The US State Department has encouraged Americans to "reconsider" any plans to travel to China amid a deadly outbreak of a coronavirus that originated in the city of Wuhan.
The State Department also issued a stern warning for its citizens not to travel to Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. So far, 82 people have died as a result of the virus, all of them in China.
The department noted that last week it ordered the departure of all non-emergency US personnel and their family members from Wuhan.
"The US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens in Hubei province," the department said in a statement on Monday.

Americans should 'reconsider travel' to China over virus: State

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One of Harvey Weinstein's main accusers told his rape trial that the ex-Hollywood producer forcibly performed oral sex on her in a children's bedroom in his New York home.
Mimi Haleyi -- a former production assistant -- cried as she told the Manhattan court that Weinstein, 67, sexually assaulted her in July 2006 while she was on her period.
She described how Weinstein, who was then three times her weight, initially appeared "friendly" before he backed her into a bedroom with children's drawings on the wall.
"He was kissing and fondling me," she said on Monday.
"I expressed to him the entire time that I don't want this to happen," Haleyi, added, sobbing.
Weinstein pushed her onto the bed and forcibly performed oral sex on her after pulling out her tampon, she said during the fourth day of testimony.
"Physically I was trying to get away (but) I figured it was pointless and I basically checked out," Haleyi, an assistant on realty TV show "Project Runway," told the court.
More than 80 ...

Accuser says Weinstein sexually assaulted her in children's bedroom

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdel Mahdi to uphold his country's "sovereignty" in the face of "attacks" from Iran on US facilities in Iraq.
Pompeo "expressed his outrage at the continued assaults by Iran's armed groups against US facilities in Iraq, including yesterday's rocket attacks against our Embassy, which resulted in one injury," the State Department said in a statement on Monday.
The statement said that "these attacks demonstrate a wanton disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and a failure to rein in these dangerous armed groups." Pompeo said on Twitter that "the government of #Iraq must take immediate steps to protect our diplomatic facilities as required by international law.

Pompeo urges Iraq to uphold 'sovereignty' faced with Iran 'attacks'on US targets

A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to put in place a policy connecting the use of public benefits with whether immigrants could become permanent residents.
The new policy can be used to deny green cards to immigrants over their use of public benefits including Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers, as well as other factors.
The justices' order came by a 5-4 vote and reversed a ruling from the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that had kept in a place a nationwide hold on the policy following lawsuits that have been filed against it.
The court's four liberal justices, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, would have prevented the policy from taking effect.
Federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Richmond, Virginia, had previously overturned trial court rulings against the policy. An injunction in Illinois remains in effect, but applies only to that state.
The lawsuits will continue, but immigrants ...

Justices allow enforcement of new green card rule

Over 30,000 people have been displaced by heavy rains in southeast Brazil that also killed 54 people and left 18 missing.
The storms in recent days caused floods and landslides, submerging entire neighbourhoods and sending homes tumbling down hillsides in the states of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro.
Rains subsided by Monday, but were expected to resume later this week in some areas.
Flooded roads created violent rapids, sweeping up victims, cars and other debris.
Those evacuated were being housed in makeshift shelters in churches, schools and fire stations. Local authorities have asked for donations of clothes, sheets and mattresses for the victims.
In Minas Gerais, 15,000 people were evacuated and in Espirito Santo nearly 10,000 more, according to local rescue efforts. In Rio, at least 6,000 were evacuated, according to local news media, citing figures from various municipalities. Rio state authorities didn't immediately respond to a request for official data.
Local 

Brazil downpour displaces 30,000, bracing for more rain

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday warned Britain that its departure from the bloc later this week would have "negative consequences" and only ever be an exercise in "damage limitation".
In a speech at Queen's University Belfast, the Brussels diplomat charged with agreeing an EU-UK free trade deal, said nobody had yet convinced him of the "added value of Brexit".
"It is absolutely clear that there will be negative consequences," Barnier said on a visit to Northern Ireland after meeting members of the devolved assembly in the city.
"Whatever agreement we reach on our future relationship, Brexit will always be a matter of damage limitation." Britain will become the first country to leave the bloc at 2300 GMT on Friday, ending nearly five decades of membership.
Barnier had warned earlier Monday during a visit to Dublin for talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar that London would have to "rebuild everything" in its new relationship with the ...

EU's Barnier warns of inevitable Brexit 'damage'

The United Nations revealed on Monday chilling new details about an airstrike that smashed into a migrant detention center in Libya, killing at least 50 people.
The July attack, which ranked among the deadliest assaults on civilians since the start of Libya's civil war, sparked international condemnation and accusations of war crimes.
The 13-page-report said the conduct of compound officials at the time of the deadly attack may have contributed to the high death toll.
It also documented numerous violations of international law by warring Libyan militias and urged further investigation to ensure accountability. It was published on Monday by the UN Support Mission in Libya and the UN Human Rights Office.
The Tajoura detention facility, run by a militia allied with the UN-backed government based in the capital, Tripoli, placed civilian refugees "in grave danger" in manifold ways, the report said.
Not only did the centre sit in a military complex beside an ammunition depot, making it a ...

UN report: Chilling details of Libya migrant centre strike

A prominent jihadist group based in the Sahel and linked to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility Monday for a weekend attack that killed 20 Malian security forces.
Sunday's dawn attack on the Sokolo camp in central Mali, near the border with Mauritania, left "20 dead and five wounded" and "four dead on the enemy's side", the army said.
All of those killed were gendarmes, or paramilitary police officers, a local lawmaker told AFP.
Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) -- an umbrella group of al-Qaeda affiliates -- said it had staged the raid.
JNIM was designated a terrorist organisation by the United States in September.
In a statement sent to Mauritanian news agency Al-Akhbar on Monday, JNIM said it "managed to kill 20 soldiers and imprison three more", adding that it lost three of its own men.
Militants also captured "nine all-terrain vehicles, over 20 Kalashnikov machine guns, a large arsenal of ammunition and other weapons," according to the statement.
On Sunday, Mali's army ...

Al-Qaeda affiliate claims Mali attack that killed 20

Bombs planted underwater off Syria's coast exploded on Monday, damaging oil facilities used to pump oil into one of Syria's two petroleum refineries, state media and the oil minister said.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, the third to target Syria's oil and gas industry in less than a year.
The attack off the coast of Banias was carried out by "terrorists," state news agency SANA said. Banias is on the Mediterranean shoreline in the Tartous province.
Oil minister Ali Ghanem told state TV that the bombs were planted by divers in the facility used to pump oil to the coast. He said the facility is 3 kilometers (2 miles) off the coast and is 23 meters (yards) underwater.
"The aim of the attack is to cease (oil) imports into Syria," Ghanem said, adding the ministry's experts are evaluating and fixing the damage. He said the attack will not stop imports as the ministry had prepared plans in case of such attacks.
Last month, near-simultaneous attacks believed to have been ...

Underwater bombs damage Syria's offshore oil facilities

Canadian health authorities on Monday confirmed the country's first case of a deadly coronavirus that originated in China, and said the patient's wife had also tested positive.
The woman's case is still listed as "presumptive," pending final confirmation by a national lab in Winnipeg, officials said.
Nearly 20 people are being monitored.
The patient confirmed to have the virus -- a man in his 50s who arrived in Toronto on January 22 from Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic -- is being treated in isolation in a hospital there.
His wife, who traveled with him, also is believed to have contracted the virus and is in self-isolation, David Williams, Ontario province's chief medical officer, said in a statement.
He qualified the risk to others in Ontario as "low," given that the woman has been in self-isolation.
"We also have 19 persons under investigation for whom results are pending," Barbara Yaffe, the province's associate chief medical officer, told reporters.
"And we have ruled out ...

Canada confirms first virus case, second is 'presumptive'

At least eight people were killed early Monday in an explosive fire that consumed at least 35 vessels docked along the Tennessee River.
Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus said all eight people known to be missing were confirmed dead and "that number could go up, because we don't know how many were on boats" that sank.
The fire began just after midnight and quickly consumed the dock as people were sleeping. The wooden dock went up in flames and an aluminum roof that covered many of the vessels melted and collapsed, cutting off escape routes and raining debris over the area as boaters leaped into the river.
At least seven people were sent to hospitals suffering from exposure to the flames or the frigid water.
Necklaus said about 35 boats were destroyed, some of them sinking at the dock and others floating away before going under. He said divers need to locate each one and search them individually to be sure there were no other victims.
"We woke up hearing screams and popping noises," ..

Alabama fire chief confirms 8 deaths in boat dock blaze

Belgium's former king Albert II admitted on Monday that he is the father of an illegitimate daughter born from an affair 51 years ago after a positive result from a DNA test he was forced to take.
Recognising he is the "biological father" of Belgian artist Delphine Boel, the 85-year-old ex-monarch said in a statement he had decided to halt a "painful" paternity legal battle that has dragged on since 2013, the year he abdicated and lost his immunity.
Albert had repeatedly denied being the father of Boel, who had made her claim over the past two decades before turning to the courts.
The former king agreed in May last year to take a DNA test to resolve the matter after a Brussels court levied a fine of 5,000 euro (USD 5,500) for each day he refused.
The lawyers of Boel, now in her fifties, said in a statement that the results indicated that Albert was in fact her father.

Belgium's ex-king forced to recognise illegitimate daughter

Around 1,500 people who came to Britain from the Chinese epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic in the past two weeks must put themselves in isolation, the UK health minister said on Monday.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said authorities "cannot be 100 percent certain" that the virus cannot spread from a person who exhibits no flu-like symptoms.
"From today, we are therefore asking anyone in the UK who has returned from Wuhan in the last 14 days to self-isolate," Hancock told a parliamentary hearing.
"Do not leave home until you have been given advice by a clinician."
Hancock said health officials continued to trace people who have arrived in the UK from Wuhan.
"Having eliminated those who we know have since left the country, there are 1,460 people we are seeking to locate." Britain has not recorded any confirmed cases of the disease.
The Foreign Office said Monday it was "working to make an option available for British nationals to leave (Wuhan's) Hubei province due to the heavy ...

Britain tells travellers from China virus city to self-isolate

Quim Torra, who heads Catalonia's separatist government, on Monday lost his status as a lawmaker in the region's parliament following a disagreement between the chamber's two main pro-independence parties.
It was not immediately clear whether Torra would have to stand down as Catalan president, but the event flagged growing tensions between separatists in this wealthy northeastern region of Spain.
Torra took over as regional president in May 2018 at the head of a coalition made up of Catalonia's two main separatist parties, JxC (Together for Catalonia) and the ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia).
But their time in office has been strained by differences over strategy and loss of support.
In November, Torra went on trial in Barcelona for "disobedience" after refusing to remove separatist symbols from public buildings, and he was convicted last month, with the court banning him from holding public office for 18 months.
Although Torra has appealed the conviction, the electoral commission .

Catalonia's separatist president loses MP status

Mali began recruiting some 15,000 teachers on Monday, the government said, in order to break a nationwide strike which began last week over demands for higher pay.
A statement released by the West African state's Youth and Sport ministry said that recruitment was open for 10,300 primary-school teachers and 5,000 secondary-school ones, for six-month contracts.
The move follows up on an earlier threat made by Mali's prime minister to hire from a large pool of already-jobless teachers in the country unless striking teachers return to classrooms.
After negotiations with the government broke down, eight teaching unions declared a strike on January 21.
Teachers are demanding that the government honour a pledge made in January last year to raise public salaries by 20 percent, according to Adama Fomba, a union leader.
That pledge also foresaw another nine-percent salary bump in 2021.
Mali's National Centre for the Promotion of Volunteerism is running the recruitment drive for new teachers. ...

Mali to hire 15,000 teachers to break nationwide strike

Israeli citizens are not allowed to come to Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's foreign minister announced Monday after the Jewish state said it gave its citizens the green light to visit.
Israel's interior ministry on Sunday said Israeli citizens, both Muslims and Jews, have the right to travel to Saudi Arabia for religious and business visits.
But Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told CNN Israelis are not welcome at the moment in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites.
"Our policy is constant. We don't have relations with Israel and holders of Israeli passports cannot visit the kingdom for now," he said, according to CNN's Arabic website.
Like most Arab countries, Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Israel has peace deals with only two Arab countries -- Jordan and Egypt -- but its occupation of Palestinian territory has long served as a major factor preventing similar accords with the rest of the Arab world.
Israel has, however, been seeking to ..

Saudi says Israelis cannot visit 'for now'

Chef Kei Kobayashi made history on Monday by becoming the first Japanese chef to win the maximum three Michelin stars in France.
The 42-year-old, who was born in Nagano, admitted that his perfectionism can make him a "difficult person" to work with as he picked up the award in Paris.
He opened his restaurant, Kei, in centre of the French capital, nine years ago, and already had two Michelin stars.

Kei Kobayashi first Japanese chef to get three Michelin stars in France

Eight people were killed in a late night fire that swept through docked boats on a lake in the southern US state of Alabama, the local fire chief said on Monday.
"At this point, I can confirm eight fatalities," said Gene Necklaus, the fire chief of Scottsboro, Alabama, a small town on the banks of Guntersville Lake where the blaze broke out.

Eight dead in US boat dock fire: fire chief

Nearly 200 civilians were killed in violence last month in two volatile provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless east, the highest toll since June 2017, a monitor said on Monday.
"Armed groups and security forces killed at least 197 civilians over the course of the last 31 days of 2019," in the North and South Kivu provinces, said the Kivu Security Tracker, a joint project of the Congo Research Group, based at New York University's Centre on International Cooperation, and Human Rights Watch.
It "was the deadliest month for civilian deaths ever recorded by the Kivu Security Tracker since its creation in June 2017," a statement said.
The bulk of the civilians deaths occurred in the restive Beni region, with 120 victims slain "in attacks mostly attributed to the Islamist rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)," it said.
The ADF is a ruthless militia of Ugandan origin.
Several militias operate in eastern DR Congo, a bloody legacy of two regional wars in the 1990s that 

Nearly 200 killed in two eastern DRC provinces last month: monitor

US President Donald Trump on Monday said he will announce his suggestion for lasting peace between Israel and Palestine at the White House on Tuesday noon.
Earlier in the day, Palestinian leaders, who have not been invited to the White House, rejected the US initiative, accusing the Trump administration of being pro-Israel bias.
"Tomorrow at 12 o'clock we're going to show a plan. It's been worked on by everybody and we'll see whether or not it catches all of them. It does, that'd be great. And if it doesn't, we can live with it too. But I think it might have a chance," Trump told reporters in the Rose garden of the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing by his side.
Soon in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that this is a plan that is very important to peace in the Middle East.
"No matter where I went, they say Israel and the Palestinians, they have to make peace before you can really have peace in the middle East. People have been working on this for .

Trump to announce major Israel-Palestine peace plan on Tuesday

At times sobbing, former production assistant Mimi Haleyi told jurors Monday at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial how she tried to fight off the disgraced movie mogul and told him "no, no, no" while he sexually assaulted her.
"I did reject him, but he insisted," said Haleyi, whose allegations against Weinstein led to his charges and trial. "Every time I tried to get off the bed he would push me back and hold me down."
Haleyi testified she thought: "I'm being raped" and considered different options. "If I scream rape, will someone hear me?" she said before she "checked out".
"I couldn't get away from him at all, let alone get away," Haleyi said. "I checked out and decided to endure it. That was the safest thing I could do."
Weinstein, 67, is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on Haleyi in his New York City apartment in 2006 and raping another woman, an aspiring actress, in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013. He insists any sexual encounters were consensual.
The 42-year-old Haleyi, whose 

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