World

At least 73 people have died and more than 60 are missing in flash floods in Indonesia's eastern province of Papua. Rescue workers are struggling to reach remote parts of the province, and there are fears the number of dead may rise. Roads have been blocked by landslides and fallen trees, and floodwaters have damaged two bridges and more than 100 houses.

More than 4,000 people have been forced from their homes, and some are sheltering in government offices. Local residents said torrential rain began on Saturday evening and continued into the night, triggering mudslides and flash floods.

The search for victims continues in the town of Sentani, one of the worst affected areas. At least 51 people were killed in the town, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told Reuters news agency. Another seven confirmed deaths were in the nearby provincial capital Jayapura, Mr Nugroho added.

However, a five-month-old baby was rescued in the city after being trapped under the rubble for hours, according to the military. The baby was later reunited with his family. His father survived but his mother's whereabouts is unknown. (BBC)

US President Donald Trump has announced in his State of the Union speech that he will hold a second nuclear summit with North Korea's leader this month.

The president said on Tuesday night that he would meet Kim Jong-un in Vietnam from 27-28 February.

Plans for a second summit have been in the works since the two leaders' historic talks last year. Trump and Kim's meeting last June in Singapore was the first ever between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.

On Tuesday night, Trump said: "Our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped, and there has not been a missile launch in 15 months.

"If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea. "Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong-un is a good one."

There are "multiple fatalities" after shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, police in New Zealand have confirmed.Three men and one woman are in custody, police commissioner Mike Bush told a news conference.

Witnesses told local media they ran for their lives, and saw people bleeding on the ground outside the Al Noor mosque.Authorities advised all mosques to shut down until further notice. All Christchurch schools are on lockdown.

In a statement to the nation, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said details were not yet clear, "but I can tell you now - this will be one of New Zealand's darkest days". It is not yet known how many shooters there were, but the Herald reports that one gunman is believed to be an Australian who has written a manifesto outlining his intentions. In it, he espouses far-right ideology and anti-immigrant ideology.

Unverified footage purportedly taken by the shooter has emerged, suggesting he filmed as he shot victims. Police called on the public not to share the "extremely distressing" material online.

A spokeswoman said Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) has activated its mass casualty plan, according to New Zealand news site Stuff.co.nz.The plan includes clearing emergency room space for casualties. The spokeswoman did not comment on how many patients were expected.Police earlier cleared Cathedral Square, where thousands of children were holding a rally for action on climate change.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush said: "Police are responding with its full capability to manage the situation, but the risk environment remains extremely high. 

As well as the numerous witness reports of casualties, the Bangladesh national cricket team appear to have narrowly escaped the shooting.

A reporter following the team, who were due to play New Zealand in a now-cancelled test match on Saturday, tweeted that the team had "escaped from a mosque near Hagley Park where there were active shooters". Player Tamim Iqbal tweeted that the "entire team got saved from active shooters".

Bangladesh Cricket Board spokesman Jalal Yunus said most of the team had gone to mosque by bus and were about to go inside when the incident took place."They are safe. But they are mentally shocked. We have asked the team to stay confined in the hotel," he told the AFP news agency. (BBC)

Two bombs at a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines have killed 27 people and injured dozens more, local officials say. The first blast happened as Sunday Mass was being celebrated at the church on Jolo island, where Islamist militants are active. As soldiers responded, a second device was detonated in the car park.

The attack comes days after a majority-Muslim area in the region voted for greater autonomy in a referendum. No group has so far said it was behind the attack. Jolo has long been a base for militants including those of the Abu Sayyaf group. The local officials say the first blast happened at 08:45 local time (00:45 GMT) inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past.

The second explosion was shortly afterwards on the doorstep of the church. Most of the victims are civilians.

Images posted on social media showed the main road leading to the church sealed off by soldiers in armoured personnel carriers. Some of the wounded were evacuated by air to the nearby city of Zamboanga.

Calling the attack a "dastardly act", Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana urged the local population to work with the authorities to "deny terrorism any victory". "We will use the full force of the law to bring to justice the perpetrators behind this incident."

In last week's referendum, voters approved the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in majority-Muslim areas of southern Philippines. But voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it. The referendum was the result of a peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The authorities have previously expressed hopes that the vote could be a political solution to try to end decades of fighting between Islamist separatists and the Philippine army in the predominantly Catholic country. (BBC)

Italian children have been told not to turn up to school unless they can prove they have been properly vaccinated. The deadline follows months of national debate over compulsory vaccination.

Parents risk being fined up to €500 (£425; $560) if they send their unvaccinated children to school. Children under six can be turned away.

The new law came amid a surge in measles cases - but Italian officials say vaccination rates have improved since it was introduced.

Under Italy's so-called Lorenzin law - named after the former health minister who introduced it - children must receive a range of mandatory immunisations before attending school. They include vaccinations for chickenpox, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella.

Children up to the age of six years will be excluded from nursery and kindergarten without proof of vaccination under the new rules. Those aged between six and 16 cannot be banned from attending school, but their parents face fines if they do not complete the mandatory course of immunisations.

The deadline for certification was due to be 10 March after a previous delay - but as it fell on a weekend, it was extended to Monday.
"Now everyone has had time to catch up," Health Minister Giulia Grillo told La Repubblica newspaper.

She had reportedly resisted political pressure from deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini to extend the deadline even further.
Ms. Grillo said the rules were now simple: "No vaccine, no school".

Italian media report that regional authorities are handling the situation in a number of different ways. In Bologna, the local authority has sent letters of suspension to the parents of some 300 children, and a total of 5,000 children do not have their vaccine documentation up to date.

In other areas there have been no reported cases, while still others have been given a grace period of a few days beyond the deadline.

Is the law having an effect?The new law was passed to raise Italy's plummeting vaccination rates from below 80% to the World Health Organisation's 95% target.

On Monday - the last day for parents to provide documentation proving their children had been properly vaccinated - the Italian health authority released figures claiming a national immunisation rate at or very close to 95% for children born in 2015, depending on which vaccine was being discussed.

The 95% threshold is the point at which "herd immunity" kicks in - when enough of the population is vaccinated for the spread of the disease to become unlikely, thereby protecting those who cannot be vaccinated.

That includes babies too young to be vaccinated themselves, or those with medical conditions such as a compromised immune system.
Last month, an eight-year-old recovering from cancer was unable to attend school in Rome due to his weak immune system.

The child had spent months receiving treatment for leukaemia, but was at risk of infection because a proportion of pupils in the school had not been vaccinated - including several in the same class.

Demonstrations against compulsory vaccination were held in Rome, 2017. Getty Images 

The Lorenzin law, drafted by the previous government, had a tumultuous birth. When the current coalition came to power, it said it would drop mandatory immunisations although it later reversed its position.

The two populist parties in power had faced accusations that they were pursuing anti-vaccination policies.

Writing in a Facebook post on Monday, Ms Grillo admitted it "is a law that, at the time of approval, we criticised for several reasons" - and said that the law would be changed to include only those vaccinations that were necessary based on scientific data.

Why do parents not immunise their children?

The anti-vaccination movement has been growing globally in recent years, sparking alarm from the World Health Organization.

A long-discredited paper by Andrew Wakefield was behind much of the scare, but rumours around immunisation have continued to spread, leading to public health risks as not enough people are immune to such diseases.

Mr. Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register after fraudulently claiming there was a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) and autism and bowel disease in children.

He made the claim based on the experiences of just 12 children, and no other study since has been able to replicate his results.

China is expected to top the U.S. as the world’s largest retail market this year, a new report says, underscoring the Asian country’s growing middle class and shift to a consumer-driven economy.

Retail sales in China are forecast to grow 7.5 percent to $5.6 trillion in 2019, according to eMarketer’s worldwide retail and e-commerce forecast. Meanwhile, U.S. retail sales are projected to increase 3.3 percent to $5.5 trillion. While growth is slowing for both countries, China is expected to outpace the U.S. through 2022, the report says.

“In recent years, consumers in China have experienced rising incomes, catapulting millions into the new middle class,” says Monica Peart, senior forecasting director at eMarketer.

China is already the world’s leader in e-commerce sales, with 35.3 percent of the country’s retail sales set to take place online this year, eMarketer estimates, compared to 10.9 percent in the U.S. China’s ecommerce sales are projected to grow 30 percent to $1.9 trillion in 2019.

By the end of the year, China will comprise 55.8 percent of the world’s online retail sales, the report says.

Shoppers outside Apple's store in Nanjing, China. Will the crowds thin out? (Photo: Apple)

While Alibaba will account for 53.3 percent of China's ecommerce sales this year, its share has been declining as smaller players like social commerce platform Pinduoduogrow, eMarketer says.For the past decade or so, the Chinese government has been trying to shift the underpinnings of the country’s economy from factory exports and commercial and residential investment to consumption.

 “It has really picked up in the last three to five years,” Peart says, a trend highlighted by China's expected rise to .

Millions of Chinese workers have moved from rural to urban areas and realized significant wage increases.

The U.S., however, still far outpaces China in per capita retail spending annually, with projected 2019 sales of $16,661 in the U.S. and $4,056 in China, the study says.

Several airlines have grounded Boeing 737 Max 8 jets following a deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash.The flight crashed minutes after takeoff on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.It was the second disaster in five months involving a Boeing 737 Max 8.

Aviation regulators in China and Indonesia have suspended flights using that model. Ethiopian Airlines, Cayman Airways and Comair, have also grounded their 737 Max 8 aircraft.

Boeing shares fell 13% in early trading on Wall Street, but then recovered some of those losses.While experts warn it is too early to say what caused the Ethiopian Airlines disaster, it comes after the same model crashed in a flight operated by Lion Air in October. The plane lost altitude soon after takeoff, killing 189 people on board.

"Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737 Max 8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity," the Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a statement.

The Chinese regulator ordered local carriers to ground all 737 Max 8 flights by 18:00 local time (10:00 GMT). Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Kunming Airlines, and China Southern Airlines are among the carriers affected. More than 90 Boeing 737 Max 8 models are in use in mainland China.

The Indonesian Transport Ministry said inspections would begin on 12 March of one Garuda Indonesia plane and 10 operated by Lion Air.

Planes would be grounded until cleared by safety regulator. Shares in French aerospace group Safran, which makes the engines for the 737, fell on Monday.

The aircraft is relatively new to the skies, having only been in commercial use since 2017. Boeing said it was "deeply saddened" by the crash and is sending a team to provide technical assistance to the investigation.

The investigation will be led by Ethiopian authorities co-ordinating with teams of experts from Boeing and the US National Transportation Safety Board.

The Indian government said it was discussing the situation with local regulators. Jet Airways and SpiceJet - neither of which made any comment - both use the aircraft.

Comair, which has the franchise for British Airways in South Africa, said it was removing its 737 Max from its schedule while it "consults with other operators, Boeing and technical experts".

According to Boeing's website, 16 airlines have taken delivery of the 737 Max 8. 

TUI Group has 15 in its fleet and said it is in close contact with the manufacturer, but has no plans to take them out of service. It is the only airline to have any such planes registered with the UK's Civil Aviation Authority.

A spokesperson for Flydubai told Reuters the carrier is "monitoring the situation". Norwegian Airlines, which has 18 in its fleet largely flying between Ireland the US, is continuing to use the planes.

Its director of flight operations said the airline will follow any recommendations from Boeing and aviation authorities. It has three - including one from London Gatwick to Helsinki - in use today.

Singapore's SilkAir said it was in contact with Boeing and all its flights using 737 Max 8 aircraft - of which it has six - are operating as normal, while Air Italy is also operating its planes as normal.

Several North American airlines also operate the aircraft and have said they are monitoring the investigation.Southwest Airlines flies 34 of the aircraft and said it had been in contact with Boeing and was operating as normal. American Airlines and Air Canada each have 24 in their fleet. (BBC)

Former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto accepted a $100m (£77m) bribe from drug cartel kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, a witness has testified.

Alex Cifuentes, who says he was a close associate of Guzmán for years, told a New York City courtroom that he had told authorities of the bribe in 2016.

Guzmán is accused of being behind the Sinaloa drug cartel, which prosecutors say was the largest US drug supplier.

Former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto (L) and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán (R)/ Getty

Mr Peña Nieto served as the president of Mexico from 2012 to 2018.

Guzmán, 61, has been on trial in Brooklyn since November after he was extradited from Mexico to face charges of trafficking cocaine, heroin and other drugs as leader of what the US has called the world's largest drug cartel.

"El Chapo" (right) is the highest-ranking alleged drug lord to face trial in the US so far/Reuters

According to reporters in the Brooklyn courthouse, Mr Peña Nieto had requested $250m before settling on $100m.

Cifuentes claimed the delivery was made to Mexico City in October 2012 by a friend of El Chapo.

Cifuentes, a Colombian drug lord who has described himself as El Chapo's "right-hand man", worked as his secretary and spent two years hiding from authorities with him in the Mexican mountains, according to prosecutors.

He was arrested in Mexico in 2013 and was later extradited to the United States where he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in a deal with prosecutors.

Mr Peña Nieto has not responded to the latest claim, but has previously rejected allegations of corruption that have surfaced during the trial since it began in November.
________________________________________________________________________________________

A high-stakes case

Analysis by Tara McKelvey, BBC News, Brooklyn

The trial in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn is a security circus - with guards everywhere and metal detectors set up in different areas of the building, leading to the courtroom on the eighth floor.

Outside of the building, part of the street is blocked off. The trial itself has offered macabre details about assassinations carried out by drug traffickers and stunning allegations about state officials.

After the a former top lieutenant for El Chapo testified of an alleged bribe to the former Mexican president, reporters rushed out of the courtroom, heading to file their stories.

It's hard to know what to believe when former drug traffickers testify, but one thing is clear: the tight security makes sense in a place where the stakes are so high.

Guzmán's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, has argued that the real leader of the Sinaloa cartel is Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

He claims Mr Zambada has survived prosecution by bribing the "entire" Mexican government, including Mr Peña Nieto and former president Felipe Calderón.

President Peña Nieto and Mr Calderón immediately rejected the accusation, with the latter calling it "absolutely false and reckless".
In November another cartel member testified that an aide to current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was allegedly paid a bribe in 2005.

Cifuentes testified earlier on Friday that El Chapo had ordered a $10m bribe be paid to a general, but later decided to have him killed instead. The hit was never carried out.

(BBC)

Thailand's top court has dissolved an opposition party that nominated the king's sister as its candidate for prime minister.

Thai Raksa Chart is backed by exiled ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed by a military coup in 2006.

Analysts say dissolving the party will make it harder for Mr Thaksin's supporters to win the national election due later this month.

Thailand is run by the military, which took over in a coup five years ago.

The Constitutional Court, which issued Thursday's ruling, said Princess Ubolratana's nomination threatened the neutrality of the monarchy.

The party's executive board members have been banned from politics for 10 years, and it can no longer contest the election.

"The monarchy is above politics, and to maintain political neutrality, the king, the queen and princesses can never exercise political rights by casting votes," Judge Nakharin Mektrairat said at the end of an extensive ruling.

A royal candidate would have given forces loyal to Mr Thaksin a decisive advantage in this month's election, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

Thursday's move will rob the pro-Thaksin camp of enough parliamentary seats to put its goal of winning a majority in the election almost certainly out of reach, our correspondent adds.

Thai Raksa Chart was seen largely as a proxy for Pheu Thai, the main pro-Thaksin party, to get more seats, analysts say.

A new 2017 constitution introduced a rule that there would be a ceiling on how many seats each party could win.

The 24 March vote will be the first since the current Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, took power in a 2014 military coup - overthrowing the democratically elected government. (BBC)

Saudi Arabia has banned the marriage of minors following a ruling by the Kingdom’s Shoura Council, according to a statement issued by the council on its website.

The council’s speaker Abdullah Al-Sheikh approved the law that called for banning of marriage of all minors, male or female, at a recent session of the council.

The ruling also received the support of two thirds of the council.

After the decision Shoura Council member Latifa Al-Shaalan Tweeted her approval of the council's decision, calling it “a good step forward that was not easy to reach.”

At least 17 people have died in a Delhi hotel fire that broke out early on Tuesday morning, police said. Eyewitnesses said the dead included a woman and a child who attempted to jump from a window to safety.

Officials said 35 people were rescued. Some were injured and have been taken to the hospital. Hotel Arpit Palace is located in Karol Bagh, an area popular with tourists for its budget hotels and shopping.

Videos recorded by eyewitnesses show people jumping from the building - in one of them, a man can be seen hanging on to the side of the building before he jumps off.

"There was wooden panelling in the corridor, because of which people couldn't use the corridors to leave the hotel," firefighter Vipin Kenta told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

He said they were still investigating what caused the fire. Local media reported that most of the deaths were caused by suffocation. Fire accidents are not uncommon in Indian cities, where builders often flout safety regulations.

Many structures, both old and new, lack proper fire exits. In recent months, officials have shut down a number of shops and restaurants in some of Delhi's most exclusive neighbourhoods for not following fire safety measures.

Owners of commercial buildings have also been known to construct additional floors without the necessary permissions.

Delhi minister Satyendra Jain told the NDTV news website that the Arpit Palace had built the fifth floor with a kitchen and a terrace, even though the owners only had permission to build four storeys. (BBC)

A ban on kosher and halal slaughter has come into effect in the Flanders region of Belgium unless the animal is stunned before it is killed. 

It comes after legislation prohibiting animal slaughter without pre-stunning was passed in the nation's parliament in July 2017. 

The northern region of Flanders is the first in Belgium to implement the ban, with the legislation coming into effect on New Year's Day.

Similar restrictions will be in place in the southern Wallonia region from September.

The law was branded the "greatest assault on Jewish religious rights in Belgium since the Nazi occupation" by the European Jewish Congress in May 2017, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

Both the Muslim halal and Jewish kosher rituals require that the animal is butchered by slitting its throat and draining the blood. 

Under the new law, animals will have to be stunned electrically before being killed.

Belgium's Muslim and Jewish communities have expressed opposition to the law, with several religious organisations filing lawsuits to stop the new legislation, MailOnline reported. 

These include the Belgian Federation of Jewish Organisations, the European Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress.
It is hoped the lawsuits might still light the ban later this year.

Countries including Denmark, Switzerland and New Zealand already prohibit unstunned slaughter.

(Evening Standard)