Hundreds of flights were cancelled today to and from New York airports as the region braced itself for heavy snowfall.
Some 470 flights -- nearly 37 per cent of the total scheduled -- arriving and departing from John F Kennedy International Airport had already been canceled by 9:00 am (1400 GMT), along with 550, or 44 percent, of flights from New Jersey's Newark airport and 485, or 42 per cent, from La Guardia, which operates primarily domestic flights, according to the FlightAware flight tracking site.
The Port Authority agency that oversees the three airports -- which has come under sharp criticism for the chaos that followed early January's snowstorm -- said each airport had stocked folding beds, blankets, diapers and baby formula as a precautionary measure.
New York expected between six and 10 inches of snowfall today, with up to 20 inches predicted in more rural areas of New York state, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The National Weather Service warned of "heavy wet snow, coastal ...

Hundreds of flights in NY region cancelled before storm

PTI Automatic

China will build a train line connecting the Iranian port of Bushehr to the rest of the country's railway network under a USD 700 million deal signed today.
The agreement was inked in Tehran in the presence of Iranian Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi and officials from China Machinery Industry Construction Group.
It will see the group build a 400-kilometre railway between the Gulf port and the southern city of Shiraz, IRNA state news agency cited officials as saying without specifying when construction would get underway.
This would complete the "North-South Railway Corridor" in line with Iran's goal of becoming a transport hub for goods between the Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Russia and Central Asia.
Products arriving at Bushehr, Iran's second biggest port after Bandar Abbas, also on the Gulf, currently have to be transported by road.
The Bushehr-Shiraz rail project is one of seven the government is working on totalling 2,300 kilometres in tracks, according to IRNA.
China is ...

Iran signs deal with China to connect key port to rail network

Britain today said it was closer to identifying the substance used in the suspected poisoning of a former Russian double-agent, as Moscow accused politicians and journalists of whipping up anti-Russian sentiment.
Interior minister Amber Rudd said police "know more about the substance" after chairing an emergency government meeting to discuss the case of Sergei Skripal, but did not release any details of what progress had been made.
She also called for "cool heads" over the suspected poisoning, which is already being linked with Russia by British politicians and media.
The 66-year-old Russian, who moved to Britain in a 2010 spy swap, is in a critical condition in hospital along with his daughter Yulia after they collapsed on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southwestern English city of Salisbury on Sunday.
"We need to keep a cool head," said Rudd, adding that investigators would respond to "evidence, not to rumour".
Police say they are keeping an open mind about what happened, .

UK police 'know more' about substance involved in Russia spy mystery

Australia vice-captain David Warner is free to play in the second Test against South Africa after he accepted an ICC charge of bringing the game into disrepute today.
Cricket's world body fined Warner 75 per cent of his match fee for an altercation with South African wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock in the first Test this week.
CCTV footage showed him apparently turning on De Kock as the players walked up a staircase during the tea break in the fourth day of the match here.
The footage shows Warner being restrained by teammates Usman Khawaja and Nathan Lyon before being persuaded to go into the dressing room by Australia captain Steve Smith.
By accepting a level two offence, Warner was hit with three demerit points and fined but avoided a one-Test ban.
De Kock was also charged by the ICC but is contesting and will have a hearing later today.
After a feisty game that saw Australia take a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series, visiting off-spinner Nathan Lyon was also fined 15 per cent of his ..

Australia's Warner fined but cleared for second S.Africa Test

A Moroccan accomplice of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the deadly 2015 Islamic State attacks in Paris, is in detention in Poland over suspected terrorist activity, Polish prosecutors said today.
"During our investigation we found that between December 2014 and September 2016 Mourad T. was involved with an armed crime organisation -- an international terrorist organisation called Islamic State," prosecutors said in a statement.
This marks the first Polish investigation of an Islamic State member, which the domestic counter-intelligence agency ABW undertook after receiving information from its EU counterparts.
According to local media, the first intel came from the CIA.
Mourad T., born in Casablanca and now 28 years old, was detained September 5, 2016 in Poland. If the court in the southern city of Katowice convicts him, he could be sentenced to between six months to eight years in prison.
Prosecutors added that Mourad T. was an "accomplice" and "scout" for Abaaoud, who planned .

Aide to Paris attacks mastermind held in Poland: official

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross today said the United States is not seeking a trade war and the decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports was "thought through."
"We're not looking for a trade war," Ross told the CNBC cable network, speaking a day after President Donald Trump's top economic adviser Gary Cohn resigned in apparent protest over the controversial tariffs.
"We're going to have sensible relations with our allies," he added, arguing that a jump in steel prices could be avoided with increased domestic production of the commodity.
Trump's move on tariffs has infuriated US trade partners, but he says he was elected to protect American workers and industries harmed by trade policies.
Ross played down the Cohn resignation, insisting "this is not some sort of a palace coup." He said the departing economic adviser "has been contemplating some sort of a move for some little while."
The 57-year-old former Goldman Sachs executive lobbied passionately against the .

'We're not looking for a trade war': US Commerce Secretary

The European Union does not want to "build a wall" with Britain as it leaves the bloc, EU President Donald Tusk said today as he laid out draft guidelines for negotiations on post-Brexit ties.
Tusk said the EU wanted a free trade agreement with Britain post-Brexit with zero tariffs on goods, but he warned it would not be the "frictionless" arrangement London has angled for.
"My proposal shows that we don't want to build a wall between the EU and Britain. On the contrary the UK will be our closest neighbour and we want to remain friends and partners," Tusk told a press conference in Luxembourg.
But he said the red lines laid down by London -- that Britain must leave the EU's single market and customs union, and no longer submit to rulings by the European Court of Justice -- meant a free trade deal was the only option.
"It should come as no surprise that the only remaining possible model is a free trade agreement," Tusk said.
He said the EU would  aim for an agreement "covering all ...

EU's Tusk says 'we don't want to build a wall' with UK

The European Union today rejected Britain's calls for completely free trade after Brexit, saying in its long-awaited guidelines for future ties that frictions were inevitable.
The draft negotiating guidelines released by EU President Donald Tusk warned that there would be "negative economic consequences" as a result of Britain's vote to leave.
The rebuff came just days after British Prime Minister Theresa May called for the "broadest and deepest possible agreement", and as her finance minister urged a special deal for the City.
Tusk's draft red lines, which must now be adopted by the remaining 27 member states, said the EU was bound by Britain's self-imposed conditions for leaving the European Union.
"Being outside the Customs Union and the Single Market will inevitably lead to frictions," said the draft guidelines seen by AFP.
"This will unfortunately have negative economic consequences."
The EU guidelines added that "there can be no 'cherry-picking'" -- Brussels jargon for getting ..

EU warns of Brexit trade 'frictions' in rebuff to May

The EU's top official hit back today at Donald Trump, saying "trade wars are bad and easy to lose" as the bloc prepared to retaliate against the US president's planned steel and aluminium tariffs.
European Council President Donald Tusk also proposed that European Union leaders hold an emergency debate on the trade dispute at a summit in Brussels on March 22-23.
"President Trump has recently said and I quote, 'trade wars are good and easy to win,'" Tusk told a press conference in Luxembourg, flanked by Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.
"But the truth is quite the opposite: Trade wars are bad and easy to lose," the former Polish premier said.
"For this reason I strongly believe that now is the time for politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to act responsibly."
Tusk warned Trump's plans could lead to "a serious trade dispute" between Washington and the rest of the world involving the EU.
Tusk proposed that an EU leaders summit later this month in Brussels hold "an ...

EU's Tusk hits back at Trump saying trade wars 'bad and easy to lose'

A senior British minister today called for "cool heads" over the suspected poisoning of a former Russian double agent, as Moscow accused politicians and journalists of whipping up anti-Russian sentiment.
After chairing an emergency government meeting to discuss the situation of Sergei Skripal, interior minister Amber Rudd said police were closer to identifying the substance that he was exposed to.
The 66-year-old Russian, who moved to Britain in a 2010 spy swap, is in a critical condition in hospital along with his daughter Yulia after they collapsed on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southwestern English city of Salisbury on Sunday.
"We do know more about the substance and the police will be making a further statement this afternoon," Rudd said.
"We need to keep a cool head," she stressed, adding that investigation would "respond to evidence, not to rumour".
Police say they are keeping an open mind about what happened, but Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson yesterday pointed ...

UK urges 'cool heads' over spy poisoning as Moscow tensions rise

A Turkish government minister has lashed out at a decision by Saudi-owned broadcaster MBC to stop airing Turkish soap operas, the state-run news agency Anadolu reported, amid ongoing tensions between Ankara and some Gulf Arab states.
MBC announced the move on Tuesday, saying it would replace Turkish soaps -- which have long been a hit across the Middle East -- with "premium quality Arabic dramas that embody the values and traditions of the region."
The decision comes against a backdrop of political tension between the countries, with Saudi Arabia and ally the United Arab Emirates accusing Turkey of supporting Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
Turkey, for its part, has backed Qatar in Doha's long-running rift with Saudi Arabia and its allies.
Responding to MBC's decision late on Tuesday, Turkish culture minister Numan Kurtulmus was quoted by the news agency as saying that it was not up to politicians to "decide... who watches what film. Those times have passed."
Kurtulmus 

Turkey hits out at Saudi-owned broadcaster over TV soaps

The EU today said it would hit flagship US products including peanut butter, orange juice and bourbon whiskey with counter measures if US President Donald Trump goes ahead with threatened steel and aluminium tariffs.
The blow by Brussels came hours after Trump's trade offensive brought the resignation of his top economic advisor Gary Cohn, an influential ex-Goldman Sachs banker who fiercely opposed the measures.
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said a full-on transatlantic trade war was "not in anybody's interests" -- a stark contrast from Trump, who last week declared trade wars were "good and easy to win".
"A trade war has no winners," Sweden's Malmstroem told reporters after the European Commission, which handles trade matters for the bloc, discussed the tariffs.
"We should be very careful with that word... there are only losers in that, and that's why we will respond in a proportionate and balanced way."
The European Union is holding fire on its reprisals as Trump has yet .

EU targets peanut butter, orange juice, whiskey in Trump trade spat

Syrian regime is orchestrating an "apocalypse" that will strike elsewhere following the devastating crisis unfolding in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, the UN human rights chief said today.
In his annual report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the government's actions in the area were "legally and morally unsustainable", while warning the next nightmare for Syrian civilians would inevitably arrive soon.
"This month, it is Eastern Ghouta which is, in the words of the Secretary General, hell on earth; next month or the month after, it will be somewhere else where people face an apocalypse - an apocalypse intended, planned and executed by individuals within the government, apparently with the full backing of some of their foreign supporters," Zeid told the council.
"It is urgent to reverse this catastrophic course, and to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court," he added.
The Syrian army and allied militia launched an offensive on .

UN accuses Syria regime of orchestrating 'apocalypse'

Syria's regime sent reinforcements to Eastern Ghouta today, tightening the noose around the shrinking rebel enclave hours before a top-level UN meeting on the escalating violence.
The blistering onslaught has prompted outrage against the regime, with the United Nations' human rights chief saying the government was orchestrating an "apocalypse" in Syria.
The Russia-backed Syrian army and allied militia launched an offensive on February 18 to retake the last opposition bastion near Damascus.
They have since taken more than 40 per cent of the enclave, waging a devastating bombing campaign that has killed more than 800 civilians.
Heavy air strikes battered several key towns in the zone today, as Syria's government dispatched hundreds of pro-government militiamen to the front.
"At least 700 Afghan, Palestinian, and Syrian loyalist militiamen came from Aleppo and were sent late Tuesday to Ghouta," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based war 

Regime sends more forces to Ghouta as UN decries 'apocalypse' in Syria

Global nuclear tensions helped boost investments in atomic weapons production by around USD 81 billion last year, campaigners said today, urging investors to blacklist the companies that stock the world's nuclear arsenals.
"If you have been wondering who benefits from (US President) Donald Trump's threat of nuclear war, this report has the answer," said Beatrice Fihn, who heads the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
In a report, ICAN and another anti-nuclear campaign group PAX detailed a "massive increase" in investments in the top 20 companies involved in producing key components for the nuclear arsenals of Britain, France, India and the United States.
The report, titled "Don't Bank on the Bomb", found that a total of USD 525 billion (422 billion euros) was made available last year to such companies -- an increase of USD 81 billion from 2016.
"A new nuclear arms race has moved the Doomsday Clock closer to Armageddon, but it .

Nobel-winning ICAN condemns surge in nuclear arms investments

Powerful eruptions at a volcano in southern Japan spewed ash thousands of metres into the air today, as authorities warned locals not to approach the mountain.
"The plume reached the height of 3,000 metres for the first time since April 3, 2011" following a total of 29 eruptions at Mount Shinmoedake, Japan's weather agency said in a statement.
The volcano, which featured in the 1967 James Bond film "You Only Live Twice", has been grumbling since Thursday.
But today and the previous day, the volcano produced so-called "explosive" eruptions, which also feature air blasts.
Footage captured by the Meteorological Agency showed lava and thick grey smoke rising from the mountain around midnight.
People were ordered to stay away from the volcano as major ash deposits spread from the crater, the agency said.
There have been no injuries reported as a result of the volcanic activity.
Japan, with scores of active volcanoes, sits on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire" where a large proportion of .

'Explosive' eruptions at Japan volcano

Moscow today accused British politicians and journalists of using the suspected poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain to whip up anti-Russian sentiment.
"This story was straight away used to boost an anti-Russian campaign in the media," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.
Ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are in critical condition in hospital after being exposed to an unknown substance, which led them to collapse on a bench in the southwestern English city of Salisbury on Sunday.
Several British news outlets have pointed the finger at Russia and Boris Johnson, Britain's Foreign Minister, promised the UK would "take whatever measures we deem necessary" if Moscow was found to be behind the incident.
"It is difficult to see (in the story) anything other than provocations aimed at harming the relations between our two countries," Zakharova said.
"This affair will end up as usual: first, baseless accusations, then it will all be ...

Ex-spy's suspected UK poisoning used for 'anti-Russian campaign': Moscow

A Moroccan accomplice of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the deadly 2015 Islamic State attacks in Paris, is being held in Poland over suspected participation in terrorist activity, Polish prosecutors said today.
"During our investigation we found that between December 2014 and September 2016 Mourad T was involved... with an armed crime organisation -- an international terrorist organisation called Islamic State," prosecutors said in a statement.
Local media said Mourad T was detained 18 months ago. If convicted, he risks six months to eight years in prison.

Accomplice of Paris attacks mastermind held in Poland: prosecutor

Australia vice-captain David Warner has been fined 75 percent of his match fee for his altercation with South Africa's Quinton de Kock in the first Test match this week, the ICC said Wednesday.
Warner was guilty of "conduct that brings the game into disrepute" after CCTV footage showed him apparently turning on De Kock as the players walked up a staircase during the tea break in the fourth day of the match in Durban.

Australia's Warner fined for De Kock altercation

Dozens of European media, telecom and internet firms criticised Wednesday the EU's new online privacy rules, saying they will effectively hand US tech giants even greater power over user data.
On May 25, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force.
It is designed to protect users' online privacy, but in an open letter titled "Europe cannot afford to miss the data revolution", the companies said it will "reinforce already dominant players in the data economy".
In their view, the rules "would threaten the development of European startups and innovative companies, online advertising, telecom operators, and other sectors alike; and would undermine the essential role of press and media in European democratic life".
The European Parliament has adopted the regulation but European governments have yet to approve the text.
Under the new regulation, users will be asked once and for all whether to accept cookies, rather than every time they visit a new ...

EU firms lash out at new net privacy rules

Three writers -- including bestselling "Wild Swans" author Jung Chang -- will no longer attend the Macau Literary Festival after authorities there said they were likely to be barred, the latest sign of Beijing's hardening line across its territories.
Macau is a semi-autonomous part of China and the move to scupper the writers comes as Beijing ramps up warnings against any challenges to its authority and sovereignty.
London-based Chang has been highly critical of China's political system. Her works, which include an explosive biography of Mao Zedong, have been banned on the mainland.
The two other authors targeted by officials have both written in-depth about North Korea, which counts China as its main ally and diplomatic defender.
"We were informed informally, unofficially, that it was not considered timely that these guests would come to Macau at this moment and that there was a high probability that they would not be allowed to enter Macau," the festival's co-founder and programme ..

AFP

AFP

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