The White House is calling the detentions of two Canadians in China unlawful and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Donald Trump have agreed to continue to seek their release, officials said Monday.
China grabbed the Canadians in apparent retaliation for the arrest of a top Chinese tech executive last month. Trudeau spoke to Trump in a phone call Monday.
"President Trump spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today, during which the two discussed the unlawful detention of two Canadian citizens in China as well as bilateral trade issues," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
The White House hasn't spoken publicly about the detained Canadians until now. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a State Department spokesman previously called for their release.
"The Prime Minister thanked the President for the strong statements of support by the United States in response to the arbitrary detention of two Canadians in China.The .

White House calls detentions of Canadians in China unlawful

PTI Automatic

Seven men have been killed in a shooting attack at a bar in Mexico's Caribbean coastal city of Playa del Carmen, authorities said Monday.
State and local police said the attack occurred late Sunday at the "Las Virginias" bar in a low-income section relatively far from the beachside tourist resort zone. Six men were found shot to death in the bar, and another died at a local hospital.
One man was wounded but survived the attack. He told police he was drinking beer with friends when gunshots broke out. The attackers have not yet been identified.
Playa del Carmen is located on the coast facing the island of Cozumel, Mexico's leading cruise ship destination. Once a quiet fishing and ferry town, Playa del Carmen has grown exponentially in the last two decades, with lower-income neighborhoods springing up on the inland side of the coastal highway.
The resort is midway between Cancun, to the north, and Tulum, to the south, in the coastal state of Quintana Roo, which has seen homicides more ..

7 dead in shooting in Mexican city of Playa del Carmen

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has left for China for a four-day trip, the North's state media reported Tuesday, amid speculation that he may attempt to coordinate his positions with Beijing ahead of his likely summit with President Donald Trump.
The Korean Central News Agency said that Kim departed for China on Monday afternoon with his wife Ri Sol Ju and top officials. It said Kim is visiting China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The KCNA dispatch came after South Korean media reported late Monday that Kim may be on his way to Beijing aboard a special train for his summit with Xi.
South Korean media reported the train was expected to reach Beijing at about 10 am Tuesday local time. Kim used a very distinctive armoured train made especially for him on visits to China last year.
Kim's trip comes after US and North Korean officials are believed to have met in Vietnam to discuss the location of a second summit between Kim and Trump.
Kim visited China three times last 

North Korea confirms Kim's departure to China for summit

With the government shutdown in its third week and concern mounting over a possible delay in tax refunds, a Trump administration official said Monday that taxpayers who are owed money will be paid on time.
Russell Vought, acting director of the White House budget office, said customary rules will be changed to make the payments possible. He told reporters Monday that an "indefinite appropriation" was available for the refunds, which would go out as normal.
The partial government shutdown couldn't have come at a worse time for the Internal Revenue Service. Tax-filing season opens soon, and while those who owe Uncle Sam will likely still have to pay up by April 15, people who were due money back have been worrying about a delay if the closure persists.
About three-quarters of taxpayers receive annual refunds, giving them an incentive to file their returns early. Many lower-income people count on refunds as their biggest cash infusion of the year.
The IRS might recall a large number of ..

Trump official says tax refunds will go out on time

With no breakthrough in sight, President Donald Trump will argue his case to the nation Tuesday night that a "crisis" at the US-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he's demanding before ending the partial government shutdown.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face missed paychecks Friday as the shutdown drags through a third week.
Trump's Oval Office speech  his first as president  will be followed by his visit Thursday to the southern border to highlight his demand for a barrier.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that he will use the visit to "meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis."
The administration is also at least talking about the idea of declaring a national emergency to allow Trump to move forward on the wall without Congress approving the $5.6 billion he wants.
Vice President Mike Pence said the White House counsel's office is looking at the idea. Such a move would certainly draw ..

Trump heads to TV, border as fed workers face paycheck sting

Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty Monday to groping an 18-year-old busboy in 2016 in the first criminal case brought against the disgraced actor following a string of sexual misconduct allegations that crippled his career.
Spacey's court appearance came more than a year after former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh accused the former "House of Cards" star of sexually assaulting her son in a bar on the Massachusetts resort island of Nantucket.
Nantucket District Court Judge Thomas Barrett ordered Spacey to stay away from his accuser and the man's family. Spacey will not have to appear at his next hearing on March 4, but he must be available by phone, Barrett said.
The judge also ordered Spacey's accuser and the man's then-girlfriend to preserve text messages and other data on their cellphones from the day of the alleged assault and six months after.
Spacey's attorney Alan Jackson told the judge they believe the cellphones contain information that is "likely exculpatory" for Spacey.
The ...

Kevin Spacey pleads not guilty to groping young man at bar

Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, announced Monday he is resigning at the end of January.
Kim's unexpected departure three years before his term was set to expire is likely to set off a fierce battle between the Trump administration and other countries who have complained about the influence the United States exerts over the World Bank.
In a letter to bank staff, Kim said that he has long believed that the key to bridging the gap between the massive financing needs of developing countries and the amount of support available was to work with the private sector.
"I have therefore decided that it's time for me to take on new challenges and fully focus my efforts on leveraging private finance for the benefit of people around the work," Kim said in his note to staff.
Kim's departure will give President Donald Trump the opportunity to nominate his own choice to fill the World Bank post.
The 189-nation World Bank is the largest government source for development funding, ...

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announces his departure

The ranks of prominent citizens opposed to a new Italian law cracking down on asylum-seekers swelled on Monday, with more governors announcing court challenges to the populist government's measure.
The law, approved first in the form of a government decree and later by Parliament late last year, tightens criteria for migrants receiving humanitarian protection, granting that status only to victims of labor exploitation, human trafficking, domestic violence, natural calamities and a few other limited situations.
Previously, many asylum-seekers who failed to qualify for full asylum were accorded humanitarian protection, with Italy allowing them to stay for a fixed term and receive social benefits. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, contends Italian authorities had been too elastic in the past in granting such protection.
The new law bans asylum-seekers from gaining residency, which is needed to apply for public housing or a place for their children 

Italian mayors, governors challenge government asylum law

Seven men have been killed in a shooting attack at a bar in Mexico's Caribbean coast resort city of Playa del Carmen, authorities said Monday.
State and local police said the attack occurred late Sunday at the "Las Virginias" bar in a low-income section relatively far from the beach side tourist zone. Six men were found shot to death in the bar, and another died at a local hospital.
One man was wounded but survived the attack. He told police he was drinking beer with friends when gunshots broke out. The attackers have not yet been identified.
Playa del Carmen is located on the coast facing the island of Cozumel, Mexico's leading cruise ship destination. Once a quiet fishing and ferry town, Playa del Carmen has grown exponentially in the last two decades, with lower-income neighborhoods springing up on the inland side of the coastal highway.
The resort is midway between Cancun, to the north, and Tulum, to the south, in the coastal state of Quintana Roo, which has seen homicides more ...

7 dead in shooting in Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen

Gabon's government has retained control of the West African country after an attempted military coup early Monday, the government said.
Five army officers who took over state radio in the coup attempt have been arrested, government spokesman Guy-Betrand Mapangou, told Radio France International.
Authorities have regained control of the state broadcasting offices and a major thoroughfare in the capital, Libreville, which were the only areas taken over by the officers, according to the spokesman.
Earlier Monday a soldier who identified himself as Lt. Obiang Ondo Kelly, commander of the Republican Guard, read out a statement saying the military had seized control of the government of this West African country.
He was flanked by two other soldiers holding weapons and all were dressed in camouflage uniforms and green berets. He had said they were taking over to "restore democracy."
Those soldiers have been taken into custody and President Ali Bongo's government remains in control, said the 

Gabon's government puts down coup attempt, arrests plotters

A Catholic cardinal and five other people went on trial Monday accused of covering up for a pedophile priest who abused Boy Scouts  France's most important church sex abuse case to date.
The case poses a new challenge to the Vatican, amid growing demands in overwhelmingly Catholic France for a reckoning with decades of sexual abuse by the clergy.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 68, appeared in a Lyon court Monday along with other senior church officials accused of failing to protect children from alleged abuse by the Rev. Bernard Preynat.
The top Vatican official in charge of sex abuse cases, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, is among the accused  but won't appear in court because the Vatican invoked his diplomatic immunity.
After taking his seat in the front row, Barbarin held his hands together and closed his eyes, as if in prayer.
The judge then read out the lengthy accusations against the defendants, and the defense used procedural arguments to try to get the case thrown out.
Nine people who ...

Cardinal on trial in France's biggest church sex abuse trial

U S National Security Adviser John Bolton has arrived in Turkey for negotiations on the fate of American-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria.
Bolton will seek assurances from the NATO ally that it won't attack the Kurds when the US withdraws troops from northeastern Syria. Monday's visit comes a day after Bolton said such guarantees were a "condition" of the pullout President Donald Trump ordered last month.
Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its borders, and has threatened to mount an assault on the groups that have fought alongside U.S. troops against the Islamic State in Syria.
Bolton, who is expected to meet Tuesday with Turkish officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (REH'-jehp TY'-ihp UR'-doh-wahn), says that's unacceptable.

US, Turkey set for negotiations on fate of Kurds

Pope Francis says next month's meeting of bishops from around the world aims to "shed full light" on clergy sex abuse and covers-ups.
Speaking to diplomats Monday at the Vatican, Francis called the abuse of minors "one of the vilest and most heinous crimes conceivable."
He said the church was working to combat and prevent abuse and its concealment, to uncover church hierarchy's involvement and to deliver justice to minors who have "suffered sexual violence aggravated by the abuse of power and conscience."
The Catholic Church's credibility has been eroded by sex abuse by clergy and bishops and its often systematic concealment.
Francis called February's meeting "a further step in the Church's efforts to shed full light on the facts."
His own handling of some cases has drawn criticism.

Pope: Vatican meeting aims to 'shed full light' on sex abuse

A lobby group for the U.K. auto industry says new vehicle sales in 2018 fell by their biggest rate since the global financial crisis a decade ago.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said Monday that new car sales during the year were down by 6.8 percent from the year before at 2.37 million units.
That's the biggest decline since 2008, when the British economy sank into a deep recession in the wake of the financial crisis.
Mike Hawes, the group's chief executive, says "falling consumer confidence, confusing fiscal and policy messages and shortages due to regulatory changes have combined to create a highly turbulent market." Without directly blaming the fall on Brexit uncertainty, Hawes said these figures "should act as a wake-up call for policymakers.

UK car sales fell in 2018 by most since financial crisis

Cartoonists, religious leaders and top French officials are paying respects to 17 people killed by Islamic extremists targeting satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.
The attacks that started exactly four years ago Monday were the first of several to hit France, which remains on high alert for terrorist violence.
In solemn silence, mourners lay flowers at the entrance to Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris, where 12 people were killed by two French brothers linked to al-Qaida.
Commemorations are continuing at the Hyper Cacher market, where a radical Frenchman who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group held hostages and killed four people. He also killed a policewoman.
Government ministers and the mayor of Paris presided over Monday's events.  The attackers were killed in shootouts with police.

Paris honours attack victims at Charlie Hebdo, kosher market

An Afghan official says a roadside bombing has killed five civilians and wounded seven in the country's eastern Paktika province, while separate attacks in the country's west killed at least eight security force members.
Nawroz Ishaq, the provincial governor's spokesman, gave the casualty figures for Monday's blast in the Jani Khail district.
No one claimed responsibility for the bombing. Ishaq blamed insurgents who usually plant bombs on roads to target Afghan security forces.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan's western Badghis province, the provincial governor's spokesman says eight security force members were killed in two Taliban attacks late Sunday.
Spokesman Jamshid Shahabi says the attacks wounded five security force members and saw 10 insurgents killed.
However, Abdul Aziz Beg, the head of Badghis' provincial council, said the attacks killed 21 security force members.

Roadside bombing kills 5 civilians in eastern Afghanistan

Soldiers in Gabon have appeared on state television saying they have launched a coup to "restore democracy" in the West African country.
Early Monday a soldier who identified himself as Lt. Obiang Ondo Kelly, commander of the Republican Guard, read out a statement saying the military has seized control of the government. He was flanked by two other soldiers holding weapons and all were dressed in camouflage uniforms and green berets.
A curfew has been imposed over the capital, Libreville, and the internet has been cut. The city on the Atlantic Ocean coast is being patrolled by military tanks and armed vehicles. No violence has been reported.
President Ali Bongo, in power since 2009, has been out of the country since October amid reports that he had a stroke. He recently addressed the country in a New Year's message that was filmed in Morocco, where he has been receiving medical treatment.
Oil-rich Gabon has been ruled for more than half a century by Bongo and his father, Omar, who ...

Gabon army announces coup 'to restore democracy'

A powerful winter storm unleashed mudslides in Southern California wildfire burn areas and trapped motorists on a major highway, and the northern part of the state braced for more wet weather Sunday.
Saturday's deluge loosened hillsides where a major blaze burned last year in and around Malibu, clogging the Pacific Coast Highway with mud and debris.
A stretch of the scenic route northwest of Los Angeles was expected to remain closed in both directions until Monday while crews tow away stuck vehicles and clear lanes. No injuries were reported.
The rapper Soulja Boy was among those whose cars were mired in the muck that was up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) deep in some areas.
The 28-year-old retweeted a photo of the mudslide and posted: "My car got stuck too almost went into the ocean," along with a prayer emoji.
An automated rain gauge in the western Santa Monica Mountains showed nearly three-quarters of an inch (nearly 2 centimeters) of rainfall in one hour, said the National Weather ...

California highway closed by mudslides, more rain coming

Mexicans are scrambling for gasoline amid long lines at gas stations and widespread shortages prompted by a change in distribution methods aimed at stemming fuel theft.
State oil company Petroleos Mexicanos said the use of more secure transportation methods has resulted in delays for fuel delivery to gas stations in the states of Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacan, Mexico and Queretaro. It is urging consumers not to panic or hoard gasoline, promising that supply will soon stabilize.
Frantic consumers have made a run on the pumps and social media has been filled with images of gas station signs saying they are out of fuel, and consumers comparing the thin supplies to scarcity for basic goods like bread and milk that plagued Mexico during the 1970s.
The shortage has given ammunition to government critics, who say many of the new administration's policies and goals are throwbacks to past decades.  President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1, said Sunday that ...

Mexicans scramble for gasoline as stations run dry

China has sounded a positive note ahead of trade talks this week with Washington, but the two sides face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship.
Both sides have expressed an interest in settling their tariff fight over Beijing's technology ambitions. Yet neither has indicated its stance has changed since a December 1 agreement by presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to postpone further increases.
Envoys will have "positive and constructive discussions" during meetings Monday and Tuesday, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.
The American side is led by a deputy US trade representative, Jeffrey D Gerrish, according to the US government.
Neither side gave details of their agenda but Gerrish's delegation includes agriculture, energy, commerce, treasury and State Department officials.
The Chinese government gave no details of who would represent Beijing.
The talks are going ahead despite tensions over the arrest of a ...

AP

AP

Page 1582 - Ap/pti Reuters

White House calls detentions of Canadians in China unlawful

7 dead in shooting in Mexican city of Playa del Carmen

North Korea confirms Kim's departure to China for summit

Trump official says tax refunds will go out on time

Trump heads to TV, border as fed workers face paycheck sting

Kevin Spacey pleads not guilty to groping young man at bar

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announces his departure

Italian mayors, governors challenge government asylum law

Italian mayors, governors challenge government asylum law

7 dead in shooting in Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen

Gabon's government puts down coup attempt, arrests plotters

Cardinal on trial in France's biggest church sex abuse trial

US, Turkey set for negotiations on fate of Kurds

Pope: Vatican meeting aims to 'shed full light' on sex abuse

UK car sales fell in 2018 by most since financial crisis

Paris honours attack victims at Charlie Hebdo, kosher market

Roadside bombing kills 5 civilians in eastern Afghanistan

Gabon army announces coup 'to restore democracy'

California highway closed by mudslides, more rain coming

Mexicans scramble for gasoline as stations run dry