Nepalinews

WASHINGTON:  President Donald Trump’s four-month worldwide ban on refugees ended Tuesday, officials said, as his administration prepared to unveil tougher new screening procedures. Under an executive order Trump signed earlier this year, the United States had temporarily halted admissions for refugees from all countries, with some exceptions.The end-date written into the order came and went Tuesday with no new order from Trump to extend it, according to a State Department official, who wasn’t authorized to comment by name and requested anonymity. Refugees seeking entry to the US will face what officials described as more stringent and thorough examination of their backgrounds, in line with Trump’s “extreme vetting” policy for immigrants. The Homeland Security Department, the State Department and other U.S. agencies have been reviewing the screening process during the temporary ban. The new screening procedures were to be announced later Tuesday. It was unclear exactly what

BEIRUT:  Amid an anti-gay crackdown in  Egypt  since a rainbow flag was hoisted at a Cairo concert, gay dating apps are sending users tips on how to protect themselves from entrapment. The flag was raised last month at a concert headlined by Mashrou’ Leila, a Lebanese rock band whose singer is openly gay. It was a rare public show of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in the conservative Muslim country, and was met with a swift zero-tolerance response. Since then nearly 70 people have been arrested, and more than 20 have been handed sentences ranging from six months to six years, according to Dalia Abdel Hameed of the rights group  Egypt ian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). US-based gay dating apps, like Grindr and Hornet, used by millions globally, have provided  Egypt ian users with extra safety tips in Arabic. “It will make people take more precautions … we know that the police are under pressure to arrest people and they are goi

TOKYO:  Fresh off a decisive election victory, Japan’s leader pledged Monday to tackle what he called Japan’s two national crises: the military threat from North Korea and an aging and shrinking population. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a news conference that he is committed to protect the Japanese people’s prosperity and peace from any contingency. He also referred to Japanese people who were abducted years ago and are believed to still be held by North Korea. “I will pursue decisive and strong diplomacy to tackle North Korea’s missile, nuclear and abduction issues and put further pressure to get it to change its policy,” he said. His ruling coalition got voters’ endorsement to stay in power in elections for Japan’s more powerful lower house Sunday. Abe said Japan’s decreasing population and aging is “the biggest challenge” for his Abenomics policy aimed at Japan’s economic recovery from deflation. “The problem is progressing by the minute, and we cannot afford wai

SEOUL:  South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said on Sunday the government will continue to phase out nuclear-generated electricity, following a public opinion survey that dealt a blow to his plans to do so. “We will completely stop all plans for the construction of new nuclear reactors like the government previously stated,” Moon said in a statement distributed to reporters by his office.“The government will also step up usage of natural gas and renewables in order to maintain its stance of phasing out nuclear-generated power.” Moon’s statement came after a public opinion survey on Friday found a majority of almost 60 percent in favour of resuming the stalled construction of two reactors. The president asked his supporters on Sunday to respect the outcome of the survey, which he called a “wise and intelligent” response. Completing the two reactors could mean a reversal of a strategy to slowly reduce nuclear energy’s share of the power mix, and also significantly eat into th

LJUBLJANA:  Polls opened in the Slovenian presidential election on Sunday with incumbent President Borut Pahor running for his second five-year mandate against eight other candidates. Opinion polls had shown that Pahor, who is running as an independent and says his main task is bringing people together, will win most votes but the question remains whether there will be a need for a second election round. If no candidate wins at least 50 percent of votes in the first round, the two candidates with the most votes will compete in a second round on November 12. Apart from Pahor, the most likely candidate to get into the second round is the mayor of Kamnik Marjan Sarec, who is backed by his own non-parliamentary centre-left party Lista Marjana Sarca, opinion polls showed. “A lot will depend upon turnout, upon whether young people will come to vote. In this case Pahor would benefit as he is the king of the Instagram and is therefore more likely to get votes of the young,” Tan

MARAWI CITY:  Philippine troops were locked in an intense urban firefight on Sunday with the last remnants of a pro-Islamic state alliance, as the army sought to declare an end to the country’s biggest internal security crisis in years. An estimated 30 people, including militants and some of their family members, were battling to hold a fortified, two-storey building next to Marawi City’s vast Lake Lanao, and appeared ready to fight to the death, according to the deputy commander of the operation. “There’s just one building and they’re inside,” Colonel Romeo Brawner told a news conference. “We believe these are ones who decided to fight it out, because they believe that if they die there they will go to Heaven.” Brawner said soldiers were using loudspeakers to urge them to surrender, and anticipated the gunfight could go on until midnight. They did not know how many people in the building were alive or dead, he said. The siege of Marawi has stunned the Philippines and

JAKARTA:  Indonesia’s government is seeking clarification from the US after the Indonesian military chief was denied entry to the country, an official said Sunday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said the Indonesian Embassy in Washington had sent a diplomatic note to the State Department. Nasir said the US ambassador to Indonesia was not in the country and his deputy has been summoned to provide more information on Monday. Military spokesman Wuryanto, who goes by one name, said military chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo and his wife had planned to leave Indonesia on Saturday evening but were told by their airline shortly before departure that US Customs would deny their entry. Nurmantyo had been invited to attend a conference on extremist organizations in Washington by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Relations between the US and Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, are generally friendly. Indonesia’s military has a

GENEVA:  The appointment of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador of the World Health Organization (WHO) has been denounced by human rights groups. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the appointment at a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Uruguay on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by Mugabe, 93. He is blamed in the West for destroying his country’s economy and numerous human rights abuses during his 37 years leading the country as either president or prime minister. In a speech, Tedros praised Zimbabwe as “a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the center of its policies to provide health care to all”. The former Ethiopian health and foreign minister, who was elected last May as WHO’s first African director-general, added: “Today I am also honored to announce that President Mugabe has agreed to serve as a goodwill ambassador on NCDs for Africa to influence his peers

PRAGUE:  Czechs voted on Saturday in the final day of a parliamentary election likely to bring a billionaire businessman to power on promises to cut taxes, weed out political corruption and stand firm against immigration. Andrej Babis’s ANO party held a narrowing double-digit lead going into the vote, which started Friday and ends at 2 pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday. The Central European country has enjoyed rapid growth, a balanced budget and the lowest unemployment in the European Union, but voters have grown tired of traditional political players, giving rise to Babis and other protest parties. As many as nine parties had a chance of winning seats in the 200-member lower house, possibly complicating coalition-building for the victor. ANO has maintained its rhetoric of opposition to the ruling system despite serving in the outgoing government along with Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s centre-left Social Democrats and the centrist Christian Democrats. Final polls gave AN

KABUL:  Suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 72 people including children, officials and witnesses said. One bomber walked into a Shi‘ite Muslim mosque in the capital Kabul as people were praying on Friday night and detonated an explosive, one of the worshippers there, Mahmood Shah Husaini, said. At least 39 people died in the blast at the Imam Zaman mosque in the city’s western Dasht-e-Barchi district, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, but a statement from the group did not provide evidence to support its claim. Shi‘ite Muslims have suffered a series of attacks in Afghanistan in recent months, many of them claimed by the Sunni Muslim militants of IS. Separately, a suicide bombing killed at least 33 people at a mosque in central Ghor province, a police spokesman said. The attack appeared to target a local leader from the Jamiat political party, according

BEIJING:  Experience shows that foreign interference in crises does not work and China supports the Myanmar government’s efforts to protect stability, a senior Chinese official said on Saturday, amid ongoing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. More than 500,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled across the border to Bangladesh following a counter-insurgency offensive by Myanmar’s army in the wake of militant attacks on security forces. UN officials have described Myanmar’s strategy as “ethnic cleansing”. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday the United States held Myanmar’s military leadership responsible for its harsh crackdown. Guo Yezhou, a deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international department, told reporters on the sidelines of a party congress that China condenmed the attacks in Rakhine and understands and supports Myanmar’s efforts to protect peace and stability there. China and Myanmar have a deep, long-standing friendship, and China belie

SAN DIEGO:  The last two of eight prototypes for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall took shape Thursday at a construction site in San Diego. The prototypes form a tightly packed row of imposing concrete and metal panels, including one with sharp metal edges on top. Another has a surface resembling an expensive brick driveway.Companies have until Oct. 26 to finish the models but Border Patrol spokesman Theron Francisco said the last two came into profile, with crews installing a corrugated metal surface on the eighth model on a dirt lot just a few steps from homes in Tijuana, Mexico. As the crews worked, three men and two women from Nepal, ages 19 to 30, jumped a short rusted fence from Tijuana into the construction site and were immediately stopped by agents on horseback. Francisco said there have been four or five other illegal crossing attempts at the site since work began Sept. 26. The models, which cost the government up to $500,000 each, were spaced 30 feet

SYDNEY:  The parliament of Australia’s second largest state passed legislation on Friday to allow terminally ill patients to seek medical help to end their lives, a bill that is expected to act as a catalyst for the rest of the country to adopt similar laws. Any resident of Victoria state over 18, with a terminal illness and with less than 12 months to live can request a lethal dose of medication, the bill permits. Anyone that is too ill to administer the dosage can ask for a doctor to help.Many countries have legalised euthanasia or physician-assisted deaths, including Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and some states in the United States. But Australia’s federal government has opposed legalising euthanasia even though the remote Northern Territory became the first jurisdiction in the world to do so in 1995. The federal government enacted its own legislation to override the Northern Territory law in 1997 under rules allowed by the constitution. State law can not be overr

BAGHDAD/KIRKUK:  Iraqi forces took control on Friday of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle, security sources said. The district of Altun Kupri, or Perde in Kurdish, lies on the road between the city of Kirkuk – which fell to Iraqi forces on Monday – and Erbil, capital of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq that voted in a referendum last month to secede from Iraq against Baghdad’s wishes.A force made up of US-trained Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service units, Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation and Federal Police began their advance on Altun Kupri at 7:30 am (0430 GMT), said an Iraqi military spokesman. “Details will be communicated later,” the spokesman said in a short posting on social media. Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew from the town of Altun Kupri, located on the Zab river, after battling the advancing Iraqi troops with machine guns, mortars and rocket pr

                                DERA ISMAIL KHAN:  The leader of Pakistani militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, who planned some of the deadliest suicide bombings in Pakistan over the last year, died on Thursday of wounds sustained in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, a spokesman said. “Our leader, Omar Khalid Khorasani, was wounded in one of the recent drone strikes in Afghanistan. He was wounded badly, and today he was martyred,” Asad Mansoor, a Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesman, said by telephone.The killing comes ahead of American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit next week and is likely to further ease tensions between the often-wary allies, as Islamabad has been asking Washington for years to target militants who attack inside Pakistan and then hide over the border in Afghanistan. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has in the past also backed Middle East-based Islamic State and has increasingly targeted religious minorities in Pakistan. The group clai

BHUBANESWAR:  Flames swept through an illegal firecracker workshop in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Wednesday, killing at least six people, police said. The fire broke out as workers were making crackers for Thursday’s celebrations of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, district police chief Niti Shekhar told Reuters.The blaze injured seven others, leaving some with serious burns, he said. “They had stocked crackers in the cottage illegally. Some workers were making the crackers and some were present to purchase the crackers,” he added. Local television channels showed fire and smoke billowing out of the workshop in a cottage in Bahabalpur village, about 200 km (120 miles) from state capital Bhubaneswar.                                                                                    The blaze injured seven others, leaving some with serious burns, he said. “They had stocked crackers in the cottage illegally. Some workers were making the crackers and some were pr