The Senate Judiciary Committee approved William Barr's nomination for attorney general along party lines Thursday, with Republicans praising his credentials and Democrats questioning how transparent he'll be once special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation concludes.
The vote now heads to the full Senate, where Barr is expected to be confirmed in a vote as soon as next week.
Barr, who previously served as attorney general from 1991 to 1993, would succeed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was pushed out by Trump last year over the president's anger that he had recused from the Russia investigation.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker is currently filling the position.
"I appreciate what Mr. Whitaker has done, but I think it's time for new leadership at the department," Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and committee chairman, said at the outset of Thursday's meeting.
Democrats and many Republicans have said they believe Mueller's final report should be ..

Senate panel approves Trump's attorney general nominee

PTI Automatic

The largest association of religious sisters in the United States called Thursday for an overhaul of the male-led leadership structure of the Catholic Church, after Pope Francis publicly acknowledged the problem of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious also appealed in a statement for reporting guidelines to be established so abused nuns "are met with compassion and are offered safety."
The conference's statement followed Francis' acknowledgement this week that clergy abuse of nuns was a problem. The pope said the Vatican was working on it but more needed to be done.
His comments, given in response to a reporter's question during an in-flight press conference, were the first public acknowledgement by a pope of a long-simmering scandal.
Reporting by The Associated Press and other news media, as well as the reckoning demanded by the #MeToo movement, has brought the issue to the fore.
The LCWR, which represents about 80 percent of ...

US nuns urge changes to church structure to address abuse

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pardoned a "large number" of prisoners in honour of the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, state TV reported Thursday.
The report did not say how many prisoners were released, but previous reports suggested it would apply to some 50,000 people, the largest number ever covered in a single pardon. Some prisoners would be released while others would have their sentences reduced.
According to judiciary website Mizanonline.com, the pardon covers a wide range of people, from those serving a year in jail to life in prison.
It said convicts in jail on armed opposition charges, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, fraud, embezzlement, bribery, forging bank notes and coins, money laundering, smuggling and organized crimes will not be pardoned.
However, men above age 70 and women above age 60 as well as prisoners suffering from certain diseases could be pardoned, according to the website.
If so, the pardon could include 81-year-old ...

Iran decrees mass pardon in honour of revolution anniversary

British Prime Minister Theresa May and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker sparred on Thursday during "robust" talks on the U.K.'s Brexit plans, and agreed to hold more negotiations that could push the sealing of any deal to within a month of Britain's scheduled departure.
Looking at the ever tighter deadline and yawning divisions, May said "it's not going to be easy" but vowed: "I am going to deliver Brexit. I am going to deliver it on time."
The two leaders agreed to meet for more talks "before the end of February to take stock of these discussions," a joint statement said.
Two years ago, May set Brexit day as March 29  and originally plans were to have a deal in place six months ahead of time.
Both sides still fundamentally disagree on whether a draft legal withdrawal agreement could be changed to take the latest British objections into account, greatly reducing the chances of a quick breakthrough.
"The EU27 will not reopen the Withdrawal Agreement, which represents a ...

UK, EU leaders spar during 'robust' Brexit talks

Years of neglect combined with wear and tear from heavy trucks driving next to Amsterdam's famous canals have left kilometres of canal walls at risk of subsiding and in urgent need of repair, the city's municipality said Thursday.
A report commissioned by the city says that repairing infrastructure such as canal walls and bridges is "a complex, large and urgent" task.
Amsterdam Municipality, which is responsible for maintaining some 1,600 bridges, 600 kilometres of canal walls and five traffic tunnels, said the report found that 10 kilometres of the walls are in very bad condition and at elevated risk of subsiding.
City councilor Sharon Dijksma said urgent action is needed.
"We have to be more careful with all the beautiful things this city has to offer. We owe that to residents and visitors to the city, but also to future generations," she said.
"That's why we need to take action. That has not happened enough in recent years because maintenance is not a sexy subject, but it is ...

Amsterdam: Kilometers of canal walls need urgent repairs

Media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said Thursday that Iranian authorities arrested, jailed and sometimes executed 1.7 million people around the capital Tehran alone in the first 30 years after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The organisation revealed its count that included regime opponents, Baha'is and other religious minorities and at least 860 journalists.
The group said at a news conference that its information was based on a confidential file of judicial proceedings obtained by whistleblowers.
The file registering judicial procedures contains details on some 1.7 million people, including minors, locked up in Evin prison in the first three decades of the Islamic regime that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, shaking the region and the world.
Among the journalists, at least four were executed, according to RSF, as the watchdog group is known. The organization noted that the detailed
Iranian file never mentions the professional status of individuals, suggesting this made 

Watchdog: Revolutionary Iran jails 1.7 million in 30 years

Thousands of students skipped classes Thursday and marched past the Dutch parliament, calling for more ambitious climate policies in the Netherlands.
The noisy but peaceful demonstration by Dutch students follows similar marches in recent weeks in neighbouring Belgium that also have drawn thousands of protesters.
The protests there continued, too, with thousands more teenagers demonstrating in several cities for the fifth week in a row.
Belgian police said that in central Leuven alone more than 10,000 students gathered and authorities had to change the planned route to accommodate the marchers.
Many thousands more protested in the capital Brussels and other provincial towns throughout Belgium as the youth movement spread further across the country.
Organizers of the Dutch march in The Hague said they want to send a wake-up call to politicians who are wrestling with how best to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
They had hoped for some 3,000 marchers but got far more, although police ...

Dutch students march for better climate policies

Ivanka Trump is unveiling an effort aimed at helping 50 million women in the developing world, including India, get ahead economically over the next six years.
On Thursday, the White House will officially launch the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, a governmentwide project led by the senior adviser and daughter to President Donald Trump.
The initiative will involve the State Department, the National Security Council and other agencies.
It aims to coordinate current programs and develop new ones to assist women in areas such as job training, financial support, and legal or regulatory reforms.
The president previewed the launch during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, describing it as "part of our commitment to improving opportunity for women everywhere."
He will sign a national security memorandum to officially launch the initiative Thursday, framing it as a way to promote stability around the world.
Ivanka Trump, who will attend the Munich Security ...

Ivanka Trump unveils White House global women initiative

The British economy is set to grow this year by its weakest rate since the global financial crisis as uncertainties over Britain's exit from the European Union ratchet higher, the Bank of England warned Thursday.
The central bank said the UK economy is slowing despite a modest boost from firms stockpiling as they prepare for potential disruption to trade if the country crashes out of the EU with no deal on future relations.
The Bank of England said that the Brexit uncertainties and a weaker global economy overall mean that British growth this year is likely to be 1.2 percent. That's down sharply from the 1.7 percent predicted in November and below 2018's 1.4 percent. It would make for the worst year in Britain since a 4.2 percent contraction in 2009.
At its regular policy meeting, the bank's nine-member Monetary Policy Committee opted to keep its main interest rate at 0.75 percent and said its forecasts depend on what happens with Brexit.
"That outlook depended significantly on the ...

UK economy to grow at weakest since financial crisis

Another US-Russian nuclear pact is in danger following the US move to withdraw from a Cold War-era arms control treaty, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov charged that the US refusal to negotiate an extension to the New Start treaty signals Washington's intention to let it expire in 2021. He warned that time is running out to save the pact, which was signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Ryabkov said that the U.S. has shown "no readiness or desire" to engage in substantive talks on extending the pact, which limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers.
He noted that the U.S. said it has converted 56 Trident submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles and 41 B-52H strategic bombers that carried nuclear weapons for use with conventional weapons, but stonewalled Russia's repeated requests for a verifiable way to exclude their .

Russian official: Another nuclear pact with US in trouble

A 5-year-old girl was rescued from the rubble of the eight-story apartment building in Istanbul on Thursday, raising the number of survivors of the collapsed structure to 13.
At least three people have been found dead.
The girl, Havva Tekgoz, was pulled from the debris about 18 hours after the building in the mostly residential Kartal district, on the Asian side of the city, collapsed. She was carried to a waiting ambulance on a stretcher with her neck in a brace, as one person in a crowd of onlookers chanted "God is great!" Overnight, emergency services also rescued a 9-year old boy.
Authorities haven't disclosed how many people remain unaccounted for. The building had 14 apartments with 43 people registered as residents.
Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said earlier that three of the injured were in serious condition.
"All our prayers, all our hearts are with them," Yerlikaya said in reference to people who may still be trapped. "We are continuing with our search and rescue efforts ..

5-year-old girl rescued from collapsed building in Turkey

The House intelligence committee will launch a broad new investigation looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election and President Donald Trump's foreign financial interests, Chairman Adam Schiff announced Wednesday, moving ahead with the aggressive oversight that Democrats have promised now that they are in the majority.
Schiff said the investigation will include "the scope and scale" of Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, the "extent of any links and/or coordination" between Russians and Trump's associates, whether foreign actors have sought to hold leverage over Trump or his family and associates, and whether anyone has sought to obstruct any of the relevant investigations.
The announcement came one day after Trump criticized "ridiculous partisan investigations" in his State of the Union speech. Schiff dismissed those comments Wednesday.
"We're going to do our jobs and the president needs to do his," Schiff said. "Our job involves making sure that the ...

Democrats launch new probe of Trump's finances, Russia ties

Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson is facing allegations that she lifted material from other sources for her new book, "Merchants of Truth."
A Twitter thread posted Wednesday by Vice correspondent Michael Moynihan lists several examples of passages in "Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts" that closely resemble material in The New Yorker, Time Out and other publications.
Released this week, "Merchants of Truth" is a critique of the news business focused on two long-running newspapers, the Times and the Washington Post, along with Vice and fellow digital company BuzzFeed.
Appearing Wednesday night on Fox News, Abramson disputed the allegations, saying: "All I can tell you is I certainly didn't plagiarize in my book and there's 70 pages of footnotes showing where I got the information." Writers are generally expected to credit their sources directly in the body of the text if the material is similar.
Abramson did not immediately return phone 

Reporter alleges Jill Abramson lifted material for her book

President Donald Trump's State of the Union address was seen by 46.8 million television viewers, an increase over his 2018 speech.
The Nielsen company said the speech, which was delayed by the government shutdown, topped last year's audience of 45.6 million. His first such address before Congress in 2017 was seen by 47.7 million.
The Trump-friendly Fox News Channel dominated the coverage, with 11.1 million people watching the speech on that network. NBC was second with 7.1 million, CBS had 6.7 million, ABC had 5.9 million, MSNBC had 3.8 million and CNN had 3.4 million.
Nearly 4 million Fox viewers didn't stick around for Stacey Abrams' Democratic response, but the network's audience was still larger than all others.

Trump speech viewed by 46.8 million viewers

There are no plans yet for President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet soon in hope of finalising a trade deal, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin and trade representative Robert Lighthizer are leading a team to Beijing next week to continue the talks, but nothing is yet on the books for a Trump-Xi meeting.
"I can tell you there's nothing planned at this time for it, but the president has talked about potentially meeting with President Xi and we'll see what progress we make next week," Mnuchin said.
The US and China are in the midst of talks aimed at resolving a costly trade war, and Trump has said a comprehensive agreement is unlikely to be inked until he meets with his Chinese counterpart.
Trump and Xi last met in December in Argentina.
The president hiked tariffs on USD 250 billion of Chinese goods over complaints that it steals or pressures US companies to hand over technology in return for market access. The US has said it will further boost ...

No plans yet for US, China presidents to meet on trade

British Prime Minister Theresa May reopened talks with the European Union leaders on the Brexit agreement on Thursday and was bracing for a clash with senior EU officials during a day of divorce negotiations.
May was welcomed by European Commission Jean-Claude President Juncker in a glum, stiff handshake ceremony that underscored the simmering tension between the U.K. and the other 27 EU member states.
With the planned departure date of March 29 closing in, May is expected to be stonewalled by the EU officials when it comes to reopening the legal withdrawal agreement which was already endorsed in November before the U.K. Parliament overwhelmingly rejected it.
The gap between both sides was already yawning, but European Council President
Donald Tusk exacerbated the frosty climate on Wednesday by wondering aloud what "special place in hell" might be reserved for those who backed Brexit while having no idea of how to deliver it.
Highlighting the sensitivities, a public welcome appearance 

UK leader May is in Brussels seeking Brexit breakthrough

Police in the Maldives have asked the country's prosecutor general to charge a former president with money laundering and his former Cabinet minister with aiding him.
A police statement says investigators have found grounds to charge Yameen Abdul Gayoom and his former Legal Affairs Minister Azima Shakoor.
The case stems from an allegedly shady deal to lease islands for tourist resort development and the discovery of USD 1 million in Yameen's bank account.
Police also say they asked the prosecutor general to charge Yameen and Shakoor with providing false information to investigators.
Yameen lost the presidential election last year after a five-year strongman rule.

Maldives ex-president to be charged with money laundering

Egyptologists and other experts gathered in Italy this week to celebrate a successful campaign to save ancient Egyptian temples from being submerged by a dam project 50 years ago and heard of cultural sites facing similar threats now.
The international campaign that saved the temples of Abu Simbel during construction of Aswan High Dam was remembered in Turin as an unprecedented engineering achievement and a turning point that made the preservation of cultural treasures a responsibility that cut across borders.
But experts at the Monday event said that with major dam projects underway in Sudan and Ethiopia, the job of protecting Nubian culture is not finished.
The director of Turin's Egyptian Museum, Christian Greco, noted that the focus in a modernising Egypt half a century ago was on saving major monuments, largely due to time pressure.
Recording and salvaging settlements and domestic artifacts received less emphasis, and many were lost underwater when the dam across the Nile River ..

Effort to save Egypt's Abu Simbel temples in 1960s recalled

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Thursday to take a "step-by-step" approach in resolving a territorial dispute with Russia left over from World War II.
Abe told a rally of former residents of four islands seized by Russia in the war's final days and their supporters Thursday that settling the conflict over what Japan calls its "northern territories" was difficult but necessary.
"It is not easy to resolve this task remaining over 73 years since the war. Yet, we need to tackle this," Abe said.
"Keeping in mind your sentiments toward the Northern Territory, we are determined to take a step-by-step approach toward resolving the territorial issue," he said.
Regaining the islands north of Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido has been a priority for Abe and his conservative base. For seven decades, the dispute has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty.
In November, Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to accelerate negotiations based on a 1956 Soviet ..

Japan's Abe vows to resolve territorial dispute with Russia

Chinese investigators said Thursday tests on a batch of a plasma product feared to have been contaminated with HIV have turned up negative for the virus that causes AIDS.
The result appears to have headed off the possibility of yet another scandal involving medical products in the country. Incidents include the falsifying of production records for rabies vaccines that prompted a nationwide crackdown on the industry and the injecting of other faulty vaccines.
Public outrage over such scandals has alarmed the leadership of the ruling Communist Party, moving it to respond more quickly and firmly than in the past, including bringing criminal charges and billion dollar fines.
A statement from the National Medical Products Administration said tests for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C all turned out negative. The samples were from a batch of 12,000 plasma products manufactured by Shanghai-based China Meheco Xinxing Pharma Co., Ltd.
The National Health Commission on Tuesday reported to the ..

China says tests on plasma products negative for HIV

The founder of Craigslist says he will donate USD 15 million to Columbia University and the Poynter Institute for separate efforts promoting ethics in journalism.
The announcement on Wednesday establishes Craig Newmark in the forefront of philanthropists focused on journalism, a cause he's supported with some USD 85 million in the past few years.
Some in the industry see irony in that, since the online classified advertising site that made him rich took away a lucrative revenue source for many newspapers.
Columbia, with one of the leading graduate journalism programs in the country, will get USD 10 million to establish the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security.
The Florida-based Poynter think tank will get USD 5 million, its largest single donation ever, to offer additional journalism ethics training.
Newmark said he's been concerned since the 2016 election about attacks on the press and the trust of citizens in the institution.
Among his other gifts has been USD 20 .

AP

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