| Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea Posted: 20 Jan 2019 08:22 PM PST  BEIJING (AP) — A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves:
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| Mexico probes negligence in pipeline blast that killed 91 Posted: 21 Jan 2019 04:18 PM PST  Mexico has opened an investigation into what caused a deadly pipeline explosion, including possible negligence by authorities, the attorney general said Monday, as the death toll rose to 91 people. It is still unclear exactly how events unfolded leading up to the Friday blast, which occurred as hundreds of people rushed to collect fuel in buckets and jerrycans from a geyser of gasoline that was spouting from an illegal pipeline tap near the town of Tlahuelilpan, in the central state of Hidalgo. Attorney General Alejandro Gertz said investigators were trying to determine who tapped the pipeline -- whether locals acting alone or one of the criminal gangs that have turned fuel theft into a booming industry in Mexico.
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| Supreme Court lets mystery company file appeal under seal Posted: 22 Jan 2019 09:17 AM PST  The case has remained a high-profile mystery, with the Supreme Court and lower courts declining to identify the company, the country that owns it or the purpose of the subpoena. More details about the company's legal arguments were revealed in redacted court papers made public after the nine justices permitted it to move forward with its appeal to the high court under seal, a process that keeps many facts about the matter secret. The company is facing a daily fine of $50,000 imposed by a U.S. federal judge in Washington for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued in the unidentified investigation.
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| Covington Catholic could expel students who taunted Native American man in viral video Posted: 20 Jan 2019 01:59 PM PST  Covington Catholic said it would take appropriate action against its students seen in a video taunting a Native American man.
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| Meng Wanzhou: US to proceed with extradition of Huawei executive despite risk of angering China Posted: 21 Jan 2019 09:43 PM PST  The US will go ahead with formal extradition proceedings to bring the detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to America from Canada, it has been reported, despite the risk of increased trans-Pacific tensions. Canada's ambassador to the US, David MacNaughton, said in an interview on Monday that Washington had told Ottawa it will make the formal request, without going into detail on timing. Ms Meng was detained by Canada on 1 December at the request of the United States, meaning the deadline for filing the extradition request falls on 30 January – 60 days later.
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| Zimbabwe Says Tweet About Palace Coup Talk Was Fake Posted: 21 Jan 2019 05:02 AM PST  Bloomberg erroneously reported earlier that President Emmerson Mnangagwa's spokesman, George Charamba, dismissed rumors of a palace coup, citing a tweet from the account. Charamba does not have a Twitter account, Regis Chikowore, principal director at the information ministry, said by phone.
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| Meet the Women Who Protested the Women’s March Posted: 21 Jan 2019 09:28 AM PST  Women from various political and ideological backgrounds challenged the 2019 Women's March by marching in protest and organizing alternative rallies near the Washington, D.C. event on Saturday. The third annual Women's March took place in Freedom Plaza, a more confined space than in years past, suggesting that organizers anticipated smaller crowds after facing allegations of anti-Semitism and defending Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan. Following the development of those controversies, conservative group Independent Women's Forum (IWF) organized a rally across the street in the name of "all women" at the same time as the Women's March.
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| Total lunar eclipse woos sky watchers Posted: 20 Jan 2019 11:18 PM PST  An unusual set of celestial circumstances came together over Sunday night and the wee hours of Monday for sky watchers in Europe, Africa and the Americas, where the moon was fully obscured before lighting up again with a faint red glow. The eclipse lasted about three hours: during the first hour the full moon was gradually swallowed up by the shadow of the Earth, then an hour of total eclipse where it was not invisible but instead appeared tinted in hues of red, orange and pink, followed finally by its full reemergence, bright and shining. Other monikers include a "Wolf Moon," a traditional way of coining an eclipse in the month of January, and a "Blood Moon" because of its rusty, red color.
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| After the storm: Dangerous stretch of subzero AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures to grip northeastern US Posted: 20 Jan 2019 01:54 PM PST  A polar plunge of brutal cold has descended on the northeastern United States, which can threaten lives and complicate travel and cleanup efforts following the weekend snowstorm.
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| Where the investigations related to President Trump stand Posted: 21 Jan 2019 09:17 PM PST  A look at where the investigations related to President Donald Trump stand and what may lie ahead for him:
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| 4 Arizona Women Convicted for Leaving Water for Migrants Posted: 20 Jan 2019 09:46 AM PST  "If giving water to someone dying of thirst is illegal, what humanity is left in the law of this country?"
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| Missteps in Mexican pipeline blast trigger new scrutiny of fuel plan Posted: 20 Jan 2019 10:10 PM PST  State oil firm Pemex did not close the gasoline pipe when first notified by the military, about four hours before Friday's blast, because it considered the leak "minimal," Security Minister Alfonso Durazo told a news conference. In the hours that followed, the leak grew and as many as 800 people brought plastic containers to the gushing duct, filling up with free fuel in what witnesses described as an almost festive atmosphere. Relatives of some of the victims said fuel shortages stemming from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's plan attracted people to the leak at the Tula-Tuxpan pipeline, a few miles from a major refinery.
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| A century on, Basra's British-era shipyard going strong Posted: 22 Jan 2019 07:47 AM PST  Thousands of ships, including former dictator Saddam Hussein's yacht, have passed through the Iraqi shipyard's three docks, where a giant steam engine hauls them out of the water and up the century-old wooden tracks. Mohammed Adnan, who has been operating the huge steam engine for six years now, says it is not easy. "They say they [the British] brought in the wood from Burma... we tried to drill a 1.5 inch nail into it once, we couldn't," said Jassim Hussain Sabour, the shipyard's longest-serving worker.
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| Israel, US test ballistic missile interceptor Posted: 22 Jan 2019 03:50 AM PST  The Israeli and US defence ministries said Tuesday they had successfully tested ballistic missile interceptors deployed at Israeli airbases. The tests came a day after the latest deadly exchange of fire between Israel and Iranian forces operating in Syria. The Arrow 3 interceptor system, designed to shoot down missiles above the atmosphere, was deployed at air force bases across Israel two years ago.
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| WATCH LIVE: Kamala Harris speaks after announcing presidential run Posted: 21 Jan 2019 10:27 AM PST  Sen. Kamala Harris announced on ''Good Morning America'' that she is running for president in 2020.
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| Video shows Florida toddler walking towards police with hands up during her father's arrest Posted: 21 Jan 2019 10:02 AM PST  TPD said the toddler unexpectedly got out the pickup truck and imitated her parents, who were suspects, walking toward officers with her hands raised.
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| The Latest: New York City airport faces wind disruptions Posted: 21 Jan 2019 05:57 PM PST  The Latest on the winter storm hitting the East Coast (all times local):
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| The Trump Offer Posted: 21 Jan 2019 06:19 PM PST  President Trump offered Democrats an immigration deal over the weekend to end the government shutdown. It was a reasonable proposal to exchange a temporary amnesty for beneficiaries of DACA (the so-called Dreamers) and TPS (illegal immigrants who supposedly couldn't go home because of war or natural disasters) for $5.7 billion for border barriers, $800 million for humanitarian programs at the border, some changes in asylum rules, and more border agents and immigration judges. Nancy Pelosi rejected it out of hand, even before hearing his formal televised offer.
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| ‘Fox & Friends’ mistakenly airs Ruth Bader Ginsburg obituary graphic Posted: 21 Jan 2019 02:05 PM PST  The hosts of 'Fox & Friends' apologised on Monday after airing a graphic suggesting that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. "We need to apologise," co-host Steve Doocey said later on the program. "A technical error in the control room triggered a graphic of RBG with a date on it.
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| Russia opens civil cases against Facebook, Twitter - report Posted: 21 Jan 2019 01:54 AM PST  Russia's communication watchdog said on Monday it was opening administrative proceedings against Twitter and Facebook for failing to explain how they plan to comply with local data laws, the Interfax news agency reported. Roskomnadzor, the watchdog, was quoted as saying that Twitter and Facebook had not explained how and when they would comply with legislation that requires all servers used to store Russians' personal data to be located in Russia.
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| Car bomb hits Syria regime stronghold Latakia Posted: 22 Jan 2019 08:43 AM PST  A car bomb shook the Syrian regime's coastal stronghold of Latakia on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding more than a dozen others, state news agency SANA reported. According to SANA the bomb blast hit southern Damascus without causing any victims, but the Observatory reported it left a number of people dead and wounded.
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| America's F-35 Stealth Fighter: The Ultimate Missile Killer? Posted: 21 Jan 2019 08:00 PM PST  The Pentagon wants to add F-35 stealth fighters to America's missile shield. But to have any chance at shooting down ballistic missiles, the F-35 might need a new weapon.
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| Tucker: Covington students smeared by media Posted: 21 Jan 2019 05:22 PM PST  Viral video of interaction between Covington Catholic high school students and Native American Nathan Phillips leave out key details, media rushes to bash the students.
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| 'World will end in 12 years if we don't address climate change,' Ocasio-Cortez says Posted: 22 Jan 2019 07:06 AM PST  The youngest woman ever elected to Congress said climate change is her generation's World War II.
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| NFL to investigate report of laser on Brady at Kansas City Posted: 22 Jan 2019 07:11 AM PST  The NFL is "looking into" a report by a Kansas City TV station that a laser pointer was aimed at Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during Sunday's game.
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| Trump’s lawyer Giuliani says he listened to ‘all the tapes’, before admitting: ‘I shouldn’t have said tapes’ Posted: 22 Jan 2019 05:15 AM PST  Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani appeared to inadvertently reveal the existence of taped evidence relating to collusion between the president's campaign and Russia before immediately rowing back on his statement in a car-crash interview. Mr Giuliani has struggled in recent days to help clear up the situation surrounding claims in a BuzzFeed News report Mr Trump instructed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
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| Suicide bomber rams U.S.-backed forces at Syria checkpoint Posted: 21 Jan 2019 09:19 AM PST ![Suicide bomber rams U.S.-backed forces at Syria checkpoint]( "Suicide bomber rams U.S.-backed forces at Syria checkpoint") A suicide bomber drove his car into a checkpoint in northeastern Syria on Monday, injuring several soldiers of Kurdish-led forces during a joint convoy with U.S. allies, locals said. The attack happened on the western edge of Shadadi town in Hasaka province near a route frequented by the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State, residents and sources said. In a tweet, the coalition said a convoy with allied Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was involved in an attack, but there were no American casualties.
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| AFP to cut 95 jobs, CEO says, scaling back initial 125 target Posted: 21 Jan 2019 05:40 PM PST  Agence France-Presse will cut 95 jobs over the next five years, 30 fewer than announced in October, without affecting targeted savings, CEO Fabrice Fries said Monday. Presenting a revised version of his "transformation plan" to employee representatives, Fries said the company would still save 14 million euros ($15.9 million) on wage costs and five million euros on other expenses by 2023. To achieve this, management will convert 15 of the current 175 expatriate postings into local jobs and realise savings through replacing senior employees with younger ones.
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| The Chevrolet Silverado Four-Cylinder Gets Worse Fuel Economy Than the V-8 in Our Test Posted: 22 Jan 2019 06:00 AM PST  Here's more proof that downsizing and turbocharging have their limits.
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| Tourist killed by falling window from Hong Kong hotel Posted: 21 Jan 2019 09:15 PM PST  A hotel employee arrested after a window she was cleaning fell onto a busy Hong Kong street and killed a tourist was released on bail Tuesday as investigators try to work out what caused the fatal tragedy. Police said a 24-year-old female tourist from the Chinese mainland was struck by the window which fell from the 16th floor of the Mira Hotel in the busy Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district on Monday. The accident sparked alarm that a window could possibly fall from the outside of a modern hotel building in a city stacked with skyscrapers.
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| Open letter to Xi demands China release detained Canadians Posted: 21 Jan 2019 08:03 PM PST  A group of 143 former diplomats and scholars from 19 countries have penned an open letter to Xi Jinping, China's president, demanding Beijing to "immediately release" two Canadians detained in China. Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a prominent consultant on North Korean business issues, have been held for six weeks in Beijing. In their respective roles, the two frequently met with Chinese officials, researchers and scholars, the letter noted. The "detentions send a message that this kind of constructive work is unwelcome and even risky in China," the letter said. "That will lead to less dialogue and greater distrust, and undermine efforts to manage disagreements and identify common ground. Both China and the rest of the world will be worse off as a result." The pair disappeared as tensions escalated between Canada and China after Meng Wanzhou, a top executive from Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, was arrested in December in Vancouver on a US extradition request related to Iran sanctions violations. Although Beijing has denied any link between the detentions and Ms Meng, 46, the two men were seized shortly after China threatened "serious consequences" over her case. Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou arrives at a parole office with a security guard in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018 Credit: Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press Last week, China handed down a death sentence to a Canadian citizen on drug trafficking charges in a rushed retrial that experts say is another example of Beijing acting in retaliation for Meng, and further efforts to pressure Ottawa in a diplomatic row that has now lasted weeks. A spate of British diplomats and politicians have signed the letter, including former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former Ambassador to China Sir Christopher Hum, and Member of Parliament Lord David Alton. Signatories also included Gareth Evans, the former foreign minister of Australia, two US deputy assistant secretaries of state, former ambassadors to China from Canada, the US, Australia, Germany, Sweden, and Mexico, and scholars Orville Schell of the Asia Society, Minxin Pei, a professor and expert on Chinese politics at Claremont McKenna College, and Bonnie Glaser, senior advisor for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US think tank. Meng is currently under house arrest as her case remains pending. Kovrig and Spavor have been allowed a handful of consular visits in detention.
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| Suspect arrested in beating of 88-year-old woman in San Francisco's Visitacion Valley Posted: 21 Jan 2019 10:48 AM PST  San Francisco police have arrested an 18-year-old suspect in the brutal beating of an 88-year-old great-grandmother in the city's Visitacion Valley neighborhood.
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| Stealth Shocker: China Claims It Can Track Air Force F-22 Raptors Posted: 20 Jan 2019 08:00 PM PST  No more stealth?
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| Taliban say they hold talks with U.S. Afghan envoy in Qatar Posted: 21 Jan 2019 06:41 AM PST ![Taliban say they hold talks with U.S. Afghan envoy in Qatar]( "Taliban say they hold talks with U.S. Afghan envoy in Qatar") KABUL/PESHAWAR,Pakistan (Reuters) - The Taliban met U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar on Monday, the militant group said, days after threatening to pull out of Afghan peace talks and hours after Taliban fighters killed more than 100 members of the Afghan security forces. "Talks between Taliban leaders and U.S. officials have started today in Qatar," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement.
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| 'Welcome' refugees in Kansas celebrate their American birthdays Posted: 21 Jan 2019 09:21 PM PST  Many of nearly 100 excited children running around a community center in Kansas City over the weekend had two things in common. Far from a strange coincidence, the date is usually assigned to immigrants who arrive in the United States without birth certificates, as refugees often do.
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| Martin Luther King Jr Day 2019: 50 quotes from the civil rights leader who inspired a nation Posted: 21 Jan 2019 08:03 AM PST  Play it real pretty", are said to be the last words of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, just before he stepped out onto a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee where a gunman shot him a single time, ending his life half a century ago. On Monday, the nation will celebrate his life and his birthday for Martin Luther King Jr Day, which occurs each year on the third Monday of January even though his actual birthday was on the 15th. Before King made that plea for the sounds of beauty to Ben Branch, a musician scheduled to play at a planned event that evening in Memphis, he was known for using his words to inspire a generation to peaceful action in the fight for civil rights.
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| Enbridge gas pipeline explosion causes fireball in Ohio Posted: 21 Jan 2019 04:26 PM PST ![Enbridge gas pipeline explosion causes fireball in Ohio]( "Enbridge gas pipeline explosion causes fireball in Ohio") (Reuters) - An explosion of an Enbridge Inc natural gas pipeline in Ohio on Monday created a fireball of flame and damaged homes, prompting the evacuation of nearby residents.
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| Deep freeze grips eastern United States, 12-year-old dies in Chicago Posted: 21 Jan 2019 07:44 AM PST  Temperatures fell to single-digits Fahrenheit (about -20 C) from New York City to Boston and through northern New England and froze melting snow late on Sunday and early Monday, said Marc Chenard at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. "Boston will be just 3 degrees (Fahrenheit) this morning, with wind chills of minus 12 or more," he said. "New York City and D.C. will be in that same range, maybe hitting the teens later today.
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| Romania president: plan to invalidate graft cases not legal Posted: 22 Jan 2019 06:44 AM PST ![Romania president: plan to invalidate graft cases not legal]( "Romania president: plan to invalidate graft cases not legal") BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania's president said on Tuesday that a government decree that could invalidate hundreds of corruption cases involving senior officials is "crassly unconstitutional," a development that also prompted concern from the European Union.
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| Staff fraud may cost China's DJI drone maker $150 million Posted: 21 Jan 2019 02:51 AM PST  Chinese drone maker DJI has placed 45 employees under investigation for alleged fraud that could cost the company more than one billion yuan ($150 million) in losses, the firm said Monday. The world's top civilian drone maker said in an internal memo that most of the employees involved in the fraud worked in the supply chain, and 29 were fired while 16 were reported to the police. The case is expected to involve more than 100 people and many people will be facing a sentence in jail, according to Friday's memo, whose authenticity was confirmed by a company spokeswoman on Monday.
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| May’s Brexit Plan B Still Keeps Her Dependent on Opposition Votes Posted: 21 Jan 2019 09:00 PM PST  May lost the vote on her Brexit deal last week 432-202, with 118 largely Euroskeptic Conservative lawmakers and all 10 members of the Democratic Unionist Party -- who are supposed to be her allies -- opposing her. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has expressed more interest in another election than in saving May's Brexit deal, which makes it risky for the prime minister to try to win his party's support.
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| Israeli shelling kills Gaza militant after officer wounded Posted: 22 Jan 2019 09:01 AM PST ![Israeli shelling kills Gaza militant after officer wounded]( "Israeli shelling kills Gaza militant after officer wounded") GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed a Palestinian militant and wounded four others shortly after an Israeli soldier was shot on the border of the coastal enclave, authorities said. The violence escalated tensions at a sensitive time for both Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel.
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