US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet Colombian President Ivan Duque in the resort city of Cartagena next week, as tensions flare with neighbouring Venezuela.
Duque and Pompeo will seek to "continue strengthening the bilateral relationship and discuss the crisis provoked by the dictatorship in Venezuela," a statement from the Colombia president's office said Thursday.
The meeting, scheduled for next Wednesday, comes after Duque asked countries "that defend democracy" not to recognise the new government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, due to be seated on January 10.
The socialist leader, who has overseen Venezuela's descent into the worst economic crisis of its history, will start a second mandate after winning an election earlier this year that was branded a fraud by the US, European Union, opposition groups and the Organisation of American States.
Colombia, a strategic ally of the United States, is leading the regional opposition to Venezuela, with which it has ...

Pompeo to visit Colombia amid tensions with Venezuela

PTI Automatic

A top Chinese university on Thursday removed the student leader of an on-campus Marxist group, replacing him and other core members with its own picks -- most of them Communist Party members.
The person responsible for the Marxist society "repeatedly" organised activities in violation of rules, the Peking University Student Extracurricular Guidance Center posted on the school's internal online forum.
He has already been "penalised" by the public security bureau and "does not have the qualifications to continue... as head of the organisation", it said.
The removal of Qiu Zhanxuan, the school's Marxist society president, comes a day after he was detained by police for -- according to a witness -- attempting to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Mao Zedong, whose legacy in China remains controversial.
According to a notice seen by AFP, Qiu was handed an "administrative penalty" by Beijing police for "holding up slogans, singing... (and) other methods to disturb the public order ..

Top Chinese university removes Marxist student leader

DR Congo on Thursday told the EU to recall its envoy in retaliation for sanctions against 14 figures, including President Joseph Kabila's champion in elections three days away.
"The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo urges the European Council to proceed without fail in recalling its head of mission within 48 hours," Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu said.

DR Congo gives EU 48 hours to withdraw envoy

Egyptian authorities Thursday released a prominent activist who had criticised the government and decried sexual harassment after more than seven months of detention, her lawyer said.
Lawyer Doaa Moustafa said her client, Amal Fathy, was freed from a police station in the capital Cairo, more than a week after a court ordered her conditional release.
Fathy must report to a nearby police station every week and is under house arrest, allowed only to leave for medication or visiting a police station or court, Moustafa said.
Her husband, activist Mohammed Lotfi confirmed her release in a Facebook post.
Police arrested Fathy in May after she posted a video online criticising the state for deteriorating public services and not taking measures against sexual harassment.
She cited alleged harassment at the branch of a local state-owned bank.
The video also shows her using profanities to describe her experience at the bank and repeatedly insult the state.
Fathy faces charges of disseminating ...

Egypt releases prominent female activist

More police officers have died in the line of duty this year in the United States than in 2017, according to data released Thursday.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said in a report that 144 federal, state and local officers have died so far in 2018.
That figure represents roughly a 12 per cent increase from the 129 who died in 2017.
The majority of the officers who died were shot or fatally injured in car crashes.
Other deaths involved heart attacks, drownings and cancer and other illnesses developed by responders to the World Trade Center attack.
Eight of the officers were killed during investigative activity and six were killed while responding to calls of a domestic disturbance, according to the report.
Two were killed while serving warrants, two died while handling or transporting prisoners and two others were inadvertently shot by other officers.
The officers who died in 2018 include a sheriff's deputy in Sacramento County, California killed in a shootout, ...

Deaths of police officers on duty on the rise in the US

Former First Lady Hillary Clinton's 17-year run as the woman Americans admire most is over. Another former First Lady, Michelle Obama, has deposed Clinton as America's most admired woman, according to a Gallup poll published on Thursday.
Former president Barack Obama was named the man Americans admire most for the 11th year in a row, Gallup said.
President Donald Trump finished second in the poll for the fourth year in a row.
Gallup has conducted the annual poll every year since 1946 with the exception of 1976.
Fifteen per cent of the 1,025 Americans polled said the woman they admire most is Michelle Obama, who is currently on a tour promoting her book "Becoming."
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey was second with five per cent followed by Hillary Clinton and First Lady Melania Trump with four per cent.
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and a former US senator and secretary of state, has topped the list 22 times including the past 17 years in a row.
Nineteen per cent 

Michelle Obama tops Hillary Clinton as America's most admired woman

Congress members trickled back into Washington Thursday but there was little hope of ending the government shutdown sparked by a row with President Donald Trump over his demand for US-Mexico border wall construction.
The Senate was in session after the Christmas break, but very few lawmakers were likely to appear and formal negotiations over the budget impasse were not expected.
A lapse in funding to parts of the government meanwhile entered a sixth day.
Trump, apparently not sleeping after a gruelling roundtrip to Iraq -- his first visit to US combat troops since being elected -- indicated on Twitter that he was in no mood to compromise.
He wants USD 5 billion for extensions and improvements to a Mexico border barrier that he has made the centerpiece of his domestic political platform, arguing that the United States needs protection from illegal immigration.
Opponents, who include some of Trump's own Republicans, accuse the president overhyping the immigration problem for political ..

Trump opens fire on sixth day of government shutdown

India finished their preparations for the upcoming Asian Cup Football Championship by holding a superior Oman to a goalless draw in their final warm-up game, here Thursday.
India, currently ranked 97th in FIFA charts, held their own against the 82nd ranked Oman by creating a few chances while both goalkeepers Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Amrinder Singh pulled off a few good saves to keep the scoresheet clean.
Coach Stephen Constantine gave chance to most of his players during the warm-up game which was played closed doors in order to keep cards close to his chest.
India's first attempt at Oman citadel was in the 17th minute when Sunil Chhetri tried a long ranger from the top of the box but it sailed over.
Indian team made a few raids at the stroke of half an hour, earning a couple of free-kicks but Oman defence was equal to the task.
The 'Blue Tigers' earned their first corner in the 42nd minute but Aniruddh Thapa's corner didn't create much danger.
Constantine rung in triple change ...

Asian Cup: India hold Oman to goalless draw in closed door warm-up game

A DR Congo opposition bloc called Thursday for a nationwide stoppage and police clashed with demonstrators in two eastern cities after upcoming elections were placed on hold in their region.
Lamuka, a coalition of parties supporting opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, called for cities to be brought to a standstill on Friday, two days before polling day.
On Wednesday, the Democratic Republic of Congo's national election panel announced the thrice-delayed vote would be postponed in several troubled areas until March.
But it said the vote would continue to take place in the rest of the country as scheduled on December 30, and the next president will be sworn in on January 18.
Sunday's election will be the DRC's first presidential ballot in seven years.
Legislative and municipal elections are being held at the same time.
In the province of North Kivu, the region most affected by the delay, several hundred demonstrators gathered on Thursday in the administrative district of the city of ...

Strike call, protests in DR Congo after new election delay

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to depart later Thursday for the first trip by an Israeli premier to Brazil, where he will attend the inauguration of incoming president Jair Bolsonaro.
Netanyahu will also hold talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines of the January 1 inauguration in Brasilia, an Israeli official told AFP.
Netanyahu is due to meet Bolsonaro on Friday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro, the official said on condition of anonymity.
He will also hold talks with the presidents of Chile and Honduras while there, among other officials, and meet with members of the Jewish community and a pro-Israel Christian group.
He will fly back after the inauguration in the early hours of January 2, the official said.
Bolsonaro has said he wants to follow in the footsteps of United States President Donald Trump and move his country's Israel embassy to Jerusalem.
Netanyahu welcomed the announcement and called it "historic" -- though Bolsonaro later backtracked by saying 

Netanyahu set for first trip by Israeli PM to Brazil

A Frenchman at the centre of a scandal that led to the postponement of the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize has appealed his rape conviction to Sweden's Supreme Court, the highest court said Thursday.
Once an influential figure in Stockholm's cultural scene, 72-year-old Jean-Claude Arnault was in early December found guilty by a Stockholm appeals court of two counts of rape against one woman and sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
Arnault "has appealed the appeals court ruling and asked the Supreme Court to reject it in its entirety," the Supreme Court wrote in a statement.
The tribunal said it had given Arnault until January 28 to provide further argumentation for why the court should consider his case.
Sweden's Supreme Court only takes on cases that may set a legal precedent, or when there are exceptional reasons to reconsider a ruling.
Arnault, who has been locked up since his district court conviction in October, has made no public statement regarding his decision.
His was 

Frenchman in Nobel rape scandal appeals to Supreme Court

David Warner's isolation by Steve Smith and Camron Bancroft in their recent interviews will not impact the opening batsman's re-integration,  Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts promised Thursday.
Both Smith and Bancroft held Warner responsible for the ball tampering scandal, which led to imposition of bans on all three cricketers.
While both Smith and Bancroft accepted their own responsibility in committing the mistake during the Test against South Africa at Centurion in March, they sought to put more blame on Warner.
Smith was quoted as saying, "I don't want to know about it" when Warner indicated the need to do something with the ball and Bancroft said he was encouraged by Warner to tamper with the ball.
"I don't know that it does," Roberts told SEN Radio, according to Cricinfo, when asked whether comments made by Smith and Bancroft and Smith would impact his chances of returning to the national side.
"Our focus is to work with Dave, who I spoke to about three days ago .

Warner's integration very much on: CA Chief Executive Roberts

President Donald Trump may have inadvertently unmasked a Navy SEAL team during his short visit to a US base in Iraq this week.
Ordinarily, the whereabouts of special operations forces are a closely held secret. In the rare instances when they are filmed while in a combat zone, their faces and other identifying features are usually blurred out.
But after his lightning trip to Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq on Wednesday, Trump tweeted a video of him posing for photos with US troops, shaking their hands and signing mementos.
In one scene, he is giving a thumbs up alongside a group of what appear to be special operations forces.
According to the pool report of the event, held in a dining hall at the base, a man called Kyu Lee told Trump he was the chaplain for SEAL Team Five.
Lee recalled Trump telling him: "Hey, in that case, let's take a picture."
While the president has broad authority to declassify information, so his tweet likely didn't run afoul of any rules, some observers called 

Trump tweets video of secretive SEAL team in Iraq

Former Madagascan president Andry Rajoelina has beaten his rival and predecessor Marc Ravalomanana in an election beset by allegations of fraud from both sides, the electoral commission said Thursday.
Rajoelina has returned to power after he won 55.66 per cent against 44.34 per cent for Ravalomanana, it said.
The results, announced under high security, may be contested after Ravalomanana claimed fraud.
Rajoelina, 44, sat in the front row among the 200 guests in the room where the electoral commission announced the results.
A seat next to him, apparently reserved for Ravalomanana, was empty, according to an AFP journalist.
"It's unfortunate that the other candidate is not here," the president of the electoral commission, Hery Rakotomanana, said.
The electoral commission chief said "efforts were made to respond" to concerns raised by both candidates, which included a review of the counting software.
The two-round election was plagued by mutual accusations of vote-rigging in a country ...

Ex-president Rajoelina wins Madagascar vote

A crudely-made bomb exploded outside one of Athens' most important churches early Thursday, injuring its caretaker and a police officer  troubling authorities as the attack took place without warning in one of the capital's busiest areas.
Police officials said the timed device exploded outside the Orthodox church of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite in the upscale Kolonaki area of the capital before a Christmas holiday service to mark St Stephen's day.
The two victims were hospitalised. Neither of the men has injuries that are life-threatening, according to police and church officials. The blast caused minimal damage.
Father Symeon Voliotis, an aide at the archbishop's office, said the caretaker found the explosive device at the front entrance of the church, moved it to a nearby parking space, and alerted police.
"Any action that threatens life or disturbs the peace must be condemned," he told state-run ERT television.
"My first thought was that someone homeless may have been hurt, ...

Bomb at Greek church injures 2 after no warning given

An SUV carrying seven members of a British family plunged off a high bridge Thursday in Iceland, killing three people and critically injuring the others, authorities said.
Icelandic police said one child was among the dead and two were among the injured.
The accident occurred about 9.30 am Thursday when the vehicle slammed through a railing on the one-lane bridge at Skeidararsandur, a vast sand plain in southern Iceland. The car landed on a rocky river bank.
Police say it remains unclear what caused the British driver to lose control of the vehicle but temperatures were around freezing at the time.
The accident occurred hours before this North Atlantic island saw sunrise, which hit the capital, Reykjavik, at 11:23 am. Thursday.
Tour guide Adolf Erlingsson was among the first on the scene.
"It was horrible," he told The Associated Press.
"The car seemed to have hit the ground many meters from where it stopped. We struggled getting everyone out."
Police only identified the victims as ...

3 British tourists die in Iceland crash, 4 severely hurt

Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday met a top US commander in Afghanistan and discussed the regional security and ongoing reconciliation process in the war-torn country.
General Bajwa and General Austin Scott Miller, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, underlined the importance of political resolution of Afghan situation and that only an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led inclusive process can lead to peace in Afghanistan.
During the meeting at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, they agreed on the importance of a political solution to the Afghan conflict.
General Bajwa said that Pakistan is committed to efforts for peace in Afghanistan as it is important for peace in Pakistan.
During the meeting matters of mutual interest with particular reference to regional security and ongoing Afghan reconciliation process were discussed.
Both expressed unanimity of views on importance of political resolution of Afghan situation and underlined that only an Afghan owned 

Pak army chief, US commander discuss Afghan peace process

Pakistan on Thursday said it will place former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur on the Exit Control List (ECL) to prevent them from flying abroad after they were named in a Supreme Court-appointed joint investigative team probing fake bank accounts.
The JIT, constituted by the apex court on September 5, probe focused on "32 fake accounts" which were allegedly used to give massive financial benefits to Zardari, Talpur and several others.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the Cabinet has decided to place on the ECL all 172 suspects, including Zardari and his sister, involved in cases of money laundering and use of fake bank accounts, Dawn reported.
Those persons on the list are prohibited from leaving Pakistan.
"I was watching Asif Ali Zardari say that he does not take the JIT seriously," recalled the minister. "Hopefully, he will take it seriously after today. In the upcoming days he will know the seriousness of this inquiry."
"This is not Purana ...

Pak to ban ex-president Zardari, his sister from travelling abroad

President Donald Trump's lightning Christmas visit with US troops in Iraq has triggered questions and criticism in a country deeply divided over Washington's influence since the 2003 US invasion.
The Wednesday visit, Trump's first with US troops in a conflict zone since he took office two years ago, came days after a shock decision to pull all American troops from neighbouring Syria.
Trump's trip was veiled in such secrecy there was speculation that Iraqi authorities had not been informed, and the US leader did not meet with Iraqi officials.
There were no face-to-face talks between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi due to "differing views on how to organise the meeting", Iraqi authorities said in a statement.
The two leaders instead spoke over the phone, the statement added.
In Iraqi media, rumours abounded that Trump had asked Abdel Mahdi to meet him at the military base but the premier declined.
"What was supposed to pass for a face-saving story -- that Trump refused ..

Trump's surprise troop visit sparks criticism in Iraq

A British-Pakistani man who made plans to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group is facing a lengthy jail term after he was convicted of preparing an act of terrorism by a court here on Thursday.
Mohammad Aqib Imran, a 22-year-old from Birmingham, was arrested after an investigation into his friend, 20-year-old British- Bangladeshi Naa'imur Rahman, who was earlier this year convicted of a plot to kill Prime Minister Theresa May.
While Imran was not charged in relation to that assassination plot, police identified that they had been interacting online and met on two occasions. Rahman recorded a "sponsor" video and sent it to Imran to show terrorists when he arrived in Libya.
"The idea was that Rahman would kill the Prime Minister and Imran would subsequently have a video from a martyr recommending he be accepted into the terrorist organisation. Such a video would have held weight with Daesh (ISIS)," said Acting Commander for the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, Alexis 

British-Pakistani man convicted of trying to join ISIS

Former Madagascan president Andry Rajoelina has returned to power after beating rival Marc Ravalomanana in last week's highly contested run-off vote, according to results published Thursday by the electoral commission.
Rajoelina won 55.66 per cent against 44.34 per cent for Ravalomanana, it said.
The results may be contested after Ravalomanana claimed fraud.
The electoral commission chief Hery Rakotomanana said "efforts were made to respond" to concerns raised by both candidates which included a review of the counting software.
The two-round election was plagued by mutual accusations of vote-rigging in a country with a long history of instability.
Rajoelina and Ravalomanana are former presidents and long-time rivals.
They each spent lavishly on campaigning, with promises and handouts distributed liberally to voters, who are among the poorest in Africa.

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