Politics

  WASHINGTON / AP President Donald Trump has barred all refugees from entering the United States for four months, and indefinitely halted any from Syria, saying the ban is needed to keep out “radical terrorists.” The order immediately suspended a program that last year resettled in the US roughly 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice. …

  Bloomberg A group of Republicans in the U.S. Senate is intensifying calls on President Donald Trump to keep sanctions on Russia in place ahead of his planned call with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio and others were responding to media reports that Trump administration officials are considering taking executive actions to lift sanctions imposed …

  BERLIN / AP German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that there’s no solution yet to the problem of how to fairly share the burden of migration in the European Union, an issue that has weighed on Berlin’s relations with other members of the 28-nation bloc ever since the migrant influx of 2015. The impasse has given ammunition to …

  WASHINGTON / AP Prime Minister Theresa May went to Washington, and President Donald Trump extended the hand of friendship. Literally. May left Washington after a 24-hour visit as Saturday’s British newspapers splashed front-page photos of the two leaders touching hands as they walked at the White House before a strikingly collegial news conference. May wanted her meeting, Trump’s first as …

  PARIS / AP Hard-left Socialist rebel Benoit Hamon heads into France’s left-wing presidential primary runoff as a surprising favorite to beat pro-business pragmatist Manuel Valls, in a vote that will realign France’s unpredictable presidential campaign. Hamon is the favorite in Sunday’s vote after arriving in pole position in the first round with 36 percent of the votes. He proposes a …

  MOSUL / AP An Iraqi officer says Iraqi forces discovered sulfur mustard, a chemical warfare agent, in Mosul alongside a cache of Russian surface-to-surface missiles. Iraqi special forces Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil said French officials tested the chemical agent this week and confirmed it was sulfur mustard. Iraqi forces showed journalists a tank of the chemical agent and a warehouse …

  WASHINGTON / AP President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging executive actions tightening border security— and the prospect of additional measures restricting refugee flows — mark a sharp shift away from Washington’s elusive efforts to forge comprehensive immigration legislation. “We do not need new laws,” Trump said Wednesday during remarks at the Department of Homeland Security. “We will work within the existing …

  AL MOKHA / WAM With the support of the Arab Coalition, Yemen’s national army, has captured the air defence camp and continued its push in Al-Muhajir area, east of Al Mokha city, west of Taiz Governorate. Yemen’s official news agency quoted a military source as saying, “The army launched a major offensive on Al Houthi militia and Saleh group’s air …

  VIENNA/ AP Austrian police arrested eight suspected terrorists on Thursday in a series of early-morning raids in the country’s two largest cities that mobilized heavily armed SWAT teams and hundreds of officers supporting them. A statement from the public prosecutor’s office in Graz, one of the cities involved, said those detained were suspected of involvement with the IS extremist …

  MOGADISHU / AP Somalia’s electoral commission says the presidential election will be Feb. 8, after four delays and amid allegations of bribery, fraud and voter intimidation. Opposition candidates have accused the government of monopolizing the electoral process. The electoral commission said late Wednesday that registration of presidential candidates starts Thursday. The development comes shortly after this Horn of Africa …