Israel struck a Hamas site in the Gaza Strip late Tuesday after a day of border unrest that left a Palestinian militant dead and an Israeli soldier wounded, while also further delaying an aid transfer.
The incidents signalled a rise in tensions after weeks of relative calm thanks to an informal truce between Israel and Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli official said a transfer of cash from Qatar to Gaza via Israel as part of the truce would not occur on Wednesday because of the violence.
In the first exchange of fire, an Israeli tank hit two Hamas observation points in the northern Gaza Strip after shots were fired at its soldiers near the border fence, Israeli and Hamas officials said. No one was injured.
Later in the day, Israeli tank shelling killed a Hamas militant along the border in central Gaza as Israel responded to gunfire that wounded one of its soldiers, officials said.
Mohammed al-Nabaheen, 24, was killed by tank fire while four other people ...

Israel strikes Hamas camp after border unrest, aid blocked

PTI Automatic

Venezuela's vice president accused her US counterpart of "openly calling for a coup d'etat" ahead of a mass street protest announced by the opposition for Wednesday.
"Yankee go home! We won't let them interfere in the affairs of the homeland," Delcy Rodriguez said in televised remarks.
Her comments came in reaction to American Vice President Mike Pence, who had earlier posted a video on Twitter in which he branded Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro "a dictator with no legitimate claim to power."
"As the good people of Venezuela make your voices heard tomorrow, on behalf of the American people, we say: estamos con ustedes. We are with you," Pence tweeted.
Venezuela's Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez accused Pence of having ordered "terrorists" to carry out acts of violence during Wednesday's protest.
The row came 24 hours after a group of soldiers rose up against Maduro at a command post in the north of Caracas and published a video on social media calling for the public to ...

Venezuela accuses US of trying to engineer coup

The United States has rejected Beijing's offer to hold preparatory talks in Washington ahead of next week's high-level trade delegation, according to media reports.
The reports by The Financial Times and CNBC sent US stocks sharply lower, reviving fears that efforts to resolve the US-China trade war could fail.  Citing a lack of progress on some of the thorniest issues in the trade dispute -- including allegedly forced technology transfers and structural reforms to China's economy -- Washington cancelled plans for a face-to-face preparatory meeting this week, according to The Times.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is due to travel to the United States next week as the two sides work to resolve their disagreements by March 1, when a 90-day truce is due to expire, allowing US import duties on Chinese goods to increase sharply.
The US Treasury Department and Office of the US Trade Representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Chinese economy last year posted its ...

US rejects advance trade meeting with China: reports

united nations

Waning support for multilateralism, escalating trade disputes, increasing debt and rising climate risks are clouding prospects

UN's report forecasts global economic growth around 3% in 2019

Press Trust of India

Around 1,000 former employees at a Goodyear factory in France announced Tuesday that they are suing the US tyre-maker, accusing the company of exposing them to dangerous chemicals.
Goodyear shut the factory in Amiens, President Emmanuel Macron's hometown in the industrial north of France, in 2014 after a bitter six-year dispute between staff and management.
All 1,143 employees at the site lost their jobs.
Most of them are now suing their former employer for allegedly "exposing them to dangerous products without informing them, for cost reasons," the factory's former CGT union leader Mickael Wamen told AFP.
"Goodyear put us in danger in order to shave some cash off the price of the tyres being made," he said.
According to the legal complaint filed at a court in Nanterre in the northern Paris suburbs, the company is accused of exposing employees to "harmful products without protection when substitutes were available".
The company "wilfully neglected to warn and inform its employees of ..

French ex-staff sue Goodyear over 'chemical exposure'

Israeli tank shelling killed a Hamas militant along the Gaza border on Tuesday as Israel responded to gunfire that wounded one of its soldiers, officials said.
Those incidents and another exchange of fire earlier in the day signalled a rise in tensions as Israel blocked aid money to Gaza from Qatar over border unrest.
Mohammed al-Nabaheen, 24, was killed by tank fire while two other people were hurt, a Gaza health ministry spokesman said.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, confirmed he was a member of its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
The Israeli army said it had targeted a Hamas observation post after a soldier was lightly wounded when a bullet struck his helmet.
In a statement, it said an initial investigation found "an assailant fired at troops" during a riot that included rock-hurling.
"A bullet struck the helmet of an IDF officer, lightly injuring him," it added, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.
A picture published by the army on social media ...

Hamas militant killed by Israeli fire after soldier hurt

Police were hunting for three men who held up a bank just off Paris' Champs-Elysees avenue Tuesday, tying up staff and customers for hours while ransacking safety deposit boxes, officials said.
The armed men rushed into the Milleis bank at around 8:30 am (0730 GMT) shortly after it opened, immobilising several people and spraying them with an unidentified liquid.
They rifled through some 30 safe-deposit boxes, a source close to the investigation said on condition of anonymity.
Formerly called Barclays France, the bank boasts high-end clients, and its Champs-Elysees branch is only around 650 metres (710 yards) from the French presidential palace.
The robbers "took a number of hostages amongst employees when the bank opened. They then put up a sign on the door saying the bank was closed," Eddy Sid, a spokesman for the FO police union, told BFM television.
"They then forced open some deposit boxes. Once that was done they left the employees in the bank -- and they were able to free ...

French police seek 3 suspects after brazen Paris bank raid

Russia remains under scrutiny even though it will not be punished for missing a December deadline to allow access to the Moscow laboratory at the centre of alleged state-sponsored doping, the World Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday.
WADA's Executive Committee decided to take no further action at a meeting earlier in the day.
"Several members of the (Executive Committee) voiced their disappointment that the deadline had been missed but agreed that no sanction in that regard should be imposed," WADA President Craig Reedie said.
WADA had conditionally lifted a ban on RUSADA in September last year, with one of the conditions being the granting of access to thousands of samples at the tainted Moscow lab by the end of 2018.
But when a WADA team arrived last month, Russian authorities raised issues with the certification of their equipment under Russian law. The data was eventually extracted this month.
Reedie and Jonathan Taylor, who heads WADA's Compliance Review Committee (CRC), both said ..

Russia avoids new doping penalties over missed deadline

An upcoming book portrays a White House staff under President Donald Trump that was "absolutely out of control" at times and often at each other's throats, according to excerpts published on Tuesday.
"Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House," which goes on sale next week, was written by Cliff Sims, who served as a special assistant to the 45th president.
The Washington Post, National Public Radio and Axios published excerpts from the 384-page book by Sims, who worked on Trump's campaign before joining the White House as Director of Message Strategy.
According to the Post, the book features "expletive-filled scenes of chaos, dysfunction and duplicity among the president, his family members and administration officials."
The book is "neither a sycophantic portrayal of the president nor a blistering account written to settle scores," the Post said, and Sims does not spare himself from criticism, confessing to being "nakedly ambitious."
"It's impossible to deny .

New tell-all book depicts 'out of control' Trump White House staff

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has told his chief spokeswoman Sarah Sanders "not to bother" with formal media briefings in the White House, because journalists don't cover her fairly.
"The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the 'podium' much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press," Trump tweeted.
"I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!" The White House briefing room, a keystone of modern presidential messaging, has been largely abandoned under Trump.
The last briefing where Sanders took questions from reporters was on December 18. On January 3, Trump himself made a surprise appearance -- his first at the briefing room podium -- to deliver a statement on border security, but took no questions.
Trump complains frequently about what he says is unfair coverage of his presidency. The dispute gets personal, with Trump and his aides ...

Trump tells spokeswoman 'not to bother' with press briefings

Nigerian health authorities on Tuesday declared a new outbreak of Lassa fever that has killed 16 people since early January, despite successfully containing the disease last year.
"Since the onset of the 2019 outbreak, there have been 16 deaths in confirmed cases," said a report released by the National Centre for Control (NCDC), revealing a 26.7 percent mortality rate in confirmed cases.
A total of 172 suspected cases have been identified since January 1, of which 60 were confirmed positive.
"Given this increase in reported cases of Lassa fever, the NCDC has declared this an outbreak and activated an Emergency Operations Centre to coordinate the response," the report said.
The operations are coordinated with the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Nigerian government health officials.
The virus has been detected in seven of Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
A Lassa fever outbreak in 2018 killed 171 people in one of the 

Nigeria's new outbreak of Lassa fever kills 16

The top US diplomat for Europe resigned Tuesday, citing personal reasons, opening a new vacancy at time of uneasiness among traditional US allies with President Donald Trump's approach.
A Wess Mitchell said he would step down as the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs effective February 15 to spend more time with his two children.
"As the administration starts its third year, I feel I have completed what I set out to do -- develop the department's Europe strategy," Mitchell said in a statement.
Unlike recent high-profile resignations over Trump's pullout from Syria, Mitchell did not indicate he was protesting any policy.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter that Mitchell had "done an outstanding job" and wished him "much happiness" with his family.
His departure comes after France, Germany and, to a lesser extent, Britain voiced unease over Trump's sudden withdrawal from Syria, where 2,000 US troops have been fighting the Islamic State movement ...

Top US diplomat on Europe quits at trying time for alliance

FBI agents complained Monday that the month-old US government shutdown is preventing them from paying informants, buying drugs undercover in narcotics busts, and even renewing their own security clearances.
Investigations and prosecutions are suffering from the lack of money to travel to interview witnesses or funds to pay translators, agents are saying, according to Tom O'Connor, president of the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA).
"Every day that the shutdown continues, the operational impediments created by the shutdown get worse and damage our counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations around the globe," said O'Connor, raising the pressure on the White House and Congress to end the shutdown.
The shutdown began on December 22 after President Donald Trump rejected a proposed government funding bill that did not meet his demand for billions of dollars to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.
Since then Trump and Democrats have stuck to their positions, leaving no end in sight ...

FBI in shutdown: 'We can't pay informants'

South Africa beat Pakistan in the second one-day international on Tuesday in Durban to level their five-match series as unbeaten half-centuries from Rassie van der Dussen and Andile Phehlukwayo guided the hosts to a five-wicket victory.
Tailender Hasan Ali's quickfire 59 dragged Pakistan to a total of 203 all out batting first, but despite a top-order collapse, the Proteas made the series 1-1.

South Africa beat Pakistan by five wickets to level ODI series

donald trump-, us president trump, trump

Trump triggered a partial government shutdown on December 22 as a way of pressuring the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives to back the border wall project

Defiant Trump vows no surrender on 32nd day of US government shutdown

The leaders of Russia and Japan fell short of agreement Tuesday over a disputed island chain that has long prevented a peace treaty to formally end World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Moscow marked the 25th time he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met since 2013, a reflection of their efforts to build cooperation despite the territorial disagreement.
The Soviet army seized the four Kuril islands, between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, in the last days of World War II.
Tokyo's refusal to recognise Moscow's sovereignty there has been a barrier to peace for more than seven decades.
Putin told journalists following the talks there that "detailed work" remained ahead of the two parties before any agreement, but hailed the summit as "useful and substantial."
He confirmed Moscow is still interested in building the negotiating process on a 1956 Soviet-Japanese declaration "which stipulates first and foremost the signing of a peace accord," Putin ...

Putin, Abe talks fail to break island impasse

A Chinese former Huawei executive arrested in Poland for espionage has claimed he is innocent, according to a statement published by the Onet.pl news portal on Tuesday.
The arrest was the latest setback for Huawei, which has also seen the arrest of the daughter of the firm's founder in Canada and US efforts to blacklist the company internationally over security concerns.
"Following my arrest on January 8, 2019 on charges of so-called espionage against Poland, I firmly declare that I am innocent," Weijing W said in the statement.
"The charges against me are without any basis and extremely unjust," added the man who was promptly fired by Huawei after the arrest.
"I've never been in contact with and certainly have never collaborated with any spy service, especially not a Chinese one."
Weijing W detailed his life trajectory from a small village in northern China to the Chinese consulate in Poland's Baltic port of Gdansk before winding up at Huawei Poland.
The Chinese national claimed that 

Ex-Huawei exec arrested for espionage in Poland claims innocence

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday that lifting sanctions against Zimbabwe was the best way for the world to ease the crisis gripping the country.
"It is no longer necessary to have sanctions against Zimbabwe right now, because they have embarked on democracy and a path of real recovery and we will help them best by lifting those sanctions," Ramaphosa said during an appearance at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva.
Ramaphosa made the suggestion despite protests in Zimbabwe last week, sparked by the government's more than doubling of fuel prices, that the army and police ruthlessly suppressed.
On Monday, the government-appointed Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission said at least eight people had been killed and the security forces had used "systematic torture".
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to turn the page on the repressive era of Robert Mugabe, who was ousted from power by the military 14 months ago.
Ramaphosa told reporters that lifting ...

World can help Zimbabwe by lifting sanctions: South Africa

Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday deplored Germany's decision to ban Iranian airline Mahan air from its airports describing the move as "hasty and unjustifiable".
"The rescinding of Mahan Air's flight permits to Germany is a hasty, unjustifiable act," the ministry said in a statement.
"This action is in conflict with the spirit governing the long-standing relations between the Iranian and German nations," and "contrary to the interests of bilateral relations, it said.
Iran said it hope Germany will reconsider its decision.
Germany said on Monday it had banned Mahan Air from its airports.  Germany foreign ministry spokesman Christofer Burger told reporters in Berlin the move was necessary to protect Germany's "foreign and security policy interests".
A spokeswoman at Germany's transport ministry said Iran had been informed that the ban would take effect from Monday and involve Mahan Air flights from and to Germany.
Mahan Air, Iran's second-largest carrier after Iran Air, flies four ...

Iran deplores "unjustifiable" German banning of Mahan Air

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday authorised President Donald Trump's administration to block the recruitment of transgender military personnel pending the outcome of litigation on the sensitive issue.
The White House had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after lower courts prohibited Trump's administration from implementing controversial restrictions on transgender service.
The administration said there is "too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality" to allow transgender people to serve openly -- a policy enacted under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama.
The court decided by a narrow 5-4 majority to suspend prohibitions restricting transgender service as litigation moves forward in lower courts.
Under the Obama-era policy, transgender recruits were to start being accepted by July 1, 2017. The Trump administration postponed that date to January 1, 2018, before deciding to reverse the policy entirely.
But the ban on transgender people in the military was repeatedly ...

Top US court allows Trump to bar transgender military recruitment

Greenland's melting ice, which causes sea levels to rise, disappeared four times faster in 2013 than in 2003 and is noticeable across the Arctic island, not just on glaciers, researchers warned on Tuesday.
"While 111 cubic kilometres of ice disappeared per year in 2003, 10 years later this figure had almost quadrupled to 428 cubic kilometres," the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Space Lab said in a statement.
Its researchers contributed to a study on changes to Greenland's ice sheet, published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"These are notable and surprising changes we are seeing in the ice melt pattern," DTU professor Shfaqat Abbas Khan said.
Until now, most of Greenland's ice melt was observed on the ice cap, predominantly on the glaciers in the island's northwest and southeast.
But most of the ice loss from 2003 to 2013 was from Greenland's southwest region, which is largely devoid of large glaciers.
Michael Bevis, a professor at Ohio 

AFP

AFP

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