World

The Taliban’s bloody, 14-hour siege on a major hotel in Kabul ended on Sunday, after six assailants terrorized much of the city with explosions and gunfire.

 The exact number of casualties remained unclear, and the authorities said it might take days to determine the extent of the material damage. Najib Danish, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said that 14 foreigners and four Afghans had been killed in the attack, and that 10 others, including six members of the security forces, had been wounded. Local news outlets put the number of dead at 43.

 The siege capped a violent 24 hours across Afghanistan, where about 50 people were killed in four provinces as the 16-year war continues to spiral more violently, with no tangible signs of a resolution.

 A guest, Abdul Rauf, 48, said he had run through the halls of the hotel as an armed man was firing and had then taken cover in his room.

 “I don’t know if he was the police or a suicide attacker, but he was shooting,” he said by cellphone while hiding under the bed of his hotel room. “Two rooms were on fire and smoke came into my room. I couldn’t breathe until I broke a window with my chair.”

 The attack was the second in eight years at the 200-room Intercontinental Hotel, located on top of a hill. The Afghan carrier Kam Air said that six of its employees from Ukraine were killed, along with two from Venezuela.

 Source : The New York Times

The African group of ambassadors to the United Nations has demanded an apology from Donald Trump after the US president reportedly aimed a racist remark at some Caribbean nations and Africa.

Trump criticised immigration to his country from El Salvador, Haiti and the African continent, by calling the group "shithole countries" at a meeting with Congress members at the White House on Thursday, according to US media.

"The African Union mission to the UN is extremely appalled at, and strongly condemns the outrageous, racist and xenophobic remarks attributed to the US president as widely reported by the media," Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Ghana's ambassador to the UN, said on Friday.

The group has demanded a retraction and apology from Trump.

According to US media reports, citing people with knowledge of the conversation, Trump asked during a conversation about immigration: "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?"

Trump suggested the US should instead focus its immigrant entry policy on countries such as Norway.

Source : Al Jazeera

The U.S. government is shutting down as from Saturday as lawmakers failed to reach a deal to fund the government against the background of fierce partisan political fights.

After the immigration reform and budget talks fell apart, the Senate on Friday failed to pass a stopgap spending bill that would fund the government through Feb. 16. The bill was already approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The move forces the government to shut down as from Saturday as current spending measures expired on Friday midnight. The shutdown begins on the first anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration as president, a political blow to the Republican president.

Outlook uncertain

The initial impact of a shutdown may be muted, because most of the federal agencies are closed on the weekend.

White House Office of Management and Budget Director (OMB) Mick Mulvaney said at a press briefing on Friday that government employees, including those dealing with public safety and national security, will keep working but without pay.

After the Senate failed to pass the four-week short-term spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed to vote on a three-week bill that would fund the government through Feb. 8 in order to halt the shutdown.

It is still uncertain whether the proposal could draw enough votes to help the government resume operations.

The last government shutdown occurred in 2013 when Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to defund the Affordable Care Act. It lasted more than two weeks and led to more than 800,000 government employees receiving temporary unpaid leave.

Economic impact likely limited

"Partial federal government shutdowns have occurred in the past and this shutdown does not have a direct impact on the sovereign's 'AAA' /Stable rating," Fitch said in a statement on Friday.

As one of the top three world ratings agencies, Fitch said that if the the stabilization of the U.S. budget policy making and the brinkmanship continue over the federal debt limit debate in February, it could hurt the country's sovereign creditworthiness.

According to estimates by Goldman Sachs, each week of the shutdown would reduce gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter by 0.2 percentage point, while shutdowns tend to have modest effects on financial markets, as experience shows.

"With the debt limit deadline farther away, we would expect a muted initial reaction in financial markets to a shutdown," said Goldman Sachs.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, told local media that the good news is that business and consumer confidence is much stronger today than it was during the 2013 shutdown, but he pointed out that there could be less confidence due to the shutdown.

The economist also warned that if the lawmakers and the White House continue to play brinkmanship with the debt limit, the economy would face a problem.

Source : Xinhua

President Donald Trump expressed frustration behind closed doors with people coming to the US from "shithole countries," sources told CNN on Thursday.

One of the sources briefed on the Thursday Oval Office meeting with lawmakers confirmed Trump asked, "Why do we want all these people from 'shithole countries' coming here?"

US President Donald Trump calls Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries as “shithole countries”.

A person familiar with the meeting said Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham brought a plan to Trump that involved cutting the visa lottery in half and, at the behest of the Congressional Black Caucus, the rest would go to underrepresented countries in Africa and Temporary Protective Status nations, including Haiti. The person said the language was salty on both sides.

One person briefed on the meeting said when Durbin got to Haiti, Trump began to ask why we want people from Haiti and more Africans in the US and added that the US should get more people from countries like Norway.

A person familiar with what was said at the meeting told CNN that Trump also said: "Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out."

Trump was taping a message in the State Dining Room on Thursday afternoon for Martin Luther King Jr. Day as the story was breaking, an official said. Another official said Trump expressed to aides within the hour that the media was blowing his comment out of proportion.

The Washington Post first reported on Trump's comments in the Oval Office meeting, which the Post said "shocked" lawmakers in attendance.

Reached for comment about the article, White House spokesperson Raj Shah did not deny the "shithole" remark, but instead said in a statement that Trump "is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation."

(CNN)

Haitians will no longer be eligible for U.S. visas given to low-skilled workers, the Trump administration said on Wednesday, bringing an end to a small-scale effort to employ Haitians in the United States after a catastrophic 2010 earthquake.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the change less than a week after President Donald Trump reportedly questioned in an Oval Office meeting why the United States would want to take in immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to them as “shithole” countries. Trump has denied using that word.

DHS said in a regulatory filing that it was removing Haiti from lists of more than 80 countries whose citizens can be granted H-2A and H-2B visas, given to seasonal workers in agriculture and other industries.

It cited what it said were “high levels of fraud and abuse” by Haitians with the visas, and a “high rate of overstaying the terms” of their visas.

A DHS report published last year stated that Haitians on a variety of non-immigrant visas, including H-2As and H-2Bs, had a roughly 40 percent visa overstay rate in the 2016 fiscal year.

Belize and Samoa were also removed from the lists, for risks stemming from human trafficking and not taking back nationals ordered removed from the United States, respectively.

Just a few dozen Haitians entered the United States on the visas each year since they were given permission to do so in 2012 by the Obama administration, according to DHS data.

Sixty-five Haitians entered the United States on H-2A visas, given for agricultural work, in the 2016 fiscal year, according to DHS data, and 54 Haitians were granted H-2A visas by the State Department between March and November 2017. The number of Haitians entering in 2016 on H-2B visas, which are for non-agricultural seasonal work, was more than zero but too low to report, according to DHS.

Supporters of the visas say they gave Haitians a rare opportunity to work legally in the United States, contribute to the U.S. economy, and help fund the recovery of Haiti after the earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people.

Demonstrators hold up Haitian flags and shout as the motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump passes in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., January 15, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

“They’re just cutting off the most economically beneficial visa for the Haitian people,” said Sarah Williamson, founder of PTP Consulting, a Virginia-based consultancy that ran a pilot program to bring Haitians to the United States on the visas. “Even though not many people have been able to avail themselves of it, it’s been hugely transformational for those who have participated.”

The Haitian embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials in Haiti were not immediately available for comment.

(Reuters)

A mob angered over the recent rape and murder of an 8-year-old Pakistan girl attacked a police station and a nearby government building in eastern Punjab province on Wednesday, triggering clashes that left at least two people dead and several injured, police said.

The violence erupted in the city of Kasur hours before the funeral of Zainab Ansari, whose case has drawn wide public outrage.

The girl went missing last week while going to a nearby home for Quranic studies. Her parents, who were away on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia at the time, returned on Wednesday, landing at the Islamabad airport.

Zainab’s body was found on Tuesday in a garbage bin, senior police officer Imran Nawaz Khan said. Police say she was abducted, raped and murdered. Officer Maqsood Ahmed said six girls were sexually assaulted in recent months in Kasur and that police were probing whether there was a connection in the cases.

Activists on social media have condemned the government for failing to arrest those involved in the crime.

As the attack on the police station and the subsequent clashes unfolded Wednesday, local TVs broadcast footage showing police firing shots in the air and toward the stone-pelting mob, trying to disperse it. In one segment, an officer asks another to hold direct fire, after which the second officer is seen continuing to shoot at the protesters.

Also Wednesday, the Lahore High Court’s chief justice ordered a probe into Zainab’s killing.

Source : Global News

The world’s governments have spoken. Germany’s citizens are the travelers most welcome to cross their borders.

The Henley Passport Index, an annual ranking of passport power by the citizenship planning firm, came out today for 2018. Germany is at the top for the fifth year in a row, with visa-free or visa-upon-arrival access to 177 countries, up from 176 last year. (In February 2017, Belarus introduced a five-day visa-free visit available to citizens of 80 countries, including Germany.)

A separate ranking called Passport Index is published by the global financial advisory company Arton Capital, and is updated in real time. Last October, Passport Index briefly put Singapore at the top of the world’s power passports. According to its count, updated after Paraguay relaxed its visa requirements for Singapore, its citizens could access 159 countries with no application, meaning no visa would be required or a visa could be obtained upon arrival.

In December, Arton’s Passport Index put Germany back on top, consistent with Henley’s ranking.

For the most part, it has been a good year for travelers’ international access. Since last year, most countries have retained the same levels of access or gained some. Seven passports, though, lost visa-free access to one other country: Azerbaijan, New Zealand, Antigua and Barbuda, Algeria, Laos, North Korea, and Syria, according to Henley. The Georgian passport gained the most access of any country, with new visa-free access to 32 countries, including those of the Schengen zone.

Here’s Henley’s top 10 for the year 2018:

And here are the countries with the least freedom of movement, according to Henley:

Snow has fallen in the Sahara, covering desert dunes in a layer up to 40cm deep.

Snow started falling on the Algerian town of Ain Sefra in the early hours of Sunday morning, giving children an opportunity to race each other down the slopes. Rising temperatures meant it began to melt later in the day.

It is the third time in nearly 40 years the town, known as “The Gateway to the Desert”, has seen snowfall.

In 1979, a snowstorm lasting half an hour stopped traffic. Two years ago, snow settled for around a day, and the town saw snowfall again last year.Snow in the Sahara is “unusual but not unheard of”, a spokeswoman for the Met Office told The Independent.

 “It seems like the snowy pictures were taken across the higher areas in the north of the region, towards the Atlas regions, so it’s not surprising that the area would see some snow if the conditions were right.

“With the setup over Europe at the moment, which has given us cold weather over the weekend, a push southwards of cold air into that region and some sort of moisture would bring that snow.”

Ain Sefra, which was founded in 1881 as a French garrison town, sees average high temperatures of over 37C in summer and has seen record lows of -10.2C in winter.

Source : The Independent

U.S. President Donald Trump Sunday denied that he was a "racist," despite having pushed for tougher immigration policies.

"I'm not a racist. I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed, that I can tell you," Trump told reporters before a dinner with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Trump made the remark as the U.S. government is discussing the fate of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was introduced in 2012 to offer legal status to those foreigners who came to the United States as minors. Those enrolled in the program, about 800,000, are known as Dreamers.

Trump signed an executive order ending DACA, but last week a federal judge in California ruled that halting the program was unlawful and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services resumed accepting new applications on Saturday.

Trump has blamed the Democrats for refusing to negotiate a deal on DACA.

"We're ready, willing, and able to make a deal on DACA, but I don't think the Democrats want to make a deal. And the folks from DACA should know the Democrats are the ones that aren't going to make a deal," he said.

Source : Xinhua

Anxious family members awaited word on loved ones Wednesday as rescue crews searched grimy debris and ruins for more than a dozen people missing after mudslides in Southern California destroyed an estimated 100 houses, swept cars to the beach and left at least 17 victims dead.

"It's just waiting and not knowing, and the more I haven't heard from them — we have to find them," said Kelly Weimer, whose elderly parents' home was wrecked by the torrent of mud, trees and boulders that flowed down a fire-scarred mountain and slammed into the coastal town of Montecito in Santa Barbara County early Tuesday.

The drenching storm that triggered the disaster gave way to sunny skies, as hundreds of searchers carefully combed a messy landscape strewn with hazards.

"We've gotten multiple reports of rescuers falling through manholes that were covered with mud, swimming pools that were covered up with mud," said Anthony Buzzerio, a Los Angeles County fire battalion chief. "The mud is acting like a candy shell on ice cream. It's crusty on top but soft underneath, so we're having to be very careful."

Buzzerio led a team of 14 firefighters and six dogs in deep debris. They used long-handled tools to search the muck in the painstaking task.

Teams rescued three people Wednesday, but they also discovered two more bodies, raising the death count to 17, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. Seventeen people were reported missing.

A dozen people were hospitalized at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and four were in critical condition, Dr. Brett Wilson said.

"Most injuries we saw were related to fast-moving debris," Wilson said. "You can't even fathom what these poor patients went through to finally make their way to the emergency department."

The deluge destroyed 100 houses and damaged 300 others, Santa Barbara County authorities said. Eight commercial properties were destroyed and 20 damaged.

Source : The Chicago Tribune

An oil tanker burning in the East China Sea for more than a week has finally sunk, Chinese media say. The Sanchi and a cargo ship collided 260 km (160 miles) off Shanghai on 6 January, with the tanker then drifting south-east towards Japan.

Iranian officials now say all 32 crew members - 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis - on the tanker are dead. The tanker was carrying 136,000 tonnes of ultra-light crude but Chinese officials say there is no major slick. China Central Television said that the Sanchi had gone down after "suddenly igniting" around noon (04:00 GMT).

Some 13 vessels and an Iranian commando unit had been taking part in the salvage operation, amid bad weather. A spokesman for the Iranian team, Mohammad Rastad, said there was no hope of finding any survivors. On Saturday, salvage workers had boarded the vessel and found the bodies of two crew members in a lifeboat.

Only one other body had been found during the week of salvage operations. The rescue workers retrieved the ship's black box but had to leave quickly because of the toxic smoke and high temperatures.

The Panama-flagged Sanchi was bringing the condensate from Iran to South Korea when the collision with the Hong Kong-registered freighter CF Crystal, carrying grain from the US, happened in the East China Sea. The crewmen of the Crystal were all rescued.

The cause of the collision is still not known. After the collision, the Sanchi drifted at about 2.2km/h (1.4mph), south-eastwards towards the Japanese island of Amami Oshima. Condensate is very different from the black crude that is often seen in oil spills. It is toxic, low in density and considerably more explosive than regular crude. Condensate creates products such as jet fuel, petrol, diesel and heating fuel.

Source : BBC

The Supreme Court of India announced Monday that it would reconsider its 2013 ruling upholding Section 377, a colonial-era law criminalizing same-sex sexual relations. A promising sign, the Court also asked the government to respond to a petition from five LGBTQ people who said they live in fear of police because of their identities.

A protest against Section 377 in July, 2017. Getty Images

Section 377 prohibits “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman, or animal,” but the Court explained Monday, “What is natural to one may not be natural to others,” adding, “A section of people or individuals who exercise their choice should never remain in a state of fear.”

In 2009, the High Court of Delhi ruled against the law, but in 2013, the Supreme Court set aside that ruling, keeping the law in place. In addition to the advocacy and discussion that followed that setback, subsequent rulings in favor of transgender equality and, most recently, establishing privacy as a fundamental right have help set the stage for the Court to revisit the law.

Section 377 dates back to 1860 when Britain ruled India as a colony and comes with a punishment of up to 10 years in jail. For more than half the countries in the world that have such a sodomy law, British colonialism was the origin, and almost 70 percent of those British sodomy laws are still in effect. Prior to colonial imposition of Christian sexual values, India had a long history of culturally embracing the transgression of gender norms.

The law is not commonly enforced, but it is used to harass and blackmail gay people, who then cannot report the blackmail because they fear persecution under the law.