CAIRO: Contradicting a statement by a Libyan official recently, the U.S. military has denied taking part in a raid on an al Qaeda site in the Libyan city of Ubari.
The spokesperson for Fayez al-Sarraj, had on Wednesday said in a statement that a site with a number of al Qaeda members in Ubari was raided by joint U.S.-Libyan forces.
The U.S. Africa Command, responsible for American troops in the area, said that although the US supports counterterrorism efforts of the U.N.-recognized Libyan government, U.S. forces were not involved in the raid.
WARSAW: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the United States aims to “get as far down the road as we can” ahead of a summit with North Korea, reports said.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are meeting in Vietnam on February 27 and 28 this month.
Pompeo said he was sending a team to Asia soon to hold further discussions around all issues. The two leaders had in last June met and discussed at a groundbreaking Singapore summit, according to Reuters.
Speaking at a press conference in Warsaw that Trump and Kim would be talking about “denuclearization pillar they agreed to” at their first summit, reports said.
He said that the US aims to get this “as far down the road as we can”. (Agencies)
CARACAS: The U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, recently met secretly with the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, according to reports.
Citing President Nicolas Maduro and a senior Venezuelan official, the Associated Press said Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, met twice with Abrams in New York for hours and invited him to come to Venezuela “privately or publicly,” Maduro said in an interview.
The US has backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, who last month assumed the presidency on promises to end a humanitarian crisis in the country. ()Agencies)
CAIRO: A joint force of U.S.-Libyan army raided an al Qaeda site in Ubari, a Libyan city, agencies have said.
Spokesperson for Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the Presidency Council, said that a site with a number of al Qaeda members in Ubari has been raided. He, however, gave no details.
The joint work between the Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord and the US Government, according to Spokesperson Mohamed El Sallak, coincided with the meeting of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Mohamed Sayala at the Global Coalition to Defeat Islamic State meeting last week. (Agencies)
WASHINGTON: A top Pentagon has said that defense sales between India and the US are at an all-time. He added that the bilateral strategic partnership between the two countries continues to advance at an historic pace, reports have said.
According to Admiral Philip Davidson, Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told a Congressional hearing saying that the inaugural 2+2 Ministerial in New Delhi last September and signing of the COMCASA in 2018 were pivotal moments in the bilateral relations, according to agencies.
India and the US, last year, signed the COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) to facilitate interoperability between the militaries of the two countries.
The United States and Indian militaries participated in five major exercises over the past years. The two countries have executed more than fifty other military exchanges, and further operationalized the 2016 Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, reports have said. (Agencies)
SAN FRANCISCO: Immigrants from Nepal have filed a lawsuit alleging the Trump administration unfairly ended a program, a temporary protected status (TPS), that lets them live and work in the United States. Similarly, immigrants from Honduras have also filed a lawsuit claiming that the decision taken by the Trump administration is ‘inappropriate’.
The lawsuit filed late Sunday in federal court in San Francisco alleges that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end so-called temporary protected status for the countries was motivated by racism.
The suit — which was filed on behalf of six immigrants and two of their American-born children — also alleges that the department changed how it evaluated conditions in these countries when determining whether immigrants could return there.
“We bring evidence the Trump administration has repeatedly denigrated non-white non-European immigrants and reviewed TPS designations with a goal of removing such non-white non-European immigrants from the United States,” said Minju Cho, a staff attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Los Angeles.
The group is one of several representing the immigrant plaintiffs, who live California, Minnesota, Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut. A message seeking comment was left for the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of court filings challenging the Trump administration’s decision to end the program for a cluster of countries whose citizens have lived and worked legally in the United States for years.
Last year, a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the U.S. government from halting the program for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. The suit filed by citizens of those countries, much like this one, cited Trump’s vulgar language during a meeting last year to describe African countries. The U.S. government grants temporary protected status, also known as TPS, to citizens of countries ravaged by natural disasters or war so they can stay and work legally in the United States until the situation improves back home.
The status is short-term but renewable and some immigrants have lived in the country for decades, raising American-born children, buying homes and building careers. Critics have said the program was meant to be temporary and shouldn’t be extended for so long.
The Trump administration announced last year that the program would be ending for Honduras and Nepal. Honduras was designated for the program after a devastating 1998 hurricane and about 86,000 immigrants from the country have the status, according to the lawsuit.
About 15,000 immigrants from Nepal — which was designated following an earthquake in 2015— are covered, the suit said. Together, these immigrants have more than 50,000 American children who would be affected by an end to the program, which lets those who are already in the United States stay in the country and obtain work permits, the suit said.
One of them is the 9-year-old daughter of Honduran citizen Donaldo Posadas Caceres, who came to the United States shortly before the hurricane in 1998. After Honduras was designated for the program, he obtained the status, and now works as a bridge painter and owns his home in Baltimore. He said he doesn’t want his children to return to a country they don’t know and where life is so dangerous. His elder daughter, he said, is in college studying to be a lawyer while the 9-year-old has plans of her own.
“She has the dreams of a child: she wants to be president,” he told reporters in Spanish during a telephone conference. “And I want to be here in the United States to support them, and see their achievements.” (Associated Press)
BERLIN: A survey conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Center concluded that climate change has been the top security concern in several countries.
According to the survey, Islamist terrorism and cyber-attacks have been listed as other concerns after climate change. In the survey, respondents in a number of countries expressed their worry about the power and influence of the United States, reports said.
The survey said that in 13 of 26 countries, people listed climate change as the top global threat. Likewise, Islamic State militant group topped the list in eight and cyber-attacks in four, according to Reuters.
QAMISHLI, Syria: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has begun an assault against the Islamic State (IS) enclave in eastern Syria. This has been aimed at wiping out the last vestige of the group’s “caliphate” in the SDF’s area of operations, according to agencies.
US President Donald Trump had on Wednesday said that the U.S.-led coalition operating in support of the SDF had reclaimed almost all territories earlier held by the jihadist group. (Agencies)
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says U.S. diplomats had a “very productive meeting” with North Korean officials. He also announced his meeting later this month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi.
Trump, earlier this week, announced the dates for the second summit with Kim.
US President Trump tweeted: “My representatives have just left North Korea after a very productive meeting and an agreed upon time and date for the second Summit with Kim Jong Un. It will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27 & 28”.
Trump said he looked forward to seeing Chairman Kim and advancing the cause of peace!”
Trump, earlier this week, announced the dates for the second summit with Kim.
As part of the preparation for the summit, Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, held three days of talks in Pyongyang, according to the State Department, according to Reuters.
WASHINGTON, DC: U.S. lawmakers are pushing for stronger aviation security with a bipartisan bill that would require passenger airlines to install secondary security doors between cabins and the cockpit on current aircraft to prevent another Sept. 11-style attack.
Hijackings remain a threat despite improvements in global aviation safety since Sept. 11, 2001, when hijacked planes flew into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, four U.S. representatives – Democrats Andre Carson and Josh Gottheimer and Republicans Brian Fitzpatrick and Peter King – said in a statement.
Congress last year imposed a requirement for secondary barriers, aimed at preventing would-be hijackers from rushing the cockpit when pilots take bathroom breaks or meals, for future, newly manufactured commercial airplanes. But that legislation did not address existing aircraft.
The new bill, introduced last week, would extend the requirement to all passenger jets. Secondary barriers would allow a pilot to close the cockpit door before opening another door to the rest of the plane. Current measures to protect the flight deck include stationing a flight attendant or food cart in front of the cockpit.
A study by the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees aviation security, concluded that cockpits are vulnerable when pilots step out and cited secondary doors as the most efficient, cost-effective form of protection, according to the news release issued on Wednesday. The lightweight, wire-mesh barriers would cost $5,000 to $12,000 per aircraft, the lawmakers said.
Airlines for America – an industry trade group representing large commercial carriers like American Airlines Group Inc, Southwest Airlines Co and United – said individual airlines should be the ones to decide whether to install such systems.
Association spokesman Vaughn Jennings said the airline industry has worked closely with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to implement a multilayered security system following 9/11 and noted that some U.S. airlines have determined that secondary cockpit barriers are appropriate on some aircraft.
The pilots’ union, The Air Line Pilots Association, said it supported the legislation and called on the FAA to immediately implement the language required by Congress last year on new passenger aircraft “to help ensure the security of our cockpits.”
Following the 9/11 attacks, airlines reinforced cockpit doors and the TSA rolled out advanced airport screening equipment. The TSA also oversees the Federal Air Marshal Service, which deploys armed U.S. air marshals on flights across the world. But critics have questioned the effectiveness of passenger screening and the air marshal program.
The new bill for secondary barriers is called the Saracini Enhanced Aviation Safety Act after pilot Victor Saracini, who was killed when his plane was hijacked during the 9/11 attacks. His widow, Ellen, has been an advocate of legislation for aviation safety. Reuters