World

NEW YORK: The US has slashed its contributions to the United Nations by $285 million for the 2018-19 fiscal year. By announcing the cut, President Trump has achieved another of his commitments made during the presidential campaign.

Calling it “a big step in the right direction,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced the historic reduction in the United Nations biennial operating budget. Haley said “the inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known. We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked."

She added: “This historic reduction in spending – in addition to many other moves toward a more efficient and accountable UN – is a big step in the right direction.” The United States is seeking a $250 million cut to the UN budget for 2018-19, on top of $200 million in savings already proposed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, AFP reported two weeks ago. Guterres has proposed capping the UN biennial budget at $5.4 billion, shaving off $200 million from the 2016-17 budget.

The UN's operating budget is separate from its peacekeeping budget, which was cut by $600 million this year, under pressure from President Donald Trump, AFP reported. The US pays about 22 percent of the UN’s budget, or roughly $3.3 billion, and 28 percent of its peacekeeping effort. Trump last week threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favor of a draft UN resolution calling for the US to withdraw its decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

(The International)

Russia should have the best-armed forces in face of the "aggressive" plans of the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

"Russia should be among the leading states, and in some areas -- the absolute leader in building the army of a new generation, the army of the new technological era," Putin said at a meeting of senior Defense Ministry officials.

"This is of utmost importance for ensuring our sovereignty, peace and security of our citizens, for a confident development of the country and for an open and independent foreign policy in the interests of our country," he said.

He called the new security strategy recently outlined by the U.S. Administration "offensive" and "aggressive", saying that the Russian military should take this into account in their practical work.

He said that although Russian nuclear forces had a level that provided "reliable strategic deterrence", they should be developed further.

By 2021, the Russian ground-based nuclear forces should be 90 percent equipped with new missile systems that can confidently overcome existing and prospective missile defence systems, Putin said.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the meeting that the budget of Russia's defence spending in 2018 will amount to 46 billion U.S. dollars, 2.8 percent of its gross domestic product.

Russia's military spending in 2017 was set at 3.05 trillion rubles (about 52 billion U.S. dollars), equaling 3.3 percent of the GDP, according to the 2017 federal budget.

Source : Xinhua

Pope Francis has strongly defended refugees at his Christmas Eve mass, urging the world not to ignore the plight of people who are "driven from their land" because of leaders willing to shed "innocent blood".

The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics on Sunday led a solemn ceremony for about 10,000 people in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, while many others followed the service from the square outside.

In his homily, Francis likened refugees to Mary and Joseph finding no place to stay in Bethlehem and said faith demands that foreigners be welcomed.

"So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary," said the Argentine pontiff, himself the grandson of Italian migrants.

"We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away, but driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones."

Caption:Syrian internally displaced people walk in the Atme camp, along the Turkish border

Many engulfed in the ongoing migration crisis were forced to flee from leaders "who, to impose their power and increase their wealth, see no problem in shedding innocent blood", said the 81-year-old.

'Herods of today'

Wearing white vestments in the flower-bedecked church, Francis called for a "new social imagination ... in which none have to feel that there is no room for them on this earth".

Francis has made defence of migrants a major plank of his papacy, often putting him at odds with politicians.

The pope also condemned human traffickers who make money off desperate refugees as the "Herods of today" with blood on their hands, a reference to the Biblical story of the king who ordered the killing of all newborn male children near Bethlehem because he feared Jesus would one day displace him.

More than 14,000 people have died trying to make the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe in the past four years.

On Christmas Day on Monday, Francis is set to deliver at noon the traditional Urbi et Orbi (to the city and to the world) message and blessings from the central balcony of the Vatican basilica.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea in response to its recent ballistic missile tests.

The US-drafted resolution includes measures to reduce the nation's petrol imports by up to 90%.

China and Russia, North Korea's main trading partners, voted in favour of the resolution.

The country is already subject to a raft of sanctions from the US, the UN and the EU.

Tensions have risen this year over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes, which it has pursued despite pressure from world powers to stop.

The Trump administration says it is seeking a diplomatic solution to the issue, and drafted this new set of sanctions:

• Deliveries of petrol products will be capped at 500,000 barrels a year, and crude oil at 4 million barrels a year
•  All North Korean nationals working abroad will have to return home within 24 months under the proposals, restricting a vital source of foreign currency
•  There will also be a ban on exports of North Korean goods, such as machinery and electrical equipment

 Source : BBC

Fire swept through a shopping mall in the Philippines killing at least 37 people, most of them workers at a call center, city government officials said on Sunday.

 A fire rages on at the NCCC shopping mall in Davao: dozens of people are thought to have been trapped inside. Photograph: Manman Dejeto/AP

The vice mayor of the southern city of Davao, Paolo Duterte, said the chance of survival for any of the 37 people missing at the NCC Mall was “zero”.

“Let us pray for them,” said Duterte, the eldest son of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The fire broke out on Saturday at a furniture store on the mall’s third level and quickly engulfed an outsourcing business on the upper floor, said a spokeswoman for the city government, Ma. Teresita Gaspan,

The cause was not known but an investigation was being launched, she said.

President Duterte and his daughter, Sara Duterte, who is mayor of the city, visited the scene late on Saturday to meet anxious relatives of the missing and survivors.

Six people were rescued and taken to hospital.

The UN General Assembly has decisively backed a resolution effectively calling on the US to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The text says that any decisions regarding the status of the city are "null and void" and must be cancelled.

The non-binding resolution was approved by 128 states, with 35 abstaining and nine others voting against.

It came after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut financial aid to those who backed the resolution.

Before the vote, the Palestinian foreign minister urged member states to reject "blackmail and intimidation".

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said it would reject the anticipated result "outright" and dismissed the UN as a "house of lies".

 Source: BBC

Peru's government has ordered the expulsion of two North Korean diplomats after declaring them persona non grata over Pyongyang's "continued violations" of UN Security Council resolutions with its nuclear programme.

"The government of Peru has informed the North Korean embassy of its decision to declare First Secretary Pak Myong Chol and Third Secretary Ji Hyok persona non grata as officers of the aforementioned diplomatic mission in Lima," Peru's foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The ministry ordered the two officials to leave the Latin American nation within 15 calendar days.

Persona non grata is the most serious form of censure a government can take against a person with diplomatic immunity and is often used by governments as a symbolic expression of displeasure.

The government made the announcement late on Friday after "having verified that the diplomatic staff carried out activities incompatible with its diplomatic functions".

North Korea's "continued violations" of United Nations Security Council resolutions also contributed to the decision, the ministry said.

The move comes as the UNSC unanimously voted to impose tough new sanctions on North Korea in response to Pyongyang's latest missile test.

The sanctions, passed on Friday, included a ban on nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea. Proposed by the United States, the restrictions are designed to prevent Pyongyang from furthering its nuclear programme.

The resolution also orders North Koreans who work abroad to return to the country within 24 months.

Peru, a non-permanent member of the UNSC, had strongly condemned North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile on November 29.

In September, Peru also dismissed North Korea's ambassador, Kim Hak-Chol, over Pyongyang's nuclear programme after having downsized the North Korean embassy in the capital Lima earlier this year

Source: Al Jazeera

A fire at a sports centre in South Korea has killed 29 people and left many others injured.

The fire, which started in the basement of an eight-storey building, occurred in the southern city of Jecheon.

Footage showed dark plumes of smoke as the blaze, which has now largely been extinguished, engulfed the property.

Most of the victims were trapped in a sauna on the second floor. Officials say the death toll could rise as firefighters continue their search.

"The fire produced so much toxic smoke so quickly, leaving many people unable to evacuate," a spokesman at the National Fire Agency said.

Some 20 people were rescued from the rooftop after taking refuge from the fire. Several of the survivors were taken hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, officials said.

As many as 60 firefighters attended the scene on Thursday in the city, 168km (104 miles) southeast of Seoul, they added.

Heavy smoke continues to hamper the search and rescue operation, the authorities said.

The building houses a fitness centre, restaurants and a public sauna.

Source : BBC

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed a military commander who played a big part in the ousting of the former leader, Robert Mugabe, as one of his deputies in the ruling party.

The appointment of retired general Constantino Chiwenga at the senior ZANU-PF position was announced in a statement by the presidential press secretary.

Kembo Mohadi, a long-serving state minister, was also named ZANU-PF vice president.

Chiwenga, who resigned this week from his military role, was instrumental in a coup last month that eventually forced 93-year-old Mugabe to hand in his resignation letter, after ruling the country for 37 years.

The appointments are seen as the first step towards their elevation to vice president of the country.

Ruling party deputies are traditionally named state vice presidents, although this is not legally required. The president can have two deputies.

Chiwenga is one of several high-ranking military officials who has been given important roles in Zimbabwe after Mugabe's ousting.

Earlier this month, two ministerial posts were given to senior military officials and war veterans who played a role in the brief coup.

Mnangagwa, like Mugabe, is a veteran of the struggle for independence from Britain. He was considered by the military to be an appropriate replacement for the former president, who, at 93, was Africa's oldest leader.

Since being sworn in, Mnangagwa has been under pressure from opposition parties and the public to revive Zimbabwe's economy and implement political reforms in an attempt to fight corruption.

On Thursday, Mnangagwa vowed to build a "new Zimbabwe" based on honesty, transparency and accountability, in an attempt to attract foreign investors.

Zimbabwe is scheduled to hold presidential elections in 2018, in which Mnangagwa will run as a candidate for ZANU-PF.

Source : Al Jazeera

North Korea is beginning tests on mounting anthrax onto intercontinental ballistic missiles that would strike the U.S., a report said on Wednesday just two days after the White House’s U.S. National Security Strategy stated Kim Jong Un is pursuing chemical and biological weapons.

The Hermit Kingdom is beginning experiments to test out if anthrax can endure immense heat and pressure it will have to endure when loaded into an ICBM and launched toward the earth’s atmosphere, Japan’s Asahi newspaper reported, citing an unidentified person connected to South Korea’s intelligence services.

“North Korea has started experiments such as heat and pressure equipment to prevent anthrax from dying even at a high temperature of over 7,000 degrees generated at the time of ICBM's re-entry into the atmosphere,” the report stated. “In part, there is unconfirmed information that it has already succeeded in such experiments.”

North Korea is beginning tests to place anthrax onto ICBMs, a report said. (KCNA via Reuters)

 NORTH KOREA, STOCKPILING WEAPONS, MOCKS 'LUNATIC' TRUMP WHO HAS 'WAR FEVER'

On Monday, the White House released its U.S. National Security Strategy that said North Korea is “pursuing chemical and biological weapons which could also be delivered by missile.”

“North Korea—a country that starves its own people—has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that could threaten our homeland,” the document said.

North Korea vehemently denied the report and accused the U.S. of cooking “up untruths as truths” and using biological weapons during the Korean War.

“Properly speaking, it is the U.S. stereotyped method to cook up untruths as truths, stubbornly insisting that black is white and fabricating anything for satisfying their aggressive greed,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency stated. “And the U.S. itself is an empire of evils full of plots, fabrications, lies and deceptions.”

North Korea launched an ICBM and said it could carry a "super-heavy warhead." (KCNA via Reuters)

It added, “It is none other than the U.S., chattering on ‘morality’ and ‘civilization,’ the criminal state that massacred the Korean people by bacteriological weapons during the Korean War and inflict sufferings upon the innocent people by continuing even now to openly use the internationally prohibited weapons.”

South Korea has long suspected North Korea was developing biological weapons. A report by Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfar Center for Science and International Affairs stated the dictatorship may have “anthrax and smallpox” pathogens that could be turned into weapons.

KIM JONG UN'S BIZARRE NORTH KOREA PROPAGANDA PHOTOS

North Korea is believed to have started its chemical and biological weapons program in the early 1960s and began possibly weaponizing biological agents in the 1980s, according to the report.

Kim Jong Un’s scientists launched its “greatest” ICBM in late November that the regime claimed could carry a “super-heavy nuclear warhead” that could strike “the whole mainland of the U.S.” However, North Korea has set to perfect its re-entry technology. A U.S. official told Fox News the Hwasong-15 ICBM did not survive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

(Fox News)

More than 180 people are reported to have been killed as a tropical storm swept through the southern Philippines, with dozens more missing.

Storm Tembin brought flash flooding and mudslides to parts of Mindanao island.

Two towns badly hit were Tubod and Piagapo, where a number of homes were buried by boulders.

Tembin, with winds of up to 80km/h (50 mph), has passed across Mindanao and reached the resort islands of Palawan, and will now move further west.

The Philippines suffers regularly from deadly tropical storms, although Mindanao is not often hit.

Tembin, known as Vinta in the Philippines, started lashing Mindanao on Friday, with a state of emergency declared in some areas including the Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur regions.

Regional officials quoted by the Rappler website said there were 127 fatalities in Lanao del Norte, up to 50 in the Zamboanga peninsula and at least 18 in Lanao del Sur.

Tubod police officer Gerry Parami told the AFP news agency that there had been at least 19 deaths in the town, which is in Lanao del Norte. The remote village of Dalama was wiped out by flash floods.

"The river rose and most of the homes were swept away. The village is no longer there," he said.

He said volunteers were digging through mud to try to recover bodies in the village.

Another official told AFP that at least 10 people had died in the town of Piagapo, 10km east of Tubod.

"We've sent rescuers but they're making little progress," Saripada Pacasum said.

More deaths were reported in the towns of Sibuco and Salug.

Andrew Morris, from the UN children's agency Unicef in Mindanao, said in some areas there were big risks for disease, particularly for children, and restoring clean water supplies would be a priority.

"Lanao del Sur province is the poorest in the Philippines, and in the past seven months there have been around 350,000 people displaced in that province because of fighting," he told the BBC, referring to battles between government forces and Islamist militants in Marawi.

"So the priority yesterday and this morning has really been to check their situation."

Storm Tembin made a second landfall on Balabac island in the Palawan archipelago and is forecast to travel west, south of the Spratly Islands, reaching southern Vietnam in about three days.

A week ago, Tropical Storm Kai-Tak hit the central Philippines, killing dozens.

The region is still recovering from Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 5,000 people and affected millions in 2013.

Source : BBC

Voting is underway in the Spanish region of Catalonia to elect a new government, in a litmus test of the independence movement legitimacy after its provocative attempt to break away from Spain.

Madrid called the snap regional election with the hope of having a new government to deal with after Catalonia's Parliament declared unilateral independence in October.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in decades when the Catalan government held an illegal referendum on October 1 on independence, triggering a months-long standoff with Madrid.

Madrid responded to the Catalan government's provocations by firing the government, dissolving the region's Parliament and imposing direct rule.

Thursday's vote is being treated as a legal version of the referendum, and polls suggest it's on a knife-edge, with support for parties that are for and against independence split right down the middle.

Polls close at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) and exit polls are expected shortly after.

Source : CNN