Trying To Form The World's Newest Country, Bougainville Has A Road Ahead

- "The people have spoken," says Albert Punghau, an official in Bougainville, speaking about the region's referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea.

After nearly three weeks of voting and counting, the results announced on Dec. 11 showed residents of the South Pacific island group overwhelmingly voted to break away from Papua New Guinea and form their own nation.

The referendum asked Bougainvilleans if they wanted greater autonomy or full independence. Nearly 98% of voters chose independence, with 87.4% voter turnout, according to the referendum commission.

After the results, "We all shouted and cheered and erupted as if there was thunder," Punghau, Bougainville's minister of peace agreement implementation, tells NPR.

He adds that he and his colleagues sang the regional anthem through tears. The school assembly hall where they gathered, in Bougainville's interim capital of Buka Town, was filled with "joy and happiness," he says.

Now, hard work begins. The referendum is nonbinding. Bougainville, with nearly 250,000 residents, does not automatically become an independent country. Its government has to negotiate the terms of separation from Papua New Guinea, whose Parliament would then have to approve the agreement. The process could take months or even years.

Meanwhile, Australia, New Zealand, China and the United States are closely watching as this Pacific island region has become the latest battleground for diplomatic influence between the West and China.

Hong Kong's embattled leader withdraws bill that sparked months of unrest; protesters say 'too little, too late'

abcnews.com - Almost three months into Hong Kong’s worst political crisis since its return to Chinese control, the city’s embattled leader Carrie Lam agreed to formally withdraw the extradition bill that drove millions of people to the streets in protest some 13 weeks ago.

In a pre-taped televised address, a weary-looking Lam addressed the city from behind a desk and said the government will formally withdraw the bill “to fully allay public concerns.”

“Incidents over these past two months have shocked and saddened Hong Kong people,” Lam said it her video statement. “We are all very anxious about Hong Kong, our home. We all hope to find a way out of the current impasse and unsettling times.”

While Lam suspended work on the bill, which would have allowed suspected criminals to be extradited to mainland China, days after massive crowds of mostly young people held their first demonstration, the measure was never fully taken off the table and its withdrawal has remained a key demand of the protests.

In Kashmir Move, Critics Say, Modi Is Trying to Make India a Hindu Nation

NEW DELHI — To India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, eliminating the autonomy of Kashmir, a disputed, predominantly Muslim territory, was an administrative move, something his ministers had presented as simply a long-overdue “reorganization.”

But to Mr. Modi’s critics, the decision was an attack at the heart of India’s secular identity and a historic blow to a democracy that celebrates itself as one of the most free and stable in the developing world.

There is little doubt that Kashmir needed fixing. It is one of the bloodiest, most stubborn flash points in South Asia, a complicated, disputed mountainous territory that several times has driven India and Pakistan to war.

Both nations wield nuclear weapons and claim parts of Kashmir. For decades, their prickliness has kept the region trapped in a low-intensity conflict, leaving it depressed, full of rundown villages and the backdrop to a quixotic battle between a few hundred young militants and tens of thousands of Indian troops. ContinueReading

Singapore seizes elephant ivory and pangolin scales in record $48m haul

(BBC) - Singapore authorities have seized 8.8 tonnes (8,800kg) of elephant ivory, its largest seizure to date.

Authorities estimate that the tusks, valued at $12.9m (£10.4m), have come from nearly 300 African elephants.

Some 11.9 tonnes of pangolin scales valued at $35.7m were also seized. It is believed to have belonged to about 2,000 of the mammals.

The illegal cargo was found in containers after a tip-off from China's customs department.

Authorities discovered the animal parts on Sunday after they inspected a shipment from the Democratic Republic of Congo that was passing through Singapore on its way to Vietnam.

The containers were falsely declared to contain timber.

"Upon inspection, sacks containing pangolin scales and elephant ivory were found in one of the containers," the National Parks Board said in a statement.

The seized pangolin scales and elephant ivory will be destroyed.

It is not the first time such illegal goods have been found in Singapore. The country has seized a total of 37.5 tonnes of pangolin scales since April this year.

"Singapore has always been inadvertently implicated in the global ivory trade for two reasons: its global connectivity, as well as the presence of a small domestic market where pre-1990s ivory can be legally sold," Kim Stengert, chief communications officer for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Singapore, told Reuters.

Ivory is used for ornaments and in traditional medicine in Asia. Pangolin scales are also in high demand in Asia for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

The pangolin is said to be the most widely trafficked mammal in the world.

Under Singapore's Endangered Species Act, the maximum penalty for illegally importing, exporting and re-exporting wildlife is a fine of up to S$500,000 ($370,000; £295,000) and/or two years imprisonment. ContinueReading

'Guatemala has not been good': Trump threatens tariffs, fees on migrant cash

WASHINGTON/GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he is considering a “ban,” tariffs and remittance fees after Guatemala decided not to ink a safe third country agreement that would have required the poor Central American country to take in more asylum seekers.

“Guatemala ... has decided to break the deal they had with us on signing a necessary Safe Third Agreement. We were ready to go,” Trump tweeted.

“Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’ Tariffs, Remittance Fees, or all of the above. Guatemala has not been good,” Trump wrote.

In response, Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales blamed the country’s top court and political opponents for undermining his close ties to the United States.

Morales was due to sign a deal with Trump last week that would have made the country act as an asylum buffer zone to reduce immigration to the United States.

Instead he canceled the planned summit with Trump at the White House after the country’s Constitutional Court ruled he could not ink such an agreement without prior approval from Congress, which is on a summer recess.

Migrant remittances accounted for 11% of Guatemalan GDP in 2017, according to the IMF, a total of $8.2 billion. The United States is Guatemala’s main trading partner, with bilateral trade of some $4.7 billion through May this year, Central Bank data shows.

“The Constitutional Court, without any understanding and without the right to interfere in foreign relations, wrongly took a stance against the national interest,” Morales said in a statement posted on Facebook.

In the past the Morales government has clashed with the court, which it considers aligned with the opposition. The case against the third safe country deal was brought by several former foreign ministers, the country’s rights ombudsman and a former presidential candidate.

Morales called the politicians “petty” and said they were attacking the country’s governability.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Boris Johnson to be next prime minister of U.K., replacing Theresa May amid Brexit turmoil

DRAMA!

London -- Former London Mayor Boris Johnson has been chosen by his party to become Britain's next prime minister. He will replace Theresa May, who was forced to resign amid a bitter feud in the U.K. -- and within both her and Johnson's Conservative Party -- over Britain's exit from the European Union.

As CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reports, the new leader of America's closest ally is one of Great Britain's most prominent figures, and probably a familiar face to many Americans.

By a quirk of British politics, Johnson was not elected by the general public but instead chosen to lead by about 160,000 registered Conservative Party members. He won with 92,153 votes to rival Jeremy Hunt's 46,656 -- a margin of almost two to one.

The new prime minister will officially take office on Wednesday, when May formally resigns the post. Johnson thanked his opponent in the leadership contest, Hunt, and May in remarks to gathered party members in London after the results of the election were announced on Tuesday.

Illinois Legalizes Marijuana

ILLINOIS ON TUESDAY officially became the 11th U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into a law a bill that legalizes the possession, purchase and sale of cannabis and allows for the expungement of low-level cannabis convictions. The law will take effect Jan. 1.

"I'm so proud that our state is leading with equity and justice in its approach to cannabis legalization and its regulatory framework," Pritzker tweeted. "Signing this bill into law won't undo the injustices of the past or make whole the lives that were interrupted. We can't turn back the clock – but we can turn the page."

Illinois is the first state to legalize recreational marijuana sales through legislation, a process that has proved tricky even in states with Democrat-controlled statehouses that have been more receptive to changing drug laws. Legalization efforts in New York and New Jersey fizzed this year despite support from top lawmakers.

The measure passed the Illinois legislature late last month, just hours before the end of the year's legislative session.

It allows residents over the age of 21 to possess 30 grams of marijuana and sets up a regulated retail scheme. It also contains provisions aimed at helping cannabis start-ups owned by residents of areas disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition and those with marijuana convictions.

Prtizker, a Democrat, campaigned on the issue and his election boosted an existing effort for legalization in the state.

Anti-graft crusader sworn in as Slovakia's first female president

Bratislava (Reuters) - Anti-corruption campaigner Zuzana Caputova was sworn in as Slovakia’s first female president on Saturday, vowing to fight impunity and champion justice in a country shaken by a journalist’s murder last year.

The killing of Jan Kuciak, who investigated high-level graft cases, and his fiancé at their home last February sparked mass street protests and hit the approval ratings of the governing leftist party Smer.

Smer is still the most popular party but Caputova’s victory in the March presidential vote boosted the opposition liberal alliance Progressive Slovakia/Together, which backed her and aims to unseat the ruling party in a 2020 general election.

The pro-European coalition already won the EU Parliament election last month.

In her inauguration speech, Caputova, 45, said state officials that had proven incapable of stamping out corruption should lose their jobs and vowed to make the justice system work fairly for everyone.

“Under the constitution, people are free and equal in dignity and in rights, meaning nobody is that irrelevant to have their rights compromised, nor is anyone that powerful to stand above the law.”

“Too many people feel that this is not quite the reality in our country. The feeling of injustice has grown and has demonstrated itself in calls for change and decency but also in anger over ‘the system’,” she said in a nod to the rise to anti-system and far-right parties.

U.S. measles cases reach highest level in 27 years

nbcnews.com - The number of measles cases reported in the U.S. this year has now reached a level not seen in 27 years, causing concern among public health officials that the country could soon lose its measles elimination status.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that there have been 971 cases of measles reported in the first five months of 2019. That surpasses the 963 cases for the entire year in 1992.

By far, the greatest number of measles cases this year has been reported in two areas of New York: Rockland County and New York City. The CDC said that those outbreaks have been ongoing for nearly eight months.

And if they continue through the summer and fall, officials said, the country could lose an important public health victory: its status as a nation that has eliminated measles. The U.S. officially made that declaration in 2000, which meant there was no longer sustained local transmission of the disease.

"It’s like turning back the clock," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

However, Schaffner said that the current outbreaks could be stopped quickly with swift action.

"If every unvaccinated child in the U.S. were vaccinated today, Friday, May 31," Schaffner told NBC News, "the outbreak would be over across the country by June 15."

But thanks to a vocal anti-vaccine contingent, that's easier said than done. ContinueReading

Post-apartheid South Africa is the world’s most unequal country

JOHANNESBURG — Perhaps nowhere in today’s South Africa is the country’s inequality on more dramatic display than in the neighboring Johannesburg suburbs of Sandton and Alexandra.

With its gleaming high-rises and lush estates, Sandton is known as Africa’s richest square mile. Alexandra, a onetime home to Nelson Mandela, is a squalid, cramped and crime-infested black township. Many of its residents stream into Sandton every day on a bridge over a highway to work in upscale shops or homes.

Angry protests flared in Alexandra last month, stoked in part by campaigning for Wednesday’s national election but mostly by the frustration that South Africa should look far different than the country of haves and have-nots that it has become. Many voters believe the ruling African National Congress has lost its way since Mandela won the first post-apartheid presidential election in 1994, and that belief threatens the ANC’s absolute majority grip on power.

The ANC has been shaken by widespread allegations of corruption that saw former President Jacob Zuma forced out a year ago, and many South Africans feel the party can no longer coast on its legacy of fighting the brutal system of apartheid.

Unemployment in the country of 56 million people soars past 25 percent. There are tire-burning protests almost every day over the lack of basic services like working toilets in mostly black neighborhoods. Whites still hold much of the wealth and private levers of power, while blacks trim their lawns and clean their homes.

“We find virtually no whites living below the middle class,” Fazila Farouk and Murray Leibbrandt with the Southern Africa Labor and Development Research Unit wrote last year. “Whites have, in fact, comfortably improved their economic status in post-apartheid South Africa because our economy channels such a big share of national income to the top 10 percent.”

Half of South Africans are in households with per capita income of 1,149 rand ($90) or less a month, they wrote, with little chance to change their fortunes despite working hard as maids or security guards.

“Put bluntly, they’re stuck,” Farouk and Leibbrandt concluded. ContinueReading

Thailand crowns its king in a gilded spectacle rarely seen in the modern era

- Installed on a golden throne under a nine-tiered, white-and-gold umbrella resembling a wedding cake, Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn was crowned Saturday as ruler of one of the world’s most enduring monarchies in solemn, elaborate ceremonies that sought to unite a fractured nation under gilded pageantry and centuries-old ritual.

The long awaited coronation — the first in Thailand in nearly seven decades — melded ancient spirituality with imperial traditions as the 66-year-old king was anointed with water consecrated by Hindu Brahmin priests and blessed by the incantations of saffron-clad Buddhist monks.

Then, inside a long hall lined with murals at Bangkok’s Grand Palace, Vajiralongkorn was handed a collection of royal regalia: a scepter, gold-embroidered slippers, a legendary sword that belonged to his 18th century ancestors and a 16-pound pointed crown encrusted with diamonds that he fastened at his chin like a bike helmet.

In his first royal command, Vajiralongkorn, who will rule as King Rama X, the 10th monarch of the 237-year-old Chakri dynasty, pledged to “forever reign with righteousness, for the benefit and happiness of the people.”

Ebola outbreak deaths top 1,000 in Congo amid clinic attacks

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — More than 1,000 people have died from Ebola in eastern Congo since August, the country’s health minister said Friday as hostility toward health workers continues to hamper efforts to contain the second-deadliest outbreak of the virus.

Health Minister Oly Ilunga told The Associated Press that four deaths in the outbreak’s epicenter of Katwa helped push the death toll to 1,008. Two more deaths were reported in the city of Butembo.

The outbreak declared almost nine months ago already had caused the most deaths behind the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa’s Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia that killed more than 11,000 people.

A volatile security situation and deep community mistrust have hampered efforts to control the epidemic in eastern Congo. Ebola treatment centers have come under repeated attack, leaving government health officials to staff clinics in the hotspots of Butembo and Katwa.

International aid organizations stopped their work in the two communities because of the violence. A Cameroonian epidemiologist working with WHO was killed last month during an assault on a hospital in Butembo.

Insecurity has become a “major impediment” to controlling the Ebola outbreak, Michael Ryan, WHO’s health emergencies chief, told reporters in Geneva earlier Friday.

He said 119 attacks have been recorded since January, 42 of them directed at health facilities, while 85 health workers have been wounded or killed. Dozens of rebel groups operate in the region, and political rivalries in part drive’s community rejection of health personnel.

“Every time we have managed to regain control over the virus and contain its spread, we have suffered major, major security events,” Ryan said. “We are anticipating a scenario of continued intense transmission” of the disease.

WHO has said the most recent Ebola outbreak remained contained to eastern Congo even as the number of cases rises in a dense, highly mobile population near the border with Uganda and Rwanda.

ContinueReading

India prepares for 'extremely severe' Bay of Bengal cyclone

NEW DELHI — Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated along India's eastern coast on Thursday as authorities braced for a cyclone moving through the Bay of Bengal that was forecast to bring extremely severe wind and rain.

The India Meteorological Department in New Delhi said Cyclone Fani was expected to make landfall on Friday with gale-force winds of up to 124 mph likely starting Thursday night. It warned of "extremely heavy falls" over parts of the state of Odisha and its southern neighbor Andhra Pradesh.

India's National Disaster Management Authority forecast "high to phenomenal" sea conditions for most of the Indian states along the Bay of Bengal. Fishermen were advised not to venture into deep waters. A 4.9-foot storm surge was expected to inundate low-lying areas.

Fearing that Fani could be the worst storm since 1999, when a cyclone killed around 10,000 people and devastated large parts of Odisha, Indian officials put the navy, air force, army and coast guard on high alert, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Cabinet ministers and weather and disaster-response officials for a briefing on the measures being taken.

The Meteorological Department projected "total destruction" of thatched-roof huts, flooding of farmland and orchards, and the uprooting of telephone poles.

Odisha's special relief commissioner, Bishnupada Sethi, said that preparations for Fani included the country's largest evacuation operation, of around 880,000 people.

More than 800 shelters were opened and around 100,000 dry food packets were ready to be airdropped.

"We've been preparing plans for the last few days to ensure that all the people who are vulnerable will be shifted to our cyclone centers," Sethi said.

Tourists were provided special trains to leave the popular beach town of Puri in Odisha on Thursday, according to Indian media reports. ContinueReading

Maine becomes the first state to ban Styrofoam

(CNN)Food containers made of Styrofoam, also known as polystyrene, will be officially banned from businesses in Maine after governor Janet Mills signed a bill into law Tuesday.

The law, which will go into effect January 1, 2021, prohibits restaurants, caterers, coffee shops and grocery stores from using the to-go foam containers because they cannot be recycled in Maine.
Maine has become the first state to take such a step as debate about banning plastic bags or other disposable products is spreading across the nation.

While states like New York and California have banned single-use plastic bags, others such as Tennessee and Florida have made it illegal for local municipalities to regulate them. ContinueReading

Ukraine election: Voters to choose between comedian and president

BBC - Ukrainians will head to the polls on Sunday in a run-off election to pick the country's next president.

Voters face a stark choice between incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and television comedian, and political newcomer, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The celebrity is favourite in the polls, having dominated the first round of voting three weeks ago when 39 candidates were on the ticket.

Poll stations will open 08:00 local (05:00 GMT) and close 12 hours later.

A court in the capital, Kiev, has rejected a lawsuit calling for Mr Zelensky to be barred from standing.

A man had complained that the distribution of free tickets for a presidential debate by Volodymyr Zelensky's candidacy amounted to bribery.

On Friday the two candidates appeared at Kiev's Olympic stadium to debate for the first time.

The televised event was their first face-off after an usual campaign where Mr Zelensky has primarily used social media to communicate with the voting public.

The winner of Sunday's vote will be elected for a five-year term as president.

The position holds significant powers over the security, defense and foreign policy of the country.

Large flightless bird in captivity kills Florida man in ‘horrible’ accident

- A captive cassowary, the large flightless bird considered the most dangerous of its species, killed a man Friday near Gainesville.

The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office is conducting a death investigation, spokesman Lt. Brett Rhodenizer said Saturday.

About 10:30 a.m., authorities received a call from a witness stating the man fell and had been attacked by the bird at a property off Alachua County Road 235 — northwest of the University of Florida in Gainesville — where the cassowary and other captive wildlife are housed.

The man, whose name was not released, had sustained “serious injuries” and was transported to a local hospital, said Alachua County Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Jeff Taylor in an email. He later died.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article229233764.html#storylink=cpy

Brexit: UK and EU agree delay to 31 October

BBC - European Union leaders have granted the UK a six-month extension to Brexit, after late-night talks in Brussels.

The new deadline - 31 October - averts the prospect of the UK having to leave the EU without a deal on Friday, as MPs are still deadlocked over a deal.

European Council President Donald Tusk said his "message to British friends" was "please do not waste this time".

Theresa May, who had wanted a shorter delay, said the UK would still aim to leave the EU as soon as possible.

The UK must now hold European elections in May, or leave on 1 June without a deal.

The prime minister will later make a statement on the Brussels summit to the House of Commons, while talks with the Labour Party, aimed at reaching consensus on how to handle Brexit, are set to continue.

Mrs May tweeted: "The choices we now face are stark and the timetable is clear. So we must now press on at pace with our efforts to reach a consensus on a deal that is in the national interest."

So far, MPs have rejected the withdrawal agreement Mrs May reached with other European leaders last year and they have voted against leaving the EU without a deal.

The EU has ruled out any renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement.

Before the summit, Mrs May had told leaders she wanted to move the UK's exit date from this Friday to 30 June, with the option of leaving earlier if Parliament ratified her agreement.

Deadly Shelling Erupts in Kashmir Between India and Pakistan After Pilot Is Freed

NEW DELHI — Intense shelling erupted along the disputed border between India and Pakistan on Saturday, killing several civilians and making it clear that hostilities between the two nuclear-armed nations were hardly over — only a day after Pakistan handed over a captured Indian fighter pilot in what it called a “good-will gesture.”

At least five civilians and two soldiers were killed, according to officials on both sides.

At the same time, independent security analysts continue to questionIndia’s claims this past week that it had killed “a very large number” of terrorists at a major training camp in a cross-border airstrike. The bold strike set off an enormous mobilization of Indian and Pakistani forces and a cycle of military attacks, bringing South Asia to red alert.

Michael Sheldon, a researcher at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, said on Saturday that after studying satellite imagery of the area in Pakistan that India had bombed, he could see “no evidence any buildings were hit.” He added, “It appears to me they didn’t hit their targets.”

Instead, he said, all publicly available evidence and accounts from witnesses on the ground indicated that the Indian bombs had landed in an unpopulated forest and had taken out some pine trees. He set out his argument in an online article titled “Surgical Strike in Pakistan a Botched Operation?”


The administration of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who faces an election in a few months, had presented the airstrike as a robust response against a terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, that claimed responsibility for a devastating suicide bombing in February that killed more than 40 Indian troops. ContinueReading

Bosnia Herzegovina marks Independence Day

BELGRADE, Serbia

Bosnia Herzegovina on Thursday marked the 27th anniversary of its independence.

Independence Day is treated as an ordinary day in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, one of two constitutional and legal entities of the country. The other is the Bosniak-majority Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which observes the holiday.

Bosnia and Herzegovina became independent from the former Yugoslavia when an independence referendum was held on Feb. 29 and March 1, 1992.

Most Serbs boycotted the referendum while the 64 percent of the population voted for independence.

The results of the referendum were announced on March 6,1992 and Bosnia and Herzegovina was admitted to the United Nations on May 22,1992.

Bosnia and Herzegovina became an independent state, but had to suffer a bloody battle for independence and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

In the country, where Bosniak Muslims make up more than half of the population, the traces of the bloody war in 1992-1995 are still not completely erased. The complex political structure of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war, does not allow the country to fully stabilize.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's main objective is to become a member of the European Union.

The country expects to receive a "candidate country" status in the current year. NATO membership, which is another strategic target of the country has been impeded by the opposition of Serbs in the country.

Thirty years on, some Russians want to reframe Soviet war in Afghanistan

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thirty years after the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, some Russian politicians are calling for a reassessment of the conflict which critics have long cast as a bloody foreign adventure akin to the U.S. war in Vietnam.

Moscow completed the pullout of its troops on Feb. 15, 1989 after a nine-year war that claimed the lives of 14,000 Soviet nationals, many of them repatriated secretly in zinc coffins. Soviet deputies voted in a resolution that same year to formally condemn the intervention.

Thirty years on, with Russia fighting in Syria and the United States moving to withdraw its own troops, Afghanistan is back in focus and Russian lawmakers have called into question the Soviet resolution.

A flurry of diplomacy has also thrust Russia back into Afghanistan as a potential power broker, with Moscow hosting the Taliban and Afghan opposition politicians for its own peace negotiations on the heels of U.S. talks with the Taliban.

Two lawmakers in the Kremlin-dominated parliament have drafted legislation on behalf of veterans groups to overturn the Soviet resolution, arguing that it had fundamentally failed to “correspond with the principles of historical justice”.

The legislation received preliminary backing from a parliamentary commission on defense last month, but was fiercely denounced on Friday as “unacceptable and irresponsible” by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in comments to RIA news agency.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the parliamentary initiative and instead lauded veterans of the campaign.

“For us the most important thing is to remember all the heroes who fulfilled their international duty and did what they had to do. Most important is not to forget these heroes, and no one indeed is forgetting these heroes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The anniversary was marked by prominent commemorative events broadcast on state television.

India unleashes its military on Pakistan after a terror attack stoked the feud between the nuclear rivals

- Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi on Friday unleashed the country's military against rival Pakistan in response to a terror attack by Muslim separatists that killed 44 on Thursday.

"I know there is deep anger, your blood boils looking at what has happened. At this moment, there are expectations and the feelings of a strong response which is quite natural," Modi said in a speech mourning the police forces killed and those injured.

India regularly accuses Pakistan of training and arming militants and smuggling them across the border into the Indian region of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region on the countries' shared border.

Following the terror attack, where an explosive-laden truck plowed into a bus carrying police forces, India said it had "incontrovertible evidence" of Pakistan's involvement in the attack. Pakistani-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed the attack, but Pakistan quickly denied any official involvement.

North Macedonia notifies the world about its new name

SKOPJE, North Macedonia – The foreign ministry of newly renamed North Macedonia says it has formally informed the United Nations, U.N. member states and international bodies that its new name has come into effect under a historic deal to end a long dispute with neighboring Greece.

The ministry said in a press release late Thursday it submitted relevant notes to "the United Nation's Protocol, member and observer states, and to all international, multilateral and regional organizations."

The country was officially renamed North Macedonia on Tuesday, and as a first move to reflect the change, authorities have replaced road signs on the border with Greece.

The move is a precursor to a series of steps that the renamed country will take as part of the agreement, including changing airport signs, web pages and printed materials.

Eating "ultraprocessed" foods accelerates your risk of early death, study says

ATLANTA (CNN) — The quick and easy noshes you love are chipping away at your mortality one nibble at a time, according to new research from France: We face a 14 percent higher risk of early death with each 10 percent increase in the amount of ultraprocessed foods we eat.

"Ultraprocessed foods are manufactured industrially from multiple ingredients that usually include additives used for technological and/or cosmetic purposes," wrote the authors of the study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. "Ultraprocessed foods are mostly consumed in the form of snacks, desserts, or ready-to-eat or -heat meals," and their consumption "has largely increased during the past several decades."

This trend may drive an increase of early deaths due to chronic illnesses, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, they say.

Horror!: CDC blames spike in teen tobacco use on vaping, popularity of Juul

- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is blaming nicotine vaping devices like Juul for single-handedly driving a spike in tobacco use among teens, threatening to erase years of progress curbing youth use.

Over the course of a year, the number of high school students using tobacco products, which include e-cigarettes, increased by about 38 percent, the CDC found in its annual National Youth Tobacco Survey released Monday. That translates to about 27 percent of high school teens using tobacco products in 2018, the CDC said.

Of all the tobacco products the CDC surveys students about, including cigarettes and hookah, only e-cigarettes saw a meaningful increase in use. Among high school students, e-cigarette use surged nearly 78 percent. In 2018, nearly 21 percent of high school students vaped, up from close to 12 percent in 2017. ContinueReading

Pop music's Katy Perry faces criticism over shoe design resembling blackface

(CNN) First it was Prada. Then Gucci. Now, Katy Perry is being called out for creating fashion that evokes blackface.

The singer's namesake brand faces criticism over two styles of shoes that some say feature racist imagery.

CNN has reached out to Perry for comment. Perry debuted her line of whimsical shoes in 2017. They are available on her website and through retailers around the world including Dillard's and Walmart in the United States.

The Ora Face Block Heel and Rue Face Slip-On Loafers come in black and beige. The vamps in both styles include the same protruding eyes, nose and full red lips. They were released in 9 colors last summer, according to Katy Perry Collections account director Brittany Clarke, and were "envisioned as a nod to modern art and surrealism."

Mass insect extinction within a century threatens 'catastrophic' collapse of nature’s ecosystems, scientists warn

- Pesticide use is driving an “alarming” decline in the world’s insects that could have a “catastrophic” impact on nature’s ecosystems, researchers have warned.

More than 40 per cent of insect species are at risk of extinction with decades, with climate change and pollution also to blame, according to a global scientific review.

Their numbers are plummeting so precipitously that almost all insects could vanish within a century, the study found.

Strong, Independent modern Iran marks 40th anniversary of Iranian revolution

washingtonpost . com - At a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the revolution that transformed Iran into an Islamic republic, President Hassan Rouhani boasted about the country’s military strength and told a large crowd that foreign powers would never dominate Iran again.

“We have not — and will not — ask for permission from anybody for improving our defensive power,” Rouhani said, according to a transcript released by his office. “We will continue this path, and I say this clearly to the people of Iran that Iran’s military power in the past 40 years, especially in the recent five years, has amazed the entire world.”

Rouhani’s speech Monday marked the anniversary the date when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini toppled the shah of Iran, allowing the Shiite cleric to take control of the country and set up a theocracy that has endured for four decades. But relations with the wider world have frequently been strained.

Last year, President Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 deal reached between Iran and six world powers that sought to curtail Tehran’s nuclear program in return for relief from crippling nuclear-related sanctions. Since then, the U.S. government has reimposed a number of economic sanctions on the country, squeezing the nation toward an economic crisis.

Luxury Brand Gucci Pulls 'Black Balaclava' After Blackface Comparisons

TIME .com - Gucci has withdrawn a black balaclava sweater from its stores after it drew backlash on social media where people compared it to blackface imagery.

The sweater was a $890 “knit top” from Gucci’s 2018 “Fall Winter” collection featuring a black roll neck with large red lips encircling a hole for the mouth.

The garment first debuted during the Fall/Winter 2018 runway show was widely derided, with many pointing to the fact that it was released during Black History Month. According to product information archived online, it drew inspiration from “vintage ski masks, multicolored knitted balaclavas walked the runway, adding a mysterious feel to this collection.”

“Fashion can’t seem to learn from its mistakes,” the popular Instagram account Diet Prada wrote. “If these global brands are serious about their commitment to increasing corporate diversity, it needs to happen at all levels and departments, not just the creative teams.”

The Italian fashion house has since apologized on Wednesday (Feb 7)

“Gucci deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper,” the company wrote in a statement. “We can confirm that the item has been immediately removed from our online store and all physical stores.” ContinueReading

DRAMA:France recalls Italy ambassador after worst verbal onslaught 'since the war'

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron’s government recalled its ambassador to Rome on Thursday in a move unprecedented since World War Two, saying it was fed up with “repeated, baseless” attacks by Italian political leaders against France.

The diplomatic blow, highly unusual among fellow members of the European Union, was announced by the foreign ministry in a statement. Diplomatic sources said Paris acted after a series of verbal assaults from Italy’s deputy prime ministers, capped by Luigi di Maio, head of the anti-establishment 5-Star movement, meeting this week with France’s “yellow vest” protesters, who have mounted a months-long anti-Macron campaign.

“France has been, for several months, the target of repeated, baseless attacks and outrageous statements,” the foreign ministry said.

“Having disagreements is one thing, but manipulating the relationship for electoral aims is another,” it added, calling Italy’s behaviour the worst of its kind since World War Two, when Benito Mussolini declared war on France in 1940.

El Salvador votes for president as the country seeks a new way to deal with gangs

SAN SALVADOR — Salvadorans went to the polls Sunday after a hard-fought presidential campaign featuring three main candidates. But voters are most worried about a political force that won’t be on the ballot: the gangs blamed for horrific bloodshed in this Central American nation.

El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world, with more than 3,300 homicides last year in a nation of roughly 6.5 million residents. Although murder rates have been decreasing from a peak in 2015, about 57 percent of Salvadorans see insecurity as the country’s biggest problem, according to a recent survey by the polling institute at the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas. The presidential candidates have pledged to find new ways to reduce the violence, offering crime-prevention programs instead of an iron-fisted approach. But they have provided few details.

Three pre-election polls indicated that more than half of possible voters support Nayib Bukele, a businessman and former mayor of San Salvador, who is running for the center-right party GANA, which stands for Grand Alliance for National Unity. The right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as ARENA, finished first in legislative elections last year, but its candidate, supermarket mogul Carlos Calleja, is running second in the polls. Hugo Martínez, the former foreign minister and a member of the left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, is predicted to receive less than 20 percent of the vote. President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the FMLN is limited to one term.

Since the end of El Salvador’s 12-year civil war in 1992, two parties have dominated the country’s political system: ARENA and the FMLN. But Salvadorans are looking for a new option after major corruption scandals and what many voters see as a lack of progress in tackling crime.

Germany and France Renew Their Vows, but Challenges Abound

nytimes.com BERLIN — When it was originally signed in 1963, in the long wake of World War II and with the Cold War deepening, the Élysée Treatyserved to reconcile Germany and France and establish their relationship as “an indispensable stage on the way to a united Europe.”

On Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Emmanuel Macron of France met in a German city symbolic to both — Aachen, or Aix-la-Chapelle in French — to renew that commitment for the 21st century, in a ceremony that nevertheless served as a reminder of the daunting array of challenges threatening Europe today.

The leaders and their countries, former enemies who lost millions in wars last century, form the staunchly pro-Europe core of the Continent. But with Ms. Merkel already on a glide path out of powerand Mr. Macron severely weakened by popular protests at home, their simultaneous decline is threatening to leave a crater at the center of Europe’s decades-old project of unity.

Internal and external forces continue to raise the prospect of a fracturing of the European Union. Britain is scheduled to leave the bloc on March 29. The Trump administration is threatening tariffs and questioning Washington’s commitment to NATO. Populist governments in Hungary and Poland are challenging fundamental principles of liberal democracy and the rule of law, and Italy is challenging traditional liberal values.

This is China!: Xi Jinping says Taiwan 'must and will be' reunited with China

BBC.com - Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the people of Taiwan to accept it "must and will be" reunited with China.

In a speech marking 40 years since the start of improving ties, he reiterated Beijing's call for peaceful unification on a one-country-two-systems basis.

However, he also warned that China reserved the right to use force.

While Taiwan is self-governed and de facto independent, it has never formally declared independence from the mainland.

Beijing considers the island to be a breakaway province and Mr Xi's comments are in line with China's long-standing policy towards reunification.

But on Wednesday, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen said the island would never accept reunification with China under the terms offered by Beijing.

"I want to reiterate that Taiwan will never accept 'one country, two systems'. The vast majority of Taiwanese public opinion also resolutely opposes 'one country, two systems', and this is also the 'Taiwan consensus'."

Under the "one country, two systems" formula, Taiwan would have the right to run its own affairs; a similar arrangement is used in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has its own legal system, and rights including freedom of assembly and free speech are protected - however, there are widespread concerns in the territory that those freedoms are gradually being eroded.

In his speech on Wednesday, Mr Xi said both sides were part of the same Chinese family and that Taiwanese independence was "an adverse current from history and a dead end".

Taiwanese people "must understand that independence will only bring hardship," Mr Xi said, adding Beijing would never tolerate any form of activity promoting Taiwanese independence.

Instead, unification was "an inevitable requirement for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people", he argued.

He also stressed that relations with Taiwan were "part of China's domestic politics" and that "foreign interference is intolerable".

Beijing "reserves the option of taking all necessary measures" against outside forces that interfere with peaceful reunification and Taiwanese separatist activities.

Related: China's population set to peak at 1.44 billion in 2029: government report

Sears believes Eddie Lampert's bid to save the company is short. May liquidate without fix.

- Sears' advisors are testing just how much Chairman Eddie Lampert wants to keep the retailer alive.

Lampert has put forward a $4.4 billion bid to save Sears and 50,000 jobs by buying it out of bankruptcy through his hedge fund ESL Investments. His offer, though, which is largely funded with outside sources of capital, is facing tough scrutiny from Sears advisors, people familiar with the situation tell CNBC. If the two are unable to find a resolution, it could force Sears to liquidate.

The 125-year-old retailer, which also owns Kmart, filed for bankruptcy in October. At the time, it employed 68,000 workers.

Sears advisors' have until 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday to decide whether ESL's bid is viable. The company and ESL met earlier this week to discuss its bid, without agreeing to a compromise.

The offer has raised a number of flags, the people said. It is short of covering the fees and vendor payment it owes, making it "administratively insolvent."

A continuing issue is the $1.8 billion that Lampert put toward his offer by forgiving debt owed to ESL through a so-called credit bid. The restructuring committee advising Sears is not confident the bankruptcy judge will allow Lampert to use a credit bid without addressing a pending investigation about Sears transactions under Lampert's ownership, the people said.

Sears' unsecured creditors have said there may be claims against Sears for those deals, which include Sears' spinoff of Lands' End LE and transactions with Seritage Growth Properties SRG , a real estate investment trust Lampert created through some Sears' properties.

ESL has stressed that all transactions it did with Sears during Lampert's tenure were approved by Sears' board.

As with all bankruptcy negotiations, it remains possible either side will make concessions to end the disagreement. The two parties therefore could come to a resolution to divert liquidation.

British Army wants ‘millennials’, ‘snowflakes’, 'phone zombies' to pick up rifles and defend country

- Calling all “Binge Gamers”, “Snowflakes” and “Selfie Addicts” – lay down your controllers, stop being outraged over everything and put that photo upload on hold – instead, why not join the British Army?

Those are the kind of people Britain's armed forces are now going after in a new advertising campaign launched Thursday targeting everyone from “Class Clowns” to “Me Me Me Millennials”.

“The army sees people differently and we are proud to look beyond the stereotypes and spot the potential in young people, from compassion to self-belief,” British Army Major General Paul Nanson told Sky News.

The ad campaign, which features YouTube videos and posters modeled off the famous ‘Your Country Needs You’ slogan from the First World War, comes as Britain is struggling to recruit new soldiers.

A government committee was informed in October that the British Army has 77,000 fully-trained troops, below its target of 82,500. A National Audit Office report in December also revealed that nearly half of the Army’s applicants chose to drop out of the hiring process in 2017 and 2018 because it was taking up to 321 days to transition from applying to starting training, according to Sky News.

Brazil's new far-right president promises sweeping changes in inaugural address

BRASILIA, Brazil — Jair Bolsonaro was sworn in as Brazil's president Tuesday, taking the reins of Latin America's largest and most populous nation with promises to overhaul myriad aspects of daily life and put an end to business-as-usual governing. He vowed to free Brazil of "ideology" in what was viewed as a swipe at the left, BBC News reports.

For the far-right former army captain, the New Year's Day inauguration was the culmination of a journey from a marginalized and even ridiculed congressmen to a leader who many Brazilians hope can combat endemic corruption as well as violence that routinely gives the nation the dubious distinction of being world leader in total homicides.

A fan of President Trump, the 63-year-old longtime congressman rose to power on an anti-corruption and pro-gun agenda that has energized conservatives and hard-right supporters after four consecutive presidential election wins by the left-leaning Workers' Party.

Bolsonaro was the latest of several far-right leaders around the globe who have come to power by riding waves of anger at the establishment and promising to ditch the status quo.