Planet X on the Solar System’s very distant fringes. The existence of a ninth major planet (image at top of page) at the fringes of the Solar System was first proposed by this same research team in 2014 when they discovered 2012 VP113, nicknamed Biden, which is currently near 84 AU. 2015 TG387 and 2012 VP113 never get close enough to the Solar System’s giant planets, like Neptune and Jupiter, to have significant gravitational interactions with them. This means that these extremely distant objects can be probes of what is happening in the Solar System’s outer reaches. The team doesn’t know 2018 VG18’s orbit very well yet, so they have not been able to determine if it shows signs of being shaped by Planet X. “2018 VG18 is much more distant and slower moving than any other observed Solar System object, so it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit,” said Sheppard. “But it was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme Solar System objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do. The orbital similarities shown by many of the known small, distant Solar System bodies was the catalyst for our original assertion that there is a distant, massive planet at several hundred AU shepherding these smaller objects.” The discovery images of 2018 VG18 were taken at the Japanese Subaru 8-meter telescope located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii on November 10, 2018. Once 2018 VG18 was found, it needed to be re-observed to confirm its very distant nature. (It takes multiple nights of observing to accurately determine an object’s distance.) 2018 VG18 was seen for the second time in early December at the Magellan telescope at Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Over the next week, they monitored 2018 VG18 with the Magellan telescope to secure its path across the sky and obtain its basic physical properties such as brightness and color. The Magellan observations confirmed that 2018 VG18 is around 120 AU, making it the first Solar System object observed beyond 100 AU. Its brightness suggests that it is about 500 km in diameter, likely making it spherical in shape and a dwarf planet. It has a pinkish hue, a color generally associated with ice-rich objects. “This discovery is truly an international achievement in research using telescopes located in Hawaii and Chile, operated by Japan, as well as by a consortium of research institutions and universities in the United States,” concluded Trujillo. “With new wide-field digital cameras on some of the world’s largest telescopes, we are finally exploring our Solar System’s fringes, far beyond Pluto.” The Daily Galaxy via Carnegie Institute for Science “Spying on Earth’s Most Awesome Creatures” –Scientists Pursue Undiscovered Species of Whales Swimming Below Since the Eocene Artificial Intelligence Is Already Out There, and It’s Billions of Years Old” (WATCH Video) ‘Ghost Signals’ of Extraterrestrial Civilizations Haunt the Milky Way –Suggests the New Drake Equation (WATCH Video) “Odds That There has Never Been Another Civilization in the Universe One in Ten Billion Trillion” –A Joe Rogan Interview “The Mystery of Where Extraterrestrial Life is Hiding Deepens” “We’re Entering Uncharted Territory” –The Exoplanet Revolution May Reveal that Rise of Civilizations May Not be Unusual “The Big Rip” –When Matter and Spacetime are Gradually Torn Apart Through Expansion of the Universe “Humans are the First to Arrive at the Interstellar Stage” –Physicist Answers the Fermi Paradox[SEP]For the first time, an object in our solar system has been found more than 100 times farther than Earth is from the sun. The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery Monday, calling the object 2018 VG18. But the researchers who found it are calling it “Farout.” They believe the spherical object is a dwarf planet more than 310 miles in diameter, with a pinkish hue. That color has been associated with objects that are rich in ice, and given its distance from the sun, that isn’t hard to believe. Its slow orbit probably takes more than 1,000 years to make one trip around the sun, the researchers said. The distance between the Earth and the sun is an AU, or astronomical unit — the equivalent of about 93 million miles. Farout is 120 AU from the sun. Eris, the next most distant object known, is 96 AU from the sun. For reference, Pluto is 34 AU away. The object was found by the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Scott S. Sheppard, the University of Hawaii’s David Tholen and Northern Arizona University’s Chad Trujillo — and it’s not their first discovery. The team has been searching for a super-Earth-size planet on the edge of our solar system, known as Planet Nine or Planet X, since 2014. They first suggested the existence of this possible planet in 2014 after finding “Biden” at 84 AU. Along the way, they have discovered more distant solar system objects suggesting that the gravity of something massive is influencing their orbit. Farout was found using the Japanese Subaru 8-meter telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea in November. Follow-up observations with Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory’s Magellan telescope in Chile determined its path, brightness, and color. “This discovery is truly an international achievement in research using telescopes located in Hawaii and Chile, operated by Japan, as well as by a consortium of research institutions and universities in the United States,” Trujillo said in a statement. “With new wide-field digital cameras on some of the world’s largest telescopes, we are finally exploring our Solar System’s fringes, far beyond Pluto.” In October, the team announced the discovery of “the Goblin” at 80 AU; it’s so named because the distant solar system object was first spotted near Halloween. It’s unlikely that these objects are influenced by the gravity of gas giants Neptune and Uranus because they never get close enough to them — which indicates that something else is determining their orbits. Farout’s orbit is yet to be determined. “2018 VG18 is much more distant and slower moving than any other observed Solar System object so it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit,” Sheppard said in a statement. “But it was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme Solar System objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do. The orbital similarities shown by many of the known small, distant Solar System bodies was the catalyst for our original assertion that there is a distant, massive planet at several hundred AU shepherding these smaller objects.”[SEP]Astronomers Discover The Farthest Object In The Solar System Dwarf planet “Farout” could take more than 1,000 years to circle the sun once. Astronomers have discovered the farthest object in the solar system known to humanity so far. The presumably spherical object was provisionally christened “2018 VG18 ” and is nicknamed “Farout”, which literally means “far away”. The Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union IAU announced the discovery on Monday. The object is estimated to have a diameter of 500 kilometers, which would correspond to about one-tenth of Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system. “Farout” would be a dwarf planet like Pluto, which has a diameter of about 2,400 kilometers. He also gives off a pink hue, which is usually associated with ice. Because of its long distance, “Farout” could take more than 1,000 years to orbit the sun once. The distance between the sun and the earth is called the astronomical unit (AU), which is about 150 million kilometers. “Farout” is about 120 AU, the dwarf planet Eris 96 AU and Pluto 34 AU away. The previously unknown object was discovered by three astronomers from Washington, Hawaii and Arizona. The first recordings had been delivered by a telescope in Hawaii, at an observatory in Chile “Farout” was then re-sighted. “We are finally exploring the edges of our solar system far beyond Pluto,” said Chad Trujillo, one of the three explorers, according to the Carnegie Institution for Science. One reason for this is the new wide-angle digital cameras on some of the world’s largest telescopes. The telescope, which made the first shots of “Farout”, is operated by Japan with a consortium of universities in the US and several research institutes.[SEP]Astronomers have discovered the most distant body in the solar system, a pink micro-planet which has been nicknamed "Farout". The object was announced by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre, and has been given the provisional official designation 2018 VG18. Farout is - as its name suggests - is extremely distant from the Sun. It is about 120 astronomical units (AU) away - one AU is defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The discovery was made by the Carnegie Institute of Science's (CIS) Scott Sheppard, alongside the University of Hawaii's David Tholen, and Northern Arizona University's Chad Trujillo. It was discovered as part of the team's continuing search for extremely distant Solar System objects, including the suspected Planet X, sometimes called Planet 9 following Pluto's downgrading. Scott Seppard said the micro-planet was "much more distant and slower moving than any other observed Solar System object, so it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit". He added: "It was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme Solar System objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do. "The orbital similarities shown by many of the known small, distant Solar System bodies was the catalyst for our original assertion that there is a distant, massive planet at several hundred AU shepherding these smaller objects." Its colour is believed to be caused by a high amount of ice in the dwarf planet's body. "All that we currently know about 2018 VG18 is its extreme distance from the Sun, its approximate diameter, and its colour," Mr Tholen said. "Because 2018 VG18 is so distant, it orbits very slowly, likely taking more than 1,000 years to take one trip around the Sun." First spotted with a telescope in Hawaii, Mr Sheppard's team confirmed the dwarf planet's existence from Chile. Mr Sheppard told Associated Press: "I actually uttered 'farout' when I first found this object, because I immediately noticed from its slow movement that it must be far out there. "It is the slowest moving object I have ever seen and is really out there."

Astronomers announce the discovery of trans-Neptunian object 2018 VG18, the most distant object in the Solar System ever observed at a distance of ~120 AU.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Grounded Russian cargo ship freed A 16,000-tonne Russian cargo ship ran aground off a beach in Cornwall. The Kuzma Minin grounded off Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth at about 05:40 GMT. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) declared a major incident and said the 590ft (180m) ship had a list of about five degrees. The massive vessel, which had 18 Russian crew members on board but no cargo, was refloated in a "tricky and delicate" operation at high tide. Three harbour tugs and a lifeboat towed the ship off the beach just after 14:00. Marc Thomas, senior coastal operations manager, said the coastguard had been forced to work "really hard to manoeuvre the vessels" during windy conditions. Latest news from Cornwall and on the Kuzma Minin Image caption An earlier attempt to refloat the ship failed after several tow ropes snapped Falmouth harbourmaster Mark Sansom said: "This has been a successful and well co-ordinated operation involving multiple agencies. "We would like to recognise the outstanding performance of the pilot and of all vessel crews involved in what was a very demanding incident. "The Kuzma Minin has been taken to Falmouth Bay to anchor, in order for it to be inspected." The coastguard said there had been no reports of any pollution. An earlier effort to refloat the ship failed when tow ropes snapped. A helicopter team winched coastguard members on to the ship earlier in order to check up on the Kuzma Minin's crew. Supt Matthew Longman from Devon and Cornwall Police warned members of the public to stay away from the beach where the ship ran aground. "It is important to let the public know that there is no cargo on this ship," he said. "We all remember the scenes when the Napoli ran aground in east Devon. I'm afraid there are no such spoils on the Kuzma Minin." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Kuzma Minin was grounded for more than eight hours Former pilot, David Barnicoat told the BBC it looked like "a classic grounding". "It sounds as if she dragged anchor and the engines may not have been ready, or she may have had some other problem," he said. "Once that anchor breaks from the sea bed and you start dragging, then you have no control whatsoever." You may also be interested in: One witness, Megan Hocking, said she was "thinking of everybody on the tugs and lifeboat - terrible conditions for a rescue mission". Falmouth resident Jess Hughes described the weather on the Cornish coast as "extreme" and said it had been "horrendously windy" on Monday night. Gyllyngvase Beach is a sandy tourist beach about 10 minutes from Falmouth town centre.[SEP]British rescuers have refloated a Russian ship with 18 sailors trapped on board after it dragged its anchor and grounded off the southwest coast of England. A lifeboat has been standing by for the beached crew. A Russian cargo ship dragged its anchor in strong winds off the coast of the Falmouth, Cornwall on Tuesday, relocating the 180-meter vessel to within a few meters of the coast. Dramatic footage posted on social media showed a rescuer from the local coastguard rescue team being lowered onto the huge ship during the operation to re-float it. The MV Kuzma Minin had "dragged her anchor and grounded" between the Swanpool and Gyllyngvase beaches near the town of Falmouth, according to Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The ship, which was stranded for around 10 hours, was not carrying any cargo and there were no reports of any pollution from the grounding. Tugs will be attached to the vessel and "the plan is to re-float the vessel," the coastguard said. Unverified footage on social media on Tuesday afternoon purported to show the ship heading out into Falmouth Bay after being refloated. Every 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]A 16,000-tonne Russian cargo ship ran aground off a beach on the south coast of Britain this morning as the area was battered by winds of up to 74mph. Emergency services launched a major operation after the Kuzma Minin became stranded off Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth in Cornwall. Some 18 crew but no cargo were believed to be on board. The RNLI launched out of Falmouth just after 6am with pilot boats from the nearby docks also in the water. Witnesses have taken pictures of the boat close to the shore. It comes after the Met Office issued a yellow warning for severe weather with 65mph winds forecast. Gales have already been recorded at up to 74mph in Cornwall and 40 knots on the River Tamar - disrupting traffic. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the 590ft (180m) bulk carrier registered in Russia, built in 1980, had dragged its anchor and had a list of about five degrees. Sean Stratton, who spotted the ship on the beach in Falmouth today, tweeted: 'Russian ship wrecked on Gyllyngvase beach! She's broadside onto the beach. 'In my opinion Falmouth shipyard tugs won't be powerful enough to pull her off the suction effect of sand. A salvage tug is needed but they no longer station one at Falmouth... I'm claiming wreckers' rights!' An HM Coastguard spokesman said: 'HM Coastguard is currently co-cordinating assistance to a 180-metre bulk carrier which dragged her anchor and grounded on the western side of the port entrance between Swanpool and Gyllyngvase beaches at around 5.40am. 'The vessel has 18 Russian crew on board. There is no cargo on board. She currently has a list of 5 degrees but there is no report of any pollution. 'Tugs are on their way to the vessel and a lifeboat is standing by at the scene. The Falmouth Coastguard Rescue Team have cordoned off an area around the ship. 'Tugs will be attached to the vessel and as the tide rises, the plan is to re-float the vessel.' Commuters are being warned of potentially treacherous conditions on the roads this morning amid a series of weather warnings. The Met Office is urging rush hour drivers to take care with heavy showers and strong winds expected to batter parts of the UK. London and the South East, Northern Ireland, South West England and Wales have been issued with warnings today, with heavy rain and gusts of 65mph expected. Heavy rain is expected between 5am and 9pm across much of West, South and parts of Mid Wales, with strong winds expected to affect the Welsh coast. The rain warning for South Wales, including Cardiff and Swansea, and Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and West Sussex is in effect until 9pm. The worst of the weather is expected to have cleared by mid-afternoon but further east the worst conditions are likely to be during the afternoon and early evening.[SEP]A rescue operation is underway after a Russian cargo ship ran aground on a beach in Cornwall as strong winds whipped across the southwest. Emergency services were launched just after 6 AM (GMT) to assist the Kuzma Minin ship, which is stuck just metres off Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth Bay. There is no cargo on the vessel, which has 18 Russian crew on board. Tugs will be attached to the ship to help re-float it when the tide rises. The Met Office had issued a yellow warning of severe weather for the areas with 65mph winds forecast. An HM Coastguard spokeswoman said in a statement: “HM Coastguard is currently co-cordinating assistance to a 180-metre bulk carrier which dragged her anchor and grounded on the western side of the port entrance between Swanpool and Gyllyngvase beaches at around 5.40am. “The vessel has 18 Russian crew on board. There is no cargo on board. She currently has a list of 5 degrees but there is no report of any pollution. “Tugs are on their way to the vessel and a lifeboat is standing by at the scene. The Falmouth Coastguard Rescue Team have cordoned off an area around the ship.” “Tugs will be attached to the vessel and as the tide rises, the plan is to re-float the vessel.”[SEP]A huge Russian cargo ship has run aground off a beach in Cornwall. The 16,000-tonne vessel, believed to be the Kuzma Minin, grounded off Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth at about 5.40am on Tuesday. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the 590ft (180m) ship had dragged its anchor and has a list of about five degrees. There is no cargo on the vessel, which has 18 Russian crew on board. Tugs will be attached to the ship to help re-float it when the tide rises. The Met Office had issued a yellow warning of severe weather for the areas with 65mph winds forecast. An HM Coastguard spokeswoman said in a statement: "HM Coastguard is currently co-cordinating assistance to a 180-metre bulk carrier which dragged her anchor and grounded on the western side of the port entrance between Swanpool and Gyllyngvase beaches at around 5.40am. "The vessel has 18 Russian crew on board. There is no cargo on board. She currently has a list of 5 degrees but there is no report of any pollution. "Tugs are on their way to the vessel and a lifeboat is standing by at the scene. The Falmouth Coastguard Rescue Team have cordoned off an area around the ship. "Tugs will be attached to the vessel and as the tide rises, the plan is to re-float the vessel."[SEP]A Russian cargo ship with 18 crew members on board has run aground off the coast of Falmouth, Cornwall, in southwest England, following bad weather. A spokeswoman for Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the 180-meter (590 foot) vessel "dragged her anchor and grounded" on the western part of the port entrance between Swanpool and Gyllyngvase beaches at around 5:40 a.m. (GMT) Tuesday. She says the ship carried no cargo and there were no reports of any pollution from the grounding. Tugs will be attached to the vessel and as the tide rises "the plan is to re-float the vessel." A lifeboat is standing by and the Falmouth Coastguard Rescue Team has cordoned off the area around the ship. Falmouth resident Jess Hughes has described the morning weather as "extreme."[SEP]A major coastguard operation is underway after a Russian cargo ship ran aground off the coast of Cornwall. The 16,000-tonne Kuzma Minin has 18 crew members onboard, but no cargo. The coastguard said the vessel dragged its anchor while leaving Falmouth harbour and is now listing by five degrees.[SEP]Rescue vessels were heading to assist a Russian bulk cargo ship after it ran aground off beaches in southwest England, Britain’s coastguard said on Tuesday. The 180-meter long ship ‘Kuzma Minin,’ with 18 Russian crew on board, dragged its anchor in strong winds and grounded between the Swanpool and Gyllyngvase beaches near Falmouth in Cornwall, Reuters reports. “There is no cargo on board… There is no report of any pollution,” the coastguard said. Tugs were on their way to the vessel and a lifeboat is standing by at the scene. The Falmouth Coastguard Rescue Team have cordoned off an area around the ship and planned to refloat the ship when the tide rose.[SEP]A 16,000-tonne Russian cargo ship that ran aground off the Cornish coast has been re-floated during high tide and will now undergo inspection. The Kuzma Minin grounded off Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth at about 5.40am on Tuesday, in what was described as extreme and horrific weather. The vessel, which had 18 Russian crew on board, has now been taken to Falmouth Bay to be inspected. Mark Sansom, Falmouth harbour master, said: “We can confirm that the Kuzma Minin – a 180 metre Russian bulk carrier – was successfully re-floated at 2.08pm. “This has been a successful and well co-ordinated operation involving multiple agencies. “We would like to recognise the outstanding performance of the pilot and of all vessel crews involved in what was a very demanding incident. “The Kuzma Minin has been taken to Falmouth Bay to anchor, in order for it to be inspected. “We are now discussing the future of the vessel with the Secretary of State’s Representative (SOSRep) Maritime Salvage and Intervention and the vessel owners.” Mr Sansom confirmed there was no evidence of any pollution. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and Devon and Cornwall Police had declared a “major incident” but that has now ended. Video footage released by the MCA showed winchman Niall Hanson being lowered down to the ship in 60mph winds. Witnesses took pictures of the boat close to the shore and it came after the Met Office issued a yellow warning of severe weather with 65mph winds forecast. Nigel Kitto, who lives locally, praised the work of the lifeboat and helicopter teams working in “horrific” conditions. “The helicopter and lifeboat have been going in and out and it’s incredible to see – the skill of the helicopter pilot,” he said. “The helicopter is going sideways here against the wind and struggling a bit. “It’s amazing to watch but there are people on board so fingers crossed that everyone gets back to shore OK.” The efforts to rescue sailors from the beached tanker come on the eve of the 37th anniversary of the Penlee lifeboat disaster. The 1981 tragedy, which occurred in nearby Penzance, claimed the lives of 16 people in similar circumstances. “There are dangerous rocks down there and this brings up memories for everyone, I imagine,” Mr Kitto added. Falmouth resident Jess Hughes described this morning’s weather on the Cornish coast as “extreme”. “As you come over the crest of the hill there’s just this huge ship where there shouldn’t be,” she told the Press Association. “Last night it was horrendously windy and now there’s gravel up by the road so it was a good high tide,” she added. As the rescue operation was under way in Cornwall, the emergency services in Scotland were dealing with six lorries overturning on a P&O ferry sailing at Cairnryan ferry terminal, in Wigtownshire. No one is reported to have been injured in the incident and Police Scotland said all 52 passengers and 56 crew on board are safe and well and no-one was injured. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the ship moved back out into Falmouth Bay under her own power with the assistance of five tugs and a salvage vessel. “Two Maritime and Coastguard Surveyors will be going on board to carry out an initial assessment of the vessel, before the vessel can be brought alongside for a full inspection,” a spokeswoman said.[SEP]A rescue operation is under way after a 16,000-tonne Russian cargo ship ran aground off a popular beach in Cornwall in the early hours of the morning. The coastguard believes that strong winds overnight were the cause of the accident. Locals have been warned to keep off the beach as rescuers attempt to re-float the vessel. The 16,000-tonne Kuzma Minin was photographed before dawn by locals, grounded off Gyllyngvase beach near Falmouth. There is no cargo on the ship, which has about 18 crew members on board and it was reported to have set off from the Dutch port of Terneuzen. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the 590ft ship had dragged its anchor and has a list of about five degrees. There are hopes the carrier can be re-floated, and at around 9am a coastguard pilot was winched on to the stranded ship by helicopter.

Russian cargo vessel MV Kuzma Minin runs aground and then is refloated off Gyllyngvase, Cornwall, and taken to anchor in Falmouth Bay for inspection, according to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

A tornado touched down in the area of Port Orchard, Wash., on Tuesday afternoon. Homes were damaged and trees uprooted in Kitsap County, west of Seattle, when the tornado touched down just before 2 p.m. WATCH: Rare tornado leaves path of destruction in Seattle suburb The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office called the damage “catastrophic,” saying it was contained to neighbourhoods east and south of a Walmart in Port Orchard. Power lines were down and roads were closed in the area, the sheriff’s office said. “There’s quite a bit of residential damage,” Port Orchard public works director Mark Dorsey said. “There’s going to be a dozen or so homes that people may not be staying in their house tonight and there’s definitely some commercial properties that sustained damage.” WATCH: Floyd Parkins joins Jennifer Palma from Washington state after witnessing the tornado that touched down there on Tuesday afternoon. He describes what he saw. Until we conduct a tornado survey tomorrow morning, we can not speculate on the strength of the tornado. — NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) December 18, 2018 Footage from the region shows homes without roofs and trees that have been uprooted. “If you’ve seen some of the pictures of roofs torn off and damaged houses and buildings… everybody’s freaking out because, this is Washington,” Dorsey said. “We don’t have tornadoes in Washington.” WATCH: Tornado causes widespread damage in Washington state The South Kitsap School District says there are outages in the region and bus routes are delayed. READ MORE: Alaska earthquake: ‘Major’ damage left by 7.0 magnitude jolt There are no reports of any injuries at this time. The sheriff’s department is asking everyone to stay off the roads Lund, Bethel, Salmonberry, Harris and Chase. All Port Orchard bus service, including Southworth, has been suspended. Severe weather blew through #PortOrchard this afternoon. The #RedCross is mobilizing volunteers in the area to provide assistance for all who are impacted. If you live in the area, please find safe shelter and wait for officials to let you know when it is ok to go home. #WaWx pic.twitter.com/7PHrnkf5bA — Red Cross Northwest (@RedCrossNW) December 18, 2018 Storm damage from Port Orchard in Kitsap county. Tornado touches down causing trees to uproot and structures to rip apart #wawx pic.twitter.com/7AWnJ9trwe — Jordan Steele (@TVsJordanSteele) December 18, 2018 Just getting this pictures from our chopper. A rare tornado damaged several homes and businesses in Port Orchard, 23 miles SW of Seattle. #wawx #Tornado #wx pic.twitter.com/uFES69AydB — Ted Land (@TedLandK5) December 18, 2018 In southern B.C., meteorologist Kristi Gordon says there is a risk of thunderstorms Tuesday with some hail possible but nothing like the intensity seen south of the border at this time. Tornadoes are very rare for B.C.’s South Coast, although not unheard of, adds Gordon. The South Coast may get one tornado every 10 to 15 years. Washington state averages 2.5 tornadoes a year, but December tornadoes are extremely rare, the National Weather Service service said on Twitter. — With files from Nadia Stewart and The Associated Press[SEP]A powerful storm plowed into Washington state on Tuesday afternoon, bringing a tornado, high winds, heavy rain and heavy snow. A tornado touched down in Port Orchard, Washington, causing a significant amount of damage to houses and the neighborhood. There are no reports of injuries at this time. "Steady precipitation tapered off over the Seattle Metro area during the afternoon. But, scattered thunderstorms formed. One of these thunderstorms tracked over Port Orchard just before 2 p.m. local time," AccuWeather Meteorologist David Samuhel said. According to the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, most of the "catastrophic" damage is in the neighborhoods east and south of the Walmart in the 3400 block of Bethel Road Southeast. "The atmosphere become very unstable as cold air aloft moved overhead. Meanwhile, surface temperatures were rather mild for December, reaching the 50s," Samuhel said. Aerial shots of the damage showed homes that had entire roofs ripped off and other houses where trees had fallen on top of them.[SEP]Several homes damaged as tornado touches down near Port Orchard PORT ORCHARD, Wash. -- A strong tornado touched down in Port Orchard Tuesday afternoon, heavily damaging several homes and toppling trees. Some minor injuries have been reported, but no one has needed hospitalization, according to Poulsbo Fire. "KCSO, Port Orchard PD and several fire agencies have responded to a weather event that has caused catastrophic damage in the Port Orchard area," the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office said. "Most of the damage is contained to the area and neighborhoods east and south of WalMart." Deputies say active power lines are down and gas companies are checking their supply lines for leaks. RELATED: Rain, wind, snow expected to continue into the weekend "STAY OUT OF THE AREA OR SHELTER IN PLACE! This area has not been deemed 'safe'," deputies tweeted. "Do not attempt to drive in the areas of Lund, Bethel, Salmonberry, Harris and Chase. Those roads are closed." Harris Road SE is closed between SE Lund Ave and SE Salmonberry Road due to the tornado. SE Salmonberry Road between Branson Drive SE and Harris Road SE is restricted to through access, Kitsap County Sheriff's Officials said. Poulsbo Fire officials are asking that residents that are affected to either shelter in place or they can go to Saint Gabriel's Church at 1150 Mitchel Avenue. "Mutual aid units from from all over the county, plus aid from Pierce County, are responding to assist going door to door," Poulsbo Fire officials said. The tornado touched down around 1:45 p.m. near the intersection of Bethel Road and SE Lund, then went northeast behind the Walmart and into several neighborhoods, rendering some homes uninhabitable, according to Deputy Sheriff Scott Wilson with the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office. "We're going inside that area going house to house asking those inside to voluntarily evacuate until the scene has been deemed clear," Wilson said. "We're going to bring in search and rescue dogs to make sure everyone is accounted for." Emily Silverman was caught in the tornado as she was driving with her husband and 2-year-old son near the Walmart. "And it's raining and it's pouring down really bad and before you know it everything was flying everywhere," she said. "Our car back windows blew out, our side windows blew out. Things hit us -- there were a few people who had some head injuries from being hit by things. A car got pushed into a back... there was an accident. It was crazy. There were things flying everywhere. I thought I was a goner." She had her 2-year-old son in the back seat. "So glad he's OK because the whole back window just busted in," Silverman said. "If it kept going and didn't leave as fast as it did, he could have been hurt really bad." Video from Air 4 shows at the scene show a number of trees down and homes with roofs ripped off and debris scattered across yards. "There's roof ripped off of things. There's windows bashed in. There's (power) lines down everywhere. It's just a mess," Silverman said. "There's big chunks of metal everywhere. It's just bad. It's really bad." John Mueller was at work at a shipyard when he saw the social media video of the tornado and knew instantly it was his red home. He raced home to find heavy damage. "If I could describe the house, it would be roofless," Mueller said. "The entire upstairs is gone. There's 2x4 and 4x4s sticking out of the walls. Glass shattered everywhere. The downstairs is just full of water and broken glass.... I think (the tornado) landed on top of the house. There's no garage door...there's nothing left." Mueller said there was a basketball hoop in his cul de sac that was popular with his and his neighbor's kids. "That basketball hoop that was on the other side of the cul de sac is upside-down in my garage...sticking out of one of the walls," he said. He said his family was safe and firefighters helped collect his pet rabbit and cats. "I'm just thankful that God has saved all the family members," Mueller said while holding his pet rabbit. "Two-legged and four-legged alike." The Red Cross is mobilizing volunteers to help those who are impacted and opening a shelter at Saint Gabriel Roman Catholic Church. "If you live in the area, please find safe shelter and wait for officials to let you know when it is ok to go home," Red Cross Northwest tweeted. All Port Orchard routes bus service including Southworth has been canceled. All after school activities in South Kitsap School District have been canceled. "There were a lot people freaking out...I was one of them," Silverman said. "It was just crazy. I've never seen anything like this in my life." Based on damage it could be the strongest tornado to hit Western Washington since the F3 tornado that hit Vancouver, Washington on April 5, 1972. The National Weather Service confirmed based on radar and damage reports it was a tornado and will send a damage survey team to the area Wednesday to get an official rating. According to TornadoProject.com this would be only the second ever reported tornado touchdown in Kitsap County. A weak F0 tornado touched down on April 9, 1991. No one was hurt in that tornado. Only four previous tornadoes have ever caused injuries in Washington, according to TornadoProject.com. On April 5, 1972, six people were killed and 300 were injured when a tornado struck Vancouver. The three other tornadoes (Dec. 12, 1969 in King County, April 5, 1972 in Lincoln County, and June 29, 1989 in Clark County) had just one injury each.[SEP](SEATTLE) — A National Weather Service storm damage survey team is heading to a town west of Seattle where a strong tornado blew through a neighborhood. The rare twister touched down Tuesday in Port Orchard, Washington. It damaged several homes and toppled trees. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The National Weather Service crew will determine just how powerful the storm was. The Kitsap County sheriff’s office told local media the damage was “catastrophic” and contained to neighborhoods east and south of a Walmart in Port Orchard. The sheriff’s office says power lines were down and roads were closed in the area. Port Orchard is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Seattle, across Puget Sound on the Kitsap Peninsula.[SEP]PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (KING) Witnesses are sharing first-hand accounts of a tornado that touched down in Port Orchard, Washington Tuesday afternoon. Tornadoes in Washington state are rare with an average of two or three a year. Tornadoes in December are even more rare, averaging only 0.1 a year, the National Weather Service said. “It’s devastating,” said Mary Hicks. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve never experienced the devastation that a tornado can do.” “When I was outside it started heavy rain, and then hail, and then the wind and I saw the tornado like spinning and I thought I was going to get sucked up,” Jennifer Connelly Delay said. “And then somebody came to my house and said there might be another one in 30 minutes, so I went in my house and waited for another one to come. And by the grace of God, another one didn’t come. I feel very protected by God.” The tornado uprooted trees and destroyed homes and buildings, but fortunately, no injuries were reported.[SEP]A tornado touched down south of Port Orchard on Tuesday just before 2 p.m. causing trees to be uprooted and structures to be torn apart. Aerial shots of the damage showed homes that had entire roofs ripped off and other houses where trees had fallen on top of them. Most of the "catastrophic" damage is confined to the neighborhoods east and south of the Walmart in the 3400 block of Bethel Road Southeast, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office. There are active power lines down in those neighborhoods, and gas companies are checking their supply lines for leaks. RELATED: Why did we see a tornado in Port Orchard? Residents are advised to avoid those areas or shelter in place as those neighborhoods have not been deemed safe, according to the sheriff's office. Lund Avenue, Bethel Road, Salmonberry Road, Harris Road, and Chase Road are all closed while crews investigate. There are no reports of injuries. The National Weather Service confirmed the storm was a tornado based on radar imagery and video evidence. However, until the weather service conducts a tornado survey Wednesday it cannot speculate how strong the tornado was. South Kitsap School District said its students were safe, but some schools were out of power. All after-school activities have been canceled. Bus routes will be delayed this afternoon. The Red Cross is mobilizing a response to the damage. An emergency evacuation center opened at St. Gabriel Roman Catholic Church at 1150 Mitchell Avenue Southeast in Port Orchard for people who need a safe place until they can return home. The Gig Harbor Fire Department will also send a strike team to assist. Bus service through Port Orchard has been canceled, according to Kitsap Transit. Affected routes include 4-Tremont, 5-Sidney, 8-Bethel, 9-South Park, 81-Annapolis Commuter, 85-Mullenix Express, 86-Southworth Shuttle, Purdy Connection & Kitsap Ride. Two larger buses will attempt ferry-take-homes as best they can from the Port Orchard dock. Additional showers will move through Port Orchard on Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Isolated thunderstorms are possible elsewhere in Western Washington. Port Orchard is about 23 miles southwest of Seattle.[SEP]PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) – Authorities say a tornado touched down near Port Orchard Tuesday afternoon, damaging several homes and toppling trees. The National Weather Service in Seattle said on Twitter that based on radar imagery and video evidence, a tornado touched down south of Port Orchard shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday. The service says they will send a team tomorrow morning to survey the area. KOMO-TV reports damage has been reported on Rhapsody Drive and at the Bethel Tavern. Video from the television station’s helicopter at the scene shows trees down, homes with roofs ripped off and debris scattered across yards. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.[SEP]A National Weather Service storm damage survey team is heading to a town west of Seattle where a strong tornado blew through a neighbourhood. The rare twister touched down Tuesday in Port Orchard, Washington. It damaged several homes and toppled trees. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The National Weather Service crew will determine just how powerful the storm was. READ MORE: Tornado touches down in Port Orchard, Wash., leaving damage in its wake The Kitsap County sheriff’s office told local media the damage was “catastrophic” and contained to neighbourhoods east and south of a Walmart in Port Orchard. The sheriff’s office says power lines were down and roads were closed in the area. WATCH: A rare tornado touched down Tuesday in the Washington state town of Port Orchard, leaving a wide path of damage. Nadia Stewart reports. Port Orchard is about 15 miles (24 kilometres) west of Seattle, across Puget Sound on the Kitsap Peninsula.[SEP]Update: First responders say no injuries have yet to be reported as they asses the area hit by a tornado in Kitsap County earlier Tuesday afternoon. Washington State Patrol says firefighters were going door to door in the affected area offering voluntary evacuations to a nearby church. Several residents have been asked to shelter in place. WSP said downed trees and power lines in roadways have caused a number of outages, but crews are working to clear them and restore power. Previous coverage: A tornado appears to have touched down in a western Washington county Tuesday afternoon. The National Weather Service said that based on radar imagery and video evidence, a tornado touched down south of Port Orchard in Kitsap County this afternoon right before 2 p.m. According to KIRO, a review of Dopple radar data suggest debris were lofted at least 6,000 feet into the atmosphere after the touchdown near the Bethel community. The apparent tornado appeared to brief and was gone prior to any warnings being issued. No injuries have been reported, but the storm did cause damage to several homes in the area. The NWS says it is working with emergency management partners on the extent of the damage. They will not be able to survey the area before dark tonight, but plan to send a team Wednesday morning. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.[SEP]A tornado touched down in the area of Port Orchard, Wash., on Tuesday afternoon. Homes were damaged and trees uprooted in Kitsap County, west of Seattle, when the tornado touched down just before 2 p.m. The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office called the damage “catastrophic,” saying it was contained to neighbourhoods east and south of a Walmart in Port Orchard. Power lines were down and roads were closed in the area, the sheriff’s office said. About 50 buildings were affected, Deputy Scott Wilson told the Seattle Times. WATCH: Floyd Parkins joins Jennifer Palma from Washington State after witnessing the tornado that touched down there on Tuesday afternoon. He describes what he saw. Footage from the region shows homes without roofs and trees that have been uprooted. The South Kitsap School District says there are outages in the region and bus routes are delayed. There are no reports of any injuries at this time. The sheriff’s department is asking everyone to stay off the roads Lund, Bethel, Salmonberry, Harris and Chase. All Port Orchard bus service, including Southworth, has been suspended. In southern B.C., meteorologist Kristi Gordon says there is a risk of thunderstorms Tuesday with some hail possible but nothing like the intensity seen south of the border at this time. Tornadoes are very rare for B.C.’s South Coast, although not unheard of, adds Gordon. The South Coast may get one tornado every 10 to 15 years. Washington state averages 2.5 tornadoes a year, but December tornadoes are extremely rare, the National Weather Service service said on Twitter. — With files from The Associated Press

A powerful tornado touches down near Port Orchard, Washington. Several structures are severely damaged or destroyed.

It took a while, but the Trump Foundation’s shameless self-dealing ultimately undid the president’s so-called charitable organization Tuesday, when the Donald J. Trump Foundation agreed to dissolve itself as part of an agreement with the New York Attorney General’s office. The state attorney general said an investigation into the foundation’s finances uncovered “a shocking pattern of illegality” as the now-president of the United States used the non-profit as a receptacle to accept donations and spend them on things Trump didn’t want to spend his own money on, like schlocky art, Tim Tebow, and Donald Trump Jr.’s childhood. As part of its dissolution, the foundation will also be required to liquidate the assets it has left, which, in a delicious twist, according to the reporting of David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post, amounts to three items: A Denver Broncos helmet signed by Tim Tebow that Trump bought $12,000 for out of his foundation coffers, and two portraits of the Donald that Trump forked over $30,000 of foundation money for. “Trump now values the three items — for which he spent $42,000 in charity money—at a combined $975, according to a recent IRS filing,” according to the Post. Some other fun Trumpy expenditures turned up in the AG’s report and the Post’s reporting: “A $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy in 1989 — appeared to benefit Trump’s business: It paid to restore a fountain outside Trump’s Plaza Hotel.” And the best of all: “a $7 foundation gift to the Boy Scouts that same year, appeared to benefit Trump’s family. It matched the amount required to enroll a boy in the Scouts the year that his son Donald Trump Jr. was 11.”[SEP]President Donald Trump defended his scandal-plagued Trump Foundation personal charity on Wednesday, a day after the New York attorney general announced the nonprofit had agreed to dissolve amid an ongoing investigation into its finances. “The Trump Foundation has done great work and given away lots of money, both mine and others,” the president tweeted. “Now, as usual, I am getting slammed by [New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo and the Dems.” He added: “Will never be treated fairly by these people ― total double standard of ‘justice.’” The Trump Foundation has done great work and given away lots of money, both mine and others, to great charities over the years - with me taking NO fees, rent, salaries etc. Now, as usual, I am getting slammed by Cuomo and the Dems in a long running civil lawsuit started by..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018 ...sleazebag AG Eric Schneiderman, who has since resigned over horrific women abuse, when I wanted to close the Foundation so as not to be in conflict with politics. Shady Eric was head of New Yorkers for Clinton, and refused to even look at the corrupt Clinton Foundation...... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018 ....In any event, it goes on and on & the new AG, who is now being replaced by yet another AG (who openly campaigned on a GET TRUMP agenda), does little else but rant, rave & politic against me. Will never be treated fairly by these people - a total double standard of “justice.” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018 New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has accused the foundation of engaging in “a shocking pattern of illegality” that included unlawfully coordinating with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Underwood announced a lawsuit against the Trump Foundation and its board of directors in June, alleging violations of state and federal laws. The legal action sought to dissolve the foundation and bar any of its board members from serving on other New York charity boards. “The Trump Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality,” Underwood said in a statement at the time.[SEP]It’s entirely possible—and would have been merciful—if you briefly blacked out under the strain of constant Trump scandals unearthed during his presidential campaign, and missed this one. If so, it’s worth rectifying that: Few scandals so better display our president’s venality, his poor business acumen, and his downright weirdness, as the saga of the Tebow gear. As unearthed in David Fahrenthold’s Pulitzer-winning series of reporting on the scam that is the Trump Foundation, it was revealed that in 2012, Donald Trump won a charity auction for a signed Tim Tebow helmet and jersey. He paid $12,000 for the gear; the check was written out not by Donald Trump himself, but by his own ostensibly charitable organization. Well, the Trump Foundation is shutting down. On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced a settlement with the foundation in its ongoing suit, which alleges that “the Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization.” On Tuesday, Underwood said the investigation has uncovered “a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more.” The lawsuit will continue, but as part of the settlement, the Trump Foundation must dissolve, and distribute its assets to actual charities. That means selling off anything it bought with misused funds, including the Tebow memorabilia. In fact, Trump did so much self-dealing through his foundation that the assets are being sold off in lots of multiple items. Which leads us to the perfect little coda for this story on President Deals: Trump purchased the Tebow gear on the very same day that Tebow and the Broncos got walloped by the Patriots in the playoffs; the functional end of Tebowmania. The Tebow gear is combined in a lot with two large portraits of Trump—which he also bought with charity money. Together, the foundation spent $42,000 on them. According to the foundation’s most recent tax filings, the items now have a combined value of of $975.[SEP]The troubled charity foundation has been struggling with legal issues for quite some time. On Tuesday, it was announced that Donald Trump’s charity foundation will be shutting down. The decision comes after it was alleged that the foundation has been misusing funds. According to BBC News, Barbara Underwood, the attorney general of New York, will supervise the distribution of the charity’s remaining funds. The Donald J. Trump Foundation is now under the control of Underwood, who will has stated that her office will continue to pursue a lawsuit against the foundation. The lawsuit is seeking $2.8 million in restitution and penalties. Additionally, Trump and his three oldest children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump — are all barred from serving on the boards of this or any other New York State charity. According to the agreement, the charity has 30 days to provide officials with a list of non-profit organizations that can accept the charity’s remaining money Once this has been fulfilled, the Organization will be dissolved under judicial supervision, headed by Underwood’s office. The lawsuit, which was filed in June of this year, alleged that Trump was using the charity organization to serve his personal and political needs. Underwood later stated that the organization “was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization.” “Mr. Trump used charitable assets to pay off the legal obligations of entities he controlled, to promote Trump hotels, to purchase personal items, and to support his presidential election campaign,” she said in the court filing. Trump had previously tried to block this lawsuit, arguing that a sitting president cannot be sued. However, that tactic did not work out, and the lawsuit is steaming ahead at full force. And it looks like there may be additional legal ramifications to this situation. In addition to dissolving the foundation, the New York Attorney General’s office is working with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Taxation and Finance in order to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant bringing criminal charges against the organization. Incoming Attorney General Letitia James will continue to pursue the lawsuit in the coming months, as well as the investigation into criminal charges against the organization. Trump is believed to have used the organization to fuel his own hopes of becoming president. In 2016, the foundation gave away $3.1 million, more than it did in the three years before and the year following the 2016 Presidential Election. Trump and the White House have yet to comment on this ruling.[SEP]US President Donald Trump's troubled charity foundation has agreed to close down amid allegations that he and others illegally misused its funds. The move was announced by the Attorney General of New York State, Barbara Underwood, who will supervise the distribution of its remaining monies. She has accused Trump and his three eldest children of using it for private and political gain. The foundation's lawyer accused her of attempting to politicise the matter. This is just one of several legal cases currently swirling around Trump and his family. Others include a wide-ranging special counsel investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia headed by former FBI chief Robert Mueller Underwood said the case against Trump and his children Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric would continue. In a statement, she said there had been "a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation - including unlawful co-ordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and wilful self-dealing, and much more". "This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a chequebook to serve Trump's business and political interests." Under the terms of the deal to shut down the foundation, Underwood said, it could only be dissolved under judicial supervision and could only distribute its assets "to reputable organisations approved by my office". She added "This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone. "We'll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law."[SEP](CNN) President Donald Trump's personal charitable foundation has agreed to dissolve under judicial supervision amid an ongoing lawsuit concerning its finances, according to a document filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court by the New York state Attorney General's office. The dissolution of the Donald J. Trump Foundation resolves one element of the attorney general's civil lawsuit against the foundation, which includes claims that the President and his three eldest children -- Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric -- violated campaign-finance laws and abused its tax-exempt status. Rather than operating it as a genuine charity, the lawsuit alleges, they instead allowed it to be used "as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump's business and political interests." the foundation and Attorney General Barbara Underwood's office, also allows the attorney general's office to review the recipients of the charity's assets. The foundation's The agreement to dissolve , signed by both an attorney forthe foundation and Attorney General Barbara Underwood's office, also allows the attorney general's office to review the recipients of the charity's assets. Thefoundation's most recent tax return listed its net assets at slightly more than $1.7 million. The closure of Trump's nonprofit comes amid an escalation in the litany of criminal and other investigations touching almost every corner of Trump's business and political operations, including his presidential campaign, his inauguration committee and his family real estate business. The lawsuit against the charity is one of two cases in which the President himself is accused of wrongdoing after federal prosecutors said in court filings earlier this month that Trump directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to make or orchestrate payments during the 2016 election to silence women who claimed sexual encounters with Trump. Trump has denied those claims. Read More[SEP]The Donald J. Trump Foundation agreed to be dissolved on Tuesday after it was accused of acting “in a persistently illegal manner” by the New York Attorney General’s Office. The foundation is accused by the attorney general in a lawsuit—and in multiple news stories—of using charity funds to settle private business matters, coordinating between the foundation and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and making an illegal and undisclosed contribution to a political action committee. “Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation – including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests,” Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in a statement. “This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone.” In a stipulation signed by foundation attorney Alan Futerfas, the foundation agreed to dissolve and within 30 days submit to the court a list of not-for-profit organizations to receive its remaining assets. The stipulation follows a decision last month to allow for Underwood’s suit against the Trump Foundation to proceed. The lawsuit seeks $2.8 million in restitution plus penalties, as well as a ban on Trump from future service as a director of a New York not-for-profit for ten years. It also seeks the same ban for a year for Trump’s children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, who all are foundation board members. The lawsuit filed in June alleged that the foundation had illegally intervened “in Mr. Trump's campaign for president in 2016 by, among other things, making expenditures during the first five months of 2016 that were intended to influence his election for president.” The A.G.’s office documented coordination between the campaign and the foundation, including an instance in which then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski requested that an official with the foundation give out grant money in Iowa in order to help the campaign win the state’s caucus. Additionally, the lawsuit discusses a widely publicized veterans fundraiser in Des Moines held by the Trump Foundation, but allegedly staffed by the campaign, which “planned, organized, financed, and directed" it. “The Fundraiser, which solicited donations from members of the public, including New York residents, reaped approximately $5.6 million in tax free donations,” the suit reads. “Of that total, $2.823 million was contributed to the Foundation.” The complaint also said that in 2013, the Trump Foundation illegally donated $25,000 to a political action committee supporting the campaign of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. In its tax filing, it left out the contribution and instead listed a fictitious contribution to a similarly named non-profit outfit in Kansas. The suit followed reporting throughout 2016 by the Washington Post and other outlets detailing how the foundation was used as Trump’s personal piggybank.[SEP]ALBANY, N.Y. – President Donald Trump's charity will shut down and its remaining assets distributed to other nonprofit organizations as part of an agreement filed Tuesday by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood. The stipulation between the Donald J. Trump Foundation and Underwood's office calls for the charity to dissolve under judicial supervision, wiping out its certificate of incorporation and ending its existence. It comes after Underwood, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit against Trump, a Republican, in June, accusing the charity of a wide array of law-breaking over the last decade and Trump of illegally using it to boost his presidential campaign in 2016. Once signed by a judge, the Trump Foundation and Underwood's office would have 30 days to submit a plan to disperse the charity's assets to other nonprofits. The foundation had assets totaling $1.8 million at the end of 2017, according to its tax forms. "Under the terms, the Trump Foundation can only dissolve under judicial supervision – and it can only distribute its remaining charitable assets to reputable organizations approved by my office," Underwood said in a statement. An attorney for the Trump Foundation called Underwood's statement "misleading" and "inaccurate," noting the Foundation first began winding down its operations in 2016 – when then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began investigating it. “Contrary to (Underwood's) misleading statement issued earlier today, the Foundation has been seeking to dissolve and distribute its remaining assets to worthwhile charitable causes since Donald J. Trump’s victory in the 2016 Presidential election," the attorney, Alan Futerfas, said in a statement. Underwood's office has been jostling in court with the Trump Foundation since originally filing the lawsuit, which seeks to force Trump and his family to pay $2.8 million in restitution. The lawsuit took particular issue with the Trump Foundation's January 2016 fundraiser for veterans organizations, which came in the days before the Iowa caucuses. Nov. 23: N.Y. Supreme Court clears the way for state lawsuit against Trump Foundation Aug. 24: Trump Foundation: How New York's growing case could impact the president According to Underwood's office, the event was largely directed by Trump's campaign staff, which directed where the funds went. The oversized checks presented to recipients had Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan emblazoned on the bottom. The foundation is registered in New York, where state law prohibits charities from participating in political events. Schneiderman began investigating the foundation in 2016 amid questions raised by the Washington Post and other media outlets about whether the charity was engaged in unethical or illegal practices. The investigation helped prevent the foundation from shutting down while the probe was ongoing. The lawsuit also took issue with the Trump Foundation's structure, noting its board of directors was essentially non-existent, having not met since 1999. It also accused the foundation of "improper self-dealing" by settling a pair of lawsuits against Trump-owned businesses with funds from the charity. In one instance, a dispute over a hole-in-one contest at the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County, New York, was settled in part with a $158,000 payment from the Trump Foundation to a foundation run by Martin Greenberg, the golfer at the center of the dispute. Other examples cited in the lawsuit include a $5,000 advertisement purchased by the Trump Foundation in the program for the DC Preservation League's 2014 gala. The ad, which Trump reimbursed the foundation for after the investigation began, promoted a Trump hotel. June 14: Five takeaways from New York's Trump Foundation lawsuit Underwood vowed to continue with the lawsuit despite the charity dissolving. "We’ll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law," she said in a statement. Trump himself is a defendant in the case, as are the Trump Foundation and three of his children: Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. The lawsuit also seeks to ban Trump and his three eldest children from serving on the boards of other New York charities. When the suit was filed in June, Trump suggested it was politically motivated, pointing to now-former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a frequent Trump foe who stepped down in May after he was accused of physically abusing women. "I won't settle this case," Trump tweeted at the time. In his statement Tuesday, Futerfas, the attorney representing the Trump Foundation, said the charity remains proud of its efforts, claiming it distributed approximately $19 million to 700 charitable organizations. "The NYAG’s inaccurate statement of this morning is a further attempt to politicize this matter," Futerfas said.[SEP]NEW YORK– The Donald J. Trump Foundation has agreed to dissolve under judicial supervision amid an ongoing lawsuit concerning its finances, according to a document filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court by the New York state Attorney General’s office. The dissolution of President Donald Trump’s charity resolves one element of the attorney general’s civil lawsuit against the foundation, which includes claims that the President and his children violated campaign finance laws and abused its tax-exempt status. The lawsuit will continue in court because it also seeks two other outcomes: $2.8 million in restitution, plus penalties, and a ban on Trump and his three eldest children serving on the board of any other New York nonprofit. The agreement to dissolve, signed by both the foundation and Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s office, also allows the attorney general’s office to review the recipients of the charity’s assets. The most recent tax return filed by the foundation listed its net assets at slightly more than $1.7 million. “Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more. This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests,” Underwood said in a statement Tuesday. “This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone,” Underwood said. “We’ll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law.” The Trump Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The judge overseeing the lawsuit must approve the stipulation in order for it to go into effect and will oversee the dissolution of the foundation. The stipulation comes after a November ruling by Justice Saliann Scarpulla that allowed the lawsuit to move forward, denying a motion by the foundation to dismiss the case.[SEP]NEW YORK - President Trump's foundation, The Trump Foundation, has agreed to shut down amid an ongoing lawsuit, NBC News reports. The lawsuit includes claims Trump and his family violated campaign finance laws and abused its tax-exe,pt status, according to documents filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday. New York attorney general said the lawsuit against the Trump Foundation will still move forward amid the dissolution under judicial supervision and with the oversight of the attorney general's Charities Bureau. “Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation – including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more."

The Donald J. Trump Foundation agrees to dissolve under judicial supervision while a lawsuit in the state of New York is ongoing.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a new rule banning bump stocks, the attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire in sustained, rapid bursts and that a gunman used to massacre 58 people and wound hundreds of others at a Las Vegas concert in October 2017. The new regulation, which had been expected, would ban the sale or possession of the devices under a new interpretation of existing law. Americans who own bump stocks would have 90 days to destroy their devices or to turn them in to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Justice Department said A.T.F. would post destruction instructions on its website. Bump stocks work by harnessing a firearm’s recoil energy to slide it back and forth to bump against a squeezed trigger, so that it keeps firing without any need for the shooter to pull the trigger again. The Justice Department said that this function transforms semiautomatic weapons, like assault rifles styled on the AR-15, into fully automatic machine guns, which Congress sharply restricted in 1986 — allowing the ban.[SEP]The US government said Tuesday it was banning bump stocks, devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns and that were used in a mass shooting in Las Vegas in October 2017. The devices, which harness the recoil of a semi-automatic rifle's discharge to make the trigger fire faster, effectively turn the weapons into machine guns, which are illegal, the Justice Department said. Bump stocks allow a "shooter of a semi-automatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger," the department said in a statement. The devices were used by Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock on a dozen rifles he deployed to kill 58 people and wound 500 at an open concert last year, the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history. Bump stocks allowed him to fire at a rate of nine bullets a second, before he turned his weapons on himself. Following another gun massacre at a school in Parkland, Florida, in February this year that left 17 people dead, more than a million people demonstrated for stricter gun control. President Donald Trump announced his intention to ban bump stocks but refused restrictions on semi-automatic assault weapons. The National Rifle Association, the powerful gun lobby, did not mount any major campaign to counter a bump stock ban. Anyone owning a bump stock will have 90 days after the new regulation is published in the Federal Register to either hand in their devices to the authorities, or destroy them. While a third of US households possess a firearm, the majority of Americans favor tougher gun controls such as background checks for people seeking to buy a weapon.[SEP]Trump administration moves to officially ban bump stocks that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration moves to officially ban bump stocks that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration moves to officially ban bump stocks that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly.[SEP]The Trump administration is banning bump stocks, the firearm attachment that allows a semiautomatic weapon to shoot almost as fast as a machine gun. The devices, also known as slide fires, came under intense scrutiny after they were used by the gunman who opened fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas last year, killing 58 people. The massacre touched off a public outcry, including from some lawmakers, for the accessories to be banned. Under a new federal rule announced Tuesday by the Justice Department, bump stocks will be redefined as "machine guns" and therefore outlawed under existing law. The new regulations, which were signed by acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, will take effect 90 days after being published in the Federal Register. A Justice Department official said that would likely happen Friday. Current bump stock owners will have the 90 days before the new rule takes effect to either destroy the devices they own or turn them in to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The new regulations could face legal challenges from the National Rifle Association, bump stock owners or manufacturers. A Justice Department official said the department is confident in its analysis and is prepared to defend the new rule in court if needed. Justice Department officials say they don't know exactly how many bump stocks are privately owned, but they estimate the number in the tens of thousands. Trump ordered the Justice Department to ban the devices in March. The department followed up by proposing a federal rule change that would reclassify bump stocks so they fell under the definition of a "machine gun," as it's now doing. Fully automatic machine guns are strictly controlled in the U.S. It is illegal under federal law for a private citizen to own a machine gun that was manufactured after 1986.[SEP]The Justice Department announced Tuesday that bump stocks have been banned. The controversial handgun accessory, which allows shooters to fire bullets from semi-automatic weapons faster than would normally be possible, drew national scrutiny after they were used to kill 59 people in Las Vegas in 2017. Under the new ruling from the Trump administration, bump stocks will be illegal to possess 90 days from when the regulation is formally published, which CNN reports will likely be Friday. In announcing the new policy, the Justice Department said that because bump stocks "allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger," they qualify as "machineguns" — which are illegal — under existing law. "A semiautomatic firearm to which a bump-stock-type device is attached is able to produce automatic fire with a single pull of the trigger," the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a division of the DOJ, wrote in its new ruling. "With limited exceptions, the Gun Control Act [of 1968] makes it unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun unless it was lawfully possessed prior to the effective date of the statute. The bumpstock-type devices covered by this final rule were not in existence prior to the effective date of the statute, and therefore will be prohibited when this rule becomes effective." Owners of bump stocks will have 90 days from when the regulation is published in the federal register — probably Friday, according to CNN — to either turn in their bump stocks to a local ATF office or destroy them. The ban could be subject to legal action from gun rights organizations, which have long warned against the specter of the federal government forcing Americans to hand over their firearms; however, no such action has yet been announced. In a statement to Bustle, the National Rifle Association said it was "disappointed" in the ruling and suggested that it was unfair to Americans who had already bought bump stocks. "We are disappointed that this final rule fails to address the thousands of law-abiding Americans who relied on prior ATF determinations when lawfully acquiring these device," the NRA said in its statement. "As we recommended to ATF in our comments on the proposed rule, Congress made it possible for the Attorney General to provide amnesty for firearms regulated under the National Firearms Act. The Attorney General should have exercised that authority to provide a period of amnesty under this rule.” After the Las Vegas shooting, the NRA said in a a statement that "devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations," and called on the Justice Department to "immediately review whether [bump stocks] comply with federal law." However, it didn't call for them to be banned entirely. President Trump announced his intent to ban bump stocks earlier in the year, and in March, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a proposed rule similar to the one that was unveiled on Tuesday. The final regulation was signed by Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, Sessions' former chief of staff. Whitaker assumed office without Senate confirmation after Sessions resigned in November; many legal experts have argued that this was unconstitutional, and there are several lawsuits challenging the legality of Whitaker's appointment and office-holding.[SEP]It Will Take Effect in Late March WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration is moving to officially ban bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like automatic firearms. A senior Justice Department official says bump stocks will be banned under the federal law that prohibits machine guns. It will take effect in late March. After that, it will be illegal to possess bump stocks. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The devices became a focal point in the national gun control debate after they were used in October 2017 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Gunman Stephen Paddock rained a hail of bullets from his 32nd-floor Las Vegas hotel room, killing 58 people at a concert.[SEP]Blumenthal to push for bump stock ban despite regulation HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal says he welcomes the Trump administration's move to officially ban gun bump stocks, but believes legislation is still needed. The Democrat on Tuesday said he'll "continue to call for a vote" in Congress to prohibit the devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like automatic firearms. Blumenthal says the nation needs "clear and certain protection that can only come from legislation banning these devices for good." A Justice Department official says Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker signed the new regulation on Tuesday morning. It will take effect in late March. Bump stocks were used in October 2017 by a man who opened fire from his Las Vegas hotel suite into a crowd at a country music festival, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more.[SEP]The Trump administration moved Tuesday to ban bump stocks -- devices that can make semi-automatic firearms fire at a rate similar to automatic weapons -- under a federal law that also bans machine guns, Justice Department officials said in a news release. Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said authorities amended a regulation on Tuesday to include bump stocks in the definition of “machinegun” under federal law. The regulation will go into effect 90 days after it’s formally published in the Federal Register, a move expected to come Friday, according to The Associated Press. If you want to receive BREAKING ALERTS, please download our WPXI News App. You can also follow WPXI on Facebook and Twitter. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news briefing Tuesday that people who have bump stocks will be required to turn the devices over to officials at field offices for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or destroy them by March 21. Hours after Whitaker announced the move, opponents of the decision said they planned to fight the change. >> From Cox Media Group’s Jamie Dupree: Trump ban on ‘bump stocks’ to face immediate legal challenge • VIDEO: Man hit with rock and robbed while walking his dog The ban was expected after the Justice Department earlier this year proposed a rule to classify bump stocks and similar devices as prohibited under federal law. Trump issued a memorandum in the wake of February’s deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, ordering the attorney general to “propose for notice and comment a rule banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machineguns,” according to Justice Department officials. Authorities reviewed more than 186,000 public comments as part of the review process. The Justice Department opened a review of the devices in the wake of the 2017 shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas that left nearly 60 people dead. Authorities said a gunman had bump stocks equipped to several weapons on Oct. 1, 2017, when he fired on festivalgoers.[SEP]The Justice Department on Tuesday issued its final rule banning bump stocks — a device that was prominently used in the Las Vegas shooting massacre last year, which allows a semi-automatic rifle to work like a machine gun. "We are faithfully following President Trump’s leadership by making clear that bump stocks, which turn semiautomatics into machine guns, are illegal, and we will continue to take illegal guns off of our streets," Whitaker said. Later, at a school safety event at the White House, he called it a "big victory" for Trump's administration. Trump had urged the federal government to ban bump stocks this past spring following a deadly Valentine's Day shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead. However, the device gained notoriety when a lone gunman killed 59 people and injured at least 527 others attending a country music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, had 22 semi-automatic rifles and 14 of them were equipped with bump stocks. They allowed him to fire the rifles continuously with a single pull of the trigger, resulting in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. "We've taken important steps, but much work remains to be done, as always," Trump said of his administration's actions on guns and school safety at the White House event. The rule amends the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to include all bump-stock-type devices and re-classify them as machine guns. The move would ban individuals from owning or selling bump stocks, or similarly designed devices. Once the rule becomes effective, anyone owning one would be required to destroy it or turn it over to a local ATF office, the DOJ said. The rule will become final 90 days after it is published in the Federal Register. Whitaker also said on Tuesday at the White House that bump stock owners would have 90 days to destroy their devices or to turn them. The Justice Department said the ATF plans to post instructions on how to properly destroy the device on its website. Matt Deitsch, the co-founder of March for Our Lives, a youth-led movement against gun violence created after the Parkland shooting, said the ban “took far too long,” but that it was a step in the right direction. "This is a good first step, but it only scratches the surface of the reforms we need to end the epidemic of gun violence in America once and for all. We welcome this new policy, but we cannot allow the current Administration, members of Congress, or the NRA to use this as cover while they stall on reforms that our country and communities need immediately,” Deitsch said. The National Rifle Association, however, said in a statement to NBC News that the rule should have offered "amnesty" to current bump stock owners because of a 2010 decision by the ATF that found bump stocks did not amount to machine guns and could not be regulated unless Congress amended existing firearms law or passed a new one. “We are disappointed that this final rule fails to address the thousands of law-abiding Americans who relied on prior ATF determinations when lawfully acquiring these devices,” Jennifer Baker, an NRA spokeswoman, said. "As we recommended to ATF in our comments on the proposed rule, Congress made it possible for the Attorney General to provide amnesty for firearms regulated under the National Firearms Act. The Attorney General should have exercised that authority to provide a period of amnesty under this rule."

The U.S. Department of Justice issues a final regulation banning the use of bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic rifles to be fired at a rate similar to that of automatic weapons and became infamous following the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. It is scheduled to go into effect on March 21, 2019.

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump ordered the creation of "Space Command" on Tuesday, a move the administration is labeling a precursor to creating a US Space Force. "I direct the establishment, consistent with United States law, of United States Space Command as a functional Unified Combatant Command," Trump said in an executive memorandum to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. "I also direct the Secretary of Defense to recommend officers for my nomination and Senate confirmation as Commander and Deputy Commander of the new United States Space Command." Two defense officials told CNN that the Pentagon is nearing completion of a draft proposal for a Space Force that would sit under the Air Force, but have many of the trappings of a separate service, resembling the Marine Corps' relationship to the Department of the Navy. The new command is the 11th combatant command and will have control of military space operations. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at Cape Canaveral Tuesday, said the new space command "won't end there." Read More[SEP]EnviroBuild acknowledged that the authority to name a new species is typically reserved for biologists. Bell noted that the title would have to undergo peer review, according to standards governing zoological nomenclature. But these rules have allowed for significant creative leeway, often to honour famous people. Former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld all have beetles named for them. Beyoncé's name graces a horse fly. A tree frog shares a name with Prince Charles. The Demorphus donaldtrumpi measures nearly four inches (10 centimetres) in length. It belongs to a group of limbless amphibians called caecilians. Rainforest Trust said the remittance for the naming rights will go to protecting the creature's home in Panama, where it was recently discovered by scientists. In the news release, Bell outlined why the name was appropriate. He footnoted his analysis elaborately. Among his sources were Trump tweets and official climate reports. The amphibian's "rudimentary eyes," Bell wrote, can only perceive light or dark. "Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese," he noted. He also observed that the title "Caecilian" derives from the Latin caecus, meaning "blind" The Dermophis grouping grows an extra layer of skin, he explained, which their offspring peel off with their teeth and eat. To ensure that his children "survive in life," Bell observed, "Donald Trump prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office." The wormlike animals live mostly underground, "believed to have lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago, as an adaptation to burrowing," Bell explained. Burying his "head underground," Bell added, "helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change," as well as appointing "several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry." A sensory power in their tentacles helps caecilians find prey, a capacity that Bell likened — straining the metaphor a bit — to the many tentacles of the investigation being pursued by special counsel Robert Mueller. Finally, it wouldn't be a Trump takedown if it didn't involve the size of his hands and the hue of his skin, though on this final point, Bell left the comparison unstated. "Being entirely limbless it is hard to determine whether caecilians have proportionate hands and their shiny skin is ringed with skin folds called annuli, generally grey, but with other genus' often displaying more colour, even orange," he wrote. The Dermophis donaldtrumpi is not alone among creatures bearing Trump's name. Just before the president's inauguration last year, an article in the journal ZooKeys dubbed a blond-haired moth the "Neopalpa donaldtrumpi." "The new species is named in honour of Donald J. Trump, to be installed as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017," wrote the author, Vazrick Nazari, an evolutionary biologist in Ottawa. "The reason for this choice of name is to bring wider public attention to the need to continue protecting fragile habitats in the US that still contain many undescribed species." He also offered this specific rationale for the label: "The specific epithet is selected because of the resemblance of the scales on the frons (head) of the moth to Mr. Trump's hairstyle." In another case, however, the naming is in fact meant as a tribute to Trump. In 2016, a restaurant owner, fossil hunter and author identified a new species of fossil sea urchins near Canyon Lake, in the San Antonio area. William Thompson told the San Antonio Express-News that he had chosen to name the species after Trump, his favoured presidential candidate. The small, round fossil, he told the newspaper, "was named to honour Donald Trump. The name will become a permanent part of the scientific record." He added: "Obviously, I'm probably voting for him. I want change ... I'd love for him to change the world, or at least the politics of the United States." A physical resemblance to Trump appeared not to factor in his decision.[SEP]When President Trump announced his plan to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement last year, he said he was benching the United States in the global fight against climate change because he wanted the rest of the world to stop "laughing at us." "We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won't be," Trump vowed from a podium in the White House Rose Garden in June 2017. "They won't be." But the name of a newly discovered amphibian species reveals just how hearty a laugh critics of the president abroad are having at his expense - and on the very issue he cited as he promised to protect American dignity. EnviroBuild, a London-based sustainable building materials company, saw a resemblance between the serpentine creature, which is nearly blind and burrows underground, and Trump, who has called the evidence of global warming a "hoax." EnviroBuild, which paid US$25,000 for the naming rights at an auction this month, said on Tuesday that it chose "Dermophis donaldtrumpi" in recognition of the president's position on climate change. The announcement came on the heels of a weekend agreement by climate negotiators in Poland on the rules for implementing the Paris pact, which Trump considers counter to US interests. The naming choice highlights the president's dismal approval ratings worldwide and is clearly designed to belittle him. And yet, it is further evidence that so much now revolves around Trump, from "Matilda" statues to Barbra Streisand torch songs, as the former reality TV star has become a ubiquitous global symbol. His name is everywhere, from skylines to golf courses to magazines to songs to subreddits to a restaurant in Iraq. On Wikipedia, there is a list of things named after Donald Trump. Does it matter whether the individual items are favorable so long as the list keeps growing? Still, the symbolism invoked by the British company, whose stunt gave the list its newest entry, has a more serious message. It is meant to call attention to the dire, real-world consequences of Trump's refusal to recognize environmental catastrophe, which scientists say could arrive as early as 2040. "Realizing the similarities between the amazing but unknown creature and the leader of the free world, we couldn't resist buying the rights in your president's honor," Aidan Bell, EnviroBuild's co-founder, told The Washington Post. The firm added a mop of blond hair to an image of an amphibian in the same family as the wormlike species to emphasize the visual likeness. As an amphibian, the company noted in a news release, the Dermophis donaldtrumpi is especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of climate change and is "therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake's climate policies." The naming rights went up for sale December 8 at a "Species Legacy Auction" sponsored by Rainforest Trust, a Virginia-based conservation nonprofit organization that called the event "the largest species-naming auction in history." The privilege of naming the "unusual wormlike" species, the trust said, drew the highest bid of any item in the auction, the proceeds of which benefited wildlife conservation. "We saw this under-loved amphibian and thought we could make some fairly cheap jokes about a public figure crawling on their belly," Bell said. Despairing that the results of climate talks in Poland were insufficiently bold, and realizing that singling out a British figure "would risk hurting our sales too much," he explained, "we decided Trump was the answer." EnviroBuild acknowledged that the authority to name a new species is typically reserved for biologists. Bell noted that the title would have to undergo peer review, according to standards governing zoological nomenclature. But these rules have allowed for significant creative leeway, often to honor famous people. Former president George W. Bush, former vice president Richard B. Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld all have beetles named for them. Beyonce's name graces a horse fly. A tree frog shares a name with Prince Charles. The Dermophis donaldtrumpi measures 10 centimeters (nearly four inches) in length, according to EnviroBuild. It belongs to a group of limbless amphibians called caecilians. Rainforest Trust said the remittance for the naming rights will go to protecting the creature's home in Panama, where scientists recently discovered it. In the news release, Bell outlined why the name is appropriate. He footnoted his analysis elaborately. Among his sources were Trump tweets and official climate reports. The amphibian's "rudimentary eyes," Bell wrote, can perceive only light or dark. "Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese," he noted. He also observed that the title "Caecilian" derives from the Latin caecus, meaning "blind." The Dermophis grouping grows an extra layer of skin, he explained, which their offspring peel off with their teeth and eat. To ensure that his children "survive in life," Bell observed, "Donald Trump prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office." The wormlike animals live mostly underground, "believed to have lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago, as an adaptation to burrowing," Bell explained. Burying his "head underground," he added, "helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change," as well as appointing "several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry." A sensory power in their tentacles helps caecilians find prey, a capacity that Bell likened - straining the metaphor a bit - to the many tentacles of the investigation being pursued by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Finally, it wouldn't be a Trump takedown if it didn't involve the size of his hands and the hue of his skin, although on this final point, Bell left the comparison unstated. "Being entirely limbless it is hard to determine whether caecilians have proportionate hands and their shiny skin is ringed with skin folds called annuli, generally grey, but with other genus' often displaying more colour, even orange," he wrote. The Dermophis donaldtrumpi is not alone among creatures bearing Trump's name. Just before the president's inauguration last year, an article in the journal ZooKeys dubbed a blond-haired moth the "Neopalpa donaldtrumpi." "The new species is named in honor of Donald J. Trump, to be installed as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017," wrote the author, Vazrick Nazari, an evolutionary biologist in Ottawa. "The reason for this choice of name is to bring wider public attention to the need to continue protecting fragile habitats in the US that still contain many undescribed species." He also offered this specific rationale for the label: "The specific epithet is selected because of the resemblance of the scales on the frons (head) of the moth to Mr. Trump's hairstyle." In another case, however, the naming is in fact meant as a tribute to Trump. In 2016, a restaurant owner, fossil hunter and author identified a new species of fossil sea urchins near Canyon Lake, in the San Antonio area. William Thompson told the San Antonio Express-News that he had chosen to name the species after Trump, his favored presidential candidate. The small, round fossil, he told the newspaper, "was named to honor Donald Trump. The name will become a permanent part of the scientific record." He added: "Obviously, I'm probably voting for him. I want change. . . . I'd love for him to change the world, or at least the politics of the United States." A physical resemblance to Trump appeared not to factor into his decision. This article was originally published by The Washington Post.[SEP]When U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plan to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement last year, he said he was benching the United States in the global fight against climate change because he wanted the rest of the world to stop “laughing at us.” “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be,” Trump vowed from a podium in the White House Rose Garden in June 2017. “They won’t be.” But the name of a new amphibian species reveals just how hearty a laugh critics of the president abroad are having at his expense — and on the very issue where he promised to protect American dignity. A London-based sustainable building materials company, EnviroBuild, saw a resemblance between the serpentine creature, which is nearly blind and burrows underground, and Trump, who has called the evidence of global warming a “hoax.” EnviroBuild, which paid $25,000 (U.S.) for the naming rights at an auction this month, said on Tuesday that it had chosen “Dermophis donaldtrumpi” in recognition of the president’s position on climate change. The announcement came on the heels of a weekend agreement by climate negotiators in Poland on the rules for implementing the Paris pact, which Trump sees as counter to U.S. national interests. The naming choice highlights the president’s dismal approval rating around the world, and is clearly designed to belittle him. And yet, it is further evidence that nearly everything now revolves around Trump, from “Matilda” statues to Barbra Streisand torch songs, as the former reality TV star has become a capacious global symbol. His name is everywhere, from skylines to golf courses to magazines to songs to subreddits to a restaurant in Iraq. On Wikipedia, there is a “List of things named after Donald Trump” — does it matter whether the individual items are favourable so long as the list keeps growing? “Realizing the similarities between the amazing but unknown creature and the leader of the free world, we couldn’t resist buying the rights in your president’s honour,” Aidan Bell, EnviroBuild’s co-founder told The Washington Post. The firm added a mop of blond hair to an image of an amphibian in the same family as the snake- or wormlike species to emphasize the visual likeness. As an amphibian, the company noted in a news release, the Dermophis donaldtrumpi is especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of climate change and is “therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake’s climate policies.” “We saw this underloved amphibian and thought we could make some fairly cheap jokes about a public figure crawling on their belly,” Bell said. Realizing that singling out a British figure “would risk hurting our sales too much,” and despairing that the results of climate talks in Poland were insufficiently bold, he explained, “we decided Trump was the answer.” EnviroBuild acknowledged that the authority to name a new species is typically reserved for biologists. Bell noted that the title would have to undergo peer review, according to standards governing zoological nomenclature. But these rules have allowed for significant creative leeway, often to honour famous people. Former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld all have beetles named for them. Beyonce’s name graces a horse fly. A tree frog shares a name with Prince Charles. The Demorphus donaldtrumpi measures nearly four inches (10 centimetres) in length. It belongs to a group of limbless amphibians called caecilians. Rainforest Trust said the remittance for the naming rights will go to protecting the creature’s home in Panama, where it was recently discovered by scientists. In the news release, Bell outlined why the name was appropriate. He footnoted his analysis elaborately. Among his sources were Trump tweets and official climate reports. The amphibian’s “rudimentary eyes,” Bell wrote, can only perceive light or dark. “Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese,” he noted. He also observed that the title “Caecilian” derives from the Latin caecus, meaning “blind” The Dermophis grouping grows an extra layer of skin, he explained, which their offspring peel off with their teeth and eat. To ensure that his children “survive in life,” Bell observed, “Donald Trump prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office.” The wormlike animals live mostly underground, “believed to have lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago, as an adaptation to burrowing,” Bell explained. Burying his “head underground,” Bell added, “helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change,” as well as appointing “several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry.” A sensory power in their tentacles helps caecilians find prey, a capacity that Bell likened — straining the metaphor a bit — to the many tentacles of the investigation being pursued by special counsel Robert Mueller. Finally, it wouldn’t be a Trump takedown if it didn’t involve the size of his hands and the hue of his skin, though on this final point, Bell left the comparison unstated. “Being entirely limbless it is hard to determine whether caecilians have proportionate hands and their shiny skin is ringed with skin folds called annuli, generally grey, but with other genus’ often displaying more colour, even orange,” he wrote. The Dermophis donaldtrumpi is not alone among creatures bearing Trump’s name. Just before the president’s inauguration last year, an article in the journal ZooKeys dubbed a blond-haired moth the “Neopalpa donaldtrumpi.” “The new species is named in honour of Donald J. Trump, to be installed as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017,” wrote the author, Vazrick Nazari, an evolutionary biologist in Ottawa. “The reason for this choice of name is to bring wider public attention to the need to continue protecting fragile habitats in the US that still contain many undescribed species.” He also offered this specific rationale for the label: “The specific epithet is selected because of the resemblance of the scales on the frons (head) of the moth to Mr. Trump’s hairstyle.” In another case, however, the naming is in fact meant as a tribute to Trump. In 2016, a restaurant owner, fossil hunter and author identified a new species of fossil sea urchins near Canyon Lake, in the San Antonio area. William Thompson told the San Antonio Express-News that he had chosen to name the species after Trump, his favoured presidential candidate. The small, round fossil, he told the newspaper, “was named to honour Donald Trump. The name will become a permanent part of the scientific record.” He added: “Obviously, I’m probably voting for him. I want change ... I’d love for him to change the world, or at least the politics of the United States.” A physical resemblance to Trump appeared not to factor in his decision.[SEP]When President Trump announced his plan to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement last year, he said he was benching the United States in the global fight against climate change because he wanted the rest of the world to stop “laughing at us.” “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be,” Trump vowed from a podium in the White House Rose Garden in June 2017. “They won’t be.” But the name of a newly discovered amphibian species reveals just how hearty a laugh critics of the president abroad are having at his expense — and on the very issue he cited as he promised to protect American dignity. A London-based sustainable building materials company, EnviroBuild, saw a resemblance between the serpentine creature, which is nearly blind and burrows underground, and Trump, who has called the evidence of global warming a “hoax.” EnviroBuild, which paid $25,000 for the naming rights at an auction this month, said on Tuesday that it chose “Dermophis donaldtrumpi” in recognition of the president’s position on climate change. The announcement came on the heels of a weekend agreement by climate negotiators in Poland on the rules for implementing the Paris pact, which Trump sees as counter to U.S. national interests. The naming choice highlights the president’s dismal approval ratings around the world and is clearly designed to belittle him. And yet, it is further evidence that nearly everything now revolves around Trump, from “Matilda” statues to Barbra Streisand torch songs, as the former reality TV star has become a ubiquitous global symbol. His name is everywhere, from skylines to golf courses to magazines to songs to subreddits to a restaurant in Iraq. On Wikipedia, there is a “List of things named after Donald Trump” — does it matter whether the individual items are favorable so long as the list keeps growing? Still, the symbolism invoked by the British company, whose stunt gave the list its newest entry, has a more serious message. It is meant to call attention to the dire, real-world consequences of Trump’s refusal to recognize environmental catastrophe, which scientists say could arrive as early as 2040. “Realizing the similarities between the amazing but unknown creature and the leader of the free world, we couldn’t resist buying the rights in your president’s honor,” Aidan Bell, EnviroBuild’s co-founder, told The Washington Post. The firm added a mop of blond hair to an image of an amphibian in the same family as the wormlike species to emphasize the visual likeness. As an amphibian, the company noted in a news release, the Dermophis donaldtrumpi is especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of climate change and is “therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake’s climate policies.” The naming rights went up for sale Dec. 8 at a “Species Legacy Auction” sponsored by Rainforest Trust, a Virginia-based conservation nonprofit that called the event “the largest species-naming auction in history.” The privilege of naming the “unusual wormlike” species, the trust said, drew the highest bid of any item in the auction, the proceeds of which benefited wildlife conservation. “We saw this underloved amphibian and thought we could make some fairly cheap jokes about a public figure crawling on their belly,” Bell said. Despairing that the results of climate talks in Poland were insufficiently bold, and realizing that singling out a British figure “would risk hurting our sales too much,” he explained, “we decided Trump was the answer.” EnviroBuild acknowledged that the authority to name a new species is typically reserved for biologists. Bell noted that the title would have to undergo peer review, according to standards governing zoological nomenclature. But these rules have allowed for significant creative leeway, often to honor famous people. Former president George W. Bush, former vice president Richard B. Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld all have beetles named for them. Beyonce’s name graces a horse fly. A tree frog shares a name with Prince Charles. The Dermophis donaldtrumpi measures 10 centimeters (nearly four inches) in length. It belongs to a group of limbless amphibians called caecilians. Rainforest Trust said the remittance for the naming rights will go to protecting the creature’s home in Panama, where it was recently discovered by scientists. In the news release, Bell outlined why the name was appropriate. He footnoted his analysis elaborately. Among his sources were Trump tweets and official climate reports. The amphibian’s “rudimentary eyes,” Bell wrote, can perceive only light or dark. “Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese,” he noted. He also observed that the title “Caecilian” derives from the Latin caecus, meaning “blind" The Dermophis grouping grows an extra layer of skin, he explained, which their offspring peel off with their teeth and eat. To ensure that his children “survive in life,” Bell observed, “Donald Trump prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office.” The wormlike animals live mostly underground, “believed to have lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago, as an adaptation to burrowing,” Bell explained. Burying his “head underground,” Bell added, “helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change,” as well as appointing “several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry.” A sensory power in their tentacles helps caecilians find prey, a capacity that Bell likened — straining the metaphor a bit — to the many tentacles of the investigation being pursued by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Finally, it wouldn’t be a Trump takedown if it didn’t involve the size of his hands and the hue of his skin, though on this final point, Bell left the comparison unstated. “Being entirely limbless it is hard to determine whether caecilians have proportionate hands and their shiny skin is ringed with skin folds called annuli, generally grey, but with other genus’ often displaying more colour, even orange,” he wrote. The Dermophis donaldtrumpi is not alone among creatures bearing Trump’s name. Just before the president’s inauguration last year, an article in the journal ZooKeys dubbed a blond-haired moth the “Neopalpa donaldtrumpi.” “The new species is named in honor of Donald J. Trump, to be installed as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017,” wrote the author, Vazrick Nazari, an evolutionary biologist in Ottawa. “The reason for this choice of name is to bring wider public attention to the need to continue protecting fragile habitats in the US that still contain many undescribed species.” He also offered this specific rationale for the label: “The specific epithet is selected because of the resemblance of the scales on the frons (head) of the moth to Mr. Trump’s hairstyle.” In another case, however, the naming is in fact meant as a tribute to Trump. In 2016, a restaurant owner, fossil hunter and author identified a new species of fossil sea urchins near Canyon Lake, in the San Antonio area. William Thompson told the San Antonio Express-News that he had chosen to name the species after Trump, his favored presidential candidate. The small, round fossil, he told the newspaper, “was named to honor Donald Trump. The name will become a permanent part of the scientific record.” He added: “Obviously, I’m probably voting for him. I want change. . . . I’d love for him to change the world, or at least the politics of the United States." A physical resemblance to Trump appeared not to factor in his decision.[SEP]President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued an executive order re-creating a U.S. Space Command, which previously existed prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. All the previous space-related responsibilities assigned to the U.S. Strategic Command will be assigned to the Space Command. Vice President Mike Pence is due to make the announcement at Kennedy Space Center. The Trump order is separate from his goal of creating an independent armed service branch called the Space Force. Have breaking news sent to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Bulletin emails. 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Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at Cape Canaveral Tuesday, said the new space command “won’t end there.” Pence said “in the days ahead, President Trump will also sign a new space policy directive that will lay out our plans and our timeline to create the new sixth branch of the armed forces, the US Space Force.” “We’re working as we speak with leaders in both parties in Congress to stand up the United States Space Force before the end of 2020,” Pence said. The vice president said the military will use the foundation provided by the Air Force, which has been “a magnificent steward of our military space capabilities” and build on that with “space professionals from every branch.” “While we’re taking these actions to ensure our nation’s security, and our future, we’ll be following the very best traditions of the past,” Pence said. The new Space Command will be only the 11th combined combatant command, joining the ranks of Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, and Special Operations Command, which oversees elite troops known as Special Operations Forces. Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva are expected to brief key members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees and Defense appropriations subcommittees, according to a defense official familiar with the announcement. The White House announcement said Mattis will provide Trump with nominations for the commander and deputy commander of Space Command and that the new command “will strengthen” space operations while also helping to “streamline command and control of time-sensitive operations” and “consolidate space operations under a single authority.” A Pentagon report released in August said the new command will “improve and evolve space warfighting,” focusing on doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures, making it akin to Special Operations Command, which provides a similar function for US Special Operations Forces, such as US Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces. “This new command structure for the physical domain of space, led by a four-star flag officer, will establish unified command and control for our Space Force operations, ensure integration across the military, and develop the space warfighting doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures of the future,” Pence said during a visit to the Pentagon in August. Officials told CNN that Mattis will send a letter to House and Senate Armed Services Committee asking them to repeal a provision in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act which establishes Space Command as a sub-unified command underneath Strategic Command. Trump’s direction will skip this step, elevating it to the same level as Strategic Command.[SEP]President Donald Trump launched the Pentagon's new Space Command Tuesday, an effort to better organize and advance the military's vast operations in space that could cost as much as $800 million over the next five years. Trump signed a one-page memorandum Tuesday authorizing the Department of Defense to create the new command. The goal is to set up a command to oversee and organize space operations, accelerate technical advances and find more effective ways to defend U.S. assets in space, including the vast constellations of satellites that American forces rely on for navigation, communications and surveillance. The move comes amid growing concerns that China and Russia are working on ways to disrupt, disable or even destroy U.S. satellites. The new order is separate from the president's much touted goal of creating a "Space Force" as an independent armed service branch, but is considered a first step in that direction. The memo provides little detail on what will be a long and complicated process as the Defense Department begins to pull together various space units from across the military services into a more coordinated, independent organization. According to one U.S. official, the command would pull about 600 staff from existing military space offices, and then add at least another 1,000 over the coming years. The roughly $800 million would mainly cover the additional staff. The costs for the existing staff would just transfer to the new command, but that total was not immediately available. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations not yet announced. Army Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, spokesman for Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, said that establishing Space Command is "a critical step in accelerating our space capabilities and posture to defend our vital national interests and deter our adversaries. This combatant command will lead space operations and develop space warfighting doctrine, tactics, and techniques." He added that the Pentagon will continue to develop a legislative proposal to meet the president's vision for a space force. The first steps next year will be to nominate top leaders for Space Command, including a four-star general and a deputy. The command would likely at least begin to take form in Colorado, where the current Joint Functional Component Command for Space is already located. But there has been no final decision on a location for the new command. Funding for the command will be included in the budget for fiscal year 2020, which will be unveiled in February. Trump's order accelerates what has been a decades-long effort to reorganize and improve the military's technological advances in space, which at times has gotten less attention as the Air Force has focused on warplanes and other combat priorities. The military's role in space has been under scrutiny because the United States is increasingly reliant on orbiting satellites that are difficult to protect. Satellites provide communications, navigation, intelligence and other services vital to the military and the national economy. Over the past year, the issue gained urgency amid growing competition and threats from adversary nations. U.S. intelligence agencies reported earlier this year that Russia and China were pursuing "nondestructive and destructive" anti-satellite weapons for use during a future war. And there are growing worries about cyberattacks that could target satellite technology, potentially leaving troops in combat without electronic communications or navigation abilities. A U.S. Space Command existed from 1985 to 2002, but was disbanded in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks so that U.S. Northern Command could be established, focusing on defense of the homeland. Although Space Command went away, its functions remained and were absorbed by U.S. Strategic Command. The Air Force retained its lead role in space through Air Force Space Command. That existing space command will be a key component of the new joint entity, raising space to the same status as other headquarters such as U.S. Cyber Command, Special Operations Command or Strategic Command. The new Space Command will also pull from existing units in the other services, such as the Army Space and Missile Command and the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. Officials said the process of breaking away parts of other organizations and molding them all into a new command will be done carefully, to ensure it's done correctly without jeopardizing any ongoing operations or activities.[SEP]President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order before the end of the year creating a US Space Command as a major military command. President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order before the end of the year creating a US Space Command as a major military command. Vice President Mike Pence will make the announcement on Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Centre, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, officials said, and President Trump could sign the order as soon as Tuesday. The move is separate from President Trump’s goal of creating a “Space Force” as an independent armed service branch, but could be a step in that direction. The US Air Force’s existing Space Command would be a key component of the new joint entity, raising space to the same status as US Cyber Command. According to US officials, Vice President Pence will be at the Pentagon on Tuesday and will meet with the Joint Chiefs. Space Command is expected to be among the issues discussed. The move would actually recreate a US Space Command, which existed from 1985 to 2002. It was disbanded in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks so that US Northern Command could be established, focusing on defence of the homeland. Although Space Command went away, its functions did not. They were absorbed by US Strategic Command, and the Air Force retained its lead role in space through Air Force Space Command.[SEP]WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered the creation of “Space Command,” a new organizational structure within the Pentagon that will have overall control of military space operations. The command will be separate from Trump’s goal to build an entirely new branch of the military called “Space Force” — but could be a step in that direction. “I direct the establishment, consistent with United States law, of United States Space Command as a functional Unified Combatant Command,” Trump said in a memo to Defense Secretary Defense Jim Mattis. Speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida’s Cape Canaveral, Vice President Mike Pence said the new US Space Command will integrate space capabilities across all branches of the military. “It will develop the space doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures that will enable our war fighters to defend our nation in this new era,” Pence said. SpaceCom, as it will inevitably come to be known, will be the Pentagon’s 11th combatant command, along with other well-known commands including Central Command and Europe Command. Trump in June said he wanted to create a “Space Force,” which would be an entirely new branch of the military alongside the Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force. He insists such a move is necessary to tackle vulnerabilities in space and assert US dominance in orbit. But its creation is not a done deal, as it needs to be approved by Congress, and the concept has met with some skepticism from lawmakers and defense officials wary of the cost and added bureaucracy. The creation of a new Space Force would also set off a turf war within the Pentagon, particularly with the Air Force, which currently is responsible for most space operations.

U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive memorandum to re-establish the United States Space Command.

Belgium Prime Minister Charles Michel resigns over migration spat Updated Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has resigned amid pressure on his Government after the biggest party in his coalition quit over his support for the UN global compact on migration. Key points: Mr Michel quit due to ongoing upheaval within his minority Government over the signing of UN's migration treaty The PM went to see the Belgian King, who is "withholding his decision" on what steps to take next The right-wing N-VA party quit the Government coalition just over a week ago Mr Michel told Belgian MPs: "I am taking the decision to offer my resignation. I am now going to see the King [to inform him]." The politicians had been demanding that he submit his new minority Government to a confidence vote, but Mr Michel had so far refused and a confrontation seemed likely this week. Mr Michel tried to convince them of the reshaped Government's plans and said he would be ready to work with the Opposition, but his overtures were rejected. His 2019 budget was among the sensitive topics up for debate. Some in the assembly pushed for an election to be held before the regularly scheduled one in May. Mr Michel again refused, saying it would only lead to "stagnation for the whole of 2019". As politicians applauded, he picked up his briefcase, shook the hands of a number of Government ministers, and left. Mr Michel made no comment to reporters upon entering and leaving Belgian King Philippe's residence, the Palace of Laeken in Brussels. The King holds a largely symbolic role in Belgium but becomes a pivotal figure after inconclusive elections or disputes like the current one that require the formation of new governments. In a tweet, the Royal Palace said King Philippe had received Mr Michel and was "withholding his decision" about what steps to take next. It was not immediately clear whether the King had accepted the resignation the Prime Minister tendered on behalf of himself and his Government. Mr Michel could be invited to lead a caretaker government until consultations with other party leaders can be held. The right-wing N-VA party quit the Government after Mr Michel sought parliamentary approval to support the UN compact against its wishes, branding his minority Government "the Marrakech coalition", after the city where the migration treaty was signed just over a week ago. The accord is non-binding, but the N-VA said it still went too far and would give even migrants who were in Belgium without authorisation many additional rights. The party launched an in-your-face social media campaign against the compact, featuring pictures of Muslim women with their faces covered and claiming that the accord focused on allowing migrants to retain the cultural practices of their homelands. But it quickly withdrew the materials after the campaign received widespread criticism. A number of governments refused to sign the UN Global Compact Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. They included the United States, but also a group of European Union countries, among them Austria, which holds the EU's rotating presidency until December 31. AP Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, immigration, community-and-society, belgium First posted[SEP]BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has resigned amid pressure on his government after the biggest party in his coalition quit over his support for the U.N. global compact on migration. Michel told Belgian lawmakers Tuesday that “I am taking the decision to offer my resignation. I am now going to see the king” to inform him. The lawmakers had been demanding that he submit his new minority government to a confidence vote, but Michel had so far refused and a confrontation seemed likely this week.[SEP]Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel submitted his resignation Tuesday amid pressure on his government after the biggest coalition party quit over Michel's support for a United Nations compact on international migration. "I am taking the decision to offer my resignation. I am now going to see the king" to inform him," Michel told Belgian lawmakers. Before the prime minister gave his notice, lawmakers had been demanding he submit his new minority government to a confidence vote. But Michel refused, and a confrontation this week seemed likely. Michel tried to convince the Chamber of Representatives of the reshaped government's plans and said he would be ready to work with the opposition, but his overtures were rejected. His 2019 budget was among the sensitive topics up for debate. Some in the assembly pushed for an election to be held before the regularly scheduled one in May. Michel again refused, saying it would only lead to "stagnation for the whole of 2019." After a short break for reflection, he announced he was resigning instead. As lawmakers applauded, he picked up his briefcase, shook the hands of a number of government ministers, and left. Michel made no comment to reporters upon entering and leaving Belgian King Philippe's residence, the Palace of Laeken in Brussels. The king holds a largely symbolic role in Belgium but becomes a pivotal figure after inconclusive elections or disputes like the current one require the formation of new governments. In a tweet, the Royal Palace said Philippe had received Michel and was "withholding his decision" about what steps to take next. Belgian media said the king would meet party leaders Wednesday before deciding whether to accept the resignation the prime minister tendered on behalf of himself and his government. Michel could be invited to lead a caretaker government until an election can be held. It's the first time the king has faced such a crisis. He ascended to the throne in 2013 after his father, King Albert II, abdicated for health reasons. The right-wing N-VA party quit the government after Michel sought parliamentary approval to support the U.N. compact against its wishes, branding his minority government "the Marrakech coalition," after the city where the migration treaty was signed just over a week ago. The accord is non-binding, but the N-VA said it still went too far and would give even migrants who were in Belgium without authorization many additional rights. The party launched an in-your-face social media campaign against the compact, featuring pictures of Muslim women with their faces covered and claiming that the accord focused on allowing migrants to retain the cultural practices of their homelands. But it quickly withdrew the materials after the campaign received widespread criticism. A number of governments refused to sign the U.N. Global Compact Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. They included the United States, but also a group of European Union countries, among them Austria which holds the EU's rotating presidency until Dec. 31. © Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has announced his resignation in address at parliament, says he will notify king.[SEP]BRUSSELS (AP) - Belgium's King Philippe is consulting leaders of political parties to work out who should govern the country until the next elections after Prime Minister Charles Michel handed in his resignation. The king was expected to meet several party leaders Wednesday as he weighs whether to keep Michel temporarily in office at the head of a caretaker government or support any call for early elections. Michel announced in parliament Tuesday that he would submit his resignation as pressure built on his government this week after the biggest party in his coalition quit over his support for a U.N. migration pact. But the king did not immediately accept it, preferring to meet with party leaders first. Belgium is due to go the polls on May 26. FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels. Michel has resigned Tuesday Dec. 18, 2018, after the biggest party in his coalition quit over his support for the U.N. global compact on migration. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, FILE) FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel arrives for an EU summit in Brussels. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has announced his resignation in address at parliament, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, and says he will notify the king. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, FILE)[SEP]Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has announced his resignation in address at parliament, says he will notify king BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has announced his resignation in address at parliament, says he will notify king.[SEP]Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has resigned amid pressure on his government, after the biggest party in his coalition quit over his support for a UN-backed migration pact. Michel told Belgian legislators on Tuesday that he was “taking the decision to offer my resignation”, adding he was “now going to see the king” to inform him. The legislators had been demanding that he submit his new minority government to a confidence vote, but Michel had so far refused and a confrontation seemed likely this week. Amid calls from some in the assembly for an early election, Michel again refused, saying it would only lead to “stagnation for the whole of 2019.” The next election is due in Belgium in May. As legislators applauded, he picked up his briefcase, shook the hands of a number of government ministers, and left. The right-wing N-VA party quit the government after Michel sought parliamentary approval to support the global migration deal against its wishes, branding his minority government “the Marrakech coalition,” after the city where the agreement was signed just over a week ago.[SEP]BRUSSELS — Belgium’s King Philippe is consulting leaders of political parties to work out who should govern the country until the next elections after Prime Minister Charles Michel handed in his resignation. The king was expected to meet several party leaders Wednesday as he weighs whether to keep Michel temporarily in office at the head of a caretaker government or support any call for early elections. Michel announced in parliament Tuesday that he would submit his resignation as pressure built on his government this week after the biggest party in his coalition quit over his support for a U.N. migration pact. But the king did not immediately accept it, preferring to meet with party leaders first. Belgium is due to go the polls on May 26.[SEP]Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has resigned amid pressure on his government after the largest party in his coalition quit over his support for the United Nations global pact on migration, AP reported Tuesday. Charles Michel told Belgian lawmakers Tuesday that “I am taking the decision to offer my resignation. I am now going to see the king” to inform him, as quoted by AP.[SEP]Belgium’s government of four years has fallen on the issue of migration after the country’s parliament rejected an appeal from prime minister, Charles Michel, for its support for a minority administration. Michel was forced to offer his resignation to the King of the Belgians, Phillipe, after the Socialist party, with support from the Greens, proposed a vote of no confidence in his administration. The country is now braced for a snap election in January. The head of Michel’s party said the opposition had rejected the government’s “fair offer” in order to secure a political scalp. “The Socialist opposition and Greens wanted a trophy and have it”, said David Clarinval, chairman of the liberal Reform Movement party. Following the departure of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the largest of the coalition government’s four parties, Michel had appealed to the federal parliament to back a minority administration until the country held its general election next May. Michel was seeking a “coalition of good will” to see him through until the poll of 26 May, warning that the country would be otherwise left rudderless for months should his government fall. But in a dramatic day in the Belgian parliament, the Socialist party refused to countenance such a proposal. During an evening sitting of the chamber, Michel told MPs in response that he would be offering his resignation to the King. “My call did not convince,” Michel said. “It was not heard. I have decided to resign and go to the King immediately.” In answer to calls for an early election, Michel refused, saying it would only lead to “stagnation for the whole of 2019”. As MPs applauded, the prime minister buttoned his waistcoat, picked up his briefcase, shook the hands of a number of government ministers, and left. Michel was subsequently asked by the King to be a caretaker prime minister, with reduced powers, while parliament seeks to construct a new alliance of parties that can take the reins of power. It is expected that the talks with parties will take several days but that a election will be held in the new year. The N-VA, a Flemish nationalist party with hardline views on immigration, walked out of the government earlier this month over Michel’s signature to a UN migration pact providing for a common global approach to migrant flows. The draft UN accord lays down 23 objectives to open up legal migration and better manage a global flow of 250 million people, 3% of the world population. The US dropped out of talks on the pact last year and countries including Italy, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Australia have rejected it. The deal is expected to be ratified at the UN headquarters in New York on 19 December.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel submits the resignation of his cabinet to King Philippe, after the biggest party in his coalition, the New Flemish Alliance, formally quit on 9 December over the government's support for the Global Compact for Migration. The King is withholding his decision.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What did we learn from Elon Musk's big reveal? Entrepreneur Elon Musk has unveiled a prototype underground tunnel in Los Angeles which is designed to transport cars at high speed around the city. The tunnel is only a mile (1.6km) long at the moment but the goal is a network to ease chronic traffic congestion. Modified electric cars would be lowered into the tunnel and travel at speeds up to 150mph (240km/h), Mr Musk says. The tunnel has been built by Mr Musk's Boring Company, which boasts state-of-the-art engineering techniques. Mr Musk, best known as the head of Tesla electric cars and the commercial SpaceX programme, arrived at the launch on Tuesday in a Tesla car modified to work on the "loop" system. He was cheered by a small crowd as he emerged from the car at one end of the tunnel bathed in green and blue interior lights. How will it work? The plan envisages modified cars being lowered into the tunnel network by lifts and then slotted into tracks on the "loop". "The profound breakthrough is very simple: it's the ability to turn a normal car into a passively stable vehicle by adding the deployable tracking wheels, stabilising wheels, so that it can travel at high speed through a small tunnel," Mr Musk said. "The way the loop will work is you will have main arteries that are travelling at 150mph and when you want to go to an exit, you will have an off ramp," he added. "So you can travel the vast majority of your journey without stopping at 150mph and only slow down when you get to your exit, and then automatically transfer from one tunnel to another. It's like a 3D highway system underground basically." Feeling the bumps The BBC's Peter Bowes takes a test ride on Elon Musk's LA tunnel Image copyright Getty Images It was almost a white knuckle ride. A bumpy two-minute journey in a modified Model X through a concrete tunnel with a blue neon light in the ceiling. We reached a speed of 49mph, although cars will eventually travel at up to 150mph. Elon Musk later explained that the bumpiness was due to problems with a paving machine and that it would be "as smooth as glass" eventually. The vehicle was modified by adding two alignment wheels to keep it stable at high speeds and prevent it from hitting the side of the tunnel. Mr Musk said the $200-$300 attachments could eventually be fixed to any fully autonomous electric vehicle, for use in the tunnel. They would not interfere with the vehicle's normal operation. "We used Tesla vehicles because I run Tesla. What I am going to do? Use someone else's car?" he asked, smiling. Traffic solution? Alana Semuels, of The Atlantic, told the BBC World Service that Mr Musk had yet to unveil the technology that would allow vehicles to travel at such high speeds through the system. "At first he said we're going have these tunnels and transport people in pods, now he's saying we're going to transport them in cars, so I'm not sure even he knows how it works," she said. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A modified Tesla electric car was used in the demonstration Mr Musk first unveiled the tunnel plan earlier this year, saying he wanted to alleviate Los Angeles's "soul-destroying" traffic congestion. On Tuesday he said his Boring Company had built the tunnel segment for $10m (£8m), adding that traditional tunnel-building technology would have cost up to $1bn. The tunnel runs beneath the municipality of Hawthorne, where the Boring Company and SpaceX are both based.[SEP]LOS ANGELES (AP) - Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is set to unveil an underground transportation tunnel on Tuesday that could move people faster than subways. Musk also plans to show off the autonomous cars that will carry people through the test tunnel, which runs about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) under the streets of Hawthorne, California, Musk's SpaceX headquarters. He's also planning to unveil elevators he says will bring users' own cars from street level to the tunnel. Tuesday's reveal comes almost two years to the day since Musk announced on Twitter that "traffic is driving me nuts" and he was "going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging." "I am actually going to do this," he added in response to initial skepticism. So began The Boring Company, tongue in cheek intentional. Since the announcement, Musk has revealed a handful of photos and videos of the tunnel's progress. The tunnel, meant to be a "proof of concept," is being used to help Musk and The Boring Company conduct research and development for a broader system in traffic-plagued Los Angeles and beyond. FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2018, file photo, Elon Musk, founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX, speaks at a news conference from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Musk is set to unveil an underground transportation tunnel that could move people faster than subways. Musk plans to unveil the test tunnel Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, as well as the autonomous cars that will carry people through it. He's also set to show off elevators he says will bring users' own cars from the surface to the tunnel. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File) One, known as the Dugout Loop , would take Los Angeles baseball fans to Dodger Stadium from one of three subway stations. Another would take travelers from downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport. Both projects are in the environmental review phase. The Boring Company canceled its plans for another test tunnel on Los Angeles' west side last month after a neighborhood coalition filed a lawsuit expressing concerns about traffic and disruptions from trucks hauling out dirt during the boring process. Musk has described a system in which vehicles would descend via elevators into tunnels and move on electrically powered platforms called skates. Up to 16 pedestrians and bicyclists could board autonomous vehicles also traveling on the skates as fast as 150 mph (240 kph). "Once fully operational (demo system rides will be free), the system will always give priority to pods for pedestrians & cyclists for less than the cost of a bus ticket," Musk tweeted in May. For the privately funded test tunnel, Musk acquired a tunnel-boring machine that had been used in a San Francisco Bay Area project and put it down a shaft in a parking lot at the SpaceX headquarters. Musk's vision for the underground tunnels, known as loop, is not the same as another of his transportation concepts known as hyperloop. That would involve a network of nearly airless tubes that would speed special capsules over long distances at up to 750 mph (1,200) kph), using a thin cushion of air, magnetism and solar power. The loop system is designed for shorter routes that wouldn't require the elimination of air friction, according to The Boring Company. The company says on its website that the reason such a system hasn't been done before is that tunnels can be as expensive as $1 billion a mile to dig. But by using the skates to transport cars, which reduces the size of the tunnels needed by about half, thus reducing the cost to build them by up to four times, the company says.[SEP]Technology mogul Elon Musk has unveiled a prototype underground tunnel in Los Angeles which is designed to transport cars at high speed around the city. The tunnel is only a mile (1.6km) long at the moment but the goal is a network to ease chronic traffic congestion. Modified electric cars would be lowered into the tunnel and travel at speeds up to 150mph (240km/h), Musk says. The tunnel has been built by Musk’s Boring Company, which boasts state-of-the-art engineering techniques. Musk, best known as the head of Tesla electric cars and the commercial SpaceX programme, arrived at the launch on Tuesday in a Tesla car modified to work on the “loop” system. He was cheered by a small crowd as he emerged from the car at one end of the tunnel bathed in green and blue interior lights. The plan envisages modified cars being lowered into the tunnel network by lifts and then slotted into tracks on the “loop”. “The profound breakthrough is very simple: it’s the ability to turn a normal car into a passively stable vehicle by adding the deployable tracking wheels, stabilising wheels, so that it can travel at high speed through a small tunnel,” Musk said. “The way the loop will work is you will have main arteries that are travelling at 150mph and when you want to go to an exit, you will have an off ramp,” he added. “So you can travel the vast majority of your journey without stopping at 150mph and only slow down when you get to your exit, and then automatically transfer from one tunnel to another. It’s like a 3D highway system underground basically.”[SEP]LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on Elon Musk's underground tunnel (all times local): Elon Musk has unveiled his underground transportation tunnel, allowing invited guests to take some of the first rides ever on the tech entrepreneur's solution to "soul-destroying traffic." Guests boarded Musk's Tesla Model S and were driven on Los Angeles-area surface streets about a mile away to what's known as O'Leary Station on Tuesday. The station sits smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It consists of a wall-less elevator that slowly took the car down a wide shaft, roughly 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface. Reporters described the rides as bumpy but impressive. At least one experienced motion sickness while another yelled, "Woo!" A modified Tesla Model X rests on an elevator above the pit and tunnel entrance before an unveiling event for the Boring Company Hawthorne test tunnel in Hawthorne, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. Elon Musk unveiled his underground transportation tunnel on Tuesday, allowing reporters and invited guests to take some of the first rides in the revolutionary albeit bumpy subterranean tube - the tech entrepreneur's answer to what he calls "soul-destroying traffic." (Robyn Beck/Pool Photo via AP) The tunnel, meant to be a "proof of concept," runs just over a mile under Musk's SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is set to unveil an underground transportation tunnel that could move people faster than subways. Musk plans to unveil the test tunnel Tuesday, as well as the autonomous cars that will carry people through it. He's also set to show off elevators he says will bring users' own cars from the surface to the tunnel. Tuesday's reveal comes almost two years to the day since Musk announced on Twitter that "traffic is driving me nuts" and he was "going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging." Since then, he's revealed a handful of photos and videos of the tunnel's progress. The tunnel, meant to be a "proof of concept," runs about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) under Hawthorne, California, Musk's SpaceX headquarters. FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2018, file photo, Elon Musk, founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX, speaks at a news conference from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Musk is set to unveil an underground transportation tunnel that could move people faster than subways. Musk plans to unveil the test tunnel Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, as well as the autonomous cars that will carry people through it. He's also set to show off elevators he says will bring users' own cars from the surface to the tunnel. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)[SEP]The Latest: Elon Musk allows rides on underground tunnel LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Latest on Elon Musk's underground tunnel (all times local): Elon Musk has unveiled his underground transportation tunnel, allowing invited guests to take some of the first rides ever on the tech entrepreneur's solution to "soul-destroying traffic." Guests boarded Musk's Tesla Model S and were driven on Los Angeles-area surface streets about a mile away to what's known as O'Leary Station on Tuesday. The station sits smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It consists of a wall-less elevator that slowly took the car down a wide shaft, roughly 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface. Reporters described the rides as bumpy but impressive. At least one experienced motion sickness while another yelled, "Woo!" The tunnel, meant to be a "proof of concept," runs just over a mile under Musk's SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is set to unveil an underground transportation tunnel that could move people faster than subways. Musk plans to unveil the test tunnel Tuesday, as well as the autonomous cars that will carry people through it. He's also set to show off elevators he says will bring users' own cars from the surface to the tunnel. Tuesday's reveal comes almost two years to the day since Musk announced on Twitter that "traffic is driving me nuts" and he was "going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging." Since then, he's revealed a handful of photos and videos of the tunnel's progress. The tunnel, meant to be a "proof of concept," runs about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) under Hawthorne, California, Musk's SpaceX headquarters.[SEP]Elon Musk’s Boring Company will unveil an underground tunnel in Los Angeles on Tuesday in a bid to address traffic congestion in major cities and provide “proof of concept” for the Tesla CEO’s vision. The debut event will showcase a roughly two-mile tunnel in Hawthorne, California, near the headquarters of both the Boring Company and Musk’s aviation company SpaceX, to the media and the public. Musk will reportedly unveil an elevator system that will bring the public’s vehicles from the street to tunnel level, as well as autonomous vehicles that could shuttle passengers from place to place at high speeds. “Boring Company product launch on Dec. 18,” Musk tweeted earlier this month. “More than a tunnel opening. Will include modded but fully road legal autonomous transport cars a& ground to tunnel car elevators.” Musk founded The Boring Company in late 2016 after growing frustrated with traffic in Los Angeles. The firm digs tunnels to facilitate underground rapid transportation systems. The tunnels will be able to move vehicles at up to 150 miles per hour, according to Musk. Aside from the Hawthorne tunnel, Musk is pursuing a project called the “Dugout Loop” that would shuttle passengers from subway stations to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, as well as a separate system that would connect downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport. The Boring Company canceled another planned tunnel from downtown Los Angeles to L.A. International Airport amid pushback from local officials. Musk’s systems would utilize platforms called “skates” to transport public vehicles at high speeds. The autonomous vehicles would be able to hold as many as 16 passengers per trip and would have an estimated cost of $1 per ride, according to Musk’s preliminary estimates. The Boring Company is crafting displaced dirt from its tunnels into low-cost bricks, which will be sold to the public and for use in affordable housing projects.[SEP]HAWTHORNE, CALIF.—Fed up with Southern California vehicle snarls, Elon Musk set out to solve the persistent urban irritant: the traffic. But rather than build atop the highway system, where his Tesla cars travel, or in the sky, home to his SpaceX rockets, he sought an answer under his feet: tunnels. “I said, ‘What if we go down instead of up?’” Musk told Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles during a recent public discussion. “I’ve lived in L.A. now since 2002. Traffic has gone from bad to horrific back to bad.” On Tuesday, Musk unveiled the first mile-long stretch of his underground vision of a transit system in this suburb of 90,000 people about 24 kilometres southwest of Los Angeles. It is the home of both SpaceX and his tunnelling enterprise, called the Boring Co. But the promotional event, which attracted hundreds of people who lined up to see the tunnel, fell short of earlier promises of a system that could transport up to 16 people at a time in electric-powered pods. Musk said he had abandoned that concept in favour of a system using more conventional passenger vehicles. “So what we believe we have here is a real solution to the traffic problem we have on Earth,” Musk told reporters. “It’s much more like an underground highway.” The entrance to the tunnel sits across the street from the SpaceX headquarters and the Hawthorne Municipal Airport, next to a single-family residence and behind some storefront-style buildings. Test rides on Tuesday featured Tesla Model X cars that were lowered on a circular panel to a lighted pathway several stories underground that is wide enough for a single vehicle. The concrete walls are painted white, with a single fluorescent bar on the ceiling that lights up blue or green throughout the tunnel’s length. A pair of clamps attached to the Tesla’s front wheels keeps the car on the track as the vehicle moves under its own power. The company says speeds of 150 mph will be possible, though the test run was far slower. Until now, the company has used standard equipment, but it expects to roll out newly engineered tunnelling technology as its efforts continue. Musk said about $10 million (U.S.) was spent on the first mile of the system, which took about a year to complete, largely because of hurdles with permits and licenses. But costs are likely to rise. Subway tunnelling elsewhere in the world can cost $1 billion a mile or more; Musk has said that figure must be reduced by a factor of 10 to make his system viable on a larger scale. Even then, the Hawthorne tunnel is at best a proof of concept. To make such a system extensive enough to serve one of the world’s biggest metropolitan areas, with private funding, seems a herculean proposition. The first hurdle may be to convince urban planners that it is a practical way of easing the traffic crush. “I like technology,” James E. Moore, director of the transportation engineering program at the University of Southern California, said this week. “I admire Elon Musk. So I want to say, ‘Yes, this is a good idea,’ but I really can’t.” Moore said solving traffic problems did not require building anything new. He said the more important consideration was how to better manage what we already have, “before we look up or down, before I look at either one.” “We’ve never built our way out of congestion,” Moore said. “I think there are cheaper ways to provide better transportation for large numbers of people.” For example, Moore said managing highway traffic with tolls or other economic policies could help reduce congestion. During his public conversation with Musk last month, Garcetti noted that many of “the folks who make tunnels” were skeptical of Musk’s plans, but he added: “This is much larger than a tunnel. You’re talking about a transportation system.” The tunnel was first expected to be more of a mass-transit system, but that prospect seems gone with the decision not to use the 16-passenger pods. The system that Musk proposes for Los Angeles, called a loop, is distinct from the transportation mode known as a hyperloop — something he and others are also developing. The hyperloop uses a vacuum to reduce friction to achieve speeds up to 600 mph, while the loop does not require that technology because it is designed for slower speeds and shorter distances. “The loop is a step toward hyperloop,” Musk said. Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is also developing a hyperloop, called Virgin Hyperloop One. The venture has built a test track in the Nevada desert and is in talks to build a line connecting Kansas City and St. Louis. Musk said his concepts had attracted significant attention from cities across the country, and he defended tunnelling against criticism that it might be disruptive to neighbourhoods — a concern already raised in the Los Angeles region. “You cannot see, hear or feel tunnel construction,” Musk said. In addition to its efforts in the Los Angeles area, the Boring Co. is proposing lines in Chicago and the Washington-Baltimore corridor. The company raised $112.5 million in capital earlier this year, with more than 90 per cent coming from Musk, whose net worth has been estimated at more than $20 billion. The Boring Co. is still determining what its fares will be but says they will be comparable to those in other mass transit systems, or cheaper. Musk said passengers not riding in their own cars might be transported in vehicles owned by the Boring Co. for about $1 per ride. “If it’s our capital, if it’s public capital, I wouldn’t do it,” Moore said of Musk’s loop project. “But he should feel free to risk all of the capital he can assemble.”[SEP]What started as a joke has turned into a real-life prototype. Elon Musk japed that he'd dig tunnels under Los Angeles to avoid traffic, and on Tuesday his Boring Company opened its first prototype tunnel in LA. The entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX also provided more details on how the system works. Musk started The Boring Company as a solution to traffic and congested cities. Machines dig tunnels to fit a vehicle, and an elevator shaft drops them down. From there, the car deploys tracking wheels that rub against the walls to guide it along the tunnel. For now, it's unclear how a vehicle will be outfitted with the tracking wheels or how it will deploy them. Musk tweeted that the retractable wheel gear "turns a car into a rail-guided train & back again." The rails are actually the sides of the tunnel and the cars remain cars. When completely realized, the vehicles could move at speeds in excess of 150 mph. CNN Business, which was present at the opening event, said trial tests had the car moving at speeds of 35 mph in the 1.14-mile long tunnel, but the concept worked. The tunnel system is called the Loop. The prototype featured a Tesla Model X fitted with the proper retractable running gear to work in the tunnel, but dedicated Boring Loop vehicles will circulate continuously to pick up pedestrians and cyclists, according to tweets from Musk. Additionally, Musk said the system can be applied to any self-driving electric car, not just Teslas. Privately owned vehicles outfitted with the deployable tracking wheels would also be allowed to use the Boring Loops. The first test tunnel runs from a parking lot in Hawthorne, California, to the SpaceX headquarters. After two years or development, the tunnel reportedly cost $10 million to develop and construct as a proof-of-concept for other projects Musk plans across the United States. The Boring Company was tapped to build a Boring Loop in Chicago from downtown to O'Hare airport, a second California tunnel, and a Loop in Washington state. So far, work hasn't progressed on the Chicago or Washington Loops, and the company ditched the idea for a second California tunnel for now after a lawsuit from neighborhood groups. However, eventually, Musk wants a full system of underground tunnels in LA. We're a long way from any sort of massive underground system as red tape and regulatory hurdles stand in the way, but for now, we know the system works, at least at 35 mph. Maybe Musk is onto something after all.[SEP]LOS ANGELES (CBS SF / AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled his underground transportation tunnel on Tuesday, allowing reporters and invited guests to take some of the first rides in the revolutionary albeit bumpy subterranean tube — the tech entrepreneur’s answer to what he calls “soul-destroying traffic.” Guests boarded Musk’s Tesla Model X and rode along Los Angeles-area surface streets about a mile (1.6 kilometers) away to what’s known as O’Leary Station. The station, smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood — “basically in someone’s backyard,” Musk says — consists of a wall-less elevator that slowly took the car down a wide shaft, roughly 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface. The sky slowly fell away and the surprisingly narrow tunnel emerged. “We’re clear,” said the driver, who sped up and zipped into the tunnel when a red track light turned green, making the tube look like something from space or a dance club. The car jostled significantly during the ride, which was bumpy enough to give one reporter motion sickness while another yelled, “Woo!” Musk described his first ride as “epic.” “For me it was a eureka moment,” he told a room full of reporters. “I was like, ‘This thing is going to damn well work.'” He said the rides are bumpy now because “we kind of ran out of time” and there were some problems with the speed of his paving machine. “It’ll be smooth as glass,” he said of future systems. “This is just a prototype. That’s why it’s a little rough around the edges.” Later in the day, Musk emerged from the tunnel himself inside one of his cars. He high-fived guests and pumped his fists in the air before delivering a speech in the green glow of the tunnel about the technology and why it makes sense. The demo rides were considerably slower — 40 mph (64 kph) — than what Musk says the future system will run at: 150 mph (241 kph). Still, it took only three minutes to go just over a mile from the beginning to the end of the tunnel, the same amount of time it took to accomplish a right-hand turn out of the parking lot and onto a surface street even before the height of Los Angeles’ notorious rush-hour traffic. The tunnel is just a test to prove the technology works and could one day cure traffic. Tuesday’s reveal comes almost two years to the day since Musk announced on Twitter that “traffic is driving me nuts” and he was “going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.” “I am actually going to do this,” he added in response to initial skepticism. Soon after, he began The Boring Company, tongue in cheek intentional. Since then, Musk has only revealed a handful of photos and videos of the tunnel’s progress. On Tuesday, he explained for the first time in detail just how the system, which he simply calls “loop,” could work on a larger scale beneath cities across the globe. Autonomous, electric vehicles could be lowered into the system on wall-less elevators the size of two cars or spiral ramps. The elevators could be placed almost anywhere cars can go. A number of autonomous cars would remain inside the tunnel system just for pedestrians and bicyclists. Once on the main arteries of the system, every car could run at top speed except when entering and exiting. “It’s much more like an underground highway than it is a subway,” Musk said. Cars would have to be fitted with specially designed side wheels that pop out perpendicular to the car’s regular tires and run along the tunnel’s track. They would run about $200 or $300 a car, Musk said. The cars would have to be autonomous to work in the system but not Teslas specifically, and they would have to be electric because of the fumes from gas, Musk said. He said tunnels are the safest place to be in earthquakes — sort of how a submarine during a hurricane is safest beneath the surface — and addressed other concerns such as the noise and disruption of building the tunnels, which he completely dismissed. When workers bored through the end of the test tunnel, for instance, the people in the home 20 feet (6 meters) away “didn’t even stop watching TV.” Musk said it took about $10 million to build the test tunnel, a far cry from the $1 billion per mile his company says most tunnels take to build. Musk has cut costs by improving the speed of construction with smarter tools, eliminating middlemen, building more powerful boring machines, and instead of hauling out all the dirt being excavated, Musk is turning them into bricks and selling them for 10 cents. “I really think this is incredibly profound,” he said. “Hopefully that is coming across.” He reiterated the simplicity of all his ideas. “No Nobel Prize is needed here,” he said. “It’s very simple.” And he’s not doing it for the money, he said, adding that it’s for the greater good. In his 16 years in Los Angeles, he said, traffic went from “the seventh level of hell to the eighth level of hell.” “Traffic is soul-destroying. It’s like acid on the soul,” he said to party guests who snacked on marshmallow treats and hot dogs and hoped for a turn in the tunnel. The tunnel will not be open to the public for the foreseeable future, just for invited VIPs, Musk said, adding that regulations wouldn’t allow for it to open widely for demo rides just yet. Steve Davis, head of The Boring Company, said the interest in the tunnel systems has been significant — anywhere from five to 20 calls a week from various municipalities and stakeholders. One project Musk is planning on, known as the Dugout Loop, would take Los Angeles baseball fans to Dodger Stadium from one of three subway stations. Another would take travelers from downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport. Both projects are in the environmental review phase. Musk said he thinks the Chicago project has the most potential to open soonest and that he’s hoping an extensive network opens in Los Angeles before the city hosts the 2028 Olympics. “Wouldn’t it be incredible if you could travel around LA, New York, D.C., Chicago, Paris, London — anywhere — at 150 mph?” Musk said. “That’d be phenomenal.” The Boring Company canceled its plans for another test tunnel on Los Angeles’ west side last month after a neighborhood coalition filed a lawsuit expressing concerns about increased traffic during construction. Musk’s vision for the underground tunnels is not to be confused with another of his transportation concepts known as hyperloop. That would involve a network of nearly airless tubes that would speed special capsules over long distances at up to 750 mph (1,200) kph), using a thin cushion of air, magnetism and solar power. © Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.[SEP]Tech mogul Elon Musk unveiled an underground transportation tunnel in Hawthorne, California Tuesday evening that could move people faster than subways.Musk also showed off the autonomous cars that will transport commuters through the test tunnel, which stretches about 2 miles under the city where Musk's SpaceX is headquartered. He unveiled elevators that he says will lower user's own cars from the street to the tunnel.In a grand entrance, Musk came out of the mile-long tunnel in a Tesla Model X."What I think this really amounts to is an actual solution to the soul-crushing burden of traffic," he said. "Why tunnels? Some people say, what about flying cars and all those other things and what about mass transit - I want to be clear, we're not opposed to mass transit - we think mass transit is fine. Let's try every solution possible, but the thing about tunnels is that you can go 3-D underground."Elevators will take drivers underground and back again, but much will still have to be done before any member of the public can even test it out.Musk said tunneling is slow and expensive, but the company is experimenting to create innovative technology underground to speed commute times above ground.He also said some of the dirt that's being dug up will be reused to reinforce the tunnels, but the company created an innovative brick-laying machine that will pump out bricks at a low cost. He hopes it can also be used for affordable housing.The event came almost exactly two years after Musk tweeted that "traffic is driving me nuts," adding that he intended to "build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging."Some critics were skeptical. Musk responded: "I am actually going to do this."He subsequently founded The Boring Company. Since then he has posted photos and videos on social media that showed crews making progress on the tunnel. The one that was unveiled Tuesday is being used by Musk and the company to conduct research and development for a larger system in Los Angeles and elsewhere.One proposed project, dubbed the Dugout Loop, would whisk baseball fans to Dodger Stadium from one of three Metro subway stations.

Elon Musk opens the 1.6km-long Boring Test Tunnel in Hawthorne, California, which is designed to demonstrate technology that will transport cars at high speeds below the city.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Artwork: The fireball was the kind of event expected to happen only two to three times per century A huge fireball exploded in the Earth's atmosphere in December, according to Nasa. The blast was the second largest of its kind in 30 years, and the biggest since the fireball over Chelyabinsk in Russia six years ago. But it went largely unnoticed until now because it blew up over the Bering Sea, off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. The space rock exploded with 10 times the energy released by the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Lindley Johnson, planetary defence officer at Nasa, told BBC News a fireball this big is only expected about two or three times every 100 years. What do we know? At about noon local time on 18 December, the asteroid barrelled through the atmosphere at a speed of 32km/s (20 miles per second) , on a steep trajectory of seven degrees. Measuring several metres in size, the space rock exploded 25.6km above the Earth's surface, with an impact energy of 173 kilotons. "That was 40% the energy release of Chelyabinsk, but it was over the Bering Sea so it didn't have the same type of effect or show up in the news," said Kelly Fast, near-Earth objects observations programme manager at Nasa. "That's another thing we have in our defence, there's plenty of water on the planet." Dr Fast was discussing the event here at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, near Houston, Texas. Military satellites picked up the blast last year; Nasa was notified of the event by the US Air Force. Dr Johnson said the fireball came in over an area not too far from routes used by commercial planes flying between North America and Asia. So researchers have been checking with airlines to see if there were any reported sightings of the event. What's the significance? In 2005, Congress tasked Nasa with finding 90% of near-Earth asteroids of 140m (460ft) in size or larger by 2020. Space rocks of this size are so-called "problems without passports" because they are expected to affect whole regions if they collide with Earth. But scientists estimate it will take them another 30 years to fulfil this congressional directive. Image copyright NASA Image caption Artwork: The NeoCam concept would aim to discover many of the undiscovered asteroids above 140m in size The meteor trail was seen by Nasa's Terra satellite Once an incoming object is identified, Nasa has had some notable success at calculating where on Earth the impact will occur, based on a precise determination of its orbit. In June 2018, the small 3m (10ft) asteroid 2018 LA was discovered by a ground-based observatory in Arizona eight hours before impact. The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) then made a precision determination of its orbit, which was used to calculate a probable impact location. This showed the rock was likely to hit southern Africa. Just as the calculation suggested, a fireball was recorded over Botswana by security camera footage on a farm. Fragments of the object were later found in the area. Image copyright Himawari/JMA/Simon Proud/Oxford Uni Image caption Japan's Himawari satellite captures the fireball's steep descent Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Archive: Eyewitnesses and CCTV cameras captured the moment the Chelyabinsk meteor flew across the sky How can monitoring be improved? The latest event over the Bering Sea shows that larger objects can collide with us without warning, underlining the need for enhanced monitoring. A more robust network would be dependent not only on ground telescopes, but space-based observatories also. A mission concept in development would see a telescope called NeoCam launched to a gravitational balance point in space, where it would discover and characterise potentially hazardous asteroids larger than 140m. Dr Amy Mainzer, chief scientist on NeoCam at JPL, said: "The idea is really to get as close as possible to reaching that 90% goal of finding the 140m and larger near-Earth asteroids given to Nasa by Congress. She said that if the mission did not launch, projections suggested it would "take us many decades to get there with the existing suite of ground-based surveys". Dr Mainzer added: "But if you have an IR-based (infrared) telescope, it goes a lot faster." Follow Paul on Twitter.[SEP]WHO SAYS IT'S NOT FOR ME OR MY SIZE?

A meteor, which measured several metres in size, exploded 26km over the Bering Sea, near the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia.

American troops are leaving Syria after a surprise announcement from the White House Wednesday. President Donald Trump believes US troops do not need to stay in Syria any longer. He tweeted, "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency." His statement appeared to catch much of official Washington by surprise, leading one of his most ardent supporters, Sen. Lindsey Graham, to call it an "Obama-like mistake." It is, however, a campaign promise that the president has continued to talk about. "We'll be coming out of Syria like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon," Trump said. But Chief Department of Defense spokesperson Dana W. White cautioned that the fight is not over. "The Coalition has liberated the ISIS-held territory, but the campaign against ISIS is not over. We have started the process of returning US troops home from Syria as we transition to the next phase of the campaign," White said. "We will continue working with our partners and allies to defeat ISIS wherever it operates." White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders echoed that statement saying, "Five years ago, ISIS was a very powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East, and now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate." "These victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign. We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign. The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support, and any means of infiltrating our borders," Sanders said. Roughly 2,000 service members are believed to have been operating in Syria. The US got involved in that war-torn country back in 2014, launching airstrikes there. Since then, US troops started partnering with Syrian ground forces to fight ISIS terrorists. The Pentagon recently said ISIS now only controls just one percent of the territory it originally held during the Syrian civil war.[SEP]The Trump administration will withdraw all of the approximately 2,000 American troops in Syria, according to a U.S. official, as the White House declared victory Wednesday in the mission to defeat Islamic State militants there. Planning for the pullout has begun and troops will begin leaving as soon as possible, said the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss military planning and spoke on condition of anonymity. President Donald Trump said American forces no longer were needed in a country torn apart by long-running civil war. Trump has said since he was a presidential candidate that he wanted to bring back troops from the Middle East. But officials have said in recent weeks that pockets of IS militants remain. U.S. policy has been that American forces would stay in place until the extremists were eradicated. In addition, Pentagon and other officials have said that U.S. troops were countering Iran-backed militants in Syria, which was an expansion of the U.S. mission. Trump said on Twitter: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.” His tweet followed a series of news reports that the U.S. was preparing to withdraw its troops from Syria. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Reports of an abrupt withdrawal drew quick criticism from Congress. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said a full and rapid removal of troops would be a “grave error with broader implications” beyond the fight against IS. Responding to the reports, Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said in a statement that “at this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region.” The U.S. first launched airstrikes against IS fighters in Syria in 2014. In the years that followed, the U.S. began partnering with Syrian ground forces to fight the extremists. The Pentagon recently said that IS now controls just 1 per cent of the territory they originally held.[SEP]WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will withdraw all of the approximately 2,000 American troops in Syria, according to a U.S. official, as the White House declared victory Wednesday in the mission to defeat Islamic State militants there. Planning for the pullout has begun and troops will begin leaving as soon as possible, said the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss military planning and spoke on condition of anonymity. President Donald Trump said American forces no longer were needed in a country torn apart by long-running civil war. Trump has said since he was a presidential candidate that he wanted to bring back troops from the Middle East. But officials have said in recent weeks that pockets of IS militants remain. U.S. policy has been that American forces would stay in place until the extremists were eradicated. In addition, Pentagon and other officials have said that U.S. troops were countering Iran-backed militants in Syria, which was an expansion of the U.S. mission. Trump said on Twitter: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.” His tweet followed a series of news reports that the U.S. was preparing to withdraw its troops from Syria. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Reports of an abrupt withdrawal drew quick criticism from Congress. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said a full and rapid removal of troops would be a “grave error with broader implications” beyond the fight against IS. Responding to the reports, Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said in a statement that “at this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region.” The U.S. first launched airstrikes against IS fighters in Syria in 2014. In the years that followed, the U.S. began partnering with Syrian ground forces to fight the extremists. The Pentagon recently said that IS now controls just 1 percent of the territory they originally held.[SEP]A decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria creates prospects for a political settlement of the crisis there, TASS news agency reported the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying on Wednesday. The United States said it had begun withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria as U.S. officials said Washington was considering pulling out all its troops as it winds up its campaign to retake territory once held by Islamic State. TASS also cited the ministry as saying that an initiative to form a Syrian constitutional committee had a bright future with the U.S. troop withdrawal.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said Wednesday it had started the process of returning U.S. troops from Syria as the United States began to transition into the next phase of the campaign. “The Coalition has liberated the ISIS-held territory, but the campaign against ISIS is not over,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement, using an acronym for Islamic State. “We have started the process of returning U.S. troops home from Syria as we transition to the next phase of the campaign,” she said. “For force protection and operational security reasons we will not provide further details. We will continue working with our partners and allies to defeat ISIS wherever it operates.”[SEP]The White House announced Wednesday that it has begun withdrawing U.S. troops from from Syria as military officials “transition to the next phase” of the Middle East conflict. Contending that the United States has defeated the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, territorial caliphate, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the Trump administration has “started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign.” She, however, stressed that “these victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign,” and offered that the United States and its allies stand ready to “re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary.” “We will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support and any means of infiltrating our borders,” she added in a statement. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, hinted at the troop withdrawal on Twitter. “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” he posted. Trump and Sanders' comments came shortly after several news outlets reported that the White House had ordered the Pentagon to remove all 2,000 American troops from Syria and to end its ISIS ground campaign. Despite the president’s assertion, defense officials suggested their work in Syria may not be over yet, according to reports. Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning told CBS News that “at this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region." U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a U.S. Air Force veteran and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, meanwhile, rejected Trump’s claim that ISIS has been defeated in Syria. “This is simply not true,” he tweeted in response to the president. This is a breaking news story and will be updated.[SEP]MOSCOW (Reuters) - A decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria creates prospects for a political settlement of the crisis there, TASS news agency reported the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying on Wednesday. The United States said it had begun withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria as U.S. officials said Washington was considering pulling out all its troops as it winds up its campaign to retake territory once held by Islamic State. TASS also cited the ministry as saying that an initiative to form a Syrian constitutional committee had a bright future with the U.S. troop withdrawal.[SEP]The White House said Wednesday the United States has begun withdrawing troops from Syria, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted the U.S. has defeated the Islamic State terror group there. "We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign," White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said in a statement. She added the defeat of IS does not mean the military campaign by coalition forces is ending in Syria. "The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support, and any means of infiltrating our borders," Sanders said. Later on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said in a statement that "the coalition has liberated ISIS-held territory, but the campaign against ISIS is not over." ISIS an acronym for the Islamic State terror group. "We will continue working with our partners and allies to defeat ISIS wherever it operates," she said, giving no details as to a timeline, noting "force protection and operational security reasons." Just last week, U.S. special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS, Brett McGurk, told reporters at the State Department that liberating the last one percent of IS-held territory could take "a period of months." "There is a significant concentration of the most hardened ISIS fighters in that little splotch of territory," McGurk said on December 11. "A couple of thousand hardened fighters remain in that area." Pentagon estimates from August of this year warned IS still had at least 13,000 fighters in Syria, where the caliphate had already collapsed. A withdrawal of the troops would mark a sudden reversal in U.S. military strategy in the region. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other senior U.S. officials have been advocating for a longer-term military presence in Syria to help ensureIS cannot reemerge as a force in the Middle East.The U.S. has about 2,000 troops in Syria, many of whom work closely with an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. Despite the Pentagon's preference for an ongoing military presence in the war-torn country, Trump has said he wanted to bring the troops home when possible. Reuters quoted a U.S. official as sayingthe State Department is evacuating all personnel from Syria over the next 24 hours and that the time frame for the troop withdrawal is 60 to 100 days. Lawmakers weighed on Wednesday's announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, with Senate Armed Services Committee member Lindsey Graham tweeting, "Withdrawal of this small American force in Syria would be a huge Obama-like mistake." Former President Barack Obama drew the ire of Trump for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq before Iraqi forces collapsed at the hands of IS in 2014. Sen. Rand Paul, a member of the chamber's Committee on Foreign Relations, praised the move on Twitter. Harry Kazianis, a defense expert with the Washington-based think-tank Center for the National Interest, said the Trump decision should not be seen as a shock. "In fact, with President Trump promising to the American people he would act only in the national interest— and that U.S. forces have accomplished their objective to defeat the Islamic State — there was no reason for them to stay any longer," Kazianis said. Mattis and State Department officials have expressed concern about leaving Syria before a peace agreement is reached to end the civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced about half of Syria's pre-war population of about 22 million people. The withdrawal of U.S. troops comes as the U.S. approaches an end of a coalition campaign to recapture territory once controlled by IS. While an alliance military campaign has defeated IS in Syria, the defeat has angered Turkey, a NATO ally, which is threatening a new offensive in Syria. Turkey considers the Kurdish forces in the alliance an extension of a militant group fighting inside Turkey. A total pullout of U.S. troops from Syria would still leave the U.S. military with a sizable presence in the region, including more than 5,000 troops in neighboring Iraq.[SEP]MOSCOW (Reuters) - A decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria creates prospects for a political settlement of the crisis there, TASS news agency reported the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying on Wednesday. The United States said it had begun withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria as U.S. officials said Washington was considering pulling out all its troops as it winds up its campaign to retake territory once held by Islamic State. TASS also cited the ministry as saying that an initiative to form a Syrian constitutional committee had a bright future with the U.S. troop withdrawal.[SEP]WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will withdraw all of the approximately 2,000 American troops in Syria, according to a U.S. official, as the White House declared victory Wednesday in the mission to defeat Islamic State militants there. Planning for the pullout has begun and troops will begin leaving as soon as possible, said the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss military planning and spoke on condition of anonymity. President Donald Trump said American forces no longer were needed in a country torn apart by long-running civil war. Trump has said since he was a presidential candidate that he wanted to bring back troops from the Middle East. But officials have said in recent weeks that pockets of IS militants remain. U.S. policy has been that American forces would stay in place until the extremists were eradicated. In addition, Pentagon and other officials have said that U.S. troops were countering Iran-backed militants in Syria, which was an expansion of the U.S. mission. Trump said on Twitter: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.” His tweet followed a series of news reports that the U.S. was preparing to withdraw its troops from Syria. Reports of an abrupt withdrawal drew quick criticism from Congress. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said a full and rapid removal of troops would be a “grave error with broader implications” beyond the fight against IS. Responding to the reports, Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said in a statement that “at this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region.” The U.S. first launched airstrikes against IS fighters in Syria in 2014. In the years that followed, the U.S. began partnering with Syrian ground forces to fight the extremists. The Pentagon recently said that IS now controls just 1 percent of the territory they originally held.

The Pentagon reports it has begun withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria, with a spokesperson saying that the coalition has liberated ISIL-held territory but also that the campaign is not over.

(CNN) One of the deadliest Ebola outbreaks in history continues to worsen in the Democratic Republic of Congo with as many as 319 people now dead. The Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 542 Ebola cases had been recorded in the province of North Kivu -- 494 of which have been confirmed. Of the 319 believed to have died from the virus so far, 271 have been confirmed. On average, Ebola -- which causes fever, severe headache and in some cases hemorrhaging -- kills about half of those infected, but fatality rates in individual outbreaks have varied. JUST WATCHED The last line of defense: How to stop Ebola Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH The last line of defense: How to stop Ebola 02:28 The World Health Organization (WHO) said efforts to contain the outbreak have been hampered due to "non-engagement" from local communities and armed conflict in the region. North Kivu, which includes the cities of Beni, Kalunguta and Mabalako, remains the epicenter of the outbreak, though cases have been reported in neighboring Ituri province, according to the WHO. The two provinces are among the most populated in the nation and border Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan. Read More[SEP]Responding to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to be a complex challenge. Pockets of community reluctance and the conflict setting continue to obstruct activities in some affected areas. Additional challenges may also be anticipated during the ongoing election period, which may lead to heightened political tension, a deterioration of the overall security situation and violent civil unrest; presenting an indirect threat to the Ebola response operations. Despite these difficulties, meaningful progress has been made across the outbreak affected areas, most especially in Beni where there has been a general decrease in case incidence in recent weeks. The control of the outbreak there, and previously in the city of Mangina, demonstrates how the outbreak can be controlled when response activities can be scaled and implemented with the participation of local communities. While the Ministry of Health (MoH), WHO and partners work toward similar progress in Katwa, Butembo and other emerging clusters, we must acknowledge the unique challenges arising from each geographical area. The introduction, acceptance and resulting impact of interventions on the epidemiology of the outbreak will take time. Response teams continue to adapt and scale up the application of evidence-based public health measures and innovative tools. Currently, the outbreak remains active across a geographically dispersed area covering fourteen health zones in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. Over the last 21 days (27 November – 18 December 2018), 114 new confirmed cases have been reported, from: Katwa (31), Beni (18), Komanda (17), Butembo (14), Mabalako (14), Kalunguta (5), Oicha (4), Vuhovi (3), Kyondo (3), Biena (1), Mandima (1), Masereka (1), Musienene (1), and Mutawanga (1). Only Tchomia Health Zone has not confirmed any new cases since the cluster was detected in mid-August. Amplification of the outbreak within these areas has been driven by a combination of social/community transmission and transmission within private and public health centres. In the past week, two new infections of health workers have been reported – 55 (53 confirmed and two probable) health workers have been infected to date, of whom 19 have died. Cumulatively as of 18 December, 549 EVD cases (501 confirmed and 48 probable), including 326 deaths (case fatality ratio 59%), have been reported in 12 health zones in North Kivu Province and three health zones in Ituri Province (Figure 1). Overall trends in case incidence (Figure 2) reflect the continuation of the outbreak across these areas, with an average of 35 new cases reported each week since mid-October. Small but meaningful victories continue to be won with the discharge of survivors from Ebola Treatment Centres (ETCs); aided by more timely admissions to ETC and use of Ebola therapeutics together with supportive care measures. In the past week, 18 additional patients were discharged from ETCs. Overall, 193 patients have recovered to date. While all credible alerts outside of the abovementioned affected areas have tested negative for EVD to date, there remains a very high risk of further geographical spread within North Kivu and Ituri, to other provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and to neighbouring countries. Preparedness and operational readiness activities across these areas must continue to be scaled-up to mitigate this risk, and rapidly detect and respond to any potential cases. The MoH continues to strengthen response measures, with support from WHO and partners. Priorities include coordination, surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory capacity, infection prevention and control (IPC), clinical management of patients, vaccination, risk communication and community engagement, psychosocial support, safe and dignified burials (SDB), cross-border surveillance, and preparedness activities in neighbouring provinces and countries. Infection prevention and control practices in health care facilities, especially antenatal clinics, need to be further strengthened. For detailed information about the public health response actions by WHO and partners, please refer to the latest situation reports published by the WHO Regional Office for Africa: This outbreak of EVD is affecting north-eastern provinces of the country bordering Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan. Potential risk factors for transmission of EVD at the national and regional levels include: travel between the affected areas, the rest of the country, and neighbouring countries; the internal displacement of populations. The country is concurrently experiencing other epidemics (e.g. cholera, vaccine-derived poliomyelitis, malaria), and a long-term humanitarian crisis. Additionally, the security situation in North Kivu and Ituri at times limits the implementation of response activities. WHO’s risk assessment for the outbreak is currently very high at the national and regional levels; the global risk level remains low. WHO continues to advice against any restriction of travel to, and trade with, the Democratic Republic of the Congo based on currently available information. As the risk of national and regional spread is very high, it is important for neighbouring provinces and countries to enhance surveillance and preparedness activities. The International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) Emergency Committee has advised that failing to intensify these preparedness and surveillance activities would lead to worsening conditions and further spread. WHO will continue to work with neighbouring countries and partners to ensure that health authorities are alerted and are operationally prepared to respond. International traffic: WHO advises against any restriction of travel and trade to the Democratic Republic of the Congo based on the currently available information. There is currently no licensed vaccine to protect people from the Ebola virus. Therefore, any requirements for certificates of Ebola vaccination are not a reasonable basis for restricting movement across borders or the issuance of visas for passengers leaving the Democratic Republic of the Congo. WHO continues to closely monitor and, if necessary, verify travel and trade measures in relation to this event. Currently, no country has implemented travel measures that significantly interfere with international traffic to and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Travellers should seek medical advice before travel and should practice good hygiene. For more information, see: • South Sudan set to vaccinate targeted healthcare and frontline workers operating in high risk states against Ebola • Summary report for the SAGE meeting of October 2018 • Statement on the October 2018 meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on the Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo • WHO recommendations for international travellers related to the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo • Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Operational readiness and preparedness in neighbouring countries[SEP]By The Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak is now the 2nd largest in history, World Health Organization says. JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak is now the 2nd largest in history, World Health Organization says. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.[SEP]One of the deadliest Ebola outbreaks in history continues to worsen in the Democratic Republic of Congo with as many as 319 people now dead. The Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 542 Ebola cases had been recorded in the province of North Kivu — 494 of which have been confirmed. Of the 319 believed to have died from the virus so far, 271 have been confirmed. On average, Ebola — which causes fever, severe headache and in some cases hemorrhaging — kills about half of those infected, but fatality rates in individual outbreaks have varied. The World Health Organization (WHO) said efforts to contain the outbreak have been hampered due to “non-engagement” from local communities and armed conflict in the region. North Kivu, which includes the cities of Beni, Kalunguta and Mabalako, remains the epicenter of the outbreak, though cases have been reported in neighboring Ituri province, according to the WHO. The two provinces are among the most populated in the nation and border Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan. The public health agency estimates that more than a million refugees and internally displaced people are traveling through and out of North Kivu and Ituri, which could hasten the spread of the virus further. The Congo outbreak is the second-deadliest ever, behind only in West Africa in 2014, when the virus killed more than 11,000 people. It is Congo’s 10th epidemic since 1976, and second this year.[SEP]JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak is now the second largest in history, behind the devastating West Africa outbreak that killed thousands a few years ago, the World Health Organization said Thursday. WHO’s emergencies… JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak is now the second largest in history, behind the devastating West Africa outbreak that killed thousands a few years ago, the World Health Organization said Thursday. WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Peter Salama, called it a “sad toll” as Congo’s health ministry announced the number of cases has reached 426. That includes 379 confirmed cases and 47 probable ones. So far this outbreak, declared on Aug. 1, has 198 confirmed deaths, with another 47 probable ones, Congo’s health ministry said. Attacks by rebel groups and open hostility by some wary locals have posed serious challenges to health workers that Ebola experts say they’ve never been seen before. Many venture out on critical virus containment missions only accompanied by U.N. peacekeepers in areas where gunfire echoes daily. Salama this month predicted that the outbreak in northeastern Congo will last at least another six months before it can be contained. West Africa’s Ebola outbreak killed more than 11,000 people from 2014 to 2016. Day by day, reports by health organizations note one new difficulty after another in this latest outbreak, even as their work sets milestones that have given new hope in the fight against one of the world’s most notorious diseases. More than 37,000 people have received Ebola vaccinations, and Congo has begun the first-ever trial to test the effectiveness and safety of four experimental Ebola drugs. And yet the risk of Ebola spreading in so-called “red zones” — areas that are virtually inaccessible because of the threat of rebel groups — is a major concern in containing this outbreak. “This tragic milestone clearly demonstrates the complexity and severity of the outbreak. While the numbers are far from those from West Africa in 2014, we’re witnessing how the dynamics of conflict pose a different kind of threat,” said Michelle Gayer, senior director of emergency health at the International Rescue Committee. In a major concern for health workers, many new cases have been unconnected to known infections as the insecurity complicates efforts to track contacts of those with the disease. The alarmingly high number of infected newborns in this outbreak is another concern, and so far a mystery. In a separate statement on Thursday, WHO said so far 36 Ebola cases have been reported among newborn babies and children under 2. As the need for help in containing the outbreak grows, two of the world’s most prominent medical journals this week published statements by global health experts urging the Trump administration to do more. In the Journal of the American Medical Association, one group noted that the U.S. government weeks ago ordered all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel — “some of the world’s most experienced outbreak experts” — from Congo’s outbreak zone because of security concerns. A separate statement published in the New England Journal of Medicine said: “Given the worsening of the outbreak, we believe it’s essential that these security concerns be addressed and that CDC staff return to the field.” This is the first time this turbulent part of northeastern Congo has had an Ebola outbreak. Congo’s health ministry has carried vivid accounts of residents, spurred by rumors, who have been trying to stop safe burial practices that halt the spread of Ebola from victims to relatives and friends. On Thursday, the ministry said a group of youths broke into a morgue, stole the body of an Ebola victim and returned it to their family. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.[SEP]The Ebola death toll in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached 319, official figures have revealed. Health chiefs fear 542 people in the African nation have been struck down in the second biggest outbreak of the virus in history. The World Health Organization (WHO) said efforts to contain the outbreak, which began in August, have been challenging. Aid workers have found it difficult to provide help in the worst affected regions of the DRC because of ongoing armed conflict. It comes as neighbouring countries remain on high alert amid fears the killer virus – responsible for a brutal epidemic in 2014 - could spread. The confirmed figures show 491 people have been struck down with Ebola – with a further 51 currently undergoing testing. The WHO data also revealed the confirmed death toll is 271, as the remaining 48 deaths continue to be thoroughly investigated. Experts warn the infection is being spread because people are moving in and out of the region, while some communities are not engaging. Provinces North Kivu, which includes the heavily populated cities of Beni, Kalunguta and Mabalako, and Ituri remain the centre of the outbreak. Some areas, which had previously recovered, have seen a reintroduction of cases, such as Musienene - where the last reported case was 32 days ago. Health experts have said this Ebola outbreak, the tenth to strike Congo since the virus was discovered there in 1976, is like no other. Aid workers face the threat of attack from armed groups and resistance from a wary population in a region that had never faced an Ebola outbreak before. Armed rebels have attacked, kidnapped and killed medical staff trying to combat the outbreak and equipment has been destroyed, making it difficult to help victims. Tracking suspected contacts of Ebola victims remains a challenge in areas controlled by rebels. Ebola can be transmitted between humans through blood, secretions and other bodily fluids of people - and surfaces - that have been infected. The treatment of Ebola itself has taken an experimental turn in DRC, where scientists are now conducting a real-time study of how well pioneering drugs work. More than 160 people there have already been treated with the drugs, and the way people are treated won't change, but scientists will now be able to compare them. Four experimental drugs are being used to try and combat the disease – mAb 114, ZMapp, Remdesivir and Regeneron. Patients will get one of the four, but researchers won't know which they were given until after the study. The outbreak has been plagued by security problems, with health workers attacked by rebels in districts where the virus has been spreading. Last week, officials announced more Ebola cases are being diagnosed in the city of Butembo, 35 miles (56km) away from Beni, where most of the outbreak is happening. Experts warn the quick spread makes tackling the virus more complicated because containing it has been challenging enough in the one city. They fear experimental vaccines which have been doled out to thousands of people, and have reportedly prevented the death toll rising into the thousands, will run out. It comes after news broke last week that hundreds of health workers in South Sudan will be given Ebola vaccinations amid fears the virus will spread. No cases have been confirmed in neighbouring South Sudan yet, but the country is on 'high alert', according to the World Health Organization (WHO). More than 2,000 healthcare and frontline workers in the country will be offered a vaccine to try and stop the spread. Teams of vaccinators are ready to conduct the vaccinations, starting in the capital, Juba, on December 19. The UN Refugee Agency warned there is an influx of Congolese refugees seeking shelter in South Sudan because of conflict in the DRC.[SEP]Global health experts are urging the Trump administration to allow U.S. government disease specialists — "some of the world's most experienced" — to return to northeastern Congo to help fight the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history. JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Global health experts are urging the Trump administration to allow U.S. government disease specialists — “some of the world’s most experienced” — to return to northeastern Congo to help fight the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history. The U.S. experts have been sidelined for weeks, ordered away from the region because of State Department security concerns. Two top medical journals this week have published commentaries calling on the U.S. to change its mind and send them back where they are sorely needed. This Ebola outbreak is like no other, with some health workers comparing the region to a war zone. Dozens of armed rebel groups are active, and their deadly attacks have forced responders to pause crucial Ebola containment work for days. Many new cases have been unrelated to known infections, alarming evidence that gaps in tracking the disease remain. Late Thursday, the World Health Organization declared this outbreak second only to the devastating West Africa one that killed more than 11,000 people from 2014 to 2016. Congo’s health ministry said the number of confirmed and probable Ebola cases has reached 426, edging past the Uganda outbreak in 2000. So far this outbreak has 198 confirmed deaths and 47 probable ones. “It is in U.S. national interests to control outbreaks before they escalate into a crisis,” one group of global health experts wrote in a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. A separate one in the New England Journal of Medicine said : “Given the worsening of the outbreak, we believe it’s essential that these security concerns be addressed and that CDC staff return to the field.” It is not clear how many Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers are now trying to tackle the outbreak from Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, which is nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away. A State Department official said that CDC experts — and those with the U.S. Agency for International Development, who are also affected by the order — are still working closely with international partners to stop the outbreak. “We remain hopeful that the security situation improves so we can return to the affected communities,” Kathy Harben, a CDC spokeswoman, said in a statement. The CDC supports the expertise of the State Department and Department of Defense “in determining locations where it is safe to position our staff.” Security concerns are real, Ebola responders say. Teams with the WHO and Congo’s health ministry venture out on virus containment missions accompanied by U.N. peacekeepers or other armed security in areas where gunfire echoes daily. Given the complications, this Ebola outbreak will last at least another six months before it can be contained, WHO emergencies chief Dr. Peter Salama has predicted. Earlier this month, CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield suggested that one option is to “move into the idea that this becomes more of an endemic Ebola outbreak in this region.” That’s not a welcome thought to neighboring Uganda and Rwanda. Despite the challenges, Ebola health workers have made breakthroughs that have given new hope in the fight against one of the world’s most notorious diseases. More than 37,000 people have received Ebola vaccinations and Congo has begun the first-ever trial to test the effectiveness and safety of four experimental Ebola drugs. Speaking to The Associated Press on Friday from the outbreak zone, the Ebola response program director for the International Rescue Committee, Dr. Stacey Mearns, said the absence of the CDC’s experts can be felt acutely. Her colleague, Dr. Mesfin Teklu Tessema, the IRC’s senior health director, was among the more than two dozen people who signed the statement published in JAMA on Thursday. “If the (U.S.) ban were not in place, the CDC would have a big and growing presence here,” said Mearns, who worked closely with the CDC in West Africa’s Ebola outbreak. The U.S. sent thousands of responders to West Africa from the CDC and other government agencies, including the military. The CDC’s experts have rich experience in surveillance, treatment and lab testing, Mearns said, adding that some of that work is now being done from afar. “We haven’t seen the height of this outbreak,” she warned as Ebola moves into new areas in Congo that are worrying close to the heavily traveled border with Uganda. “If want to see the end of this, we do need all critical actors on the ground.” Associated Press writers Maria Cheng in London and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.[SEP]BENI, Congo — The second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history is “certainly” expected to continue for another three or four months, Congo’s health minister said Thursday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Health Minister Oly Ilunga also sought to calm concerns days ahead of a presidential election in which millions of people will use touch-screen voting machines. The deadly Ebola virus is spread via infected bodily fluids, so some worry they may pick it up from the screens. The minister said precautions have been taken. Several tons of hand sanitizer have been deployed for use in polling stations throughout the outbreak zone in eastern Congo, and voters are being encouraged to sanitize their hands before and after using the machines. So far there have been 549 Ebola cases in the outbreak that was declared on Aug. 1, including 501 confirmed cases. There have been 278 confirmed deaths. This Ebola outbreak is the most complex in history amid attacks by rebel groups, the health minister said. But in an upbeat development, he sees “clear, clear, clear improvement” in community response to Ebola containment efforts. The response in wary places like Beni, where more than 1,000 people have been killed in rebel attacks in recent years, has at times been harsh, with some health workers attacked. This is the first time that eastern Congo has faced an Ebola outbreak, and responders have raced to combat rumours and misunderstandings. There are still risks of confrontation every time the virus spreads into a new area, the health minister said. But “we can notice today that there is an acceptance, in general, an engagement in the community.” Ebola’s possible spread into so-called “red zones,” where the threat of rebel attack makes response work almost impossible, remains a concern. The minister said his biggest worries continue to be Ebola’s possible spread to other major cities in eastern Congo, such as Goma near the Rwanda border, and across the heavily travelled border into Uganda, which already has begun giving frontline health workers an experimental Ebola vaccine. Uganda is the focus of “intense collaboration” with health officials there, the minister said. He said that every time a new case of Ebola is declared, health officials must allow about 60 days from that date, with no new occurrences, before the outbreak can be considered over.[SEP]FILE PHOTO: Healthcare workers carry the coffin of a baby believed to have died of Ebola, in Beni, North Kivu Province of Democratic Republic of Congo, December 15, 2018. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/File Photo LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Doubts are growing about whether the world’s emergency stockpile of 300,000 Ebola vaccine doses is enough to control future epidemics as the deadly disease moves out of rural forest areas and into urban mega-cities. Outbreak response experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) and at the vaccines alliance GAVI are already talking to the leading Ebola vaccine manufacturer, Merck, to reassess just how much larger global stocks need to be. "We're actively engaged with the World Health Organization and with groups like GAVI, the U.S. government and others to try to understand what will be an appropriate sized stockpile in the future," Merck's head of vaccines clinical research, Beth-Ann Coller, said in a telephone interview. Supply of the Merck shot, which is currently being used to fight a large and spreading outbreak of Ebola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is not a problem right now, according to the WHO's deputy director-general of emergency preparedness and response, Peter Salama. But the nature of Ebola outbreaks is changing, he told Reuters. As the virus finds its way out of rural villages into populous urban settings, plans for how to contain it in future must change too. "What I'm concerned about is the medium- to long-term stockpile. The figure of 300,000 was very much based on previous Ebola outbreaks where you never really had huge numbers of cases because they were in isolated, rural, populations. But now, we increasingly see Ebola in mega-cities and towns." "We need to view it now as an urban disease as well as a rural one - and therefore one requiring a different order of magnitude of preparations, including vaccines," he said. Merck's experimental Ebola vaccine, known as rVSV-ZEBOV, is the furthest ahead in development. Another potential vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson could also eventually become part of the stockpile, global health officials say. Congo's two Ebola outbreaks this year illustrate the shifting nature of the threat. The first was relatively contained, infecting up to 54 people and killing 33 of them in an area of DRC's Equateur Province that is remote and sparsely populated. Several of the eight outbreaks before this one in Congo - including one in 2014 and another in 2017 both also in Equateur - were also quickly contained and limited in size. But this year's second outbreak in Congo - and the country's tenth since the virus was first identified there in 1976 - is concentrated not in rural villages but in urban areas of the North Kivu and Ituri provinces. It has already infected more than 450 people, killed more than 270, and last month spread to Butembo, a densely populated city of about one million. This kind of prospect means global health emergency responders must "review our assumptions around Ebola", Salama said. "If it were to take off in Butembo, or Goma, or, even worse, Kinshasa, we'd be talking about a totally different issue in terms of ... vaccine supplies required." Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccines alliance which has an agreement with Merck to ensure a current stockpile of 300,000 rVSV-ZEBOV doses, told Reuters that around 40,000 doses had been used so far in the Congo outbreak. The emergency response is based on "ring vaccination" which aims to control an outbreak by identifying and offering the vaccine to contacts of anyone likely to be infected. This method uses relatively small numbers of vaccine doses and forms a human buffer of immunity to try to prevent spread of the disease. For now in Congo, Berkley said, there is no immediate need to boost the stockpile. But looking towards future inevitable outbreaks, the numbers would likely need to change. "The challenge we would have - and this has been under discussion - is if we started to do community-based vaccination in urban and semi-urban areas. That's when the numbers would start to get quite big quite quickly," he told Reuters. Merck's shot has proven safe and effective in trials in West Africa but has yet to be approved for a license by U.S. and European regulators, so is being used in the Congo outbreak under special emergency rules for experimental products. When it gets approval, which Coller hopes would be in 2019, it will be made at a newly built manufacturing plant in Germany. Coller said Merck is not yet clear how many doses a year, or a month, the German facility could churn out once it is in production, but she stressed the company would "work collaboratively with the public health agencies to do our best to support their needs".[SEP]AS MANY as 319 people have been killed by the Ebola virus sweeping Congo as one of the deadliest outbreaks in history threatens to spread across borders. Of the 542 people thought to have contracted the lethal disease in the province of North Kivu, 494 has been confirmed, according to the latest figures from Congo’s Ministry of Health. Of the 319 believed to have died from the virus to date, 271 have been confirmed, the figures show. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is becoming increasingly concerned about Congo’s current outbreak of Ebola, which has ravaged the country’s rural communities this year. North Kivu, which includes the cities of Beni, Kalunguta and Mabalako, remains the epicentre of the outbreak. The province is one of the most populated in the country and borders Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan. Meanwhile, Congolese refugees fleeing across the border to neighbouring Sudan are not being screened for the disease, Sudanese health authorities have confirmed. "People from neighbouring DR Congo are entering South Sudan without being screened for Ebola due to lack of testing kits," Tambura State health minister, Mr David Simbi, said on Tuesday. He said the influx risked spreading the deadly virus across the border. The new cases will alarm health officials after an unprecedented outbreak of the disease between 2014 and 2016 killed more than 11,000 people across western Africa. “People from DR Congo are entering South Sudan without being screened” Cases of the disease, a type of viral hemorrhagic fever, were confirmed in Britain, Italy, Spain and the United States, where one person died. The epidemic of 2014 to 2016 was the most widespread outbreak of Ebola in history, plaguing countries such as Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone with death and economic woe. In June 2016, the outbreak was officially declared over, but the virus is still present in several African countries. People who remain most at risk are those who care for infected people or handle their blood or fluid, such as hospital workers, laboratory workers and family members, according to NHS guidance. Ebola is believed to be spread over long distances by bats, which can host the virus without dying, as it infects other animals it shares trees with such as monkeys. It often spreads to humans via infected bushmeat. Congo's vast, remote geography gives it an advantage, as outbreaks are often localised and relatively easy to isolate. Initial symptoms associated with Ebola include a fever, sore throat and muscular pain before more serious effects such as Diarrhoea, vomiting, a rash and stomach pain starts to develop. Many victims bleed internally and externally before death if the symptoms aren't treated immediately. "The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated," according to the World Health Organisation's website. "Ebola first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, one in what is now, Nzara, South Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. "The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name."

Over 300 people have died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the World Health Organization is concerned the outbreak is not being contained.

Former Blackwater contractor found guilty of murder in Iraq massacre More than a dozen unarmed civilians died in the mass shooting in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007.[SEP]WASHINGTON — A former Blackwater Worldwide contractor accused of firing the first rounds in a mass shooting that killed more than a dozen unarmed civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007 was found guilty of one count of murder Wednesday. Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder by a unanimous federal jury in the death of Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y. Slatten, 35, wearing a blue suit and blue tie, was smiling on and off throughout the short hearing, and shrugged to his attorneys when he heard the verdict. No sentencing date has been set. Slatten was first charged in 2008 along with three other contractors for Blackwater, a private military company, but that case was thrown out. When the case was brought back in late 2013, Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The other three guards were convicted of charges including manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. The four men were part of a Blackwater security team code-named Raven 23, who shot 31 innocent Iraqis in the traffic circle of Nisur Square in September 2007. The shooting happened after a car bomb exploded in downtown Baghdad. Fourteen of the Iraqis, including women and children, died. Prosecutors in the 2013 trial said Slatten was the person who “initiated the entire incident” when he fired the first shots “without justifications.” But in 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals threw out Slatten’s murder conviction and said he deserved a new trial. That second trial ended in September 2018 when a mistrial was declared after weeks of the jury being unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, who is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy Devos. Since the 2007 shooting, Prince sold the company, which reorganized and now exists as Academi. Gary Grumbach reported from Washington, D.C., Elisha Fieldstadt reported from New York.[SEP]A former Blackwater security guard was convicted Wednesday of murder in his third trial over his involvement in a 2007 Baghdad traffic-circle shooting that marked one of the lowest points of the Iraq War. Nicholas Slatten, who was 23 years old at the time of the shooting, was found guilty of one count of murder by a jury after a monthlong trial in federal court in Washington.[SEP]A former Blackwater security contractor has been convicted of murder at his third trial in the 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Iraq. Nicholas Slatten, of Sparta, Tennessee, was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday in Washington. Prosecutors say Slatten was the first to fire shots in the killings of 14 Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad. The shooting strained relations with Iraq and drew intense scrutiny of the role of American contractors in the Iraq War. The defense had argued that Slatten opened fire because he thought a bomb-laden car was headed toward his convoy. An appeals court had overturned his 2014 conviction, saying he should have been tried separately from three other men. A jury couldn't reach a verdict in his second trial last summer.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Blackwater security contractor was convicted Wednesday of murder at his third trial in the 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Iraq. Nicholas Slatten, of Sparta, Tennessee, was found guilty of first-degree murder in Washington for his role in the shooting, which strained international relations and drew intense scrutiny of the role of American contractors in the Iraq War. Prosecutors charged that Slatten was the first to fire shots in the September 2007 massacre that killed 14 Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad. They alleged that Slatten was unprovoked when he opened fire, first killing 19-year-old Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia'y, who was driving his mother to an appointment, prosecutors said. In all, 10 men, two women and two boys, ages 9 and 11, were killed. Eighteen others were injured. The defense has argued that Slatten and other Blackwater contractors opened fire only after Al Rubia'y's sedan, seen as a potential suicide car bomb, began moving quickly toward their convoy. After the shooting stopped, no evidence of a bomb was found. In 2014, a jury convicted Slatten and three other contractors — Paul Alvin Slough, Evan Shawn Liberty and Dustin Laurent Heard— who were part of a four-vehicle convoy that was protecting State Department personnel in the area. An appeals court had overturned that conviction, saying he should have been tried separately from three other men. Slatten was retried last summer, but a mistrial was declared after the jury couldn't reach a unanimous verdict. The appeals court had ordered that Slatten's co-defendants be resentenced, and Slough, Liberty and Heard all remain in custody and are awaiting resentencing, prosecutors 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. WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Blackwater security contractor has been convicted of murder at his third trial in the 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Iraq. Nicholas Slatten, of Sparta, Tennessee, was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday in Washington. Prosecutors say Slatten was the first to fire shots in the killings of 14 Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad. The shooting strained relations with Iraq and drew intense scrutiny of the role of American contractors in the Iraq War. The defense had argued that Slatten opened fire because he thought a bomb-laden car was headed toward his convoy. An appeals court had overturned his 2014 conviction, saying he should have been tried separately from three other men. A jury couldn’t reach a verdict in his second trial last summer. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]WASHINGTON – A former Blackwater Worldwide security guard has been convicted a second time on a charge that he instigated a mass shooting in Iraq more than a decade ago. A federal jury convicted Nick Slatten of Sparta, Tennessee, on Wednesday on a murder charge for his role in a deadly shooting rampage that killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounded 17 others. It was the third time Slatten had stood trial on the charge. Jurors deliberated for four days before returning their verdict, which came at the close of a six-week trial in U.S. District Court in Washington – and just three months after a previous trial on the same charge ended in a hung jury. Slatten disputed prosecutors’ arguments that he fired the opening shot that touched off the rampage, which became one of the flashpoints in the war between Iraq and a U.S.-led coalition. Another guard, Paul Slough of Keller, Texas, said on multiple occasions that he fired the opening shot, not Slatten. Eyewitnesses also pointed to Slough as the initial shooter. But prosecutors countered that Slough’s statements had been inconsistent. He initially denied to investigators that he had opened fire, then later recanted and claimed he fired the first shots, they said. During his first trial, Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2014 for his role in the shooting. A federal appeals court threw out Slatten's conviction last year and ordered that he receive a new trial because he had not been allowed to introduce evidence that Slough fired the first shots. The government’s case hinged on the allegation that Slatten was the initial shooter, the appeals court said. At his second trial, prosecutors argued that Slatten and other guards opened fire without provocation on innocent Iraqis and used excessive force. Slatten, prosecutors contended, fired the first shots, killing a young, unarmed Iraqi medical student. That trial ended in a hung jury in September when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict after 16 days of deliberations. The deadly rampage in which Slatten was charged happened in 2007 in Baghdad’s Nisour Square and already has been the subject of investigations by the military, a congressional panel, the FBI and others. But details of what happened remain in dispute. Slatten and three other guards – Slough, Dustin Heard of Maryville, Tennessee, and Evan Liberty of Rochester, New Hampshire – were all former armed services members working as private security guards for Blackwater, now known as Academi. The guards’ Raven 23 security team was under contract by the State Department. On Sept. 16, 2007, their convoy traveled to a crowded traffic circle in downtown Baghdad as part of the effort to evacuate a U.S. diplomat. At some point, the guards opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers. They say the shooting started only after a white Kia sedan driven by the Iraqi medical student lurched out of stopped traffic and approached their four armored vehicles. The men had received intelligence reports that a white Kia might be used as a car bomb, so they feared they were under attack. No evidence of a bomb was ever found. More: Trial of former Blackwater guard charged in mass shooting in Iraq ends in a hung jury More: Former Blackwater guard goes on trial for second time for role in mass shooting in Iraq More: Former Blackwater security guard Nick Slatten: 'I am a POW in my own country'[SEP]WASHINGTON — A former Blackwater security guard was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday for killing one of 14 unarmed civilians in a barrage of gunfire in a crowded Baghdad traffic circle in 2007, an episode that drew international condemnation during the Iraq War. It was the second time a federal jury in Washington convicted Nicholas Slatten, 35, of murder in the death of 19-year-old Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y. His 2014 conviction was overturned on appeal, and a second trial last summer ended in a hung jury. Slatten now faces a mandatory life sentence without parole. The jury foreperson told The Washington Post that jurors rejected Slatten’s claim that he fired on Al Rubia’y in self-defence. “In our determination, there were no justifiable deaths,” the foreperson said. “No justifiable shooting.” The outcome brings a muted end to killing that triggered diplomatic and humanitarian protests over the U.S. government’s use of private military forces and marked one of the lowest points of the Iraq War. Three other Blackwater guards who were part of Slatten’s convoy also were convicted in 2014, of manslaughter and other charges. The verdicts for Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were not reversed, but the 30-year sentences they received were vacated on appeal. No sentencing date has been set for any of the four defendants, all of whom are in custody. In Nisour Square, on Sept. 16, 2007, Slatten was one of 19 Blackwater security contractors in a convoy of four heavily armed trucks using the call sign Raven 23. But after a car bombing earlier in the day, the team disregarded an order to stay in the Green Zone, and it set up a blockade in the square, prosecutors said. A white Kia, driven by Al Rubia’y with his mother in the passenger seat, headed toward the blockade. Prosecutors alleged Slatten, of Sparta, Tennessee, fired the first shots into the Kia and intentionally set off a rampage in which more than 30 people were shot, 14 fatally. The Blackwater guards claimed that they feared the Kia might be used as a car bomb and that after they began firing on the Kia, the guards took small-arms fire from other sources, which disabled one of the Blackwater trucks. The guards then fired into a bus and other vehicles, compounding the carnage. “There had been a lookout for a white Kia,” the jury foreperson told The Post. “But there’s a million Kias in Iraq; you don’t just shoot every white Kia.” The foreperson said the jury “didn’t believe the white Kia presented or could be perceived as a threat. And we didn’t perceive that the convoy was taking small-arms fire.” The foreperson said the jury believed shrapnel from grenades launched by the Blackwater guards damaged their own vehicle. The foreperson spoke on the condition of anonymity, due to concern about possible retribution from supporters of the Blackwater guards. In 2014, a jury in Washington convicted Slatten of murder and Slough, Liberty and Heard of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. One other guard reached a plea deal for reduced sentences. In August 2017, a federal appeals court tossed Slatten’s life sentence and ordered a new trial, saying he should have been tried separately from Slough, 39. Slough had told investigators days after the shootings that he, not Slatten, fired the first rounds. Slatten then received a retrial that ended in a hung jury in September, with the defence saying the convoy members had been acting in self-defence. Slatten’s defence team declined to comment after the verdict. At trial, Slatten’s defence seized on shifting statements by Blackwater convoy members who had testified against Slatten in his earlier trials. The convoy included Jimmy Watson, the leader of the four-vehicle convoy and Slatten’s vehicle mate. Watson retreated from earlier testimony to a grand jury in which he said he had heard Slatten fire first. Jeremy Ridgeway pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified for prosecutors in a plea deal. Slatten’s lead defence lawyer Dane Butswinkas said to jurors in his closing argument, “Mr. Al Rubia’y’s death is a tragedy. There’s no doubt about that. But this is not a reason to compound the tragedy, by sending an innocent person to prison for as long as Mr. Ridgeway would have gone had he not cooperated.” Prosecutors said Slatten acted out of general hatred for Iraqis and a misguided desire for revenge for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. They said that Ridgeway’s shifting memory was mistaken and that Watson’s actions were an ongoing attempt to cover up responsibility for the attacks. Referring to Slatten, prosecutor Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez told jurors, “You know that this man took this sniper rifle, and through this scope he took aim at Ahmed’s head, and he fired. Boom. And he fired again. Boom. And why?” Campoamor-Sanchez said in his closing argument. “Because, ladies and gentlemen, he thought he could get away with it. Nobody would know. He would never have to answer to people like you sitting in this jury room today.” The foreperson said, “We quickly got rid of self-defence” as a cause for the killings. The jury was aware that Slough had been convicted, that Ridgeway had pleaded guilty and that Watson had been granted immunity. They did not know that Liberty and Heard had also been convicted, the foreperson said. The jury deliberated for five days after a five-week trial. Slough, Liberty and Heard received 30 years – twice the maximum punishment for manslaughter alone — after being convicted of using military firearms while committing a felony, an enhanced penalty that was primarily aimed at gang members and had never been used against security contractors given military weapons by the U.S. government. The appeals court ruled that the punishment meted out to the three guards violated a constitutional prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.” Charges were first brought against six Blackwater employees in 2008, but the extraordinary prosecution suffered numerous turns and setbacks. A federal judge initially threw out the other indictments, saying prosecutors improperly relied on statements the guards gave State Department investigators immediately after the shooting, believing the statements would not be used in court. An appeals panel reversed that ruling in 2011, clearing the way for prosecutors to obtain fresh indictments against Slatten and the three others. However, prosecutors took so long to charge Slatten that the statutory time limit for bringing a manslaughter charge had expired, an error the appeals panel said also stemmed from an errant court ruling, a court found. The Justice Department responded by charging Slatten, a former Army sniper, with first-degree murder, which has no statute of limitations. The foreperson was troubled that Slatten faced only one charge and no lesser alternatives, particularly since the only sentence would be a mandatory life term. The foreperson was unsure whether Slatten truly premeditated the shooting, other than the moments staring down the scope as the white Kia rolled toward the convoy. “I think the murder one,” the foreperson said, “I understand it, but there’s a bit of unjustness to it.” Thirty Iraqi shooting survivors and relatives of victims testified in person in a 2014 trial, marking the largest number of foreign witnesses to travel to the United States for a criminal trial, prosecutors said at the time.[SEP]Nicholas Slatten, a 35-year old former security guard for the private mercenary firm Blackwater, was found guilty of first-degree murder on Wednesday in the third trial stemming from his role in the notorious 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, Iraq that left 14 Iraqis civilians dead and another 17 injured. The jury's verdict on Wednesday came after a three-judge federal appeals court panel ordered a retrial for Slatten and resentencing for three of his Blackwater colleagues—Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, and Paul Slough—in August of 2017. Slatten's second murder trial ended in a mistrial in September. While no sentencing date has been set, the murder charge means he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Outlining the government's evidence for the case, the U.S. Attorney's office in D.C. said in a statement: [At] approximately noon on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007, several Blackwater security contractors, including Slatten and his former co-defendants, opened fire in and around Nisour Square, a busy traffic circle in the heart of Baghdad. When they stopped shooting, 14 Iraqi civilians were dead. Those killed included 10 men, two women, and two boys, ages 9 and 11. Another 18 victims were injured. According to the evidence, Slatten was the first to fire, without provocation, killing Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia'y, an aspiring doctor, who was driving his mother to an appointment. Slatten's murder conviction is for Ahmed's death. As the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday: Patrick Martin, who is chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, D.C., told jurors last month that Mr. Slatten had fired the first shots at the traffic circle, setting off the chaotic episode. Mr. Slatten carefully planned to kill the driver of a white Kia, acting out of "hate, prejudice, and some twisted notion of revenge," Mr. Martin said in opening statements. "You know that this man took this sniper rifle, and through this scope he took aim at Ahmed's head, and he fired. Boom. And he fired again. Boom. And why?" prosecutor Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez reportedly said to jurors in his closing arguments. "Because, ladies and gentlemen, he thought he could get away with it. Nobody would know. He would never have to answer to people like you sitting in this jury room today." Slatten is being held until he is sentenced by Judge Royce C. Lamberth, according to the U.S. Attorney's office—which added that "Slough, Liberty, and Heard remain in custody and their re-sentencing proceedings remain pending before Judge Lamberth." Meanwhile, Blackwater's infamous former CEO, Erik Prince, has yet to face any consequences for incident. "Just as with the systematic torture at Abu Ghraib, it is only the low level foot-soldiers of Blackwater that are being held accountable," journalist Jeremy Scahill—author of the book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army—wrote for The Intercept after the first trial in 2014. "Prince and other top Blackwater executives continue to reap profits from the mercenary and private intelligence industries." Although Prince has since sold off Blackwater, which relaunched as Academi, the billionaire war profiteer—who happens to be the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—served as an adviser to President Donald Trump's transition team and has continued to advocate for the use of mercenaries, urging the administration to privatize the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan.[SEP]A former security guard for the US firm Blackwater was found guilty of murder on Wednesday for his role in a notorious massacre of unarmed civilians in downtown Baghdad in 2007. Nicholas Slatten, 35, was convicted of first-degree murder by a federal jury in U.S. District Court in Washington after five days of deliberations. Slatten was convicted of killing Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia'y, 19, an aspiring doctor who was one of more than a dozen civilians killed by Blackwater guards in Baghdad's Nisour Square on September 16, 2007. While escorting a diplomatic convoy, Blackwater guards opened fire in the bustling square with sniper rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers - allegedly without provocation - leaving at least 14 civilians dead and at least 18 wounded. The Iraqi government says the toll was higher. The shooting deepened the resentment of Americans in Iraq four years after U.S. forces toppled dictator Saddam Hussein and raised questions about the expanded use of armed contract guards by the US government. The US Attorney's Office presented testimony from 34 witnesses during the trial, including four who came to the United States from Iraq to testify. According to the government's evidence, Slatten, of Sparta, Tennessee, was the first to open fire. No date was set for his sentencing. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the murder charge calls for a mandatory sentence of life in prison. It was Slatten's third trial on the charges. His first conviction was thrown out and the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict at his second trial. Slatten was one of four Blackwater guards who were found guilty in 2014. He was originally sentenced to life in prison while the three others were given 30-year prison sentences An appeals court has ordered that the three other Blackwater guards be resentenced. They are currently in custody pending resentencing.

In a third trial, former Blackwater private military contractor Nicholas Slatten is convicted on one count of first-degree murder over the 2007 mass shooting.

Carta conjunta de todos los expresidentes de la Generalitat y los expresidentes del Parlament vivos para que los cuatro presos independentistas abandonen la huelga de hambre. En una misiva, Jordi Pujol, Pasqual Maragall, José Montilla, Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont, Joan Rigol, Ernest Benach, Núria de Gispert y Carme Forcadell abogan por "salvaguardar el derecho a la vida" de los presos y consideran que la protesta ya "ha dado visibilidad a su situación procesal y ha despertado conciencias a nivel nacional e internacional". Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull llevan en huelga de hambre 18 días en la prisión de Lledoners, mientras que Joaquim Forn y Josep Rull mantienen un ayuno indefinido desde hace 16 días. Su estado de salud ha empeorado y Turull ha tenido que ser trasladado a la enfermería de la cárcel, aunque su portavoz destacó el pasado lunes que siguen "comprometidos" con la protesta. Cabe destacar la influencia de Puigdemont, uno de los expresidentes firmantes de la carta, en los cuatro presos de Junts per Catalunya (JxCat). Los expresidentes, en una misiva promovida por el Síndic de Greuges, Rafael Ribó (el Defensor del Pueblo catalán), exponen que el Tribunal Constitucional ya ha resuelto algunos de los recursos de amparo presentados por los acusados del 1-O y ha calendarizado la resolución del resto. El "bloqueo" del Constitucional a los recursos de amparo, que a su vez cierra la puerta a los presos para acudir a la Justicia euroea, fue precisamente el motivo que adujeron los políticos de Junts per Catalunya para iniciar la huelga de hambre. Los expresidentes piden a los presos que prioricen "salvaguardar su derecho a la vida y a la salud", así como "garantizar su participación con plenas facultades" en la vista oral del juicio al 'procés', uno de los motivos que ha llevado a los presos de ERC –entre los que se encuentra Forcadell– a rechazar sumarse a la huelga de hambre.[SEP]Jordi Turull, former spokesman for the regional Catalan government of Carles Puigdemont, began a hunger strike on December 1 in Lledoners prison north of Barcelona. Turull and other Catalan leaders are in custody pending a trial on charges ranging from sedition to rebellion after they attempted to break away from Spain in 2017 by staging a referendum. Turull and another leader Jordi Sanchez began a hunger strike to protest what they said was a Constitutional Court block of their attempted appeal against their provisional detention. "Though he is in stable condition, the time that has passed and his individual condition meant Jordi Turull needed to be transferred to the hospital," his doctor Jaume Padros wrote on Twitter. "There are no worrying signs, this is part of medical protocol," he wrote. Turull and Sanchez are accused of rebellion for their part in the attempted breakaway of the Catalan region last year. The trial of the two men and other Catalan leaders is expected to begin in Spain's Supreme Court early next year. Two other jailed leaders also joined the hunger strike after Turull. Current Catalan president Quim Torra has stepped up his separatist rhetoric after his own government was weakened by a wave of strikes by doctors and teachers and by protests by radical separatists.[SEP]BARCELONA, Spain — The Latest on Catalan independence activists (all times local): A lawyer representing former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and five other Catalan politicians who have been charged in Spain for violent rebellion has appealed to the U.N.’s Human Rights Committee to help defend their democratic rights. Nico Krisch denounced a “grave interference in the democratic order” linked to the charges against Puigdemont, who lives in exile in Belgium, as well as Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull. The five are being held in pre-trial detention in Spain. The Catalan politicians have been charged and suspended from office by Spain’s Supreme Court for their roles in organizing an independence referendum in Catalonia 14 months ago. The effort announced Thursday seeks the Geneva-based committee’s intervention to help ensure their democratic right to exercise their parliamentary mandate. A spokeswoman for four jailed Catalan separatist leaders says they are abandoning their hunger strike more than two weeks after starting it because they consider that their protest has achieved its goals. Speaking on behalf of the politicians, who are awaiting trial for their part in last year’s attempt to secede from Spain, Pilar Calvo said Thursday the strike has drawn attention to the separatists’ plight and prompted Spain’s constitutional Court to review some of their appeals, which enables them to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights. Pro-independence activist-turned-politician Jordi Sanchez and former Catalan cabinet member Jordi Turull began their hunger strike on Dec. 1. Ex-regional ministers Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn joined two days later. The constitutional Court had said the appeals were following the normal judicial calendar.[SEP]MADRID (Reuters) - Four jailed Catalan separatist leaders, incarcerated since October 2017 ahead of a trial for their involvement in a push by the region for independence, called off a hunger strike on Thursday, their spokeswoman said. “Today, after 20 days since it began, we are ending our hunger strike,” the spokeswoman Pilar Calvo said reading a statement from the protesters, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Joaquim Forn.[SEP]Four jailed Catalan separatist leaders are abandoning their hunger strike more than two weeks after starting it because they consider that their protest has achieved its goals, a spokeswoman for the politicians said. They are awaiting trial for their part in last year’s attempt to secede from Spain. The strike has prompted Spain’s Constitutional Court to review some of their appeals, which enables them to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights, spokeswoman Pilar Calvo said on Thursday. Pro-independence activist-turned-politician Jordi Sanchez and former Catalan cabinet member Jordi Turull began their hunger strike on December 1. Ex-regional ministers Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn joined two days later, AP said. According to the Constitutional Court, the appeals are following the “normal judicial calendar.”[SEP]FILE PHOTO: Catalan politicians Josep Rull (L) and Jordi Turull arrive together to the Supreme Court after being summoned and facing investigation for their part in Catalonia's bid for independence in Madrid, Spain, March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Susana Vera FILE PHOTO: Catalan politicians Josep Rull (L) and Jordi Turull arrive together to the Supreme Court after being summoned and facing investigation for their part in Catalonia's bid for independence in Madrid, Spain, March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Susana Vera MADRID (Reuters) – Four jailed Catalan separatist leaders, incarcerated since October 2017 ahead of a trial for their involvement in a push by the region for independence, called off a hunger strike on Thursday, their spokeswoman said. “Today, after 20 days since it began, we are ending our hunger strike,” the spokeswoman Pilar Calvo said reading a statement from the protesters, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Joaquim Forn.[SEP]BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Two leaders of Catalonia’s separatist movement who have spent the last year in prison started a hunger strike on Saturday to protest what they claim is the unfair treatment by Spanish… BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Two leaders of Catalonia’s separatist movement who have spent the last year in prison started a hunger strike on Saturday to protest what they claim is the unfair treatment by Spanish courts. Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull, regional lawmakers in northeastern Catalonia, said in a statement distributed by the Catalan government that “we will never give up on our right to a fair trial.” Spain’s government responded by saying that they and other separatist leaders will be treated just like any other citizens brought before the law. The government led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a statement that “like all citizens who are subject to and protected by the rule of law, the separatist leaders will receive a fair trial.” Sanchez and Turull are two of nine separatist leaders who are in pre-trial custody for their role in an illegal secession attempt by Catalonia’s leaders last year. Spain’s state prosecutors will pursue charges of rebellion against both, asking for sentences of 17 years for Sanchez and 16 years for Turull. Sanchez and Turull are being held in a prison near Barcelona, the largest city in the Catalonia region. They have been kept behind bars with authorities saying they pose a risk of continuing to push for secession and fleeing Spain like other separatist leaders, including former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. The trial is expected to start in the coming months. Catalonia’s current separatist leaders insist they won’t desist in their effort to break away from the rest of Spain. Election results and polls show that the 7.5 million resident of the wealthy Catalonia region are roughly equally divided by the secession issue. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.[SEP]BARCELONA, Spain — A spokeswoman for four jailed Catalan separatist leaders says they are abandoning their hunger strike more than two weeks after starting it because they consider that their protest has achieved its goals. Speaking on behalf of the politicians, who are awaiting trial for their part in last year’s attempt to secede from Spain, Pilar Calvo said Thursday the strike has drawn attention to the separatists’ plight and prompted Spain’s Constitutional Court to review some of their appeals, which enables them to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights. Pro-independence activist-turned-politician Jordi Sanchez and former Catalan cabinet member Jordi Turull began their hunger strike on Dec. 1. Ex-regional ministers Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn joined two days later. The Constitutional Court had said the appeals were following the normal judicial calendar. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]Four imprisoned Catalan politicians awaiting trial after a failed secessionist bid on Thursday decided to give up a hunger strike protest after nearly three weeks, according to their spokesperson. Former regional ministers Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn, as well as the president of the separatist civil association Catalan National Assembly (ANC) Jordi Sánchez, are currently in pre-trial detention on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds for their role in organizing a referendum on the prosperous northeastern Spanish region's independence from the rest of the country that was deemed unconstitutional by the judiciary.

Carles Puigdemont calls on Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Turull to end the hunger strike they started on 1 December.

Someone just paid $25,000 to name a worm-like amphibian after Donald Trump Donald Trump’s name is attached to a lot of things — Trump Towers, Trump University, The Trump Foundation (oops nevermind) — and now, Dermophis donaldtrumpi — a four-inch-long, worm-like amphibian from Panama. Dermophis donaldtrumpi isn’t the first species to get a presidential naming treatment. President Obama has an watery namesake as well — he earned his by expanding a marine protected area around the Northwestern Hawaiian islands. And President Trump had a species of yellowish-”haired” moth named after him (Neopalpa donaldtrumpi) in 2017. But this newest addition to the Trump family name does not derive not from its physical similarity to the president. Rather, the species’ tendency to bury its head (and body) in the sand drew parallels to Trump’s persistent denial of climate change. The naming rights for the species were auctioned off to raise money for Rainforest Trust. Dermophis donaldtrumpi is a caecilian, a word derived from the Latin for “blind.” The winning bidder, Aidan Bell, is the head of a sustainable building materials company called EnviroBuild, and wound up spending $25,000 to make the environmental and political jab. In a post on EnviroBuild’s blog, Bell wrote: “The dermophis genus grows an extra layer of skin which their young use their teeth to peel off and eat, a behavior known as dermatrophy. As a method of ensuring their children survive in life, Donald Trump prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office.” But Dermophis donaldtrumpi may not be with us for much longer. The caecilian has a thin skin (sound like anyone we know?), and like other amphibians, is especially vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. Will President Trump think and act any differently, knowing that his namesake is on the line?[SEP]A wriggling amphibian which can only see in black and white (and which literally buries its head in the sand) has been named after President Donald Trump. Sustainable housing company Envirobuild bid £19,800 at auction for the right to name the worm-like Panamanian amphibian Dermophis donaldtrumpi. The company says that it chose the limbless creature because of Donald Trump’s policies on climate change – and how both the amphibian and the president tend to see things in black and white. The company wrote in a blog post, ‘Caecilians is taken from the Latin Caecus meaning “blind”, and have rudimentary eyes which can only detect light or dark. ‘Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese.’ ‘The amphibians live almost entirely underground, believed to have lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago, as an adaptation to burrowing. ‘Burrowing its head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change and also appointed several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry.’ Even more unkindly, the company also drew attention to a similarity between the burrowing creature and Donald Trump’s approach to looking after their offspring. The company said, ‘The dermophis genus grows an extra layer of skin which their young use their teeth to peel off and eat, a behaviour known as dermatrophy. As a method of ensuring their children survive in life Donald Trump prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office.’ The name will still have to undergo peer review by biologists, the company says – but several other animals are already named after US presidents. The company said, ‘As Demorphus donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake’s climate policies.’[SEP]A London-based business specializing in sustainable building materials says it has paid $25,000 to name a newly discovered genus of wormlike amphibian after President Donald Trump. EnviroBuild announced Tuesday that it would be using Dermophis donaldtrumpi as the name for the caecilian — an amphibian with no legs and poor eyesight. The business says the name still will need to undergo peer review, but that other animals have been named after presidents in the past. Co-founder Aidan Bell authored a blog post that likened the qualities of the animal, which is native to Panama, to Trump. "Caecilians is taken from the Latin Caecus meaning 'blind,'" the post says. The animals can only see light and dark. "Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese," Bell wrote. Rainforest Trust announced the auction in November, saying it sells naming rights for newly discovered animals to raise money for conservation. Traditionally, naming privileges have been given to scientists who discovered an animal, but the organization says it has been breaking with that tradition to raise money for 25 years. Dec. 17: Teen activist calls out climate leaders: 'You are not mature enough' Dec. 11: Almost all of the oldest, thickest ice in the Arctic Ocean is gone due to climate change The caecilian burrows its head underground, a trait the blog likened to Trump's position on climate change: "Burrowing its head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change and also appointed several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry." The post also criticizes the high-profile positions given to Trump's children and references the Mueller investigation. In November, Trump cited his intelligence as a reason for his skepticism surrounding climate change. That came on the heels of a 1,600-page National Climate Assessment, issued by the Trump administration, which detailed the climate and economic impacts U.S. residents are projected to see if drastic action is not taken to address climate change. EnviroBuild isn't the first to name an animal after Trump. In January 2017, a scientist named a tiny moth Neopalpa donaldtrumpi, Time reports. Canadian scientist Vazrick Nazari chose the name partly to draw attention to U.S. environmental policies and partly because he believed the moth resembled Trump's hair style, according to Time. President Donald Trump delivers remarks to members of the news media while holding a meeting with governors-elect and members of his administration, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington on Dec. 13, 2018.[SEP]A worm-like creature that lives underground was named after President Donald Trump because of his attitude toward climate change. EnviroBuild, a company that makes sustainable building materials, paid $25,000 to name the limbless amphibian Dermophis donaldtrumpi as part of a fundraiser for the Rainforest Trust, a nonprofit conservation group. Aidan Bell, EnviroBuild's cofounder, said in a statement on Tuesday that for Trump, "burrowing" his head underground helps him "when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change" and appointing energy lobbyists to the Environmental Protection Agency, "where their job is to regulate the energy industry." As Dermophis donaldtrumpi "is an amphibian," Bell said, "it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake's climate policies." "EnviroBuild is not an overtly political organisation, but we do feel very strongly that everyone should do everything they can to leave the world in a better way than they found it," he added. The Dermophis donaldtrumpi. EnviroBuild The company also shared an edited image of the creature with Trump-like hair on its head. The creature was recently discovered, Bell said, and the name still has to undergo a peer review, "something that biologists EnviroBuild have spoken to had stressed the importance of, but multiple species are named after Presidents, and this amphibian will soon join the vulnerable list." It is not the first creature named after Trump. In early 2017, a small moth with yellowish-white scales that look like hair was named Neopalpa donaldtrumpi. Read more: Small moth with yellowish coif named after Donald Trump Trump on climate change In November, Trump said he didn't believe the findings of his own administration's report on the effects of climate change and the economic impact it is predicted to have on the US. The report's findings were dire, including that the average temperature could increase by as much as 11 degrees by the end of this century. The president also contradicted the scientific consensus on climate change when he said earlier that year that he believes it could reverse on its own. Read more: Trump says he doesn't believe his own administration's report on the economic impact of climate change He has also diminished the impact of humans on the planet. "We do have an impact, but I don't believe the impact is nearly what some scientists say, and other scientists dispute those findings very strongly," he said in November.[SEP]Newly discovered amphibian has been named after Donald Trump United States presidents tend to receive their fair share of honors, but Donald Trump may want to ignore his latest one. A newly discovered amphibian that buries its head in the sand has been named after him, apparently in response to his comments about climate change. The Dermorphis donaldtrumpi, which was discovered in Panama, was named by the head of a company that had bid US$25,000 at auction for the privilege. The company said it wanted to raise awareness about climate change. “[Demorphus donaldtrumpi] is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake's climate policies,” said EnviroBuild co-founder Aidan Bell in a statement. The small, blind, creature is a type of caecilian that primarily lives underground, and Mr Bell drew an unflattering comparison between its behaviour and Mr Trump's. “Burrowing [his] head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change,” he wrote. The world's leading scientists agree that climate change is primarily human-induced. But Mr Trump, whose administration has pursued a pro-fossil fuels agenda, has accused those scientists of having a “political agenda” and cast doubt on whether humans were responsible for the Earth's rising temperatures. “I don't know that it's manmade,” he said in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes in October. “I'm not denying climate change but [temperatures] could very well go back,” he added, without offering evidence. Last month, Mr Trump questioned a report by his own government that found climate change would cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars annually and damage health. “I don't believe it,” he told reporters at the time. After taking office he announced that the US would withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, which commits countries to keeping a limit on rising global temperatures. He justified this decision by asserting that he had been elected to serve the citizens of Pittsburgh and not Paris and the deal disadvantaged US businesses and workers.[SEP]With its behavior bearing a striking resemblance to the commander in chief’s attitude toward climate change, it seemed fitting that the limbless animal be named Dermophis donaldtrumpi. EnviroBuild, a sustainable building materials company, paid $25,000 for the honor of naming the creature as part of a fundraiser for the Rainforest Trust, a nonprofit conservation group. “EnviroBuild is not an overtly political organization, but we do feel very strongly that everyone should do everything they can to leave the world in a better way than they found it,” co-founder Aidan Bell wrote in a statement. Dermophis donaldtrumpi. New amphibian species named after the person elected by US people as president. https://t.co/PSCf5R7CZF pic.twitter.com/NpNG3Ogc9S — Tibor Hartel (@harteltibor) December 18, 2018 “As Demorphus donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake’s climate policies.” Bell told The Guardian the name was “perfect.” “Caecilian is taken from the Latin caecus, meaning ‘blind,’ perfectly mirroring the strategic vision President Trump has consistently shown towards climate change,” he said.[SEP]A London-based business specializing in sustainable building materials says it has paid $25,000 to name a newly discovered genus of wormlike amphibian after President Donald Trump. EnviroBuild announced Tuesday that it would be using Dermophis donaldtrumpi as the name for the caecilian — an amphibian with no legs and poor eyesight. The business says the name still will need to undergo peer review, but that other animals have been named after presidents in the past. Co-founder Aidan Bell authored a blog post that likened the qualities of the animal, which is native to Panama, to Trump. "Caecilians is taken from the Latin Caecus meaning 'blind,'" the post says. The animals can only see light and dark. "Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese," Bell wrote. Rainforest Trust announced the auction in November, saying it sells naming rights for newly discovered animals to raise money for conservation. Traditionally, naming privileges have been given to scientists who discovered an animal, but the organization says it has been breaking with that tradition to raise money for 25 years. Dec. 17: Teen activist calls out climate leaders: 'You are not mature enough' Dec. 11: Almost all of the oldest, thickest ice in the Arctic Ocean is gone due to climate change The caecilian burrows its head underground, a trait the blog likened to Trump's position on climate change: "Burrowing its head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change and also appointed several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry." The post also criticizes the high-profile positions given to Trump's children and references the Mueller investigation. In November, Trump cited his intelligence as a reason for his skepticism surrounding climate change. That came on the heels of a 1,600-page National Climate Assessment, issued by the Trump administration, which detailed the climate and economic impacts U.S. residents are projected to see if drastic action is not taken to address climate change. EnviroBuild isn't the first to name an animal after Trump. In January 2017, a scientist named a tiny moth Neopalpa donaldtrumpi, Time reports. Canadian scientist Vazrick Nazari chose the name partly to draw attention to U.S. environmental policies and partly because he believed the moth resembled Trump's hair style, according to Time. President Donald Trump delivers remarks to members of the news media while holding a meeting with governors-elect and members of his administration, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington on Dec. 13, 2018.[SEP]A newly discovered amphibian, with a propensity for burrowing its head in the ground, is to be officially named Dermophis donaldtrumpi, after Donald Trump and his stance on climate change. The name was chosen by UK sustainable building materials company, EnviroBuild, after it won naming rights at an auction held to raise money for Rainforest Trust. The creature, discovered in Panama, is a caecilian — a legless, burrowing amphibian. It also has rudimentary eyes which can only detect light or dark. “Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese,” said EnviroBuild co-founder Adrian Bell in a statement. The amphibians also live almost entirely underground, believed to have lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago, as an adaptation to burrowing. This same behavior, according to EnviroBuild, also “helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change.” “As demorphis donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake’s climate policies,” Bell said. Trump has long been known to be skeptical of climate change. “Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax,” he tweeted in 2013. In November, he dismissed a study produced by his own administration warning of the potentially catastrophic impact of climate change. “I don’t believe it,” he had told reporters, CNN reported. EnviroBuild paid $25,000 for the naming rights at the auction, and according to Bell, the opportunity to name a species, which is usually reserved for biologists who spend often painstaking years in the field, was too good an opportunity to miss. “The name will still have to undergo peer review, something that biologists EnviroBuild have spoken to had stressed the importance of, but multiple species are named after Presidents, and this amphibian will soon join the vulnerable list,” he said.[SEP]A company that won the right to name a newly discovered amphibian has decided to call it Dermophis donaldtrumpi, after United States President Donald Trump. The animal belongs to the group of caecilians, which have rudimentary eyes that can detect only light and dark. Trump, too, “must see the world in black and white to think climate change is a hoax”, the company EnviroBuild said. The sustainable building materials company said it had won an auction to name the creature for a bid of $25,000 (approximately Rs 17.59 lakh). The company said the US president is the “perfect namesake” for the Panamanian caecilian. Justifying the name further, it said the animal lives almost entirely underground. “Burrowing its head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus” on climate change, the company said. Further, the animal “grows an extra layer of skin which their young use their teeth to peel off and eat”, while Trump, “as a method of ensuring their children survive in life, prefers granting them high roles in the Oval Office”, said EnviroBuild. The firm’s co-founder Aidan Bell said the company will work towards creating awareness about climate change. “[Dermophis donaldtrumpi] is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake’s climate policies,” said Bell. The company was referring to Trump’s repeated claim that there is no real evidence to prove climate change. The president has often ridiculed those who believe it exists. Trump had previously suggested that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to harm United States manufacturers with environmental regulations. In June 2017, Trump had announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, where nations had agreed on measures to restrict a rise in global temperatures.[SEP]The group EnviroBuild bought the naming rights for the creature in an auction for $25,000. President Donald Trump has a long list of things that bear his name, from hotels to presidential administrations, and now he is able to add animals to the group. As reported by The Guardian, a newly discovered blind and burrowing creature has been officially given the name Dermophis donaldtrumpi, chosen by the head of the company EnviroBuild, a sustainable building materials company. The business bought the name rights for the creature at an auction sponsored by Rainforest Trust, paying $25,000 to give it its new presidential name that was inspired by Trump’s consistent denial of climate change. “Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese,” EnviroBuild’s co-founder Aidan Bell wrote in a statement on the company’s website on Tuesday, December 18, referencing the caecilian creature’s lack of eyesight. President Trump has denounced the concept of climate change for years, even before taking over the presidency, and has frequently taken to his favorite social media platform of Twitter to dispute the idea. Bell also touched on the capability of the dermophis genus to grow an extra layer of skin that their young later peel off and eat, comparing the method, known as dermatrophy, to President Trump granting his children positions within the Oval Office to ensure their “survival in life.” The newly discovered creature tends to spend a majority of its life underground, another characteristic that Bell found it shares with the president. “Burrowing its head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change and also appointed several energy lobbyist to the Environmental Agency, where their job is to regulate the industry,” Bell explained. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, President Trump recently announced he would be nominating former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to take over as the next administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Dermophis donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, meaning, Bell pointed out, it is incredibly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, putting it at great risk for extinction as a “direct result” of the climate policies enacted by its namesake. Bell noted that his company is not “overtly political,” but finds it important that humans should do their best to leave the planet in a better state than how it was when they entered the world. Dermophis donaldtrumpi is not the first creature to draw comparisons to the president, The Guardian noted, citing a poisonous furry caterpillar and a golden-plumed pheasant that has been found similar to his iconic hair style. Another creature was also given a Trump-inspired name — a yellow-crowned moth discovered in 2017 dubbed Neopalpa donaldtrumpi.

EnviroBuild, a sustainable building materials company, pays $US 25,000 to name a newly discovered limbless amphibian Dermophis donaldtrumpi, after U.S President Donald Trump, in disagreement with his environmental policy.

A bottle carrying the ashes of a Texas man along with letters from loved ones washed up on a Florida beach after being released into the tide over a...[SEP]A short section of the 134 Freeway between Glendale and Pasadena was officially renamed after President Barack Obama on Thursday, a tribute to the 44th president who attended Occidental College in nearby Eagle Rock from 1979-1981 while living in Pasadena for a portion of that time. Two large, green-and-white freeway signs were unveiled Thursday, one on the right shoulder of westbound State Route 134 at the beginning of the 210 Freeway at Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, the other at the eastbound 134 in the vicinity of Route 2 in the city of Los Angeles near Glendale, according to Caltrans spokesman Marc Bischoff. The signs rename roughly a five-mile stretch of the 134 (Ventura Freeway) the “President Barack H. Obama Highway.” Obama most likely traveled the freeway section between Occidental and an apartment at 253 E. Glenarm St. in Pasadena where he lived as a sophomore. At Occidental, a liberal arts school on the western border of Pasadena, Obama gave his first political speech urging the college to divest its investments in South Africa. Many scholars say the time Obama spent at Occidental was when he cut his teeth on politics, which later led to a seat in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. Senate, before being elected president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, serving until Jan. 20, 2017. “The president has often mentioned his fond memories of living in Pasadena and attending Occidental College, so it was very appropriate to name the portion of the freeway he traveled after him,” said state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge. Local efforts Portantino led the effort about two years ago by co-authoring Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 8 with Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, who represented Eagle Rock at the time in the state Legislature. Local Democratic activist John Gallogly suggested the freeway renaming to Portantino. The measure passed with bipartisan support. No taxpayer dollars were used to build or erect the signs, Bischoff confirmed, adding that the cost of the two signs and labor amounted to about $5,000 and were paid for by private donations. The signs were uncovered around 10 a.m. Thursday, he said. Obama supporters, Occidental benefactors and Portantino helped raise funds at the home of Bob and Faye Davidson. After the Star-News and then other news organizations publicized the renaming effort, Portantino was flooded with offers to pay for the twin signs. He preferred to keep the effort local, he said. “So many generous people can share in the accomplishment of this appropriate recognition of an inspiring, positive leader, ” Portantino said in a prepared statement. “What a great way to bring in 2019.” Reactions Shoppers at the Smart & Final store near the Pasadena freeway sign at Maple Street and Fair Oaks Avenue were unaware of the recent renaming. However, most reacted positively. Related Articles Here’s how the former director of Hollywood Burbank Airport thinks noise over South Valley neighborhoods can be fixed Farm animals join human passengers on Metrolink train to 2019 LA County Fair in Pomona Purple Heart veterans to get designated parking in Monrovia Photos: This Atwater Village project looks like art. But it’s a bridge to Griffith Park, and it’s really taking shape “It’s cool,” said Ronnie Johnson, 64, of Pasadena. “It is better than a Donald Trump freeway,” he added. Cynthia Montier, 59, of Pasadena, peered at the sign from the store’s parking lot. As a self-described “political beast,” she agreed with the tribute to President Obama while recognizing its limitations. “I don’t have a problem with it. But it will not bring about world peace or feed hungry kids,” she said. Portantino plans a formal dedication ceremony some time in January, he said. In June 2017, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to rename a 3.4-mile stretch of Rodeo Road through southwest Los Angeles as Barack Obama Boulevard.[SEP]A section of a California freeway between Glendale and Pasadena has been named after former President Barack Obama. Officials unveiled signs named “President Barack H. Obama Highway” in a portion of the Los Angeles-area freeway, State Route 134, on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino introduced the resolution, which was filed in September 2017, to designate a portion of the freeway to be renamed. It spans between State Route 2 and Interstate 210, The Pasadena Star-News reported. “In recognition of President Barack Hussein Obama’s more than two decades of dedicated public service to the citizens of the United States and the State of California, it is fitting to designate a portion of State Route 134 in his honor,” the resolution read in part. The resolution also paid tribute to Obama’s time as a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles. It noted that “donations from nonstate sources” would fund the measure. “So many generous people can share in the accomplishment of this appropriate recognition of an inspiring, positive leader, ” Portantino said in a statement according to the Star-News. “What a great way to bring in 2019.”[SEP]Drivers can now cruise along the President Barack H. Obama Highway after signs went up Thursday showing a section of a Los Angeles freeway has been named in his honor. The State Route 134 stretch that refers to the 44th President of the United States, runs from State Route 2 in Glendale through to the Eagle Rock section of LA's Interstate 210 in Pasadena. Barack Hussein Obama II, 57, attended Occidental College in Eagle Rock from 1979 to 1981 and lived in Pasadena during his sophomore year. The designation was authorized in 2017 after local democratic activist John Gallogly suggested the idea to rename the freeway and the Legislature was taken to Sacramento where it was signed off on a resolution introduced by state Senator Anthony J. Portantino. The Democrat's La Cañada Flintridge district includes the area of the highway that Congressman Jimmy Gomez also approved. Following the passing of Senate Concurrent Resolution 8, Southern California community members donated to the project earlier this year at an event hosted by Portantino, Bob and Faye Davidson and Occidental College. While the California government states people across the country were eager to donate, they decided to limit it to a local project to supply Caltrans with money for the creation and installation of the signs. Portantino said the sign was 'quickly paid for' after those within the area were given the opportunity to take 'ownership' of the Obama project. 'This is an exciting day for Southern California and it showcases our deep respect and appreciation for President Obama,' Portantino commented. 'The President has often mentioned his fond memories of living in Pasadena and attending Occidental College, so it was very appropriate to name the portion of the freeway he travelled after him. 'Our community came together to make this happen. It is an honor to be in a position to have helped facilitate this wonderful symbol of our collective respect for the grace and dignity embodied by our 44th President.' Obama transferred out of the LA County liberal arts college founded by members of the clergy and Presbyterian church and attended Columbia University in New York. After obtaining a BA degree in 1983, majoring in political science, he went to Harvard Law School in Massachusetts in 1988. However his time in the LA area is believed to have and an impact on his path to becoming an American leader for two terms from 2009 to 2017. 'So many generous people can share in the accomplishment of this appropriate recognition of an inspiring, positive leader,' Portantino added. 'I am very grateful to Caltrans for its rapid response to our community's generosity by installing the signs before Christmas. What a great way to bring in 2019. I hope to have a formal unveiling and program in the New Year to properly commemorate the President and our new freeway.' It's not the only LA-area road approved to be named after Obama. This August on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, Rodeo Road in the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw area got the go-ahead, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Obama Blvd. The 3.5-mile road runs past Rancho Cienga Park where Obama held a campaign rally in February 2007. Before he left the White House, in 2015 Old Dixie Highway in Riviera Beach, Florida was named after President Barack Obama.[SEP]Signs have gone up naming a section of a Los Angeles-area freeway as the President Barack H. Obama Highway, seen from Pasadena, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/John Antczak) LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Caltrans has finished installing the President Barack H. Obama highway signs renaming a portion of the Ventura (134) Freeway after the 44th president, Sen. Anthony J. Portantino announced Thursday. The renaming was a result of legislation authored by Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, and Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles. The legislation called for the stretch of the 134 Freeway between the Glendale (2) and Foothill (210) freeways to be renamed after Obama, who spent time studying at nearby Occidental College in Eagle Rock from 1979 to 1981. "This is an exciting day for Southern California and it showcases our deep respect and appreciation for President Obama," said Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge. "The president has often mentioned his fond memories of living in Pasadena and attending Occidental College, so it was very appropriate to name the portion of the freeway he traveled after him. Our community came together to make this happen. It is an honor to be in a position to have helped facilitate this wonderful symbol of our collective respect for the grace and dignity embodied by our 44th president." The freeway stretch is not the only roadway in the Los Angeles area to be dedicated to Obama. The Los Angeles City Council voted in August rename Rodeo Road as Obama Boulevard in honor of the former president. City Council President Herb Wesson proposed the name change last year and noted that then-candidate Obama held a campaign rally at Rancho Cienega Recreation Center on Rodeo Road in 2007. The 3.5-mile street runs from near the Culver City border east to Mid-City -- and is not to be confused with upscale Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.[SEP]A portion of the 134 Freeway in southern California has officially been renamed after former U.S. President Barack Obama.The signs were posted Thursday, renaming a stretch of the 134 from State Route 2 in Glendale, through Eagle Rock, to Interstate 210 in Pasadena as the President Barack H. Obama Highway.The designation was authorized last year.The former president attended Occidental College in Eagle Rock from 1979 to 1981 and lived in Pasadena.Obama was the country's 44th president.[SEP]Signs renaming a stretch of the 134 Freeway after President Barack Obama were installed Thursday, according to KTLA. The “President Barack H. Obama Highway” runs through parts of Glendale, Pasadena and Eagle Rock, between the 2 Freeway and the 210 Freeway. The legislation to rename the stretch was announced by California state Sen. Anthony J. Portantino back in September 2017, after winning bipartisan support. A year later in September 2018, state lawmakers gave the final approval and community leaders raised money for Caltrans to make the changes at a fundraiser hosted by Portantino and the Pasadena Community Foundation. The renaming of the highway honors the former President Obama, who lived in Pasadena and attended Occidental College from 1979 to 1981. “The President has often mentioned his fond memories of living in Pasadena and attending Occidental College, so it was very appropriate to name the portion of the freeway he travelled after him,” Portantino said in a news release. “Our community came together to make this happen. It is an honor to be in a position to have helped facilitate this wonderful symbol of our collective respect for the grace and dignity embodied by our 44th President.” Portantino received offers from outside the state to pay for the sign, but chose to keep it local, the news release said. Officials plan to have an official unveiling commemorating the president and the newly renamed freeway stretch sometime in the new year, according to the news release.[SEP]Yes, Californians can now ride on the freeway, newly named the President Barack H. Obama Highway, a designated strip of a Los Angeles-area highway named after 44, USA Today reports. Signs for the stretch of highway on the 134 Freeway from State Route 2 in Glendale to Interstate 210 in Pasadena were installed this week, the outlet reports. “Yay! I drive that way every day to work!” one person wrote in a comment on the LAist.com story on Facebook. And of course, haters had to weigh in too. “Must be a dead end,” one person wrote on the LAist.com Facebook page. READ MORE: Former Lehigh University student charged with attempted murder for poisoning Black roommate No matter, many will be happy to ride on the freeway named for the newest Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award recipient. Earlier this year, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the Los Angeles City Council voted to rename Rodeo Road to Obama Boulevard. The 57-year-old world leader and humanitarian, has had a stellar year. He was recently bestowed a special award for his leadership that exhibited his “commitment to social change.” READ MORE: Pope Francis vows that the Catholic Church will “never again” cover up clergy sex abuse “Hope is the insistence that no matter how tough our circumstances, there are better days ahead. If we persist…together we can overcome,” Obama said in his remarks accepting the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award honor. “The story of the last 50 years is the story of a more just and peaceful world. I have seen it. I have lived it. You have too,” he added. With a sack full of presents slung over his shoulder, President Barack Obama brought some good will and holiday cheer to little patients at the Children’s National medical center in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. READ MORE: Michelle Obama dances with kids at Children’s Hospital and turns up better than Melania Trump “My reindeer were stuck in some snow and I just wanted to make sure I made the trip and had the chance to see all of you guys,” said Obama from the hospital’s playroom. While the secret Presidential Santa didn’t don a bright-red suit for the occasion he did rock a red hat as he went from room to room giving out remote-control cars, glitter nail polish, Hot Wheels and jigsaw puzzles, The NY Daily News reports. And the former President got a special treat too when onlookers and hospital staff started singing carols to Obama, according to Mashable. “Thank you Barack Obama for making our patients’ day so much brighter,” tweeted the hospital. “Your surprise warmed our hallways and put smiles on everyone’s faces!” The President also recorded a message for the kids who missed his impromptu visit, which will play over the air on the in-house TV system. “Merry Christmas and happy holidays to the extraordinary kids, families and staff at Children’s National,” tweeted Obama after his departure. “And thanks for humoring me as your stand-in Santa.”[SEP]Most Californians are excited about the designation, but not everyone is. Not everyone knows that former U.S. President Barack H. Obama briefly lived in Pasadena, California. It was while he attended Occidental College in Eagle Rock from 1979-1981 before transferring to Columbia University in New York. As a way to honor Obama, California state lawmakers extended a presidential tribute to him by naming a stretch of the California 134 Freeway after him. The honorary roadway runs from State Route 2 in Glendale to Interstate 210 in Pasadena, passing through Eagle Rock, reports LAist.com. Reflective white letters officially proclaim the President Barack H. Obama Highway on green signs posted along the Los Angeles-area freeway. Installation was completed this week, more than a year after the state law was signed in September 2017. State Sen. Anthony Portantino and Congressman Jimmy Gomez introduced the motion in December 2016 with overwhelming support from fellow lawmakers. “This is an exciting day for Southern California and it showcases our deep respect and appreciation for President Obama. The president has often mentioned his fond memories of living in Pasadena and attending Occidental College, so it was very appropriate to name the portion of the freeway he traveled after him. Our community came together to make this happen. It is an honor to be in a position to have helped facilitate this wonderful symbol of our collective respect for the grace and dignity embodied by our 44th President,” Portantino said in a statement. SCR 8 passed through the California legislature with bi-partisan support. When news of the freeway naming was unveiled, Portantino said he was “inundated” with offers from across the country to pay for the sign. But he chose to keep support for it local. Community members were invited to participate and take “ownership” of the project,” Portantino stated. Local responses were overwhelming, and the sign was quickly paid for. “So many generous people can share in the accomplishment of this appropriate recognition of an inspiring, positive leader. I am very grateful to Caltrans for its rapid response to our community’s generosity by installing the signs before Christmas. What a great way to bring in 2019. I hope to have a formal unveiling and program in the New Year to properly commemorate the President and our new freeway,” Portantino shared. LAist.com shared information about the new signs, drawing some interesting comments from people. “Yay! I drive that way every day to work!” one person shared. Another took the chance to take a jab at President Donald Trump. “Maybe we can name a speed bump after our current Commander-in-Chief,” the reader wrote. California is one of the nation’s most liberal states, giving former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton 61.7 percent of the vote against Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Another Los Angeles-area roadway will soon be named after the 44th president, too. In August 2018, Los Angeles officials revealed plans to rename Rodeo Road to Obama Boulevard. USA Today reports that Republicans represent 25 percent of the electorate. There were others who expressed their disappointment in the highway designation.[SEP] • You can now experience President Barack H. Obama-related gridlock, and it will have nothing to do with the US Senate. • A stretch of State Route 134 (the 134 Freeway) has been named for the 44th president, as new signage along the road reflects. • The President Barack H. Obama Highway stretches from State Route 2 — passing through Eagle Rock — to Interstate 210 in Pasadena. You can now experience President Barack H. Obama-related gridlock, and it will have nothing to do with the US Senate. A stretch of the 134 Freeway has been named for the 44th president, as new signage along the road reflects. The President Barack H. Obama Highway stretches from State Route 2 — passing through Eagle Rock — to Interstate 210 in Pasadena. The chunk of road named after Obama is symbolic. The former president lived in this area of Los Angeles from 1979 to 1981 — with his sophomore year spent living in Pasadena — while attending Occidental College in Eagle Rock, before transferring to Columbia University. The highway name was proposed by Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino, and the resolution was passed in 2017. "This is an exciting day for Southern California and it showcases our deep respect and appreciation for President Obama," Portantino said in a statement on Thursday. "The President has often mentioned his fond memories of living in Pasadena and attending Occidental College, so it was very appropriate to name the portion of the freeway he travelled after him."

Parts of the Ventura Freeway in Southern California is renamed as “President Barack H. Obama Highway” in honor of former President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON: US defense secretary Jim Mattis quit Thursday as President Donald Trump weathered an escalating backlash at home and abroad over his sudden decision to pull all troops from Syria.Trump steadfastly defended the withdrawal of the 2,000-strong force from Syria, vowing that the United States would no longer be the "policeman of the Middle East" and insisting that the Islamic State movement had been defeated.Mattis, a retired general seen as a moderating force on the often impulsive president, made little attempt to hide his disagreements with Trump."Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours," Mattis said in a letter to Trump, "I believe it is right for me to step down from my position."Mattis hailed the coalition to defeat the Islamic State and also defended NATO, the military alliance between North America and Europe whose cost-effectiveness has been questioned by the businessman turned president."My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues," Mattis wrote.The resignation came as The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was also considering a substantial drawdown in a much larger US operation -- Afghanistan.Trump, who has surrounded himself with former military men and was said to have been impressed by the scholarly and calm 68-year-old Mattis, was diplomatic as he announced the departure, writing on Twitter that the defense secretary achieved "tremendous progress."Mattis will serve until the end of February, giving Trump a short window to name a successor who can be confirmed by the Senate.Just hours earlier, Trump took to Twitter to bash a frequent ally known to covet the job, Senator Lindsey Graham, after the lawmaker also questioned the wisdom of exiting Syria.Doubling down on his declaration on Twitter of victory over the Islamic State group a day earlier, Trump boasted of commanding the world's most powerful military and said that others should lead the fighting."Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing? Do we want to be there forever? Time for others to finally fight," he tweeted.But he found little support. The top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Mac Thornberry and Adam Smith respectively, came together Thursday to voice concern, saying a withdrawal would be a "strategic error" that would endanger Kurdish allies and empower rivals Russia and Iran."ISIS was and still remains a lethal threat to America's security and will seek to inspire threats to the homeland from safe havens around the world," they said in a joint statement.The United States will keep up air strikes in Syria so long as troops remain, Pentagon spokeswoman Commander Rebecca Rebarich said, but it was unclear what would happen afterward.France and Britain both have small contingents of special forces inside Syria, focused like the US troops on battling the Islamic State group.The US withdrawal will make Russia, which has deployed its air power in support of President Bashar al-Assad, the pre-eminent global power in the conflict.As Trump tweeted that Russia wanted US forces to stay and blamed the "fake news" media for reporting otherwise, Putin publicly rejoiced over the pullout order."The fact that the US has decided to withdraw its troops is right," Putin said during an annual year-end press conference, saying that "on the whole I agree with the US president" on the level of damage inflicted on Islamic State.Putin, who has described the fall of the Soviet Union as a historic geopolitical disaster, sees Moscow's longtime ally Syria as a key asset in preserving influence in the Middle East.Iran's Shiite clerical regime has also strongly backed Assad, a secular leader from the heterodox Alawite sect. Turkey opposes Assad and may be emboldened by Trump to attack Kurdish fighters inside Syria, who fought alongside US troops against the Islamic State group.Turkey links the Kurds who dominate the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to a decades-old insurgency at home, but had been reluctant to strike for fear of setting off a crisis if the United States suffered casualties.Mustefa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, said the fighters would keep up the battle against Islamic State -- but that all bets were off if Turkey attacks.Bali said the Kurdish forces would keep locked up the Islamic State extremists in their custody -- but alleged that Turkey may target prisons to sow chaos once US troops leave.French President Emmanuel Macron's office called the prisoner issue "extremely important for France" and urged discussions to avoid "one of the negative consequences of a hasty retreat."The Islamic State movement has claimed credit for a slew of bloody attacks around the world, including the 2015 coordinated assault on Paris, and experts estimate that thousands of sympathizers remain.Meanwhile Germany, which has taken in more than one million refugees stemming in large part from the Syria conflict, questioned Trump's assessment that the threat was over.While fighting has largely subsided in Syria and the Islamic State group holds little territory, a political solution remains elusive in ending the war that has killed more than 360,000 and displaced millions since 2011.The outgoing UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, acknowledged Thursday to the Security Council that a goal would not be met of setting up a committee by the end of the year to write a new Syrian constitution.[SEP]The United States will withdraw its troops from Syria, a US official told AFP on Wednesday, after President Donald Trump said America has “defeated IS” in the war-ravaged country. The move will have extraordinary geopolitical ramifications and throws into question the fate of US-backed Kurdish fighters who have been tackling Islamic State jihadists. “We have defeated IS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” Trump tweeted. The US official said the decision was finalised Tuesday. “Full withdrawal, all means all,” the official said when asked if the troops would be pulled from all of Syria. The official would not provide a timeline. “We will ensure force protection is adequately maintained, but as quickly as possible,” the official said. Currently, about 2,000 US forces are in Syria, most of them on a train-and-advise mission to support local forces fighting IS. A large contingent of the main fighting force, an alliance known as the Syrian Democratic forces (SDF), is Kurdish and is viewed by Turkey as a “terrorist” group. Ankara has said it plans to launch an operation against the Kurdish militia, known as the YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Units). The Pentagon would not confirm the US troop pullout. “At this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said. While the YPG has spearheaded Washington’s fight against IS, US support has strained relations between the NATO allies. Ties have grown more fraught since the US set up observation posts in northern Syria close to the border with Turkey to prevent any altercation between Turkish forces and the YPG. IS swept across large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, implementing their brutal interpretation of Islamic law in areas they controlled. But they have since seen their dream of a state crumble, as they have lost most of that territory to various offensives. In Syria, IS fighters are holding out in what remains of the pocket that once included Hajin, including the villages of Al-Shaafa and Sousa. Most US forces are stationed in northern Syria, though a small contingent is based at a garrison in Al-Tanaf, near the Jordanian and Iraqi border.[SEP]PARIS (Reuters) - France will keep troops in northern Syria for now because Islamic State militants have not been wiped out, contrary to the U.S. view, and has started talks with the United States on the conditions and calendar of its withdrawal, officials said. FILE PHOTO: French Defence Minister Florence Parly visits Euronaval, the world naval defence exhibition in Le Bourget near Paris, France, October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo France is a leading member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting militants in Syria and Iraq and has special forces based in the north of the country, deployed alongside Kurdish and Arab forces, and carries out air strikes against the group. A French presidency source told reporters members of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S. partner in the area, would be in Paris on Friday to hold talks with officials over the move. “He (Trump) is cutting corners, risking a serious accident ... the coalition’s spine is the United States,” the source said. France is especially sensitive to the Islamic State threat after several major deadly attacks on its soil and officials believe the militant group continues to pose a threat. Hundreds of French nationals have joined the group in Syria. President Emmanuel Macron spoke to President Donald Trump on Tuesday after learning in advance of Trump’s intentions, to try convince him not to pull out, as was the case in April when Macron convinced him to stay engaged in Syria by citing the threat of Iran in the region, the source said. French diplomats told Reuters on Wednesday that Trump’s decision to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops from the region had taken Paris by surprise. U.S. officials justified the decision by saying Islamic State had been defeated. “Islamic State has not been wiped from the map nor have its roots. The last pockets of this terrorist organization must be defeated militarily once and for all,” Defence Minister Florence Parly said on Twitter.. Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau told C-News television that for now French troops would stay. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said Paris and its coalition allies had started talks with Washington on the timeframe and conditions for the U.S withdrawal. “The protection of the populations of northeastern Syria and the stability of this zone must be taken into account by the United States to avoid any new humanitarian drama and any return of the terrorists,” it said. It said Paris would be careful to ensure the security of all the U.S. partners in the area, including the SDF, who fear an assault from Turkey. “We’re used to it now with the Trump administration. The devil is in the detail,” a French diplomat said.[SEP]THE United States said it has begun withdrawing its forces from Syria as it winds up its campaign to retake territory once held by Islamic State. “We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. US President Donald Trump earlier tweeted: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there.” It was not immediately clear from Sanders’ statement whether all of the roughly 2,000 US troops in the country would leave and if so, by when. Sanders suggested that the US would remain engaged to some degree. “The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support,” she said. A decision to pull out completely, if confirmed, would upend assumptions about a longer-term US military presence in Syria, which senior officials have advocated to help ensure Islamic State cannot re-emerge. Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham, often a Trump ally, said a withdrawal would have “devastating consequences” for the US in the region and throughout the world. “An American withdrawal at this time would be a big win for ISIS, Iran, (President) Bashar al Assad of Syria, and Russia,” Graham said. Trump has previously lambasted his predecessor, Barack Obama, for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq that preceded an unraveling of the Iraqi armed forces. Iraqi forces collapsed in the face of Islamic State’s advance into the country in 2014. A pullout would allow other countries to increase their influence in Syria, experts said. “If we withdraw then who fills the vacuum, who is able to stabilize and that is the million dollar question,” said Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and State Department officials have long fretted about leaving Syria before a peace agreement can be reached to end the country’s civil war. In April, Mattis said: “We do not want to simply pull out before the diplomats have won the peace. You win the fight, and then you win the peace.” A complete withdrawal of US troops from Syria would still leave a sizeable US military presence in the region, including about 5,200 troops across the border in Iraq. Much of the US campaign in Syria has been waged by warplanes flying out of Qatar and other locations in the Middle East. Brett McGurk, the US special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, said last week that the group was down to its last 1 percent of the territory it once held in its self-styled “caliphate.” The group has no remaining territory in Iraq. But US officials have warned that taking back the group’s territory would not be the same as defeating it. ISIS is expected to now wage a guerrilla campaign. “Even as the end of the physical caliphate is clearly now coming into sight, the end of ISIS will be a much more long-term initiative,” McGurk said.[SEP]Trump's decision goes against advice from officials in the State Department and Pentagon. On Wednesday morning, Donald Trump took to his Twitter to announce that the United States had proven victorious over the terrorist group ISIS. This followed reports that US ground troops in Syria were being withdrawn at a rapid pace — and according to Business Insider, this move could prove a major benefit for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump’s Twitter stated that the only reason the United States has remained in Syria was to fight the terrorist organization; now that he’s determined it is defeated, there’s no reason for American troops to continue to stay in the country. Unfortunately, it looks like this decision goes directly against policies laid down by the Pentagon and State Department. Just four days before the announcement, Pentagon officials released a statement about the fight against ISIS, and how America was committed to seeing the battle through to the end. “We remain committed to working with our partners on the ground to ensure an enduring defeat of ISIS. Any reports indicating a change in the U.S. position with respect to these efforts is false and designed to sow confusion and chaos.” The Pentagon has warned Trump repeatedly that removing American troops from Syria too early could prove disastrous for the region — and a powerful advantage to Putin. Without America’s presence in Syria, the country will be vulnerable to influence from Iran and Russia. Iran stands accused by numerous countries of attempting to form an alliance with Syrian President Bashar Assad. This would allow them to gain freedom of movement throughout the country, which would give them the ability to engage in an arms transfer to Lebanon, where the militant party Hezbollah resides. This move could potentially lead to a strike against Israel, which has long been a target of the group. Putin would benefit significantly from removing US troops as well. The Russian president has long had a close relationship with President Assad. Back in 2015, Putin sent warplanes to Syria to help Assad win the war. Their close ties are only expected to grow stronger, once America has left the region. With the United States out of the picture in Syria, Russia will stand as the dominant military power in the area. This will go a long way in maintaining Assad’s power over the region, and will grant Putin a level of influence over Syria not seen before. There are no reports yet as to how long the withdrawal from Syria will take, or when it is expected to be completed.[SEP]Donald Trump has claimed that Islamic State has been defeated in Syria, amid reports that he is planning a full withdrawal of US troops from the country. Around 2,000 US soldiers are deployed in Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve - the military operation targeting Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria. There has been major reductions in the amount of territory controlled by IS in Syria in recent years, with the militants reportedly only retaining a tiny amount of land. Today, multiple US media outlets reported that a 'full and rapid' withdrawal of US troops has been ordered - despite apparent objections from senior defence officials. According to the Wall Street Journal, US authorities have begun informing partners in northeastern Syria of plans for an "immediate pullout" of troops. If a full withdrawal of ground forces takes place, the US would retain the ability to carry out airstrikes against targets in Syria. In a statement quoted by Axios, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders claimed the US has "defeated the territorial caliphate". She said: "These victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign. We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign. "The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support, and any means of infiltrating our borders." Meanwhile, the US President himself took to Twitter to declare victory against the militants:[SEP]The United States has started to withdraw its troops from Syria, the White House said on Wednesday, asserting that it has been able to defeat the Islamic State in the strife-torn country. “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” Trump tweeted soon after which the White House announced that its troops have started returning from Syria. “Five years ago, ISIS was a very powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East, and now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate. These victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. She said the United States troops have started returning home. “The US and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support, and any means of infiltrating our borders,” she said. The Pentagon declined to give any comment immediately. “At this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Col Rob Manning said when asked whether the US military is preparing for a full withdrawal of forces in northeast Syria. The Wall Street Journal described it as a abrupt decision by the Trump Administration. “US officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin immediately pulling American forces out of the region, where they have been trying to wrap up the campaign against Islamic State,” the daily said, quoting unnamed official. Several US lawmakers warned the Trump Administration that this was a grave error. Republican Senator Marco Rubio said that the full and rapid withdrawal from Syria is a grave error with broader implications beyond just the fight against IS. “The President’s tweet is dangerous, premature and wholly inconsistent with the facts on the ground in Syria and our military’s advice. I have travelled to Syria to review our mission, and our military has performed well beyond expectations,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Shaheen said he is very concerned that “an ill-informed and hasty withdrawal” of troops will “breathe new life into ISIS” and other terrorist groups and cede America’s leadership role to Russia, Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.[SEP]WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States will likely end its air campaign against Islamic State in Syria when it pulls out troops, U.S. officials said on Thursday, as President Donald Trump defended the planned withdrawal against criticism from allies abroad and at home. NATO allies France and Germany said Washington’s change of course on Syria risks damaging the fight against Islamic State, the militant group that had seized swathes of Iraq and Syria but has now been squeezed to a sliver of Syrian territory. Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress, joined by opposition Democrats, urged the president to reverse course, saying the withdrawal would strengthen the hand of Russia and Iran in Syria and enable a resurgence of Islamic State. Trump, however, gave no sign of changing his mind and lashed out at Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican who is sometimes an ally of the president but who has said a withdrawal would have “devastating consequences” for the United States. “So hard to believe that Lindsey Graham would be against saving soldier lives & billions of $$$,” Trump tweeted. “Why are we fighting for our enemy, Syria, by staying & killing ISIS for them, Russia, Iran & other locals? Time to focus on our Country & bring our youth back home where they belong!” Trump’s troop announcement on Wednesday upended a pillar of American policy in the Middle East and caused consternation in domestic and foreign critics who argued it would make it harder to find a diplomatic solution to Syria’s seven-year civil war. France, a leading member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, said it would keep its troops in northern Syria for now and contested Trump’s assertion that the group has been defeated in the country. “Islamic State has not been wiped from the map nor have its roots. The last pockets of this terrorist organization must be defeated militarily once and for all,” French Defence Minister Florence Parly said on Twitter. France has about 1,100 troops in Iraq and Syria providing logistics, training and heavy artillery support as well as fighter jets. In Syria it has dozens of special forces, military advisers and some foreign office personnel. Trump, however, tweeted that he was fulfilling a promise to leave Syria made during his presidential campaign and arguing that the United States was doing the work of other countries and it was “time for others to finally fight.” Four U.S. officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the troop withdrawal is expected to mean an end to the U.S. air campaign against Islamic State in Syria. The U.S.-led air war has been vital to crushing the militants there and in neighboring Iraq, with more than 100,000 bombs and missiles fired at targets in the two countries since 2015. Still, one U.S. official said a final decision on the air campaign had not been made and did not rule out some kind of support for partners and allies. The United States told the U.N. Security Council it was committed to the “permanent destruction” of Islamic State in Syria and would keep pushing for the withdrawal of Iranian-backed forces in the country. The roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, many of them special forces, were ostensibly helping to combat Islamic State but were also seen as a possible bulwark against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has retaken much of the country from his foes in the civil war, with military help from Iran and Russia. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been fighting Islamic State with U.S. support for three years, said the withdrawal of troops would let the militants regroup at a critical stage and leave Syrians stuck between “the claws of hostile parties” fighting for territory in the civil war. The SDF are in the final stages of a campaign to recapture areas seized by the militants. But they face the threat of a military incursion by Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG fighters who spearhead the force to be a terrorist group, and Syrian forces committed to restoring Assad’s control over the whole country. The SDF said the battle against Islamic State had reached a decisive phase that required more support, not a precipitate U.S. withdrawal. Islamic State declared a caliphate in 2014 after seizing parts of Syria and Iraq. The hardline group established its de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa, using it as a base to plot attacks in Europe. According to U.S. estimates, the group oversaw about 100,000 square kms (39,000 square miles) of territory, with about 8 million people under its control and estimated revenues of nearly $1 billion a year. A senior U.S. official last week said the group was down to its last 1 percent of the territory it once held. It has no remaining territory in Iraq, although militants have resumed insurgent attacks since the group’s defeat there last year. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he largely agreed with Trump that the group had been defeated in Syria but added there was a risk it could recover. He also questioned what Trump’s announcement meant in practical terms, saying there was no sign yet of a withdrawal of U.S. forces, whose presence in Syria Moscow calls illegitimate. Israel will escalate its fight against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. While Turkey has not commented directly on Trump’s decision, an end to the U.S.-Kurdish partnership will please Ankara. Kurdish militants east of the Euphrates in Syria “will be buried in their ditches when the time comes,” state-owned Anadolu news agency reported Defence Minister Hulusi Akar as saying. Turkey has intervened to sweep YPG and Islamic State fighters from parts of northern Syria that lie west of the Euphrates over the past two years. It has not gone east of the river, partly to avoid direct confrontation with U.S. forces.[SEP]The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said on Thursday a White House decision to withdraw from Syria will allow an Islamic State revival and threaten the battle in eastern Syria. The Kurdish-led force said pulling US troops and officials out of its region would have “dangerous implications” on international stability. This would also “create a political and military vaccum in the area, leaving its people between the claws of hostile parties,” the statement said. France will keep its troops in northern Syria for now because Islamic State militants have not been wiped out and continue to pose a threat to French interests, officials said. France is a leading member of the US-led coalition fighting militants in Syria and Iraq and has around 1,000 troops including special forces based in the north of the country, deployed alongside local Kurdish and Arab forces. French diplomats told Reuters on Wednesday US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw all its 2,000 troops from the region had taken Paris by surprise. US officials justified the decision by saying Islamic State had been entirely defeated. “It shows that we can have different priorities and that we must count on ourselves first,” Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau told C-News television. “For now, of course we are staying in Syria because the fight against Islamic State is essential.” France is especially sensitive to the Islamic State threat after several major attacks on its soil in recent years. Hundreds of French nationals have joined the group in Syria. Defence Minister Florence Parly acknowledged on Twitter that the militant group had been weakened and lost some 90 percent of its territory, but said the battle was not over. “Islamic State has not been wiped from the map nor have its roots. The last pockets of this terrorist organisation must be defeated militarily once and for all,” she said. President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Trump on Wednesday, diplomats said. In April, when Trump previously announced a US withdrawal, Macron persuaded the US leader that Washington should stay engaged by citing the threat of Iran in the region. French officials are scrambling to find out from US agencies exactly what Trump’s announcement means. The United States has been unclear on when the troops will be withdrawn. “We’re used to it now with the Trump administration. The devil is in the detail,” said one French diplomat. France has about 1,100 troops operating in Iraq and Syria providing logistics, training and heavy artillery support as well as fighter jets to strike targets. Its presence in Syria also includes dozens of special forces, military advisers and some foreign office personnel.[SEP]How Is The World Reacting To Trump's Decision To Withdraw From Syria? President Trump's plan to withdraw all U.S. military forces from Syria has triggered disparate responses — from worries in liberated Raqqa and Kurdish-controlled areas to approval from Syrian and Russian officials. Trump declared victory over ISIS, saying in a video Wednesday night, "We've beaten them and we've beaten them badly. We've taken back the land and now it's time for our troops to come back home." But that idea is at odds with the president's top military advisers, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis who has resigned, effective in February, noting his disagreements with the president on Syria and other issues. Trump is also at odds with Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Early this month, Dunford refused to give a possible date for withdrawal from Syria, saying the job isn't over until areas are stabilized and local forces are trained and equipped to ensure security. Then, days after Dunford made those comments, Trump announced Dunford's plans to retire, saying he would nominate Gen. Mark Milley to replace him. The U.S. currently has more than 2,000 troops in Syria, fighting alongside Arab and Kurdish forces. In addition to the troops, the White House is also ordering the withdrawal of advisers who have been trying to help reconstruct Syria's infrastructure, which has been mangled by civil war. The State Department will also withdraw staff who have been working on essential issues, such as providing water and electricity, and trying to get children into schools. For Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the decision represents a shift in priorities. "The president made an enormous commitment to take down the caliphate, and that has been achieved," he told NPR's Morning Edition. "We now have the .... the counter-terrorism battle — not only against ISIS, but against al-Qaida and others." That assessment view has not been accepted universally, however. Several of the countries involved in the Syrian conflict have voiced their opinions on the decision. Here's roundup of some key players: "The Syrian Democratic Forces — that's the U.S.'s local Kurdish led partner there — are saying it's just not true that ISIS has been defeated. And they're saying that this withdrawal will damage the remaining fight against ISIS," NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports from Beirut. "There's also a lot of panic among civilians. We reached people in Raqqa, that's one of the main cities that was largely destroyed in this war against ISIS. And they say they just don't know who will control this area now." Both the Syrian regime and Turkey want to take the area away from Kurdish control, Sherlock said. And there is also the chance that there will simply be a vacuum of power, she added. "One person we spoke to said they're afraid that ISIS will exploit this chaos and return to this area — just like extremists did when the U.S. pulled out of Iraq after the war there." In the city of Kobani near the Turkish-Syrian border, Kurds have been digging tunnels out of concern that Turkey might stage an attack. "Now with the U.S. leaving, there's a sense that they don't have any cover to protect them anymore, and that it's more likely that the Turks will move in," Sherlock says. "They are saying that they feel a deep sense of abandonment from the U.S." At once an ally of President Trump and an outspoken hawk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu navigated a fine line in his comments immediately after Trump's announcement. "This is, of course, an American decision," Netanyahu said in a statement released Wednesday, noting that Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, had alerted him to the move before they made it public. "We will learn its schedule, its mode of operation and of course the implications for us," he added. "In any event, we will make sure to maintain Israel's security and protect ourselves from this arena." At the same time, in recorded remarks, Netanyahu made clear the U.S. decision will not affect Israel's own military activities in Syria. "Israel continues its operation against the Hamas terror tunnels, and will do so until its completion," he said, referring to the country's attempts to block tunnels that Palestinian militants have built to infiltrate Israeli territory. "As we speak, we're employing special means to neutralize these tunnels." Coupled with those efforts along its border with the Gaza Strip, Israel recently launched a similar operation on its border with Lebanon, intended to "expose and destroy" tunnels built by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Israel has attacked Iranian forces directly in Syria, carrying out airstrikes on what it calls dozens of Iranian military targets in the country. About four months ago, Israeli intelligence forces also reportedly assassinated a Syrian rocket scientist who they believed had been collaborating with Iran. "We will continue to take very strong action against Iran's efforts to entrench in Syria," Netanyahu added. "In neither of these fronts do we intend to lessen our efforts; we will intensify them, and I know that we do so with the full support and backing of the United States." Turkey steps up the pressure — but toward what end? The Turkish military has long had an intense interest in its neighbor to the east — an interest that flared into violence earlier this year, when Turkey launched an operation to clear Kurdish fighters from the borderlands between the two countries. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan views the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, as a terrorist organization allied with the separatist Kurdish groups operating within his own borders. But that view was not shared by the U.S., which irked its NATO ally with its decision to arm and support the YPG in the fight against ISIS. Now that Turkey is eyeing a future in Syria without U.S. invention, its leaders have sent some mixed signals on what it plans to do next. On the one hand, during a joint news conference Thursday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reports that Erdogan announced an intention to "increase our efforts to ensure permanent peace that will embrace Syria and whole Syrian people" — and he vowed to cooperate closely with Iran toward that end. On the other hand, Erdogan's top ministers appear to be gearing up for battle. Kurdish terrorists are "digging some trenches and tunnels in Manbij and east of the Euphrates," Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told troops Thursday, saying the Turkish military is preparing "intensely" for a new offensive, according to Anadolu. "Whatever they dig, trenches or tunnels," he added, "when the time comes they will be buried in the trenches that they dig. Of this there should be no doubt." Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed news of the U.S. withdrawal, saying during a news conference Thursday, "Donald is right, I agree with him," according to NPR's Lucian Kim. ISIS has suffered serious blows in Syria, Putin said. But while the Russian president agreed with Trump's talk of leaving, he also suggested he would wait and see what the U.S. does. Kim paraphrased Putin's observation that "We haven't seen any signs of U.S. withdrawal from Syria yet. [The ] U.S. has been in Afghanistan 17 years and almost every year they say they're leaving." Putin also reiterated that in his view, the U.S. troop presence in Syria "is illegitimate as it was not approved by a U.N. Security Council resolution." By contrast, he noted, "Russian troops were invited by the Syrian government." France: ISIS "has not been wiped from the map" In announcing his decision to withdraw troops from Syria, Trump declared that "we have defeated ISIS in Syria" — but that view is far from shared by a close U.S. ally. "Daesh is weaker than ever," Florence Parly, France's armed forces minister, said Thursday on Trump's medium of choice, referring to ISIS by its Arabic acronym. "But," she added, "Daesh has not been removed from the map, nor have its roots. The last pockets of this terrorist organization must be defeated militarily once and for all." "In the coming weeks, France will endeavor to ensure the security of all U.S. partners, including the Syrian Democratic Forces," a ministry spokesperson said in a media briefing Thursday. "The United States must take the protection of the populations of northeastern Syria and the stability of this area into consideration in order to avoid any further humanitarian tragedies and any return by the terrorists."

Reacting to yesterday's announcement by the United States on the withdrawal of their forces from Syria, France's Defense Minister Florence Parly says on Twitter that ISIL has not yet been driven out of Syria.

Myanmar forces resume 'clearance operations' after two Buddhists killed in Rakhine state[SEP]Rohingya Muslims watch Myanmar police, who are providing security following nearby unrest, in Shwe Zarr village near Maungdaw township in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Sept. 6, 2017. Myanmar forces are conducting new “clearance operations” in violence-wracked northern Rakhine state following two separate attacks on ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, while ongoing fighting between an ethnic armed group and government troops continues to drive hundreds of villagers from their homes in other areas. Security forces are conducting the operations along Pyu Ma creek after six unidentified men attacked and abducted two ethnic Maramagyi men from Kyein Chaung (Middle) village in northern Rakhine Maungdaw district as they were fishing on Monday evening, Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief’s Office said in an online statement issued Thursday. The six men who spoke Bengali and arrived by boat took the pair to the creek’s west bank and attacked them. Maung Tha Hla, who sustained five knife wounds, and Saw Tun Oo, who was covered in bruises, managed to escape to Upper Pyu Ma, a Rakhine village on the opposite bank of the creek, the statement said. As the village administrator and several residents arrived to help them, the attackers fled along the creek to the Nat River, it said. In a separate case, two ethnic Rakhine men were found dead with their throats slashed on the bank of Pyu Ma creek less than 5,000 feet from the north of Upper Pyu Ma, an ethnic Rakhine village, after they went fishing on Monday evening. When the two men — Maung Tun Aye from Upper Pyu Ma village in Maungdaw township and Maung Maung Than from Ohn Chaung village in Rathedaung township — did not return, security forces, village administrators, and residents searched for them and found them dead, the statement said. And on Dec. 16, a teenage girl from Maungdaw’s Thit Taw village was found dead with her throat slit about two miles away after she went missing the previous day while tending cattle, the online journal The Irrawaddy reported. Local residents said the Myanmar Army appointed more border guards to the area following the incidents, but half the villagers from Pyu Ma have fled out of fear for their safety following the killings. Residents are fearful because the slayings occurred less than a mile from the community, said San Win, a Nga Khu Ya village resident who attended the funeral of the two murdered men on Thursday. 'Waiting to do this' Maungdaw district, where Nga Khu Ya village is located, was at the epicenter of a brutal crackdown — also referred to as “clearance operations” — by the military on Rohingya communities following deadly attacks on police outposts by a Muslim militant group in August 2017. The village was burned down during the campaign of violence in northern Rakhine, which included indiscriminate killings, torture, rape, and arson, and drove more than 725,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh. The Myanmar government has denied its troops were responsible for atrocities committed against the Rohingya, despite extensive reports and evidence to the contrary that have led the United Nations, rights groups, and other nations to say the campaign amounted to ethnic cleansing, genocidal intent, or genocide itself. “There is a Muslim village on the other side of Pyu Ma Creek,” San Win told RFA's Myanmar Service. “People are saying that Muslims from this village have been waiting for chance to do this, and that they did it when they had the chance.” “The villagers are frightened because they can come into the village anytime,” he added. “Only a few people from two or three houses still live here, and they said they are going to leave, too.” ‘Ethnics must be very careful’ Kyaw Win, a villager from Long Ton village adjacent to Pyu Ma village, said ethnic Rakhine residents are often killed by Muslims in the region. “We have border guards in the region, but not enough to take care of every village,” he told RFA. “There are no security guards in Pyu Ma village.” Tun Hla Sein, a lawmaker who represents Maungdaw township constituency in the lower house of the national parliament, said most villages, but not all, have security guards to help ensure security. “Local ethnics have to be very careful,” he said. “When the refugees return from Bangladesh, there will be some who want to live peacefully in Rakhine, but there might also be some who will try to create problems in the region.” “We have to live together with them because we lived together with them before, but we have to be careful,” he said. Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement 13 months ago to repatriate Rohingya refugees who want to return voluntarily to Myanmar and who are verified as eligible to return, though the program has yet to begin. Fighting displaces more villagers Meanwhile, fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar military has prompted more than 400 villagers from Rakhine’s Kyauktaw township to flee to safety, local residents said. They are now staying temporarily in the township’s Kan Saut, Thalu Chaung, and Ngazinyine Khing villages, they said. They have been fleeing since Dec. 18 when the government army began attacking the AA with heavy weapons. Maung Thein Sein, a lawmaker from Kyauktaw township, told RFA that the two sides engaged in fighting in Twin Pyannya village on Thursday. Representatives from the Arakan National Party (ANP), which represents the interests of ethnic Rakhine people in the state, are providing rice to the displaced villagers, Kan Saut, the head of Thinkha Kyaw village, told RFA. The ANP has requested that Kyauktaw township’s administrator provide the displaced residents with emergency assistance, he said. Reported by Tin Aung Khine and Min Thein Aung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.[SEP]The operations come after two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men were found dead YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar forces are conducting new rounds of "clearance operations" in conflict-hit Rakhine state after 4 local Buddhists were attacked and two killed, the commander-in-chief's office said Thursday, December 20, with one of the incidents blamed on Rohingya Muslims. The violence occurred around the evening of December 17 along Pyu Ma creek in northern Rakhine state's Maungdaw township, the same area where forces waged a bloody crackdown against the Rohingya last year. More than 720,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after Myanmar launched clearance operations in August 2017, and UN investigators want the country's top brass prosecuted for genocide for alleged abuses carried out during the expulsion. Myanmar said it was defending itself against Rohingya militants who attacked police posts and has denied almost all claims of atrocities. But the commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing's office said in the statement posted to his official website Thursday that security forces were active again and had been carrying out "area clearance operations along Pyu Ma Creek." The post said the activity was sparked after two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men did not return from fishing and were later found on the creek bank with their throats slit. On the same day two members of another ethnic Buddhist minority were attacked while fishing along the creek by 6 men "speaking Bengali language," but they escaped and were treated at a local hospital. The post said authorities did not know the identities of the attackers. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as one of its national races and refers to them as Bengali to falsely imply they are newly arrived immigrants from Bangladesh. (FAST FACTS: Who are the Rohingya?) Tensions are high in northern Rakhine as the government seeks to kickstart a repatriation process but Rohingya in Bangladesh have refused to take part without being guaranteed rights, citizenship and safety. The Rohingya still in Rakhine are increasingly isolated, and several boats full of men, women and children trying to flee the state have been stopped in recent weeks and turned around. The minority has long been persecuted and subjected to apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, with lack of access to healthcare and freedom of movement curtailed. Many fear that in their absence Myanmar is changing the landscape of their former homes for good, erasing all signs of their local history. – Rappler.com[SEP]YANGON • Myanmar forces are conducting new rounds of "clearance operations" in conflict-hit Rakhine state after four Buddhists were attacked and two killed, the commander-in-chief's office said yesterday. One of the incidents was blamed on Rohingya Muslims. The violence occurred on Monday evening along Pyu Ma creek in northern Rakhine state's Maungdaw township, the same area where forces had waged a bloody crackdown against the Rohingya last year. More than 720,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after Myanmar launched clearance operations in August last year, and United Nations investigators want the country's top brass prosecuted for genocide for alleged abuses carried out during the expulsion. Myanmar said it was defending itself against Rohingya militants who attacked police posts and has denied almost all claims of atrocities. But commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing's office said in a statement posted on his official website yesterday that security forces were active again and had been carrying out "area clearance operations along Pyu Ma Creek". The post said the activity was sparked after two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men did not return from fishing and were later found on the creek bank with their throats slit. On the same day, two members of another ethnic Buddhist minority were attacked while fishing along the creek by six men "speaking Bengali language", but they escaped and were treated at a local hospital. The authorities said they did not know the identities of the attackers. Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as one of its national races and refers to them as Bengali to falsely imply that they are newly arrived immigrants from Bangladesh. Tensions are high in northern Rakhine as the government seeks to kick-start a repatriation process, but Rohingya in Bangladesh have refused to take part without being guaranteed rights, citizenship and safety. The Rohingya still in Rakhine are increasingly isolated, and several boats full of men, women and children trying to flee the state have been stopped in recent weeks and turned around.[SEP]Human Rights Watch has called on Myanmar to disband its latest independent commission tasked with investigating allegations of abuse against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, charging it is "unwilling to seriously investigate alleged grave crimes against ethnic Rohingya." A statement issued by the New York-based human rights organization singled out Aung Tun Htet, a member of the commission, who said in March that Myanmar has a "clear conscience" and that "there is no such thing in our country, as ethnic cleansing, and no genocide," as reported by dpa. HRW asserted that this statement demonstrated the commission member's clear bias. The four-member commission, established by the Myanmar government in May, has been routinely criticized by observers for being a political tool that they claim will not lead to justice or accountability for rights abuses and instead delay efforts at justice. On Dec. 12, Rosario Manalo, chair of the Independent Commission of Enquiry, told reporters at a news conference that the commission had found "no evidence" to support allegations of abuse by the Myanmar military in the first four months of their investigation. The Myanmar military stands accused of "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" by numerous international organizations, including the U.N., Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Fortify Rights, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, describing evidence of rights abuses in numerous reports. Lately, a key U.N. committee overwhelmingly approved a Turkish-backed resolution last month, strongly condemning the continuing "gross human rights violations and abuses" against Rohingya Muslims who are treated as outsiders in Myanmar and were victims of a brutal campaign by the country's military. The resolution reiterated "deep distress" at reports that unarmed Rohingya are still being subjected to excessive use of force and rights violations by Myanmar's military and security forces, including killings and rapes. It expressed "grave concern" at the findings of the U.N. fact-finding mission on Myanmar, which concluded that some top Myanmar military leaders should be prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Rohingya. Rohingya Muslims are the most persecuted minority in the world according to U.N. figures and continue to suffer from oppression under the Myanmar government, the army and Buddhist extremists. Over the past decade, thousands of Rohingya have been killed since violence broke out in 2008, causing hundreds of thousands to flee their homeland for Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries in the region. Although the numbers are contested, it is known that thousands of people have been killed in the last few years, while more than a million had to flee. The Myanmar army has set Rohingya villages on fire, bulldozing many of them and even uprooting trees and destroying farms to make the area uninhabitable.[SEP]Buddhists found with throats slit in Rakhine in Myanmar: Silent murders ignored In recent days, suspected Muslims in this part of Myanmar appear to have killed more Buddhists in Rakhine. Of course, police investigations are ongoing but the cutting of throats resembles the brutal way that ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) Islamists butcher in Myanmar. Therefore, the international media will ignore once more these murders – or, if reported, a spin will emerge – despite the brutal ways these Buddhists were killed. It is known that three recent attacks; all bearing the hallmarks of suspected Islamist attacks have taken place in recent days. This will once more bring fear to all non-Bengali Muslim communities in Rakhine because various Buddhist ethnic groups and others feel threatened by the duality of the Bengali Muslim land grab and Islamization. After all, events in the Chittagong Hill Tracts highlight the same twin force in Bangladesh, where the mainly indigenous Buddhist ethnic groups have faced enormous brutality at the hands of outsiders. The Irrawaddy reports, “Police and locals searched for the two, and found them dead with their throats cut near the creek, Maungdaw Township administrator U Myint Khaing told The Irrawaddy.” In another brutal murder, a girl of only thirteen years of age in the vicinity of Maungdaw Township was found with her throat slit. If, like suspected that Islamists were behind these brutal killings in Rakhine, then this follows a similar pattern that blights the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Southern Thailand. Hence, a silent religious cleansing of mainly Buddhists by Muslims that is massively underreported in the international media. This cleansing is based on fear, terrorism, wanton violence, and the flow of rapidly changing demographics. In a past article by Modern Tokyo Times, it was stated, “The government of Myanmar faces untold pressure to accept Bengali Muslims back into Rakhine in Myanmar because of the utter bias of certain Western and Islamic nations. Yet, if Myanmar is pressured then Buddhists, Hindus, and Tribal people have much to fear in Rakhine. This is based on Islamic terrorism and institutional religious hatred emanating from Sharia Islamic law that seeks to crush non-Muslims in this part of Myanmar. Similarly, when the demographic time bomb reaches majority status in Rakhine, then will the same pressures emerge in another part of Myanmar based on Islamization? Indeed, Buddhists and other minorities in Rakhine only need to look at events in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and parts of Southern Thailand to see how Buddhists have been treated and the demographic reality that entails. In the case of Southern Thailand, then this scenario is happening despite the armed forces of this nation protecting Buddhists and Buddhist monasteries from Islamist forces.” The latest brutal murders in Rakhine are following the silent murders of Buddhists and other non-Muslims in this part of Myanmar. These brutal murders have happened for a long time but the international community has neglected them. Modern Tokyo News is part of the Modern Tokyo Times group DONATIONS to SUPPORT MODERN TOKYO TIMES – please pay PayPal and DONATE to sawakoart@gmail.com[SEP](New York) – Myanmar should disband its commission of inquiry into abuses in Rakhine state because it is clearly unwilling to seriously investigate alleged grave crimes against ethnic Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said today. At a news conference on December 12, 2018, Rosario Manalo, chair of the Independent Commission of Enquiry, stated that the commission had found “no evidence” to support allegations of human rights abuses in the four months since it officially opened its investigation. Her statement shows that the commission is disregarding evidence and testimony collected by United Nations fact-finders, the United States State Department, and international human rights organizations since violence broke out in Rakhine State in 2016. “The Myanmar commission’s dismissal of the extensive documentation of gross human rights abuses against the Rohingya makes abundantly clear that it is not serious about seeking justice,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The UN Security Council should stop giving credence to this commission and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.” The UN Security Council, which has been negotiating its first resolution on the Rohingya crisis, should view the chair’s comments as further evidence that Myanmar’s commission is not a viable path to justice for victims of abuses. Some of the available evidence that the commission is ignoring is contained in the following reports: • None The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar issued a 444-page report on September 18 detailing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide by Myanmar’s security forces in Rakhine State and serious human rights abuses in Shan and Kachin States; • None The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a “flash report” in February 2017 documenting extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, torture, and other abuses by Myanmar security forces in Rakhine State after an attack on security posts in August 2016; • None The US Department of State issued a report on September 24 detailing widespread and systematic human rights abuses against the Rohingya in Rakhine State; • None Human Rights Watch has documented the widespread use of sexual violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, a massacre in the village of Tula Toli, and the widespread destruction of Rohingya villages in Rakhine State; • None Amnesty International has documented serious human rights abuses by the military in Rakhine State and identified some of the military units and officers responsible for atrocities; and • None The US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights issued a joint report in November 2017 documenting abuses by security forces including murder, rape and other sexual violence, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, and forced displacement. “The record of Myanmar military abuses against the Rohingya is detailed and voluminous,” Adams said. “What more do Security Council members need to know to call for justice and accountability for grave international crimes?” The four-member commission, set up by the Myanmar government in May, is the eighth domestic commission created since violence broke out in Rakhine State in 2012. None of these commissions have led to justice or accountability for human rights abuses such as extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, and arson. Manalo, the commission’s chair, is a former deputy foreign minister of the Philippines. The commission also includes Kenzo Oshima, a former permanent representative of Japan to the UN, and two domestic commissioners chosen by the government. One Myanmar member of the commission, Aung Tun Thet, has repeatedly demonstrated his bias, saying in March that Myanmar has a “clear conscience” and that “there is no such thing in our country, in our society, as ethnic cleansing, and no genocide.” He also serves as chief coordinator of the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine, which was formed in October 2017, and was a member of the 2016 national commission that rejected the findings of a UN report in its entirety. The other Myanmar commissioner, Mya Thein, is a former chair of Myanmar’s Constitutional Tribunal. The UN Fact-Finding Mission found that Myanmar’s military justice system has long failed to address the military’s massive human rights violations, while the civilian criminal justice system lacks independence and the capacity to respect fair trial standards. It examined eight ad hoc inquiry commissions and boards created to address abuses in Rakhine State since 2012 and concluded that “none meets the standard of an impartial, independent, effective and thorough human rights investigation.” It said that the government’s current Commission of Enquiry “will not and cannot provide a real avenue for accountability.” The Fact-Finding Mission also concluded that the Myanmar government has proven itself “unable and unwilling” to investigate and prosecute crimes under international law. This conclusion is important because the International Criminal Court, as a court of last resort, can only step in when it determines that justice in national courts is not possible. After claiming they could find no evidence themselves, the commission asked victims to submit evidence with supporting audio and video recordings no later than January 2019. This proposal raises serious concerns about the security of those who might come forward. The government has not set up a victim and witness protection system, yet the commission stated that it will conduct “private interviews” with people who come forward to “verify their authenticity.” With government representatives on the commission and the military officers implicated in egregious abuses still in command, victims and witnesses are likely to be at risk. Some witnesses who have previously provided information about abuses have faced reprisals, while Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned for their role in exposing a massacre in Rakhine State. “Security Council members should call out the Commission of Enquiry for the diversionary and delaying tactic that it is,” Adams said. “Waiting for this commission to finish its work is a waste of time that will only further delay accountability for grave human rights abuses against the Rohingya.”[SEP]In the first major breakthrough since 2011, the Myanmar Army had declared a unilateral ceasefire against various rebel groups fighting in different parts of the nation. The proclaimed ceasefire includes de-escalation of troop mobilisation. The move towards a unilateral ceasefire was decided upon to facilitate un-hindered negotiations with the ethnic rebel groups. READ MORE: Myanmar Govt Launches Investigation into Human Rights Abuses in Rakhine The Myanmar Army has formed a negotiations team led by Lt. General Yar Pyae and includes senior and regional commanders. The team will discuss issues with rebel groups, especially the prominent ones like the Arakan Army in northern Rakhine state. READ MORE: Bangladeshi Failure to Inform Rohingya of Repatriation Hampers Return — Envoy Myanmar Army did not impose a sixth principle "to march towards a democratic country in accord with the 2008 Constitution". In last few days over 700 people have been displaced by clashes between the Myanmar Army and the Arakan Army (AA) in northern Rakhine State. A study conducted by the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS) says that there were 44 clashes in November — 21 between ethnic armed groups and the army, and 23 between ethnic armed groups themselves.[SEP]More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state for neighbouring Bangladesh since August last year, when attacks on security posts by Rohingya insurgents triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations, the United States, Britain and others described as ethnic cleansing. "We are deeply concerned that despite clear evidence of genocide amassed by the Department's own report ... that the Department has not made a formal determination that the crime of genocide has been committed," said a letter to Pompeo from the senators, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. In September, leaders of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee called on the Trump administration to declare the military campaign a genocide, days after a State Department report stopped short of that description. A declaration of genocide by the US government could have legal implications of committing Washington to stronger punitive measures against Myanmar's government, which is led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. This has made some in the Trump administration wary of issuing such an assessment. The areas where the Rohingya lived in Myanmar's western Rakhine State before the army ousted them were being dramatically transformed, making their return increasingly unlikely, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The senators asked Pompeo to provide a formal determination about the actions of Myanmar's military. "There is no question that the violence in northern Rakhine State – intended to terrorise, drive out, and exterminate Rakhine's Rohingya population – meets the definition of genocide," the letter said. Led by Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the letter was also signed by Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Susan Collins and Democratic Senators Ed Markey, Tim Kaine, Ben Cardin and Jeff Merkley. Failing to officially label the actions a genocide would "deny truth-telling and accountability" for the Rohingya and "... would leave an indelible stain on our nation's legacy of promoting and advancing human rights, dignity, and accountability," the letter said. The United Nations Security Council is mulling a resolution that the council could consider further steps, including sanctions, if there was not enough progress made by Myanmar in returning refugees, diplomats said.

Myanmar's military announces it will resume "clearance operations" in Rakhine State after a recent spike in attacks by unidentified assailants. In the past week, two Rakhine fishermen and a teenager were found murdered after they were reported missing, while two Maramagyi villagers were kidnapped and stabbed but managed to escape their abductors.

Flights were suspended at Gatwick Airport following reports of drones flying close to the airfield. Here we look at the law surrounding drones. What are the restrictions around flying drones near airports? Earlier this year, new laws came into force which ban all drones from flying above 400ft and within 1km of airport boundaries. Drone users who flout the height and airport boundary restrictions could face an unlimited fine, up to five years in prison, or both. Research funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) found that a drone weighing 400g could smash a helicopter windscreen, and one weighing 2kg could critically damage an airliner’s windscreen. Are there any other laws to bear in mind? Laws introduced to the Commons in May mean people flying drones which weigh 250g or more will have to register with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Drone pilots will be required to take an online safety test under the new legislation, with the requirements set to come into force in November next year. In July, the DfT said it was considering introducing an age restriction, banning children from owning drones weighing at least 250g. It also said it was considering giving police the power to issue on-the-spot fines of up to £300 for misuse and the ability to seize drones being used irresponsibly.[SEP]LONDON — Drones spotted over the runway forced the shutdown of London's Gatwick Airport on Thursday during one of the busiest times of the year, stranding or delaying tens of thousands of Christmas-season travellers and setting off a hunt for the operator of the intruding aircraft. The prospect of a deadly collision between what police called "industrial"-grade drones and an airliner led authorities to stop all flights in and out. Police said that they had no doubt the intrusion was a deliberate attempt to disrupt operations at the airport during a peak period but that there were "absolutely no indications to suggest this is terror-related." About 20 police units from two forces tried in vain to find the drone operator as soon as the first unmanned aircraft was spotted above Gatwick on Wednesday evening. Police told airport officials it was too risky to try to shoot down the drones — stray bullets might kill someone. "Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears. When we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears," said Sussex Police Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw. He said the newer-generation drones are bigger and have more range, making it harder for police to zero in on the person controlling the device. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the military would be deployed to help police. He said the armed forces would bring "unique capabilities" but gave no details. Drones could get sucked into a jet engine or crash through a windshield, incapacitating the pilot. The crisis at Gatwick had a ripple effect on air travel in Britain, continental Europe and beyond as incoming flights were sent to other locations and outgoing ones were stopped. Travellers described freezing conditions overnight at Gatwick as hundreds slept on benches and floors, and passengers and their families complained they weren't being kept informed about re-routed flights. "We understand it's an emergency situation, but the lack of information is really surprising," said Vanessa Avila, an American based in Britain who works for the U.S. military. Her mother was on a flight from Florida to Gatwick that ended up landing in the northern English city of Manchester.[SEP]Flights at the United Kingdom's Gatwick Airport, the second busiest in the country, have been grounded for more than 20 hours at least due to small drones flying in the vicinity. The incident, which comes right as hundreds of thousands of travelers are beginning to set out for the holidays, underscores the dangers that easy to obtain hobbyist type unmanned aerial vehicles, such as quad- and hex-copter designs, present at home and on the battlefield. It's a growing, but glaringly foreseeable threat that we at The War Zone have been raising the alarm about for years. Authorities at Gatwick halted all incoming and outgoing flights first at 9:00 PM local time on Dec. 19, 2018, after sightings of multiple drones. Officials tentatively expected that order to be lifted at 3:00 AM on Dec. 20, 2019, but have now extended the closure to at least 4:00 PM, as they continue to coordinate with Sussex Police and the U.K. military to ensure that it is safe to resume airport operations. Flights already in the air headed for Gatwick got diverted to other airports as far away as Paris, France. Approximately 110,000 people across 760 flights were set to use Gatwick on the 20th. "We are carrying out a joint search w/ @Gatwick_Airport for the operators of #drones sighted at #Gatwick," the Sussex Police wrote in a Tweet on their official account on Dec. 20, 2018. "Public safety is paramount and we will take all available actions to disrupt this deliberate act. There are no indications to suggest this is terror related." Under new regulations that the United Kingdom enacted on July 30, 2018, it is illegal for private citizens to fly small drones above 400 feet and within just over a half a mile of an airport perimeter. U.K. Prime Minister Teresa May has said any suspects involved in the incident face prison time when they are caught. The most immediate danger from the small drones to air traffic at and around the airport is that they might collide with an airliner. If the remote-controlled aerial vehicles ended up ingested into a jet engine, banging into in a propeller, or crashing through the windscreen of an aircraft the results could be particularly devastating. It is unclear what tools authorities have employed or considered employing so far to neutralize or mitigate the hazard. Airports typically have various protective measures in place to chase away birds, which present some of the same potential problems. However, these tools, such devices that create loud noises to scare flocks away, would have no impact on a drone. Pictures have emerged showing members of the Sussex Police carrying shotguns, which they could use to try to shoot down the drones. Some companies have developed specialized shotgun shells to reduce the chance of missed shots posing a threat to nearby innocent bystanders or private property. Police helicopters have also been involved in the search for the operators of the remotely piloted aircraft. "Sussex Police have requested some support from the armed forces and we will be deploying the armed forces to give them the help that they need to help deal with the situation at Gatwick Airport," U.K. Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson told reporters later that same day. "Sadly, at this moment, it [what we are deploying] is not something we can actually reveal, but the armed forces have a range of unique capabilities and this isn't something we would usually deploy, but we are there to assist and do everything we can so that they are in a position to open the airport at the earliest opportunity." These military capabilities most likely include additional tools to defeat the drones themselves and locate the individuals controlling them. Military short-range air defense or counter-battery radars, able to spot low-flying and even smaller targets, such as artillery shells and mortar bombs, could be useful in monitoring the drones and potentially tracing them back to an originating point. Electronic warfare systems, either on the ground or in the air, that can detect and geolocate transmitters, such as the drone's control unit, would also help immensely. The U.K. military could also have more effective means of knocking the drones out of the sky, as well. Faced with the growing use of small drones, sometimes carrying grenade-like munitions, by both nation-state militaries and non-state actors, such as terrorists, militaries around the world have been investing heavily in active countermeasures. The most common examples are man-portable and vehicle-mounted radio frequency jammers, though more advanced systems, including solid-state lasers and high-power microwave directed energy weapons are also in development. The jamming systems typically work by breaking the command link between the controller and the drone, either causing it to fall out of the sky or follow a pre-programmed route back to its operator. In the latter case, this could also help in finding the individuals responsible. Jammers do have a significant number of limitations, though, including their relatively indiscriminate focus, which can interrupt signals from other nearby emitters operating on the same or adjacent frequencies. Jamming systems that work on a more narrow range of frequencies, or have more limited power, may mitigate those issues, but also have more limited effectiveness. But however British officials ultimately tackle the situation at Gatwick, it will provide yet another call to action to further investigate how to regulate civilian use of small drones and how to defend against them when they become threatening. These are concerns we at The War Zone have raised on numerous occasions and you can read about them in greater detail here and here. The hazard of small drones flying near airports is hardly new. In 2017, there were reportedly 100 potentially dangerous interactions between manned aircraft and drones in the United Kingdom alone, according to the BBC. Remember, the drones at Gatwick have done nothing but fly near the airport, as well. On July 2, 2017, another drone intruder shut down Gatwick for a total of just 14 minutes, causing headaches for hours afterward. It will take days, if not longer, for the cascading impacts of these cancellations and delays, which have already stranded thousands of individuals or forced them to seek alternative travel options, will take days, due to this new incident to finally disappear. Gatwick had expected to see nearly 3 million travel through its facilities during this holiday season and 143,000 are presently booked to fly in and out of the airport just on Dec. 30, 2018. This means that individuals responsible have been able to cause millions of dollars worth of economic damage with drones you can buy online right now for less than $5,000. Between diversions and people scrambling to find other ways of getting where they need to go, these impacts can easily spill over to other airports, as well. Perhaps the best example of an extreme worst-case situation is when nation-wide civilian air traffic in the United States ground to a halt in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the impact of which is described in the video below. It took the airline industry years to fully recover from the billions of dollars worth of losses.[SEP]The airport was shut down at 9:03 p.m. on Wednesday due to reports of two drones flying over the airfield, the airport said in a statement. "We advise everyone flying from Gatwick, or collecting someone from the airport, Thursday 20th December, to check the status of their flight," the airport wrote. Sussex Police called the flying of the drones over the airfield "a deliberate act," but said there was no indication the drones were terror-related. The airport said "a number" of flights were diverted to other airports and airlines were "working to provide affected passengers with hotel accommodation or transport passengers landing at other airports to Gatwick by other means." There were no flights landing or taking off for about six hours -- from 9:03 p.m. to 3:01 a.m. -- and Gatwick announced it was "working, with the airport community, to catch up on the flight schedule." That optimism was short-lived, as just 44 minutes later the airport announced another drone had been sighted and the airfield was again closed. "We apologise to any affected passengers for this inconvenience but the safety of our passengers and all staff is our number one priority," the airport said in a statement. About 10,000 people were affected by the issue, Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick's chief operating officer, told The Associated Press. A joint search was being carried out by Sussex Police and the airport for the operators of the drones, authorities said. An Aeromexico flight may have been struck by a drone just a week ago. The flight landed in Tijuana without issue, but authorities were investigating what caused a large gash in the plane's nose. Gatwick Airport, located about 30 miles south of London, is the second-busiest airport in the U.K., after London's Heathrow Airport. It is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe, according to aviation site anna.aero. Thursday is expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the year, as people head home for the Christmas holidays. U.S. airlines expected to carry 45.7 million passengers from Thursday through Jan. 6, according to Airlines for America.[SEP]LONDON — Drones spotted over the runway forced the shutdown of London's Gatwick Airport on Thursday during one of the busiest times of the year, stranding or delaying tens of thousands of Christmas-season travellers and setting off a hunt for the operator of the intruding aircraft. The prospect of a deadly collision between what police called "industrial"-grade drones and an airliner led authorities to stop all flights in and out. Police said that they had no doubt the intrusion was a deliberate attempt to disrupt operations at the airport during a peak period but that there were "absolutely no indications to suggest this is terror-related." About 20 police units from two forces tried in vain to find the drone operator as soon as the first unmanned aircraft was spotted above Gatwick on Wednesday evening. Police told airport officials it was too risky to try to shoot down the drones — stray bullets might kill someone. "Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears. When we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears," said Sussex Police Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw. He said the newer-generation drones are bigger and have more range, making it harder for police to zero in on the person controlling the device. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the military would be deployed to help police. He said the armed forces would bring "unique capabilities" but gave no details. Drones could get sucked into a jet engine or crash through a windshield, incapacitating the pilot. The crisis at Gatwick had a ripple effect on air travel in Britain, continental Europe and beyond as incoming flights were sent to other locations and outgoing ones were stopped. Travellers described freezing conditions overnight at Gatwick as hundreds slept on benches and floors, and passengers and their families complained they weren't being kept informed about re-routed flights. "We understand it's an emergency situation, but the lack of information is really surprising," said Vanessa Avila, an American based in Britain who works for the U.S. military. Her mother was on a flight from Florida to Gatwick that ended up landing in the northern English city of Manchester.[SEP]One of the UK's busiest airports had to suspend or divert all flights after drones were seen over its airfield. The disruption at Gatwick Airport, which is 30 miles south of London and Britain's second busiest, started around 9 p.m. local time Wednesday after a pair of drones were spotted, according to the BBC. The runway remained closed until 3 a.m., but was shut down again 45 minutes later after "a further sighting of drones." It was still closed as of Thusday morning and police are hunting for the drones' operator, Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick's chief operating officer, told the BBC. "There are no indications to suggest this is terror related," Sussex Police tweeted on Thursday, before seeking the public's help to identify the operator. It's illegal to fly a drone within 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) of an airport or airfield boundary, and you can't fly it above 120 meters (400 feet) because it increases the likelihood of an aircraft hitting it. Around 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were due to use the airport on Thursday, Gatwick told BBC, and some of the overnight flights were diverted to Paris and Amsterdam. "We are working hard with our airlines to get information to passengers but would advise anyone booked onto flights from Gatwick, or meeting arriving passengers, not to travel to the airport without checking the status of the flight with their airline," the airport said in a Thursday release. Gatwick didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment. In August, Gatwick was forced to post flight information on white boards after its digital screens failed due to an IT glitch. Follow the Money: This is how digital cash is changing the way we save, shop and work. CNET Magazine: Check out a sample of the stories in CNET's newsstand edition.[SEP]In a scary preview of the disruptions that could soon become commonplace in our technology-infused future, London's Gatwick airport has been shut down for more than 13 hours due to mysterious drones flying "over the perimeter fence and into where the runway operates from". Hundreds of flights have been cancelled, leaving tens of thousands of travelers stranded in the airport's "freezing" terminals during the holiday rush, according to reports in the BBC and the Guardian. According to the Guardian, which is providing live coverage of the ongoing disruption, Chris Woodroofe, the airport's chief operating officer, apologized to passengers and explained during a Sky News interview that the drones would not be shot down because of the risks posed by stray bullets. Police are asking the public's help in finding the drone operators. Police have been searching the perimeter of the airport to find the operators of the drones - who could face up to five years in prison if apprehended. The incident has kickstarted a conversation in the UK about imposing tighter regulations on drone operators (and stiffer penalties for anybody operating drones without the proper authorization). While two drones had terrorized the runway for most of Wednesday evening. The BBC reported that 110,000 passengers had been expected to use the airport on Thursday, traveling on 760 flights. Gatwick had been expecting a record number of passengers during the holiday travel season. The runway was briefly reopened at about 3 am London Time (10 pm ET), but was swiftly closed when the drones returned. the airport said, but forced to close again about 45 minutes later amid "a further sighting of drones". The closure - now in its 13th hour - has been extended until at least noon London time (7 am ET). The government has criticized the drone operators as acting '"incredibly irresponsibly": Gatwick, which is London's second-busiest airport after Heathrow, is advising passengers not to travel to the airport without checking with their airline first. Though the motives of the drone operators remain shrouded in mystery, Sussex Police have said "There is absolutely nothing to suggest that this is terrorism-related." It is illegal to fly a drone within one kilometer of an airport. Incoming planes are being diverted to other UK airports, including Heathrow, and some have been rerouted as far away as Amsterdam and Paris. One passenger who spoke with the BBC and the Guardian described a chaotic scene in the terminal, where pregnant women were seen sleeping on the floor. The cancellations have sown widespread confusion among passengers, who are struggling to figure out whether their flights have been rescheduled or moved to different airports. Arthur Serbejs, 22, and Domante Balciuniate, 21, factory workers from Hastings, sat on the floor by a prayer room, approaching their 16th hour of waiting for a flight to Barcelona. "We came about 6pm yesterday, and we’re going to be here until like 7pm," Serbejs said. "At 9pm yesterday we were on the plane for four hours - they turned the lights off and everything like it was going to take off." "But we were still sitting there," Balciunate added. Serbejs said he had fallen asleep while the plane sat on the apron, hoping to wake up in Spain, "and I woke up and we hadn’t moved." Eventually they were taken off the flight, and offered a hotel in Brighton, which they declined as they live close by. They were told they would get an email with a ticked for another flat, but none came. "We stood in line for three hours for a 30 second conversation saying 'your flight has already been transferred hours ago,' but we didn’t know about it," Serbejs said. Several techniques have been devised for safely disabling rogue drones, including this surprisingly low-tech solution, devised by Dutch police:[SEP]The flying of drones at Gatwick, which has caused the runway to be closed, is "a deliberate act to disrupt the airport", police said. Tens of thousands of passengers are suffering travel chaos after all flights at the West Sussex airport were suspended. The runway was closed at 9pm on Wednesday after two of the devices were seen near the airfield. It was reopened at 3am on Thursday, but was shut again 45 minutes later after a further sighting of drones. At 9.15am, the airport said there was "ongoing drone activity" and the runway remained closed. At 11.15am Gatwick said all flights remained suspended following reports of drones flying over the airfield. "There is significant disruption at Gatwick today as a result of what appears to be a deliberate attempt to disrupt flights," the airport said. "We are extremely disappointed that passengers are being affected by this, especially at such an important time of year. "We are prioritising the welfare of those at the airport by deploying staff into our terminals to look after people as best we can. "We are working hard with our airlines to get information to passengers but would advise anyone booked onto flights from Gatwick, or meeting arriving passengers, not to travel to the airport without checking the status of the flight with their airline or on our website first." Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw, of Sussex Police, said: "We believe this to be a deliberate act to disrupt the airport. However, there are absolutely no indications to suggest this is terror-related." More than 20 police units from two forces are searching for the perpetrator. Mr Burtenshaw added: "Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears; when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears." Asked if he thought the operator would be caught, he said: "I'm convinced we will. It's a painstaking thing with the new drones - the bigger the drone, the bigger the reach of the operator, so it's a difficult and challenging thing to locate them, but I've got teams now and I've got investigators looking at how we do that, and I'm confident we will." Some 10,000 passengers were affected on Wednesday night, and a further 110,000 were due to either take off or land at the airport on 760 flights on Thursday. Gatwick's MP, Tory Henry Smith, wrote on Twitter: "The closure of Gatwick Airport for 12 hours now due to drone flying appears to be a deliberate criminal act with geofencing breached." The airport's chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe, blasted the "irresponsible" drone use. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that two of the gadgets had been seen flying "over the perimeter fence and into where the runway operates from". Mr Woodroofe added that the drones had sparked "very significant disruption for passengers" but police did not want to shoot them down because of the risk from stray bullets. Aviation minister Baroness Sugg said: "These drones have been flown illegally and the operators, who have acted incredibly irresponsibly, could face up to five years in jail." Passengers faced severe disruption as flights were unable to leave the tarmac while others were diverted to alternative airports. Some people reported being left stuck on planes for several hours while they waited to find out what was going on. Aviation website airlive.net said inbound flights were diverted to a range of UK airports as well as Amsterdam and Paris. Lyndsey Clarke, from Southend, said she was stuck on a plane for more than four hours after it was re-routed to Stansted. The 27-year-old said passengers were having to get taxis back to Gatwick after they were finally allowed off the aircraft. Luke McComiskie's plane ended up in Manchester, and he described chaotic scenes as people tried to find their way home after more than three hours stuck on board. The 20-year-old, from Aldershot, told the Press Association: "We got told there would be some arrangements with coaches for us when we get out the terminal ... It was just chaos and they had only two coaches and taxis charging people £600 to get to Gatwick." In the latest statement on the incident, a Gatwick spokeswoman said: "Flights to and from Gatwick Airport remain suspended following reports of drones flying over Gatwick's airfield last night and in the early hours of this morning. "We are advising passengers scheduled to fly from Gatwick not to travel to the airport without checking the status of their flight with their airline this morning. We apologise for the inconvenience, but the safety of all passengers and staff is our first priority." Dr Rob Hunter, head of flight safety at the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA), said: "The public needs to understand that drones are not just toys and could have catastrophic consequences if they collide with an aircraft. "We know a lot of drones will be under people's Christmas trees and we implore them to ensure they're aware of the rules and fly their drones in a safe and sensible manner." "These drone sightings at Gatwick are further evidence that tougher laws and enforcement are required to keep drones clear of manned flights. "That's why we need the registration and education process in force sooner rather than later, so people flouting the law can be caught and prosecuted. "At the same time, BALPA is also calling for the Government to consider toughening the law to create a larger no-fly zone around airports. "We need to ensure people flying drones take responsibility for their actions and do so responsibly with the knowledge that if they endanger an aircraft they could face jail." EasyJet is advising passengers not to travel to airports if their flight has been cancelled. A spokeswoman for the airline said: "Like other airlines, easyJet diverted a number of flights due to land at London Gatwick to other airports across the UK. "As a result of this, aircraft and crew remain out of position at airports away from London Gatwick, which has resulted in a number of cancellations this morning. "We advise all customers flying to and from London Gatwick today to not travel to the airport if they are on flights which have been cancelled. "EasyJet has offered affected passengers who were diverted last night ground transportation to reach London Gatwick and hotel accommodation was provided for those who required it. "Passengers who arranged their own transportation will be reimbursed by easyJet. Customers on cancelled flights will be entitled to a free of charge transfer to an alternative flight." Dozens of people were perched on seats with jackets and coats used as makeshift blankets after being stranded in the airport overnight. Mamosta Abdulla said he was on an Iraq-bound flight on Wednesday evening before getting stuck on the tarmac for four hours and will now miss his father's memorial service. He said: "We got here at 6pm and should have flown at 9.10pm, but we were stuck four hours on the plane with a crying baby, the child was disabled and everyone was sweating because it was so hot in there. "They gave us hope by showing us the safety procedure and then five minutes later they say nobody is flying. "We got given a £12 refreshment voucher each after a couple hours of waiting and that's it. "We've had to sleep in a freezing place, on uncomfortable chairs. "We are in Iraq with bombs going off nearby and the plane still lands! But here some drones have shut down the airport." A Gatwick spokesman said 110,000 passengers were due to either take off or land at the airport on 760 flights on Thursday. He was unable to state how many of these passengers had already been affected but the first wave of flights is normally the busiest time of the day. Around 10,000 passengers were affected on Wednesday night after the runway was closed at 9.03pm. Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport if their flight is cancelled. Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris. After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without - "about 20%" - were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said. "There were families with babies who couldn't get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff," he said. "We were asking just for a favour if (airport staff) could help but they said they couldn't do anything." Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said. "To be honest, I'm so tired and when the guys from the fire (service) came with the bottles and blankets I was feeling like a war, like (I was) a refugee, but I'm just flying to the UK. "It's surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets." Andri Kyprianou, from Cyprus, who had been visiting London, said she saw a pregnant woman sleeping on the floor and passengers with infants spending the night in the "freezing" South Terminal. She said she got to the airport at 12.30am for a 3am flight to Cyprus via Kiev, only to find it had been cancelled, and that the next connection in Kiev is on Sunday. She said: "I haven't slept since yesterday morning, we are very tired. It's freezing, we are cold, having to wear all of these coats for extra blankets. "There were pregnant women, one of them was sleeping on the floor. There were people with small babies in here overnight, we saw disabled people on chairs. "There were young children sleeping on the floor." She said she will have to spend a night in Kiev, but she had been told by Ukrainian Airlines that there may be a chance of an alternative connection through Tel Aviv. "Hopefully they will arrange a hotel for us so we don't have another night in an airport," she added. Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg said the Government was considering extending police powers to prevent drones causing airport disruption in the future. She told BBC News: "I think it's important to be clear this is a crime, this drone is being flown illegally. "Earlier this year we changed the law to make it illegal to fly within a kilometre of an airport and I know that police are out and trying to bring the drone down as quickly as possible. "This is an illegal act. We are also looking to extend police powers and early in the new year we'll be looking at our next steps on that. "The other thing we're looking at is counter-drone technology. Technology in this area is obviously moving incredibly quickly, but we need to make sure we're able to stop such activity in future." Baroness Sugg said authorities were hoping to get Gatwick open as quickly as possible as people travel for the Christmas break. She added: "Our priority is to get that airport open as safely as possible so that people can fly off on their Christmas breaks, or people who are coming in to visit friends and family. "The police are working to bring the drone down, and I am confident that they will do so. " A mother said she has suffered an "emotional disaster" after spending the night on a cold floor with her eight-year-old-daughter and three-year-old son. Yulia Hristova, who was meant to fly to Istanbul via Kiev at 3am and has been at the airport since midnight, said: "With two kids I'm in a difficult position, I'm so tired, I'm so upset, we've had no information. "We were standing for hours, nobody's been on the desk. It was so cold. We were sleeping on the floor, me and my children. I lost my son during the night, and a policeman brought him back. "I was meant to be reunited with my family, my kids were so excited they didn't sleep until 6am, they were waiting to get on the plane. "It's been an emotional disaster. "I'm so exhausted, I don't want to stress out but it's very worrying. What's going to happen to us in Ukraine? What if we run out of money? Are the airline going to put us in a hotel? "I want to give up right now, it's making me so anxious." Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom has said the use of drones that have shut down Gatwick Airport is "absolutely unacceptable". She said: "Our hearts go out to all those who are desperately trying to go on holiday or arrive in the UK via Gatwick. "It's absolutely unacceptable. I know the police are doing all they can to catch the operators of these drones." Speaking during business questions in the Commons, Mrs Leadsom added interfering with flights using a drone was a criminal offence carrying a sentence of up to five years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. Gatwick's chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe, confirmed a recent drone sighting and said disruption would continue for several days. He told BBC News: "There are 110,000 passengers due to fly today, and the vast majority of those will see cancellations and disruption. "We have had within the last hour another drone sighting so at this stage we are not open and I cannot tell you what time we will open. "It was on the airport, seen by the police and corroborated. So having seen that drone that close to the runway it was unsafe to reopen. "Realistically if we do reopen today, what the airlines will seek to do is deal with the passengers who are on site and to prepare for an operation tomorrow morning where we repatriate passengers who are in the wrong place. "It's realistically going to take several days to recover." Oxford University lecturer Imma Oliveras got up at 4am to catch her flight back to the United States to see her family. She said: "When I arrived at the airport at 6am there were already lines throughout the terminal, which was very full. “People were trying to keep calm, but we were not getting very much information. They told us the runway would reopen at 8am, but then they told us on the loudspeaker that this was not the case. “It is frustrating, and if people are flying drones it is very irresponsible in this area. But how is it possible for them to be allowed to fly a drone in this area? If it is deliberate, I hope they get them.” Meanwhile Ben Daniels has been trying to return to his home in Crawley with his wife after a trip to Hamburg in Germany. He said: "We saw the disruption at the airport and that planes were being diverted, so we decided to avoid it and make our own way back. “We have had to shell out £500 in total to get back, we can’t afford to be stranded out here waiting for a plane to turn up. "It is extremely dangerous. I don’t think people realise that from the smallest to the biggest aircraft carrying hundreds of people, if a drone strikes the plane it could be catastrophic. "I don’t understand the thinking behind the individual or individuals responsible.” Have you been affected by the delays? Contact the newsroom on 01273 021383 or email news@theargus.co.uk.[SEP]London's Gatwick Airport Closed Because Of 'Criminal' Behavior With Drones Giant drones have continued to appear at London's Gatwick Airport, forcing the airport to close. Officials encouraged travelers to stay away until they get confirmation that flights have resumed. Stewart Wingate, the airport's CEO, called it "criminal behaviour," targeted activity meant to shut down the airport and "bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas." The Sussex Police, which oversees the area, has been bombarded by calls about drone sightings in the vicinity, controller Mark Laurent told NPR. "There are still sightings which we are investigating, as and when they come up," he said. "It's still very much an ongoing matter at the moment." The military was also called in, he said. "Military assistance was requested for specialist equipment to secure the airfield." It is a criminal offense to fly the drones where they have been sighted, Laurent said, but there was "no reason to suspect" it was a terrorist act. The flight disruptions and cancelations triggered chaos for passengers as the effects rippled outward from the busy airport. In an update at 5 p.m. local time Thursday, the airport said its sole runway "remains out of operation with no flights arriving or departing." Two drones were seen flying over the airfield south of London around 9 p.m. local time Wednesday, the airport said in a tweet. Gatwick was able to briefly open around 3 a.m., but more drone reports followed. "I have a drone on my airfield," Gatwick's Chief Operating Officer Chris Woodroofe told the BBC. Transport Minister Chris Grayling said this was "not the classic, plastic garden drone" but "a commercial-sized drone that is clearly being operated deliberately in a way that every time Gatwick tries to reopen the runway, the drones reappear." Sussex Police said on Twitter that the drones were believed to be "of an industrial specification." They ruined travel plans for some 10,000 people Wednesday night alone, according to Woodroofe. Breaking down that number, he said 6,000 passengers were forced to divert to other airports, 2,000 were never able to take off for Gatwick and another 2,000 couldn't fly out of the airport. Because of the diversions, passengers who had been expecting to land near London were instead flown to a range of cities, from Liverpool and Manchester in Britain to Paris, Bordeaux and Amsterdam in Europe, according to data from the air traffic tracking site Flightradar24. U.K. law bans drones from flying within 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of any airport. The British government says that if a drone operator is found to break the rules, it "could result in an unlimited fine, up to five years in prison, or both." "The big fear, of course, has been that a drone hits an aircraft and brings it down," said Alan McKenna, a professor at the University of Kent. In an interview with NPR's Windsor Johnston, he added that the threat posed by the drones at Gatwick has already incurred a "very serious economic cost." Gatwick is the U.K.'s second-largest airport and serves some 46 million passengers a year. The airport recently said it expects 2.9 million passengers during the upcoming holiday season. But images Thursday showed an idled airport, with jetliners sitting on the tarmac beneath a clear, sunny sky. With flights suspended just days before the holiday season kicks off, the airport advised people with tickets for flights Thursday, "Please do not travel to Gatwick without checking the status of your flight with your airline." The police department issued an appeal to the public asking for information about the drones' operators. It was also trying to track the small devices by helicopter. Such activity could result in a five-year jail sentence. Airlines were trying to help passengers find alternate ways to their destinations, or simply locate a hotel room where they could rest and wait for the suspension to lift. The local rail operator was offering to reroute or cancel tickets at no cost. CEO Stewart Wingate said, "It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way."[SEP]How were drones able to close Gatwick Airport? Drones have forced Britain's second-busiest airport to shut its runway, sparking chaos and delaying thousands of Christmas travellers. Planes were unable to depart after the drones were spotted, while a number of flights scheduled to land were diverted to other airports, Gatwick Airport said in a statement. But how are these small aircraft able to cause so much trouble? Here's what we know about what's going on. Is this really such a big deal? If you're a passenger trying to get away for the holiday, it's a huge deal. But it's not just limited to those trying to catch a flight. Gatwick Airport's chief operating officer said this was a "very significant national issue". After 24 hours, the drones are still disrupting services. Gatwick Airport has cancelled flights for the rest of today and is not expected to open for another several hours. Even when it does re-open, the backlog and disruptions are expected to last for days. This isn't a case of authorities being overzealous either. Jai Galliott is an expert in defence and military technology at the University of New South Wales and said even the smaller drones available to the public can cause an explosion if they're sucked into a plane engine. And the drone in this case isn't small. "So it's pretty clear that this is a fairly large drone, not the classic plastic garden drone that you will see, this is a commercial-sized drone that is clearly being operated deliberately in a way that every time Gatwick tries to reopen the runway the drones reappear," the UK's Transport Secretary said. "So this is quite clearly a deliberate act." Why has it been so hard to locate the drones? Sussex Police Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw said it appears the drones being used are "newer-generation", which are bigger and have more range. Superintendent Burtenshaw said each time police believed they were getting close to the drone operator, "the drone disappears". Basically, it's made it harder for police to locate the person controlling the device, because they're likely a lot further away from the airport than you think. Dr Galliott said he could walk into a large electronics retailer in Australia today and buy a drone with a range of up to 5 kilometres for less than $2,000. "And if you're a tech-savvy person, you can figure out how to extend the range of that kind of equipment," he said. It's possible to set up a surveillance perimeter of high-quality cameras to track the drone, according to Dr Galliott, but drones can fly higher than cameras can see. So why don't they have drone-blocking technology? It exists, but it's a long way from perfect. "There are things called drone guns, which are ultrasonic-type devices that utilise certain segments of the electromagnetic spectrum to target the kind of frequencies on which these drones operate," he said. "It's a more targeted device that you would aim at a particular drone." Remember though, police are having trouble finding the drone, so this tech isn't super helpful until they do. Dr Galliott said there are devices that disrupt a broad range of frequencies, but they have their issues too. "The problem is a lot of the drones these days are becoming more automated and as such they don't necessarily rely on communication with an operator," he said. "Certain functions have been programmed in and they carry it out autonomously." It's also relatively new technology. "It's not that they cause a huge issue, but that they haven't been tested in those kind of environments," Dr Galliott said. Think of how long it took for it to be OK to use your mobile phone on a plane. Dr Galliott said there are still big hurdles to clear before the broad jamming technology is given the all-clear for use. Why can't they just shoot down the drones? About 20 police units from two forces tried to zero in on the drone operator after the first sighting over Gatwick on Wednesday evening. Police initially told airport officials it was too risky to try to shoot down the two drones, since stray bullets might kill someone. But given the scale of the disruption, they're now reconsidering, according to the BBC. "The assessment earlier on today was that we wouldn't be using firearms," Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley said. "This is continually reviewed so you will know and have seen that we have firearm officers deployed." So there just isn't a foolproof solution? "The problem is there is no bulletproof way to guard against drone attacks of this nature. "Airports have been aware of this risk for quite some time. Airports pay significant sums of money to security consultants who are also aware of these risks.

Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, England, is shut down intermittently since Wednesday night, after drones are seen flying over the airfield. Police believe it is "a deliberate act to disrupt the airport". Hundreds of thousands of passengers are affected.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - With an Ebola epidemic raging and millions caught in a forgotten “catastrophe” of conflict and hunger, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was the most neglected crisis of 2018, according to an annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of aid agencies. This year’s survey was unusual for the high number of “most forgotten crises”, with experts also listing the Central African Republic, Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Burundi, Nigeria and, for the first time, Venezuela. But Congo’s “mega-crisis” barely made headlines, they said, even as the country gears up for landmark elections on Sunday which some fear could stoke further unrest. “The brutality of the conflict is shocking, the national and international neglect outrageous,” said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “I visited Congo this year and have seldom witnessed such a gap between needs and assistance.” Congo, where 13 million people in a population of 82 million need help, also topped the annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2017, but agencies said the situation had deteriorated. Six of 21 agencies polled named Congo as the most neglected crisis, including WFP, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, and Christian Aid. ActionAid’s humanitarian advisor Rachid Boumnijel urged the international community to redouble efforts to end years of conflict characterized by sexual brutality. “It’s been a catastrophe for the country, and for women and girls particularly,” Boumnijel said. Christian Aid’s head of humanitarian programs Maurice Onyango said the violence had caused “large-scale trauma”, with children witnessing parents and siblings being murdered. An upsurge of fighting in the east of the mineral-rich country has also exacerbated the spread of the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak, agencies said. The Central African Republic, where armed groups control much of the country and 60 percent of the population needs assistance, came a close second in the poll. Listed as the most neglected by OCHA, UNICEF, MercyCorps, Plan International, and Caritas, the country has been racked by violence since mainly Muslim rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian militias. Armed groups are increasingly targeting schools, hospitals, mosques and churches, while attacks on aid workers have impacted a “chronically underfunded” humanitarian response, they said. U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said thousands of children had been trapped in armed groups or subjected to sexual violence. “The crisis is growing increasingly desperate and resources are at breaking point,” added UNICEF emergencies director Manuel Fontaine. U.N. appeals for both DRC and CAR are less than 50 percent funded. “Central African Republic is in a death spiral,” said Caritas Secretary General Michel Roy. “While governments and the world’s media have turned their backs, we must not. It’s the only hope CAR has left.” Plan International said the media neglected complex crises like CAR and DRC because they lacked the shock factor of a sudden disaster like Indonesia’s huge earthquake in September. Yemen, at risk of the world’s worst famine in 100 years, was highlighted by Muslim Hands and World Vision. “With three quarters of the population needing assistance, I can’t see how Yemen isn’t at the top of everyone’s list,” said World Vision emergencies chief Mark Smith. International Medical Corps warned the disaster in Lake Chad basin, where climate change and a prolonged insurgency by Boko Haram and Islamic State have left 11 million needing help, was also set to worsen next year. Action Against Hunger said millions caught up in the “almost invisible” crisis - affecting Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon - faced poverty, hunger, sexual violence and child kidnapping. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s biggest relief network, said hunger and disease following major flooding across Nigeria threatened to create a second protracted crisis in the country. “I’m shocked by how little attention (this) has received. The figures are staggering,” said IFRC Secretary General Elhadj As Sy, adding that nearly 2 million people were impacted, more than 200,000 uprooted and swathes of cropland destroyed. “This massive disaster has gone largely unnoticed by many donors and journalists,” he added. This year was the first time Venezuela featured in the poll. About 3.3 million people have fled political turmoil and economic meltdown in the Latin American country - many driven by hunger or violence - and another 2 million could follow next year, according to U.N. estimates. The United Nations has launched a $738 million appeal to help nearby countries cope with what one U.N. official called a “humanitarian earthquake”. CARE said evidence on the ground suggested the real number fleeing was far higher than the U.N. figure. “Given its scale, it’s incredible how neglected the situation in Venezuela is,” said CARE humanitarian expert Tom Newby. “The world needs to wake up to this crisis.” Afghanistan was ranked the most neglected crisis by Islamic Relief Worldwide, and South Sudan by Save the Children. The UNHCR named Burundi while mixed migration was highlighted by the Danish Refugee Council.[SEP]An upsurge of fighting in the east of the mineral-rich part of Democratic Republic of the Congo has exacerbated the spread of the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak. Photo: Reuters[SEP]With an Ebola epidemic raging and millions caught in a forgotten "catastrophe" of conflict and hunger, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was the most neglected crisis of 2018, according to an annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of aid agencies. This year's survey was unusual for the high number of "most forgotten crises," with experts also listing the Central African Republic, Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Burundi, Nigeria and, for the first time, Venezuela. "The brutality of the conflict is shocking, the national and international neglect outrageous," said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "I visited Congo this year and have seldom witnessed such a gap between needs and assistance." Congo, where 13 million people in a population of 82 million need help, also topped the annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2017, but agencies said the situation had deteriorated. Six of 21 agencies polled named Congo as the most neglected crisis, including WFP, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, and Christian Aid. ActionAid's humanitarian advisor Rachid Boumnijel urged the international community to redouble efforts to end years of conflict characterized by sexual brutality. "It's been a catastrophe for the country, and for women and girls particularly," Boumnijel said.[SEP]With an Ebola epidemic raging and millions caught in a forgotten "catastrophe" of conflict and hunger, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was the most neglected crisis of 2018, according to an annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of aid agencies. This year's survey was unusual for the high number of "most forgotten crises", with experts also listing the Central African Republic, Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Burundi, Nigeria and, for the first time, Venezuela. But Congo's "mega-crisis" barely made headlines, they said, even as the country gears up for landmark elections on Sunday which some fear could stoke further unrest. "The brutality of the conflict is shocking, the national and international neglect outrageous," said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "I visited Congo this year and have seldom witnessed such a gap between needs and assistance." Congo, where 13 million people in a population of 82 million need help, also topped the annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2017, but agencies said the situation had deteriorated. Six of 21 agencies polled named Congo as the most neglected crisis, including WFP, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, and Christian Aid. ActionAid's humanitarian advisor Rachid Boumnijel urged the international community to redouble efforts to end years of conflict characterised by sexual brutality. "It's been a catastrophe for the country, and for women and girls particularly," Boumnijel said. Christian Aid's head of humanitarian programmes Maurice Onyango said the violence had caused "large-scale trauma", with children witnessing parents and siblings being murdered. An upsurge of fighting in the east of the mineral-rich country has also exacerbated the spread of the world's second largest Ebola outbreak, agencies said. The Central African Republic, where armed groups control much of the country and 60 per cent of the population needs assistance, came a close second in the poll. Listed as the most neglected by OCHA, UNICEF, MercyCorps, Plan International, and Caritas, the country has been racked by violence since mainly Muslim rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian militias. Armed groups are increasingly targeting schools, hospitals, mosques and churches, while attacks on aid workers have impacted a "chronically underfunded" humanitarian response, they said. UN children's agency UNICEF said thousands of children had been trapped in armed groups or subjected to sexual violence. "The crisis is growing increasingly desperate and resources are at breaking point," added UNICEF emergencies director Manuel Fontaine. UN appeals for both DRC and CAR are less than 50 per cent funded. "Central African Republic is in a death spiral," said Caritas Secretary General Michel Roy. "While governments and the world's media have turned their backs, we must not. It's the only hope CAR has left."[SEP]Twice a week, Mama Mwatatu rises early and makes a two-hour trek from her home in Beni’s Cité Belge neighbourhood in North Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the local radio station. For the past 12 years, she has hosted a call-in radio talk show called “Women and Development” and has a devoted audience, earning her the nickname Mother Counsellor of Beni. In normal times, she dispenses advice on health, relationships and child-rearing. But since this August, Ebola has shaken residents and the city is the base for outbreak response efforts in North Kivu. Mama Mwatatu’s mostly female fans have inundated her with questions: Why aren’t you talking to us about this? We don’t know what to believe. But if you tell us that Ebola exists, then we trust you. “I told them: ‘Ebola is real, and you have to protect yourself and your family,’” Mama Mwatatu says. “But I wasn’t sure I had all the answers to the more technical questions so I got in touch with the World Health Organization (WHO) for assistance.” And so Mama Mwatatu teamed up with WHO’s community engagement team and her two weekly shows expanded from 30 minutes to an hour. The current Ebola outbreak in the northeast of the DRC – the tenth since the disease was identified in 1976 – has stood out as the country’s largest. Response efforts have been complicated by insecurity and armed conflict. Another challenge is how this outbreak has disproportionately affected women. As of mid-December there have been more than 500 cases, of which two-thirds were women. “It’s the first time in an Ebola outbreak that so many women have been infected,” says Julienne Anoko, a social anthropologist working for WHO. “We’ve never seen this before.” In previous outbreaks, the toughest opponents to first responders have been mostly men, but another singularity of this outbreak is that women have often been the most hostile. In Beni, it’s the women who run the households. They look after the children and they care for the sick. If a mother herself falls sick, she’ll hand over her children – who may possibly already also have Ebola – to a neighbour who will mind them along with her own. This is one way the disease has spread. “We discovered that women are very reluctant to let the sick go outside the home for treatment because, to them, that signifies they’ve failed in their duty to look after the patient,” says Ms Anoko. Women are also the chief mourners when a family member dies, weeping over the deceased and preparing the body for burial. This can also contribute to the transmission of Ebola. The initial engagement with women got off to a rocky start, because they often felt alienated by foreign male responders speaking French rather than their local language. When Ms Anoko arrived in Beni on 7 October, she quickly understood the urgent need to win over women. She started working with the Collectif des Associations Feminines (CAF), an umbrella association of about 45 local groups. WHO educated 132 women leaders from CAF about the disease and then the women conducted an intensive two-week information campaign in 30 Beni neighbourhoods, including the most dangerous and insecure. Going door to door, the women visited 2,900 households in the first three days of the campaign, engaging with almost 13,000 people. In the following 12 days, in meetings at churches and markets, they reached more than 600,000 people explaining Ebola vaccines, contact tracing, the treatment of Ebola, and the vulnerability of women and children to the disease. “At the start of the outbreak, local women saw these men in jackets doing ‘Ebola business’ and thought, this doesn’t really concern us,” explains Antoinette Zawadi, CAF’s coordinator. “Then as women leaders from Beni became involved, other women started to listen. They said, ‘OK, it’s between us now.’” Ms Zawadi believes the efforts are paying off. “We’ve done a lot of work to sensitize people about Ebola and they have understood,” she says. “But I think outside of Beni city, in the wider district, there is more to do.” Ms Anoko agrees, emphasizing that it’s important for women to stay vigilant in Beni, while WHO duplicates what’s worked there with women in the new Ebola hot spots of Butembo and Komanda. The fight against Ebola is still in full swing and Ms Anoko believes that strengthening the voice and involvement of women is key to containing the outbreak. “I really want these women leaders at the senior management coordination table helping to drive the response,” she says. Meanwhile, Mama Mwatatu continues her broadcasts, both reassuring and educating her listeners. When she is stumped by a question, she carefully notes it down and consults with WHO experts. And if any of her listeners aren’t convinced by the radio broadcasts, she follows up with visits to their prayer groups and other women’s meetings. “Yesterday, I didn’t have a broadcast and so I visited a number of towns,” Mama Mwatatu says. “I do this just so I can help because I am passionate about it in my heart.” For Additional Information or to Request Interviews, Please contact:[SEP]Congo’s Ebola outbreak and refugee crisis create perfect storm for cross-border surge in the disease PORTLAND, Ore. (Dec. 17, 2018) – Medical Teams International, the leading health organization providing screenings at refugee border crossings into Uganda, is preparing for Ebola to cross the border from Democratic Republic of Congo in the coming weeks. The Ebola outbreak comes as ongoing violence pushes thousands of Congolese east toward Uganda. Rebel attacks have complicated efforts to curtail the deadly disease’s spread, leading to more than 420 confirmed cases and 225 deaths. As the outbreak continues to grow, new cases are now appearing in the large city of Butembo ahead of planned elections this month. Medical Teams is actively monitoring the outbreak in DR Congo and preparing for the probability that cases of Ebola could cross the border. The organization has been training all staff on the protocols for spotting and reporting cases of Ebola and preventing its spread. The process is to isolate, report and refer suspected cases in coordination with the World Health Organization and Uganda’s Ministry of Health. There have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in Uganda from the current outbreak through Dec. 17. Congo’s elections are scheduled for Dec. 23, however, and are expected to lead to further protests, violence and displacement. More than 100 armed groups operate in the country, particularly in the areas where reported cases of Ebola are highest. Should Medical Teams confirm cases of Ebola crossing the border, the goal will be to isolate the cases and refer them for treatment. At Uganda’s border crossings, Congolese refugees arriving directly from an area where there have been confirmed cases are screened and any person exhibiting symptoms of Ebola are isolated and held for observation. Suspected cases would then go to health facilities that have isolation units dedicated to Ebola and other types of hemorrhagic fevers. Founded in 1979, Medical Teams International provides life-saving medical care for people in crisis, such as survivors of natural disasters and refugees. We care for the whole person—physical, emotional, social and spiritual. Daring to love like Jesus, we serve all people—regardless of religion, nationality, sex or race. Because every person—no matter where they are or how desperate their situation—matters.

The annual Thomson Reuters poll among aid agencies shows that the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with its war, hunger and Ebola outbreak, is perceived as the most neglected crisis of 2018. The Central African Republic, with its civil war, is a close second.

A man is air-rescued from destroyed pier, gets cheers as he leaves scene with rescuers.. (Aaron Hinks photos) A man stranded by today’s collapse of the White Rock pier has been rescued. A Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopter arrived at scene just before 3:30 p.m. and transferred the man to the pierhead – to cheers from bystanders – where he was attended to by paramedics before being transferred to hospital. The pier split in half shortly after 2 p.m. today, leaving one person stranded on the far end. The storm – with gusts of up to 100 km/h and described by BC Hydro as “one of the most severe storms BC Hydro has experienced in years” – has dealt the 100-year-old structure a vicious beating. This footage of the #whiterock rescue is crazy! So happy the man is ok but so sad for our poor pier. #bcstorm #whiterockpier pic.twitter.com/d2Bc9H4ZgR — South Rock Buzz (@SouthRockBuzz) December 21, 2018 “It’s almost split in half,” Peace Arch News reporter Aaron Hinks said from the scene just after 2 p.m. Thursday – moments before the structure collapsed. “There’s at least one guy stranded on the far end of the pier. He can’t cross.” In video taken this afternoon by PAN and shared on our Facebook page, the sailboats that broke loose from their moorings can seen be smashing against the pier. READ MORE: Windstorm wallops Surrey, White Rock They took out the handrailing, quickly followed by a chunk of the pier deck that continued to expand in size as the minutes passed. Emergency crews remain on the scene. “Every organization we can think of” was contacted for assistance with the rescue, White Rock RCMP Const. Chantal Sears told PAN. “I believe we reached out to the U.S. as well. “Hopefully, the rest of (the pier) is structurally sound until (help arrives.)” “This is a first-time event, ever,” Dean Donnelly of RCM-SAR5 said of the storm’s impact. Donnelly said some pieces of the pier drifted as far as the city’s namesake, as did as least one of the sailboats. It’s estimated only eight of around 30 vesels that were moored at the pier survived. @WhiteRockRCMP @IAFF2407 dealing with emergent situation at the pier. Marine drive will be shut down until further notice. pic.twitter.com/4ycs6WKG30 — White Rock RCMP (@WhiteRockRCMP) December 20, 2018 @MMadryga #Whiterock pier is broken. Guy is trapped on other side. Boats slammed into it pic.twitter.com/nzf9wANd1k — LLA (@leslie0866) December 20, 2018 The pier continues to take a beating, as the gap increases pic.twitter.com/LXcK96DjHP — Peace Arch News (@PeaceArchNews) December 20, 2018 Lower Mainland Yacht Club skipper Jason Johnson said the club maintains six sailboats at the end of the pier, “all of which it appears at this point have been destroyed.” “It’s fortunate that no one was seriously injured out here.” Johnson said he has “never seen anything like this.” It’s “a little bit surreal,” he said. “Reminds me a little bit about the power of the ocean.” The pier was officially opened on Nov. 14, 1914. The battering effect of storms in the decades that followed led to the addition of the breakwater in 1953. The City of White Rock repaired and replaced damaged piles and cross-braces in April 2013; work that was deemed necessary during a 2010 inspection. White Rock Mayor Darryl Walker said efforts are underway to secure the structure until it is safe to assess the damage. “Holy cow, what a mess, what a devastating afternoon,” Walker told PAN just after 4:30 p.m. Walker said Marine Drive is closed, as is Buena Vista Avenue between Oxford and Foster streets. The city issued a news release at 3:15 p.m. Thursday advising of the pier’s closure, along with closures of Centennial Park trails and more “due to extreme weather event.” Away from the water, a White Rock firefighter said a hydro pole near the the corner of Johnston Street and Royal Avenue was at risk of coming down. Police and firefighters were seen diverting traffic heading south. White Rock firefighters have just told me that leaning power pole, at the corner of Royal and Johnston, could come down at any moment. Entire block of Johnston is cordoned off. @PeaceArchNews @BlackPressMedia #bcstorm pic.twitter.com/izrJpAyl6A — Kat Slepian (@katslepian) December 21, 2018 Closer to the water, a rotten egg smell near the corner of Fir Street and Victoria Avenue had residents worried about a gas leak. Power remained on along much of Marine Drive and restaurants near the pier were packed during happy hour. Walker said updates will continue to be posted to the city’s website (ow.ly/cKMf30n47Ns) throughout the evening and overnight. Noting he’s been advised of storm damage to some local homes, Walker said the city’s emergency social service centre is up and running at Centennial Arena for anyone in need of the services. He implored those curious about the impact to the pier, waterfront and other areas to stay away. “This was a very, very strong (storm) and continues to be a very strong storm. People are kind of putting themselves in danger” by attempting the visit the sites. The pier in particular, “we don’t want anybody getting close,” he said. “Stay away, that’s the message.” Despite these crazy waves, and winds, I just heard some teens run by yelling “let’s get out on the f***king pier” in White Rock. Needless to say: bad idea. @BlackPressMedia @PeaceArchNews #BCstorm pic.twitter.com/4MT3kKkTzi — Kat Slepian (@katslepian) December 21, 2018 But despite waves continuing to crash into the visibly-wobbling pier, at least half a dozen people climbed under the barricade and walked out onto the 100-year-old structure. Some appeared to be nearly at the break in the pier, as it continued to be pummelled by strong winds. Even after a White Rock RCMP officer headed down to escort people off the pier, a group of teens ran towards it, yelling about how “sick the storm” was. Despite the damage, Walker was also adamant that the damage does not mean an end for the pier. “Make no mistake it will be here for another 100 years,” he said. “We will not lose that pier. Come hell or high water, we’ll make sure we have that pier.” tholmes@peacearchnews.com Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter[SEP]VANCOUVER ISLAND, B.C. – Strong winds have been knocking trees over and blocking Vancouver Island highways. According to reports, trees are down and blocking travellers along Highway 1 around Horne Lake. Highway 1 along Koksilah River is also reportedly out. Up north, downed trees and wet snow are making it difficult for travellers to drive from Port Alice to Port Hardy. Water is pooling in some areas of the road, giving slippery conditions. There have also been various reports of downed trees knocking out power lines. Currently, approximately 260 customers are without power on Quadra Island. Flooding has also been reported in Campbell River, with some stretches of streets barricaded and traffic rerouted.[SEP]Curious spectators flocked to White Rock’s waterfront to see the debris that washed up on the beach in the aftermath of Thursday’s wind storm — including three boats and chunks of the city’s landmark pier. “I’ve lived here 50 years. I’ve never seen a storm like this, I’ve never seen the devastation like this,” said White Rock Mayor Darryl Walker said during a press briefing on Friday. About 30 metres of the almost 500-metre-long pier washed away after it was pummelled by waves and at least three boats that had become unmoored, and one person had to be rescued by helicopter after he was trapped on the end of the broken pier. No one was hurt. Walker said city staff haven’t yet had a chance to do a full assessment, but the pier is “extremely damaged” and will take months and likely millions of dollars to fix. He said the city has already spoken with the federal and provincial governments to hopefully get some financial assistance. Walker called the pier “one of the jewels in our crown — it might be the primary jewel in our crown.” “It’s essential to our community that we get the pier up and available for people to spend time on as soon as we possibly can,” he said. As of Friday, the pier was closed, along with the nearby promenade to the east, thought there were many people walking in the area. Logs and picnic tables had been thrown on to the beach and walkway. Three boats belonging to the Lower Mainland Yacht Co-op were on the beach, along with parts of the dock to which they were attached and pieces of the pier. Smaller flotsam — plastic bottles, buoys, life jackets and pieces of Styrofoam — also littered the waterfront. B.C. Hydro said about 155,000 customers were still without power by midday Friday and some could be in the dark for days as crews work to repair outages on Vancouver Island, Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast and Fraser Valley. “Yesterday’s windstorm was one of the most severe storms B.C. Hydro has experienced in years,” a post on the utility’s website said. At its height, about 400,000 customers lost electricity and many remained without power overnight. Environment Canada says gusts topped 100 km/h just south of Vancouver and in parts of the Fraser Valley, making the storm more powerful than the 2006 gales that levelled a large section of forest in Stanley Park. The City of Nanaimo issued a statement Friday saying the storm caused its water treatment plant to break down. While the water is safe to drink, the city urged its residents and businesses to restrict their use until the full system is restored, in order to preserve enough for firefighting emergencies. The city’s emergency operations centre has been activated and staff are preparing contingency plans in the event that the water treatment plant does not return to full operating capacity soon. City pools and arenas are closed until further notice. One woman died when a tree fell on her tent in a wooded area near Duncan, RCMP said. There were four other people in the tent and two male occupants were also injured. One was airlifted, and the other was transported by ambulance, to hospital for treatment. The B.C. Coroners Service is in the early stages of its investigation and can release no further details at this time, it said. “Our investigation will look at how she died, where and by what means,” spokesman Andy Watson said. All wind warnings have been dropped and service is getting back to normal on B.C. Ferries routes after most sailings were cancelled Thursday. The first sailings Friday were already full on most major routes, while power outages at smaller terminals were affecting those schedules. Service also returned to normal Friday for transit passengers in Metro Vancouver, after trains along the Expo and Canada lines experienced significant delays and shutdowns due to debris on the tracks. Four Metro Vancouver parks — Tynehead, Deas Island, Belcarra and Pacific Spirit — remained closed on Friday due to potential injury from falling trees and other debris. A section of the Dyke Trail was closed in Boundary Bay park because of flooding and debris. Regional parks staff are conducting assessments of all sites hit by the storm. • B.C. wind storm: White Rock pier split in two, ferries cancelled, hundreds of thousands lose power[SEP]Thousands of Metro Vancouver residents remain without power, a day after a powerful wind storm swept over B.C.’s South Coast, causing widespread damage. And, B.C. Hydro says it could be days before some customers have their lights back on. B.C. Hydro crews were busy through the night, yet early on Friday morning nearly 60,000 customers in the Lower Mainland, and more than 80,000 on Vancouver Island were still without power. A post on the B.C. Hydro website said the windstorm was “one of the most severe storms” B.C. Hydro has experienced in years, causing extensive damage to electrical infrastructure across Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley. “All available crews and resources will be working around the clock until all damage is repaired. Due to the extent of the damage, many customers will be without power overnight and for some customers it could be days. We appreciate your patience and will continue to provide updates as available,” B.C. Hydro said, in the post. Nine schools in Abbotsford remained closed Friday because of the continued power outages. The affected schools are: On Thursday, the wind storm knocked down trees across the region, sent objects flying, forced ferry cancellations, and caused traffic woes and delays on SkyTrain. In White Rock, high winds sent loose boats crashing into the pier, splitting it in two and stranding one individual at the far end. For more on Thursday’s storm read Postmedia’s story here. On Friday, Environment Canada had lifted the wind warning, and the weather was expected to be much calmer, with sunshine in the forecast. The agency released a summary of the wind activity during the storm, saying gusts reached more than 100 km/h in Abbotsford, 111 km/h in Tofino, 89 km/h in Vancouver, and 128 km/h at Sandheads Lighthouse in the Fraser River. B.C. Ferries said early Friday that there were no service notices and all sailings were running as normal. However, travellers should expect a backlog of travellers after all the major routes were shut down on Thursday because of the storm. On Vancouver Island, the storm may be linked to at least one fatality. A man died in Duncan, but the B.C. Coroners Service said there was no official cause of death yet, though confirmed it involved a fallen tree. With files from The Times Colonist[SEP]The man who ended up on the wrong side of a crumbling pier during a "devastating," deadly windstorm on Thursday says he wants to apologize for his "foolishness." Oren Perry, 42, was caught on the far end of the pier in White Rock, B.C., after it collapsed in the early afternoon. Waves churned by 90 km/h winds had ripped nearby boats from their moorings and sent them crashing into the century-old pier, beating against the wooden beams until they cracked apart. Other people on the pier ran back to safety at the first signs of collapse, but Perry says he didn't feel safe. "Embarrassing. That's about it," he said of being the only one caught on the wrong side. The mayor of White Rock said Thursday's windstorm was the worst he's seen in his 50 years as a city resident. Gales led to fallen trees across the province's South Coast, killing one woman on Vancouver Island and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes over the course of the day. Hopes to wait it out Perry went to the beach with his wife and son around noon Thursday. They were storm-watching from the beach promenade, but Perry's wife and son went inside a restaurant for a break when the weather worsened. "The waves were a little bit too big for my son, who's two, and he was nervous," Perry said over the phone Friday. Alone, he decided to walk down the pier to join the crowd watching the waves and boats — "the excitement of the storm," he said, adding that he's watched storms from the pier before. Perry said it took a few "tries" before boats started to break through the beams holding up the 104-year-old pier. "At first, I was stuck with some other people and it didn't seem like it was safe enough to cross, and I thought, 'Well, the storm is going to die down in about an hour and we'll just wait it out,'" Perry said. He said he walked further out to get away from the break. Meanwhile, RCMP were onshore shouting for people on the pier to sprint to safety. Everyone did, except Perry. "I guess the police showed up to encourage the other people to run through, but I didn't know ... then I wasn't close enough to make it a make across in time," he said. "It didn't seem like it was safe enough to cross." Eventually, a section of the pier tore away from the rest and left a gap over the ocean. Perry said he hoped to wait out the storm on the far end of the pier, but a Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter from Vancouver Island lifted him to shore just after 3:30 p.m. "I just felt foolish. Especially with everybody watching onshore," said Perry. "Shout-out to the first responders. They did a great job — all of them," he added. "And I have to apologize to everybody for getting stuck out there." The pier was open when Perry walked across. RCMP shut down the area after the collapse and it remained closed Friday.[SEP]VANCOUVER — A person who was stranded on a pier in White Rock, B.C., has been rescued after part of the structure collapsed in strong winds. The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria says on Twitter one of its helicopters successfully hoisted the person to safety. Parts of southern British Columbia were hit by a powerful wind storm today that left thousands of BC Hydro customers without power on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast. BC Hydro says about 330,000 customers late Thursday afternoon didn’t have electricity on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and on the Sunshine Coast. Environment Canada issued a wind warning for those areas saying a powerful low pressure system was sweeping into the B.C. coast, bringing winds in the range of 70 to 90 km/h with gusts up to 100 km/h. The winds also prompted cancellations or delays at BC Ferries for sailings between Nanaimo and Horseshoe Bay, Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, Tsawwassen to Duke Point and Tsawwassen to the Southern Gulf Islands. Rainfall warnings were posted for Howe Sound, the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon, with Environment Canada saying 50 millimetres could drench those regions by Friday. Snowfall or winter storm warnings were also up for mountain passes to and from the Interior with Environment Canada advising of rapidly accumulating snow on sections of a number of highways including the Sea-to-Sky, Coquihalla, Highway 3 and Highway 1 between Eagle Pass and Rogers Pass.[SEP]VANCOUVER — Police say a person is trapped on a pier in White Rock, B.C., after part of the structure collapsed in strong winds. RCMP Const. Chantal Sears says a rescue team has been sent out. Parts of southern British Columbia were hit by a powerful wind storm today that left thousands of BC Hydro customers without power on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast. BC Hydro says about 100,000 customers didn’t have electricity on Vancouver Island shortly after midday, while the lights were out for almost 130,000 in the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast. Environment Canada issued a wind warning for those areas saying a powerful low pressure system was sweeping into the B.C. coast, bringing winds in the range of 70 to 90 km/h with gusts up to 100 km/h. The winds also prompted cancellations or delays at BC Ferries for sailings between Nanaimo and Horseshoe Bay, Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, Tsawwassen to Duke Point and Tsawwassen to the Southern Gulf Islands. Rainfall warnings were posted for Howe Sound, the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon, with Environment Canada saying 50 millimetres could drench those regions by Friday. Snowfall or winter storm warnings were also up for mountain passes to and from the Interior with Environment Canada advising of rapidly accumulating snow on sections of a number of highways including the Sea-to-Sky, Coquihalla, Highway 3 and Highway 1 between Eagle Pass and Rogers Pass.[SEP]VANCOUVER — White Rock Mayor Darryl Walker says it could take months and millions of dollars to repair the city's beloved pier after part of it was ripped away during an intense windstorm that swept British Columbia's southern coast. It's one of several communities dealing with the aftermath of Thursday's storm, which BC Hydro is describing as among the most severe in many years. The 457 metre pier will be closed until further notice after several boats broke away from their moorings and battered the middle of the pier, eventually collapsing a 30-metre section, Walker said. "The damage that was done to our pier appears to be something that will take some months for us to recoup from, it's extremely damaged," he said. The force of the waves also tossed logs and concrete picnic tables onto the popular promenade along the city's waterfront and Walker said that area will be cordoned off while repairs are made. One person was trapped at the end of the pier and had to be airlifted by helicopter to safety at the height of the storm but no one was hurt. BC Hydro said about 155,000 customers were still without power by midday Friday and some could be in the dark for days as crews work to repair outages on Vancouver Island, Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast and Fraser Valley. "Yesterday's windstorm was one of the most severe storms BC Hydro has experienced in years," a post on the utility's website said. At its height, about 400,000 customers lost electricity and many remained without power overnight. Environment Canada says gusts topped 100 km/h just south of Vancouver and in parts of the Fraser Valley, making the storm more powerful than the 2006 gales that levelled a large section of forest in Stanley Park.[SEP]Crews were called to White Rock on Thursday to conduct a rescue after someone became trapped on the city’s seaside pier. Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordinateion Centre spokesperson Katelyn Moores said a helicopter crew was able to successfully pluck the person to safety just after 3:30 p.m. READ MORE: More than 300,000 without power as windstorm hits B.C.’s South Coast “So the damage to the pier and the rough seas were preventing rescue by land and water, so we tasked a helicopter form 442 Transport and Rescue squadron in Comox to respond, they were able to reach the individual and assist them,” she said. The situation began shaping up around 2 p.m. when a number of sailboats broke free from their mooring due to a powerful windstorm and blew into the pier, according to witnesses. Photographer Leslie Achtymichuk, who lives nearby, said she went to see what was going on when her barbecue blew away in the wind, and saw waves topping the breakwaters in the bay. “Half of the sailboats broke loose and they just started flying in the air a bit and finally slamming into the pier and there was a guy trapped on the other side,” she said. Video from the scene showed the boats slamming repeatedly into the pier while curious onlookers stood nearby. “It took about a half an hour for the boats to actually break through the pier, like they just kept pounding and pounding and pounding and after about 40 minutes, it just broke a whole section apart,” King said. “As soon as it started to break away, he was stranded and the other guys backed off.” Const. Chantal Sears with the White Rock RCMP said police and firefighters have now blocked the pier off to the public. The rescue came in the nick of time. King said as a second group of sailboats had also broken free and was threatening to damage the pier further. “So the guy [was] in between the gap and where the boats are going to start slamming against the pier again, so if that goes, he’s basically on an island,” he said.[SEP]Vancouver Island is dealing with a lot of cleanup from the storm on Thursday. Nanaimo residents are being told not to use tap water until further notice as the city’s water treatment plant has been compromised. The city says pools are also closed because people can’t take showers prior to getting into the water as per health and safety regulations. Arenas are closed because the ice can’t be cleaned and bathrooms are not available in the facilities. READ MORE: More than 150,000 without power in aftermath of B.C. windstorm On Saltspring Island, downed trees have damaged water infrastructure in the Fernwood area, so that part of the island is under a boil-water advisory. In Duncan, a woman was killed when a tree fell on the tent she was in during the morning winds. North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP say the tree came crashing down on the tent with five people inside at approximately 11:25 a.m. Five people were inside at the time and two other men were injured. Travel is also impacted as several major routes are closed by downed trees. A section of Highway 4 near Port Alberni, known as “The Hump” was closed overnight, stranding some travellers in their cars or the community. Crews worked overnight to clear toppled trees and other debris, as well as restore power. READ MORE: Pender Island on virtual lockdown after windstorm brings down 50 trees, cuts power to whole community Pender Island is also cleaning up Friday after the storm knocked down about 50 trees all over the island. Police are asking people not to come to Pender Island until BC Hydro crews have been able to clear the roads. About 80,000 BC Hydro customers remain without power as of noon on Friday across Vancouver Island.

Severe windstorms in Vancouver and Vancouver Island damage houses, damage roads, and destroy a 100 year old pier in White Rock, British Columbia. One person stranded on the pier is rescued by helicopter. Several highways were closed due to trees falling.

The mayor of an Alaska town and her mother, who were in town for a tour of the White House, are dead after they were struck by a tour bus in D.C. Wednesday night. WASHINGTON — The mayor of an Alaska town and her mother, who were in D.C. for a tour of the White House, were struck and killed by a tour bus Wednesday night. Skagway, Alaska, native and Mayor Monica Adams Carlson, 61, and 85-year-old Cora Louise Adams of Elbe, Washington, were in the crosswalk on the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street Northwest when they were struck by a 2013 Prevost H3 passenger bus shortly after 9:30 p.m. D.C. police said they believe the bus was traveling northbound on 7th Street Northwest and made a left turn onto Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest when it struck the mother and daughter. The women were taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries where they died. Police have not identified the driver of the tour bus or if charges against the driver would be filed. Carlson and her mother were in D.C. for a tour of the White House, set up through Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Ala., according to Steve Hites, president of Skagway Street Car Tour, where Carlson also worked. Carlson, who had been elected in a write-in campaign in October 2017, had one more year in her term as mayor of Skagway and also served as the director of tour operations at Skagway Street Car Tour since 1996. She worked as a tour conductor for the company for several years before that, Hites told WTOP. “She was very proud of her town and was a good mayor,” Hites said in an email. Skagway is about 100 miles north of Juneau, Alaska’s capital. Below is a map where the two women were struck by the bus: (WTOP’s Anna Isaacs, Megan Cloherty and Jack Moore contributed to this report.) Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others. © 2018 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. 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He says Carlson was elected to a 2-year term as a write-in candidate in 2017.[SEP]The mayor of an Alaskan town and her elderly mother were killed after they were struck by a tour bus near the National Mall in downtown D.C. Wednesday night, police say. The crash happened just before 10 p.m. near the National Archives building at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The Eyre bus was making a left turn onto Pennsylvania Avenue when it struck Monica Adams Carlson and her mother, 85-year-old Cora Louise Adams, as they were in the crosswalk, the Metropolitan Police Department said. Both women were taken to the hospital, where they died of their injuries. Carlson, 61, was the mayor of Skagway, Alaska, a town about 100 miles north of Juneau with a population of about 1,100 people. Carlson was a write-in candidate who was elected to a 2-year term in 2017, according to the town's radio station KHNS-FM. Carlson's mother was a resident of the lakeside town of Elbe in Washington state. Video from Wednesday's scene showed a tour bus parked on the street near a large area that was taped off by police. Several police cruisers had their lights on and officers could be seen stepping inside the bus. No further information about the crash has been released. Eyre Bus, Tour & Travel, the company that operates the tour bus, released a statement expressing their sympathy to the family. "We are cooperating fully with authorities in the investigation of this incident. Eyre places the safe transportation of our customers as well as those we share the road with as our number one priority." the statement went on to say. It's not clear whether the traffic lights were red or green at the time. Police are reviewing traffic camera video, and the driver of the bus is cooperating with their investigation. Blaine Mero, office administrator for the Skagway Chamber of Commerce, says locals are in shock and grief over the news. Police say the crash was very similar to an incident that claimed the lives of two woman on Feb. 14, 2007. The woman were hit and killed by a Metrobus in the same intersection. Metro settled a lawsuit with one of the victim's husbands for more than $2 million. DDOT added a left-turn lane and left-turn arrow to the intersection following the crash. The Associated Press contributed to this report[SEP]On Wednesday night, the mayor of Skagway and her mother were struck by a bus and killed in Washington, D.C. The D.C. Metropolitan Police say 61-year-old Monica Adams Carlson of Skagway, and 85-year-old Cora Louise Adams of Washington state were struck in a crosswalk near the National Mall. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.[SEP]Two pedestrians who were struck by a tour bus in downtown Washington have died. D.C. police said Thursday morning that the victims “succumbed to their injuries.” They were struck around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. They were taken to a hospital with injuries that police had said were life-threatening. The crash is under investigation. The tour bus, which had the company name Eyre Bus, Tour, Travel on the side, was parked Wednesday night in the 700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue near the Navy Memorial and across the street from the National Archives.[SEP]The District is combating an increased rat infestation. While President Donald Trump is busy calling people “rats” on Twitter, it looks like literal rats are running onto the White House lawn. For years, Washington, D.C., has dealt with a plague of the four-legged rodents, and they are not discerning about where they show up. Big fancy house painted white? Yes, they go there. According to a report from the Washington Post, on Monday, one of the creatures scurried across the lawn at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and not surprisingly, somebody was there to report on the crazy scene. Reporter John Roberts took to Twitter to share the scene with his followers. He wrote, “I am standing in our @FoxNews standup location on the @WhiteHouse North Lawn and notice in my peripheral vision something moving at my left foot. I assumed it was one of the ubiquitous WH squirrels. But no… it was a big brown rat.” A rat is a far less welcome sight than a squirrel, and not what a reporter would hope to see reporting on location at the White House. However, given the liberal use of the term recently by the president of the United States, perhaps the D.C. contingent of the rodents feels emboldened to go even further than they have ever gone before. It seems that rats are the great equalizer in the District and very likely the world. According to D.C. rat specialist Gerard Brown, who is a program manager at the Department of Health, revealed a shocking fact. He said, “Every human in D.C. comes within five feet of a rat every single day. They just may not always know it.” Unfortunately, the U.S. capitol experienced what Brown called a “perfect storm” of flushing rats out in recent weeks. Three factors cause rats to go on the move, and they are food sources, weather, and population density, which D.C. has had in spades lately. The good news is that in a few short weeks, on January 1, an additional $906,000 will flood the city with increased measures to combat its rat problem. It may seem crazy, but in 2017, the city received 5,310 calls about rats on its 311 line, and officials believe that 2018 calls remain at a similar level. The number jumped a shocking 50 percent from 2016 levels. So far, the White House itself hasn’t experienced an infestation the way the rest of the city has, though. National Park Service spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles said, “We haven’t seen a change, or a need for immediate concern, around the White House.” The National Park Service maintains both the house grounds and Lafayette Square Park. As for other so-called rats in D.C.? Well, they’re a completely different type of issue.

The Mayor of Skagway, Alaska, Monica Carlson, as well as her mother, are killed after being struck by a tour bus in Washington, D.C. while preparing to visit the White House.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian prosecutors have dropped their case against former directors of Fortis, 10 years after the Belgian-Dutch bank’s collapse during the global financial crisis. FILE PHOTO: Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis Chief Executive Herman Verwilst and Chairman of the Board Maurice Lippens (R) attend a group's information session for shareholders in Brussels August 20, 2008. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir Brussels prosecutors said that they had decided not to pursue charges against seven ex-directors because it had not found sufficient proof that they had wilfully given over-optimistic information to shareholders. “If we want to prove fraud then we need to show they knowingly attached too low a risk to the sub-primes, in other words were too positive... It is difficult to say that they should have known better,” said prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch. She noted that Belgian insurer Ageas (AGES.BR), the legal successor to Fortis, was set to pay shareholders 1.3 billion euros by way of compensation. Part of the reason for the pursuit of the ex-directors was to secure damages for Fortis shareholders who had lost their money. Seven ex-directors, including former chairman Maurice Lippens and former CEO Jean-Paul Votron, were accused in 2013 of misleading investors during Fortis’s purchase of part of Dutch lender ABN AMRO and before its 2008 collapse. Allegations by the prosecutors revolved around whether communications to investors about Fortis’s exposure to U.S. sub-prime assets were insufficient or too late, such as at the time of a capital increase when Fortis bought part of ABN AMRO. The seven would have been the first in Belgium to face trial over banking failures during the crisis, which also forced bailouts for Franco-Belgian group Dexia (DEXI.BR) and Belgian company KBC (KBC.BR). Fortis, once one of Europe’s largest banks, got into trouble after paying a top-of-the-market 24 billion euros ($27.4 billion) to buy the Dutch operations of ABN AMRO just before the credit crunch struck. Shareholder groups have complained that Lippens and Votron repeatedly assured markets that Fortis’s balance sheet was strong and that it would not be changing its dividend policy. In June, 2008, Fortis scrapped its interim dividend and sold new shares to prop itself up before it collapsed and was broken up in October 2008.[SEP]BRUSSELS (AP) — Police and hundreds of yellow jacket protesters upset over high taxes and living costs clashed Friday in Brussels. Dozens were detained as the grassroots movement that started in France two weeks ago… BRUSSELS (AP) — Police and hundreds of yellow jacket protesters upset over high taxes and living costs clashed Friday in Brussels. Dozens were detained as the grassroots movement that started in France two weeks ago gained traction in Belgium. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons on protesters, who threw rocks and paving stones after they were blocked from approaching government buildings and offices in Brussels. “Our officers started to use water cannons after they began throwing objects. They were throwing pool balls,” said Brussels city police spokeswoman Ilse Van De Keere, estimating that over 300 people were involved in the clashes. A riot police cordon charged protesters after they attacked two police vehicles, overturning one and setting both alight. Road signs were uprooted and traffic lights smashed. Around 60 people were charged with disturbing public order. Many were carrying objects that police considered to be dangerous, including razor blades, tire levers and pepper spray, she said. Some were detained for having gas, ski and diving masks. The Brussels prosecutors’ office said one person was detained for carrying a weapon and a second for willfully causing damage, while a third was being questioned by police over alleged drug offenses. It said an investigation has been opened into the torching of the police vehicles. Prime Minister Charles Michel tweeted: “all my support to forces of law and order which ensure our safety and guarantee our freedom. No impunity for the inadmissible violence in Brussels. Thugs and pillagers should be punished.” His interior minister, Jan Jambon, lamented in a tweet what he described as “incomprehensible violence toward the police, which does its best to protect citizens and society. Scandalous.” Earlier, dozens of protesters wearing the movement’s high visibility vests blocked city streets, sometimes with pieces of scaffolding, causing traffic chaos along major roads. Some handed out vests to bystanders and people stuck in cars. As they marched, some protesters chanted “We are the people!” and held up placards marked: “Union is Strength” and “Shame on the Police.” Michel has said he is willing to talk with some of their leaders, but it was not immediately clear whether any meeting had taken place. Protest roadblocks were also in place near the city of Charleroi, 60 kilometers (38 miles) south of Brussels. It’s unclear exactly who the protesters are. Small rallies and roadblocks have been going on in the French-speaking south of Belgium for about two weeks. Some appeared linked to high fuel prices, seen as the cause of the protest movement in neighboring France. Belgian media say many are out in the streets over high taxes and food prices, low wages and pensions, but some question whether the movement is being exploited by far-left and far-right groups. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Ten years after the collapse of Belgian financial group Fortis in the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the prosecutor in Brussels decides to drop the case against seven former directors. The prosecution argues that it found insufficient evidence that they knowingly misled shareholders with over-optimistic company information.

The handshake requirement will deter few applicants for citizenship, officials said, but it sends a harsh message to Muslims, and many mayors who conduct citizenship ceremonies said they would find ways to avoid it. “It’s against my ideology and conviction to have to force other people to have body contact,” said Thomas Andresen, the mayor of Aabenraa, near the border with Germany. To circumvent the law, Mr. Andresen said, he could either arrange to have local officials of both genders take part in the ceremonies or have state officials take over. Either way, he said, he would look for pragmatic solutions while protesting legislation “gone too far.” Mogens Jespersen, the mayor of Mariagerfjord, a northern town, told the national broadcaster that he would disregard the law and accept a nod or a bow from an applicant refusing to extend her hand. “But I think it’s a hypothetical question I’ll never face,” he said. In Ishoj, a suburb of Copenhagen, immigrants and their descendants constitute 40 percent of the population. But its mayor of 17 years, Ole Bjorstorp, said he had never met anybody who refused to shake his hand. If it were to happen, he said, he would just find somebody else to perform the ceremony. “My conscience doesn’t allow me to report people on this basis so they won’t become Danish citizens,” he said. “It’s a moral and ethical issue.” One mayor said he had met a female asylum seeker who declined to shake his hand for religious reasons, but he did not find it disturbing.[SEP]Denmark has passed a law requiring any new citizens to shake hands at their naturalization ceremony.Some of the mayors who are expected to take part in the ceremonies have complained that the new law signed on Thursday uses them against the populace.It was decided over the summer that new citizens should take part in a ceremony where they sign a declaration pledging their belief in Danish values.The new law means that as part of the ceremony a new citizen will have to shake hands with an official.He previously told the Eskra Bladet tabloid that shaking hands 'must simply be a demand.'As well as Muslims the law could also impact other religious groups who abstain from or for whom it is forbidden to touch members of the opposite sex.Mayor of Aabenraa, Thomas Andresen, told the Times: 'It's against my ideology and conviction to have to force other people to have body contact.'He said he would look to have members of both sexes present at ceremonies to avoid any of the naturalization ceremonies being interfered with by the legislation.The legislation would not be unique in Europe.Lausanne mayor Gregoire Junod cited their lack of respect for gender equality when they were denied citizenship.Denmark's cabinet is made up of a minority coalition of center-right parties and they rely on support from the Danish People's Party, widely viewed as right-wing and populist.[SEP]Denmark has passed a law requiring any new citizens to shake hands at their naturalization ceremony. Critics say the new legislation targets Muslims, who may be reluctant to touch members of the opposite sex for religious reasons. Some of the mayors who are expected to take part in the ceremonies have complained that the new law signed on Thursday uses them against the populace. Denmark brought in a face veil ban on August 1 which drew massive protests from Muslim women and human rights groups. It was decided over the summer that new citizens should take part in a ceremony where they sign a declaration pledging their belief in Danish values. The new law means that as part of the ceremony a new citizen will have to shake hands with an official. A right-wing Danish lawmaker, Martin Henriksen told the New York Times: 'If you arrive in Denmark, where it’s custom to shake hands when you greet, if you don’t do it it’s disrespectful.' The People's Party spokesman on immigration continued: 'If one can’t do something that simple and straightforward, there’s no reason to become a Danish citizen.' He previously told the Eskra Bladet tabloid that shaking hands 'must simply be a demand.' As well as Muslims the law could also impact other religious groups who abstain from or for whom it is forbidden to touch members of the opposite sex. Mayor of Aabenraa, Thomas Andresen, told the Times: 'It’s against my ideology and conviction to have to force other people to have body contact.' He said he would look to have members of both sexes present at ceremonies to avoid any of the naturalization ceremonies being interfered with by the legislation. The legislation would not be unique in Europe. In Switzerland this summer the Guardian reported a couple were refused citizenship by officials in Lausanne after they refused to shake hands with members of the opposite sex. Lausanne mayor Gregoire Junod cited their lack of respect for gender equality when they were denied citizenship. Denmark's cabinet is made up of a minority coalition of center-right parties and they rely on support from the Danish People's Party, widely viewed as right-wing and populist.[SEP]COPENHAGEN — Denmark will require anyone who takes Danish citizenship to shake hands at the naturalization ceremony, under a law passed on Thursday, which lawmakers say is aimed at Muslims who refuse on religious grounds to touch members of the opposite sex. The law has prompted strong reactions from some of the mayors who must conduct such ceremonies, and who are upset that they will become the faces and fists of a policy they call awkward, “purely symbolic” and irrelevant to an applicant’s qualifications. They say the Danish Parliament, which approved the measure, has artificially elevated a social custom to a national value. But Denmark is not alone. Authorities in Switzerland and France have recently cited “lack of assimilation” in rejection of citizenship to foreigners who refuse to shake hands with officials. “If you arrive in Denmark, where it’s custom to shake hands when you greet, if you don’t do it it’s disrespectful,” said Martin Henriksen, a lawmaker who has been critical of Islam and is the right-wing Danish People’s Party’s spokesman on immigration. “If one can’t do something that simple and straightforward, there’s no reason to become a Danish citizen.”[SEP]A new law, which requires anyone, who takes Danish citizenship, to shake hands at the naturalisation ceremony was approved on December 20. According to the New York Times (NYT), citing Danish lawmakers, the new ruling is aimed at Muslims as some of them refuse to touch members of the opposite sex on religious grounds. The law, which is to come in force on January 1, was a reaction of "Muslim immigration to Denmark over a long time", the New York Times reports, referencing Martin Henriksen, a Danish lawmaker and a People's Party's spokesman on immigration. "If you arrive in Denmark, where it's custom to shake hands when you greet, if you don't do it it's disrespectful. If one can't do something that simple and straightforward, there's no reason to become a Danish citizen", the NYT cites Martin Henriksen as saying. Inger Stojberg, who is Denmark's Integration minister, while commenting on the law, said that a handshake is "visible sign that you've taken Denmark to heart", highlighting that those Danish municipalities that do not abide by the handshake law, will face fines, according to the NYT. Denmark, which has so far received more than 35,000 refugees is struggling to assimilate them. In October 2018, Denmark withdrew from UN quota system because of the problems it faced with the integration of those migrants that it had already taken in. READ MORE: Denmark Says Video of Two Scandinavian Women Butchered by 'Daesh' Is Authentic "We're still in a situation where we're struggling to integrate the many refugees who have come to Denmark in recent years. While an increasing number of refugees have entered the labour market, there are still too many who cannot support themselves", the Local DK cites Inger Stojberg as saying.[SEP]COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Denmark has adopted a law requiring anyone who becomes a Danish citizen to shake hands at the naturalization ceremony. The move is widely seen as aimed at some Muslims who for religious reasons decline to touch members of the opposite sex. In a 55-23 vote with 30 lawmakers abstaining, the law was adopted in Parliament on Thursday. Lawmakers also approved funding for a plan to banish rejected asylum-seekers or those with a criminal record to an island. About 759 million kroner ($116 million) will be spent to turn the island with a defunct laboratory for contagious animal diseases into facilities for some 100 people in 2021.[SEP]Billy O'Shea drew attention to himself this week with an opinion piece on Politken.dk, the website of one of Denmark's leading newspapers, in which he explained why he would refuse to shake hands. The 61-year-old writer and translator, who has lived in Denmark since 1981, recently submitted his citizenship application. DW: The Danish parliament passed legislation on Thursday making a handshake mandatory at naturalization ceremonies. Why do you object to the handshake? Billy O'Shea: For me there's an important democratic principle involved here. The government says that the handshake is intended to show respect for Danish traditions and Danish culture, and I feel that you cannot impose respect by law. I feel that respect is something that arises in a democracy between people of equal status, equal rights, and it's not something that can be demanded. If you demand respect of people, what you receive will not be respect but submissiveness. There is also a further question here. In order to apply for citizenship at all in Denmark, you cannot be unemployed. You cannot have a criminal record of any kind. You must have learned the language. You must have learned about Danish history and Danish culture, and you must have recorded every time you've been out of the country for the past 12 years. When people have done all this, and furthermore waited up to two years to have their citizenship application approved, at the very last moment the government is now saying: But we need you to do one more thing. We need you to prove that you are not a religious extremist of some kind. I feel that this is an impertinence. It's just too much. It is as though the government is putting one barrier after another in the path of honest, hardworking people who are just trying to become citizens of the country in which they live. You wrote in your opinion piece in Politiken that this is un-Danish. How? Denmark is a country with very long, very firmly democratic traditions. And I feel that this government is not sufficiently aware of its own traditions. It is of course part of Danish culture to shake hands with somebody else. And I'm in no way at all trying to defend the religious practice of refusing to shake hands with a person of the opposite gender. I find that to be medieval and quite ridiculous, frankly. But you shake hands with someone as a form of greeting or as a sign of mutual respect. As I said in my piece, if you invite people to a party at your house, then of course you shake hands with your guests when they arrive at the door. What you do not do is put up a sign saying, "Everybody has to shake my hand or else there will be trouble," because that is just bad behavior. It is not the way that Danish people act in my experience. Is there any valid concern here that the government is addressing? No, none at all. First of all, the government has been unable to come up with any kind of evidence to show that anyone at any point in any official transaction has refused to shake hands with a representative of the authorities. This has just not happened. So they are not addressing a real need here. The second thing is, if it ever did become a real problem in Denmark, then there is nothing to stop the government addressing the problem at that time. And thirdly, let's be realistic: If you are trying to stop religious extremists from becoming citizens, this is not the way to do it. A religious extremist who genuinely objects to shaking hands with a person of the opposite gender probably would not apply for citizenship in the first place. And if they did apply, they might decide to make an exception on that one day and shake hands, if that was what it meant. You submitted a letter to the minister for immigration and integration, Inger Stojberg. What was her response? Her response was quite simple: If you do not shake hands with a representative of the authorities you will not be granted citizenship. I don't intend to change my mind on this. My application has recently gone in. The processing time in Denmark is up to two years. At the end of that two years, I will have passed all of the tests except the final one, which is to shake hands with the mayor of Copenhagen. Now I have great respect for the mayor of Copenhagen. And I have great respect for his office, and indeed I have great respect for the state of Denmark. But I will not shake his hand under compulsion. I don't think this is something that a democracy should be doing. What kind of reaction have you received to the piece in Politiken? I've had a huge reaction, and frankly I was amazed. I had expected to be slaughtered in the newspaper and in social media. The reaction I received from ordinary Danish people has been quite the opposite. There's been huge, huge support for what I said, and I was very touched and moved by those expressions of support. A recent poll showed that 52 percent of the Danish population are against this law. Only 36 percent were for it and the rest were "don't knows." So there is no real support in the population for such an extreme measure. This is something the government is doing completely off its own bat. Why after all these years are you applying for citizenship now? After 37 years in the country I don't think there's any doubt that I'm going to stay here for the rest of my life. And if you're going to stay in the country for the rest of your life then you should make the commitment to become a citizen, I feel. Though as an EU citizen you don't have to give up your Irish passport ... No. It's just purely to show respect for my country, to the country I live in, and become a true part of this society.[SEP]Danish lawmakers have approved a government-backed proposal to make citizenship applicants shake hands with the official conducting the naturalization ceremony. The bill has been criticized for discriminating against Muslims. The new citizenship bill has been the subject of a heated debate since last summer. It requires those applying for Danish citizenship to commit to the country’s values and to show respect for its government by shaking hands with its representative. Critics of the bill argue that it’s aimed at discouraging Muslims from seeking Danish citizenship, calling the proposal discriminatory and describing it as an unnecessary formality. The proposal was backed by Denmark’s three-party minority government, with the driving force behind the legislation being the Conservative Party and anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party. The changes to the naturalization ceremony, which come into effect on January 1, have been met with strong opposition from the local officials who conduct such proceedings. Some mayors have already said they will ignore the new guidelines. The mayor of the town of Kerteminde in central Denmark has gone so far as to imply that he would rather not show up at work than coerce an applicant to shake his hand. “Shaking hands does not show if you are integrated or not. I think I will probably find an excuse and the deputy mayor will come to work that day,” Kasper Ejsing Olesen told the Guardian earlier. READ MORE: Cheat, lie and abuse – Danish immigration minister hits out at migrants The red tape associated with the festive ceremony will cost taxpayers an additional 2,400 kroner ($370) – double the current fee of 1,200 kroner ($183). However, the proponents of the new guidelines believe it’s a fair price to pay to become a Dane. “When you consider that you are receiving the gift of Danish citizenship, I actually don’t think it’s that expensive. I think it is a tremendously large and valuable gift,” People’s Party spokesman Christian Langball told a local broadcaster in September, as cited by the Local. Denmark’s Integration Minister Inger Stojberg, a member of the center-right Venstre party, brushed off the criticism, insisting that a handshake is “a completely natural part of the ceremony.” Stojberg said that a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic group that openly supports the establishment of a caliphate, told her that he would not have become a Danish citizen if the rules applied retroactively. “I asked him if he would advise his followers in Hizb ut-Tahrir to pass on it, and he said he would. And that’s exactly what we want with the naturalization ceremony,” the minister said, as cited by TV2. The latest measure is another step in the Danish government’s wide-ranging crackdown on migration. Earlier this month, Stojberg proposed sending rejected asylum seekers to a remote island, about two miles from the mainland. Some 100 failed asylum seekers and criminal migrants are going to be brought to the islet in the Baltic Sea on a ferry under the plan. In August, hundreds hit the streets to protest against a “burqa ban” – another “discriminatory” measure that came into effect that month. Denmark has also been enforcing a controversial law allowing authorities to confiscate cash and valuables from refugees to fund their stay in Denmark since 2016.[SEP](Russia Today) Danish lawmakers have approved a government-backed proposal to make citizenship applicants shake hands with the official conducting the naturalization ceremony. The bill has been criticized for discriminating against Muslims. The new citizenship bill has been the subject of a heated debate since last summer. It requires those applying for Danish citizenship to commit to the country’s values and to show respect for its government by shaking hands with its representative. Critics of the bill argue that it’s aimed at discouraging Muslims from seeking Danish citizenship, calling the proposal discriminatory and describing it as an unnecessary formality.

Denmark passes a law that requires new citizens to shake hands with a Danish official at their naturalization ceremony. It is widely believed that the law was made to spite potential Muslim immigrants, who usually refuse to shake hands with people of the opposite gender. Several Danish municipalities are openly looking for loopholes in the law.

At least eight people have been killed in protests that have swept across Sudan for a second consecutive day amid rising public anger over soaring prices and other economic woes. Authorities on Thursday declared a state of emergency in the eastern city of Gadarif, where six protesters died during clashes with riot police, legislator Al-Tayeb al-Amine Tah told local broadcaster Sudania 24 on Thursday, without providing further details. "The situation in Gadarif has become dangerous and the protests have developed to include fires and theft and it's now out of control," Mubarak al-Nur, its independent member of parliament, told Reuters news agency. Two protesters were also killed in the northeastern city of Atbara, where police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators. Authorities also imposed a curfew on the city after protesters torched the headquarters of President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP). "The protests began peacefully and then turned to violence and vandalism ... We declared a state of emergency and a curfew and the closure of schools in the city," Hatem al-Wassilah, the governor of the Nile River state. Scenes from anti-Gov demonstrations in the city of Atbara in north east Sudan triggered by bread crisis. pic.twitter.com/lJ9pysJfP7 — Wasil Ali (@wasilalitaha) December 19, 2018 Residents told Al Jazeera that the protests were triggered on Wednesday by a government decision to raise bread prices from one Sudanese pound ($0.02) to three Sudanese pounds ($0.063). Police on Thursday fired tear gas to break up a crowd of around 500 people in the capital, Khartoum, then chased them through back streets and made arrests, a witness said. Some of the demonstrators called for the "fall of the regime", a slogan that was common during the Arab Spring uprisings that swept through the region in 2011. Police said "limited" protests in Khartoum had been contained. On Friday, a spokesperson for the Sudanese government said the protests of the two previous days were "dealt with in a civilised way without repression or opposition". "Peaceful demonstrations were derailed and transformed by infiltrators into subversive activity targeting public institutions and property, burning, destroying and burning some police headquarters," the spokesperson was quoted as saying to the official Sudan News Agency. "The crisis is known to the government and is being dealt with." Prices triple Anger has been rising in the country over the rising costs of bread and fuel and other economic hardships, including skyrocketing inflation and limits on bank withdrawals. Sudan's economy has struggled to recover from the loss of three-quarters of its oil output - its main source of foreign currency - since South Sudan seceded in 2011, keeping most of the oilfields. The country's economic woes have been exacerbated in the past few years, even as the United States lifted 20-year-old trade sanctions on Sudan in October 2017. Washington has kept Sudan on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, which prevents Khartoum from accessing much-needed financial aid from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Bread prices have more than tripled since the start of this year after a government decision to stop state-funded imports of wheat. Officials had hoped the move would create competition between private companies importing wheat, and therefore act as a check on price rises - but a number of bakeries have since stopped production, citing a lack of flour. 180109182616845 This forced the government to increase flour subsidies by 40 percent in November. Meanwhile, the value of the Sudanese pound has slumped by 85 percent against the US dollar this year, while inflation soared to nearly 70 percent in September. In October, Sudan sharply devalued its currency from 29 pounds to the dollar to 47.5 after a body of banks and money changers set the country's exchange rate. The move led to further price increases and a liquidity crunch, while the gap between the official and black market rates has continued to widen. The economic crisis is one of the biggest tests faced by al-Bashir, who took power in a coup in 1989. In recent months, he has dissolved the government, named a new central bank governor and brought in a package of reforms, but the moves have done little to improve the situation. In a separate development on Wednesday, leading opposition figure Sadiq al-Mahdi returned to the country after nearly a year in self-imposed exile. Mahdi was overthrown in 1989 by a group of military commanders close to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's National Congress Party. "The regime has failed and there is economic deterioration and erosion of the national currency's value," Mahdi, who heads the Umma party, told thousands of his supporters. His party has argued that al-Bashir must go in order to improve the country's image abroad and attract crucial investment and aid.[SEP](AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The death toll from protests over price hikes in Sudan has risen to nine, an opposition party spokesman said on Friday, amid a state of emergency in two regions. Eastern al-Gadarif state and northern Atbara state are both under emergency rule since protests over rising bread and fuel prices broke out on Wednesday. “Six people were killed in al-Gadarif and three others were killed in Atbara,” Mohamed Zaki from the Umma party, said. He alleged that some died after being arrested and others were shot at the protests. On Thursday, Mubarak al-Nur, a member of parliament, said two students had been killed. Sudanese Minister for Information, Osman Bilal acknowledged that the police had used teargas to break up the protests, but while he had heard reports of deaths, he could not give a toll. “The protests went violence and protesters are destroying civilians properties,” Bilal said, in defence of the government crackdown, adding, however, that they were investigating reports of deaths. There were protests in January over the same issue, with police using teargas to disperse hundreds of protesters in the capital Khartoum, and similar protests were held in Sudan in late 2016 after the government cut fuel subsidies. The oil-rich country’s economy was negatively affected when it was split to form South Sudan in 2011. The government of President Omar al-Bashir is also battling several rebel groups.(/NAN)[SEP]KHARTOUM (SUDAN): Eight demonstrators were killed in eastern Sudan on Thursday, officials said, during clashes with riot police on the second day of protests over the rising price of bread. A government decision to raise the price of bread this week from one Sudanese pound to three (from about two to six US cents) sparked protests across the country on Wednesday. The protests spread on Thursday to the Sudanese capital Khartoum, where riot police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators near the presidential palace, witnesses said. "Six were killed and a number of people were wounded" in the eastern city of Al-Qadarif, Al-Tayeb al-Amine Tah told local broadcaster Sudania 24, without providing further details. The toll included a university student whose death during demonstrations in Al-Qadarif had been reported earlier in the day. "The situation in Al-Qadarif is out of control and the student Moayed Ahmad Mahmoud was killed," said Mubarak al-Nur, a lawmaker in the city 550 kilometres (340 miles) from Khartoum. Nur called on authorities "not to use force against demonstrators, who are asked to peacefully exercise their right" to protest. Two other protesters were killed in the city of Atbara, around 400 kilometres east of Khartoum, governorate spokesman Ibrahim Mukhtar said. Police in Atbara fired tear gas to disperse protesters just hours after authorities imposed a curfew on the city because demonstrators had torched the headquarters of President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP). Angry protesters on Thursday set fire NCP headquarters in two other locations, witnesses said Demonstrators in Al-Qadarif "threw stones at banks (in the city centre) and smashed cars," resident Tayeb Omar Bashir told AFP by phone. They then "moved to the ruling party headquarters near the market and torched it completely", he added. Demonstrators then moved towards the police station where they called for "freedom" and chanted "the people want the fall of the regime". Protests in Dongola, 500 kilometres north of Khartoum, "started with university students who were joined by others when they reached the city centre", an eyewitness told AFP by phone. "They attacked the headquarters of the NCP and set it ablaze," the witness said. In Atbara, "some 1,500 demonstrators tried to enter the city (from a suburb) calling for the fall of the regime. Riot police intercepted them and fired tear gas at them," an eyewitness said. The demonstrations stopped in most cities as night fell and curfews came into force, the authorities said, but witnesses said they continued in Khartoum. The bread shortage has hit Sudan's cities for the past three weeks, including the capital. In the past year, the cost of some commodities has more than doubled in Sudan, where inflation is running at close to 70 per cent and the pound has plunged in value. Sporadic protests broke out in January this year over the rising cost of food, but they were soon brought under control with the arrest of opposition leaders and activists. Sudan had significant oil reserves until South Sudan gained independence in 2011, and the north-south split saw the country lose three-quarters of its reserves.[SEP]A student demonstrator was killed Thursday in eastern Sudan, a local official and relatives told AFP, amid mounting protests over the rising price of bread. "The situation in Al-Qadarif is out of control and the student Moayed Ahmad Mahmoud was killed," said Mubarak al-Nur, a lawmaker in the city 550 kilometres (340 miles) from the capital Khartoum. Mahmoud was a university student, he said. Nur called on authorities "not to use force against demonstrators, who are asked to peacefully exercise their right" to protest. A government decision to raise the price of bread this week from one Sudanese pound to three (from about two to six US cents) sparked protests across the country on Wednesday. Angry protesters on Thursday set fire to the headquarters of President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) in two locations, witnesses said. Demonstrators in Al-Qadarif "threw stones at banks (in the city centre) and smashed cars," resident Tayeb Omar Bashir told AFP by phone. They then "moved to the ruling party headquarters near the market it torched it completely", he added. Demonstrators then moved towards the police station where they called for "freedom" and chanted "the people want the fall of the regime". Protests in Dongola, 500 kilometres north of Khartoum, "started with university students who were joined by others when they reached the city centre", an eyewitness told AFP by phone. "They attacked the headquarters of the NCP and set it ablaze," the witness said. In the city of Atbara, around 400 kilometres east of Khartoum, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters just hours after authorities imposed a curfew on the city because demonstrators had torched its NCP headquarters. "Some 1,500 demonstrators tried to enter the city of Atbara from (a suburb) calling for the fall of the regime," an eyewitness said. "Riot police intercepted them and fired tear gas at them," the witness added. The bread shortage has hit Sudan's cities for the past three weeks, including the capital. In the past year, the cost of some commodities has more than doubled in Sudan, where inflation is running at close to 70 percent and the pound has plunged in value. Sporadic protests broke out in January this year over the rising cost of food, but they were soon brought under control with the arrest of opposition leaders and activists. Sudan had significant oil reserves until South Sudan gained independence in 2011, and the north-south split saw the country lose three quarters of its reserves.[SEP], KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec 21 – Sudan deployed troops in the capital Khartoum and other cities on Friday, witnesses said, after eight demonstrators were killed in clashes with riot police during protests over increased bread prices. A government decision to raise the price of a loaf of bread this week from one Sudanese pound to three (from about two to six US cents) has sparked protests across the country. On Thursday, riot police in Khartoum fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators near the presidential palace, witnesses said. Six demonstrators were killed in the eastern city of Al-Qadarif and two others in Atbara, also east of Khartoum, officials said on Thursday. On Friday, the weekly day of rest, calm returned to the capital and the cities that were rocked by the deadly protests, witnesses reported. In Khartoum, traffic was backed to normal but police patrolled some of the streets while in the north of the capital soldiers deployed around petrol stations and banks. The police driving in patrol cars were seen carrying clubs and tear gas canisters while the troops held Kalashnikov assault rifles, the witnesses said. An AFP reporter said lines formed outside bakeries in north Khartoum as residents waited to buy bread. Residents in Al-Qadarif and Atbara also reported that security forces had deployed to secure government buildings and banks. “Today the city is calm and most of the shops in the main market have reopened,” Mohammed Sharif Omar said in a telephone interview from Al-Qadarif. But he said that army vehicles were stationed outside banks and government buildings. On Thursday angry protesters torched the headquarters of President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party in Atbara and set fire to NCP offices in two other locations. And in Al-Qadarif, demonstrators threw stones at banks and smashed cars before torching the NCP headquarters in the city, according to a resident. Sudan has been facing a mounting economic crisis over the past year. The cost of some commodities has more than doubled, inflation is running at close to 70 percent and the pound has plunged in value. The cost of bread has also risen and shortages have been reported for the past three weeks across several cities, including Khartoum. Protests broke out in January over the rising cost of food, but they were soon brought under control with the arrest of opposition leaders and activists.[SEP]KHARTOUM • Sudan deployed troops in the capital Khartoum and other cities yesterday, witnesses said, after eight demonstrators were killed in clashes with riot police during protests on Thursday over increased bread prices. After Friday prayers at noon, police forces fired tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters in the cities of Omdurman and Atbara and the state of North Kordofan, witnesses said. There were also small-scale demonstrations across at least seven neighbourhoods in the capital Khartoum, but they were short-lived, witnesses said. Police had stepped up their presence outside Khartoum's main mosques ahead of an anticipated third day of demonstrations. A government decision to raise the price of a loaf of bread nationwide this week from one to three Sudanese pounds (from about three to nine Singapore cents) has sparked protests across the country. On Thursday, riot police in Khartoum had fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators near the presidential palace, witnesses said. Six demonstrators were killed in the eastern city of Al-Qadarif and two others in Atbara, also east of Khartoum, officials said. The demonstrations were among the biggest since crowds came out in protest against cuts to state subsidies in 2013, when many also called for a new government - a rare act in a state dominated by the army and security services. Yesterday, the weekly day of rest, police patrolled some of the streets in Khartoum while in the north of the capital soldiers were deployed around petrol stations and banks. The police driving in patrol cars were seen carrying clubs and tear gas canisters while the troops held Kalashnikov assault rifles, witnesses said. An Agence France-Presse reporter said lines formed outside bakeries in north Khartoum as residents waited to buy bread. Residents in Al-Qadarif and Atbara cities reported that security forces had been deployed to secure government buildings and banks. Al-Qadarif resident Mohammed Sharif Omar said in a telephone interview that army vehicles were stationed outside banks and government buildings. Angry protesters had on Thursday torched the headquarters of President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) in Atbara and set fire to party offices in two other locations. And in Al-Qadarif city, demonstrators threw stones at banks and smashed cars before torching the NCP headquarters in the city, according to a resident. Sudan has been facing a mounting economic crisis over the past year. The cost of some commodities has more than doubled, inflation is running at close to 70 per cent and the Sudanese pound has plunged in value. The cost of bread has also risen and shortages have been reported for the past three weeks across several cities, including the capital Khartoum.[SEP]Hundreds of Sudanese took to the streets of three cities Wednesday to protest against the rising price of bread, with demonstrators setting fire to a ruling party headquarters, witnesses said. Against a backdrop of growing economic woes in the country, demonstrations were staged in Port Sudan, Atbra and Nhoud, witnesses told AFP on the phone from the three cities. The protests were sparked by the government's decision to raise the price of bread from one Sudanese pound to three (from about two to six US cents). Witnesses were unable to say whether or not there had been any injuries or arrests during the demonstrations. In Atbra, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Khartoum, angry protesters set fire to the headquarters of the National Congress Party of President Omar al-Bashir, said resident Ahmad Mohammed Hussein. The authorities responded by announcing they had imposed a curfew in Atbra from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am. "The protest began with the arrival of students in the city centre who were joined by residents," said resident Mubarak Abdelrahim. The police "tried to disperse them with truncheons but they continued to demonstrate by setting fire to tyres," he added. In Port Sudan, around 500 people, most of them students, marched in the streets chanting against the high cost of living, said Hussein Idriss, a resident in the Red Sea port city. Shops had closed after the authorities decided to hike the price of bread, he added. Similar demonstrations were held in Nhoud, with students marching and shouting "No to hunger", witnesses in the city said. The bread shortage has hit Sudan's cities for the past three weeks, including the capital Khartoum. In the past year, the cost of some commodities has more than doubled in Sudan, where inflation is running at close to 70 percent and the pound has plunged in value. Sporadic protests broke out in January this year over the rising cost of food, but they were soon brought under control with the arrest of opposition leaders and activists. Sudan had significant oil reserves until South Sudan gained independence in 2011, and the north-south split saw the country lose three quarters of its reserves.[SEP]Breaking bread may bring people together, but baking bread seems to intimidate many home chefs. At least, that’s the response I get from others when I make this bread. Everyone always appears stunned that I whipped up a loaf of French bread so easily and that it’s so good. But it actually is really easy, just five ingredients and five easy steps, and voila! You’ve got a delicious loaf of bread that will impress and satisfy dinner party guests or that friend coming by for a glass of wine. Smother it with butter, pesto (See the December 13 Reporter), Brie, figs and goat cheese, or anything you’d like! My nine-year-old son loves it too and has me make it for him and his friends during movie time when he hosts sleepovers. 1. Combine the water, honey, salt and yeast in a glass bowl. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes until there’s some bubbling, foamy stuff on top. 2. Add a bunch of flour. I use regular white organic flour and usually start with a full 3½ cups and add as I knead. 3. Keep kneading until it is no longer sticky. You want your dough to be sticking to itself, not your fingers. So keep adding flour and keep kneading until that happens. 4. Form the dough into a loaf shape. Cover with a towel and let sit on the counter for 20 minutes (or on top of the preheating oven if your kitchen is cold). This is the time to set the oven to 400 degrees. 5. After 20 minutes, cut slits in the top of the dough and bake for 16 to 20 minutes. Variations can be made by adding garlic and oregano, or cinnamon and raisins, or whatever you dream up! 1. In a medium bowl, combine the goat cheese, olive oil, honey and half of the tarragon, shallots and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper. 2. In a separate bowl, toss the figs with the lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and remaining tarragon, shallots and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper. 3. Spread the goat cheese mixture on the sliced bread, then top with the figs. Cook’s notes: You can saute the figs before mixing them with the herb mixture. To make crostinis, toast the bread slices in the oven before topping them with the figs and goat cheese.[SEP]With Paleo, Keto and Gluten-free diets all the rage, bread has gotten a bad rap over the last few years. Not anymore. Facebook’s 2019 Topics & Trends report is out, and bread is back for 2019. Pass the butter… Click here to LIKE River 105 on Facebook[SEP]KHARTOUM: A student demonstrator was killed Thursday in eastern Sudan, a local official and relatives told AFP, amid mounting protests over the rising price of bread. "The situation in Al-Qadarif is out of control and the student Moayed Ahmad Mahmoud was killed," said Mubarak al-Nur, a lawmaker in the city 550 kilometres (340 miles) from the capital Khartoum. Mahmoud was a university student, he said. Nur called on authorities "not to use force against demonstrators, who are asked to peacefully exercise their right" to protest. A government decision to raise the price of bread this week from one Sudanese pound to three (from about two to six US cents) sparked protests across the country on Wednesday. Angry protesters on Thursday set fire to the headquarters of President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) in two locations, witnesses said. Demonstrators in Al-Qadarif "threw stones at banks (in the city centre) and smashed cars," resident Tayeb Omar Bashir told AFP by phone. They then "moved to the ruling party headquarters near the market it torched it completely", he added. Demonstrators then moved towards the police station where they called for "freedom" and chanted "the people want the fall of the regime". Protests in Dongola, 500 kilometres north of Khartoum, "started with university students who were joined by others when they reached the city centre", an eyewitness told AFP by phone. "They attacked the headquarters of the NCP and set it ablaze," the witness said. In the city of Atbara, around 400 kilometres east of Khartoum, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters just hours after authorities imposed a curfew on the city because demonstrators had torched its NCP headquarters. "Some 1,500 demonstrators tried to enter the city of Atbara from (a suburb) calling for the fall of the regime," an eyewitness said. "Riot police intercepted them and fired tear gas at them," the witness added.

Protests break out across Sudan over rising prices of bread and fuel, resulting in at least eight deaths.

A Bill that will give women access to abortion for the first time in the history of the State has been signed into law by President Michael D Higgins. A statement released by Áras an Uachtaráin on Thursday evening said: “Having considered the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018, the President has signed the Bill and it has accordingly become law.” The Bill finished its final stage in the Seanad earlier this month after weeks of sometimes heated debate in both the Dáil and Seanad. It follows a referendum in May on the removal of the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution, which guaranteed the unborn and mother an equal right to life. Some 67 per cent of the electorate voted to repeal the amendment. Minister for Health Simon Harris will now have to sign a number of statutory instruments to give effect to the Bill now that it is signed into law by the President. The Bill was signed by the President as the Medical Council deleted provisions from its code which will mean that no ethical guidance on performing abortions will be in place for doctors when the legislation comes into force next month. Having considered the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018, the President has signed the Bill and it has accordingly become law. — President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) December 20, 2018 Conflicted The council took the decision to delete four of the five paragraphs dealing with abortion from its guide on professional conduct and ethics because they conflicted with the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act. The decision was taken at a specially convened meeting on Wednesday night. The council is updating the ethical guide but this process will not be ready in time for the introduction of abortion services on January 1st. Two of the four deleted paragraphs state that a doctor has an ethical duty to make every reasonable effort to protect the life and health of pregnant women and their unborn babies; and that in exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary to terminate the pregnancy to protect the life of the mother while making every effort to preserve the life of the baby. The other two deal with situations where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the woman, and the provision of information for abortions abroad. Slightly edited The remaining paragraph remains in place, slightly edited to change the reference from “abortion” to “termination of pregnancy”. It states that doctors “have a duty to provide care, support and follow-up for women who have had a termination of pregnancy”. The council plans to write to all 23,000 registered doctors in the State to inform them of the changes to the guide. “We are currently engaging in a very comprehensive process to update the Medical Council guidelines having only recently closed a consultation with doctors and key stakeholders in which over 1,400 responses were received,” said Dr Suzanne Crowe, chair of the council’s ethics working group. “Today’s announcement ensures that our ethical guidance is not in conflict with the new legislation and provides reassurance to doctors who are involved in delivering this service.” Reviewed Aside from the paragraphs on abortions, sections of the guide dealing with “dignity of the patient”, “equality and diversity” and “conscientious objection” are being reviewed. Once a new wording is finalised, the council will again consult with doctors and other stakeholders, but this would not happen before the legislation comes into force, Dr Crowe said.[SEP]Abortion has become officially legal in Ireland after President Michael D Higgins signed the Bill into law today. The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 will allow access to abortion on request for up to 12 weeks and on restricted grounds beyond this from January 1. More than 3,000 doctors were issued with clinical guidelines on abortion services yesterday. GPs will be able to provide terminations via medication for women who are under nine weeks pregnant. A woman will have three consultations with the doctor with a three-day delay between the first and second meeting. Amnesty International welcomed the signing into law of the Bill, saying it was a "historical milestone" for Ireland. “We welcome Ireland’s new abortion law as both a historical milestone for this country and an inspiration for millions of people globally," said Sorcha Tunney, Campaign Coordinator of It’s Time campaign for Amnesty International Ireland. "Ireland’s abortion law was one of the most restrictive in the world, and today that is finally ending.” “Today is also a day to reflect on where we have come from. For over 35 years, women and girls have been denied access to safe and legal abortion beyond when their life was at risk. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls were forced to travel, forced into secrecy and shame. They were gravely denied their human rights. "We look forward to the full implementation of the Act but will be looking to engage with the Department of Health in its three-year review. We will continue our campaigning to make sure the law is human rights compliant, and that pregnant people are not prevented from accessing the healthcare they need,” Ms Tunney said.[SEP]Abortion will be legal in Ireland for the first time after President Michael D Higgins signed the new Bill governing the termination of pregnancies into law. Women will have access to abortion on request up to 12 weeks and on restricted grounds from January 1. The referendum on repealing the eighth amendment in May saw over 66% voting in favour, paving the way for ground-breaking new abortion legislation. The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 was proposed by the government and passed through the Dail earlier this month after weeks of intense debate. President Higgins completed the process as he signed the legislation into law at Áras an Uachtaráin on Thursday evening, ensuring that it will come into effect from the start of next year. Health Minister Simon Harris described the passing of the Bill as the beginning of a "new journey". He told the Irish Times: "This is a genuinely historic moment. It paves the way for the implementation of the service for termination of pregnancy in January 2019. "The passage of the legislation allows for the beginning of a new journey. It is the start of a new era for women’s healthcare." Amnesty Ireland's Sorcha Tunney meanwhile described the moment as "historic". She said: “We welcome Ireland’s new abortion law as both a historical milestone for this country and an inspiration for millions of people globally. "Ireland’s abortion law was one of the most restrictive in the world, and today that is finally ending. “Today is also a day to reflect on where we have come from. For over 35 years, women and girls have been denied access to safe and legal abortion beyond when their life was at risk. "Hundreds of thousands of women and girls were forced to travel, forced into secrecy and shame. They were gravely denied their human rights. “In May, the people of Ireland voted by a landslide for access to abortion care based on a pregnant person’s right to make decisions about her pregnancy, and her health. "People clearly see it for the human rights issue that it is. And for Ireland to move from a near total ban on abortion to access on request is a huge win in the global campaign for reproductive rights.”[SEP]PRESIDENT OF IRELAND Michael D Higgins has signed the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill into law, making abortion services legal in Ireland. The new legislation passed through all stages of the Oireachtas this month, completing its passage in the Seanad. The Act allows for terminations of pregnancy up to 12 weeks. It also provides for terminations where there is a risk to the life or a serious risk to the health of the pregnant woman. Women who have been given a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormalities will now be able to legally avail of early termination of pregnancy in the hospital they are being treated in. The general scheme of the bill was drafted ahead of May’s referendum on the Eighth Amendment when the Irish electorate voted by 66.4% to 33.6% to remove the constitutional ban on abortion services. Thanking campaigners who had “fought for 35 years to change a nation, to change hearts and minds”, Health Minister Simon Harris called the passing of the bill though the Oireachtas as a “genuinely historic moment”. “I want to thank the minority who fought the battle in here when it was convenient for the majority to ignore,” he added. More than 170,000 women and girls have travelled from Ireland to another country for an abortion since 1980, with the vast majority going to Britain. Over 3,000 women travelled to the England and Wales for abortions last year, while many others bought abortion pills online. Abortion services are expected to being next month. However, some doctors and hospitals have said they are unlikely to be ready to provide terminations in January.[SEP]It's been seven months since the vote to #RepealThe8th Amendment, so you may be wondering when abortion will officially become legal in Ireland. There's some good news for reproductive rights activists: The date is less than two weeks away. Abortion will become legal in Ireland on Jan. 1, according to Rewire.News. It will also be free at that time because abortion is eligible for coverage under a long-running program called the Maternity and Infant Care Scheme. Importantly, though, you will only be able to terminate your pregnancy up to 12 weeks. But in the United States, for example, 91.1 percent of abortions occur at or before 13 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On May 25, Ireland voted to overturn its 8th Amendment, which declared that a woman and her unborn fetus have an equal right to life. Because the amendment was part of the country's constitution, lawmakers were prohibited from changing an abortion ban that had been around since 1861, per the BBC. The Irish Parliament finally passed a bill that legalized abortion earlier this month after voters repealed the ban. Reproductive rights activists say that the measure has many flaws, per Rewire.News, but believe it's an important step in the movement. Advocates vow to continue pushing for further reforms. The #RepealThe8th campaign passed with two-thirds of the vote back in May, indicating sweeping support for abortion reform in the country. But it's still taken months for legislators to accomplish legalization. According to a Dec. 6 statement from the Abortion Rights Campaign, over 1,650 pregnant people have been forced to travel out of the country to terminate their pregnancies since the repeal vote, while hundreds have illegally imported safe abortion pills. "The cruel reality of the 8th Amendment continues," said Linda Kavanagh, the campaign's spokesperson. But not for long. Pregnant people in Ireland will finally be able to legally terminate their pregnancies starting in January. Most people getting an abortion will be given a pill, according to Rewire.News, while some will have a surgical procedure. Abortions will generally only be allowed up to 12 weeks, but doctors may make exceptions if the continuation of the pregnancy could cause "serious harm to the health of" the mother. There's also three-day waiting period for everyone. Abortions won't necessarily be available everywhere. Physicians still have a right to conscientious objection if they don't feel comfortable doing the procedure, per Rewire.News. But Ireland is creating a 24-hour hotline to provide information about doctors who will perform it — and conscientious objectors are required to send people to that hotline or to a willing physician. "We know there are many pro-choice, patient-centred doctors who are ready and willing to give pregnant people the healthcare they need," Kavanagh said in the release. While activists have raised concerns about the wait times that could arise for this more limited group of physicians, there's also a lot of optimism around the imminent reform. "While the debates continue, there are pregnant women and people all around this country quietly awaiting basic healthcare come January," Kavanagh said. The Abortion Rights Campaign added that "this is a momentous step towards achieving abortion rights in Ireland."[SEP]A referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment was held in May BRIAN LAWLESS/PA A bill to legalise abortion was signed into law by Michael D Higgins yesterday. It will allow for the introduction of abortion services from January and comes after the vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment in May. A statement released by Áras an Uachtaráin last night said: “Having considered the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018, the president has signed the bill and it has accordingly become law.” Simon Harris, the health minister, said he would sign a number of legal instruments today to enact the new law. At up to nine weeks’ gestation, women will be able to have terminations through pills provided by their GP. At 9 to 12 weeks’ gestation abortions will take place in a hospital after a referral…[SEP]AbAbortion is now legal in Ireland. The Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill has been signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins. More than 3 thousand doctors were issued with clinical guidelines on abortion services yesterday. GPs will be able to provide terminations via medication for women who are under 9 weeks pregnant. A woman will have three consultations with the doctor with a 3-day delay between the first and second meeting.[SEP]President Michael D Higgins has signed the legislation to allow for abortion services in Ireland into law. It comes a week after the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 completed its passage through the Dáil. Health Minister Simon Harris said it's an 'historic day'. It means the law now allows abortion services to be legally available in Ireland from January 1st. The legislation will allow abortions for up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy, and in very limited circumstances - such as when there is a risk to the life of the pregnant woman - after that. In May, the Irish people voted by 66.9% to 33.1% to repeal the Eighth Amendment and allow the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion services here. Abortion services are not expected to be available in a full fashion throughout the country from January 1st, although are set to become more widely available as more medical professionals are trained. GPs were yesterday issued with clinical guidelines for the services, with the Irish College of General Practitioners stressing that any doctor who does not wish to provide the service will not be asked to do so.[SEP]Abortion has officially become legal in the Republic of Ireland after president Michael D Higgins signed new legislation into law. Terminations will be available across from the state from January 2019. A bill to legalise abortions in Ireland passed through all its parliamentary stages earlier this month. President Higgins signed the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 on Thursday and it has accordingly become law. The new laws will allow for unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, subject to a cooling-off period and a requirement for medical consultation. After 12 weeks, abortions will be permitted in exceptional circumstances. The legislation will give effect to the result of a referendum in May. The poll delivered landslide support for the repeal of a section of the state’s constitution – the Eight Amendment – that provided the legal basis for the country’s near blanket ban on abortion. Last month Health Minister Simon Harris welcomed the passage of the bill through the houses of the Oireachtas parliament “as a genuinely historic moment”.[SEP]The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) will start providing legal abortion services from January 7, it has confirmed. The announcement comes a day after abortion officially became legal in the Republic of Ireland after President Michael D Higgins signed new legislation into law. A bill to legalise abortions in Ireland passed through all its parliamentary stages earlier this month. The IFPA said it has completed its preparations for the introduction of abortion services and will provide abortion care at its clinics in Dublin city centre and Tallaght on Monday January 7. On Thursday, President Higgins signed the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018. The new laws will allow for unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, subject to a cooling-off period and a requirement for medical consultation. After 12 weeks, abortions will be permitted in exceptional circumstances. The legislation will give effect to the result of a referendum in May. The poll delivered landslide support for the repeal of a section of the state’s constitution – the Eighth Amendment – that provided the legal basis for the country’s near-blanket ban on abortion. Niall Behan, IFPA chief executive, said: “Preparing our abortion service has been the focus of our work since the referendum. “We’re ready and we’re dedicated to providing abortion care to women in Ireland for the first time.” Mr Behan said the IFPA was proud to be at the “vanguard of the new services” after its long campaign for abortion rights. “The IFPA has been advocating for full reproductive healthcare in Ireland for 50 years,” he added. “The organisation was founded at a time when even basic contraception was illegal in this country. “We’re now at a place where we can provide safe and legal abortion care for women and girls in Ireland and this is truly momentous. We’ve been working hard to ensure that we can deliver the best possible care. “This is an entirely new service, developed in the extremely tight timeframe set by the Minister for Health (Simon Harris). “The onus is on the Department of Health and the HSE to ensure that women who seek abortion care have timely access and don’t encounter any barriers.” IFPA medical director, Dr Caitriona Henchion said: “Our abortion care service can only begin as planned if the medication and pregnancy tests are supplied on time, and the protocols for rhesus testing and the provision of anti-D are finalised. “Our clinics will be providing early medical abortions up to nine weeks’ gestation. “Patients who have their first appointment with us and are between nine and 12 weeks pregnant will need to be referred for hospital care. “We cannot arrange those first appointments until we are certain those referral pathways are in place.”

Irish President Michael D. Higgins signs a bill making abortion legal in the Republic of Ireland for the first time.

Washington (CNN) Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned Thursday on the heels of President Donald Trump's plans to withdraw troops from Syria, citing irreconcilable policy differences in a move that took Washington by surprise. "Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position," Mattis wrote in his letter to the President Earlier Thursday, a senior administration official told CNN's Jake Tapper that Mattis was "vehemently opposed" to the Syria decision and a possible Afghanistan troop withdrawal. Indeed, Mattis' resignation letter amounts to a rebuke of several of Trump's foreign policy views, with the outgoing defense secretary touting the importance of US alliances and of being "unambiguous" in approaching adversaries such as Russia and China. It is devoid of any praise for the President. The resignation emerged at a chaotic moment in Trump's presidency: The US government is teetering on the edge of a government shutdown, the Trump administration is about to face the hot light of Democratic investigations and the President is grappling with the fallout of a series of firings and resignations. Trump, seeking to downplay the news, stepped out in front of Mattis' resignation, spinning it as a retirement. Mattis did not explicitly cite his opposition to the President's planned withdrawal of US troops from Syria -- which caught US allies off guard -- but the retired four-star general was privately adamant in urging Trump against the pullback. 'They had differences' JUST WATCHED Toobin: There are no more grown-ups in the room Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Toobin: There are no more grown-ups in the room 01:23 It was just the latest issue on which Mattis has sought to position himself as a bulwark against some of the President's rashest decisions, but his relationship with the President has grown increasingly fractured in recent months and his efforts to deter Trump on key issues less influential. In his letter, Mattis pointedly stated that the strength of the US depends in part on the strength of its alliances around the globe, many of which have become notably frayed under Trump. "One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies," he added. Mattis met with Trump one-on-one in the Oval Office, a senior White House official told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. Mattis told Trump he was going to be leaving and offered his resignation letter. "They had differences on some issues," the official said. Trump announced Mattis' departure in a tweet, saying, "General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years." The President touted the "tremendous progress" that has been made during Mattis' tenure at the helm of the Defense Department and thanked him for his service. Trump said a successor "will be named shortly." In a sign of the swift nature of the resignation, senior White House officials found out about it from the President's tweet, according to two officials. A senior administration official could not say if armed forces were told before the tweet. Syria decision JUST WATCHED CNN reporter: Mattis is falling on his sword Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN reporter: Mattis is falling on his sword 04:47 Mattis' resignation comes just a day after the President ordered the "full" and "rapid" withdrawal of US troops from Syria over the objections of Mattis, other senior officials and scores of lawmakers, who declared it a strategic blunder. The announcement of his departure comes just over an hour after reports emerged that Trump may also be considering a drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan. Sources told CNN's Jake Tapper that the President has not yet made a final decision, but officials are concerned and convinced that he might do so, and soon. Mattis is the latest senior administration to leave Trump's Cabinet, after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was pushed out the day after the midterm elections in November, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was unceremoniously fired in March and national security adviser H.R. McMaster was replaced earlier this year. But reaction to Mattis' departure was strikingly different. In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emphasized the importance of maintaining "the post-World War II alliances" as well as "a clear-eyed understanding of our friends and foes." "So I was sorry to learn that Secretary Mattis, who shares those clear principles, will soon depart the administration," the statement said. "But I am particularly distressed that he is resigning due to sharp differences with the president on these and other key aspects of America's global leadership. "It is regrettable that the president must now choose a new Secretary of Defense. But I urge him to select a leader who shares Secretary Mattis's understanding of these vital principles and his total commitment to America's servicemembers." Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted, "This is scary. Secretary Mattis has been an island of stability amidst the chaos of the Trump administration." South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a strong Trump supporter who opposes the President's decision to pull out of Syria, expressed "great sadness" over Mattis' resignation. "He is one of the great military leaders in American history. He should be proud of the service he has rendered to President Trump and our nation," Graham tweeted. Former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted that despite some disagreements with Mattis, "we shared the view — long-held by Democrats and Republicans in this nation — that respect for our allies and a commitment to the most important and effective alliances in history made America safer." "It is clear this administration has abandoned those core American beliefs," Biden added . "Secretary Mattis' presence and his voice of reason and experience will be missed in the Pentagon and the Situation Room." 'A good guy' Mattis' future was brought into question most recently after Trump, in an October interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," labeled him as "sort of a Democrat," adding that the retired general "may leave" and that "at some point, everybody leaves." He also added that the 68-year-old Washington native was "a good guy" and the two had "a very good relationship." Mattis, a bachelor, has been described as a "warrior monk," married to the Marines. He served in the first Gulf War and in Afghanistan. He once led the all-important US Central Command, which is in charge of the US military in the Middle East. He was also supreme allied commander of NATO. After the 2016 election, Trump broke with protocol by tapping Mattis to be his secretary of defense, a position typically reserved for civilians. In his first six months in office, Trump oversaw a steady transfer of power from the White House to the Pentagon, handing off several war-fighting authorities that previously rested in his hands -- and those of past presidents of both parties -- to the Pentagon and the commanders overseeing the US' military campaigns. But while Mattis was widely considered one of Trump's most trusted advisers during his first year in office, his influence within the administration appeared to be waning in recent months as speculation swirled about a growing rift between the two men. Bob Woodward's book "Fear: Trump in the White House," published in September, fueled that notion, detailing how senior aides, including Mattis, grew exasperated with the President and increasingly worried what they described as his erratic behavior, ignorance and penchant for lying. Specifically, Woodward details several instances in which Mattis made disparaging comments about Trump and military actions he sought to take against Syria and North Korea. One of the most striking accounts, according to Woodward, occurred after a charged meeting about South Korea, during which Trump wondered why the US backs Seoul. Woodward wrote that Mattis said Trump understands issues at the level of an elementary school student. Mattis denied those assertions and the accounts detailed by Woodward's sources, including claims that he ignored or slow-rolled Trump's ideas.[SEP]The retired Marine Corps general, who was known as a stabilising force in President Donald Trump's Cabinet, will retire in February. He becomes the latest in a long list of high ranking Trump administration figures who have either quit or been fired. Mr Trump delivered the news via Twitter. ‘Trump unbound’ President will be EVEN TOUGHER after firing Sessions He said General Mattis would be retiring with "distinction" and thanked him for his service. The announcement comes just a day after President Trump announced he had ordered the withdrawal of US forces from Syria - a move opposed by top military officials. In his resignation letter, General Mattis said he was stepping down so Mr Trump could have a defence chief whose views align more closely with his own. Speculation that he may not last long in his post grew in October when President Trump said in a CBS interview that the general was "sort of a Democrat" and might be leaving.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly said he was quitting on Thursday after falling out with President Donald Trump over his foreign policies, including surprise decisions to yank troops from Syria and start planning a drawdown in Afghanistan. Mattis announced plans to depart in a candid resignation letter to Trump that laid bare the growing divide between them, and implicitly criticized Trump for failing to value America’s closest allies, who fought alongside the United States in both conflicts. He released the letter after a face-to-face meeting with Trump in which the two men also aired their differences, a senior White House official said. “Because you have a right to a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” Mattis said in the letter. U.S. officials said the resignation had not been forced by Trump. Trump announced on Wednesday that U.S. troops in Syria would be withdrawn, a decision that upended American policy in the region. On Thursday, an official said the president was planning to withdraw at least 5,000 of the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan - another blow to Mattis, who advocated for a strong U.S. military presence to bolster diplomatic peace efforts. Mattis, a retired Marine general whose embrace of NATO and America’s traditional alliances often put him at odds with Trump had advised against the Syria withdrawal. One official said it was a contributing factor to his resignation. The news is certain to shock U.S. military allies, already bewildered by what they see as Trump’s unpredictable, go-it-alone approach to global security, and raises questions about whether Mattis’ successor will be as steadfast about traditional treaty commitments, including to NATO. When Mattis interviewed with Trump for the job in 2016, he split with the president-elect on a host of issues, including on NATO and the use of torture. Trump ultimately deferred to Mattis, who opposed the latter, signaling that he could be persuaded by his advisers. But as time grew, Trump increasingly acted on his own instincts on a host of national security issues, choosing an “America First” agenda that contradicted Mattis’ core beliefs. Mattis’ letter indicated that he disagreed with Trump’s isolationist policies, writing that it was his belief the United States needed to maintain strong alliances and show allies respect. Trump has withdrawn the United States from several international agreements since taking office in January 2017. The Mattis resignation letter also said that he believed the United States “must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours.” He identified Russia and China as countries that “want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model.” Mattis’ resignation was greeted with regret on Capitol Hill, by both Republicans and Democrats. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated he was in agreement with Mattis on America’s alliances and on Russia, whom he described as a foe. “But I am particularly distressed that he is resigning due to sharp differences with the president on these and other key aspects of America’s global leadership,” McConnell said in a statement. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the news media while gathering for a briefing from his senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, called it “a significant loss and a real indication that President Trump’s foreign policy agenda has failed and continues to spiral into chaos.” WHITE HOUSE UNPREDICTABILITY The shifts in significant aspects of U.S. foreign policy and Mattis’ addition to the long list of senior Trump administration figures who have quit or been removed added to the sense of an increasingly unpredictable White House as Trump approaches the halfway point of his four-year term. And if defense policy disagreements were not enough distraction for a president who is under investigation by a special counsel over Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, financial markets took a beating this week and a U.S. government shutdown loomed because of funding disputes over Trump’s desire to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. This year has been the worst for world stock markets since the 2008 global financial crisis, with MSCI’s 47-country world stocks index down 10 percent. Trump, announcing Mattis’ departure on Twitter, said he would nominate a successor soon. “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years,” he said. One possible candidate to replace Mattis as defense chief could be Republican Senator Tom Cotton, long considered a front-runner to eventually take the role. Trump’s White House has had the highest turnover of senior-level staff of the past five presidents, according to the Brookings Institution think tank. Slideshow (6 Images) Some departed unceremoniously, such as Trump’s first Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump fired via Twitter in March. Speculation that Mattis might not last long in his post grew in October when Republican Trump said in a CBS interview that the general was “sort of a Democrat” and might be leaving. Mattis responded at the time by telling reporters that he had Trump’s full support. Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser, said Trump was entitled to a Pentagon chief with whom he could agree. “This is an opportunity for the whole country to get a new secretary of defense who will be aligned with the president on these critical issues, whether you’re talking about in Syria, whether you’re talking about across the Middle East in general,” Miller told CNN.[SEP]US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will be “retiring, with distinction,” in February, President Donald Trump has said, a day after he ordered American troops to rapidly withdraw from war-torn Syria in an abrupt decision criticised by many as premature. In his resignation letter sent on Thursday, Mattis told Trump it was the “right time” for him to step down because the US president deserved a defence secretary “whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects.” “The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the Department’s interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February,” he said. The 68-year-old Pentagon chief did not mention if he was resigning specifically over the troop withdrawal decision, which has surprised US allies and several lawmakers. Analysts say the withdrawal of troops will please US enemies by clearing the way for Syria’s Assad regime, Russia and Iran. Mattis had warned that removing ground forces from the Middle Eastern country would be a “strategic blunder”. After Mattis sent his resignation, Trump announced he will be “retiring” in February. “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my administration as secretary of defense for the past two years,” the president said. “During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting…,” he said. Mattis has been a great advocate of India-US defence relationship. Earlier this month, he had hosted Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the Pentagon for talks on India-US Defence relationship. “The US-India relationship is a natural partnership between the world’s oldest and the world’s largest democracy,” Mattis had said then. Mattis and Trump reportedly have had differences on several foreign policy issues, including Syria and Afghanistan. Reports say the president is considering a drawdown of US troops from the 17-year-long conflict in Afghanistan. He is the latest in long-list of senior Trump administration official to leave or removed. In March, Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in an announcement on Twitter. On Thursday however, Trump praised Mattis for his service and for being a “great help” to him in getting allies and other countries “to pay their share of military obligations”. He said a new secretary of defence will be named shortly. A day before, Trump had claimed in a tweet that the US has “defeated” the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria. The White House afterwards insisted that the main objective of American forces in the war-torn country was to destroy the ISIS and not to resolve the civil war. But analysts and US lawmakers were far from convinced about the abrupt decision, which was also a reversal of the stated US policy. It has attracted criticism from leaders of Trump’s own Republican party, who argued that the hasty decision would endanger American national security in the long run. Republican Senator Marco Rubio said the full and rapid withdrawal of US troops from Syria is a grave error with broader implications beyond just the fight against the ISIS group. Currently, there are about 2,000 US forces in Syria. Also, Mattis said in his resignation letter that he believes the US must be resolute in its approach to countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with America’s. “My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues,” he stressed. “We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances,” he added. Defending his decision on Thursday to withdraw from Syria, Trump had tweeted that the US does not want to be the “policeman” of the Middle East. In his resignation letter, Mattis said, “Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. “Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances.”[SEP]Yet another member of the Trump administration has quit, with the president announcing on December 20 that Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will retire at the end of February 2019. We have more details here. “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years,” President Donald Trump tweeted on December 20. “During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting……..equipment. General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations. A new Secretary of Defense will be named shortly. I greatly thank Jim for his service!” Mattis’ resignation letter was made public shortly after Trump’s surprise announcement. His departure comes one day after Trump announced that the United States would be withdrawing 2000 troops from Syria, over the objections of senior military officials, and while the letter doesn’t name Syria specifically, it’s clear that he’s leaving the administration over the decision. It reads, in part, “My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion on these issues… Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.” Trump and Mattis have butted heads lately, with the president calling the secretary a “Democrat” in October during an interview with 60 Minutes, during which he also predicted Mattis’ departure. “General Mattis is a good guy,” he said. “We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That’s Washington.” It was reported in September that Mattis and former Chief of Staff John Kelly, who also just quit, mocked the president behind his back. They allegedly called him an idiot and said that DC was a “crazytown.” Obviously, Twitter is losing it over the umpteenth member of the Trump administration splitting. “Seems Mad dog Mattis is`nt mad enough to take the Donald on. retireing [sic] in Feb 19 You see Trump, god bless him, is really Mad. they don’t lose fights. so all you snowflakes out there be more deserning [sic] before you start a fight, you might pick on the wrong madman?” Another critic joked, “Uhhmmm… really? Mattis resignation letter, I’ll break it down for you. Trump you are an a**hole.” And another chimed in with a very good point: “Oh, my, and now I’ve read the Mattis letter. Trump didn’t understand what he read when he first saw it, that’s why his tweet is coherent and sane. Once Fox News explains to him that Mattis called him a traitorous twatwaffle he’s really gonna hit the roof.”[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has announced that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will retire at the end of February. Trump says on Twitter that a new secretary of defense will be named soon. Trump's announcement comes a day after he surprised U.S. allies and members of Congress by announcing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria.[SEP](CNN) — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will step down from his position early next year, President Donald Trump announced Thursday evening. “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years,” Trump tweeted. Trump touted the “tremendous progress” that has been made during Mattis’ tenure at the helm of the Defense Department and thanked Mattis for his service. Trump announced Mattis’ exit a day after his plans to withdraw troops from Syria became public, a decision that Mattis and the President’s other top national security advisers opposed. In a resignation letter from Mattis, Mattis said his views don’t “align” with the President’s. “Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” Mattis wrote in his letter. “One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies,” he added.[SEP]WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis would leave the Pentagon at the end of February. The announcement came amid the two butting heads on the removal of U.S. troops from Syria, a key policy the president announced on Twitter Wednesday. The president said Mattis, 68, was retiring, but a letter from Mattis shows he resigned so the president could have a defense secretary "whose views are better aligned with yours." In his resignation letter, Mattis also took a swipe at a tweet posted by the president on Thursday in which he defended his decision to withdraw 2,000 troops from Syria. America, Trump tweeted, should not act as the world’s "policeman." “Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world,” Mattis wrote. “Instead, we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances.” More: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis leaving his job after clash with Trump over Syria[SEP] • Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is stepping down, and his resignation letter released on Thursday offers some insight about what motivated his decision. • "Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position," he continued. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is leaving the White House and his resignation letter released to news organizations on Thursday give insight into why. "My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues," Mattis, a retired four-star Marine Corps general wrote . "We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances." "Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position," he continued. The full letter can be read below: According to the letter, Mattis will leave his post on February 28, 2019, "a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed," he wrote in his letter. Mattis served for 44 years in the US Marine Corps, and in his letter he expressed his appreciation for "this opportunity to serve the nation and our men and women in uniform." Read more: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quits, says his views aren't 'aligned' with Trump as president upends major US policies On Thursday, President Donald Trump tweeted that Mattis was "retiring, with distinction, at the end of February." "General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years. During Jims tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting equipment," Trump said in a tweet. "General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations. A new Secretary of Defense will be named shortly. I greatly thank Jim for his service!" The announcement about Mattis leaving his post comes one day after Trump announced a withdrawal of troops from Syria on Wednesday, a decision that allegedly surprised the Pentagon and drew ire from Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill . NOW WATCH: I'm a diehard iPhone user who switched to Android for a week here's what I loved and hated about the Google Pixel 3 XL • Trump just radically upended US Syria policy despite repeated warnings that doing so could be disastrous • Trump outright ignored Pentagon, State Department Syria policy in a big win for Putin • Trump declares victory over ISIS as the US prepares to pull all troops out of Syria SEE ALSO: 17 of the most legendary quotes from James Mattis, the four-star Marine general who just resigned as Trump's Defense Secretary[SEP]WASHINGTON: Defence Secretary James Mattis has resigned, telling Donald Trump in a letter that he should choose a person who is more in tune with his world view after the US president decided to withdraw American troops from Syria. Trump announced the resignation in two tweets on Thursday evening, and said Mattis, will leave at the end of February. Mattis was a great advocate of India-US defence relationship. According to reports, 68-year-old Mattis went to the White House on Thursday afternoon in a last attempt to convince Trump to keep US troops in Syria. He was rebuffed, and told the president that he was resigning as a result. In his extraordinary resignation letter, Mattis told Trump he had “the right to have a Secretary of Defence whose views are better aligned with yours”. Mattis’ resignation letter, a Pentagon spokeswoman said was hand-delivered to the president. In the letter, Mattis told Trump it was the “right time” for him to step down. “The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the Department’s interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February,” Mattis said. The Pentagon chief did not mention if he was resigning specifically over the troop withdrawal decision, which has surprised US allies and several lawmakers. Analysts say the withdrawal of troops will please US enemies by clearing the way for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime, Russia and Iran. Mattis had warned that removing ground forces from the Middle Eastern country would be a “strategic blunder”. Currently, there are about 2,000 US forces in Syria. After Mattis sent his resignation, Trump said, “General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my administration as secretary of defense for the past two years. “During Jim’s tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting…,” he said on Twitter. Mattis and Trump reportedly have had differences on several foreign policy matters, including Syria and Afghanistan. Reports say the president is also considering a drawdown of US troops from the 17-year-long conflict in Afghanistan. Mattis said in his resignation letter that he believes the US must be resolute in its approach to countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with America’s. “My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues,” he stressed. “We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances,” he added. Mattis is the latest in long-list of senior Trump administration officials to leave or be removed. In March, Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. On Thursday, Trump praised Mattis for his service and for being a “great help” to him in getting allies and other countries “to pay their share of military obligations”. He said a new secretary of defence will be named shortly. Defending his decision on Thursday to withdraw US troops from Syria, Trump tweeted that the US does not want to be the “policeman” of the Middle East. In his resignation letter, Mattis said, “Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. “Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defence, including providing effective leadership to our alliances.” Mattis’ celebrated military career spanned four decades. Prior to joining Trump’s Cabinet, the four-star general was the head of US Central Command, which directs military operations and oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was known before and during his White House tenure for his even-keeled demeanour and strategic mind and is broadly held in high esteem among Republicans and Democrats alike. “I’m shaken by the news because of the patriot that Secretary Mattis is,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. PTI

U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis announces his resignation at the end of February 2019. Mattis says that his views are not well "aligned" with those of the President.

Derailed By Fire And Disarray, Congo Delays Presidential Election — Again Enlarge this image toggle caption Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images Three days before voters were finally to cast their ballots for president, authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared something that's become familiar: another delay. The electoral commission announced Thursday that elections to replace President Joseph Kabila already two years behind schedule, have been postponed to Dec. 30. The commission, known as CENI, revealed the delay during a private meeting with the presidential candidates — including opposition candidate Seth Kikuni, who tweeted afterward that CENI is "technically unable to organize the elections this Sunday." Commission officials formally announced the move later Thursday at a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa. The decision comes just one week after suspected arson destroyed nearly 80 percent of the city's voting machines in a massive blaze. At the same time, in war-torn regions more than 1,500 miles to the east, Congo remains deeply embroiled in the worst Ebola outbreak in its history, with some 550 suspected and confirmed cases since the start of August. Still, Sunday's vote offered a glimmer of hope for a country that long grappled with doubts that presidential elections would be held at all. Kabila, 47, has held power since 2001, when he took office after his father's assassination, and the term-limited leader has spent the past two years repeatedly delaying the election to decide his successor and violently cracking down on dissenters who protested the delays. Enlarge this image toggle caption John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images And though Kabila confirmed earlier this year that he would not try to stand for re-election, security forces stirred fears of renewed repression during recent clashes with opposition supporters. Several people were killed in the bloodshed last week, and Kinshasa Gov. Andre Kimbuta, a member of the ruling coalition, banned campaigning in the capital on Wednesday, citing security reasons. The disarray of recent days has called forth unpleasant memories among the Congolese, who are no strangers to violent and unstable elections — including the past two presidential votes, which saw Kabila retain power despite rampant fighting and claims of fraud. On Wednesday, as rumors of a potential delay circulated, one of the opposition front-runners, Martin Fayulu, told Reuters it would be unacceptable to postpone the vote. "The CENI president said there will be an election rain or shine on the 23rd of December," he said. "We cannot accept a change of [CENI President Corneille] Nangaa's position today." Another candidate, Noel Tshiani, applied a more positive spin to the decision. "If the elections are postponed," he tweeted Thursday, "let's seize this opportunity to organize 4 presidential debates to enable the Congolese people to get to know the candidates better."[SEP]KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo delays presidential election until Dec. 30, electoral official says, citing fire that destroyed voting machines.[SEP](KINSHASA, Congo) — Congo’s electoral commission has delayed the country’s long-awaited presidential election until Dec. 30, citing problems caused by a recent fire that destroyed 80 percent of the voting machines in the capital. The vote had been scheduled for Sunday. This is the latest of several delays in the election originally scheduled for late 2016, amid opposition concerns that President Joseph Kabila was finding ways to stay in power. Corneille Nangaa, head of the electoral commission, said officials have found enough voting machines for Kinshasa but had to get 5 million new ballots printed. Nangaa called on the country of some 40 million voters for calm.[SEP]KINSHASA, Congo — Congo delays presidential election until Dec. 30, electoral official says, citing fire that destroyed voting machines. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]The electoral commission in the Democratic Republic of Congo says that the number of voters allocated to each polling station in the capital will have to increase after last week’s fire at its warehouses destroyed election material. More than two thirds of the electoral voting machines needed for Kinshasa were lost, raising fears many would not be able to vote. The electoral commission now says it has replaced nearly all the machines needed for the city’s four million voters. It says it will plan for 700 voters at each polling station instead of 600. The commission says at least 6,000 electronic voting machines will be operational in Kinshasa, and more than 1,000 will serve as backups in case of any technical failure. Most of these machines were shipped from neighbouring provinces and the last batch is due to arrive shortly in the capital.[SEP]Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission on Thursday delayed the country’s long-awaited presidential election until December 30, citing a recent fire that destroyed 80% of the voting machines in the capital. The vote had been scheduled for Sunday. This is the latest of several delays in the election originally scheduled for late 2016, amid opposition concerns that President Joseph Kabila had been looking for ways to stay in power. Kabila, in office since 2001, earlier this year announced he would step aside. After last week’s fire destroyed some 8 000 voting machines in Kinshasa, officials found replacement machines but had to get 5 million new ballots printed and prepared, said Corneille Nangaa, head of the national electoral commission. He called on the country of some 40 million voters for calm. The delay of even a week could spark another wave of unrest. Some protesters quickly gathered outside the electoral commission’s offices to demonstrate against the decision to postpone the vote. “Nangaa speaks nonsense. They didn’t organize the election in seven years and they want us to believe they will be ready in seven days? Kabila is sabotaging the election. Kabila must go,” said Fiston Adumba, 32. Tensions have been rising in Congo, which has not had a peaceful, democratic change of leader since it became independent from Belgium in 1960. On Wednesday the governor of Kinshasa, Andre Kimbuta, banned all election rallies in the capital, citing security concerns. That prevented main opposition leader Martin Fayulu from holding a rally. Thousands of angry supporters gathered but police dispersed them with tear gas. “No postponement is justifiable,” Fayulu’s coalition said in a statement later on Thursday, saying it would not accept the delay and accusing Kabila of trying to stay in power and “continue to loot the country.” Several people have been killed in recent days at chaotic opposition rallies in various parts of the country, leading the UN Security Council to issue a statement this week calling on DRC’s government to “swiftly investigate.” The council also called for a “violence-free environment”. On Deember 12, the UN’s special representative in DRC denounced “the obstacles encountered by some opposition candidates during their efforts to hold public meetings in certain cities around the country.” Among several incidents, Fayulu was prevented from landing in Kindu where he was scheduled hold a rally on December 9, according to his campaign manager, Pierre Lumbi. “I am concerned by the growing tensions … and the risk of escalating violence that could lead to the commission of grave crimes,” the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, said in a statement on Thursday. She warned that anyone who “incites or participates in mass violence” could be prosecuted. Other observers have expressed concern over whether adequate election materials have been distributed across the vast country that is more than three times the size of Texas. DRC is using voting machines for the first time, a rarity in Africa, and opposition members, diplomats and technical experts have expressed concern about the possibility of manipulation.[SEP]County solicitor Garen Fedeles said a court settlement requires the machines be purchased by the next presidential election. BEAVER — There's no avoiding a state mandate to make all voting machines have a paper trail by 2020, county officials said Wednesday. Chief solicitor Garen Fedeles told commissioners that the required purchase is tied to a settlement of a lawsuit filed against the state over the 2016 presidential election. "Our hands are tied based on that lawsuit," Fedeles said. "All counties are required to implement (the new machines) for the 2020 presidential election as part of the settlement." In April, state officials announced that counties must replace all voting machines before the 2020 election, preferably before the general election in November 2019. No matter how old the machines are in a county, they must be replaced with a machine that will produce a paper trail of votes. The mandate comes with a hefty price tag and at least $14.15 million in state and federal funding. Earlier this month, Gov. Tom Wolf said he hopes to fund the mandate at least 50 percent. Commissioner Chairman Daniel Camp said that the county will need to buy about 495 machines, which are expected to cost between $2,500 and $3,000 each. That expense is in the county's preliminary 2019 budget under capital expenses, but a funding stream hasn't yet been identified. Commissioner Tony Amadio has pushed to delay the purchase until after the presidential election, but that won't be possible, Fedeles said. Amadio said he would like to see Beaver County and other counties create a consortium to purchase the machines to help cut down on costs. One of Amadio's concerns has been that there are few companies certified to sell the machines in Pennsylvania. Two are currently certified, Fedeles said, with a third expected to join the ranks by the end of the week. Others are expected to be certified in January, he said. Amadio suggested that the state look into buying the machines in a one bulk purchase, rather than individual counties making the purchase. "It's a bigger pot that way, and we could get a better price," he said. Amadio, frustrated by the situation, also made an outside-the-box suggestion. "There's one way to get out of this unfunded mandate," Amadio said. "Go back to paper ballots. "You want a paper trail, there you have it."[SEP]PRETORIA - Presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been delayed for a week. The country's electoral commission says a fire in its warehouse last week has made it impossible to hold the poll on Sunday as scheduled. The country's 46 million voters will now cast their ballots on 30 December. The delay in the elections, already more than two years late, has displeased many of the 21 presidential candidates. They're saying it is driven more by politics than logistics. Electoral commission head Corneille Nangaa says voting machines to replace the 8,000 destroyed in the fire will arrive at the weekend. It will take at least three days to align them with the existing machines. Since voting on Christmas Day is out of the question, it was decided to postpone the exercise until the end of this month.[SEP]Congo's electoral commission has delayed the country's long-awaited presidential election until Dec. 30, citing a recent fire that destroyed 80 percent of the voting machines in the capital. The vote had been scheduled for Sunday. This is the latest of several delays in the election originally scheduled for late 2016, amid opposition concerns that President Joseph Kabila was looking for ways to stay in power. After last week's fire destroyed some 8,000 voting machines in Kinshasa, officials found replacement machines but had to get 5 million new ballots printed, said Corneille Nangaa, head of the national electoral commission. He called on the country of some 40 million voters for calm. Tensions have risen in Congo ahead of the election. On Wednesday the governor of Kinshasa, Andre Kimbuta, banned all election rallies in the capital, citing security concerns. That prevented main opposition leader Martin Fayulu from holding a rally. Thousands of angry supporters gathered but police dispersed them with tear gas. Several people have been killed in recent days at chaotic opposition rallies in various parts of the country, leading the U.N. Security Council to issue a statement this week calling on Congo's government to "swiftly investigate." The council also called for a "violence-free environment." On Dec. 12, the U.N.'s special representative in Congo denounced "the obstacles encountered by some opposition candidates during their efforts to hold public meetings in certain cities around the country." Among several incidents, Fayulu was prevented from landing in Kindu where he was scheduled hold a rally on Dec. 9, according to his campaign manager, Pierre Lumbi. "I am concerned by the growing tensions ... and the risk of escalating violence that could lead to the commission of grave crimes," the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, said in a statement on Thursday. She warned that anyone who "incites or participates in mass violence" could be prosecuted. Other observers have expressed concern over whether adequate election materials have been distributed across the vast country that is more than three times the size of Texas. Even before the delay was announced, some observers criticized the Kabila government for not making adequate preparations for the vote. "We had seven years to prepare these elections and at the last minute the electoral commission gives the impression they are not ready for the vote," said Rev. Jean Marie Bomengola with the Episcopal Bishops Conference, which plans to deploy 40,000 election observers.[SEP]HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is settling a vote-counting lawsuit stemming from the 2016 presidential election, in part by affirming a commitment it made previously to push Pennsylvania’s counties to buy voting… HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is settling a vote-counting lawsuit stemming from the 2016 presidential election, in part by affirming a commitment it made previously to push Pennsylvania’s counties to buy voting systems that leave a verifiable paper trail by 2020. Paperwork filed Thursday in federal court in Philadelphia caps a lawsuit that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein filed in 2016 as she sought recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. All three states had a history of backing Democrats for president before they were narrowly and unexpectedly won by Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Months ago , Wolf, a Democrat, began pushing counties to upgrade to voting machines that leave a paper trail as a safeguard against hacking by 2020. Four in five Pennsylvania voters use machines that lack an auditable paper trial. In the settlement, Wolf underscores that commitment “so that every Pennsylvania voter in 2020 uses a voter-verifiable paper ballot.” The settlement also requires the state to institute audits of election results by 2022 before the results are certified, based on recommendations from a working group the state must assemble by Jan. 1. Ilann Maazel, a lawyer for Stein and a handful of registered Pennsylvania voters who sued, said Thursday that the agreement is “a major step forward for Pennsylvania voters and election integrity.” The lawsuit had accused Pennsylvania of violating the constitutional rights of voters because its voting machines were susceptible to hacking and barriers to a recount were pervasive. In September, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond had denied the Wolf administration’s effort to dismiss the lawsuit’s claims that the continued use of paperless voting machines may violate the constitutional rights of voters. Diamond, however, will retain jurisdiction to enforce the provisions of the settlement. The state had faced the risk that the court could have ordered a much shorter time frame for counties to switch to the new voting machines, and could have ordered the post-election audits to be implemented immediately, Kathy Boockvar, an election adviser to Wolf, said Thursday evening in an email to county officials. Pennsylvania is one of 13 states where most or all voters use antiquated machines that store votes electronically without printed ballots or other paper-based backups that could be used to double-check the vote, according to researchers at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. The cost of buying new voting systems will be $125 million, county officials estimate, and say the greatest single impediment to buying new voting machines is the lack of a funding source. Until Thursday, Wolf hadn’t said how much his administration would be willing to pay for the machines. But in the email to county officials, Boockvar said for the first time that Wolf is committed to asking lawmakers for state funding to foot at least half of the cost, on top of about $14 million in federal money already available. This story has been corrected to show that lawyer Ilann Maazel commented Thursday, instead of Stein and a handful of voters suing Thursday. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

The CENI electoral commission delays the election to 30 December after 80% of the voting machines in the capital were destroyed in a suspected arson last week.

With a mission that was anything but mundane, Soyuz MS-09 with its three-person crew returned to Earth after more than 6 months in orbit on the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-09 vehicle rose to high public profile in August when a hole that resulted in a small atmospheric leak aboard the Station was discovered in its Orbital Module. That hole was determined to have been drilled on the ground during the spacecraft’s manufacturing and led to a rather dramatic spacewalk earlier in December that saw cosmonauts cut into the protective casing around MS-09’s Orbital Module to conduct further investigation of the issue. Wrapping up its mission, Soyuz MS-09 and its three-person crew from Russia, ESA, and NASA, undocked from the International Space Station at 20:42 EST (01:42 UTC on Thursday, 20 December) before landing on the Kazakh steppe at around 00:03 EST (0503 UTC) on Thursday, 20 December. Soyuz MS-09 – a profile in intrigue: When Soyuz MS-09 launched to the Space Station on 6 June 2018, the mission seemed like most others that had come before: nominal in almost every regard with the spacecraft successfully delivering its three-person crew to the International Space Station. But the spacecraft’s quiescent existence was shattered on 29 August 2018 when a small air leak was identified by ground controllers throughout the International Space Station, a leak that was quickly traced to a 2 millimeter hole in the Orbital Module of Soyuz MS-09. The crewed Soyuz transportation vehicles are comprised of three primary sections, the Orbital Module at the top which physically connects the vehicle to the International Space Station, the Descent Module in the middle within which crews ride to and from orbit, and the Instrumentation and Propulsion Module which contains the propulsion, power, electrical, and avionics systems for the craft. See Also LIVE: Soyuz MS-09 L2 Russian Section L2 ISS Section Click here to Join L2 At the end of nominal missions, the only part of a Soyuz spacecraft that survives reentry is the Descent Module, with the Orbital and Instrumentation and Propulsion Modules burning up during atmospheric reentry. Once the hole was found, Station crew members immediately identified it as having been caused by a drill and reported the presence of material in the hole suggesting that is had already been sealed on the ground and that that ground seal had given way. Over the objections of then-NASA Station Commander Drew Feustel and NASA requests to hold off on permanent repairs until an investigation and better understand of the hole was determined, Russian cosmonauts and Russian Mission Control quickly sealed the hole using an epoxy sealant. After those repairs, no further leaks were detected aboard the Station aside from the nominal atmospheric decay that occurs during each of the Station’s 16 daily orbital day to night passes. Official confirmation that the hole was caused by a drill was announced on 4 September 2018, though it could not be determined whether the hole was drilled intentionally during manufacturing – aka, sabotage – or was the result of a manufacturing error. Despite the admission, what was abundantly clear was that workers on the ground had identified the hole and sealed it in an attempt to cover it up, thus allowing Soyuz MS-09 to pass all pressurization and leak checks prior to launch. The presence of the hole and its undocumented fix also raised serious concerns about the safety and quality control methods in place within Roscosmos in building the as-yet-still only vehicle capable of transporting crew to and from the International Space Station since the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet in July 2011. Perhaps serendipitously, the presence of the hole in Soyuz MS-09’s Orbital Module is arguably the best place the hole could have been since the Orbital Module does not survive atmospheric reentry. In short, the fact that the hole is in the Orbital Module means that it poses no threat to the safe return of Alexander Gerst (ESA), Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos), and Serena Auñón-Chancellor (NASA). However, the fact that the hole made it through safety and quality assurance checks before launch also raised serious questions of whether other holes exist throughout the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle – a question which cannot be answered with certainty until the craft returns to Earth. An even greater spotlight was thrown onto Soyuz MS-09 on 11 October 2018 when the Soyuz MS-10 crew vehicle was forced to perform an in-flight abort to pull itself away from its failing Soyuz rocket just over two minutes into flight. The Soyuz MS-10 launch failure, also attributed to a lack of quality control within Roscosmos, only strengthened and raised the concerns of safety and quality assurance within the Russian human space program. Nonetheless, Roscosmos was quickly able to determine the reason for the Soyuz MS-10 launch failure and successfully launched the Soyuz MS-11 crew up to the International Space Station on 3 December, setting up a delayed but still more or less on time landing for Soyuz MS-09 on 20 December. However, since the Soyuz MS-09 Orbital Module will not survive reentry, Roscosmos was forced to perform a spacewalk, or EVA, to tear into the outer protective layer surrounding the hole to take photographs and collect samples that will aid in the still-ongoing official investigation of how the hole was drilled in the first place and how the undocumented ground repair occurred. The rather dramatic looking spacewalk took place on 11 December, with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev cutting into the thermal blankets and pulling away insulation in order to examine the Orbital Module’s outer hull. The EVA clearly revealed the hole, allowing the needed samples and photographs to be collected without issue. Soyuz MS-09 landing: With Soyuz MS-09 now undocked from the International Space Station, the crewed craft performed two orbits of Earth and various small trajectory burns to bring itself into proper alignment for its critical deorbit burn. The more than 4 minute long deorbit burn began at 23:09 EST on Wednesday, 19 December (0409 UTC on Thursday, 20 December) and decreased Soyuz MS-09’s velocity to lower the craft’s perigee, point of closest approach to Earth’s surface, into Earth’s atmosphere at a precise point to allow the Soyuz’s Descent Module to land at its primary location on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Following the deorbit burn and a brief coast, commands were sent to separate Soyuz MS-09 into its three constituent parts, with the Orbital Module (containing the hole) and the Instrumentation and Propulsion Module burning up in Earth’s atmosphere while the Descent Module orients itself heatshield first for atmospheric entry. During the Descent Module’s reentry, the immense speed of the craft combined with friction with air molecules will create a plasma flow around the vehicle which can – and usually does – cause temporary communication blackouts with the crew. Perhaps more importantly than other Soyuz reentries, it is important to stress that these communication blackouts are to be expected and are not, in themselves, any cause for concern during the entry process. Also important to stress is that aside from the nominal reentry profile, the Soyuz’s Descent Module can also perform what is known as a ballistic style reentry – a much steeper and harsher reentry – designed to get a crew to the ground as quickly as possible if a systems or orientation issue is identified by the spacecraft’s computers. This type of ballistic reentry was last seen during the Soyuz MS-10 launch abort in October and has previously occurred in October 2007 and April 2008 during back-to-back Soyuz landings of International Space Station crew members. Had a ballistic reentry occur during the Soyuz MS-09 landing , it wouldn’t be indicative of or immediately connected to the hole in the Orbital Module, which will have already been jettisoned by the point a ballistic reentry would be triggered during the entry sequence. However, a nominal reentry and landing occurred, with Soyuz MS-09’s Descent Module touching down under parachute and last-second retro rocket firing at around 00:03 EST (0503 UTC) on Thursday, 20 December on the Kazakh steps.[SEP]Three people made a fiery return to Earth in the Soyuz MS-09 capsule after spending 197 days in space, mostly aboard the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst landed in a frigid Kazakhstan at 12:03 a.m. EST (5:02 GMT) Dec. 20, 2018, in their Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft’s descent module. Conditions on the ground were cold and overcast with a temperature of about 3 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 16 degrees Celsius) and as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow on the ground. “On the eve of the 50th anniversary of human kind’s first voyage to the Moon, a multinational crew returns to Earth after spending more than a half-year in space,” said NASA Public Affairs Officer Rob Navias during NASA TV coverage of the landing. Prokopyev, Gerst and Aunon-Chancellor launched into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 6, 2018. After spending two days catching up with the ISS, they docked with the Rassvet module to join NASA’s Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and Russia’s Oleg Artemyev as part of Expedition 56. When Feustel, Arnold and Artemyev returned to Earth on Oct. 4, 2018, Prokopyev, Aunon-Chancellor and Gerst formed the first part of Expedition 57. Aunon-Chancellor, 42, and Prokopyev, 43, completed their first spaceflight. This was the second flight for 42-year-old Gerst, however, who now holds the record for the most cumulative days in space by a European Space Agency astronaut at 362 days. In addition to conducting hundreds of science experiments, the trio oversaw multiple visiting vehicle arrivals and departures and had to deal with a minor leak aboard the space station, which originated from a hole on the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft itself. At about 7 p.m. EDT (23:00 GMT) Aug. 29, 2018, ground controllers in Houston and Moscow detected signs of a “minute pressure leak” somewhere in the orbiting complex. According to NASA, the pressure reduction was slow enough that it was decided to allow the crew to continue sleeping and address the issue once they woke up. “When the crew was awakened at its normal hour this morning, flight controllers at Mission Control in Houston and at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow began working procedures to try to determine the location of the leak,” NASA said in a statement Aug. 30. After discussions between the crew and mission control centers in Houston and Moscow, it was decided to have the cosmonauts apply an epoxy substance with medical gauze around the opening. Throughout the rest of the Soyuz MS-09 stay at the ISS, it showed no signs of further leakage. The cause of the hole was thought to be caused by human hand, likely from someone who worked on the spacecraft on the ground. However, the exact circumstances are not yet known. Either way, the hole was on the Orbital Module of the Soyuz, which was not needed for re-entry. That being said, Roscosmos still wanted to examine and get a sample of the hole and epoxy used to seal it from the outside of the spacecraft. That was to be done by spacewalking cosmonauts initially in November. However, the in-flight abort of the Soyuz MS-10 crew that was initially to join Expedition 57— NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin — caused the outing to be pushed to Dec. 11, several days after Soyuz MS-11 launched with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques. During a 7 hour, 45 minute spacewalk Prokopyev and Kononenko used a knife to peel back thermal insulation in order to inspect the area of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft where the small leak occurred. This also involved using shears to cut away at the micrometeoroid shielding. When it finally came time for the crew to leave, Gerst handed command of the space station over to Kononenko, he along with McClain and Saint-Jacques will form Expedition 58. That handover occurred during a “change of command” ceremony on Dec. 18. The next day at 5:30 p.m. EST (22:30 GMT), the departing trio said farewell to the soon-to-be Expedition 58 crew and the hatches between Soyuz and ISS were closed. Three hours later at 8:40 p.m. EST Dec. 19 (1:40 GMT Dec. 20), the spacecraft undocked from the Rassvet module. After two separations burns and three hours of coasting away from the space station, the Soyuz MS-09 performed its deorbit burn at 10:10 p.m. EST Dec. 19 (4:10 GMT Dec. 20). This 4 minute, 37 second burn slowed the vehicle down by 420 feet (128 meters) per second — just enough to lower its orbit enough to intersect with the atmosphere. Just before this intersection — called entry interface — the three main parts of the spacecraft — the Orbital Module, Descent Module and Service Module — separated. Only the Descent Module with the crew inside is designed to survive re-entry. During the re-entry process, the crew experienced a peak g-load of about 3.8 times that of normal Earth gravity for a brief period. Over about seven minutes, the spacecraft — protected by a heat shield — was slowed from about 5 miles (8 kilometers) per second to about 1.3 miles (2.2 kilometers) per second. Once Soyuz was slow enough and deep enough in the atmosphere, a series of parachutes began to deploy, culminating with the main parachute for a several-minute slow descent to the ground. While the spacecraft descended, the crew seats were pushed forward to better absorb the upcoming impact with the ground. Additionally, soft landing jets fired about a meter above the surface to cushion the landing further. Upon touchdown, the capsule landed in an upright position. Within minutes, Russian search and rescue teams arrived and landed near the capsule to begin the recovery process. The three were pulled out one by one with Prokopyev emerging first, followed by Aunon-Chancellor and then Gerst. The trio were placed in couches for a brief medical check. However, that didn’t last long as the cold temperatures prompted recovery teams to quickly move the three into a nearby inflatable medical tent. After that, each crew member is expected to be transported to the nearby city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. There, they will begin to part ways and head back to their respective home countries.[SEP]"Landing has taken place", the text on a big screen located in the main hall of the center read. Both employees of the center and guests who were present there burst into applause. Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, German astronaut Alexander Gerst, and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor have delivered to Earth the pieces of evidence that Russian state space corporation Roscosmos and investigators need for their probe into the microfracture found in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft in late August. READ MORE: Soyuz Carrier Rocket With French Spy Satellite Blasts Off From Kourou Spaceport Earlier in December, the cosmonauts carried out a spacewalk to examine the hole in the spacecraft, found in late August. The cosmonauts cut off three pieces of micrometeoroid protection to take samples of the sealer and the surface surrounding the microfracture.[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. STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION A Russian cosmonaut, a German flight engineer and a NASA astronaut undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth overnight Wednesday, landing on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan to wrap up a six-month mission. Blocked from view by low clouds and wind-blown snow, the Soyuz MS-09/55S spacecraft, suspended beneath a large orange-and-white parachute, touched down on the frigid steppe near the town of Dzhezkazgan at 12:02 a.m. EST Thursday (GMT-5; 11:02 a.m. local time), three-and-a-half hours after departing the space station. Russian recovery crews and medical personnel, along with U.S. and European Space Agency support teams, quickly rushed to the spacecraft to help the returning crew members out of the cramped crew compartment as they began their re-adaptation to the unfamiliar tug of gravity. Soyuz commander Sergey Prokopyev and NASA physician-astronaut Auñón-Chancellor logged 196 days 17 hours and 50 minutes off the planet during their first space mission while German astronaut Alexander Gerst, veteran of an earlier stay aboard the station in 2014, pushed his total to 362 days of cumulative time aloft. Asked what she was looking forward to the most, Auñón-Chancellor said “that’s easy. Family. That’s what you miss the most up here.” “I don’t think you ever really get used to it,” she told CBS News in an interview last month. “You have reminders, we have pictures, we get special video conference calls, but it’s not like being in the arms of your loved ones.” Second on her list behind family “would be just the feelings of Earth,” she said. “For example, the wind, the rain. We were watching a video the other day and I remember being very jealous of watching somebody stand by the ocean because I knew they could feel the wind and smell the sea. And we can’t do that up here.” She got her wish to “feel the Earth” right away. The Soyuz landed in cold, cloudy conditions with temperatures in single digits, a sub-zero wind chill and up to a half foot of snow in the area. As usual with Soyuz landings, the crew members were carried to nearby recliners and bundled in blankets for initial medical checks and satellite phone calls home to friends and family. All three were expected to be flown by helicopter to Dzhezkazgan for an official welcome home ceremony. Prokopyev then planned to head back to Star City near Moscow while Gerst headed for Cologne, Germany. Auñón-Chancellor will return to her home near the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Asked what she will miss the most about life aboard the station, Auñón-Chancellor said “it sounds kind of simple, but floating everywhere is pretty awesome.” “At first when you get up here you’re sort of this ungraceful ballerina who can’t manage anything … but this is my favorite part,” she said, turning a slow flip aboard the station. “It lets you work in three dimensions, and you just realize what your body’s able to accomplish up here that you just don’t do on Earth. “That is what I’m going to miss the most. Of course, looking outside and seeing the Earth is absolutely beautiful. But watching the way the human body adapts to being up here is amazing.” Left behind in orbit with the departure of the Soyuz MS-09 crew were Expedition 58 commander Oleg Kononenko, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain. They originally expected to launch last week, joining cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and Nick Hague aboard the station. But Ovchinin and Hague were victims of a launch abort Oct. 11, the first for a Soyuz spacecraft since 1983. Instead of reaching the station and joining Gerst, Prokopyev and Auñón-Chancellor, Ovchinin and Hague were forced to make an emergency landing near Dzhezkazgan, throwing a wrench into the carefully planned crew rotation schedule. Russian engineers quickly traced the problem to the system used to control the separation of the four liquid-fueled strap-on boosters making up the Soyuz FG booster’s first stage. A fix was relatively straight forward. After assessing multiple options, Russian managers opted to move up launch of Kononenko’s crew from Dec. 20 to Dec. 3 and to delay the departure of Gerst and his crewmates from Dec. 13 to Dec. 20. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, also moved up the next flight in the sequence. That mission, originally planned for early April, was to have carried Russian commander Oleg Skripochka, NASA astronaut Christina Koch and a United Arab Emirates guest astronaut to the station. Instead, Ovchinin and Hague will join Koch aboard the Soyuz MS-12/58S spacecraft, launching to the station at the end of February. Until then, Kononenko Saint-Jacques and McClain will have the station to themselves. In an interview with CBS News at his home in Houston, Hague said he had full confidence in the Soyuz’s safety systems and that he was looking forward to fulfilling his mission. “What we’re doing up there on the space station every day, it’s important,” he said. “We’re trying to open humanity’s eyes, discover new things, make life better on the ground and push farther into the universe. That’s a really important thing to be doing, and it benefits so many people. So you accept the risk because you believe in what you’re doing.” His wife, Catie, agreed, but said she was still nervous about the idea of her husband riding a rocket into space. “I was very nervous (during the October launch), and I’m still nervous,” she said. “There’s risk, there’s a lot of risk with what they do, and to be on the outside of that looking in, where you have absolutely no control, is scary. It’s scary. “But I trust him,” she said, “I trust his training, I trust his commander Alexey implicitly, and I know everybody is really invested in their safety.” It wasn’t just the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft that gave the Russians problems. The Soyuz MS-09 ferry ship that Prokopyev, Gerst and Auñón-Chancellor are relying on for their trip home had trouble of its own last August when sensors aboard the station detected a slight drop in the lab’s air pressure. The leak was not deemed serious enough to wake the crew, but the next morning the four astronauts and two cosmonauts making up the Expedition 56 crew traced the leak to the upper “orbital” module of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. Photographs of the hole that were downlinked by the station crew showed what appeared to be a drilled-out penetration in an interior panel with several nearby gouges like those that would be caused by a drill skipping across a surface before digging in. Dmitry Rogozin, the director of Roscosmos, raised eyebrows when he did not immediately rule out the station’s crew members among possible suspects. He said “it is a matter of honor for Energy Rocket and Space Corporation (Soyuz builder RSC Energia) to find the one responsible for that, to find out whether it was an accidental defect or a deliberate spoilage, and where it was done – either on Earth or in space.” As one might expect, Drew Feustel, the commander of the station at the time, told interviewers his crew had nothing to do with the leak other than plugging it, and no one since then has suggested the possibility of any such involvement. In any case, Prokopyev and fellow cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, acting on instructions from the Russian mission control center, plugged the hole with gauze soaked in epoxy. The plug held, and flight controllers later boosted cabin air pressure back to normal levels. The crew was never in any danger, officials said, and a safe re-entry by the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft has never been in question because of the leak. In a normal entry, the three modules making up a Soyuz spacecraft — the upper orbital section the crew compartment and the lower propulsion module — separate from each other just before falling back into the discernible atmosphere. The upper and lower modules burn up while the descent module, the only one protected by a heat shield, continues on to touchdown. For the Soyuz MS-09 entry, the crew planned to follow normal practice, closing the hatch to the upper module before departing the space station. Even if a leak opened back up, it would have no effect on the sealed-off descent module. But Russian engineers still wanted to inspect the exterior of the Soyuz’s orbital module to find out if any of the epoxy had made it all the way through the hole and to collect any clues that might be available on the exterior. By moving launch of Kononenko and his crewmates up to Dec. 3, and delaying the departure of the Gerst crew, the Russians ensured enough time with a full complement of crew members for a spacewalk by Prokopyev and Kononenko to do just that. The cosmonauts ventured outside the station on Dec. 11 and cut through insulation and micrometeoroid shielding on the orbital revealing the site of the leak. They collected samples of the extruded epoxy and any chemical traces on the hull near the hole that will be returned to Earth for laboratory analysis.[SEP]Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-09 with three crew members onboard landed successfully in Kazakhstan Thursday, the European Space Agency said. Russian astronaut Sergey Prokopyev, United States' Serena Aunon-Chancellor of the NASA, and German Alexander Gerst of the ESA, returned from the International Space Station in the spacecraft after staying in space for 197 days.[SEP]MOSCOW - Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-09 has successfully landed in Kazakhstan, bringing back the three astronauts who have completed their missions on the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian mission control centre said Thursday. "The landing section with Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev, NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor and astronaut of the European Space Agency Alexander Gerst has landed," it was quoted by local media as saying. On June 6, Russia successfully launched its Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft to the ISS. The three-member crew had lived on it for the scheduled 187 days. Their successors, Oleg Kononenko of Russia, Anne McClain of the United States and David Saint-Jacques of Canada arrived in early December and are expected to stay on the ISS for six and a half months. They were transported by the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft, which was launched on Dec. 3. The flight was carried out after a spacecraft lift-off failure in October. On Oct. 11 the capsule of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and U.S. astronaut Nick Hague on board made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan after the carrier rocket malfunctioned shortly after lift-off. Russia then suspended manned space missions but sent a cargo ship to the ISS on Nov. 16. The Progress MS-10 cargo ship carried about 2.5 tons of various supplies, including fuel, air, water, scientific equipment, and life-support equipment for the ISS crew. Russian state space corporation Roscosmos and investigators need for probe into the microfracture found on the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft in late August, said the Russian mission control center. On Dec. 12, a spacewalk was conducted by Russian cosmonauts to check the crack that led to a pressure leak at ISS. Russia's Soyuz models are currently the only spacecraft for spaceflights between the ISS and the Earth.[SEP]A Soyuz spacecraft ferrying German Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor from the U.S. and Russian Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos landed safely in Kazakhstan, Russia's space agency said. "There's been a landing... The crew of the manned Soyuz MS-09 has returned safely to Earth after 197 days," Roscosmos said on Twitter. The spacecraft landed slightly ahead of schedule at 8:02 Moscow time (6:02 am CET), Roscosmos said on its website. "The crew feels well after returning to Earth," the space agency said. Live footage on the websites of NASA and Roscosmos did not show the landing of the astronauts' capsule due to thick fog over the snow-covered Kazakh steppe. Rescuers pulled the crew members out of the capsule, with Prokopyev and Aunon-Chancellor appearing pale and weak due to the effects of long weightlessness, while Gerst beamed broadly and gave an interview to German television. When the astronauts blasted off in June, they were one of the least experienced crews ever to join the International Space Station - only Gerst had been on a space mission before, in 2014. Gerst, 42, has now spent a total of 363 days on the ISS, a record for the European Space Agency. He is now flying to Cologne to spend the holidays with his family until December 27th, the ESA said. "Yes, he has holidays off, only sports and training for regeneration and rehabilitation must be done," a spokesman for the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne told DPA. Gerst, who is known as "Astro Alex" in the German media, tweeted a thanks to those who had helped him on the Horizons mission on Monday before landing. Thanks to all of you who accompanied me on the #Horizons mission, to let me be your eye in the sky / Vielen Dank an alle, die mich auf der #Horizons Mission begleitet haben, um ihre Welt durch meine Augen zu sehen. Hi-Res: https://t.co/b7I59tQwg5 pic.twitter.com/aDMGq3CSA3 Gerst is expected to land at the Cologne/Bonn airport at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday. After that, he will be taken to a medical research facility of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt or DLR) in Cologne. His hometown Künzelsau is planning a big celebration in honour for him next summer. The mission, however, carried great challenges. The first significant incident in the crew's mission came in August when astronauts detected an air leak in their Soyuz spacecraft, which was docked to the orbiting space laboratory. They sealed the small hole successfully but Russia launched an investigation and its space chief Dmitry Rogozin suggested it could have been deliberate sabotage carried out in space. Rogozin said that investigators ruled out the possibility the defect was introduced during the spacecraft's manufacture. Prokopyev and fellow Russian Oleg Kononenko last week carried out a gruelling space walk lasting almost eight hours to locate the hole from the outside and record and bag evidence. The hole was in a section of the astronauts' spacecraft that was to fall away and burn up in the atmosphere as they landed, hence the need to carry out the probe in space. During the space walk, Kononenko said there was some kind of black and yellow "furry" deposit that looked like a "spider" around the hole, but no conclusion has been made public. Prokopyev brought back the evidence to Earth and will hand it to the FSB security service which will carry out laboratory analysis, TASS state news agency reported citing a source. Their landing back on Earth was originally planned for December 13 but the schedule was put back after the October failure of a Soyuz rocket carrying the next crew -- the first such aborted launch in the post-Soviet era. Russia's Aleksey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague took off for the ISS on October 11th but their Soyuz rocket failed minutes after blast-off, forcing them to eject and make a harrowing emergency landing. At the time Gerst wrote on Twitter that the astronauts' survival showed "what an amazing vehicle" the Soyuz rocket is. "Spaceflight is hard. And we must keep trying for the benefit of humankind," he wrote. The first successful launch of astronauts since the October accident took place on December 3, carrying Kononenko, Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency.[SEP]NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor is carried to a medical tent shortly after she, Germany’s Alexander Gerst and Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev landed in their Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft near the town of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. (NASA Photo / Bill Ingalls) A Russian Soyuz spaceship that stirred up an international fuss over a drill hole and an air leak brought three spacefliers back to Earth from the International Space Station without a problem. NASA’s Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Germany’s Alexander Gerst and Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev touched down in the snowy steppes of Kazakhstan at 11:02 a.m. local time Dec. 20 (9:02 p.m. PT Dec. 19), leaving three crewmates on the orbital outpost. The homeward-bound trio rode the same Soyuz they took up to the station in June. It’s the same Soyuz that experienced an air leak in August, causing consternation in space as well as back down on Earth. Station crew members quickly traced the leak to a hole that was apparently drilled in a hidden corner of the Soyuz’s habitation module. The hole was plugged with a makeshift patch of epoxy sealant and gauze, leaving investigators at Russia’s Roscosmos space agency to figure out the cause of the breach. For a time, there was dark talk about potential sabotage, but the current leading hypothesis is that the hole was accidentally drilled into the Soyuz’s hull during assembly, and plugged up to cover the flaw. The plug might have been jarred loose while it was attached to the station, setting off the leak. The exterior side of the leak site was examined last week during a spacewalk that featured Russian cosmonauts carving away at layers of the Soyuz craft’s shielding and insulation. Fortunately, the Soyuz crew rode down to Earth in the spacecraft’s sealed-off descent module. The carved-up habitation module was jettisoned along with the Soyuz’s propulsion module before atmospheric re-entry. All three of the returning spacefliers seemed to be in good spirits as they were helped out of the Soyuz and carried over to easy chairs for their initial medical checks, in accordance with Russian tradition. Auñón-Chancellor grinned and flashed the thumbs-up sign as she was tended to by the recovery team. The station is now in the care of Russian commander Oleg Kononenko, Canada’s David Saint-Jacques and NASA’s Anne McClain. Meanwhile, on Earth, Russian investigators will check photos and samples from the now-spent spacecraft and try to close the case of the sullied Soyuz. • An international trio heads for the space station after picture-perfect Soyuz launch • Russians trace Soyuz rocket failure to a bent sensor; next crew to launch Dec. 3 • U.S.-Russian trio returns to Earth from space station on Sputnik anniversary • Russian spacewalkers carve away at Soyuz spaceship to inspect plugged hole[SEP]Ground personnel help International Space Station (ISS) crew member Alexander Gerst of Germany to get out of the Soyuz MS-09 capsule after landing in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, formerly known as Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan December 20, 2018. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov (Reuters) - Three members of the International Space Station's crew returned safely to Earth on Thursday, landing in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz craft, NASA reported. It was the first return from the space station since October, when U.S. astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin landed unharmed on the Kazakh steppe after their rocket bound for the station failed two minutes after liftoff. NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor landed along with her German crewmate Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev at 12:02 a.m. EST (11:02 a.m. local time, 0502 GMT), NASA said in a blog post. Auñón-Chancellor had been in space for 197 days and contributed to hundreds of scientific experiments aboard the orbiting space station. NASA has relied on Russian rockets to ferry astronauts to the space station since the United States retired its Space Shuttle program in 2011, though the agency has announced plans for test flights carrying two astronauts on commercial rockets made by Boeing and SpaceX next April. The crew were reported to be in good condition and Auñón-Chancellor is expected to return home to Houston following medical checks, NASA said. The October accident was the first serious launch problem experienced by a crewed Soyuz space mission since 1983, when a crew narrowly escaped before a launchpad explosion. Three crew remain on the station: NASA's Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency and Russia's Oleg Kononenko. Three additional crew will join them in February.[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. Armed with a knife, scissors and other cutting tools, cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev went outside the International Space Station on Dec. 11 to slice into the thermal insulation of a Soyuz spaceship and inspect the site of a repaired air leak that briefly caused a minor drop in air pressure in the research outpost earlier this year. Kononenko and Prokopyev’s dramatic spacewalk produced unforgettable imagery of the duo vigorously cutting into the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft’s black insulation, then into an orbital debris shield to inspect the site of a tiny 2-millimeter drill hole plugged in August with an improvised stopper of gauze and epoxy sealant. The spacewalkers worked on the Soyuz spacecraft as it was docked with the space station’s Rassvet module. The hole is on the orbital module of the Soyuz spacecraft, which is discarded before re-entry into the atmosphere. These photos taken by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst show the Russian cosmonauts working on the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. Gerst, Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor are set to ride the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft back to Earth for a landing Thursday, Dec. 19. But they will come home inside the craft’s landing section, which carries a heat shield to protect the crew during re-entry. The leak in the Soyuz habitation module does not pose a threat to the crew during the descent back into the atmosphere. Read our full story on the Dec. 11 spacewalk for details.

Soyuz MS-09 lands safely on the steppe in Kazakhstan.

Bats congregate in the Bat Cave in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda on August 24, 2018. CDC scientists placed GPS devices bats from the cave to determine flight patterns and how they transmit Marburg virus to humans. Bonnie Jo Mount / The Washington Post via Getty Images file[SEP]Marburg virus, a deadly cousin of Ebola virus, has been found for the first time in bats in west Africa, U.S. researchers said Thursday. The discovery means Marburg is a threat in west Africa — where a giant epidemic of Ebola infected 28,000 people and killed 11,000 of them in 2014-2016. The region is crisscrossed by roads and paths and people travel across borders to towns and cities, making it easier to spread outbreaks of infectious disease. Usually outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg are in isolated regions and have been less likely to spread. The knowledge that Marburg lives in bats in Sierra Leone can help officials prepare for potential outbreaks, the researchers said. “Five Egyptian rousette fruit bats tested positive for active Marburg virus infection. Scientists caught the bats separately at locations in three health districts: Moyamba, Koinadugu and Kono,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which led one of the expeditions that found the infected bats, said in a statement. “There have been no reported cases of people sick with Marburg in Sierra Leone, but the virus’s presence in bats means people nearby could be at risk for contracting Marburg virus. Marburg virus is a cousin to Ebola virus that causes a similar, often fatal disease in people.” Both Marburg and Ebola are terrifying because, depending on the strain and availability of medical help, they kill as many as 90 percent of victims. They can cause a hemorrhagic fever that causes internal and external bleeding, as well as severe diarrhea and vomiting that lead to shock. The Egyptian fruit bat has been known to carry Marburg. It’s a reservoir, meaning the animals can carry and spread a virus, but it doesn’t make them sick. Bats are reservoirs for many viruses, including Marburg, rabies and middle east respiratory syndrome virus or MERS. “We have known for a long time that rousette bats, which carry Marburg virus in other parts of Africa, also live in West Africa. So it’s not surprising that we’d find the virus in bats there,” said ecologist Jonathan Towner, who led the CDC team. “This discovery is an excellent example of how our work can identify a threat and help us warn people of the risk before they get sick.” Three people died in an outbreak of Marburg in Uganda a year ago. In 2005, a big outbreak of Marburg in Angola killed 90 percent of the 252 people infected. There’s a large cave full of fruit bats in Uganda where people, including tourists, have caught Marburg. “In eastern and central Africa, these bats can roost in colonies of more than 100,000 animals. However, the colonies of Egyptian fruit bats identified in Sierra Leone so far have been much smaller, which may explain why there have not been any known Marburg virus disease outbreaks in this country,” the CDC said in a statement. Bats can spread viruses by biting people, but their saliva and guano can also spread the viruses — for instance, when they forage on fruit that people also gather and eat. People can catch viruses when they hunt and eat bats, as well. Marburg’s relative, Ebola, is more common and may also be spread by bats. The Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa is now fighting a very big outbreak of Ebola. At least 542 people have been infected in the outbreak and 319 have died, the country’s health ministry says. At least 50,000 people have been vaccinated against the virus but civil war has made it difficult for health workers to do their jobs. The virus has also spread in towns, making it hard to contain.[SEP]Marburg virus, a deadly cousin of Ebola virus, has been found for the first time in bats in west Africa, U.S. researchers said Thursday. The discovery means Marburg is a threat in west Africa — where a giant epidemic of Ebola infected 28,000 people and killed 11,000 of them in 2014-2016. The region is crisscrossed by roads and paths and people travel across borders to towns and cities, making it easier to spread outbreaks of infectious disease. Usually outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg are in isolated regions and have been less likely to spread. The knowledge that Marburg lives in bats in Sierra Leone can help officials prepare for potential outbreaks, the researchers said. “Five Egyptian rousette fruit bats tested positive for active Marburg virus infection. Scientists caught the bats separately at locations in three health districts: Moyamba, Koinadugu and Kono,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which led one of the expeditions that found the infected bats, said in a statement. “There have been no reported cases of people sick with Marburg in Sierra Leone, but the virus’s presence in bats means people nearby could be at risk for contracting Marburg virus. Marburg virus is a cousin to Ebola virus that causes a similar, often fatal disease in people.” Both Marburg and Ebola are terrifying because, depending on the strain and availability of medical help, they kill as many as 90 percent of victims. They can cause a hemorrhagic fever that causes internal and external bleeding, as well as severe diarrhea and vomiting that lead to shock. The Egyptian fruit bat has been known to carry Marburg. It’s a reservoir, meaning the animals can carry and spread a virus, but it doesn’t make them sick. Bats are reservoirs for many viruses, including Marburg, rabies and middle east respiratory syndrome virus or MERS. “We have known for a long time that rousette bats, which carry Marburg virus in other parts of Africa, also live in West Africa. So it’s not surprising that we’d find the virus in bats there,” said ecologist Jonathan Towner, who led the CDC team. “This discovery is an excellent example of how our work can identify a threat and help us warn people of the risk before they get sick.” Three people died in an outbreak of Marburg in Uganda a year ago. In 2005, a big outbreak of Marburg in Angola killed 90 percent of the 252 people infected. There’s a large cave full of fruit bats in Uganda where people, including tourists, have caught Marburg. “In eastern and central Africa, these bats can roost in colonies of more than 100,000 animals. However, the colonies of Egyptian fruit bats identified in Sierra Leone so far have been much smaller, which may explain why there have not been any known Marburg virus disease outbreaks in this country,” the CDC said in a statement. Bats can spread viruses by biting people, but their saliva and guano can also spread the viruses — for instance, when they forage on fruit that people also gather and eat. People can catch viruses when they hunt and eat bats, as well. Marburg’s relative, Ebola, is more common and may also be spread by bats. The Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa is now fighting a very big outbreak of Ebola. At least 542 people have been infected in the outbreak and 319 have died, the country’s health ministry says. At least 50,000 people have been vaccinated against the virus but civil war has made it difficult for health workers to do their jobs. The virus has also spread in towns, making it hard to contain.[SEP]Scientists have discovered the deadly Marburg virus in fruit bats in Sierra Leone, the first time this cousin of Ebola has been found in West Africa. There have been no reported cases of people or animals with active infections. But the pathogen’s presence in the bats raises the potential for it to infect humans in a new region more than a thousand miles from previously known outbreaks. There have been a dozen known Marburg virus outbreaks in other parts of Africa, most recently in Uganda in 2017. Like Ebola, Marburg virus initially infects people through contact with wild animals. It can then spread person to person through contact with bodily fluids. It kills up to 9 in 10 of its victims, sometimes within a week. The discovery was made by two teams of U.S. researchers and their partners in Sierra Leone. One was led by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Njala University, the other was led by the University of California at Davis and the University of Makeni. The virus was found in Egyptian fruit bats, which are the natural reservoir for Marburg. That means the virus can live and grow inside the bats without harming the animals, and can be passed on to humans or other animals through bat saliva, urine or feces. The bats live in caves or underground mines throughout much of Africa and parts of the Middle East and southwest Asia. Marburg virus has been detected in Egyptian fruit bats caught in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also Kenya, South Africa and Gabon. But to find it in fruit bats in Sierra Leone — more than 1,600 miles from Gabon, the “closest dot on the map” of countries where the virus had previously been detected — provides scientists much more information about the potential viral landscape, said Brian Bird, a virologist and bat expert at UC Davis. For a country like Sierra Leone that was devastated by Ebola, “this finding of a very dangerous pathogen on a par with Ebola can put them ahead of the game, they can take proactive steps” to warn communities about its hazards, said Jonathan Towner, a CDC ecologist who led the CDC team. Sierra Leone was among the three West African countries ravaged by the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people. Bats are commonly hunted for food across Africa. Public health messages can warn people against eating bushmeat, avoid direct contact with bats as well as fruit that may have been nibbled on by the animals. Mining companies also need to be aware of potential risks if these fruit bats live in underground shafts, the scientists said. U.S. officials are so concerned about Marburg becoming a global threat that Towner and experts from CDC and Uganda recently traveled to a bat cave deep inside a Ugandan forest to put GPS trackers on Egyptian fruit bats to see where they fly each night. They hope that information will help better predict areas most at risk and prevent future outbreaks. The two teams in Sierra Leone have been working independently to find the natural reservoir for the Ebola virus. Unlike Marburg, researchers still don’t know what animal or animals carry Ebola, much less how it spreads to people. After testing thousands of bats, they found five bats from three underground caves in Sierra Leone tested positive for active Marburg virus infection. The bats were caught last year and testing took place this year. In eastern and central Africa, the bats can roost in colonies of more than 100,000 animals. But the colonies of Egyptian fruit bats identified in Sierra Leone so far have been much smaller, the scientists said, which may explain why there haven’t been any known Marburg virus outbreaks in that country. Scientists don’t know whether Egyptian fruit bats in other parts of the world are also carrying the virus. They also don’t know how big a bat colony has to be to maintain the virus long-term, or whether other environmental factors play a role. For a virus to spill over into humans requires “a sequence of events that line up just right,” said Bird. The largest and deadliest Marburg virus outbreak occurred in Angola in 2005. It killed 90 percent of the 252 people who were infected. Two of the four strains identified among the five Marburg-positive bats in Sierra Leone are genetically similar to the strain that caused the Angola outbreak. These bats carry a virus as fearsome as Ebola. Scientists delve into their cave lair in hope of curbing the spread. Virus hunters travel by boat to a remote jungle village in hunt for mysterious monkeypox[SEP]DAKAR (Reuters) - Scientists in Sierra Leone have found live bats infected with Marburg virus, a deadly hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola and so far undetected in West Africa, a U.S. government statement said on Thursday. The African fruit bat is the reservoir host of the virus, which has caused at least 12 outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever on the continent. Angola suffered the worst epidemic in 2005, when 90 percent of the 252 people infected in the southern African country died. The continent’s most recent outbreak killed three people in Uganda last year. In a statement on Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said five Egyptian rousette fruit bats caught in Sierra Leone tested positive for the Marburg virus. No human cases of the fever have so far been reported, although the presence of infected bats — who do not show obvious signs of the disease — increases the risk of contracting the virus. “We have known for a long time that rousette bats, which carry Marburg virus in other parts of Africa, also live in West Africa. So it’s not surprising,” said CDC ecologist Jonathan Towner in the statement. Symptoms and signs of Marburg include headache, vomiting blood, muscle pains and bleeding through various orifices. Transmission occurs through contact with infected body fluids and tissue, which bats shed when they feed on fruit. Sierra Leone was hit by West Africa’s worst Ebola outbreak, which ran from 2013 and 2016 and killed at least 11,300 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.[SEP]NEW DELHI: The Union Health Ministry today said that bats cannot be ruled out as the primary source of Nipah outbreak, nearly two weeks after a central medical team told it that samples collected from bats in two Kerala districts, where 17 people have died of Nipah infection, tested negative. The need for new tests to determine the source of Nipah outbreak deepens the mystery behind the spread of the virus. On May 26, the medical team in its report to the ministry said samples collected from insectivorous bats in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts tested negative. But Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey said today new samples of 55 fruit bats were collected two days ago and sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. The test results of the fresh samples are awaited. R R Gangakhedkar, head of Division of Epidemiology Communicable Diseases, Indian Council for Medical Research, said the previous samples were from insectivorous bats, which are not known to be Nipah carriers, and not from fruit bats. Gangakhedkar said an NIV team has collected samples of 55 fruit bats two days ago. The Nipah virus stays for a short duration in the body of fruit bats as their system is quite capable of fighting it. So even if a bat has been infected by virus earlier, their samples may test negative later. "Thus, there is need for a larger sample for testing," he explained. The Indian Council of Medical Research has suggested that samples of excreta of fruit bats be collected for testing. MoS Choubey urged people not to panic as the infection has been contained. The central medical team is examining the travel history of Mohammad Sabith, 26, the first person to die in the Moosa family that lost four members to the virus infection. He had travelled to Saudi Arabia, where he worked as a helper, and returned to India sometime back. The central medical team in its report last month had also ruled out pigs to be the primary source of the virus. A total of 21 samples, including from seven species of bats, two species of pigs, one bovine and one caprine, were sent to National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal and National Institute of Virology in Pune. These, included samples of bats found in the well near a house in Kerala's Perambra from where the initial death was reported. Seventeen people - 14 in Kozhikode and 3 in Malappuram - have died due to Nipah virus so far.[SEP]The death toll from Ebola in Sierra Leone has doubled to at least 12 in a week, local health authorities said on Monday, deepening the spread of a disease that has killed over 200 people in Guinea and Liberia. The mounting deaths in Sierra Leone, which had been spared cases for months after Ebola was confirmed in the region in March, underscore the challenges weak health systems face tackling one of the deadliest diseases on the planet. Amara Jambai, Sierra Leone's Director of Disease Prevention and Control, said all the confirmed deaths in Sierra Leone were in the east, mainly in the Kailahun district on the border with Guinea. "It is very difficult for us to ascertain community deaths at this moment, but the 12 deaths are the ones the hospital can definitely confirm to have died of Ebola," Jambai said. Jambai added that there were now 42 confirmed cases of Ebola from 113 people tested and new cases had been recorded in the northern district of Kambia. Ebola was confirmed in a remote corner of Guinea in March and then later spread to Guinea's distant capital, Conakry, and over the border into Liberia. All suspected cases in Sierra Leone tested negative until last month and Jambai said that the disease was spreading as authorities are struggling to control the movement of people. International medical experts have been dispatched to Sierra Leone but they face a combination of poor existing health systems and tensions among locals fueled by the lack of understanding over the disease. Two weeks ago, relatives removed an Ebola patient from a treatment center in Koindu as they doubted the disease existed. Iron ore producers London Mining and African Minerals have imposed some restrictions on staff in Sierra Leone as a result of the outbreak but the firms say their output has so far not been affected.

U.S. researchers say that the Marburg virus has been found for the first time in West African bats, notably in Egyptian rousette fruit bats in Sierra Leone. Marburg is a "cousin" of the Ebola virus disease, which too may be spread by bats.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has spoken out about being held captive by human traffickers on the way to the US from Cuba US Major League Baseball (MLB) and Cuba's Baseball Federation have reached a deal to let Cuban players sign with US teams despite diplomatic tensions. Eligible Cuban players can now join MLB teams without defecting from the communist-run nation, in a deal similar to those with Asian leagues. The MLB has also agreed to pay Cuba's Federation a percentage of signing bonuses that Cuban players receive. Officials say they hope the deal will end player trafficking from Cuba. Under the new agreement, Cuban baseball players over age 25, who have played in Cuban leagues for six years, are free to leave and sign with MLB teams, according to US media. If a player defects from Cuba, which traditionally produces some of the best players in the world, they will have to wait one to two years before playing for a US team. The Washington Post reported that the deal required "extensive" discussions between MLB and the Trump administration, given the US embargo against Cuba and the president's more recent rollback of Obama-era deals. Cuban players will have to obtain work visas approved by the US Department of State. The deal is in effect until 31 October, 2021. The International Chamber of Commerce will handle any disputes between the leagues. Until now, Cuban players who wanted to sign with US teams had to defect and leave the country illegally. As a result, for decades many Cuban players suffered kidnapping and extortion from traffickers - some with ties to drug cartels - on their way to the US. Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Baseball is one of Cuba's most popular sports In 2014, Los Angeles Magazine revealed how Dodgers' star Yasiel Puig had been smuggled to the US in dangerous conditions and held captive by traffickers, underscoring the severity of the issue. During Fidel Castro's presidency, Cubans who defected to the US to play in the MLB were banned from ever returning. Now, players can return to Cuba in the offseason if it is approved by their MLB club. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement on Wednesday that MLB "has been seeking to end the trafficking of baseball players from Cuba by criminal organisations" for years, the Associated Press reported. The deal now offers "a safe and legal alternative". And, according to AP, the agreement could spell much-needed income for the Cuban baseball federation: the most recent signing bonus for Cuban player in the MLB was nearly $1m (£792,000). The early defector Over 200 Cubans have played for Major League Baseball (MLB) teams since the 1870 - around half of them officially defected to the United States. The story of René Arocha became a renowned case in 1991. Arocha played for Cuba's national team for 10 years before defecting while in the US for a tournament. The decision meant he had to leave his wife and daughter behind in Cuba. He became a pitcher with the St Louis Cardinals, but his major league career was troubled by injuries and exhaustion. He played just one season with the Cardinals and spent the remainder of his career playing for minor league teams.[SEP]Cuban baseball players no longer have to risk their lives if they want to become stars in the U.S. major leagues. Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation signed a historic deal Wednesday allowing Cuban players to come to the United States without having to defect or place their lives in the hands of criminal human traffickers. “We believe this agreement accomplishes that objective and will allow the next generation of Cuban players to pursue their dream without enduring many of the hardships experienced by current and former Cuban players who have played Major League Baseball,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday. Under the deal, Cuban players who are at least 25 years old and have played in the Cuban Leagues for six seasons can negotiate with a U.S. team. Other players would need special permission. Major League Baseball would pay a release fee to the Cuban federation for every player it signs. Unlike in the past, Cuban players would be allowed to return home without fear of arrest or persecution and could spend their U.S. salaries any way they see fit. The Cuban federation said Wednesday’s agreement lets players play baseball “without discrimination, in equal terms, in the MLB without being compelled to break their ties of any kind with their country.” Cuban-born superstar Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox, who defected to the U.S. in 2013, said, “Words cannot fully express my heartfelt joy and excitement. Knowing that the next generation of Cuban baseball players will not endure the unimaginable fate of past Cuban players is the realization of an impossible dream for all of us.”[SEP](Bloomberg) -- Cuba celebrated a game changing agreement with Major League Baseball that will give Cuban baseball players a legal path to sign with teams in the U.S. “It’s a historic day,” Cuba’s ambassador to the U.S., Jose Ramon Cabanas, said in a post on his Twitter account, adding that the agreement showed the two countries could reach “meaningful deals” when they “negotiate as equals with respect.” The Cuban Baseball Federation, or FCB, will become the fourth foreign professional baseball league to enter into a similar agreement, joining Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the Korea Baseball Organization and the Chinese Professional Baseball League, Major League Baseball said in an emailed statement. The FCB will be paid a release fee by any Major League Club that signs a Cuban player under the terms of the new agreement. “The objective of the agreement, which is the product of years of negotiations with the FCB, is to end the dangerous trafficking of Cuban players who desire to play professional baseball in the United States, a practice that has been documented in legal proceedings and media reports, and which has caused significant hardship to Cuban players and their families,” MLB said in the statement. Traditionally, elite Cuban players looking to sign with Major League Baseball teams had to first defect from Cuba and find their way to U.S. soil, and that path was often dangerous. Cleveland Indians outfielder Leonys Martin was kidnapped in Mexico on his way to the U.S. Chicago White Sox All-Star Jose Abreu tore up his fake passport and ate it on his flight to the United States. Other players have similar stories. “Knowing that the next generation of Cuban baseball players will not endure the unimaginable fate of past Cuban players is the realization of an impossible dream for all of us,” Abreu said in the MLB statement. “Dealing with the exploitation of smugglers and unscrupulous agencies will finally come to an end for the Cuban baseball player.” Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s ambassador to Canada, praised the deal and said it served as recognition of the country’s excellence in the sport promoted by its former leader Fidel Castro. “Finally we’ll have good baseball without human trafficking,” she wrote in a post on her Twitter account. “@MLB ‘s deal with the Cuban Baseball Federation is a huge win for Cuban baseball players, their families and fans in both countries,” Carlos Gutierrez, the former Kellogg Co. chief executive who served as Commerce secretary under President George W. Bush, tweeted from his account where he identifies himself as a “proud American of Cuban heritage.” To contact the reporters on this story: Maria Jose Valero in New York at mvalero3@bloomberg.net;Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Clementine Fletcher at cfletcher5@bloomberg.net, Nathan Crooks, Rita Devlin Marier[SEP]On Tuesday, Francys Romero of CiberCuba reported that Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) reached an agreement on a posting system that would allow players to join the league without having to emigrate. An official announcement by the MLB and MLB Players Association was made on Wednesday. Players who came from Cuba to the U.S. will be unaffected by the new agreement. The FCB will have to release all of their players who are at least 25 years old and have at least six years of playing experience, giving them the opportunity to come play for Major League Baseball. FCB can also release younger players to allow them a similar opportunity. This is a big deal for all parties involved: Cuban baseball players, the country of Cuba, and Major League Baseball. Most importantly, this opens up a safe way for Cuban players to enter the U.S. to play Major League Baseball. We have heard some horror stories in the past of what Cuban players had to go through to reach the U.S. There was also a significant amount of human trafficking involved, largely being done by drug cartels. For example, in 2014, the smugglers who helped Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig leave Cuba made threats against him for his money. Puig initially went from Cuba to Mexico to establish a residence, allowing him to go through the free agency process rather than being subjected to the draft if he had gone directly from Cuba to the U.S. The process made Puig vulnerable and he was forced to become involved with some shady people, to say the least. The late José Fernández and his mother tried four times to reach the U.S. by boat from Cuba and failed the first three times. On the fourth try, they went to Mexico by boat. During the journey, a wave caused one of the members to go overboard — Fernández’s mother. He jumped into the water to save her. Thankfully, they survived the trip and Fernández eventually gained entry into the U.S. That Cuban players will no longer have to go to such great lengths to come to the U.S. is terrific. They will also get the chance to make good money and improve their living conditions, both here and back home for their families. The talent level of Major League Baseball will increase, which can only be a good thing as well. All in all, this is great news.[SEP]NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major League Baseball has reached an agreement with Cuba’s Baseball Federation allowing Cuban players to sign with U.S. teams without needing to defect, MLB Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem told Reuters on Wednesday. Under the deal, which marks a ray of light in fraught U.S.-Cuban relations, MLB teams will pay the Cuban Baseball Federation a percentage of the bonus awarded to a Cuban player, Halem said. Cuban players older than age 25 or with six years of service in Cuban leagues will be free to sign with MLB teams, he added. Other players will have to seek permission first. If they defect they will need to face a waiting period of one to two years. In the past, many Cuban players seeking riches in the big leagues have defected and undertaken dangerous journeys via human traffickers. In Cuba the basic salary for players is $50 per month. “Our primary objective in this agreement is to provide players from Cuba a path to the major leagues without having to endure the hardships many of our players have already experienced,” Halem told Reuters.[SEP]Major League Baseball, its players and Cuba strike deal allowing Cubans to sign with big league teams without defecting HAVANA (AP) — Major League Baseball, its players and Cuba strike deal allowing Cubans to sign with big league teams without defecting.[SEP]Major League Baseball and the sport's governing body in Cuba struck a historic deal on Wednesday, allowing players from the island to play in the big leagues without having to defect, officials said. The initial deal will run through Oct. 31, 2021, and will allow Cuban players to sign under rules similar to those for players coming from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation announced. "Establishing a safe, legal process for entry to our system is the most important step we can take to ending the exploitation and endangerment of Cuban players who pursue careers in Major League Baseball," said Tony Clark, executive director for the MLB players' union in a statement. Under the agreement, Cuban players who are at least 25 and have played six years in that country's domestic league will be free to sign with an MLB team that will pay a "release fee" to the Cuban club, according to the federation. "The contract will contribute to stopping illegal activities like human trafficking that for years have put the physical integrity and life of many talented young Cuban baseball players at risk," the Cuban federation said, adding that it took three years to negotiate the deal. A player who doesn't meet the experience criteria could still come to North America and sign a minor league deal, the Cuban side said. “For years, Major League Baseball has been seeking to end the trafficking of baseball players from Cuba by criminal organizations by creating a safe and legal alternative for those players to sign with major league clubs,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement on Wednesday. “We believe that this agreement accomplishes that objective and will allow the next generation of Cuban players to pursue their dream without enduring many of the hardships experienced by current and former Cuban players who have played Major League Baseball,” he said. The Cuban federation and an MLB representative both said the U.S. Department of Treasury has signed off on this deal. Without such a deal, the only way players from the impoverished, baseball-loving island could play in the big leagues was to defect — which could be a shady, often dangerous journey involving traffickers and criminals. For example, a Miami jury last year convicted a Florida sports agent and a baseball trainer on charges related to their Cuban smuggling ring. Baseball players testified at the trial of Bartolo Hernandez and Julio Estrada, describing the perils of defecting from Cuba. Then-Seattle Mariners outfielder Leonys Martin told jurors he narrowly escaped from crowbar-wielding kidnappers in Mexico before walking across the U.S. border in Laredo, Texas. Martin has made more than $26 million in his eight-year pro career. Some of the most notable Cuban defectors to play Major League Baseball include Livan Hernandez (1996-2012), his brother Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez (1998-2007), Yoenis Cespedes (2012-present), Yasiel Puig (2013-present) and Aroldis Chapman (2010-present).[SEP]HAVANA (AP) — Major League Baseball, its players and Cuba strike deal allowing Cubans to sign with big league teams without defecting.[SEP]Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation reached an agreement Wednesday on a deal that would allow Cuban baseball players to play in America without having to defect and be smuggled into the United States. From MLB.com: Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred, Jr. said: “For years, Major League Baseball has been seeking to end the trafficking of baseball players from Cuba by criminal organizations by creating a safe and legal alternative for those players to sign with Major League Clubs. We believe that this agreement accomplishes that objective and will allow the next generation of Cuban players to pursue their dream without enduring many of the hardships experienced by current and former Cuban players who have played Major League Baseball.” Under the arrangement, Cuban players in the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) are broken down into two categories: FCB Professionals, and FCB Amateurs. FCB Professionals are at least 25 years old and have played at least six seasons with FCB, while FCB Amateurs are, basically, everyone else. The arrangement says the FCB must release all FCB Professionals who want to sign with MLB clubs. There are some tedious obstacles, having to do with the usual hassles of ridiculous U.S.-Cuba diplomacy—a State Department spokesperson told The Washington Post that Cuban players will still have to travel to a third country in order to apply for a required U.S. work visa, like all other Cuban nationals. But the deal has some obvious limitations. Yasiel Puig, for example, was 18 years old when he first started trying to defect from Cuba in order to pursue a baseball career stateside, and was 21 years old when he finally pulled it off and signed with the Dodgers in 2012. Aroldis Chapman was punished for a defection attempt when he was 19, and was already pitching in the majors when he was 22 years old. The point is, if you can make millions of dollars to play baseball in the best league in the world as a 20-year-old, being told that you will only be free to sign with a major league team after your 25th birthday is at least a little bit of a bummer. The deal addresses this concern, but in a way that still disadvantages young Cuban players who don’t feel like signing over years of their life to a form of compulsory service. FCB can choose to release players who haven’t met the age and service requirements, and MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem explained to the Miami Herald that defectors can still make their way to MLB, but only in a way that is designed to be less desirable than just sticking in FCB for a few more seasons: If a Cuban player under 25 years chooses to defect in the future, such a player could still sign with an MLB team but would be subject to a waiting period of one to two years. “This is designed to discourage smuggling. Smugglers want to be paid right way,” Halem said. Similar agreements with Nippon Professional Baseball, the Korea Baseball Organization, and the Chinese Professional Baseball League also have age restrictions, but MLB has reportedly been “wary of entering into an agreement that would seemingly trap young players” under an authoritarian government. The waiting period in the FCB agreement is reportedly designed to address that concern, by providing disincentive for defection but also making it possible for players who do defect to eventually make their way into their desired profession. Release fees that would go to FCB—between 15% and 20% of the total guaranteed value for Major League contracts, and 25% of the signing bonus for Minor League contracts, per the deal—will presumably help grease the skids for FCB Amateurs who seek permission to make the move to MLB ahead of meeting the service requirements for mandatory release. I guess we’ll see how that works. The whole thing is reportedly still subject to State Department approval. The Post reported that the State Department says it is “aware” of an agreement between MLB and FCB; the New York Times describes the necessary approval of the U.S. government as “far-from-certain.” This deal isn’t perfect, but it beats the hell out of Cuban teenagers being stashed on far flung islands by international criminal organizations and held for hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom.[SEP]In an effort to eliminate the dangerous human trafficking that had gone on for decades, Major League Baseball, its players' association and the Cuban Baseball Federation reached an agreement Wednesday that will allow players from the island to sign big league contracts without defecting. The deal serves as a respite during a time of tensions between the island nation and the Trump administration, which has pledged to undo President Barack Obama's 2014 effort to improve relations between the two countries. The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that the Trump administration felt the agreement 'would institutionalize a system by which a Cuban body garnishes the wages of hard-working athletes who simply seek to live and compete in a free society. 'Parties seeking to benefit from business opportunities in Cuba are on notice that the Administration will continue to take actions to support human rights and restrict the Cuban regime’s ability to profit from U.S. business,' a senior administration official told the Post. The agreement, which runs through October 31, 2021, allows Cubans to sign under rules similar to those for players under contract to clubs in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. 'For years, Major League Baseball has been seeking to end the trafficking of baseball players from Cuba by criminal organizations by creating a safe and legal alternative for those players to sign with major league clubs,' baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement Wednesday. 'We believe that this agreement accomplishes that objective and will allow the next generation of Cuban players to pursue their dream without enduring many of the hardships experienced by current and former Cuban players who have played Major League Baseball.' Depending on the quality of future players, the agreement could mean millions of dollars in future income for the cash-poor Cuban federation, which has seen the quality of players and facilities decline in recent years as talent went overseas. MLB said the deal was allowed by amendments to the Cuban Asset Control Regulations of March 16, 2016, that established the provisions of a general license from the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The league said OFAC confirmed to Major League Baseball in a letter dated September 20, 2016, that an agreement with the Cuban federation would be valid. 'Baseball has always been a bridge between our two nations, facilitating people-to-people connections and larger agreements that have brought our countries closer together,' said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. Any disputes between MLB and the Cuban federation are subject to resolution by the International Chamber of Commerce. 'Establishing a safe, legal process for entry to our system is the most important step we can take to ending the exploitation and endangerment of Cuban players who pursue careers in Major League Baseball,' union head Tony Clark said in a statement. 'The safety and well-being of these young men remains our primary concern.' Only players under contract to the Cuban federation are covered by the agreement, and the Cuban federation agreed to release all players 25 and older with at least six years of professional experience. They would be classified as international professionals under MLB's labor contract with the players' association and not subject to international amateur signing bonus pools. The Cuban federation may at its discretion release younger players to sign minor league contracts with MLB organizations. A player can decide whether he wants a registered MLBPA agent to negotiate a major league contract. He may use a representative other than an agent to negotiate a minor league deal. U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, called it a 'homerun agreement,' tweeting 'This deal will make life better for Cuban baseball players, who will no longer have to risk unsafe passage to the U.S.' Players have told stories of harrowing crossings on rafts and rickety boats - some later challenged as exaggerations. 'Today is a day that I am extremely happy,' said a statement from Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, who was smuggled out of Cuba by traffickers linked to a Mexican drug gang, according to court testimony. 'To know future Cuban players will not have to go through what we went through makes me so happy.' Cuban-born players have a long history in the major leaguers, led by Minnie Minoso with nine All-Star selections, Tony Oliva with eight and Camilo Pascual and Tony Perez with seven each. And while Puig, Orlando and Livan Hernandez, Aroldis Chapman and others became stars in recent decades, others have been big-money busts. Outfielder Rusney Castillo agreed to a $72.5 million, seven-year contract with Boston in 2014 and has appeared in just 99 games with the Red Sox while playing 347 in the minor leagues. 'Words cannot fully express my heartfelt joy,' Chicago White Sox All-Star first baseman Jose Abreu said in a statement. 'Dealing with the exploitation of smugglers and unscrupulous agencies will finally come to an end for the Cuban baseball player. To this date, I am still harassed.' Any players allowed to sign with big league clubs can do so without leaving Cuba, and the fee paid by the signing team will be covered by the same rules as in MLB's other posting systems: 20 percent of the first $25 million of a major league contract, 17.5 percent of the next $25 million and 15 percent of any amount over $50 million. There will be a supplemental fee of 15 percent of any earned bonuses, salary escalators and exercised options. For minor league contracts, the fee will be 25 percent of the signing bonus, and there will be a supplemental fee for any foreign professionals who at first agree to minor league deals that include major league terms that later come into force. A former Cuban federation player under contract to a MLB club may return to Cuba during the offseason. He can play in Cuba during the offseason only with his MLB club's consent. Cuban players will need the consent of a series of sports officials in the country before the Cuban Baseball Federation agrees to release them, according to the organization's president, Higinio Velez. He described the new system as a way of protecting the quality of Cuban baseball while allowing players to head to MLB without resorting to traffickers or breaking ties with their country. Addressing young players' families, he said, 'This is the legal path, the secure path that we've always dreamed of for their children.' 'Today's contract gives the Cuban player a secure life, a tranquil one, of being able to play in Cuba, be signed by any team in the major leagues, to be able to return, to be with their family, travel with their family, to come and go legally any time they want,' he said. The departure of young Cuban players to MLB has slowed since limits were placed on signing bonuses for international amateurs starting July 2, 2017. For 2017-18, outfielder Julio Pablo Martinez got $2.8 million from Texas, and the only other signing bonus over $300,000 for a Cuban-born amateur was $750,000 for shortstop Eddy Diaz (Colorado). In the current signing period that started July 2, the largest signing bonus for a Cuban-born amateur has been $975,000 for outfielder Jairo Pomares with San Francisco. THE PERILOUS JOURNEY FROM CUBA TO THE MAJOR LEAGUES Such a deal would have been virtually impossible under the U.S.-Cuban relations of the Cold War, when diplomatic relations were severed and the United States imposed a strict economic embargo on the island country 90 miles (145 km) from Florida. In the past, many Cuban players seeking riches in the big leagues have made dangerous journeys via human traffickers to defect. Others abandoned the Cuban national team while traveling abroad. More than 350 Cuban ballplayers have defected since the start of 2014, including more than 170 in 2015 alone, according to Cuban journalist Francys Romero. Some of the biggest stars in MLB have undertaken such treks, including Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets and Jose Dariel Abreu of the Chicago White Sox - all of whom have signed multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts. Omar Linares, former Cuban baseball and considered one of the best baseball players of all time, talks to the media at the end of a press conference in Havana, Cuba The mininum salary for players in Cuba is $50 per month, so the payoff was huge for the stars. But many of the Cuban defectors have languished in the minor leagues or were released. Players who defected had to wait eight years before they could return to Cuba for a visit and gave up any hope of playing for Cuba's national team. 'Knowing that the next generation of Cuban baseball players will not endure the unimaginable fate of past Cuban players is the realization of an impossible dream for all of us,' Abreu said in a statement released by MLB. 'Dealing with the exploitation of smugglers and unscrupulous agencies will finally come to an end for the Cuban baseball player. To this date, I am still harassed.' Yasiel Puig was smuggled out of Cuba by traffickers linked to a Mexican drug gang Negotiations on the baseball deal began after former presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro agreed to restore diplomatic relations in 2014 and end five decades of enmity. Trade and travel restrictions were eased, even though the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba remains in place. President Donald Trump reversed part of the opening to Cuba upon taking office in 2017, but the baseball talks were allowed to move forward under a 2016 decision by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) before Obama left office. OFAC determined that MLB teams were allowed to transfer money to the Cuban Baseball Federation because it was not a government agency, Halem said. 'Huge deal. We spent the end of the Obama administration trying to set the conditions to make this possible,' Ben Rhodes, a former Obama aide who negotiated much of the bilateral detente, said on Twitter, adding: 'At a time of political division baseball is something that can bring Americans and Cubans together.'

Cuba's baseball federation and Major League Baseball reach a deal that will allow Cuban players to compete in the USA without defecting.

Image copyright AFP/COLOMBIAN PRESIDENCY Image caption Colombian President Ivan Duque (centre) announced the death on Friday A Colombian guerrilla leader has been found and killed, the country's president says. Walter Arízala, known better under his alias Guacho, was wanted for the murder of two Ecuadorean journalists and their driver earlier this year. On Friday, Colombian President Ivan Duque said he was killed in an operation near the Ecuadorean border. In a statement Mr Duque described him as "one of the most horrendous criminals the country has known". "The message is clear, we won't take a step back in the defence of legality, life, honour and the property of Colombians," Mr Duque said. On top of killings, Guacho was also suspected of drug trafficking and extortion. The 29-year-old was a former member of Colombia's Farc rebel group. He is one of thousands who have refused orders to lay down arms after the guerrilla group signed a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016. Guacho broke away from the Farc and founded the Oliver Sinisterra Front - a dissident gang thought to have about 70 to 80 combatants operating around the Colombia-Ecuador border area. Watch and read more: The group came to international attention earlier this year after kidnapping two Ecuadorean journalists - 32-year-old reporter Javier Ortega and 45-year-old photographer Paúl Rivas - along with their 60-year-old driver Efraín Segarra. Two weeks after seizing the three, the group announced they had "died" when the army came close to where they were being held. Image copyright AFP Image caption The killings led to outrage and grief in Ecuador Shortly after their bodies were recovered, the group were also blamed for the murder of an Ecuadorean couple. Oscar Villacís, 24, and Katty Velasco, 20, went missing from Puerto Rico, a rural area near the Colombian town of Tumaco, on the border with Ecuador. A video of them, restrained with ropes around their necks, was released by the Guacho's group days after their disappearance. The couple were later found dead with stab wound injuries, and their bodies were flown home to distraught relatives. The murders led Guacho to become a top target of both countries' governments. Colombia deployed more than 3,000 members of its armed forces to search for the group's leader "dead or alive", Reuters reports.[SEP]Colombian armed forces have killed a Marxist insurgent commander in an operation aimed at ending his attacks on civilians after he kidnapped and shot dead three Ecuadorean media workers earlier this year, president Ivan Duque said on Friday. Walter Arizala, known by his war alias Guacho, was killed in a police and military operation near the border with Ecuador, Duque said in a televised statement. Arizala was a member of the Oliver Sinisterra unit – a faction of former rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) that refused to adhere to a 2016 peace agreement. The government had deployed more than 3,000 members of the armed forces to search for Arizala “dead or alive”. “The message is clear, we won’t take a step back in the defence of legality, life, honour and the property of Colombians,” Duque said. “Many Colombian communities will sleep well because one of the most horrendous criminals the country has known is dead.” Arizala, who was 29, was accused of drug trafficking, extortion and homicide. He killed two Ecuadorean journalists and their driver after taking them hostage on 26 March as they reported on assignment for the Quito-based El Comercio newspaper on the border between Ecuador and Colombia. “I told the Ecuadorean people that the crime of the three Ecuadoreans would not end in impunity,” said Duque. A proof-of-life photograph released shortly after the Ecuadoreans’ kidnapping showed them chained and padlocked by their necks. Arizala later shot them in the head. The media crew was reporting on violence in the Esmeraldas region of the border when they were snatched by Arizala’s gang. Colombia and Ecuador had each offered $100,000 for information leading to Arizala’s capture. More than a thousand Farc fighters refused to demobilise under the peace accord with former President Juan Manuel Santos and continued cocaine trafficking across the nation. There are thought to be almost 1,800 members of the dissident ranks in 30 units nationwide. Those operating in Colombia’s southern jungles have attacked Ecuadorean security forces along the border. Farc, which battled for more than a half century before demobilising, attacked military targets and civilian towns but generally allowed journalists to work freely, unless they went against the rebels’ interests.[SEP]A left-wing rebel and one of Colombia's "most horrendous criminals" has been killed following a manhunt lasting months. Walter Arizala, known as "Guacho", led a few dozen guerillas from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) group. The US backed an effort to trace him following the kidnap and murder of three Ecuadorian journalists earlier this year. In a TV address, Colombia's president Ivan Duque revealed Arizala was killed in a "heroic operation" carried out by a special forces unit. It means many Colombians "can now sleep peacefully because one of the most horrendous criminals our country has ever known has fallen", the president added. Arizala, 29, joined FARC as a teenager and had previously joined a peace process aimed at ending Colombia's long history of political warfare. However, he returned to the jungle last year and is believed to have been smuggling cocaine to Mexican drug cartels. He was killed in the dense jungle border region of Narino, which is home to Colombia's largest harvest of illegal coca plants. Last year, land dedicated to the crop - used to make cocaine - soared to the largest amount on record at 807 sq miles, according to a White House report. Arizala is believed to have ordered the abduction and murder of journalist Javier Ortega, 32, photographer Paul Rivas, 45, and their 60-year-old driver Efrain Segarra in March and April. They worked for El Comercio, a daily newspaper in Ecuador's capital Quito, and were covering a story about violence along the border. The murders prompted both Colombia and Ecuador to order a military manhunt for their killers. At least 15 deaths have been blamed on Arizala's group, which is known as the Oliver Sinisterra Front. Ricardo Rivas said he regretted Arizala died before revealing how his brother Paul was killed. "I don't think the death of another human being is something we should celebrate," he told local radio. Most FARC rebels disbanded under a 2016 peace deal, but more than 1,000 dissidents remain active. They were founded in 1964 as a Marxist-Leninist force.[SEP]A former leftist rebel who terrorized residents of southern Colombia after abandoning the country’s peace process to plunge headlong into drug trafficking has been killed in combat, Colombian President Ivan Duque announced Friday. The president said Walter Arizala was killed during a “heroic operation” earlier in the day after a months-long, U.S.-backed manhunt that followed the kidnapping and murder of three Ecuadorian press workers in the turbulent border area. Many Colombians “can now sleep peacefully because one of the most horrendous criminals our country has ever known has fallen,” Duque said in a televised address. Arizala, better known by his alias Guacho, was by some accounts the most-wanted fugitive among Colombia’s sprawling criminal underworld. He led a small holdout faction of a few dozen guerrillas from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that was behind a rising wave of drug-related violence, including the March kidnapping of three newspaper workers from Ecuador’s El Comercio newspaper who were later found slain. Arizala’s troops also are believed to have been behind the slaying of three Colombian judicial workers in July, as well as a spate of civilian kidnappings and car bombings against military facilities in Ecuador. Authorities provided few details about how Arizala was killed except to say that he was taken out along with a close confidant in an operation codenamed Perla IX carried out by a special forces unit. Chief prosecutor Nestor Martinez released a blurry photo of Arizala, smiling and wearing a baseball cap, that he said was taken during an undercover surveillance operation carried out in recent weeks. Arizala’s Oliver Sinisterra Front has its base of operations in Colombia’s volatile Narino state, which is home to Colombia’s largest harvest of illegal coca crops. Land dedicated to production of the raw ingredient used to make cocaine skyrocketed last year to 807 square miles (209,000 hectares), the largest amount on record, according to a recent White House report. Arizala, 29, was a midrange FARC commander who joined the rebel group as a teenager. He initially joined in the peace process aimed at ending a half-century of political warfare in Colombia, but deserted and returned to the jungle last year where he is believed to have established a brisk business smuggling cocaine to Mexican drug cartels. Authorities attribute at least 15 deaths to the group. No cause for celebration Duque, who has tried to portray himself as a law and order leader in the mold of his mentor, former President Alvaro Uribe, held up Arizala’s death as a war trophy, saying his conservative government would spare no effort in protecting Colombians from criminal activity. Still, some cautioned against overly celebrating the battlefield victory at a time of rising violence throughout Colombia’s countryside even after thousands of FARC rebels laid down their weapons. Jose Miguel Vivanco, the director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, said the historically neglected Afro-Colombian population around the Pacific Ocean port city of Tumaco near where Arizala was killed remains highly vulnerable to recruitment by criminal groups. “The residents of Tumaco, who have suffered for years and years the abuses committed by multiple actors, need much more than the removal of Guacho for violence not to be recycled again,” he said on Twitter. Meanwhile, Ricardo Rivas said he regretted that Guacho died without revealing how his brother, Ecuadorian photographer Paul Rivas, was killed. “I don’t think the death of another human being is something we should celebrate,” Rivas told Colombia’s Blu Radio.[SEP]A dissident rebel believed to be working for a Mexican drug cartel, and on the 'most wanted' lists of two South American countries, was killed Friday in a government operation, Colombia said. Walther Arizala, known by his nom-de-guerre of "Guacho," is believed to have ordered the abduction and murder of a three-man Ecuadoran press team on the border with Colombia early this year. "We can confirm that (Arizala) alias Guacho fell in an operation and has been killed," Colombian President Ivan Duque told reporters. "I told the Ecuadorian people that the crime against the three journalists would not be one of impunity." Arizala is believed to have ordered the abduction and murder of journalist Javier Ortega, 32, photographer Paul Rivas, 45, and their 60-year-old driver Efrain Segarra in March and April. They worked for Quito's El Comercio newspaper and were covering a story about violence along the border. Their case prompted both countries to send troops to hunt down the perpetrators. Arizala was "one of the most horrendous criminals that our country has known," Duque said. Of Ecuadoran origin, Arizala served as a guerrilla for 15 years in the now-defunct FARC movement and then led the Oliver Sinisterra Front, which authorities blame for the kidnapping and murder in April of an Ecuadoran couple, as well as for the journalists' deaths. Officials believed Guacho and his group of around 70-80 dissident rebels worked for Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel. In September Duque said "Guacho" was wounded in a gunfight with Colombian soldiers in the jungle border region of Narino, the same area where he has now been killed. Experts say the border zone, which is covered with dense jungle and crisscrossed by rivers leading into the Pacific, has become a paradise for drug traffickers. Most Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels disbanded under a 2016 peace deal that ended half a century of conflict in Colombia, but more than 1,000 dissidents remain active.[SEP]Colombia's President Ivan Duque says the leader of a rebel dissident group believed responsible for the murders of three Ecuadorian press workers is dead. Duque announced in a televised address Friday evening that Walter Arizala has been killed. The man known by the alias Guacho was one of the nation's most wanted fugitives. Authorities say his holdout faction of rebels from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is behind a wave of violence rattling communities in southern Colombia. Duque provided no details on how Arizala was killed other than to say he died in a "heroic operation" by the military and police. The president added that many Colombians "can now sleep peacefully because one of the most horrendous criminals our country has ever known has fallen."[SEP]Colombian dissident rebel Walter Patricio Arizala has been killed in an operation by the country's armed forces, President Ivan Duque said on Friday. Arizala, who was part of the Oliver Sinisterra Front — a faction of the now-defunct Revolutionary Army Forces of Colombia (FARC) — was the subject of a monthslong manhunt after he kidnapped and shot dead three Ecuadorean media workers earlier this year. Colombia and neighboring Ecuador had each offered $100,000 (€88,000) for information leading to his capture. The government deployed more than 3,000 troops to search for the 29-year-old "dead or alive." His killing took place near the border with Ecuador, Duque said in a televised statement. "The message is clear; we won't take a step back in the defense of legality, life, honor and the property of Colombians," the president said. "Many Colombian communities will sleep well because one of the most horrendous criminals the country has known is dead." Better known by his alias Guacho, the former FARC leader was one of the most-wanted fugitives among Colombia's sprawling criminal underworld. His small holdout faction of a few dozen guerrillas abandoned the country's 2016 peace process and was accused of drug trafficking, extortion and homicide across Colombia's volatile Narino state, which is home to the country's largest harvest of illegal coca crops. His death follows the slaying of another notorious dissident FARC leader, David Segura, in September. In March, Arizala was behind the kidnapping of three newspaper workers from Ecuador's El Comercio newspaper, who were later found slain, Colombian authorities have said. The media crew was reporting on violence in the Esmeraldas region of the border when Arizala's gang snatched them. A proof-of-life photograph released shortly after their abduction showed them chained and padlocked by their necks. Arizala later shot them in the head. Almost 1,800 ex-FARC fighters in 30 units nationwide have refused to keep to the terms of the country's 2016 peace accord, and have continued their cocaine trafficking operations. The FARC, which battled for more than a half-century before demobilizing, attacked military targets and civilian towns but generally allowed journalists to work freely, unless they went against the rebels' interests. 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.

Ecuadorian drug trafficker and FARC dissident Walter Arizala is killed in a joint police and military operation near Tumaco. Arízala was wanted for the murder of two Ecuadorian journalists earlier in the year.

Two held on Friday night, police say, as airport bosses expect to run full schedule on Saturday This article is more than 8 months old This article is more than 8 months old A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the “criminal use of drones” which has caused widespread disruption to flights at Gatwick airport, police have said. In a statement released in the early hours of Saturday, Sussex police said the arrests were made in the Gatwick area just after 10pm on Friday night. Gatwick airport said on Saturday morning that it was open for flights but urged passengers to check with their airline before travelling. “Our runway is open and we aim to run a full schedule – 757 flights scheduled today, carrying 124,484 passengers,” a spokesman said. “Safety is Gatwick’s top priority and we are grateful for passengers’ continued patience as we work to get them to their final destination in time for Christmas.” The airport was plunged into chaos on Wednesday night when drones spotted hovering near the runway forced hundreds of flights to be cancelled, delaying and stranding thousands of passengers. Police and military experts were deployed to search for the operators of the drones, which reappeared near the airport every time the authorities tried to reopen the runways. Airlines scrambled to board passengers while the airport was reopened on Friday. But it was closed again on Friday afternoon when the drones reappeared. Military measures reassured operators that it was safe to reopen the runway shortly afterwards. Superintendent James Collis said: “Our investigations are still ongoing, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones by deploying a range of tactics. “We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice. “The arrests we have made this evening are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm, every line of inquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers.” Anyone with information was asked to call police on 101. A range of tactics have been used to combat the drones but few details have been released. One piece of equipment believed to have been deployed at the airport is the Israeli-developed Drone Dome system, which can detect drones using radar. It can also jam communications between the drone and its operator, enabling authorities to take control of and land the drone. Speaking on Friday, Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said the drone flights were “highly targeted” and have “been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas”. He added: “These events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities. “It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way. This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again.” A Gatwick spokesman said around 1,000 aircraft had been cancelled or diverted, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers, since Wednesday night. A handful of flights due to arrive into Gatwick on Saturday have been cancelled, according to the airport’s website, including an easyJet service from Milan-Linate and a TUI flight from Bridgetown, Barbados. The arrests could bring relief for passengers angry at the ongoing disruption on Friday. One woman due to fly to Sicily on Thursday said she was considering renting a car and driving there after her second flight in two days was cancelled following the fresh sighting. Laura Cammarata, 27, who lives in London, was due to travel to the island with her partner for Christmas. She said she was frustrated after their flight rescheduled from Thursday to Friday was cancelled. Cammarata said: “We did the whole process again, we got the train, we started queuing up and at some point they said it’s cancelled again. “We’re trying to re-book and they’re saying they can’t book us on.” Her partner Giuseppe Alia, 28, also from London, said: “They should have some contingency to get people to other airports, I understand it’s not their fault but they should force airlines to collaborate in this situation.” Mike, from London, had his flight cancelled on Friday and will miss his connection to Ghana. “We’re in limbo. We don’t actually know when we’ll be flying out at all because we haven’t been promised a rescheduled flight, we haven’t been promised any further information, any compensation. Nothing at all.” The government on Friday denied accusations that it had been slow to combat the threat from drones, and had delayed plans to introduce laws to regulate their use. Shadow transport spokesman Andy McDonald said the government had been too slow to act, despite growing concern over increasing numbers of near misses between drones and manned airports. The Times reported that transport secretary Chris Grayling had shelved plans to introduce legislation amid pressure on his department, with civil servants being diverted to prepare for Brexit. But a department for transport spokesman said the claims were “totally inaccurate”.[SEP]LONDON — UK police say 2 people arrested for suspected ‘criminal use of drones’ in Gatwick Airport case. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]Shooting down the drones causing chaos at Gatwick Airport is a "tactical option" being considered by police as bosses weigh up halting all flights on Friday. Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley, of Sussex Police, said there had been more than 50 sightings of the devices in the 24 hours since 9pm on Wednesday, when the airport first closed. He said that shooting the drone or drones down was now an option after other strategies failed. Speaking to reporters outside the airport's South Terminal, he said: "We will do what we can to take that drone out of the sky and remove that disruption so we can get Gatwickback to normal. "One of the options is to use firearms officers if that [opportunity] presents itself - they have been out on the ground today and that's a consideration and a tactical option that's open to us. "There are a number of factors in terms of range, the height of the drone and the likely impact on us firing at the drone but that is a tactical option open to the gold commander who will make a decision based on the information available to them at the time." Det Chief Supt Tingley added police were working on the assumption the drone had been modified, with the "intent of causing disruption", and were looking through CCTV to identify the make and model. He said they were following up a "number of persons of interest" in their investigations, with the military drafted in to offer additional support to officers. Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick's chief operating officer, said 120,000 passengers' flights had been disrupted. Mr Woodroofe said the airport could remain closed for potentially all of Friday after drone activity was spotted again on Thursday night. He told reporters: "My apologies to all those passengers who have seen this disruption from the criminal activity from these people who are purposely disrupting our airport and their travel so close to Christmas." Mr Woodroofe added: "We have had the police, we have had the military seeking to bring this drone down for the last 24 hours and to date that has not been successful so Gatwick Airport is still closed. "Our intention is to review on an ongoing basis whether we can reopen tomorrow (Friday). "But we are working up contingency plans all the way through to no flights tomorrow." Mr Woodroofe refused to comment on the possibility of the airport awarding compensation to passengers who had been affected by the chaos. He added: "The issue from my perspective is that this has been a criminal act purposefully undertaken in order to cause this disruption and I very much hope we bring the perpetrator to justice." The incident led to calls for more action to tackle illegal drone use. The runway has been closed almost constantly since two drones were spotted being flown inside Gatwick's perimeter at 9pm on Wednesday. It was reopened at 3am on Thursday but was closed 45 minutes later after the drones re-emerged. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said there was no known motive for the pilot of the "commercial" drone. Night-flight restrictions will be lifted at other airports - probably those which serve London - so that "more planes can get into and out of the country". Passengers faced severe disruption as flights were unable to leave the tarmac at Gatwick, while many inbound flights were diverted to alternative airports as far away as Amsterdam and Paris. *For the latest on the chaos at Gatwick follow our live blog by clicking here .[SEP]Two people have been arrested in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport, police announced last night. The two suspects were held on Friday night after another day of chaos at the airport which saw dozens more flights cancelled and passengers thrown into chaos just days before Christmas. Planes were grounded again at 5pm when a drone was sighted above the airfield before air traffic resumed with severe delays on Friday night. One flight from Morocco appeared to be just moments away from landing when it was forced to divert only 1,000 feet above the ground last night while other passengers were sitting ready for take-off when pilots told them of another sighting. Just over an hour later Gatwick said planes had returned to the air, saying the 'military measures in place at the airport' would ensure the safety of passengers. At least 25 flights were cancelled with others severely delayed while trackers suggested planes were being diverted to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow. The Army had earlier used jamming devices in the hope of knocking the drone out of the sky as police scoured the Sussex countryside in a bit to find the culprit. Police said they were closing in on the pilots who allegedly used 'multiple' drones to shut down Gatwick's runway and are even claimed to have taunted officers by zooming over their heads while flashing lights at them. Last night Sussex Police said in a statement: 'As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm. 'Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics. 'We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice. 'The arrests we have made this evening are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm, every line of enquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers.' On the third day of the Gatwick crisis: • None 20 police units from two different forces and three helicopters searched for the drone culprits while the Army brought in specialist equipment including a jammer; • None Flights resumed yesterday morning with almost 150 flights called off before the drone was sighted again at around 5pm, forcing even more cancellations; • None Experts said the saboteur and any accomplices would have needed sophisticated modification or hacking to bypass airport security; • None Police said the drone had been sighted 50 times since the runway at Gatwick was first closed on Wednesday night ; • None There were calls for tougher legislation against criminal drone pilots, who can only be jailed for up to five years in the UK. After Friday evening's disruption Gatwick Airport said: 'Flights have now resumed at Gatwick following a reported drone in the area. 'While we investigated, airfield movements were suspended. This was a precautionary measure as safety remains our main priority. 'The military measures we have in place at the airport have provided us with the reassurance necessary that it is safe to reopen our airfield.' Flights had resumed yesterday morning after all 760 scheduled journeys were cancelled on Thursday, wrecking festive plans for 110,000 people left stranded at the airport. Amid Friday evening's chaos Southern and Thameslink train services also reported problems because of a points failure between Horsham and Gatwick station. Passengers were left with Christmas plans ruined, with some forced to abandon holidays abroad while others struggled to return to the UK in time for December 25. Lena Balbek, 38, a project manager from Kiev who was visiting an agency in London, has been trying to return home since Thursday. She said her flight with Ukraine International Airlines was re-scheduled for 7pm on Friday but it has now been pushed back until 10pm. Asked about the closure and subsequent reopening of the airport, she said: 'These things happen. You don't have insurance for such things, it could happen. The well-being of passengers is the most important, I trust the security to do whatever they have to do.' Ms Balbek said she paid for a hotel on Thursday night and does not expect to recover the costs. 'I'm disappointed it's been pushed back but we're alive and if they tell us it's okay, then I'll feel safe,' she added. Wayne McAffee and his family were due to travel to Belfast via Gatwick on Thursday after 10 days at Disneyland in Orlando. The 35-year-old, who lives in South Africa but is originally from Ireland, said they missed their connecting easyJet flight due to delays. He said they were moved onto a different flight, which was cancelled as they stood in the check-in line, and have now booked a flight to Dublin with Aer Lingus from Heathrow on Saturday morning. Mr McAfee said: 'I'm sure (the airport and airline) are not enjoying this situation, I don't think it's their fault. 'I'm sure everyone is working their hardest, you can see the ladies at the desk have to deal with disappointment from people. I think everyone is doing their best. 'I'm not saying it's a positive experience but there's no point getting upset. Whoever is doing the drones, I'm angrier at them.' Another passenger had to fork out thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket from New York to get back to the UK from New York after her flight could not reach Gatwick on Friday morning. Scarlette Tidy was booked on a Norwegian Air flight to Gatwick but by the time she was told the trip was cancelled, all the airline's flights to London were sold out until after Christmas. With passengers waiting two hours for a 'live chat' on Norwegian's website she was forced to spend over $3,000 - several times what she had originally paid - to reach her family in time for Christmas. She said the experience had been a 'total disaster' but that she was now en route back to London. Another passenger, Emma Jewell, told MailOnline she and her boyfriend were stranded in the Dominican Republic after her flight to Gatwick had been cancelled. She said the airline had rebooked them on a flight to Heathrow via Philadelphia, but her boyfriend's ESTA for the United States did not come through in time and they could not board the flight. The couple then boarded a flight to New York only to find there was a problem with the air conditioning, leaving them waiting on the tarmac and certain to miss their connection to the UK. The cat and mouse game with police started at 9pm on Wednesday with drones deliberately flown over officers and the Gatwick control tower while flashing on-board lights before heading for the runway if officials tried to reopen it. They appeared to have vanished on Thursday night after the Army used a high-tech 'drone dome' defence system that features a tracking system and a 'kill-jammer' that cuts a drone's communications and seizes its controls. A similar arsenal of weapons was used by British and US forces to help liberate Mosul in Iraq and neutralise ISIS drones - but passengers trapped at Gatwick are furious the weapons were not brought in earlier. Security and defence consultant Declan Power told MailOnline: 'The Gatwick situation is a very worrying development as it seems to involve technology which you can buy over the counter and has managed to cause major disruption to one of the UK's busiest airports. 'I am astounded that electronic countermeasures were not in place to prevent drones from approaching the airport. 'The level of disruption caused means that airports across the world have to learn from this. How was someone able to close down a major airport for more than 36 hours. 'Police and security services are going to be highly embarrassed by these incidents. A major weak point in airline security has been identified. The person behind this seems happy to cause major disruption rather than attack aircraft. 'But as the conflict in Syria has shown, it is not difficult to weaponise a drone which could be used in a terrorist attack. Airlines should be concerned. 'The important lesson is the need to deploy effective electronic counter measures and to learn from these incidents.' Earlier ACC Barry insisted that police snipers dotted along the runway earlier yesterday had 'no opportunity' to open fire at the drones - but would bring them down with shotguns if they returned and Army battlefield technology brought in last night fails. ACC Barry continued: 'We're working on the assumption that there was more than one drone operating around Gatwick in the last 48 hours. 'In terms of how many perpetrators, there's a number of lines of enquiry, there's an ongoing investigation, we're pursuing that trying to find out who has been responsible for this really malicious criminal behaviour.' He said there had been no opportunities to shoot down the drones, explaining: 'We have to consider whether it's safe to do so, it has to be dynamically assessed at the time, in terms of the risk, and we have to assess whether it's going to be efficient, effective, how likely it's going to be we're going to be able to take the drone out. 'I have to say on the range of options we've got available, shooting the drone out of the sky is probably one of the least effective options. It doesn't mean to say it's impossible, which is why we've got the option available to us should the option become available.' Mr Barry said the drones could have been operated from a fair distance away, but police are focusing on 'likely locations in and around the airport'. Addressing the problems with identifying suspects, he added: 'It's the remoteness between the officer and the drone and over the whole area around Gatwick does make it really difficult to link the drone to the operator.' The chaos at Britain's second busiest airport has threatened the Christmas holiday plans of up to 350,000 people. A jet carrying children to Lapland was the first plane to take-off at 6.30am this morning - and 700 more flights carrying more than 120,000 people are scheduled today. But at least 110,000 passengers have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors for up to two nights with the backlog unlikely to be cleared until Christmas Eve. Critics have also blasted the police, who chose not to shoot a drone down despite having snipers dotted along the runway all day yesterday. Gatwick is currently in a row with neighbours and environmental groups after submitting a £500million plan to use its emergency runway for hundreds of extra flights every day from around 2024. ACC Barry said measures to tackle the drones now include 'technical, sophisticated options to detect and mitigate drone incursions, all the way down to less sophisticated options - even shotguns would be available to officers should the opportunity present itself.' When asked about a possible motive Mr Barry said today: 'There's a whole spectrum of possibilities, from the really high-end criminal behaviour that we've seen, all the way down to potential individuals trying to be malicious, trying to disrupt the airport. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is also under pressure to explain why Britain's second busiest airport has no anti-drone systems despite being early warning systems and jammers being common in the United States. Mr Grayling has insisted Britain is facing a 'new threat' - but today it emerged Gatwick has been troubled by drones near the runway three times in the past 18 months. Grace Lyons, who was at the airport for 29 hours, said: 'It's an absolute mess. It's very worrying that a few drones can shut down an airport for so long. It's very likely this will happen again.' Jack Taylor tweeted: 'No flights for 34 hours at Gatwick why the f*** didn't they just shoot it down? I've seen drones come down off someone throwing a toilet roll at it, why did it take so long have I missed something??' Aimee Trowell tweeted: 'How embarrassing that the police and Gatwick airport have let this go on so long! How can a couple of idiots with drones cause so much chaos #LondonGatwick #dronesgatwick'. The re-opening of the runway came after the final sighting of the drone at 10pm last night, which had buzzed over the airport more than 50 times since 9pm on Wednesday during the most disruptive airport trespass in UK history. Detectives are investigating if the pilot is a 'lone wolf eco warrior' bent on grounding jets for environmental reasons and are scouring the area around the airport. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted today it could have been a larger gang of climate change activists flying several drones and refused to rule out the chance a hostile foreign country could be behind the Gatwick drone chaos. But police have warned the drone pilot could still try again with tens of thousands forced to sleep in the airport for two nights still waiting to hear if they will get away for Christmas. Yesterday Gatwick confirmed that 'additional mitigating measures' were working and had given them 'reassurance' to re-open the runway at Britain's second busiest airport. A spokesman said: 'There are knock-on delays and cancellations to flights and we strongly recommend that you check the status of your flight with your airline before setting out for the airport today'. Gatwick was at a complete standstill on Wednesday as 760 flights were grounded and 110,000 completely stranded with up to 400,000 more people booked in to fly the end of Sunday. The drone flights are 'highly targeted' and have 'been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas', the airport said. Bosses are still warning passengers not to travel to the UK's second busiest - and the world's busiest single runway airport - before checking with their airline first. But police now have 'a number of options' around its perimeter to help prevent further disruption, Sussex Police assistant chief constable Steve Barry said today. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, a plane landed at Gatwick from East Midlands Airport at 5.58am on Friday morning followed by a long-haul jet from China after all 760 flights on Thursday were cancelled. The first flight to depart left at 6.33am, carrying families to meet Santa at Lapland. Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the airport has scheduled almost 700 departures for today. Mr Woodroofe, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said: 'Our advice to our passengers is to check with their airline on each of those flights that they're intending to get, to establish whether it's one of the flights that's being operated or one of the flights that's being cancelled, before they come to the airport. 'I'd just like to apologise to all of those affected over the last 36 hours - 120,000 passengers who were due to fly to their destinations or arrive into Gatwick who have not travelled.' Mr Woodroofe was pressed on why the airport had decided to reschedule flights while the drone had not been found, he said: 'We have been working overnight with the police, with a number Government agencies and with the military to put in place additional mitigating measures which have enabled me to reopen our airport.' Asked if the 'mitigating measures' meant the drone would be shot down, he said: 'You'll appreciate that there are certain things I can't talk about in detail.' Mr Woodroofe said he hopes the airport will be back to normal by the end of Saturday. 'We are now operating at almost normal runway conditions and the challenge for the airlines, as the result of this disruption, their planes are not all in the right place,' he said. 'So what we'll be doing today is recovering their operations so by tomorrow we are back to standard operation and continue to recover the situation for our passengers.' He added: 'Last night working with a number of government agencies and the military we were able to put in place a number of additional mitigating actions which gave me the confidence to re-open Gatwick Airport this morning. 'We now have passengers arriving and departing. We are very much hoping to run a schedule today. It's going to be disruptive. Passengers are going to be delayed. And every passenger should check with their airline before they come to the airport. 'We are very much hoping to get 100,000 passengers on their way to destinations and back into Gatwick Airport so we can begin to recover from this 36 hour incident and get those passengers to their destinations in time for Christmas.' Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said 'military capability' has been employed to combat a drone at Gatwick Airport. Pressed on whether that meant 'lasers, drone catching nets or radio wave fences', he said: 'There are new technologies that are now available, some purely in the military arena, some beginning to appear on the commercial market that are able to take action against drones. 'There isn't a single off the shelf commercial solution that does the job and so what's happened is a variety of things have been done to create a sense, create that degree of confidence that Gatwick is now safe to fly in and out of.' Mr Grayling, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said this was an 'unprecedented' situation as he rejected the idea that police could simply 'shoot down' the drone. He said: 'There is a experience recently elsewhere in the world of literally thousands of machine gun bullets being used to try and bring down the drone, failing to do so and of course you can't just fire weapons haphazardly in what is a built up area around the airport'. Pilots' union Balpa said it understood detection and tracking equipment had been installed around Gatwick's perimeter and that if the drones reappear the airport will close again. General secretary, Brian Strutton, said: 'It is up to the relevant authorities to decide whether it is safe to re-open Gatwick given that the rogue drone is still around and may be expected to fly again. 'Balpa is not aware that any special advice has been given to pilots operating into or out of Gatwick and so we have this morning ensured that all our UK pilots have Balpa's advice on what to do if they see a drone while flying. 'Balpa remains extremely concerned at the risk of a drone collision. It is possible that the rogue drones may go undetected around the perimeter or could obstruct the flight paths outside the immediate detection zone. 'Given this continuing threat we have this morning issued our advice to pilots about steps to be taken if a drone is sighted.' Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's CEO, said on Thursday it 'cannot be right' that a major international airport could be targeted in this way. He said: 'On behalf of everyone at Gatwick I would like to repeat how sorry we are for the inconvenience this criminal behaviour has caused passengers and we share their real anger and frustration that it has happened. 'This is a highly targeted activity which has been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run-up to Christmas. 'Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities. The £2.6m Israeli 'Drone Dome' system that the Army used to defeat the Gatwick UAV after the technology was developed to fight ISIS in Syria The Army used a cutting-edge Israeli anti-drone system to destroy the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that brought misery to hundreds of thousands of people at Gatwick airport. The British Army bought six 'Drone Dome' systems for £15.8 million in 2018 and the technology is used in Syria to destroy ISIS UAVs. Police had been seen on Thursday with an off-the-shelf DJI system that tracks drones made by that manufacturer and shows officers where the operator is (DJI is the most popular commercial drone brand.) However, the drone used at Gatwick is thought to have been either hacked or an advanced non-DJI drone, which rendered the commercial technology used by the police useless. At that point, the Army's 'Drone Dome' system made by Rafael was called in. Details of the system are publicly available. Army officers use a high-tech radar and a laser rangefinder to locate drones within a 2.1 and 6.2 miles radius. Once the system has a lock on the drone, a radio frequency jammer is then used to overload the drone with signals - knocking out the commands from the unknown owner. This can be used to make a 'soft-kill' and cease control of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and land it safely. The system also comes with a high-powered laser which can make a 'hard-kill' on drones by effectively melting them, but the British Army did not buy this version. George Burne, a UAV strategist at COPTRZ, a commercial drone firm based in Leeds, told MailOnline that the likely way the Gatwick saga concluded was with the criminal's capture. COPTRZ supply high-end commercial drones as well as anti-drone technology. The DJI Aerospace AeroScope device, a briefcase-sized machine with two protruding antennae, was spotted being used by police on a rooftop around Gatwick. It is a complex piece of equipment which is designed to detect drones by manipulating the radio frequency it is operated on. It allows authorities to piggybacks this signal without the operator knowing with a 'sleeper-bot'. With sufficient time, specialists can utilise the GPS capacity of the drone to identify the location of the perpetrator, where the drone is, its make and model and also the flight-path the machine has been on. Once police have this information, they are able to active a feature which is in-built in all drones known as 'return to home'. This ground-based device is used throughout industry and at many events to ensure protection from drones. 'The detection system is able to pick up frequencies from up to 20 km (12 miles) away and gives a huge radius to spot the machines,' Mr Burne told MailOnline. 'By identifying the signal the drone uses the authorities would be able to know everything about the drone and its operator.' Hunt to find who is behind the drone chaos: Ministers refuse to rule out foreign power as police probe theories that eco warrior or extremist activists caused Gatwick mayhem and ruined Christmas for thousands A lone wolf eco-warrior or a group of climate change activists could be behind the most damaging drone assault on a UK airport in history. Airports are prime targets for environmental demonstrators who have chained hemsleves to aircraft, invaded runways and blocked access roads in recent years. The sabotage which grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands stranded is believed to have been 'targeted' and the sophistication of the equipment involved suggests it was well-planned and financed. Gatwick is currently at the centre of a bitter row over plans to use its emergency runway to bring more than 100,000 additional flights a year. Police investigating the attack do not think it is terror related but Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today refused to rule out it being the actions of a foreign state. Asked if it was possible the drone was being operated by an agent of a foreign government, Mr Grayling told BBC Breakfast: 'I don't want to speculate on that, we genuinely don't know who it is or what the motivation was.' 'I think it's unlikely to be, but at the moment I'm not ruling out anything', he added. The Cabinet minister also said that whoever the perpetrator or perpetrators were, they needed to 'go to jail for a long time'. If no foreign agent was involved, that suggests three possibilities are among potential suspects; an organised campaign group, a lone eco-extremist or an anarchic hobbyist looking to cause carnage. The most high-profile 'direct action' groups in the UK include Extinction Rebellion, who shut down central London in anti-traffic protests last month, and Plane Stupid, whose members chained themselves to Heathrow's runway in 2015. Speaking to MailOnline amid a protest outside BBC Broadcasting House today, an Extinction Rebellion spokesman said: 'We want to bring the climate emergency up to the top of the agenda in the media.' The spokesman added that her group had nothing to do with the drone. She added that the police had not been in contact with them about the incident at Gatwick. Meanwhile 15 activists are facing jail after storming into Stansted Airport and grounding a Home Office deportation plane heading to Africa in March 2017. The group caused chaos using bolt cutters on the perimeter fence and chained themselves to a 767 chartered to transport detainees from UK detention centres back to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. They will be sentenced on February 4. But nobody has yet claimed responsibility, raising suspicions that it a saboteur acting alone. Sussex Police, whose officers patrol the airport, today revealed that Scotland Yard and officers from neighbouring Surrey Police have joined the manhunt. Steve Coulson, managing director of drone detection firm Coptrz, said it appeared to be a 'targeted attack' that could have originated abroad. He told the Times: 'The operator may not even be in the country. You can have a secure internet link from China or Russia and control it remotely, just like we control drones remotely from Arizona and fly them over Afghanistan. 'I'm surprised how brazen this is. I thought we might get some low-level stuff this year but somebody or some group are pushing the envelope.' Some 350,000 people face having their Christmas plans ruined as disruption continued at Gatwick today. Drone expert Carys Kaiser told MailOnline: 'It's definitely not a hobbyist who's thinking I'll get some extra footage from a YouTube channel. 'It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because obviously the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have this geofencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport. 'So this is somebody that has possibly hacked their software or possibly modified their drone in some way.' Ms Kaiser added: '[The manufacturers] have all developed this software to ensure that people can't just take a drone near an airport and take off. 'You get lock zones, so you'll get a yellow zone that could be a stately home or a football ground - it will say to you do you have permission, and you have to put in details and the manufacturer knows who it is, and if there was an incident they could trace it. 'When you get an airport that's a red zone, and you can't unlock it unless you get written permission from an airport. You have to submit documentation, wait for five days and then you get an unlock code so you can fly. 'As with anything that's malicious, people will hack the software, modify the drones to get around all of that. If you've got malicious intent, you've got a malicious mind, you don't abide by the rules.' A former Army captain told The Sun that the attacker had showed 'some serious capability' and could be a 'genius' with a PhD. Richard Gill said: 'Perhaps we are dealing with a person who just wants to do it to show how clever they are. 'He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits. It's the thrill of getting away with it.' No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but officials are said to be working on the theory the saboteur could be an 'eco-warrior'. A Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that an eco-protest was a 'definite line of inquiry'. Environmental activist groups have previously targeted airports, in particular to protest the proposed expansion of Heathrow. When asked why someone would want to disrupt the airport, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: 'There's no sense of motive - there's no suggestion that this is a terrorist act. 'The counter-terrorist police have been very clear that they've seen no evidence that this is intended to be a terrorist act. It's clearly someone who wants to disrupt Gatwick Airport and there's an intense police operation. 'We've got two police forces in Surrey and Sussex working together to try and catch the perpetrator, supported by the Met, supported by the counter-terrorism police and no evidence of a terrorist link at the moment.' Sussex Police also said that 'our assessment, based upon the information that we have available to us, is that this incident is not terrorism-related'. Couple who face cancelling their wedding in Morocco are among the thousands of passengers STILL waiting to jet off for Christmas after being caught in the Gatwick drone chaos A couple due to be married tomorrow and their wedding party face further uncertainty at Gatwick Airport following severe flight disruption caused by drones. Bride-to-be Tayo Abraham and her partner Ope Odedine were due to fly to Marrakesh in Morocco on Wednesday alongside nine family and friends. The group boarded the Air Arabia flight, due to depart at 8.40pm, and were kept onboard 'in the dark' until 2am. Gatwick's runway only reopened at 6am today having been shut since Wednesday night due to devices flying over it, with chief executive officer Stewart Wingate saying they were designed to 'close the airport and bring maximum disruption'. Thousands of families faced heartache as the chaos at Gatwick left holiday plans in ruins. Children wept as they learned their flights were cancelled, and plans for family reunions were abandoned, just days before Christmas. Some were left in limbo, waiting for hours at the packed airport to learn if their flights would finally go ahead. Tempers frayed as stranded passengers crammed into every available space, and berated airline staff for the lack of any updates. Miss Abraham, 31, a contractor from Glasgow, said: 'It's been a year that we've been planning this, we can't start rearranging the wedding. 'It's sad because it's Christmas time and people are trying to get to loved ones. Everything has been disrupted but aside from the cost it's the emotional side, the trauma.' The group, including a four-year-old and a one-year-old, booked a hotel for the night after passengers were told to return to the airport at 11am yesterday. Following another day of disruption, Ms Abraham and her fiance then booked an alternative flight from Manchester Airport for this morning at a cost of over £1,000. She said they may have to 'trim' back on guests as the additional cost of rebooking flights was too high for everyone to pay. She said: 'Most of the guests are there already. We have to be there. I just want to get there and get this over with, but it will be disappointing for everyone that isn't able to travel.' The couple are due to fly back on December 26, with other members due to return to the UK on Sunday. Ms Abraham's uncle Baba Sanwo, from San Diego, flew into Heathrow from the US on Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday's flight, hoping to travel as a family. The 63-year-old said he had been sat on the floor of Gatwick for over five hours. He said: 'I'm uncomfortable, cold and hungry. What if there are people on medication, what if there was a wedding today?' Stella Phillips, the bride-to-be's aunt, from London, said: 'There's no information. Gatwick have been fine but they don't have any information for you, they say go to your airline.' The 41-year-old said the group paid £300 for the hotel on Wednesday and they are unsure whether they can recover the costs. Mrs Phillips said: 'This kind of thing can be avoided. You're saying you're trying to prevent loss of life, but you know it's a drone. 'Couldn't they have brought the military in ages ago? It might take another 24 hours for them to do what they want to do.' Meanwhile Gisele Fenech, 43, who was travelling to Malta, was among those stranded at the airport yesterday. 'We're meeting family and it's my daughter's birthday today so it's gone all wrong. We've been looking forward to this for so long,' she told AFP. 'Everyone's trying to get home for Christmas.' Musab Rashid, 22, who was going to Copenhagen, said: 'It's wrong, it's childish of them to do this, because it's affected more than 100,000 people.' Meanwhile Andrew and Siv Ravenscroft were on their way to a Christmas family reunion in Norway with children Anders, 12, and nine-year-old Erica. The family had flown from their home in Jersey to Gatwick on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Oslo, but their first flight was diverted to Stansted, where their plane was kept on the tarmac for three hours. They paid £180 for a taxi from Stansted to Gatwick, only to find that their next flight from Gatwick to Oslo had been cancelled. In desperation, the family spent another £1,000 for four tickets from Heathrow on a flight today. Mr Ravenscroft, 50, said: 'When we landed at Stansted we were stuck on the tarmac for three hours. 'People were shouting, saying they just wanted to get off. 'We were told there would be three coaches to get us to Gatwick, but there was nothing. We had to pay £180 for a taxi. 'We finally arrived at 3.30am for a 9am flight. They let us check our bags in so we thought we were travelling, then they called us to the gate and gave them back. 'We've now paid £1,000 for four one-way tickets to Norway for Friday morning from Heathrow. We're worried there will be a knock-on effect at other airports and we might not even make it.' He added: 'The drone is really worrying. Anything could have been dropped on the runway. It's no wonder they take it so seriously.' Pensioners Robert and Susan Pocknell were due to fly to Spain for Christmas. They arrived at Gatwick shortly before 4am but were greeted by scenes of chaos, and had to join a massive queue to try to change flights. After queuing for almost four hours, the couple from Hillingdon, West London, had moved barely 20ft in the queue, which stretched around the south terminal. Mr Pocknell, 78, said: 'Everybody was arguing. There was no organisation whatsoever. No one even showed us where this queue was, we had to find it ourselves. 'We're going on a package holiday so I'm worried if we don't get to Malaga before Sunday we'll lose our room and won't have a hotel to stay in. I just want a refund and a new flight. 'We haven't even been offered any vouchers to get a bottle of water. It's a shambles.' His 70-year-old wife added: 'We're British, so we just have to smile and get on with it. I'm more peeved that I might have to go home and cook.' The scramble to get home for Christmas: Thousands of passengers stranded across the world by Gatwick drone chaos fear they may be stuck as far as 4,100 miles away for festive season British air passengers stranded around the world are facing a scramble to get home for Christmas as the shockwaves from Gatwick's drone chaos spread around the globe. The closure of Britain's second busiest airport for more than 30 hours yesterday due to a rogue drone pilot saw scores of flights cancelled and many passengers left in limbo after being diverted to other terminals in Europe. Those trapped in foreign airports spoke of being forced to sleep on floors and visa complications as the knock-on effects hit other terminals. Worse still, the huge backlog of flights now waiting to fly into Gatwick means many people stuck abroad face a nervous wait to see if they'll get home for the holidays. Many are having to fork out for alternative flights, often hopping around the globe in a bid to eventually return to Britain. Among those stranded abroad are 27 schoolgirls from the Bruton School in Somerset. They were due to be back with their families last night, but had to stay on in Innsbruck, Austria following a ski trip. Teachers are hoping they can get on a flight today to return to their anxious parents. More than 120,000 passengers were unable to either take off or land at the airport from 9pm on Wednesday and throughout Thursday. A further 126,000 passengers were due to travel today, but 145 out of the scheduled 837 flights have already been cancelled as aircraft are out of position and the airport's operations are restricted to just a few departures and arrivals per hour. Holidaymakers who went on pre-Christmas breaks to the Caribbean face long delays in getting back. Some are now flying to New York, before transferring on flights to Europe and then getting Eurostar trains to London, with some journeys planned over three days. Londoner Jennifer, who is stuck in Jamaica, tweeted Gatwick bosses saying: 'I would like to get home for Christmas, but I'm stranded abroad at the moment. Is there any chance you could shoot the drones down?' Dan Walters, from Wales, posted online: 'Flight from Antigua to Gatwick cancelled this evening. Now having to fly to New York tomorrow and then on to Heathrow.' However, he saw the funny side, joking: 'There are worse places to be stranded though..' Jon Carles and his partner are stuck in Lanzarote. Speaking yesterday, he told MailOnline: 'We were supposed to be to flying back to Gatwick today with EasyJet, but no one knows what's going on here and what's going to happen. 'Managed to get through to easyJet after 45 minutes on hold and they told us to wait until 6pm and see what happens. And if gets cancelled we can't get a flight back with them for 48hours.' One flyer hoping to reach London had to land in Paris - where he was told that he'd be diverted back to the UK on a bus. Others paid for hotels in the French capital out of their own pockets after failing to get information from their airlines. Corinne Roberts said that her parents-in-law were stuck in a departure lounge in Brussels as their visa don't allow them to enter the country beyond that point. Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris. After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without - 'about 20 per cent' - were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said. 'There were families with babies who couldn't get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff,' he said. 'We were asking just for a favour if (airport staff) could help but they said they couldn't do anything.' Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said. 'To be honest, I'm so tired and when the guys from the fire (service) came with the bottles and blankets I was feeling like a war, like (I was) a refugee, but I'm just flying to the UK. 'It's surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets.' Those who didn't find themselves stuck abroad had to land more than 100 miles from their destination once they made their way back to the UK. Chris Lister, from Somerset, who owns an online business, was travelling back from Kiev with his wife Freya. He was due to land at Gatwick at 9.45pm yesterday but ended up trapped on the plane on the tarmac at Birmingham Airport until 6am. 'There were quite a few babies and kids on board, I think they were struggling more than we were and one woman had run out milk,' he said. After starting his journey in Bangkok on Tuesday he was finally let off the plane at 6am, he said. Gareth Jones praised easyJet's response to the chaos, telling MailOnline: 'My son was due to fly home from Salzburg this morning on an Easyjet flight that was obviously cancelled. 'They have transferred him to the same flight tomorrow and put him up in a four-star hotel, with meals, overnight. 'Fortunately, he has no work commitments or time issues so it's not a bad deal at the end of the day. easyJet get some bad press but this is good service on their part.' Sally Gardiner, who is in Nice, France, said: 'The problems caused by this malicious person extend way beyond Gatwick. My son was to join me in Nice today for a break before Christmas. 'I don't see him very often so my disappointment is immense. 'I have also paid in advance for his accommodation. 'I have French friends who were due to fly from Nice to Gatwick tomorrow for connecting flight to USA to spend Christmas with families there. The knock on effect is massive.' Killer lasers, high-tech jammers or tracking the signal: How the police could destroy the Gatwick drone of misery... so why haven't they already? The criminal who is illegally flying a drone at Gatwick Airport is being hunted by police and military personnel using cutting-edge technology. Gatwick has been brought to a standstill in the wake of the rogue drone terrorising the airport. Several methods have been developed including laser-laden drones, high-tech jammers and tracking the signal via triangulation which may be used to end the fiasco. Human snipers have also been brought in to help with the pursuit of the drone. The Army has been working on a 'Drone Dome' or 'kill-jammer' - which can 'soft kill' a drone by knocking out its communications or a 'hard kill' by shooting it down with a laser from up to two miles away - and may use this prototypical technology. It remains unknown when the debacle will end and normal service will be resumed and how the drone fiasco will be drawn to a close. Frequency jammers and early warning systems are common near US runways but are seldom employed in the UK. Communication between the drone and the operator can also be used to pinpoint its location through triangulation, in a similar way to mobile phone tracking. Police are having difficulty locating the operator as the drone disappears when they close in with via triangulation. The process requires constant connection and if it is lost, so is the location of the perpetrator. As the drone disappears the signal vanishes and police are then unable to narrow down the location of the suspect. Radio transmitters operate with a specific frequency range, one that has been set aside for RC car/aircraft use. If the drone is recovered, it should be a formality for the authorities to successfully identify the other component. Physical methods of destroying the troublesome drone focus around two main ideas; a physical destruction of the device and a communications block which will see the drone lose contact with its controller and drop out the sky. In May, London Southend Airport tested an anti-drone system which uses a combination of radio frequency and optical sensors to detect nearby drones. The week-long trial using Metis Aerospace's Skyperion product saw test drones flown within a 2.5-mile (4km) radius of the airport in Essex - 40 miles away from London - for the two sensors to pick up, and it was said to have been a success. In August, it was revealed that the British Army had bought an Israeli anti-drone system, which will be used to protect sensitive facilities in the UK. The Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars technology by Rada Electronic Industrials is said to provide 360-degree surveillance and be able to detect drones 3.5km (2.2 miles) away. The Drone Dome, in which the technology is embedded, can disable an airborne drone in two seconds from its five kilowatt 'hard kill laser effector'. Meanwhile a system developed by three British companies which is capable of jamming signals on unmanned aerial vehicle was trialled in its first public test by the US Federal Aviation Authority in June 2016. The Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) system - built by Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter - uses high powered radio waves to disable drones, effectively blocking their communication and switching them off in mid-air. More recently in November 2017, a 'detective early warning system' and 'drone interference system' against unmanned aerial vehicles was trialled at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in China, which has also faced issues with drones near airports. The Cangqin system - which can work in all weather conditions - can monitor a low-altitude airspace five miles (8km) in diameter, and locate a drone three seconds after it becomes operative within the supervised range. Earlier this year, China demonstrated the capability of its drone-killing lasers have successfully destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from 1,000 feet (300 metres) away. Back in Britain, research funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) found that a drone weighing 400g (14oz) could smash a helicopter windscreen, and one weighing 2kg (4lbs) could critically damage an airliner's windscreen.[SEP]The runway at Gatwick remains closed on Thursday morning following reports of drones flying close to the airport - despite briefly reopening overnight. Gatwick announced that the runway had reopened at about 3am on Thursday - but just 45 minutes later it was shut again. In a statement, the airport said: ""Unfortunately a further sighting of drones in the vicinity of the airport has forced the runway to be closed again from 03.45 as we investigate the sighting alongside Sussex Police. "We will update when we have suitable reassurance that it is appropriate to reopen the runway." Here we look at the law surrounding drones. What are the restrictions around flying drones near airports?[SEP]Two people have been arrested in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport, police announced last night. The two suspects were held on Friday night after another day of chaos at the airport which saw dozens more flights cancelled and passengers thrown into chaos just days before Christmas. Planes were grounded again at 5pm when a drone was sighted above the airfield before air traffic resumed with severe delays on Friday night. One flight from Morocco appeared to be just moments away from landing when it was forced to divert only 1,000 feet above the ground tonight while other passengers were sitting ready for take-off when pilots told them of another sighting. Just over an hour later Gatwick said planes had returned to the air, saying the 'military measures in place at the airport' would ensure the safety of passengers. Flights have resumed at Gatwick after another drone sighting forced the airport to shut its runway yet again tonight. At least 25 flights were cancelled with others severely delayed while trackers suggested planes were being diverted to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow. The Army had earlier used jamming devices in the hope of knocking the drone out of the sky as police scoured the Sussex countryside in a bit to find the culprit. Police said they were closing in on the pilots who allegedly used 'multiple' drones to shut down Gatwick's runway and are even claimed to have taunted officers by zooming over their heads while flashing lights at them. Last night Sussex Police said in a statement: 'As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm. 'Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics. 'We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice. 'The arrests we have made this evening are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm, every line of enquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers.' On the third day of the Gatwick crisis: • None 20 police units from two different forces and three helicopters searched for the drone culprits while the Army brought in specialist equipment including a jammer; • None Flights resumed yesterday morning with almost 150 flights called off before the latest sighting on Friday evening forced even more cancellations; • None Experts said the saboteur and any accomplices would have needed sophisticated modification or hacking to bypass airport security; • None Police said the drone had been sighted 50 times since the runway at Gatwick was first closed on Wednesday night ; • None There were calls for tougher legislation against criminal drone pilots, who can only be jailed for up to five years in the UK. After Friday evening's disruption Gatwick Airport said: 'Flights have now resumed at Gatwick following a reported drone in the area. 'While we investigated, airfield movements were suspended. This was a precautionary measure as safety remains our main priority. 'The military measures we have in place at the airport have provided us with the reassurance necessary that it is safe to reopen our airfield.' Flights had resumed this morning after all 760 scheduled journeys were cancelled on Thursday, wrecking festive plans for 110,000 people left stranded at the airport. Sussex assistant chief constable Steve Barry said today: 'We do have persons of interest and we are working through those with our best teams, our best investigators and there's a huge amount of intelligence that we're trawling through'. He added: 'I'm not going to say whether we think it's more than one person. It's a live investigation and a really significant criminal offence that's been committed here, so we're just keeping an open mind.' Amid Friday evening's chaos Southern and Thameslink train services also reported problems because of a points failure between Horsham and Gatwick station. The cat and mouse game with police started at 9pm on Wednesday with drones deliberately flown over officers and the Gatwick control tower while flashing on-board lights before heading for the runway if officials tried to reopen it. They appeared to have vanished last night after the Army used a high-tech 'drone dome' defence system that features a tracking system and a 'kill-jammer' that cuts a drone's communications and seizes its controls. A similar arsenal of weapons was used by British and US forces to help liberate Mosul in Iraq and neutralise ISIS drones - but passengers trapped at Gatwick are furious the weapons were not brought in earlier. Security and defence consultant Declan Power told MailOnline: 'The Gatwick situation is a very worrying development as it seems to involve technology which you can buy over the counter and has managed to cause major disruption to one of the UK's busiest airports. 'I am astounded that electronic countermeasures were not in place to prevent drones from approaching the airport. 'I don't think that this is terror related. It seems unlikely that it is an organised group. It is more likely a spotty teenager. 'The level of disruption caused means that airports across the world have to learn from this. How was someone able to close down a major airport for more than 36 hours. 'Police and security services are going to be highly embarrassed by these incidents. A major weak point in airline security has been identified. The person behind this seems happy to cause major disruption rather than attack aircraft. 'But as the conflict in Syria has shown, it is not difficult to weaponise a drone which could be used in a terrorist attack. Airlines should be concerned. 'The important lesson is the need to deploy effective electronic counter measures and to learn from these incidents.' One local resident, whose Christmas getaway has been wrecked, called the situation 'a national embarrassment causing misery to thousands, including me and my family. 'How can the relevant authorities not be able to deal with this?,' they said. Lena Balbek, 38, a project manager from Kiev who was visiting an agency in London, has been trying to return home since Thursday. She said her flight with Ukraine International Airlines was re-scheduled for 7pm on Friday but it has now been pushed back until 10pm. Asked about the closure and subsequent reopening of the airport, she said: 'These things happen. You don't have insurance for such things, it could happen. The well-being of passengers is the most important, I trust the security to do whatever they have to do.' Ms Balbek said she paid for a hotel on Thursday night and does not expect to recover the costs. 'I'm disappointed it's been pushed back but we're alive and if they tell us it's okay, then I'll feel safe,' she added. Wayne McAffee and his family were due to travel to Belfast via Gatwick on Thursday after 10 days at Disneyland in Orlando. The 35-year-old, who lives in South Africa but is originally from Ireland, said they missed their connecting easyJet flight due to delays. He said they were moved onto a different flight, which was cancelled as they stood in the check-in line, and have now booked a flight to Dublin with Aer Lingus from Heathrow on Saturday morning. Mr McAfee said: 'I'm sure (the airport and airline) are not enjoying this situation, I don't think it's their fault. 'I'm sure everyone is working their hardest, you can see the ladies at the desk have to deal with disappointment from people. I think everyone is doing their best. 'I'm not saying it's a positive experience but there's no point getting upset. Whoever is doing the drones, I'm angrier at them.' Another passenger had to fork out thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket from New York to get back to the UK from New York after her flight could not reach Gatwick on Friday morning. Scarlette Tidy was booked on a Norwegian Air flight to Gatwick but by the time she was told the trip was cancelled, all the airline's flights to London were sold out until after Christmas. With passengers waiting two hours for a 'live chat' on Norwegian's website she was forced to spend over $3,000 - several times what she had originally paid - to reach her family in time for Christmas. She said the experience had been a 'total disaster' but that she was now en route back to London. Another passenger, Emma Jewell, told MailOnline she and her boyfriend were stranded in the Dominican Republic after her flight to Gatwick had been cancelled. She said the airline had rebooked them on a flight to Heathrow via Philadelphia, but her boyfriend's ESTA for the United States did not come through in time and they could not board the flight. The couple then boarded a flight to New York only to find there was a problem with the air conditioning, leaving them waiting on the tarmac and certain to miss their connection to the UK. Earlier ACC Barry insisted that police snipers dotted along the runway earlier yesterday had 'no opportunity' to open fire at the drones - but would bring them down with shotguns if they returned and Army battlefield technology brought in last night fails. ACC Barry continued: 'We're working on the assumption that there was more than one drone operating around Gatwick in the last 48 hours. 'In terms of how many perpetrators, there's a number of lines of enquiry, there's an ongoing investigation, we're pursuing that trying to find out who has been responsible for this really malicious criminal behaviour.' He said there had been no opportunities to shoot down the drones, explaining: 'We have to consider whether it's safe to do so, it has to be dynamically assessed at the time, in terms of the risk, and we have to assess whether it's going to be efficient, effective, how likely it's going to be we're going to be able to take the drone out. 'I have to say on the range of options we've got available, shooting the drone out of the sky is probably one of the least effective options. It doesn't mean to say it's impossible, which is why we've got the option available to us should the option become available.' Mr Barry said the drones could have been operated from a fair distance away, but police are focusing on 'likely locations in and around the airport'. Addressing the problems with identifying suspects, he added: 'It's the remoteness between the officer and the drone and over the whole area around Gatwick does make it really difficult to link the drone to the operator.' The chaos at Britain's second busiest airport has threatened the Christmas holiday plans of up to 350,000 people. A jet carrying children to Lapland was the first plane to take-off at 6.30am this morning - and 700 more flights carrying more than 120,000 people are scheduled today. But at least 110,000 passengers have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors for up to two nights with the backlog unlikely to be cleared until Christmas Eve. Critics have also blasted the police, who chose not to shoot a drone down despite having snipers dotted along the runway all day yesterday. Gatwick is currently in a row with neighbours and environmental groups after submitting a £500million plan to use its emergency runway for hundreds of extra flights every day from around 2024. ACC Barry said measures to tackle the drones now include 'technical, sophisticated options to detect and mitigate drone incursions, all the way down to less sophisticated options - even shotguns would be available to officers should the opportunity present itself.' When asked about a possible motive Mr Barry said today: 'There's a whole spectrum of possibilities, from the really high-end criminal behaviour that we've seen, all the way down to potential individuals trying to be malicious, trying to disrupt the airport. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is also under pressure to explain why Britain's second busiest airport has no anti-drone systems despite being early warning systems and jammers being common in the United States. Mr Grayling has insisted Britain is facing a 'new threat' - but today it emerged Gatwick has been troubled by drones near the runway three times in the past 18 months. Grace Lyons, who was at the airport for 29 hours, said: 'It's an absolute mess. It's very worrying that a few drones can shut down an airport for so long. It's very likely this will happen again.' Jack Taylor tweeted: 'No flights for 34 hours at Gatwick why the f*** didn't they just shoot it down? I've seen drones come down off someone throwing a toilet roll at it, why did it take so long have I missed something??' Aimee Trowell tweeted: 'How embarrassing that the police and Gatwick airport have let this go on so long! How can a couple of idiots with drones cause so much chaos #LondonGatwick #dronesgatwick'. The re-opening of the runway came after the final sighting of the drone at 10pm last night, which had buzzed over the airport more than 50 times since 9pm on Wednesday during the most disruptive airport trespass in UK history. Detectives are investigating if the pilot is a 'lone wolf eco warrior' bent on grounding jets for environmental reasons and are scouring the area around the airport. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted today it could have been a larger gang of climate change activists flying several drones and refused to rule out the chance a hostile foreign country could be behind the Gatwick drone chaos. But police have warned the drone pilot could still try again with tens of thousands forced to sleep in the airport for two nights still waiting to hear if they will get away for Christmas. Today Gatwick confirmed that 'additional mitigating measures' were working and had given them 'reassurance' to re-open the runway at Britain's second busiest airport. A spokesman said: 'There are knock-on delays and cancellations to flights and we strongly recommend that you check the status of your flight with your airline before setting out for the airport today'. Gatwick was at a complete standstill yesterday as 760 flights were grounded and 110,000 completely stranded with up to 400,000 more people booked in to fly the end of Sunday. The drone flights are 'highly targeted' and have 'been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas', the airport said. Bosses are still warning passengers not to travel to the UK's second busiest - and the world's busiest single runway airport - before checking with their airline first. But police now have 'a number of options' around its perimeter to help prevent further disruption, Sussex Police assistant chief constable Steve Barry said today. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, a plane landed at Gatwick from East Midlands Airport at 5.58am followed by a long-haul jet from China. The first flight to depart left at 6.33am, carrying families to meet Santa at Lapland. Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the airport has scheduled almost 700 departures for today. Mr Woodroofe, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said: 'Our advice to our passengers is to check with their airline on each of those flights that they're intending to get, to establish whether it's one of the flights that's being operated or one of the flights that's being cancelled, before they come to the airport. 'I'd just like to apologise to all of those affected over the last 36 hours - 120,000 passengers who were due to fly to their destinations or arrive into Gatwick who have not travelled.' Mr Woodroofe was pressed on why the airport had decided to reschedule flights while the drone had not been found, he said: 'We have been working overnight with the police, with a number Government agencies and with the military to put in place additional mitigating measures which have enabled me to reopen our airport.' Asked if the 'mitigating measures' meant the drone would be shot down, he said: 'You'll appreciate that there are certain things I can't talk about in detail.' Mr Woodroofe said he hopes the airport will be back to normal by the end of Saturday. 'We are now operating at almost normal runway conditions and the challenge for the airlines, as the result of this disruption, their planes are not all in the right place,' he said. 'So what we'll be doing today is recovering their operations so by tomorrow we are back to standard operation and continue to recover the situation for our passengers.' He added: 'Last night working with a number of government agencies and the military we were able to put in place a number of additional mitigating actions which gave me the confidence to re-open Gatwick Airport this morning. 'We now have passengers arriving and departing. We are very much hoping to run a schedule today. It's going to be disruptive. Passengers are going to be delayed. And every passenger should check with their airline before they come to the airport. 'We are very much hoping to get 100,000 passengers on their way to destinations and back into Gatwick Airport so we can begin to recover from this 36 hour incident and get those passengers to their destinations in time for Christmas.' Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said 'military capability' has been employed to combat a drone at Gatwick Airport. Pressed on whether that meant 'lasers, drone catching nets or radio wave fences', he said: 'There are new technologies that are now available, some purely in the military arena, some beginning to appear on the commercial market that are able to take action against drones. 'There isn't a single off the shelf commercial solution that does the job and so what's happened is a variety of things have been done to create a sense, create that degree of confidence that Gatwick is now safe to fly in and out of.' Mr Grayling, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said this was an 'unprecedented' situation as he rejected the idea that police could simply 'shoot down' the drone. He said: 'There is a experience recently elsewhere in the world of literally thousands of machine gun bullets being used to try and bring down the drone, failing to do so and of course you can't just fire weapons haphazardly in what is a built up area around the airport'. Pilots' union Balpa said it understood detection and tracking equipment had been installed around Gatwick's perimeter and that if the drones reappear the airport will close again. General secretary, Brian Strutton, said: 'It is up to the relevant authorities to decide whether it is safe to re-open Gatwick given that the rogue drone is still around and may be expected to fly again. 'Balpa is not aware that any special advice has been given to pilots operating into or out of Gatwick and so we have this morning ensured that all our UK pilots have Balpa's advice on what to do if they see a drone while flying. 'Balpa remains extremely concerned at the risk of a drone collision. It is possible that the rogue drones may go undetected around the perimeter or could obstruct the flight paths outside the immediate detection zone. 'Given this continuing threat we have this morning issued our advice to pilots about steps to be taken if a drone is sighted.' Experts believe the suspect is an organised expert rather than a 'hobbyist' but police have failed to track him down more than 24 hours after the crisis began. Armed officers carrying Heckler & Koch sniper rifles were dotted along the runway yesterday ready to shoot down the drone, which has been sighted 50 times since the chaos first hit, but were not allowed to take any shots. In an update on its website, easyJet said: 'Gatwick airport have confirmed that the runway is now open. We do expect that the number of departures and landings will be restricted to begin with, which means that we are likely to experience more disruption to the flying programme. 'We would like to request our passengers to continue to check the status of their flight on the easyJet Flight Tracker.' In response to a customer on Twitter, British Airways said: 'We've received confirmation approximately 30 minutes ago from London Gatwick, advising the airport is back open and the majority of flights operating as scheduled'. At 9.30pm the airport's chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the drones had been sighted within the last hour. He said: 'Gatwick Airport is still closed, it's closed for the rest of this evening, and our intention is to review on an ongoing basis whether we can open tomorrow. 'We are working up contingency plans all the way through to no flights tomorrow. 'My apologies to all those passengers who've seen this disruption from the criminal activity of these people who are purposely disrupting our airport and their travel so close to Christmas.' Mr Woodroofe did not say whether Gatwick, which said it 'shared the frustrations' of passengers, had previously had plans in place for a drone attack. Earlier footage obtained by MailOnline showed the drone flying past Gatwick's north terminal and over the runway before it dives away and lands to the east of the airport after being chased by a police helicopter. Yesterday a Gatwick spokesperson said passengers should not come to the airport 'for the foreseeable future including tomorrow' when even more holidaymakers have travel plans. Detectives are investigating if the drone chaos is a stunt by a lone wolf pilot or part of a wider plot by activists who want to disrupt flights for environmental or political reasons - but police have initially ruled out a terror attack. As MI5 joined the investigation there were rumours that an 'eco-activist' was behind the sabotage, The Sun reported. A former Army captain told the newspaper that the attacker had showed 'some serious capability' and could be a 'genius' with a PhD. Richard Gill said: 'Perhaps we are dealing with a person who just wants to do it to show how clever they are. He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits. It's the thrill of getting away with it.' No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but officials are said to be working on the theory the saboteur could be an 'eco-warrior'. A Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that police were investigating an eco-protest as a 'definite line of inquiry'. Environmental activist groups have previously targeted airports, in particular to protest the proposed expansion of Heathrow. Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley said there have been over 50 sightings of the drone near Gatwick Airport. Speaking outside the South Terminal, he said: 'We don't know what the drone specification is. Our working assumption is it's larger than what someone might buy online, we think it may have been adapted and developed. 'We're working through CCTV footage and trying to identify the make and model. 'We will do what we can to take that drone out of the sky and remove that disruption so we can get Gatwick back to the norm.' Mr Tingley said that shooting the drone down had become an option after other strategies failed. 'We have to take into consideration other people that may be in range and the impact of firing at a drone,' he said. Some passengers stranded at Gatwick - the UK's second-busiest airport - are anticipating spending the night in the terminal after hotels in the area become fully booked. The drone flights are 'highly targeted' and have 'been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas', the airport has said. Passengers stranded are struggling to get a new flight before Christmas Eve or have had to cancel their trips completely. At the airport's two terminals tens of thousands of people have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors as up to 760 flights face cancellation, including several meant to fly children to meet Santa in Lapland. One couple due to be married on Saturday are facing an anxious wait to discover if they can reach Marrakech in time for the ceremony. Many more have said their dream trips around the world to see family and friends for Christmas are now in ruins. Thousands including young children were to sleep on floors or chairs as all flight departures were grounded. The airport said additional staff will be on the ground during the night to patrol for vulnerable passengers, including those with young children and the elderly. Water is being handed out throughout the terminals, the airport said, and food and beverage outlets are being stocked up with fresh supplies, with heating remaining turned on throughout the night. As officers hunted for the drone police described the devices as 'industrial' models and are treating the incident as 'a deliberate act to disrupt the airport'. The Ministry of Defence confirmed yesterday afternoon that it has deployed 'specialist equipment' to deal with the situation after police requested help. Officers requested soldiers to test the Army's new weapon - known as a 'Drone Dome' or 'kill-jammer' - which can 'soft kill' a drone by knocking out its communications or a 'hard kill' by shooting it down with a laser from up to two miles away. The MoD has not confirmed what it meant by 'specialist equipment'. A Number 10 spokesman said there had been a 'cross-Whitehall meeting of officials although not a full COBRA gathering' this afternoon. The shutdown at Gatwick today has renewed calls for the use of anti-drone technology at British airports including frequency jammers and early warning systems now common near U.S. runways. Experts said they had been trying to raise concerns about drones with ministers for more than two years and the Government had 'repeatedly dragged its feet'. According to the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), there were 117 near misses between manned aircraft and drones up until November this year, compared to 93 for the whole of 2017 - a rise of 58 per cent. The saboteur could even be bringing chaos with a pre-programmed drone. Drone expert Carys Kaiser, active online as The Drone Lass, told MailOnline the disruption was unlikely to be the work of a 'hobbyist'. She said: 'It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have geofencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport. 'It's definitely not a hobbyist who's thinking I'll get some extra footage for a YouTube channel. So this is somebody that has possibly hacked their software or possibly modified their drone in some way. '[The manufacturers] have all developed this software to ensure that people can't just take a drone near an airport and take off. 'You get lock zones, so you'll get a yellow zone that could be a stately home or a football ground - it will say to you do you have permission, and you have to put in details and the manufacturer knows who it is, and if there was an incident they could trace it. 'When you get an airport that's a red zone, and you can't unlock it unless you get written permission from an airport. You have to submit documentation, wait for five days and then you get an unlock code so you can fly. 'As with anything that's malicious, people will hack the software, modify the drones to get around all of that. If you've got malicious intent, you've got a malicious mind, you don't abide by the rules.' A police helicopter and dozens of officers on the ground scanned a five-mile zone around Gatwick in an unsuccessful attempt to find and arrest the suspect, who faces up to five years in jail. Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's CEO, said it 'cannot be right' that a major international airport could be targeted in this way. He said: 'On behalf of everyone at Gatwick I would like to repeat how sorry we are for the inconvenience this criminal behaviour has caused passengers and we share their real anger and frustration that it has happened. 'This is a highly targeted activity which has been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run-up to Christmas. 'Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities. The £2.6m Israeli 'Drone Dome' system that the Army used to defeat the Gatwick UAV after the technology was developed to fight ISIS in Syria The Army used a cutting-edge Israeli anti-drone system to destroy the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that brought misery to hundreds of thousands of people at Gatwick airport. The British Army bought six 'Drone Dome' systems for £15.8 million in 2018 and the technology is used in Syria to destroy ISIS UAVs. Police had been seen on Thursday with an off-the-shelf DJI system that tracks drones made by that manufacturer and shows officers where the operator is (DJI is the most popular commercial drone brand.) However, the drone used at Gatwick is thought to have been either hacked or an advanced non-DJI drone, which rendered the commercial technology used by the police useless. At that point, the Army's 'Drone Dome' system made by Rafael was called in. Details of the system are publicly available. Army officers use a high-tech radar and a laser rangefinder to locate drones within a 2.1 and 6.2 miles radius. Once the system has a lock on the drone, a radio frequency jammer is then used to overload the drone with signals - knocking out the commands from the unknown owner. This can be used to make a 'soft-kill' and cease control of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and land it safely. The system also comes with a high-powered laser which can make a 'hard-kill' on drones by effectively melting them, but the British Army did not buy this version. George Burne, a UAV strategist at COPTRZ, a commercial drone firm based in Leeds, told MailOnline that the likely way the Gatwick saga concluded was with the criminal's capture. COPTRZ supply high-end commercial drones as well as anti-drone technology. The DJI Aerospace AeroScope device, a briefcase-sized machine with two protruding antennae, was spotted being used by police on a rooftop around Gatwick. It is a complex piece of equipment which is designed to detect drones by manipulating the radio frequency it is operated on. It allows authorities to piggybacks this signal without the operator knowing with a 'sleeper-bot'. With sufficient time, specialists can utilise the GPS capacity of the drone to identify the location of the perpetrator, where the drone is, its make and model and also the flight-path the machine has been on. Once police have this information, they are able to active a feature which is in-built in all drones known as 'return to home'. This ground-based device is used throughout industry and at many events to ensure protection from drones. 'The detection system is able to pick up frequencies from up to 20 km (12 miles) away and gives a huge radius to spot the machines,' Mr Burne told MailOnline. 'By identifying the signal the drone uses the authorities would be able to know everything about the drone and its operator.' Hunt to find who is behind the drone chaos: Ministers refuse to rule out foreign power as police probe theories that eco warrior or extremist activists caused Gatwick mayhem and ruined Christmas for thousands A lone wolf eco-warrior or a group of climate change activists could be behind the most damaging drone assault on a UK airport in history. Airports are prime targets for environmental demonstrators who have chained hemsleves to aircraft, invaded runways and blocked access roads in recent years. The sabotage which grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands stranded is believed to have been 'targeted' and the sophistication of the equipment involved suggests it was well-planned and financed. Gatwick is currently at the centre of a bitter row over plans to use its emergency runway to bring more than 100,000 additional flights a year. Police investigating the attack do not think it is terror related but Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today refused to rule out it being the actions of a foreign state. Asked if it was possible the drone was being operated by an agent of a foreign government, Mr Grayling told BBC Breakfast: 'I don't want to speculate on that, we genuinely don't know who it is or what the motivation was.' 'I think it's unlikely to be, but at the moment I'm not ruling out anything', he added. The Cabinet minister also said that whoever the perpetrator or perpetrators were, they needed to 'go to jail for a long time'. If no foreign agent was involved, that suggests three possibilities are among potential suspects; an organised campaign group, a lone eco-extremist or an anarchic hobbyist looking to cause carnage. The most high-profile 'direct action' groups in the UK include Extinction Rebellion, who shut down central London in anti-traffic protests last month, and Plane Stupid, whose members chained themselves to Heathrow's runway in 2015. Speaking to MailOnline amid a protest outside BBC Broadcasting House today, an Extinction Rebellion spokesman said: 'We want to bring the climate emergency up to the top of the agenda in the media.' The spokesman added that her group had nothing to do with the drone. She added that the police had not been in contact with them about the incident at Gatwick. Meanwhile 15 activists are facing jail after storming into Stansted Airport and grounding a Home Office deportation plane heading to Africa in March 2017. The group caused chaos using bolt cutters on the perimeter fence and chained themselves to a 767 chartered to transport detainees from UK detention centres back to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. They will be sentenced on February 4. But nobody has yet claimed responsibility, raising suspicions that it a saboteur acting alone. Sussex Police, whose officers patrol the airport, today revealed that Scotland Yard and officers from neighbouring Surrey Police have joined the manhunt. Steve Coulson, managing director of drone detection firm Coptrz, said it appeared to be a 'targeted attack' that could have originated abroad. He told the Times: 'The operator may not even be in the country. You can have a secure internet link from China or Russia and control it remotely, just like we control drones remotely from Arizona and fly them over Afghanistan. 'I'm surprised how brazen this is. I thought we might get some low-level stuff this year but somebody or some group are pushing the envelope.' Some 350,000 people face having their Christmas plans ruined as disruption continued at Gatwick today. Drone expert Carys Kaiser told MailOnline: 'It's definitely not a hobbyist who's thinking I'll get some extra footage from a YouTube channel. 'It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because obviously the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have this geofencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport. 'So this is somebody that has possibly hacked their software or possibly modified their drone in some way.' Ms Kaiser added: '[The manufacturers] have all developed this software to ensure that people can't just take a drone near an airport and take off. 'You get lock zones, so you'll get a yellow zone that could be a stately home or a football ground - it will say to you do you have permission, and you have to put in details and the manufacturer knows who it is, and if there was an incident they could trace it. 'When you get an airport that's a red zone, and you can't unlock it unless you get written permission from an airport. You have to submit documentation, wait for five days and then you get an unlock code so you can fly. 'As with anything that's malicious, people will hack the software, modify the drones to get around all of that. If you've got malicious intent, you've got a malicious mind, you don't abide by the rules.' A former Army captain told The Sun that the attacker had showed 'some serious capability' and could be a 'genius' with a PhD. Richard Gill said: 'Perhaps we are dealing with a person who just wants to do it to show how clever they are. 'He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits. It's the thrill of getting away with it.' No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but officials are said to be working on the theory the saboteur could be an 'eco-warrior'. A Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that an eco-protest was a 'definite line of inquiry'. Environmental activist groups have previously targeted airports, in particular to protest the proposed expansion of Heathrow. When asked why someone would want to disrupt the airport, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: 'There's no sense of motive - there's no suggestion that this is a terrorist act. 'The counter-terrorist police have been very clear that they've seen no evidence that this is intended to be a terrorist act. It's clearly someone who wants to disrupt Gatwick Airport and there's an intense police operation. 'We've got two police forces in Surrey and Sussex working together to try and catch the perpetrator, supported by the Met, supported by the counter-terrorism police and no evidence of a terrorist link at the moment.' Sussex Police also said that 'our assessment, based upon the information that we have available to us, is that this incident is not terrorism-related'. Couple who face cancelling their wedding in Morocco are among the thousands of passengers STILL waiting to jet off for Christmas after being caught in the Gatwick drone chaos A couple due to be married tomorrow and their wedding party face further uncertainty at Gatwick Airport following severe flight disruption caused by drones. Bride-to-be Tayo Abraham and her partner Ope Odedine were due to fly to Marrakesh in Morocco on Wednesday alongside nine family and friends. The group boarded the Air Arabia flight, due to depart at 8.40pm, and were kept onboard 'in the dark' until 2am. Gatwick's runway only reopened at 6am today having been shut since Wednesday night due to devices flying over it, with chief executive officer Stewart Wingate saying they were designed to 'close the airport and bring maximum disruption'. Thousands of families faced heartache as the chaos at Gatwick left holiday plans in ruins. Children wept as they learned their flights were cancelled, and plans for family reunions were abandoned, just days before Christmas. Some were left in limbo, waiting for hours at the packed airport to learn if their flights would finally go ahead. Tempers frayed as stranded passengers crammed into every available space, and berated airline staff for the lack of any updates. Miss Abraham, 31, a contractor from Glasgow, said: 'It's been a year that we've been planning this, we can't start rearranging the wedding. 'It's sad because it's Christmas time and people are trying to get to loved ones. Everything has been disrupted but aside from the cost it's the emotional side, the trauma.' The group, including a four-year-old and a one-year-old, booked a hotel for the night after passengers were told to return to the airport at 11am yesterday. Following another day of disruption, Ms Abraham and her fiance then booked an alternative flight from Manchester Airport for this morning at a cost of over £1,000. She said they may have to 'trim' back on guests as the additional cost of rebooking flights was too high for everyone to pay. She said: 'Most of the guests are there already. We have to be there. I just want to get there and get this over with, but it will be disappointing for everyone that isn't able to travel.' The couple are due to fly back on December 26, with other members due to return to the UK on Sunday. Ms Abraham's uncle Baba Sanwo, from San Diego, flew into Heathrow from the US on Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday's flight, hoping to travel as a family. The 63-year-old said he had been sat on the floor of Gatwick for over five hours. He said: 'I'm uncomfortable, cold and hungry. What if there are people on medication, what if there was a wedding today?' Stella Phillips, the bride-to-be's aunt, from London, said: 'There's no information. Gatwick have been fine but they don't have any information for you, they say go to your airline.' The 41-year-old said the group paid £300 for the hotel on Wednesday and they are unsure whether they can recover the costs. Mrs Phillips said: 'This kind of thing can be avoided. You're saying you're trying to prevent loss of life, but you know it's a drone. 'Couldn't they have brought the military in ages ago? It might take another 24 hours for them to do what they want to do.' Meanwhile Gisele Fenech, 43, who was travelling to Malta, was among those stranded at the airport yesterday. 'We're meeting family and it's my daughter's birthday today so it's gone all wrong. We've been looking forward to this for so long,' she told AFP. 'Everyone's trying to get home for Christmas.' Musab Rashid, 22, who was going to Copenhagen, said: 'It's wrong, it's childish of them to do this, because it's affected more than 100,000 people.' Meanwhile Andrew and Siv Ravenscroft were on their way to a Christmas family reunion in Norway with children Anders, 12, and nine-year-old Erica. The family had flown from their home in Jersey to Gatwick on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Oslo, but their first flight was diverted to Stansted, where their plane was kept on the tarmac for three hours. They paid £180 for a taxi from Stansted to Gatwick, only to find that their next flight from Gatwick to Oslo had been cancelled. In desperation, the family spent another £1,000 for four tickets from Heathrow on a flight today. Mr Ravenscroft, 50, said: 'When we landed at Stansted we were stuck on the tarmac for three hours. 'People were shouting, saying they just wanted to get off. 'We were told there would be three coaches to get us to Gatwick, but there was nothing. We had to pay £180 for a taxi. 'We finally arrived at 3.30am for a 9am flight. They let us check our bags in so we thought we were travelling, then they called us to the gate and gave them back. 'We've now paid £1,000 for four one-way tickets to Norway for Friday morning from Heathrow. We're worried there will be a knock-on effect at other airports and we might not even make it.' He added: 'The drone is really worrying. Anything could have been dropped on the runway. It's no wonder they take it so seriously.' Pensioners Robert and Susan Pocknell were due to fly to Spain for Christmas. They arrived at Gatwick shortly before 4am but were greeted by scenes of chaos, and had to join a massive queue to try to change flights. After queuing for almost four hours, the couple from Hillingdon, West London, had moved barely 20ft in the queue, which stretched around the south terminal. Mr Pocknell, 78, said: 'Everybody was arguing. There was no organisation whatsoever. No one even showed us where this queue was, we had to find it ourselves. 'We're going on a package holiday so I'm worried if we don't get to Malaga before Sunday we'll lose our room and won't have a hotel to stay in. I just want a refund and a new flight. 'We haven't even been offered any vouchers to get a bottle of water. It's a shambles.' His 70-year-old wife added: 'We're British, so we just have to smile and get on with it. I'm more peeved that I might have to go home and cook.' The scramble to get home for Christmas: Thousands of passengers stranded across the world by Gatwick drone chaos fear they may be stuck as far as 4,100 miles away for festive season British air passengers stranded around the world are facing a scramble to get home for Christmas as the shockwaves from Gatwick's drone chaos spread around the globe. The closure of Britain's second busiest airport for more than 30 hours yesterday due to a rogue drone pilot saw scores of flights cancelled and many passengers left in limbo after being diverted to other terminals in Europe. Those trapped in foreign airports spoke of being forced to sleep on floors and visa complications as the knock-on effects hit other terminals. Worse still, the huge backlog of flights now waiting to fly into Gatwick means many people stuck abroad face a nervous wait to see if they'll get home for the holidays. Many are having to fork out for alternative flights, often hopping around the globe in a bid to eventually return to Britain. Among those stranded abroad are 27 schoolgirls from the Bruton School in Somerset. They were due to be back with their families last night, but had to stay on in Innsbruck, Austria following a ski trip. Teachers are hoping they can get on a flight today to return to their anxious parents. More than 120,000 passengers were unable to either take off or land at the airport from 9pm on Wednesday and throughout Thursday. A further 126,000 passengers were due to travel today, but 145 out of the scheduled 837 flights have already been cancelled as aircraft are out of position and the airport's operations are restricted to just a few departures and arrivals per hour. Holidaymakers who went on pre-Christmas breaks to the Caribbean face long delays in getting back. Some are now flying to New York, before transferring on flights to Europe and then getting Eurostar trains to London, with some journeys planned over three days. Londoner Jennifer, who is stuck in Jamaica, tweeted Gatwick bosses saying: 'I would like to get home for Christmas, but I'm stranded abroad at the moment. Is there any chance you could shoot the drones down?' Dan Walters, from Wales, posted online: 'Flight from Antigua to Gatwick cancelled this evening. Now having to fly to New York tomorrow and then on to Heathrow.' However, he saw the funny side, joking: 'There are worse places to be stranded though..' Jon Carles and his partner are stuck in Lanzarote. Speaking yesterday, he told MailOnline: 'We were supposed to be to flying back to Gatwick today with EasyJet, but no one knows what's going on here and what's going to happen. 'Managed to get through to easyJet after 45 minutes on hold and they told us to wait until 6pm and see what happens. And if gets cancelled we can't get a flight back with them for 48hours.' One flyer hoping to reach London had to land in Paris - where he was told that he'd be diverted back to the UK on a bus. Others paid for hotels in the French capital out of their own pockets after failing to get information from their airlines. Corinne Roberts said that her parents-in-law were stuck in a departure lounge in Brussels as their visa don't allow them to enter the country beyond that point. Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris. After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without - 'about 20 per cent' - were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said. 'There were families with babies who couldn't get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff,' he said. 'We were asking just for a favour if (airport staff) could help but they said they couldn't do anything.' Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said. 'To be honest, I'm so tired and when the guys from the fire (service) came with the bottles and blankets I was feeling like a war, like (I was) a refugee, but I'm just flying to the UK. 'It's surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets.' Those who didn't find themselves stuck abroad had to land more than 100 miles from their destination once they made their way back to the UK. Chris Lister, from Somerset, who owns an online business, was travelling back from Kiev with his wife Freya. He was due to land at Gatwick at 9.45pm yesterday but ended up trapped on the plane on the tarmac at Birmingham Airport until 6am. 'There were quite a few babies and kids on board, I think they were struggling more than we were and one woman had run out milk,' he said. After starting his journey in Bangkok on Tuesday he was finally let off the plane at 6am, he said. Gareth Jones praised easyJet's response to the chaos, telling MailOnline: 'My son was due to fly home from Salzburg this morning on an Easyjet flight that was obviously cancelled. 'They have transferred him to the same flight tomorrow and put him up in a four-star hotel, with meals, overnight. 'Fortunately, he has no work commitments or time issues so it's not a bad deal at the end of the day. easyJet get some bad press but this is good service on their part.' Sally Gardiner, who is in Nice, France, said: 'The problems caused by this malicious person extend way beyond Gatwick. My son was to join me in Nice today for a break before Christmas. 'I don't see him very often so my disappointment is immense. 'I have also paid in advance for his accommodation. 'I have French friends who were due to fly from Nice to Gatwick tomorrow for connecting flight to USA to spend Christmas with families there. The knock on effect is massive.' Killer lasers, high-tech jammers or tracking the signal: How the police could destroy the Gatwick drone of misery... so why haven't they already? The criminal who is illegally flying a drone at Gatwick Airport is being hunted by police and military personnel using cutting-edge technology. Gatwick has been brought to a standstill in the wake of the rogue drone terrorising the airport. Several methods have been developed including laser-laden drones, high-tech jammers and tracking the signal via triangulation which may be used to end the fiasco. Human snipers have also been brought in to help with the pursuit of the drone. The Army has been working on a 'Drone Dome' or 'kill-jammer' - which can 'soft kill' a drone by knocking out its communications or a 'hard kill' by shooting it down with a laser from up to two miles away - and may use this prototypical technology. It remains unknown when the debacle will end and normal service will be resumed and how the drone fiasco will be drawn to a close. Frequency jammers and early warning systems are common near US runways but are seldom employed in the UK. Communication between the drone and the operator can also be used to pinpoint its location through triangulation, in a similar way to mobile phone tracking. Police are having difficulty locating the operator as the drone disappears when they close in with via triangulation. The process requires constant connection and if it is lost, so is the location of the perpetrator. As the drone disappears the signal vanishes and police are then unable to narrow down the location of the suspect. Radio transmitters operate with a specific frequency range, one that has been set aside for RC car/aircraft use. If the drone is recovered, it should be a formality for the authorities to successfully identify the other component. Physical methods of destroying the troublesome drone focus around two main ideas; a physical destruction of the device and a communications block which will see the drone lose contact with its controller and drop out the sky. In May, London Southend Airport tested an anti-drone system which uses a combination of radio frequency and optical sensors to detect nearby drones. The week-long trial using Metis Aerospace's Skyperion product saw test drones flown within a 2.5-mile (4km) radius of the airport in Essex - 40 miles away from London - for the two sensors to pick up, and it was said to have been a success. In August, it was revealed that the British Army had bought an Israeli anti-drone system, which will be used to protect sensitive facilities in the UK. The Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars technology by Rada Electronic Industrials is said to provide 360-degree surveillance and be able to detect drones 3.5km (2.2 miles) away. The Drone Dome, in which the technology is embedded, can disable an airborne drone in two seconds from its five kilowatt 'hard kill laser effector'. Meanwhile a system developed by three British companies which is capable of jamming signals on unmanned aerial vehicle was trialled in its first public test by the US Federal Aviation Authority in June 2016. The Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) system - built by Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter - uses high powered radio waves to disable drones, effectively blocking their communication and switching them off in mid-air. More recently in November 2017, a 'detective early warning system' and 'drone interference system' against unmanned aerial vehicles was trialled at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in China, which has also faced issues with drones near airports. The Cangqin system - which can work in all weather conditions - can monitor a low-altitude airspace five miles (8km) in diameter, and locate a drone three seconds after it becomes operative within the supervised range. Earlier this year, China demonstrated the capability of its drone-killing lasers have successfully destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from 1,000 feet (300 metres) away. Back in Britain, research funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) found that a drone weighing 400g (14oz) could smash a helicopter windscreen, and one weighing 2kg (4lbs) could critically damage an airliner's windscreen.[SEP]Two people have been arrested in connection with the "criminal use of drones" which caused major disruption at Gatwick Airport. More than 100,000 Christmas travellers were affected when hundreds of flights were grounded from Wednesday night to early on Friday. Flights were temporarily suspended again on Friday evening when another drone was spotted near the airfield. Sussex Police said two people had been arrested shortly after 10pm on Friday "as part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport". "Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics," Superintendent James Collis said. "We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice. "The arrests we have made this evening are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm, every line of enquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers." A Gatwick Airport spokeswoman confirmed flights had resumed on Friday evening after being suspended for more than an hour. Military measures were in place which meant it was safe to fly despite the "confirmed sighting", the spokeswoman said, The airport faced a total shutdown all of Thursday and part of Wednesday night when drones repeatedly violated its perimeter. Some passengers described freezing conditions as they slept on benches or on the airport floor. Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft had offered a £10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and charge of the drone operator. Gatwick is Britain's second busiest airport and serves more than 43 million passengers a year.[SEP]Two people have been arrested in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport, police announced last night. The two suspects were held on Friday night after another day of chaos at the airport which saw dozens more flights cancelled and passengers thrown into chaos just days before Christmas. Planes were grounded again at 5pm when a drone was sighted above the airfield before air traffic resumed with severe delays on Friday night. One flight from Morocco appeared to be just moments away from landing when it was forced to divert only 1,000 feet above the ground last night while other passengers were sitting ready for take-off when pilots told them of another sighting. Just over an hour later Gatwick said planes had returned to the air, saying the 'military measures in place at the airport' would ensure the safety of passengers. At least 25 flights were cancelled with others severely delayed while trackers suggested planes were being diverted to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow. The Army had earlier used jamming devices in the hope of knocking the drone out of the sky as police scoured the Sussex countryside in a bit to find the culprit. Police said they were closing in on the pilots who allegedly used 'multiple' drones to shut down Gatwick's runway and are even claimed to have taunted officers by zooming over their heads while flashing lights at them. Last night Sussex Police said in a statement: 'As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm. 'Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics. 'We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice. 'The arrests we have made this evening are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm, every line of enquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers.' On the third day of the Gatwick crisis: • None 20 police units from two different forces and three helicopters searched for the drone culprits while the Army brought in specialist equipment including a jammer; • None Flights resumed yesterday morning with almost 150 flights called off before the drone was sighted again at around 5pm, forcing even more cancellations; • None Experts said the saboteur and any accomplices would have needed sophisticated modification or hacking to bypass airport security; • None Police said the drone had been sighted 50 times since the runway at Gatwick was first closed on Wednesday night ; • None There were calls for tougher legislation against criminal drone pilots, who can only be jailed for up to five years in the UK. After Friday evening's disruption Gatwick Airport said: 'Flights have now resumed at Gatwick following a reported drone in the area. 'While we investigated, airfield movements were suspended. This was a precautionary measure as safety remains our main priority. 'The military measures we have in place at the airport have provided us with the reassurance necessary that it is safe to reopen our airfield.' Flights had resumed yesterday morning after all 760 scheduled journeys were cancelled on Thursday, wrecking festive plans for 110,000 people left stranded at the airport. Amid Friday evening's chaos Southern and Thameslink train services also reported problems because of a points failure between Horsham and Gatwick station. Passengers were left with Christmas plans ruined, with some forced to abandon holidays abroad while others struggled to return to the UK in time for December 25. Lena Balbek, 38, a project manager from Kiev who was visiting an agency in London, has been trying to return home since Thursday. She said her flight with Ukraine International Airlines was re-scheduled for 7pm on Friday but it has now been pushed back until 10pm. Asked about the closure and subsequent reopening of the airport, she said: 'These things happen. You don't have insurance for such things, it could happen. The well-being of passengers is the most important, I trust the security to do whatever they have to do.' Ms Balbek said she paid for a hotel on Thursday night and does not expect to recover the costs. 'I'm disappointed it's been pushed back but we're alive and if they tell us it's okay, then I'll feel safe,' she added. Wayne McAffee and his family were due to travel to Belfast via Gatwick on Thursday after 10 days at Disneyland in Orlando. The 35-year-old, who lives in South Africa but is originally from Ireland, said they missed their connecting easyJet flight due to delays. He said they were moved onto a different flight, which was cancelled as they stood in the check-in line, and have now booked a flight to Dublin with Aer Lingus from Heathrow on Saturday morning. Mr McAfee said: 'I'm sure (the airport and airline) are not enjoying this situation, I don't think it's their fault. 'I'm sure everyone is working their hardest, you can see the ladies at the desk have to deal with disappointment from people. I think everyone is doing their best. 'I'm not saying it's a positive experience but there's no point getting upset. Whoever is doing the drones, I'm angrier at them.' Another passenger had to fork out thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket from New York to get back to the UK from New York after her flight could not reach Gatwick on Friday morning. Scarlette Tidy was booked on a Norwegian Air flight to Gatwick but by the time she was told the trip was cancelled, all the airline's flights to London were sold out until after Christmas. With passengers waiting two hours for a 'live chat' on Norwegian's website she was forced to spend over $3,000 - several times what she had originally paid - to reach her family in time for Christmas. She said the experience had been a 'total disaster' but that she was now en route back to London. Another passenger, Emma Jewell, told MailOnline she and her boyfriend were stranded in the Dominican Republic after her flight to Gatwick had been cancelled. She said the airline had rebooked them on a flight to Heathrow via Philadelphia, but her boyfriend's ESTA for the United States did not come through in time and they could not board the flight. The couple then boarded a flight to New York only to find there was a problem with the air conditioning, leaving them waiting on the tarmac and certain to miss their connection to the UK. The cat and mouse game with police started at 9pm on Wednesday with drones deliberately flown over officers and the Gatwick control tower while flashing on-board lights before heading for the runway if officials tried to reopen it. They appeared to have vanished on Thursday night after the Army used a high-tech 'drone dome' defence system that features a tracking system and a 'kill-jammer' that cuts a drone's communications and seizes its controls. A similar arsenal of weapons was used by British and US forces to help liberate Mosul in Iraq and neutralise ISIS drones - but passengers trapped at Gatwick are furious the weapons were not brought in earlier. Security and defence consultant Declan Power told MailOnline: 'The Gatwick situation is a very worrying development as it seems to involve technology which you can buy over the counter and has managed to cause major disruption to one of the UK's busiest airports. 'I am astounded that electronic countermeasures were not in place to prevent drones from approaching the airport. 'The level of disruption caused means that airports across the world have to learn from this. How was someone able to close down a major airport for more than 36 hours. 'Police and security services are going to be highly embarrassed by these incidents. A major weak point in airline security has been identified. The person behind this seems happy to cause major disruption rather than attack aircraft. 'But as the conflict in Syria has shown, it is not difficult to weaponise a drone which could be used in a terrorist attack. Airlines should be concerned. 'The important lesson is the need to deploy effective electronic counter measures and to learn from these incidents.' Earlier ACC Barry insisted that police snipers dotted along the runway earlier yesterday had 'no opportunity' to open fire at the drones - but would bring them down with shotguns if they returned and Army battlefield technology brought in last night fails. ACC Barry continued: 'We're working on the assumption that there was more than one drone operating around Gatwick in the last 48 hours. 'In terms of how many perpetrators, there's a number of lines of enquiry, there's an ongoing investigation, we're pursuing that trying to find out who has been responsible for this really malicious criminal behaviour.' He said there had been no opportunities to shoot down the drones, explaining: 'We have to consider whether it's safe to do so, it has to be dynamically assessed at the time, in terms of the risk, and we have to assess whether it's going to be efficient, effective, how likely it's going to be we're going to be able to take the drone out. 'I have to say on the range of options we've got available, shooting the drone out of the sky is probably one of the least effective options. It doesn't mean to say it's impossible, which is why we've got the option available to us should the option become available.' Mr Barry said the drones could have been operated from a fair distance away, but police are focusing on 'likely locations in and around the airport'. Addressing the problems with identifying suspects, he added: 'It's the remoteness between the officer and the drone and over the whole area around Gatwick does make it really difficult to link the drone to the operator.' The chaos at Britain's second busiest airport has threatened the Christmas holiday plans of up to 350,000 people. A jet carrying children to Lapland was the first plane to take-off at 6.30am this morning - and 700 more flights carrying more than 120,000 people are scheduled today. But at least 110,000 passengers have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors for up to two nights with the backlog unlikely to be cleared until Christmas Eve. Critics have also blasted the police, who chose not to shoot a drone down despite having snipers dotted along the runway all day yesterday. Gatwick is currently in a row with neighbours and environmental groups after submitting a £500million plan to use its emergency runway for hundreds of extra flights every day from around 2024. ACC Barry said measures to tackle the drones now include 'technical, sophisticated options to detect and mitigate drone incursions, all the way down to less sophisticated options - even shotguns would be available to officers should the opportunity present itself.' When asked about a possible motive Mr Barry said today: 'There's a whole spectrum of possibilities, from the really high-end criminal behaviour that we've seen, all the way down to potential individuals trying to be malicious, trying to disrupt the airport. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is also under pressure to explain why Britain's second busiest airport has no anti-drone systems despite being early warning systems and jammers being common in the United States. Mr Grayling has insisted Britain is facing a 'new threat' - but today it emerged Gatwick has been troubled by drones near the runway three times in the past 18 months. Grace Lyons, who was at the airport for 29 hours, said: 'It's an absolute mess. It's very worrying that a few drones can shut down an airport for so long. It's very likely this will happen again.' Jack Taylor tweeted: 'No flights for 34 hours at Gatwick why the f*** didn't they just shoot it down? I've seen drones come down off someone throwing a toilet roll at it, why did it take so long have I missed something??' Aimee Trowell tweeted: 'How embarrassing that the police and Gatwick airport have let this go on so long! How can a couple of idiots with drones cause so much chaos #LondonGatwick #dronesgatwick'. The re-opening of the runway came after the final sighting of the drone at 10pm last night, which had buzzed over the airport more than 50 times since 9pm on Wednesday during the most disruptive airport trespass in UK history. Detectives are investigating if the pilot is a 'lone wolf eco warrior' bent on grounding jets for environmental reasons and are scouring the area around the airport. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted today it could have been a larger gang of climate change activists flying several drones and refused to rule out the chance a hostile foreign country could be behind the Gatwick drone chaos. But police have warned the drone pilot could still try again with tens of thousands forced to sleep in the airport for two nights still waiting to hear if they will get away for Christmas. Yesterday Gatwick confirmed that 'additional mitigating measures' were working and had given them 'reassurance' to re-open the runway at Britain's second busiest airport. A spokesman said: 'There are knock-on delays and cancellations to flights and we strongly recommend that you check the status of your flight with your airline before setting out for the airport today'. Gatwick was at a complete standstill on Wednesday as 760 flights were grounded and 110,000 completely stranded with up to 400,000 more people booked in to fly the end of Sunday. The drone flights are 'highly targeted' and have 'been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas', the airport said. Bosses are still warning passengers not to travel to the UK's second busiest - and the world's busiest single runway airport - before checking with their airline first. But police now have 'a number of options' around its perimeter to help prevent further disruption, Sussex Police assistant chief constable Steve Barry said today. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, a plane landed at Gatwick from East Midlands Airport at 5.58am on Friday morning followed by a long-haul jet from China after all 760 flights on Thursday were cancelled. The first flight to depart left at 6.33am, carrying families to meet Santa at Lapland. Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the airport has scheduled almost 700 departures for today. Mr Woodroofe, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said: 'Our advice to our passengers is to check with their airline on each of those flights that they're intending to get, to establish whether it's one of the flights that's being operated or one of the flights that's being cancelled, before they come to the airport. 'I'd just like to apologise to all of those affected over the last 36 hours - 120,000 passengers who were due to fly to their destinations or arrive into Gatwick who have not travelled.' Mr Woodroofe was pressed on why the airport had decided to reschedule flights while the drone had not been found, he said: 'We have been working overnight with the police, with a number Government agencies and with the military to put in place additional mitigating measures which have enabled me to reopen our airport.' Asked if the 'mitigating measures' meant the drone would be shot down, he said: 'You'll appreciate that there are certain things I can't talk about in detail.' Mr Woodroofe said he hopes the airport will be back to normal by the end of Saturday. 'We are now operating at almost normal runway conditions and the challenge for the airlines, as the result of this disruption, their planes are not all in the right place,' he said. 'So what we'll be doing today is recovering their operations so by tomorrow we are back to standard operation and continue to recover the situation for our passengers.' He added: 'Last night working with a number of government agencies and the military we were able to put in place a number of additional mitigating actions which gave me the confidence to re-open Gatwick Airport this morning. 'We now have passengers arriving and departing. We are very much hoping to run a schedule today. It's going to be disruptive. Passengers are going to be delayed. And every passenger should check with their airline before they come to the airport. 'We are very much hoping to get 100,000 passengers on their way to destinations and back into Gatwick Airport so we can begin to recover from this 36 hour incident and get those passengers to their destinations in time for Christmas.' Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said 'military capability' has been employed to combat a drone at Gatwick Airport. Pressed on whether that meant 'lasers, drone catching nets or radio wave fences', he said: 'There are new technologies that are now available, some purely in the military arena, some beginning to appear on the commercial market that are able to take action against drones. 'There isn't a single off the shelf commercial solution that does the job and so what's happened is a variety of things have been done to create a sense, create that degree of confidence that Gatwick is now safe to fly in and out of.' Mr Grayling, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said this was an 'unprecedented' situation as he rejected the idea that police could simply 'shoot down' the drone. He said: 'There is a experience recently elsewhere in the world of literally thousands of machine gun bullets being used to try and bring down the drone, failing to do so and of course you can't just fire weapons haphazardly in what is a built up area around the airport'. Pilots' union Balpa said it understood detection and tracking equipment had been installed around Gatwick's perimeter and that if the drones reappear the airport will close again. General secretary, Brian Strutton, said: 'It is up to the relevant authorities to decide whether it is safe to re-open Gatwick given that the rogue drone is still around and may be expected to fly again. 'Balpa is not aware that any special advice has been given to pilots operating into or out of Gatwick and so we have this morning ensured that all our UK pilots have Balpa's advice on what to do if they see a drone while flying. 'Balpa remains extremely concerned at the risk of a drone collision. It is possible that the rogue drones may go undetected around the perimeter or could obstruct the flight paths outside the immediate detection zone. 'Given this continuing threat we have this morning issued our advice to pilots about steps to be taken if a drone is sighted.' Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's CEO, said on Thursday it 'cannot be right' that a major international airport could be targeted in this way. He said: 'On behalf of everyone at Gatwick I would like to repeat how sorry we are for the inconvenience this criminal behaviour has caused passengers and we share their real anger and frustration that it has happened. 'This is a highly targeted activity which has been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run-up to Christmas. 'Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities. The £2.6m Israeli 'Drone Dome' system that the Army used to defeat the Gatwick UAV after the technology was developed to fight ISIS in Syria The Army used a cutting-edge Israeli anti-drone system to destroy the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that brought misery to hundreds of thousands of people at Gatwick airport. The British Army bought six 'Drone Dome' systems for £15.8 million in 2018 and the technology is used in Syria to destroy ISIS UAVs. Police had been seen on Thursday with an off-the-shelf DJI system that tracks drones made by that manufacturer and shows officers where the operator is (DJI is the most popular commercial drone brand.) However, the drone used at Gatwick is thought to have been either hacked or an advanced non-DJI drone, which rendered the commercial technology used by the police useless. At that point, the Army's 'Drone Dome' system made by Rafael was called in. Details of the system are publicly available. Army officers use a high-tech radar and a laser rangefinder to locate drones within a 2.1 and 6.2 miles radius. Once the system has a lock on the drone, a radio frequency jammer is then used to overload the drone with signals - knocking out the commands from the unknown owner. This can be used to make a 'soft-kill' and cease control of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and land it safely. The system also comes with a high-powered laser which can make a 'hard-kill' on drones by effectively melting them, but the British Army did not buy this version. George Burne, a UAV strategist at COPTRZ, a commercial drone firm based in Leeds, told MailOnline that the likely way the Gatwick saga concluded was with the criminal's capture. COPTRZ supply high-end commercial drones as well as anti-drone technology. The DJI Aerospace AeroScope device, a briefcase-sized machine with two protruding antennae, was spotted being used by police on a rooftop around Gatwick. It is a complex piece of equipment which is designed to detect drones by manipulating the radio frequency it is operated on. It allows authorities to piggybacks this signal without the operator knowing with a 'sleeper-bot'. With sufficient time, specialists can utilise the GPS capacity of the drone to identify the location of the perpetrator, where the drone is, its make and model and also the flight-path the machine has been on. Once police have this information, they are able to active a feature which is in-built in all drones known as 'return to home'. This ground-based device is used throughout industry and at many events to ensure protection from drones. 'The detection system is able to pick up frequencies from up to 20 km (12 miles) away and gives a huge radius to spot the machines,' Mr Burne told MailOnline. 'By identifying the signal the drone uses the authorities would be able to know everything about the drone and its operator.' Hunt to find who is behind the drone chaos: Ministers refuse to rule out foreign power as police probe theories that eco warrior or extremist activists caused Gatwick mayhem and ruined Christmas for thousands A lone wolf eco-warrior or a group of climate change activists could be behind the most damaging drone assault on a UK airport in history. Airports are prime targets for environmental demonstrators who have chained hemsleves to aircraft, invaded runways and blocked access roads in recent years. The sabotage which grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands stranded is believed to have been 'targeted' and the sophistication of the equipment involved suggests it was well-planned and financed. Gatwick is currently at the centre of a bitter row over plans to use its emergency runway to bring more than 100,000 additional flights a year. Police investigating the attack do not think it is terror related but Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today refused to rule out it being the actions of a foreign state. Asked if it was possible the drone was being operated by an agent of a foreign government, Mr Grayling told BBC Breakfast: 'I don't want to speculate on that, we genuinely don't know who it is or what the motivation was.' 'I think it's unlikely to be, but at the moment I'm not ruling out anything', he added. The Cabinet minister also said that whoever the perpetrator or perpetrators were, they needed to 'go to jail for a long time'. If no foreign agent was involved, that suggests three possibilities are among potential suspects; an organised campaign group, a lone eco-extremist or an anarchic hobbyist looking to cause carnage. The most high-profile 'direct action' groups in the UK include Extinction Rebellion, who shut down central London in anti-traffic protests last month, and Plane Stupid, whose members chained themselves to Heathrow's runway in 2015. Speaking to MailOnline amid a protest outside BBC Broadcasting House today, an Extinction Rebellion spokesman said: 'We want to bring the climate emergency up to the top of the agenda in the media.' The spokesman added that her group had nothing to do with the drone. She added that the police had not been in contact with them about the incident at Gatwick. Meanwhile 15 activists are facing jail after storming into Stansted Airport and grounding a Home Office deportation plane heading to Africa in March 2017. The group caused chaos using bolt cutters on the perimeter fence and chained themselves to a 767 chartered to transport detainees from UK detention centres back to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. They will be sentenced on February 4. But nobody has yet claimed responsibility, raising suspicions that it a saboteur acting alone. Sussex Police, whose officers patrol the airport, today revealed that Scotland Yard and officers from neighbouring Surrey Police have joined the manhunt. Steve Coulson, managing director of drone detection firm Coptrz, said it appeared to be a 'targeted attack' that could have originated abroad. He told the Times: 'The operator may not even be in the country. You can have a secure internet link from China or Russia and control it remotely, just like we control drones remotely from Arizona and fly them over Afghanistan. 'I'm surprised how brazen this is. I thought we might get some low-level stuff this year but somebody or some group are pushing the envelope.' Some 350,000 people face having their Christmas plans ruined as disruption continued at Gatwick today. Drone expert Carys Kaiser told MailOnline: 'It's definitely not a hobbyist who's thinking I'll get some extra footage from a YouTube channel. 'It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because obviously the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have this geofencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport. 'So this is somebody that has possibly hacked their software or possibly modified their drone in some way.' Ms Kaiser added: '[The manufacturers] have all developed this software to ensure that people can't just take a drone near an airport and take off. 'You get lock zones, so you'll get a yellow zone that could be a stately home or a football ground - it will say to you do you have permission, and you have to put in details and the manufacturer knows who it is, and if there was an incident they could trace it. 'When you get an airport that's a red zone, and you can't unlock it unless you get written permission from an airport. You have to submit documentation, wait for five days and then you get an unlock code so you can fly. 'As with anything that's malicious, people will hack the software, modify the drones to get around all of that. If you've got malicious intent, you've got a malicious mind, you don't abide by the rules.' A former Army captain told The Sun that the attacker had showed 'some serious capability' and could be a 'genius' with a PhD. Richard Gill said: 'Perhaps we are dealing with a person who just wants to do it to show how clever they are. 'He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits. It's the thrill of getting away with it.' No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but officials are said to be working on the theory the saboteur could be an 'eco-warrior'. A Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that an eco-protest was a 'definite line of inquiry'. Environmental activist groups have previously targeted airports, in particular to protest the proposed expansion of Heathrow. When asked why someone would want to disrupt the airport, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: 'There's no sense of motive - there's no suggestion that this is a terrorist act. 'The counter-terrorist police have been very clear that they've seen no evidence that this is intended to be a terrorist act. It's clearly someone who wants to disrupt Gatwick Airport and there's an intense police operation. 'We've got two police forces in Surrey and Sussex working together to try and catch the perpetrator, supported by the Met, supported by the counter-terrorism police and no evidence of a terrorist link at the moment.' Sussex Police also said that 'our assessment, based upon the information that we have available to us, is that this incident is not terrorism-related'. Couple who face cancelling their wedding in Morocco are among the thousands of passengers STILL waiting to jet off for Christmas after being caught in the Gatwick drone chaos A couple due to be married tomorrow and their wedding party face further uncertainty at Gatwick Airport following severe flight disruption caused by drones. Bride-to-be Tayo Abraham and her partner Ope Odedine were due to fly to Marrakesh in Morocco on Wednesday alongside nine family and friends. The group boarded the Air Arabia flight, due to depart at 8.40pm, and were kept onboard 'in the dark' until 2am. Gatwick's runway only reopened at 6am today having been shut since Wednesday night due to devices flying over it, with chief executive officer Stewart Wingate saying they were designed to 'close the airport and bring maximum disruption'. Thousands of families faced heartache as the chaos at Gatwick left holiday plans in ruins. Children wept as they learned their flights were cancelled, and plans for family reunions were abandoned, just days before Christmas. Some were left in limbo, waiting for hours at the packed airport to learn if their flights would finally go ahead. Tempers frayed as stranded passengers crammed into every available space, and berated airline staff for the lack of any updates. Miss Abraham, 31, a contractor from Glasgow, said: 'It's been a year that we've been planning this, we can't start rearranging the wedding. 'It's sad because it's Christmas time and people are trying to get to loved ones. Everything has been disrupted but aside from the cost it's the emotional side, the trauma.' The group, including a four-year-old and a one-year-old, booked a hotel for the night after passengers were told to return to the airport at 11am yesterday. Following another day of disruption, Ms Abraham and her fiance then booked an alternative flight from Manchester Airport for this morning at a cost of over £1,000. She said they may have to 'trim' back on guests as the additional cost of rebooking flights was too high for everyone to pay. She said: 'Most of the guests are there already. We have to be there. I just want to get there and get this over with, but it will be disappointing for everyone that isn't able to travel.' The couple are due to fly back on December 26, with other members due to return to the UK on Sunday. Ms Abraham's uncle Baba Sanwo, from San Diego, flew into Heathrow from the US on Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday's flight, hoping to travel as a family. The 63-year-old said he had been sat on the floor of Gatwick for over five hours. He said: 'I'm uncomfortable, cold and hungry. What if there are people on medication, what if there was a wedding today?' Stella Phillips, the bride-to-be's aunt, from London, said: 'There's no information. Gatwick have been fine but they don't have any information for you, they say go to your airline.' The 41-year-old said the group paid £300 for the hotel on Wednesday and they are unsure whether they can recover the costs. Mrs Phillips said: 'This kind of thing can be avoided. You're saying you're trying to prevent loss of life, but you know it's a drone. 'Couldn't they have brought the military in ages ago? It might take another 24 hours for them to do what they want to do.' Meanwhile Gisele Fenech, 43, who was travelling to Malta, was among those stranded at the airport yesterday. 'We're meeting family and it's my daughter's birthday today so it's gone all wrong. We've been looking forward to this for so long,' she told AFP. 'Everyone's trying to get home for Christmas.' Musab Rashid, 22, who was going to Copenhagen, said: 'It's wrong, it's childish of them to do this, because it's affected more than 100,000 people.' Meanwhile Andrew and Siv Ravenscroft were on their way to a Christmas family reunion in Norway with children Anders, 12, and nine-year-old Erica. The family had flown from their home in Jersey to Gatwick on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Oslo, but their first flight was diverted to Stansted, where their plane was kept on the tarmac for three hours. They paid £180 for a taxi from Stansted to Gatwick, only to find that their next flight from Gatwick to Oslo had been cancelled. In desperation, the family spent another £1,000 for four tickets from Heathrow on a flight today. Mr Ravenscroft, 50, said: 'When we landed at Stansted we were stuck on the tarmac for three hours. 'People were shouting, saying they just wanted to get off. 'We were told there would be three coaches to get us to Gatwick, but there was nothing. We had to pay £180 for a taxi. 'We finally arrived at 3.30am for a 9am flight. They let us check our bags in so we thought we were travelling, then they called us to the gate and gave them back. 'We've now paid £1,000 for four one-way tickets to Norway for Friday morning from Heathrow. We're worried there will be a knock-on effect at other airports and we might not even make it.' He added: 'The drone is really worrying. Anything could have been dropped on the runway. It's no wonder they take it so seriously.' Pensioners Robert and Susan Pocknell were due to fly to Spain for Christmas. They arrived at Gatwick shortly before 4am but were greeted by scenes of chaos, and had to join a massive queue to try to change flights. After queuing for almost four hours, the couple from Hillingdon, West London, had moved barely 20ft in the queue, which stretched around the south terminal. Mr Pocknell, 78, said: 'Everybody was arguing. There was no organisation whatsoever. No one even showed us where this queue was, we had to find it ourselves. 'We're going on a package holiday so I'm worried if we don't get to Malaga before Sunday we'll lose our room and won't have a hotel to stay in. I just want a refund and a new flight. 'We haven't even been offered any vouchers to get a bottle of water. It's a shambles.' His 70-year-old wife added: 'We're British, so we just have to smile and get on with it. I'm more peeved that I might have to go home and cook.' The scramble to get home for Christmas: Thousands of passengers stranded across the world by Gatwick drone chaos fear they may be stuck as far as 4,100 miles away for festive season British air passengers stranded around the world are facing a scramble to get home for Christmas as the shockwaves from Gatwick's drone chaos spread around the globe. The closure of Britain's second busiest airport for more than 30 hours yesterday due to a rogue drone pilot saw scores of flights cancelled and many passengers left in limbo after being diverted to other terminals in Europe. Those trapped in foreign airports spoke of being forced to sleep on floors and visa complications as the knock-on effects hit other terminals. Worse still, the huge backlog of flights now waiting to fly into Gatwick means many people stuck abroad face a nervous wait to see if they'll get home for the holidays. Many are having to fork out for alternative flights, often hopping around the globe in a bid to eventually return to Britain. Among those stranded abroad are 27 schoolgirls from the Bruton School in Somerset. They were due to be back with their families last night, but had to stay on in Innsbruck, Austria following a ski trip. Teachers are hoping they can get on a flight today to return to their anxious parents. More than 120,000 passengers were unable to either take off or land at the airport from 9pm on Wednesday and throughout Thursday. A further 126,000 passengers were due to travel today, but 145 out of the scheduled 837 flights have already been cancelled as aircraft are out of position and the airport's operations are restricted to just a few departures and arrivals per hour. Holidaymakers who went on pre-Christmas breaks to the Caribbean face long delays in getting back. Some are now flying to New York, before transferring on flights to Europe and then getting Eurostar trains to London, with some journeys planned over three days. Londoner Jennifer, who is stuck in Jamaica, tweeted Gatwick bosses saying: 'I would like to get home for Christmas, but I'm stranded abroad at the moment. Is there any chance you could shoot the drones down?' Dan Walters, from Wales, posted online: 'Flight from Antigua to Gatwick cancelled this evening. Now having to fly to New York tomorrow and then on to Heathrow.' However, he saw the funny side, joking: 'There are worse places to be stranded though..' Jon Carles and his partner are stuck in Lanzarote. Speaking yesterday, he told MailOnline: 'We were supposed to be to flying back to Gatwick today with EasyJet, but no one knows what's going on here and what's going to happen. 'Managed to get through to easyJet after 45 minutes on hold and they told us to wait until 6pm and see what happens. And if gets cancelled we can't get a flight back with them for 48hours.' One flyer hoping to reach London had to land in Paris - where he was told that he'd be diverted back to the UK on a bus. Others paid for hotels in the French capital out of their own pockets after failing to get information from their airlines. Corinne Roberts said that her parents-in-law were stuck in a departure lounge in Brussels as their visa don't allow them to enter the country beyond that point. Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris. After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without - 'about 20 per cent' - were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said. 'There were families with babies who couldn't get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff,' he said. 'We were asking just for a favour if (airport staff) could help but they said they couldn't do anything.' Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said. 'To be honest, I'm so tired and when the guys from the fire (service) came with the bottles and blankets I was feeling like a war, like (I was) a refugee, but I'm just flying to the UK. 'It's surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets.' Those who didn't find themselves stuck abroad had to land more than 100 miles from their destination once they made their way back to the UK. Chris Lister, from Somerset, who owns an online business, was travelling back from Kiev with his wife Freya. He was due to land at Gatwick at 9.45pm yesterday but ended up trapped on the plane on the tarmac at Birmingham Airport until 6am. 'There were quite a few babies and kids on board, I think they were struggling more than we were and one woman had run out milk,' he said. After starting his journey in Bangkok on Tuesday he was finally let off the plane at 6am, he said. Gareth Jones praised easyJet's response to the chaos, telling MailOnline: 'My son was due to fly home from Salzburg this morning on an Easyjet flight that was obviously cancelled. 'They have transferred him to the same flight tomorrow and put him up in a four-star hotel, with meals, overnight. 'Fortunately, he has no work commitments or time issues so it's not a bad deal at the end of the day. easyJet get some bad press but this is good service on their part.' Sally Gardiner, who is in Nice, France, said: 'The problems caused by this malicious person extend way beyond Gatwick. My son was to join me in Nice today for a break before Christmas. 'I don't see him very often so my disappointment is immense. 'I have also paid in advance for his accommodation. 'I have French friends who were due to fly from Nice to Gatwick tomorrow for connecting flight to USA to spend Christmas with families there. The knock on effect is massive.' Killer lasers, high-tech jammers or tracking the signal: How the police could destroy the Gatwick drone of misery... so why haven't they already? The criminal who is illegally flying a drone at Gatwick Airport is being hunted by police and military personnel using cutting-edge technology. Gatwick has been brought to a standstill in the wake of the rogue drone terrorising the airport. Several methods have been developed including laser-laden drones, high-tech jammers and tracking the signal via triangulation which may be used to end the fiasco. Human snipers have also been brought in to help with the pursuit of the drone. The Army has been working on a 'Drone Dome' or 'kill-jammer' - which can 'soft kill' a drone by knocking out its communications or a 'hard kill' by shooting it down with a laser from up to two miles away - and may use this prototypical technology. It remains unknown when the debacle will end and normal service will be resumed and how the drone fiasco will be drawn to a close. Frequency jammers and early warning systems are common near US runways but are seldom employed in the UK. Communication between the drone and the operator can also be used to pinpoint its location through triangulation, in a similar way to mobile phone tracking. Police are having difficulty locating the operator as the drone disappears when they close in with via triangulation. The process requires constant connection and if it is lost, so is the location of the perpetrator. As the drone disappears the signal vanishes and police are then unable to narrow down the location of the suspect. Radio transmitters operate with a specific frequency range, one that has been set aside for RC car/aircraft use. If the drone is recovered, it should be a formality for the authorities to successfully identify the other component. Physical methods of destroying the troublesome drone focus around two main ideas; a physical destruction of the device and a communications block which will see the drone lose contact with its controller and drop out the sky. In May, London Southend Airport tested an anti-drone system which uses a combination of radio frequency and optical sensors to detect nearby drones. The week-long trial using Metis Aerospace's Skyperion product saw test drones flown within a 2.5-mile (4km) radius of the airport in Essex - 40 miles away from London - for the two sensors to pick up, and it was said to have been a success. In August, it was revealed that the British Army had bought an Israeli anti-drone system, which will be used to protect sensitive facilities in the UK. The Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars technology by Rada Electronic Industrials is said to provide 360-degree surveillance and be able to detect drones 3.5km (2.2 miles) away. The Drone Dome, in which the technology is embedded, can disable an airborne drone in two seconds from its five kilowatt 'hard kill laser effector'. Meanwhile a system developed by three British companies which is capable of jamming signals on unmanned aerial vehicle was trialled in its first public test by the US Federal Aviation Authority in June 2016. The Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) system - built by Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter - uses high powered radio waves to disable drones, effectively blocking their communication and switching them off in mid-air. More recently in November 2017, a 'detective early warning system' and 'drone interference system' against unmanned aerial vehicles was trialled at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in China, which has also faced issues with drones near airports. The Cangqin system - which can work in all weather conditions - can monitor a low-altitude airspace five miles (8km) in diameter, and locate a drone three seconds after it becomes operative within the supervised range. Earlier this year, China demonstrated the capability of its drone-killing lasers have successfully destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from 1,000 feet (300 metres) away. Back in Britain, research funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) found that a drone weighing 400g (14oz) could smash a helicopter windscreen, and one weighing 2kg (4lbs) could critically damage an airliner's windscreen.[SEP]Thousands of people have been stranded at one of the UK’s busiest airports because of several drones spotted in the area. Sussex Police reported that the drones were “a deliberate act to disrupt the airport” but they are not treating it as terror-related[SEP]UK police say 2 people arrested for suspected 'criminal use of drones' in Gatwick Airport case LONDON (AP) — UK police say 2 people arrested for suspected 'criminal use of drones' in Gatwick Airport case.

Two people are arrested by Sussex Police and charged with "criminal use of drones".

Image copyright AFP Image caption The injured were transferred to a hospital in Kohalpur, Nepal At least 23 people died in Nepal when a bus carrying students and their teachers back from a botanical trip ran off a road and plunged 700m (2,300ft) into a ravine. Another 14 people were injured in the crash in Dang district, western Nepal. Most of the victims were students aged between 16 and 20, officials said. Two teachers and the driver also died. The cause of Friday's crash appeared to be speeding, a police spokesman told AFP news agency. The students and teachers were from the Krishna Sen Ichchhuk Polytechnic in Ghorahi, Dang district, the Kathmandu Post reported. They had been returning from a visit to a farm when the bus veered off the road near Ramri village. Police said the bus had been carrying 37 people. Road accidents are common in Nepal, usually caused by bad roads, poorly maintained vehicles and reckless driving. Last week 20 people died when a lorry carrying mourners from a funeral plunged into a river in central Nepal.[SEP]KATHMANDU: At least 16 students on an educational tour were killed and 12 others injured on Friday when a bus plunged into a ravine in western Nepal's Dang district. Around 31 students and teachers of the Krishnasen Icchuk Technical School in Ghorahi were returning from a tour of a botanical garden in Salyan when the bus fell around 400 meters down into the ravine killing 16 people, police said. Authorities and first responders rescued twelve injured persons and took them to Rapti Zonal Hospital for treatment.[SEP]Twenty-three people were killed in southwestern Nepal when a bus carrying students and teachers back from a field trip veered off a road and plunged into a gorge on Friday, PTI reported. The bus was carrying 37 people – 34 students, two teachers and a driver. Police officer Prem Bahadur Shahi told Al Jazeera that the bus was returning to Ghorahi town from an educational trip to Dang district when the accident took place near Tulsipur town on Friday. “It plunged about 700 metres below the road,” Shahi said, adding that the bodies of 16 people have been recovered so far. Police said 14 people who were injured in the incident are undergoing treatment at a local hospital, reported The Kathmandu Post. “Our preliminary investigation shows the cause of the incident was speed,” police officer Bel Bahadur Pandey told AFP. The students and teachers were from the Krishna Sen Ichhuk Polytechnic Institute and were visiting a farm in a nearby district for their botany field trip. Last week, 20 people were killed when a mini-truck skidded off the road in Nuwakot district in central Nepal.[SEP]Twenty-three people died in western Nepal when a bus carrying school students and teachers back from a botanical field trip plunged into a gorge, police said. The students were aged mostly between 16 and 20. Two teachers and the driver also died in the accident early evening on Friday in a remote area. The vehicle was carrying 37 people, with 22 killed at the scene and another in a nearby hospital. Fourteen people were treated for injuries. “Our preliminary investigation shows the cause of the incident was speed,” police officer Bel Bahadur Pandey told AFP. Road accidents are relatively common in Nepal because of poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving. The latest comes a week after a truck accident in central Nepal killed 20 mourners returning from a funeral ritual.[SEP]Twenty-three people died in western Nepal when a bus carrying school students and teachers back from a botanical field trip plunged into a gorge, police said. The students were aged mostly between.....Read more via Olisa.tv – http://bit.ly/2CtJKSt Get More Nigeria Metro News[SEP]A bus carrying college students and their teachers back from an educational trip veered off a mountainous road and lunged into a ravine in Nepal, killing 23 people and injuring 14 others. The fatal crash occurred on Friday when the bus was returning from Kapurkot in Salyan district. According to the District Police Office, Dang, there were 37 persons —34 students, two teachers and a diver, on the ill-fated bus, which drove off the road and fell some 700 metres down near Ramri village, about 400 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu. Fourteen persons, including five women, were injured in the incident. The students and instructors from Krishna Sen Ichhuk Polytechnic Institute had been visiting a farm for their botany project, The Kathmandu Post reported. Poor road infrastructure and reckless driving are the leading causes of accidents in Nepal.[SEP]The accident took place on Friday evening in Nepal's Dang district At least 23 people were killed and 14 injured in Nepal when a bus carrying students and their teachers back from a botanical trip ran off a road and plunged into a ravine. The accident took place on Friday evening in Nepal's Dang district. Most of the victims were students aged between 16 and 20, officials said. The bus was carrying 37 people at the time of the mishap, the police said. The students and teachers were from the Krishna Sen Ichchhuk Polytechnic Institute in Ghorahi, Dang district, the Kathmandu Post reported on Saturday. They had been returning from a visit to a farm when the bus veered off the road near Ramri village. Two teachers and the driver of the vehicle were among the dead. Road accidents are common in Nepal, usually caused due to bad roads, poorly maintained vehicles and rash driving. Last week 20 people died when a lorry carrying mourners from a funeral plunged into a river in central Nepal. 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 the 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]Kathmandu: In a tragic accident 23 persons were killed and 14 injured as the bus in which they were travelling plunged into a ravine in Nepal. The bus was carrying college students and their teachers back from an educational trip. The vehicle veered off a mountainous road and plunged into the ravine, police said. The fatal crash occurred on Friday when the bus was returning from Kapurkot in Salyan district. According to the District Police Office, Dang, there were 37 persons 34 students, two teachers and a diver, on the ill-fated bus The Kathmandu Post said the students and instructors from Krishna Sen Ichhuk Polytechnic Institute had gone to visit a farm for their botany project. Police sources said poor road condition and reckless driving are mostly responsible for accidents in Nepal.[SEP]More than 20 persons have been killed in Nepal after a bus carrying dozens of passengers including students fell into a gorge. The bus was returning from the Sallyan district to Dang, when it drove off the mountainous road and fell hundreds of meters down a cliff. Police said preliminary investigations showed that speeding was likely to have cause the crash. Around 14 people survived the fall and have been taken to the nearest hospital. The passengers were students and teachers, who were returning from a botanical field trip.[SEP]A bus carrying college students and teachers drove off a highway in a mountainous area, leaving 21 people dead and 15 injured. KATHMANDU, Nepal — A bus carrying college students and teachers drove off a highway in a mountainous area, leaving 21 people dead and 15 injured. Police said Friday the passengers were returning from an educational tour when the bus plunged down a mountainous slope and rolled about 500 meters (1,640 feet) in western Nepal. Rescue operations were difficult because the crash happened in a remote area and the wreckage was scattered. The injured were taken to hospitals for treatment. Vehicle crashes in Nepal are mostly blamed on poorly maintained vehicles and roads. The accident happened a week after truck veered off a mountain road in Nepal, killing 16 people.

At least 23 people are killed and 14 injured in Dang Deukhuri District, Nepal, when a bus carrying students and their teachers returning from a botanical trip runs off a road and plunges 700 meters into a ravine.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Fire is still raging in the shaft, hampering rescue and recovery efforts At least 13 miners have been killed and 10 more injured in a methane explosion at a Czech coal mine, officials say. Most of the victims were Polish miners provided by an agency, the state-run OKD mining company said. Thursday's blast happened 800m (2,600ft) below ground at the CSM hard-coal mine, near the eastern town of Karvina, close to the Polish border. Managing director Boleslav Kowalczyk said a search operation was being hampered by fire. "Unfortunately, we have reached a point where it was impossible to move forward, because there was a fire raging and zero visibility," he said. OKD spokesman Ivo Celechovsky told AFP news agency that 11 of the miners were Polish and the two others Czech. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is to visit the mine on Friday with his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki. "The blast at the CSM mine is a huge tragedy," Mr Babis tweeted. A minute's silence for the victims is being held in parliament on Friday, he added.[SEP]PRAGUE: The death toll from an explosion at a Czech coal mine has risen to 13, among them 11 Poles and two Czechs, the OKD mining company said on Friday (Dec 21). The state-run firm had said earlier that a methane blast more than 800m underground devastated areas of the CSM coalmine near the town of Karvina on Thursday. "Due to yesterday's mine disaster, 13 miners lost their lives - 11 Poles and two Czechs," OKD spokesman Ivo Celechovsky said at a televised news conference. The incident is the worst mining accident in the Czech Republic since 1990, when 30 miners died in a fire at a mine near Karvina, according to a list compiled by the CTK news agency. OKD said most of the victims and injured were Polish miners provided by the ALPEX company. OKD managing director Boleslav Kowalczyk said the search of the scene had had to be abandoned due to conditions in the shaft. "Unfortunately, we have reached a point where it was impossible to move forward, because there was a fire raging and zero visibility," he said.[SEP]A methane gas explosion in a coal mine in the northeast of the Czech Republic has killed 13 miners, the mining company said on Friday. OKD, the company that operates the CSM mine near the city of Karvina, said 11 of those killed were Polish miners provided by a contractor agency, while two were Czech. “Due to yesterday’s mine disaster, 13 miners lost their lives — 11 Poles and two Czechs,” OKD spokesman Ivo Celechovsky said in a televised statement. A further 10 miners were injured in the blast, with one in a critical condition, the Czech national news agency CTK reported. OKD’s managing director, Boleslav Kowalczyk, said search and rescue operations had to be called off because of poor conditions in the mine. “Unfortunately, we have reached a point where it was impossible to move forward because there was a fire raging and zero visibility,” he said in a statement. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, traveled to the mine Friday. “I wish to express words of deepest sympathy to all the close victims of the mining disaster in Karvina,” Morawiecki said on Twitter. “This is a huge tragedy for all Poles and Czechs. On this difficult day, we strongly show our solidarity and sense of national community.” “The explosion in the CSM mine is a tremendous tragedy. I would like to express my deepest condolences to the survivors,” Babis added on Twitter. The Czech leader also said he would assess what assistance his government can provide during his visit to the site on Friday. The explosion occurred 800 meters (2,625 feet) below the surface just after 5 p.m. local time on Thursday. All underground work at the hard-coal mine was immediately halted and workers were evacuated, the company said. The disaster is the worst mining accident to occur in the Czech Republic since 1990, when 30 miners died in a fire in another mine near Karvina, CTK reported.[SEP]The death toll in a methane explosion at a coal mine in the north-east of the Czech Republic has increased to 13. The death toll in a methane explosion at a coal mine in the north-east of the Czech Republic has increased to 13. OKD mining company spokesman Ivo Celechovsky said 11 of the dead were Polish nationals while two were Czechs. Another 10 miners were injured in the explosion on Thursday afternoon at the CSM mine near the town of Karvina. Previously, the death toll stood at five. Czech public television said two of the injured were still in hospital in the city of Ostrava, with one of them in critical condition. Another miner is being treated in Karvina. OKD executive director Boleslav Kowalczyk said rescue efforts sre continuing on Friday despite a fire in the mine. Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis have offered their condolences to the families of the victims. Both leaders are expected to arrive at the site of the tragedy later on Friday. Mr Morawiecki said: “I wish to express words of deepest sympathy to all the close victims of the mining disaster in Karvina. “This is a huge tragedy for all Poles and Czechs. On this difficult day, we strongly show our solidarity and sense of national community.” Polish president Andrzej Duda also expressed his condolences on Twitter, saying “O Lord, keep the families of the miners in your care. RIP.”[SEP]The death toll in a methane explosion at a black coal mine in northeastern Czech Republic has increased to 13, a mining company said Friday. OKD mining company spokesman Ivo Celechovsky said that 12 of the dead were Polish nationals while one was Czech, correcting information given earlier that said there were 11 Poles and two Czechs. READ MORE: Over 40 injured in explosion at Japanese bar, officials warn another blast possible A further 10 miners were injured in the explosion Thursday afternoon at the CSM mine near the town of Karvina. Polish President Andrzej Duda declared Sunday a day of national mourning for the victims of the tragedy. Flags in Poland will be lowered to half-staff on public buildings and large sporting and entertainment events will be cancelled. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis have offered their condolences to the families of the victims. The two leaders visited the mine on Friday. The Polish leader visited two injured miners at the University Hospital in the nearby city of Ostrava. One of them was in critical condition with burns over 50 per cent of his body, hospital spokeswoman Nada Chattova said. Another miner was release after being treated in Karvina. READ MORE: Canada co-hosts ‘coal-free day’ at UN climate meeting in Poland “I wish to express words of deepest sympathy to all the close victims of the mining disaster in Karvina,” Morawiecki said. “This is a huge tragedy for all Poles and Czechs. On this difficult day, we strongly show our solidarity and sense of national community.” OKD executive director Boleslav Kowalczyk said efforts to recover the bodies were continuing on Friday despite a fire in the mine. READ MORE: Explosion, fire erupt at MarkWest natural gas processing facility in Houston, Penn. Authorities have been investigating the accident. Bohuslav Machek, spokesman for the Czech mining authority said the level of methane in the mine was at least 4.5 times the allowed level at the time of the explosion. Easily ignitable methane is naturally present at black coal mines, posing a threat for miners.[SEP](PRAGUE) — The death toll in a methane explosion that hit a coal mine in northeast Czech Republic increased to 13, a mining company said Friday. OKD mining company spokesman Ivo Celechovsky said that 11 of the dead were Polish nationals while two were Czechs. Another 10 miners were injured in the explosion Thursday afternoon at the CSA mine near the town of Karvina. Previously, the death toll stood at five. The Czech public television said three of the injured were still hospitalized in the city of Ostrava, with one of them in critical condition. The explosion occurred about 800 meters (2,600 feet) underground. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Czech counterpart Andrej Babis have offered their condolences to the families of the victims. The two leaders were expected to arrive at the mine on Friday. “I wish to express words of deepest sympathy to all the close victims of the mining disaster in Karvina,” Morawiecki said. “This is a huge tragedy for all Poles and Czechs. On this difficult day, we strongly show our solidarity and sense of national community.” Polish President Andrzej Duda also expressed his condolences on Twitter, saying “O Lord, keep the families of the miners in your care. RIP.”[SEP]Rescue personnel prepare to search for missing miners after a methane explosion at the CSM hard coal mine in Karvina, Czech Republic, December 20, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer STONAVA, Czech Republic (Reuters) - A methane explosion killed 12 Poles and one Czech at an eastern Czech coal mine, the OKD mining company said on Friday, in the worst disaster of this kind in almost three decades. The state-run firm said that a methane blast more than 800 metres (875 yards) underground devastated areas of the CSM hard coal mine near the town of Karvina and the Polish border on Thursday afternoon. "We stopped underground work immediately, evacuated miners to the surface, and rescuers arrived who inspected the whole location thoroughly," OKD spokesman Ivo Celechovsky said on Czech public television. OKD had previously said that 11 Poles and two Czechs died, but added later one of those thought to be Czech was in fact a Polish citizen. The accident is the worst mining disaster in the Czech Republic since 1990, when 30 miners died in a fire at a mine near Karvina in the same region, according to a list compiled by CTK news agency. OKD said that attempts to rescue eight miners originally reported as unaccounted for had to be abandoned due to conditions in the shaft. "Unfortunately, we have reached a point where it was impossible to move forward, because there was a fire raging and zero visibility," OKD managing director Boleslav Kowalczyk said. The affected part of the mine was being sealed off to starve the fire of air and rescue teams would only be able to return to recover the victims at an unspecified date when conditions allowed, he said. Kowalczyk said a network of methane sensors deployed in the mine had not detected anything unusual prior to the blast. The Polish victims were miners employed via the ALPEX company, OKD said. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his Czech counterpart, Andrej Babis, visited the mine separately on Friday morning. Babis pointed out the risks that search teams facing. "They were 50 metres from those trapped there, but it was not possible (to advance) without threatening the lives of the emergency workers," he said, adding that the company was looking into ways to compensate the victims' families. Morawiecki spoke on a similar note. "Of course we will offer care to all of the families of the mining (accident) victims and for all those who survived," he said, according to the PAP news agency.[SEP]A rescue team is pictured at the CSM coal mime in Karvina, Czech Republic, Tursday, Dec. 20, 2018. The death toll in a methane explosion that hit the coal mine in northeast Czech Republic increased to 13, a mining company said Friday. (Jaroslav Ozana/CTK via AP) PRAGUE (AP) — The death toll in a methane explosion at a black coal mine in northeastern Czech Republic has increased to 13, a mining company said Friday. OKD mining company spokesman Ivo Celechovsky said that 12 of the dead were Polish nationals while one was Czech, correcting information given earlier that said there were 11 Poles and two Czechs. A further 10 miners were injured in the explosion Thursday afternoon at the CSM mine near the town of Karvina. Polish President Andrzej Duda declared Sunday a day of national mourning for the victims of the tragedy. Flags in Poland will be lowered to half-staff on public buildings and large sporting and entertainment events will be canceled. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis have offered their condolences to the families of the victims. The two leaders visited the mine on Friday. "To our knowledge ... there is a fire underground, very high temperature, very high risk of subsequent explosions," Morawiecki said. The Polish leader visited two injured miners at the University Hospital in the nearby city of Ostrava. One of them was in critical condition with burns over 50 percent of his body, hospital spokeswoman Nada Chattova said. Another miner was release after being treated in Karvina. "I wish to express words of deepest sympathy to all the close victims of the mining disaster in Karvina," Morawiecki said. "This is a huge tragedy for all Poles and Czechs. On this difficult day, we strongly show our solidarity and sense of national community." OKD executive director Boleslav Kowalczyk said efforts to recover the bodies were continuing on Friday despite a fire in the mine. Authorities have been investigating the accident. Bohuslav Machek, spokesman for the Czech mining authority said the level of methane in the mine was at least 4.5 times the allowed level at the time of the explosion. Easily ignitable methane is naturally present at black coal mines, posing a threat for miners. This story has been corrected to show that the mine is called CSM, not CSA.[SEP]The death toll from an explosion at a Czech coal mine has risen to 13, among them 11 Poles and two Czechs, the OKD mining company said on Friday. The state-run firm had said earlier that a methane blast more than 800 meters underground devastated areas of the CSM coal mine near the town of Karvina on Thursday, Reuters reports. OKD Managing Director Boleslav Kowalczyk said the search of the scene had had to be abandoned due to conditions in the shaft. The incident is the worst mining accident in the Czech Republic since 1990, when 30 miners died in a fire at a mine near Karvina. OKD said most of the victims and injured were Polish miners provided by the ALPEX company.[SEP]The death toll in a methane explosion at a coal mine in the north-east of the Czech Republic has increased to 13. OKD mining company spokesman Ivo Celechovsky said 12 of the dead were Polish nationals while one was Czech. Another 10 miners were injured in the explosion on Thursday afternoon at the CSM mine near the town of Karvina. Previously, the death toll stood at five. Polish President Andrzej Duda declared Sunday a day of national mourning for the victims of the tragedy. Flags in Poland will be lowered to half-mast on public buildings and large sporting and entertainment events will be cancelled. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis have offered their condolences to the families of the victims. The two leaders visited the mine. “To our knowledge … there is a fire underground, very high temperature, very high risk of subsequent explosions,” Mr Morawiecki said. The Polish leader visited two injured miners at the University Hospital in the nearby city of Ostrava. One of them was in a critical condition with burns over 50% of his body, hospital spokeswoman Nada Chattova said. Another miner was released after being treated in Karvina. “I wish to express words of deepest sympathy to all the close victims of the mining disaster in Karvina,” Mr Morawiecki said. “This is a huge tragedy for all Poles and Czechs. On this difficult day, we strongly show our solidarity and sense of national community.” OKD executive director Boleslav Kowalczyk said rescue efforts are continuing despite a fire in the mine.

At least 13 miners, eleven Poles and two Czechs, are killed and 10 injured in a methane explosion in a coal mine in Karvina, Czech Republic.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Investigators assess the damage following a deadly collision near the Serbian city of Niš A train has slammed into a bus carrying school students in southern Serbia, cutting it in half and killing five people, police say. Dozens of people were injured and two teenagers were fighting for their lives after the accident, which happened early on Friday near the city of Nis. A child and two adults were killed instantly, while two other adults died later in hospital, reports said. Images from the scene showed one of the train's carriages had derailed. All the casualties in Friday's accident were reportedly on board the bus, which was left twisted and wrecked following the impact at the railway crossing. Image copyright EPA Image caption The wreckage of the bus was removed from the site at the village of Donje Međurovo The bus was carrying passengers from surrounding villages to the centre of Nis at the time. Serbian Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar said 13 of the injured were in a critical condition, including eight teenagers. A boy and girl aged 16 had life-threatening injuries, he said. One eyewitness, Stevan Jocic, told reporters that he "heard a big bang" and immediately "knew it was bad", Serbian daily Kurir reported. "The bus was cut down the middle, with passengers inside... high school kids. It was horrific," he said. Police and ambulance crews reportedly arrived quickly at the scene. The cause of the collision was unclear, but police said early indications suggested the bus driver was at fault.[SEP]BELGRADE, Serbia — A train slammed into a bus carrying mostly high school students on Friday in southern Serbia, killing five people and injuring at least 26, authorities said. The collision took place around 0630GMT (1:30 a.m. EST) Friday near the city of Nis, police said. Initially, police said that three people were killed and 22 injured. But authorities later confirmed that two more people died in a hospital and that at least 26 people were injured. Doctors in Nis said some of the children have life-threatening injuries. Relatives have gathered at the hospital awaiting information. The Serbian state TV says that the bus was carrying local children to school. A video from the scene shows that the bus was practically cut in half from the impact while the train partly slid off the tracks. “When I heard a big bang I knew it was bad,” said a witness, Stevan Jocic. “The bus was cut down the middle, passengers inside, all high school kids. It was horrific.”[SEP]Serbian authorities say a train has crashed into a bus carrying mostly high-school students near the southern city of Nis, killing five people. At least 30 people were injured in the crash, which took place early on December 21. Police said it appeared the bus driver's "oversight" was to blame. Doctors in Nis said two of the victims had life-threatening injuries. Serbian state TV said that the bus was carrying local children to school. A video from the scene shows that the bus was nearly cut in half by the impact, while the train partly derailed.[SEP]BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A train slammed into a bus carrying mostly high school students in southern Serbia Friday, killing five people and injuring 30, authorities said. The collision took place around 7:30 a.m. in foggy weather on a railway crossing near the city of Nis, police said. They said that it appears the bus driver's "oversight" most likely caused the crash. Initially, police said that three people were killed and 22 injured. But authorities later confirmed that two more people died in a hospital and raised the number injured. Doctors in Nis said two 16-year-olds have life-threatening injuries. Relatives have gathered at the hospital awaiting information. Serbian state TV says that the bus was carrying local children to school. A video from the scene shows that the bus was practically cut in half by the impact, while the train partly slid off the tracks. "When I heard a big bang I knew it was bad," said a witness, Stevan Jocic. "The bus was cut down the middle, passengers inside, all high school kids. It was horrific."[SEP]BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - A train has slammed into a bus in southern Serbia killing three people and injuring 22. Serbian police say that the collision took place around 0630GMT (1:30 a.m. EST) Friday near the city of Nis. The statement says that the injured have been transferred to a nearby hospital. Doctors say six of the injured have been seriously hurt. The Serbian state TV says that the bus was carrying local children to school. A video from the scene shows that the bus was practically cut in half from the impact while the train partly slid off the tracks.[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. BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A train slammed into a bus carrying mostly high school students on Friday in southern Serbia, killing five people and injuring at least 26, authorities said. The collision took place around 0630GMT (1:30 a.m. EST) Friday near the city of Nis, police said. Initially, police said that three people were killed and 22 injured. But authorities later confirmed that two more people died in a hospital and that at least 26 people were injured. Doctors in Nis said some of the children have life-threatening injuries. Relatives have gathered at the hospital awaiting information. The Serbian state TV says that the bus was carrying local children to school. A video from the scene shows that the bus was practically cut in half from the impact while the train partly slid off the tracks. TRENDING: Trump Fires Back Against NY Democrats After Trump Foundation Is Shut Down “When I heard a big bang I knew it was bad,” said a witness, Stevan Jocic. “The bus was cut down the middle, passengers inside, all high school kids. It was horrific.” The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]A train has slammed into a bus in southern Serbia, killing three people and injuring 22, AP reported. The collision took place around 6:30am GMT on Friday near the city of Nis, Serbian police say. The injured have been transferred to a nearby hospital, according to the statement. Doctors say six of the casualties have been seriously hurt. Serbian state TV says that the bus was carrying local children to school. A video from the scene shows that the vehicle was cut in half from the impact, while the train partly slid off the tracks.[SEP]Train in Serbia Hits Bus Full of Students, Killing at Least Five (Bloomberg) -- A train collided with a bus carrying students in southern Serbia, killing at least five people and injuring 27, the Interior Ministry said. The collision took place near the southern city of Nis on Friday. Images from the scene showed that the train cut the bus in half before partially derailing. Police are investigating. To contact the reporter on this story: Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade at gfilipovic@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andras Gergely[SEP]Five people have been killed and more than two dozen injured after a train ploughed through a bus in southern Serbia, police said on Friday. The bus, which was carrying passengers including school pupils, was cut in half after being hit on a railroad crossing outside the southern city of Nis at around 730am (0630 GMT). "Five people were killed and 27 were injured," a police spokeswoman told AFP. Three people, including one minor, died instantly while two others passed away in a hospital in Nis, state broadcaster RTS reported. Ten of the injured are in a "critical" condition, RTS reported. The bus was carrying passengers from surrounding villages to Nis, local media reported. The railway crossing where the crash occurred is near Nis, Serbia's third-largest city, and is secured just by a warning sign, not ramps and signalization, residents said. The force of the impact tore the bus open and the death toll is likely to climb due to the compound injuries suffered by several passengers, RTS quoted a doctor in Nis as saying. Serbia ranks poorly in traffic safety among European countries, with the number of fatalities per 100,000 vehicles near double the continental average - 34.5 to 19. The main contributing factor is a general lack of driving discipline, including drunk driving, speeding and disregard for rules. Additionally, much of the road network is in poor condition and the average age of cars in the country is 13-14 years and increasing, according to police figures.[SEP]The accident happened at Donje Medjurovo near Nis, Serbia's third-largest city, at a railway crossing secured only by a warning sign, with no ramps or signals. The force of the impact tore the bus into two parts and left the two-coach local train partially derailed. Most of the passengers were high-school students on their way to classes, reports said. A senior police official, Vladimir Rebic, told state TV station RTS that the bus driver apparently failed to stop and notice the oncoming train. The death toll may rise due to the serious injuries suffered by several passengers, RTS quoted a doctor in Nis as saying. Serbia ranks poorly in traffic safety among European countries, with the number of fatalities per 100,000 vehicles near double the continental average - 34.5 to 19.

Five people are killed and dozens injured when a train slams into a bus carrying school students in Niš, Serbia.

First Step, which earned support from Kamala Harris and Ted Cruz, expands rehabilitative opportunities for inmates This article is more than 8 months old This article is more than 8 months old Donald Trump on Friday signed into law the First Step Act, a prison and sentencing reform bill with strong bipartisan support, having passed the Senate earlier this week and in the House yesterday. Can Kushner's work on the criminal justice overhaul save his reputation? Read more “The First Step Act will make communities SAFER and SAVE tremendous taxpayers dollars,” the president said in a statement. “It brings much-needed hope to many families during the holiday season.” The result of coalition-building in a partisan political climate, First Step earned support from politicians as ideologically diverse as senators Kamala Harris and Ted Cruz, and from advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Fraternal Order of Police. Sign up for the new US morning briefing Trump’s strong support was largely seen as a result of the involvement of his son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner. At the signing ceremony, he thanked Kushner personally. Of prisoners who could not advocate for themselves from behind bars, Kushner said: “We were their lobbyists.” The act expands rehabilitative opportunities, increases “good time”-served credits for most federal prisoners, reduces mandatory minimum sentences for a number of drug-related crimes and formally bans some correctional practices including the shackling of pregnant women. “This bill could have died a dozen different deaths,” said Van Jones, co-founder of advocacy group #cut50, which was integral in the bill’s design. “But the broad coalition that came together to pass it refused to give up. Jones, a frequent outspoken critic of Trump on his CNN show, added: “Many have seen their loved ones sent to prison or were incarcerated themselves. For all of us, this fight was deeply personal.” Early critics of the bill, such as New Jersey senator Corey Booker and the ACLU, who felt that the legislation did not go far enough, came around in large part due to major additions to the House version of the bill by the Senate, which added language on sentencing reform. The first House version only contained reforms on the way inmates are treated in prison. In exchange, progressive reformers had to accept a number of changes to which prisoners will be eligible for benefits under the act, based on the crime for which they were convicted. The sentencing reforms were also mostly not made retroactive, meaning they do not apply to inmates already sentenced. “The First Step Act is by no means perfect,” said Jesselyn McCurdy, deputy director of the Washington legislative office at the ACLU. “But we are in the midst of a mass incarceration crisis, and the time to act is now. “We applaud the bipartisan group of senators who were willing to listen to advocates.”[SEP]Sens. Chris Coons and Tom Carper recently celebrated the passage of The First Step Act — bipartisan legislation in the Senate to reduce recidivism, improve fairness and promote safety in the criminal justice system. The revised First Step Act has been endorsed by President Donald Trump and was cosponsored by more than a third of the Senate. “The American criminal justice system is broken, and it has been for a long time. The mass incarceration explosion resulting from the ‘War on Drugs’ and ‘tough on crime’ policies of the last four decades has left us with prisons that are overcrowded and costly and inmates that are often unfairly sentenced and forgotten. For decades, our system has focused too much on criminalization and incarceration and too little on justice and rehabilitation,” said Coons. “I was proud to partner with my colleagues to craft legislation that would make the criminal justice system fairer, and I look forward to seeing President Trump sign the First Step Act into law.” “The U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the entire world. While our country makes up only five percent of the world’s population, it incarcerates more than 20 percent of the world’s prisoners,” said Carper. “We should not be aiming to win any records for how many individuals we are incarcerating; instead, we should be working to ensure that those who serve their time are re-entering our society as better people, not better criminals. Despite the over $80 billion that our country spends on incarceration every year, our criminal justice system continues to face problems with overcrowding, inmate violence and high recidivism rates. The First Step Act puts long-awaited common-sense reforms into our federal prison system to address these problems while critically providing equal justice under the law. Today’s vote may be overdue, but I am pleased that we were finally able to seize the day and pass this legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support. I would urge the House to take this measure up quickly so that the President can sign it into law.” The comprehensive, revised First Step Act aims to reduce crime by helping low-risk inmates prepare to successfully rejoin society through participation in proven recidivism reduction and professional development programs. It also improves fairness in prison sentences by recalibrating certain mandatory minimum sentences, granting greater discretion for judges in sentencing of low-level, nonviolent drug crimes and clarifying congressional intent on sentencing enhancements for certain crimes involving firearms. The legislation also allows petitions for retroactive application of the Fair Sentencing Act to be considered on an individual basis to reduce sentence disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses.[SEP]With U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing of criminal-justice reform legislation just hours before Congress officially started its holiday break—he achieved a rare bipartisan legislative victory. The legislation overwhelmingly passed in the Senate. The First Step Act would lower the number of inmates in federal prisons, allow judges more options in sentencing convicts for nonviolent crimes, including drug offenses, and increase rehabilitation programs for those released. Even though Jewish inmates comprise a very small portion of the American prison population, some Jewish groups and activists have been working for years on such reform. Many have also credited Trump’s Jewish son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner for spearheading the current legislation. Marc Levin, vice president of criminal-justice policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told JNS that although “there is nothing in the bill concerning hate crimes,” the American Jewish community stands to benefit from it. “Many provisions, such as ensuring that prisoners are housed within 500 miles of their families, will benefit prisoners and families of all faiths, including those who are Jewish,” he said. The legislation would only affect federal inmates—some 180,789 Jews out of the 2.1 million prisoners nationwide. According to the Aleph Institute, which is working with the Texas Public Policy Foundation to advocate for criminal-justice reform, Jews make up less than 1 percent of overall U.S. inmate population. Rabbi Menachem Katz, the Aleph Institute’s director of prison and military outreach, told JNS that the organization “applauds” the passage of the Senate version in that it will help Jewish inmates “reintegrate into society.” He declined to comment whether or not the Surfside, Fla.-based nonprofit—which is, according to its mission statement, “dedicated to assisting and caring for the well-being of members of specific populations that are isolated from the regular community”—has lobbied Congress on this effort. While Katz said the act is “not a Jewish bill,” the Aleph Institute has been motivated to advocate for the sweeping overhaul by Jewish values, such as “Love your fellow Jew,” and that the Torah does not consist of the concept of prisons because people should be able to help those who do wrong become productive members of society. Can the new legislation help Pollard? Another group supporting the First Step Act is the National Council of Young Israel. “With over 2,000,000 people in American prisons, including 181,000 in federal penitentiaries, we cannot ignore the need for sensible criminal-justice reforms that aim to lower the recidivism rate, and seek to ensure a smooth and successful re-entry into society for non-violent offenders upon their release,” said NCYI President Farley Weiss. “The notion of giving people second chances has a strong basis in Judaism; the concept of teshuvah and enabling people to repent for their wrongdoings plays a central role in our faith,” he continued. “President Trump took a step in the right direction on this issue and demonstrated his commitment to blazing a path to reintegration for those who seek it.” Weiss added that, in light of this effort, Trump should also ease the parole restrictions of Jonathan Pollard, a former intelligence analyst who served three decades in prison for spying for and giving classified information to Israel. Pollard’s conditions under the U.S. Parole Commission, since being released in 2015, include remaining in New York City for at least five years unless granted permission to travel outside. The president considered allowing Pollard to attend the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, but that did not materialize, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly raised Pollard’s case in his meeting with Trump. Liberal Jewish groups have also been advocating for criminal-justice reform. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism has been outspoken on the issue for some time. Earlier this year, the House passed its own version of the First Step Act, which was much more limited in reform than the recent Senate version. Liberal Jewish groups strongly criticized that version. “We are deeply disappointed by the House of Representatives’ pursuit of the misguided First Step Act,” the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism said at the time. “The Reform Jewish movement, united with our partners and allies in the civil-rights community, firmly believes that sentencing reform must be included in any effective attempt to reform our criminal-justice system.” Similarly, other progressive groups criticized the earlier House version. Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights are among groups that signed a joint letter opposing the House version. Thus far, liberal Jewish groups have not taken a stance on the new law. At the signing in the Oval Office, one of the people standing near the president mentioned that Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was “fond of saying that ‘the miracle of life was not just in its beginning, but the capacity to begin again.’ ”[SEP](Screenshot: YouTube/The White House)U.S. President Donald Trump announcing his support for the FIRST STEP Act on prison reform in Washington D.C. on November 14, 2018. The U.S. Senate voted 87-12 to pass the First Step Act, a major prison reform bill, which has received evangelical support but also some Christian opposition. Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, tweeted his thanks to the Senate for the vote on Tuesday. "The #FirstStepAct has been a long time in the making, and it is a good and needed development," Moore wrote. The ERLC added in a tweet of its own that "this criminal justice reform bill has been a key part of our legislative agenda and we are thankful for the broad coalition that led to this victory!" Prison Fellowship, America's largest outreach to prisoners, and one of the biggest Christian ministries to push for the bill, applauded the Senate for passing the First Step Act. "This legislation will help reduce recidivism by preparing men and women to fulfill their God-given potential through restorative programming, including improved substance-abuse treatment programs, life-skills classes, and vocational training — building job readiness to fuel local economies. This is about getting smart on crime by giving men and women, made in the image of God, the tools to change their lives," saidJames Ackerman, president and chief executive officer of Prison Fellowship. Craig DeRoche, senior vice president of advocacy and public policy, added: "Today, the Senate refused to double down on the failed policies of the past. The FIRST STEP Act's passage reflects America's growing demand for smarter and more restorative solutions to crime." The bill includes efforts to reduce the federal recidivism rate, and offers time credit incentives for federal inmates to participate in rehabilitative and vocational training programs. Among the other notable provisions, it reduces the second strike mandatory minimum of 20 years to 15 years, while the 3rd strike goes down from a mandatory minimum of life in prison to 25 years. "This bill in its entirety has been endorsed by the political spectrum of America," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill, one of the legislation's main backers. "I can't remember any bill that has this kind of support, left and right, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican," he added, according to ABC News. The New York Times pointed out that one of the major effects will be that thousands of inmates will become eligible for immediate sentencing reductions, while thousands of new offenders will receive reduced sentences. "We're not just talking about money. We're talking about human potential," Senator John Cornyn, R-Tex., said on Tuesday. "We're investing in the men and women who want to turn their lives around once they're released from prison, and we're investing in so doing in stronger and more viable communities." Despite the strong bipartisan backing and evangelical support, more liberal Christian bodies, such as the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, which includes various mainline Protestant denominations, had argued that the changes do not go far enough. "The United States is home to 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's prison population. The current mass incarceration crisis was birthed out of racist intentions, and we must be just as intentional about addressing the embedded racism if we are to have any meaningful reform. This bill does not move us any closer to justice on either issue," the NCC had argued earlier in December. One proposal in the bill that the NCC strongly opposed was the use of electronic monitoring as a form of surveillance for released prisoners. President Donald Trump meanwhile took to Twitter to explain his support for the First Step Act, which he backed in November. "America is the greatest Country in the world and my job is to fight for ALL citizens, even those who have made mistakes. Congratulations to the Senate on the bi-partisan passing of a historic Criminal Justice Reform Bill," Trump tweeted on Tuesday. Read more about the prison reform bill on The Christian Post.[SEP]WASHINGTON — With a government shutdown just hours away, President Donald Trump on Friday signed rare bipartisan legislation addressing concerns with the criminal justice system. President Trump called the bill “an incredible success for our country” and “beyond bipartisan” during an Oval Office signing ceremony. Lawmakers and advocates also hailed it as a hugely influential package and thanked the president for supporting the issue. The legislation will give judges more discretion when sentencing some drug offenders and will boost prisoner rehabilitation efforts, among other efforts. It received the rare support of both Democratic and Republican lawmakers as well as conservative and liberal groups that rarely work together. Playing a key role behind the scenes was President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, whose father spent time in federal prison when he was younger.[SEP]After the US Senate overwhelmingly voted on Tuesday to reform certain parts of the criminal-justice system, a move lauded as a remarkable bipartisan victory under the Trump administration, even its supporters are warning that the legislation will ultimately be toothless if it's not followed up with stronger reforms. The passage of the bill, known as the First Step Act, marked the first major legislative win in decades to address mass incarceration at the federal level. The bill overhauls certain federal sentencing laws, reducing mandatory minimum sentences for drug felonies and expanding early-release programs. In a major win for prison-reform groups, the bill also makes retroactive a 2010 federal sentencing law reducing the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The bill also aims to lower recidivism by offering more rehabilitation and job-training opportunities, and it includes provisions intended to treat prisoners humanely — banning the shackling of pregnant inmates, halting the use of solitary confinement for most juvenile inmates, and mandating that prisoners be placed in facilities within 500 miles from their families. But even the advocates and lawmakers who pushed the bill forward are urging caution in celebrating too soon. Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, tweeted at length about the shortcomings of the bill on Monday before saying she ultimately decided to vote for it. Read more: Prison reform legislation is moving through Congress with the help of an unlikely alliance: Trump and the ACLU. Here's what it would do. She criticized the legislation for not applying all of the sentencing reforms retroactively, not going far enough in applying earned good-time credits, failing to crack down on the private-prison industry, and not reining in the use of electronic monitoring. "To be clear, the FIRST STEP Act is very much just that — a first step," she said. "It is a compromise of a compromise, and we ultimately need to make far greater reforms if we are to right the wrongs that exist in our criminal justice system." And though most of the major criminal-justice-reform advocacy groups supported the bill — including the American Civil Liberties Union — some shied away entirely. The National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, an organization representing dozens of Protestant denominations, criticized the bill for relying too heavily on electronic monitoring to surveil released prisoners and for failing to make its mandatory minimum sentencing reforms retroactive, a key provision that law-enforcement groups had demanded before pledging their support. "Despite current bipartisan enthusiasm for any move toward criminal justice reform, the First Step Act is insufficient toward that end," Rev. Steven Martin said in a statement. "While compromise is a necessary part of consensus-building around legislation, this bill will have harmful consequences, which will be more difficult to correct later." Meanwhile among conservatives, the strongest opposition from the right came from Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, who assailed the bill as "misguided and dangerous" in a recent National Review op-ed and criticized his conservative colleagues in the Senate for their support. "The First Step Act provides hundreds of new rights and privileges to federal prisoners. More phone time, reduced sentences, 'compassionate release,' and early release credits," he tweeted. "There is not a single benefit in the bill for the victims of these criminals." Cotton and Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana proposed three major amendments that were widely criticized for exempting broad swaths of prisoners from the bill's early-release provisions, effectively defanging much of the bill's benefits for prisoners. Liberal groups criticized the amendments; #cut50, an initiative to reduce the prison population, called the amendments "attempts to derail a bill that prioritizes public safety and rehabilitation." All three amendments were resoundingly struck down. "The bipartisan coalition stuck together and won. Tom Cotton's scare tactics were a resounding failure," Jessica Jackson Sloan, national director of #cut50, said in a statement. "The overwhelming rejection of his amendments shows a clear mandate for federal criminal justice reforms." The bill is expected to pass the House of Representatives and move on to the White House, where President Donald Trump has vowed to sign it.[SEP]WASHINGTON — It seems like an unbelievable story. For years, a bipartisan coalition of religious leaders, scholars and activists have argued the criminal justice system puts far too many behind bars and unfairly targets black men. The coalition urged the Obama administration to adopt their recommendations for reform. Yet Obama left office without passing legislation on criminal justice reform. Instead, President Donald Trump — known for his harsh and often racially tinged tough-on-crime rhetoric — is poised to make criminal justice reform a reality. After being passed in the Senate on Tuesday night, a broad criminal justice reform package is expected to pass the House on Thursday before it heads to the president’s desk to be signed into law. And the rare bipartisan consensus came directly as a result of White House involvement. This account of how criminal justice reform came to pass is based on interviews with activists, White House and congressional aides, some of whom requested anonymity to speak more freely. Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, a longtime criminal justice reform advocate, put it this way: “A breakthrough I’d never expect — the election of Donald Trump as president. What does that have to do with this? He brought his son-in-law to town.” Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made criminal justice reform a priority, having seen the federal prison system firsthand after his father, real estate developer Charles Kushner, spent 14 months behind bars for tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions. But the president's adviser wasn’t ready to agree to what longtime advocates were proposing. The coalition had long pushed for reforms that would include: changes to mandatory minimum sentences, releasing people who served disproportionately harsh sentences for non-violent drug offenses, efforts to reduce recidivism and further reduce the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. Kushner argued strongly that such a comprehensive approach was likely not on the table. Trump wasn’t firmly rooted in the issue and his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had a long history of opposing such efforts. Instead, Kushner pressed for a narrower bill that would prioritize prison reform, specifically making education and mental health support more available to inmates to help prepare them for their release. Sentencing reforms, particularly flexibility for non-violent drug offenders, were likely too controversial and a bridge too far, Kushner said, according to sources. Even with slimmed down goals, the president was still an obstacle. Last January, Trump held a meeting on prison reform in the Roosevelt Room with advocates, who saw it as their last chance to get the president on board. As they presented their statistics, facts and arguments in favor of making changes to the system, the president seemed to lose interest. So Reed Cordish, then an aide to Kushner, interrupted the conversation. "Mr. President, one of the most powerful things about your campaign and your message as president is you fight for the forgotten men and women, and there’s no one more forgotten than these people,” Cordish said, referring prison inmates. Trump briefly stared at Cordish. "You're right," he said, according to two people in the room. A few days later, at a congressional Republican retreat, Trump told lawmakers he believed prison reform was a critical issue that they needed to pass. It was then, advocates said, that they knew the legislation had a chance. Four months later in April, the House brought up a narrow prison reform bill that Trump had indicated he’d support but did not include sentencing reform. Republicans worried sentencing reform would scare off too many GOP colleagues, while a senior White House aide said it had purposely been made more narrow to keep Sessions from killing it. Session left the administration last month. The bill got an important lift when New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries signed on as a co-sponsor, despite opposition from most Democrats wary of giving Trump a victory and who thought the legislation didn't go far enough. Jeffries, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus long considered a rising star in the Democratic party, believed that a small advancement would be better than no advancement. He called the bill the First Step Act for that reason. Facing pushback from liberals who argued the bill was too narrow, Jeffries released a seven-page memo countering their arguments, according to a person familiar with the situation. That memo was instrumental in keeping fellow Democrats and liberal groups from sabotaging the effort. Then Jeffries and Van Jones, of the advocacy group #Cut50, worked furiously to convince Democrats to support the measure. “Elitists will say we should have held out for a perfect bill. While sitting in their ivory table with their degrees, they will judge when these people who have paid their dues should be able to go home to their families?” a Democratic aide said. “We did the right thing. We don’t care who the president is or who gets the credit. This was the right thing to do.” Meanwhile, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, Jeffries’ GOP cosponsor, was able win the support of nearly every Republican in the House specifically by keeping out sentencing reform. "It was a matter of saying, ‘Here's the issues we’re not going to be dealing with, which is some of the more controversial and expansive sentencing reforms," Collins told NBC News. The bill ended up passing the House 360-59 in May. The overwhelming vote was noteworthy, convincing advocates the legislation might have a chance of becoming law after all. "That’s a vote number can’t be ignored. I then thought it had a chance in the Senate,” said Mark Holden, vice president of Koch Industries and board member of the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity. The group has been part of the bipartisan reform coalition since discussions began in the Obama administration. But the House bill still faced uncertainty in the Senate. Reform advocates of both parties who had been working on the issue for years wanted to add back the sentencing reforms that had scared off lawmakers in the House — including easing mandatory minimum sentencing rules that forced judges to give low-level drug offenders decades in prison. They also wanted to reduce and make retroactive sentences for crack-cocaine possession, as many inmates serve sentences 100 times longer than those convicted of powder cocaine offenses. At this point, Trump still wasn’t on board with sentencing reforms. Enter Kim Kardashian West, who may have single-handedly changed the president’s mind. West met with Trump at the White House in September to urge him to pardon Alice Marie Johnson, a grandmother who had received a life sentence in 1996 for a non-violent, first time drug offense. A week later, Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence, and she walked out of prison after 21 years. Still, the First Step Act languished in the Senate. Lawmakers including Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, argued the House version was too weak. They wanted sentencing reform, too. Shortly after the midterms, Grassley and Durbin announced a deal with the White House to attach sentencing reform to the House bill, a more comprehensive effort than anyone thought could get through Congress or win the support of the president. Then Trump held an event in November publicly supporting the newly crafted legislation. The Fraternal Order of Police also came out in support, giving the measure major momentum. On the other side of the issue sat Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, a longtime opponent of almost any criminal justice legislation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had refused to bring any criminal justice reform bill for a vote before the midterms, believing it would be too difficult a campaign issue for his members. Kushner had pressed McConnell to "jam this in" before the midterms, a White House official said, but McConnell asked Kushner to let it go until after the election. In return, the aide said, McConnell promised to whip the vote. McConnell told Kushner to “finalize your language, shore up support,” the official added. The Senate majority leader told Republican supporters in the Senate that he would only bring the bill to the floor if they could deliver at least 65 votes. Still, McConnell refused to prioritize the legislation, pointing instead to other priorities, including judicial nominations and funding the government. Advocates insisted they had counted at least 70 votes in the Senate, but McConnell still refused to budge. Meanwhile, a leading law enforcement group, the National Sheriff's Association, was quietly working against the measure. So Trump began tweeting, pressuring McConnell to bring it to the floor. Both sides continued to massage the bill to enhance support, which was enough to convince more Republicans to sign on, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Steve Daines of Montana and David Perdue of Georgia. At the same time, negotiations to fund the government were stalled and Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake put a hold on all judicial nominations until he was given a vote on a bill to protect the special counsel. That left open more time on the Senate floor, making it difficult for McConnell to continue blocking the vote. Ultimately, it passed by a margin of 87-12 on Tuesday night. “This might be my proudest moment in eight years in the United States Senate,” Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee said. “This bill died a thousand deaths just in the last few months alone. So even though the ultimate vote was overwhelming and supported, there were a thousand times when we had to rescue it from the fire so that makes it super gratifying.” Grassley summed up the process to passage by referring to his fellow senators as marshmallows. "How do you eat 10,000 marshmallows? One at a time," he said.[SEP]The “permanent campaign” made some Republicans fear being cast as soft on crime. Though it’s a fairly modest measure with exceedingly broad support, the criminal-justice bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday evening barely made it out alive. Its near-demise illustrates how extreme partisanship and the permanent campaign have made reform legislation require a perfect storm in Washington. “It has died a thousand times and had life breathed back into it a thousand and one times,” said Brett Tolman, a Republican who was Utah’s top federal prosecutor in the late 2000s but has advocated for many of the bill’s changes since 2010. When it was finally called up, the First Step Act sailed through the Senate, with 87 senators in favor and just 12 Republicans opposed. The bill would trim mandatory minimum sentences and expand credit for inmates who participate in programs meant to prepare them for life after prison. It prohibits the shackling of female inmates during childbirth and bans virtually all solitary confinement for juveniles. Federal inmates participating in “evidence-based recidivism-reduction programs” would be able to earn credit to leave prison more quickly, and the sentencing reforms would trim future mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes and let prisoners sentenced under the old crack-cocaine rules petition for a reduced sentence in line with the recent reforms. It would also allow some inmates to serve their sentences under house arrest or in halfway houses, and those incarcerated would be sent to prisons within 500 miles of their families. A House vote is expected Thursday, and President Donald Trump tweeted that he was looking forward to signing the legislation, which he said would “keep our communities safer, and provide hope and a second chance, to those who earn it. In addition to everything else, billions of dollars will be saved.” “It’s the most sweeping reform in a generation,” said Kevin Ring, president of the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums. “It’s also very modest … If people think we are even close to scratching the surface of the inequities in the federal criminal-justice system, they’re kidding themselves.” The bill, in fact, would affect only the federal prison population of about 180,000, which accounts for less than one-tenth of the more than 2 million inmates nationwide, a sum that makes the United States the world leader in incarceration rates. And as recently as a week and a half ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was saying there wasn’t enough time to consider the bill, which was “extremely divisive inside the Senate Republican conference.” Many elements of the First Step Act floated around Capitol Hill for the past decade as concern grew on both the left and the right about the personal and fiscal costs of mass incarceration, a legacy of the war on drugs and the lock-’em-up approach of the 1970s and 1980s. In 2010, Congress passed a bipartisan law reducing the crack-cocaine sentencing disparity that disproportionately affected African Americans, but further legislative reforms sputtered after that, leading Barack Obama to use his commutation power broadly in the last years of his presidency. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. The first condition for this week’s vote was one-party control of the federal government, which facilitates cooperation among the president and the chambers of Congress. Parties don’t want a president from the other side of the aisle to claim credit, and base voters punish incumbents seen as too conciliatory. Congressional leaders will do more to help a president of their own party. That’s why unified control of government now seems a prerequisite for substantive change; Obamacare was passed without a single Republican vote, and last year’s tax cuts were enacted without any Democratic support. Once the GOP reclaimed the House in 2011, Obama’s legislative agenda nearly ground to a halt. Next month, Trump will see the end of his unified-government honeymoon. Efforts to pass legislation similar to this year’s bill died in 2015 without a vote in the Senate, partly because McConnell did not want to give President Obama a legislative victory. This year, advocates had to overcome some Democratic resistance to giving President Trump a bipartisan win. “They were able to look past giving Trump a victory,” Tolman said. “They rolled up their sleeves and dug in.” The bill’s passage also depended on timing, in at least two ways. First, if the First Step Act had not passed in this brief lame-duck session, advocates expected their window of opportunity to close. “Saying that we’ll do it next year is tantamount to saying this just isn’t going to get done,” Senator Mike Lee, the libertarian-leaning Utah Republican, told The Wall Street Journal last month. A Democratic House majority might have demanded more than Trump was willing to accept, leading Republicans to withdraw their support, and the new Senate would have been slightly less favorable. The lame-duck session also offered the best chance to get Republicans to support criminal-justice reform that primary opponents could use to tar incumbents as “soft on crime.” Members of Congress may have always resisted risky votes close to an election, but the inexorable creep of the permanent campaign has broadened the definition of “close to an election” to cover more and more of the 24 months between balloting. Rank-and-file members ask the leadership to shield them from votes likely to encourage a primary challenger or demotivate their core supporters, as some Republicans had been pressuring McConnell to kill the bill. It used to be that odd-numbered years offered the best chance for significant legislation, while campaigns dominated election years; now the time for ambition may be the few weeks immediately after elections, when voters are paying the least attention and politicians have the longest amount of time possible to let unpopular votes fade into the past. Trump’s support gave the bill the boost it needed to get back on track after McConnell’s dilatory tactics. The “Nixon to China” factor comes into play whenever a president with a strong reputation on one side of an issue oversees a policy shift in the opposite direction. Nixon was known as a hawk who was tough on communism, so he had the credibility to build a relationship with China’s communist leaders. Trump had spent the fall blasting Democrats as soft on crime (as well as immigration, trade, and a litany of other issues), but soon after last month’s midterm elections, he announced his endorsement of the prison-reform measure. “Trump wasn’t a leader in the last couple of years, but in the last couple of months it did help,” said Marc Mauer, director of the advocacy group the Sentencing Project. Tolman, the former prosecutor, said the president’s backing helped persuade more Republicans to support the First Step Act, since GOP primary opponents will now have a harder time casting supporters as bleeding hearts. Trump tweeted his desire for McConnell to bring the bill to the floor. Finally, there was the Jared factor: The real Trump-administration power behind the bill came from Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who made prison reform a priority after seeing his developer father as a federal inmate for tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions. The pressure, along with increasing support among GOP senators, helped persuade McConnell to reverse course and schedule a vote. The First Step Act does mark a significant bipartisan accomplishment, but it came together only amid a rare alignment of conditions, structural and political. It’s likely to remain the exception to the rule of partisan gridlock. The forecast doesn’t call for another perfect storm anytime soon. This article originally appeared in The Atlantic.[SEP]A major criminal justice reform bill is poised to become law after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in its favor Thursday. The First Step Act, passed in the Senate earlier this week with an 87-12 vote, would roll back sentences for federal prisoners, including mandatory life terms for third-time offenders and mandatory sentences for nonviolent drug users. The bill is now heading to the desk of President Trump, who has pledged to sign it into law. The bill only affects federal prisoners, who make up less than 10 percent of the more than 2 million prisoners. It has been endorsed by a wide range of supporters across the political spectrum, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative Koch brothers. But the bill explicitly excludes immigrants and has been criticized by groups such as the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 150 black-led organizations, for encouraging profiteering and making “false promises” about bringing black prisoners home. We speak with Van Jones, president and co-founder of #cut50, a national bipartisan initiative to reduce the ’s incarcerated population by 50 percent over the next 10 years. We also speak with Jessica Jackson Sloan, a human rights attorney and co-founder and national director of #cut50. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn to look at a major criminal justice reform bill that may soon become law, after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in its favor Thursday. It’s called the FIRSTSTEP Act. The bipartisan measure, which passed in the Senate earlier this week with an unheard-of 87-to-12 vote, would roll back sentences for federal prisoners, including mandatory life terms for third-time offenders, as well as mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug users and those convicted of firearm crimes. The bill is now heading to the desk of President Trump, who has pledged to sign it into law, perhaps today. The bill only affects federal prisoners, who make up less than 10 percent of the more than 2 million US prisoners. The US has the largest prison population in the world. The FIRST STEP Act ends sentencing disparities for convictions of crack cocaine versus powder cocaine, a distinction that’s long led to deep racial disparities in prison terms. This is Democratic Senator Dick Durbin speaking shortly after the Senate vote. AMY GOODMAN: The bill has been endorsed by a wide range of supporters across the political spectrum, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative Koch brothers. It’s also a major priority of senior White House adviser, presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose father spent time in a federal prison for tax evasion and other charges. For more, we go to Washington, DC, where we’re joined by Van Jones, president and co-founder of #cut50, a national bipartisan initiative to reduce the US incarcerated population by half over the next 10 years. Van Jones was President Barack Obama’s green jobs adviser in 2009, founded Green for All, also a CNNpolitical commentator. And also with us, Jessica Jackson Sloan, human rights attorney, co-founder and national director of #cut50. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Van, let’s begin with you. How did this happen? Do you think it will be signed today? What is most significant? What are you most proud of with this prison reform bill? VAN JONES: I believe it will be signed today. Here’s what happened. Formerly incarcerated people, directly impacted family members said, “We are not going to let the Trump administration go on criminal justice reform the way they went on immigration and on guns and on climate and every other issue, and poison the well. We are going to insist that the momentum that was developed under President Obama carry forward.” And those groups, mainly led by #cut50, found an ally in Jared Kushner, whose, again, father went to prison and who wanted to make a difference. And it was the most remarkable thing to see Trump, who came into office talking about law and order and embracing the Blue Lives Matter movement and talking about American carnage and putting Jeff Sessions in place — really moving in a very negative direction — over the past year begin to turn. Kim Kardashian went in there and got him to release Ms. Alice Johnson. He began to add to his speeches some of the things he was hearing from formerly incarcerated people and from Jared. And we ultimately were able to build, I think, the biggest bipartisan movement in the country, and got 87 senators to vote with us earlier this week. You can’t get 87 senators to vote together to change the name of a post office anymore. But on this issue, we finally had a breakthrough. AMY GOODMAN: So, I want to go to the woman you just referred to, Alice Marie Johnson. Earlier this year, President Trump commuted her life sentence — she was imprisoned for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense — after her cause was taken up by the reality television star Kim Kardashian West. Alice Marie Johnson, 63-year-old grandmother from Memphis, released Wednesday from federal prison — released a while ago from federal prison in Aliceville, Alabama, where she had been serving her sentence for nearly 22 years. This is Johnson speaking after her release. AMY GOODMAN: That was Alice Marie Johnson speaking while she was still jailed. But she is free. Earlier this year, Kim Kardashian West spoke to Mic about her meeting with Donald Trump on behalf of Alice Marie Johnson. AMY GOODMAN: So, yes, that’s Kim Kardashian. She met with the president, and Alice Marie Johnson was freed a few months ago. Jessica Jackson Sloan, talk about the significance of this moment and then how you overcame the opposition of so many Republicans, like Tom Cotton, for example, from Arkansas and others. I mean, 87 to 12. JESSICA JACKSON SLOAN: Yeah. Yeah, no, this is a historic moment. This is a moment where you not only have Republicans and Democrats coming together, you’ve got people from all across the country. Like Van said, the formerly incarcerated leaders, who said, “Enough is enough. We’re not going to tell our people inside that they’ve got to wait another four years before they can get any kind of relief. We’re going to keep fighting.” They stepped up. They organized in their states. You’ve got media from all over the country, everything from the Lexington Courier to The New York Times, saying this is one of the most significant criminal justice reforms and that Trump needed to get this done and Congress needed to get this done. You’ve got the National Association of Manufacturers. You’ve got Verizon. You’ve got the US Chambers Association. JESSICA JACKSON SLOAN: Fox News broadcasting — all coming together, saying, you know, “We’ve got to get this done.” So I think, while this is an epic reform for all the reasons you laid out in the beginning, I also think this is a huge moment in the narrative around criminal justice reform. For decades, we’ve been hearing this Willie Horton narrative: “Don’t let people out, or they’re going to end up reoffending, and there’s going to be victims, and you’ll never be elected again.” Ms. Alice and this FIRST STEP Act are the antidote to the Willie Horton narrative. This is a turning point for the entire movement in the entire country. AMY GOODMAN: So, if you could tell us, Jessica, your own story, how you got involved, your own husband in prison? JESSICA JACKSON SLOAN: Yes. When I was 22 years old, I had nothing but a GEDand a 2-month-old daughter. I found myself standing in a courtroom in Georgia watching as my husband got sentenced to 15, serve six. This was — in my mind at the time, I thought it was a fluke. I knew he was a great dad. I knew he was a great husband. I knew he was a boss to 17 people, and he showed up for work every morning on time. I knew what a great guy he was. And to watch the system just take all that away, and watch us go into financial ruin and my daughter grow up without her dad there, just because he had a drug addiction, and then watch, you know, as he stayed through the system not getting any help, that’s what motivated me to get involved. And I think those personal experiences are what have motivated everybody, from Jared Kushner to Shon Hopwood to many of these advocates, who have been out there fighting for this bill and saying it’s time to get some relief. AMY GOODMAN: So, Van, if you could talk about — well, I mean, some might say perhaps this was passed by many Republicans because so many Republicans are facing prison right now, around the administration and others. Michelle Goldberg has a very interesting “op-ed piece”: in The New York Times, the headline “Donald Trump Is Doing Something … Good? Conservatives get serious about criminal justice reform.” But she lays out the number of conservative political actors, not meaning Hollywood actors, but who did go to prison, I mean, people like Chuck Colson, of Watergate fame, who goes to prison and gets deeply involved with the prison reform movement, right through, right now, to Kevin Ring, president of the criminal justice reform organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a former Republican Hill staff member who once helped draft a law imposing mandatory minimums for meth dealers. VAN JONES: Yeah. Well, I mean, the actual thing that’s happening, the incarceration industry has gotten so big, mass incarceration has gotten so massive, that now Republicans, Democrats, white folks, black folks, brown folks, poor folks, even some rich folks sometimes, wind up getting pulled in. And when you get pulled in or a family member gets pulled in or a neighbor gets pulled in or a co-worker gets pulled in, you realize we have unleashed a horror on this country. And you cannot get out of it. You’ve got to do something about it. And so, you do have people who are directly impacted, on both sides of the aisle now, who fought until the last dog barked, who backed McConnell down, who beat the dog crap out of Tom Cotton and won this thing, because people — VAN JONES: Yeah, well, Tom remains opposed. He got 11 votes, or, I mean, he got destroyed, because that old law-and-order, scare-everybody crap, he tried to pull that stuff, and Republicans voted him down. And so, you’re in a situation now where there is — a change has begun to happen. And, you know, this idea that Trump is just doing this because he’s going to go to jail, whatever, look, Trump could just pardon all his family members right now and be done with it and just walk off. I think that something has happened in — AMY GOODMAN: Not for the New York investigations. VAN JONES: Well, I’m just saying that for most of these — I think the cynicism — and, Amy, I’ve got to speak to this. The level of cynicism and pain and frustration that has now built up on the left because of this nightmare in the White House should not rob us of a victory that we have fought for now for 25 years, long before any of these people were in office, people like me and people who are listening to this radio station and have been fighting at the local level. And we have finally come to a point where even the Republican Party agrees with us. And I don’t want any of your listeners to say, “Well, I’m not going to believe something good is happening.” No, when we fight and we don’t give up, good things can happen, even under the Trump administration. Let’s not take — let’s not let the cynicism take that away. AMY GOODMAN: And let me ask you about Jared Kushner, this all happening — something he is very much pushing and getting credit for — in this period of time, these months, when he’s been an adviser to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, how to get out of these accusations that he was responsible for murdering the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Your thoughts on this? You even got to — you work with him all the time, but you even got to interview him on this subject. VAN JONES: Yeah, sure. Listen, I disagree with the Trump administration on many things. I always say, I’ve got 99 conflicts with the Trump administration, but prisons ain’t one. And so, I’m not here to try to litigate everything that they’ve done. But what I can say about Jared Kushner is, on this issue, he has been relentless. He’s been dogged. Everything he said he would do, he has done, which I can’t say about most of the Democrats involved, frankly, or most of the Republicans. And so, on this issue, I can say to you and to anybody else — and, Amy, as you know, I’m a founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. We helped to close five abusive youth prisons in California, stop a super-jail. I’m not a newcomer to this issue. Before I was ever on CNN, I was fighting on this issue. And I can say that Jared Kushner, on this issue, has been as dogged and determined as any other impacted family member in this movement. AMY GOODMAN: So let’s talk about some of the progressive groups, like the Movement for Black Lives. The coalition of more than 150 black-led organizations has come out against the FIRST STEP Act. They wrote a statement, quote, “This bill is custom-made for rich white men. All of the carve outs make the vast majority of our people ineligible for the benefits of the bill. Moreover, by mandating post release surveillance the bill opens the door to increased privatization while causing additional harm to the most marginalized of our people. We believe all of this will be done while giving liberal cover to the Trump Administration as they attack, cage, and warehouse Black, brown, and working class people across the country.” The Movement for Black Lives also points out the bill explicitly excludes immigrants from access to early release and rehab programs and will direct money, say, from early releases to go back into law enforcement. They say the bill encourages profiteering and makes false promises about bringing black prisoners home. Your thoughts, Van? VAN JONES: Well, I’ll say they should have told the Congressional Black Caucus that, because the vast majority of black lawmakers voted for it. And some of those things are not accurate. Let me say this — Jessica is smarter on the policy. Let me just say this: It’s called the FIRST STEP Act. It’s not the LAST STEP Act; it’s the FIRSTSTEP Act. This bill does not do any harm to anyone. The goodness in the bill doesn’t get to as many people. There’s good programs in there that don’t — everybody can’t participate in. The goodness in the bill doesn’t get to as many people as we want to, but there is not one additional piece of harm. Not one sentence gets any longer. Nobody serves an extra day. And that, by itself, is something of a victory. And I’ll say more after Jessica. JESSICA JACKSON SLOAN: So, I just wanted to jump in and correct some of that misinformation, because I just don’t want to have viewers listening and thinking that that is true. And it’s just not. I’ve seen the numbers. The US Sentencing Commission actually did an analysis, and the exclusions actually are pretty much across the board for white, black and Hispanic individuals. Those exclusions are for a small part of the bill: the time credits that people can earn by doing programming. There are plenty of pieces of the bill that do apply to everybody who’s inside of the prison, regardless of what crime they committed, including the increased good time credit that people can earn off of their sentence for good behavior. I also want to point to the crack cocaine retroactivity. That disproportionately is going to impact African Americans who are inside. There are going to be a lot more African Americans coming home in this first batch of individuals who are coming home than any other race, and that is because people fought very, very hard — Dick Durbin, in particular — to make sure that nothing went forward that didn’t include a massive fix of retroactivity on the Fair Sentencing Act, which had been passed almost a decade ago. So, I just want to correct some of that misinformation on the immigrants piece also. You know, I’m sorry we couldn’t get away with getting rid of the current ban on people who are here undocumented going to halfway houses. We tried. We pushed. We were unable to get away from it. But it is just a continuation of the status quo. So, I just wanted to address those couple points, and invite people to look at FirstStepAct.org, if they want to check out all the wonderful things that are in this bill. AMY GOODMAN: And how you extend this beyond federal prisoners? This deals with 10 percent, right? Two hundred thousand prisoners in federal prison. What about now the model being for all prisoners? What’s your next step, Jessica? JESSICA JACKSON SLOAN: Well, you know, we’re already getting calls from state legislators across the country asking us, “Can we do this in my state? What can we do in my state?” And not just Democratic state legislators. Both sides of the aisle now feel comfortable. They’re seeing there was a clear mandate by Congress: 87 to 12, 358 to 35. I mean, just a mandate. And every single one of the amendments meant to be poison pills, slapped down. So, they’re wanting to get going in their own states. This really has made an impact on the narrative. And I think we’re going to see a lot of trickle-down justice coming from this bill. AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. AMY GOODMAN: Van, you wanted to say something? Ten seconds. VAN JONES: I just want to add one thing. This actually may take off the table criminal justice as a weapon against Democrats in 2020, for the first time since 1988 with Willie Horton. You now have — because Republicans are embracing, for whatever reason, Trump embracing, for whatever reason, now it’s a lot harder to say that progressives and Democrats are going to make it less safe, when literally you have both parties on one accord. So, politically, this is very, very smart for Democrats and progressives. We are now more safe than ever to keep pushing for progress. AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us, Jessica Jackson Sloan, co-founder and national director of #cut50; Van Jones, president and co-founder of #cut50, also commentator on CNN. This is Democracy Now! By the way, tune in on Monday to Democracy Now!, in one of our holiday specials, an hour with Angela Davis. She talks about her life, in prison, outside, professor, philosopher, activist. That’s Monday on Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! When we come back, Nanette Barragán will join us. She just came back from the US-Mexico border, where she personally facilitated the crossing of Maria, a Honduran mother who was made famous by the video of US border guards tear-gassing as she took her children across the border this week. Stay with us. AMY GOODMAN: “Goo Goo Wah Wah” by Wah Wah Watson. That’s Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin, master of the wah-wah pedal, died in October at the age of 67.[SEP]The US House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to pass historic criminal justice reform, sending the sweeping package to Donald Trump in a major bipartisan victory for the president. The measure, which cleared the Senate earlier in the week, paves the way for the most significant change to America's justice system in decades. The First Step Act includes provisions to ease heavy sentences for certain offenders, give judges more discretion in sentencing low-level criminals, and improve prison conditions for women, among others. "Members of Congress came together to write a bill that reduces the impact of draconian mandatory minimums, and makes progress to address discriminatory sentencing laws," top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi said. The legislation "will bring hope, healing and renewal to thousands of lives." Trump has said he will sign the measure into law. "America is the greatest Country in the world and my job is to fight for ALL citizens, even those who have made mistakes," Trump tweeted after the Senate passed the bill earlier in the week. It passed the House by a vote of 358 to 36. "These reforms to our criminal justice system will not only reduce recidivism and make communities safer, but they will help people into lives of purpose," said outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan. One element of the bill would make retroactive the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which altered sentencing guidelines to treat crack and powder cocaine offenses equally. According to government figures, that alone would impact over 2,600 inmates. But the bill will only affect America's federal inmates, of which there are 180,789, according to the latest figures from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the total US incarcerated population was over 2.1 million at the end of 2016.

U.S. President Donald Trump signs the First Step Act, a bipartisan prison and sentencing reform bill, into law.

TOKYO—Nissan Motor Co.’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s chances of bail were derailed Friday when prosecutors cited new suspicions that he shifted personal losses to Nissan, in a move that keeps him behind bars longer. Prosecutors said they suspected that in October 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Mr. Ghosn temporarily forced Nissan to take over a personal derivative contract that was sitting on ¥1.85 billion ($16.6 million) in losses at the time. ...[SEP]Carlos Ghosn remains behind bars as prosecutors cited new suspicions that the former Nissan CEO shifted personal losses to the automaker. This keeps Ghosn behind bars for another two days with prosecutors having the ability to stretch the detention for as much as 20 days. Prosecutors said they suspected that in October 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Ghosn temporarily forced Nissan to take over a personal derivative contract that was sitting on $16.6 million in losses at the time, according to the wall Street Journal. Ghosn later reportedly took back the contract onto his personal books and received help from an unidentified person in submitting a statement backing up his credit to the bank on the other side of the contract, prosecutors said in a statement outlining their suspicions. Then, between 2009 and 2012, Ghosn had a Nissan subsidiary transfer a total of $14.7 million into an account controlled by that person, the statement said. Those suspicions, if proven, would constitute “special breach of trust,” a criminal violation under Japan’s company law that signifies an executive has abused his position for personal gain, prosecutors said. Ghosn was indicted on Dec. 10 on charges of underreporting his compensation on Nissan’s financial statement over a five-year period ending in March 2015. At the same time, prosecutors cited new suspicions that Ghosn underreported his compensation for the three years ending in March 2018, using that as a basis to extend his detention without bail. On Thursday, prosecutors suffered a rare loss after a judge rejected their request to hold Ghosn for 10 more days without the possibility of bail on the basis of those additional suspicions. It is rare for a court to reject a request to extend the detention period, said Tokyo deputy chief prosecutor Shin Kukimoto on Thursday. The new suspicions came shortly before the scheduled bail hearing on Friday. Ghosn’s lawyers said his client maintains his innocence and hopes to restore his honor at trial.[SEP]Tokyo: Japanese prosecutors re-arrested Nissan Motor Co Ltd’s ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn on Friday on fresh allegations of making Nissan shoulder $16.6 million in personal investment losses, dashing chances he would be released on bail imminently. Prosecutors also raided Ghosn’s residence in Tokyo on Friday in search of evidence, broadcaster TV Asahi reported. The latest twist in a saga that has jolted the global auto industry and Nissan’s alliance with France’s Renault SA came a day after a Tokyo court unexpectedly rejected prosecutors’ request to extend Ghosn’s detention. That rejection had raised the possibility that the prominent businessman could go free on bail as early as Friday. The re-arrest, however, means he could be detained for at least another 10 days in a Tokyo jail, where he has been confined since he was arrested last month on initial allegations of financial misconduct. The Tokyo prosecutor said the fresh arrest was based on suspicions that around October 2008, Ghosn shifted personal trades to the automaker to make it responsible for 1.85 billion yen ($16.6 million) in appraisal losses, and inflicted damage on Nissan by having it deposit a total of $14.7 million on four occasions between June 2009 and March 2012 into a related bank account. Also read: Carlos Ghosn got six houses from Nissan, including in Tokyo and New York Carlos Ghosn’s lawyer, Motonari Otsuru, was not available for comment. Otsuru has previously declined to return calls about the Ghosn case. Kyodo news agency said that when the allegation that Carlos Ghosn had shifted the paper losses first surfaced in media reports late last month, Otsuru said his client had denied the allegation. Ghosn had considered the move but did not do so after being told by financial authorities that it would be illegal, Kyodo quoted Otsuru as saying then. The Tokyo court said in a statement on Friday that the lawyer for Ghosn’s former deputy Greg Kelly, who was arrested along with Ghosn, has requested his client’s release. Kelly’s detention extension was rejected along with Ghosn’s. The dramatic turn of events came hours after Ghosn, through his lawyer and quoted by Japanese public broadcaster NHK, vowed to restore his good name in court and to hold a news conference after his release. “Things as they stand are absolutely unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying. “I want to have my position heard and restore my honour in court.” Also read: How Carlos Ghosn hid $70 million from the firm that paid him Television camera crews had gathered outside the Tokyo jail on Friday morning in hopes of catching sight of Ghosn being released. Carlos Ghosn was initially arrested on November 19 for allegedly understating his income by about half over a five-year period from 2010. Ghosn was later re-arrested for a similar alleged crime covering the past three years. The maximum penalty for both understating compensation and the latest accusation — aggravated breach of trust — is up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of 10 million yen. Nissan said after his arrest that it unearthed multiple instances of possible wrongdoing in an internal investigation triggered by a whistleblower. The internal probe is ongoing, and has included allegations of diverting company funds to pay for personal expenses. Sources have told Reuters that investigators have been looking into the use of an internal “CEO Reserve” fund and the role of overseas subsidiaries in alleged financial misconduct. The Carlos Ghosn case has put Japan’s criminal justice system under international scrutiny and sparked criticism for some of its practices, including keeping suspects in detention for long periods and prohibiting defence lawyers from being present during interrogations, which can last eight hours a day. The case also marked a dramatic fall for the leader of the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance who was once hailed for rescuing Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy. Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa has since called for changes to weaken the clout of controlling shareholder Renault. Documents seen by Reuters showed that some discussions about compensating Ghosn out of the public eye were not confined to Nissan, but also included Renault executives. While Nissan ousted Ghosn from his role as chairman shortly after the initial arrest, Renault has so far not replaced him. A Nissan spokesman declined to comment on the re-arrest, saying only that the internal investigation was ongoing and expanding into new areas. Renault declined to comment. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.[SEP]Nissan Motor’s board voted on Thursday to oust Carlos Ghosn from his post as chairman following his shock arrest this week, marking the stunning downfall of the executive once hailed as the saviour of the Japanese automaker. The removal of Ghosn clouds the direction of the Renault-Nissan alliance, which he had personally shaped and pledged to consolidate with a deeper tie-up despite reservations at Nissan. Ghosn is also Renault’s chairman and chief executive. The board also voted to remove Greg Kelly from his position as representative director, the Nikkei newspaper reported. Nissan said on Monday an internal investigation triggered by a tip-off from an informant had revealed that Ghosn engaged in wrongdoing, including personal use of company money and under-reporting of his earnings for years. Tokyo prosecutors have accused Ghosn and Kelly of financial misconduct and they remain in custody. Ghosn and Kelly have not commented on the accusations. A Nissan spokesman declined to comment.[SEP]TOKYO - Prosecutors re-arrested former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn over fresh allegations on Friday, apparently dashing his hopes of an early release in the latest twist to a rollercoaster saga. The case of the once-revered 64-year-old tycoon has gripped Japan since he was arrested completely out of the blue as he stepped off his private jet at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on 19 November. And in another unexpected development, Ghosn was arrested on Friday on suspicion of transferring losses from personal financial investments to Nissan, causing damage to the company’s assets, according to a statement from prosecutors. He has already been formally charged with under-reporting his income by tens of millions of dollars over several years and faces a second batch of allegations that this continued for three further years. However, the auto baron had had his hopes raised of being freed on bail after a court rejected a bid by prosecutors to extend his detention over the second set of allegations. But this fresh arrest gives prosecutors 48 hours to question him on the new matter - possibly extended beyond that. Since his stunning arrest last month, the once jet-setting executive has languished in a tiny cell in a detention centre in northern Tokyo, where he has complained about the cold and the rice-based menu. His lengthy detention - in Japan, suspects can be “re-arrested” several times over different allegations - has sparked criticism, especially from abroad. Ghosn has an unusually high profile for a foreign executive in Japan and was credited with turning around the struggling car giant Nissan and forging a three-way alliance with French manufacturer Renault and fellow Japanese firm Mitsubishi Motors. He was seen as the glue holding together the fractious alliance and his arrest has exposed major rifts between Nissan - which makes the most money - and Renault, the dominant shareholder. According to local media, Ghosn has admitted signing documents to defer part of his salary until after retirement but said this amount did not need to be declared as it had not yet been definitively fixed. The suspicion is that he sought to defer part of his pay to avoid criticism from staff and shareholders that his salary was too generous. Both Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors promptly sacked Ghosn as chairman following his arrest, on the basis of a months-long internal Nissan investigation. Renault has been much more cautious, keeping him on as chairman and CEO and appointing Thierry Bollore as interim boss. In addition to charges against Ghosn and Kelly, prosecutors have also indicted Nissan, as the company submitted the official documents that allegedly under-reported his income. On Thursday, the company pointedly declined to comment, saying it was “exclusively between the court and the prosecutors”. It said the decision to fire Ghosn was “based on the substantial and convincing evidence” from an internal investigation. “Both Ghosn and Kelly have violated their director duty of care,” the firm added in a statement. Nissan has also accused its former boss of other financial impropriety, including using Nissan funds to purchase luxury homes around the world. One of these - a luxurious, 800-square-metre spread with ocean views over Rio de Janeiro’s famous Copacabana Beach - has become the subject of a legal battle. Last week, Ghosn family members entered the flat, removed “personal effects” and opened the safes, according to Nissan. This followed a court order giving Ghosn’s representatives' access despite objections from the Japanese firm.[SEP]Japanese prosecutors re-arrested Nissan Motor Co’s ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn on fresh allegations of aggravated breach of trust on Friday, dashing chances he would soon be released on bail, media reported. A Tokyo court had unexpectedly rejected prosecutors’ request to extend Ghosn’s detention a day earlier, which raised the possibility that he could go free on bail as early as Friday. The re-arrest means he could be detained for another 10 days in a Tokyo jail, where he has been confined since he was arrested on initial allegations of financial misconduct. There was no immediate word on Greg Kelly, who was arrested along with Ghosn and whose detention extension was rejected. Kyodo News said the new allegations were based on suspicions that Ghosn made the automaker shoulder personal investment losses of about 1.85 billion yen ($16.6 million) that he had incurred around 2008. His lawyer, Motonari Otsuru, was not available for comment. The lawyer has previously declined to return calls regarding the Ghosn case. The dramatic turn of events came hours after Ghosn, through his lawyer and quoted by Japanese public broadcaster NHK, vowed to restore his good name in court and to hold a news conference after his release. “Things as they stand are absolutely unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying. “I want to have my position heard and restore my honour in court.” Ghosn was initially arrested on Nov. 19 for allegedly understating his income by about half over a five-year period from 2010. He was later charged with the same alleged crime covering the past three years. Television camera crews had gathered outside the Tokyo jail on Friday morning in hopes of catching sight of Ghosn being released. The Ghosn case has put Japan’s criminal justice system under international scrutiny and sparked criticism for some of its practices, including keeping suspects in detention for long periods and prohibiting defence lawyers from being present during interrogations, which can last eight hours a day. Ghosn’s arrest has marked a dramatic fall for a leader once hailed for rescuing Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy. It has also shaken the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, with Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa calling for changes to weaken Renault SA’s control.[SEP]Nissan Motor Company’s former chairperson Carlos Ghosn was arrested again on Friday on fresh allegations that he shifted $16.6 million, around Rs 116.10 crore, in personal investment losses to the company, Reuters reported. The re-arrest means he could be detained for at least 10 more days in jail. Ghosn was arrested in Tokyo last month on charges of under-reporting his earnings. Ghosn – a French citizen of Lebanese descent who was born in Brazil – had played a major role in the formation of a strategic partnership between Nissan, its French partner Renault and Mitsubishi Motors. The new arrest came a day after a court in Japan rejected prosecutors’ request to extend Ghosn’s detention. It also rejected a detention extension for the company’s former Representative Director Greg Kelly, who had also been arrested in November. Ghosn is alleged to have shifted personal trades to Nissan in October 2008 in order to avoid paying 1.85 billion yen, or $16.6 million, in losses, according to the Tokyo prosecutor. Hours earlier, Ghosn’s lawyer Motonari Otsuru had promised to restore his client’s reputation in court. “Things as they stand are absolutely unacceptable,” Otsuru said, on Ghosn’s behalf. “I want to have my position heard and restore my honour in court.” On November 22, Nissan’s board of directors had dismissed him as chairperson. Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors had also dismissed Ghosn from the post, while Renault replaced Ghosn with a temporary deputy chief executive on the request of the French government. The French government holds 15% stake in Renault.[SEP]TOKYO — Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor chairman, was arrested again by Japanese authorities on Friday, this time on suspicion that he shifted more than $16 million in personal losses incurred a decade ago to the automaker. The rearrest of Mr. Ghosn dealt a setback to his hopes for getting released from the Tokyo jail where he has been held for more than a month on different charges. It also adds to the legal problems of an executive who once oversaw a sprawling automotive global empire that sold more than 10 million cars last year. Japanese authorities rearrested Mr. Ghosn on suspicion of breach of trust related to a financial investment that tumbled in value during the 2008 global financial crisis, according to NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. Authorities said he transferred the investment, a derivative contract, to Nissan from his personal asset management company. Mr. Ghosn’s Japanese lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. The rearrest essentially gives Japanese prosecutors another chance to keep Mr. Ghosn in jail. He has been at the same detention center since Nov. 19, when law enforcement officials descended on a corporate jet after it landed and arrested him on suspicion that he underreported his compensation to Japanese authorities.[SEP] • Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Japan last month on allegations of financial misconduct. • He’s been re-arrested several times and remains in a Japanese jail. • Nissan has deposed him as chairman, but the Renault side of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance has stood by him. Last month, Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Japan when his private jet landed at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. The now-former chairman of Nissan was nabbed alongside a Nissan director, American Greg Kelly. That was in mid-December, and both men have been sitting in a Japanese jail ever since. From media reports, it doesn’t sound like a country club incarceration, either. For Ghosn – the architect of an alliance among Nissan, France’s Renault, and Mitsubishi that was the world’s largest automotive conglomerate by sales volume in 2017 – it’s hard time, after a high-flying career. Ghosn has now been re-arrested three times; Japanese prosecutors allege that he’s hidden millions in compensation and even employed financial engineering to conceal personal investment losses. Kelly hasn’t been re-arrested three times, but he’s being investigated as a Ghosn enabler. There are 2 main theories about what’s going on here There are now two main theories about what’s going on here. Number one is that Ghosn did everything he’s been accused of, but that for years Nissan and Renault – a complicated, multinational colossus – looked the other way. Ghosn has long been a celebrity CEO in the auto industry, and although his star has dimmed in recent years as he eased toward retirement, it was widely thought by conjoining Renault and Nissan, then adding struggling Mitsubishi, he has pulled off the impossible. Number two is that a “palace coup” is underway at Nissan, and that the Japanese carmaker wants to either shatter the alliance or revamp Renault’s outsized influence. Renault owns 43% of Nissan, yet Nissan contributes most of the profits to the tripartite entity. Renault recently affirmed Ghosn’s role as chairman and CEO and concluded that he didn’t do anything wrong. Parts of both theories are probably right. Ghosn was imperious and had enemies. He wasn’t a kinder, gentler auto executive. He brandished his accomplishments and his position. But did he do anything illegal? We don’t know yet – everything is currently at the level of allegations. On the other hand, the reactions of Nissan and Renault clearly show that the Japanese side wants him gone – and not just gone, but disgraced and perhaps imprisoned – while the French side is fighting for its stake in the alliance. By Japanese law, Ghosn can remain jailed for a while. This is of course why he and Kelly were arrested in the country (Kelly was convinced to fly to Japan for a meeting despite plans for surgery). And thus far, the investigation and reports about it have revealed a web of financial entities that the alliance created to deal with biggest Ghosn problem: that the executive thought he was underpaid relative to his peers in the global car business. He was underpaid relative to, say, General Motors CEO Mary Barra: she made $23 million in 2017, while Ghosn made $17 million. But Barra’s compensation was a mix of salary and stock, while Ghosn brought home his millions through three separate companies. And according to a Reuters breakdown, he still did better than just about everybody else in the industry, and that doesn’t even account for decades of perks, ranging from business jets to residences. Ghosn’s only offense might have been greed So Ghosn could have been sort of greedy. Whether that greed was illegal is what we’re all waiting to find out. And we’ve been waiting too long. Ghosn and Kelly should be able to defend themselves at this juncture (Kelly might be able to, if he avoids re-arrest). Ghosn’s defense actually might not look that good. Coming up with ways todefer=”defer”millions in compensation and establish shell companies to shift money around might not have been overtly illegal, but it looks like an arrogant executive using the Byzantine structure of his companies to shield his earnings from scrutiny. Having watched Ghosn in action for over a decade, I think it’s unlikely he’d admit any wrongdoing. He’s typically rather brusk and to-the-point, and he’s far enough along in his career that he might not actually care if he comes off as a Machiavellian global plutocrat, bending every rule in the book while arguing that his ends justify his means. At the same time, the world is getting an education in Japanese justice – or the lack of it. Every time Ghosn is re-arrested, the presumption of guilt intensifies. If this continues for much longer, it’s difficult to imagine how he gets a fair hearing in Japan, which would help anyone who wants him out at Nissan to realize their goal. Renault didn’t fold up, however, and if the palace-coup theory is correct, then Nissan miscalculated. The French government might have no choice but to get behind Ghosn, given its stake in Renault. Before any of that happens, the Japanese should free Carlos and allow the accused man to present his case.[SEP]Nissan Motor Co. is trying to block access to homes used by in Beirut and Rio de Janeiro, part of a global network of real estate owned by the carmaker and provided to its ousted chairman, according to people familiar with the situation. Nissan provided Ghosn and his family with use of properties from Brazil to France during his tenure, which came to an abrupt end last month when the car titan was arrested in Tokyo over suspected financial crimes. Prosecutors in Japan indicted Ghosn and Nissan on Monday, accusing him of under-reporting his income. The Franco-Brazilian executive was arrested again in Tokyo on charges that cover a different time period than the earlier charges. That will keep him in detention for at least another 10 days. ALSO READ: Carlos Ghosn's detention not extended; Tokyo court may soon release him While that legal battle plays out in Japan, Nissan has been working to prevent Ghosn’s family from gaining access to a luxury apartment in worth roughly $3 million and a pale-pink mansion in the historic district of Beirut that the automaker bought for $8.75 million in 2012, say the people, who are familiar with the investigation Nissan conducted into Ghosn that laid the groundwork for his arrest. Locks have already been changed at several properties, the people said. Ghosn’s wife, Carole, was prevented from entering the home in Beirut, they said. In Brazil, Nissan is petitioning a local court’s decision to grant Ghosn’s representatives access to the Rio apartment “due to a high likelihood of evidence being removed or destroyed,” the carmaker said in a statement Monday. Nissan hasn’t been able to enter other homes in Paris and Amsterdam because only Ghosn and his assistant have keys to the properties, according to the people. Bloomberg News tracked down five of the Nissan properties. While Ghosn wasn’t a frequent visitor of any of the locations -- famously spending much of his time in the company’s private airplane as he jetted among continents -- his presence was noted by neighbors and service providers interviewed by Bloomberg reporters. It’s unclear if Ghosn’s use of the houses is being probed by Japanese prosecutors, but the people familiar with the matter say they figure in the carmaker’s investigation into its former chairman, who brought Nissan back from the brink by creating an alliance with Renault SA nearly two decades ago. ALSO READ: Nissan puts brakes on naming Ghosn successor amid tensions with Renault The locations of the residences were checked against addresses listed in documents viewed by Bloomberg, including transaction and land registry records, and interviews with service providers and people with direct knowledge of the Nissan investigation and Ghosn’s case who requested anonymity to discuss private information. Nissan pays the rent of 8,000 euros a month on this apartment, which is used exclusively by Ghosn, one person said. Nissan is now trying to terminate the lease and secure inventories. The apartment is also listed as Ghosn’s address on land registry documents for a house near Paris that he co-owns with his first wife, Rita. This house is registered to Nissan but was at Ghosn’s disposal, said Hadi Hachem, chief of staff of Lebanon’s minister of foreign affairs. Nissan paid $8.75 million for the home in 2012, and former Nissan representative director Greg Kelly handled the deal, one person with knowledge of the investigation said. Nissan then spent an additional $6 million renovating the home, which includes a wine cellar and sarcophagi displayed in a glass case near the entrance, the person said. A barber, whose shop is a few meters from the house and who has seen Ghosn at the residence several times, said there appeared to be a dinner party there on the Friday night before Ghosn was arrested. Ghosn planned to buy the house from Nissan and transfer the ownership to himself, but the transfer hasn’t been completed, according to people familiar with the matter. Located on one of Paris’s most luxurious avenues and spanning three floors, it was bought by a Nissan subsidiary in 2006, French land registry documents show. The original purchase price was less than $4 million, and it was originally rented by Ghosn, one person said. A resident of the building said that she had not seen Ghosn for at least two years. After Ghosn’s arrest, representatives from Nissan changed the locks to this apartment and took cars from its garage, according to a person with knowledge of the actions. Nissan owns the apartment, two people said. Property records list the owner as Hamsa 1 Limited, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands. It signed the deed in January 2012, paying 10.5 million reais, records show. That was the equivalent of nearly $6 million at the time. This apartment was leased in Ghosn’s name until June 2017, when it was transferred to Nissan. The company paid the monthly 1-million-yen ($8,900) rent before and after the transfer, one person said. It was used only by Ghosn and his family and only for a few days each month on average. Nissan has secured access to the apartment since Ghosn’s arrest.

Carlos Ghosn, formerly the chairman of Nissan, is arrested again on suspicion of shifting personal losses to the company.

An Edmonton judge has denied former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's request to have his bail conditions eased. There's no evidence of hardship or that the conditions are needlessly onerous, Court of Queen's Bench Justice June Ross said Friday. She said nothing has really changed since the last time Khadr asked for changes to his bail conditions and the restrictions he faces are "reasonable" and "standard." Ross said her decision is not etched in stone and conditions could change in the future. "Based on all of the evidence I have seen, Mr. Khadr is not a flight risk or a risk to public safety," Ross said. "Nonetheless, it seems to me it's reasonable to make sure the courts are kept up to date on his whereabouts and activities. "The public would expect we have up-to-date information about his whereabouts," Ross added. "They would expect reasonable travel restrictions." Khadr, 32, has been on bail since May 2015 pending an appeal of his conviction by a U.S. military commission on alleged war crimes. The appeal has stalled, so Khadr has no idea how long he will be on bail. Khadr didn't speak to reporters after Friday's ruling. "We're going to review the decision and consider our next steps," his lawyer, Nathan Whitling, said outside court. Whitling said it's not fair that Khadr's life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process with no end in sight. "His case is different because of the extraordinarily long time that he's been on bail ... because of the extraordinary delays that have occurred with his foreign appeal," Whitling said in an interview. Wanted to make pilgrimage to Mecca Khadr wanted to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit filed by the family of an American soldier killed in the Afghanistan firefight in which Khadr was captured in 2002. He also wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport so that he could make the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Islamic religious pilgrimage is considered obligatory for practising Muslims. Currently, he must contact his bail supervisor if he wants to leave Alberta. He can only talk under supervision to his sister Zaynab, who has spoken in favour of al-Qaeda and was investigated in Canada more than a decade ago for helping the terrorist network. Khadr said his sister now lives in the country of Georgia. Whitling said his client has lived quietly for years, is happily married, follows bail conditions to the letter and poses no threat. Khadr's affidavit says he has been to Toronto eight times without issue since the conditions were imposed. 'Depressive symptoms' In support of the application to ease bail conditions, Whitling submitted a letter from Brooklyn, N.Y., psychologist Katherine Porterfield. She has been in regular contact with Khadr since his detention as a teenager at Guantanamo Bay. Porterfield believes Khadr's mental health is suffering due to the ongoing nature of his bail conditions. "He has recently experienced some depressive symptoms, as well as an increase in his symptoms of PTSD," Porterfield wrote. "Specifically, [he] is manifesting a foreshortened sense of future and a return of symptoms of hyperarousal and re-experiencing of memories of prison." The psychologist's opinion is that Khadr's "legal limbo" is triggering memories of the time he spent as a teenager in Guantanamo Bay. Ross called Khadr's feelings "understandable," but said they don't change the fact that he has not served his sentence for crimes to which he pleaded guilty. "Bail cannot provide an alternative way to serve his sentence," Ross said. This is Khadr's latest of several attempts for relaxed bail conditions. In 2017, a judge denied most of his requests. Khadr was sent to the notorious U.S. military holding facility at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 after he was captured and accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in 2002. When Khadr was captured, he was 15. He says he can't remember killing a soldier. He says he only confessed to the crime to get out of Guantanamo and into the Canadian justice system. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that his rights were violated while he was in captivity in the U.S. and that the Canadian government had contributed to that. Khadr settled a lawsuit against Ottawa in 2017 with a $10.5-million payout. 2nd application also dismissed Khadr's lawyer hopes to replace his client's indefinite bail situation with parole, since parole could include a definite end date. The parole board has refused to grant Khadr a hearing because he is not in custody. Whitling asked Ross to sign an order that would revoke his bail at the start of a parole board hearing, and reinstate it if the parole board deferred or denied the request for parole. Ross refused. "Such decisions should not be made based on future hypothetical circumstances that may or may not occur," Ross said, adding that if a parole hearing is scheduled, Whitling can bring forward the application again.[SEP]EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — A Canadian judge on Friday denied former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr’s request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. Justice June Ross ruled there’s no evidence of hardship or conditions that are needlessly onerous. The Canadian-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops after a firefight at a suspected al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges that included murder and was sentenced to eight years plus the decade he had already spent in custody at the American prison. He returned to Canada from Guantanamo Bay two years later to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress. Khadr’s lawyer had argued that it wasn’t fair that his client’s life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process that has no end in sight. Khadr, who is now 32, wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport so that he could make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Khadr also wanted to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit he faces. Khadr does not know how long his bail conditions are in effect. He was paid $8 million by Canada’s government last year under a court ruling that his rights were violated while he was locked up at Guantanamo. News of the multimillion-dollar payout to Khadr, whose case received international attention after some dubbed him a child soldier, angered many who considered him a terrorist.[SEP]An Edmonton judge has dismissed a request by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport.[SEP]EDMONTON — An Edmonton judge has denied former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. Justice June Ross says there's no evidence of hardship or that the conditions are needlessly onerous. She says nothing has really changed since the last time Khadr asked for changes to his bail conditions and the restrictions he faces are reasonable. Ross says her decision is not etched in stone and conditions could change in the future. Khadr's lawyer had argued that it wasn't fair that his client's life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process with no end in sight. Khadr, 32, has been on bail since May 2015 pending his appeal of his conviction by a U.S. military commission on alleged war crimes. The appeal has stalled and Khadr has no idea of how long his bail conditions will last. Khadr wanted to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit filed by the family of an American soldier killed in the Afghanistan firefight in which Khadr was captured He also wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister, who lives in the country of Georgia, and a Canadian passport so that he could make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Islamic religious pilgrimage, or hajj, is considered obligatory for practising Muslims. Currently, he must contact his bail supervisor if he wants to leave Alberta. He can only talk under supervision to his sister Zaynab, who has spoken in favour of al-Qaida and was investigated in Canada more than a decade ago for helping the terrorist network. "In Canada, appeals move quickly," Whitling had argued. "This is pending a foreign appeal, which has never happened before and this foreign appeal is extraordinarily slow." He said his client has lived quietly for years, is happily married, follows bail conditions to the letter and poses no threat. Khadr's affidavit says he has been to Toronto eight times without issue since the conditions were imposed. The Canadian Press Khadr is seeking a Canadian passport to travel to Saudi Arabia and wants permission to speak to his sister. It's the latest of several attempts for relaxed bail conditions. In 2017, a judge denied most of his requests. Khadr was sent to the notorious U.S. military holding facility at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 after he was captured and accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in 2002. He was 15 at the time and says he can't remember killing the soldier. He says he only confessed to the crime to get out of Guantanamo and into the Canadian justice system. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that Khadr's rights were violated while he was in captivity in the U.S. and that the Canadian government had contributed to that. Khadr settled a lawsuit against Ottawa in 2017 with a $10.5-million payout.[SEP]EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) - A Canadian judge on Friday denied former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. Justice June Ross ruled there's no evidence of hardship or conditions that are needlessly onerous. The Canadian-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops after a firefight at a suspected al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges that included murder and was sentenced to eight years plus the decade he had already spent in custody at the American prison. He returned to Canada from Guantanamo Bay two years later to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress. Khadr's lawyer had argued that it wasn't fair that his client's life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process that has no end in sight. Khadr, who is now 32, wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport so that he could make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. File-This July 6, 2017, file photo shows former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr, 30, in Mississauga, Ont. A Canadian judge on Friday, Dec. 21, 2018, denied the former Guantanamo Bay detainee's request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. Justice June Ross ruled there's no evidence of hardship or conditions that are needlessly onerous. The Canadian-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops after a firefight at a suspected al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer. (Colin Perkel/The Canadian Press via AP, File) Khadr also wanted to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit he faces. Khadr does not know how long his bail conditions are in effect. He was paid $8 million by Canada's government last year under a court ruling that his rights were violated while he was locked up at Guantanamo. News of the multimillion-dollar payout to Khadr, whose case received international attention after some dubbed him a child soldier, angered many who considered him a terrorist.[SEP]EDMONTON -- An Edmonton judge is to rule Friday on former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. His lawyer Nathan Whitling said it's not fair that Khadr's life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process with no end in sight. "His case is different because of the extraordinarily long time that he's been on bail ... because of the extraordinary delays that have occurred with his foreign appeal," Whitling said in an interview. Khadr, 32, wants to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit filed by the family of an American soldier killed in the Afghanistan firefight in which Khadr was captured He also wants unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport so that he can make the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Islamic religious pilgrimage is considered obligatory for practising Muslims. Currently, he must contact his bail supervisor if he wants to leave Alberta. He can only talk under supervision to his sister Zaynab, who has spoken in favour of al-Qaida and was investigated in Canada more than a decade ago for helping the terrorist network. Khadr said his sister now lives in the country of Georgia. He has been on bail since May 2015, when it was granted by an Alberta judge pending appeal of Khadr's conviction by a U.S. military commission on alleged war crimes. The appeal in the U.S. has stalled and Khadr has no idea of how long his bail conditions will last. "In Canada, appeals move quickly," Whitling said. "This is pending a foreign appeal, which has never happened before and this foreign appeal is extraordinarily slow." He said his client has lived quietly for years, is happily married, follows bail conditions to the letter and poses no threat. Khadr's affidavit says he has been to Toronto eight times without issue since the conditions were imposed. It's the latest of several attempts for relaxed bail conditions. In 2017, a judge denied most of his requests. Khadr was sent to the notorious U.S. military holding facility at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 after he was captured and accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in 2002. He was 15 at the time and says he can't remember killing the soldier. He says he only confessed to the crime to get out of Guantanamo and into the Canadian justice system. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that Khadr's rights were violated while he was in captivity in the U.S. and that the Canadian government had contributed to that. Khadr settled a lawsuit against Ottawa in 2017 with a $10.5-million payout.[SEP]EDMONTON — A judge has denied former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr’s request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. Justice June Ross said Friday that nothing has changed since the last time Khadr asked for eased bail conditions and there’s no evidence the current restrictions create hardship or are needlessly strict. “The passage of another year has changed neither Mr. Khadr’s legal status nor my view of the law,” Ross said in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench. “The evidence does not indicate a current hardship arising from bail conditions.” Khadr wanted to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit filed by the family of an American soldier killed in the Afghanistan firefight in which Khadr was captured. He also wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister, who lives in the country of Georgia, and a Canadian passport so that he could make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, an obligation for observant Muslims. As it stands, he must contact his bail supervisor if he wants to leave Alberta. He can only talk under supervision to his sister Zaynab, who has spoken in favour of al-Qaida and was investigated in Canada more than a decade ago for helping the terrorist network. Ross said Khadr’s desire to undertake a religious pilgrimage does not mean he needs a passport right away. “It does not require Mr. Khadr to travel now.” Ross concluded that the bail restrictions on Khadr’s movements and communications are common in Canadian law and are justifiable. “Mr. Khadr is not a flight risk or a risk to public safety,” she said. “But it is reasonable to ensure that public authorities are kept informed as to his whereabouts.” Ross said her decision is not etched in stone and conditions could change if an emergency arose for which he needed to travel. Khadr’s lawyer had argued that it wasn’t fair that his client’s life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process with no end in sight. Khadr, 32, has been on bail since May 2015 pending his appeal of his conviction by a U.S. military commission on alleged war crimes. The appeal has stalled and Khadr has no idea how long his bail conditions will last. “In Canada, appeals move quickly,” his lawyer Nathan Whitling said in an interview before the judge’s ruling. “This is pending a foreign appeal, which has never happened before and this foreign appeal is extraordinarily slow.” Whitling said his client has lived quietly for years, is happily married, follows bail conditions to the letter and poses no threat. Khadr’s affidavit says he has been to Toronto eight times without issue since the conditions were imposed. It’s the latest of several attempts for relaxed bail conditions. In 2017, Ross denied most of Khadr’s requests. Khadr was sent to the notorious U.S. military holding facility at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 after he was captured and accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in 2002. He was 15 at the time and says he can’t remember killing the soldier. He said he only confessed to the crime to get out of Guantanamo and into the Canadian justice system. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that Khadr’s rights were violated while he was in captivity in the U.S. and that the Canadian government had contributed to that violation. Khadr settled a lawsuit against Ottawa in 2017 with a $10.5-million payout.[SEP]EDMONTON — An Edmonton judge has denied former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. Justice June Ross says there's no evidence of hardship or that the conditions are needlessly onerous. She says nothing has really changed since the last time Khadr asked for changes to his bail conditions and the restrictions he faces are reasonable. Ross says her decision is not etched in stone and conditions could change in the future. Khadr's lawyer had argued that it wasn't fair that his client's life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process with no end in sight. Khadr, who is 32, has been on bail since May 2015 pending appeal of his conviction by a U.S. military commission on alleged war crimes. The appeal in the U.S. has stalled and Khadr has no idea of how long his bail conditions will last. Khadr wanted to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit he faces. He also wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport so that he could make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.[SEP]An Edmonton judge is to rule Friday on former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr‘s request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice June Ross was expected to make a decision last week, but she said there were enough unprecedented aspects to the application to warrant taking time to think it over. READ MORE: Omar Khadr speaks after Edmonton judge reserves decision on bail condition changes His lawyer Nathan Whitling said it’s not fair that Khadr’s life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process with no end in sight. “His case is different because of the extraordinarily long time that he’s been on bail … because of the extraordinary delays that have occurred with his foreign appeal,” Whitling said in an interview. Khadr, 32, wants to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit filed by the family of an American soldier killed in the Afghanistan firefight in which Khadr was captured. He also wants unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport so that he can make the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Islamic religious pilgrimage is considered obligatory for practising Muslims. Currently, he must contact his bail supervisor if he wants to leave Alberta. He can only talk under supervision to his sister Zaynab, who has spoken in favour of al-Qaida and was investigated in Canada more than a decade ago for helping the terrorist network. READ MORE: Justin Trudeau gets standing ovation for handling of Omar Khadr protester Khadr said his sister now lives in the country of Georgia. He has been on bail since May 2015, when it was granted by an Alberta judge pending appeal of Khadr’s conviction by a U.S. military commission on alleged war crimes. The appeal in the U.S. has stalled and Khadr has no idea of how long his bail conditions will last. “In Canada, appeals move quickly,” Whitling said. “This is pending a foreign appeal, which has never happened before and this foreign appeal is extraordinarily slow.” WATCH BELOW: Omar Khadr will have to wait a week to find out if his bail conditions will be eased. As Fletcher Kent explains, Khadr wants to travel and speak privately with his sister while he waits for an appeal of his U.S. war crimes conviction. (Aired Dec. 13, 2018) He said his client has lived quietly for years, is happily married, follows bail conditions to the letter and poses no threat. Khadr’s affidavit says he has been to Toronto eight times without issue since the conditions were imposed. READ MORE: Why Omar Khadr needs permission to see his controversial sister It’s the latest of several attempts for relaxed bail conditions. In 2017, a judge denied most of his requests. Khadr was sent to the notorious U.S. military holding facility at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 after he was captured and accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in 2002. He was 15 at the time and says he can’t remember killing the soldier. He says he only confessed to the crime to get out of Guantanamo and into the Canadian justice system. READ MORE: A chronological look at Omar Khadr’s long legal odyssey In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that Khadr’s rights were violated while he was in captivity in the U.S. and that the Canadian government had contributed to that. Khadr settled a lawsuit against Ottawa in 2017 with a $10.5-million payout. WATCH BELOW: Coverage from recent years of Omar Khadr[SEP]Omar Khadr will not have his bail conditions relaxed, an Edmonton justice decided Friday. The justice called his current conditions reasonable and said “they should continue while Mr. Khadr is on bail.” Now 32, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee asked to be able to travel to Toronto without approval of his bail supervisors, and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit filed by the family of an American soldier who was killed in the Afghanistan fight in which Khadr was captured. He also wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport to make the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, a pilgrimage considered obligatory for practicing Muslims. On bail since May 2015, Khadr has had to contact his bail supervisor when wanting to leave Alberta. His sister Zaynab, who now lives in the Europe-Asia border country Georgia, has spoken favourably of al-Qaida and was previously investigated by Canada for helping the terrorist network. Khadr’s contact with her was to be supervised. With files from Sarah Plowman and The Canadian Press

A Canadian judge denies former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport.

All eyes were on the Senate Friday afternoon as an effort to vote on a bill to fund President Donald Trump’s border wall teetered on the edge. J. Scott Applewhite / AP[SEP]Senate adjourns without action to end partial government shutdown as talks drag on between White House, Congress WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate adjourns without action to end partial government shutdown as talks drag on between White House, Congress.[SEP]Shutdown to stretch until at least Thursday as Senate adjourns with no budget deal[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate adjourns without action to end partial government shutdown as talks drag on between White House, Congress.[SEP]House adjourns without deal on spending, virtually guaranteeing partial government shutdown will begin at midnight WASHINGTON (AP) — House adjourns without deal on spending, virtually guaranteeing partial government shutdown will begin at midnight.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — House adjourns without deal on spending, virtually guaranteeing partial government shutdown will begin at midnight.[SEP]WASHINGTON, D.C. - America is in the midst of a partial government shutdown in the middle of holiday season, because a funding bill hasn’t passed. President Donald Trump wants Democrats in the Senate to approve his $5.7 billion demand for U.S.-Mexico border wall money. However, Democrats are unwilling to endorse it. Wondering what happens during a partial shutdown? Here’s what you should know. [RELATED: Partial government shutdown in effect after lawmakers fail to reach deal] A government shutdown happens when Congress does not pass funding bills or the president fails to sign them before the previous appropriations run out. However, the nation currently is headed toward a partial shutdown since Congress has already funded about 75 percent of the federal government through September 2019. How long would the shutdown last? If the funding bill doesn’t pass, the shutdown would start Saturday. It would last until both the House and Senate come to an agreement, and the president signs it. What departments would be impacted? Nine out of 15 federal departments will close or reduce operations, according to a fact sheet released by the Democratic staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Here’s a list: What happens to federal employees? More than 420,000 government workers are expected to work without pay if a partial shutdown occurs, according to the fact sheet. That would include more than 41,000 federal law enforcement and correctional officers, 88 percent of employees at the Department of Homeland Security and thousands of Customs and Border Protection agents and customs officers. More than 380,000 federal employees would be placed on furlough, or sent home without pay. That would include the majority of the staff at NASA, the National Park Service and the Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as about 52,000 IRS workers.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has adjourned without a deal on spending, an hour after the House ended its session, guaranteeing a partial government shutdown will begin at midnight Friday. Senators expect to return at noon Saturday as talks continue. Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials were on Capitol Hill late Friday trying to broker a compromise as President Donald Trump pushes for $5 billion in border wall funding, a proposal Democrats staunchly oppose. Trump says the government is “totally prepared for a very long shutdown” and just last week said that he’d “own” the partial shutdown. Without a deal, funding for about 25 percent of the government expires at midnight. Nine Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice, will be affected by the shutdown.[SEP]On Friday, the federal government will partially shut down, unless Congress passes last-minute funding measures. Many Americans worry the Christmastime shutdown will be as devastating as a stocking full of coal — but the shutdown might not be so bad after all. The U.S. government has shut down numerous times over the past 50 years, and the impact has been as small as the “Whos” in “Whoville.” In fact, since 1976, there have been 19 government shutdowns, and the longest shutdown (December 1995) only lasted 21 days. Of course, according to many in the mainstream media, a government shutdown, like the Grinch, will bring utter devastation to the country (and ruin Christmas). History has clearly shown, however, that this isn’t the case. Here are some of the most common myths about what will happen if the government shuts down. TRENDING: Illegal Immigrants Facing Deportation Get One Last Trip Courtesy of ICE Air There is simply no truth to this claim. Social Security, like Medicare, is a mandatory spending program, which means that Social Security payments would be 100 percent unaffected by a partial government shutdown. All 62 million Americans receiving Social Security benefits will still get their checks in the mail, regardless of what happens with Congress and President Donald Trump. This has been the case for literally every single government shutdown in modern history. MYTH: All federal agencies will be affected. Because Congress has already allocated funds for three-fourths of the federal discretionary budget for 2019, the pending partial shutdown would only impact a limited number of government services. Agencies that would be affected include those under the Departments of Homeland Security, State, and Treasury — and a partial shutdown would not cut all funding for these agencies, either. Most agencies have already been funded and will not be impacted by the shutdown. This includes the Departments of Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Labor, among others. MYTH: All government employees will not be paid. There are two million federal employees in the United States, not including the U.S. military. About 1.2 million employees work at agencies that have been fully funded for 2019, which means these 1.2 million government workers have nothing to worry about if the pending partial shutdown takes place. Of the remaining 800,000 Americans employed by the national government, only about 350,000 are considered “non-essential” and could be furloughed in the event of a government shutdown. Although that may seem dire to some, the furlough often ends up being more like a paid vacation. In the past, Congress has passed legislation to retroactively compensate all federal employees that were furloughed during shutdowns. MYTH: The United States would default on its debt payments. The federal shutdown only impacts discretionary spending, not interest payments on behalf of the U.S. government to foreign and domestic debtholders. The U.S. government would only default on its debt payments if the debt ceiling was not raised to accommodate the national debt. Currently, the debt ceiling has been suspended until March 1, 2019. In essence, federal spending cannot be impeded until that date. MYTH: National parks and monuments will be closed. Unless the Trump administration takes a page out of the Obama administration’s government-shutdown playbook and unnecessarily closes national parks and monuments to the public, odds are that these national treasures will stay open. The only caveat is that the visitor centers might not be open and park rangers might not be around to help visitors. The pending government shutdown might not seem all that bad once you know the facts, but the truth is that a shutdown shouldn’t happen at all. The shutdown is a symptom of a much larger problem: a broken federal budgeting system. Until that problem is fixed, expect more government shutdown myths in the future. Chris Talgo is an editor at The Heartland Institute. Emma Kaden is an intern at The Heartland Institute. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]LOS ANGELES (CBSLA/CBS News) – The government officially entered a partial government shutdown at midnight Saturday. The House and Senate failed to come to agreement on President Trump’s $5 billion border wall, and Mr. Trump declared last week he’d be “proud” to shut down the government to get it. On Wednesday, it seemed possible he’d sign a bill that didn’t explicitly fund his wall and find money for it elsewhere, but that idea evaporated Thursday under pressure from conservative Republicans, who advised him that it would look like he was caving on his campaign promise to erect the wall. Democrats in Congress don’t want to spend more than $1.6 billion on border security. The Senate initially passed a bill without the wall funding. But Republicans in the House passed a stopgap bill Thursday night that inserted $5 billion for the wall, a move that means the Senate will have to vote again on the measure. It has no chance of passage, since the bill needs 60 votes to pass, and there is no Democrat who will support the wall funding. Meanwhile, the president was expected to head to Mar-a-Lago for his more than two-week holiday vacation, but he stayed in Washington while First Lady Melania Trump and their 12-year-old son Barron went without him. This is the third shutdown under Mr. Trump’s presidency, following two very brief shutdowns over the span of one month earlier this year. Before Mr. Trump took office, no shutdown had occurred when one party controlled the House, Senate and White House since the 1970s, when the federal government shut down under Jimmy Carter. When did the government shutdown start This is a partial government shutdown. A number of departments and agencies are funded through September 2019, thanks to previously passed appropriations bills. Funding that expires after Dec. 21 covers the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Interior Department, the Departure of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, among some other federal entities. In the event of a shutdown, the Office of Management and Budget — the office still run by incoming acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — issues guidance to each agency and each agency would develop its own shutdown plan. In a shutdown, federal agencies must halt all “non-essential” discretionary work and so-called non-essential employees must stay home until new funding legislation is signed into law. The shutdown will last until both the House and Senate pass a funding bill, and the president signs it. • The U.S. Postal Service would still operate, and mail would be delivered as usual. • Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents would still work, and air travel would continue virtually unaffected. Holiday travel could continue as planned. • Social Security checks would be mailed as planned. Social Security doesn’t fall under one of the affected departments anyways, but even if it did, those checks would be unaffected. • Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation would go on unimpeded. • Customs and Border Patrol agents at the border, and U.S. troops deployed to the border, would still work as usual. They just wouldn’t get paid at the time. • The Smithsonian announced that its museum and the National Zoo will remain open through Jan. 1 by using prior-year funds. What government services will stop during the shutdown Nine of the 15 federal departments as well as dozens of agencies will close or reduce operations, according to Democrats on the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations. • The U.S. Department of Agriculture would close down state and local farm service centers across the country, according to Senate Committee on Appropriations report • The Federal Housing Administration would see slowdowns in loan processing and approvals, and new loan applications may be halted altogether The government services that could close • The National Parks Service is not fully closing down, but its services will be pared back. National Park Service Chief Spokesperson Jeremy Barnum said in a statement: “In the event of a government shutdown national parks will remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and procedures. For example, this means that roads that have already been open will remain open (think snow removal) and vault toilets (wilderness type restrooms) will remain open. However, services that require staffing and maintenance such as campgrounds and full service restrooms, will not be operating.” • Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said that the Grand Canyon will remain open regardless of a government shutdown. “We have a plan in place and we’re ready to go. If you have plans to visit the Grand Canyon over the weekend, keep ’em,” he said. • NORAD announced that if a government shutdown occurs, the annual NORAD Tracks Santa tradition will continue. “Military personnel who conduct NORAD Tracks Santa are supported by approximately 1,500 volunteers who make the program possible each and every year,” NORAD said in a statement. What happens to federal employees during shutdown More than 420,000 federal employees would have to go to work without pay, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The committee estimates that includes: • More than 41,000 law enforcement and correctional officers • Up to 88 percent of Department of Homeland Security employees On top of that, more than 380,000 federal employees would be furloughed — meaning, sent home without pay — the committee estimates. That includes: • Roughly 86 percent of the Department of Commerce staff Since it’s unclear how long a shutdown would last, if one does indeed occur, it’s unclear what kind of disruption there would be in federal employee paychecks. During the most recent shutdown in January 2018, the three-day shutdown over the weekend wasn’t quite long enough to delay paychecks. Congress isn’t required to pay back pay to furloughed employees, but historically, they have. “Our members are asking how they are supposed to pay for rent, food, and gas if they are required to work without a paycheck,” David Cox, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. “The holiday season makes these inquiries especially heart-wrenching.” Ironically, a government shutdown, according to the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget, tends to cost more than keeping the government open does. Creating contingency plans costs resources, uncollected fees are lost, and furloughed employees typically get back pay anyways. Without approved funding legislation, there is no timeline for a shutdown. The longest shutdown occurred during President Bill Clinton’s time in office, also over the holidays – a 21-day shutdown from Dec. 15, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996. In the event of a shutdown, it’s quite possible the issue wouldn’t be resolved until the new Congress begins Jan. 3. Democrats will take control of the House then. But as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week, “I’m just sort of hoping for a Christmas miracle here.”

The U.S. Congress adjourns for the night before reaching a new budget agreement, starting a partial federal government shutdown that began the next day at 12:00 AM EST (05:00 UTC).

Share This On: Pin 42 Shares (CMC) – Guyana was preparing for a general election early next year after a government back-bencher supported an opposition motion of no confidence against the David Granger government late on Friday night. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, who had been heckled, as he outlined his reasons for the motion in Parliament, has already signalled his intention to work with the coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) government leading up to the polls that could be held as early as March. Government back-bencher Charrandass Persaud voted with the opposition Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) legislators to win the no-confidence motion in the 65-seat National Assembly after several hours of debate. The APNU had won the 2015 general election by a slender one-seat majority and despite repeated urges by fellow parliamentarians to change his vote, Persaud declined. When the debate started, Jagdeo, a former president, described the coalition government as “incompetent and corrupt”. Jagdeo said the government has been a total failure and has not been keeping its promises to the Guyanese people who voted them into office. “The people out there, they demand that we pursue this and I know there are 33 members who have been growing fat on the perks of office and wish that this motion disappears,” he said, adding that the coalition government had mismanaged the resources of Guyana and that is the main reason behind his decision to file the motion against the government. Jagdeo said the government has failed on its manifesto promises and is harming democracy. He said the Granger-led administration is totally untrustworthy and that it has failed to bring any major investor to Guyana and has only been talking “about oil, oil, oil”. “We have made the case that this government is totally useless to the people of Guyana. The longer they stay there, the more damaging it will be to our future,” he said. Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who led the government’s response to Jagdeo, defended its record, adding “when you speak of harming democracy, you have to look at what the PPP has done”. “We are confident that we have restored the symbols of nationhood in this society and this is what keeps us together,” the minister stated. Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo described the motion as “self –serving”, saying that the opposition leader is hoping for a “fluke” in the motion being carried. He said the motion was moved with political viciousness and resulted in the image of the country being reflected as unstable. ( 2 ) ( 1 )[SEP](STABROEK NEWS) — A high-stakes gambit by the PPP/C paid off tonight when APNU+AFC MP Charrandas Persaud voted for the opposition motion of no-confidence meaning that fresh general elections will have to be held in three months. Persaud, an attorney, who represents the AFC wing of the coalition, voted yes when it was his turn tonight, stunning the National Assembly and clearly taking the government benches by surprise. His vote brought proceedings to an immediate halt as government MPs attempted to have him change his vote. Both APNU+AFC Chief Whip Amna Ally and MP Volda Lawrence who is the chairman of the PNCR rounded on him to no avail. Persaud, a Berbician, proceeded to repeat at least four times that he was in favour of the motion when Speaker Dr Barton Scotland had the process restarted. The vote was then concluded and the no-confidence motion succeeded 33 to 32 meaning that the government had fallen. The voting came at the end of nearly seven hours of gruelling debate on the PPP/C’s motion which had had the political class on tenterhooks. The collapse of the government comes at a particularly precarious time with President David Granger being unwell and the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission also unwell. Thus far there has been no word on the collapse of his government from President Granger. Jagdeo’s motion of no-confidence was crafted on the heels of the November 12 local government elections where the PPP/C stormed to impressive wins. The PPP/C lost the 2015 general elections by a mere 4,500 votes and will now fancy its chances at the new polls. It however has to decide who its presidential candidate will be. With first oil set for 2020, the outcome will rock the entire country and particularly the investment community. Preparations for general elections will create a period of instability and a vacuum when important pieces of legislation and the execution of the 2019 budget are required. It will also raise questions about whether the President would be able to lead the government through this period as his chemotherapy regimen for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma goes all the way up to May. Tonight’s outcome will be a particularly bitter outcome for Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo who was one of the speakers on the motion tonight and who up to last night had boldly said that no APNU+AFC MP would vote for the PPP/C motion. There is great irony to the no-confidence motion. Nagamootoo and the AFC had tabled one against the PPP/C in 2014 and to avoid losing it, the President Donald Ramotar prorogued and then dissolved Parliament leading to the 2015 elections which APNU+AFC won. There would now be great uncertainty as whether the APNU+AFC coalition would survive this collapse. Tonight’s development may also impel the formation of new groupings to occupy the third party space. In September 2013, Persaud had a falling out with the AFC. He told Stabroek News then that he left the AFC because he was treated as second class and taken for granted. He later patched up with the AFC in time for the 2015 general elections and was named a member of Parliament. The collapse of the government has once again underlined the fragility of the government going back to 2011 when the Ramotar administration government with a minority. In 2015, APNU+AFC won only a one-seat majority. Article 106 (6) of the constitution says that “The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence”. This would then necessitate a formal resignation by the APNU+AFC Cabinet and the President. Article 106 (7) of the constitution says that “Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election”. This will be the third abbreviated term of government since 1997 when President Janet Jagan’s term was cut short following political unrest. President Ramotar’s term was also cut in 2015 when he was forced to call general elections. All eyes will now be on who the PPP/C’s presidential candidate will be. That process is to start on Thursday. A hint of the PPP/C thinking might be seen in today’s lineup of speakers on the no-confidence motion. Aside from Jagdeo who is not eligible to run for another term in office, the other speakers were PPP/C Chief Whip Gail Teixeira and MPs Irfaan Ali, Anil Nandlall and Juan Edghill. Teixeira, Ali and Nandlall have signalled interest in being the presidential candidate. Both Ali and Nandlall are currently facing criminal charges. Dr Frank Anthony who has also been seen as a potential candidate was not in today’s lineup for the PPP/C. Whoever is selected will only have three months to establish his or herself with the electorate.[SEP]GEORGETOWN, Guyana — A lawmaker from the ruling coalition in Guyana voted late Friday with the opposition for a no-confidence motion, bringing down the administration of President David Granger and forcing fresh elections by March. Government legislator Charrandass Persaud said: “I voted with my conscience.” The main opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) said it was emboldened by the coalition’s poor showing in November’s midterm elections. The PPP picked up several seats in places that had recently been a stronghold for parties that form part of the political alliance known as A Partnership for Unity. The vote now means that elections will have to be held even though Granger still has nearly two years left in his constitutional term. The country is also about a year away from becoming an oil producer. Clearly stunned by the development, legislators openly persuaded Persaud to vote with the combined APNU-AFC coalition, which holds 33 seats in the country’s National Assembly to the PPP’s 32. He stubbornly refused, saying: “Yes, yes, yes,” when asked if he was siding with the opposition. He was escorted out of the chamber by police and allowed to leave through a back entrance after voting. Opposition leader and former President Bharrat Jagdeo said Persaud might have been impacted by the layoff of about 7,000 sugar workers from the area where he lives and practices as an attorney. Moses Nagamootoo, who is prime minister and head of the assembly, said that there may be outcomes “which have not been anticipated, but the outcome has to be accepted.” Nagamootoo said the government wanted supporters to know that the coalition would make another run in fresh elections. “This is not the end,” he said.[SEP]GEORGETOWN, GUYANA—A lawmaker from the ruling coalition in Guyana has voted with the opposition for a no-confidence motion, bringing down the administration of President David Granger and forcing fresh elections by March. The main opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) said it was emboldened by the coalition’s poor showing in November’s midterm elections. The PPP picked up several seats in places that had recently been a stronghold for parties that form part of the political alliance known as A Partnership for Unity. The vote now means that elections will have to be held even though Granger still has nearly two years left in his constitutional term. The country is also about a year away from becoming an oil producer.[SEP]Granger confirms early general elections; AFC expels Charrandas Persaud after he voted with PPP on no-confidence motion President David Granger Saturday morning indicated that his administration would abide by the stipulations, such as early general elections, stemming from the no-confidence motion that the opposition won. “We will do everything necessary to facilitate the smooth functioning of General and Regional Elections bearing in mind the need for normal governmental functions to continue uninterrupted,” President Granger was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency. The President’s announcement effectively rules out the likelihood of a political accommodation with the opposition People’s Progressive Party for elections to be pushed back beyond 90 days. Elections were due to be held the latest by August, but with the passage of the no-confidence motion elections would have to be held by March, 2019. Meanwhile, the Alliance For Change announced the immediate expulsion of backbencher Charandass Persaud who Friday night broke ranks with the government side and voted with the 32 People’s Progressive Party parliamentarians to pass the Jagdeo-sponsored motion. The AFC said he would be recalled and replaced by someone else. The AFC expressed shock and betrayal at Persaud’s move, coming on the heels of his unwavering support for the just passed 2019 National Budget. “The party regrets the dissenting vote of Mr. Persaud and wishes to assure all Guyanese that at no time did the party have any indication whatsoever, either from Mr. Persaud or otherwise, that he would vote in any way other than firmly against the motion. The AFC acknowledges that this unforeseen development would have come as a shock to many Guyanese in Guyana and the Diaspora and that persons would be distraught and hurt by it,” the AFC said. The President also said he has agreed to meet with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo at his request. The President said too that he is anxious to engage Opposition Leader, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo on any concerns he may have and assures the Guyanese people “that this is not a crisis which could dissolve into any type of confrontation.” “Mr. Jagdeo contacted the Minister of State and a meeting will be arranged as early as possible so that his concerns can be addressed,” the Head of State added. The Head of State made it clear that his government would embark on discussions with its coalition partners the Alliance For Change (AFC) and those who are part of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). Article 106 (7) of the Constitution of Guyana states, “Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the elections.” Moreover, the President said, “This is a constitutional process which can have favourable outcomes for the nation… There is no cause for alarm and there are no grounds for any form of disorder and we will continue to work to provide a good government and deliver public services to the people and to work even more closely with the opposition”. President Granger disclosed too that he met with some ministers Saturday morning, who would henceforth be engaging the AFC ministers.[SEP]Guyana’s fragile multiracial coalition government fell after a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly late Friday, setting off a general election campaign nearly two years before President David A. Granger’s constitutional term is complete. The surprise collapse comes less than four years after a coalition of Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese politicians, promising a new style of inclusive politics, defeated a party that had held power for more than two decades. A retired military commander, Mr. Granger has had trouble controlling a fractious cabinet and has been slow in putting together a regulatory and environmental framework to prepare the country for the first commercial production of oil, scheduled in 2020. The discovery of oil by Exxon Mobil off Guyana’s Atlantic coast in recent years promises to transform the economy of the English-speaking South American country of 750,000 people. But even advisers to the government have warned that with the county’s history of corruption, Guyana risks squandering billions of dollars in annual revenue from taxes and royalties.[SEP]Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament (MP) Charandass Persaud voted in favour of the no-confidence motion that was debated in the National Assembly on Friday. During the reading of the motion, the Speaker’s opinion was that the no’s have it. However, Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira called for a division for the tabulation of the votes. During the tabulation, all 32 of the Opposition MPs voted in favour of the motion being carried, with the AFC MP giving them the one vote needed to have the motion passed.[SEP](DEMERARA WAVES) – Government back-bencher Charandass Persaud voted with the opposition Peoples Progressive Party to win the no-confidence motion in the 65-seat National Assembly that was sponsored by the opposition, after several hours of debate. Despite repeated urges by fellow parliamentarians to change his vote, Persaud declined. Minister of Health Volda Lawrence also unsuccessfully asked for a brief suspension to allow for a resolution. Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams ,sought to block Jagdeo from wrapping up the debate by citing a parliamentary rule that the motion be put. That motion was seconded by Ramjattan, but before Teixeira could object, House Speaker Dr. Barton Scotland said he would speak on the motion after Jagdeo. Early on in the debate, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo signaled that even if his People’s Progressive Party lost the vote in the House, that party would win the next general elections. Except for Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan and Junior Minister Simona Broomes, government’s defence of its performance since May 2015 was lacklustre. Ramjattan, early in his 40-minute contribution, candidly said the vote was down to numbers instead of talk. “The defence of the no-confidence motion is when we vote here,” Ramjattan said as less than 200 mostly green-clad pro-government supporters stood behind police barriers opposite Parliament Building. Inside the House, several government parliamentarians were clothed in green and yellow, colors of the governing A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change. He charged that the motion was more about Jagdeo- a former President, Opposition Leader, and now PPP General Secretary- on whom he called to give way to a successor. “The discussion here is to show the relevance of the ppp at this time and the mover of the motion. What you are doing here honourable member? You dont want to give a bright youngster a chance”, said Ramjattan. Recalling that he had been expelled from the now opposition PPP because he had spoken out against corruption when he had been a member of that party, Ramjattan said the drug trade has been dented and Guyana’s international ranking in combatting trafficking in persons. “Corruption was always going to be their bugbear. I used to be in the belly of the beast and when you start talking, the Honourable member started the expulsion process”, he said. Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira said the PPP was buoyed by clear popular vote victories in the 2016 and 2018 local government elections. She accused the APNU+AFC administration of rejecting proposals from the opposition and ignoring its supporters. “One of the major complaints of your supporters is that you ignore them…This government has squandered the goodwill of the Guyanese people especially your supporters,” she said. Opposition parliamentarians Anil Nandlall and Irfan Ali also pummelled government’s record in several areas such as a loss of 30,000 jobs; poor economic performance such as high government spending and a lack of private sector stimulus. Junior Minister Broomes cited improvements in several interior lications such as Bartica, Port Kaituma, Mahdia and Mabaruma in addition to City areas such as Kitty. Broomes also highlighted improvement in the quality of housing being provided to ordinary Guyanese. “We are not moving into housing. We are moving you into communities,” she said. Instead of being a four-member family to be eligible for government housing, she said the coalition government has changed that to any single person 18 years or older. Nandlall blamed government for failing to fulfill several promises, such as constitutional reform, outlined in its 2015 elections manifesto. The former Attorney General added that the coalition breached it’s own February 2015 political agreement between the APNU and AFC on, among other things, the intended responsibilities for domestic affairs chairing the cabinet and making certain constitutional bodies. In his rebuttal, Prime Minister Nagamootoo refused to discuss his role, “I would not be baited into discussing the role of the Prime Minister in this Parliament”, he said. Saying there were no new arguments by the PPP as they had all been ventilatee in the 2019 budget debate. Williams merely rehashed well-known allegations of state-sponsored death squads, and extra-judicial killings by police. “There is no way the Guyaenese people will ever again give them a mandate to run the government”, he added. Loud heckling across the floor heard the PPP’s Neend Kumar and APNU+AFC back-bencher referring to extra-judicial killings Kumar shouted “Vincent Teekah, Fr Darke” who were killed in the 1980s when the People’s National Congress was in power. Adams lashed back: “(Ronald) Waddel, Crum-Ewing, and Sash Sawh “your own minister” who were all gunned down in the 2000s while the PPP was in office. Nandlall predicted that his PPP would win the next general elections and government has done a poor job in defending its record.”We will go in 2019 or in 2019 and you will be beaten again. And why, because the people of Guyana have given you a fair chance,” he added. Nandlall, a likely presidential candidate for the PPP, failed to use the Ethnic Relations Commission to conduct ethnic impact assessments, repeal legislation to enshrine independence of the Parliament, a largely non-functional Judicial Service Commission and failure reform and modernise the Deeds Registry. At that juncture, Attorney General Williams heckled “done, done” to indicate they had been completed. “They are calling their own manifesto a bogus manifesto”, he added. Nandlall also assailed government for failing to fulfill its promise of 2,000 jobs in each of the 10 administrative regions, and the creation of a national youth policy[SEP]In his rebuttal, the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon tired to defend his Government against the onslaught occasioned by Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, where he pronounced, among many things, that government took away the $10 000 grant for school children. However, Harmon’s continuous references to personal matters earned him reprimand from the Speaker, Dr Barton Scotland. While he did not not address the Opposition Leader’s most contentious charges, Harmon focused on the D’Urban Park celebration for Guyana’s jubilee and other extraneous issues. In fact, the Minister made a case for the importance of D’Uban Park, a project shrouded in controversy. Debate surrounded the construction of the Park after it was revealed, in 2016, that most of the stands had significant defects. After embarrassing disclosures about the poor construction work on the stands, President David Granger had announced that the Ministry of the Presidency would take over responsibility for completion of the first phase of the project. An audit subsequently found that the D’Urban Park had cost some $1.37 billion. Despite the enormous cost to build and continually repair the facility, it has been grossly underutilised, with mostly vagrants using it for shelter, apart from some recreational activities ongoing there in the afternoons. Meanwhile, when Harmon referred to the parliamentary Opposition as an “annex of evil” Scotland again rebuked him for his unparliamentary language. Harmon however, continued to brag that his Government was able to construct the edifice in just one year. “The park is a central location, it has convenience for parking and has the ability to hold 50,000 ” Harmon said. Harmon also bragged of the increase of visitors to Guyana. Touching on Jagdeo’s criticism of the lack of job creation, Harmon pointed to the recent graduation from the Board of Industrial training. According to the Minister, the no-confidence motion pushed by the Opposition is aimed at dividing the Guyanese people. Further, he contended that not only did the coalition Government bring back confidence and the symbols of nationhood to Guyana but he also expressed confidence that his administration has brought back Guyana to being a land of opportunities.[SEP]In light of alleged intelligence received by the Parliamentary Opposition that the APNU/AFC Government might attempt to disrupt Friday’s sitting of the National Assembly which is scheduled for the debate of the no-confidence motion against the incumbent, Opposition Chief Whip Gail Texeira on Wednesday called on the Police Commissioner Leslie James to put steps in place to ensure the security of not only Members of Parliament (MPs) but the citizenry as well. “We… call on you to take the necessary interventions to ensure that the rule of law prevails and not only the sitting of the National Assembly on December 21, 2018 will be allowed to proceed peacefully but also the safety of citizens beyond the precincts of the Parliament Buildings and property, life and limb will be protected from any efforts to create violence and mayhem,” her letter said. Texeira outlined that this is a “matter of serious proportions relating to public safety and the security of the National Assembly, the Parliament Buildings and all Guyanese citizens.” “We have received information that there will be an attempt to prevent the Members of the Parliamentary Opposition from entering the compound of the Parliament Buildings on December 21st, 2018 for the sitting of the National Assembly, the day that the Government has identified for the debate on the Parliamentary Opposition’s motion of No Confidence. Our information points to some very ominous plans to physically disrupt the sitting by either invading the Chambers, and, or, creating disruption within the Chambers. The intention is to interrupt the debate and the vote on the No Confidence Motion” the Opposition Chief Whip in her letter explained. Moreover, the alleged plans are also said to be aimed that preventing Opposition MPs from exiting the compound of the Parliament Building at the conclusion of the sitting as well as threatening the safety of citizens going about their business beyond the precincts of the Parliament Buildings. Texeira, in her missive noted that her Party remains “confident that the Guyana Police Force will uphold the law and manage any threats to the public safety of the Members of the National Assembly, the Parliament Buildings and the citizens of our country.” On Monday, Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo called on the authorities and the National Assembly to implement measures that will protect MPs and ensure that Friday’s no-confidence vote can go forward unhindered. Jagdeo had expressed fears that there may be attempts to disrupt the vote by persons in the gallery. According to Jagdeo, it only takes one crossover vote or two abstentions from the Government side for them to win. He said that because of this precarious margin and certain information his party has received, they were apprehensive. “We are aware that they plan to install people in the galleries and should someone (from Government) vote in favour of the no-confidence motion, from the galleries they will … disrupt the vote. We’ve heard that should [that] fail, some of their MPs will disrupt the vote.” Jagdeo theorized that they may be hoping that should the vote be disrupted, the vote will be invalidated. He made it clear that his party would notify Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland. “We will bring this to the attention of the Speaker. We will also insist, like what happens in many parts of the world, once someone votes in favour of the no-confidence motion, the Government falls. If you have 32 votes on our side, and one of their Members of Parliament vote in favour, the mathematics changes and it’s 33 in favour and 32 remaining votes. “When the Clerk of the National Assembly calls the names of the Members of Parliament and should one of their members vote (in favour), no matter what happens afterwards, the vote is passed … because if you allow disruptions, you can never have (a non-contentious vote). So, if the Speaker allows (the vote to be invalidated), we will deem that an act of collusion.” Jagdeo expressed hope that the diplomatic community would bear witness to the proceedings, whichever way the vote turned out. Noting that the proceedings were being recorded, he warned that attempts to disrupt the vote would be publicised around the world. Jagdeo also spoke of threats and related that they would write to the Commissioner of Police.

A motion of no confidence is passed by the National Assembly of Guyana with a vote of 33–32, triggering early elections scheduled for 2019.

The World Has A New Largest-Known Prime Number There's a new behemoth in the ongoing search for ever-larger prime numbers — and it's nearly 25 million digits long. A prime is a number that can be divided only by two whole numbers: itself and 1. The newly discovered number is what's known as a Mersenne prime, named for a French monk named Marin Mersenne who studied primes some 350 years ago. Mersenne primes have a simple formula: 2n-1. In this case, "n" is equal to 82,589,933, which is itself a prime number. If you do the math, the new largest-known prime is a whopping 24,862,048 digits long. We would write the number out for you, but it would fill up thousands of pages, give or take, and look like this gigantic zip file. The latest Mersenne prime comes courtesy of a project started in 1996 called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, in which people download special software that runs in the background on their computers. A computer owned by Patrick Laroche of Ocala, Fla., discovered the number on Dec. 7, and mathematicians have spent the past two weeks verifying the calculations. It's more than a million and a half digits longer than the previous largest known prime, discovered about a year ago by a computer in Germantown, Tenn. Why should you care about Mersenne primes? They've proven useful in generating reasonably random numbers, but the best answer might be simply because they're there — and they're majestic. Chris Caldwell, a mathematician at the University of Tennessee, Martin, talked to NPR in 2009 about these large primes. "Mersennes, in a way, are kind of like a large diamond," Caldwell said back in 2009. Think about the Hope Diamond, a 45.52-carat diamond that sits in a special case in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, usually with crowds around it. "Nobody there looking at the Hope Diamond ever asks, 'Why did they bother to dig it up?' or 'What is it good for?' — even though it really isn't good for much other than to just hang there and people to look at," Caldwell said. "And in many ways, the Mersennes play that same role — that they really are the jewels of number theory."

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search announces the discovery of a new Mersenne prime, 282,589,933-1. It has 24,862,048 decimal digits, which surpasses the previous record by over 1.5 million digits.

Police in Somalia say suicide bomber blew themselves up near presidential palace This article is more than 8 months old This article is more than 8 months old A vehicle packed with explosives has been detonated at a military checkpoint near Somalia’s presidential palace, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 20 others, police said. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab, which often targets Mogadishu, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Those killed include three members of staff from the London-based Universal TV station, including the prominent journalist Awil Dahir Salad, police spokesman Mohamed Hussein said. The bomber targeted the checkpoint near the rear entrance of the heavily fortified palace, Hussein said. An MP and a deputy mayor of Mogadishu were among those wounded, he said. Soldiers also were among the dead, Col Ahmed Mohamud said. The blast and a second, smaller one nearby appeared to target those heading to work on what was a business day in tSomalia. A plume of smoke rose over the capital as ambulances rushed to the scene. “At first I saw a vehicle driving to and fro, then we tried to stop people walking here and there, and then in the blink of an eye the vehicle exploded, causing havoc,” traffic police officer Mohamed Harun said. Al-Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu years ago, but continues to control large parts of rural southern and central Somalia. The US military, which works with Somali forces and a 20,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission, has greatly increased airstrikes against al-Shabaab under Donald Trump. At least 47 US strikes have been carried out this year.[SEP]Suicide car bombing near Somalia's presidential palace kills at least 6, police say; several wounded MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Suicide car bombing near Somalia's presidential palace kills at least 6, police say; several wounded.[SEP]Somalia blast kills at least 16 near presidential palace NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An explosives-packed vehicle detonated at a military checkpoint near Somalia's presidential palace, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 20 others, police said. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, which often targets Mogadishu, claimed responsibility for the attack. Those killed include three staffers from the London-based Universal TV station, including prominent journalist Awil Dahir Salad, said police Capt. Mohamed Hussein, who gave the toll of dead and wounded. The bomber targeted the checkpoint near the rear entrance of the heavily fortified palace, Hussein said. A lawmaker and a deputy mayor of Mogadishu were among those wounded, he said. Soldiers also were among the dead, Col. Ahmed Mohamud said. The blast and a second, smaller one nearby appeared to target those heading to work on what was a business day in the Horn of Africa nation. A plume of smoke rose over the capital as ambulances rushed to the scene. "At first I saw a vehicle driving to and fro, then we tried to stop people walking here and there, and then in the blink of an eye the vehicle exploded, causing havoc," traffic police officer Mohamed Harun told The Associated Press. Al-Shabab, the most active Islamic extremist group in sub-Saharan Africa, was pushed out of Mogadishu years ago but continues to control large parts of rural southern and central Somalia. The U.S. military, which partners with Somali forces and a 20,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission, has greatly increased airstrikes against al-Shabab under the Trump administration. At least 47 U.S. strikes have been carried out this year. Associated Press video journalist Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu contributed.[SEP]MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Suicide car bombing near Somalia’s presidential palace kills at least 6, police say; several wounded.[SEP]MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Police in Somalia say a suicide car bombing near the presidential palace has killed at least six people and wounded several others.[SEP]Somalia blast kills at least 6 near presidential palace MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Police in Somalia say a suicide car bombing near the presidential palace has killed at least six people and wounded several others. Col. Ahmed Mohamud says those killed in the Saturday morning blast include soldiers and civilians. Capt. Mohamed Hussein says the bomber targeted a military checkpoint near the rear entrance of the heavily fortified palace. Police say lawmakers and other officials had been traveling nearby on what is a business day in the Horn of Africa nation. A second blast was heard shortly afterward nearby in Mogadishu as a plume of smoke rose over the capital. There is no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group often targets the capital.[SEP]MOGADISHU: At least 13 people were killed and 17 wounded in a car bomb attack claimed by al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab close to the president’s residence in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Saturday. A second explosion followed nearby. Al Shabaab, in comments broadcast on its Radio Andalus, claimed responsibility for both blasts and said the second was also a car bomb. “The death toll has risen to 13 people including civilians and soldiers. Seventeen others were injured. The casualties are from the two blasts,” Major Mohamed Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters. Among those killed were a journalist, two security personnel and a driver working for local station Universal TV, whose car was passing the checkpoint at which the first blast went off, another reporter working for the station said. “My colleague Awil Dahir Salad died in the blast together with the driver and two security guards. They were killed by the first blast as they drove. May Allah rest their souls,” journalist Abdiasis Ibrahim who works for Universal TV, told Reuters. Police had earlier said the first car bomb at the checkpoint killed five, mostly soldiers. A Reuters witness at the scene of the second blast said he saw at least two bodies. Ahmed Abdi, another police officer, said the first car bomb exploded at a checkpoint some 400 meters from the president’s residence. Al Shabaab carries out frequent attacks in Mogadishu. The group was forced from Mogadishu in 2011 but maintains a foothold in some regions. It has killed thousands of Somalis and hundreds of civilians across East Africa in a decade-long insurgency.[SEP]MOGADISHU — Police in Somalia say a suicide car bombing near the presidential palace has killed at least six people and wounded several others. Col. Ahmed Mohamud says those killed in the Saturday morning blast include soldiers and civilians. Capt. Mohamed Hussein says the bomber targeted a military checkpoint near the rear entrance of the heavily fortified palace. Police say lawmakers and other officials had been traveling nearby on what is a business day in the Horn of Africa nation. A second blast was heard shortly afterward nearby in Mogadishu as a plume of smoke rose over the capital. Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab has since claimed responsibility for deadly bomb blasts. The group was targeting security checkpoints protecting the presidential palace, the group said on pro-insurgent radio station Andalus.[SEP](AFP) At least 16 people were killed and 20 injured on Saturday in a double car bomb...[SEP]MOGADISHU, Somalia — Police in Somalia say a suicide car bombing near the presidential palace has killed at least six people and wounded several others. Col. Ahmed Mohamud says those killed in the Saturday morning blast include soldiers and civilians. Capt. Mohamed Hussein says the bomber targeted a military checkpoint near the rear entrance of the heavily fortified palace. Police say lawmakers and other officials had been traveling nearby on what is a business day in the Horn of Africa nation. A second blast was heard shortly afterward nearby in Mogadishu as a plume of smoke rose over the capital. There is no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group often targets the capital. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A car bomb near the presidential palace in Mogadishu kills at least 16 people and injures more than 20 others.

Simcha "Kazik" Rotem, the last surviving fighter of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis, died on Saturday in Israel at the age of 94. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin made the announcement. Rotem, who went by the nom-de-guerre Kazik, served in the Jewish Fighting Organization that staged the uprising on April 19, 1943, when the Nazis began deporting the surviving residents of the Jewish ghetto in Poland's capital. Thousands of Jews died in what was Europe's first urban anti-Nazi revolt. Most of them burned alive, while nearly all the rest were sent to Treblinka concentration camp. "This evening, we part from... Simcha Rotem, the last of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters," Rivlin said in a statement. "He joined the uprising and helped save dozens of fighters." Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu mourned Rotem's death, saying that "his story and the story of the uprising will accompany our people forever." Read more: 75 years on: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in film Sewer escape According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Rotem was born in Warsaw in 1924. At the outbreak of World War II, his family's home was destroyed by German bombing raids, resulting in the death of his brother, grandparents, aunt and uncle. "When I regained consciousness, I found myself under the wreckage of the house. Only after I managed to extricate myself did I see that our house was totally destroyed and no sign of life was to be seen," the resistance fighter said in an interview with the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. Rotem was sent to live with relatives in the city of Klwow. But by 1943, he returned to the Warsaw Ghetto and that is when he joined the Jewish Combat Organization, commanded by the legendary Mordechai Anielewicz. He was 19 years old at the time. Read more: Poland, Greece team up on Nazi-era war reparations demands "We knew that something was about to happen. But to tell the truth, even at this stage, meaning in the final stage before the ghetto's liquidation, we probably still couldn't accept this thing... A total annihilation, in the 20th century, in the very heart of Europe — something like this is just impossible. It was hard to accept this notion," he said. After World War II, Rotem lived the rest of his life in Israel Rotem ultimately survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by masterminding an escape through the drainage system with dozens of comrades, guided by Polish sewer workers. To choose one's death After the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, he went on to participate in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising led by Polish resistance fighters against the Nazis. When the war concluded, he immigrated to Israel and lived there the rest of his life. Speaking at a 2013 ceremony in Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of the uprising, Rotem recalled that by April 1943 most of the ghetto's Jews had died and the 50,000 who remained expected the same fate. Read more: WWII Jewish uprising remembered in Warsaw Of the uprising, Rotem said he and his comrades took up arms in order to "choose the kind of death" they wanted. "But to this very day I keep thinking whether we had the right to make the decision to start the uprising and by the same token to shorten the lives of many people by a week, a day or two," Rotem said. Rotem's funeral will be held on Monday afternoon at Kibbutz Harel. He is survived by children and grandchildren. jcg/sms (AFP, dpa) Watch video 05:26 Share Poland: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 75 years on Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2vj0y Poland: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 75 years on 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]Simcha Rotem, last surviving fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, died in Jerusalem Saturday at the age of 94. Rotem, born in Warsaw in 1924 as Kazik Ratajzer, was active in Zionist youth movements by his early teen years. He was 15 when World War II broke out and Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Early in the war German bombs destroyed his family’s home, killing several family members including his brother and grandparents. He and his mother were wounded. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up In 1942 Rotem joined the Warsaw Ghetto’s Jewish Combat Organization, or ZOB, which was committed to armed resistance against the Nazis. In April 1943 the Nazis began efforts to empty the Ghetto of its remaining occupants, leading to the outbreak of combat, with Rotem fighting under one of the leaders, Marek Edelman. The insurgents preferred to die fighting instead of in a gas chamber at the Treblinka death camp where the Nazis had already sent more than 300,000 Warsaw Jews. Speaking at a 2013 ceremony in Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of the uprising, Rotem recalled that by April 1943 most of the ghetto’s Jews had died and the 50,000 who remained expected the same fate. Rotem said he and his comrades launched the uprising to “choose the kind of death” they wanted. “But to this very day I keep thinking whether we had the right to make the decision to start the uprising and by the same token to shorten the lives of many people by a week, a day or two,” Rotem said. “At the first moment when I saw the great German force entering the Ghetto, my first reaction, and I’m sure not just mine — I felt we were nothing,” Rotem recalled in a testimony to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum. “What could we do with our pathetic, almost non-existent weaponry, when faced with the tremendous German firepower, with light canons and tanks and armored personnel carriers and a huge infantry force numbering hundreds, hundreds if not thousands…I felt utterly helpless.” But that feeling was followed by “an extraordinary sense of spiritual uplifting…this was the moment we had been waiting for…to stand up to this all-powerful German.” However Rotem noted the rebels had no illusions about their chances. “We’d kill as many of them as we could [but] we knew our fate was completely clear.” Thousands of Jews died in Europe’s first urban anti-Nazi revolt, most of them burned alive, and nearly all the rest were then sent to Treblinka. As the Germans pounded the Ghetto and the uprising faltered, Rotem was instrumental in helping fighters flee to safety through the Warsaw’s sewer system to forests outside the city. He continued to fight alongside Polish partisans and in 1944 participated in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war he joined avengers group Nakam, which was dedicated to exacting vengeance on Nazi war criminals. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the greatest incidence of Jewish resistance to the Nazis, has become a monumental symbol in Jewish and Israeli lore. Unlike the rest of the world, which commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, the day of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, Israel does so according to the Jewish date of the uprising (usually in April). Rotem made aliyah to Israel in 1946 and served as a manager in a supermarket chain until retiring in 1986. In 2013 Poland’s president awarded Rotem with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of the nation’s highest honors, for his actions during the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday eulogized Rotem. “Kazik fought the Nazis, saved Jews, made aliyah after the Holocaust, and told the story of his heroism to thousands of Israelis,” he said. “His story and the story of the uprising will forever be with our people.” President Reuven Rivlin noted that in one interview, Rotem said his one message to Israeli teens would be “to be human beings.” “We are all animals on two legs,” Rotem said. “That’s how I feel. And among those animals on two legs there are some who are deserving of that description — humans.” Rivlin said: “Thank you for everything, Kazik. We promise to try every day to be deserving of the description ‘Human.'”[SEP]Rotem is being honored by world leaders. Simcha Rotem, the last remaining survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, has died this week at the age of 94. Known as Kazik, Roten was part of a group of Jewish partisan fighters who mounted an insurrection against Nazi occupiers in 1943 after they began deporting Jewish residents of Warsaw to concentration camps. The Nazis were able to quash the uprising and killed and captured most of the Jewish fighters, but Rotem is credited with helping dozens of rebel fighters escape, the BBC reported. Though Nazis were able to overtake the Jewish fighters, the operation was considered successful in helping the larger fight against Nazi occupiers. The Jewish fighters battled Nazis for nearly a month, delaying deportations and forcing Nazis to redeploy resources to put down the resistance. The group was able to hold their positions in heavily fortified bunkers and killed 16 Nazi soldiers while wounding nearly 100, the Guardian reported. Simcha Rotem was credited with helping scores of Jewish fighters escape, helping them move through the city’s drainage system. Rotem was also able to escape the Warsaw Ghetto but returned in 1944 for another Warsaw Uprising led by Polish resistance forces. Later, Rotem said he felt conflicted about his role in helping to lead the uprising, knowing it led to the death of the majority of those involved. “But to this very day I keep thinking whether we had the right to make the decision to start the uprising and by the same token to shorten the lives of many people by a week, a day or two,” he said in a 2013 interview (via the BBC). As the BBC noted, Rotem died in Jerusalem on Saturday after battling a long illness and was honored by Jewish leaders across the world. “Thank you for everything, Kazik,” said Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. “We promise to try every day to be deserving of the description ‘human.’ ” Others mourned the loss of final surviving members of the Warsaw Uprising. The number of Holocaust survivors has dwindled as many reach their late 80s and 90s. “This is a loss of a special character since Kazik was a real fighter, in the true sense of the word,” Avner Shalev, the chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, told the Guardian. “The challenge for all of us now is to continue giving meaning to remembrance without exemplary figures like Kazik.” Simcha Rotem moved to Israel, where he worked until retiring in 1986.[SEP]The last surviving fighter from the doomed 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising by Jewish partisans against the Nazis died Saturday in Israel aged 94, the country's president said. Simcha Rotem, who went by the nom-de-guerre Kazik, served in the Jewish Fighting Organisation that staged the uprising as the Nazis conducted mass deportations of residents to the death camps. "This evening, we part from... Simcha Rotem, the last of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters," Israel's President Reuven Rivlin said in a statement. "He joined the uprising and helped save dozens of fighters". Hundreds of Jewish fighters began their fight on April 19, 1943, after the Nazis began deporting the surviving residents of the Jewish ghetto they had set up after invading Poland. The insurgents preferred to die fighting instead of in a gas chamber at the Treblinka death camp where the Nazis had already sent more than 300,000 Warsaw Jews. Speaking at a 2013 ceremony in Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of the uprising, Rotem recalled that by April 1943 most of the ghetto's Jews had died and the 50,000 who remained expected the same fate. Rotem said he and his comrades launched the uprising to "choose the kind of death" they wanted. "But to this very day I keep thinking whether we had the right to make the decision to start the uprising and by the same token to shorten the lives of many people by a week, a day or two," Rotem said. Thousands of Jews died in Europe's first urban anti-Nazi revolt, most of them burned alive, and nearly all the rest were then sent to Treblinka. Rotem survived by masterminding an escape through the drain system with dozens of comrades. Polish sewer workers guided them to the surface. He went on to participate in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising led by Polish resistance fighters against the Nazis.[SEP]Simcha Rotem, the last known Jewish fighter from the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, has died. He was 94. Rotem, who went by the underground nickname "Kazik," was among the rebels who carried out the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, the Warsaw ghetto uprising symbolized a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other resistance campaigns by Jews and non-Jews alike. Rotem, who passed away Saturday after a long illness, helped save the last survivors of the uprising by smuggling them out of the burning ghetto through sewage tunnels. The Jewish fighters fought for nearly a month, fortifying themselves in bunkers and managing to kill 16 Nazis and wound nearly 100. Six million Jews perished in the Holocaust.[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. JERUSALEM (AP) — Simcha Rotem, the last known Jewish fighter from the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, has died. He was 94. Rotem, who went by the underground nickname “Kazik,” was among the rebels who carried out the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, the Warsaw ghetto uprising symbolized a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other resistance campaigns by Jews and non-Jews alike. Rotem, who passed away Saturday after a long illness, helped save the last survivors of the uprising by smuggling them out of the burning ghetto through sewage tunnels. The Jewish fighters fought for nearly a month, fortifying themselves in bunkers and managing to kill 16 Nazis and wound nearly 100. Six million Jews perished in the Holocaust. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]JERUSALEM (AP) — Simcha Rotem, an Israeli Holocaust survivor who was among the last known Jewish fighters from the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, has died. He was 94. Rotem, who went by the underground nickname “Kazik,” took part in the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, the Warsaw ghetto uprising symbolized a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other resistance campaigns by Jews and non-Jews alike. Rotem, who passed away Saturday after a long illness, helped save the last survivors of the uprising by smuggling them out of the burning ghetto through sewage tunnels. The Jewish fighters fought for nearly a month, fortifying themselves in bunkers and managing to kill 16 Nazis and wound nearly 100. “This is a loss of a special character since Kazik was a real fighter, in the true sense of the word,” said Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. “The challenge for all of us now is to continue giving meaning to remembrance without exemplary figures like Kazik.” Rotem was born in 1924 in Warsaw, at a time when its vibrant Jewish community made up a third of the city’s population. After World War II broke out, he was wounded in a German bombing campaign that destroyed his family home. His brother and five other close relatives were killed. Shortly after, the city’s Jews were herded into the infamous ghetto. The ghetto initially held some 380,000 Jews who were cramped into tight living spaces, and at its peak housed about a half million. Life in the ghetto included random raids, confiscations and abductions by Nazi soldiers. Disease and starvation were rampant, and bodies often appeared on the streets. The resistance movement began to grow after the deportation of July 22, 1942, when 265,000 men, women and children were rounded up and later killed at the Treblinka death camp. As word of the Nazi genocide spread, those who remained behind no longer believed German promises that they would be sent to forced labor camps. A small group of rebels began to spread calls for resistance, carrying out isolated acts of sabotage and attacks. Some Jews began defying German orders to report for deportation. The Nazis entered the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of the Passover holiday. Three days later, the Nazis set the ghetto ablaze, turning it into a fiery death trap, but the Jewish fighters kept up their struggle for nearly a month before they were brutally vanquished. The teenage Rotem served as a liaison between the bunkers and took part in the fighting, before arranging for the escape of the few who did not join revolt leader Mordechai Anielewicz in the command bunker on 18 Mila Street for the final stand. The Nazis and their collaborators ultimately killed 6 million Jews before the Allies’ victory in World War II brought an end to the Holocaust. After the war, Rotem immigrated to pre-state Israel and fought in its war of independence. He was later an active speaker and member of the Yad Vashem committee responsible for selecting the Righteous Among the Nations, non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. In 2013, on the revolt’s 70th anniversary, he was honored by Poland for his role in the war. While the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day coincides with the Hebrew date of the Warsaw ghetto uprising — highlighting the role it plays in shaping the country’s psyche. Even the day’s official name — “Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day” — alludes to the image of the Jewish warrior upon which the state was founded. The valiant ghetto battle offered a powerful contrast to the image of feeble Jews being marched to their deaths in Nazi camps. “Kazik fought the Nazis, saved Jews, immigrated to Israel after the Holocaust, and told the story of his heroism to thousands of Israelis,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “His story and the story of the uprising will forever be with our people.” Rotem is survived by his two children and five grandchildren. With his passing, there is only a single known remaining Warsaw ghetto uprising survivor left in Israel — 90-year-old Aliza Vitis-Shomron. Her main task in the ghetto had been distributing leaflets and smuggling weapons before she was ordered to escape and tell the world of the Jews’ heroic battle. She said news of Rotem’s death brought tears to her eyes. “It’s a difficult day because this really means that this is it. I’m the only one left and there is no one else to keep the story alive,” she told The Associated Press. “He was the last fighter. I’ll keep speaking till my last day, but no one lives forever. After me, who will keep telling?” Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.[SEP]JERUSALEM (AP) — Simcha Rotem, an Israeli Holocaust survivor who was among the last known Jewish fighters from the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, has died. He was 94. Rotem (pictured), who went by the underground nickname “Kazik,” took part in the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, the Warsaw ghetto uprising symbolized a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other resistance campaigns by Jews and non-Jews alike. Rotem, who passed away Saturday after a long illness, helped save the last survivors of the uprising by smuggling them out of the burning ghetto through sewage tunnels. The Jewish fighters fought for nearly a month, fortifying themselves in bunkers and managing to kill 16 Nazis and wound nearly 100. “This is a loss of a special character since Kazik was a real fighter, in the true sense of the word,” said Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. “The challenge for all of us now is to continue giving meaning to remembrance without exemplary figures like Kazik.” Rotem was born in 1924 in Warsaw, at a time when its vibrant Jewish community made up a third of the city’s population. After World War II broke out, he was wounded in a German bombing campaign that destroyed his family home. His brother and five other close relatives were killed. Shortly after, the city’s Jews were herded into the infamous ghetto. The ghetto initially held some 380,000 Jews who were cramped into tight living spaces, and at its peak housed about a half million. Life in the ghetto included random raids, confiscations and abductions by Nazi soldiers. Disease and starvation were rampant, and bodies often appeared on the streets. The resistance movement began to grow after the deportation of July 22, 1942, when 265,000 men, women and children were rounded up and later killed at the Treblinka death camp. As word of the Nazi genocide spread, those who remained behind no longer believed German promises that they would be sent to forced labor camps. A small group of rebels began to spread calls for resistance, carrying out isolated acts of sabotage and attacks. Some Jews began defying German orders to report for deportation. The Nazis entered the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of the Passover holiday. Three days later, the Nazis set the ghetto ablaze, turning it into a fiery death trap, but the Jewish fighters kept up their struggle for nearly a month before they were brutally vanquished. The teenage Rotem served as a liaison between the bunkers and took part in the fighting, before arranging for the escape of the few who did not join revolt leader Mordechai Anielewicz in the command bunker on 18 Mila Street for the final stand. The Nazis and their collaborators ultimately killed 6 million Jews before the Allies’ victory in World War II brought an end to the Holocaust. After the war, Rotem immigrated to pre-state Israel and fought in its war of independence. He was later an active speaker and member of the Yad Vashem committee responsible for selecting the Righteous Among the Nations, non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. In 2013, on the revolt’s 70th anniversary, he was honored by Poland for his role in the war. “Kazik fought the Nazis, saved Jews, immigrated to Israel after the Holocaust, and told the story of his heroism to thousands of Israelis,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “His story and the story of the uprising will forever be with our people.” Rotem is survived by his two children and five grandchildren. With his passing, there is only a single known remaining Warsaw ghetto uprising survivor left in Israel — 89-year-old Aliza Vitis-Shomron. Her main task had been distributing leaflets in the ghetto before she was ordered to escape and tell the world of the Jews’ heroic battle.[SEP]JERUSALEM—Simcha Rotem, an Israeli Holocaust survivor who was among the last known Jewish fighters from the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, has died. He was 94. Rotem, who went by the underground nickname "Kazik," took part in the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Though guaranteed to fail, the Warsaw ghetto uprising symbolized a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other resistance campaigns by Jews and non-Jews alike. Rotem, who passed away Saturday after a long illness, helped save the last survivors of the uprising by smuggling them out of the burning ghetto through sewage tunnels. The Jewish fighters fought for nearly a month, fortifying themselves in bunkers and managing to kill 16 Nazis and wound nearly 100. "This is a loss of a special character since Kazik was a real fighter, in the true sense of the word," said Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. "The challenge for all of us now is to continue giving meaning to remembrance without exemplary figures like Kazik." Rotem was born in 1924 in Warsaw, at a time when its vibrant Jewish community made up a third of the city's population. After World War II broke out, he was wounded in a German bombing campaign that destroyed his family home. His brother and five other close relatives were killed. Shortly after, the city's Jews were herded into the infamous ghetto. The ghetto initially held some 380,000 Jews who were cramped into tight living spaces, and at its peak housed about a half million. Life in the ghetto included random raids, confiscations and abductions by Nazi soldiers. Disease and starvation were rampant, and bodies often appeared on the streets. The resistance movement began to grow after the deportation of July 22, 1942, when 265,000 men, women and children were rounded up and later killed at the Treblinka death camp. As word of the Nazi genocide spread, those who remained behind no longer believed German promises that they would be sent to forced labour camps. A small group of rebels began to spread calls for resistance, carrying out isolated acts of sabotage and attacks. Some Jews began defying German orders to report for deportation. The Nazis entered the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of the Passover holiday. Three days later, the Nazis set the ghetto ablaze, turning it into a fiery death trap, but the Jewish fighters kept up their struggle for nearly a month before they were brutally vanquished. The teenage Rotem served as a liaison between the bunkers and took part in the fighting, before arranging for the escape of the few who did not join revolt leader Mordechai Anielewicz in the command bunker on 18 Mila Street for the final stand.[SEP]A man who was one of the last remaining survivors of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that constituted the most significant act of Jewish resistance against Nazi terror has died at the age of 94, Israel's official Holocaust memorial and museum, Yad Vashem, announced on Sunday. Simcha Rotem – known by his underground nom de guerre "Kazik" – was born in the Polish capital in 1924 and went on to become a political figure after World War II while educating people about the persecution and extermination of Jews at the hands of the Third Reich.

Simcha Rotem, the last surviving fighter of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, also a participant in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, dies at the age of 94.

Scores were left dead and hundreds more injured in Indonesia early Sunday as a tsunami hit the island nation following a volcanic eruption. The tsunami killed at least 222 people and injured 843 more as the wave came crashing ashore late Saturday on the eastern side of Java, one of the large islands comprising the country, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of public relations for the Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency. The number of dead and injured are both likely to rise. Pandeglang, Serang and South Lampung on the island of Java were the hardest-hit regions, according to authorities. The regions are a few hours west of the capital city of Jakarta with its population of almost 10 million people. The most-affected area was the Pandeglang region of Banten province in Java, which includes Ujung Kulon National Park and surrounding popular beaches. Of the deaths, 33 were in Pandeglang. Emergency teams from national agencies were yet to arrive on site and local agencies doing their best to cope with disaster. There were 430 houses and nine hotels badly damaged in the tsunami as well, Nugroho said. The tsunami was likely due to underwater slides on the back of the volcanic eruption, Indonesia's Metereological, Climatological and Geological Agency said. The tsunami struck 24 minutes after Anak Krakatau erupted. "I want to express my deep sorrow for the victims in Serang, Pandeglang and Banten Provice," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said, translated from Indonesian, according to The Associated Press. "May those who are left be patient." Krakatau, a volcano located between the islands of Java and Sumatra, is known for the historic eruption in 1883 that blew the island apart and killed 30,000 people, but it has erupted regularly since. The Asia Pacific Office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said it was already providing first aid to those injured in the disaster. Indonesia was struck by a massive earthquake and tsunami in late September. The disaster hit Sulawesi, an island hundreds of miles northeast of Java. The disaster killed over 2,000 people and displaced 70,000 more.[SEP]CARITA BEACH, Indonesia (AP) — The deadly tsunami struck in the dark, without warning. At least 222 people were killed as waves smashed into houses, hotels and other beachside buildings Saturday night along Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, in a disaster that followed an eruption and possible landslide on Anak Krakatau, one of the world’s most infamous volcanic islands. More than 800 others were injured and dozens were reported missing after the tsunami hit coastal areas along western Java and southern Sumatra islands at 9:27 p.m. Saturday amid a Christmas holiday weekend, the Disaster Management Agency said. The death toll could increase once authorities hear from all stricken areas. It was the second deadly tsunami to hit Indonesia this year, but the one that killed more than 2,500 people on the island of Sulawesi on Sept. 28 was accompanied by a powerful earthquake that gave residents a brief warning before the waves struck. On Saturday night, the ground did not shake beforehand to alert people to the oncoming wave that ripped buildings from their foundations in seconds and swept terrified concertgoers on a popular resort beach into the sea. Azki Kurniawan, 16, said his first warning about the tsunami was when people burst into the lobby of the Patra Comfort Hotel shouting, “Sea water rising!” Kurniawan, who was undergoing vocational training with a group of 30 other students, said he was confused because he had not felt a big earthquake. He said he ran to the parking lot to try to reach his motorbike but discovered it was already flooded. “Suddenly, a 1-meter (3.3-foot) wave hit me,” he said, his eyes red and swollen from crying. “I was thrown into the fence of a building about 30 meters (100 feet) from the beach and held onto the fence as strong as I could, trying to resist the water, which felt like it would drag me back into the sea. I cried in fear … ‘This is a tsunami?’ I was afraid I would die.” Dramatic video posted on social media showed the Indonesian pop band Seventeen performing under a tent on popular Tanjung Lesung beach at a concert for employees of a state-owned electricity company. Dozens of people sat at tables while others swayed to the music near the stage as strobe lights flashed and theatrical smoke was released. A child could also be seen wandering through the crowd. Seconds later, with the drummer pounding just as the next song was about to begin, the stage suddenly heaved forward and buckled under the force of the water, tossing the band and its equipment into the audience. The group released a statement saying their bass player, guitarist and road manager were killed, while two other band members and the wife of one of the performers were missing. “The tide rose to the surface and dragged all the people on site,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, when the current receded, our members were unable to save themselves while some did not find a place to hold on.” Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said 222 deaths had been confirmed and at least 843 people were injured. The worst-affected area was the Pandeglang region of Java’s Banten province, which encompasses Ujung Kulon National Park and popular beaches, the agency said. Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressed his sympathy and ordered government agencies to respond quickly to the disaster. “My deep condolences to the victims in Banten and Lumpung provinces,” he said. “Hopefully, those who are left have patience.” At the Vatican, Pope Francis prayed for the dead, the missing and the homeless in Indonesia, telling tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that his thoughts were with victims “struck by violent natural calamities.” U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted support for Indonesia: “We are praying for recovery and healing. America is with you!” The U.S. State Department also expressed its support: “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those in Indonesia affected by the natural disaster. We are currently not aware of any U.S. citizens directly affected, but stand ready to assist as needed.” In the city of Bandar Lampung on Sumatra, hundreds of residents took refuge at the governor’s office, while at the popular resort area of Anyer beach on Java, some survivors wandered in the debris. Tourists who were enjoying the long holiday weekend ahead of Christmas were also affected. “I had to run, as the wave passed the beach and landed 15-20m (meters, or 50-65 feet) inland,” said Norwegian Oystein Lund Andersen, in a Facebook post. The self-described photographer and volcano enthusiast said he was taking pictures of the volcano when he suddenly saw the water racing toward him. He and his family fled safely to higher ground. The damage became apparent after daybreak Sunday. Nine hotels and hundreds of homes were heavily damaged by the waves. Broken chunks of concrete and splintered sticks of wood littered hard-hit coastal areas, turning beach getaways popular with Jakarta residents into near ghost towns. Vehicles were tossed into the rubble or were buried under collapsed roofs. Debris from thatch-bamboo shacks was strewn along beaches. Yellow, orange and black body bags were laid out, and weeping relatives identified the dead. Scientists, including those from Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics agency, said the tsunami could have been caused by landslides — either above ground or under water — on the steep slope of the erupting Anak Krakatau volcano. The scientists also cited tidal waves caused by the full moon. The 305-meter (1,000-foot) -high Anak Krakatau, whose name means “Child of Krakatoa,” lies on an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands, linking the Indian Ocean and the Java Sea. It has been erupting since June and did so again about 24 minutes before the tsunami, the geophysics agency said. The volcanic island formed over years after the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, one of the largest, most devastating in recorded history. That disaster killed more than 30,000 people, launched far-reaching tsunamis and created so much ash that day was turned to night in the area and a global temperature drop was recorded. Most of the island sank into a volcanic crater under the sea, and the area remained calm until the 1920s, when Anak Krakatau began to rise from the site. It continues to grow each year and erupts periodically although it is much smaller than Krakatoa. Gegar Prasetya, co-founder of the Tsunami Research Center Indonesia, said Saturday’s tsunami was likely caused by a flank collapse — when a big section of a volcano’s slope gives way. It’s possible for an eruption to trigger a landslide above ground or beneath the ocean, both capable of producing waves, he said. “Actually, the tsunami was not really big, only 1 meter (3.3 feet),” said Prasetya, who has studied Krakatoa. “The problem is people always tend to build everything close to the shoreline.” Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and home to 260 million people, lies along the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. Roads and infrastructure are poor in many areas of the disaster-prone country, making access difficult in the best of conditions. Saturday’s tsunami also rekindled memories of the massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake that hit Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004. It spawned a giant tsunami off Sumatra island, killing more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries — the majority in Indonesia. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]The tsunami which hit Indonesia on Saturday evening was the result of volcanic activity in the Anak Krakatoa (child of Mount Krakatoa) island located 34 miles off the Indonesian coast. At least 168 people have been reported dead with "many missing" after the tidal wave struck the beaches of the Sunda Strait filled with locals and tourists. Footage recorded in the area the tsunami hit captured the harrowing aftermath of the wave bringing down homes and businesses in its devastating path. Piles of debris can be seen littering the seafront, with the tidal wave appearing to have brought down several houses near the beach. The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) said the wave was not caused by an earthquake but was the result of volcanic activity at Anak Krakatoa (child of Mount Krakatoa), which triggered an underwater landslide. The sudden movement of hot magma can cause underwater landslides, which in turn trigger a tsunami. The eruption threw volcanic ash up to 500 meters into the air. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, an Indonesian civil servant and head of public relations at the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management speculated the “cause of the tsunami in Pandeglang and South Lampung is possibly a combination of underwater landslides due to the influence of the eruption of Anak Krakatoa (child of Mount Krakatoa) and the high tides caused by the full moon”. READ MORE: 'VOLCANO TSUNAMI' strikes Indonesia leaving at least 168 dead and hundreds more injured[SEP]A tsunami apparently caused by the eruption of an island volcano killed at least 62 people around Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, sending a wall of water crashing some 65 feet inland and sweeping away hundreds of houses including hotels, the government and witnesses said. JAKARTA, Indonesia — A tsunami apparently caused by the eruption of an island volcano killed at least 62 people around Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, sending a wall of water crashing some 65 feet inland and sweeping away hundreds of houses including hotels, the government and witnesses said. Some 600 people have been reported injured when the tsunami hit 9:27 p.m. Saturday, the Disaster Management Agency said. Scientists from Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics agency said it could have been caused by undersea landslides from the eruption of Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island formed over years from the nearby Krakatau volcano. They also cited tidal waves caused by the full moon. “I had to run, as the wave passed the beach and landed 15-20m inland,” Norwegian Øystein Lund Andersen wrote on Facebook. He said he was taking pictures of the volcano when he suddenly saw a big wave come toward him. “Next wave entered the hotel area where I was staying and downed cars on the road behind it. Managed to evacuate with my family to higher ground trough forest paths and villages, where we are taken care of (by) the locals. Were unharmed, thankfully.” Looking for the missing The worst affected area was the Pandeglang region of Banten province in Java, which encompasses the Ujung Kulon National Park and popular beaches, the disaster agency said. Of the deaths, 33 were in Pandeglang. In the city of Bandar Lampung on southern Sumatra, hundreds of residents took refuge at the governor’s office. Alif, a resident in Pandeglang district who goes by one name, said told MetroTV station that many people were still searching for missing relatives. The Anak Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Strait that links the Indian Ocean and Java Sea erupted about 24 minutes before the tsunami, the geophysics agency said. The 1,000-foot-high volcano, about 124 miles southwest of capital Jakarta, has been erupting since June. In July, authorities widened its no-go areas to 1.24 miles from the crater. Gegar Prasetya, co-founder of the Tsunami Research Center Indonesia, said the waves were likely caused by a flank collapse — when a big section of a volcano’s slope gives way. He said it’s possible for an eruption to trigger a landslide above ground or beneath the ocean, both capable of producing a tsunami. “Actually, the tsunami was not really big, only one meter,” said Prasetya, who has closely studied Krakatau. “The problem is people always tend to build everything close to the shoreline.” Physical losses included 430 heavily damaged homes, nine heavily damaged hotels and 10 heavily damaged vessels. Footage posted by the head of the disaster agency showed the aftermath of flooded streets and an overturned car. In September, more than 2,500 people were killed by a quake and tsunami that hit the city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, which is just east of Borneo.[SEP]A tsunami apparently caused by the eruption of an island volcano killed at least 62 people around Indonesia's Sunda Strait, sending a wall of water crashing some 65 feet (20 meters) inland and sweeping away hundreds of houses including hotels, the government and witnesses said.Some 600 people have been reported injured when the tsunami hit 9:27 p.m. Saturday, the Disaster Management Agency said. At least 20 others are unaccounted for.Scientists from Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics agency said it could have been caused by undersea landslides from the eruption of Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island formed over years from the nearby Krakatau volcano. They also cited tidal waves caused by the full moon.Footage posted on social media showed a pop band named "Seventeen" performing under a tent on a beach as dozens of people sat listening at tables covered in white cloths. As bright strobe lights flashed on stage, a child could be seen wandering through the crowd. Then, in between songs with the drummer pounding, the stage suddenly heaved forward, throwing the band and all their equipment into the audience.The band released a statement saying their bass player and road manager were found dead, while four other members of their group remained missing."The tide rose to the surface and dragged all the people on site," it said. "Unfortunately, when the current receded our members are unable to save themselves while some did not find a place to hold on."Tourists were also affected during the holiday weekend ahead of Christmas."I had to run, as the wave passed the beach and landed 15-20m (meters) inland," Norwegian ystein Lund Andersen wrote on Facebook. He said he was taking pictures of the volcano when he suddenly saw a big wave come toward him."Next wave entered the hotel area where I was staying and downed cars on the road behind it. Managed to evacuate with my family to higher ground trough forest paths and villages, where we are taken care of (by) the locals. Were unharmed, thankfully."The worst affected area was the Pandeglang region of Banten province in Java, which encompasses the Ujung Kulon National Park and popular beaches, the disaster agency said. Of the deaths, 33 were in Pandeglang.In the city of Bandar Lampung on southern Sumatra, hundreds of residents took refuge at the governor's office.Alif, a resident in Pandeglang district who goes by one name, said told MetroTV station that many people were still searching for missing relatives.The Anak Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Strait that links the Indian Ocean and Java Sea erupted about 24 minutes before the tsunami, the geophysics agency said.The 305-meter (1,000-foot) -high volcano, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of capital Jakarta, has been erupting since June. In July, authorities widened its no-go areas to 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) from the crater.Gegar Prasetya, co-founder of the Tsunami Research Center Indonesia, said the waves were likely caused by a flank collapse - when a big section of a volcano's slope gives way. He said it's possible for an eruption to trigger a landslide above ground or beneath the ocean, both capable of producing a tsunami."Actually, the tsunami was not really big, only one meter," said Prasetya, who has closely studied Krakatau. "The problem is people always tend to build everything close to the shoreline."Physical losses included 430 heavily damaged homes, nine heavily damaged hotels and 10 heavily damaged vessels. Footage posted by the head of the disaster agency showed the aftermath of flooded streets and an overturned car.In September, more than 2,500 people were killed by a quake and tsunami that hit the city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, which is just east of Borneo.In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Indonesia is a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands home to 260 million people. Roads and infrastructure are poor in many areas, making access difficult in the best of conditions.[SEP]Tsunami in Indonesia kills at least 222 without warning (CNN) — At least 222 people were killed, with hundreds more injured and missing, including members of a pop band, after a tsunami hit the coastline of west Java and Sumatra, Indonesia on Saturday. There was no warning before the waves struck the Pandeglang district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of public relations at Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency. The tsunami appears to have been triggered by a combination of underwater landslides caused by the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in the Sunda Strait that lies between the islands of Java and Sumatra. Eyewitnesses described fleeing for their lives as beachfront hotels and homes were swept away by a towering wall of water on Saturday evening. The waves caused a stage to collapse in the Tanjung Lesung beach resort while holidaymakers and locals were watching the Indonesian pop band Seventeen. One member of the band has been confirmed dead as well as the manager, according to the Jakarta Post. The newspaper said all the other band members were still missing. Even though Indonesia was the worst country affected by the devastating Boxing Day 2004 tsunami that killed hundred of thousands of people, it still lacks the proper equipment to alert that a tsunami threat is coming. “We need multi-hazard early warning system,” Nugroho said. “And we need lots of it.” Nugroho pointed out that tsunamis are much faster and less predictable than tidal waves, which are caused by atmospheric conditions. “We used to know that a tsunami happens after an earthquake. There was no quake last night. That is why there was no warning,” he said referring to the underwater landslides. The tsunami has destroyed 558 houses and heavily damaged nine hotels, 60 restaurants and 350 boats, indicating the tsunami hit residential and tourist areas. Nugroho said 843 people have been injured and 28 are currently unaccounted for. As of now, no foreigners have been found to have been killed. The tsunami comes less than three months after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Palu on the island of Sulawesi killing 2,256 people. A volcanic eruption in Krakatoa in 1883 was one of the deadliest in recorded history at the time, killing more than 36,000 people. Kathy Mueller, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Indonesia, told CNN that the organization expected the death toll to rise. Red Cross teams are bringing in basic household items, clean water and equipment to help clear away debris, Mueller said. The United Nations’ World Food Programme said in a statement it stood ready to support the Indonesian government. “We have teams on the ground specialized in disaster response and have been working for years with Indonesia to prepare for such disasters,” said Bettina Luescher, a senior WFP spokesperson. “Our logistics experts can help bring aid supplies and aid workers to the affected areas. Upon request our experts will support the Indonesian government to assess the damage and assist in the response.” In October, torrential rains and flooding triggered mudslides that wiped out part of an elementary school in Indonesia’s North Sumatra. Twenty people were killed.[SEP]A tsunami triggered by an underwater landslide from volcanic eruptions has killed at least 222 people and injured hundreds on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. The tsunami struck late on Saturday night, almost without warning, along the rim of the Sunda Strait, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency, said. Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate to higher ground. By Sunday, the disaster agency had raised the death toll to 222 from 168, with 843 injured and 28 missing. TV images showed the seconds when the tsunami hit the beach and residential areas in Pandeglang on Java island, dragging with it victims, debris, and large chunks of wood and metal. Coastal residents reported not seeing or feeling any warning signs, such as receding water or an earthquake, before waves of 2-3 metres washed ashore, according to media. Authorities said a warning siren went off in some areas. The timing of the tsunami, over the Christmas holiday season, evoked memories of the Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquake on December 26 in 2004, which killed 226,000 people in 14 countries, among them Australians. Oystein Lund Andersen, a Norwegian holidaymaker, was in Anyer town with his family when Saturday’s tsunami struck. “I had to run, as the wave passed the beach and landed 15-20 metres inland. Next wave entered the hotel area where I was staying and drowned cars on the road behind it,” he said on Facebook. “Managed to evacuate with my family to higher ground through forest paths and villages, where we are taken care of by the locals.” Authorities warned residents and tourists in coastal areas around the Sunda Strait to stay away from beaches and a high-tide warning remained in place through to December 25. “Those who have evacuated, please do not return yet,” said Rahmat Triyono, an official at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency. Rescue workers and ambulances were finding it difficult to reach affected areas because some roads were blocked by debris from damaged houses, overturned cars and fallen trees. The western coast of Banten province in Java was the worst-hit area, Nugroho told reporters in Yogyakarta. He said at least 35 people were reported dead in Lampung in southern Sumatra. The waves washed away an outdoor stage where a local rock band was performing in Tanjung Lesung in Banten province, a popular tourist getaway not far from the capital, Jakarta, killing at least one musician. Others were missing. Around 250 employees of the state utility company PLN had gathered in Tanjung Lesung for an end-of-year event, company spokesman I Made Suprateka told Reuters. At least seven people were killed, and around 89 are missing, he said. Dramatic TV footage showed the seconds when the tsunami hit a concert at the event and washed away the stage where the band, Seventeen, was performing. Officials were trying to determine the exact cause of the disaster. Anak Krakatau, an active volcano roughly halfway between Java and Sumatra, has been spewing ash and lava for months. It erupted again just after 9pm on Saturday and the tsunami struck at around 9.30pm, according to the Meteorology Agency. The tsunami was caused by “an undersea landslide resulting from volcanic activity on Anak Krakatau” and was exacerbated by abnormally high tide because of the full moon, Nugroho said. Anak Krakatau is the island that emerged from the area once occupied by Krakatau or Krakatoa, which was destroyed in 1883. It first appeared in 1927 and has been growing ever since. Malaysia and Australia both said they were ready to provide assistance if needed.[SEP](CNN) At least 222 people were killed, with hundreds more injured and missing, including members of a pop band, after a tsunami hit the coastline of west Java and Sumatra, Indonesia on Saturday. There was no warning before the waves struck the Pandeglang district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of public relations at Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency. Nugroho said 843 people have been injured and 28 are unaccounted for. A damaged vehicle is seen amid wreckage from buildings along Indonesia's Carita beach. A damaged vehicle is seen amid wreckage from buildings along Indonesia's Carita beach. Debris litters a property that was damaged by the tsunami in Indonesia. Debris litters a property that was damaged by the tsunami in Indonesia. Officials look through the wreckage of damaged buildings in Carita, Indonesia. Officials look through the wreckage of damaged buildings in Carita, Indonesia. People search for relatives among the bodies of tsunami victims. People search for relatives among the bodies of tsunami victims. A man breaks down after identifying his relative among the bodies of tsunami victims in Carita, Indonesia, on Sunday. A man breaks down after identifying his relative among the bodies of tsunami victims in Carita, Indonesia, on Sunday. Residents inspect a house damaged by the tsunami in Carita, Indonesia, on Sunday. Residents inspect a house damaged by the tsunami in Carita, Indonesia, on Sunday. An aerial photo shows damaged buildings in Carita, Indonesia, on Sunday, a day after the area was hit by the tsunami. An aerial photo shows damaged buildings in Carita, Indonesia, on Sunday, a day after the area was hit by the tsunami. Rescue team members carry the body of a tsunami victim in Banten, Indonesia, on Sunday. Rescue team members carry the body of a tsunami victim in Banten, Indonesia, on Sunday. An aerial view of the Anak Krakatau volcano during an eruption in South Lampung, Indonesia, on Sunday, December 23. The tsunami is believed to have been triggered when the volcano, lying in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra, erupted and set off a series of underwater landslides, according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geological Agency. An aerial view of the Anak Krakatau volcano during an eruption in South Lampung, Indonesia, on Sunday, December 23. The tsunami is believed to have been triggered when the volcano, lying in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra, erupted and set off a series of underwater landslides, according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geological Agency. Indonesian soldiers peer into an underground space during a search for victims of the tsunami at a resort hotel Monday in Tanjung Lesung, Indonesia. Indonesian soldiers peer into an underground space during a search for victims of the tsunami at a resort hotel Monday in Tanjung Lesung, Indonesia. Indonesian soldiers carry the bodies of tsunami victims at a beach resort in Tanjung Lesung, Indonesia, on Monday. Indonesian soldiers carry the bodies of tsunami victims at a beach resort in Tanjung Lesung, Indonesia, on Monday. Villagers search through debris after the tsunami destroyed their houses. Villagers search through debris after the tsunami destroyed their houses. Tsunami survivors rest at a hospital in Pandeglang, Indonesia, Monday. Doctors are working to help survivors, and rescuers are looking for more victims from a deadly tsunami that smashed into beachside buildings along an Indonesian strait. Tsunami survivors rest at a hospital in Pandeglang, Indonesia, Monday. Doctors are working to help survivors, and rescuers are looking for more victims from a deadly tsunami that smashed into beachside buildings along an Indonesian strait. A survivor sits on debris as she salvages items from her destroyed house in Sumur, Indonesia. A survivor sits on debris as she salvages items from her destroyed house in Sumur, Indonesia. Villagers walk through debris in Carita, Banten province, Indonesia, on Monday following the tsunami. Villagers walk through debris in Carita, Banten province, Indonesia, on Monday following the tsunami. A man reacts after identifying a relative during a rescue operation at a beach front hotel in Pandeglang on Monday, December 24. A man reacts after identifying a relative during a rescue operation at a beach front hotel in Pandeglang on Monday, December 24. An aerial view of an affected area of Sumur. An aerial view of an affected area of Sumur. Members of an Indonesian search and rescue team carry an elderly woman on a stretcher at the ferry port after being evacuated from Sebesi Island, in Bakauheni, on Wednesday. Members of an Indonesian search and rescue team carry an elderly woman on a stretcher at the ferry port after being evacuated from Sebesi Island, in Bakauheni, on Wednesday. A woman holding an umbrella walks in the rain among debris after the tsunami in Sumur on Wednesday, December 26. A woman holding an umbrella walks in the rain among debris after the tsunami in Sumur on Wednesday, December 26. An Indonesian soldier looks at damaged houses and debris in Sumur, Indonesia, on Tuesday, December 25. An Indonesian soldier looks at damaged houses and debris in Sumur, Indonesia, on Tuesday, December 25. Eyewitnesses described fleeing for their lives as beachfront hotels and homes were swept away by a towering wall of water on Saturday evening. The waves caused a stage to collapse in the Tanjung Lesung beach resort while holidaymakers and locals were watching the Indonesian pop band Seventeen. One member of the band has been confirmed dead as well as the manager, according to the Jakarta Post. The newspaper said all the other band members were still missing. Even though Indonesia was the worst country affected by the devastating Boxing Day 2004 tsunami that killed hundred of thousands of people, it still lacks the proper equipment to alert that a tsunami threat is coming. "We need multi-hazard early warning system," Nugroho said. "And we need lots of it." Nugroho pointed out that tsunamis are much faster and less predictable than tidal waves, which are caused by atmospheric conditions. "We used to know that a tsunami happens after an earthquake. There was no quake last night. That is why there was no warning," he said referring to the underwater landslides. The damage The tsunami has destroyed 558 houses and heavily damaged nine hotels, 60 restaurants and 350 boats, indicating the tsunami hit residential and tourist areas. As of now, no foreigners have been found to have been killed. Pope Francis Sunday prayed for the victims of the tsunami, saying: "My thoughts go, right now, to the populations of Indonesia, affected by violent natural disasters, which have caused serious losses in human lives, numerous missing and homeless people and extensive material damage. I invite everyone to join me in prayer for the victims and their loved ones." Speaking to pilgrims at his regular Sunday Angelus service in St. Peter's Square, he added: "I am spiritually close to the displaced and to all the people affected, imploring God for relief in their suffering. My appeal is that these brothers and sisters may not lack our solidarity and the support of the international community." Residents inspect the damage to their homes on Carita beach on December 23. The tsunami comes less than three months after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Palu on the island of Sulawesi killing 2,256 people. A volcanic eruption in Krakatoa in 1883 was one of the deadliest in recorded history at the time, killing more than 36,000 people. Kathy Mueller, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Indonesia, told CNN that the organization expected the death toll to rise. Red Cross teams are bringing in basic household items, clean water and equipment to help clear away debris, Mueller said. Hundreds of people have been left injured after the tsunami hit. The United Nations' World Food Programme said in a statement it stood ready to support the Indonesian government. "We have teams on the ground specialized in disaster response and have been working for years with Indonesia to prepare for such disasters," said Bettina Luescher, a senior WFP spokesperson. "Our logistics experts can help bring aid supplies and aid workers to the affected areas. Upon request our experts will support the Indonesian government to assess the damage and assist in the response." In October, torrential rains and flooding triggered mudslides that wiped out part of an elementary school in Indonesia's North Sumatra. Twenty people were killed.[SEP]Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesperson for the Indonesian disaster agency has confirmed the Saturday evening tsunami has left at least 168 dead, 745 injured with 30 missing. But he says he expects the death toll to rise since not all the areas which were hit have been reached yet. The worst affected area was the Pandeglang region of Banten province in Java, which encompasses the Ujung Kulon National Park and popular beaches southwest of the capital, Jakarta. Scientists say the tsunami was probably caused by the eruption of Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island formed over years from the nearby Krakatau volcano. They also cited high tidal waves that were caused by the full moon, which added to the volume of tsunami waves. Sutopo has also warned that there is still the potential for another tsunami as Krakatoa is still active. There are high tide warnings in place until tomorrow and people are being urged to stay away from the coast for the time being. “Please do not be around the beaches around the Sunda Strait. Those who have evacuated, please do not return yet,” said Rahmat Triyono, head of the meteorological agency on Sunday.[SEP]More Than 200 Dead, Hundreds More Injured After Tsunami Hits Indonesia At least 222 people are dead and hundreds more are missing or injured, the AP reports, after a tsunami struck Indonesia late Saturday night local time. The death toll is expected to rise. Officials there are blaming the tsunami on underwater landslides caused by volcanic activity on the island of Anak Krakatau, which erupted just after 9 p.m. Footage shared by news outlets and social media show a wave hitting a seaside concert at a resort on the island of Java, washing away the stage and many people along with it. The 1883 eruption of nearby Krakatoa killed more than 30,000 people. Anak Krakatau, the "son of Krakatoa," emerged from the spot where the island of Rakata existed before that eruption. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which was triggered by an earthquake, killed about 226,000.

At least 281 people are killed and over 1,000 injured when a tsunami triggered by Krakatoa's eruption hits the coast near Indonesia's Sunda Strait.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban lawmakers on Saturday unanimously approved a revised draft of a new constitution that retains the island’s one-party socialist system but reflects its socio-economic opening since the fall of the Soviet Union. Cuba's former President Raul Castro (C-L) talks to his grandson and bodyguard Raul Rodriguez Castro during a session of the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba, December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer The draft new constitution, which has 229 articles and will replace a Cold War era one, will maintain the Communist Party as the country’s guiding force and the state’s dominance of the economy, according to state-run media. A copy has not yet been distributed to the public. The document, however also, legitimizes private business that has blossomed over the last decade, acknowledges the importance of foreign investment and opens the door to gay marriage, according to state-run media. It imposes age and term limits on the presidency, after late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul Castro ruled the country for nearly six decades, and introduces the role of a prime minister. The current draft incorporates into an original one published in July hundreds of mainly small changes proposed by citizens during a three-month public consultation at community meetings nationwide. It will go to a referendum next Feb. 24. “This process is a genuine and exceptional demonstration of the practice of power by the people and therefore of the markedly participative and democratic nature of our political system,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel told the national assembly in a speech closing its week-long, twice-yearly session. The 58-year-old took office from his mentor Raul Castro in April although the latter remains head of the Communist Party until 2021. Critics say the fundamentals of Cuba’s system were never up for discussion and the government only included suggestions it wanted to. Some, including opposition groups that typically do not mobilize many people, are already campaigning against the constitution online using the hashtag #yovotono (“I vote no”). One of the articles revised regards the accumulation of property. Whereas the first draft originally banned this, the revised constitution simply stipulates that the state must regulate it, according to state-run media. However the latest draft also reinserts the aim of “advancing toward communism” that was taken out of the first draft. One controversial revision is the elimination of an article that recognized matrimony as the union of two persons as opposed to the union between a man and a woman as in the 1976 constitution. That article was the one that sparked the most controversy in a society that has made great strides in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in recent years but remains conservative on the topic. The new draft removes the definition of marriage altogether thus still opening the door to same-sex union albeit not giving it the same symbolic level of backing. The government has said instead it will update the family code and put it to a referendum in the next two years. “There is no setback,” wrote Mariela Castro, the daughter of Raul Castro, who has championed LGBT rights in Cuba in recent years, on Facebook. “The fight continues, let’s give a ‘yes’ to the constitution and then close ranks to achieve a family code as advanced as the new constitutional text.” She asked for permission to briefly interrupt the assembly meet on Saturday to hug her father in an unusual public display of affection within the Castro family, thanking him for his example “as a parent and as a revolutionary”, sparking applause. Still, the decision to put the family code to a referendum has angered Cuban intellectuals who say fundamental human rights should not be put up for vote. Other laws have not been put to a referendum. “Equal rights to marriage in Cuba should be a presidential decree, not a referendum that exonerates the state from responsibility and opens the door to conservative homophobia,” said Harold Cardenas, a professor of Marxism and blogger.[SEP]HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba has reinserted the goal of “advancing toward a communist society” into the draft of the country’s new constitution after its removal from the first version had sparked concern among thousands of citizens, state-run television said on Thursday. The national assembly is this week debating a revised draft of the constitution, designed to replace a Soviet-era one to better reflect the times, for example acknowledging private property and opening the door to same-sex marriage. Cuba is one of a handful of countries worldwide still run by the Communist Party and has insisted its one-party socialist system is irrevocable. Still, the commission writing the new constitution, headed by party chief Raul Castro, took the mention of “communism” out of the first draft that it published in July and put to a nationwide, three-month popular consultation. Thousands of citizens at community-level meetings then called for it to be re-inserted, according to Cuba’s state broadcaster, and as a result it was re-inserted into the draft now under debate by the national assembly. “The true revolutionary is the one who always looks to overcome the limits of the possible and that is why we must maintain this aspiration (to communism),” lawmaker Yusuam Palacios told the assembly on Thursday. The inclusion of “communism” is one of 760 changes to the first draft made on the back of the popular consultation. The government has insisted the drafting of the constitution is participatory democracy at its best, while critics point out that the fundamentals of the Cuban system were never up for discussion and say its methodology is questionable. If this latest draft passes, as expected, a national assembly vote this week, it will go to a nationwide referendum on Feb. 24.[SEP]Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel, left, applauds as former President Raul Castro, center, greets members of the Assembly before the start of a session to debate the draft of a new Constitution, at the Convention Palace in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Dec. 21, 2018. The draft will be submitted to a popular referendum on Feb. 24, 2019. Cuba's government said Tuesday that language promoting the legalization of gay marriage will be removed from the draft after widespread popular rejection of the idea. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) (AP)[SEP]HAVANA — Cuba’s National Assembly on Saturday approved an update of the country’s constitution, the final step before a national referendum expected to approve the new charter in February. The new constitution contains more continuity than change, although it recognizes the de-facto modernization of Cuban society over the last decade. The constitution maintains Cuba as a centrally planned economy ruled by a single Communist Party, but recognizes private property for the first time and paves the way for a separate referendum on legalizing gay marriage. It also creates the role of prime minister alongside the current president, as well as provincial governors. Legalizing private property is a formal recognition of significant change in Cuban society over the past decade. Former President Raul Castro permitted home and auto sales, creating a booming real-estate market, and more than half a million Cubans have permits to work as entrepreneurs. Hundreds of thousands more work full or part-time in the private sector without licenses. The new constitution also recognizes worker-owned co-operatives for the first time as a legal form of production in every sector of the economy, while maintaining Cuba’s largely inefficient and stagnant state-run industries as the central means of production. The degree to which the new constitution will actually spur change is expected to be seen only after the National Assembly approves a raft of changes to the civil and penal codes and electoral laws next year. Language seen as the immediate precursor to the legalization of gay marriage was eliminated after widespread public objection and protests by evangelical churches. Cuban officials say the question of gay marriage will be put to a nationwide referendum, something most gay activists oppose. The constitution was drafted by a committee led by Communist Party head Raul Castro, then subjected to months of public comment in workplaces and neighbourhoods across the island. Some suggested changes were approved, others rejected. As in virtually every vote in recent memory, the National Assembly unanimously approved the draft constitution.[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. Cuban lawmakers on Saturday unanimously approved a revised draft of a new constitution that retains the island's one-party socialist system but reflects its socio-economic opening since the fall of the Soviet Union. HAVANA: Cuban lawmakers on Saturday unanimously approved a revised draft of a new constitution that retains the island's one-party socialist system but reflects its socio-economic opening since the fall of the Soviet Union. The draft new constitution, which has 229 articles and will replace a Cold War era one, will maintain the Communist Party as the country's guiding force and the state's dominance of the economy, according to state-run media. A copy has not yet been distributed to the public. The document however also legitimises private business that has blossomed over the last decade, acknowledges the importance of foreign investment and opens the door to gay marriage, according to state-run media. It imposes age and term limits on the presidency, after late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul Castro ruled the country for nearly six decades, and introduces the role of a prime minister. The current draft incorporates into an original one published in July hundreds of mainly small changes proposed by citizens during a three-month public consultation at community meetings nationwide. It will go to a referendum next Feb. 24 in a process the government has depicted as participatory democracy at its best. Critics disagree, arguing the fundamentals of Cuba's system were never up for discussion and the government only included suggestions it wanted to. Some, including opposition groups that typically do not mobilise many citizens, are already campaigning against the constitution online using the hashtag #yovotono ("I vote no"). First Vice President Salvador Mesa said the government hoped the majority of the population would approve the new constitution because "the people also built this text". One of the articles revised regards the accumulation of property. Whereas the first draft originally banned this, the revised constitution simply stipulates that the state must regulate it, according to state-run media. However the latest draft also reinserts the aim of "advancing towards communism" that was taken out of the first draft. One controversial revision is the elimination of an article that recognised matrimony as the union of two persons as opposed to the union between a man and a woman as in the 1976 constitution. That article was the one that sparked the most controversy in a society that has made great strides in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in recent years but remains conservative on the topic. The new draft removes the definition of marriage altogether thus still opening the door to same-sex union albeit not giving it the same symbolic level of backing. The government has said instead it will update the family code and put it to a referendum in the next two years. "There is no setback," wrote Mariela Castro, the daughter of Communist Party leader Raul Castro, who has championed LGBT rights in Cuba in recent years, on Facebook. "The fight continues, let's give a 'yes' to the constitution and then close ranks to achieve a family code as advanced as the new constitutional text." Still, the change has angered Cuban intellectuals who say fundamental human rights should not be put up for referendum. "Equal rights to marriage in Cuba should be a presidential decree, not a referendum that exonerates the state from responsibility and opens the door to conservative homophobia," said Harold Cardenas, a professor of Marxism and blogger.[SEP]Cuba's National Assembly on Saturday approved an update of the country's constitution, the final step before a national referendum expected to approve the new charter in February. The new constitution contains more continuity than change, although it recognizes the de-facto modernization of Cuban society over the last decade. The constitution maintains Cuba as a centrally planned economy ruled by a single Communist Party, but recognizes private property for the first time and paves the way for a separate referendum on legalizing gay marriage. It also creates the role of prime minister alongside the current president, as well as provincial governors. Legalizing private property is a formal recognition of significant change in Cuban society since former President Raul Castro permitted home and auto sales, creating a booming real-estate market, and allowed more than half a million Cubans have permits to work as entrepreneurs. Hundreds of thousands more work full or part-time in the private sector without licenses. The new constitution also recognizes worker-owned cooperatives for the first time as a legal form of production in every sector of the economy, while maintaining Cuba's largely inefficient and stagnant state-run industries as the central means of production. Closing the National Assembly, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the island's economic challenges — including a weak 1.2 percent 2018 growth rate, and similar growth expected next year — required the acceptance of private business, joint public-private ventures and coops working together. He promised to fight widespread public-sector embezzlement and corruption that makes it virtually impossible to get anything done in Cuba without a series of small bribes. "We've called a battle, and we'll wage it, an ethical battle against corruption, illegality ... and social indiscipline," he said. The president also promised a more responsive government, part of an initiative that has seen almost all Cuba's head of ministries start social-media accounts for the first time, some of which take questions from citizens. "There are a lot of questions to pay attention and respond to," Diaz-Canel said. "We'll give responses to all of them as soon as it's possible, and those that we don't' have an answer to for the moment, we'll never stop searching." He did not mention Cuba's unique two-currency system, which creates inefficiencies and distortions that are seen as one of the island's most serious economic problems. Castro called monetary unification an urgent priority before stepping down in April, but the issue has barely been mentioned since Diaz-Canel took over. The degree to which the new constitution will actually spur change is expected to be seen only after the National Assembly approves a raft of changes to the civil and penal codes and electoral laws next year. Language seen as the immediate precursor to the legalization of gay marriage was eliminated after widespread public objection and protests by evangelical churches. Cuban officials say the question of gay marriage will be put to a nationwide referendum, something most gay activists oppose. The constitution was drafted by a committee led by Castro, who is still Communist Party head. It was then subjected to months of public comment in workplaces and neighborhoods across the island. Some suggested changes were approved, others rejected. As in virtually every vote in recent memory, the National Assembly unanimously approved the draft constitution.[SEP]Cuba will leave out of its new constitution changes that would have paved the way for legal same-sex marriage, despite majority support in local assemblies, a government official said on Tuesday. It was a surprising twist, given public support nationwide for the reform and earlier remarks from lawmakers in the Americas’ only one-party Communist regime. The measure would have changed the definition of parties in a marriage from man and wife to “between two people.” But “the draft constitution will not define which parties enter into a marriage … So that is now out of constitutional reform discussions overall,” Council of State secretary and drafting coordinator Homero Acosta was quoted as saying by state media. The full draft constitution was put before neighborhood and workplace assemblies for debate between August and November. The marriage issue was the one that drew the greatest attention. “Article 68 was the one most discussed by the people in the popular consultation, in 66 percent of the meetings (of citizen debate). Of the 192,408 opinions, 158,376 propose replacing the measure now in force with the one proposed,” Cuba’s National Assembly said on Twitter. “The (text-drafting) Committee proposes deferring the definition of marriage to the draft constitution, as a way to respect all opinions.” The new draft, with the changes made, will be taken up Friday by the National Assembly and then submitted to a popular referendum on February 24, 2019. One of the main defenders of the LGBT community in Cuba is Mariela Castro, a daughter of Fidel Castro. She said Tuesday on Facebook that the fight to defend these people will go on despite the scrapping of the proposed constitutional change. “We have not yielded, nor will we yield to conservative and backward blackmail that is politically opposed to the emancipating project that is the Cuban revolution,” she wrote. Ahead of its annual session, Acosta on Tuesday told the National Assembly that 60 percent of the text’s articles had undergone some type of change. The commission drafting the new constitution proposed a new article replacing 68, number 82, which defines marriage “as a social and legal institution.” The committee also deemed marriage “one of the forms of family organization”, which “is based on free consent and equality of rights, obligations and legal capacity of the spouses.” Separately, the definition of marriage will be left to the Family Code, which will spell out who can be in a marriage. Those details will be put to a referendum vote within two years of the draft transitional provision, the National Assembly said. The definition will acknowledge that a shared life and shared family are part of a special legal construct. The failure to launch of the reform as expected comes during the term of the first post-Castro president, elected in April, Miguel Diaz-Canel. It would have marked a sea-change on the island where sexual minorities were stigmatised in the wake of the Castro revolution in 1959. LGBT people were harassed and some were sent to re-education camps, after which they were excluded from any public appointment. Diaz-Canel has backed same-sex marriage since taking office and said the change “responds to the problem of eliminating all types of discrimination in society.” It has also been championed by Raul Castro’s daughter, Mariela Castro, who has been a staunch supporter of gay rights in Cuba. For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.[SEP]Cuba’s government said Tuesday that language promoting the legalization of gay marriage will be removed from the draft of a new constitution after widespread popular rejection of the idea. Gay rights advocates had proposed eliminating the description of marriage as a union of a man and woman, changing it to the union of “two people … with absolutely equal rights and obligations.” That change drew protests from evangelical churches and ordinary citizens in months of public meetings on the new constitution. Cuba’s National Assembly announced on Twitter that a powerful commission responsible for revising the constitution has proposed eliminating the language from the new charter “as a way of respecting all opinions.” The constitution would instead be silent on the issue, leaving open the possibility of a future legalization without specifically promoting it. The constitutional commission is headed by Communist Party head and former president Raul Castro. His daughter, Mariela Castro, is a lawmaker known as Cuba’s highest-profile advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual rights. Her advocacy has helped rehabilitate Cuba’s international image on LGBTQ rights after the Castro-led communist government sent gay men to work camps in the 1960s. Widespread persecution continued through the 1970s. While Havana and some other Cuban cities have flourishing gay communities, anti-homosexual attitudes remain deeply rooted among much of the population. Cubans who ordinarily shy from open criticism of the government spoke out in large numbers against the proposed constitutional Article 68 promoting gay marriage during public consultations on the draft constitution throughout the year. Cuba’s rapidly growing evangelical churches also staked out positions against the article, increasing pressure on a government unused to public pushback. The new charter is expected to be offered for approval at a public referendum in early 2019. The dropping of the gay marriage language is the third dramatic reversal this month for a government that for decades has issued most laws and regulations with little public debate or insight into the working of the ruling Communist Party. The government last week eliminated some of the most-disliked sections of new restrictions on entrepreneurs that were met with widespread public criticism. And tough new limits on artistic expression were delayed after protests and complaints from Cuban artists. The new laws were announced in July, three months after President Miguel Diaz-Canel took office, and generated bitter complaints from entrepreneurs and artists. The measures included limits on the number of business licenses per household and barred more than 50 seats at private restaurants. They also granted a corps of cultural “inspectors” the power to immediately close any art exhibition or performance found to violate Cuba’s socialist revolutionary values. On Dec. 4, the country’s vice minister of culture said the art regulation would be delayed and the inspectors’ power would be limited to making recommendations to higher-ranking cultural officials. In addition, they will not be able to inspect any studio or home that is not open to the public. The next day, the government eliminated the limits on restaurant tables and business licenses, along with new taxes and financial requirements for entrepreneurs. The elimination of gay marriage appears to be the only major change to the draft constitution. State media said that Cubans had made 192,408 comments on Article 68, with the majority asking to eliminate it. Commenters also asked the commission to eliminate presidential term and age limits and allow direct presidential elections but the draft charter maintains the two-term limit, maximum age of 65, and the selection of the president by the National Assembly. Francisco Rodriguez, a Communist Party member and gay blogger known as “Paquito de Cuba,” said simply eliminating any reference to the participants in a marriage is an acceptable compromise that will focus gay activists on campaigning for changes in the national legal code that would allow gay marriage. “This was a side step,” he said. “It’s a solution. Not `between a man and a woman’ or `between two people.’ Now is when it all begins.”[SEP]HAVANA: Cuban lawmakers on Saturday unanimously approved a revised draft of a new constitution that retains the island’s one-party socialist system but reflects its socio-economic opening since the fall of the Soviet Union. The draft new constitution, which has 229 articles and will replace a Cold War era one, will maintain the Communist Party as the country’s guiding force and the state’s dominance of the economy, according to state-run media. A copy has not yet been distributed to the public. The document, however also, legitimizes private business that has blossomed over the last decade, acknowledges the importance of foreign investment and opens the door to gay marriage, according to state-run media. It imposes age and term limits on the presidency, after late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul Castro ruled the country for nearly six decades, and introduces the role of a prime minister. The current draft incorporates into an original one published in July hundreds of mainly small changes proposed by citizens during a three-month public consultation at community meetings nationwide. It will go to a referendum next Feb. 24. “This process is a genuine and exceptional demonstration of the practice of power by the people and therefore of the markedly participative and democratic nature of our political system,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel told the national assembly in a speech closing its week-long, twice-yearly session. The 58-year-old took office from his mentor Raul Castro in April although the latter remains head of the Communist Party until 2021. Critics say the fundamentals of Cuba’s system were never up for discussion and the government only included suggestions it wanted to. Some, including opposition groups that typically do not mobilize many people, are already campaigning against the constitution online using the hashtag #yovotono (“I vote no”). One of the articles revised regards the accumulation of property. Whereas the first draft originally banned this, the revised constitution simply stipulates that the state must regulate it, according to state-run media. However the latest draft also reinserts the aim of “advancing toward communism” that was taken out of the first draft. One revision is the elimination of an article that recognized matrimony as the union of two persons as opposed to the union between a man and a woman as in the 1976 constitution.[SEP]The reference to communism that had been left out of the first draft of a new Cuban constitution has been made a part of the document in response to a request from more than 1,800 citizens, Communist Party daily Granma said Friday. Yusuam Palacios, a lawmaker representing Holguin, said ahead of parliament's vote on the draft that the preamble of the new charter includes this phrase: "the human being reaches his full dignity only in socialism and communism," Granma reported.

The draft of a new constitution is approved by the parliament of Cuba. It will be put up for referendum on February 24, 2019.

FILE - In this June 7, 2017 file photo, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy for the global coalition against IS, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq. McGurk has resigned in protest to President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, joining Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in an administration exodus of experienced national security officials. AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) FILE - In this June 7, 2017 file photo, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy for the global coalition against IS, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq. McGurk has resigned in protest to President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, joining Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in an administration exodus of experienced national security officials. AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) WASHINGTON (AP) — Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, has resigned in protest over President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, joining Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in an administration exodus of experienced national security figures. McGurk described Trump’s decision as a “shock.” Only 11 days ago, McGurk had said it would be “reckless” to consider IS defeated and therefore would be unwise to bring American forces home. McGurk decided to speed up his original plan to leave his post in mid-February. “The recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy,” he said in an email to his staff viewed by The Associated Press. “It left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered with no plan in place or even considered thought as to consequences.” McGurk, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2015 and retained by Trump, said in his resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the militants were on the run, but not yet defeated, and that the premature pullout of U.S. forces from Syria would create the conditions that gave rise to IS. The letter was submitted Friday and described to the AP on Saturday by an official familiar with its contents. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly before the letter was released and spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump played down the development, tweeting Saturday night that “I do not know” the envoy and it’s a “nothing event.” He noted McGurk planned to leave soon anyway and added: “Grandstander?” “I have no idea who that person is. Never heard of him ... until yesterday,” Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. Shortly after news of McGurk’s resignation broke, Trump again defended his decision to pull all of the roughly 2,000 U.S. forces from Syria in the coming weeks. “We were originally going to be there for three months, and that was seven years ago - we never left,” Trump tweeted. “When I became President, ISIS was going wild. Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!” Although the civil war in Syria has gone on since 2011, the U.S. did not begin launching airstrikes against IS until September 2014, and American troops did not go into Syria until 2015. McGurk, whose resignation is effective Dec. 31, was planning to leave the job in mid-February after a U.S.-hosted meeting of foreign ministers from the coalition countries, but he felt he could continue no longer after Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria and Mattis’ resignation. In his email to his staff, McGurk said: “I worked this week to help manage some of the fallout, but — as many of you heard in my many meetings and phone calls — I ultimately concluded that I could not carry out these new instructions and maintain my integrity at the same time.” Trump’s declaration of a victory over IS has been roundly contradicted by his own experts’ assessments, and his decision to pull troops out was widely denounced by members of Congress, who called his action rash. Mattis, perhaps the most respected foreign policy official in the administration, announced on Thursday that he will leave by the end of February. He told Trump in a letter that he was departing because “you have a right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours.” The withdrawal decision will fulfill Trump’s goal of bringing troops home from Syria, but military leaders have pushed back for months, arguing that the IS group remains a threat and could regroup in Syria’s long-running civil war. U.S. policy has been to keep troops in place until the extremists are eradicated. Among officials’ key concerns is that a U.S. pullout will leave U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces vulnerable to attacks by Turkey, the Syrian government and remaining IS fighters. The SDF, a Kurdish-led force, is America’s only military partner in Syria McGurk said at a State Department briefing on Dec. 11 that “it would be reckless if we were just to say, ‘Well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now.’” McGurk, 45, previously served as a deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran. During the negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal by the Obama administration, he led secret side talks with Tehran on the release of Americans imprisoned there. McGurk was briefly considered for the post of ambassador to Iraq after having served as a senior official covering Iraq and Afghanistan during President George W. Bush’s administration. A former Supreme Court law clerk to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, McGurk worked as a lawyer for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and joined Bush’s National Security Council staff, where in 2007 and 2008, he was the lead U.S. negotiator on security agreements with Iraq. Taking over for now for McGurk will be his deputy, retired Lt. Gen. Terry Wolff, who served three tours of active duty in Iraq. IS militants still hold a string of villages and towns along the Euphrates River in eastern Syria, where they have resisted weeks of attacks by the U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces to drive them out. The pocket is home to about 15,000 people, among them 2,000 IS fighters, according to U.S. military estimates. But that figure could be as high as 8,000 militants, if fighters hiding out in the deserts south of the Euphrates River are also counted, according to according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through networks of local informants.[SEP]Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr McGurk (L) had previously said the US should retain a presence in Syria A top US official in the fight against so-called Islamic State group has quit over President Donald Trump's decision to pull troops from Syria. Brett McGurk, the US special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat IS, brought his departure forward from February. Before Mr Trump's announcement he had insisted that the US would continue working against IS in Syria. Mr Trump described Mr McGurk's resignation as a "nothing event". Mr McGurk's decision to quit follows the resignation of Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday. Gen Mattis had also opposed withdrawing troops from Syria as well as reducing the US presence in Afghanistan. Mr McGurk, 45, is an experienced diplomat who was appointed to his current role in 2015 under the Obama administration. In early December he told reporters: "We want to stay on the ground and make sure that stability can be maintained in these areas." He went on to say: "It would be reckless if we were just to say, well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now. I think anyone who's looked at a conflict like this would agree with that." What did McGurk say about his resignation? In his resignation letter, seen by AP news agency, Mr McGurk said that IS militants in Syria were on the run but not yet defeated. He said that withdrawing US forces from Syria would create the conditions that gave rise to IS. In an email to staff quoted by the New York Times, he said Mr Trump's decision to pull out troops "came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy". It "left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered", he said. "I ultimately concluded I could not carry out these new instructions and maintain my integrity," he went on to say. What does Trump say? Mr Trump announced his decision to withdraw some 2,000 US troops from Syria on Wednesday, asserting that IS had been defeated. On Saturday, he continued to insist that the decision to pull out was the right one and that, now that IS was defeated on the ground, other players could take care of the situation. However, important allies including senior Republicans and foreign powers have disputed the claim and say the move could lead to a resurgence of IS. A Kurdish-led alliance, the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) has also warned that IS could recover. US troops have helped rid much of Syria's north-east of the jihadist group, but pockets of fighters remain. A recent US report said there were still as many as 14,000 IS militants in Syria and even more in neighbouring Iraq. What is the US presence in Syria? US ground troops first became involved in Syria in autumn 2015 when then-President Barack Obama sent in a small number of special forces to train and advise local Kurdish fighters who were fighting IS. The US did this reluctantly after several attempts at arming anti-IS groups had descended into chaos. Over the intervening years the numbers of US troops in Syria increased, standing today at some 2,000, though some estimates place the number perhaps even higher. A network of bases and airstrips has been established in an arc across the north-eastern part of the country. The US has also been part of an international coalition conducting air strikes against IS and other militants.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brett McGurk, the special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, submitted his resignation on Friday, effective Dec. 31, a U.S. State Department official said on Saturday. A person familiar with the matter said McGurk has quit because he objected to President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out U.S. troops from Syria, a decision followed by the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis a day later. CBS reported McGurk’s resignation earlier on Saturday.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brett McGurk, U.S. special envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS, submitted his resignation on Friday, CBS reported on Saturday citing sources, ahead of his departure planned in February. McGurk’s resignation came as a result of “strong disagreement” with President Donald Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, CBS reported, and a day after Trump’s Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quit on the back of same decision.[SEP]Brett McGurk, U.S. special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Daesh, submitted his resignation on Friday, CBS reported on Saturday citing sources, ahead of his departure planned in February. McGurk's resignation came as a result of "strong disagreement" with President Donald Trump's decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, CBS reported, and a day after Trump's Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quit on the back of same decision. A U.S. State Department official later confirmed McGurk's resignation and said it will take effect from December 31. McGurk worked under the past three administrations, becoming one of the few persons appointed by former President Barack Obama to keep his post under U.S. President Donald Trump. He also served under the Bush administration. The envoy had originally planned to leave his post in 2019 but decided to accelerate his resignation over strong disagreements with Trump over the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, the news channel reported quoting anonymous sources. McGurk's resignation comes as a surprise because the envoy had told reporters at the State Department that the U.S. was going to remain committed to the fight against Daesh terrorist forces last week. "Nobody is declaring a mission accomplished. Defeating a physical caliphate is one phase of a much longer-term campaign," McGurk told reporters. McGurk sent in his resignation on Friday, a day after Secretary of Defense James Mattis quit saying his views were not aligned with the president. Mattis will end his post in February. On Wednesday, Washington announced it will be withdrawing all of its troops from Syria, following a conversation between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. counterpart Trump over an imminent Turkish cross-border operation to eliminate PKK-affiliated People's Protection Units (YPG) from northern Syria. It has been reported that the U.S. still has about 2,000 troops in Syria, many of whom are working in close cooperation with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Almost all the territory in the east of the Euphrates River comprising some one-third of the territory of Syria, except for the Assad regime-controlled area near Deir el-Zour and the Daesh-held area near the Iraqi border, is controlled by the SDF. The SDF also controls the districts of Manbij and Tabqah on the right bank of the river. Due to the group's links with the PKK, Ankara has called the YPG-held areas a "terror corridor" and said repeatedly it will not allow the region to turn into an autonomous region administered by the terrorist group.[SEP]WASHINGTON — Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, submitted his resignation Friday because of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull US forces out of Syria, according to a senior administration official. McGurk had previously said privately that he was going to leave the administration in February of next year. A State Department official told CNN that McGurk had informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday that he was resigning effective December 31. CBS News was the first to report the news of McGurk’s resignation, which came one day after Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned, also in part due to the Syria decision. Going against the advice of his military and national security advisers, Trump on Wednesday announced the “full” and “rapid” withdrawal of US military from Syria, declaring that the US has defeated ISIS. Sources familiar with the matter said McGurk was frustrated over Trump’s sudden announcement, which was the opposite of the strategy he had just been briefing coalition partners on while in the region: to stay in Syria, fight ISIS and counter Iran. According to the sources, McGurk viewed the Syria decision as reckless and couldn’t defend it, let alone execute it. The sources said Mattis’s resignation also played a part in the timing of McGurk’s resignation. Earlier this month, McGurk said US forces would remain in Syria even after ISIS was defeated. “I think it’s fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring,” he said during a State Department briefing on December 11. He added, “It would be reckless if we were just to say, ‘Well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now.’ I think anyone who’s looked at a conflict like this would agree with that.” McGurk was one of the few Obama administration holdovers to serve in the current administration. He also served under President George W. Bush. When McGurk was initially going to leave theTrump administration in February, he was planning a move to a position at Stanford University, sources said.[SEP]The US envoy to forces fighting to defeat Islamic State has resigned over Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria. Brett McGurk’s resignation follows that of Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, who announced his departure this week. The special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat Isis since 2015 was one of few Obama appointees to stay on under Trump. CBS News first reported McGurk’s move. Citing anonymous sources, it said he had planned to leave his post in February but had brought it forward due to a “strong disagreement” with the president’s decision. He will now quit at the end of this month. The Associated Press said McGurk’s resignation letter to the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, had been described to its reporters. Mattis resigned on Thursday, issuing a letter of resignation that was implicitly strongly critical of Trump, and reportedly angered the president. It was reported on Friday that the defense secretary quit after Trump made the decision to withdraw from Syria during a conversation with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. CBS said McGurk was in the region for talks with US Kurdish allies when Trump announced his decision. The Kurds fear attack by Turkey if around 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria are withdrawn. On 11 December, McGurk told reporters at the state department he thought it was “fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring”. He said then it would be “reckless” to consider Isis to have been defeated, a claim repeatedly made by Trump. On Saturday, Trump defended his decision on Twitter, writing that US troops had meant to be in Syria “for three months, and that was seven years ago – we never left”. He continued: “When I became president, Isis was going wild. Now Isis is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!”[SEP]President Donald Trump on Saturday defended his decision to withdraw US forces from Syria after his envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State terror organization resigned in protest. "When I became President, ISIS was going wild. Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We're coming home!" the US president tweeted. Trump's remarks came just hours after CBS and the Washington Post reported that the special US envoy to the anti-Islamic State (IS) coalition, Brett McGurk, presented his resignation in protest against the White House decision. McGurk had planned to leave his post in February 2019, but on Friday told the State Department he wanted to leave the administration earlier, a move that will take effect next Dec. 31 according to the WaPo, which cited a US diplomatic official. Considered the architect of US strategy against the IS, McGurk has worked for former Presidents George W. Bush, whom he advised on Iraq and Afghanistan, and Barack Obama, who named him special envoy to the anti-Jihadism coalition. McGurk's decision follows the resignation this week of Gen. James Mattis as defense secretary and comes after US President Donald Trump proclaimed the defeat of the IS in Syria and announced the withdrawal of the 2,000 US troops deployed in that country as part of an international coalition.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. envoy leading a global coalition fighting Islamic State has quit over President Donald Trump’s decision this week to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, a source familiar with the matter said on Saturday. Brett McGurk, U.S. special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, submitted his resignation effective Dec. 31 to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, a State Department official said. Trump announced on Wednesday that Washington would withdraw the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, upending a pillar of American policy in the Middle East and alarming U.S. allies. The decision was followed on Thursday by the surprise departure of U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. McGurk, who was slated to leave his post in February 2019, objected to Trump’s flash Syria decision, a person familiar with the matter said, and Mattis’ departure also helped prompt McGurk’s early resignation.[SEP]Brett McGurk, U.S. special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Daesh, submitted his resignation on Friday, CBS reported on Saturday citing sources, ahead of his departure planned in February. McGurk's resignation came as a result of "strong disagreement" with President Donald Trump's decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, CBS reported, and a day after Trump's Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quit on the back of same decision. A U.S. State Department official later confirmed McGurk's resignation and said it will take effect from December 31. On Wednesday, Washington announced it will be withdrawing all of its troops from Syria, following a conversation between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. counterpart Trump over an imminent Turkish cross-border operation to eliminate PKK-affiliated People's Protection Units (YPG) from northern Syria. It has been reported that the U.S. still has about 2,000 troops in Syria, many of whom are working in close cooperation with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Almost all the territory in the east of the Euphrates River comprising some one-third of the territory of Syria, except for the Assad regime-controlled area near Deir el-Zour and the Daesh-held area near the Iraqi border, is controlled by the SDF. The SDF also controls the districts of Manbij and Tabqah on the right bank of the river. Due to the group's links with the PKK, Ankara has called the YPG-held areas a "terror corridor" and said repeatedly it will not allow the region to turn into an autonomous region administered by the terrorist group.

The United States Department of State confirms Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL Brett McGurk's resignation, effective December 31. President Trump describes the resignation as a "nothing event".

LONDON (Reuters) - British police on Sunday released without charge two people arrested in an inquiry into the illegal use of drones at London’s Gatwick Airport that crippled operations for three days last week. Sussex Police arrested a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from the local area late on Friday after drones were flown onto the airfield between Wednesday and Friday, forcing about 1,000 flights to be diverted or canceled and affecting 140,000 passengers. “Both people have fully co-operated with our inquiries, and I am satisfied that they are no longer suspects in the drone incidents at Gatwick,” Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley said on Sunday. The two were held after information was passed to the police by a member of the public, Tingley told Sky News. He said he was confident the arrests were justified. He said authorities were continuing to actively follow lines of investigation to catch those responsible for the most disruptive incursions from unmanned aerial vehicles seen at any major airport. A damaged drone had been recovered a close to the perimeter of the airport, he said, and it was being forensically examined, for example for clues about whether it was controlled remotely from afar or by somebody in the vicinity. No group has claimed responsibility for the disruption. “We have kept an open mind throughout and that is still the case with regards to the motivation behind these incidents,” he said. The drones were spotted at Britain’s second-largest airport on Wednesday evening, forcing it to close its runway in the run up to Christmas. Every time the airport sought to reopen the runway on Thursday, the drones returned. Authorities finally regained control over the airfield after the army deployed unidentified military technology to guard the area, reassuring the airport that it was safe enough to fly. The drones caused misery for travelers, many sleeping on the airport floor as they searched for alternative routes to holidays and Christmas family gatherings. A man and a woman are seen entering a home after being released without charge in an inquiry into the illegal use of drones at London's Gatwick Airport, in Crawley, Britain December 23, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Airlines operating at Gatwick, which is located south of London, include easyJet (EZJ.L), British Airways (ICAG.L) and Norwegian (NWC.OL). The airport said on Sunday it was offering a reward of 50,000 pounds ($63,275) for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. It said it was expecting to operate a full schedule of 785 flights on Sunday, although a small number of delays and cancellations could occur as the airport fully recovered.[SEP]Lawrenceville, GA (CBS46) Former Falcons running back Jamal Anderson has been arrested again, this time on charges of public intoxication. Anderson was arrested Sunday morning and booked into the Gwinnett County Jail around 5:30 a.m. He was released the same day after posting a $213 bond. Anderson has been arrested several times on similar charges. He was arrested twice in 2012 on drunken driving charges after he stopped his vehicle in the middle of a highway. He was arrested in 2009 after an off-duty police officer saw him snorting cocaine off of the back of a toilet in a bar. Those charges were later dismissed. He was also arrested in 2015 on charges of driving under the influence and in 2016, he was accused of exposing himself at a QuikTrip in Suwanee. No word on when he's expected in court on his recent arrest.[SEP]British police on Sunday released without charge two people arrested in an inquiry into the illegal use of drones at London's Gatwick Airport that crippled operations for three days last week Sussex Police arrested a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from the local area late on Friday. "Both people have fully co-operated with our inquiries, and I am satisfied that they are no longer suspects in the drone incidents at Gatwick," Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley said on Sunday.[SEP]A 45-year-old man arrested in the Cookstown area under the Terrorism Act by detectives from PSNI’s Terrorism Investigation Unit on Friday (December 21) has been released unconditionally. The arrest was made following the search of a house in the area. People arrested under The Terrorism Act must be charged, released pending report to the Public Prosecution Service or released unconditionally – bail is not permitted under this legislation.[SEP]Two people arrested over the disruption at Gatwick Airport in London have been released without charge. The pair were arrested in Crawley on Friday night accused of illegal use of drones. But police say they've 'fully co-operated' and are 'no longer suspects'. More than 100-thousand travellers were affected when drones caused flights at the airport to be grounded.[SEP]OVER 1,200 IRISH people were arrested by the UK’s Met Police up until the middle of October this year. Data released to TheJournal.ie under Freedom of Information provides a breakdown of the offences people were arrested for from 1 January to 19 October 2018 – a total of 1,278. One Irish person was arrested for murder, one was arrested for attempted murder and 15 were arrested for making a murder threat. A total of 13 Irish people were arrested for rape so far this year, while one was arrested for attempted rape. A further 15 were arrested for sexual offences. Meanwhile, eight Irish people were arrested for harassment, and three were arrested for indecent exposure. Last year, a total of 1,762 Irish people were arrested by the Met Police up until 31 October of that year. Similar to last year, the most common offence was assault, with 145 Irish people arrested for common assault. Wanted on warrant was the second most common offence at 103, followed by actual bodily harm (ABH) at 102. In less common instances, but more usually, one person was arrested for begging and another was arrested for blackmail. In total, there was 87 separate offences that Irish people were arrested for, many of which were broken down into specific crimes. For example, there were nine separate listings for drug offences, as seen below. In total, 56 Irish people were arrested for the above drug offences. The majority (31) were arrested for possession of class A drugs. Last year, a total of 59 Irish people were arrested for drug offences. Meanwhile, some 45 Irish people were arrested for being drunk and disorderly, while one was arrested for being drunk and in charge of a child under the age of seven. A total of 23 Irish people were arrested for having a positive breath test – down from 30 last year. A further three were arrested for refusing a breath test. Nine Irish people were arrested for being drunk while in charge of a motor vehicle, and four were arrested for driving under the influence of drugs. Three people were arrested for having no insurance and another two were arrested for vehicle tampering.

The two people arrested by police two days earlier are released without charges.

Dow Suffers Record-Breaking Christmas Eve Losses Enlarge this image toggle caption Patrick Sison/AP Patrick Sison/AP Updated at 6:40 a.m. ET The stock market was only open for half a day Monday, and that was more than enough time for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop 2.9 percent to 21,792.20, breaking 1918's record for the worst Christmas Eve performance. Other U.S. indexes fell too. The Nasdaq lost 2.2 percent to 6,192.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.7 percent to 2,351.10. U.S. stocks are on track for their worst year since 2008, which was during the Great Recession, and their worst December since 1931, which was during the Great Depression. The markets have been dealing with concerns of a slowing global economy, the trade dispute with China and last week's interest rate increase — the fourth by the Federal Reserve this year. Over the weekend, reports surfaced that President Trump was asking advisers if he could legally fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump nominated Powell last year to take over the Fed, but since interest rates began rising, Trump has upped his rhetoric against Powell. Efforts by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday to reassure investors backfired. He tweeted that he had spoken with the heads of the nation's six largest banks and was assured that they had sufficient lending capacity. "We've gone through situations before where it's absolutely normal for the secretary of Treasury to reach out to the private sector," Quincy Krosby, a chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told The Wall Street Journal. "But what's bad is this made the papers, and says the government is very worried," Krosby told the paper, adding that with investors focused on so many issues, "it's almost as if gravity is pulling this market toward a lower level before it bottoms out." Monday morning's drop in U.S. financial markets began after Trump tweeted about the Fed. "The only problem our economy has is the Fed," the president said on Twitter. "They don't have a feel for the Market, they don't understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can't score because he has no touch - he can't putt!" The Fed is an independent agency. While board members are nominated by the president, they make decisions separately from the White House. Peter Conti-Brown, a financial historian at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told The Associated Press: "We've never seen anything like this full-blown and full-frontal assault. This is a disaster for the Fed, a disaster for the president and a disaster for the economy." After Monday's Wall Street losses, Asian markets followed. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell by 5 percent to end the day at 19,155.14 points. The Shanghai Composite Index ended 0.9 percent lower to 2,504.82. Benchmarks in Thailand and Taiwan also declined. Markets in Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas. After a pause in trading for the holiday, U.S. markets reopen Wednesday.[SEP]Not even the truncated Christmas Eve session could halt the market rout that's gripped investors for three months. The S&P 500 plunged almost three per cent to end at a 20-month low, in what was the worst final session before the Christmas holiday on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It was the busiest Christmas Eve since 2010, with more than 1.7 billion shares changing hands in the truncated session. "The more volatile things get the more volume surges," Michael Antonelli, equity sales trader at Robert W Baird, said. "People don't care it's a session before Christmas when the US equity market is acting like this." The S&P 500 fell 2.7 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 653 points, deepening losses after the worst week since 2011.[SEP]Never mind finding coal in your stocking for the holidays. Wall Street investors scored a rare — and unwanted — gift this year. The S&P 500 index SPX, -2.71% fell by 2.7% Monday, marking the first Christmas Eve that the broad-market benchmark has booked a loss of 1% or greater — ever. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.91% also marked its worst drop on the ever of Christmas, finishing 653 points, or 2.9%, representing its worst such decline in history. Bespoke Investment Group spotlighted this dubious S&P 500 record earlier in the day: That statistic has been confirmed by Dow Jones Market Data, which said the largest decline in the index on the trading day before Christmas was Dec. 23 in 1933. The following graphic from Bespoke illustrates the index’s moves over the past 90 years or so: For the Dow, it would be the first time it has fallen by more than 1% in about 100 years and the steepest drop on Christmas eve in the 122-year-old blue-chip gauge’s history : Check out the table below from Dow Jones Market Data: It wasn’t pretty for the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -2.21% either, with the technology and internet-laden benchmark logging an ugly 2.2% loss. That also marks the worst Christmas eve drop for the Nasdaq its history, with the worst drop a 0.95% in 1973. The Nasdaq began trading on Feb. 8, 1971. U.S. stock indexes ended trading at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Christmas Eve and will be closed on Christmas. Read: Mnuchin thinks there’s a simple reason the Dow is poised for its worst December since 1931 Read: Which stock and bond markets close, and when, for Christmas and New Year’s holidays The current dynamic in the market has it set for its worst monthly and yearly decline about a decade, amid nagging concerns that the Federal Reserve is normalizing interest rates too rapidly, and that a continuing tariff dispute between China and the U.S. could devolve and help lead to a domestic recession, as international economies are already demonstrating signs of a slowdown. Also stoking anxiety was a tweet from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to assess the health of the banking system, which has raised some questions about liquidity among those institutions that had not previously been raised. Treasury officials insist that the calls to bank executives was just a routine checkup. Read: Opinion: Mnuchin can’t stand up to his boss — and it’s costing you money Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.[SEP]The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 650 points following President Donald Trump's renewed attack on the Federal Reserve chair – making it the worst Christmas Eve on record for the market index. The markets closed down hours after Trump attacked the central bank by comparing it to a golfer who is unable to nail a successful put. The S&P 500 index is now down 20 per cent from its high for the year, marking the beginning of what is considered a bear market. The president hit at the Fed on Twitter Monday morning, in the wake of an early 400-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average that followed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's plan to convene a call with his 'plunge protection team' – a move that appeared to stoke further concerns. By the time the closing bell rang at 1 pm for the holiday, the Dow had dropped 601 points and dipped below 22,000. It was the worst Christmas Eve ever for the Dow, CNBC reported. It ended up down 653 points on the day. Trump tweeted Monday: 'The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don't have a feel for the Market, they don't understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can't score because he has no touch - he can't putt!' Trump's tweet featured other significant factors that may in fact be causing a drag on the market. The ongoing trade war with China and a threatened escalation of retaliatory tariffs has been among the sources of anxiety in the markets, according to financial analysts. The shutdown of a significant portion of the federal government – with no end in site and a possible closure running through the New Year – has contributed to uncertainty. Trump made his golf reference from inside the White House late Monday morning – having skipped out on his planned Mar-a-Lago vacation where golf was a certainty on his agenda. First Lady Melania Trump is returning to Washington for Christmas. It followed Mnuchin's announced plan to convene a call with his 'plunge protection team' failed to reassure markets – after the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced an immediate 400-point drop Monday morning and other indexes fell. The broader S&P 500 index was down 1.5 per cent in the first five minutes of trading Monday, when markets were set to close at 1 pm for Christmas Eve. Within minutes of the opening bell, the Dow was down nearly 2 per cent. Mnuchin on Monday was convening the Working Group on Financial Markets, known as the 'plunge protection team' via conference call. The group, which includes the Fed board of governors, the head of the SEC, and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, also convened during the 2009 financial crisis – although Mnuchin provided weekend assurances that the U.S. maintains 'strong economic growth.' Trump's Treasury chief will have to phone in long distance, as on Sunday he was revealed to be vacationing with wife Louise Linton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico – although his boss President Trump was holed up in Washington with is wife down at Mar-a-Lago during a partial government shutdown. Trump's attack on the Federal Reserve followed a move by its open markets committee last week to increase a key interest rate that contributed to the market slide. Oddly enough, Trump's attack on the Fed mirrored criticism of his own golf game, albeit from some of the best to play the game. 'He's not really good around the greens. I could help him if he asked me,' golf legend Tom Watson, who has played with multiple presidents including Trump told CNBC. Gary Player also critiqued Trump's short game, though his drives have impressed analysts. 'The same thing applies to all the presidents I have played with. When they have a 4-foot putt, they just say pick it up – and you aren't going to argue with them,' Player said. His efforts to reassure markets are countering multiple other factors that have markets on edge. Among theme are interest rate hikes, the trade war with China, the government shutdown amid a standoff over Trump's border wall, and chaos in the White House amid the the Mueller probe and the coming Democratic House takeover. 'Today I convened individual calls with the CEOs of the nation's six largest banks,' Mnuchin said in a statement he released on Twitter Sunday. 'We continue to see strong economic growth in the U.S. economy with robust activity from consumers and business,' he noted. During the calls, 'the CEOs confirmed that they have ample liquidity available for lending,' the Treasury said. Mnuchin 'also confirmed that they have not experienced any clearance or margin issues and that the markets continue to function properly,' the Treasury said. The execs that Mnuchin – a former Goldman Sachs exec who is worth an estimated $300 million – dialed were the chiefs of Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. However the Treasury Department had no concerns about liquidity when Mnuchin made the calls to bank CEOs, CNBC reported. Instead, the calls were a 'check-in' about Powell, which raises the possibility that the outreach that drove down the markets was precipitated by Trump's fury at the Fed chair. Markets experienced their worst December since the Great Depression, and the year's gains have been wiped out since October. Trump has periodically railed against Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, but that did not prevent a Fed committee from raising the government's key borrowing rate by 0.25 per cent last week. But acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on SundayTrump 'now realizes' he can't fire the head of the Federal Reserve, after reports that the president asked his advisers whether he could do so. 'I think [Trump] put out a tweet last night specifically saying that he now realizes he does not have the ability to fire him,' Mulvaney said ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday. ABC's Jonathan Karl pointed out it wasn't Trump who tweeted that but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. 'Is that who tweeted? All right,' Mulvaney said. 'I talked to - I must have heard it - I did speak with the treasury secretary last night about a bunch of things, including the lapse in appropriations and the shutdown, and he did mention that to me.' CNN and Bloomberg, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, said that Trump was furious when the Fed raised the key borrowing rate on Wednesday and signaled it will continue to hike rates next year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week with yet another steep decline, its worst week in 10 years. The S&P 500 index is on track for its worst December percentage drop since the Depression.[SEP]It’s the most wonderful time of year, and it’s also the time when you buy last-minute Christmas gifts and last-minute ingredients for those Christmas Day recipes. This is a day meant to spend with family and friends, curled up in front of a roaring fire, with a cup of hot apple cider or eggnog. But just because you intend to enjoy the holidays doesn’t mean that you won’t suddenly realize that you forgot something for tomorrow’s meal or you forgot a really important stocking stuffer. If Safeway is the closest store, you’ll want to go there. But will Safeway be open this year on Christmas Eve 2018? Yes, most Safeway stores are open on Christmas Eve, although their hours may be different than normal. On Christmas Eve, most stores may have more limited hours and may close around 7 or 8 p.m. local time. The times may vary by location, however. (And on Christmas, most stores are closed, but a few may decide to stay open.) To know what Safeway’s hours are on Christmas Eve near you, you can find your local Safeway using this link and check on their hours for Christmas Eve. You might also want to call just in case the hours on the website aren’t updated. Here are some examples of Safeway’s Christmas Eve hours: • Colorado Safeways will open from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve. • In Maryland, the Safeway on 4701 Sangamore Road will be open on Christmas Eve from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. • In Maryland, the Safeway on 5000 Bradley Blvd. will be open on Christmas Eve from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you’re getting your groceries delivered to you from Safeway via Instacart, you’ll want to keep the limited hours in mind when you’re placing your order on the app. There will likely be fewer shoppers working because it’s a holiday, and there might be more people putting in last-minute orders. So get your order in as early as possible to make sure that you can get your delivery. You don’t want to be logging into the app at the last minute, only to discover that no one’s available and there’s no way to get your order delivered before your local Safeway closes. Remember, although it may be a little inconvenient for Safeway to have limited hours on Christmas Eve, it’s really great that they’re doing this for their employees. They’re giving their staff a chance to spend the holidays with their loved ones, and that’s certainly a decision that should be commended.[SEP]The latest equity market data makes for pretty grim reading for conventional equity traders, as it shows that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has suffered its worst week since the global financial crisis of 2008. According to the data, the Dow lost 1,655 points or about 7 percent in its worst week-on-week decline in 10 years with no immediate sign of recovery on the horizon. CNBC reports that the Federal Reserve’s rate hike on Wednesday and fears of an extended government shutdown on Friday are instrumental to the losses suffered in the financial market. Alongside the Dow, the S&P 500 fell 2.1 percent to close at 2,416.58, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.99 percent at 6,332.99, following significant losses in technology stocks such as Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 are in the red for 2018 by at least 9 percent, and both are also preparing for what looks to be their worst December performance since the Great Depression of 1931. Quoted in the report, Komal Sri-Kumar, president at Sri-Kumar Global Strategies, said: There are lots of signs now suggesting that we may be looking at a recession. I would say that the risk here is that a whole lot of confluence is taking place: The trade was is not going to end soon, and the Fed totally misjudged the market in suggesting two more rate hikes next year. While the Dow is looking at the possibility of a recession after nearly eight years of bullish equity market conditions, bitcoin is experiencing a bit of a reprieve after enduring its own annus horribilis, falling from a peak of $19,500 over the course of a long drawn out year where it found itself unable to rise amidst severe uncertainty. For now, there is no telling when current conditions will finally come to an end. At the moment, however, BTC/USD continues to hover around $4,000, holding steady at $3,992 at press time following a mini-recovery that took it from a year-to-date low approaching $3,000 last week. Speculation among a number of analysts is that a squeeze of short contracts on margin trading platforms led to a market situation where many oversold cryptocurrencies including bitcoin went through a corrective upswing. While many believe that the only way for bitcoin to recapture its all-time high valuation is through the entry of institutional investors into the crypto market, others like Bitpay CEO Stephen Pair believe that a more user-driven approach to bitcoin adoption can achieve the same goal. Amidst the uncertainty and competing visions for bitcoin’s future, a few notable voices continue to make optimistic pronouncements about the asset’s performance in the short term. One of these voices belongs to Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee who previously said that bitcoin could hit $15,000 by the end of the year but has since stopped giving bitcoin price predictions.[SEP]Treasury Secretary Mnuchin conducts calls with major banks over the weekend about liquidity U.S. stock indexes trade sharply lower in a holiday-shortened session after the worst week of trading since the financial crisis of 2008. Wall Street trading on the New York Stock Exchange will end at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, on the eve of Christmas and will be closed on Tuesday for the holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average trades 380 points, or 1.7%, lower at 22,069, while the S&P 500 index fell 40 points, or 1.7%, to 2,376. The Nasdaq Composite Index traded down 82 points, or 1.3%, to 6,254. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are coming off the worst weekly percentage declines in about a decade, while the Dow booked its worst point drop in about 10 years. All three indexes are set for the ugliest monthly drop since October of 2008, during the heart of the 2008-09 financial crisis. The Nasdaq officially entered bear-market territory on Friday, down 21.9% from its Aug. 31 highs. That is as the S&P and the Dow inch closer to bear market territory, with the S&P off 17.5% from its Sept. 20 highs, and the Dow down 16.3% from an Oct. 3 high. Equity and bond markets will finish early to mark Christmas Eve and will be closed on Tuesday for the Christmas holiday. The rest of the week will see normal trading hours. However, with many traders out for the holidays, volumes are expected to be thinner and move could be exaggerated. Monday's potential bounce came as China's Ministry of Commerce said "new progress" had been reached in "vice-ministerial-level" trade discussions with the U.S. in a teleconference Friday, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday (https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/2179293/china-says-new-progress-has-been-made-us-trade-war-talks). Over the weekend, Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he had spoken with the CEOs of the country's six biggest banks. Mnuchin also was expected to hold a call Monday with the president's Working Group on financial markets "to discuss coordination efforts to assure normal market operations." The Treasury chief is on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Meanwhile, White House advisers over the weekend tried to ease investor concerns that President Donald Trump could fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell amid anger over the Fed's recent interest-rate hike that spurred more market losses. Mick Mulvaney, the president's incoming chief of staff, told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that Trump "now realizes" he cannot remove Powell, while Mnuchin stated Saturday that the president had not suggested firing Powell. Friday saw another day of extreme volatility on Wall Street, as investors digested the implications of a partial government shutdown, which could persist through early January. Which stocks are in focus? Shares of Bank of America, Citi(C), Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase(JPM), Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo--to ensure they had ample liquidity in case stock should resume selling off on Monday. All six banks were seeing their shares trade solidly lower. How are other markets trading? Asian stocks had a mixed session, with China's Shanghai Composite modestly higher, while the Nikkei was closed for a holiday. European stocks pointed to a weaker start. The ICE Dollar Indexwas down 0.2% to 96.78, while goldrose 0.6% to $1,265.40 an ounce. February West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.3% to $45.77 a barrel. What are strategists saying? "Stocks remain trending strongly downward in a trend that's nearly erased 50% of the entire rally from 2016 in S&P," wrote Mark Newton, independent technical analyst at Newton Advisors, in a Monday research note. "Last week's 'Make-Or-Break' comment was decided by the nasty 'Break' on Monday which resulted in severe acceleration and resulted in the worst week of performance in a decade. The decline has begun to take a toll on the broader structures, which now show long-term trend breaks on monthly logarithmic charts from the 2009 lows," Newton wrote.[SEP]“Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Biblical scholars will agree that Jesus was not born Dec. 25. The “today” mentioned in Scripture is not specifically noted, but based on tradition the 25th of December of each year is the date when the world celebrates the birth of the child, who according to the Christian faith, is the Messiah who would save mankind from sin. How one celebrates that date differs from country to country, as well as from home to home, but those who hold fast to the reason for the season, which in terms of followers is estimated to be more than 2.2 billion people, will celebrate Christmas by attending a worship service. A number of area congregations will be hosting either a Christmas Eve or a Christmas Day service next week, with many hosting both. What follows is a list of those upcoming holiday services: • St. John Lutheran Church in Redwood Falls will host a Sunday school program at 4 p.m. Dec, 24 and a Christmas Eve service at 5:30 p.m., with a Christmas Day service at 10 a.m. • First Presbyterian Church in Redwood Falls will host a Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m., which will be followed by a Christmas Eve dinner. • Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Redwood Falls will host Christmas Eve services at 4, 5:30 and 11 p.m., with a Christmas Day service at 10 a.m. • First United Methodist Church in Redwood Falls is holding a Christmas Eve service starting at 5 p.m. • Redwood Alliance Church in Redwood Falls is hosting a Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m. • Christ’s Victory Lutheran Church in Redwood Falls is holding a Christmas Eve service at 4:30 p.m. • The Redwood Falls Evangelical Free Church will hold a Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m. • Cornerstone Christian Church in Redwood Falls is holding a Christmas Eve service at 5:30 p.m. • The Assembly of God Church in Redwood Falls is holding a Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m. • The Church of St. Catherine in Redwood Falls will hold a Christmas Eve Vigil Mass at 4 p.m., with a Christmas Day Mass at 9:30 a.m. • St. John Catholic Church in Morton is holding a Christmas Eve Vigil Mass at 6 p.m. • Grace Lutheran Church in Belview will host a Christmas Eve service starting with carol singing at 3:45 p.m. and worship at 4 p.m., with a Christmas Day service starting with carol singing at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10 a.m. • Rock Dell Lutheran Church in rural Belview is hosting a Christmas Eve service at 4 p.m. • Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Belview is hosting a Christmas Day worship service at 9 a.m. • Word of Life Lutheran Church in Belview will host a Christmas Eve service and program at 4 p.m. • Echo Alliance Church in Echo will host a Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m. • Peace Lutheran Church in Echo will host a children’s program Christmas Eve at 6:30 p.m., with a Christmas Day service at 10:30 a.m. • St. John Lutheran Church in Vesta is hosting a children’s Christmas program Christmas Eve at 5 p.m., with a Christmas Day service at 9 a.m. • St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Flora Township will host a Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m. • St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Danube will host a Christmas Eve service at 7 p.m., with a Christmas Day service at 10 a.m. • Zion Lutheran Church in Morton will host a Christmas Day worship service at 8:30 a.m. • St. John Lutheran Church in Morgan will host a Christmas Eve service at 7:30 p.m. • St. Luke Lutheran Church in Franklin will hold a Christmas Eve service starting at 6 p.m. • Trinity Lutheran Church in Sanborn will host a Christmas Eve worship service at 6 p.m. • Bethany Lutheran Church in Wabasso will host a Christmas Day worship service at 9 a.m. • Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Milroy will host a Christmas Eve worship service at 4 p.m. • St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Wabasso will host a Christmas Eve service at 6 p.m. • Trinity Lutheran Church in Lucan will host a Christmas Day service beginning at 9 a.m. • Sundown Lutheran Church of Springfield will host a Christmas Day service at 10:30 a.m. • Bethany Lutheran Church near Gilfillan will host a Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m. • St. Matthew Lutheran in Evan will have a Christmas Eve service starting at 7 p.m. • Middle Creek Methodist Church is hosting a Christmas program and birthday party for Jesus Dec. 23 at 7 p.m. • Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Lucan will hold a Christmas Eve Mass at 4 p.m. • St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Wabasso is hosting a Christmas Eve Mass starting at 6 p.m. • St. Mathias Catholic Church in Wanda is holding a Christmas Eve Mass starting at 9 p.m. • St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Seaforth is hosting a Christmas Day Mass beginning at 9 a.m. The public is encouraged to attend a Christmas worship service next week.[SEP]Nearly everyone complains that Christmas appears to begin earlier and earlier every year. And it seems like the Royals can’t wait to swap gifts as they open them on 6pm on the dot every Christmas Eve. So why to the Royal family follow this Christmas tradition? Why do the royal family open their presents on Christmas Eve? Robert Jobson, royal expert and author of bestseller “Charles at Seventy”, told Express.co.uk the royal tradition of exchanging presents on Christmas Eve dates back to Queen Victoria when her husband Prince Albert insisted that they adopt the German tradition. He said: “Royals have done it every year since. “On Christmas Eve when all the clan are together, the Queen's grandchildren and great-grandchildren put the finishing touches to the 20ft Christmas tree in the White Drawing Room. “Presents will be opened that day at tea time as the royals still keep to the German practice of opening their gifts on Christmas Eve. “Gifts are laid out in the Red Drawing Room on a white linen-covered trestle table, with cards marking exactly where the piles of gifts should be put.” The Royal family traditionally spends Christmas at Sandringham House, the Queen’s country estate in Norfolk and Mr Jobson explained the gift exchange also include another unordinary tradition. He said: “Once everyone has arrived, the royal guests enjoy a traditional Christmas that includes putting the finishing touches on the Christmas tree and the giving of cheap and humorous gifts. “The monarch's gifts are unlikely to be pricey. “Touchingly for people who have everything, the royals tend to buy each other jokey things. “A white leather loo suit was the star item one year. “If Meghan is racking her brain for a Christmas gift for the Queen, she could take after the Duchess of Cambridge, who has also openly admitted she was left stumped over what to buy the monarch one year.” It is well known Kate once whipped up a batch of homemade chutney for the Queen - a gift which reportedly went down a storm among the royals. In an interview last year for the ITV documentary, Our Queen at Ninety, the Duchess said: “I was worried what to give the Queen as her Christmas present. I was thinking, 'Gosh, what should I give her?’ "And I thought back to what would I give my own grandparents. "And I thought, 'I'll make her something.' Which could have gone horribly wrong.” So although not pricey, there will be plenty of presents for tiny hands to unwrap and Prince George and Princess Charlotte will no doubt have a ball with their little cousins Mia Tindall and Savannah and Isla Phillips. Dinner at Sandringham on Christmas Eve is a relatively formal affair, with the men wearing black tie suits and the woman wearing gowns, expensive jewellery, and tiaras. At 5pm on Christmas Eve, guests will also enjoy tea, scones, sandwiches and cakes from sideboards in the Saloon.[SEP](Bloomberg) -- Not even the truncated Christmas Eve session could halt the market rout that’s gripped investors for three months. The S&P 500 plunged to a 19-month low amid a torrent of trading before the holiday. Some 630 million shares changed hands before 10:45 a.m. in New York, compared with the average of 300 million shares over the nine previous pre-Christmas sessions. Trading in S&P 500 shares was 38 percent above the 30-day average at this time of day and almost 60 percent higher than the 100-day mean. “The more volatile things get the more volume surges,” Michael Antonelli, equity sales trader at Robert W. Baird, said in an email. “People don’t care it’s a session before Christmas when the U.S. equity market is acting like this.” The S&P 500 fell more than 1.5 percent Monday, the biggest loss during pre-Christmas session since at least 2000, deepening losses after the index’s worst week since 2011. Traders reacted to news over the weekend that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called top executives from the six largest U.S. banks to discuss liquidity and a Bloomberg News report that President Donald Trump inquired about firing the central-bank chairman, adding to slew of concerns about global growth, a trade war with China, political gridlock in Washington and Fed rate hikes. Equity markets close at 1 p.m. in New York. The usual lull of the pre-Christmas holiday trading was nowhere to be found on Monday as all 11 sectors in the S&P 500 declined. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 1.6 percent after the worst week in a decade and small-caps declined for the eighth straight day. A volatility spike on Monday resembled trading activity on Friday when volume in New York Stock Exchange shares going down exceeded those rising by the second-highest margin on record. To contact the reporter on this story: Elena Popina in New York at epopina@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Courtney Dentch at cdentch1@bloomberg.net, Randall Jensen, Jeremy Herron For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 2.9%, its worst performance ever on Christmas Eve.

PANDEGLANG (Indonesia), Dec 23 — A tsunami killed at least 222 people and injured hundreds on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra following an underwater landslide believed caused by the erupting Anak Krakatau volcano, officials and media said today. Hundreds of homes and other buildings were "heavily damaged" when the tsunami struck, almost without warning, along the rim of the Sunda Strait late on yesterday, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency, said. Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate to higher ground. By 1040 GMT, the disaster agency had raised the death toll to 222 from 168, with 843 injured and 28 missing. TV images showed the seconds when the tsunami hit the beach and residential areas in Pandeglang on Java island, dragging with it victims, debris, and large chunks of wood and metal. Coastal residents reported not seeing or feeling any warning signs, such as receding water or an earthquake, before waves of 2-3 metres washed ashore, according to media. Authorities said a warning siren went off in some areas. The timing of the tsunami, over the Christmas holiday season, evoked memories of the Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquake on Dec. 26 in 2004, which killed 226,000 people in 14 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia. Øystein Lund Andersen, a Norwegian holidaymaker, was in Anyer town with his family when Saturday's tsunami struck. "I had to run, as the wave passed the beach and landed 15-20 metres inland. Next wave entered the hotel area where I was staying and downed cars on the road behind it," he said on Facebook. "Managed to evacuate with my family to higher ground through forest paths and villages, where we are taken care of by the locals." Authorities warned residents and tourists in coastal areas around the Sunda Strait to stay away from beaches and a high-tide warning remained in place through until Dec. 25. "Those who have evacuated, please do not return yet," said Rahmat Triyono, an official at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). President Joko Widodo, who is running for re-election in April, said on Twitter that he had "ordered all relevant government agencies to immediately take emergency response steps, find victims and care for the injured". Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference the death toll would "likely increase". Yesterday's tsunami was the latest in a series of tragedies that have struck Indonesia, a vast archipelago, this year. Successive earthquakes flattened parts of the tourist island of Lombok, and a double quake-and-tsunami killed thousands on Sulawesi island. Nearly 200 people died when a Lion Air passenger plane crashed into the Java Sea in October. Rescue workers and ambulances were finding it difficult to reach affected areas because some roads were blocked by debris from damaged houses, overturned cars and fallen trees. The western coast of Banten province in Java was the worst-hit area, Nugroho told reporters in Yogyakarta. He said at least 35 people were reported dead in Lampung in southern Sumatra. The waves washed away an outdoor stage where a local rock band was performing in Tanjung Lesung in Banten province, a popular tourist getaway not far from the capital, Jakarta, killing at least one musician. Others were missing. Around 250 employees of the state utility company PLN had gathered in Tanjung Lesung for an end-of-year event, company spokesman I Made Suprateka told Reuters. At least seven people were killed, and around 89 are missing, he said. Dramatic TV footage showed the seconds when the tsunami hit a concert at the event and washed away the stage where the band, Seventeen, was performing. "The water washed away the stage which was located very close to the sea," the band said in a statement. "The water rose and dragged away everyone at the location. We have lost loved ones, including our bassist and manager ... and others are missing." Police officers rescued a young boy who was trapped in a car buried under fallen trees and rubble, according to a video of his rescue posted on Twitter by the Indonesian National Police, who did not give any information as to the boy’s identity. Officials were trying to determine the exact cause of the disaster. Anak Krakatau, an active volcano roughly halfway between Java and Sumatra, has been spewing ash and lava for months. It erupted again just after 9 p.m. yesterday and the tsunami struck at around 9.30 p.m., according to BMKG. The tsunami was caused by "an undersea landslide resulting from volcanic activity on Anak Krakatau" and was exacerbated by abnormally high tide because of the full moon, Nugroho said. Ben van der Pluijm, an earthquake geologist and a professor in the University of Michigan, said the tsunami may have been caused by a "partial collapse" of Anak Krakatau. "Instability of the slope of an active volcano can create a rock slide that moves a large volume of water, creating local tsunami waves that can be very powerful. This is like suddenly dropping a bag of sand in a tub filled with water," he said. The eruption of Krakatau, previously known as Krakatoa, in 1883 killed more than 36,000 people in a series of tsunamis. Anak Krakatau is the island that emerged from the area once occupied by Krakatau, which was destroyed in 1883. It first appeared in 1927 and has been growing ever since. Neighbouring Malaysia and Australia both said they were ready to provide assistance if needed. — Reuters[SEP]Indonesia's disaster agency says tsunami death toll climbs to 222, with 843 injured and 28 missing JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's disaster agency says tsunami death toll climbs to 222, with 843 injured and 28 missing.[SEP]Indonesia's disaster agency says at least 168 dead, 745 injured and 30 missing in Saturday night's tsunami JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's disaster agency says at least 168 dead, 745 injured and 30 missing in Saturday night's tsunami.[SEP]Indonesia's disaster agency says at least 168 dead, 745 injured and 30 missing in Saturday night's tsunami JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's disaster agency says at least 168 dead, 745 injured and 30 missing in Saturday night's tsunami.[SEP]Indonesia's disaster agency says at least 168 dead, 745 injured and 30 missing in Saturday night's tsunami JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's disaster agency says at least 168 dead, 745 injured and 30 missing in Saturday night's tsunami.[SEP]A tsunami apparently caused by the eruption of an island volcano has killed at least 43 people after the waves hit the coast around Indonesia’s Sunda Strait. Some 600 people have been reported injured when the tsunami hit on Saturday evening, sending a wall of water some 65ft inland and damaging hundreds of houses including hotels. Scientists from Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics agency said it could have been caused by undersea landslides from the eruption of Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island formed over years from the nearby Krakatau volcano. They also cited tidal waves caused by the full moon. “I had to run, as the wave passed the beach and landed 15-20m inland,” Norwegian Oystein Lund Andersen wrote on Facebook. He said he was taking pictures of the volcano when he suddenly saw a big wave come towards him. “Next wave entered the hotel area where I was staying and downed cars on the road behind it. Managed to evacuate with my family to higher ground trough forest paths and villages, where we are taken care of (by) the locals. Were unharmed, thankfully.” The worst affected area was the Pandeglang region of Banten province in Java, which encompasses the Ujung Kulon National Park and popular beaches, the Disaster Management Agency said. Of the deaths, 33 were in Pandeglang. In the city of Bandar Lampung on southern Sumatra, hundreds of residents took refuge at the governor’s office. Alif, a resident in Pandeglang district who goes by one name, said the tsunami reached about 9.8ft high. He told MetroTV station that many people were still searching for missing relatives. The Anak Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Strait that links the Indian Ocean and Java Sea erupted about 24 minutes before the tsunami, the geophysics agency said. The 1,000ft-high volcano, about 124 miles south-west of capital Jakarta, has been erupting since June. In July, authorities widened its no-go areas to 1.24 miles from the crater. Footage posted by the head of the disaster agency showed the aftermath of flooded streets and an overturned car. In September, more than 2,500 people were killed by a quake and tsunami that hit the city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, which is just east of Borneo.[SEP]Indonesia's disaster agency says tsunami death toll climbs to 222, with 843 injured and 28 missing JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's disaster agency says tsunami death toll climbs to 222, with 843 injured and 28 missing.[SEP]A tsunami killed at least 168 people and injured 745 on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, a spokesperson for the disaster mitigation agency told media on Sunday.[SEP]Spokesman for Indonesia's disaster agency says tsunami death toll rises to 62 with 20 missing JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Spokesman for Indonesia's disaster agency says tsunami death toll rises to 62 with 20 missing.[SEP]Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Yuni was forced to run from the water The death toll following the tsunami caused by the Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia has risen to at least 429, the disaster mitigation agency says. On Saturday giant waves crashed into coastal towns on the islands of Sumatra and Java. It is thought that volcanic activity set off undersea landslides which in turn generated the killer waves. About 150 people are still missing, while more than 16,000 have been displaced, the agency says. Coastal residents near the volcano have been warned to keep away from beaches amid fears it could trigger a new tsunami. Anak Krakatau erupted again on Sunday, spewing ash and smoke. Video shot from a charter plane captured the magnitude of the volcanic event in the Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and Java. Rescue efforts are being hampered by blocked roads but heavy lifting equipment is being transported to badly hit areas to help search for victims. What warning was given? On Monday, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency told a news conference that another tsunami was a possibility because of the continued volcanic eruptions of Anak Krakatau. "Recommendations from [the] Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency are that people should not carry out activities on the beach and stay away from the coast for a while," said spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. Image copyright Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentin Image caption A satellite image of Anak Krakatau erupting in August Anak Krakatau, which emerged in 1927 from the caldera that was formed during the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, has seen increased activity in recent months with people asked to avoid the area around its crater. On Monday Mr Sutopo put out a series of tweets explaining why there was no early warning for this tsunami. He said that Indonesia's early warning system is set up to monitor earthquakes but not undersea landslides and volcanic eruptions, which can also generate deadly waves. But, he added, with 13% of the world's volcanoes in Indonesia alone, it was crucial for the country to develop such system. He confirmed there was no tsunami advance warning system on the night of the disaster, adding that because of lack of funds, vandalism to the buoys and technical faults there had been no operational tsunami warning system since 2012. Geologist Raphaël Paris, whose 2012 study predicted the collapse of a flank of Anak Krakatau and a subsequent tsunami, said: "There is a big uncertainty on the stability of the volcanic cone now, and the probability for future collapses and tsunamis is perhaps non-negligible." Why was Saturday's tsunami so deadly? The tsunami struck at 21:30 local time (14:30 GMT) during a local holiday, with few of the warning signals that might have come had it been generated by an earthquake. Seawater did not recede as it would with an earthquake tsunami. Experts say that even if there had been warning buoys near the volcano, there would have been minimal alert time. Image copyright Social media Image caption Band Seventeen were performing on stage when the tsunami hit The waves destroyed hundreds of buildings, sweeping away cars and uprooting trees in several popular tourist destinations, including the Tanjung Lesung beach resort, west Java. Footage shared on social media showed a large wave crashing into a tent in the resort, in which popular Indonesian rock band Seventeen were performing. Members of the band were seen being swept away as the wave destroyed the stage. How did the tsunami happen? By Jonathan Amos, BBC science correspondent Everyone in the region will have been aware of Anak Krakatau, the volcano that emerged in the sea channel just less than 100 years ago. But its rumblings and eruptions have been described by local experts as relatively low-scale and semi-continuous. In other words, it's been part of the background. And yet it is well known that volcanoes have the capacity to generate big waves. The mechanism, as ever, is the displacement of a large volume of water. The first satellite imagery returned after the event on Saturday points strongly to a collapse in the west-southwest flank of the volcano. This would have sent millions of tonnes of rocky debris into the sea, pushing out waves in all directions. How common are tsunamis in Indonesia? Image copyright Reuters Image caption Some residents in the Pandeglang region ran to a local mosque after the tsunami hit Indonesia is prone to tsunamis because it lies on the Ring of Fire - the line of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific Rim. In September, more than 2,000 people died when a powerful earthquake struck just off the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi, setting off a tsunami that engulfed the coastal city of Palu. On 26 December 2004, a series of huge waves triggered by a powerful earthquake in the Indian Ocean killed about 228,000 people in 13 countries, mostly in Indonesia. However, tsunamis caused by volcanic activity like this are less frequent. Krakatoa (Krakatau in Indonesian) Image copyright Oystein Lund Andersen In August 1883, Krakatoa underwent one of the most violent volcanic eruptions in recorded history: Massive tsunamis with waves of up to 41m killed more than 30,000 people Thousands more were killed by hot ash The eruptions were equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT - about 13,000 times the nuclear yield of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 The eruptions were heard thousands of kilometres away World temperatures dropped by more than 1C the following year The volcanic island virtually disappeared Are you in the affected area? If it is safe to do so, get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. or WhatsApp us on +44 7555 173285 Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

The death toll following the tsunami caused by the Anak Krakatau volcano has risen to at least 429, according to Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency. Also, 1,459 people are injured, while 150 are still missing.

Photo taken on Dec. 24, 2018 shows the Mount Etna volcano during the eruption in Catania, Sicily, Italy. Sicily's Mount Etna volcano erupted on Monday, the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) said in a statement. Eruptions are fairly frequent occurrences at Mount Etna, with the last large eruption taking place in 2009, according to the INGV. (Xinhua/Davide Anastasi) Sicily's Mount Etna volcano erupted on Monday, the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) said in a statement. The eruption that began at noon was preceded by 130 earthquake tremors, the two strongest of which measured 4.0 and 3.9 on the Richter scale, the INGV said. Air traffic at the airport in the nearby city of Catania was suspended as a result, SKY TG24 private broadcaster reported. "Earthquake felt by the population, no injured or damages so far," the Civil Protection Agency tweeted around 1 pm. Local media including RAI public broadcaster and La Repubblica newspaper posted photos of a massive cloud of ash spewing from Mt Etna, which is one of the world's most active volcanoes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Eruptions are fairly frequent occurrences at Mount Etna, with the last large eruption taking place in 2009, according to the INGV.[SEP]Image copyright Reuters Image caption Lava and smoke could be seen on Etna on Monday Europe's most active volcano, Mount Etna in Sicily, erupted on Monday, with officials reporting more than 130 earthquakes of up to 4.3 in magnitude. The Mount Etna observatory said lava had spewed from a new fracture near its south-eastern crater. A local volcanologist said it was Etna's "first flank eruption" in more than a decade. Volcanic ash covered nearby villages, while planes into Catania airport had to be halted temporarily. A large explosion was felt close to Etna during the morning. A video filmed 2,500m (8,200 ft) up the 3,350m volcano showed the fast spread of ash. People on the mountainside were told to escape quickly. Catania airport said later that the airspace had been reopened to allow four planes to land per hour, before confirming it would return to normal operation by 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT). Sorry, this Twitter post is currently unavailable. Italy's INGV volcanology institute said that during a three-hour period from 08:50 (07:50 GMT) on Monday more than 130 earthquakes took place. The biggest tremor of magnitude 4 was on the north-east side of Etna near Piano Pernicana, while another of similar magnitude was felt on the northern flank. That was followed by intense eruptions from the volcano's new south-east crater. Image copyright Pete and Jackie Jackson Image caption Smoke billowed out throughout the day Later on Monday, a magnitude-4.3 tremor was also recorded by officials - the strongest felt throughout the day. Although Etna has seen frequent eruptions, the INGV said in August that the volcano had grown faster than ever before in recent years. In March a UK-led team said that the whole structure of Europe's premier volcano was edging towards the sea at a rate of 14mm per year.[SEP]Mount Etna — Europe’s highest and most active volcano — erupted on Monday, causing a magnitude 3.3 earthquake and the closure of Sicily’s Catania Airport. “Due to the eruption of #Etna from today 2pm (December 24th) #Catania airspace is closed,” the airport tweeted. The airport said that while it would be closed, some airspace would be reopened to allow four flights an hour to arrive. It advised passengers to contact their airline before heading to the airport and confirmed that a “crisis unit” was expected to meet. Etna’s eruptions are relatively frequent and, according to Italy’s National institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, there has been a gradual increase in activity on the volcano over the last month.[SEP]Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, erupted on Monday, sending a huge column of ash into the sky and causing the closure of Catania airport on Sicily’s eastern coast. Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, erupted on Monday, sending a huge column of ash into the sky and causing the closure of Catania airport on Sicily’s eastern coast. A chain of around 130 earth tremors have rocked the volcano since around 0800 GMT on Monday, Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology said, with the strongest posting a magnitude of 4.0. There were no reports of any injuries. The 3,330 meter high volcano can burst into spectacular action several times a year, spewing lava and ash high over the Mediterranean island. The last major eruption was in 1992.[SEP]Italy's Mount Etna, Europe's highest and most active volcano, erupted on Monday, sending a huge column of ash into the sky and causing the closure of Catania airport on Sicily's eastern coast.There were no reports of any injuries.The 3,330 meter high volcano can burst into spectacular action several times a year, spewing lava and ash high over the Mediterranean island. The last major eruption was in 1992.[SEP]CATANIA, Italy (Reuters) - Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, erupted on Monday, sending a huge column of ash into the sky and causing the closure of Catania airport on Sicily’s eastern coast. A chain of around 130 earth tremors have rocked the volcano since around 0800 GMT on Monday, Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology said, with the strongest posting a magnitude of 4.0. There were no reports of any injuries. The 3,330 meter high volcano can burst into spectacular action several times a year, spewing lava and ash high over the Mediterranean island. The last major eruption was in 1992.[SEP]At least one airport in Italy has been closed after Mount Etna sent black clouds of smoke and ash into the air following an eruption this past weekend, with the latest plumes spewing forth on Monday. The latest eruption is a result of a new fracture on the based of the southeastern crater of Etna, according to Italy’s official Ansa news agency. On Saturday night, lava could be seen erupting into the air before flowing down the mountain, with seismic activity continuing well into Monday. By midday on Dec. 24, about 130 tremors had been recorded, with a magnitude-4.0 even being detected, the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology said. Catania airport on Sicily’s eastern coast has closed as a result of the eruption, as ash can impact plane engines and even lead to them stalling or failing in some cases, the BBC reports. While the eruption is not a threat to most communities, the Associated Press reports hikers are being brought down from higher elevations for their safety. This weekend’s eruption is one of many which have occurred this year, the most recent taking place in November. As of 11 a.m. ET, no injuries had been reported due to the eruption. READ MORE: Hawaii’s volcano eruption hit tourism hard. Some say a lava-viewing site could help revive it Etna, which stands at 3,330 metres, can experience several eruptions in a year, but the last major eruption hasn’t occurred since 1992. — With files from Reuters and the Associated Press[SEP]Mount Etna spewed a large plume of volcanic ash over Sicily on December 24. Local reports said the activity prompted the closure of Catania–Fontanarossa Airport on Monday. This footage shows the volcano from the Riposto area of the island. Credit: battagliero84 via Storyful Lava and ash are spewing from a new fracture on Italy’s Mount Etna amid an unusually high level of seismic activity at the Sicilian volcano, according to observatory officials. A swarm of 130 tremors had been recorded by midday on Monday, the most powerful registering a magnitude of 4.0, the Mount Etna Observatory said. It reported lava flows from the volcano and said a new fracture had opened near its southeast crater. The owner of a refuge on the volcano said hikers were being brought down from higher elevations to 1900 metres for their safety. But there are no reports of injuries, and so far the spewing ash is not causing disruptions to residents of nearby towns and cities. Etna, the largest of Italy’s three active volcanoes, has been particularly active since July.[SEP]Mount Etna in Sicily was spitting out lava and columns of ash on Christmas Eve after the volcano initially reawoke in late July. Shocking posted by residents show billowing black and grey smoke spewing over the blue skies after Europe's higest volcano blew her top. Residents reported feeling "many little earthquakes" across the region, including Catania,before the explosion. A Twitter user posted: "Ms Etna is performing a Christmas show. Many little earthquakes in the last few hours." Another said: "Mount Etna erupting right now. mini earthquakes being felt across Catania. witnessing the wonder of nature. humbled as we were hiking this active volcano just yesterday. #catania #etna #volcano". One posted: "#MerryChristmas from Mount Etna who decided to wake up this morning for the festivities... " A Twitter user added: "Scary sight: Mount #Etna woke up rather angry this morning. #stratovolcano #Italy #Sicily" READ MORE: Which Ring of Fire volcanoes will BLOW in 2019? Mount Etna, at 3,330 metres (10,926 feet), is the highest volcano in mainland Europe and is considered to be one of the most active in the world. It produces around seven million tonnes of CO2, water and sulphur dioxide every year and in 2011 spewed nearly 70 million tonnes of lava. The eruption may appear to be small but there have been dangerous blasts in recent years as ten people were injured including a BBC camera crew in March 2017 when spewing lava exploded on impact with snow. Etna is in an almost constant state of activity but has remained slightly dormant over the past two years. The volcano lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The 700,000-year-old volcano is a huge 24 miles wide and 10,926 feet high. Etna produces around 7 million tonnes of steam, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide every year. In 2013, Etna was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[SEP]Italy's Catania airport is reopening after an ash cloud from Mount Etna's latest eruptions forced it to shut down. The airport on the Mediterranean island of Sicily says it's having a limited opening Tuesday, operating four flights an hour. More than 100 tremors have rattled the inhabited slopes of Mount Etna this week, with the most powerful quake registering a magnitude of 4.3. The volcano's seismological observatory says a new fissure had opened near its southeast crater. Etna is one of three active volcanoes in Italy and has been particularly active since July. On Monday, hikers on Etna were brought down from the higher elevations for their safety. No evacuations were reported.

Mount Etna erupts, causing the closure of Catania–Fontanarossa Airport in Sicily, Italy.

Karachi, Pakistan (CNN) Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been found guilty of fresh corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in prison, a court ruled in Islamabad on Monday. An accountability court sentenced Sharif to seven years in detention and fined him $25 million. Sharif was found guilty of corruption charges relating to the purchase of Al-Azizia Steel Mills where prosecutors alleged that the Sharif family misappropriated government funds to buy the mills. The company was used by the Sharif's family to launder money, evade tax and hide offshore assets. Sharif was immediately arrested and taken into custody by courtroom officials. Meanwhile, supporters of the former prime minister held small protests outside the courtroom in Islamabad -- which tear gas was used to disperse them. Read More[SEP]ISLAMABAD—Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to seven years in prison by a Pakistani court Monday after being convicted in the second of three corruption cases against him. The anticorruption court also imposed a $36 million fine and barred Mr. Sharif from holding office for 10 years. It acquitted him in the third case.[SEP]A Pakistani anti-corruption court on Monday jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for seven years on graft charges he says were politically motivated. The court found the three-time prime minister was unable to prove the source of income for the ownership of a steel mill in Saudi Arabia, Geo News reported. Sharif was sentenced in July to 10 years in prison by the same court, on charges related to the purchase of upscale apartments in London, after the Supreme Court removed him from power. He was released from prison in September pending an appeal.[SEP]A court in Pakistan has sentenced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison for corruption, drawing criticism from his party, which said the decision was a "black spot" on the justice system. Monday's decision came after Sharif was removed from power last year over corruption allegations. Sharif, who was serving his third stint as prime minister, has denied any wrongdoing. Sharif is accused of possessing assets beyond his known sources of income and was arrested after the ruling was announced. He can appeal the verdict, under which he was also fined $25 million US. The same court acquitted him in a second case. "They had to punish him and they have punished him in a false case," said Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a top leader of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party who served as prime minister when Sharif was removed from power last year. "People will not accept this verdict," he said. Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July over the purchase of luxury apartments in London. He appealed the sentence and was released on bail in September along with his daughter and her husband, who were co-accused in the case stemming from documents leaked from a Panama law firm. The two cases on which the court ruled Monday were related to Sharif's foreign assets, which he insists are owned by his sons. His two sons, who are living in London, were declared absconders by the court. Shortly before the verdict was announced, clashes erupted between supporters of Sharif and police in Islamabad. Several female supporters of Sharif were seen crying and chanting slogans. Sharif's daughter, Maryam Nawaz, has suggested he is being punished for resisting "unseen forces," an apparent reference to the military, which has directly ruled Pakistan for half its modern history and retains a powerful role behind the scenes. She wrote in a series of tweets Monday that the people of Pakistan were standing by her father.[SEP]Supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif protested outside an anticorruption court in Islamabad as officials sentenced him to seven years in prison on December 24. Sharif was convicted on charges of possessing assets beyond his known sources of income.[SEP]ISLAMABAD: The accountability court on Monday announced seven years sentence in prison to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia Steel Mills. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif shortly after the accountability court convicted him in Al Azizia reference case. Former premier Nawaz Sharif is being shifted to Adiala Jail in an armoured vehicle, however, the former premier has prayed in the court to shift him to Kot Lakhpat prison. The court has reserved the judgment and would be announced shortly. The accountability court Judge, Muhammad Arshad Malik announced the short verdict reserved on December 19 after completion of hearing in Al-Azizia Steel Mills and the Flagship Investment cases against the deposed PM last week. The court also imposed a fine of $25 million in the Al Azizia case. Nawaz Sharif’s son Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz were declared absconders in the case. Last week on Wednesday, the accountability court judge has rejected application by Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Harris to provide one week time to submit more documents but allowed him to submit additional documents. On Yesterday, Supreme leader of PML-N Nawaz Sharif held a long meeting with Shehbaz Sharif at his Ministers’ Enclave residence to discuss the party matters and post-verdict scenario. Both the leaders also agreed to seek support from the Pakistan People s party (PPP) to steer out of political quagmire. They also formulated the strategy to launch a mass contact campaign in view of the verdict landing Nawaz Sharif behind the bars (as the case may be). Nawaz Sharif, in July 2017, was disqualified by the Supreme Court over the Panama Papers scandal, which also led to the filing of three corruption cases. Nawaz and his sons, Hussain and Hasan, are accused in all three references whereas Maryam and Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only. On July 06, an accountability court sentenced the former PM, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar in Avenfield reference. Currently, they are on bail granted to them by the Islamabad High Court which pointed out serious faults with judge Muhammad Bashir’s decision of sentencing them for having assets beyond means in the London apartments case. They were convicted without even tentative determination of the price of these flats by the judge as well as the NAB. Anticipating an unforeseeable future, the PML-N supremo has formed an advisory body comprising senior leaders to run and look after the party. ISLAMABAD: The accountability court on Monday announced seven years sentence in prison to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia Steel Mills. Last week on Wednesday, the accountability court judge has rejected application by Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Harris to provide one week time to submit more documents but allowed him to submit additional documents. On Yesterday, Supreme leader of PML-N Nawaz Sharif held a long meeting with Shehbaz Sharif at his Ministers’ Enclave residence to discuss the party matters and post-verdict scenario. Both the leaders also agreed to seek support from the Pakistan People s party (PPP) to steer out of political quagmire. They also formulated the strategy to launch a mass contact campaign in view of the verdict landing Nawaz Sharif behind the bars (as the case may be). However, former prime minister said that they will take a legal course of action whatever the accountability court decides in Flagship and Al-Azizia steel mills references. Nawaz Sharif, in July 2017, was disqualified by the Supreme Court over the Panama Papers scandal, which also led to the filing of three corruption cases. Nawaz and his sons, Hussain and Hasan, are accused in all three references whereas Maryam and Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only. On July 06, an accountability court sentenced the former PM, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar in Avenfield reference. Currently, they are on bail granted to them by the Islamabad High Court which pointed out serious faults with judge Muhammad Bashir’s decision of sentencing them for having assets beyond means in the London apartments case. They were convicted without even tentative determination of the price of these flats by the judge as well as the NAB. Anticipating an unforeseeable future, the PML-N supremo has formed an advisory body comprising senior leaders to run and look after the party.[SEP]ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday and fined $25 million on corruption charges that he says were politically motivated. The anti-corruption court in Islamabad said in its ruling that the three-time prime minister was unable to prove the source of income that had led to his ownership of a steel mill in Saudi Arabia. Under Pakistani law, this is taken to prove corruption. Sharif had already been sentenced by the same court to 10 years in prison on charges related to the purchase of upscale apartments in London, after the Supreme Court removed him from power. He was freed from custody in September pending an appeal. Sharif’s supporters said he would also appeal against his latest conviction. “Appeal is our right, we will protest but will remain peaceful,” former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who had succeeded Sharif last year, told reporters outside the courthouse. Sharif was ousted and disqualified from holding office by the Supreme Court in July 2017, and convicted in absentia a year later. He was arrested on July 13 on returning from London. The court ruled on Thursday on two charges related to Sharif’s assets: the Al-Azizia Steel Mills in Saudi Arabia, set up by Sharif’s father in 2001, and Flagship Investments, a company established by his son, Hasan Nawaz, that owns luxury properties in Britain. Sharif was found to have been unable to demonstrate that his family had acquired the steel mill legitimately, but was acquitted on the second charge, relating to Flagship. Sharif denied the charges which he said were politically motivated. He accused the military and courts of working together to end his political career and destabilise his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party. Sharif was once a favourite of Pakistan’s powerful generals but fell out with them. The military has denied exerting any influence over the court proceedings. Daniyal Aziz, a former lawmaker from Sharif’s party, criticised the National Accountability Bureau, the watchdog that charged Sharif, and described the verdict as “the weaponisation of anti-corruption”. “With each passing day an expression of a double standard is coming forward from the NAB,” Aziz said. Before the verdict, hundreds of Sharif supporters threw stones outside the courthouse at police, who fired teargas. Five months ago, Sharif’s PML-N lost a general election to the party of Imran Khan, the new prime minister whose anti-corruption campaign and street protests spurred the cases against Sharif. PML-N and other opposition politicians allege the election was rigged to favour Khan, who is seen as close to the army. Both Khan and the military have denied colluding against Sharif and the PML-N.[SEP]Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday has been sentenced to seven-year imprisonment by an anti-corruption court in an investment and Al-Azizia cases. The judgement in these cases was reserved by judge Muhammad Arshad Malik of an accountability court. Ahead of the verdict, the Supreme Court in Pakistan had asked the accountability court to give out the verdict in the pending corruption cases against the PML-N chief and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by Monday (December 24) following which the judgement in the case had been reserved by the accountability court. The former Pakistan Prime Minister had arrived in Islamabad on Sunday from Lahore ahead of the verdict. Nawaz Sharif party PML-N workers ahead of the verdict had gathered outside the accountability court in order to support their leader. Earlier in July, an accountability court in Islamabad had sentenced the former Prime Minister and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to 10-year and 7-year imprisonment in several corruption cases against them. However, later in September, Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law captain (retired) Muhammad Safdar had challenged the verdict in the Avenfield case against them following which the Islamabad High Court suspended their jail term after they gave a surety of Rs 5 lakh each.[SEP]ISLAMABAD － An anti-corruption court in Pakistan on Dec. 24 sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison for owning a steel factory abroad without disclosing its ownership. The ruling was slammed by his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, as the "last hiccup of blind revenge.” Judge Arshad Malik imposed hefty fines on the Pakistan Muslim League leader after ruling that Al-Azizia Steel Mills － a Saudi Arabian firm carrying the name of his son － belonged to the former Prime Minister and that he was unable to demonstrate how the project was funded, Dawn newspaper reported. The police took Sharif, 68, into custody following the verdict by the National Accountability Bureau court here. He requested the judge to keep him imprisoned in Lahore, instead of the city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad. The three-time Premier was expected to appeal against his latest conviction and maintained that he never misused his powers or indulged in corruption. "My conscience is clear as I never did corruption," he told reporters outside the court following the verdict. His daughter took to Twitter to criticize the ruling, saying: "One man has been sentenced for the fourth time. This is the last hiccup of blind revenge." Sharif's sons － Hassan and Hussain － who are not in Pakistan, were declared absconders. Sharif was, meanwhile, acquitted in another case of alleged corruption concerning the Flagship Investments firm in the UK for lack of evidence. He and his sons were also accused of using 16 offshore companies to acquire and manage expensive properties. A disqualification of 10 years from holding any public office was part of the sentences awarded to Sharif, said NAB special prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi. The disqualification will go into effect following his release from jail after serving the seven-year sentence. Sharif was taken away from the court premises amid strong security measures. The verdict led to clashes between his supporters and the security forces guarding the court. The agitated PML-N supporters tried to enter the court and threw stones at the police personnel, who responded with tear gas. Former Prime Minister and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi termed the verdict "another black decision" and said there was neither any evidence nor any witnesses in either case. "This is another black (day) for Pakistan, another black decision," he said. The verdict was hailed by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), whose Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the "real face of Nawaz Sharif has been unmasked today.” He said that the people who were still defending Sharif "should be ashamed of themselves because the money involved in the scam belonged to the people of Pakistan.” The trial against the Sharifs commenced on Sept. 14, 2017 after Pakistan's anti-corruption body filed three cases relating to the Avenfield properties case, Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investment Limited on the Supreme Court's directives in the landmark Panamagate verdict. Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were sentenced to 10 years, seven years and one year in prison, respectively by the same court in July in the Avenfield case － ownership of four luxury flats in London. They later bailed on appeal when the Islamabad High Court suspended their sentence in September. The Supreme Court had set the deadline for Dec. 24 to wrap up the remaining two corruption cases against the former Prime Minister. Sharif's sons are accused in all three references whereas daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only.[SEP]Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption and acquitted in a second case. The verdict came after Sharif was removed from power last year over corruption allegations. Sharif, who was serving his third stint as prime minister, has denied any wrongdoing. He is accused of possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. Sharif was arrested after the ruling was announced. He can appeal against the verdict. Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July over the purchase of luxury apartments in London. He appealed against that sentence and was released on bail in September.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of corruption.

LONDON (Reuters) – Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a senior Iranian cleric and a former chief justice, died in Tehran on Monday after a long illness, state media reported. Shahroudi, 70, was a close ally of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and had been seen by analysts as a possible successor to him. He cut short a visit to Germany for treatment in January when activists referred him to German prosecutors, citing his record of passing death sentences which they said amounted to a crime against humanity. Shahroudi was head of Iran’s hardline judiciary for a decade until 2009, but he implemented some reforms including banning death penalty by stoning, arguing it was tarnishing Iran’s image. However, human rights groups say he failed to put an end to arbitrary arrests of political and human rights activists, and mistreatment and torture of the prisoners. Dozens of newspapers were banned under his watch and many journalists and bloggers faced long term sentences. Shahroudi was appointed by Khamenei in 2017 as the head of the Expediency Council, a body intended to resolve disputes between parliament and a watchdog body, the Guardian Council. He was born in the city of Najaf in Iraq to Iranian parents. In the 1970s he was jailed and tortured by Saddam Hussein’s security forces because of his political activities. He moved to Iran after the Islamic revolution in 1979 and was promoted to top posts. In recent years, Shahroudi aimed to raise his profile in Iraq as a replacement for Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the top Shi’ite cleric and a powerful figure in Iraq. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Richard Balmforth)[SEP]TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's state TV is reporting that Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the Expediency Council advisory body to the country's Supreme Leader, has died at the age of 70.[SEP]TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's state TV is reporting that Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the Expediency Council advisory body to the country's Supreme Leader, has died at the age of 70. The Monday report said Shahroudi was long sick and hospitalized in north Tehran. Reportedly, he was suffering from gastrointestinal cancer. Shahroudi, a relatively moderate cleric, was appointed as chairman of the Expediency Council in 2017 by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The body arbitrates on differences between parliament and the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog. Shahroudi was also chief of the judiciary from 1999 to 2009. Born and raised in Najaf, Iraq, Sharoudi was close to the late leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, who spent years in exile there.[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. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s state TV is reporting that Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the Expediency Council advisory body to the country’s Supreme Leader, has died at the age of 70. The Monday report said Shahroudi was long sick and hospitalized in north Tehran. Reportedly, he was suffering from gastrointestinal cancer. Shahroudi, a relatively moderate cleric, was appointed as chairman of the Expediency Council in 2017 by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The body arbitrates on differences between parliament and the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog. Shahroudi was also chief of the judiciary from 1999 to 2009. TRENDING: ‘Huge Win’ for Trump, Conservatives: First Step Act Follows Red State Successes Born and raised in Najaf, Iraq, Sharoudi was close to the late leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, who spent years in exile there. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]Shahroudi died at 22:03 in Tehran’s Khatsm al-Anbia hospital on Monday, December 24, 2018. He is going to be buried at the holy shrine of Hazrat Massoumeh in Qom. Known as a candidate for the position of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Shahroudi was a very prominent figure in Iran’s politics.[SEP]According to the news website of Iranian government ‘dolat.ir’, Wednesday Dec. 26 will be a national day of mourning throughout Iran as a mark of respect for the late Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who passed away last night after a long-standing struggle with cancer. In a message issued on Tuesday, the Iranian government offered condolences on the demise of Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei, the senior clergymen, seminaries, the honorable nation of Islamic Iran, and the family of the deceased cleric, and declared Wednesday as a national day of mourning.

Chairman of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council and former Chief Justice Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi dies at the age of 70.

(CNN) The leaders of Israel's coalition government decided on Monday to dissolve the Knesset and hold early elections in April, nearly eight months earlier than required by law. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition governs with a razor-thin majority, and has been struggling to pass a new bill that would extend the military draft to ultra-Orthodox Jewish students. At a press conference at the Knesset on Monday, Netanyahu confirmed "the heads of the coalition parties decided, in agreement and unanimously, to disperse the Knesset and call for new elections at the beginning of April." The speaker of the Knesset, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, announced the elections would be held on April 9. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the heads of the coalition parties decided "unanimously" to hold early elections in April. Government battling difficulties Read More[SEP]Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed Monday to hold early elections in April after the ruling coalition appeared to come up short on votes needed to pass a contentious piece of court-ordered legislation. JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed Monday to hold early elections in April after the ruling coalition appeared to come up short on votes needed to pass a contentious piece of court-ordered legislation. Netanyahu said his coalition “unanimously” agreed to disband the government and hold a new election. At a meeting of his Likud faction, he listed his accomplishments in office and said he hoped his current religious, nationalistic coalition would be the “core” of the next one as well. “We will ask the voters for a clear mandate to continue leading the state of Israel our way,” he said to applause from party members. The Knesset, or parliament, is expected to hold a vote on Wednesday to formally dissolve, setting the stage for a three-month election campaign and a likely vote on April 9. The latest polls appear to predict another solid victory for Netanyahu, though an indictment over mounting corruption charges could still trip him up. Netanyahu’s coalition has been roiled by internal divisions for months. Avigdor Lieberman resigned as defense minister last month to protest what he perceived to be the government’s weak response to rocket attacks from Hamas-ruled Gaza. But a new law extending the military draft to ultra-Orthodox men appears to have triggered the government’s downfall. Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox partners are demanding the legislation be weakened and his razor-thin parliamentary majority seems to be making such a compromise impossible. Ultra-Orthodox parties consider conscription a taboo, fearing that military service will lead to immersion in secularism. But years of exemptions have generated widespread resentment among the rest of Jewish Israelis. Earlier Monday, Yair Lapid of the opposition Yesh Atid party announced he was rescinding his support for the bill, calling the coalition’s hoped-for compromise a payoff to draft dodgers. As a result, Netanyahu convened his fellow coalition faction leaders and the decision was made to dissolve parliament and go to elections. Another victory for Netanyahu would assure his place in history as Israel’s longest-serving leader and allow him to solidify his close alliance with President Donald Trump. Another term would also allow Netanyahu to push forward with his nationalistic agenda and worldwide campaign to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions. With the opposition parties currently splintered, the only thing that seems to stand in his way is potential criminal charges over his bevy of corruption allegations. Police have recommended he be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in three different cases. The country has long been eagerly awaiting the attorney general’s decision on whether to press charges, as opposition figures have called on Netanyahu to resign because of his legal woes. The justice ministry announced Monday that deliberations were continuing and were “not dependent on political events.” Netanyahu has angrily dismissed the accusations against him, characterizing them as part of a media-driven witch-hunt that is obsessed with removing him from office. He has vowed to carry on and keep serving. Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said he doesn’t expect the attorney general to make a final decision in the coming months and Netanyahu’s move seems to be trying to “pre-empt” a potential indictment by getting re-elected first. “He wants to win. He wants to turn around to the attorney general and say ‘before you decide to prosecute me pay attention. The people of Israel have re-elected me for a fourth time,’” Hazan explained, adding that if Netanyahu is re-elected, it would send a message to the attorney general that “you cannot overturn the results of a democratic election.” Elections were previously scheduled for November 2019. But since Lieberman’s resignation the coalition has been relying on the slimmest of parliamentary majorities, just 61 out of its 120 members, and has found governing difficult. The last time a government served its full term was in 1988. Since then, elections have almost always been moved up because of a coalition crisis or as a strategic move by the prime minister to maximize his chance of re-election. Just six week ago, Netanyahu said the time was not right for early elections because of the country’s tricky security situation. But following the military campaign to uncover the Hezbollah tunnel network from Lebanon into Israel, he said the country was now in a different place. “We have neutralized it and the operation is mostly over,” he said. “It was right not to go to election then and I think it is perfectly sensible to go elections now.”[SEP]Israel has decided to dissolve the Knesset, the legislative branch of the government, and called for early elections amid tensions over a bill to legislate military conscription for ultra-Orthodox men. The leaders of the coalition parties decided unanimously “to dissolve the Knesset and go to new elections at the beginning of April after a four-year term,” the statement from Netanyahu's ruling Likud party said. The national election had been scheduled for November 2019. The idea for the snap elections was proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the meeting on Monday. The coalition chair David Amsalem responded that it was difficult to pass the military conscription law with the government’s current majority. The fragile coalition has only 61 members out of 120 in the Knesset. “If it's too difficult, we need elections,” the PM said. In September 2017, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the existing bill which exempted ultra-Orthodox Jews from being conscripted into the army was unlawful. This year the government was granted several extensions for the complete annulment of the bill. The deadline is set for mid-January 2019. The news about the dissolution of the Knesset and early elections comes hours after Yesh Atid opposition party chairman Yair Lapid said that his party will vote against the bill. Netanyahu “has surrendered to the ultra-Orthodox because he is afraid of them,” Lapid told his party. The resignation of Avigdor Lieberman as the defense minister, and pulling his party from the ruling coalition added more uncertainties to the grim future of the Knesset. He also doesn’t support the new law. Israel has long had a compulsory draft, with men serving in the military for nearly three years and women for two years. However, ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews have traditionally been exempt from military service in the country. They insist that they have always served the society through prayer and study and helped to protect Jewish culture. Haredi is a collective term for groups of ultra-Orthodox Jews who consider themselves the most religiously authentic, and reject modern secular culture. The legislation was met with fierce opposition among ultra-Orthodox Jews who repeatedly staged protests and clashed with police. Some activists say that they would “rather die than be recruited”. Think your friends would be interested? 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However, he faces potential criminal charges over corruption allegations, and police have recommended he be indicted on bribery allegations. The Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that deliberations continued as the country eagerly awaits a decision from the attorney general. Netanyahu has angrily dismissed the allegations against him, emulating his ally U.S. President Donald Trump in calling them a "witch hunt" against him. The dissolving of parliament and scheduling of early elections is far from rare in Israel. The last time a government served its full term was in 1988, according to the Associated Press. Since then, similar coalition crises have led to early elections.[SEP]The governing partners of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition voted unanimously to dissolve the Knesset. New elections are tentatively scheduled for April 9, 2019. “In the name of budgetary and national responsibility, party leaders in the coalition agreed unanimously to dissolve the Knesset and go to new elections at the beginning of April, following a full four-year term,” said a government spokesperson on behalf of the governing parties. The decision came during a five-hour meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office between leaders of the coalition’s five parties. The party leaders recognized that the narrow 61-member parliamentary majority did not have the staying power to pass key legislation, including a bill aimed at increasing the number of Orthodox Israeli citizens serving in the military. The Haredi Draft Law, as it is called would impose financial sanctions on religious learning institutions which failed to meet enlistment quotas, while simultaneously enabling those who have already selected to defer their military to service to extend their deferments. Religious parties in the coalition refused to back the legislation. Israel’s Supreme Court had given the government a Jan. 15, 2019 deadline to pass legislation increasing the number of Orthodox draftees. Netanyahu had hoped to enlist the support of parties outside the coalition to support the bill, but when it became clear that the government would not garner the parliamentary support necessary from the opposition, new elections were announced. The coalition parties announced that they would all remain in the government until the new election date and would attempt to cooperate on other legislative issues. In a meeting of the Likud Party faction following the announcement, Netanyahu said “we agreed to submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset and go to elections in early April.” He added that “the government will complete four years in office with tremendous achievements. We have turned Israel into a rising world power.” The average Israeli government historically remains intact for 3.8 years. Rarely do governments last an entire term, due to Israel’s complex parliamentary system.[SEP]JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed Wednesday to hold early elections on April 9 after the ruling coalition appeared to come up short on votes needed to pass a contentious piece of court-ordered legislation. Netanyahu said his coalition “unanimously” agreed to disband the government. At a meeting of his Likud faction, he listed his accomplishments in office and said he hoped his current religious, nationalistic coalition would be the “core” of the next one as well. The latest polls appear to predict another solid victory for Netanyahu, though an indictment over mounting corruption charges could still derail his campaign. Netanyahu’s coalition has been roiled by internal divisions for months. Avigdor Lieberman resigned as defense minister last month to protest what he perceived to be the government’s weak response to rocket attacks from Hamas-ruled Gaza. But a new law extending the military draft to ultra-Orthodox men appears to have triggered the government’s downfall. Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox partners are demanding the legislation be weakened and his razor-thin parliamentary majority seems to be making such a compromise impossible. Ultra-Orthodox parties consider conscription a taboo, fearing that military service will lead to immersion in secularism. But years of exemptions have generated widespread resentment among the rest of Jewish Israelis. Another victory for Netanyahu would assure his place in history as Israel’s longest-serving leader and allow him to solidify his close alliance with President Trump. Another term would also allow Netanyahu to push forward with his nationalistic agenda and worldwide campaign to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions.[SEP]Israeli coalition leaders agreed Monday to hold early elections in April, seven months before they are due, a statement issued on their behalf said. Coalition party heads in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have decided to dissolve parliament and hold elections in early April "in the name of budgetary and national responsibility," the statement distributed by a spokesman for Netanyahu's Likud party said. The decision comes with the coalition struggling to agree on a key bill related to ultra-Orthodox Jews serving in the military like their secular counterparts. Netanyahu's coalition was left with a one-seat majority in parliament following defence minister Avigdor Lieberman's resignation in November over a controversial Gaza ceasefire deal. His resignation removed his Yisrael Beitenu party's five seats from the coalition. Netanyahu is also facing mounting pressure over a series of corruption investigations into his affairs. Police have recommended his indictment in three different probes and the attorney general is considering how to proceed. Netanyahu is however not required to step down if indicted, and polls have indicated his Likud party would remain the largest in parliament after new elections. Some analysts believe he would be better positioned to face potential charges with a fresh electoral mandate.[SEP]Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed yesterday to hold early elections in April after the ruling coalition appeared to come up short on votes needed to pass a contentious piece of court-ordered legislation. Netanyahu said his coalition “unanimously” agreed to disband the government and hold a new election. At a meeting of his Likud faction, he listed his accomplishments in office and said he hoped his current religious, nationalistic coalition would be the “core” of the next one as well. “We will ask the voters for a clear mandate to continue leading the state of Israel our way,” he said to applause from party members. The Knesset, or parliament, is expected to hold a vote tomorrow to formally dissolve, setting the stage for a three-month election campaign and a likely vote on April 9. The latest polls appear to predict another solid victory for Netanyahu, though an indictment over mounting corruption charges could still trip him up. Netanyahu’s coalition has been roiled by internal divisions for months. Avigdor Lieberman resigned as defense minister last month to protest what he perceived to be the government’s weak response to rocket attacks from Hamas-ruled Gaza. But a new law extending the military draft to ultra-Orthodox men appears to have triggered the government’s downfall. Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox partners are demanding the legislation be weakened and his razor-thin parliamentary majority seems to be making such a compromise impossible. Ultra-Orthodox parties consider conscription a taboo, fearing that military service will lead to immersion in secularism. But years of exemptions have generated widespread resentment among the rest of Jewish Israelis. Earlier yesterday, Yair Lapid of the opposition Yesh Atid party announced he was rescinding his support for the bill, calling the coalition’s hoped-for compromise a payoff to draft dodgers. Netanyahu convened his coalition faction leaders and the decision was made to dissolve parliament and go to elections. Another victory for Netanyahu would assure his place in history as Israel’s longest-serving leader and allow him to solidify his close alliance with US President Donald Trump. With the opposition divided, the only thing that seems to stand in his way is potential criminal charges over corruption allegations. Police have recommended he be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in three different cases. The country has been eagerly awaiting the attorney general’s decision on whether to press charges. Netanyahu has dismissed the accusations against him, characterizing them as part of a media-driven witch-hunt that is obsessed with removing him from office.[SEP]JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government agreed Wednesday to hold early elections on April 9 after the ruling coalition appeared to come up short on votes needed to pass a contentious piece of court-ordered legislation. Netanyahu said his coalition "unanimously" agreed to disband the government and hold a new election. At a meeting of his Likud faction, he listed his accomplishments in office and said he hoped his current religious, nationalistic coalition would be the "core" of the next one as well. The latest polls appear to predict another solid victory for Netanyahu, though an indictment over mounting corruption charges could still trip him up. Netanyahu's coalition has been roiled by internal divisions for months. Avigdor Lieberman resigned as defense minister last month to protest what he perceived to be the government's weak response to rocket attacks from Hamas-ruled Gaza. But a new law extending the military draft to ultra-Orthodox men appears to have triggered the government's downfall. Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox partners are demanding the legislation be weakened and his razor-thin parliamentary majority seems to be making such a compromise impossible. Ultra-Orthodox parties consider conscription a taboo, fearing that military service will lead to immersion in secularism. But years of exemptions have generated widespread resentment among the rest of Jewish Israelis. Earlier Wednesday, Yair Lapid of the opposition Yesh Atid party announced he was rescinding his support for the bill, calling the coalition's hoped-for compromise a payoff to draft dodgers. As a result, Netanyahu convened his fellow coalition faction leaders and the decision was made to dissolve parliament and go to elections. Another victory for Netanyahu would assure his place in history as Israel's longest-serving leader and allow him to solidify his close alliance with President Donald Trump. Another term would also allow Netanyahu to push forward with his nationalistic agenda and worldwide campaign to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. With the opposition parties currently splintered, the only thing that seems to stand in his way is potential criminal charges over his bevy of corruption allegations. Police have recommended he be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in three different cases. The country has long been eagerly awaiting the attorney general's decision on whether to press charges. The justice ministry announced Wednesday that deliberations were continuing and were "not dependent on political events." Netanyahu has angrily dismissed the accusations against him, characterizing them as part of a media-driven witch-hunt that is obsessed with removing him from office. Elections were previously scheduled for November 2019. But since Lieberman's resignation the coalition has been relying on the slimmest of parliamentary majorities, just 61 out of its 120 members, and has found governing difficult. The last time a government served its full term was in 1988. Since then, elections have almost always been moved up because of a coalition crisis or as a strategic move by the prime minister to maximize his chance of re-election.[SEP]Israel will hold early election in April, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday. “The leaders of the coalition decided unanimously to dissolve parliament and go to a new election in early April,” the spokesman said on Twitter. The move came after a meeting between the heads of the Israeli coalition. Israeli daily Haaretz said the new polls will be held on April 9. The last Israeli general elections were held in May 2015, while the upcoming elections had been expected to be held in November. Netanyahu, the head of the Likud party, has led the current coalition, which includes the right-wing parties of the Jewish House, Kulanu, Shas and United Torah Judaism. Yisrael Beitenu, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, has recently withdrawn from the governing coalition. The decision to call early elections came after a dispute over a compulsory military service bill as United Torah Judaism vowed to withdraw from the coalition if the Knesset voted in favor of the draft law. Army service is mandatory for all Israeli citizens (three years for men and two years for women), with the exception of members of the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Ultra-Orthodox Jews account for roughly 10 percent of Israel's total population. They tend to live in closed communities and adhere to strict interpretations of Jewish religious law.

The coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu dissolves the Knesset and sets early elections for April. The coalition has been struggling after failing to pass a new bill that would extend the military draft to ultra-Orthodox Jews and the resignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, leader of one of the parties in the coalition.

Burundi is moving its capital from the shores of Lake Tanganyika and deep into the nation’s central highlands. Authorities announced they would change the political capital from Bujumbura to Gitega, which is located over 100 kilometers (62 miles) to the east. The current capital will remain the nation’s commercial center, while five ministries will be established in Gitega beginning 2019, spokesperson to the president Jean-Claude Karerwa Ndenzako said on Twitter. The decision came just days after president Pierre Nkurunziza, who had promised to move the capital there in 2007 because of its centrality, held a government retreat in the city. The region is also the birthplace and the spot where nation’s last king Ntare V was killed in 1972. With a population of about 11 million people, Burundi is one of the poorest nations in the world. Since coming to power in 2005, president Nkurunziza has solidified his grip on power, with voters this year backing a constitutional referendum that could see him rule till 2034. The decision to relocate the capital is likely linked to Bujumbura increasingly being an opposition stronghold, leading to continued clashes between protesters and police. By moving its capital, the East African nation follows in the footsteps of other African states. Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania, and Nigeria have all moved their political capitals after developing new ones beginning in the 1980s. Many countries including Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana are also building new, futuristic, billion-dollar cities to deal with increased urbanization and growing population.[SEP]News 24 Burundi declared the small central city of Gitega the country's new political capital on Saturday,...[SEP](Bloomberg) -- Burundian authorities decided to move the political capital to the city of Gitega in the central province, from Bujumbura, government spokesman Prosper Ntahorwamiye said Monday on Burundi National Television. Bujumbura will remain the economic capital as many of country’s business activities’ are based there, Ntahorwamiye said. At least five ministries and their agencies will start working from Gitega in Jan. 2019. State agencies such as the human right commission and land commission will be relocated to Gitega starting from next year, he said. Other government agencies will move in due course and cabinet meetings will be held in Gitega starting next year, Ntahorwamiye said. To contact the reporter on this story: Desire Nimubona in Bujumbura at dnimubona@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Eric Ombok, Pauline Bax[SEP]NAIROBI: Burundi declared the small central city of Gitega the country’s new political capital on Saturday, in line with a presidential promise made a decade ago. A government spokesman named Gitega while also stating that the previous capital Bujumbura, on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, would in future function solely as the country’s economic centre. The government "has just adopted an historic bill making Gitega the political capital and making Bujumbura the economic capital," tweeted Jean-Claude Karerwa Ndenzako, spokesman for President Pierre Nkurunziza. "Cabinet meetings will henceforth be held in Gitega, where five ministries will also be established from the start of 2019," he added, notably the interior, education and agriculture ministries. Parliament, dominated by the ruling party, must still approve the move. Nkurunziza promised in 2007 the move would go ahead, citing Gitega’s central position compared to Bujumbura, although the former’s population is barely 30,000 to Bujumbura’s 1.2 million. The new choice was once the capital of the Burundian monarchy and the opposition accuse Nkurunziza of attempting a symbolic restoration. Bujumbura is today considered an opposition stronghold where the president spends less and less time. One activist who requested anonymity said Gitega was not ready to assume the mantle of capital. "There are practically no offices to let, few hotels or restaurants -- it’s an irrational decision," he said of the move much derided on social media. "The country is deep in economic crisis and does not have the means to move and instal five ministries in Gitega."[SEP]The Burundi army on Sunday said it opposed a request by the African Union that it withdraw 1,000 soldiers serving in an African peacekeeping force in Somalia by February 28. Burundi army spokesman Colonel Floribert Biyereke said in a statement that the military would ask the government to argue for a proportionate number of troops be withdrawn from each AU member country, rather than solely Burundian soldiers. Burundi is the second biggest contributor to the 21,500-strong peacekeeping force with 5,400 soldiers, behind Uganda with 6,200 but ahead of Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia. The African Union is gradually scaling back its AMISOM force as Somalia's nascent armed forces are trained and deployed to replace them. AMISOM was first deployed in 2007 to support Somalia's fragile internationally-backed government and fight Al-Shabaab jihadists blamed for scores of bloody attacks. The African Union request, made through a diplomatic document called a note verbale, came amid recent tension between Burundi and the AU. The AU has called on Burundi -- criticised abroad for its record on human rights -- to ease its hardline stance on dissent and talk with its exiled opposition. A key consequence of an eventual troop drawdown is financial. Participation in AMISOM is a valuable source of hard currency, and the scaleback is likely to have a big impact on Burundi -- every quarter, the AU pays it around $18 million (15.7 million euros). That represents a major source of foreign currency for Burundi, which has seen funding from the European Union suspended over human rights issues. Burundi soldiers also earn much less once they return from serving with AMISOM, and an AU official who asked not to be named said they were poorly equipped, and thus logical candidates for the first phase of departures.[SEP]BUJUMBURA, - China provides selfless assistance to help with Burundi’s development and its people’s livelihood, the Burundian foreign minister said Saturday. The establishment of the diplomatic ties 55 years ago launched the sincere cooperation between the two countries, Burundian Foreign Minister Ezechiel Nibigira said at a reception celebrating the 55th anniversary of bilateral ties. Burundi and China have maintained a good relationship since then, which is reflected in exchanges at various levels such as in mutual support on international occasions and China’s selfless assistance to the Burundian government to help with the development of Burundi and the improvement of Burundian people’s livelihood, said Nibigira. The central African country highly appreciates China’s long term assistance to Burundi, he added. The friendly cooperation between the two countries has been continuously expanded and deepened, said Li Changlin, Chinese Ambassador to Burundi, adding that bilateral ties are at the best time in history. The relationship between China and Burundi takes a leading position in relations between China and African countries, he said. China doesn’t set any precondition for its cooperation with Burundi and cares about the actual needs of the Burundian people, Li said, adding that China welcomes Burundi to get on board China’s fast train of development. Commemorative stamps marking the 55th anniversary were launched at the reception, featuring landmarks and cultures of the two countries. The stamps represent the friendship between China and Burundi and are the ambassadors of culture exchanges, said Bienvenue Irakoze, permanent secretary of Burundian Ministry of Youth, Posts and Information Technologies at the launching ceremony. About 250 people attended the anniversary reception, where they enjoyed Kirundi song performed by the Confucius Institute at the University of Burundi, Chinese song performed by Burundian civil servants, as well as Burundian drum and dance performance. China and Burundi established diplomatic ties on Dec. 21, 1963. A series of events have been held to celebrate the anniversary.[SEP]KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — At least two Rwandan civilians were killed and eight injured when attackers set fire to three passenger vehicles in the southern Nyamagabe district, which borders Burundi, said a Rwandan army official. “We have been watching the situation in this area for some time now and have a good idea of who is behind today’s incident. We are in pursuit of the attackers and action will be taken against those responsible,” army spokesman Innocent Munyengango said in a statement. He said the army is pursuing the attackers who retreated into Nyungwe Forest, a mountain rainforest area that is home to wild chimpanzees. The attack highlights continuing tensions between Rwanda and neighboring Burundi and Congo. Just two days earlier, President Paul Kagame said two or three Rwandan army soldiers were killed by rebels who had crossed the border from Congo. Kagame blamed the earlier Dec. 9 attack in the country’s western Rubavu district on the Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which has links to perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, and the Rwanda National Congress, founded by a former army chief. Speaking to reporters on Friday in Kigali, Kagame also addressed tensions with neighboring Burundi, saying his country will never be pulled into “provocations” from Burundi. Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza earlier this month called for an emergency meeting of the East African Community, accusing Rwanda of “aggression” and of harboring plotters of a failed coup in 2015. In the letter dated December 4, Nkurunziza told Museveni who is also chairman of the East African regional bloc that Rwanda was behind the crisis that hit Burundi in April 2015, which also saw a failed coup against Nkurunziza. Rwanda has denied the allegations. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Burundi moves its capital from Bujumbura to Gitega.

A suicide bomber and extremists armed with assault rifles and explosives attacked a government building in the Afghan capital in an eight-hour-long siege, authorities said. It ended when the three gunmen were killed. Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh said Tuesday that 43 people lost their lives, not including the attackers. The toll could rise as police continue to search the smoldering building, Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban and a local Islamic State affiliate have carried out a relentless wave of assaults on government targets in recent years, but the Taliban denied involvement in this one. The attack began when the suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car in front of the multi-story building that houses a public welfare department in an eastern neighborhood of Kabul, Danish said. Minutes later, three gunmen entered the building and rampaged through the office complex hunting for victims. Some employees managed to barricade themselves inside offices while police quickly evacuated 357 people, officials said. Witnesses reported hearing at least five explosions as police and gunmen traded fire. One officer died and three were wounded. Afghan security forces arrive at the site of an explosion and attack by gunmen, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 24, 2018. Rahmat Gul / AP Police cordoned of the area as they tried to secure the building, but Danish said the operation was painstakingly slow as officers moved carefully from room to room and floor to floor. Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said authorities received at least one telephone call from inside the building, but frightened employees were unable to provide any details. No one claimed responsibility, but both the Taliban and the local Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) affiliate have carried out brazen daytime attacks in the capital. The building is in area that includes several apartment buildings as well Afghanistan's department for public works. A witness said ambulances raced to the scene during a lull in the shooting, Reuters news agency reports. The attack came four days after U.S. President Trump announced the withdrawal of half of the 14,000 American troops and just hours after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was in Kabul to discuss a negotiated end to Afghanistan's 17-year war. Qureshi, who then continued his trip to Iran, condemned the attack. An Afghan police officer at the scene of the attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Dec. 24, 2018. Omar Sobhani / REUTERS Pakistan helped orchestrate last week's peace talks in the United Arab Emirates, where representatives from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Pakistan and the U.S. met with the Taliban. Taliban insurgents control nearly half of Afghanistan and are more powerful than at any time since a 2001 U.S.-led invasion. They carry out near-daily attacks, mainly targeting security forces and government officials. The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in 2014, but American and allied troops remain, conducting strikes on the Islamic State group and the Taliban and working to train and build the Afghan military.[SEP]An hourslong gun and suicide attack on a Kabul government compound killed at least 43 people, the health ministry said Tuesday, making it one of the deadliest assaults on the Afghan capital this year. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the raid, which caps a bloody year for Afghanistan as long-suffering civilians and security forces are slaughtered in record numbers. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told AFP the attack had "nothing to do with the militants." Another 25 people were wounded in Monday's massacre on a site where the Ministry of Public Works and an office that handles pensions and benefits for war veterans are located, spokesman Waheed Majroh said. Gunmen stormed the compound midafternoon after detonating a car bomb at the main entrance -- opposite residential apartment buildings -- sending terrified people running for their lives. Some jumped from windows several floors high to escape the militants. The suicide blast appears to have been a decoy, according to witnesses who told AFP they saw several militants enter the compound through a back gate. Hundreds were trapped inside the compound for hours as heavily armed security forces swarmed the area, engaging the attackers in a fierce gunbattle punctuated by multiple explosions. At least four militants, including the bomber, were killed and more than 350 people freed, officials said. Most of the dead and wounded were civilians, who have borne the brunt of the 17-year war. It was the deadliest assault in the Afghan capital since a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a religious gathering last month, killing at least 55 people. President Ashraf Ghani, whose government has been skewered over its security failures, said "terrorists attack civilian targets to hide their defeat on the battleground." Afghanistan's de facto prime minister Abdullah Abdullah also sounded a defiant note as he blamed the Taliban for the attack. "Every attack they carry out against our people, our resolve is further strengthened to eliminate them," he said. But their statements belie the grim reality on the battlefield where the Taliban have the upper hand. Afghanistan's largest militant group has made significant territorial gains this year as its fighters inflict record casualties on government forces. The raid followed a tumultuous few days in Afghanistan where officials are reeling from U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to slash troop numbers, which many fear could harm efforts to end the conflict with the Taliban. It also comes after a major security shake-up in Kabul that has placed staunch anti-Taliban and Pakistan veterans in charge of the police and military. While there has been no official announcement of a U.S. drawdown, the mere suggestion of the United States reducing its military presence has rattled the Afghan capital and potentially undermined peace efforts. General Scott Miller, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Sunday he had not received orders to pull forces out of the country. Trump's decision apparently came Tuesday as U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with the Taliban in Abu Dhabi, part of efforts to bring the militants to the negotiating table with Kabul. Many Afghans are worried that Ghani's fragile unity government would collapse if U.S. troops pulled out, enabling the Taliban to sweep back into power and potentially sparking another bloody civil war.[SEP]KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber exploded his car outside a building housing the government's department for martyrs and disabled persons on Monday moments before gunmen stormed the building armed with automatic rifles and explosive devises, Kabul police chief spokesman Basir Mujahid said. Six people have been reported injured and a police officer has been killed in the attack, said Mujahid. Three of the gunmen were killed in a shootout with police. The attack occurred as workers were preparing to leave for the day, said Mujahid. Deputy Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said 200 employees have been evacuated and are safe, but several other employees were still trapped inside the building. Rahimi couldn't say how many gunmen remained inside the building. Police have cordoned off the area in the east of the capital Kabul as they try to gain control of the situation. Kabul police spokesman, Mujahid said heavily armed police are going floor to floor searching the building to find the remaining gunmen. He said they received a phone call from employees, who were still trapped inside the building. They appeared to be calling from a safe place. They were told to wait until they receive word from police that it is safe to leave. Meanwhile the sound of gunfire had stopped as darkness settled on the capital, said Mujahid. Several apartment buildings as well as a government public works department building are located in the same eastern Kabul neighborhood where the attack occurred. Eyewitnesses reported that a portion of the government building was in flames and several smaller explosions were heard amid the ongoing gunbattle. No one claimed responsibility but both the Taliban and the local Islamic State affiliate have carried out brazen daytime attacks in the capital.[SEP]At least 43 people were killed and 10 injured after militants detonated a car bomb before storming government offices in a building in Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, said Wahid Majrooh, a spokesman of the nation’s Ministry of Public Health. The gunmen also took hostages in the building of the National Authority for Disabled People and Martyrs’ Families, said Najib Danish, a spokesman of Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack began around 3 p.m. Monday, said Danish, adding all three assailants were shot dead in a gun battle with the Afghan forces after a seven-hour stand-off. The forces rescued around 310 people from the building, he said.[SEP]KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber exploded his car outside a building housing the government’s department for martyrs and disabled persons on Monday moments before gunmen stormed the building armed with automatic rifles and explosive devises, Kabul police chief spokesman Basir Mujahid said. Four people have been reported injured in the attack that occurred as workers were preparing to leave for the day, said Mujahid, adding that police were still battling the gunmen. More casualties seemed likely, he said. Deputy Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said 200 employees have been evacuated and are safe, but several other employees are reportedly being held hostage by gunmen. He couldn’t say how many gunmen were involved in the attack, but police have killed three of them. There were more believed to be still inside the building, he said. Police have cordoned off the area in the east of the capital Kabul as they try to gain control of the situation. Mujahid, the Kabul police spokesman said heavily armed police are going floor by floor through the building to find the remaining gunmen. Several apartment buildings as well as a government public works department building are located in the same eastern Kabul neighborhood where the attack is underway. Eyewitnesses reported that a portion of the government building was in flames and several smaller explosions were heard amid the ongoing gunbattle. No one claimed responsibility but both the Taliban and the local Islamic State affiliate have carried out brazen daytime attacks in the capital.[SEP]Death toll from attack in Afghan capital soars to 43 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says the death toll from a Christmas Eve attack in the capital has climbed to 43. Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majro says police and emergency workers were still searching for bodies in the smoldering public welfare building early Tuesday. A suicide bomber and gunmen armed with assault rifles and explosives attacked the building in Kabul on Monday, setting off an eight-hour-long siege. No one has claimed the attack, but both the Taliban and an Islamic State affiliate frequently target government officials and security forces. One of the attackers died when he detonated his explosives-laden vehicle outside the building. Another three gunmen were killed in the shootout. It was unclear whether the three were included in the death toll provided by the Health Ministry.[SEP]An hours-long gun and suicide attack on a Kabul government compound killed at least 43 people, the health ministry said Tuesday, making it one of the deadliest assaults on the Afghan capital this year. Another 10 were wounded in Monday’s raid on a site where the Ministry of Public Works and other offices are located, spokesman Waheed Majroh said.[SEP]KABUL — A suicide bomber exploded his car outside a government department for martyrs and disabled persons Monday as gunmen entered the building where they were battling local police, Kabul police chief spokesman Basir Mujahid said. Four people have been reported injured in the attack that occurred as workers were preparing to leave for the day, said Mujahid, adding that police were still battling the gunmen. More casualties seem likely, he said. Police have cordoned off the area in the east of the capital Kabul to gain control of the situation. Mujahid offered little information about the incident saying police were still at the scene. Several apartment buildings and as well as a government public works department building are located in the same area of the eastern Kabul neighbourhood where the attack is underway. Eyewitnesses reported that a portion of the government building was in flames and several smaller explosions were heard amid the ongoing gunbattle. No one claimed responsibility but both the Taliban and the local Islamic State affiliate have carried out brazen daytime attacks in the capital.[SEP]Afghan Health Ministry says death toll from attack in capital has risen to 43 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan Health Ministry says death toll from attack in capital has risen to 43.[SEP]KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan Health Ministry says death toll from attack in capital has risen to 43.

The Afghan health ministry says that yesterday's attack by a suicide bomber and three gunmen on a government building in Kabul killed at least 43 people. No group has claimed responsibility.

At least three killed, two injured in a blast near the building of the Libyan Foreign Ministry in Tripoli and two attackers were neutralized. According to Sky News Arabia, one of the attackers committed suicide and the other died of a bullet shot. Earlier, the 218TV broadcaster reported that one of the three perpetrators was neutralized. As seen in the pictures published by witnesses on Twitter, huge smoke has been visible over the ministry's building. According to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, shooting has also been heard in the area. The staff of the ministry building been reportedly evacuated. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, while media reports suggest casualties.[SEP]CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at Libya's Foreign Ministry in Tripoli that killed at least three people. In a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency Wednesday, IS says three fighters infiltrated the area and fired on Foreign Ministry workers. Libyan officials say a suicide bomber targeted the entrance to the ministry and another was shot dead by guards before he could detonate his explosives. Libya's Health Ministry says the Tuesday attack wounded 10 other people. Libya was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi, allowing IS and other extremist groups to gain a foothold.[SEP]CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at Libya's Foreign Ministry in Tripoli that killed at least three people. In a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency Wednesday, IS says three fighters infiltrated the area and fired on Foreign Ministry workers. Libyan officials say a suicide bomber targeted the entrance to the ministry and another was shot dead by guards before he could detonate his explosives. Libya's Health Ministry says the Tuesday attack wounded 10 other people. Libya was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi, allowing IS and other extremist groups to gain a foothold.[SEP]CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at Libya's Foreign Ministry in Tripoli that killed at least three people. In a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency Wednesday, IS says three fighters infiltrated the area and fired on Foreign Ministry workers. Libyan officials say a suicide bomber targeted the entrance to the ministry and another was shot dead by guards before he could detonate his explosives. Libya's Health Ministry says the Tuesday attack wounded 10 other people. Libya was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi, allowing IS and other extremist groups to gain a foothold.[SEP]CAIRO (AP) - The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at Libya’s Foreign Ministry in Tripoli that killed at least three people. In a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency Wednesday, IS says three fighters infiltrated the area and fired on Foreign Ministry workers. Libyan officials say a suicide bomber targeted the entrance to the ministry and another was shot dead by guards before he could detonate his explosives. Libya’s Health Ministry says the Tuesday attack wounded 10 other people. Libya was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi, allowing IS and other extremist groups to gain a foothold.[SEP]CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at Libya's Foreign Ministry in Tripoli that killed at least three people. In a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency Wednesday, IS says three fighters infiltrated the area and fired on Foreign Ministry workers. Libyan officials say a suicide bomber targeted the entrance to the ministry and another was shot dead by guards before he could detonate his explosives. Libya's Health Ministry says the Tuesday attack wounded 10 other people. Libya was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi, allowing IS and other extremist groups to gain a foothold.[SEP]According to the information given by the Health Ministry, in an incident that took place in the capital killed at least three people and ten other got injured after a terror attack targeted on the Libyan Foreign Ministry’s headquarters. Afterwards, a group of gunmen entered the building from the front and back entrances and exchanged heavy fire with the security forces, the official added. One of the killed was an employee of the Ministry. One of the gunmen was believed to have been killed after an explosion was heard in the top floor of the building, politician Guma El-Gamaty who was in the area said. The blast triggered a fire. No group has claimed responsibility for the strike. Gamaty added that emergency services and security forces were on the ground dealing with the situation, which he believed was under control. UN Support Mission in Libya condemned the attack. “Terrorism will not triumph over the Libyans’ decision to move forward towards building their state and renouncing violence. We will not accept any attack on a state institution, especially one committed by a terrorist group,” said UN Special Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame. “We will work with the Libyan people to prevent terrorist groups from turning Libya into a haven or an arena for their crimes,” he said. The government called on the Libyans to take caution following the attack[SEP]TRIP0LI: Suicide attackers stormed the Libyan foreign ministry in the capital Tripoli on Tuesday, killing at least three people including a senior civil servant, the authorities said. Ten other people were wounded in what the foreign ministry said was a suicide attack carried out by "terrorists". A car bomb exploded near the ministry, prompting security forces to rush to the scene, said special forces spokesman Tarak al-Dawass, accusing the Islamic State militant group (IS) of responsibility. A suicide bomber then blew himself up on the second floor of the building while a second attacker died when the suitcase he was carrying exploded, he said. A third assailant, who was unarmed and wearing a bulletproof vest, was killed by security forces outside, Dawass added. At least three people were killed and 10 wounded, according to the health ministry. A civil servant who headed a department in the foreign ministry was among the dead, security sources said. Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the building as ambulances, paramedics and security forces gathered outside. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Torn apart by power struggles and undermined by chronic insecurity, Libya has become a haven for militants since the ouster and killing of Moamer Qadfafi in 2011. Two competing administrations, rival militias, tribes and militants have been competing for control of territory and the country´s vast oil wealth. IS took advantage of the chaos to gain a foothold in the coastal city of Sirte in 2015. Forces loyal to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) regained control of the city in December 2016 after eight months of deadly fighting. Since then, some militants have returned to the desert in an attempt to regroup and reorganise. In September, IS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the headquarters of Libya´s National Oil Company in the heart of Tripoli which left two dead and 10 wounded. Four months earlier, it claimed an attack on the electoral commission´s headquarters which left 14 dead. In April, the GNA launched an operation to track down IS fighters operating in areas of western Libya under its control. Last month IS claimed responsibility for an attack on militia forces in south eastern Libya in which at least nine people were killed. The US military has regularly carried out strikes on militants in Libya, particularly south of Sirte. The GNA was set up under a 2015 UN-brokered deal, but a rival administration based in the country´s east aligned with military strongman Khalifa Haftar refuses to recognise its authority. Rival Libyan leaders had agreed to a Paris-brokered deal in May to hold a nationwide election by the end of the year. But instability, territorial disputes and divisions have delayed plans for elections. Two days of meetings last month in Italy laid bare deep divisions between key players in the crisis with some delegates refusing to sit side by side.[SEP]The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s suicide attack on Libya’s foreign ministry in the capital Tripoli which killed three people and injured another 21, reports Amaq – its own news agency. The Libyan Presidential Council (PC), meanwhile, has ordered an investigation into the attack but warned that the death toll could have been higher as two of the three men who were behind the attack were gunned down before the third man blew himself up causing the death and destruction. A statement released by the PC strongly condemned the attack while offering condolences to family members of the victims “Such crimes don’t relate to our religion or humanitarian norms; they will only encourage Libyans to put more efforts in fighting terrorism,” the statement read. One of those killed was taken to Mitiga hospital and the other two victims to Tripoli Medical Centre. Tuesday’s attack was the third attack on government facilities in the capital since May. In September several armed men attacked the headquarters of Libya’s National Oil Corporation in Tripoli, killing at least two staff members. In May an attack on LIbya’s electoral commission in the capital killed10 people after they sprayed the building with bullets and then detonated explosives. For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.[SEP]CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at Libya’s Foreign Ministry in Tripoli that killed at least three people. In a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency Wednesday, IS says three fighters infiltrated the area and fired on Foreign Ministry workers. Libyan officials say a suicide bomber targeted the entrance to the ministry and another was shot dead by guards before he could detonate his explosives. Libya’s Health Ministry says the Tuesday attack wounded 10 other people. Libya was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Moammar Gadhafi, allowing IS and other extremist groups to gain a foothold.

Three people are left dead in an attack against Libya's Foreign Affairs ministry in Tripoli.

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The S&P 500 plunged almost 3 percent to close at a 20-month low after news over the weekend that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called top executives from the six largest U.S. banks to discuss liquidity and a Bloomberg News report that President Donald Trump inquired about firing Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. “The Trump bubble, which has brought gains in U.S. stocks and the dollar, is collapsing,” said Mitsushige Akino, an executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “The more stocks fall, the more investor sentiment gets worse, so there’s more people who need to sell temporarily, such as stop-loss selling.” Japanese stocks have been caught in a global market rout, spurred by concerns about everything from the U.S.-China trade war to global central banks’ moves to tighten monetary policy. Sentiment has deteriorated in December, with foreign investors offloading billions of dollars in the country’s shares. For Justin Tang, the head of Asian research at United First Partners in Singapore, 20,000 is an important support level, the breaching of which confirms downside momentum. “This will be the last bastion of hope for Japanese investors,” Tang said. The Nikkei 225 currently trades at 12.9 times estimated 12-month forward earnings, the lowest level since November 2012. Jaiganesh Balasubramaniam, a market technician at Cashthechaos.com, says he’s expecting it to rebound. It’s “not very” important, Balasubramaniam said of breaching 20,000. “It’s just psychological. Round numbers. The Nikkei will briefly dip below 20,000 to around 19,800 and then will bounce.” The broader Topix index is down 15 percent this month, headed for its worst-ever December in data going back to 1949. The move has been exacerbated by a strengthening yen, which tends to serve as a haven in times of market sell-offs. The Japanese currency has strengthened for eight straight days against the dollar, and is up 3 percent this month. “It’s more a reaction to the yen,” Kerry Craig, a Melbourne-based global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, said of the Nikkei’s recent declines. Craig said he’s positive on Japanese stocks in the longer term, because of positive earnings forecasts and the country’s corporate governance overhaul. But more immediately, he said, it’s hard to escape the global stock rout. Japan is “very much a beta market that’s going to react to the global growth story,” Craig said. “It’s right next to China, so it’s going to get hit by that as well.” This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.[SEP]Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index dived more than five percent in morning trade Tuesday amid rising doubts about the US economy and fears sparked by a US government funding crisis.[SEP][TOKYO] Tokyo stocks opened more than three per cent higher on Thursday, with investors heartened by Wall Street's best performance in nine years. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumped 3.54 per cent or 684.32 points to 20,011.38 in the first few minutes of trade while the broader Topix index was up 3.81 per cent or 54.55 points at 1,486.02.[SEP]Japan’s key Nikkei stock index briefly lost more than 5 percent, or 1,000 points, to trade in the 19,100 level on Tuesday morning. Tokyo stocks opened sharply lower and extended their losses, with the Nikkei sliding below the psychologically important 20,000 mark for the first time in 15 months. The slide came as fears of a global economic slowdown amid plunging U.S. shares — as well as a stronger yen — hurt investor sentiment. The Nikkei 225 stock average ended the morning session at 19,147.45, down 1,018.74 from Friday’s close. The S&P 500 plunged almost 3 percent to close at a 20-month low after news over the weekend that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called top executives from the six largest U.S. banks to discuss liquidity and a report that President Donald Trump inquired about firing Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. “The Trump bubble, which has brought gains in U.S. stocks and the dollar, is collapsing,” said Mitsushige Akino, an executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “The more stocks fall, the more investor sentiment gets worse, so there’s more people who need to sell temporarily, such as stop-loss selling.” Japanese stocks have been caught in a global market rout, spurred by concerns about everything from the U.S.-China trade war to global central banks’ moves to tighten monetary policy. Sentiment has deteriorated in December, with foreign investors offloading billions of dollars in the country’s shares. For Justin Tang, the head of Asian research at United First Partners in Singapore, 20,000 is an important support level, the breaching of which confirms downside momentum. “This will be the last bastion of hope for Japanese investors,” Tang said.[SEP](Bloomberg) -- Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average tumbled 5 percent into a bear market as the global equity rout continued unabated in the last week of the year, with renewed turmoil in Washington rattling investors. Tuesday’s selloff took its cue from the S&P 500’s worst-ever trading session before the Christmas holiday. Shares in China, the other major Asian market open on Tuesday, also declined as investors shrugged off a pledge by the government to do more to support companies. Investors got mixed signals from Washington heading into the resumption of U.S. stock futures trading at 6 p.m. New York time. President Donald Trump said a partial U.S. government shutdown will continue until funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall is secure. He expressed confidence in his Treasury secretary and the Federal Reserve even as he again criticized the central bank for raising rates too quickly. “The Trump bubble, which has brought gains in U.S. stocks and the dollar, is collapsing,” said Mitsushige Akino, an executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “The more stocks fall, the more investor sentiment gets worse, so there’s more people who need to sell temporarily, such as stop-loss selling.” The tumult in Washington added to the troubles of investors, who have seen equities worldwide tumble on concerns about a slowing U.S. economy, the pace of the Fed’s rate hikes and the ongoing trade war. The S&P 500 plunged almost 3 percent to end at a 20-month low on Monday. Trump, speaking in Washington on Tuesday, sought to portray the decline in stocks as a positive for investors. “I have great confidence in our companies,” he told reporters. U.S. firms are “the greatest in the world and they’re doing really well. They have record kinds of numbers. So I think it’s a tremendous opportunity to buy. Really a great opportunity to buy.” Japanese equities are heading for their worst December on record. The Nikkei 225 fell 5 percent to close at 19,155.74 in Tokyo, with all but two members in the red. The blue-chip stock gauge dropped below 20,000 for the first time since September 2017 and closed 21 percent lower than an Oct. 2 high, joining the broader Topix index in a bear market. “It’s just like panic selling,” said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, head of investment information at Mizuho Securities Co. in Tokyo. “The equity markets are pricing in concerns over a slowdown in the global economy and a downward revision in corporate earnings in advance. Some investors are reducing their exposure to equities in their portfolio” by increasing cash or bonds. Read more on how the dollar is exposed to dysfunction and paralysis in Washington Japan’s benchmark 10-year bond yield slipped to zero percent for the first time since September 2017, while the yen advanced for an eighth day, its longest rising streak since March 2017, as investors sought haven. Adding to market woes, an emergency margin call was triggered for Japan index futures, according to Japan Securities Clearing Corp. “Market players on futures need to either reduce their trade volumes or pay emergency margins, which may make it difficult for them to actively trade,” said Hajime Sakai, chief fund manager at Mito Securities Co. Futures contracts on the Nikkei 225 fell below 19,000 as of 3:15 p.m. in Tokyo. Trump’s latest remarks on the Fed, delivered in front of reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office, focused broadly on the central bank and not Chairman Jerome Powell. “They’re raising interest rates too fast because they think the economy is so good,” Trump said. “But I think that they will get it pretty soon.” After Bloomberg reported that Trump had inquired about firing Powell, administration officials including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sought to tamp down the idea, only to have Trump rattle investors again on Monday with a Twitter rant aimed at the Fed. That blast didn’t name Powell either. Mnuchin’s failure to restore market confidence with calls to six major U.S. banks, and then an emergency meeting Monday with regulators, rekindled speculation that the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive could become a new target for Trump’s ire. The president said Tuesday that he has confidence in the “very talented Mnuchin.” Equities in Shanghai dropped, despite plans by policy makers to improve financing for the private sector and implement tax cuts. PetroChina Co. led the decline after crude plummeted. Israeli stocks advanced Tuesday, bucking the gloom. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange 35 index gained 2.1 percent, reversing a drop of as much as 2.8 percent and snapping a streak of three straight declines. --With assistance from Toshiro Hasegawa, Kurt Schussler, Matthew Burgess, Tom Redmond, Alyza Sebenius, Abhishek Vishnoi and Edward Dufner. To contact the reporters on this story: Keiko Ujikane in Tokyo at kujikane@bloomberg.net;Tan Hwee Ann in Singapore at hatan@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub, Scott Lanman For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com[SEP]* Nikkei drops more than 5 pct to lowest since April 2017 TOKYO, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei retreated to a 20-month low on Tuesday after a slide on Wall Street deepened with a series of unnerving U.S. political developments. The Nikkei share average ended the day down 5.01 percent at 19,155.74 after brushing 19,117.96, its lowest since late April 2017. The broader Topix closed 4.88 percent lower at 1,415.55 after touching 1,412.90, its weakest since November 2016. Wall Street stocks extended their steep sell-off on Monday, with the S&P 500 down nearly 15 percent so far this month, as investors were rattled by the U.S. Treasury secretary’s convening of a crisis group and by other political developments. Many financial markets in Asia, Europe and North America are closed on Tuesday for Christmas Day. “Negative sentiment has replaced logic, as is often the case during a sell-off. A third of the selling is induced by panic, another third by loss-cutting and the remaining third by speculators trying to make a profit from the market rout,” said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Securities in Tokyo. “The sell-off is triggered almost entirely by developments in the U.S. markets, rather than by negative factors unique to the domestic market.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called top U.S. bankers on Sunday amid the pullback in stocks and said he was calling a meeting of financial regulators to discuss ways to ensure “normal market operations”. Wall Street also grappled with the U.S. federal government shutdown and reports that President Donald Trump privately discussed the possibility of firing the Federal Reserve chairman. Blue chip shares fell across the board, with Toyota Motor Corp falling 5.25 percent, Sony Corp shedding 5.55 percent, Nintendo down 4.3 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group losing 4 percent. Defensive shares such as consumer staples, healthcare and utilities were unable to withstand the selling pressure. All of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 subsectors were in the red, led by precision machinery and pharmaceuticals . (Editing by Edmund Klamann)[SEP]TOKYO: Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index closed down more than five per cent on Tuesday (Dec 25) amid rising doubts about the US economy and fears sparked by a US government funding crisis. The Nikkei 225 index lost 5.01 per cent or 1,010.45 to 19,155.74, the worst finish since April 2017, while the broader Topix index plunged 4.88 per cent or 72.64 points at 1,415.55. Analysts had warned that the Japanese market would be volatile after steep falls on Wall Street on Monday, and with a higher yen against the dollar weighing on sentiment. But Makoto Sengoku, market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute, admitted surprise at the scale of the rout. "I didn't expect the market would tumble this much," he told AFP before the close. "There are no signs of selling running its course or big buyers emerging." The dollar fetched 110.01 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, down from 110.43 yen in New York on Monday and 111.38 yen in Asian trade on Friday. The Tokyo market was closed for a national holiday on Monday when US shares fell sharply with investors unnerved by reports that US President Donald Trump had asked about the possibility of firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The dive also came after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's efforts to reassure investors fell flat. Mnuchin was widely panned by market watchers over a phone call with the six biggest US banks, reporting on Twitter that the six CEOs have "ample liquidity" available. The move "prompted worries in the market," Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior market analyst at Monex, said in a note. Automakers were among losers in Tokyo, with Toyota dropping 5.25 per cent to 6,079 yen, Honda down 5.66 per cent at 2,756 yen and Nissan off 5.07 per cent at 838.1 yen at the break. Sony was down 5.55 per cent at 5,000 yen and Panasonic was down 5.56 per cent at 920 yen.[SEP]By Marketwatch and Associated Press Asian markets sink after U.S. stocks drop more than 2% Japanese stocks plunged Tuesday and other Asian markets declined following heavy Wall Street losses triggered by President Donald Trump's attack on the U.S. central bank. The Nikkei 225 fell by an unusually wide margin of 5%, hitting its lowest point since May 2017 with a close at 19,155.74. The index is now down just over 21% from highs reached in early October, which meets a widely accepted definition of a bear market. Loses were widespread, with all 33 Tokyo Stock Exchange subsectors posting losses. Fuji Electric dropped over 7%, SoftBank Group was off 7.6%, Fast Retailing fell over 4% and Toyota sank over 5%. China's Shanghai Composite Index pared losses to close down 0.9%, with the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite faring the same. Taiwan's benchmark index declined more than 1%. Markets in Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas. "The sell-off is triggered almost entirely by developments in the U.S. markets, rather than by negative factors unique to the domestic market," Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Securities in Tokyo, told CNBC (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/25/asia-markets-japans-nikkei-hits-20-month-low.html). Wall Street indexes fell more than 2% on Monday after Trump said on Twitter the Federal Reserve was the U.S. economy's "only problem." Efforts by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to calm investor fears only seemed to make matters worse. U.S. stocks are track for their worst December since 1931 during the Great Depression. The market has been roiled by concerns about a slowing global economy, the trade dispute with China and another interest rate increase by the Fed. Trump's Monday morning tweet heightened fears about the economy being destabilized by a president who wants control over the Fed. Its board members are nominated by the president, but they make decisions independently of the White House. The board's chairman, Jerome Powell, was nominated by Trump last year. "The only problem our economy has is the Fed," the president said on Twitter. "They don't have a feel for the Market, they don't understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can't score because he has no touch -- he can't putt!" The S&P 500 index slid 2.7% to 2,351.10. The benchmark index is now down 19.8% from its peak on Sept. 20, close to the 20% drop that would officially mean the end of the longest bull market for stocks in modern history -- a run of nearly 10 years. On Sunday, Mnuchin made a round of calls to the heads of the six largest U.S. banks, but the move only raised new concerns about the economy. Most economists expect U.S. economic growth to slow in 2019, not slide into a full-blown recession. But the president has voiced his anger over the Fed's decision to raise its key short-term rate four times in 2018. That is intended to prevent the economy from overheating.[SEP]Japanese stocks plunged Tuesday and other Asian markets declined following heavy Wall Street losses triggered by President Donald Trump’s attack on the U.S. central bank. The Nikkei 225 NIK, -5.01% fell by an unusually wide margin of about 5%, hitting its lowest point since May 2017. Loses were widespread, with all 33 Tokyo Stock Exchange subsectors posting losses. Fuji Electric 6504, -7.55% was down 7%, SoftBank Group 9984, -7.58% was off 7%, Fast Retailing 9983, -4.13% fell 4.5% and Toyota 7203, -5.25% sank 5%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -0.87% lost 2.4% while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, -0.85% fell 2.8%. Taiwan’s benchmark index Y9999, -1.17% also declined more than 1%. Markets in Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas. “The sell-off is triggered almost entirely by developments in the U.S. markets, rather than by negative factors unique to the domestic market,” Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Securities in Tokyo, told CNBC. Wall Street indexes fell more than 2% on Monday after Trump said on Twitter the Federal Reserve was the U.S. economy’s “only problem.” Efforts by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to calm investor fears only seemed to make matters worse. U.S. stocks are track for their worst December since 1931 during the Great Depression. Read: Which stock and bond markets close, and when, for Christmas and New Year’s holidays The market has been roiled by concerns about a slowing global economy, the trade dispute with China and another interest rate increase by the Fed. Trump’s Monday morning tweet heightened fears about the economy being destabilized by a president who wants control over the Fed. Its board members are nominated by the president, but they make decisions independently of the White House. The board’s chairman, Jerome Powell, was nominated by Trump last year. “The only problem our economy has is the Fed,” the president said on Twitter. “They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch — he can’t putt!” The S&P 500 index SPX, -2.71% slid 2.7% to 2,351.10. The benchmark index is now down 19.8% from its peak on Sept. 20, close to the 20% drop that would officially mean the end of the longest bull market for stocks in modern history — a run of nearly 10 years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.91% sank 2.9% to 21,792.20. The Nasdaq skidded 2.2% to 6,192.92. On Sunday, Mnuchin made a round of calls to the heads of the six largest U.S. banks, but the move only raised new concerns about the economy. Most economists expect U.S. economic growth to slow in 2019, not slide into a full-blown recession. But the president has voiced his anger over the Fed’s decision to raise its key short-term rate four times in 2018. That is intended to prevent the economy from overheating. Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.

The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange drops 5% to below 20,000, its lowest level since September 2017.

Business Car makers near CO2 cliff edge in a race for rapid electrification Time is running out for European car makers, who have waited until the last minute to try to meet ambitious European Union (EU) emissions targets and face billions in fines if they fail to comply.[SEP](Bloomberg) -- North and South Korean staged a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony to upgrade severed rail links, although UN Security Council approval would be needed to advance the project. Long-stalled plans to restore rail links severed by the Korean War were revived in historic summits by North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier this year. While South Korea said the Security Council granted an exemption to United Nations sanctions Tuesday to allow the ceremony to proceed, additional relief would be needed to start construction. “The result of the North and South Korean railway and road project depends on our nation’s mental strength and will. If we are swayed by others’ views, we cannot achieve the unification that our nation wants,” Kim Yun Hyok, North Korea’s vice railway minister, said at the ceremony, according to the YTN TV network. “Railways will now also play a role of reducing the gap between the hearts of South and North Korea,” South Korean Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee said. The rail project was first launched more than 15 years ago, but scuttled by political acrimony and global sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The U.S., which holds a Security Council veto, has refused to ease the economic penalties until North Korea takes steps toward disarmament and talks between the two sides have achieved little progress. Last week, North Korean state media said removal of the U.S.’s nuclear weapons from the region was a condition of its own disarmament, raising the stakes for President Donald Trump’s efforts to hold a second summit with Kim, after their first meeting in June. Seoul has said work to modernize North Korean railways and roads before connecting them with its own wouldn’t start until the international sanctions against Pyongyang were lifted, adding construction hinges on North Korea’s denuclearization steps. North Korean Ri Son Gwon who oversees the North’s exchanges with the South, his South Korean counterpart Cho Myoung-Gyon and transport officials from China, Russia and Mongolia were among the hundreds of people attending the rail event in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong. Sanctions enforced by the Security Council and the U.S. prohibit sending fuel or conducting economic activities that could generate cash for Kim’s regime. South Korea said in November it had won exemptions for the rail survey. The last rail service during the 1950-1953 Korean War came in 1951 when a train carrying wounded soldiers and refugees crossed into South Korea. Links were cut for decades after that. But a few years after the first summit of leaders on the divided peninsula in 2000, South Korea built roads and restored rail links to the North Korean border region. For a brief period about a decade ago, South Korea ran freight trains into Gaeseong, where South Korea had an industrial park, until political tensions undermined the project. Moon’s rapprochement toward North Korea included three summits with Kim Jong Un this year, but have been limited by international sanctions and the slowing pace of diplomacy between the two sides. Pyongyang hasn’t responded to the latest move by Washington to review its policy on humanitarian aid to the North, which was proposed when U.S. nuclear envoy Stephen Biegun was in Seoul last week. The Chinese ambassador to South Korea, Qiu Guohong, told South Korea’s Kim Hyun-mee during the event Wednesday that he believed the railway project would help denuclearization. To contact the reporters on this story: Youkyung Lee in Seoul at ylee582@bloomberg.net;Sohee Kim in Seoul at skim847@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com[SEP]The two Koreas held a ceremony on Wednesday for a project to reconnect rail and road links, although construction cannot begin while sanctions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes remain in place, officials said. The two sides agreed in October to inaugurate work on reconnecting railways and roads that have been cut since the 1950-53 Korean War, another example of the thaw in North-South relations this year. A special train carried 100 South Korean officials, politicians and members of families displaced by the war to the ceremony at Panmun Station in the border city of Kaesong. They were joined by a 100-strong North Korean delegation, as well as officials from the United Nations, China, Russia and Mongolia, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry. The United States and the UN Security Council gave their support for the ceremony, South Korean officials said, but construction cannot begin while sanctions block the shipment of energy and metal products, as well as other supplies. "There's a lot of things to do before we actually start construction," Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee said, adding the two sides would conduct additional joint surveys and design work for one or two years. There was a feeling of nervous excitement on the South Korean train as it left the capital Seoul. "I'm just deeply moved," said Shin Jang-chul, who drove the last freight train between the Koreas a decade ago. "It's been 10 years and I've been wondering if I would ever be able to come back after I retire," he added. The ceremony was another example of the thaw in relations between the Koreas, technically still at war after their conflict ended in a truce not a peace treaty. But major economic initiatives have been stalled by the lack of progress on denuclearising the North. South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to the ceremony during a September summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a step toward joint industrial zones and reconnecting transport links. However, the plan has been delayed amid US concerns that improving Korean ties could undermine efforts to press Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. Kim agreed to work toward denuclearisation at a summit with US President Donald Trump in June, but talks have since made little headway, with Pyongyang upset at Washington's insistence that sanctions remain until the North takes concrete steps toward denuclearisation. "The South is trying to build on existing agreements, believing that advancing inter-Korean ties would have a positive impact on denuclearisation," said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. "But given the absence of actual construction, the North will keep pressing the South to make it happen despite sanctions, in line with Kim's efforts to shore up his regime," he added.[SEP]related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 6 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. The two Koreas on Wednesday launched a project to reconnect rail and road links severed since the 1950-53 Korean War, but actual construction cannot start while sanctions remain in place against North Korea, officials said. SEOUL: The two Koreas on Wednesday launched a project to reconnect rail and road links severed since the 1950-53 Korean War, but actual construction cannot start while sanctions remain in place against North Korea, officials said. The two sides agreed in October to work on reconnecting railways and roads as part of a thaw in relations that the United States fears will undermine efforts to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. "There's a lot of things to do before we actually start construction," South Korean Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee said before the ceremony in the city of Kaesong on the North Korean side of the border. The materials and investment needed for construction to begin are banned under U.N. and U.S. sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes. Washington insists sanctions remain until the North gives up its nuclear weapons. South Korean officials, politicians and members of families displaced by the war boarded a special train to the ceremony. Shin Jang-chul, who drove the last freight train between the Koreas when they operated a joint factory park a decade ago, said he never thought he would return to the North. "I'm just deeply moved," Shin said. "It's been 10 years and I've been wondering if I would ever be able to come back after I retire." They were joined by a North Korean delegation, as well as officials from the United Nations, China, Russia and Mongolia, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry. Speaking at the event, the North's Vice Railroad Minister Kim Yun Hyok called for an "unwavering determination to stand against headwinds" that could threaten the project. "The results of the rail and road project hinge on the spirit and will of our people," Kim said. The two sides will conduct additional joint surveys and design work that could take one or two years to complete, the South's Kim Hyun-mee said. Wednesday's ceremony was another example of the thaw in relations between the Koreas, technically still at war after their conflict ended in a truce not a peace treaty. But major economic initiatives have yet to take off amid the lack of progress on denuclearising the North. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to work toward denuclearisation at a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June. But negotiations have made little headway, with Pyongyang upset at Washington's insistence that sanctions remain until the North takes concrete steps to give up its nuclear arsenal. "The South is trying to build on existing agreements, believing that advancing inter-Korean ties would have a positive impact on denuclearisation," said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. "But given the absence of actual construction, the North will keep pressing the South to make it happen despite sanctions, in line with Kim's efforts to shore up his regime," he added.[SEP]North and South Korea have symbolically joined their railway networks together as they begin work to reconnect transport networks between the two countries. But construction on the project cannot actually begin because of international sanctions banning the import of metals and energy products into North Korea. Instead, engineers from the North and South - which are still technically at war - will spend the next two years conducting joint surveys and doing design work. The groundbreaking ceremony was held at Panmun Station in the border city of Kaesong on Wednesday. A train full of 100 South Korean government officials, ministers and family members displaced by the Korean War was driven to the station for the event. They were in turn greeted by a 100-strong North Korean delegation, as well as officials from the United Nations, China, Russia and Mongolia - amid wider plans to link North Korea with the trans-Siberia and trans-China railways. But, underlining the scale of the challenges facing the project, even getting a train to Panmun required South Korea to obtain a permit from the UN Security Council. Kim Yun Hyok, the North Korean vice railways minister, said the Koreas should push further with engagement instead of 'wobbling on the path while listening to what others think,' designed as a rebuke to Seoul over its close ties with America. North Korea has repeatedly voiced displeasure about the slow progress in the reconciliatory projects agreed between their leaders. The Seoul government plans to conduct further surveys on North Korean railways and roads before drawing up a detailed blueprint for the project. Actual construction will proceed depending on the progress in the North's denuclearization and the state of sanctions against the country, the ministry said. 'We plan to hold detailed negotiations with the North to coordinate on the specific levels we want to achieve in the modernization of railways and roads and how to carry out the project,' said Eugene Lee, the ministry's spokeswoman. South Korea has set aside some $600,000 for the project, but experts say the North's transport infrastructure is so dilapidated that it could take decades and absorb billions of dollars to modernise. South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to the ceremony during a September summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a step toward joint industrial zones and reconnecting transport links. It is another example of the thaw in relations between the Koreas, which began at the Winter Olympics and saw Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in holding hands while listening to K-Pop together. The same thawing also saw American President Donald Trump meet with Kim in Singapore for the first ever summit between the two countries. Trump let the summit full of admiration for Kim and certain he had achieved concrete steps towards 'denuclearising' the North, but progress has stalled over what that word actually means. Pyongyang insists that it has taken several concrete steps towards winding down its nuclear weapons program, such as destroying the underground Punggye-ri testing site, and that it is time for America to reciprocate by lifting sanctions. However, Washington is insisting that North Korea give up its entire nuclear arsenal first before sanctions are lifted later - an idea that Pyongyang has balked at. A second summit between Trump and Kim is scheduled to take place in Washington sometime early next year, which the US leader has said he is 'looking forward' to.[SEP]The United Nations Security Council has granted a sanctions exemption for North and South Korea to hold a joint event for their railway and roads connection project, Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday. "Consultations over the groundbreaking ceremony with the council's North Korea sanctions committee were wrapped up Monday, New York time," a Seoul foreign ministry official said, according to the agency.[SEP]Bottom line: Korea has spoken; war is no longer an option. Editor's Note: Looking for more perspectives on North Korea? Check out all 27 expert predictions on North Korea in 2019 here. The real question for 2019 is not whether Kim Jong Un will soon give up his nuclear weapons but whether and how South and North Korea will continue to drive the peace process after a year which saw some of the most dramatic steps towards Korean reconciliation since the Korean War. And that question begins with the United States. As any Korea watcher is aware, the denuclearization talks between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that looked so promising in June have stalled, precipitously. The breakdown began as it became clear to Kim and his advisory team of spies, generals and diplomats that President Trump’s equivalents (which include the military-industrial and arms control think tanks and a media that closely follows their directions) had no intention of relaxing his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions and military pressure before Kim dismantles his nuclear apparatus. This tough approach, which was in place even as Trump was painting a glossy version of the talks, was buttressed by a withering campaign by certain U.S. media outlets (NBC, New York Times). They used carefully planted intelligence leaks and purposely distorted data from think tanks to convince the U.S. public that North Korea was “cheating” on an “agreement” that never existed in the first place—but could be completed with effective negotiations. Moreover, the U.S. propaganda barrage obscured the fact that the U.S. administration has reneged on its own pledges in Singapore to “establish new US-DPRK relations” and help North and South “build a lasting and stable peace regime.” These necessary steps would help convince the DPRK that its nuclear disarmament could proceed safely while protecting its national integrity. President Moon Jae-in and his team understand this dynamic only too well; in 2018 severe tensions between Seoul and Washington emerged over two issues. First was the issue of sanctions, especially as they pertained to North-South agreements to link their transport systems and establish a permanent liaison office north of the DMZ. Second was the pace of the inter-Korean peace process itself. America’s reluctance to embrace South Korea’s right to make the peace inside its own country and on its own terms brought the critical issue of South Korean sovereignty to the fore in a way that has not happened since South Korea’s democratic spring of 1960. As I look at 2019, I think the two Koreas’ drive towards a permanent peace (including denuclearization) will continue, forcing the United States, with support from Moon, to adapt to South Korea’s more effective gradualist approach. Bottom line: Korea has spoken; war is no longer an option. Tim Shorrock is a regular contributor to The National Interest and writes regularly on Korea, Japan, and U.S. intelligence for The Nation. Follow him on Twitter at @TimothyS.[SEP]SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean officials have traveled to North Korea by train to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for an aspirational project to modernize North Korean railways and roads and connect them with the South. Wednesday’s ceremony at the North Korean border town of Kaesong comes weeks after the Koreas conducted a joint survey on the northern railway sections they hope to someday link with the South. The ambitious project is among a variety of peace gestures agreed between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in as they push ahead with engagement amid a stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. But beyond on-site reviews and ceremonies, the Koreas cannot move the project much further along without the removal of U.S.-led sanctions against the North. During his three summits with Moon and a meeting with President Donald Trump in June, Kim signed vague statements pledging a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing how and when it would occur. But followup nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled for months over the sequencing of the denuclearization that Washington wants and the removal of international sanctions desired by Pyongyang. South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said the Seoul government plans to conduct further surveys on North Korean railways and roads before drawing up a detailed blueprint for the project. “Actual construction will be pursued in accordance with progress in the North’s denuclearization and the state of sanctions against the North,” the ministry said in a statement. Even if the North takes concrete steps toward denuclearization and gains sanctions relief, some experts say updating North Korean rail networks and trains, which creak slowly along the rails that were first built in the early 20th century, could take decades and massive investment. Seoul said it received an exemption to sanctions from the U.N. Security Council to proceed with Wednesday’s ceremony as it involved the usage of South Korean transport vehicles and goods. The Koreas’ joint survey of North Korean railways in November, which also required U.N. approval, marked the first time a South Korean train traveled on North Korean tracks. The Koreas in December 2007 began freight services between South Korea’s Munsan Station in Paju and the North’s Panmun Station to support operations at a now-shuttered joint factory park in Kaesong. The South used the trains to move construction materials north, while clothing and shoes made at the factory park were sent south. The line was cut in November 2008 due to political tensions over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The Kaesong factory park was shut down under the South’s previous conservative government in February 2016 following a North Korean nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.[SEP]SEOUL: A South Korean delegation left for North Korea on Wednesday (Dec 26) to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for reconnecting roads and railways across the divided peninsula despite stalled denuclearisation talks. A nine-car special train carrying some 100 South Koreans, including officials and five people born in the North, was seen leaving Seoul railway station early in the morning for a two-hour journey to the North's border city of Kaesong. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North's leader Kim Jong Un agreed to hold the ceremony by the end of this year when they met at their third summit in Pyongyang in September. Concerns arose that the train and other materials being brought into the North for the ceremony could breach various sanctions imposed on the isolated regime over its nuclear weapons programme, but the UN Security Council reportedly granted a waver for the event. Seoul stressed that the ceremony would not herald the start of actual work on reconnecting and modernising road and rail links between the two Koreas - which remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended without a peace treaty. The event is a mere "expression of a commitment" to the projects, a South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman said, adding that construction would depend on "progress on the North's denuclearisation and circumstances concerning sanctions." The two sides wrapped up their joint railway and road inspections for the projects this month. South Korea has set aside some US$620,000 for the endeavour. The ceremony comes as the United States ramps up efforts to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. Following a rapid rapprochement earlier this year that culminated in a historic summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, progress has stalled with both sides accusing each other of dragging their feet and acting in bad faith. Critics say North Korea has made no concrete commitments and is unlikely to surrender its atomic arsenal, while Washington's policy of maintaining pressure through isolation and sanctions has left Pyongyang seething. Trump said on Monday that he was "looking forward" to his second summit with Kim, which Washington says may take place early next year. He tweeted the statement after he was briefed by Stephen Biegun, the US special representative on North Korea, who wrapped up a three-day trip to Seoul on Saturday. Biegun said last week the United States will be more lenient in enforcing its blanket ban on US citizens' travel to the totalitarian state when dealing with aid workers, a goodwill gesture as Trump seeks a fresh summit. The Trump administration has generally refused to let US aid groups operate in North Korea, seeking to both maximise pressure on Pyongyang and ensure the safety of Americans. Biegun also said in Seoul last week Washington was willing to discuss trust-building initiatives with Pyongyang. Senior transport officials from Russia, China and Mongolia as well as several foreign ambassadors to South Korea will attend Wednesday's ceremony, the South's Unification Ministry said.[SEP]North Korea issued a straightforward statement Thursday saying Pyongyang won’t denuclearize until the United States removes its nuclear threat from the region first. “The proper definition of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is completely eliminating the American nuclear threat to North Korea before eliminating our nuclear capability,” commentary published by state-run Korean Central News Agency declared. The United States and North Korea have been entrenched in negotiations since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed at their June 12 summit to “work toward complete denuclearization.” In the roughly six months since, few concrete developments have been made. In Thursday remarks, which are attributed to an individual named Jong Hyon, North Korea is insisting the U.S. remove “all elements of nuclear threats from the areas of both the north and the south of Korea and also from surrounding areas from where the Korean peninsula is targeted.” TRENDING: Congress Considered To Have Lowest Ethics of All Professions The statement’s distinction of not only removing the nuclear threat from North and South Korea but the surrounding regions mirrors the reverse debate in the U.S. on whether the strategy is focused on “denuclearization of North Korea” or “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” “I don’t want to split words, and I think our policy has been clear,” State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters Tuesday. North Korea has asked for several concessions in the past before committing to complete denuclearization. It has demanded the U.S. lift sanctions on the country, requested to officially end the Korean War and asked for a second meeting with Trump. The State Department cancelled a much anticipated meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean official Kim Yong Chol in November with little explanation, saying the meeting “will now take place at a later date.” Pompeo insisted Thursday that the U.S. is “undoubtedly” in a better place with the communist dictatorship than it was a year ago. “No more missiles being tested, no more nuclear testing. We’re in a better place today,” Pompeo said to Kansas radio station KNSS. Pyongyang’s heightened request comes just a day after the U.S. was in talks about easing a travel ban and letting American aid workers deliver humanitarian relief to North Korea, The Wall Street Journal reported. This potential concession came as Trump’s special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, landed in Seoul for meetings with South Korean officials regarding North Korea’s denuclearization. A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

North Korea and South Korea hold a ceremony for a project to reconnect rail and road links, although construction cannot start while sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs remain in place.

Beijing (CNN) — Eight people are dead after a hijacked bus drove into pedestrians in the southeastern Chinese city of Longyan in Fujian province, authorities said Tuesday. Police detained a 48-year-old knife-wielding man, surnamed Qiu, at the scene. Authorities are investigating the incident, the Longyan City government office said. Twenty-two others were injured in the attack, which took place at 3.20 p.m. local time Tuesday, with one person left in critical condition. Authorities said the perpetrator "took revenge on society" after a dispute with local officials about his father's veteran benefits. According to Chinese state-run CCTV, on the day of the attack some officials from the local residents' committee went to Qiu's house and an argument ensued.[SEP]Eight people are dead after a hijacked bus drove into pedestrians in the southeastern Chinese city of Longyan in Fujian province, authorities said Tuesday. Police detained a 48-year-old knife-wielding man, surnamed Qiu, at the scene. Authorities are investigating the incident, the Longyan City government office said. Twenty-two others were injured in the attack, which took place at 3.20 p.m. local time Tuesday, with one person left in critical condition. Authorities said the perpetrator “took revenge on society” after a dispute with local officials about his father’s veteran benefits. According to Chinese state-run CCTV, on the day of the attack some officials from the local residents’ committee went to Qiu’s house and an argument ensued. The attacker stabbed at least one person to death with a knife, then hijacked the bus. There is no information yet as to how many people were killed by Qiu before he drove the bus into pedestrians.[SEP]Man hijacks bus and drives it into crowd, killing 5 & injuring 21 in Longyan, China A man has hijacked a bus and drove it into a crowd of people in China’s city of Longyan, killing five people and injuring 21 others, Chinese media reported. The incident happened in the coastal southeastern Fujian province. The assailant was reportedly detained by police. #Breakingnews A bus hijacked by knifed man plowed to crows with speed, feared 5 dead & 21 injured, in Long zuan city , Fu Jian Province , Southeast China. pic.twitter.com/JsoHbfer4s — Jay Chan (@WooyaUtopia) December 25, 2018[SEP]Beijing - Eight people were killed and 22 injured on Tuesday after a bus was hijacked by a knife-wielding man and crashed into a crowd in south-eastern China, state broadcaster CCTV said. The hijacker drove the bus into the pedestrians for 300 to 400 metres in the city of Longyan, in Fujian province, the official Xinhua news agency reported. It was not immediately clear how many casualties were on the bus and how many were in the crowd. Police identified the suspect as a 48-year-old man from Longyan according to CCTV. He was apprehended following the incident. CCTV said he may have been motivated by a disagreement with a local neighbourhood committee before hijacking the bus. The case remains under investigation.[SEP]The 22 wounded passengers have been taken to local hospitals. BEIJING Eight people were killed and 22 injured after a hijacked bus crashed into pedestrians in east China's Fujian province on Tuesday, state media reported. A hijacker carrying a knife has been detained and is being investigated by local police, state television CGTN said. The incident happened in the afternoon in the city of Longyan, the local Minxi Ribao newspaper reported. A policeman was among those confirmed dead. In a video posted by Duowei news, a Chinese media outlet based in the US, several injured people were shown lying on the street near a crashed bus, its front badly damaged. It also showed police wrestling a person to the ground. Blood could also be seen on the steps of the bus, which had been stopped in the middle of a road. He had attacked a female passenger before taking control of the bus, Duowei reported. Police said that on the day of the attack, the suspect had quarrelled with a local official who had visited his home, adding that the pair had a long history of conflict, according to the Xinhua report. The 22 wounded were taken to local hospitals, with one person being treated for "serious injures", Xinhua said. China has suffered a spate of similar incidents this year. Late last month, a car ploughed into a group of children crossing a street in front of an elementary school in the north-eastern Liaoning province, killing five people and injuring at least 19.[SEP]A man has hijacked a bus and drove it into a crowd of people in China's city of Longyan, killing 8 people and injuring 22 others. The attacker is believed to have entered the bus armed with a knife and caused panic.The incident happened in the coastal southeastern Fujian province. The assailant was reportedly detained by police. HeOne of those killed is thought to be a police officer.Online footage, purporting to be from the scene, shows a road littered with parts from damaged vehicles and a group of police officers and bystanders pouncing on the alleged hijacker.Other clips show people lying on the ground, apparently hurt in the incident (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES).[SEP]Eight killed in China as hijacked bus crashes into pedestrians Beijing, China | AFP | Eight people were killed and 22 injured after a hijacked bus crashed into pedestrians in east China’s Fujian province on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported. A hijacker carrying a knife has been detained and is being investigated by local police, state television CGTN said. The incident happened at about 3:20 pm (0720 GMT) in the city of Longyan, the local Minxi Ribao newspaper reported. A policeman was among those confirmed dead. In a video posted by Duowei news, a Chinese media outlet based in the US, several injured people were shown lying on the street near a crashed bus, its front badly damaged. It also showed police wrestling a person to the ground. Blood could also be seen on the steps of the bus, which had been stopped in the middle of a road. He had attacked a female passenger before taking control of the bus, Duowei reported. Police said that on the day of the attack the suspect had quarrelled with a local official who had visited his home, adding that the pair had a long history of conflict, according to the Xinhua report. The 22 wounded in the attack were taken to local hospitals, with one person being treated for “serious injures”, Xinhua said. Longyan public security bureau declined to comment when contacted by AFP. China has suffered a spate of similar incidents this year. In late November, a car ploughed into a group of children crossing a street in front of an elementary school in the northeastern Liaoning province, killing five people and injuring at least 19. The driver said he “chose his victims at random” and had reportedly been contemplating suicide due to domestic troubles before the tragedy occurred. In October, three people were killed when a man fleeing after committing a stabbing drove into a crowd and attacked onlookers in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The month before, a man ploughed a truck into a crowd in Hunan province and went on a rampage, attacking onlookers with knives and a shovel. Eleven died and 44 were injured. Grisly car accidents are common in China, where transportation authorities have struggled to uphold safety regulations — which are often flouted or go unenforced. According to authorities 58,000 people were killed in accidents across the country in 2015 alone. Last month, at least 13 people died when a bus plunged off a bridge in Chongqing municipality, after the driver got into a fist fight with a passenger who had missed her bus stop. Search and rescue teams dispatched more than 70 boats, as well as a team of scuba divers and underwater robots, to find the wreckage and retrieve bodies from the water. Violent crime has also been on the rise in recent decades as the gap between rich and poor has widened rapidly. Studies also show a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders, some of them linked to stress as the pace of life becomes faster and support systems wither.[SEP]A knifeman hijacked a bus and ploughed into pedestrians and motorcyclists in a busy street street, killing five and injuring 21 before his rampage came to an end. The bloody attack happened in the city of Longyan, in China's south-eastern Fujian province, on Tuesday afternoon. Footage posted on social media shows scenes of carnage, as badly-injured or deceased victims lay in the street next to a trail of debris. Video shows police officers tackling the suspect and wrestling him to the floor in the middle of a busy street as a crowd gathers around them. A police officer was among those killed in the knife and vehicle rampage. Chinese media said the attacker hijacked a public bus and used it to mow down his victims at about 3.20pm local time. Eyewitnesses said the man was carrying a blood-stained knife when he walked off the bus and was tackled. Police said a suspect was in custody. The motive for the attack was not known. In the aftermath, the bus was seen with its front end demolished. A number of destroyed motorcycles or scooters were scattered on the floor. Longyan is about 650 miles south of Shanghai. There have been a number of vehicle and knife attacks against innocent victims in China in recent years, many of them targeting children at schools or random people in streets. Last-month, at least six young schoolchildren were killed and almost 20 people were injured when a car slammed into them as they crossed a road in Huludao, China. Earlier in November, a man armed with a knife ploughed into pedestrians in Ningbo, killing two and injuring more than a dozen. At least 14 pupils aged about three or four years old were injured when a woman with a kitchen knife stormed a kindergarten and began slashing and stabbing the youngsters in October. The woman attacked her victims as they returned from morning exercises with their teacher in Banan District of China's southwestern city of Chongqing. In September, a man deliberately drove an SUV into a crowd in Hunan and then attacked people with a knife and a shovel, killing 11 and injuring more than 40.[SEP]Eight people were killed and 22 injured after a hijacked bus crashed into pedestrians in east China’s Fujian province on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported. A hijacker carrying a knife has been detained and is being investigated by local police, state television CGTN said. The incident happened at about 3:20pm (0720 GMT) in the city of Longyan, the local Minxi Ribao newspaper reported. A policeman was among the five confirmed dead. In a video posted by Duowei news, a Chinese media outlet based in the US, several injured people were shown lying on the street near a crashed bus, its front badly damaged. It also showed police wrestling a person to the ground. The state-run Xinhua news agency reported the suspect was a 48-year-old local man. Blood could also be seen on the steps of the bus, which had been stopped in the middle of a road. The hijacker had attacked a female passenger before taking control of the bus, Duowei reported. Longyan public security bureau declined to comment when contacted by AFP. China has suffered a spate of similar incidents this year. In late November, a car ploughed into a group of children crossing a street in front of an elementary school in the northeastern Liaoning province, killing five people and injuring at least 19. The driver said he “chose his victims at random” and had reportedly been contemplating suicide due to domestic troubles before the tragedy occurred. In October, three people were killed when a man fleeing after committing a stabbing drove into a crowd and attacked onlookers in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The month before, a man ploughed a truck into a crowd in Hunan province and went on a rampage, attacking onlookers with knives and a shovel. Eleven died and 44 were injured. Violent crime has been on the rise in China in recent decades as the gap between rich and poor has widened rapidly. Studies also show a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders, some linked to stress.[SEP]8 killed in China as hijacked bus crashes into pedestrians BEIJING: At least eight people were killed and 21 other injured after a hijacked bus crashed into pedestrians in east China´s Fujian province on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported. A hijacker carrying a knife has been detained and is being investigated by local police, state television CGTN reported. The incident happened at about 3:20 p.m in the city of Longyan, the local Minxi Ribao newspaper reported. A policeman was among the five confirmed dead. In a video posted by Duowei news, a Chinese media outlet based in the US, several injured people were lying on the street near a crashed bus, its front badly damaged. It also showed police wrestling a person to the ground. Blood could also be seen on the steps of the bus, which had been stopped in the middle of a road. The hijacker had attacked a female passenger before taking control of the bus, Duowei reported. The suspect has not been identified and Longyan public security bureau declined to comment when contacted by AFP. China has suffered a spate of similar incidents this year. In late November, a car ploughed into a group of children crossing a street in front of an elementary school in the northeastern Liaoning province, killing five people and injuring at least 19. The driver said he "chose his victims at random" and had reportedly been contemplating suicide due to domestic troubles before the tragedy occurred. In October, three people were killed when a man fleeing after committing a stabbing drove into a crowd and attacked onlookers in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The month before, a man ploughed a truck into a crowd in Hunan province and went on a rampage, attacking onlookers with knives and a shovel. Eleven died and 44 were injured. Grisly car accidents are common in China, where transportation authorities have struggled to enforce safety regulations, which are often flouted or go unenforced.

A man stabs a local government official and a police officer to death in the streets of Longyan, China, then hijacks a bus and drove it into pedestrians, killing eight people and wounding 22 others. Authorities said the perpetrator "took revenge on society" after a dispute with local officials about his father's veteran benefits.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Campaigners had held protests demanding medicinal cannabis be allowed Thailand's parliament has voted to approve cannabis for medical use, with a key lawmaker calling it a "New Year's gift" to the Thai people. Recreational use will remain illegal. Marijuana was used in Thailand as a traditional medicine, until it was banned in the 1930s. South East Asia has some of the world's toughest penalties for drug usage or possession, and Thailand is the first in the region to allow medicinal marijuana. Thailand's junta-appointed parliament voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 on Tuesday. It happened after an extra parliamentary session was arranged to push bills through before the New Year's holidays, according to Reuters news agency. The amendment will become law when it is published in the government gazette, The Bangkok Post reported. "This is a New Year's gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people," said Somchai Sawangkarn, chairman of the drafting committee, during the televised session. What will be allowed? Consumers will be able to carry specified amounts necessary for medicinal purposes, if they have a prescription or recognised certificate, the Bangkok Post said. Licences for production and sale of the product will be strictly controlled. The paper said the law also applies to kratom, a South East Asian plant that acts as a stimulant. Worldwide changes Across the world, countries have been revisiting their marijuana laws. Canada and Uruguay are among those to have legalised it, including for recreational use. However South East Asia is known for having very harsh punishments for drugs-related charges. Earlier this year, a man in Malaysia was given a death sentence for selling cannabis oil. Meanwhile, on the Indonesian island of Bali, a British man is facing up to 15 years in prison after being found with cannabis oil which he says he needed for medical reasons. The 45-year-old Pip Holmes, from Cornwall, says he asked a friend to send it to him while he was living in Bali to help his arthritis. Image copyright Getty Images Medical cannabis - what the research says Conclusive or substantial evidence that it helps: as treatment for chronic pain in adults as treatment for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting for improving patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms Moderate evidence that it helps: improving sleep in individuals with specific conditions including fibromyalgia and obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome Epilepsy Recent studies have found that cannabidiol (CBD - an active ingredient in cannabis) reduced seizures in individuals with rare childhood epilepsy disorders - Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome Sources: US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; New England Journal of Medicine; NHS[SEP]Thailand approved marijuana for medical use and research on Tuesday, the first legalization of the drug in a region with some of the world's strictest drug laws. The junta-appointed parliament in Thailand, a country which until the 1930s had a tradition of using marijuana to relieve pain and fatigue, voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 in an extra parliamentary session handling a rush of bills before the New Year's holidays. "This is a New Year's gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people," said Somchai Sawangkarn, chairman of the drafting committee, in a televised parliamentary session. While countries from Colombia to Canada have legalized marijuana for medical or even recreational use, the drug remains illegal and taboo across much of Southeast Asia, which has some of the world's harshest punishments for drug law violations. Marijuana traffickers can be subject to the death penalty in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. But in Thailand, the main controversy with legalization involved patent requests by foreign firms that could allow them to dominate the market, making it harder for Thai patients to access medicines and for Thai researchers to access marijuana extracts. "We're going to demand that the government revoke all these requests before the law takes effect," said Panthep Puapongpan, Dean of the Rangsit Institute of Integrative Medicine and Anti-Aging. Some Thai advocates hope that Tuesday's approval will pave the way for legalization for recreational use. "This is the first baby step forward," said Chokwan Chopaka, an activist with Highland Network, a cannabis legalization advocacy group in Thailand.[SEP]In a regional first, Thailand’s junta-appointed parliament voted Tuesday to approve marijuana for medical use. A top lawmaker described the vote as a holiday gift to the country. “This is a New Year’s gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people,” said Somchai Sawangkarn, chairman of the drafting committee, according to Reuters. Lawmakers voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 to legalize the production, import, export, possession and use of cannabis for medical and research purposes, Bangkok Post reported. Recreational marijuana remains illegal in the country. Sawangkarn noted that the amendment will come into effect once it’s published in the Government Gazette, the country’s public journal. Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize medical marijuana. The region has some of the world’s toughest penalties for drug law violations, with marijuana traffickers potentially facing the death penalty in nearby countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. In an apparent response to news of Thailand’s impending medical marijuana vote, Singapore’s government issued a stern warning earlier this year that it would duly punish any citizen or permanent resident found to have consumed marijuana abroad. Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau reminded people that it conducts enforcement checks at immigration checkpoints and that “any Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident found to have abused controlled drugs overseas will be treated as if [they] had abused drugs in Singapore.” Thailand has a long tradition of marijuana use for medical relief. As Reuters noted, the drug was traditionally used to relieve pain and fatigue until the 1930s when it was banned.[SEP]Thailand’s interim parliament voted to approve marijuana for medical use and research, one of the senators who worked on the bill told CNN on Tuesday. Recreational use of the drug remains illegal. Lawmaker Somchai Sawangkarn said the passing of an amendment to allow medical marijuana in the country “could be considered as a New Year gift to Thais.” “The amendment (on the Narcotics Bill) was passed the second and third readings today. And will become effective once it is published on the Royal Gazette,” he said.” The National Legislative Assembly’s 166 members voted in favour of the change and there were no votes objecting to the motion. There were 13 members who abstained from the vote, CNN reported. This makes Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to allow the use of medical marijuana. The region is notorious for its hardline approach to drugs and strict penalties for drug-related crimes. The British government approved medical marijuana earlier this year, and it became available on November 1 from the National Health System to patients with a prescription. Medications derived from cannabis became legal in Germany last year. Medical marijuana is also legal in Australia and Ireland. In the US, medical marijuana is legal in 30 states, though the laws governing what’s permitted vary from state to state, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.[SEP]Thailand approved marijuana for medical use and research on Tuesday, the first legalisation of the drug in a region with some of the world's strictest drug laws. The junta-appointed parliament in Thailand, a country which until the 1930s had a tradition of using marijuana to relieve pain and fatigue, voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 in an extra parliamentary session handling a rush of bills before the New Year's holidays. "This is a New Year's gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people," said Somchai Sawangkarn, chairman of the drafting committee, in a televised parliamentary session. While countries from Colombia to Canada have legalised marijuana for medical or even recreational use, the drug remains illegal and taboo across much of Southeast Asia, which has some of the world's harshest punishments for drug law violations. Marijuana traffickers can be subject to the death penalty in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.[SEP](BANGKOK) — Thailand’s legislature on Tuesday agreed to amend the country’s drug law to allow the licensed medical use of marijuana, as well as kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller. Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to take such action, which is also under consideration in neighboring Malaysia. New Zealand’s government earlier this month enacted a law liberalizing the medical use of marijuana, which had previously been tightly restricted. The Thai legislation passed its final reading at the National Legislative Assembly by a vote of 166-0 with 13 abstentions. The changes, which become law when published in the Royal Gazette, legalize the production, import, export, possession and use of marijuana and kratom products for medical purposes. Purveyors, producers and researchers will need licenses to handle the drugs, while end-users will need prescriptions. Recreational use of the drugs remains illegal and subject to prison terms and fines commensurate with the quantities involved. The bill introducing the legislative changes had noted that recent studies have shown that marijuana extract has medicinal benefits, which has prompted “many countries around the world to ease their laws by enacting legal amendments to allow their citizens to legally use kratom and marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes.” It added that despite being classified as an illegal drug, many patients have used marijuana to treat their diseases.[SEP]Bangkok: Thailand's legislature has agreed to amend the country's drug law to allow the licensed medical use of marijuana, as well as the kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller. Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to take such action, which is also under consideration in neighbouring Malaysia. The legislation passed its final reading on Tuesday at the National Legislative Assembly by a vote of 166-0 with 13 abstentions. The changes, which become law when published in the Royal Gazette, legalise the production, import, export, possession and use of marijuana and kratom products for medical purposes. Recreational use of the drugs remains illegal and subject to prison terms and fines commensurate with the quantities involved.[SEP]On Tuesday, the interim Thai parliament voted to allow the use of medical cannabis — as well as kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller — in the country. Despite the passing of this bill, one of the senators who worked on it confirms that the use of marijuana for recreational purposes still remains illegal. As reported by CNN, the amendment to the current Narcotics Bill was passed after both the second and third readings on Christmas Day. It will become effective as soon as it has been published on the Royal Gazette. Once published, the production, import, export, possession, and use of marijuana and kratom for medical purposes become fully legal. Purveyors, producers, and researchers dealing with the drugs will have to obtain licenses in order to do so legally, and users will have to obtain a medical prescription from a licensed doctor in order to be allowed to make use of them. Lawmaker Somchai Sawangkarn had hailed the passing of this particular amendment, and said that to allow the use of medical marijuana in the country “could be considered as a New Year gift to Thais.” Public polls taken before the official vote showed a majority of Thai citizens were in favor of the motion. Tuesday saw the National Legislative Assembly’s 166 members vote in favor of the change. None voted against the amendment, but there were 13 members of parliament who decided to abstain from voting. The decision means that Thailand becomes the first country in Southeast Asia to allow the use of the drug in any form, in a region that is notoriously strict on drug use, and carries extremely harsh penalties for those found to be in violation of the law. Other countries in the region are considering passing similar motions, including neighboring Malaysia. Earlier in December, New Zealand enacted a law liberalizing the use of medical cannabis, which was previously tightly restricted, according to Global News. This year has seen the British government also approve the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and just last month it became available on the NHS for those with medical prescriptions. In 2017, medications derived from cannabis became legal in Germany, while medical marijuna itself is also legal in Australia, Ireland, and South Africa. It is currently only legal for medicinal use in 30 states in the U.S., and the laws pertaining to its uses for medical purposes still vary greatly from state to state.[SEP]BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's legislature has agreed to amend the country's drug law to allow the licensed medical use of marijuana, as well as the kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller.[SEP]The new year could bring a new medical marijuana market in an unlikely place: Southeast Asia. Thailand's military-appointed National Legislative Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution in an extra-parliamentary session to amend the Narcotics Act of 1979 to legalize marijuana for medicinal and research purposes, according to Reuters. Under the earlier Act, marijuana was used only to relieve pain and fatigue. The resolution was adopted by a 166-0 vote, with 13 members abstaining. The country also legalized kratom, a tropical evergreen tree belonging to the coffee family long used in traditional medicines. The measure requires approval by Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn, according to The New York Times. The year saw several groundbreaking developments globally on the legalization front, with Canada approving the use of recreational marijuana. Cannabis investors can't miss the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference, the No. 1 networking event for institutional capital and the leading cannabis companies. Secure your tickets here before they run out. Thailand's move is the first among nations in Southeast Asia, which tends to have the harshest punishments for drug violations. In some nations such as Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, drug offenses carry the death penalty, according to Reuters. Malaysia is also exploring the possibility of legalizing medical marijuana. Thailand now has to resolve issues surrounding patent requests from multinational firms that could lead to them dominating the market and make access to marijuana extracts by domestic patients and researchers tough, Reuters said. Recreational marijuana continues to be illegal in Thailand, and possession of 10 kilograms or less of the drug is punishable by five years in prison. FDA Warms To Considering Legal Cannabis Ingredients In Food

Thailand approves marijuana for medical use and research. The country voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 prior to the New Year’s holiday.

President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, have greeted U.S. troops in Germany. It was the president’s second visit to U.S. troops abroad in the last day. He stopped at Ramstein Air Force Base on his way back from Iraq. Trump slowly made his way down a rope line at the Ramstein base, shaking hands, chatting and posing for photos. Some service members held up “Make America Great Again” caps for Trump to sign. The president’s earlier visit to a base in western Iraq was his first to U.S. forces in harm’s way overseas. Both visits were unannounced.[SEP]In a surprise trip to Iraq, President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria where they have been helping battle Islamic State militants. "We're no longer the suckers, folks," Trump told American servicemen and women at a base in western Iraq. "We're respected again as a nation." Trump said it's because of U.S. military gains that he can withdraw 2,000 forces from Syria. During his first visit to a troubled region, Trump also said he has no plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. "I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds," Trump told troops clad in fatigues at al-Asad Airbase west of Baghdad. "Eight years ago, we went there for three months and we never left," he said. "Now, we're doing it right and we're going to finish it off." He said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to take out "any remnants" of IS left in Syria. The U.S. presence in Syria was not meant to be "open-ended," he said, adding that other wealthy nations should pay for rebuilding Syria. "The nations of the region must step up and take more responsibility for their future," said Trump, who said there would be a "strong, deliberate and orderly withdrawal" of U.S. forces from Syria. Trump's trip to Iraq came a week after he stunned his national security advisers by announcing the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly resigned following the announcement, and Trump's decision rattled allies around the world, including in Iraq. Trump's trip was shrouded in secrecy. Air Force One flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad under the cover of darkness Wednesday evening. It is his first visit with troops stationed in a troubled region. Fifteen years after the 2003 invasion, the U.S. still has more than 5,000 troops in Iraq supporting the government as it continues the fight against remaining pockets of resistance by the Islamic State group. IS has lost a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria but is still seen as a threat. Trump, who speaks often about his support for the U.S. military, had faced criticism for not yet visiting U.S. troops stationed in harm's way as he comes up on his two-year mark in office. He told The Associated Press in an interview in October that he "will do that at some point, but I don't think it's overly necessary." He later began to signal that such a troop visit was in the offing. Trump had planned to spend Christmas at his private club in Florida, but stayed behind in Washington due to the shutdown. It's unclear whether his trip to Iraq was added after it became apparent that the government would be shut down indefinitely due to a stalemate between Trump and congressional Democrats over the president's demand for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Adding to the tumult, the stock market has been experiencing heavy losses over concerns about a slowing global economy, Trump's trade war with China and the president's public slamming of the Federal Reserve and its chairman over interest rate hikes by the independent agency. Trump's visit comes at a time when his Middle East policy is in flux. He went against the views of his top national security advisers in announcing the Syria withdrawal, a decision that risks creating a vacuum for extremists to thrive. There are dire implications in particular for neighboring Iraq. The Iraqi government now has control of all the country's cities, towns and villages after fighting its last urban battles against IS in December 2017. But its political, military and economic situation remains uncertain, and the country continues to experience sporadic bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, which most people attribute to IS. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi recently said Iraqi troops could deploy into Syria to protect Iraq from threats across its borders. Iraq keeps reinforcements along its frontier to guard against infiltration by IS militants, who hold a pocket of territory along the Euphrates River. Trump campaigned for office on a platform of ending U.S. involvement in foreign trouble spots, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Syria decision will ultimately affect all of the approximately 2,000 troops deployed in the war-torn country. The Pentagon is also said to be developing plans to withdraw up to half of the 14,000 American troops still serving in Afghanistan. During the presidential campaign, Trump blamed Democrat Hillary Clinton for the rise of IS, due to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 during her tenure as secretary of state. President George W. Bush is the one who set the 2011 withdrawal date as part of an agreement with the Iraqi government to gradually shrink the U.S. footprint and slowly hand off security responsibilities to the government and Iraqi security forces. His successor, President Barack Obama, wanted to leave a residual force in Iraq to help the government manage ongoing security challenges. But he ultimately went ahead with the scheduled pullout in 2011 after Iraqi's political leaders rejected terms the U.S. sought for legal protections for the U.S. troops that would have remained. Two of Trump's recent predecessors visited Iraq early in their terms. Bush visited Iraq in November 2003, about eight months after that conflict began. Due to security concerns, Bush waited until 2006 to make his first visit to Afghanistan. Obama visited Iraq in April 2009, the first year of his eight years in office, as part of an overseas tour. He visited Afghanistan in 2010. Vice President Mike Pence visited Afghanistan in December 2017, not long after Trump outlined a strategy to break the stalemate in America's longest war. Pence met with Afghan leaders and visited with U.S. troops stationed in the country. Trump has not visited Afghanistan. Associated Press writer Philip Issa contributed to this report.[SEP]The head of one of two main blocs in Iraq’s Parliament is denouncing President Donald Trump’s unannounced visit, calling it a “blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.” Sabah al-Saidi says he is calling for an emergency session of Parliament to discuss Trump’s visit Wednesday evening. Al-Saidi, who heads the Islah bloc, said “the American occupation of Iraq is over.” He said Trump should not be allowed to arrive “as if Iraq is a state of the United States.” Iraq’s government has close military and diplomatic ties with Washington, though few parties want to be seen as overly close to the U.S. The Islah bloc is considered closer to the U.S. than the rival Binaa bloc, which espouses close ties with Iran.[SEP]Donald Trump's secret Christmas visit to Iraq was rumbled by a plane spotter in Sheffield. As Air Force One headed to the Middle East on the unannounced mission Alan Meloy looked out of his kitchen window and noticed a jet trail in the sky over northern England. Mr Meloy, an IT project manager, said: "I could see a trail coming towards me and thought 'Let's have a look at what's on the end of that'. "Then I looked through a viewfinder and thought this is worth photographing. It's not just a normal airliner." He immediately recognised the aircraft as a Boeing VC-25. There are only two in the world and they are used to carry the US president. When the president is on board the call sign for the...[SEP]Al Asad Airbase, Iraq: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he is prepared to wait as long as it takes to get $5 billion from taxpayers for his US-Mexico border wall, a demand that has triggered a partial shutdown of the federal government that is now in its fifth day. With no immediate end to the shutdown in sight, Trump made his remarks during a surprise visit to Iraq and blamed the shutdown on Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who was expected to become speaker of the US House of Representatives on 3 January. Trump had previously said he was prepared for a lengthy shutdown and when asked on Wednesday how long he would wait to get what he wants, he said, “Whatever it takes.” “Nancy is calling the shots,” said the Republican president, suggesting that her opposition to his demand for wall funding had to do with Pelosi’s need for votes to become speaker. “The American public is demanding a wall,” Trump said while on the ground at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. During a televised 11 December meeting with Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Trump had said he would be “proud to shut down the government for border security” but has since shifted the blame to Democrats. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for his proposed wall. After Mexico repeatedly refused to do so, he began seeking US taxpayer funding for the wall, which he sees as vital to controlling illegal immigration. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in late November found that improved border security was a top-three priority for only about 31% of Americans surveyed. Even with both chambers of Congress and the White House under Republican control for the past two years, former real estate developer Trump has not gained full funding for his wall. Democrats and some Republicans view it as a costly, unneeded and ineffective project, but some Republicans support the idea and back Trump’s demand for $5 billion in partial funding. Following weeks of failed talks between Trump and congressional leaders, parts of the US government shut down on Saturday, affecting about 800,000 employees of the Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation and other agencies. Most of the federal government, which directly employs almost 4 million people, is unaffected. The Defense Department and other key agencies are fully funded through 30 September. Congress was scheduled to reconvene after a holiday break on Thursday and resume debate on the matter.[SEP]Associated Press Two women in Iraq shop on Christmas Eve. Iraq’s government approved a law to make Christmas a national holiday in the country. The government announced the change Monday after the Iraqi Cabinet voted on an amendment to make the day an official holiday. “Happy Christmas to our Christian citizens, all Iraqis and to all who are celebrating around the world,” the Iraqi government tweeted on Christmas Eve. The @IraqiGovt announces Christmas Day to be an official holiday across Iraq. Happy Christmas to our Christian citizens, all Iraqis and to all who are celebrating around the world. — Government of Iraq - الحكومة العراقية (@IraqiGovt) December 24, 2018 The Christian population in the country has dropped considerably since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, CNN reports. Once more than a million, their numbers have dwindled to approximately 300,000 in the country.[SEP]President Trump greeted U.S. troops on an unannounced trip Wednesday to Iraq, where he defended his decision to withdraw forces from neighboring Syria and declared that the Islamic State is “very nearly defeated” while making his first visit to a conflict zone as commander in chief. The president used his visit to al-Asad Air Base to amplify his call to draw down the U.S. presence in foreign wars and assert his personal influence over the military at a moment of tremendous turmoil at the Pentagon. After months of public pressure for him to spend time with troops deployed to conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia, Trump touched down at the joint U.S.-Iraqi base west of Baghdad after a secret flight from Washington. Accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, the president sounded a triumphant note as he addressed U.S. service members on the day after Christmas. “We’re no longer the suckers, folks,” he said. And he warned that he was committed to withdrawing troops from foreign wars even when his administration’s experts object. “The United States cannot continue to be the policeman of the world,” Trump said. “It’s not fair when the burden is all on us, the United States.” After a briefing with military and diplomatic leaders on the ground, Trump strongly defended his decision to pull out of Syria. But he said he had no plans to withdraw American forces from Iraq, which he said the United States could use as a staging ground in the heart of the Middle East from which to combat Iran, or someday reenter Syria. “If we see something happening with ISIS that we don’t like, we can hit them so fast and so hard . . . they really won’t know what the hell happened,” Trump said. “But it’s time to get our soldiers out.” [A tumultuous week began with a phone call between Trump and the Turkish president] Trump told reporters traveling with him that he would deny any request from generals to extend the U.S. operation in Syria, where roughly 2,000 troops are deployed. “They said again, recently, ‘Can we have more time?’ ” Trump said of U.S. generals. “I said: ‘Nope. You can’t have any more time. You’ve had enough time.’ We’ve knocked them out. We’ve knocked them silly.” Trump’s sudden decision last week to withdraw troops from Syria led Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State, to resign in protest. Trump, who spent the holiday at the White House amid a partial federal government shutdown, departed Joint Base Andrews near Washington aboard Air Force One at 12:06 a.m. Wednesday. He flew in the dark of night in an attempt to preserve operational security. Trump’s cover risked being blown by eagle-eyed social media users. A Twitter user in Germany posted that he had tracked an aircraft that could be Air Force One, while a British-based Flickr user later posted a photo of a plane bearing the presidential aircraft’s blue-and-white color scheme flying through clear skies over Yorkshire. [Trump’s Iraq visit prompts concern over operational security] After an 11-hour flight, the president and first lady landed at al-Asad Air Base at 7:16 p.m. local time. Trump was scheduled to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, but a face-to-face meeting was canceled for security and logistical reasons, so the two men spoke by phone, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. Trump traveled with a small group of journalists, who were ordered for security reasons not to report that he was in Iraq until he had finished delivering his remarks to the troops, roughly three hours into his visit to the base. Asked why he decided to visit Iraq, Trump told reporters: “It’s a place that I’ve been talking about for many years. And many, many years, before it started, I was talking about it, as a civilian.” The president added, “I want to come and pay my respects, most importantly, to the great soldiers, great troopers we have here.” Although Trump initially supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he later criticized the effort. He was also critical of President Barack Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, saying the move created the Islamic State. The unannounced visit continues a holiday tradition followed by past presidents. Obama visited Afghanistan four times as president, most recently in 2014, and made a trip to Iraq shortly after his 2009 inauguration. George W. Bush made a surprise Thanksgiving visit to troops in Iraq after the invasion in 2003 and traveled back three times as president. Bill Clinton visited troops in Bosnia in 1996 and spent Thanksgiving with troops in Kosovo in 1999, while George H.W. Bush spent Thanksgiving with service members in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and New Year’s with troops in Somalia in 1993. Although Trump had previously addressed U.S. troops stationed overseas, including in Italy, Japan and South Korea, he had drawn criticism for not having visited those deployed to combat zones. Vice President Pence visited Afghanistan on Dec. 22, 2017, to address troops and meet with commanders at Bagram air base near Kabul. Al-Asad Air Base is northwest of Ramadi, a city that the Islamic State captured before U.S.-backed Iraqi forces retook the area. Trump said he considered the safety risks in making his first trip to a war zone. “I had concerns for the institution of the presidency,” he told reporters. “Not for myself, personally. I had concerns for the first lady, I will tell you. But if you would have seen what we had to go through, with the darkened plane, with all windows closed, with no lights on whatsoever, anywhere — pitch black. I’ve never seen it. I’ve been in many airplanes — all types and shapes and sizes. I’ve never seen anything like it.” “So did I have a concern?” he added. “Yeah, I had a concern.” [‘A rogue presidency’: The era of containing Trump is over] In his speech to troops, Trump criticized their commanders, saying they had failed to meet the deadlines he set for withdrawal from Syria and other nations. “The men and women that serve are entitled to clear objectives and the confidence that when those objectives are met they can come home and be with their families,” he said. The president also told a number of falsehoods to the troops during his speech. He said that he had given the troops a 10 percent pay raise and that the forces had not received a pay raise in more than 10 years. The sizable pay raise Trump authorized earlier this year, however, amounted to 2.6 percent, not 10 percent, and troops have received a pay raise every year for decades. While presidents traditionally leave politics alone during holiday visits to the troops or talks to the armed forces, Trump did not shy away from his political talking points, hitting congressional Democrats for refusing to agree to fund construction of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and not wanting to spend more on defense. For Trump, the war-zone visit was a chance to momentarily escape the growing peril for his presidency and generate images of himself acting as the commander in chief, complete with a bomber jacket. Trump and the first lady mingled with uniformed service members at a base dining facility that was decorated for Christmas with foil balls, twinkling lights and snowmen made of stacked tires painted white. The president stopped to sign several “Make America Great Again” hats that service members brought, and at one point he autographed an embroidered patch that read “TRUMP 2020.” Kyu Lee said that after he told Trump he was the chaplain for SEAL Team Five, the president responded, “Hey, in that case, let’s take a picture.” Trump’s speech to troops had the feel of one of his campaign rallies. Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind” played as the service members awaited his arrival, and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” played when the president strode on stage. Troops chanted, “USA! USA!,” and Trump told them: “At ease! Let’s have a good time.” The feel-good atmosphere of Trump’s visit belied the pitched tension in Washington between the president and the Defense Department. Mattis tendered his resignation last Thursday over Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria and draw down numbers in Afghanistan, in addition to other differences. Although Mattis planned to leave in February, Trump on Sunday dismissed him early, demanding that the retired Marine Corps general leave the Pentagon by year’s end. Mattis and other top advisers had cautioned Trump not to order a precipitous withdrawal from Syria, where the 2,000 U.S. troops enabled a Kurdish-led militia to roll back the self-declared caliphate of the Islamic State. Trump has not said anything in the past week about the U.S. presence in Iraq, where about 5,000 American troops remain, assisting Iraqi government forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters in the north in the effort to secure the nation from the threat of the Islamic State. U.S. forces reentered Iraq in 2014 after the Islamic State established its self-declared caliphate in Syria and swept through Iraq, reaching the outskirts of the capital, Baghdad. [Trump forces Mattis out two months early, names Shanahan acting defense secretary] Trump has long been critical of the war in Afghanistan, which has stretched on for more than 17 years, becoming the longest U.S. war. He directed the Defense Department to withdraw nearly half of the more than 14,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan, U.S. officials said last week, despite warnings from many of his senior advisers and military officials that the move would invite chaos and terrorism. Top U.S. officials have warned that absent a peace deal with the Taliban, Afghanistan could collapse and descend into further turmoil after a precipitous U.S. withdrawal. But as he visited Iraq, Trump bemoaned U.S. commitments overseas. “We are spread out all over the world,” the president said. “We are in countries most people haven’t even heard about. Frankly, it’s ridiculous.” Anne Gearan and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.[SEP]AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq — President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Wednesday, leaving behind a partially shuttered U.S. government to greet American troops helping hold off extremists in a country where thousands of Americans died during the recent war. It comes a week after Trump stunned his national security advisers by announcing that he would withdraw U.S. troops from neighboring Syria where they have been fighting Islamic State militants. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly resigned following the announcement, and Trump’s decision rattled allies around the world, including in Iraq. Trump’s trip was shrouded in secrecy. Air Force One flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad under the cover of darkness Wednesday evening. It is his first visit with troops stationed in a troubled region. Fifteen years after the 2003 invasion, the U.S. still has more than 5,000 troops in Iraq supporting the government as it continues the fight against remaining pockets of resistance by the Islamic State group. IS has lost a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria but is still seen as a threat. Trump, who speaks often about his support for the U.S. military, had faced criticism for not yet visiting U.S. troops stationed in harm’s way as he comes up on his two-year mark in office. He told The Associated Press in an interview in October that he “will do that at some point, but I don’t think it’s overly necessary.” He later began to signal that such a troop visit was in the offing. Trump had planned to spend Christmas at his private club in Florida, but stayed behind in Washington due to the shutdown. It’s unclear whether his trip to Iraq was added after it became apparent that the government would be shut down indefinitely due to a stalemate between Trump and congressional Democrats over the president’s demand for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Adding to the tumult, the stock market has been experiencing heavy losses over concerns about a slowing global economy, Trump’s trade war with China and the president’s public slamming of the Federal Reserve and its chairman over interest rate hikes by the independent agency. Trump’s visit comes at a time when his Middle East policy is in flux. He went against the views of his top national security advisers in announcing the Syria withdrawal, a decision that risks creating a vacuum for extremists to thrive. There are dire implications in particular for neighboring Iraq. The Iraqi government now has control of all the country’s cities, towns and villages after fighting its last urban battles against IS in December 2017. But its political, military and economic situation remains uncertain, and the country continues to experience sporadic bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, which most people attribute to IS. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi recently said Iraqi troops could deploy into Syria to protect Iraq from threats across its borders. Iraq keeps reinforcements along its frontier to guard against infiltration by IS militants, who hold a pocket of territory along the Euphrates River. Trump campaigned for office on a platform of ending U.S. involvement in foreign trouble spots, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Syria decision will ultimately affect all of the approximately 2,000 troops deployed in the war-torn country. The Pentagon is also said to be developing plans to withdraw up to half of the 14,000 American troops still serving in Afghanistan. During the presidential campaign, Trump blamed Democrat Hillary Clinton for the rise of IS, due to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 during her tenure as secretary of state. President George W. Bush is the one who set the 2011 withdrawal date as part of an agreement with the Iraqi government to gradually shrink the U.S. footprint and slowly hand off security responsibilities to the government and Iraqi security forces. His successor, President Barack Obama, wanted to leave a residual force in Iraq to help the government manage ongoing security challenges. But he ultimately went ahead with the scheduled pullout in 2011 after Iraqi’s political leaders rejected terms the U.S. sought for legal protections for the U.S. troops that would have remained. Two of Trump’s recent predecessors visited Iraq early in their terms. Bush visited Iraq in November 2003, about eight months after that conflict began. Due to security concerns, Bush waited until 2006 to make his first visit to Afghanistan. Obama visited Iraq in April 2009, the first year of his eight years in office, as part of an overseas tour. He visited Afghanistan in 2010. Vice President Mike Pence visited Afghanistan in December 2017, not long after Trump outlined a strategy to break the stalemate in America’s longest war. Pence met with Afghan leaders and visited with U.S. troops stationed in the country. Trump has not visited Afghanistan.[SEP]In an apparent response to increasing questions about why he had not yet visited service members in combat zones, President Donald Trump on Wednesday made an unannounced trip to Iraq. “President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Iraq late on Christmas night to visit with our troops and Senior Military leadership to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced via Twitter on Wednesday afternoon. Trump during his Thanksgiving golfing vacation hinted he could soon visit a combat zone, but the White House had not made public any plans. As has become normal operating procedure for such visits, the White House disclosed his whereabouts only after Air Force One safely landed in Iraq. The plane apparently left Joint Base Andrews at about midnight, passing over the U.K. and then Hungary en route to a middle-of-the-night landing in Iraq, according to amateur photographers and hobbyist trackers of military aircraft. Trump boasted during his 2016 campaign that he was “the most militaristic” person ever, and would be the best candidate for service members — despite his history of having avoided the Vietnam War through education deferments and then a medical exemption for bone spurs in his heels. He joked in 1997 that his “personal Vietnam” was avoiding sexually transmitted diseases from all the women he slept with in the 1970s, saying on the Howard Stern radio show, “I feel like a great and very brave soldier.” Trump went nearly two years without visiting a combat zone — something previous presidents did as a matter of course. Barack Obama visited Afghanistan within a few months of taking office in 2009, and George W. Bush visited troops in Baghdad over Thanksgiving in 2003. One former White House official told HuffPost on condition of anonymity that Trump had not wanted to go because of fears for his safety. Trump has made repeated false claims about his accomplishments for service members. For instance, he has regularly claimed that he was responsible for the passage of a law that lets veterans use private doctors if they cannot get prompt care at Veterans Affairs clinics and hospitals. He has also claimed that his military budget is the largest ever. In fact, the Veterans Choice Act was passed under Obama, not Trump, and Obama had bigger military budgets in 2010 and 2011, even without accounting for inflation. This past November, when Trump visited France for the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, he chose not to visit an American military cemetery or any other war memorial because it was raining. Instead, he stayed indoors at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Paris, even as other foreign leaders braved the elements to visit memorial sites. He did visit a different cemetery on the day he left Paris, but upon his return to Washington, Trump failed to visit Arlington National Cemetery on the observed Veterans’ Day holiday. And to cap it off, Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned last week over Trump’s hasty decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria. In his resignation letter, Mattis criticized Trump’s antagonistic relationship with longtime allies but apparent friendship with adversaries. Trump on Sunday effectively fired Mattis by announcing via Twitter that Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan would replace Mattis on Jan. 1 as acting secretary. Mattis’ resignation has triggered sharp criticism even from Republicans who ordinarily support Trump, both in Congress and more generally. Trump’s overall standing with service members was barely above water even before Mattis’ departure. According to an October poll by The Military Times, Trump is viewed unfavorably by 43 percent of active-duty service members surveyed and favorably by 44 percent. Further, 31 percent view him very unfavorably, compared with almost 24 percent who view him very favorably.[SEP]AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq — In a surprise trip to Iraq, President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria where they have been helping battle Islamic State militants. “We’re no longer the suckers, folks,” Trump told American servicemen and women at a base in western Iraq. “We’re respected again as a nation.” Trump said it’s because of U.S. military gains that he can withdraw 2,000 forces from Syria. During his first visit to a troubled region, Trump also said he has no plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. “I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds,” Trump told troops clad in fatigues at al-Asad Airbase west of Baghdad. “Eight years ago, we went there for three months and we never left,” he said. “Now, we’re doing it right and we’re going to finish it off.” • Turkey ‘determined’ to drive out Syrian Kurdish forces and coordinate U.S. forces withdrawal • Twitter after midnight: Trump defends decision to withdraw from Syria as Republicans speak out • ‘We have defeated ISIS’: Trump has ordered full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, official says He said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to take out “any remnants” of ISIS left in Syria. The U.S. presence in Syria was not meant to be “open-ended,” he said, adding that other wealthy nations should pay for rebuilding Syria. “The nations of the region must step up and take more responsibility for their future,” said Trump, who said there would be a “strong, deliberate and orderly withdrawal” of U.S. forces from Syria. Trump’s trip to Iraq came a week after he stunned his national security advisers by announcing the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly resigned following the announcement, and Trump’s decision rattled allies around the world, including in Iraq. Trump’s trip was shrouded in secrecy. Air Force One flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad under the cover of darkness Wednesday evening. It is his first visit with troops stationed in a troubled region. Fifteen years after the 2003 invasion, the U.S. still has more than 5,000 troops in Iraq supporting the government as it continues the fight against remaining pockets of resistance by the Islamic State group. ISIS has lost a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria but is still seen as a threat. Trump, who speaks often about his support for the U.S. military, had faced criticism for not yet visiting U.S. troops stationed in harm’s way as he comes up on his two-year mark in office. He told The Associated Press in an interview in October that he “will do that at some point, but I don’t think it’s overly necessary.” He later began to signal that such a troop visit was in the offing. Trump had planned to spend Christmas at his private club in Florida, but stayed behind in Washington due to the shutdown. It’s unclear whether his trip to Iraq was added after it became apparent that the government would be shut down indefinitely due to a stalemate between Trump and congressional Democrats over the president’s demand for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Adding to the tumult, the stock market has been experiencing heavy losses over concerns about a slowing global economy, Trump’s trade war with China and the president’s public slamming of the Federal Reserve and its chairman over interest rate hikes by the independent agency. Trump’s visit comes at a time when his Middle East policy is in flux. He went against the views of his top national security advisers in announcing the Syria withdrawal, a decision that risks creating a vacuum for extremists to thrive. There are dire implications in particular for neighbouring Iraq. The Iraqi government now has control of all the country’s cities, towns and villages after fighting its last urban battles against ISIS in December 2017. But its political, military and economic situation remains uncertain, and the country continues to experience sporadic bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, which most people attribute to IS. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi recently said Iraqi troops could deploy into Syria to protect Iraq from threats across its borders. Iraq keeps reinforcements along its frontier to guard against infiltration by ISIS militants, who hold a pocket of territory along the Euphrates River. Trump campaigned for office on a platform of ending U.S. involvement in foreign trouble spots, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Syria decision will ultimately affect all of the approximately 2,000 troops deployed in the war-torn country. The Pentagon is also said to be developing plans to withdraw up to half of the 14,000 American troops still serving in Afghanistan. During the presidential campaign, Trump blamed Democrat Hillary Clinton for the rise of ISIS, due to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 during her tenure as secretary of state. President George W. Bush is the one who set the 2011 withdrawal date as part of an agreement with the Iraqi government to gradually shrink the U.S. footprint and slowly hand off security responsibilities to the government and Iraqi security forces. His successor, President Barack Obama, wanted to leave a residual force in Iraq to help the government manage ongoing security challenges. But he ultimately went ahead with the scheduled pullout in 2011 after Iraqi’s political leaders rejected terms the U.S. sought for legal protections for the U.S. troops that would have remained. Two of Trump’s recent predecessors visited Iraq early in their terms. Bush visited Iraq in November 2003, about eight months after that conflict began. Due to security concerns, Bush waited until 2006 to make his first visit to Afghanistan. Obama visited Iraq in April 2009, the first year of his eight years in office, as part of an overseas tour. He visited Afghanistan in 2010. Vice-President Mike Pence visited Afghanistan in December 2017, not long after Trump outlined a strategy to break the stalemate in America’s longest war. Pence met with Afghan leaders and visited with U.S. troops stationed in the country. Trump has not visited Afghanistan.

U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump make an unannounced post-Christmas visit to troops at the Al Asad Airbase in Iraq, their first visit to a combat zone since taking office.

American man Colin O’Brady has become the first person to cross Antarctica alone and without assistance.[SEP]An Oregon man became the first person to traverse Antarctica alone without any assistance on Wednesday, trekking across the polar continent in an epic 54-day journey that was previously deemed impossible.Colin O'Brady, of Portland, finished the bone-chilling, 930-mile (1,500-kilometer) journey as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete's progress in real time online."I did it!" a tearful O'Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to his wife, Jenna Besaw."It was an emotional call," she said. "He seemed overwhelmed by love and gratitude, and he really wanted to say 'Thank you' to all of us."O'Brady was sleeping near the finish line in Antarctica late Wednesday and could not immediately be reached for comment.The 33-year-old O'Brady documented his nearly entirely uphill journey - which he called The Impossible First - on his Instagram page . He wrote Wednesday that he covered the last roughly 80 miles (129 kilometers) in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day."While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced," O'Brady posted.The day before, he posted that he was "in the zone" and thought he could make it to the end in one go."I'm listening to my body and taking care of the details to keep myself safe," he wrote. "I called home and talked to my mom, sister and wife - I promised them I will stop when I need to."Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward.In 2016, British explorer Henry Worsley died attempting an unassisted solo trip across Antarctica, collapsing from exhaustion toward the end of the trek. Worsley's friend and fellow English adventurer Louis Rudd is currently attempting an unaided solo in Worsley's honor and was competing against O'Brady to be the first to do it.Besaw said O'Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, hopefully in the next few days."It's a small club," she joked. "His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing."O'Brady described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began the trek on Nov. 3. He had to haul 375 pounds (170 kilograms) of gear largely uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind."Not only am I pulling my ... sled all day, but I'm pulling it up and over thousands of these sastrugi speed bumps created by the violent wind," he wrote in an Instagram post on Nov. 12. "It's a frustrating process at times to say the least."On Nov. 18, he wrote that he awoke to find his sled completely buried from an all-night blasting of wind and snow. That day he battled a 30 mph (48 kph) headwind for eight hours as he trudged along."There were several times I considered stopping, putting my tent back up and calling it a day," he wrote. "I wanted so badly to quit today as I was feeling exhausted and alone, but remembering all of the positivity that so many people have been sending, I took a deep breath and focused on maintaining forward progress one step at a time and managed to finish a full day."On Day 37, or Dec. 9, O'Brady wrote about how much he's changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat."I'm no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?" he wrote. "I've suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I've laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration."Though O'Brady had initially thought he'd want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods.As for what's next for O'Brady, who also has summited Mount Everest, Besaw said she's not entirely sure."We are just so in the moment celebrating this right now," she said. "Then we'll see what's next on the horizon."----------[SEP]An Oregon man became the first person to traverse Antarctica alone without any assistance on Wednesday, trekking across the polar continent in an epic 54-day journey that was previously deemed impossible. Colin O'Brady, of Portland, finished the bone-chilling, 930-mile journey as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete's progress in real time online. "I did it!" a tearful O'Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to his wife, Jenna Besaw. "It was an emotional call," she said. "He seemed overwhelmed by love and gratitude, and he really wanted to say 'Thank you' to all of us." O'Brady was sleeping near the finish line in Antarctica late Wednesday and could not immediately be reached for comment. The 33-year-old O'Brady documented his nearly entirely uphill journey — which he called The Impossible First — on his Instagram page . He wrote Wednesday that he covered the last roughly 80 miles in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day. "While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced," O'Brady posted. The day before, he posted that he was "in the zone" and thought he could make it to the end in one go. "I'm listening to my body and taking care of the details to keep myself safe," he wrote. "I called home and talked to my mom, sister and wife — I promised them I will stop when I need to." Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward. In 2016, British explorer Henry Worsley died attempting an unassisted solo trip across Antarctica, collapsing from exhaustion toward the end of the trek. Worsley's friend and fellow English adventurer Louis Rudd is currently attempting an unaided solo in Worsley's honor and was competing against O'Brady to be the first to do it. Besaw said O'Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, hopefully in the next few days. "It's a small club," she joked. "His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing." O'Brady described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began the trek on Nov. 3. He had to haul 375 pounds of gear largely uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind. "Not only am I pulling my ... sled all day, but I'm pulling it up and over thousands of these sastrugi speed bumps created by the violent wind," he wrote in an Instagram post on Nov. 12. "It's a frustrating process at times to say the least." On Nov. 18, he wrote that he awoke to find his sled completely buried from an all-night blasting of wind and snow. That day he battled a 30 mph headwind for eight hours as he trudged along. "There were several times I considered stopping, putting my tent back up and calling it a day," he wrote. "I wanted so badly to quit today as I was feeling exhausted and alone, but remembering all of the positivity that so many people have been sending, I took a deep breath and focused on maintaining forward progress one step at a time and managed to finish a full day." On Day 37, or Dec. 9, O'Brady wrote about how much he's changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat. "I'm no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?" he wrote. "I've suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I've laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration." Though O'Brady had initially thought he'd want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods. As for what's next for O'Brady, who also has summited Mount Everest, Besaw said she's not entirely sure. "We are just so in the moment celebrating this right now," she said. "Then we'll see what's next on the horizon." Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]Colin O’Brady has earned himself another world record by becoming the first person to complete a solo, unaided trip across Antarctica. The 33-year-old American athlete and explorer began his journey almost two months ago and finally finished the 932-mile trek on Wednesday. He started to cross the final 77.54 miles early Christmas morning in “one continuous ‘Antarctica Ultramarathon’ push to the finish line,” which he completed in just over 32 hours, he wrote on Instagram. “I don’t know, something overcame me,” O’Brady said in a telephone interview with the . “I just felt locked in for the last 32 hours, like a deep flow state.” “I didn’t listen to any music — just locked in, like I’m going until I’m done,” he continued. “It was profound, it was beautiful, and it was an amazing way to finish up the project.” O’Brady commemorated his accomplishment on Instagram as well and has been documenting his entire journey there. “The wooden post in the background of this picture marks the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, where Antarctica’s land mass ends and the sea ice begins,” he wrote on Wednesday. “As I pulled my sled over this invisible line, I accomplished my goal: to become the first person in history to traverse the continent of Antarctica coast to coast solo, unsupported and unaided.” O’Brady said he only had one thing on his mind once he took his final step: his family and wife, Jenna Besaw. Immediately upon finishing, he gave her an emotional call. “I want to simply recognize my #1 who I, of course, called immediately upon finishing. I burst into tears making this call. I was never alone out there. @jennabesaw you walked every step with me and guided me with your courage and strength. WE DID IT!! We turned our dream into reality,” he wrote on Instagram. This is not O’Brady’s first “impossible feat” accomplished: He is a two-time record holder for the speed records in the Explorers Grand Slam and Seven Summits (skiing to the North and South Poles, along with climbing the highest peaks on each of the seven continents). “I was getting emotional, nostalgic,” O’Brady told the about his last Antarctic stretch. “I was reviewing the entirety of the expedition in my mind,” he said, “and I was aware I’m going to tell this story for the rest of my life, but I told myself: You’re living this right now — live it! It was just getting deep with the senses. What does it sound like when your skis scrape against the snow? What does it taste like out here? Really just try and just live the experience.”[SEP](CBSDFW.COM/AP) – An Oregon man became the first person to traverse Antarctica alone without any assistance on Wednesday, trekking across the polar continent in an epic 54-day journey that was previously deemed impossible. Colin O’Brady, of Portland, finished the bone-chilling, 930-mile journey as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete’s progress in real time online. “I did it!” a tearful O’Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to his wife, Jenna Besaw. “It was an emotional call,” she said. “He seemed overwhelmed by love and gratitude, and he really wanted to say ‘Thank you’ to all of us.” O’Brady was sleeping near the finish line in Antarctica late Wednesday and could not immediately be reached for comment. The 33-year-old O’Brady documented his nearly entirely uphill journey — which he called The Impossible First — on his Instagram page . He wrote Wednesday that he covered the last roughly 80 miles in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day. “While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced,” O’Brady posted. The day before, he posted that he was “in the zone” and thought he could make it to the end in one go. “I’m listening to my body and taking care of the details to keep myself safe,” he wrote. “I called home and talked to my mom, sister and wife — I promised them I will stop when I need to.” Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward. In 2016, British explorer Henry Worsley died attempting an unassisted solo trip across Antarctica, collapsing from exhaustion toward the end of the trek. Worsley’s friend and fellow English adventurer Louis Rudd is currently attempting an unaided solo in Worsley’s honor and was competing against O’Brady to be the first to do it. Besaw said O’Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, hopefully in the next few days. “It’s a small club,” she joked. “His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing.”\ O’Brady has beaten overwhelming odds before, according to a CBS News report. His legs were badly burned in Thailand about ten years ago, and he was told he wouldn’t walk normally again. After that, he re-learned to walk and then went on to win the Chicago Triathalon 18 months after that accident. O’Brady described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began the trek on Nov. 3. He had to haul 375 pounds of gear largely uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind. “Not only am I pulling my … sled all day, but I’m pulling it up and over thousands of these sastrugi speed bumps created by the violent wind,” he wrote in an Instagram post on Nov. 12. “It’s a frustrating process at times to say the least.” On Nov. 18, he wrote that he awoke to find his sled completely buried from an all-night blasting of wind and snow. That day he battled a 30 mph headwind for eight hours as he trudged along. “There were several times I considered stopping, putting my tent back up and calling it a day,” he wrote. “I wanted so badly to quit today as I was feeling exhausted and alone, but remembering all of the positivity that so many people have been sending, I took a deep breath and focused on maintaining forward progress one step at a time and managed to finish a full day.” On Day 37, or Dec. 9, O’Brady wrote about how much he’s changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat. “I’m no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?” he wrote. “I’ve suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I’ve laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration.” Though O’Brady had initially thought he’d want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods. As for what’s next for O’Brady, who also has summited Mount Everest, Besaw said she’s not entirely sure. “We are just so in the moment celebrating this right now,” she said. “Then we’ll see what’s next on the horizon.”[SEP]An Oregon man became the first person to traverse Antarctica alone without any assistance on Wednesday, trekking across the polar continent in an epic 54-day journey that was previously deemed impossible. Colin O’Brady, of Portland, finished the bone-chilling, 930-mile journey as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete’s progress in real time online. “I did it!” a tearful Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to his wife, Jenna Besaw. “It was an emotional call,” she said. “He seemed overwhelmed by love and gratitude, and he really wanted to say ‘Thank you’ to all of us.” O’Brady was sleeping near the finish line in Antarctica late Wednesday and could not immediately be reached for comment. The 33-year-old O’Brady documented his nearly entirely uphill journey – which he called The Impossible First – on his Instagram page. He wrote Wednesday that he covered the last roughly 80 miles in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day. “While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced,” O’Brady posted. The day before, he posted that he was “in the zone” and thought he could make it to the end in one go. “I’m listening to my body and taking care of the details to keep myself safe,” he wrote. “I called home and talked to my mom, sister and wife – I promised them I will stop when I need to.” Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward. In 2016, British explorer Henry Worsley died attempting an unassisted solo trip across Antarctica, collapsing from exhaustion toward the end of the trek. Worsley’s friend and fellow English adventurer Louis Rudd is currently attempting an unaided solo in Worsley’s honor and was competing against O’Brady to be the first to do it. Besaw said O’Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, hopefully in the next few days. “It’s a small club,” she joked. “His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing.” O’Brady described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began the trek on Nov. 3. He had to haul 375 pounds of gear largely uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind. “Not only am I pulling my … sled all day, but I’m pulling it up and over thousands of these sastrugi speed bumps created by the violent wind,” he wrote in an Instagram post on Nov. 12. “It’s a frustrating process at times to say the least.” On Nov. 18, he wrote that he awoke to find his sled completely buried from an all-night blasting of wind and snow. That day he battled a 30 mph (48 kph) headwind for eight hours as he trudged along. “There were several times I considered stopping, putting my tent back up and calling it a day,” he wrote. “I wanted so badly to quit today as I was feeling exhausted and alone, but remembering all of the positivity that so many people have been sending, I took a deep breath and focused on maintaining forward progress one step at a time and managed to finish a full day.” On Day 37, or Dec. 9, O’Brady wrote about how much he’s changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat. “I’m no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?” he wrote. “I’ve suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I’ve laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration.” Though O’Brady had initially thought he’d want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods. As for what’s next for O’Brady, who also has summited Mount Everest, Besaw said she’s not entirely sure. “We are just so in the moment celebrating this right now,” she said. “Then we’ll see what’s next on the horizon.”[SEP]Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — American Colin O’Brady became the first person to complete a solo journey across Antarctica, unaided and unsupported, after finishing a two-month expedition in frigid temperatures and winds of 30 mph on Wednesday. “The wooden post in the background of this picture marks the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, where Antarctica’s land mass ends and the sea ice begins,” O’Brady wrote to his more than 109,000 followers on Instagram upon completing his journey. “As I pulled my sled over this invisible line, I accomplished my goal: to become the first person in history to traverse the continent of Antarctica coast to coast solo, unsupported and unaided,” O’Brady wrote. A day before reaching the Ross Ice Shelf, O’Brady wrote to his followers that he planned on pushing through the last 80 miles to the finish line. “As I was boiling water for my morning oatmeal, a seemingly impossible question popped into my head,” O’Brady wrote. “I wonder, would be possible to do one straight continuous push all the way to the end?” Thirty-two hours after he laced up his boots — delirious and sleepless — he took a selfie in front of the wooden post, making history. In 2008, while traveling in Thailand, O’Brady’s legs and feet were severely burned in a fire. He was told by doctors that he was unlikely to walk normally again, but he was determined to “beat the odds,” according to his website. Just 18 months after the fire, O’Brady won first place in the first triathlon he competed in since the incident. He has competed in various sports competitions since and is part of a rarefied group to finish the Explorers Grand Slam, an expedition to summit the tallest peaks in every continent and ski the last degree to the North Pole and South Pole in 2016. He broke two world records in the process: one for becoming the fastest person to finish the Explorers Grand Slam in 139 days and the second for being the fastest pace to climb the Seven Summits in only 132 days. Another adventurer, Englishman Louis Rudd, is also trying to complete the journey across Antarctica unaided. He has currently completed 90 percent of his journey and is expected to reach Ross Ice Shelf on Dec. 29. O’Brady told The New York Times that he planned on setting up camp, closing his eyes and waiting for Rudd. “My eyes are shutting,” O’Brady said. “My plan is to wait here for Lou and fly to Union Glacier together.” ABC News could not reach O’Brady for comment.[SEP]Image copyright Colin O'Brady Image caption Colin O'Brady's Instagram page features a daily selfie of his chores, such as securing his tent each night A 33-year-old American man has become the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unassisted. Explorer Colin O'Brady finished in 53 days, ahead of British Army Captain Louis Rudd, 49, after an epic race across the ice. Both men set out on 3 November to complete the journey, which killed a British ex-Army officer two years ago. The 921-mile (1,482km) trek took them across the coldest continent on Earth in some of the most extreme conditions. O'Brady, a pro-athlete who posts his milestones on social media, spoke to the BBC on one his harshest days. "I'm tired, man. I'm exhausted, but I'm making steady progress every day," he said from his satellite phone on 20 December - Day 47 - as he camped amid a storm and massive ridges of ice and snow known as sastrugi. After a day which was like being "in the inside of a ping-pong ball" O'Brady said he was grateful to have negotiated the wavelike ridges of hard snow and ice in low visibility without having broken a leg. "I've been dragging an almost 375lb (170kg) sled for 12-13 hours per day through the coldest harshest place in the world," he said, adding that he had lost so much weight that his wristwatch had been slipping off and he is "scared" to look at his unclothed body. Race over ice The two men set off from the Ronne Ice Shelf after poor weather delayed their start for several days. Only days earlier they had met for the first time at a hotel bar in Chile and agreed to turn their separate attempts to cross solo and unaided into a formal competition. Both men come from very different backgrounds. In 2008 O'Brady suffered severe burns to 25% of his body during a holiday in Thailand, leading doctors to tell him that he may never walk normally again. He recovered and went on to race in triathlons before climbing each of the Seven Summits - the highest peaks on every continent. He has also skied to both the north and south pole and hiked to the highest point in every US state. Image copyright Colin O'Brady Image caption O'Brady wore tape on his face to stave off frostbite Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sastrugi are hard wave-like ridges in the ice that can be extremely difficult to navigate Throughout it all, he has posted words of inspiration on Instagram, and used his satellite phone to take a question each night from one of the thousands of students who have followed his solo expedition. Rudd, a father of three, was given leave from the military where he has spent his career, in order to train and attempt to make the crossing. He was inspired to attempt the adventure after the death of his friend and colleague, Henry Worsley, along the same route. Worsley died of an illness after he was rescued only 30 miles from the finish line - the Ross Ice Shelf. Image copyright British army Image caption Capt Louis Rudd has served in the Army for 33 years In his daily dispatch from the ice on Christmas Eve, Rudd described carrying Worsley's flag to the places that his friend had come so close to reaching. "I'm carrying Henry's flag... that he carried on all his journeys, and it's really important to me that, this time, the flag goes all the way, and completes the journey right to the end," he said, before completing his posts as he always does. "Onwards..." High, dry and cold Antarctica is well-known as the coldest continent on Earth, but it is also the highest and driest. The cold freezes all moisture, technically making the landscape a desert. Mile-thick sheets of ice covering the continent also make it the highest average-elevation landmass with a peak that the men reach of 9,613ft. Sunlight, which shines 24 hours a day in the summer, O'Brady says, "is weird and disorienting but I actually kinda like it," since it allows him to charge his solar panels. The men must carry all the calories they will consume throughout the journey, a nearly impossible task considering their level of energy exertion, and boil ice and snow for all their drinking water. Image copyright Louis Rudd Image caption Capt Rudd sent voice despatches from the ice along his journey Apart from occasionally spotting each other as specks on the horizon, they have seen very few forms of life. At the South Pole, O'Brady says he saw some signs of life from the polar researchers stationed there, but was forbidden from accepting any help which would have prevented him from achieving his goal unaided. Image copyright Colin O'Brady Image caption O'Brady eats his morning oatmeal in near white-out conditions Before bed, they each pack all their wet clothes into their sleeping bag, so they could use their body heat to dry the gear throughout the night. But soon they will be back in their beds, looking back on their accomplishment and dreaming of the next previously-impossible goal.[SEP]American endurance athlete Colin O’Brady became the first person to cross Antarctica solo without help after 54 days traversing the barren, frigid continent, he said in an Instagram post. O’Brady revealed Wednesday that he covered the final 80 miles in one continuous push to the finish line that lasted more than 32 hours. A wooden post in the background of the photo O’Brady shared on Instagram, he said, is the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, which marked the end of his trip. “As I pulled my sled over this invisible line, I accomplished my goal: to become the first person in history to traverse the continent of Antarctica coast to coast solo, unsupported and unaided,” he wrote. “While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced. I was locked in a deep flow state the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey.” O’Brady began his trek at the Ronne Ice Shelf, traveled from there to the South Pole, and then crossed to the Ross Ice Shelf, he said. He documented much of the trip on his Instagram page, even as he fought fierce wind storms, subzero temperatures and whiteout conditions. To complete the trip, he needed to cross several mountainous areas and travel over miles of sastrugi, which are hard wavelike ridges in the snow and ice formed by wind. O’Brady is not the first to attempt the trip. British explorer Henry Worsley tried a solo trek of Antarctica in 2016, but he had to be rescued 30 miles from the finish and later died of an infection. He had traveled for 71 days unaided before that point. Worsley launched the attempt a century after Ernest Shackleton, the famed Antarctic explorer, survived a failed attempt to cross the continent. Another explorer, Lou Rudd, began a solo trek of Antarctica without help on the same day as O’Brady did. Rudd reached the South Pole on December 13 and is about 90% done with the trip, according to a Shackleton brand webpage set up to track his expedition.[SEP]An Oregon man became the first person to traverse Antarctica alone without any assistance on Wednesday, trekking across the polar continent in an epic 54-day journey that was previously deemed impossible. Colin O'Brady, of Portland, finished the bone-chilling, 930-mile journey as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete's progress in real time online. "I did it!" a tearful O'Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to his wife, Jenna Besaw. "It was an emotional call," she said. "He seemed overwhelmed by love and gratitude, and he really wanted to say 'Thank you' to all of us." O'Brady was sleeping near the finish line in Antarctica late Wednesday and could not immediately be reached for comment. The 33-year-old O'Brady documented his nearly entirely uphill journey — which he called The Impossible First — on his Instagram page . He wrote Wednesday that he covered the last roughly 80 miles in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day. "While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced," O'Brady posted. The day before, he posted that he was "in the zone" and thought he could make it to the end in one go. "I'm listening to my body and taking care of the details to keep myself safe," he wrote. "I called home and talked to my mom, sister and wife — I promised them I will stop when I need to." Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward. In 2016, British explorer Henry Worsley died attempting an unassisted solo trip across Antarctica, collapsing from exhaustion toward the end of the trek. Worsley's friend and fellow English adventurer Louis Rudd is currently attempting an unaided solo in Worsley's honor and was competing against O'Brady to be the first to do it. Besaw said O'Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, hopefully in the next few days. "It's a small club," she joked. "His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing." O'Brady described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began the trek on Nov. 3. He had to haul 375 pounds of gear largely uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind. "Not only am I pulling my ... sled all day, but I'm pulling it up and over thousands of these sastrugi speed bumps created by the violent wind," he wrote in an Instagram post on Nov. 12. "It's a frustrating process at times to say the least." On Nov. 18, he wrote that he awoke to find his sled completely buried from an all-night blasting of wind and snow. That day he battled a 30 mph headwind for eight hours as he trudged along. "There were several times I considered stopping, putting my tent back up and calling it a day," he wrote. "I wanted so badly to quit today as I was feeling exhausted and alone, but remembering all of the positivity that so many people have been sending, I took a deep breath and focused on maintaining forward progress one step at a time and managed to finish a full day." On Day 37, or Dec. 9, O'Brady wrote about how much he's changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat. "I'm no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?" he wrote. "I've suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I've laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration." Though O'Brady had initially thought he'd want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods. As for what's next for O'Brady, who also has summited Mount Everest, Besaw said she's not entirely sure. "We are just so in the moment celebrating this right now," she said. "Then we'll see what's next on the horizon." Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

After a 53-day trek, American professional endurance athlete Colin O'Brady allegedly becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided; his claim of being unaided has been disputed, and the first person to really cross Antarctica alone and unaided was Børge Ousland in 1996 and 1997.

TOKYO — Japan announced Wednesday that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual killings. Japan switched to what it calls research whaling after the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s, and now says stocks have recovered enough to resume commercial hunts. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would resume commercial whaling in July "in line with Japan's basic policy of promoting sustainable use of aquatic living resources based on scientific evidence." He added that Japan is disappointed that the IWC — which he said is dominated by conservationists — focuses on the protection of whale stocks even though the commission has a treaty mandate for both whale conservation and the development of the whaling industry. "Regrettably, we have reached a decision that it is impossible in the IWC to seek the coexistence of states with different views," he said. Suga said the commercial hunts would be limited to Japan's territorial waters and its 200-mile (323-kilometer) exclusive economic zone along Japan's coasts. He said Japan would stop its annual whaling expeditions to the Antarctic and northwest Pacific oceans, noting that non-signatory states are not allowed to do so. The IWC imposed the moratorium on commercial whaling three decades ago due to a dwindling whale population. Japan switched to what is calls research whaling, but the program was criticized as a cover for commercial hunting since the meat is sold on the market at home. The environmental group Greenpeace condemned the Wednesday's announcement and disputed Japan's view that whale stocks have recovered, noting also that ocean life is being threatened by pollution as well as overfishing. "The declaration today is out of step with the international community, let alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these majestic creatures," Sam Annesley, executive director at Greenpeace Japan, said in a statement. "The government of Japan must urgently act to conserve marine ecosystems, rather than resume commercial whaling." Australia's government, often a vocal critic of Japan's whaling policies, said in a statement that it was "extremely disappointed" with Japan's decision to quit the commission. However, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters joined Australia in welcoming Japan's withdrawal from the southern ocean. Japan was the only country with an ambition to return to commercial whaling in the Antarctic Ocean. Japanese Fisheries Agency official and longtime IWC negotiator Hideki Moronuki said Japan would use the IWC's method to carefully determine a catch quota, but declined to give an estimate. Japan has hunted whales for centuries, but has reduced its catch following international protests and declining demand for whale meat at home. The withdrawal from the IWC may be a face-saving step to stop Japan's ambitious Antarctic hunts and scale down the scope of whaling to around the Japanese coasts. Japan slashed its annual quota in the Antarctic by about one third after a 2014 International Court of Justice ruling that the country's research whaling program wasn't as scientific as Japan had argued. Japan currently hunts about 600 whales annually in the Antarctic and the Northern Pacific. Fisheries officials have said Japan annually consumes thousands of tons of whale meat from the research hunts, mainly by older Japanese seeking a nostalgic meal. But critics say they doubt commercial whaling could be a sustainable industry if younger Japanese don't view the animals as food. Suga said Japan would notify the IWC of its decision by Dec. 31 and remains committed to international cooperation on proper management of marine life even after its IWC withdrawal.[SEP]TOKYO (AFP) - Japan is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and will resume commercial whaling next year, a government spokesman said on Wednesday (Dec 26), in a move expected to spark international criticism. “We have decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in order to resume commercial whaling in July next year,” top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters. “Commercial whaling to be resumed from July next year will be limited to Japan’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. We will not hunt in the Antarctic waters or in the southern hemisphere,” Mr Suga added. The announcement had been widely expected and comes after Japan failed in a bid earlier this year to convince the IWC to allow it to resume commercial whaling. Tokyo has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the body, and has been regularly criticised for catching hundreds of whales a year for “scientific research” despite being a signatory to a moratorium on hunting the animals. Mr Suga said Japan would officially inform the IWC of its decision by the end of the year, which will mean the withdrawal comes into effect by June 30. Leaving the IWC means Japanese whalers will be able to resume hunting in Japanese coastal waters of minke and other whales currently protected by the commission. But Japan will not be able to continue the so-called scientific research hunts in the Antarctic that has been exceptionally allowed as an IWC member under the Antarctic Treaty. The withdrawal means Japan joins Iceland and Norway in openly defying the IWC’s ban on commercial whale hunting. It is certain to infuriate conservationists and anti-whaling countries such as Australia and New Zealand, and deepen the divide between anti- and pro-whaling countries. Japan has hunted whales for centuries, and their meat was a key source of protein in the immediate post-World War II years when the country was desperately poor. But consumption has declined significantly in recent decades, with much of the population saying they rarely or never eat whale meat.[SEP]The federal government has slammed Japan's decision to leave the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial whaling[SEP]TOKYO, Japan– Japan has announced its withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) next year, and will resume commercial hunting in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone from July. It will also cease whaling activities in the Antarctic Ocean, according to an official statement released Wednesday, and hunt species with so-called “healthy” population numbers. “In its long history, Japan has used whales not only as a source of protein but also for a variety of other purposes,” the statement said. “Engagement in whaling has been supporting local communities, and thereby developed the life and culture of using whales.” The move to resume commercial whaling drew criticism from conservation groups and governments. “The declaration today is out of step with the international community, let alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these majestic creatures,” said Sam Annesley, executive director at Greenpeace Japan. “The government of Japan must urgently act to conserve marine ecosystems, rather than resume commercial whaling.” Australia called Japan’s decision to withdraw from the IWC “regrettable” and urged Japan to return to the convention as a “matter of priority,” in a statement released Wednesday. Commercial whaling was banned under a 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium. But Japan has used a loophole to continue hunting whales legally since 1987 for what it claims is scientific research. Iceland and Norway object to the moratorium and continue to hunt whales commercially without relying on science as an excuse. In September 2018, the majority of member nations at the IWC annual symposium in Brazil approved a non-binding resolution stating that commercial whaling was no longer a valid economic activity, or needed for scientific research. While the Japanese political class has sought the resumption of commercial whaling activities, campaigners say eating whale is becoming “less and less popular.” “Actually many (regular) people don’t have any interest in whales or whaling now in Japan,” Nanami Kurasawa of the Iruka and Kujira (dolphin and whale) Action Network (IKAN) told CNN.[SEP]TOKYO: Japan is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and will resume commercial whaling next year, a government spokesman said Wednesday (Dec 26), in a move expected to spark international criticism. The announcement had been widely expected and comes after Japan failed in a bid earlier this year to convince the IWC to allow it to resume commercial whaling. "We have decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in order to resume commercial whaling in July next year," top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters. "Commercial whaling to be resumed from July next year will be limited to Japan's territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. We will not hunt in the Antarctic waters or in the southern hemisphere," Suga added. Tokyo has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the body, and has been regularly criticised for catching hundreds of whales a year for "scientific research" despite being a signatory to a moratorium on hunting the animals. Suga said Japan would officially inform the IWC of its decision by the end of the year, which will mean the withdrawal comes into effect by Jun 30. Leaving the IWC means Japanese whalers will be able to resume hunting in Japanese coastal waters of minke and other whales currently protected by the IWC. But Japan will not be able to continue the so-called scientific research hunts in the Antarctic that it has been exceptionally allowed as an IWC member under the Antarctic Treaty. The withdrawal means Japan joins Iceland and Norway in openly defying the IWC's ban on commercial whale hunting. Japan has hunted whales for centuries, and their meat was a key source of protein in the immediate post-World War II years when the country was desperately poor. But consumption has declined significantly in recent decades, with much of the population saying they rarely or never eat whale meat. Whale hunting has become a rare thorny subject in Japan's otherwise largely amiable foreign policy, with international opposition only serving to make conservatives dig in deeper in support of the tradition. In September, Tokyo sought to convince the IWC to allow it to resume commercial whaling, arguing that stocks of certain species were now sufficient to support renewed hunting. But the bid failed, with strong opposition from anti-whaling nations - led by Australia, the European Union and the United States. Japan's vice-minister for fisheries Masaaki Taniai said after that vote that Tokyo would be "pressed to undertake a fundamental reassessment of its position as a member of the IWC". Ahead of the announcement, activist groups warned Japan against the withdrawal. "This is a grave mistake which is out of step with the rest of the world," said Sam Annesley, executive director at Greenpeace Japan. Paul Watson, the founder of the anti-whaling activist group Sea Shepherd, also said in a statement that Japan would be declaring itself "a pirate whaling nation" by withdrawing from the IWC. The IWC, established in 1946 to conserve and manage the world's whale and cetacean population, introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. Tokyo has long exploited a loophole allowing whales to be killed for "scientific research" and says it is trying to prove the population is large enough to sustain a return to commercial hunting. It makes no secret of the fact that meat from the expeditions ends up on dinner tables, and argues that stocks of certain whales are now sufficient to allow commercial hunts to resume. "There have been no concessions from countries who only place importance on the protection of whales," Suga said. "At the IWC general meeting in September this year, it became evident once again that those supporting the sustainable use of whale stocks and those supporting protection cannot co-exist, leading us to this conclusion."[SEP]Japan has decided to leave the International Whaling Commission and resume commercial whaling.[SEP]Japan says it will resume commercial whaling in July 2019 despite a ban on whaling that had been in place since 1986. The move by Japan is likely to draw international criticism, even as the country is set to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the body tasked with whale conservation. Commercial whaling was banned by the IWC in 1986 after some species were driven almost to extinction. Officials in Japan, an IWC member since 1951, say eating whales is part of the country’s culture. For many years Japan has hunted whales for what it calls “scientific research” and to sell the meat, a programme widely criticised by conservationists. Wednesday’s announcement had been expected, but conservation groups warn the move will have serious consequences. It means Japan will be able to freely hunt species currently protected by the IWC, like minke whales. What did Japan just announce? Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said commercial whaling would be restricted to Japanese territorial waters and economic zones. As a result, Japan will stop hunting in Antarctic waters and the southern hemisphere, a prospect conservation groups had welcomed before it was formally confirmed.[SEP]Japan says it has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission and resume commercial hunts TOKYO (AP) — Japan says it has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission and resume commercial hunts.[SEP]TOKYO — Japan says it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts but says it will no longer go to the Antarctic to hunt. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday that Japan’s commercial whaling will be limited to its territorial and economic waters. The IWC imposed a commercial moratorium in the 1980s due to a dwindling whale population. Japan switched to what it calls research whaling and says stocks have recovered enough to resume commercial hunt. The research program was criticized as a cover for commercial hunting as the meat is sold on the market at home. Japan has said the IWC has become more like an opponent of whaling than an organization aiming for sustainability. Japan has cut back on its catch as Japanese consume less whale meat.[SEP]TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling from July, it said on Wednesday, abandoning a decades-old campaign to persuade the commission to allow it to hunt whales commercially. The announcement drew criticism from anti-whaling groups and others, with Australia saying it was “extremely disappointed” and New Zealand regretting the resumption of the “outdated and unnecessary” commercial killing of the ocean mammals. Japan’s commercial whaling will be limited to its own territorial waters and its exclusive economic zone, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who made the announcement at a news conference after a cabinet decision on Tuesday. “From July 2019, after the withdrawal comes into effect on June 30, Japan will conduct commercial whaling within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, and will cease the take of whales in the Antarctic Ocean/the Southern Hemisphere,” Suga said in a statement. “The whaling will be conducted in accordance with international law and within the catch limits calculated in accordance with the method adopted by the IWC to avoid negative impact on cetacean resources,” he said. Japan’s decision followed the IWC’s latest rejection of its bid to resume commercial whaling at a September meeting, which Suga said showed it was impossible to bridge the gap between whaling advocates and anti-whaling members. The decision - an unusual step for Japan, which stresses multilateralism in its diplomacy - sparked swift criticism. “The declaration today is out of step with the international community, let alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these majestic creatures,” international conservationist group Greenpeace said. “As the chair of the G20 (Group of 20) in 2019, the Japanese government needs to recommit to the IWC and prioritise new measures for marine conservation.” New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters welcomed Japan’s decision to halt whaling in the Southern Ocean, but said he was disappointed with the decision to resume commercial whaling in its exclusive economic zone. “Whaling is an outdated and unnecessary practice. We continue to hope Japan eventually reconsiders its position and will cease all whaling in order to advance the protection of the ocean’s ecosystems,” Peters said in a statement. Australia urged Japan to return to the IWC “as a matter of priority”, its environment minister, Melissa Price, said in a statement. “The Australian Government is extremely disappointed,” Price said. “Australia remains resolutely opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called ‘scientific’ whaling.” Japan has long defied such protests to conduct what it calls scientific research whaling, having repeatedly said its ultimate goal was to whale commercially again. In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan should halt its Antarctic whaling. Japan suspended its hunt for one season to re-tool its whaling programme with measures such as cutting the number of whales and species targeted, but resumed hunting in the 2015-2016 season, capping its Antarctic catch with a quota of 333 whales annually. Japan has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its culture. It began scientific whaling in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium began. Much of the meat ends up on store shelves, even though most Japanese no longer eat it. Whale consumption accounted for 0.1 percent of all Japanese meat consumption, according to the Asahi newspaper. Influential lawmakers in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party whose constituencies include whaling communities have long lobbied for a resumption of commercial whaling. Abe’s own electoral district includes Shimonoseki, a whaling port in western Japan.

Japan announces its intention to resume commercial whaling in July 2019 after withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission.

KIEV — Martial law, imposed on Nov. 25 in some Ukrainian areas after a naval confrontation in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels, expired on Wednesday, President Petro Poroshenko told the country's security council. Poroshenko said earlier this month he did not plan to extend martial law beyond the one month initially foreseen unless there was a large scale attack from Russia amid renewed tensions between the neighbors. The Ukrainian navy ships were captured in the Kerch Strait, between Russian-annexed Crimea and southern Russia, which controls access to the Sea of Azov, where there are both Russian and Ukrainian ports. Moscow said the ships entered Russian waters while trying to cross the strait without prior notice, ignoring orders to stop. Kiev said its ships needed no Russian permission to cross the strait. Under the martial law, Ukraine banned Russian men of combat age from entering the country and boosted security at critical sites such as nuclear power stations and Black Sea ports. Ukraine's military chief said this month Russia had been ramping up its forces near the border since August and now poses the greatest military threat since 2014, the year it annexed Crimea. Meanwhile Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday it hoped Western countries would not take part in any Ukrainian attempt to stage what it called "a provocation" near the Kerch Strait and dissuade Kiev from escalating tensions in the area. Ukraine said last week it planned to send warships to its Azov Sea ports via the Kerch Strait despite Russia's seizure of three navy vessels and their crews in the area in November. British defense minister Gavin Williamson visited Ukraine last week where he told his Ukrainian counterpart that the Black Sea did not belong to Russia and that Britain had sent a Royal Navy ship there to show Kiev did not stand alone.[SEP]KIEV — Martial law, imposed on Nov. 25 in some Ukrainian areas after a naval confrontation in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels, expired on Wednesday, President Petro Poroshenko told the country's security council. Poroshenko said earlier this month he did not plan to extend martial law beyond the one month initially foreseen unless there was a large scale attack from Russia amid renewed tensions between the neighbors. The Ukrainian navy ships were captured in the Kerch Strait, between Russian-annexed Crimea and southern Russia, which controls access to the Sea of Azov, where there are both Russian and Ukrainian ports. Moscow said the ships entered Russian waters while trying to cross the strait without prior notice, ignoring orders to stop. Kiev said its ships needed no Russian permission to cross the strait. Under the martial law, Ukraine banned Russian men of combat age from entering the country and boosted security at critical sites such as nuclear power stations and Black Sea ports. Ukraine's military chief said this month Russia had been ramping up its forces near the border since August and now poses the greatest military threat since 2014, the year it annexed Crimea.[SEP]Martial law, imposed on November 25 in some Ukrainian areas, expired on Wednesday, President Petro Poroshenko told the country’s security council. Poroshenko said this month he did not plan to extend martial law beyond the one month initially foreseen unless there was “a large scale attack from Russia.” Three Ukrainian Navy ships were detained earlier in the Kerch Strait, which controls access to the Sea of Azov. Moscow said the ships entered Russian waters while trying to cross the strait without prior notice, ignoring orders to stop. Under the martial law, Ukraine banned Russian men aged 16 to 60 from entering the country and boosted security at some facilities.[SEP]Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced the end of martial law in the country's border regions that was imposed last month after Russia seized Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea. "Today, right now, at 2:00 p.m. martial law ends. This is my principal decision," Poroshenko said during a military cabinet meeting in Kyiv on December 26. Poroshenko said he had reached the decision "based on an analysis of all the components of the security situation in the country." On November 26, Ukraine's parliament backed Poroshenko's request to introduce martial law after Russian forces fired on Ukrainian ships and seized 24 Ukrainian nationals near the Kerch Strait. The seamen remain in Russian custody and are facing criminal charges of illegally crossing Russia's border. The European Union and the United States have said Russia's actions were illegal and have called on Moscow to immediately return the vessels and their crews to Ukraine. The incident, during which a Russian vessel rammed a Ukrainian Navy tugboat, further escalated the conflict between the ex-Soviet neighbors that flared up in 2014 with Russia's occupation and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Russia has provided military, economic, and political support to separatist militants in eastern Ukraine. About 10,300 people have been killed since early 2014 in that conflict, which the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled in November 2016 was "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation." The 30-day martial law was imposed in 10 regions, including those close to areas controlled by Russia-backed rebels in the east of the country, abutting the Russia-backed separatist Transdniester region in Moldova, and along the Sea of Azov coast. Despite the lifting of martial law, tensions between Russia and Ukraine remain high. Top Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have claimed that Kyiv was preparing a "provocation" in the border area. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on December 24 that Russia was concerned Ukraine might "switch to full-scale combat actions within the next few days" or stage a provocation using "chemical-warfare agents." Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta on December 26 that "leaders of ultrarightist groups from the U.S. have been training for months together with radical organizations in Ukraine." "Feeling such support [from the United States], Poroshenko confidently resorts to provocative steps, including on the Ukrainian-Russian border," Patrushev said. "In the light of upcoming [Ukrainian presidential] elections, it can be predicted that new such actions with U.S. support could be expected in the near future." Ukraine has said Russia is amassing military forces along the border, in the annexed Crimea region, and in the Black Sea area. Speaking at a military event in Kyiv on December 1, Poroshenko said Russia has deployed "more than 80,000 troops, 1,400 artillery and multiple-rocket-launch systems, 900 tanks, 2,300 armored combat vehicles, 500 airplanes, and 300 helicopters" near the border. During the National Security and Defense Council meeting on December 26, Poroshenko said "Ukraine will never halt the use of its Azov ports, including by military vessels." With reporting by AFP, AP, UNIAN, and TASS[SEP]Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced the end of martial law in the country's border regions that was imposed last month after Russia seized Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea.Poroshenko said during a military cabinet meeting in Kyiv on December 26. Poroshenko said he had reached the decision "based on an analysis of all the components of the security situation in the country."On November 26, Ukraine's parliament backed Poroshenko's request to introduce martial law after Russian forces fired on Ukrainian ships and seized 24 Ukrainian nationals near the Kerch Strait.The seamen remain in Russian custody and are facing criminal charges of illegally crossing Russia's border.The European Union and the United States have said Russia's actions were illegal and have called on Moscow to immediately return the vessels and their crews to Ukraine.The incident, during which a Russian vessel rammed a Ukrainian Navy tugboat, further escalated the conflict between the ex-Soviet neighbors that flared up in 2014 with Russia's occupation and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.Russia has provided military, economic, and political support to separatist militants in eastern Ukraine. About 10,300 people have been killed since early 2014 in that conflict, which the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled in November 2016 was "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."The 30-day martial law was imposed in 10 regions, including those close to areas controlled by Russia-backed rebels in the east of the country, abutting the Russia-backed separatist Transdniester region in Moldova, and along the Sea of Azov coast.Despite the lifting of martial law, tensions between Russia and Ukraine remain high, with both sides asserting that the other was planning aggressive acts.Despite the lifting of martial law, tensions between Russia and Ukraine remain high. Top Russian officials, includingForeign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on December 24 thatRussian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta on December 26 without providing any supporting evidence thatUkraine has said Russia is amassing military forces along the border, in the annexed Crimea region, and in the Black Sea area.During the National Security and Defense Council meeting on December 26, Poroshenko said "Ukraine will never halt the use of its Azov ports, including by military vessels."[SEP]Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed on Wednesday that he does not intend to ask for martial law to be extended in some regions of Ukraine. Commenting on the upcoming vote, he argued that martial law has not affected the presidential election in Ukraine, which is scheduled for March 31. The Ukrainian president's remarks come after Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that the Kerch Strait incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to introduce martial law and suspend voting rights ahead of Ukraine's presidential election, as Poroshenko's popularity ahead of the vote has been low. On November 25, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian vessels were seized by Russia after failing to respond to a demand to stop. Following the incident, Poroshenko signed a decree declaring martial law in several Ukrainian regions located near the Russian border.[SEP]The president of Ukraine has on Wednesday ended the state of martial law that he had decreed a month ago for parts of his country. Petro Poroshenko imposed martial law on Nov. 26 following the capture of three Ukranian navy ships and 24 sailors by Russian forces.[SEP]Poroshenko said earlier this month he did not plan to extend martial law beyond the one month initially foreseen unless there was a large scale attack from Russia. The Ukrainian navy ships were captured in the Kerch Strait, between Russian-annexed Crimea and southern Russia, which controls access to the Sea of Azov, where there are both Russian and Ukrainian ports. Moscow said the ships entered Russian waters while trying to cross the strait without prior notice, ignoring orders to stop. Kiev said its ships needed no Russian permission to cross the strait. Under the martial law, Ukraine banned Russian men of combat age from entering the country and boosted security at critical sites such as nuclear power stations and Black Sea ports.[SEP]UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT PETRO Poroshenko has announced the end of a martial law in the country’s border regions, which was introduced last month after Russia’s seizure of three of Kiev’s navy vessels in the Sea of Azov. “Today, right now, at 2:00 pm (12pm Irish time) the martial law ends,” Poroshenko said during a live streamed National Security and Defence Council meeting in Kiev. The president said he had reached the decision “based on analysis of all the components of the security situation in the country”. The move to impose martial law came after Poroshenko warned of a build-up of Russian forces near Ukraine’s borders, escalating the most dangerous crisis in years between the ex-Soviet neighbours. Russian border patrol boats fired on, boarded and seized the three Ukrainian vessels, along with 24 sailors, in November off the coast of Crimea. The sailors are still being held in detention by Russian authorities. Western governments accused Russia of acting illegally and US President Donald Trump cancelled a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires over the incident. “The support and concrete actions of our international partners — their pressure on the Kremlin combined with a martial law — have stopped the worst scenario that the Russian Federation planned,” Poroshenko said. “They didn’t let Putin cross the new red line,” he added. The martial law was imposed in 10 regions that adjoin either Russia’s borders or areas controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, as well as along the coast of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Ukrainian armed forces were put on full combat readiness and replenished at the expense of the first-stage reserves. Kiev also banned Russian men aged 16-60 from entering the country. The entry was restricted for about 1,650 male citizens of Russia since November 30, the border service said Wednesday. Relations between Moscow and Kiev have deteriorated since a pro-Western government came to power after the 2014 revolt against a pro-Russian leader, Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine. The conflict pitting pro-Russian separatists against Ukrainian government forces is estimated to have claimed more than 10,000 lives. After a maritime conflict with Moscow in the Black Sea in late November, Poroshenko accused Russia of having sharply raised its military presence on the border, with Ukraine warning of the threat of “full-scale war.” Today, Ukrainian president announced the new sanctions against those involved in the aggression against Ukrainian ships. Poroshenko said a draft decision on the application of sanctions was included in the agenda of the meeting. “As we see the political support and participation of the State Duma in this process, a large number of State Duma deputies are included in the sanction list,” he stated, referring to the Russian parliament. Poroshenko also said that one of the reasons to end the martial law was the presidential election that is scheduled for 31 March. Campaigning and elections are banned under martial law, he explained. Previously critics attacked the acting president, saying that he used the incident in the Sea of Azov and the martial law to improve his ratings.[SEP]MOSCOW - Ukraine's leader has announced an end to the 30-day martial law imposed after Russia seized Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea. Ukraine announced martial law last month after Russian coast guards fired at and seized three Ukrainian ships and their crews. The 24 seamen still remain in Russian custody. The incident is another episode in the long-simmering conflict between the two countries that started in 2014 with Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's martial law was widely seen as an attempt by the unpopular leader to score political points ahead of next year's presidential election. Poroshenko told the cabinet on Wednesday that Ukraine had boosted its defences during the 30 days of martial law, which officially expired earlier in the day.

Martial law in Ukraine ends a month after an attack on three Ukrainian Navy vessels near the Kerch Strait.

At least 19 people have been killed in clashes between Sudanese anti-riot police and protesters in demonstrations triggered by a rise in bread prices, according to a government official. Speaking on state television on Thursday, Boshara Juma, government spokesperson, said: "Nineteen people lost their lives in the incidents including two from security forces". At least 219 others were wounded, he added. Sudanese authorities had previously said eight people have been killed in clashes in Khartoum and several other cities since the protests began on December 19. However, rights group Amnesty International on Monday put the death toll at 37 181224114651302 Protests initially started in towns and villages and later spread to Khartoum, as people rallied against the government tripling the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three ($0.02 to $0.06). Demonstrators have also been marching against Sudan's dire economic situation and some have called for President Omar al-Bashir's resignation. Doctors and journalists have launched a strike in support of the protests. Police and security officers remained deployed in several parts of the Sudanese capital on Thursday, but no new demonstrations were held. Egypt pledges support Meanwhile, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, during a visit to Khartoum on Thursday, voiced support for Bashir and his government saying Cairo was "confident that Sudan will overcome the present situation". Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Bashir at the presidential palace, Shoukry said the "stability of Sudan means (the) stability of Egypt". "Egypt is always ready to support Sudan and the ability of Sudanese people as per the government of Sudan's vision and policies," said Shoukry, who was visiting the Sudanese capital alongside Cairo's intelligence chief General Abbas Kamel. The minister's comments were the first remarks by a top regional Arab official in support of Bashir's government since protests began. After the protests erupted, Bashir, who has been in power since a 1989 coup, vowed to "take real reforms" to tackle the country's financial difficulties. Sudan is grappling with an acute foreign currency crisis, soaring inflation, and shortages of bread and fuel despite the lifting of an economic embargo by the US in October 2017. But activists and opposition groups continued to call on people to take to the streets again. "We urge the Sudanese people to continue their demonstrations until success is achieved by overthrowing the regime," the Sudanese Communist Party said in a statement on Thursday. Several members of the party have been arrested by security agents since the protests started. "We also call on all opposition parties to unite and work together to coordinate this movement," it added.[SEP](Bloomberg) -- The death toll from a week of demonstrations against rising inflation and food shortages in Sudan rose to more than 37 people, Sudanese doctors said. “The number is higher than 37 as new protesters have been killed,” the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said in a statement. Amnesty International said Dec. 24 it had credible reports that 37 protesters had been shot dead by security forces in the first five days of anti-government demonstrations that have rocked the north African nation. Police used live bullets and tear gas Tuesday to break up a rally in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, demanding that President Umar al-Bashir step down after almost 30 years in power. The doctors group said it was tallying the number of people killed in the protests. Last week, the government said at least eight people had been killed and hasn’t made any further comment on the death toll. To contact the reporter on this story: Mohammed Alamin in Nairobi at malamin1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Eric Ombok, Shaji Mathew[SEP](AP) – Amnesty International says it has “credible reports” that Sudanese police have killed 37 protesters in clashes during anti-government demonstrations that erupted last week across much of the country. In a statement late Monday, the London-based rights group said the use of lethal force by security forces against unarmed protesters was “extremely troubling” given that more protests were planned Tuesday. A coalition of independent professional unions has called for a march on the presidential palace in Khartoum later Tuesday to submit a petition demanding that longtime autocrat Omar Bashir step down. Two of Sudan’s largest political parties called on their supporters to take part. The protests began last Wednesday, initially over rising prices and shortages of food and fuel, but later escalated into calls for Bashir to go.[SEP]At least 19 people have been killed and 406 injured in Sudan since protests began on Dec. 19 over the country’s deteriorating economy, the official SUNA news agency reported Thursday. Protesters have been railing against chronic shortages of basic necessities, including bread and fuel. Minister of Information, Communications and Information Technology Bushara Guma Aro said at a press conference the protests were initially peaceful and the police did not intervene, but they gradually turned violent. The dead include three in Northern State, five in Nahral-Neil State, six in Gedarif State, three in White Nile State and two members of the security forces, Aro told SUNA. Among the injured, 219 were protesters and 187 were security forces, he added. He stressed that some of the casualties had resulted from confrontations between shop owners and protestors who attempted to loot their properties. Aro also noted that the security forces have arrested 107 elements belonging to armed movements. He said the government has taken measures to overcome the crisis, adding that after Jan. 15, the shortages will be resolved. He called on those demanding a change in government, saying “the way to regime change is through the ballot box". The opposition in Sudan has called through social media for wide-ranging demonstrations throughout the country following Friday prayers. On Tuesday, Sudanese security forces dispersed thousands of protesters who had gathered in central Khartoum to demand the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir, who has been in power since 1989, pledged Monday to carry out economic reforms amid the street protests. A nation of 40 million people, Sudan has struggled to recover from the loss of three quarters of its oil output -- its main source of foreign currency -- when South Sudan seceded in 2011. The U.S. began imposing sanctions on Sudan in 1997, including a trade embargo, over human rights violations and terrorism concerns but pledged to lift them in January.[SEP]A digital rights group is reporting that Sudanese authorities have clamped down on access to social media in the wake of spreading anti-government protests. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition – a group that fights internet shutdowns – have thus called on network operators in the country to push back from state pressure and keep people online. The coalition said on Thursday that it was demanding that: “operators like MTN Sudan and Zain Sudan to more transparently notify the public of restrictions and push back against government requests that could violate human rights.” Government has officially denied any such move even though social media has been a hot spot for the organization of protesters in what started out as a protest against hikes in bread and fuel prices. The death toll so far is another area of contention with the latest government figures pegged at below twenty whiles Amnesty said days ago that it was up to thirty-seven. A network of Sudanese journalists went on strike Thursday in the wake of deadly protests sparked by a hike in bread prices, while opposition groups called for further rallies. “We declare a three day strike from December 27 to protest against the violence unleashed by the government against demonstrators,” said the Sudanese Journalists’ Network which advocates free speech. Journalists in Sudan frequently complain of harassment from the authorities, and the African country has a dire rating on international press freedom rankings. Entire print runs of newspapers are often confiscated over articles deemed offensive by the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), which is spearheading the current crackdown on protesters. Activists and opposition groups have called on people to take to the streets again over the next few days. “We urge the Sudanese people to continue their demonstrations until success is achieved by overthrowing the regime,” the Sudanese Communist Party said in a statement. A member of President Omar al-Bashir’s government on Wednesday called for a probe into the killings of protesters in demonstrations that have rocked the economically troubled country. Sudanese authorities say eight protesters have been killed in clashes, but Amnesty International has put the death toll at 37. At a press conference in Khartoum, Popular Congress Party senior official Idris Suleman said his party’s own reports indicated that 17 people “were martyred” and 88 wounded in the demonstrations. “We call on the government to launch an investigation into the killings,” Suleman said. “Those who committed these killings must be held accountable.” Popular Congress Party is part of Bashir’s government and has two ministers of state in the cabinet and seven lawmakers in parliament. As anti-goverment protests in Sudan entered their fifth day, the presidency said on Monday that Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called his counterpart, Omar al-Bashir on Saturday to express his support. Since Wednesday, cities across Sudan have been shaken by protests triggered by an economic deterioration. Protesters have also called for an end to Bashir’s 29-year rule. “During the call Sheikh Tamim declared that his country stood with Sudan and was ready to offer all that was necessary to help Sudan overcome this ordeal, stressing his keenness for the stability and security of Sudan,” the statement said. Qatar and its regional rivals have increasingly vied for influence in Sudan and other countries on the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Gulf states have also been an important source of funding for Sudan after it lost three-quarters of its oil output when the south seceded in 2011. Sudan’s opposition leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, has called for Mahdi called for a “national and international investigation” into the deaths of protesters during price demonstrations that rocked the country this week. A government decision to increase the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three (from about two to six US cents) has sparked demonstrations across the country since Wednesday. The protest movement “is legal and was launched because of the deteriorating situation in Sudan,” he said in his first news conference since returning home on Wednesday after almost a year in exile. While the official government position says at least eight people died during Thursday’s protests, while only person lost their life on Friday, the opposition said “22 people were martyred and several others wounded”. Madhi blamed ‘armed repression’ for the death of the protesters, while authorities insist they used restraint in containing demonstrations. In a rare press conference, the head of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), Salah Abdallah Mohamed Saleh, said seven people had been arrested in connection with the burning of ruling party office buildings in earlier protests. “We recognise that we must have self-restraint and manage things wisely and take care of the lives of the people and of public property, and we are not bothered by demonstrations, but we are upset by the lapse in security,” said Saleh, also known as Salah Gosh. Web users reported problems accessing the internet, and some accused the government of blocking social media including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp in a bid to stop protesters communicating. There was no comment on that from the government. Authorities have declared states of emergency and curfews in cities in at least four of Sudan’s 18 states, according to local media. The education ministry suspended some school or university classes in the states of al-Qadarif, White Nile and Nile River, private TV channel Sudania 24 reported. The ministry has also announced that it would shutter universities in Khartoum state and schools and kindergartens in the capital city. Sudan’s government has blamed nationwide protests that have left at least eight people dead, on ‘infiltrators’ and opposition parties, rather than the soaring prices. The demonstrations on Wednesday and Thursday were among the biggest since crowds came out against cuts to state subsidies in 2013. Officials told Sudania 24 TV that six people died in protests in the eastern city of al-Qadarif and two more in northern Nile River state, without giving details on how they were killed. “Peaceful demonstrations were derailed and transformed by infiltrators into subversive activity targeting public institutions and property, burning, destroying and burning some police headquarters,” government spokesman Bishara Jumaa said in a statement released by the official Sudan News Agency. He did not name anyone but he also said the protesters, some of whom have called for the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir, were being exploited by opposition parties. “Some political parties emerged in an attempt to exploit these conditions to shake security and stability in order to achieve their political agenda,” Jumaa said. He did not identify the parties. He added that the demonstrations had been “dealt with by police and security forces in a civilised way without repression or opposition”. Police fired teargas to break up a crowd of around 500 people in the capital Khartoum, then chased them through back streets and made arrests, a witness said. Public anger in Sudan has been building over price rises and other economic hardships, including a doubling in the cost of bread this year and limits on bank withdrawals. At 69 percent, Sudan’s inflation rate is among the world’s highest. Leading Sudanese opposition figure Sadiq al-Mahdi returned to Sudan on Wednesday from nearly a year in self-imposed exile and called for a democratic transition in Sudan. “The regime has failed and there is economic deterioration and erosion of the national currency’s value,” Mahdi, who was Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister and now heads the Umma party, told thousands of supporters. Sudan’s president Omar al- Bashir, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, took power in an Islamist and military-backed coup in 1989. Lawmakers this month proposed a constitutional amendment to extend term limits that would have required him to step down in 2020. Anti-government protests spread to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum on Thursday, as more people demonstrate against high prices and a liquidity crunch. Around 150 protesters shut down a main street in Khartoum and chanted: “The people want the fall of the regime.” Police in riot gear broke up the protests. A member of parliament said a university student was killed when protests spread from Atbara city to al-Qadarif. ‘‘The situation in al-Qadarif has become dangerous and the protests have developed to include fires and theft and it’s now out of control,’‘ Mubarak al-Nur said. Security forces in Sudan fired teargas to quell protests on Thursday, after people took to the streets chanting anti-government slogans. A state of emergency was declared in the Atbara city on Wednesday after hundreds of people protested against price increases and set fire to the local headquarters of the ruling party. A curfew was declared from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in Atbara — Sudan’s railway hub, with a large railworker population manning various lines, interchanges and maintenance workshops — the state security committee said. “Today, the headquarters of the ruling party in the city of Atbara and the headquarters of the local government and a fuel station were burned,” Hatem al-Wassilah, governor of the Nile River state, said on Sudania 24 TV. A decision to reduce bread subsidies this year sparked rare nationwide protests in Sudan after bread prices doubled. But Sudan increased flour subsidies by 40 percent in November. Port Sudan, the capital of Red Sea state, also saw limited protests on Wednesday, witnesses told Reuters. Sudan’s annual inflation edged up to 68.93 percent in November from 68.44 percent in October. Prime Minister Motazz Moussa said inflation for the full year 2018 was expected to be 63 percent. Severe shortages of fuel and bread, both subsidised by the government, have forced people in the capital and other cities to queue at bakeries and petrol stations. Earlier on Wednesday, Moussa said Sudan’s 2019 budget included 66 billion Sudanese pounds ($1.39 billion) in subsidies, 53 billion of which is for fuel and bread.[SEP]CAIRO (AP) - Sudanese activists say a protester injured in anti-government demonstrations has died of his wounds. An umbrella coalition of independent professional unions says Wednesday the victim, Abuzar Ahmed, was shot in the head last week in the eastern city of Gadaref. The coalition says at least 22 protesters were wounded on Tuesday. There were no reports of fresh protests on Wednesday. The protests began last week, initially over rising prices and shortages of food and fuel, but later escalated into calls for President Omar Bashir to step down. Amnesty International said it had "credible reports" that Sudanese police have killed 37 protesters since the protests began. In this Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018 handout image provided a Sudanese activist, people chant slogans during a demonstration in Kordofan, Sudan. In the capital Khartoum on Tuesday, police used tear gas and fired in the air to disperse thousands of protesters attempting to march on the presidential palace to demand that Omar Bashir, Sudan's president of 29 years, step down, according to activists and video clips posted online. (Sudanese Activist via AP) The government has acknowledged fatalities during the protests but given no figures. An opposition leader said over the weekend that 22 protesters were killed.[SEP]KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades on Friday at 300-400 chanting worshippers as they left a mosque near the capital, a Reuters witness said, after a call for widespread anti-government protests by opposition groups. Activists had urged protesters to gather in large numbers following Friday’s weekly Muslim prayers. Civil society groups said authorities arrested nine opposition figures on Thursday evening ahead of the planned demonstrations. The group in Omdurman, a town near Khartoum, was fired upon as people exited the mosque chanting “peaceful, peaceful,” the witness said. Around 30 SUVs belonging to the security forces had surrounded the square outside the building before noon prayers. Sudan has been rocked by more than a week of anti-government protests sparked by rising prices, shortages of basic commodities and a cash crisis. At least 19 people have died during the protests, including two military personnel, according to official figures. Amnesty International said on Tuesday at least 37 had died. The head of the media office at the National Intelligence and Security Service denied knowledge of Thursday’s arrests. A committee of professional organizations involved in the protests said in a statement that authorities had raided a meeting of opposition leaders in Khartoum. The nine people they had detained included Siddiq Youssef, a senior leader of Sudan’s Communist Party, as well as leaders from the pan-Arab Ba’ath and Nasserist parties, the statement said. Fourteen leaders of one of Sudan’s two main opposition groupings were detained last Saturday and then released hours later. Sudan has been gripped by a deep economic crisis that began in 2011 after the southern half of the country voted to secede, taking with it three-quarters of the country’s oil output, and has been aggravated by years of overspending and mismanagement. Opposition groups blame President Omar al-Bashir, who has governed Sudan since 1989, for the mismanagement. A series of measures, including a sharp devaluation of the Sudanese pound in October, have failed to shore up the economy. In January, Sudan was shaken by demonstrations triggered by high bread prices. But the protests that began on Dec. 19 appear to be more serious. Authorities have shuttered schools and declared curfews and states of emergency in several regions, and residents say police have used tear gas and sometimes live ammunition against demonstrators. Putting the death toll at 19, Sudan’s information minister on Thursday blamed some of the deaths on scuffles between shopowners and what he described as looters. He said 219 civilians and 187 members of the security forces had been wounded. Journalists at the daily Al-Sudani said one of their colleagues was beaten by security forces after protesters passed next to the independent newspaper’s offices.[SEP]Khartoum, Dec 27: Clashes between Sudanese anti-riot police and protesters in demonstrations against a rise in bread prices have killed 19 people, including two security force personnel, the government said Thursday. "Nineteen people lost their lives in the incidents including two from security forces," government spokesman Boshara Juma said on state television, adding that 219 people were wounded. Sudanese authorities had previously said that eight people have been killed in clashes in Khartoum and several other cities since the protests began on December 19.[SEP]CAIRO — Sudanese activists say a protester injured in anti-government demonstrations has died of his wounds. An umbrella coalition of independent professional unions says Wednesday the victim, Abuzar Ahmed, was shot in the head last week in the eastern city of Gadaref. The coalition says at least 22 protesters were wounded on Tuesday. There were no reports of fresh protests on Wednesday. The protests began last week, initially over rising prices and shortages of food and fuel, but later escalated into calls for President Omar Bashir to step down. Amnesty International said it had “credible reports” that Sudanese police have killed 37 protesters since the protests began. The government has acknowledged fatalities during the protests but given no figures. An opposition leader said over the weekend that 22 protesters were killed.[SEP]CAIRO - Sudanese activists say a protester injured in anti-government demonstrations has died of his wounds. An umbrella coalition of independent professional unions says Wednesday the victim, Abuzar Ahmed, was shot in the head last week in the eastern city of Gadaref. The coalition says at least 22 protesters were wounded on Tuesday. There were no reports of fresh protests on Wednesday. The protests began last week, initially over rising prices and shortages of food and fuel, but later escalated into calls for President Omar Bashir to step down. Amnesty International said it had "credible reports" that Sudanese police have killed 37 protesters since the protests began.

Street battles between anti-government protesters and riot police in Sudan leave at least 19 people dead, including two policemen, as well as hundreds injured. Amnesty International puts the death toll at 37.

(CNN) Richard Overton, America's oldest World War II veteran and the oldest man in the United States, died Thursday afternoon at the age of 112. The death was confirmed to CNN by Shirley Overton, a family member. Overton would have been 113 on May 11, 2019. The veteran had been hospitalized with pneumonia, his family said. Overton volunteered for the Army starting in 1942 and served with the 188th Aviation Engineer Battalion, an all-black unit that served on various islands in the Pacific. "He was there at Pearl Harbor when the battleships were still smoldering. He was there at Okinawa. He was there at Iwo Jima, where he said. 'I only got out of there by the grace of God,'" former President Barack Obama said while honoring Overton at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in 2013. Overton told CNN at the time he didn't like thinking or talking about the war, saying he "forgot all that stuff." Overton was a longtime resident of Austin, Texas, according to CNN affiliate KXAN, living on a street -- Richard Overton Avenue -- renamed for him. He told CNN in 2013 that he credited God for living so long but said he didn't take any medicine and enjoyed his vices. "I drink whiskey in my coffee. Sometimes I drink it straight," he said when he was 107. "I smoke my cigars, blow the smoke out; I don't swallow it." In a statement Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Overton "an American icon and a Texas legend." "With his quick wit and kind spirit he touched the lives of so many, and I am deeply honored to have known him," Abbott said. "Richard Overton made us proud to be Texans and proud to be Americans. We can never repay Richard Overton for his service to our nation and for his lasting impact on the Lone Star State." In 2015, Overton was the subject of a short documentary titled "Mr. Overton" by Austin-based filmmakers Rocky Conly and Matt Cooper. He said in the film he loved to eat soup, corn and fish, and drink milk. "And ice cream. I eat ice cream every night. It makes me happy," he said. Especially butter pecan, he said. "I still walk, I still talk, and I still drive," Overton said on camera, before hopping into his Ford F100 Custom pickup truck. Overton also said in the film he liked to go to church and enjoyed the singing. He also loved caring for his cats. Overton's family and friends celebrated his 112th birthday in May by visiting him at his home, KXAN reported. "I feel fine every day," KXAN quoted him as telling photographers at the event. "No pain and no aches." At the party, a friend had made T-shirts to sell to raise support for Overton's around-the-clock at-home care. On them, the secret to longevity Overton reportedly gave TV host and comedian Steve Harvey: "Keep living, don't die."[SEP]Richard Overton, who was believed to be America’s oldest living veteran, is acknowledged by U.S. President Barack Obama during a ceremony to honor veterans at the Tomb of the Unknowns on Veterans Day, at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, on November 11, 2013. Another member of the greatest generation is gone. Richard Overton, the oldest living American veteran from World War II, passed away Thursday night in Austin, Texas, after a brief battle with pneumonia. He was 112. Overton was born in 1906 and joined the United States Army in 1940 as a member of the 188th Engineer Aviation Battalion. Overton was sent to Pearl Harbor a couple of weeks after it was bombed, and he recalled what he saw KVUE, the ABC affiliate in Austin, reported. "Every window that was in those houses was shot out. So when we got there, that's the way it was. And the ships, some of them were still floating, some of them still smoking," Overton said to the station. "Some of them were still burning." Overton was part of a segregated unit that hopped from one island to another in the Pacific—something fairly common for a U.S. infantryman during World War II. His stops included Guam, Palau, and Iwo Jima. "You heard in Iwo Jima the water turned to blood? Well, it did," he said in the interview. "When you talking about some of the stuff we had to go through, I never want to go through that again." Upon his return to Austin in 1945, Overton worked at local furniture store before landing a job as a courier for the Texas Department of Treasury, working from the Texas State Capitol. He worked under four Texas governors before retiring. His cousin, Volma Overton, told ABC News that Overton would often "drive a golf cart to the bank to deposit millions of dollars in checks." He lived for 73 years in the Austin home he built in 1945. Overton began garnering fame five years ago when he was recognized as America's oldest living World War II veteran. He was invited by President Barack Obama to the White House for special recognition and then went to participate in a Veteran's Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Overton later called it one of the proudest moments of his life, according to KVUE. Two years later, he began a battle with pneumonia at the age of 109. Overton faced the possibility of living in a nursing home—and likely losing his home on Hamilton Avenue in Austin. Thanks to the internet and his recent fame, a GoFundMe campaign raised more than $400,000 to provide in-home care. Earlier this year, the Austin City Council changed the name of his street from Hamilton Avenue to Richard Overton Avenue, and declared that day Richard Overton Day. "I'm proud to get that," Overton said. As for turning 112, Overton quipped, "That's pretty old, ain't it? I can still get around, I can still talk, I can still see, I can still walk." Then pneumonia returned this month, and he was finally released from the hospital just three days ago, on Christmas Eve. Overton credited his long life on Earth to keeping good friends, smoking a cigar every day and occasionally enjoying good whiskey. Twenty-one different presidents served the United States during Overton's lifetime.[SEP]Richard Overton was in his mid-30s when he began serving in World War II. It was perhaps the most important thing he did with his life, but it was far from the last. Overton, who died Thursday in Austin after battling pneumonia, according to the Associated Press, was 112. He was believed to be America’s oldest man, as well as its oldest living World War II veteran. He’d also spent decades in the furniture business, lived in his East Austin home for more than 70 years and had become something of a celebrity as he passed 108, 109 and later 112. The older he got, the more his charm — and his fondness for cigars and whiskey, his front porch and church — wowed the folks around him. “With his quick wit and kind spirit he touched the lives of so many, and I am deeply honored to have known him,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said in a statement Thursday. “Richard Overton made us proud to be Texans and proud to be Americans.” He “lived his life with honor and dignity,” President Barack Obama said in 2013. “Everything we do with Mr. Overton turns magical,” a friend, Allen Bergeron, said during a 2018 tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. [Meet America’s oldest living vet. He smokes cigars, does yard work, drives and drinks whiskey. And he’s 108.] Overton, of course, had made history himself. The grandson of a Tennessee slave who moved to Texas upon emancipation, Overton was born May 11, 1906, in Bastrop County, Tex. He volunteered for the Army in his 30s and served in the Pacific Theater from 1942 to 1945 as part of the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion. He had been at Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attacked, as well as Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Overton used to start his days with some whiskey in his coffee, and he still adds a teaspoon from time to time. “It’s just like medicine,” he said. Overton smokes cigars daily, too. “I’m smoking one now,” he said from Austin. Indeed, Overton hasn’t slowed down much and remains sharp. He still drives his old Ford pickup truck, attends church every Sunday and has been known to help to transport widows to church, according to the Austin American-Statesman. And he still does yard work. Reminder: He is 108 years old. At 112, he was still sharp mentally, but had been hospitalized seven times in 14 months for pneumonia, cousin Volma Overton Jr. told the Austin American-Statesman. Overton had no children. He’d married twice; he and his first wife divorced in the 1920s, and his second wife died in the 1980s. Overton Jr., who had been overseeing his care, said his cousin outlived almost everyone in his family. The Statesman said Overton’s funeral would be held Jan. 12. On the cusp of 112, a whirlwind tour for World War II’s oldest veteran America’s oldest vet is turning 109. He celebrated with cigars and burgers. At 103, this Maryland veteran is the oldest living graduate of West Point[SEP]AUSTIN, Texas — A family member says the nation’s oldest World War II veteran who was also believed to be oldest living man in the U.S. has died in Texas. Richard Overton was 112. Shirley Overton, whose husband was Richard’s cousin, says the Army veteran died Thursday evening at a rehab facility in Austin. Overton had been recently hospitalized with pneumonia. Overton was in his 30s when he volunteered for the Army and was at Pearl Harbor just after the Japanese attack in 1941. He once said that one secret to his long life was smoking cigars and drinking whiskey, which he often was found doing on the porch of his Austin home. In 2013, he was honored by former President Barack Obama at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.[SEP]In this May 10, 2018 photo Richard Overton, the oldest living U.S. Veteran at the age of 111, is back in the east Austin home he has owned since 1948 after a renovation provided by Meals on Wheels of Central Texas and the Home Depot Foundation. A family member says Overton, the nation’s oldest World War II veteran who was also believed to be oldest living man in the U.S., has died in Texas. He was 112. Shirley Overton, whose husband was Richard’s cousin, says the Army veteran died Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018 at a rehab facility in Austin, Texas. (Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman via AP, file) (Ralph Barrera)[SEP]AUSTIN, Texas — A family member says the nation’s oldest World War II veteran who was also believed to be oldest living man in the U.S. has died in Texas. Austin Mayor Steve Adler declared Thursday Richard Overton Day in the city and also gave the street he has lived on for the past 45 years the honorary name of Richard Overton Avenue. Overton was in his 30s when he volunteered for the Army and was at Pearl Harbor just after the Japanese attack in 1941. He once said that one secret to his long life was smoking cigars and drinking whiskey, which he often was found doing on the porch of his Austin home.[SEP]AUSTIN, Texas — Richard Overton, the nation's oldest World War II veteran who was also believed to be the oldest living man in the U.S., died Thursday in Texas, a family member said. He was 112. The Army veteran had been hospitalized with pneumonia but was released on Christmas Eve, said Shirley Overton, whose husband was Richard's cousin and his longtime caretaker. "They had done all they could," she said. He died Thursday evening at a rehab facility in Austin, Texas, she said. Richard Overton was in his 30s when he volunteered for the Army and was at Pearl Harbor just after the Japanese attack in 1941. He once said that one secret to his long life was smoking cigars and drinking whiskey, which he often was found doing on the porch of his Austin home. His recent birthdays drew national attention and strangers would stop by his house to meet him. Even well into his 100s, he would drive widows in his neighborhood to church. "With his quick wit and kind spirit he touched the lives of so many, and I am deeply honored to have known him," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Thursday, calling Overton "an American icon and Texas legend." "Richard Overton made us proud to be Texans and proud to be Americans," the governor added. "We can never repay Richard Overton for his service to our nation and for his lasting impact on the Lone Star State." Overton was born in 1906 near Austin and served in the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion. In 2013, former President Barack Obama honored Overton at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. "He was there at Pearl Harbor, when the battleships were still smoldering," Obama said of Overton. "He was there at Okinawa. He was there at Iwo Jima, where he said, 'I only got out of there by the grace of God.'"[SEP]Richard Overton, a World War II veteran who was America's oldest man, has died at the age of 112. Overton, who lived in Austin, Texas, died on Thursday at a rehabilitation home, his cousin, Volma Overton Jr, told the Austin-American Statesman. He had been hospitalized earlier this month with pneumonia, the newspaper said. Overton's longevity and his status as the oldest living American veteran of World War II made him a celebrity of sorts over the past few years. In 2013, he visited Washington and met with president Barack Obama at the White House. The street where he lived in Austin was renamed "Richard Overton Avenue" on his 111th birthday. Overton was born on May 11, 1906 in Texas. He served in the US Army in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. After returning home, Overton worked in furniture stores and for the office of the state treasurer. Overton spent his later years sitting on his porch smoking cigars and sipping coffee or Coca-Cola with a dash of whiskey, the Statesman said. He was married twice but had no children. According to the Gerontology Research Group, the oldest living man in the world is 113-year-old Masazou Nonaka of Japan.[SEP]Richard Overton, the nation's oldest World War II veteran who was also believed to be the oldest living man in the U.S., died Thursday in Texas, a family member said. He was 112. The Army veteran had been hospitalized with pneumonia but was released on Christmas Eve, said Shirley Overton, whose husband was Richard's cousin and his longtime caretaker. "They had done all they could," she said. He died Thursday evening at a rehab facility in Austin, Texas, she said. Overton was born in Bastrop County, Texas and was inducted into the U.S. military on September 3, 1940 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, CBS Austin affiliate KEYE reports. He served in the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion. Overton was in his 30s when he volunteered for the Army and was at Pearl Harbor just after the Japanese attack in 1941. Overton served in the South Pacific from 1940 through 1945, including stops in Hawaii, Guam, Palau and Iwo Jima during World War II. He left the Army in Oct. 1945, KEYE reports. Overton worked at local furniture stores before taking a position with the Texas Department of the Treasury - now part of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts - in Austin. He once said that one secret to his long life was smoking cigars and drinking whiskey, which he often was found doing on the porch of his Austin home. His recent birthdays drew national attention and strangers would stop by his house to meet him. Even well into his 100s, he would drive widows in his neighborhood to church. "With his quick wit and kind spirit he touched the lives of so many, and I am deeply honored to have known him," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Thursday, calling Overton "an American icon and Texas legend." "Richard Overton made us proud to be Texans and proud to be Americans," the governor added. "We can never repay Richard Overton for his service to our nation and for his lasting impact on the Lone Star State." In 2013, former President Obama honored Overton at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. "He was there at Pearl Harbor, when the battleships were still smoldering," Mr. Obama said of Overton. "He was there at Okinawa. He was there at Iwo Jima, where he said, 'I only got out of there by the grace of God.'"[SEP]The nation has lost one of its oldest residents and its oldest World War II veteran. Texas native Richard Overton passed away on December 27, 2018, after battling pneumonia last week. Overton was born near Bastrop in 1906, in 1940 Overton joined the Army as a member of the 188th Engineer Aviation Battalion, he served for 3 years. Once Overton finished his service he returned to his home in Austin Texas. In 2013 Richard Overton became the oldest living World War II Veteran. He’s since met with former governor Rick Perry and President Barack Obama. Earlier this year the city of Austin renamed the street he had lived on for most of his life to Richard Overton Avenue. Overton always credited God as the secret to his long life along with the help of whiskey and cigars, “I been smoking cigars from when I was 18 years old, I’m still a smoking ‘em. 12 a day.”

Richard Arvin Overton, the oldest U.S. veteran from World War II, as well as the oldest American man, dies at age 112.

UPDATE: Con Ed Tweaks Statement on Cause of Eerie Blue NYC Sky A transformer fire in Queens sent an eerie blue light flooding the nighttime sky as electricity flickered in homes and an airport was plunged into darkness Thursday. Con Edison says a brief electrical fire involving transformers broke out at the substation on 20th Avenue and 32nd Street in Astoria, causing a transmission dip in the area. - The Night Sky Turned Crazy -- and NYers Have Jokes About It The fire lit the sky so brightly that it briefly appeared to be daytime in neighborhoods like Astoria and Woodside, residents reported. Smoke arose from the source of the blue light, visible from as far as Manhattan. In Photos: NYC Night Sky Turns Mysterious Bright Blue Con Edison is investigating the cause of the transformer fire. Utility spokesman Bob McGee says no one was hurt. "It did create a spectacular effect on the sky, and certainly caused a lot of concern," he told News 4, calling it an "abnormal event." "The electrical fault on the 138,000 volt equipment caused a sustained electrical arc flash that was visible across a wide area," he added early Friday in a statement. "The affected equipment was isolated to a single section within the substation." Incredible video taken from Edgewater, New Jersey, shows blue light flooding parts of New York City skies and pans to the rest of Manhattan for comparison. (Published Friday, Dec. 28, 2018) Though small, the fire had a large impact citywide. LaGuardia Airport went dark, Rikers Island jail was on backup generators, and the 7 subway line saw major delays in both directions, according to Con Edison. NYPD officials on scene said it appeared to simply be equipment malfunction, and there was no sign of any sort of nefarious interference. There was no visible damage inside the Con Edison plant. Meanwhile, people flooded the streets in Queens and swarmed social media to try to figure out the source of the mysterious blue-green glow in the sky. "I was thinking this is the end of the world, like something's gonna happen," said Tarek Kherifi in Astoria. "The electricity went off, that was obvious. But the light in the sky, that was very intense," said Berklis Kanaris. "The combination made me wonder what it was." One boy told News 4 he thought it was an UFO. A transformer fire in Queens sent an eerie blue light flooding the nighttime sky over New York City. Michael George and Checkey Beckford report. (Published Friday, Dec. 28, 2018) People in Queens reported the electricity briefly flickering off in their homes, and LaGuardia Airport saw a total blackout at one point. A News 4 staffer picking up his daughter in Terminal A said the lights started to flicker, then turned off completely while the emergency lights stayed on. The FAA initially issued a ground stop at LaGuardia but power was largely restored by 11 p.m. and the airport was resuming normal operations. Travelers were still asked to check with their carriers for updated flight information. Firefighters responding to the ConEd fire saw it in the sky before they got there, radio transmissions on Broadcastify show. "There's a high-voltage emergency going on the ConEd plant, heading that way now," one firefighter said. "Can we have a representative from ConEd meet us out on 20th Avenue? It just seems like whatever it was just shut down. We'll meet them at the main gate." "Yeah, whatever was arcing the skyline, it turned off, it seems like," he continued. "Just advise Battalion 49, we have a visible fire in the ConEd plant. We're going to enter off of 31st Street." Top News Photos: Hong Kong Protestors Calls on US for Help A pilot near JFK Airport also described the stunning scene when the transformer exploded, dispatch recordings receal. "Eleven o'clock, it looks like a massive fire," he's heard saying in a dispatch with the JFK tower. "JetBlue 1186, you see that light out there? You know what that is?" one voice is heard in the tower transmissions. "Yes sir, and no, we do not, not at all, sorry," another voice responds. "We see colors like that off the clouds." In another tower transmission, a voice is heard saying, "Delta 1197 Heavy, let me know if you're able to see what that light is out there." The Delta pilot said, "It's on the ground lighting up the sky." The tower responded, "You don't know what it is?" "Negative," the pilot said. "Blue-green color, does not look like typical flames." Gov. Andrew Cuomo said state police and the Public Service Commission were ready to support local authorities in the investigation. It was the second major incident involving Con Edison in the last six months. In July, a steam pipe explosion spewed asbestos-laden vapor into the air in the Flatiron District, driving hundreds of people from their homes and businesses. ConEd said it had restored all major transmission lines associated with the event and was in the process of investigating the cause of the failure. See Our Top Tri-State Stories of 2018[SEP]A huge explosion at a New York power plant has turned the sky above parts of the city a bright blue-green. Many Manhattanites were stunned when the sky over parts of Queens started to glow a bright neon blue shortly after 9pm on Thursday night. Scores posted footage of the glowing skyline to social media, saying the sky was “bright as day”. Footage of the scene showed the sky flickering a bright blue-green for several minutes. The strange sight was caused by an explosion at the Con Edison power plant in Queens, with the New York Police Department officially confirming on Twitter that the cause of the remarkable sight was the explosion and there was “no evidence of extraterrestrial activity”. Parts of Queens have lost power and La Guardia airport has closed after the incident. Photograph: Emma Canalese “There was a brief electrical fire at our substation in Astoria which involved some electrical transformers and caused a transmission dip in the area. We’re currently investigating the cause of the incident,” Con Edison tweeted. Police advised people to avoid the area and later confirmed no one had been injured as a result of the incident. The New York fire department confirmed they had received multiple reports of explosions in the Long Island City and Astoria area, to which they had responded. At 10:15pm they reported the incident was under control and there were no reported injuries and no fire. Residents left their homes as the black sky turned neon blue, with several telling the Guardian they thought they were witnessing an alien invasion. Lucas Espinoza, a Queens resident, said: “I was eating dinner in my living room and out of nowhere the lights and TV started flickering and then the whole sky – which was pitch black a moment earlier – lit up with a pulsating greenish blue light. I ran up to my rooftop and grabbed the video while it lasted for a few minutes.” George Delis, who lives down the road from the plant, told the Guardian: “A little while ago, the TV went out and I see this massive bright light. It was so bright I thought it was a UFO. I was so excited I grabbed my phone and saw right down the block at Con Edison, a transformer was on fire. It was so bright, much brighter than the sun ... I’ve been living here for 37 years and I’ve never seen this happen before.” The incident cause several streets to lose power and also caused a blackout at LaGuardia Airport. The mayor of New York Bill de Blasio confirmed the extraordinary light was “caused by electrical surge at substation”, but said there were no current fire and no injuries. He said the MTA had power, but there were delays on the 7 train and that power was “coming back on” at LaGuardia, but travellers should expect delays.[SEP]Transformer explosion in Queens lights up sky in New York City, causes power outages. NEW YORK (AP) — Transformer explosion in Queens lights up sky in New York City, causes power outages.[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) — Transformer explosion in Queens lights up sky in New York City, causes power outages.[SEP]#Bluelight, Queens, #astoria, #nyc, #nycsky: Blue sky at night lights up social media in New York NEW YORK: An alien invasion? The Rapture? The sky flashed an eerie blue over New York City on Thursday night and social media users feared the worst. Extraterrestrial activity was a leading theory: "IM SORRY WHAT???? THE SKY JUST TURNED BLUE???? literally so confused I think aliens just tried to steal new york," one user wrote on Twitter. "Apparently aliens are landing in New York City right now bcs the sky’s blue," wrote another. In this trying time, some saw the hand of God at work: "Don’t worry, New Yorkers. The blue light you saw in the sky was just the Rapture," one tweet said. Another Twitter user noted that people had been warned to change their ways: "What’s happening in the sky in New York? If it’s the rapture, I just wanna say I told y’all to quit it." Travelers at LaGuardia airport were treated to potential delays as well as a light show. "Due to a power outage in Queens, there is partial flight operations @LGAairport. Many flights are departing, some are not," the airport wrote on its Twitter account, later adding that power was back in "all terminals" and advising passengers to check with airlines for flight status information. In the end, the explanation turned out to be somewhat more mundane than the end of times or invaders from outer space: a problem at a local power plant. "The lights you have seen throughout the city appear to have been from a transformer explosion at a Con Ed facility in Queens. The fire is under control, will update as more info becomes available," the New York Police Department tweeted. Con Edison, the power company, tweeted that: "There was a brief electrical fire at our substation in Astoria which involved some electrical transformers and caused a transmission dip in the area. We’re currently investigating the cause of the incident." "The incident is under control. There are no injuries reported, and no fire," the fire department said. The anticlimactic explanation was disappointing to some. "I wish the blue sky in New York was aliens and not a power plant on fire," one Twitter user wrote.[SEP]NEW YORK - An alien invasion? The Rapture? The sky flashed an eerie blue over New York City on Thursday night (Dec 27) and social media users feared the worst. "I'm sorry what???? The sky just turned blue???? Literally so confused I think aliens just tried to steal New York," one user wrote on Twitter. Some saw the hand of God at work: "Don't worry, New Yorkers. The blue light you saw in the sky was just the Rapture," one tweet said. Another Twitter user noted that people had been warned to change their ways: "What's happening in the sky in New York? If it's the rapture, I just wanna say I told y'all to quit it." Many posted videos and photos of the night sky illuminated by a bright light. In the end, the explanation turned out to be somewhat more mundane: a problem at a local power plant. "The lights you have seen throughout the city appear to have been from a transformer explosion at a Con Ed facility in Queens. The fire is under control, will update as more info becomes available," the New York Police Department tweeted. Con Edison, the power company, tweeted that it was working with the fire department "to respond (to) a substation fire in Astoria." "The incident is under control. There are no injuries reported, and no fire," the fire department said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter no one was injured. He said the light was caused by an electrical surge at the substation. Travellers at LaGuardia airport, which is located in Queens, were treated to potential delays as well as a light show. "Due to a power failure at #LGA, please allow extra time when coming to the airport," the airport wrote on its Twitter account. The anticlimactic explanation was disappointing to some. "I wish the blue sky in New York was aliens and not a power plant on fire," one Twitter user wrote.[SEP]NEW YORK • An alien invasion? The Rapture? The sky flashed an eerie blue over New York City on Thursday night and social media users feared the worst. Extraterrestrial activity was a leading theory. "I think aliens just tried to steal New York," one user wrote on Twitter. Some saw the hand of God at work. "Don't worry, New Yorkers. The blue light you saw in the sky was just the Rapture," one tweet said. Many posted videos and photos of the night sky illuminated by a bright light. In the end, the explanation turned out to be somewhat more mundane: a problem at a local power plant. "The lights you have seen throughout the city appear to have been from a transformer explosion at a Con Ed facility in Queens. The fire is under control, will update as more info becomes available," the New York Police Department tweeted. Con Edison, the power company, tweeted that it was working with the fire department "to respond (to) a substation fire in Astoria". "The incident is under control", the fire department said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter that the light was caused by an electrical surge at the substation. Travellers at LaGuardia airport, which is in Queens, faced potential delays but were treated to a light show. "Due to a power failure at #LGA, please allow extra time when coming to the airport," the airport wrote on its Twitter account.[SEP]NEW YORK—The night sky turned blue across New York City on Thursday when a transformer exploded at a Con Ed facility in Queens. An FDNY spokesman said firefighters responded to the blast on 20th Avenue in Steinway at about 9:20 p.m. The transformer exploded on a site Con Ed shares with power-generating companies and other industrial facilities. "I thought it was a terrorist attack. Everything was flooded with smoke. It looked like blue fire. It was so big it was like the whole sky turned blue," said Astoria resident Ziad Elnokrashy. "I thought it was the end of the world," Elnokrashy said.[SEP]The New York mayor’s spokesman insisted that the glowing lights were not aliens Craig Ruttle/AP A small explosion at a power plant turned the sky over New York bright blue last night, causing airport disruption and prompting the mayor’s official spokesman to confirm that it was “not aliens”. Residents were mystified when a neon glow appeared above the Astoria area of Queens and was visible in surrounding areas as it flickered for several minutes. Eric Klinenberg, a New York University sociologist, wrote on Twitter: “Something insane is happening in the sky above Manhattan right now.” Another user asked: “Why is the sky lit up bright blue in Queens New York City right now? Is it fireworks?” Officials said that the bizarre spectacle was the result of a transformer explosion at a power plant run by the energy supplier Con Edison,…[SEP]Bright blue light is seen after a transformer explosion on Thursday at an electric power station in the New York City borough of Queens, U.S., in this picture obtained from social media on December 28, 2018. Twitter/@Eat_Work_Run/via REUTERS (Reuters) - A transformer explosion at an electric power station in the New York City borough of Queens on Thursday led police officials to warn people to avoid the area, after social media users posted images of a bright light on the horizon. "The light you have seen throughout the city appear to have been from a transformer explosion at a Con Ed facility in Queens," the New York Police Department said in an advisory on Twitter to local residents. "The fire is under control, will update as more info becomes available," it said. The New York Police Department's 114th precinct, which patrols the area, said in a Twitter post that people should avoid the area around the power plant. Con Edison confirmed there had been a fire at a power substation in Queens, saying on Twitter that it was working with the New York Fire Department and would provide further details later. Also on Thursday, a power outage at LaGuardia Airport, which is located in Queens, prompted flight cancellations, the New York affiliate of NBC reported. It was not immediately clear if the two events were related.

The New York City sky lights up in blue after a transformer in Astoria, Queens, explodes.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi political and militia leaders condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and lawmakers said a meeting between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi was cancelled due to a disagreement over venue. Sabah al Saadi, the leader of the Islah parliamentary bloc, called for an emergency session of parliament “to discuss this blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and to stop these aggressive actions by Trump who should know his limits: The U.S. occupation of Iraq is over.” The Bina bloc, Islah’s rival in parliament and led by Iran-backed militia leader Hadi al-Amiri, also objected to Trump’s trip to Iraq. “Trump’s visit is a flagrant and clear violation of diplomatic norms and shows his disdain and hostility in his dealings with the Iraqi government,” said a statement from Bina. Abdul Mahdi’s office said in a statement that U.S. authorities had informed Iraq’s leadership of the president’s visit ahead of time. The statement said the Iraqi prime minister and U.S. president talked by telephone due to a “disagreement over how to conduct the meeting.” Iraqi lawmakers told Reuters that the pair had disagreed over where their planned meeting should take place: Trump had asked to meet at the Ain al-Asad military base, an offer which Abdul Mahdi declined. Trump’s visit comes amid a backdrop of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran, as Washington seeks to counter Iran’s sway in the Middle East. The formation of Iraq’s government has stalled as well amid intensifying discord between the Islah and Bina blocs. Falih Khazali, a former militia leader turned politician allied with Bina, accused the United States of wanting to increase its presence in Iraq. “The American leadership was defeated in Iraq and wants to return again under any pretext, and this is what we will never allow,” he said. Bina said Trump’s visit “places many question marks on the nature of the U.S. military presence and its real objectives, and what these objectives could pose to the security of Iraq.” While there has been no full-scale violence in Iraq since Islamic State suffered a series of defeats last year, some 5,200 U.S. troops train and advise Iraqi forces still waging a campaign against the militant group. Islah is headed by populist Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Sadr has long opposed the U.S. presence in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. He led two uprisings against U.S. forces in Iraq and is one of the few Shi’ite leaders to also distance himself from Iran. Iraq’s Shi’ite militias, also known as the PMF, many of which are supported by Iran, oppose the presence of U.S. troops in the region. The PMF was made formally part of the security forces this year after helping the military defeat Islamic State in Iraq in 2017. Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the powerful Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia said on Twitter, “Iraqis will respond with a parliamentary decision to oust your (U.S.) military forces. And if they do not leave, we have the experience and the ability to remove them by other means that your forces are familiar with.” Some Iraqis, however, were less concerned with the U.S. president’s visit. “We won’t get anything from America,” said Baghdad resident Mohammad Abdullah. “They’ve been in Iraq 16 years, and they haven’t given anything to the country except destruction and devastation.”[SEP]BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi lawmakers are seizing on President Donald Trump's surprise visit to demand U.S. forces leave the country. Politicians from both sides of Iraq's political divide are calling on parliament to vote to expel U.S. troops. Approximately 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State group. Foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in a year that saw supporters of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr win the largest share of votes in May elections. Al-Sadr has called for curbing U.S. and Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs. Trump spent three hours at a U.S. air base meeting with American troops on an unannounced visit Wednesday. He left without meeting any Iraqi officials. Lawmakers decried the visit as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.[SEP]BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi lawmakers are seizing on President Donald Trump's surprise visit to demand U.S. forces leave the country. Politicians from both sides of Iraq's political divide are calling on parliament to vote to expel U.S. troops. Approximately 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State group. Foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in a year that saw supporters of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr win the largest share of votes in May elections. Al-Sadr has called for curbing U.S. and Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs. Trump spent three hours at a U.S. air base meeting with American troops on an unannounced visit Wednesday. He left without meeting any Iraqi officials. Lawmakers decried the visit as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.[SEP]BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi lawmakers are seizing on President Donald Trump's surprise visit to demand U.S. forces leave the country. Politicians from both sides of Iraq's political divide are calling on parliament to vote to expel U.S. troops. Approximately 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State group. Foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in a year that saw supporters of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr win the largest share of votes in May elections. Al-Sadr has called for curbing U.S. and Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs. Trump spent three hours at a U.S. air base meeting with American troops on an unannounced visit Wednesday. He left without meeting any Iraqi officials. Lawmakers decried the visit as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.[SEP]BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi political and militia leaders condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and lawmakers said a meeting between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi was canceled due to a disagreement over venue. Sabah al Saadi, the leader of the Islah parliamentary bloc, called for an emergency session of parliament “to discuss this blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and to stop these aggressive actions by Trump who should know his limits: The U.S. occupation of Iraq is over.” The Bina bloc, Islah’s rival in parliament and led by Iran-backed militia leader Hadi al-Amiri, also objected to Trump’s trip to Iraq. “Trump’s visit is a flagrant and clear violation of diplomatic norms and shows his disdain and hostility in his dealings with the Iraqi government,” said a statement from Bina. Abdul Mahdi’s office said in a statement that U.S. authorities had informed Iraq’s leadership of the president’s visit ahead of time. The statement said the Iraqi prime minister and U.S. president talked by telephone due to a “disagreement over how to conduct the meeting.” Iraqi lawmakers told Reuters that the pair had disagreed over where their planned meeting should take place: Trump had asked to meet at the Ain al-Asad military base, an offer which Abdul Mahdi declined. Trump’s visit comes amid a backdrop of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran, as Washington seeks to counter Iran’s sway in the Middle East. The formation of Iraq’s government has stalled as well amid intensifying discord between the Islah and Bina blocs. Falih Khazali, a former militia leader turned politician allied with Bina, accused the United States of wanting to increase its presence in Iraq. “The American leadership was defeated in Iraq and wants to return again under any pretext, and this is what we will never allow,” he said. Bina said Trump’s visit “places many question marks on the nature of the U.S. military presence and its real objectives, and what these objectives could pose to the security of Iraq.” While there has been no full-scale violence in Iraq since Islamic State suffered a series of defeats last year, some 5,200 U.S. troops train and advise Iraqi forces still waging a campaign against the militant group. Islah is headed by populist Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Sadr has long opposed the U.S. presence in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. He led two uprisings against U.S. forces in Iraq and is one of the few Shi’ite leaders to also distance himself from Iran. Iraq’s Shi’ite militias, also known as the PMF, many of which are supported by Iran, oppose the presence of U.S. troops in the region. The PMF was made formally part of the security forces this year after helping the military defeat Islamic State in Iraq in 2017. Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the powerful Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia said on Twitter, “Iraqis will respond with a parliamentary decision to oust your (U.S.) military forces. And if they do not leave, we have the experience and the ability to remove them by other means that your forces are familiar with.” Some Iraqis, however, were less concerned with the U.S. president’s visit. “We won’t get anything from America,” said Baghdad resident Mohammad Abdullah. “They’ve been in Iraq 16 years, and they haven’t given anything to the country except destruction and devastation.”[SEP]Iraqi lawmakers are seizing on President Donald Trump's surprise visit to demand U.S. forces leave the country. Politicians from both sides of Iraq's political divide are calling on parliament to vote to expel U.S. troops. Approximately 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) group. Foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in a year that saw supporters of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr win the largest share of votes in May elections. Al-Sadr has called for curbing U.S. and Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs. Mr. Trump spent three hours at a U.S. air base meeting with American troops on an unannounced visit Wednesday. He left without meeting any Iraqi officials. Lawmakers decried the visit as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.[SEP]Iraqi political and militia leaders condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty, and lawmakers said a meeting between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi was canceled due to a disagreement over venue.The Bina bloc, Islah's rival in parliament and led by Iran-backed militia leader Hadi al-Amiri, also objected to Trump's trip to Iraq.Abdul Mahdi's office said in a statement that U.S. authorities had informed Iraq's leadership of the president's visit ahead of time. The statement said the Iraqi prime minister and U.S. president talked by telephone due to a "disagreement over how to conduct the meeting."Iraqi lawmakers told Reuters that the pair had disagreed over where their planned meeting should take place: Trump had asked to meet at the Ain al-Asad military base, an offer which Abdul Mahdi declined.Falih Khazali, a former militia leader turned politician allied with Bina, accused the United States of wanting to increase its presence in Iraq. "The American leadership was defeated in Iraq and wants to return again under any pretext, and this is what we will never allow," he said.While there has been no full-scale violence in Iraq since Islamic State suffered a series of defeats last year, some 5,200 U.S. troops train and advise Iraqi forces still waging a campaign against the militant group.Islah is headed by populist Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Sadr has long opposed the U.S. presence in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. He led two uprisings against U.S. forces in Iraq and is one of the few Shi'ite leaders to also distance himself from Iran.Iraq's Shi'ite militias, also known as the PMF, many of which are supported by Iran, oppose the presence of U.S. troops in the region. The PMF was made formally part of the security forces this year after helping the military defeat Islamic State in Iraq in 2017.Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the powerful Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia said on Twitter, "Iraqis will respond with a parliamentary decision to oust your (U.S.) military forces. And if they do not leave, we have the experience and the ability to remove them by other means that your forces are familiar with."Some Iraqis, however, were less concerned with the U.S. president's visit."We won't get anything from America," said Baghdad resident Mohammad Abdullah. "They've been in Iraq 16 years, and they haven't given anything to the country except destruction and devastation."[SEP]Baghdad – Iraqi lawmakers are seizing on President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to demand U.S. forces leave the country. Politicians from both sides of Iraq’s political divide are calling on parliament to vote to expel U.S. troops. Approximately 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State group. Foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in a year that saw supporters of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr win the largest share of votes in May elections. Al-Sadr has called for curbing U.S. and Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs. Trump spent three hours at a U.S. air base meeting with American troops on an unannounced visit Wednesday. He left without meeting any Iraqi officials. Lawmakers decried the visit as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[SEP]Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday demanded that US forces leave the country, in the wake of a surprise visit by President Donald Trump the previous day, since denounced by politicians as arrogant and a violation of the country’s sovereignty, AP said. Politicians from both blocs of Iraq’s divided parliament called for a vote to expel US troops, and promised to schedule an extraordinary session to debate the matter. “Parliament must clearly and urgently express its view about the ongoing American violations of Iraqi sovereignty,” Salam al-Shimiri, a lawmaker loyal to the populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, said. Trump, making his first presidential visit to troops in the troubled region, said he has no plans to withdraw the 5,200 US personnel in the country.[SEP]BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers are seizing on President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to demand U.S. forces leave the country. Politicians from both sides of Iraq’s political divide are calling on parliament to vote to expel U.S. troops. Approximately 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State group. Foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in a year that saw supporters of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr win the largest share of votes in May elections. Al-Sadr has called for curbing U.S. and Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs. Trump spent three hours at a U.S. air base meeting with American troops on an unannounced visit Wednesday. He left without meeting any Iraqi officials. Lawmakers decried the visit as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

Iraqi politicians from both parliamentary blocs in the Council of Representatives of Iraq demand the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country, following U.S. President Donald Trump's unannounced visit to troops stationed at Al Asad Airbase. An extraordinary session to debate the matter is planned.

DR Congo on Thursday told the EU to recall its envoy in retaliation for sanctions against 14 officials, including President Joseph Kabila’s champion in elections three days away. Don’t turn Ilorin to battle ground, union urges politicians “The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo urges the European Council to proceed without fail in recalling its head of mission within 48 hours,” Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu said. On December 10, European Union foreign ministers extended a travel ban and asset freeze on 14 figures over “the obstruction of the electoral process and the related human rights violations.” The 14 include Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a hardline former interior minister chosen by Kabila to be the candidate for his succession in elections on Sunday. Kabila took office in 2001 at the age of just 29 after succeeding his assassinated father, Laurent-Desire Kabila. He was due to step down at the end of 2016 after reaching his constitution-limited two terms in office. But he stayed on, invoking a caretaker clause in the constitution that enables a president to stay in office until a successor is elected. Protests broke out that were bloodily repressed, leading to scores of deaths. She Okitundu made the announcement from the foreign ministry, where he earlier called in western diplomats, including EU head of mission Bart Ouvry, a Belgian national. He said the DRC had “patiently” sought to persuade the EU to either drop or suspend the sanctions “until the elections in the DRC had been held.” But this had failed, leading to “unilaterally-taken measures” by Brussels, he said. “This measure (by the DRC) on one side punishes the reprehensible behaviour (of the EU) and on the other comes under the framework of reciprocity,” he said.[SEP]Thursday brought a new twist to the upcoming polls in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a fightback against the election body’s suspension of voting in three regions, a call for nationwide strike and the literal sacking of the European Union envoy by government. Earlier this week, voting was cancelled for three cities. Beni and Butembo – known opposition strongholds and Yumbi over rising spate of insecurity. The elections body, CENI, said the three cities will vote in March 2019 but that their results would not affect the conduct of the December 30 polls. As expected, the main opposition Lamuka coalition have flatly rejected the move with its leader, ex-oil tycoon Martin Fayulu, announcing a nationwide shutdown to protest CENI’s decision. “We are launching a patriotic call for a dead city day on Friday, December 28th, over the entire expanse of the Republic. #Beni, #Butembo and #Yumbi are an integral part of the #RDC which is one and indivisible,” Fayulu wrote in a tweet accompanied by a Lamuka statement. The Catholic Church and Lucha activists have also protested over recent decisions by the CENI. The Church says it was unacceptable to adjourn elections for a part of the country. Whiles the influential activists group also accused CENI of preparing the grounds for chaos. With barely just days to the elections, Kinshasa has asked the European Union to recall its representative citing targeted sanctions against 14 Congolese officials. Brussels had sanctioned the 14 officials for their roles in repression of anti-Kabila protests. A government communication signed by Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu gave the EU 48 hours to withdraw its envoy. Among the affected officials are Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, the ruling party’s candidate in the elections – at the time he was serving as Interior Minister, hence his inclusion. Kinshasa had lobbied hard at a point soliciting the help of the African Union to ensure Shadary was free of the sanctions but the EU Council in early December voted to maintain the sanctions. The upcoming elections were supposed to take place in late 2016 but were postponed by two whole years with the elections body, CENI, citing the lack of a credible voters roll, funding and insecurity. Even this coming Sunday’s vote had been postponed from an earlier date of December 23. CENI cited loss of materials at a Kinshasa warehouse inferno for the decision.[SEP]Congo orders European Union ambassador to leave within 48 hours after sanctions prolonged against ruling party candidate KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo orders European Union ambassador to leave within 48 hours after sanctions prolonged against ruling party candidate.[SEP]KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo orders European Union ambassador to leave within 48 hours after sanctions prolonged against ruling party candidate.

The DRC government gives the European Union 48 hours to recall its envoy in the country after the EU imposed sanctions on 14 Congolese officials.

Five monks were tied up and held for hours in incident that left one seriously hurt This article is more than 8 months old This article is more than 8 months old Five monks have been injured, one seriously, during a robbery at a monastery church in a suburb of Vienna, Austrian police have said. Two suspects fled the scene after ambushing the church in the northern suburb of Floridsdorf at about 1.30pm local time (12.30 GMT). They tied the monks up and held them for a number of hours, police said on Thursday. The victims were found by officers at 4.17pm. “As far as we know so far, at least one of the suspects demanded cash and valuables. The exact motive is not yet known. But we are ruling out a possible terrorist motive,” the police said, adding that a large-scale manhunt had been launched to find the suspects. In a separate incident earlier on Thursday, Vienna’s St Stephen’s Cathedral was evacuated after a bomb scare, but reopened about an hour later when no explosives were found.[SEP]At least five monks were injured by uknown assailants in robbery at a church in Austrian capital Vienna, police said on Thursday. Vienna police said in a tweet that two unknown perpetrators attacked several monks in Maria Immaculata church in Strebersdorf district. Police found the monks tied up, one of them with head injuries, nearly three hours later. They were aged between 56 and 68, and it appeared that the others had tried to intervene after one of the assailants — described as speaking with a foreign accent — attacked the oldest monk, the Austria Press Agency reported. Police said while the precise motive remains unclear, "a possible terror motive can be ruled out" in the incident at the church. Security forces sealed the area as the search for the attackers and any additional victims were underway, police said. In a later tweet, the police said five victims were priests and one of them was in critical condition. Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported that the priests were discovered 3 hours after the attackers tied up before robbing them and a large manhunt was underway with police helicopters flying around the area.[SEP]BERLIN (AP) — Austrian police say that five monks have been assaulted at a Vienna church by two people, at least one of whom apparently demanded money and valuables. Police said the assault happened at about 1:30 p.m. (1230 GMT; 7:30 a.m. EST) Thursday at a complex in the city's Floridsdorf district. Police found the monks tied up, one of them seriously injured, nearly three hours later. Police wrote on Twitter that, while the precise motive remains unclear, "a possible terror motive can be ruled out" in the incident at the Maria Immaculata church. Officers were searching for the perpetrators, including in the convent where the incident took place.[SEP]Five monks at a church in Austria’s capital of Vienna were held captive for hours Thursday by two suspects who are still at large, local police said. One monk was seriously injured during the attack. The attack happened around 1:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET) at Maria Immaculata in Strebersdorf. Vienna Police said in a series of tweets that two unidentified assailants entered the church with at least one of the suspects demanding money and valuables from the monks. The monks were found tied up at the church hours after the attack, police tweeted. It’s not clear whether the suspects were armed. Police said the attack was not terrorism-related. A motive for the attack, which happened days after Christmas, is not clear.[SEP]Five monks were assaulted at a Vienna church on Thursday by two people, at least one of whom apparently demanded money and valuables, police said. Police said the assault happened at about 1:30 p.m. (1230 GMT; 7:30 a.m. EST) at a complex in the city’s Floridsdorf district. No church service was underway when the assailants entered the Maria Immaculata church. Police found the monks tied up, one of them with head injuries, nearly three hours later. They were aged between 56 and 68, and it appeared that the others had tried to intervene after one of the assailants — described as speaking with a foreign accent — attacked the oldest monk, the Austria Press Agency reported. Police wrote on Twitter that, while the precise motive remains unclear, “a possible terror motive can be ruled out” in the incident at the Maria Immaculata church.. Officers were searching for the perpetrators, including in the complex where the incident took place. They said Thursday evening that they had found nothing in the building.[SEP]Five monks have been assaulted at the Maria Immaculata church in Vienna's Floridsdorf district, with one suffering head injuries. Two assailants, one armed with a pistol, beat a 68-year-old monk and then overwhelmed four others as they came to help, police spokesman Harald Sörös told Austria's APA news agency. Police were notified three hours later and found the five clerics — the youngest aged 56 — tied up. They were all taken to hospital. The eldest had suffered head wounds, possibly from a metal bar. A sixth man was also held in an adjacent office but not hurt, police said. At the time, no church service was taking place. Vienna's Catholic Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said he was "deeply disturbed" by the incident. "Churches are places of peace and care; we're especially conscious of this at Christmastime … I pray for the rapid recovery of the victims and repentance by the perpetrators," he said. Despite a large manhunt into Thursday evening, police have not yet found the assailants, who reportedly demanded cash and valuables from the monks. Söros ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack.[SEP]Austrian's capital has been rocked by an unprecedentedly brazen burglary, after two suspects stormed a monastery church in the northern part of Vienna and robbed it, leaving about a dozen of monks injured. The crime took place in broad daylight; the perpetrators broke into the Church of Maria Immaculata in Vienna’s district of Floridsdorf around 13:30 local time (12:30 GMT), police said in a statement. The robbery lasted for hours, they reported, adding that police have also found “tied and [in some instances] heavily injured” monks only three hours later. A large-scale manhunt was launched following the incident as major police forces were deployed to the scene as the area around the church was cordoned off. The officers also asked local residents to avoid the area and “let [our] colleagues do their job.” In a follow-up statement, the police said that at least one of the attackers “demanded valuables and cash” from the monks. The investigators also said they are not treating the incident as a terrorist attack while also admitting that the exact motives behind the robbery are “still unclear.” to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.[SEP]A number of monks have been injured, some seriously, in a brazen, broad daylight attack on a church in Vienna which the authorities are describing as a “robbery”. Law enforcement say two attackers, for whom no descriptions have been issued, broke into the Maria Immaculata church around 1:30 p.m., beginning an ordeal which lasted for several hours. Officers say they found five monks “shackled” shortly after 4 o’clock in the afternoon, one with serious injuries. “According to the current state of investigation, at least one of the unknown perpetrators is likely to have demanded valuables and cash,” they confirmed on social media. “The exact motive is still unclear at the moment, but a possible terror motive can be ruled out,” they claimed. As of approximately 5 p.m. GMT, the church remained sealed and subject to a thorough search, with Austrian police explaining that “as it is a larger building complex [it] cannot currently be ruled out that perpetrators or victims are still in the building”. The search was lifted around 6 p.m. GMT, having proven unsuccessful, although the area in the immediate vicinity of the church remains cordoned off pending further investigation.[SEP]Five monks have been injured including one seriously during a robbery at a monastery church in a suburb in Vienna, police said on Thursday. Two suspects fled the scene after ambushing the church in the northern suburb of Floridsdorf at around 1:30 pm (1230 GMT), tying the monks up and holding them for a number of hours, police said in a statement. The victims were found by officers at 4:17 pm, they said. "As far as we know so far, at least one of the suspects demanded cash and valuables. The exact motive is not yet known. But we are ruling out a possible terrorist motive," the police said, adding that a large-scale manhunt has been launched to find the suspects. In a separate incident earlier on Thursday, Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral was evacuated following a bomb alarm, but re-opened about an hour later after no explosives were found.[SEP]Police found the monks tied up, one of them with head injuries, nearly three hours later. They were aged between 56 and 68, and it appeared that the others had tried to intervene after one of the assailants — described as speaking with a foreign accent — attacked the oldest monk, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Five Christian monks are tied up and then left injured, one of them seriously, after a robbery at a church in Vienna, Austria.

Hackers met in Leipzig to push tech’s boundaries in the name of creating a better society. Personal privacy, big data and sexual harassment were the hot topics. (Source: dpa) Lit in Leipzig. It’s been a year of reckoning for the tech industry. The Wannacry virus locked up 200,000 computers for bitcoin ransom at the start of the summer. Women in the tech industry are increasingly speaking up about harassment and the pay gap. Growing interest in the ethics of big data and artificial intelligence is spawning a new generation of tech criticism. Our lives are increasingly centered around our data. Trafficking in personal data has become big business, both legal and illegal. As much as good things can come from quantified lives — improved health treatment, more efficient production — bad actors are also at the ready to eavesdrop, manipulate and repress. The theme of the Chaos Computer Club’s 34th annual gathering is #TuWat, or “do something” in English. That theme extends to issues like protecting data, but also, as with so many other industries this year, to confronting sexual harassment. The largest hacker convention in Europe will draw about 15,000 attendees through Saturday to Leipzig, a city in eastern Germany, about a two-hour train ride south from Berlin. The technologists have taken over the city's main conference hall, creating a wonderland of crazy projects and collective actions. Almost every year, the official and self-organized sessions of the convention reveal tech vulnerabilities that make news, many of which are available to watch on the Chaos Computer Club website. In 2015, it was details on how exactly Volkswagen cheated emissions tests. One revelation at this year's hacker convention, also known by its acronymn 34c3, was the insecurity of online banking applications. Vincent Haupert, a doctoral candidate at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, demonstrated how he compromised 31 mobile banking services, including apps by Commerzbank and German savings banks, known as Sparkassen. The security hole was found in the services of Norwegian cybersecurity company Promon, which has since updated its software. No banks have reported any instances of misuse as of yet. Mr. Haupert's suggested solution is to use two separate devices when enabling two-factor authorization for sensitive apps. (Source: dpa) Hack the planet. Germans are perhaps less likely to give up their personal data in exchange for convenience. European privacy law is also much stricter than in the United States, which has led to increasing frustration with the overwhelmingly American tech giants, such as Google and Facebook. While protecting personal data sometimes feels like a Sisyphean task, internet privacy activists and cybersecurity experts at the congress don’t want people to give up the fight. Hackers, who are by their nature a rule-defying people, are also looking inwards, scrutinizing the community's spirits of “fight the power” and “anything goes” with well-known female technologists taking a stand against the congress’ lack of a code of conduct. If a conference wants to be welcoming to people of color, women and gender nonconforming people, it is expected that they codify a zero-tolerance discrimination policy and hold people accountable for their actions. The CCC’s official policy “welcomes all lifeforms” and encourages them to “be excellent to each other,” which critics see as a cop-out. This year, a person asked 34c3 organizers to prohibit a man who assaulted them from attending the conference, even providing evidence of the pending charges and hospital records. The request was denied, and backlash on social media is ongoing. (Source: dpa) From Moscow with love. Nor does the congress shy away from political controversy. Like South by Southwest in the United States, the tech event draws attendees from industry and government as well. This year, exiled American whistleblower Edward Snowden, a controversial but popular figure in Germany, made an appearance at 34c3 via videocall from Russia. “This year proved how important our skepticism is,” he told the audience. “Our work has never been more important.” When Mr. Snowden first brought the revelations about NSA spying capabilities to light in 2013, he was housed for a time in Hong Kong by a number of refugees, who are now seeking asylum themselves in Canada. Green Party politician Hans-Christian Ströbele, who was part of Germany’s own inquiry into the NSA, was also at 34c3 and expressed his support for Mr. Snowden. Mr. Ströbele is hardly the only outspoken German politician advocating greater protections for data privacy. It is all but certain that the question of what the digital future looks like, and what governments and hackers alike can do about it, will carry on into 2018. Video: Sönke Iwersen, the Handelsblatt reporter who spoke with the refugees who hid Edward Snowden, introduced the whistleblower and his protectors. He explained that since then, they have faced persecution so Mr. Snowden set up a fund to provide support. For more information: https://fortherefugees.com. Grace Dobush is an editor with Handelsblatt Global in Berlin. Ina Karabasz writes about telecommunications, IT and security issues for Handelsblatt. To contact the authors: [email protected] and [email protected].[SEP]Energy, dynamism and rhythm radiate from the work of Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann. I think of my work as landscape oriented or having to do with landscape painting,” says Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann of her complex, visually arresting paintings. The work is abstract, but Mann’s use of botanical imagery, glimpses of what looks like sky, orientation and the general ebb and flow of mass across the picture plane both reference and evoke the natural world. Being in nature and capturing it are vital to Mann’s practice, and she often paints en plein air near her home in Basye, in Shenandoah County. “I’m not as interested in thinking about landscape in terms of perspectival space. I like thinking of landscape in terms of teeming masses of life and the systems that make them work together. In the Shenandoah Valley for example, I’m not just looking at the mountains in the distance, I am actually looking at what is immediately below my feet. Weeds and bugs and how those are combining and melding together.” Mann, 35, who is half Taiwanese, spent her early childhood and the summers of her teenage years in Taiwan. During those latter visits, she studied the traditional Chinese shan shui (“mountain-water”) school of painting, which uses a brush and sumi ink to depict mountains, rivers and waterfalls. Although Mann is very much a product of both Eastern and Western traditions—she majored in studio art at Brown University and pursued an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art Hoffberger School of Painting, where she is currently an adjunct professor—this rigorous early training and approach formed the foundation of her practice and is evident in most of her work today. Mann starts every work with what she refers to as a “pour.” After laying her paper—this can either be a plain sheet or collaged or woven paper—on the floor of her studio, she haphazardly pours buckets of watered-down acrylic or ink onto it. She likes the lack of control of the pour; not planning or knowing what she’ll end up with is both freeing and challenging. It takes several days, or sometimes even weeks for the water to evaporate leaving a bloom of pigment staining the paper. The stain, a product of what Mann refers to as a “chance operation” becomes the starting point for the work. It’s an interesting turn of phrase, almost oxymoronic, containing both accident and determination. It could refer to Mann’s approach as well as to the fusion of Western and Eastern painting traditions. Mann’s works are large. Her intention is to create an immersive experience for the viewer where they don’t just see something, they also experience it, or at least get a whiff of its essence. In looking at Mann’s work, one is struck by how it is charged with energy. It radiates outward in explosive splinters or undulates across the surface in sensuous mounds, or swirls around like bits of confetti. In “Fable” (2014), Mann combines painting, silkscreen, collage and etching to create a ravishing work of extraordinary complexity and visual power. An abstract tour de force of composition, juxtaposed texture and color, spatial dynamism and rhythm, the painting exudes confidence and nerve. From a formal standpoint, it’s visually dazzling. It’s also curious looking, and we can’t help wondering if what is there is an actual thing, and so our interest is piqued twice. It’s as if Mann is provoking us to think in two different directions at the same time. “Double Bed” (2017) also thrums with energy, but of a quieter kind. The painting takes its compositional elements from murals in the ancient Roman villa of Livia. The diptych composition is suggestive of traditional space with a repeated shape that conveys arched portals, or perhaps these are the beds of the title. Earth and sky can be read into the left side, but Mann pulls us back into abstraction on the right with overlapping vertical bands of color and pattern. The pine tree at the center evokes nature as do the greenish, blue and yellow hues. These are punctuated by patches of gaudy multicolored pointillist daubs. The swirling ribbons and funny little squiggles add a lightness to the piece—the visual equivalents of a soft, spring breeze. Mann’s work is a virtuosic balancing act between formal elements, technique, images and movement. There is a lot going on, but Mann never loses control. She flirts with chaos, allowing it into the work like a dash of piquant seasoning to add spice to the more placid areas, but it never takes over. “I like combining something that is inherently and easily, naturally beautiful, like a pour of paint with something that feels a little more ham-handed or clumsy.” This visual yin and yang enlivens and enriches the work and keeps the viewer on their toes. This article originally appeared in our October 2018 issue.

The Chaos Computer Club holds their 35th Chaos Communication Congress, a hacker convention, in Leipzig, Germany.

ANKARA/WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s declaration in a phone call with Tayyip Erdogan that he was pulling US troops from Syria has stunned Turkey and left it scrambling to respond to the changing battlefield on its southern border. In the phone call two weeks ago, Trump had been expected to deliver a standard warning to the Turkish president over his plan to launch a cross-border attack targeting US-backed Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, US officials say. Instead, during the conversation Trump reshaped US policy in the Middle East, abandoning a quarter of Syrian territory and handing Ankara the job of finishing off Islamic State in Syria. “Trump asked: ‘If we withdraw our soldiers, can you clean up Isis?’”, a Turkish official told Reuters. He said Erdogan replied that Turkish forces were up to the task. “Then you do it,” Trump told him abruptly. To his national security adviser John Bolton, also on the call, Trump said: “Start work for the withdrawal of US troops from Syria.” “I have to say it was an unexpected decision. The word ‘surprise’ is too weak to describe the situation,” said the official, one of five Turkish sources who spoke to Reuters about the 14 December call between the two leaders. Trump’s decision was also a shock in Washington, where senior administration officials, including Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, tried for days to change the president’s mind, US officials said. When Trump made clear he would not back down, Mattis and a senior official coordinating the fight against Islamic State, Brett McGurk, both resigned. On a visit to a US air base in Iraq this week, Trump said that military commanders had repeatedly requested extensions for the 2,000 US troops in Syria - requests that he finally turned down because he said Islamic State was largely beaten. “We’ve knocked them silly. I will tell you I’ve had some very good talks with President Erdogan who wants to knock them out also, and he’ll do it,” he told American troops. Ankara has complained bitterly for years that the United States, a Nato ally, had chosen the Kurdish YPG militia as its main partner on the ground in Syria against Islamic State. Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist group, inseparable from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey in which 40,000 people have been killed. The US withdrawal potentially frees Turkey’s military to push the YPG back from 500km of the border without risking a confrontation with American forces. It also removes the main cause of this year’s diplomatic crisis between the two countries. But it also opens up an area of Syria far larger than anything Turkey had expected to fill, potentially pitting it against not just Kurdish forces but also the Damascus government - which is committed to regaining control of all of Syria - and its Russian and Iranian backers. The YPG on Friday asked the Syrian government to take over the town of Manbij, which the Kurdish militia currently controls with US support, to protect it from Turkish attack. And if Turkish forces are to take on Islamic State in its last pocket of Syrian territory near the Iraqi border, they would first have to cross 250km of territory controlled by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces. “Erdogan got more than he bargained for,” said Soner Cagaptay, Director of the Turkish Program at the Washington Institute. “He had asked the US to drop the YPG, but not withdraw from Syria”. Erdogan has for years backed rebels who once hoped to topple Bashar al-Assad, but the Syrian president’s survival has been assured by support from Tehran and Moscow even though the north and east - including Syrian oilfields - remain beyond Assad’s control for now. As it takes stock of the new challenge, Turkey is launching intensive talks with Washington and Moscow. Ankara expects US military officials to visit within days, as well as Bolton and possibly the US special Syria envoy, James Jeffrey. Turkey’s intelligence chief and defence and foreign ministers are also due in Moscow on Saturday, the spokesman for Erdogan’s AK Party said. “Of course it will be difficult. The whole issue needs to be planned again from the start,” a Turkish security official said. A US official said military planners were drafting plans that could see a withdrawal over the course of several months. One of the proposals under consideration is a 120-day withdrawal period, according to a person familiar with discussions. Washington is also grappling with what to do with weapons it provided to the YPG militia and promised to take back after the campaign against Islamic State ended. Turkey says the weapons must be collected so they are not used against Turkish troops, but US officials say they cannot disarm their own allies when the fight is not yet over. Erdogan announced last week Turkey is postponing its planned military operation against the YPG in light of Trump’s decision. The Turkish military has already carried out two incursions into northern Syria, backed by pro-Turkey Syrian rebels. In 2016 they targeted Islamic State and Kurdish fighters, and earlier this year took control of the YPG-held Afrin region. But Ankara and its Syrian rebel allies alone do not have the capacity to take over the whole region which the United States is abandoning, Cagaptay said. Turkey’s priority, therefore, may be to secure its southern frontier. “Distancing the YPG from the border and wiping out these elements is of critical importance,” the security official said. He stressed the need for careful coordination over who should fill other areas which departing US forces will leave and warned of problems ahead if an agreement could not be reached. “Is it a big victory for Turkey?” another official said. “I’m not sure right now.”[SEP]ANKARA/WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - President Donald Trump's declaration in a phone call with Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he was pulling US troops from Syria has stunned Turkey and left it scrambling to respond to the changing battlefield on its southern border. In the phone call two weeks ago, Trump had been expected to deliver a standard warning to the Turkish President over his plan to launch a cross-border attack targeting US-backed Kurdish forces in north-east Syria, US officials say. Instead, in the course of the conversation Trump reshaped US policy in the Middle East, abandoning a quarter of Syrian territory and handing Ankara the job of finishing off the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria. "Trump asked: 'If we withdraw our soldiers, can you clean up ISIS?'," a Turkish official told Reuters. He said Erdogan replied that Turkish forces were up to the task. "Then you do it," Trump told him abruptly. To his national security adviser John Bolton, also on the call, Trump said: "Start work for the withdrawal of US troops from Syria." "I have to say it was an unexpected decision. The word 'surprise' is too weak to describe the situation," said the official, one of five Turkish sources who spoke to Reuters about the Dec 14 call between the two leaders. Trump's decision was also a shock in Washington, where senior administration officials, including Secretary of Defence James Mattis, tried for days to change the President's mind, US officials said. When Trump made clear he would not back down, Mattis and a senior official coordinating the fight against ISIS militants, Brett McGurk, both resigned. On a visit to a US air base in Iraq this week, Trump said that military commanders had repeatedly requested extensions for the 2,000 US troops in Syria - requests that he finally turned down because he said ISIS was largely beaten. "We've knocked them silly. I will tell you I've had some very good talks with President Erdogan who wants to knock them out also, and he'll do it," he told American troops. Ankara has complained bitterly for years that the United States, a Nato ally, had chosen the Kurdish YPG militia as its main partner on the ground in Syria against ISIS. Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist group, inseparable from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged an insurgency in south-east Turkey in which 40,000 people have been killed. The US withdrawal potentially frees Turkey's military to push the YPG back from 500km of border without risking a confrontation with American forces. It also removes a main cause of this year's diplomatic crisis between the two countries. But it also opens up an area of Syria far larger than anything Turkey had expected to fill, potentially pitting it against not just Kurdish forces but also the Damascus government - which is committed to regaining control of all of Syria - and its Russian and Iranian backers. The YPG on Friday asked the Syrian government to take over the town of Manbij, which the Kurdish militia currently controls with US support, to protect it from Turkish attack. And if Turkish forces are to take on ISIS in its last pocket of Syrian territory near the Iraqi border, they would first have to cross 250km of territory controlled by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces. "Erdogan got more than he bargained for," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Programme at the Washington Institute. "He had asked the US to drop the YPG, but not withdraw from Syria." Erdogan has for years backed rebels who once hoped to topple Bashar al-Assad, but the Syrian President's survival has been assured by support from Teheran and Moscow even though the north and east - including Syrian oilfields - remain beyond Assad's control for now. As it takes stock of the new challenge, Turkey is launching intensive talks with Washington and Moscow. Ankara expects US military officials to visit within days, as well as Bolton and possibly the US special Syria envoy, James Jeffrey. Turkey's intelligence chief and defence and foreign ministers are also due in Moscow on Saturday (Dec 29), the spokesman for Erdogan's AK Party said. "Of course it will be difficult. The whole issue needs to be planned again from the start," a Turkish security official said. A US official said military planners were drafting plans that could see a withdrawal over the course of several months. One of the proposals under consideration is a 120-day withdrawal period, according to a person familiar with discussions. Washington is also grappling with what to do with weapons it provided to the YPG militia and promised to take back after the campaign against ISIS ended. Turkey says the weapons must be collected so they are not used against Turkish troops, but US officials say they cannot disarm their own allies when the fight is not yet over. Erdogan announced last week Turkey is postponing its planned military operation against the YPG in the light of Trump's decision. The Turkish military has already carried out two incursions into north Syria, backed by pro-Turkey Syrian rebels. In 2016, it targeted ISIS and Kurdish fighters, and earlier this year took control of the YPG-held Afrin region. But Ankara and its Syrian rebel allies alone do not have the capacity to take over the whole region which the United States is abandoning, Cagaptay said. Turkey's priority therefore may be to secure its southern frontier. "Distancing the YPG from the border and wiping out these elements is of critical importance," the security official said. He stressed the need for careful coordination over who should fill other areas which departing US forces will leave, and warned of problems ahead if agreement could not be reached. "Is it a big victory for Turkey?" another official said. "I'm not sure right now."[SEP]BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army deployed forces near Manbij in northern Syria on Friday, a war monitor and a U.S. official said, after the Kurdish YPG militia urged Damascus to protect the town, where U.S. forces operate, from the threat of a Turkish offensive. A Turkish-backed Syrian rebel rides on a truck with a mounted weapon at Manbij countryside, Syria December 28, 2018. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi Manbij, which U.S.-backed forces captured from Islamic State in 2016, has emerged as a focal point of new tensions after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces whose presence has effectively deterred Turkey. After a Syrian army announcement declaring government troops had entered Manbij, Turkey-backed Syrian rebels stationed in nearby territory said they had begun moving together with Turkish forces toward the town in readiness for “the start of military operations to liberate” it. A witness said convoys of Turkey-backed insurgents, with armored vehicles and machine guns, were moving toward the frontline with the town. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said the Syrian government forces had entered a strip of territory at the edge of Manbij, not inside the town itself, creating a barrier with Turkey-backed fighters nearby. Manbij, where U.S. troops have a military base, is held by a local militia allied to the YPG which Turkey deems a security threat. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that U.S. troops had not changed their positions in Manbij and dozens still remained. The official said they had not seen Syrian military forces inside Manbij but rather on the outskirts of the city. The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State said that “despite incorrect information about changes to military forces in the city of Manbij, Syria, (the coalition) has seen no indication that these claims are true”. Related Coverage Erdogan says Turkey has no business in Syria's Manbij if YPG militia leaves Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has vowed to crush the YPG, said Turkish officials would visit Russia - Assad’s most powerful ally - on Saturday and discuss Syria. He indicated Turkey was not in a hurry to launch an offensive. Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw troops from Syria has alarmed the Kurdish-led fighters who have fought Islamic State alongside them for years. Kurdish leaders are scrambling for a strategy to protect their region stretching across the north and east, where the presence of some 2,000 U.S. troops has so far deterred Turkey. A deployment of Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, would complicate any offensive by Turkey and its Syrian rebel proxies. U.S. military support for the Kurdish fighters has infuriated Turkey, which sees the YPG as an extension of the PKK movement that has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey for decades. Syrian state media circulated a video showing dozens of soldiers marching on a countryside road, chanting for President Bashar al-Assad. The military statement said troops had raised the national flag in Manbij on Friday and would guarantee security “for all Syrian citizens and others present.” A resident inside the town said nothing had changed and he had not seen any such flags. The YPG said on Friday its fighters had withdrawn from Manbij before to fight Islamic State elsewhere. Slideshow (5 Images) “We invite the Syrian government, to which we belong, as people, land and borders, to send its armed forces to take over these positions and protect Manbij in the face of Turkish threats,” it said. In November, Turkish and U.S. troops began joint patrols near Manbij after reaching a deal that includes the YPG exiting the town.[SEP]The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia called on the government of President Bashar al-Assad on Friday to take control of Manbij to protect the town from the threat of Turkish attacks. BEIRUT: The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia called on the government of President Bashar al-Assad on Friday to take control of Manbij to protect the town from the threat of Turkish attacks. The YPG, which Turkey regards as a terrorist group and has vowed to crush, said its fighters had previously withdrawn from Manbij to fight Islamic State militants in eastern Syria. "So we invite the Syrian government which we belong to... to send its armed forces to take over these positions and protect Manbij in the face of Turkish threats," the YPG statement said.[SEP]Syrian Army Amasses Outside Kurdish-Held Manbij, As Turkish Force Looms Over Border Syria's army is grouping at the outskirts of Manbij, a hotly contested town near the Turkish border, in a move that is apparently coordinated with the pending withdrawal of Kurdish militants who have long held the city. The news comes after initial media reports suggested that for the first time in six years, Syrian troops had taken control of the northern city. Manbij is occupied by both the U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG and American troops. The maneuvers come in the wake of President Trump's decision to withdraw the 2,200 U.S. troops in Syria — a move that puts in peril the Kurdish forces that have been fighting alongside the U.S. against ISIS. The Turks have opposed Kurdish control of Manbij because of links between the Syrian Kurds and Kurdish militants who stage attacks in Turkey. Turkey has been threatening to attack Manbij, and the Kurds are likely seeking the help of the Syrian government to prevent that. For now, it looks like this is all part of ongoing negotiations between the Kurds and Syrian officials — possibly for when the U.S. does pull out. "U.S. forces have not pulled out," a U.S. military official told NPR on Friday. "Despite incorrect information about changes to military forces in the city of Manbij," the U.S.-led International Coalition for Operation Inherent Resolve said, it "has seen no indication that these claims are true." Hinting at the sensitivity of this process, the military's statement added, "We call on everyone to respect the integrity of Manbij and the safety of its citizens." This morning, the official Kurdish YPG twitter account tweeted: "We invite the Syrian government forces to assert control over the areas our forces have withdrawn from, in particular Manbij, and to protect these areas against a Turkish invasion." NPR has spoken with three sources – two Syrian aid workers and one local journalist – who are in Manbij. All of them report that Syrian army troops have not entered the town, saying that while government troops have moved up to the borders with Manbij, they have not entered the city. Manbij is located about 10 miles south of the Turkish border, west of the Euphrates River. It's on the edge of a swath of northeastern Syria that Kurds have controlled during the country's long and devastating civil war. In anticipation of the Syrian force's arrival at the city, videos were posted on pro-regime websites in recent days that showed troops moving up toward Manbij. And on Friday morning, a Syrian army officer posted a video statement saying the Syrian regime is "taking back rightful territories." A source with ties to the Manbij Military Council, who asked not to be named as he does not have authorization to speak with the media, says there "are some negotiations that are ongoing" with the Syrian regime. Earlier this week, reports emerged that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had taken up positions in a village near Manbij — and that Turkey's military had been massing tanks and troops just across the border to the north. The new developments follow President Trump's order for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria — a force that's concentrated near the Turkish border. Trump's surprise announcement came days after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened to send his military into Manbij if the U.S. didn't convince the Kurdish YPG to withdraw. Erdogan's government deems the YPG to be a terrorist group, with ties to Kurdish separatists in Turkey. And with a Turkish force gathering north of the border, many in the U.S. and elsewhere have been concerned that there might be a repeat of a Turkish incursion from March, when its forces ousted YPG fighters from the Syrian city of Afrin.[SEP]The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia called on the government of President Bashar al-Assad on Friday to take control of Manbij to protect the town from the threat of Turkish attacks. BEIRUT: The Syrian army said it had deployed forces to Manbij in northwest Syria on Friday, after the Kurdish YPG militia urged Damascus to protect the town from the threat of Turkish attacks. A resident said the forces had not entered the town, where U.S. troops operate and have a military base. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said the government forces were stationed out the outskirts, between the town and territory under Turkish influence. U.S. President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw troops from Syria has alarmed the Kurdish-led fighters who have fought Islamic State alongside them for years. Kurdish leaders are scrambling for a strategy to protect their region stretching across the north and east, where the presence of some 2,000 U.S. troops has so far deterred an incursion by Turkey, which deems the YPG a threat to its own territory and has vowed to crush it. A deployment of government forces, backed by Russia, is likely to have a similar effect. With the YPG at its forefront, the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance (SDF) seized Manbij in 2016 from Islamic State, a milestone in the U.S.-backed battle against the jihadists. The town is held by the Manbij Military Council, fighters allied to the SDF, and abuts territory held by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels who have been mobilising for an assault. U.S. military support for the Kurdish fighters has infuriated Turkey, a fellow member of the NATO alliance, which sees the YPG as an extension of the PKK movement that has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey for decades. A Turkish-backed rebel official said the plan to attack SDF territory remained in force. "There is no Syrian soldier inside Manbij town from the regime's forces," said Major Youssef Hamoud, spokesman for the National Army rebel force. He said his forces were waiting for Washington and Ankara to agree on how U.S. forces would leave Manbij. The Syrian military statement said troops had raised the national flag in Manbij on Friday and would guarantee security "for all Syrian citizens and others present." The resident inside the town said nothing had changed and he had not seen any such flags. The YPG says its fighters previously withdrew from Manbij to fight Islamic State jihadists in eastern Syria. "So we invite the Syrian government, to which we belong, ... to send its armed forces to take over these positions and protect Manbij in the face of Turkish threats," it said on Friday.[SEP]BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army said it entered Manbij on Friday for the first time in years, after the Kurdish YPG milita urged Damascus to protect the town from the threat of Turkish attacks. It was unclear whether the government forces had spread out in the town, where U.S. forces operate and have a military base. With the YPG at its forefront, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized Manbij in 2016 from Islamic State, a milestone in the U.S.-backed battle against the jihadists. The Manbij Military Council, fighters allied to the SDF, hold the town in northern Syria, which lies on a front with Turkey-backed rebels. Ankara deems the Kurdish YPG fighters a threat and has vowed to crush them. The Syrian army said in its statement on Friday that its troops had raised the national flag in Manbij and would guarantee security “for all Syrian citizens and others present in the area”. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the troops had deployed only along the edges of Manbij, standing between the town and Turkey’s rebel allies. President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to pull out some 2,000 U.S. troops, whose presence has deterred Turkey, has alarmed the SDF, which controls much of northern and eastern Syria. The YPG says its fighters previously withdrew from Manbij to fight Islamic State jihadists in eastern Syria. “So we invite the Syrian government which we belong to...to send its armed forces to take over these positions and protect Manbij in the face of Turkish threats,” it said on Friday.[SEP]Even as regional forces race to position themselves for the imminent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, U.S. military officials caution nothing on the ground has changed yet. The U.S. on Friday dismissed claims Syrian forces were taking control of the northeastern city of Manbij, a key flashpoint between U.S.-backed Kurdish militias and Turkey, at the request of the Syrian Kurds. In a statement, the Syrian army said its troops were taking up key positions, adding it "guarantees full security for all Syrian citizens and others present." But the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State terror group responded on Twitter, saying it "has seen no indication that these claims are true." "We call on everyone to respect the integrity of Manbij and the safety of its citizens," the coalition added. US troops still in Syria A U.S. defense official also told VOA dozens of U.S. forces that had been based just outside Manbij had not moved. "We still have troops there," the official said, cautioning the U.S. remains focused on the safe and orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. Fearing a Turkish invasion, Kurdish forces have been reaching out to Syria and Russia, going as far as to invite Syrian government forces to take over the area via Twitter. Yet despite extending the invitation, Syrian Kurdish officials confirmed U.S. troops had yet to leave Manbij, and that Syrian forces had massed only in some areas on the outskirts of the city. "The situation is stable for now," Badran Chiya, a Syrian Kurdish adviser, told VOA's Kurdish service Friday. "The daily life of the people continues normally. There is no tension." Manbij, located along the Syrian border with Turkey, has been a flashpoint between the YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia and a key component of the U.S.-backed force fighting IS, and Turkey. Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist organization with links to Kurds in Turkey. In June, the United States brokered a deal with Turkey that called for the YPG to withdraw from Manbij, which would be protected by joint U.S.-Turkish patrols. But Turkey has accused the U.S. and the Kurds of failing to meet their commitments, and has been threatening to clear the YPG from the area itself. No plans to move on Manbij Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that, at least for now, his forces had no plans to move on Manbij itself. "We are still supporting the integrity of Syrian soil. These areas belong to Syria," Erdogan told reporters following Friday prayers in Istanbul. "Once the terrorist organizations leave the area, we will have nothing left to do there." But he said Turkish forces were still prepared to move into Syria, if necessary. "It's not just about Manbij. We are aiming to wipe out all terrorist organizations in the region. Our main target is that the YPG takes the necessary lesson here," Erdogan added. Despite Erdogan's comments, Turkish-backed Syrian rebels said Friday that they were continuing to advance on Manbij with Turkish forces and fight if needed "to start military operations to liberate" the city. Russia, which has been seeking to broker an agreement on Manbij between Syria and the Kurdish militias that have been holding the city, welcomed the developments. WATCH: US Withdrawal From Syria Prompts Calls for Arabs to Embrace Damascus Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov called the presence of Syrian forces in the city a "positive step." Still, Moscow is also asking for more information from the U.S. and President Donald Trump regarding how and when U.S. forces will be withdrawn from Syria. Following a meeting Friday in Moscow with Jordan's foreign minister, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that Russia wants "concrete explanations" from the U.S. "It appears that Washington wants to shift the responsibility," Lavrov said. U.S. national security adviser John Bolton is expected to travel to Turkey later next week, announcing the trip on Twitter: Friday's flurry of activity came as key regional players prepared for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country, a move announced just last week by Trump. "Everybody is negotiating; the Russians are in the middle of it and clearly the Americans are, too," Joshua Landis, who heads the Middle East department at the University of Oklahoma, told VOA. "The Syrian army doesn't want to get into a clash with Turkey. That would be a losing proposition. Neither does the YPG or anyone else," Landis added. The U.S. has about 2,000 troops in Syria to fight the Islamic State terror group. During a visit with U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday, Trump defended his decision to pull them out, declaring IS's self-declared caliphate defeated. "I think a lot of people are going to come around to my way of thinking," he said. "Our presence in Syria was not open-ended and it was never intended to be permanent." VOA's Kurdish service and Ed Yeranian contributed to this report.[SEP]The Syrian army entered Manbij for the first time in six years on Friday, after the Kurdish YPG milita urged the government to protect the city from the threat of Turkish attacks. A Syrian army spokesman said in a televised statement that the national flag was raised in Manbij, a key northern city about 19 miles from the Turkish border. The spokesman said the government would guarantee security 'for all Syrian citizens and others present in the area'. The Kurds were left exposed last week when their key ally, the U.S, suddenly pledged to pull out its own troops. The People's Protection Units (YPG) then asked for the Assad regime's help to face a threatened Turkish offensive. The YPG, the main Kurdish militia in Syria, asked government forces to deploy in Manbij, an area it withdrew from earlier this year to fight Islamic State jihadists in eastern Syria. 'We invite the Syrian government forces... to assert control over the areas our forces have withdrawn from, in particularly Manbij, and to protect these areas against a Turkish invasion,' the statement said. It was unclear whether the government forces had spread out in the town, where U.S. forces operate and have a military base. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the troops had deployed only along the edges of Manbij, standing between the town and Turkey's rebel allies. With the YPG at its forefront, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized Manbij in 2016 from Islamic State, a milestone in the U.S.-backed battle against the jihadists. The Manbij Military Council, fighters allied to the SDF, hold the town in northern Syria, which lies on a front with Turkey-backed rebels. President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to pull out some 2,000 U.S. troops, whose presence has deterred Turkey, has alarmed the SDF. Turkey deems the Kurdish fighters a threat and has vowed to crush them. Pro-Assad forces and Kurdish-led forces have fought each other elsewhere in Syria and the government opposes the Kurds' demands for autonomy. However, they have a common enemy and a mutual interest in blocking Turkish advances. The announcement that government troops had entered Manbij was quickly welcomed by the Kremlin, whose spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a 'positive step' that could help stabilize the situation.[SEP]BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on developments related to Syria (all times local): A senior Syrian Kurdish official says Syrian government troops have arrived at the front lines of the flash-point town of Manbij but have not taken over the city, and U.S. troops based outside it have not withdrawn. Ilham Ahmed said an agreement was being worked out with the Russians and the Syrian government that in case of a full U.S. withdrawal, government troops would take over. The Syrian government has announced it has seized control of the town. "The aim is to ward off a Turkish offensive," Ahmed said. "If the Turks' excuse is the (Kurdish militia), so they leave their posts to the government." Ahmed said the Kurdish militiaremain inside the city. The Kremlin has welcomed the Syrian military's entry into the flash-point Kurdish-held town where Turkey has threatened an offensive. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday described the development as a "positive step" that could help "stabilize the situation." The Syrian army entered the town of Manbij on Friday after the main Syrian Kurdish militia invited the government to seize control of it to prevent an attack from Turkey. The Syrian military said it was responding to calls from the town's residents and promised safety for all living there. The Syrian entry into Manbij comes a day before Moscow is to host top Turkish officials to discuss the crisis in Syria after the United States announced it will withdraw its troops from the country. The main Syrian Kurdish militia has invited government troops to take control of the flashpoint northern town of Manbij to prevent a Turkish attack. The People's Protection Units, or YPG, made the appeal Friday in a tweet. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is reporting that Syrian government forces have been massing on the edges of Manbij, a front line between Kurdish-led forces and Turkey-backed fighters to the west. It is not yet clear whether U.S. troops, which had patrolled the area, remain in place or have withdrawn. There was no immediate response from the U.S-led coalition. Turkey had threatened a military operation against Manbij to remove the Kurdish-led forces there. Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group. The threats triggered the U.S. announcement of withdrawing troops from Syria.

The Kurdish YPG calls on Syrian government troops to protect Manbij against what it calls a "Turkish invasion".

Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and 11 others injured when a bomb blast hit their bus on Friday less than four km from Egypt's world famous Giza pyramids, authorities said. The blast is the first deadly attack against foreign tourists in Egypt for more than a year and comes as the tourism sector, a vital source of foreign currency revenue, was recovering from a sharp drop in visitor numbers since the country's 2011 uprising. No immediate claim of responsibility was reported. Islamist extremists including some linked to Islamic State are active in Egypt and have targeted foreign visitors in the past. Nine of the injured were Vietnamese tourists, and one was the Egyptian driver, according to official statements. The interior ministry said the bus was hit by an explosion from an improvised device hidden near a wall on Marioutiya street at around 1815 (1615 GMT). About two hours later the vehicle could be seen behind a police cordon with one of its sides badly damaged and the windows blown out, a Reuters reporter said. Dozens of police, military and firefighters were at the site, on a narrow sidestreet close to the ring road, where traffic was moving normally. Shortly afterwards, workers brought a pick-up truck to tow the bus away. An investigator at the scene said the device had likely been planted near the wall. The injured were taken to the nearby Al Haram hospital, where Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told local TV that the guide had died from his injuries. "The bus deviated from the route secured by the security forces," Madbouly told Extra News TV. "We have been in contact with the embassy of Vietnam to contain the impact of the incident, and what is important now is to take care of the injured," he said. The interior ministry confirmed the death of two of the tourists, and the state prosecutors office later said a third had died. In total, 14 Vietnamese tourists had been traveling on the bus, it said. Egypt's army and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the "Arab Spring" protests of 2011. Those events and the bombing of a Russian airliner shortly after it took off from Sharm el Sheikh in 2015 caused tourist numbers to plunge. The last deadly attack on foreign tourists in Egypt was in July 2017, when two Germans were stabbed to death in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.[SEP]A roadside bomb that hit a bus with tourists, killing four people in it, was a homemade device. The incident, close to the Giza pyramids, claimed the lives of three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian tour guide. The blast also wounded 11 other Vietnamese tourists as well as the Egyptian driver.[SEP]CAIRO: Egyptian security forces have killed 40 suspected militants in three separate incidents in North Sinai and Giza, the ministry of interior said on Saturday (Dec 29), a day after a deadly bombing on a Vietnamese tourist bus in Giza killed four people. The ministry did not say whether the suspected militants were connected to Friday's attack, but said its forces killed 30 people during raids on their hideouts in Giza where it said "terrorist elements" were planning a series of attacks targeting state institutions and the tourism industry. Security forces also killed 10 suspected militants in North Sinai, where the country is fighting an insurgency led by Islamic State. State news agency MENA said that the suspects were killed in a gun battle. READ: Three Vietnamese tourists and one Egyptian killed, 10 injured in bus blast in Giza, Egypt The ministry did not give any details about the suspects' identity or whether there had been any casualties or injuries among the security forces. The statement said the three raids took place simultaneously. The ministry published photos of bloodied bodies with their faces concealed and assault rifles and shotguns lying on the floor beside them. Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a roadside bomb blast hit their tour bus on Friday less than 4km from Egypt's world-famous Giza pyramids. Egypt's military and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the "Arab Spring" protests of 2011.[SEP]A roadside bomb hidden inside a wall near the pyramids of Giza in Egypt detonated as a bus full of Vietnamese tourists passed by on Friday. Two of the tourists were killed and 12 other people were injured, including the Egyptian bus driver and a tour employee. The Associated Press described the bombing as the first terrorist attack on foreign tourists in almost two years. The attack may have been intended to derail Egypt’s tourist industry, which is beginning to recover after the period of prolonged unrest following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Perhaps of some relevance to the attack, Mubarak was in court on Wednesday to testify at the trial of his successor, Mohamed Morsi, who was in turn overthrown by current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Mubarak testified that militants from Gaza engineered a mass jailbreak in 2011 that released members of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood out of Egyptian prisons to foment unrest and conduct murderous attacks. One of the Brotherhood members who escaped from prison in the chaos was Morsi, who has been imprisoned since the 2013 coup and is now on trial for the prison break. “Militants have targeted foreign visitors in the past, with two German tourists stabbed to death at a hotel in the popular Red Sea resort of Hurghada last year,” the BBC recalled. Egyptian authorities were already bracing for terrorist threats during the New Year’s holiday and the Coptic celebration of Christmas, which is held on January 7.[SEP]Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a roadside bomb blast hit their tour bus on Friday less than 4 km (2.5 miles) from Egypt’s world-famous Giza pyramids, authorities said. The bombing is the first deadly attack against foreign tourists in Egypt for over a year and comes as the tourism sector, a vital source of foreign currency revenue, recovers from a sharp drop in visitor numbers since the country’s 2011 uprising. No immediate claim of responsibility was reported. Islamist extremists, including militants linked to Islamic State, are active in Egypt and have targeted foreign visitors in the past. At least nine Vietnamese tourists were wounded, as well as the Egyptian driver, according to official statements. The tourists were heading to a sound and light show at the pyramids, which they had visited earlier in the day, said Lan Le, 41, who was also aboard the bus but unhurt. “We were going to the sound and light show and then suddenly we heard a bomb. It was terrible, people screaming,” she told Reuters, speaking at Al Haram hospital, where the injured were taken. “I don’t remember anything after.” Egypt’s interior ministry said the bus was hit by an explosion from an improvised device hidden near a wall at around 6.15 p.m. (1615 GMT). About two hours later, the vehicle could be seen behind a police cordon with one of its sides badly damaged and the windows blown out, a Reuters reporter said. Dozens of police, military and firefighters were at the site, on a narrow side street close to the ring road, where traffic was moving normally. Shortly afterward, workers brought a pick-up truck to tow the bus away. An investigator at the scene said the device had likely been planted near the wall. The interior ministry confirmed the death of two of the tourists, and the state prosecutor’s office later said a third had died. In total, 14 Vietnamese tourists had been travelling on the bus, it said. Vietnam called on Egypt to find those behind the attack. “Vietnam is extremely angered by and strongly condemns this act of terrorism that killed and injured innocent Vietnamese people,” foreign ministry spokeswoman, Le Thi Thu Hang, said in a statement. “Vietnam requests that Egypt promptly launch an investigation into the case and track down those responsible.” Egypt’s prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, told media from Al Haram hospital that the bus had taken an unexpected route. “The bus deviated from the route secured by the security forces,” Madbouly told Extra News channel, an assertion also made by the owner of the company that organised the bus tour. “We have been in contact with the embassy of Vietnam to contain the impact of the incident, and what is important now is to take care of the injured,” the prime minister said. The bus driver later told media he had not deviated from the route. Egypt’s army and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the “Arab Spring” protests of 2011. Those events and the bombing of a Russian airliner shortly after it took off from Sharm el Sheikh in 2015 caused tourist numbers to plunge. The last deadly attack on foreign tourists in Egypt was in July 2017, when two Germans were stabbed to death in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.[SEP]CAIRO: Two Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian tour guide were killed Friday (Dec 28) when a roadside bomb blast hit their bus as it travelled close to the Giza pyramids outside Cairo, officials said. An interior ministry statement said 10 other tourists from Vietnam and the Egyptian bus driver were wounded when the homemade device exploded at 6.15 pm (1645 GMT). The improvised explosive device was placed near a wall along the Mariyutiya Street in Al-Haram district near the Giza Pyramids, the statement said. Armed security personnel quickly deployed to the site and cordoned off the area for inspection. The white tourist bus could be seen with its windows shattered and surrounded by soot-covered debris. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli was set to visit the injured tourists in hospital after following up with his ministers on the incident, a government statement said. Madbouli said that the Egyptian tour guide had died in hospital from his wounds. Egypt's tourism industry has been struggling to recover from terror attacks and domestic instability that has hit the country in recent years. In July 2017, two German tourists were stabbed to death by a suspected jihadist assailant at the Egyptian Red Sea beach resort of Hurgada. In October 2015, a bomb claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group killed 224 people on board a passenger jet carrying Russian tourists over the Sinai peninsula. The incident dealt a severe blow to Egypt's tourism industry still reeling from the turmoil set off by the 2011 uprising that forced veteran leader Hosni Mubarak from power. Egypt has for years been battling an Islamist insurgency in North Sinai, which surged following the 2013 military ouster of president Mohamed Morsi. Security forces have since February been conducting a major operation focused on the Sinai Peninsula, aimed at wiping out a local IS branch. More than 450 suspected jihadists and around 30 Egyptian soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, the army said in October. The Pyramids of Giza are the only surviving structure of the seven wonders of the ancient world and a major tourist draw attracting visitors from across the globe.[SEP]CAIRO, Dec 29 — Egyptian security forces have killed 40 suspected militants in three separate incidents in North Sinai and Giza, the ministry of interior said today, a day after a deadly bombing on a Vietnamese tourist bus in Giza killed four people. The ministry did not say whether the suspected militants were connected to Friday's attack, but said its forces killed 30 people during raids on their hideouts in Giza where it said "terrorist elements" were planning a series of attacks targeting state institutions and the tourism industry. Security forces also killed 10 suspected militants in North Sinai, where the country is fighting an insurgency led by Islamic State. State news agency MENA said that the suspects were killed in a gun battle. The ministry did not give any details about the suspects' identity or whether there had been any casualties or injuries among the security forces. The statement said the three raids took place simultaneously. The ministry published photos of bloodied bodies with their faces concealed and assault rifles and shotguns lying on the floor beside them. Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a roadside bomb blast hit their tour bus on Friday less than 4 km (2.5 miles) from Egypt's world-famous Giza pyramids. Egypt's military and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the "Arab Spring" protests of 2011. — Reuters[SEP]Two Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian tour guide were killed Friday when a roadside bomb blast hit their bus as it travelled close to the Giza pyramids outside Cairo, officials said. An interior ministry statement said 10 other tourists from Vietnam and the Egyptian bus driver were wounded when the homemade device exploded at 6:15 pm (1645 GMT). The improvised explosive device was placed near a wall along the Mariyutiya Street in Al-Haram district near the Giza Pyramids, the statement said. Armed security personnel quickly deployed to the site and cordoned off the area for inspection. The white tourist bus could be seen with its windows shattered and surrounded by soot-covered debris. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli visited the injured tourists in hospital, where he announced that the tour guide had died from his wounds. Madbouli urged against "amplifying" the incident as he insisted that "no country in the world can guarantee that its 100 percent safe". "It's possible at times that an individual incident takes place here or there," he told journalists. "We have to know that it's possible that it would be repeated in the future." There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. Egypt's tourism industry has been struggling to recover from terror attacks and domestic instability that has hit the country in recent years. In July 2017, two German tourists were stabbed to death by a suspected jihadist assailant at the Egyptian Red Sea beach resort of Hurgada. In October 2015, a bomb claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group killed 224 people on board a passenger jet carrying Russian tourists over the Sinai peninsula. That incident dealt a severe blow to Egypt's tourism industry still reeling from the turmoil set off by the 2011 uprising that forced veteran leader Hosni Mubarak from power. Egypt has since been seeking to lure tourists back and spur the lucrative sector by touting new archaeological discoveries and bolstering security around archaeological sites and in airports. Tourism has slowly started picking up. The official statistics agency says tourists arrivals in Egypt in 2017 reached 8.2 million, up from 5.3 million the year before. But that figure was still far short of the record influx in 2010 when over 14 million visitors flocked see the country's sites. Egypt has for years been battling an Islamist insurgency in North Sinai, which surged following the 2013 military ouster of president Mohamed Morsi. Security forces have since February been conducting a major operation focused on the Sinai Peninsula, aimed at wiping out a local IS branch. More than 450 suspected jihadists and around 30 Egyptian soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, the army said in October. The pyramids of Giza are the only surviving structure of the seven wonders of the ancient world and a major tourist draw attracting visitors from across the globe.[SEP]CAIRO (Reuters) - Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a bomb blast hit their bus on Friday less than four km (2.5 miles) from Egypt’s world famous Giza pyramids, authorities said. The blast is the first deadly attack against foreign tourists in Egypt for more than a year and comes as the tourism sector, a vital source of foreign currency revenue, recovers from a sharp drop in visitor numbers since the country’s 2011 uprising. No immediate claim of responsibility was reported. Islamist extremists including some linked to Islamic State are active in Egypt and have targeted foreign visitors in the past. At least nine Vietnamese tourists were injured, as well as the Egyptian driver, according to official statements. The tourists were heading to a sound and light show at the pyramids, which they had also visited earlier in the day, said Lan Le, 41, who was in the bus but unhurt. “We were going to the sound and light show and then suddenly we heard a bomb. It was terrible, people screaming,” she told Reuters, speaking at Al Haram hospital, where the injured were taken. “I don’t remember anything after.” The interior ministry said the bus was hit by an explosion from an improvised device hidden near a wall on Marioutiya street at around 1815 (1615 GMT). About two hours later the vehicle could be seen behind a police cordon with one of its sides badly damaged and the windows blown out, a Reuters reporter said. Dozens of police, military and firefighters were at the site, on a narrow sidestreet close to the ring road, where traffic was moving normally. Shortly afterwards, workers brought a pick-up truck to tow the bus away. An investigator at the scene said the device had likely been planted near the wall. The interior ministry confirmed the death of two of the tourists, and the state prosecutor’s office later said a third had died. In total, 14 Vietnamese tourists had been traveling on the bus, it said. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told local TV from Al Haram hospital that the guide had died from his injuries. “The bus deviated from the route secured by the security forces,” Madbouly told Extra News TV. “We have been in contact with the embassy of Vietnam to contain the impact of the incident, and what is important now is to take care of the injured,” he said. The bus driver later told local media he had followed a standard tourist bus route. Egypt’s army and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the “Arab Spring” protests of 2011. Those events and the bombing of a Russian airliner shortly after it took off from Sharm el Sheikh in 2015 caused tourist numbers to plunge. The last deadly attack on foreign tourists in Egypt was in July 2017, when two Germans were stabbed to death in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.[SEP]Egyptian security forces have killed 40 militants in raids on their hideouts in the Sinai Peninsula and the Greater Cairo area. The interior ministry said 10 of the militants were killed when the forces stormed their hideout in el-Arish, a coastal city in the turbulent north of Sinai. Another 14 were killed in a Cairo suburb and 16 more in a housing project on a road heading west from the capital. It said the militants were preparing for attacks on government and tourism facilities, army and police personnel as well as Christian churches. The statement came hours after a bomb targeted a tourist bus in Cairo, killing three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide.

An explosion caused by a roadside bomb hits a tourist bus in Cairo, Egypt, near the Giza pyramid complex. Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian tour guide are killed, while 12 others are injured.

A British adventurer was close to becoming the second person to traverse Antarctica completely unassisted just a few days after an American became the first to conquer the feat, which was previously said to be impossible. Louis Rudd's expedition blog on Thursday showed that the 49-year-old has only has about 50 miles (80 kilometers) left on the journey across the continent and is expected to finish Saturday. If Rudd — a Hereford, England, resident and captain in the British Army — completes the journey, he'll become the second man to do so after Colin O'Brady of Portland, Oregon, became the first on Wednesday. The more than 900-mile (1448-kilometer) trek took O'Brady 54 days. O'Brady and Rudd were competing to become the first to travel across Antarctica without getting new supplies or help from the wind. O'Brady won after he covered the last roughly 80 miles (129 kilometers) in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day. "While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced," O'Brady posted on Instagram, where he has been documenting the arduous journey. "I've just heard that the American Colin's finished," he wrote. "Fantastic, well done to him. He'd pushed really hard all the way across and done extremely well, so congratulations to him." Rudd wrote that he never felt like he was in a race and that "it's always been about completing the journey." It's been an emotional trek for Rudd, who decided to do the solo in honor of his close friend and fellow British explorer Henry Worsley, who died near the end of his attempt at an unassisted solo trek across Antarctica in 2016. Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward. O'Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, said O'Brady's wife, Jenna Besaw. "It's a small club," she joked. "His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing." O'Brady finished his trek as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete's progress in real time online. "I did it!" a tearful O'Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to Besaw. O'Brady, who had been told he may never walk again after an accident burned his legs in 2008, described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began his Antarctic trek on Nov. 3. In the beginning, he had to haul 375 pounds (170 kilograms) of gear uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind. By the end of the journey, his gear weighed roughly 140 pounds (64 kilograms). On Nov. 18, he wrote that he awoke to find his sled completely buried from an all-night blasting of wind and snow. That day he battled a 30 mph (48 kph) headwind for eight hours as he trudged along. "I wanted so badly to quit today as I was feeling exhausted and alone, but remembering all of the positivity that so many people have been sending, I took a deep breath and focused on maintaining forward progress one step at a time and managed to finish a full day," he wrote. On Day 37, Dec. 9, O'Brady posted about how much he's changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat. "I'm no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?" he wrote. "I've suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I've laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration." Though O'Brady had initially thought he'd want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods. As for what's next for O'Brady, who also has summited Mount Everest, Besaw said she's not entirely sure. "We are just so in the moment celebrating this right now," she said. "Then we'll see what's next on the horizon."[SEP]A British adventurer is close to becoming the second person to traverse Antarctica completely unassisted. Louis Rudd's expedition blog shows he has only has about 50 miles left on the journey across the continent and is expected to finish Saturday. If the Hereford, England, resident completes the journey, he'll become the second man to do so after Colin O'Brady of Portland, Oregon, became the first Wednesday. The more than 900-mile (1448-kilometre) trek took O'Brady 54 days. O'Brady and Rudd were competing to become the first to travel across Antarctica without getting new supplies or help from the wind.[SEP]An American adventurer, Colin O’Brady has become the first person to complete a solo trek across Antarctica without assistance of any kind. O’Brady, 33, took 54 days to complete the nearly 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) crossing of the frozen continent from north to south. “I accomplished my goal: to become the first person in history to traverse the continent of Antarctica coast to coast solo, unsupported and unaided,” O’Brady wrote in an Instagram post after covering the final 77.5 miles in 32 hours. “While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced,” he wrote. “I was locked in a deep flow state the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey. I’m delirious writing this as I haven’t slept yet.” His voyage was tracked by GPS, and live updates of the trip were provided daily on his website colinobrady.com. O’Brady and an Englishman, Army Captain Louis Rudd, 49, set off individually on November 3 from Union Glacier in a bid to be the first to complete a solo, unassisted crossing of Antarctica. In 1996-97, a Norwegian polar explorer, Borge Ousland, made the first solo crossing of Antarctica but he was wind-aided by kites on his voyage. O’Brady and Rudd set off on cross-country skis dragging sleds called pulks which weighed nearly 400 pounds (180 kilograms). O’Brady reached the South Pole on December 12, the 40th day of his journey. He arrived at the finish point on the Ross Ice Shelf on the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday after covering a total of 921 miles. Rudd is about a day or two behind. O’Brady said he made the decision over breakfast to finish his journey in one continuous push. “As I was boiling water for my morning oatmeal, a seemingly impossible question popped into my head,” O’Brady wrote on Instagram. “I wonder, would (it) be possible to do one straight continuous push all the way to the end? “By the time I was lacing up my boots the impossible plan had become a solidified goal,” he said. “I’m going to push on and try to finish all 80 miles to the end in one go.” The New York Times described O’Brady’s effort as among the “most remarkable feats in polar history,” ranking alongside the 1911 “Race to the South Pole” between Norway’s Roald Amundsen and England’s Robert Falcon Scott. “To complete the final 77.54 miles in one shot — essentially tacking an ultra marathon onto the 53rd day of an already unprecedented journey — set an even higher bar for anyone who tries to surpass it,” the Times wrote. In 2016, an English army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley, died while trying to complete an unassisted solo crossing of Antarctica.[SEP]Sign up for one of our email newsletters. A British adventurer was close to becoming the second person to traverse Antarctica completely unassisted just a few days after an American became the first to conquer the feat, which was previously said to be impossible. Louis Rudd’s expedition blog on Thursday showed that the 49-year-old has only has about 50 miles left on the journey across the continent and is expected to finish Saturday. If Rudd — a Hereford, England, resident and captain in the British Army — completes the journey, he’ll become the second man to do so after Colin O’Brady of Portland, Oregon, became the first on Wednesday. The more than 900-mile trek took O’Brady 54 days. O’Brady and Rudd were competing to become the first to travel across Antarctica without getting new supplies or help from the wind. O’Brady won after he covered the last roughly 80 miles in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day. “While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced,” O’Brady posted on Instagram, where he has been documenting the arduous journey. “I’ve just heard that the American Colin’s finished,” he wrote. “Fantastic, well done to him. He’d pushed really hard all the way across and done extremely well, so congratulations to him.” Rudd wrote that he never felt like he was in a race and that “it’s always been about completing the journey.” It’s been an emotional trek for Rudd, who decided to do the solo in honor of his close friend and fellow British explorer Henry Worsley, who died near the end of his attempt at an unassisted solo trek across Antarctica in 2016. Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward. O’Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, said O’Brady’s wife, Jenna Besaw. “It’s a small club,” she joked. “His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing.” O’Brady finished his trek as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete’s progress in real time online. “I did it!” a tearful O’Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to Besaw. O’Brady, who had been told he may never walk again after an accident burned his legs in 2008, described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began his Antarctic trek on Nov. 3. In the beginning, he had to haul 375 pounds of gear uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind. By the end of the journey, his gear weighed roughly 140 pounds. On Nov. 18, he wrote that he awoke to find his sled completely buried from an all-night blasting of wind and snow. That day he battled a 30 mph headwind for eight hours as he trudged along. “I wanted so badly to quit today as I was feeling exhausted and alone, but remembering all of the positivity that so many people have been sending, I took a deep breath and focused on maintaining forward progress one step at a time and managed to finish a full day,” he wrote. On Day 37, Dec. 9, O’Brady posted about how much he’s changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat. “I’m no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?” he wrote. “I’ve suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I’ve laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration.” Though O’Brady had initially thought he’d want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods. As for what’s next for O’Brady, who also has summited Mount Everest, Besaw said she’s not entirely sure. “We are just so in the moment celebrating this right now,” she said. “Then we’ll see what’s next on the horizon.”[SEP]An Oregon man has completed the first successful, unsupported solo journey across Antarctica, making the ‘impossible’ 930 mile trek across the icy continent entirely unaided. Colin O’Brady successfully finished the 54-day extreme hike on Wednesday, and documented his grueling journey on Instagram, where he shared a triumphant selfie at the wooden post marking the end of the Ross Ice Shelf, where the landmass ends. “As I pulled my sled over this invisible line, I accomplished my goal: to become the first person in history to traverse the continent of Antarctica coast to coast solo, unsupported and unaided.” O’Brady wrote. “While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced.” The endurance athlete decided at the last minute to attempt to complete the last 80 miles in one final push over 32 hours, starting on Christmas Day. Before now, the only people to cross Antarctica did so with assistance, such as using dogs or kites to propel them along, and receiving food drops along the way. Throughout the challenge that saw him pass the South Pole, O’Brady was competing with another walker, Louis Rudd, who was attempting the same trek in honor of Henry Worsley, an adventurer who died attempting the crossing in 2016. O’Brady’s wife Jenna Besaw told the AP he will wait for Rudd to complete the challenge so that they can celebrate their achievement together. O’Brady has completed a number of breathtaking endurance exercises, including breaking the record for the “Explorers Grand Slam” in 2016, which saw him ski to the South Pole before climbing the ‘Seven Summits,’ the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. The Oregon man’s thirst for extreme endurance challenges was sparked after he was badly burned in Thailand in 2008 and was told he may never walk properly again. O’Brady, who had planned a career in finance before his accident, went on to prove his doctors wrong by completing a triathlon 18 months later. Like this story? 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Louis Rudd’s expedition blog shows he has only has about 50 miles left on the journey across the continent and is expected to finish Saturday. If the Hereford, England, resident completes the journey, he’ll become the second man to do so after Colin O’Brady of Portland, Oregon, became the first Wednesday. The more than 900-mile (1448-kilometre) trek took O’Brady 54 days. O’Brady and Rudd were competing to become the first to travel across Antarctica without getting new supplies or help from the wind. Rudd’s solo is in honour of his close friend and fellow British explorer Henry Worsley, who died near the end of his attempt at an unassisted solo trek across Antarctica in 2016.[SEP]A British adventurer was close to becoming the second person to traverse Antarctica completely unassisted just a few days after an American became the first to conquer the feat, which was previously said to be impossible. Louis Rudd's expedition blog on Thursday showed that the 49-year-old has only has about 50 miles (80 kilometers) left on the journey across the continent and is expected to finish Saturday. If Rudd — a Hereford, England, resident and captain in the British Army — completes the journey, he'll become the second man to do so after Colin O'Brady of Portland, Oregon, became the first on Wednesday. The more than 900-mile (1448-kilometer) trek took O'Brady 54 days. O'Brady and Rudd were competing to become the first to travel across Antarctica without getting new supplies or help from the wind. O'Brady won after he covered the last roughly 80 miles (129 kilometers) in one big, impromptu final push to the finish line that took well over an entire day. "While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced," O'Brady posted on Instagram, where he has been documenting the arduous journey. "I've just heard that the American Colin's finished," he wrote. "Fantastic, well done to him. He'd pushed really hard all the way across and done extremely well, so congratulations to him." Rudd wrote that he never felt like he was in a race and that "it's always been about completing the journey." It's been an emotional trek for Rudd, who decided to do the solo in honor of his close friend and fellow British explorer Henry Worsley, who died near the end of his attempt at an unassisted solo trek across Antarctica in 2016. Though others have traversed Antarctica, they either had assistance with reinforced supplies or kites that helped propel them forward. O'Brady plans to stay on Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trek, said O'Brady's wife, Jenna Besaw. "It's a small club," she joked. "His intention is to wait for Louis and have kind of a celebratory moment with the only other person on the planet to have accomplished this same thing." O'Brady finished his trek as friends, family and fans tracked the endurance athlete's progress in real time online. "I did it!" a tearful O'Brady said on a call to his family gathered in Portland for the holidays, according to Besaw. O'Brady, who had been told he may never walk again after an accident burned his legs in 2008, described in detail the ups and downs along the way since he began his Antarctic trek on Nov. 3. In the beginning, he had to haul 375 pounds (170 kilograms) of gear uphill and over sastrugi, wave-like ridges created by wind. By the end of the journey, his gear weighed roughly 140 pounds (64 kilograms). On Nov. 18, he wrote that he awoke to find his sled completely buried from an all-night blasting of wind and snow. That day he battled a 30 mph (48 kph) headwind for eight hours as he trudged along. "I wanted so badly to quit today as I was feeling exhausted and alone, but remembering all of the positivity that so many people have been sending, I took a deep breath and focused on maintaining forward progress one step at a time and managed to finish a full day," he wrote. On Day 37, Dec. 9, O'Brady posted about how much he's changed, along with a selfie in which he looks almost in pain, snow gathered around his furry hat. "I'm no longer the same person I was when I left on the journey, can you see it in my face?" he wrote. "I've suffered, been deathly afraid, cold and alone. I've laughed and danced, cried tears of joy and been awestruck with love and inspiration." Though O'Brady had initially thought he'd want a cheeseburger at the end of his nearly impossible journey, Besaw said her husband has been fantasizing about fresh fish and salad because he has mostly been eating freeze-dried foods. As for what's next for O'Brady, who also has summited Mount Everest, Besaw said she's not entirely sure. "We are just so in the moment celebrating this right now," she said. "Then we'll see what's next on the horizon."[SEP]A British adventurer is close to becoming the second person to traverse Antarctica completely unassisted. Louis Rudd's expedition blog shows he has only has about 50 miles left on the journey across the continent and is expected to finish Saturday. If the Hereford, England, resident completes the journey, he'll become the second man to do so after Colin O'Brady of Portland, Oregon, became the first Wednesday. The more than 900-mile (1448-kilometer) trek took O'Brady 54 days. O'Brady and Rudd were competing to become the first to travel across Antarctica without getting new supplies or help from the wind. Rudd's solo is in honor of his close friend and fellow British explorer Henry Worsley, who died near the end of his attempt at an unassisted solo trek across Antarctica in 2016.[SEP]Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Capt Rudd: 'It's been pretty brutal at times' An Army officer has become the first Briton in history to trek unaided across Antarctica. Capt Lou Rudd, 49, finished the solo 921-mile (1,482km) journey at 19:21 GMT on Friday after 56 days. He was just two days behind the American explorer Colin O'Brady, who became the first person to complete the feat on Wednesday. Capt Rudd, from Hereford, said it was a "minor miracle" both had done it and he was delighted. He said he did the trek in memory of his friend, explorer Henry Worsley, who died in 2016 attempting the trek. Capt Rudd added: "What matters most to me is that I've completed my expedition and honoured Henry's memory by carrying his family crest across Antarctica. "I know he would have appreciated that. That's what is really important to me." Image caption Lou Rudd said it was a "huge relief" to finish after enduring some "pretty brutal" conditions Capt Rudd and Mr O'Brady, 33, both set out from the Ronne Ice Shelf on 3 November after poor weather delayed their start. The trek saw Capt Rudd haul a 140kg (308lb) sled without a rest day and endure gales up to 60mph and temperatures of minus 30C. The father of three documented his "Spirit of Endurance" expedition in blog posts where he said things that helped him through included a Winston Churchill audio book, an 1980s music playlist and a "grazing bag" including chocolate, nuts, cheese and salami. Capt Rudd, a motor transport officer based at the Infantry Battle School in Brecon, Mid Wales, said he had completed his main objective of "skiing solo, unsupported and unassisted right across the continent". He said it was "absolutely fantastic" that both he had completed the journey in the same season as endurance athlete Mr O'Brady. "To be honest it's a minor miracle that both of us have completed a journey that's been attempted before, but nobody's ever managed it and then, lo and behold, in one season two of us attempting it," he added. Image copyright Peaks and Poles Image caption Capt Lou Rudd (right) said it was "absolutely fantastic" he and Colin O'Brady (left) had both completed the trek Image caption Capt Rudd, who lost 15kg (2st 5lb) during the trek, now plans to spend time with his family Capt Rudd said he decided early in the journey not to try and race Mr O'Brady, who he only met days before they set off at a hotel bar in Chile. "The minute you get drawn into a sort of race scenario, then everything you do is dictated by the other person and you have to react to [it] and it changes the whole nature of the expedition, so you put yourself under a lot of pressure," he said. "And we've both done it really fast. Incredibly fast. I've finished it within a couple of days of a professional athlete, and I'm delighted with that."

After a 56-day trek, British Army captain Lou Rudd becomes the second person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided, over two decades after the first solo crossing by Norwegian Børge Ousland.

The Bahraini embassy in Damascus is open again, the Gulf nation announced on Friday, a day after a similar move by the UAE. It seems Saudi Arabia and its allies are ready to acknowledge Syria’s victory in the war. Early in the multifaceted Syrian conflict, which involved hostilities between various domestic forces and a strong influx of foreign fighters, several Gulf Arab states shut down their diplomatic missions in Syria. The country was also expelled from the Arab League in 2011, as Riyadh and Doha backed anti-government Sunni forces trying to topple the Alawite-dominated government in Damascus. Now the diplomatic ties are being restored. On Friday, Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry released a statement, which stressed the importance of continued relations with Syria and the “the Arab role” in preserving Syria’s independence. “Syria is a major Arab country in the region, we did not cut ties and it did not do so ... We stand with it in protecting its sovereignty and its territory from any violation,” tweeted later Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa. Bahrain is a small island nation that hosts US Fifth Fleet, which had to call in Saudi troops in 2011 to quash Shiite mass protests, which started as part of the so-called “Arab Spring”. Earlier on Thursday, the UAE’s embassy in Damascus was reopened in a flag-raising ceremony almost eight years after its closure. This seems to be a continuation of a normalization trend started earlier in December by a visit of the Sudanese President Omar Bashir to Damascus. There are also numerous if unconfirmed speculations that the Arab League is about to readmit Syria. Also on rt.com Arab states are making nice with Assad’s Syria. Will the West follow suit? Considering Bahrain’s close relations to Riyadh, it appears Saudi Arabia and its allies, who were once bent on seeing the government in Damascus toppled, are not expecting this to come anytime soon. Re-engaging it diplomatically is a logical step for mending the ties damaged during earlier. Like this story? Share it with a friend![SEP]Syria says UAE will reopen Damascus embassy closed in 2011 BEIRUT (AP) — Syria says the United Arab Emirates will reopen its embassy in Damascus for the first time in seven years. The Information Ministry gave no further details other than inviting journalists to cover the event at the embassy in central Damascus later Thursday. The UAE recalled its ambassador from Syria in 2011 after the start of the popular uprising against President Bashar Assad. The Syrian Embassy in the UAE remained open. The reopening of the embassy comes after the Dec. 16 visit to Damascus by Sudan's President Omar Bashir, who became the first Arab head of state to visit Syria since the civil war began. Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League in 2011. Arab countries have sanctioned Damascus and condemned its use of military force against the opposition.[SEP]A statement by Bahrain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday announced that the tiny Persian Gulf country had decided to restore its diplomatic mission to Syria, only hours after the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus. The Arab countries’ restoring ties with government of Bashar Al-Assad takes place at a time when the Syrian government is finalizing its victory against terrorism and restoring peace and stability to the war-torn country. UAE and Bahrain severed their diplomatic relations with the Syrian government soon after foreign-backed terrorist groups poured into Syria and sought to topple the legitimate Assad government in early 2012. Prior to that, Syria had also been suspended from the Arab League in 2011. Diplomatic sources told Russian Sputnik news agency yesterday that Bahrain will reopen its embassy in Damascus as soon as next week. Meanwhile, the UAE-based English language 'the National' has said that the move also suggests that Persian Gulf states are seeking to offset growing Iranian and Turkish influence in Syria by reinstating diplomatic ties.[SEP]The embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will reopen in Damascus on Thursday afterafter closing as a result of the war, a source in the Syrian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik. "The UAE embassy in Damascus will reopen in the second half of the day," the source said.The final preparations for the opening of the diplomatic mission are underway, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene. The embassy building was renovated earlier this week.The UAE is the first Arab country to restore the work of its embassy in Syria. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said earlier that Damascus welcomed the resumption of work of Arab countries' embassies in Syria.[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) — Syria says the United Arab Emirates will reopen its embassy in Damascus for the first time in seven years. The Information Ministry gave no further details other than inviting journalists to cover the event at the embassy in central Damascus later Thursday. The UAE recalled its ambassador from Syria in 2011 after the start of the popular uprising against President Bashar Assad. The Syrian Embassy in the UAE remained open. The reopening of the embassy comes after the Dec. 16 visit to Damascus by Sudan’s President Omar Bashir, who became the first Arab head of state to visit Syria since the civil war began. Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League in 2011. Arab countries have sanctioned Damascus and condemned its use of military force against the opposition. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. 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In a Foreign Ministry statement Friday, Bahrain said it affirms the importance of continued relations with Syria, emphasizing "the Arab role" in preserving Syria's independence and preventing dangerous regional intervention in its affairs — an apparent reference to Iran's strengthened foothold.[SEP]DAMASCUS: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will reopen its embassy in Damascus Thursday, an official said, seven years after it severed ties with Syria over the violent repression that triggered the war. An official at the information ministry invited journalists “to cover the reopening of the Emirati embassy in Damascus today”. The move is seen as another step in efforts to bring the regime of President Bashar al-Assad back into the Arab fold after years of diplomatic isolation. A visit to Damascus by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir earlier this month had been interpreted by some observers as a sign of that trend. Rumours of the Emirati embassy reopening have circulated in recent days as renovation work was spotted getting underway at the building. The UAE broke ties with Syria in February 2012, as the repression of nationwide protests demanding regime change was escalating into a war which has now killed more than 360,000 people.[SEP]The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to reopen its embassy in Damascus on Thursday, the Assad regime's information ministry said, a move that would mark a big diplomatic boost for Bashar al-Assad from an Arab state that once supported his opponents. The embassy has been shut since the early months of the Syrian conflict, which erupted in 2011 after brutal repression of protests against the regime. The Syrian Embassy in the UAE remained open. There was no immediate comment from officials in the UAE. A Syrian information note to journalists invited them to cover the event at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) at the embassy located in the capital's Abu Rummaneh district. The United Arab Emirates was one of several regional states that backed opposition groups fighting Assad, though its role was less prominent than Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Turkey, rebel sources have said. Nearly eight years since the conflict began, Assad has recovered control of the bulk of Syria with critical support from Russia, Iran, and Iran-backed groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah. On Dec. 16, 2018, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir became the first Arab head of state to visit Damascus since the start of the Syrian conflict. Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League in 2011. Arab countries have sanctioned Damascus and condemned its use of military force against the opposition. The Arab Parliament earlier this month called for Syria to be reinstated, echoing calls made in Egyptian state-run media for several months. The secretary-general of the Arab League, veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in April said the decision to suspend Syria had been "hasty."[SEP]Bahrain says it will resume operations at its embassy in Syria some seven years after it shuttered its embassy in Damascus in the early days of the civil war. The move, announced one day after the United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus, reflects an effort by Gulf Arab states to improve relations with Bashar Assad as his forces win a series of military victories with the help of Russia and Iran. Early in the civil war, Gulf Arab states supported the opposition seeking to oust Assad. In a Foreign Ministry statement Friday, Bahrain said it affirms the importance of continued relations with Syria, emphasizing "the Arab role" in preserving Syria's independence and preventing dangerous regional intervention in its affairs — an apparent reference to Iran's strengthened foothold. The decision comes on after a surprisingly warm meeting between the Syrian foreign minister and his Bahraini counterpart on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September. The meeting turned heads because it featured hugs between the two ministers.[SEP]The embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Syrian capital of Damascus has reopened with the UAE flag being raised again, for the first time in more than seven years. The reopening of the embassy marks the first state of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to resume diplomatic work in Syria. Abdul-Hakim al-Nuami, the UAE charge d’affaires, was cited by the pro-government Sham FM radio as saying that the return of the UAE embassy is a prelude to the return of other Arab embassies to Syria. The Iraqi and Sudanese ambassadors as well as diplomats from the Tunisian and Algerian embassies showed up at the UAE embassy where an opening ceremony took place inside. All Gulf states had closed their embassies in Damascus after the Syrian crisis erupted in 2011.

Bahrain announces it will reopen its embassy in Damascus, Syria, a day after the UAE made the same decision.

Three men have been convicted of murder after deliberately starting a fire at a Leicester shop that killed five people, including a woman and her two sons, in a plot to claim a £300,000 insurance payout. Arkan Ali, 38, Hawkar Hassan, 33, and Aram Kurd, 34, used dozens of litres of petrol in an arson attack on a Polish supermarket, triggering a huge explosion which tore through the shop and destroyed the flat above it. They left Viktorija Ijevleva, a 22-year-old shopworker, to die in the building because she was aware of the insurance policy, which had been taken out less than three weeks earlier, Leicester crown court heard during the five-week trial. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Left to right: Hawkar Hassan, Arkan Ali and Aram Kurd. Photograph: Leicestershire police/PA Ali, Hassan and Kurd were unanimously found guilty of five counts of murder on Friday after they had denied murder and alternative counts of manslaughter. They were also convicted of conspiring with Ijevleva, who was Ali’s girlfriend, to make a gain by dishonestly pursuing an insurance claim in respect of the fire. Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, who was Shane’s girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on 25 February in Hinckley Road. Such was the ferocity of the explosion that some residents living nearby thought a bomb had had been detonated, the court heard. In fact, about 26 litres of petrol had been used to start the fire in the supermarket’s basement, causing the explosion just after 7pm. CCTV and traffic camera footage released by the police after the trial show people fleeing from a nearby takeaway moments later. Rubble was also blasted into the road as cars passed. Other footage police recovered from a neighbouring business showed Ali three days before the blast, moments before the angle of the camera was moved. A day before the fire, other images from the same CCTV unit showed a gloved hand again moving the camera angle at a time when all the defendants were nearby. Another CCTV camera recorded Kurd escaping from the scene at the rear of the shop. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brothers Sean and Shane Rajoobeer with their mother Mary, three of the five victims of the explosion. Photograph: Leicestershire police/PA Ali, Hassan and Kurd, who were remanded in custody, will be sentenced later this month. David Herbert, prosecuting, told the jury at the start of the trial that the trio had intended to maximise the damage to the shop and would have been aware that people would have been in the two-storey flat above. “The explosion and the proceeding fire demolished a building and killed five people in the building – one person who was in the shop and four who were in the flat above enjoying a peaceful night in,” he said. “Even on camera 50 metres away you can see the explosion and the enormity of what happened. It was an explosion, the prosecution say, caused by many, many litres of petrol. “The explosion and the fire that followed was deliberately caused by these defendants who intended to profit from loss of stock, contents and future loss of business from the shop. It was not an accident, the prosecution say, that the petrol used caused such devastating damage.” Describing the unlawful killing of Ijevleva, Herbert said: “The defendants thought she knew too much and decided to leave her to die in the explosion that they created. In other words, the devastation that they caused was carried out with the intention to kill.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Viktorija Ijevleva was left to die because she was aware of the insurance policy, the court heard. Photograph: Leicestershire police/PA A statement was read out on the court steps by DC Steve Markley on behalf of Jose Ragoobeer, the husband of Mary and father of Shane and Sean Ragoobeer. He said Mary was devoted to her family and had two jobs to ensure her sons had everything they needed. “She always made sure that the boys had the latest gear, including football kits for the teams they supported.” Reek’s family said she had been looking forward to training as a nurse. Her older sister, Molly, said: “We have been asked to try to explain the impact on our lives after losing Leah in such horrific circumstances. “She was an amazing, inspirational young lady who had only turned 18 last July. She was just starting out on her life adventure. In her 18 too short but wonderful years, she made a lasting impression on everyone lucky enough to know her. “We miss her terribly, every second of every day we carry the pain of losing Leah. She has left a Leah-shaped hole in our hearts that nothing will ever fill. She was too special for anyone that didn’t know her to fully understand the impact her death has had on so many.”[SEP]ASSOCIATED PRESS The shop was completely destroyed by the blast Three men have been found guilty of murder in relation to a shop explosion in Leicester. Aram Kurd, Arkan Ali and Hawkar Hassan, who denied five counts of murder and five alternative counts of manslaughter, were found guilty at Leicester Crown Court today. They were also convicted of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. On 25 February, the fire tore through a Polish supermarket and two-storey flat on Hinckley Road. Mary Ragoobeer, 46; her two sons Shane, 18, and 17-year-old Sean and Shane’s 18-year-old girlfriend Leah Beth Reek were killed in the blast, along with Viktorija Ljevleva, 22. Several others were injured. Disturbing police bodycam footage shown to the court showed a casualty, Thomas Lindop, under the rubble with a severe head injury. He had been walking by the shop at the time of the blast and suffered a traumatic brain injury and fractures to his skull, head, pelvis and spine, leaving him in hospital for around three months. During the trial, families of those who died were in tears as they heard cries for help on some of the footage shown to the court, including teenager Scotty Ragoobeer, who survived the explosion in what the prosecution described as a “miracle”.[SEP]Aram Kurd, Arkan Ali and Hawkar Hassan have been convicted at Leicester Crown Court of murdering five people in a shop explosion. All three men were also found guilty of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Kurd, Ali and Hassan showed little emotion at the verdicts after the jury took just over 11 hours to unanimously convict them of murder. The first two defendants were also unanimously convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud, while Hassan was convicted of the offence by a majority 11-1 verdict. Kurd glanced around the courtroom as the jury foreman took around 10 minutes to confirm the verdicts, while Ali sat with his arms folded looking towards his barrister. High Court judge Mr Justice Holgate remanded all three men in custody until sentencing in mid-January. Yesterday at Leicester Crown Court the jury of seven women and five men returned after the Christmas break to continue their deliberations. The court was opened specially as it would normally stay closed between Christmas and New Year. They returned this morning to announce their verdict. All three men have been found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. They will be sentenced at a later date. The prosecution had claimed the three had hoped to pocket £300,000 by claiming the blast was accidental. They poured “many, many litres” of petrol inside Polish store Zabka before deliberately sparking it, jurors were told. Prosecutor David Herbert QC said the blast was so huge residents thought it was a “bomb exploding” He told the jury: “It was an explosion caused by many, many litres of petrol. There was no gas supply to the shop. It was a petrol vapour explosion. “It was so powerful it demolished the entire building and killed five people inside. One had been left in the shop and four others were in the flat above, enjoying a peaceful Sunday evening together."[SEP]Three men who killed five people in a "bomb-like" shop blast have been convicted of murder and plotting to claim a £300,000 insurance pay-out. Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd used "many, many litres of petrol" in an arson attack on Kurd's supermarket - causing an explosion which completely destroyed the shop and a flat above the premises. Leicester Crown Court heard how some residents living near the Polish supermarket on Hinckley Road, Leicester, thought a bomb had reduced the property to rubble. A five-week trial was told the defendants left shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, to die in the building because she was aware of the insurance policy taken out less than three weeks earlier. Opening the Crown's case at the start of the trial, prosecutor David Herbert QC told a jury of seven women and five men the defendants intended to maximise the damage to the premises and "would have known" people would have been in the two-storey flat above. Ali, 38, Hassan, 33, and Kurd, 34, were assisted by a Kurdish interpreter throughout the trial after denying murder and alternative counts of manslaughter. But they were unanimously found guilty of five counts of murder after 11 hours and 26 minutes of deliberations. The trio were also convicted of conspiring with Ms Ijevleva to make a gain, by dishonestly pursuing an insurance claim in respect of the fire. Ms Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, 18, who was Shane's girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on Sunday, February 25. Around 26 litres of petrol was used to start the fire in the basement of the supermarket, triggering a massive explosion at 7.01pm. CCTV and traffic camera footage released by police at the end of the trial shows people escaping from a nearby takeaway moments after the explosion, and rubble being blasted into the roadway as cars pass by. Footage recovered by police from a neighbouring business showed Ali in shot three days before the blast - moments before the camera angle was moved. Further images from the same CCTV unit a day before the fire showed a gloved hand moving the camera angle again - at a time when all three defendants were nearby. Kurd was also recorded on a security camera as he escaped from the scene at the rear of the shop. Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham, Hassan, of Eld Road, Coventry, and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, were remanded in custody and will be sentenced in mid-January.[SEP]Three men who killed five people in a “bomb-like” shop blast have been convicted of murder and plotting to claim a £300,000 insurance pay-out. Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd used “many, many litres of petrol” in an arson attack on Kurd’s supermarket – causing an explosion which completely destroyed the shop and a flat above the premises. Leicester Crown Court heard how some residents living near the Polish supermarket on Hinckley Road, Leicester, thought a bomb had reduced the property to rubble. A five-week trial was told the defendants left shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, to die in the building because she was aware of the insurance policy taken out less than three weeks earlier. Brothers Sean Rajoobeer, 17 (left) and Shane Rajoobeer, 18, and their mother Mary, three of the five victims of the Hinckley Road explosion in Leicester (Leicestershire Police) Opening the Crown’s case at the start of the trial, prosecutor David Herbert QC told a jury of seven women and five men the defendants intended to maximise the damage to the premises and “would have known” people would have been in the two-storey flat above. Ali, 38, Hassan, 33, and Kurd, 34, were assisted by a Kurdish interpreter throughout the trial after denying murder and alternative counts of manslaughter. But they were unanimously found guilty of five counts of murder after 11 hours and 26 minutes of deliberations. Viktorija Ljevleva was among the victims (Leicestershire Police) The trio were also convicted of conspiring with Ms Ijevleva to make a gain, by dishonestly pursuing an insurance claim in respect of the fire. Ms Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, 18, who was Shane’s girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on Sunday February 25. Around 26 litres of petrol was used to start the fire in the basement of the supermarket, triggering a massive explosion at 7.01pm. CCTV and traffic camera footage released by police at the end of the trial shows people escaping from a nearby takeaway moments after the explosion, and rubble being blasted into the roadway as cars pass by. Footage recovered by police from a neighbouring business showed Ali in shot three days before the blast – moments before the camera angle was moved. Further images from the same CCTV unit a day before the fire showed a gloved hand moving the camera angle again – at a time when all three defendants were nearby. Kurd was also recorded on a security camera as he escaped from the scene at the rear of the shop. Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham, Hassan, of Eld Road, Coventry, and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, were remanded in custody and will be sentenced in mid-January. During his opening address, Mr Herbert told jurors: “The explosion and the proceeding fire demolished a building and killed five people in the building – one person who was in the shop and four who were in the flat above enjoying a peaceful night in.” Mr Herbert said: “Even on camera 50 metres away you can see the explosion and the enormity of what happened. “It was an explosion, the prosecution say, caused by many, many litres of petrol. “The explosion and the fire that followed was deliberately caused by these defendants who intended to profit from loss of stock, contents and future loss of business from the shop. “It was not an accident, the prosecution say, that the petrol used caused such devastating damage.” Describing the unlawful killing of Ms Ijevleva, Mr Herbert added: “The defendants thought she knew too much and decided to leave her to die in the explosion that they created. “In other words, the devastation that they caused was carried out with the intention to kill.”[SEP]Three men have been found guilty of murder after they deliberately set fire to a shop in Leicester, causing an explosion that killed five people. Shopkeeper Aram Kurd, 34, and his friends Arkan Ali, 37, and Hawkar Hassan, 33, plotted to destroy the Polish supermarket in order to claim £300,000 in insurance because the business was failing. The trial at Leicester Crown Court heard that Ali's girlfriend, Viktorija Ijevleva, who worked in the shop, was left to die in the blaze because she had been in on the plot and "knew too much". "In other words, the devastation that they caused was carried out with the intention to kill," prosecutor David Herbert QC told the trial. Ms Ijevleva and Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, who was Shane's girlfriend, were all killed in the blast in February. The Ragoobeer family lived in the flat above the shop which was completely destroyed. Mrs Ragoobeer's husband Jose was out at work at the time of the explosion. Their third son survived after he was rescued from the rubble. Mr Herbert told the court that Kurd, Ali and Hassan intended to maximise the damage to the premises and "would have known" people were in the two-storey flat above. The day before the explosion, Hassan was seen on CCTV buying 26 litres of petrol. The container he put it in was recovered from the wreckage after the fire. On the night of the blast, Ali doused the basement of the building with petrol before running to be collected in the getaway car, driven by Hassan. Kurd remained in the shop and emerged soon after the blast, feigning shock and concern for the victims. In the hours afterwards he did a series of television interviews expressing concern for the people trapped inside the building. But soon police began to suspect the fire was started deliberately. "The evidence shows that this was a really callous act borne out of greed and financial gain and showed a real disregard for human life," Detective Chief Inspector Michelle Keen told Sky News. The trial heard that the explosion was so loud that people nearby thought a bomb had gone off. Kurd chose not to give evidence during the trial. Both Ali and Hassan went into the witness box to claim they did not know of any plan to set fire to the shop. Mr Herbert told the jury "they are remorseless, callous men dominated by greed, who have proved they're capable of trampling over the boundaries of basic human decency and honesty".[SEP]Three men have been found guilty of murder after setting fire to 26 litres of petrol in the basement of a shop in Leicester. Aram Kurd, Arkan Ali and Hawkar Hassan killed five people with the blaze and were also found guilty of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, as they had hoped to benefit from a £330,000 insurance payout. On 25 February, the fire tore through a Polish supermarket and two-storey flat on Hinckley Road. Mary Ragoobeer, 46; her two sons Shane, 18, and 17-year-old Sean and Shane’s 18-year-old girlfriend Leah Beth Reek were killed in the blast, along with Viktorija Ljevleva, 22. Several others were injured. The investigation into the men led police to trawl through over 700 hours of CCTV footage, and examined more than 2,500 exhibits, 1,000 witness statements and 4,000 different lines of inquiry. Leicestershire Police said shopkeeper Kurd, who gave an account to the media after the blast, “probably felt there was a need” to tell his story in a deceitful bid to cover his tracks. Speaking of the explosion itself, Detective Chief Inspector Michelle Keen, who led the investigation, said: “The evidence we have identified is that this was a significant amount of petrol - significant such that it caused that level of devastation and five people lost their lives.” Describing the CCTV evidence, Keen continued: “We know there were acts of planning - we don’t know whether they knew about the cameras. “Certainly some cameras were moved in an attempt to avoid detection but we will never truly know what was in their mind as they haven’t told us.” Keen added that the motive behind the killings “seem[ed] to be purely financial greed and personal gain”. “The intention was to claim against an over-inflated insurance policy for business interruption and contents,” she said. “There was significant investment into the shop’s set-up and it is evident that it wasn’t as profitable as expected. This led to the subsequent fire and explosion.” Disturbing police bodycam footage shown to the court showed a casualty, Thomas Lindop, under the rubble with a severe head injury. He had been walking by the shop at the time of the blast and suffered a traumatic brain injury and fractures to his skull, head, pelvis and spine, leaving him in hospital for around three months. During the trial, families of those who died were in tears as they heard cries for help on some of the footage shown to the court, including teenager Scotty Ragoobeer, who survived the explosion in what the prosecution described as a “miracle”.[SEP]Three men who killed five people in a "bomb-like" shop blast have been convicted of murder and plotting to claim a £300,000 insurance pay-out. Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd used "many, many litres of petrol" in an arson attack on Kurd's supermarket - causing an explosion which completely destroyed the shop and a flat above the premises. Leicester Crown Court heard how some residents living near the Polish supermarket on Hinckley Road, Leicester, thought a bomb had reduced the property to rubble. A five-week trial was told the defendants left shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, to die in the building because she was aware of the insurance policy taken out less than three weeks earlier. Opening the Crown's case at the start of the trial, prosecutor David Herbert QC told a jury of seven women and five men the defendants intended to maximise the damage to the premises and "would have known" people would have been in the two-storey flat above. Ali, 38, Hassan, 33, and Kurd, 34, were assisted by a Kurdish interpreter throughout the trial after denying murder and alternative counts of manslaughter. But they were unanimously found guilty of five counts of murder after 11 hours and 26 minutes of deliberations. The trio were also convicted of conspiring with Ms Ijevleva to make a gain, by dishonestly pursuing an insurance claim in respect of the fire. Ms Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, 18, who was Shane's girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on Sunday February 25. Around 26 litres of petrol was used to start the fire in the basement of the supermarket, triggering a massive explosion at 7.01pm. CCTV and traffic camera footage released by police at the end of the trial shows people escaping from a nearby takeaway moments after the explosion, and rubble being blasted into the roadway as cars pass by. Footage recovered by police from a neighbouring business showed Ali in shot three days before the blast - moments before the camera angle was moved. Further images from the same CCTV unit a day before the fire showed a gloved hand moving the camera angle again - at a time when all three defendants were nearby. Kurd was also recorded on a security camera as he escaped from the scene at the rear of the shop. Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham, Hassan, of Eld Road, Coventry, and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, were remanded in custody and will be sentenced in mid-January. During his opening address, Mr Herbert told jurors: "The explosion and the proceeding fire demolished a building and killed five people in the building - one person who was in the shop and four who were in the flat above enjoying a peaceful night in." Mr Herbert said: "Even on camera 50 metres away you can see the explosion and the enormity of what happened. "It was an explosion, the prosecution say, caused by many, many litres of petrol. "The explosion and the fire that followed was deliberately caused by these defendants who intended to profit from loss of stock, contents and future loss of business from the shop. "It was not an accident, the prosecution say, that the petrol used caused such devastating damage." Describing the unlawful killing of Ms Ijevleva, Mr Herbert added: "The defendants thought she knew too much and decided to leave her to die in the explosion that they created. "In other words, the devastation that they caused was carried out with the intention to kill." In a statement issued by police after the verdict, Jose Ragoobeer, the husband of Mary, and father of Shane and Sean Ragoobeer, said: "Mary was a hard-working, loving mother and wife who was devoted to her family. "Shane was in a relationship with a lovely girl called Leah. They were so happy together. Leah was a lovely girl who bought so much joy and happiness to our home. "Sean was a good person and loving son who like Shane was always willing to help family and friends. He was looking forward to going to university and to study French and history." The family of Leah said she had been looking forward to training as a nurse. Speaking outside court, her older sister Molly said: "The light went out of our world on that terrible night. No parent should ever have to arrange a funeral for their child. It is so difficult to put into words how much we miss Leah."[SEP]THREE men have been convicted of murdering five people in a shop explosion as part of a botched insurance scam. Aram Kurd, Arkan Ali and Hawkar Hassan have been convicted at Leicester Crown Court of murdering five people after setting fire to the Polish supermarket because the business was failing. They have also been found guilty of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud in attempt to embezzle £300,000. Shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, along with her teenage sons Shane and Sea and Shane’s girlfriend Leah Beth Reek, 18, were killed in the blast on Hinckley Road, Leicester in February. The court heard that Viktorija Ijevleva was left to die in the blaze because she “knew too much”. Prosecutor David Herbert QC told the trial: "In other words, the devastation that they caused was carried out with the intention to kill.” Mary Ragoobeer lived in the flat above which was completely destroyed. She died along with her sons and Shane’s girlfriend Leah Beth Reek. Mrs Ragoobeer’s husband Jose was out at work at the time of the explosion and their third son survived after being rescued from the rubble. Mr Herbert told the court that the three defendants intended to maximise damage to the property and “would have known” people were in the flat above. The day before the explosion, Hassan was seen on CCTV buying 26 litres of petrol. After the fire, the container he used was recovered from the wreckage. Ali doused the basement of the building in petrol before running to be collected in the getaway car driven by Hassan. Kurd feigned shock and concern for the victims as well as doing a series of television interviews. But police began to suspect the fire was deliberate soon afterwards. The jury took just over 11 hours to unanimously convict them of murder. The first two defendants were also unanimously convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud, while Hassan was convicted of the offence by a majority 11-1 verdict. Kurd glanced around the courtroom as the jury foreman took around 10 minutes to confirm the verdicts, while Ali sat with his arms folded looking towards his barrister.[SEP]Three men in Britain have been found guilty of murdering five people in an explosion as part of a plot to claim over 300,000 pounds ($380,000) from an insurance policy. Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd were convicted Friday in Leicester Crown Court. Prosecutors say they used around 26 liters (7 gallons) of gasoline in an arson attack in February on a supermarket, causing a blast that destroyed the shop and an apartment above. Prosecutors say the men left a shop worker to die in the building because she was aware of the insurance policy taken out less than three weeks earlier. Four others also died in the explosion.

The three men suspected of causing an explosion at a shop in Leicester in February are convicted of murder. The explosion destroyed the shop and the flat above it, killing five people. The three men were also convicted of conspiracy with one of the victims to commit insurance fraud.

Egyptian security forces have killed 30 suspected terrorists in raids on their hideouts - just a day after a tourist bus bombing. Three Vietnamese holidaymakers and a local guide died in the blast - just a short distance from the pyramids in Giza. Another 10 suspected militants were killed in North Sinai, where the country's fighting an insurgency led by Islamic State.[SEP]Two Vietnamese tourists and a tour guide were killed, and...[SEP]CAIRO — Egyptian security forces killed at least 40 people suspected of being militants in North Sinai and Giza, officials said on Saturday, a day after an explosion hit a tour bus, leaving four people dead and 10 others wounded. The Ministry of Interior did not explicitly link the killing of the suspected militants to the attack on the tour bus on Friday, in which an improvised device hidden in a wall less than 2.5 miles from the pyramids at Giza exploded and killed three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide. The ministry said in a statement that security forces had learned that “a number of terrorists” had “planned a series of attacks that targets state institutions, tourism, armed forces, police, and Christian places of worship.” The security forces simultaneously raided two sites on the outskirts of Giza on Saturday, killing 30 militants there, as well as another refuge in Arish in North Sinai, killing 10 more in shootouts.[SEP]Egyptian security forces have killed 40 suspected militants in three separate incidents in North Sinai and Giza, the ministry of interior said on Saturday. The incident comes a day after a deadly bombing on a Vietnamese tourist bus in Giza killed four people. The ministry did not say whether the suspected militants were connected to Friday’s attack, but said its forces killed 30 people during raids on their hideouts in Giza where it said “terrorist elements” were planning a series of attacks targeting state institutions and the tourism industry. Security forces also killed 10 suspected militants in North Sinai, where the country is fighting an insurgency led by Islamic State. State news agency MENA said that the suspects were killed in a gun battle. The ministry did not give any details about the suspects’ identity or whether there had been any casualties or injuries among the security forces. The statement said the three raids took place simultaneously. The ministry published photos of bloodied bodies with their faces concealed and assault rifles and shotguns lying on the floor beside them. Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a roadside bomb blast hit their tour bus on Friday less than 4 km (2.5 miles) from Egypt’s world-famous Giza pyramids. Egypt’s military and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the “Arab Spring” protests of 2011.[SEP]EGYPTIAN POLICE KILLED 40 suspects in a crackdown today after a roadside bomb hit a tour bus claiming the lives of three Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian guide. Thirty alleged “terrorists” were killed in separate raids in Giza governorate, home to Egypt’s famed pyramids and the scene of yesterday’s deadly bombing, while 10 others were killed in North Sinai, the interior ministry said without directly linking them to the attack. It said authorities had received information the suspects were preparing a spate of attacks “targeting state institutions, particularly economic ones, as well as tourism, armed forces, police and Christian places of worship”. A security source said the raids took place early this morning, hours after yesterday’s roadside bombing which officials said hit a tour bus in the Al-Haram district near the Giza pyramids killing the three Vietnamese holidaymakers and their Egyptian guide. Eleven other tourists from Vietnam and an Egyptian bus driver were wounded, the public prosecutor’s office said. Saigon Tourist, the company that organised the trip, said the tourists were “on their way to a restaurant for dinner” when the bomb exploded. Company officials were heading to Cairo on Saturday and plans were made to allow some relatives of the victims to also fly to Egypt. One of them was Nguyen Nguyen Vu whose sister Nguyen Thuy Quynh, 56, died in the bombing, while her husband, Le Duc Minh, was wounded. Police at the scene of last night's bomb attack. Source: DPA/PA Images The couple, both aged 56, were in the seafood business, Quynh’s younger brother said. “We were all very shocked… My sister and her husband travel quite a lot and they are quite experienced in travelling abroad,” Vu told AFP. He said he was applying for a visa for Egypt and hoped to travel on Saturday. “Our wish is that we could bring my sister back home.” Vietnam’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang thanked Egyptians who were caring for the survivors. She said in a statement: There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, the first attack to target tourists since 2017. Last night’s attack was the latest blow to Egypt’s vital tourism industry, which has been reeling from turmoil set off by the 2011 uprising that forced veteran president Hosni Mubarak from power. While tourism has picked up since 2011, the 8.2 million people who visited Egypt in 2017 are still a far cry from the 14.7 million who visited in the year before the uprising.[SEP]Egyptian security forces have killed 40 suspected militants in three separate incidents in North Sinai and Giza, the ministry of interior says, a day after a deadly bombing on a Vietnamese tourist bus in Giza killed four people. The ministry did not say whether the suspected militants were connected to Friday's attack. But it said its forces killed 30 people during raids on their hideouts in Giza where it said "terrorist elements" were planning a series of attacks targeting state institutions and the tourism industry. Security forces also killed 10 suspected militants in North Sinai, where the country is fighting an insurgency led by Islamic State. State news agency MENA said that the suspects were killed in a gun battle. The ministry did not give any details about the suspects' identity or whether there had been any casualties or injuries among the security forces. The statement said the three raids took place simultaneously. The ministry published photos of bloodied bodies with their faces concealed and assault rifles and shotguns lying on the floor beside them. Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a roadside bomb blast hit their tour bus on Friday less than 4km from Egypt's world-famous Giza pyramids. Egypt's military and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the "Arab Spring" protests of 2011.[SEP]Police in Egypt have killed dozens of militants during security raids on their hideouts, the interior ministry has said. The raids killed “40 terrorists” in Giza and North Sinai on Saturday morning, according to a statement from the ministry. It said the militants were planning a series of attacks on tourist sites, churches and military personnel. The raids followed Friday’s roadside bomb attack on a tour bus in Giza. No group has yet said it was behind the blast, which killed three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian tour guide, but Islamist militants have targeted tourists in Egypt in the past. BBC reports that police killed 30 militants during two early morning raids in Giza, while the remaining 10 were killed in El-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, the interior ministry said. “A group of terrorists were planning to carry out a series of aggressive attacks targeting state institutions, particularly economic ones, as well as tourism… and Christian places of worship,” the ministry statement said. It added that police had seized bomb-making materials, ammunition and a large number of weapons during the raids. Security is already tight in Egypt, with the tourist season at its height and the country’s main Christian minority, the Copts, preparing to celebrate Orthodox Christmas on 7 January.[SEP]Egyptian security forces killed 40 militants in two operations after four people died in a roadside bomb that struck a tour bus in Greater Cairo on Friday. The militants were planning attacks against churches, state institutions, economic interests, the armed forces and tourist sites, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Saturday. The operations took place in northern Sinai and Giza. Three Vietnamese nationals and an Egyptian tour guide were killed in the bombing attack on Friday, the state-run Ahram Gate reported, citing a statement from the country’s Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadeq.[SEP]Forty suspected militants have been killed by Egyptian security forces a day after a deadly roadside bomb hit a tourist bus near the Giza Pyramids. The suspects were killed in three separate incidents in North Sinai and Giza, the ministry of interior said on Saturday, but did not say if they were connected to Friday's bombing. State news agency MENA said the suspects were killed in a gun battle. Friday's attack killed three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide. The bus was traveling in the Marioutiyah area near the pyramids when the crude roadside bomb, concealed by a wall, went off. The blast wounded 11 other Vietnamese tourists as well as the Egyptian driver. Egypt has battled Islamic militants for years in the Sinai Peninsula in an insurgency that has occasionally spilled over to the mainland, hitting minority Christians or tourists. However, this is the first attack to target foreign tourists in almost two years. The attack took place as Egypt's tourism industry showed signs of recovery after years in the doldrums because of the political turmoil and violence that followed a 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Hosni Mubarak. Over the past two years, militant attacks against Christians in Egypt, usually targeting churches or buses carrying pilgrims to remote desert monasteries, have killed more than 100 people.[SEP]Egyptian security forces have killed 40 suspected militants in three separate incidents in North Sinai and Giza, the ministry of interior said on Saturday, a day after a deadly bombing on a tourist bus in Giza killed four people. The ministry did not say whether the suspected militants were connected to Friday’s attack, but said its forces killed 30 people during raids on their hideouts in Giza where it said “terrorist elements” were planning a series of attacks targeting state institutions and the tourism industry. Security forces also killed 10 suspected militants in North Sinai, where the country is fighting an insurgency led by Islamic State, also known as Isis. State news agency Mena said that the suspects were killed in a gun battle. The ministry did not give any details about the suspects’ identity or whether there had been any casualties or injuries among the security forces. The statement said the three raids took place simultaneously. The ministry published photos of bloodied bodies with their faces concealed and assault rifles and shotguns lying on the floor beside them. Three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a roadside bomb blast hit their tour bus on Friday less than 4km (2.5 miles) from the world-famous Giza pyramids. Egypt’s military and police launched a major campaign against militant groups in February, targeting the Sinai Peninsula as well as southern areas and the border with Libya. The government says fighting Islamist militants is a priority as it works to restore stability after the years of turmoil that followed the “Arab Spring” protests of 2011. – Reuters

In response to a roadside bombing that killed three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian tour guide the previous day, Egyptian police kill 40 suspected militants.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s Shiite rebels on Saturday said they handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to the coast guard and local administrators, but the government denied that, calling it a ploy by the Iran-aligned rebels to maintain control of the strategic facility. The handover was supposed to be the first in a series of confidence-building measures agreed to in Sweden that could pave the way for a political settlement of Yemen’s 4-year-old war pitting the rebels known as Houthis against the internationally recognized government backed since 2015 by a Saudi-led coalition. But the pro-government Sabaa news agency quoted what it called an official source as saying the Houthis’ assertion about giving up the port was an attempt to sidestep the Sweden agreement. “We cannot accept these violations, which will lead to the failure of the agreement,” the agency quoted the source as saying. Military and local Hodeida officials loyal to the government said the Houthis had taken advantage of their control of the city to place loyalist administrators and fighters in both the port management and the coast guard. “It’s a stage play in which the Houthis handed over the port to their fighters after they put on coast guard uniforms,” said the Hodeida governor, al-Hassan Taher. The rebels control most of northern Yemen, including the capital of Sanaa, while their foes control much of the south, including the Arabian Sea port city of Aden, where the exiled government is located. The two sides have observed a cease-fire in Hodeida for more than a week, ending months of fierce fighting between the two sides for control of the city. A U.N. team led by retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert arrived last week in the city to monitor the cease-fire. Some 70 percent of Yemen’s imports come through Hodeida, and the Sweden deal is designed in part to facilitate the arrival of relief supplies to push Yemen back from the brink of famine. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, and has driven millions to hunger. The U.N. calls it the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The two sides also agreed in Sweden to exchange prisoners of war in a deal involving thousands captured from both sides. The implementation of that deal is yet to begin and may run into difficulties. Government officials maintain that the Houthis are denying the presence in their detention facilities of nearly 3,000 people among a total of some 8,500 prisoners whose names were submitted to the rebels.[SEP]SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Security officials say Yemen's Shiite rebels have handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to the government's navy and coast guard. They said Saturday's transfer was carried out under the supervision of U.N. monitors as part of a deal reached in peace talks in Sweden earlier this month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014 when the rebels captured the capital Sanaa. They now control most of northern Yemen, including Hodeida. A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting on the government side since 2015. The talks in Sweden also produced a deal on the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war from both sides.[SEP]SANAA, YEMEN—Yemen's Shiite rebels on Saturday handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to the country's navy and coast guard under U.N. supervision, security officials said, in a significant step in the implementation of a deal reached during peace talks in Sweden earlier this month. The handover is the first in a series of confidence-building measures agreed to in Sweden that could pave the way for a political settlement of Yemen's 4-year-old war pitting the Iran-aligned rebels known as Houthis against the internationally recognized government backed since 2015 by a Saudi-led coalition. The rebels control most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, while their war foes control much of the south, including the Arabian Sea port city of Aden, where the exiled government is located. The two sides have observed a cease-fire in Hodeida for more than a week, ending months of fierce fighting between the two sides for control of Hodeida. A U.N. team led by a Dutch officer arrived last week in the city to monitor the cease-fire. The U.N. team is led by retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert. Some 70 per cent of Yemen's imports come through Hodeida, and the Sweden deal is designed in part to facilitate the arrival of relief supplies to push Yemen back from the brink of famine. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, and has driven millions to hunger. The U.N. calls it the world's worst humanitarian disaster. The two sides also agreed in Sweden to exchange prisoners of war in a deal involving thousands captured from both sides. The implementation of that deal is yet to begin and may run into difficulties. Government officials maintain that the Houthis are denying the presence in their detention facilities of nearly 3,000 from a total of some 8,500 prisoners whose names were submitted to the rebels. The security officials said the Houthis have taken advantage of their control of Hodeida to place their fighters in both the navy and the coastguard, something that has been a major source of concern for the government side. The two sides also agreed over the weekend to open "humanitarian corridors" extending from Hodeida to Sanaa to allow relief supplies to peacefully pass through. However, the government side complains that the proposed corridors have been heavily mined by the Houthis. There was no immediate comment from the rebels' side on this charge. The security officials said the Houthis are expected in the next few days to hand over control of two more ports north of Hodeida — the oil terminal of Rass Issa and Salif, which has been used for incoming relief supplies — under the Sweden deal. The government side, on its part, would redeploy its forces out of the eastern reaches of Hodeida as a first step.[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. SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Security officials say Yemen’s Shiite rebels have handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to the government’s navy and coast guard. They said Saturday’s transfer was carried out under the supervision of U.N. monitors as part of a deal reached in peace talks in Sweden earlier this month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014 when the rebels captured the capital Sanaa. They now control most of northern Yemen, including Hodeida. A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting on the government side since 2015. The talks in Sweden also produced a deal on the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war from both sides. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]Shiite Houthi rebels have begun to withdraw from the key port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida as part of a deal reached in peace talks in Sweden earlier this month, a United Nations official said Saturday. But the Yemeni government has disputed the withdrawal claim, calling it a ploy by the rebels to maintain control of the strategic area. Military and local Hodeida officials loyal to the government have said the Houthis placed loyalist administrators and fighters in both the port management and the coast guard. "It's a stage play in which the Houthis handed over the port to their fighters after they put on coast guard uniforms," said Hodeida Governor al-Hassan Taher. Another pro-government official has called on the UN to put in place a "clear mechanism" to ensure a fair recruitment process at these facilities. The Hodeida port handover was meant to be the first in a series of confidence-building measures between the Iran-aligned Shiite rebels and the Saudi-backed Sunni government, paving the way for a political settlement of Yemen's devastating four-year war. The government and rebels also agreed in Sweden to exchange prisoners in a deal involving thousands captured on both sides. The two sides have largely observed a ceasefire in Hodeida for more than a week, ending months of fierce fighting for control of the city. A UN team, led by retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert, arrived in the city last week to monitor the truce. Houthi rebels control most of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, whereas their rivals govern much of the country's south, including the Arabian Sea port city of Aden, where the exiled government is located. The Middle Eastern country has been torn apart by a protracted civil war between the internationally-recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Shiite Houthi rebels. In support of the Hadi government, Riyadh launched an air campaign against the Houthis in March 2015. Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of backing the rebels, who have made significant territorial gains in the impoverished Middle Eastern country. At least 10,000 people have been killed and more than 3 million people have been displaced since the start of the conflict. Around 80 percent of Yemen's population is in urgent need of aid, and millions of people have problems accessing water, according to the UN. International pressure has mounted for the two sides to end the conflict. The United States has called for a ceasefire and reduced some of its logistical aid for the Saudi coalition, while Iran has also signaled support for the peace talks. Every evening, 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]Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014 when the rebels captured the capital Sanaa. They now control most of northern Yemen, including Hodeida. A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting on the government side since 2015.[SEP]Yemen’s Shiite rebels have handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to the government’s navy and coastguard, security officials said on Saturday. The transfer was carried out under the supervision of UN monitors as part of a deal reached in peace talks in Sweden earlier this month, AP reports. The Houthi rebels now control most of northern Yemen, including Hodeida. A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting on the government side since 2015. The talks in Sweden also produced a deal on the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war from both sides.[SEP]HODEIDA, YEMEN: Yemeni rebels have begun to withdraw from the port of Hodeida, the country’s key aid lifeline, under an agreement reached in Sweden earlier this month, a UN official said Saturday. The official, who requested anonymity, said the Huthi rebels began to pull back from the Red Sea port at midnight (2100 GMT Friday). The rebel withdrawal from the port, which is the point of entry for food aid to some 14 million Yemenis UN agencies say are on the brink of famine, is a key part of a ceasefire that went into effect on December 18. Pro-government forces are also supposed to pull back from parts of the city they recaptured in an offensive they launched with the backing of a Saudi-led coalition on June 13. The Huthis began “the first phase of redeployment from the Hodeida port”, a rebel official told the Huthi-run Saba news agency. The rebels held a ceremony to mark the occasion, an AFP correspondent reported. The UN Security Council last week unanimously approved a resolution authorising the deployment of observers to oversee a hard-won truce for Hodeida that was agreed by the Saudi-backed government and the rebels in Sweden this month. Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert is heading a joint truce monitoring committee, which includes both government and rebel representatives, and chaired its first meeting this week. The UN-led panel addressed “the first phase of the implementation of the agreement... based on ceasefire, confidence building measures to deliver humanitarian assistance and redeployment”, a UN statement said. It added that the panel would convene again on January 1 to discuss “detailed plans for full redeployment”. The UN also said that a humanitarian convoy was expected later Saturday to leave Hodeida port and travel along the main road that links it to the rebel-held capital Sanaa. Its destination was not immediately clear. “As a confidence building measure, the parties have agreed to begin opening blocked humanitarian corridors, starting with the Hodeida-Sanaa road, followed by other routes, in a phased manner,” said the statement. The truce has remained shaky, with the two sides accusing each other of violations. A resident reached by telephone on Saturday told AFP pro-government and rebel forces had exchanged fire briefly overnight. The resident added that coalition jets were heard overhead on Saturday morning. In addition to the withdrawal of fighters from Hodeida, the agreement included a planned prisoner swap involving some 15,000 detainees. A “mutual understanding” was also reached to facilitate aid deliveries to Yemen’s third city Taiz — under the control of loyalists but besieged by rebels. The two sides have agreed to meet again in late January for more talks to define the framework for negotiations on a comprehensive peace settlement. The war between the Shiite Huthi rebels and troops loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi escalated in March 2015, when he fled into Saudi exile and the Saudi-led coalition intervened. Since then, the war has killed some 10,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, although human rights groups say the real death toll could be five times as high. More than 22 million people — three quarters of the population — now depend on humanitarian assistance to survive. Yemenis struggling to survive such conditions are also confronted with a collapsed economy, leaving civil servants and teachers without pay for months. On Thursday, Hadi instructed the government to pay the salaries of civil servants in the rebel-held city of Hodeida starting this month, a move that was welcomed by the UN. “President Hadi’s decision is an important step towards improving the economic situation, and alleviating the humanitarian suffering of the Yemeni people,” the office of the UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths tweeted.[SEP]Shiite Houthi rebels have handed over the control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to Yemen's coast guards, the country's security officials told news agencies on condition of anonymity. The transfer was carried out under the supervision of United Nations monitors as part of a deal reached in Sweden peace talks earlier this month. The Hodeida port handover is believed to be the first in a series of confidence-building measures between the Iran-aligned Shiite rebels and the Saudi-backed Sunni government to pave the way for a political settlement of Yemen's devastating four years of war. The government and rebels also agreed in Sweden to exchange prisoners of war in a deal involving thousands captured from both sides. The two sides have largely observed a ceasefire in Hodeida for more than a week, ending months of fierce fighting for control of the city. A UN team, led by retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert, arrived in the city last week to monitor the truce. Houthi rebels control most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, whereas their rivals govern much of the country's south, including the Arabian Sea port city of Aden, where the exiled government is located. The Middle Eastern country has been torn apart by a protracted civil war between the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Shiite Houthi rebels. Riyadh launched an air campaign against Houthis in March, 2015. Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of backing the rebels, who have made significant territorial gains in the impoverished Middle Eastern country. More than 10,000 people have been killed and more than three million people have been displaced since the start of the conflict. More than 80 percent of Yemen's population is in urgent need of aid, and millions of people have problems accessing water, according to the UN. International pressure has mounted for the two sides to end the conflict. The United States has called for a ceasefire and reduced some of its logistical aid for the Saudi coalition, while Iran has also signaled support for the talks. Every evening, 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]HODEIDA, Yemen: Yemeni rebels have begun to withdraw from the port of Hodeida, the country´s key aid lifeline, under an agreement reached in Sweden earlier this month, a UN official said Saturday. The official, who requested anonymity, said the Huthi rebels began to pull back from the Red Sea port at midnight (2100 GMT Friday). The Huthis began "the first phase of redeployment from the Hodeida port", a rebel official told the Huthi-run Saba news agency. The rebels held a ceremony to mark the occasion, an AFP correspondent reported. The rebel withdrawal from the port, which is the point of entry for food aid to some 14 million Yemenis UN agencies say are on the brink of famine, is a key part of a ceasefire that went into effect on December 18. Pro-government forces are also supposed to pull back from parts of the city they recaptured in an offensive they launched with the backing of a Saudi-led coalition on June 13. The UN Security Council last week unanimously approved a resolution authorising the deployment of observers to oversee the truce. Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert is heading a joint truce monitoring committee, which includes both government and rebel representatives, and chaired its first meeting this week. The UN-led panel addressed "the first phase of the implementation of the Stockholm agreement... based on ceasefire, confidence building measures to deliver humanitarian assistance and redeployment", a UN statement said. It added that the panel would convene again on January 1 to discuss "detailed plans for full redeployment". The truce has remained shaky, with the two sides accusing each other of violations. A resident reached by telephone on Saturday told AFP pro-government and rebel forces had exchanged fire briefly overnight. The resident added that coalition jets were heard overhead on Saturday morning. The war between the Shiite Huthi rebels and troops loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi escalated in March 2015, when he fled into Saudi exile and the Saudi-led coalition intervened. Since then, the war has killed some 10,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, although human rights groups say the real death toll could be five times as high.

Yemen's Shiite rebels say they have given control of the port of Hodeida to the coast guard and local administrators. The Yemeni government disputes this claim.

Staff on Southwest Flight 822 from Punta Cana, Domincan Republic, requested paramedics meet them on the ground because a passenger had become sick on the plane. After the flight landed at 7:47 p.m., medics boarded to help the passenger off. As they exited, the jet bridge, which connects the plane to the terminal, collapsed.[SEP]BALTIMORE (AP) — Officials say six people have been injured after an "equipment failure" involving a jet bridge at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The airport tweeted Saturday night that six people had been taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries due to the incident at Gate E-10. A jet bridge is the hallway structure leading to the plane that passengers use to board the aircraft. No further information was immediately available.[SEP]BALTIMORE — Officials say six people have been injured after an “equipment failure” involving a jet bridge at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The airport tweeted Saturday night that six people had been taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries due to the incident at Gate E-10. A jet bridge is the hallway structure leading to the plane that passengers use to both board and exit the aircraft. The airport says the jet bridge will stay closed until an investigation is complete. It says the aircraft has been moved and the incident has not caused further impacts to the airport’s operations. No further information was immediately available.[SEP]BALTIMORE — Officials say six people have been injured after an “equipment failure” involving a jet bridge at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The airport tweeted Saturday night that six people had been taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries due to the incident at Gate E-10. A jet bridge is the hallway structure leading to the plane that passengers use to board the aircraft. No further information was immediately available. 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The airport says the plane has been moved and the incident has not caused further impacts to the airport's operations. No further details were immediately available.[SEP]Officials say six people have been injured after a “partial equipment failure” involving a jet bridge at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. READ MORE: Video of dancing worker at Toronto Pearson International Airport goes viral The airport tweeted that six people were taken to a hospital Saturday night with non-life-threatening injuries due to the incident at Gate E-10. In a statement, Southwest Airlines said Flight 822 had just arrived from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and requested paramedics to help with a medical situation involving a passenger. Southwest says the airport’s jet bridge, which connects the plane to the terminal, failed while medics were helping the passenger outside the aircraft. Southwest says remaining passengers safely exited the plane using air stairs. The airport says the plane has been moved and there have been no further impacts to airport operations. An investigation is ongoing.[SEP]BALTIMORE, Md – A “partial equipment failure” involving a jet bridge at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) in Maryland on Saturday left six people injured. The airport tweeted that the six people were taken to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. The jet bridge, an extendable hallway stretching from the terminal to the plane, was at Gate E-10 for Southwest Airlines Flight 822, according to the airline. Southwest Airlines said the flight arrived at BWI from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with a request for paramedics to meet it to check out a passenger’s “onboard medical situation.” While medics were helping the passenger outside the aircraft, the airline said the jet bridge “experienced a failure.” The remaining passengers got off the plane using stairs. “We are working swiftly to assist all passengers and crew,” Southwest said in a statement to CNN. The BWI Fire and Rescue Department responded, along with mutual aid, the tweet added. The jet bridge failure at BWI Airport is “under investigation,” according to another tweet from the airport. The bridge will remain closed until the investigation is over, the tweet said. The aircraft has been moved from the gate and there is no further impact to operations, it said. BWI is 9 miles south of downtown Baltimore and 32 miles northeast of Washington, the airport’s website states. It is also the “busiest airport in the region,” the site says, and is named after Baltimore native Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African-American to serve on the US Supreme Court.[SEP]Six people were left injured after a jet bridge collapsed at a busy US airport on Saturday evening. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) tweeted that they were all transported to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. According to a statement put out by Southwest Airlines, a flight arrived at the airport and was met by paramedics who had been asked to tend to a passenger on the plane. As the medics were helping the passenger outside the plane, the jet bridge - which connects the aircraft to the terminal - is said to have "experienced a failure" and collapsed. The remaining passengers safely exited the plane using stairs. Just over an hour later, the airport said the jet bridge won't be reopening until an investigation is completed. "Jet bridge failure is under investigation. The jet bridge will remain closed until investigation is complete. Aircraft moved from gate. No further impact to operations."[SEP]Twitter/@starryeyd_(BALTIMORE, Maryland) — Six people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after a jet bridge failed at a Baltimore airport, officials say. Just before 8 p.m. on Saturday, Southwest flight 822 arrived at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) from the Dominican Republic. Paramedics met the flight to “assess an on board medical situation that occurred in-flight with one passenger,” a Southwest spokesperson said. “While medical personnel were assisting that passenger outside the aircraft, the airport-owned passenger loading bridge experienced a failure,” the spokesperson said. “While working to move the passenger from the aircraft, the jet bridge that serves the airline gate failed,” a BWI spokesperson said in a statement. “Six individuals were injured in a fall.” Those injured were transported to local hospitals, according to BWI. BWI Fire Chief Victor Ferreira said on Twitter that “personnel involved were taken to area hospitals to be evaluated for minor injuries as a precaution.” The remaining passengers on the flight deplaned using the air stairs, the Southwest spokesperson said. The jet bridge failure is “under investigation” according to BWI. No other operations at the airport were affected, BWI 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. BALTIMORE (AP) — Officials say six people have been injured after an “equipment failure” involving a jet bridge at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The airport tweeted Saturday night that six people had been taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries due to the incident at Gate E-10. A jet bridge is the hallway structure leading to the plane that passengers use to both board and exit the aircraft. The airport says the jet bridge will stay closed until an investigation is complete. It says the aircraft has been moved and the incident has not caused further impacts to the airport’s operations. No further information was immediately available. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

An equipment failure causes a jet bridge at the Baltimore–Washington International Airport to collapse, injuring seven people.

(Reuters) - A cyber attack caused major printing and delivery disruptions on Saturday at the Los Angeles Times and other major U.S. newspapers, including ones owned by Tribune Publishing Co (TPCO.O) such as the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun. A hooded man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration The cyber attack appeared to originate outside the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation. The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, Tribune, Sun and other newspapers that share a production platform in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported. Tribune Publishing, whose newspapers also include the New York Daily News and Orlando Sentinel, said it first detected the malware on Friday. The West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times were hit as they are also printed on the shared production platform, the Los Angeles Times said. Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said the virus hurt back-office systems used to publish and produce “newspapers across our properties.” “There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Kollias said in a statement The Wall Street Journal and New York Times did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Most San Diego Union-Tribune subscribers were without a newspaper on Saturday as the virus infected the company’s business systems and hobbled its ability to publish, the paper’s editor and publisher Jeff Light wrote on its website. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said it was studying the situation. “We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident affecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation,” said DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman in a statement. Representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were not immediately available for comment.[SEP]This post was originally published on this site U.S. NEWS Cyberattack targets newspapers in US, prevents some from publishing https://linewsradio.com/cyberattack-targets-newspapers-in-us-prevents-some-from-publishing/ http://abcnewsradioonline.com/national-news/ iStock/Thinkstock(LOS ANGELES) — Several U.S. newspapers came under attack from apparent hackers on Saturday, preventing some from printing and distributing their daily editions. The Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun were among the major newspapers that had printing issues on Saturday. The cyberattack appeared to target newspapers owned by the Tribune Publishing Company. “This issue has affected the timeliness and in some cases the completeness of our printed newspapers,” Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said in a statement. “Our websites and mobile applications however, have not been impacted.” Most tweeted online apologies to readers — as well as links to stories on their sites explaining the problem. The Department of Homeland Security told ABC News in a statement that it is investigating. “We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident effecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation,” Katie Waldman, DHS spokeswoman, said. The source of the attacks was a “foreign entity,” according to a report in The Los Angeles Times. It is not clear what the motive of the attacks was, but the Tribune Publishing Company said in a statement “the personal data of our subscribers, online users, and advertising clients has not been compromised.” The Trump administration released a new National Cyber Strategy in September aimed at deterring malicious online behavior, specifically from Russia and China. The paper accuses Russia, Iran and North Korea of conducting “reckless cyber attacks that harmed American and international businesses and our allies and partners without paying costs likely to deter future cyber aggression.”[SEP]A cyberattack on the Tribune Publishing Company's computer system led to printing and distribution problems at major newspapers. Newspapers affected included the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, both of which are no longer owned by Tribune Publishing but still shares some systems. Jeff Light, the editor and publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune, said in statement the attack appeared to begin Thursday night and continued into Friday for their production. Director of Distribution Joe Robidoux said print subscribers should get Saturday's paper delivered with Sunday's edition. Light said the digital replica of the paper was also affected. The news of the cyberattack was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. A source told the Times the source of the attack was a "foreign entity." A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told Reuters they are investigating the attack. According to a statement from Marisa Kollias, a spokeswoman for Tribune Publishing Company, the company's computer alert systems detected the presence of malware that impacted some back-office systems which are primarily used to publish and produce the newspapers. "Every market across the company was impacted," Kollias told the Times. The company worked to come up with a workaround to produce the newspapers, but there were some delays in delivery. Distribution was also affected of other newspapers, including The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, that use the same printing presses in some markets as Tribune Publishing. Kollias said there is no evidence customers' personally identifiable information or credit card had been impacted, nor was the information of subscribers, advertisers and online users.[SEP]Newspapers that are part of the Tribune Publishing group were hit by an apparent cyberattack this week, which affected printing and distribution of their editions over the weekend. The Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and more publications were affected by the malware breach, according to reporting from the L.A. Times. The breach affected the process by which newspapers in this publishing group were printed, creating long delays on data that is shared between the publications and their printing presses. As a result, other publications were also hurt by the cyberattack, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, whose West Coast printing processes rely in part on using the same printing facility as the L.A. Times. It was unclear from which country the cyberattack originated from, but an anonymous source with a deep understanding of the attack confirmed that it was not from within the United States. That source also stated on the record that the attack seemed to target newspapers in order to disrupt their printing processes, and was not intended to try and get anyone’s personal information, subscriber or otherwise. “We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information,” the source explained. “There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Kollias said, per reporting from CNBC. An official statement from the company itself further elaborated that the breach didn’t affect customers. “The personal data of our subscribers, online users, and advertising clients has not been compromised,” Tribune Publishing wrote in its official statement. The cyberattack affected Saturday distribution of many of the Tribune Publishing group’s papers. Most of the San Diego Union-Tribune subscribers did not receive a paper at all on that day, for example. At issue was how the software systems of Tribune Publishing publications interacted with the printing process. News stories, photographs, and other relevant information that would ordinarily transmit electronically to the printing press was disrupted, which in turn delayed the process by which that data would be turned into plates from which the papers could be printed. The U.S. government stated that it was aware of the situation involving the cyberattack, and investigating the matter further. “We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident affecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation,” a spokeswoman with the Department of Homeland Security said.[SEP]A computer virus disrupted production of the Chicago Tribune and other Tribune Publishing newspapers across the country, the company said Saturday. The print edition of the Chicago Tribune was published Saturday without paid death notices and classified ads, while in other markets a similarly slimmed-down version of the Saturday newspaper will be delivered on Sunday. Tribune Publishing news websites were not affected, and no customer information was compromised, the company said Saturday. “This issue has affected the timeliness and in some cases the completeness of our printed newspapers,” Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said in a statement. “Our websites and mobile applications however, have not been impacted.” Tribune Publishing discovered the presence of malware Friday that impacted some systems used to publish and produce newspapers across the company, Kollias said. The company is investigating the malware attack and “making progress” to resolve issues with its newspaper production, Kollias said. Tribune Publishing also reported the attack to the FBI on Friday. “There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Kollias said. All Tribune Publishing newspapers were impacted by the malware, with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, for example, unable to produce its paper in time for Saturday delivery. Those newspapers will be delivered on Sunday, the company said. Saturday editions of suburban Chicago newspapers the Lake County News-Sun and Post-Tribune will also be among those to be delivered on Sunday. In Southern California, former Tribune Publishing newspapers the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune were impacted by the same malware, with many home delivery customers experiencing delays and some not receiving the paper at all. Los Angeles Times spokeswoman Hillary Manning said the company is working to resolve the computer problems, but delivery issues may linger throughout the weekend. Tribune Publishing completed its $500 million sale of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune to biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong in June, but still provides printing and other services to the California newspapers in an ongoing transition services agreement. Formerly known as Tronc, Tribune Publishing also owns The Baltimore Sun; Hartford Courant; Orlando Sentinel; the New York Daily News; the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md.; The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa.; the Daily Press in Newport News, Va.; and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va.[SEP]A cyberattack caused major printing and delivery disruptions on Saturday at the Los Angeles Times and other major US newspapers, including ones owned by Tribune Publishing Co such as the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun. A cyberattack caused major printing and delivery disruptions on Saturday at the Los Angeles Times and other major US newspapers, including ones owned by Tribune Publishing Co such as the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun. The cyberattack appeared to originate outside the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation. The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, Tribune, Sun and other newspapers that share a production platform in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported. Tribune Publishing, whose newspapers also include the New York Daily News and Orlando Sentinel, said it first detected the malware on Friday. The West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times were hit as they are also printed on the shared production platform, the Los Angeles Times said. Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said the virus hurt back-office systems used to publish and produce "newspapers across our properties." "There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised," Kollias said in a statement The Wall Street Journal and New York Times did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Most San Diego Union-Tribune subscribers were without a newspaper on Saturday as the virus infected the company's business systems and hobbled its ability to publish, the paper's editor and publisher Jeff Light wrote on its website. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said it was studying the situation. "We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident affecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation," said DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman in a statement. Representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were not immediately available for comment.[SEP]A cyberattack coming from outside the U.S. caused major printing and delivery problems for newspapers across the country the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday The newspaper was among dozens affected by the malware. Others included the Ventura County Star, San Diego-Union Tribune, Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune and more.Distribution was also affected for the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which are both printed at the Los Angeles Times' printing plant in downtown Los Angeles, the paper reported.An anonymous source provided information on the malware attack to the L.A. Times, saying the attack was conducted by a "foreign entity."The Times reports the problem may have started Thursday and spread Friday, where it was detected and technology experts began to look into it.The cyberattack shut down software systems that contain stories and other information needed to create plates that print the papers, according to the Times.A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement."We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident effecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation," it said.[SEP]LOS ANGELES — Staffers at some of America’s best-known newspapers are wondering whether their systems were the victim of a foreign cyberattack. Several papers, including the Los Angeles Times and The Hartford Courant, suffered printing and distribution delays as a result of the incident. There is real concern about the effectiveness of the attack. Tribune Publishing said “malware” was detected on its servers Friday. The San Diego Union-Tribune, which also called it a “virus,” said most subscribers were left without a Saturday morning paper as a result. The incident affected other newspapers in other ways. At The Baltimore Sun, for example, the usual comics and puzzles were not included in Saturday’s print edition, the paper tweeted. In Southern California, distribution of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal was also delayed, because all of the papers rely on the same back-end printing presses. The L.A. Times, citing a “source with knowledge of the situation,” said Saturday that the cyberattack “appears to have originated from outside the United States.” A spokeswoman for Tribune Publishing said she could not confirm that. And staffers at some of the affected papers said they haven’t received much information from management about the extent of the cyberattack. An internal memo from Tribune CEO Justin Dearborn on Saturday referenced “malware” and said “we are making progress with this issue.” Papers using Tribune software were affected. The L.A. Times and the Union-Tribune are no longer owned by Tribune, previously known as Tronc. But the papers continue to use some of Tribune’s systems. The virus “hobbled our ability to publish,” Union-Tribune editor and publisher Jeff Light said in a Saturday morning letter to readers. According to Dearborn’s memo and the company’s statement, workers had to create “workarounds” to get the Saturday editions printed. “There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Dearborn wrote. But some important back-office systems were interrupted. When some L.A. Times readers called to inquire about their print edition, the customer service phone lines were on the fritz. And staffers at two papers using Tribune software told CNN Business that the time card system for keeping track of working hours was offline for some time. The websites of the affected papers were never impacted, however. The South Florida Sun Sentinel’s online story about the virus started off by saying: “We are still here.”[SEP]The Los Angeles Times says an unusual cyberattack that disrupted its printing operations and those at newspapers in San Diego and Florida over the weekend came from outside the United States, but it stopped short of accusing a specific foreign government. [NEW YORK] The Los Angeles Times says an unusual cyberattack that disrupted its printing operations and those at newspapers in San Diego and Florida over the weekend came from outside the United States, but it stopped short of accusing a specific foreign government. Computer malware attacks on infrastructure, while relatively rare, are hardly new: Russia has been credibly accused of shutting down power grids in Ukraine and a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia, Iran crippled a casino in Las Vegas, and the United States and Israel attacked a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran. But this would be the first known attack on major newspaper printing operations, and if politically motivated, it would define new territory in recent attacks on the media. The malware was focused on the networks used by Tribune Publishing, which until recently owned The Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune. The two papers still share their former parent company's printing networks. The Los Angeles Times said the attack also affected the Saturday distribution of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which share use of a large printing plant in Los Angeles for their West Coast editions. Both appear to have been collateral damage; there was no evidence that they were hit by the same malware aimed at the Tribune company. The online editions of the news organizations were not affected, and Tribune Publishing said no data about its subscribers was compromised. "Every market across the company was impacted," Marisa Kollias, a spokeswoman for Tribune Publishing, told The Los Angeles Times. The Tribune's remaining publications include its flagship, The Chicago Tribune, and newspapers in Florida, Hartford, Connecticut, and Maryland. It also owns The Daily News in New York. Missing from Tribune's statements were any details about the nature of the malware or evidence for its assertion that the attack originated overseas. Anonymous sources cited by The Los Angeles Times suggested that the malware may have been a form of ransomware — a pernicious attack that scrambles computer programs and files before demanding that the victim pay a ransom to unscramble them. Even if the attack was the work of foreign hackers, that does not necessarily mean it was backed by a government. Ransomware attacks are frequently the work of criminal groups, with three notable exceptions: a huge attack by hackers in North Korea in 2017, an attack months later against Ukraine by Russian hackers and, more recently, attacks against US hospitals and even the city of Atlanta by hackers in Iran. Those latest attacks were believed to be the work of individuals and not directed by Tehran. Neither Tribune Publishing nor The Los Angeles Times said the attack was linked to a ransom demand. But a news article in The Los Angeles Times, and one outside computer expert, said the attack shared characteristics with a form of ransomware called Ryuk, which was used to target a North Carolina water utility in October and other critical infrastructure. Some experts have linked that malware to a sophisticated North Korean group, but CrowdStrike, a security firm that has been tracking the group behind Ryuk, said it believed cybercriminals in Eastern Europe were responsible. Adam Meyers, head of threat intelligence at CrowdStrike, said cybercriminals appeared to have been infecting victims with Ryuk through a criminal tool called Trickbot. The tool was used in banking attacks and, more recently, attacks on major businesses and infrastructure in the United States, Canada and Britain. Sophos, another security vendor, said Ryuk's creators were selective about whom they targeted. They deploy the ransomware against victims that can pay large, often six-figure ransoms, particularly in the commodities, manufacturing and health care industries, Sophos said. Whoever is behind the ransomware, the attacks appear to have paid off. This month, the group, which goes by the name Grim Spider, received a ransom payment of nearly 100 bitcoin, the equivalent of more than US$380,000. It apparently took Tribune a while to understand the nature of the attack. The problem first appeared to be a malfunctioning computer server. The first evidence of the attack emerged Thursday night, The Los Angeles Times reported, and by Friday it appeared to have been contained. But it came back — a frequent occurrence with sophisticated attacks — and began to spread through the systems that govern the interface between the news content systems and the systems that control the printing of the newspapers. By late Friday, The Los Angeles Times said, "the attack was hindering the transmission of pages from offices across Southern California to printing presses." Among the hardest hit was the San Diego paper, whose production teams could not transmit the files that enable the making of page plates for the printing presses. As a result, delays cascaded across the printing schedules for other newspapers. The South Florida Sun Sentinel was also hit, the newspaper reported on its website. It said distribution of The New York Times and The Palm Beach Post had also been affected, because they share the same presses. On Sunday, Hillary Manning, vice president for communications at The Los Angeles Times, said, "The presses ran on schedule, and papers were being delivered as usual today." She added, "The systems outage caused by a virus or malware has not been completely resolved yet." About 20,000 copies of The New York Times from the Los Angeles plant were delivered a day late, a spokeswoman for the paper, Eileen Murphy, said. Colleen Schwartz, a spokeswoman for The Wall Street Journal, said she could confirm that The Journal "was impacted in certain regions," though she did not have any details on which areas or the number of copies affected.[SEP]A cyberattack Saturday targeting a major newspaper publishing company reportedly affected distribution at prominent newspapers across the United States. The Los Angeles Times reported that Tribune Publishing was affected by a cyberattack originating outside of the U.S., which caused service disruptions for the Saturday editions of major newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun. The west coast editions of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were also reportedly affected by the cyberattack, as the two papers are published by the Los Angeles Times’s production facility. “We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information,” a source with knowledge of the situation told the L.A. Times. – READ MORE

A cyberattack disrupts distribution of newspapers published by Tribune Publishing.

[SEP]A St. Louis-area man shot his girlfriend, her two young children and her mother in the home they all shared, authorities said Saturday. A St. Louis-area man shot his girlfriend, her two young children and her mother in the home they all shared, authorities said Saturday. ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — A St. Louis-area man shot to death his girlfriend, her two young children and her mother in the home they all shared, authorities said Saturday. He exchanged gunfire with officers as he fled and was captured several hours later in a convenience store, covered in blood and wounded. Prosecutors filed 15 charges against Richard Darren Emery of St. Charles, Missouri, including first-degree murder, assault and attempted robbery. Authorities said Emery, 46, abandoned his own pickup and tried unsuccessfully to steal a woman’s car while on the run, attacking her as well. Emery remained in a local hospital with two gunshot wounds that authorities said did not appear self-inflicted and most likely came from the shootout with officers. St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said investigators did not know the motive for the shootings as of Saturday evening. “We may never know,” Lohmar said during a news conference. “This one in particular was the worst example of a domestic violence case. Anytime you have a domestic violence case you worry about the safety of the victim, and this would be your worst nightmare.” St. Charles is a city of about 70,000 residents on the Missouri River northwest of St. Louis. Officials said it’s had of spate of deadly domestic violence incidents recently — with six deaths in the past eight days that Lohmar said are unrelated. Officials said police received a call just before midnight Friday about a shooting at the house where Emery and the victims lived. Lohmar said officers later found three victims dead of gunshot wounds in one bedroom. They were Zoe Kasten, 8; her brother, Jonathan Kasten, 10; and their grandmother, Jane Moeckel, 61. Officers found the fourth victim, a 39-year-old woman, in the home’s master bedroom, suffering from gunshot wounds but still alive, Lohmar said. She was taken to an area hospital, where she died. Authorities did not name the fourth victim but described her as the children’s mother, the daughter of the older woman and Emery’s girlfriend. The initial call came to police came from inside the house, and Lohmar said investigators believe Moeckel made it. “During that phone call, the 911 operator could hear gunshots in the background,” St. Charles Police Lt. Tom Wilkison said. Lohmar said Emery attempted to flee in his pickup and was stopped by a police car. He and the officers exchanged shots, and he fled on foot. Authorities described his attempt to steal another vehicle as a carjacking and said she stabbed its female driver seven times. They said her injuries were not life-threatening. The area is wooded, and Lohmar said Emery was able to elude police in the dark. But when he sought shelter in the bathroom of the convenience store a few miles away, an employee contacted police, Lohmar said. Each of the charges against Emery carries a possible penalty of 30 years to life in prison, Lohmar said, adding that more charges are possible and seeking the death penalty is an option under Missouri law. “It’s premature for us to make any sort of pronouncement about that right now, but I can tell you this thing looks and smells like a death penalty case,” he said. ___ This version of the story corrects the direction of St. Charles from St. Louis in the second paragraph[SEP]ST. CHARLES, Mo. (KDKA) — St. Charles, Missouri, police confirmed they have a suspect in custody related to the overnight shooting deaths of four people on Saturday. Police say they were called to the scene of a shooting in the 100 block of Whetstone Drive just before midnight Saturday and discovered multiple gunshot victims. The police observed a vehicle leaving the scene at a high rate of speed. After the vehicle was stopped by officers, there was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and police. No officers were injured but the suspect escaped. A short time after that, the suspect attempted a carjacking and stabbed another victim. The carjacking victim’s injury is not life threatening, according to police. After an extensive manhunt, the suspect was not immediately located. At 7:26 a.m., however, the suspect was apprehended inside a St. Charles QuikTrip after calls came in that the suspect was inside bleeding. The suspect was taken into custody and transported to the hospital for injuries sustained while fleeing police.[SEP]ST. CHARLES, Mo. (KMOV.com) -- St. Charles City police confirm they have a suspect in custody related to the overnight murder of 4 people in St. Charles. Police tell News 4 this happened on Whetstone Dr., near Muegge Rd. and Abbydale Dr. Police took the suspect in custody when they found him at a St. Charles QuikTrip. Workers at the convenience store called police when a man covered in blood went into the bathroom. St. Charles police confirmed that three people were shot and killed at the home on Whetstone, and a fourth victim later died at the hospital from gunshot wounds sustained at the home. The Major Case Squad has been called in to assist with the investigation. Helicopter and SWAT teams were also called to assist in the search for the suspect. The suspect, male, allegedly left the scene on foot. Police will only describe the suspect as a white male in his 40s. Police say they were called to the scene of a shooting in the 100 block of Whetstone at midnight Saturday. Upon arrival an officer was involved in gun battle with the suspect. The officer was uninjured and it is unknown if the suspect was struck. Police held a press conference at St. Charles PD headquarters Saturday morning. No information on the suspect or the victim's identity has been released as authorities work to notify next of kin.[SEP]ST. CHARLES, MO.—Authorities say four people have been fatally shot inside a St. Louis-area home and a suspect has been taken into custody after seeking shelter hours later in a convenience store. Police in St. Charles, Missouri, said the suspect also had a gun battle with officers just after midnight Saturday as he attempted to drive away from the home.[SEP]ST. CHARLES, Mo. (KCTV/KMOV) -- St. Charles City police confirm they have a suspect in custody related to the overnight murder of four people in St. Charles. The police have said that the victims include an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. Police told our affiliate KMOV this happened on Whetstone Dr., near Muegge Rd. and Abbydale Dr. Police took the suspect in custody when they found him at a St. Charles QuikTrip. Workers at the convenience store called police when a man covered in blood went into the bathroom. St. Charles police confirmed that three people were killed at the home on Whetstone, and a fourth victim later died at the hospital from wounds sustained at the home. The Major Case Squad has been called in to assist with the investigation. The suspect, male, allegedly left the scene on foot. Police will only describe the suspect as a white male in his 40s. Police say they were called to the scene of a shooting in the 100 block of Whetstone at midnight Saturday. Upon arrival an officer was involved in gun battle with the suspect. The officer was uninjured and it is unknown if the suspect was struck. According to police, the suspect fled the scene on foot and attempted to carjack a woman, and stabbed her in the process. The woman's injuries are not life threatening, police say. Police held a press conference at St. Charles PD headquarters Saturday morning. No information on the suspect or the victim's identity has been released as authorities work to notify next of kin.[SEP]ST. CHARLES, Mo. (KMOV.com) -- St. Charles City police confirm they have a suspect in custody related to the overnight murder of 4 people in St. Charles. Police tell News 4 this happened on Whetstone Dr., near Muegge Rd. and Abbydale Dr. Police took the suspect in custody when they found him at a St. Charles QuikTrip. Workers at the convenience store called police when a man covered in blood went into the bathroom. St. Charles police confirmed that three people were killed at the home on Whetstone, and a fourth victim later died at the hospital from wounds sustained at the home. The Major Case Squad has been called in to assist with the investigation. The suspect, male, allegedly left the scene on foot. Police will only describe the suspect as a white male in his 40s. Police say they were called to the scene of a shooting in the 100 block of Whetstone at midnight Saturday. Upon arrival an officer was involved in gun battle with the suspect. The officer was uninjured and it is unknown if the suspect was struck. The Major Case Squad has been called in to assist with the investigation. They, along with St. Charles PD, will hold a press conference at 9 a.m. News 4 will stream that event on the KMOV News App and on Facebook.[SEP]ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Authorities say four people have been fatally shot inside a St. Louis-area home and a suspect has been taken into custody after seeking shelter hours later in a convenience store. Police in St. Charles, Missouri, said the suspect also had a gun battle with officers just after midnight Saturday as he attempted to drive away from the home. They said he fled on foot, tried unsuccessfully to steal a woman’s car, stabbed her and fled on foot again. The woman’s injuries were not life-threatening. Three shooting victims were found dead inside the home. A fourth died at a local hospital. The suspect also was injured and was in a local hospital Saturday. Authorities did not name the suspect or the victims or provide details about the suspect’s potential motives.[SEP]ST. CHARLES, Mo. (KMOV.com) -- St. Charles City police have identified the victims in the overnight quadruple homicide on Whetstone Drive which include a 8 and 10-year-old. Zoe J. Kasten, 8, Jonathan Kasten, 10, and Jane Moeckel, 61, have been identified by police as the victims. A fourth victim, an adult female, has not yet been positively identified. Police took the suspect, a 46-year-old male, in custody when they found him at a St. Charles QuikTrip. Workers at the convenience store called police when a man covered in blood went into the bathroom. St. Charles police confirmed that three people were shot and killed at the home on Whetstone, and a fourth victim later died at the hospital from gunshot wounds sustained at the home. The Major Case Squad has been called in to assist with the investigation. Helicopter and SWAT teams were also called to assist in the search for the suspect. The suspect, male, allegedly left the scene on foot. Police will only describe the suspect as a white male in his 40s. Police say they were called to the scene of a shooting in the 100 block of Whetstone at midnight Saturday. Upon arrival an officer was involved in gun battle with the suspect. The officer was uninjured and it is unknown if the suspect was struck. Police held a press conference at St. Charles PD headquarters Saturday morning. No information on the suspect or the victim's identity has been released as authorities work to notify next of kin. Charges are expected to be announced against the suspect in a 4 p.m. press conference at St. Charles Police headquarters. News 4 will stream the press conference on the KMOV News App and Facebook page. This is a developing story. Stay with News 4 as we work to get more information.[SEP]ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shootings of four people in a St.-Louis area home (all times local): Authorities have identified three of the four fatal shooting victims in a St. Louis-area home as a young sister and brother and their grandmother. The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis said three victims were found inside the home in St. Charles, Missouri early Saturday. They were 8-year-old Zoe Kasten, 10-year-old Jonathan Kasten and 61-year-old Jane Moeckel, all from St. Charles. The fourth victim, a woman, was transported to a local hospital and died there. She has not been identified. Authorities also have not identified the suspect, a 46-year-old man. He exchanged gunfire with officers as he tried to drive away and fled on foot. He was taken into custody about 7:30 a.m. Saturday at a convenience store a few miles away. Authorities say four people have been fatally shot inside a St. Louis-area home and a suspect has been taken into custody after seeking shelter hours later in a convenience store. Police in St. Charles, Missouri, said the suspect also had a gun battle with officers just after midnight Saturday as he attempted to drive away from the home. They said he fled on foot, tried unsuccessfully to steal a woman's car, stabbed her and fled on foot again. The woman's injuries were not life-threatening. Three shooting victims were found dead inside the home. A fourth died at a local hospital. The suspect also was injured and was in a local hospital Saturday. Authorities did not name the suspect or the victims or provide details about the suspect's potential motives.

Four people are killed in a shooting in St. Charles, Missouri, United States. Another person was stabbed but survived. A suspect was arrested soon after.

WASHINGTON – In his first visit to U.S. troops in a conflict zone, President Donald Trump drew cheers when he told troops he won them their first raise in 10 years and suggested it was a whopping one. Neither is true. TRUMP: “You just got one of the biggest pay raises you ever received. Unless you don’t want it. Does anybody here? Is anybody here willing to give up the big pay raise you just got? I don’t see too many hands. Ah, OK. don’t give it up. It’s great. You know what? Nobody deserves it more. You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one.” – remarks prompting cheers Wednesday at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq. THE FACTS: He’s wrong about there being no pay increase for service members in more than 10 years and about their raise being especially large. U.S. military members have gotten a pay raise every year for decades. As well, several in the last 10 years have been larger than service members are getting now – 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2019. Raises in 2008, 2009 and 2010, for example, were all 3.4 percent or more. Pay increases shrank during the following years as the administration struggled with congressionally mandated budget caps. Trump, aided by congressional action, did reverse the subsequent six-year trend that began in 2011 of pay raises that hovered between 1 and 2 percent. In 2017, service members got a 2.1 percent raise. Trump has repeatedly told service members that they’re getting the biggest or only pay raise that they have received in 10 years or more. In May, for example, he told graduates of the United States Naval Academy: “We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years.” More: Trump defends signing MAGA hats for service members during visit to Iraq, Germany TRUMP: “You had plenty of people, they came up, they said, you know we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent, we could make it 2 percent, we could make it 4 percent. I said, ‘no, make it 10 percent – make it more than 10 percent.’” – remarks Wednesday at al-Asad base. THE FACTS: Whatever he might have said at the time, the 2.6 percent for 2019 obviously falls far short of the 10 percent or more that he implied was achieved. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report. EDITOR’S NOTE: A look at the veracity of claims by political figures. Read more AP Fact Checks or follow @APFactCheck on Twitter.[SEP]Donald Trump lied to troops in Iraq that he had secured them a double digit pay raise when nothing could be further from the truth. The HuffPost reports: ‘The president told service members at al-Asad air base in Iraq that he was proud to secure them a much-needed pay bump of “more than 10 percent” after years of stagnant wages. Many of the troops in attendance may have been surprised to learn they hadn’t seen a pay increase in more than a decade. In fact, military members have seen a pay raise in each of the last 10 years, ranging from 1 percent to 3.9 percent, according to the Defense Department. They even saw pay bumps when other federal workers were subjected to a three-year pay freeze in the wake of the Great Recession. The pay increase for 2019 passed by Congress and signed by the president in August will be 2.6 percent, the largest since 2010. It is not far above last year’s raise for troops, which was 2.4 percent.’ Said Trump: “Is anybody here willing to give up the big pay raise you just got? You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one. I got you a big one.” Trump also said he was in no rush to replace Defense Secretary James Mattis: ‘While in Iraq, Trump indicated he would not rush to nominate a new secretary to replace Mattis, the first defense chief in decades to resign over policy differences with the president. Trump said Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, whom he named on Sunday to replace Mattis in an acting capacity starting on Jan. 1, “could be there for a long time.” Trump has come under withering criticism from fellow Republicans, Democrats and international allies over his decision to pull out of Syria because he believed Islamic State militants have been defeated. Critics argue that the decision could undercut U.S. leverage in the region and undermine diplomatic efforts to the end the Syrian civil war, now in its eighth year.’ Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough blasted Trump in his Thursday morning monologue: “The troops were clearly glad to see him, I think every American should be grateful for that, but we should be concerned that Trump once again used a captive audience of American heroes to push his unpopular domestic agenda.” Added Scarborough: “U.S. Leaders once stood up to bullying threats from tyrannical thugs…But now we have a weak president who fears Russia and Turkey, and is in full retreat across the globe and he has gifted to Middle East, to Russia, to Iran and to ISIS. It just seems to me that we aren’t the suckers after all, Mr. President. You are, and you’re the sucker for believing that dismantling America’s most successful military operations across the globe will do anything other than help Russia, ISIS, Iran and our other geopolitical enemies, our threats. That is not going to make America great again. It’s going to make us much weaker than we’ve been at any time since World War II.” Trump’s visit angered some Iraqi leaders who saw it as a blow to their sovereignty, Reuters reports: ‘Sabah al Saadi, the leader of the Islah parliamentary bloc, called for an emergency session of parliament “to discuss this blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and to stop these aggressive actions by Trump who should know his limits: The U.S. occupation of Iraq is over.” The Bina bloc, Islah’s rival in parliament and led by Iran-backed militia leader Hadi al-Amiri, also objected to Trump’s trip to Iraq. “Trump’s visit is a flagrant and clear violation of diplomatic norms and shows his disdain and hostility in his dealings with the Iraqi government,” said a statement from Bina.’ Trump also violated protocol designed to keep secret locations of special forces secret by tweeting a video of Seal Team 5 at the al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq. Newsweek reports: ‘Malcolm Nance, a former U.S. Navy intelligence specialist with experience in Iraq told Newsweek on Wednesday that posting the video was a break from traditional procedures that are usually strictly enforced and designed to safeguard the identities of U.S. special operation forces, especially when deployed to a combat zone. “Operational security is the most important aspect of personnel deployments. The real names, faces, and identities, of personnel involved in special operations or activities, are usually a closely held secret in a combat zone,” Nance said. “Revealing them casually, through an unusual media exposure even if it’s the commander in chief, would prove a propaganda boom if any of this personnel are detained by a hostile government or captured by a terrorist group. There would be no denying who you are and what you do.”’[SEP]WASHINGTON – In his first visit to U.S. troops in a conflict zone, President Donald Trump drew cheers when he told troops he won them their first raise in 10 years and suggested it was a whopping one. Neither is true. TRUMP: “You just got one of the biggest pay raises you ever received. Unless you don’t want it. Does anybody here? Is anybody here willing to give up the big pay raise you just got? I don’t see too many hands. Ah, OK. don’t give it up. It’s great. You know what? Nobody deserves it more. You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one.” – remarks prompting cheers Wednesday at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq. THE FACTS: He’s wrong about there being no pay increase for service members in more than 10 years and about their raise being especially large. U.S. military members have gotten a pay raise every year for decades. As well, several in the last 10 years have been larger than service members are getting now – 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2019. Raises in 2008, 2009 and 2010, for example, were all 3.4 percent or more. Pay increases shrank during the following years as the administration struggled with congressionally mandated budget caps. Trump, aided by congressional action, did reverse the subsequent six-year trend that began in 2011 of pay raises that hovered between 1 and 2 percent. In 2017, service members got a 2.1 percent raise. Trump has repeatedly told service members that they’re getting the biggest or only pay raise that they have received in 10 years or more. In May, for example, he told graduates of the United States Naval Academy: “We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years.” More: Trump defends signing MAGA hats for service members during visit to Iraq, Germany TRUMP: “You had plenty of people, they came up, they said, you know we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent, we could make it 2 percent, we could make it 4 percent. I said, ‘no, make it 10 percent – make it more than 10 percent.’” – remarks Wednesday at al-Asad base. THE FACTS: Whatever he might have said at the time, the 2.6 percent for 2019 obviously falls far short of the 10 percent or more that he implied was achieved. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report. EDITOR’S NOTE: A look at the veracity of claims by political figures. Read more AP Fact Checks or follow @APFactCheck on Twitter.[SEP]WASHINGTON – In his first visit to U.S. troops in a conflict zone, President Donald Trump drew cheers when he told troops he won them their first raise in 10 years and suggested it was a whopping one. Neither is true. TRUMP: “You just got one of the biggest pay raises you ever received. Unless you don’t want it. Does anybody here? Is anybody here willing to give up the big pay raise you just got? I don’t see too many hands. Ah, OK. don’t give it up. It’s great. You know what? Nobody deserves it more. You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one.” – remarks prompting cheers Wednesday at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq. THE FACTS: He’s wrong about there being no pay increase for service members in more than 10 years and about their raise being especially large. U.S. military members have gotten a pay raise every year for decades. As well, several in the last 10 years have been larger than service members are getting now – 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2019. Raises in 2008, 2009 and 2010, for example, were all 3.4 percent or more. Pay increases shrank during the following years as the administration struggled with congressionally mandated budget caps. Trump, aided by congressional action, did reverse the subsequent six-year trend that began in 2011 of pay raises that hovered between 1 and 2 percent. In 2017, service members got a 2.1 percent raise. Trump has repeatedly told service members that they’re getting the biggest or only pay raise that they have received in 10 years or more. In May, for example, he told graduates of the United States Naval Academy: “We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years.” More: Trump defends signing MAGA hats for service members during visit to Iraq, Germany TRUMP: “You had plenty of people, they came up, they said, you know we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent, we could make it 2 percent, we could make it 4 percent. I said, ‘no, make it 10 percent – make it more than 10 percent.’” – remarks Wednesday at al-Asad base. THE FACTS: Whatever he might have said at the time, the 2.6 percent for 2019 obviously falls far short of the 10 percent or more that he implied was achieved. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report. EDITOR’S NOTE: A look at the veracity of claims by political figures. Read more AP Fact Checks or follow @APFactCheck on Twitter.[SEP]WASHINGTON – In his first visit to U.S. troops in a conflict zone, President Donald Trump drew cheers when he told troops he won them their first raise in 10 years and suggested it was a whopping one. Neither is true. TRUMP: “You just got one of the biggest pay raises you ever received. Unless you don’t want it. Does anybody here? Is anybody here willing to give up the big pay raise you just got? I don’t see too many hands. Ah, OK. don’t give it up. It’s great. You know what? Nobody deserves it more. You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one.” – remarks prompting cheers Wednesday at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq. THE FACTS: He’s wrong about there being no pay increase for service members in more than 10 years and about their raise being especially large. U.S. military members have gotten a pay raise every year for decades. As well, several in the last 10 years have been larger than service members are getting now – 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2019. Raises in 2008, 2009 and 2010, for example, were all 3.4 percent or more. Pay increases shrank during the following years as the administration struggled with congressionally mandated budget caps. Trump, aided by congressional action, did reverse the subsequent six-year trend that began in 2011 of pay raises that hovered between 1 and 2 percent. In 2017, service members got a 2.1 percent raise. Trump has repeatedly told service members that they’re getting the biggest or only pay raise that they have received in 10 years or more. In May, for example, he told graduates of the United States Naval Academy: “We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years.” More: Trump defends signing MAGA hats for service members during visit to Iraq, Germany TRUMP: “You had plenty of people, they came up, they said, you know we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent, we could make it 2 percent, we could make it 4 percent. I said, ‘no, make it 10 percent – make it more than 10 percent.’” – remarks Wednesday at al-Asad base. THE FACTS: Whatever he might have said at the time, the 2.6 percent for 2019 obviously falls far short of the 10 percent or more that he implied was achieved. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report. EDITOR’S NOTE: A look at the veracity of claims by political figures. Read more AP Fact Checks or follow @APFactCheck on Twitter.[SEP]Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday freezing federal workers' pay for 2019, following through on a proposal he announced earlier in the year. The move, which nixes a 2.1% across-the-board pay raise that was set to take effect in January, comes as hundreds of thousands of federal employees are expecting to begin the new year furloughed or working without pay because of a partial government shutdown. Trump told lawmakers he planned to scrap the 2019 pay bump for federal workers in August, saying the federal budget couldn't support it. In addition to the 2.1% pay increase, the executive order also cancels a yearly adjustment of paychecks based on the region of the country where workers are posted, called the "locality pay increase," that was due to take effect in January. The move does not affect a 2.6% pay increase for US troops next year that was passed as part of the massive defense spending bill Trump signed in August. Lawmakers could include a pay raise for 2019 in a spending bill to reopen the government, but negotiations have been at an impasse over money for Trump's border wall. About 380,000 federal employees are on furlough and 420,000 are working without pay as the new year approaches. In a letter to House and Senate leaders in August, Trump described the pay increase as "inappropriate." "We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases," the President wrote. Trump also stressed that a pay freeze would not affect the federal government's ability to attract qualified workers. He cited his statutory authority to adjust pay out of "national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare."[SEP]WASHINGTON – In his first visit to U.S. troops in a conflict zone, President Donald Trump drew cheers when he told troops he won them their first raise in 10 years and suggested it was a whopping one. Neither is true. TRUMP: “You just got one of the biggest pay raises you ever received. Unless you don’t want it. Does anybody here? Is anybody here willing to give up the big pay raise you just got? I don’t see too many hands. Ah, OK. don’t give it up. It’s great. You know what? Nobody deserves it more. You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one.” – remarks prompting cheers Wednesday at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq. THE FACTS: He’s wrong about there being no pay increase for service members in more than 10 years and about their raise being especially large. U.S. military members have gotten a pay raise every year for decades. As well, several in the last 10 years have been larger than service members are getting now – 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2019. Raises in 2008, 2009 and 2010, for example, were all 3.4 percent or more. Pay increases shrank during the following years as the administration struggled with congressionally mandated budget caps. Trump, aided by congressional action, did reverse the subsequent six-year trend that began in 2011 of pay raises that hovered between 1 and 2 percent. In 2017, service members got a 2.1 percent raise. Trump has repeatedly told service members that they’re getting the biggest or only pay raise that they have received in 10 years or more. In May, for example, he told graduates of the United States Naval Academy: “We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years.” More: Trump defends signing MAGA hats for service members during visit to Iraq, Germany TRUMP: “You had plenty of people, they came up, they said, you know we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent, we could make it 2 percent, we could make it 4 percent. I said, ‘no, make it 10 percent – make it more than 10 percent.’” – remarks Wednesday at al-Asad base. THE FACTS: Whatever he might have said at the time, the 2.6 percent for 2019 obviously falls far short of the 10 percent or more that he implied was achieved. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report. EDITOR’S NOTE: A look at the veracity of claims by political figures. Read more AP Fact Checks or follow @APFactCheck on Twitter.[SEP]President Donald Trump has issued an executive order freezing pay for federal workers in 2019, blocking a 2.1 percent pay raise that was set to go into effect across the board in January. Friday's order comes as some 800,000 federal employees remain furloughed or working without pay due to the partial government shutdown that is expected to continue into the new year. The order, which overrides an automatic raise law, has been met with intense backlash from workers' advocates. 'This is just pouring salt into the wound,' Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union - which represents about 100,000 federal workers - said in a statement. 'It is shocking that federal employees are taking yet another financial hit. As if missed paychecks and working without pay were not enough, now they have been told that they don’t even deserve a modest pay increase.' President Donald Trump on Friday issued an executive order freezing pay for 2.1 million federal workers in 2019, blocking a 2.1 percent pay raise that was set to go into effect across the board in January (file photo). The move comes as some 800,000 workers remain furloughed or working without pay as a result of the partial government shutdown that began last week In addition to blocking the blanket raise, the order cancelled locality pay increases -paycheck adjustments made based on the region of the country where workers are posted. However, the move will not affect a scheduled 2.6 percent pay raise for American troops that was passed as part of the massive defense spending bill Trump signed this fall. Lawmakers could step in and include the scheduled raise in the 2019 spending bill, which is currently stalled over Trump's $5billion border wall demand. Trump has been advocating the freeze since February - part of his long-proposed plan to shrink the federal government. He announced his plan to scrap the 2019 pay increase in August, calling it 'inappropriate' in a letter to House and Senate leaders. 'We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases,' Trump wrote.[SEP](CNN) President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday freezing federal workers’ pay for 2019, following through on a proposal he announced earlier in the year. The move, which nixes a 2.1% across-the-board pay raise that was set to take effect in January, comes as hundreds of thousands of federal employees are expecting to begin the new year furloughed or working without pay because of a partial government shutdown. Trump told lawmakers he planned to scrap the 2019 pay bump for federal workers in August, saying the federal budget couldn’t support it. In addition to the 2.1% pay increase, the executive order also cancels a yearly adjustment of paychecks based on the region of the country where workers are posted, called the “locality pay increase,” that was due to take effect in January.[SEP]U.S. President Donald Trump has made good on a promise made earlier in the year and has frozen pay increases for federal workers, even as hundreds of thousands are left without paycheques due to a government shutdown. READ MORE: U.S. government shutdown likely to go into second week Trump signed an executive order Friday freezing pay for federal civilian workers in 2019. He had earlier said he would do so in August in a letter to Congress, saying the raise was “inappropriate.” “We must maintain efforts to put our nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases,” Trump said in August. “I view the increases that would otherwise take effect as inappropriate.” The order affects roughly two million civilian workers who would otherwise have received a 2.1 per cent increase in January. It also cancels an initiative that would have raised rates based on where the worker worked, which was scheduled to take effect in January. WATCH: Donald Trump tells troops in Iraq he won them first pay raise in 10 years The news comes as about 380,000 federal employees are on furlough and 420,000 are working without pay. “This is just pouring salt into the wound,” Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement. “It is shocking that federal employees are taking yet another financial hit.” The freeze does not affect the 2.6 per cent pay raise for U.S. troops that was part of a large defense spending bill Trump signed in August and will take effect next year. Trump recently boasted of the pay raise to the troops, though he said it would be a 10 per cent increase. READ MORE: Donald Trump told troops he won them first pay raise in 10 years — that’s not true There is still hope workers could receive a raise as part of a deal to end the government shutdown, if Congress approves it and it is signed by Trump.

U.S. President Donald Trump issues an executive order freezing federal workers' pay raise in 2019, excluding that of military personnel.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks. The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue. The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.[SEP]TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan’s 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. Ghasemi says they discussed “security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan.” He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks. The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue. The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.[SEP]Afghan Taliban hold talks with Iranian official in Tehran TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks. The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue. The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.[SEP]LONDON (Reuters) - Iran said Taliban representatives from Afghanistan negotiated with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday, as the Islamic Republic seeks to advance peace talks in the neighbouring country to curb the influence of other Islamist groups. The talks were held with the knowledge of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and were intended to set parameters for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Monday. “A Taliban delegation was in Tehran yesterday. They had comprehensive negotiations with the Iranian deputy foreign minister,” Bahram Qasemi said in a news conference broadcast live on state television. The Taliban, seeking to re-impose strict Islamic law in Afghanistan after their 2001 overthrow, say the presence of international forces there is the main obstacle to peace. Even as the peace process gathers momentum, fighting has continued with heavy casualties on both sides. Groups Bands of Islamic State fighters have been increasingly active in Afghanistan in recent years, clashing with both government and Taliban forces and alarming neighbouring nations. Taliban sources said this month that they had also negotiated with the U.S. officials over proposals for a six-month ceasefire in Afghanistan and a future withdrawal of foreign troops. Also in December, Afghan forces abandoned a remote western district bordering Iran, leaving the area to the Taliban after the government failed to resupply troops stationed there.[SEP]When in 1996, the Taliban proclaimed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after taking power in Kabul, Iran became a prominent regional supporter of the opposition Northern Alliance. Iran had long feared that the primarily ethnic-Pashtun and Sunni Muslim Taliban would treat culturally Persianate as well as Shi’a Muslim minorities in Afghanistan unfairly. Things became even more tense in respect of Iran-Taliban relations when in 1998, the Taliban government executed ten Iranian diplomats at Tehran’s consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif. At the time, it looked as though war might breakout between Iran and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the decades that have followed, Iran’s position regarding the rights of Shi’a Muslims and culturally Persianate peoples of Afghanistan has not changed, but what has changed are the goals, mentality and political policies of the Afghan Taliban. The Taliban of the 1990s was comprised of individuals who cut their teeth during the US backed Mujahideen war against Afghanistan’s fledgling post-Saur revolution regime. As such, the Taliban of the 1990s exhibited many extremist tendencies that were later encouraged by the presence of the mostly Arab terror group al-Qaeda under its then leader Osama bin Laden. Even prior to the fall of the first Taliban regime, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan distanced itself from bin Laden after the 9/11 terror atrocity in the United Sates. What is less remembered is that in October of 2001, in what appeared to be a face saving gesture, the Taliban had offered to hand bin Laden over to a third party (likely Pakistan) that would then extradite him to the United States so long as Washington could provide evidence of his role in the 9/11 attacks. Washington refused this offer and instead commenced with a bombing campaign and invasion of Afghanistan while bin Laden’s actual whereabouts fell conspicuously off the radar. While Iran’s relations with the US in 2001 were almost as bad as they are today, many in Tehran were happy to see the Taliban removed from power in neighbouring Afghanistan, even if this removal was achieved by US power. Today, the atmosphere is very different. The current generation of Afghan Taliban leadership is markedly different that of the 1990s. Today’s Taliban has proved that it is willing to work with a variety of international partners that it once considered enemies including both Iran and Russia. Furthermore, the Taliban’s domestic policies in the upwards of 50% of Afghan territory back under its control are notably more moderate than that which existed in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In a recent statement form Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, the group wished to convey a message that it has mended its ways when compared with that of the 1990s. Zabiullah Mujahid was quoted by Reuters as saying: It is this mentality that has helped to mend long strained Iran-Taliban relations. According to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi, Taliban representatives met with Iranian officials in Tehran to discuss a regional peace process against the background of China, Pakistan, Russia and Iran working ever more closely to help foster an all-parties peace process for Afghanistan. Just as alignments of the Cold War era have evaporated into thin air and have subsequently changed inexorably, the position of the Taliban both in a regional and domestic sense has changed since the 1990s. Far from just being a public relations move, if Iran – a country whose national ideology is as different from that of the old Taliban as one can get, is happy to sit at the peace table with the Afghan based group, self-evidently everything has changed.[SEP]Afghan Taliban hold talks with Iranian official in Tehran TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks. The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue. The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.[SEP]AT-KABUL: Iran—a state that has been accused of supporting the Taliban group, said that the Taliban representatives from Afghanistan negotiated with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday. The talks were held with the knowledge of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and were intended to set parameters for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Monday. “A Taliban delegation was in Tehran yesterday (Sunday). They had comprehensive negotiations with the Iranian deputy foreign minister,” Bahram Qasemi said in a news conference broadcast live on state television. Taliban landed in Tehran just days after its country’s top security leadership Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council visited Kabul, where he met with Afghan officials, and said they held talks with the Taliban to bring peace in Afghanistan. Moreover, at least two weeks ago, the US and Taliban as well as some regional countries representatives gathered in Abdu Dhabi to discuss a political settlement to end the long-standing conflict in Afghanistan. US said it would speed up peace talks with the Taliban group in a bid to convince them join the intra-Afghan dialogue. But, the Taliban group time and again dismissed meeting Afghan peace team that irked Kabul administration. During their meeting in United Arabia Emirates, the Taliban also held meetings with officials from the UAE, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but the militants refused to meet a delegation from Afghanistan.[SEP]Iran says a Taliban delegation held talks with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday. Speaking at a televised press conference on Monday, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that the talks were held with the knowledge of the Afghan government. “A Taliban delegation was in Tehran yesterday. They had comprehensive negotiations with the Iranian deputy foreign minister,” Qasemi said. According to the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, the main purpose of the talks was finding solutions to help facilitate talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. This comes after Taliban representatives met this month with the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation in Abu Dhabi where the two sides discussed the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. The armed group, meanwhile, has not made a comment about its visit to Tehran, the capital of Iran.[SEP]KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Taliban have rejected Kabul’s offer of talks next month in Saudi Arabia where the militants, fighting to restore strict Islamic law in Afghanistan, will meet U.S. officials to further peace efforts, a Taliban leader said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO: Taliban walk as they celebrate ceasefire in Ghanikhel district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan June 16, 2018. REUTERS/Parwiz Representatives from the Taliban, the United States and regional countries met this month in the United Arab Emirates for talks to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan. But the Taliban have refused to hold formal talks with the Western-backed Afghan government. “We will meet the U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia in January next year and we will start our talks that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi,” a member of the Taliban’s decision-making Leadership Council told Reuters. “However, we have made it clear to all the stakeholders that we will not talk to the Afghan government.” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said the leaders of the group would not talk to the Afghan government. The militants have insisted on first reaching an agreement with the United States, which the group sees as the main force in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have intensified after Taliban representatives started meeting U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad this year. Officials from the warring sides have met at least three times to discuss the withdrawal of international forces and a ceasefire in 2019. But the United States has insisted that any final settlement must be led by the Afghans. According to data from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission published in November, the government of President Ashraf Ghani has control or influence over 65 percent of the population but only 55.5 percent of Afghanistan’s 407 districts, less than at any time since 2001. The Taliban say they control 70 percent of the country. A close aide to Ghani said the government would keep trying to establish a direct line of diplomatic communication with the Taliban. “Talks should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned,” the aide said on condition of anonymity. “It is important that the Taliban acknowledge this fact.” U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a pullout of American troops from Syria, a decision that prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis, and there have been reports that he is considering a partial pullout from Afghanistan.[SEP]Afghan Taliban hold talks with Iranian official in Tehran TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks. The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue. The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.

The Taliban reject peace talks with the Afghan government.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Video footage has emerged showing a ball of flame where the helicopter crashed A rescue helicopter has crashed near the world's longest zipline in the UAE, killing its crew. The Agusta 139 helicopter was on a rescue mission at Jebel Jais, a mountain in the Ras al-Khaimah emirate, when it came down on Saturday. The country's National Search and Rescue Centre said four people had died. Video footage has emerged showing the helicopter in a tailspin and on fire on the mountainside. Local newspaper The National reports that it hit a cable before spiralling out of control. Tourism authorities told local media they could not comment on the matter while an investigation. ordered by Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, the ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, was ongoing. The National Search and Rescue Centre said pilots Saqr Saeed Mohamed Abdullah al-Yamahi and Hameed Mohamed Obaid al-Zaabi, were among the victims. Navigator Jasim Abdullah Ali Tunaiji and paramedic Mark Roxburgh also lost their lives. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Shocked witnesses saw the helicopter fall to earth Mr Roxburgh, a South African, is said to have described himself as a "single dad" to a young child on social media. "As long as I can remember my dad taught me about self-sacrifice in the service of those in need," he wrote on his Facebook profile. Social media were filled with tributes to the men as the news emerged, with many Emiratis offering condolences to loved ones. The world's longest zipline opened at Jebel Jais in February. Toroverde, which runs the 2.83km (1.76 mile-long) adventure experience, confirmed it was closed in a statement online. "Toroverde Ras al-Khaimah regrets to report that there has been a very serious incident on the mountain, and due to this incident, Jebel Jais Mountain Park and access road have been closed until further notice, in order to give the emergency services the access they need," the company said. "All the world's longest zipline's flights are cancelled until further notice and we will be in direct contact with all our customers by phone immediately."[SEP]By The Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A rescue helicopter crashed on Saturday near the world’s longest zipline, killing its entire crew in Ras al-Khaimah in the northeastern region of the United Arab Emirates. The National… DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A rescue helicopter crashed on Saturday near the world’s longest zipline, killing its entire crew in Ras al-Khaimah in the northeastern region of the United Arab Emirates. The National Search and Rescue Center said four crew members were onboard when the helicopter crashed. The Civil Aviation Authority said the Agusta 139 helicopter crashed during a rescue mission at around 5:50 p.m. local time on Saturday near the UAE’s highest mountain of Jebel Jais in Ras al-Khaimah. Videos posted online by stunned onlookers show the helicopter diving into a tailspin before crashing and bursting into flames in the valley of a rocky mountain Ras al-Khaimah’s ruler Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi ordered an immediate investigation into the crash, which occurred near the site of the world’s longest zip line measuring 2.83 kilometers (1.76 miles) long. The zipline opened in February as part of an effort by the smaller, lesser-known emirate of Ras al-Khaimah to attract more tourists and residents from neighboring emirates like Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.[SEP]DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A rescue helicopter has crashed near the world's longest zipline, killing its entire crew in Ras al-Khaimah in the northeastern area of the United Arab Emirates. The state-run WAM news agency says the crash took place during a rescue mission at around 5:50 p.m. local time on Saturday. Officials did not immediately release a death toll. Videos posted online show the helicopter diving into a tailspin before crashing and bursting into flames in the valley of a rocky mountain. Ras al-Khaimah's ruler Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi ordered an immediate investigation into the crash, which occurred near the site of the world's longest zip line measuring 2.83 kilometers (1.76 miles). The zipline, located at the UAE's highest mountain in Jebel Jais, opened in February.[SEP]DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A rescue helicopter crashed on Saturday near the world’s longest zipline, killing its entire crew in Ras al-Khaimah in the northeastern region of the United Arab Emirates. The National Search and Rescue Center said four crew members were onboard when the helicopter crashed. The Civil Aviation Authority said the Agusta 139 helicopter crashed during a rescue mission at around 5:50 p.m. local time on Saturday near the UAE’s highest mountain of Jebel Jais in Ras al-Khaimah. Videos posted online by stunned onlookers show the helicopter diving into a tailspin before crashing and bursting into flames in the valley of a rocky mountain Ras al-Khaimah’s ruler Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi ordered an immediate investigation into the crash, which occurred near the site of the world’s longest zip line measuring 2.83 kilometres (1.76 miles) long. The zipline opened in February as part of an effort by the smaller, lesser-known emirate of Ras al-Khaimah to attract more tourists and residents from neighbouring emirates like Abu Dhabi and Dubai.[SEP]Four dead after rescue helicopter 'clips world's longest zipline' in United Arab Emirates crash A rescue helicopter has crashed after clipping the world's longest zipline, killing its entire crew in Ras al-Khaimah in the north-eastern region of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to local media. The National Search and Rescue Centre said four crew members were onboard the helicopter when it crashed on Saturday on the UAE's highest mountain, Jebel Jais, which is 1,934 metres high at its peak. According to Arab News, the dead included three Emiratis and a fourth foreigner. The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the Agusta 139 helicopter crashed during a rescue mission about 5:50pm (local time). A top official told Gulf News the helicopter struck the world's longest zipline cable — which spans 2.83 kilometres — in the crash. The incident occurred before the helicopter reached the injured man it had set out to rescue. Footage posted online by stunned onlookers shows the helicopter diving into a tailspin before crashing and bursting into flames in the valley of Jebel Jais. Ras al-Khaimah's ruler, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, has ordered an immediate investigation into the incident. Arab News reported the ruler requested "a comprehensive investigation of the security and safety requirements in place to determine the cause of this painful incident". The Jebel Jais zipline opened in February as part of an effort by the smaller, lesser-known emirate of Ras al-Khaimah to attract more tourists and residents from neighbouring emirates including Abu Dhabi and Dubai.[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. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A rescue helicopter has crashed near the world’s longest zipline, killing its entire crew in Ras al-Khaimah in the northeastern area of the United Arab Emirates. The state-run WAM news agency says the crash took place during a rescue mission at around 5:50 p.m. local time on Saturday. Officials did not immediately release a death toll. Videos posted online show the helicopter diving into a tailspin before crashing and bursting into flames in the valley of a rocky mountain. Ras al-Khaimah’s ruler Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi ordered an immediate investigation into the crash, which occurred near the site of the world’s longest zip line measuring 2.83 kilometers (1.76 miles). The zipline, located at the UAE’s highest mountain in Jebel Jais, opened in February. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.[SEP]A rescue helicopter has crashed near the world’s longest zip line, killing its entire crew, in Ras al-Khaimah in the north-east of the United Arab Emirates. The state-run WAM news agency says the crash took place during a rescue mission at around 5.50pm local time on Saturday. Officials did not immediately release a death toll. Videos posted online show the helicopter diving into a tailspin before crashing and bursting into flames in the valley of a rocky mountain. Ras al-Khaimah’s ruler, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, ordered an immediate investigation into the crash. The zip line, the world’s longest at 2.83km, is located at the UAE’s highest mountain in Jebel Jais and opened in February.[SEP]Authorities in the United Arab Emirates said that a rescue helicopter crashed in Ras Al Khaimah on Saturday, killing all the crew members. The plane was on a rescue mission in the Jebel Jais mountainous area in Ras Al Khaimah, the country's General Civil Aviation Authority said. No details were given on the cause of the crash or the number of dead. The ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, ordered an investigation into the crash.[SEP]DUBAI: A rescue helicopter crashed on Saturday near the world’s longest zip line in the emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah, killing all crew members, the United Arab Emirates state news agency WAM said. Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, ruler of Ras Al-Khaimah, ordered an investigation into the incident that took place at 5:50 pm (1350 GMT). “The General Civil Aviation Authority announced the crash of an Agusta 139 helicopter during a rescue mission in Jebel Jais in Ras al-Khaimah,” said the report. The UAE’s National Search and Rescue Centre said there were four people on board. Videos posted online show the helicopter diving into a tailspin before crashing and bursting into flames in the valley of a rocky mountain. The UAE comprises the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain.[SEP]Four people have been killed after a rescue helicopter reportedly clipped a cable of the world's longest zip line in the UAE. Dramatic footage shows the doomed helicopter spinning out of control next to the Jebel Jais mountain in Ras Al-Khaimah before bursting into flames. The victims include three Emiratis and another man whose nationality has not yet been confirmed. According to local media, three bodies have been recovered and the search for the fourth crew member, a medic, is still underway. The men were on their way to rescue a person in the mountains but crashed before they reached them. Eyewitness Salam Naif told Khaleej Times: "The chopper went into a spin all of a sudden and then crashed into the mountain. It burst into a ball of fire." An official added: “The accident happened at 5:50pm on Saturday and the helicopter was on a mission to airlift an injured man from Jebel Jais. "The helicopter crashed before reaching the man.” An official at Saqr hospital confirmed to Gulf News that they received one injured man, an Indian, who sustained injuries while he was on Jebel Jais. Haitham Mattar, from the tourism development authority, told the publication: ”We learned of the helicopter accident on Jebel Jais Mountain and can assure everyone that there were no injuries to any of the public on Jebel Jais, our team or the facilities on the mountain." The RAK Tourism Development Authority also confirmed visitors were safe. A spokesman said: "The tragic chopper collision took place 50 minutes after the closure of the zipline." Meanwhile, the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said the chopper was a Agusta 139 helicopter. Ruler Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al-Qasimi has also ordered an urgent investigation into the crash. He also ordered "a comprehensive investigation of the security and safety requirements in place to determine the cause of this painful incident," WAM reported. The zip line on top of Jebel Jais mountain, the UAE’s highest peak, which the helicopter is thought to have crashed into is 2,800 metres - equivalent to 28 football fields. It officially opened in February and can reach speeds of 93mph.

A rescue helicopter crashes near the world's longest zipline in the United Arab Emirates, killing four people.