Twenty million people in war-torn Yemen are hungry  a staggering 70 per cent of the population and a 15 per cent increase from last year  and for the first time 250,000 are facing "catastrophe," the U.N. humanitarian chief said Monday.
Mark Lowcock, who recently returned from Yemen, told reporters there has been "a significant, dramatic deterioration" of the humanitarian situation in the country and "it's alarming."
He said that for the first time, 250,000 Yemenis are in Phase 5 on the global scale for classifying the severity and magnitude of food insecurity and malnutrition  the severest level, defined as people facing "starvation, death and destitution."
Lowcock, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said those 250,000 Yemenis facing "catastrophe" are overwhelmingly concentrated in four provinces "where the conflict is raging quite intensely"  Taiz, Saada, Hajja and Hodeida.
The only other country where anyone is in Phase 5 is South Sudan, with 25,000 people ...

UN: 20 million Yemenis are hungry, 250,000 face catastrophe

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Defying fierce opposition from the U.S. and a few other nations, nearly 85 per cent of UN member states agreed Monday on a sweeping yet non-binding accord to ensure safe, orderly and humane migration.
The debate over the Global Compact for Migration, the first of its kind, has proven to be a pivotal test of the U.N.-led effort to crack down on the often dangerous and illegal movements across borders that have turned people smuggling into a worldwide industry, and give people seeking economic opportunity a chance.
"Unregulated migration bears a terrible human cost: a cost in lives lost on perilous journeys across deserts, oceans and rivers; and a cost in lives ruined at the hands of smugglers, unscrupulous employers and other predators," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a migration conference in Marrakech, Morocco.
"More than 60,000 migrants have died on the move since the year 2000," he said. "This is a source of collective shame."
Migration affects hundreds of millions of 

Nearly 85 per cent of UN nations back migration deal; not US

China raised the pressure on the United States and Canada as a bail hearing resumed Monday for a top Chinese technology executive in a case that has fuelled US-China trade tensions and roiled financial markets.
Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei and daughter of its founder, was detained at the request of the U.S. during a layover at the Vancouver airport on December 1 -- the same day that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping of China agreed to a 90-day cease-fire in a trade dispute that threatens to disrupt global commerce.
The US has accused Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment in Iran in violation of US sanctions. It also says that Meng and Huawei misled banks about the company's business dealings in Iran.
Her arrest has fuelled US-China trade tensions at a time when the two countries are seeking to resolve a dispute over Beijing's technology and industrial strategy.
Both sides have sought to keep the issues .

China ups pressure as bail hearing resumes for top tech exec

Facing almost certain defeat, British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday postponed a vote in Parliament on her Brexit deal, saying she would go back to European Union leaders to seek changes to the divorce agreement.
With EU officials adamant the withdrawal deal is not up for renegotiation, May's move threw Britain's Brexit plans into disarray, battered the pound and intensified the country's political crisis.
Two-and-a-half years after Britain voted to leave the EU, and with departure just over three months away on March 29, the country does not know on what terms it will leave  and whether May will still be Britain's leader when it does.
In an emergency statement to the House of Commons, May accepted that the divorce deal she struck last month with EU leaders was likely to be rejected "by a significant margin" if the vote were held Tuesday as planned.
May said she would defer the vote so she could seek "assurances" from the EU and bring the deal back to Parliament. She did not set 

Brexit deal in turmoil as May postpones Parliament vote

President Emmanuel Macron broke his silence Monday on the exceptional protests shaking France and his presidency, promising broad tax relief for struggling workers and pensioners  and acknowledging his own responsibility in fuelling the nation's anger.
Speaking with a soft voice and gentle tone, Macron pleaded during a brief televised address for a return to calm after almost four weeks of protests that started in neglected provinces to oppose fuel tax increases and progressed to rioting in Paris.
"We are at a historic moment for our country," the French leader said from the capital's presidential Elysee Palace. "We will not resume the normal course of our lives" after all that has happened.
Protesters spent days demanding that Macron speak publicly about their concerns, but it's unclear whether the responses he offered will be enough to quell the dissatisfaction.
Some protest representatives have said more demonstrations will be held Saturday, following the ones in Paris that turned .

Macron vows tax relief, urges calm in bid to quell protests

The US State Department says former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and members of his immediate family are now ineligible for entry into the United States.
The decision comes almost two years after Jammeh was forced into exile in Equatorial Guinea after he refused to concede defeat in a presidential election. Jammeh ruled the tiny West African country for two decades.
The State Department says he's now being banned from entry under a category that applies to foreign government officials who are believed to have committed "significant corruption or a gross violation of human rights."
In addition to Jammeh, his wife Zineb, and their daughter Mariam and son Muhammad are also being blocked.

US blocks ex-Gambian president, family from entering

Senior Israeli military officers are flying to Moscow to update their Russian counterparts about an operation launched last week to "expose and thwart" Hezbollah tunnels burrowed under Israel's border with Lebanon.
The Israeli military issued a statement Monday saying the officers would depart Tuesday "to provide an update regarding Operation Northern Shield and other operational issues."
Israel has discovered at least two tunnels since launching the operation last week that it says were built by Hezbollah to carry out attacks against Israel.
Russia and Israel have maintained a hotline to coordinate operations and prevent any collisions between warplanes over neighboring Syria.
Israel frequently carries out airstrikes against Iran and its allies in Syria in an effort to prevent sophisticated weaponry from reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli brass to brief Russian military on Hezbollah tunnels

Israeli military forces carried out a series of raids in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday, bursting into stores and offices of the official Palestinian news agency in a manhunt for gunmen who shot seven Israelis outside a Jewish settlement.
Workers at the Wafa news agency said the troops confiscated security camera footage from their offices as part of the raid, and detained employees in the office for a half an hour.
The agency shared images on Twitter showing Israeli forces in their Ramallah offices. The military announced earlier Monday that it had commenced "extensive searches" in villages near the settlement of Ofra  the site of the attack. The army had no comment on the raid at the Wafa agency.
In Sunday night's attack, shots were fired from a Palestinian vehicle at a bus stop outside the settlement. Security camera footage from the scene showed a car speeding away after the shooting.
A 21-year-old Israeli woman who was pregnant and her baby, who was prematurely ...

Israel raids Palestinian news agency in hunt for gunmen

Two Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers arrived in Venezuela on Monday, a deployment that comes amid soaring Russia-U.S. tensions.
Russia's Defense Ministry said a pair Tu-160 bombers landed at Maiquetia airport outside Caracas on Monday following a 10,000-kilometer (6,200-mile) flight. It didn't say if the bombers were carrying any weapons and didn't say how long they will stay in Venezuela.
The ministry said a heavy-lift An-124 Ruslan cargo plane and an Il-62 passenger plane accompanied the bombers to Maiquetia.
The Tu-160 is capable of carrying conventional or nuclear-tipped cruise missiles with a range of 5,500 kilometers (3,410 miles). Such bombers took part in Russia's campaign in Syria, where they launched conventionally-armed Kh-101 cruise missiles for the first time in combat.
Code-named Blackjack by NATO, the massive warplane is capable of flying at a speed twice exceeding the speed of sound. Russia has upgraded its Tu-160 fleet with new weapons and electronics and ...

Russia sends 2 nuclear-capable bombers to Venezuela

A New Jersey woman has her wedding ring back, nine years after she accidentally flushed it down her toilet.
Paula Stanton was sure the diamond-encrusted gold ring was lost forever after she noticed it wasn't on her finger while she was cleaning her bathroom nearly a decade ago.
Luckily, a member of Somers Point's public works department remembered Stanton mentioning the ring about three years ago.
Last month, Ted Gogol was doing maintenance work near a manhole about 400 feet from Stanton's house. He tells the Press of Atlantic City he saw a shiny object sitting the mud.
It turned out to be Stanton's ring, and after boiling it in peroxide and lemon juice, she is wearing it again.

9 years after being flushed, woman's wedding ring reappears

Five children, including 1-year-old twins, died in a fire that swept through a house in Ohio late Sunday night, firefighters said.
The only survivor was the children's mother who jumped out of a second-floor window, according to Youngstown Fire Capt. Kurt Wright.
The other three children who died were ages 9, 3 and 2, he said.
State and local investigators were just beginning to search for a cause of the deadly blaze. Fire officials said so far, there's nothing that indicates the fire was suspicious.
Most of the damage was on the home's first floor, leading investigators to believe that's where the fire started, Wright said.
Deborah Rivera, who lives across the street, told the Youngstown Vindicator she heard a loud boom and called 911. Her boyfriend, Justin Viera, said flames were shooting out of the first-floor windows.
Neighbours told WFMJ-TV the family had just moved into the house about six months ago. The two-story wood home was built more than 90 years ago.
"We have a ...

House fire kills 5 children, injures mother

Israel's prime minister on Monday announced that Oman will open its airspace to Israel's national airline.
The move appears to have no immediate practical effect because carrier El Al is still barred from flying over Oman's northern neighbour, Saudi Arabia. But it marks another sign of warming ties between Israel and Gulf Arab states, as Israel's behind-the-scenes dealings with its former foes become more public.
Benjamin Netanyahu told a gathering of Israeli ambassadors that Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said granted El Al permission to pass through its airspace during the Israeli leader's surprise visit to the country in October.
The two states have no formal diplomatic relations. Israel only has peace agreements with two Arab states  Egypt and Jordan.
El Al said the news of Oman's permission took the airline by surprise, but that it "welcomes the prime minister's political activity to achieve every possible flight shortcut to and from Israel."
Saudi Arabia broke a decades-long ban on ...

Israel says Oman will open its airspace to Israeli carrier

On the final leg of his journey from Iraq to Europe, Hawye Rasool Saleh paid 400 euros ( USD 457) borrowed from his best friend to a smuggler who would help him across the cease-fire line of ethnically split Cyprus.
The transaction was sealed in anonymity.
"You don't know me, I don't know you," the 32-year-old Saleh said he was told by the trafficker before he climbed into a van on the Turkish Cypriot side.
The crossing was easy, Saleh said. Two soldiers manning a Turkish Cypriot guard post checked the driver's ID, then waved the van through to the buffer zone that divides the northern part of the Mediterranean island from the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus, a European Union member.
Saleh, who said he fled religious fundamentalism in Iraq, is one of the thousands of migrants who have slipped into Cyprus this year across its porous 180-kilometer-long (120-mile-long) buffer zone. Migrant arrivals by sea have also increased, turning tiny Cyprus into the EU's top recipient .

Cyprus sees surge in migrants crossing from breakaway north

Indigenous and youth groups disrupted a U.S. government event at the U.N. climate talks Monday, criticizing the Trump administration's policy of backing the extraction of fossil fuels, the burning of which increases global warming.
About 100 protesters stood up and began chanting "keep it in the ground"  a reference to ending the extraction of coal, oil and natural gas  shortly after the start of the panel called "U.S. Innovative Technologies Spur Economic Dynamism" on the sidelines of the meeting in Katowice, Poland.
As cameras swarmed around them, some of the protesters explained how their communities' lives are affected by fossil fuel extraction. After several minutes, the activists left the room chanting "shame on you." The protest mirrored a similar action taken during a U.S.-hosted panel at last year's climate talks in Bonn, Germany.
Preston Wells Griffith, a Trump administration adviser speaking at this year's panel, said after the stunt that the U.S. will continue extracting ..

Protesters disrupt US fossil fuel event at UN climate talks

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of an Indian bishop who, according to news reports, was accused of misappropriating church funds to support a secret family.
Bishop Prasad Gallela of Cuddapah in southern India denied the accusations.
On Monday, the Vatican said Gallela had offered to resign and Francis accepted.
At 56, Gallela is well below the normal retirement age of 75 for bishops.
The Ucanews news agency, which covers the Catholic Church closely in Asia, said two lay Catholics had filed a criminal complaint against Gallela accusing him of misappropriating diocesan social welfare funds to support a wife and teenage son.
Ucanews quoted Gallela as saying the accusations were false and that the woman identified as his wife on land deeds is actually the wife of his dead brother.

Indian bishop accused of misusing funds for family resigns

Romanian authorities say the number of babies diagnosed with a drug-resistant superbug at a maternity hospital in the capital has risen to 39.
Raluca Alexandru, spokeswoman for Giulesti Maternity hospital, closed November 30 due to the outbreak, on Monday said tests have confirmed the latest figure.
It is triple the number of newborns diagnosed with antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus last month.
Health Minister Sorina Pintea said she will decide later this week whether to keep the hospital closed. The infants are hospitalised in three children's facilities in Bucharest.
The bacteria often live on the skin or in the nostrils without causing symptoms but they can become dangerous if they enter the bloodstream, destroying heart valves or causing other damage.
Microbiologists say up to 30 per cent of humans are long-term carriers.

Romania hospital reports 39 babies diagnosed with superbug

Lithuania has become the latest Western country to blacklist Saudi officials over the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in October.
Rasa Jakilaitiene, spokeswoman for the Baltic country's foreign minister, tells the Baltic News Service the names of 17 Saudi officials have been put on the list "in solidarity with international partners."
The region's main news agency said Monday the list includes suspected killers and close advisers to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
BNS said the names were listed by the Lithuanian Migration Department under the so-called Magnitsky law blacklisting people for human rights violations.

Lithuania blacklists Saudi officials over Khashoggi killing

South Korean prosecutors have charged four people with illegally importing North Korean coal via Russia in violation of UN sanctions.
Monday's indictment came four months after customs authorities accused three of the four of using forged documents to illicitly import 35,000 tons of North Korean coal and other minerals worth USD 5.8 million.
South Korean media say prosecutors have found an additional person implicated in the case during an investigation.
Prosecutors said in a statement that the four people and their five entities were charged with violating a law requiring government approval to bring in North Korean products.
UN sanctions that were toughened in 2017 ban member states from importing North Korean coal and other minerals that had been sources of hard currency for the country.

S Korea charges 4 with illegally importing N Korean coal

The World Health Organisation says Ebola vaccinations soon will begin in South Sudan as the country is at "very high risk" in the current outbreak based in neighbouring Congo.
A statement says South Sudan's health ministry will begin vaccinating some health workers and other frontline workers in the capital, Juba, on December 19.
No Ebola cases have been reported in South Sudan or any of Congo's neighbours in this outbreak, which is now the second-deadliest in history. Vaccinations began earlier in Uganda.
More than 40,000 people have received the experimental but promising Ebola vaccine in this outbreak. The WHO statement says more than 2,000 doses have been allocated to South Sudan.
Congo's health ministry says this outbreak has almost reached 500 cases: 494, including 446 confirmed with 235 confirmed deaths.

South Sudan to begin Ebola vaccinations as 'very high risk'

Israel says it has been accepted as a member in a global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog group.
The Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental group of some 35 countries based in Paris that sets international standards on terror financing and money laundering.
Israel says Monday that its acceptance into the group will allow it to take an active role in global policy-making on the issues.
In a statement, the FATF said Israel's "experience and perspective will make a valuable contribution to our work to prevent the misuse of the financial system."
The group has in the past given Israel's archenemy Iran ultimatums over terrorism funding, warning of deeper economic isolation if it doesn't comply.

Israel accepted into global financial watchdog group

Tokyo prosecutors have charged Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, another executive and the automaker itself for allegedly underreporting income.
The charges imposed Monday involve allegations Ghosn's pay was underreported by about 5 billion yen (USD 44 million) in 2011-2015. The prosecutors said earlier that the allegations were the reason for Ghosn's arrest on November 19.
The prosecutors issued statements also outlining new allegations Monday against Ghosn and Greg Kelly, the other executive. The fresh allegations are of underreporting another 4 billion yen (USD 36 million) in 2016-2018. Nissan as a company was not mentioned in the latest allegations.
In Japan, a company can be charged with wrongdoing.
Some kind of action by the prosecutors had been expected because the detention period allowed for the allegations disclosed earlier was to end on Monday.  Nissan Motor Co. confirmed the charges against it in a statement and vowed to strengthen its governance and ...

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