Trump defends under-fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions
President Donald Trump has defended Attorney General Jeff Sessions as "an honest man" amid calls for him to quit.
Mr Sessions has been under fire over comments at his confirmation hearing about contacts with Russian officials.
Mr Trump said Mr Sessions "could have stated his response more accurately but it was clearly not intentional" and accused Democrats of a "witch hunt".
However, Mr Sessions has recused himself from an FBI probe into alleged Russian meddling in the US election.
The Democrats have maintained their attacks on Mr Sessions, saying his explanation regarding his contacts with the Russian ambassador in 2016 were "simply not credible".
BBC crew attacked in China and forced to sign confession
Journalist says crew trying to interview villager about land reform had cameras smashed and confiscated
A BBC camera crew reporting in China was attacked and later forced by police to apologise and sign a confession for trying to conduct an “illegal interview”, one of its reporters has said.
John Sudworth, a journalist with the BBC, and his team were attempting to interview a villager in rural China who claims her father was killed during a land dispute with the government. As they walked towards her house, a group of men blocked their way, pushed Sudworth and smashed and snatched the crew’s cameras.
“As soon as we arrived in Yang Linghua’s village it was clear they were expecting us,” Sudworth wrote in his account, referring to the woman the BBC wanted to interview.
Donald Trump plans to cut spending on EPA climate change programme by 70%
Initiative to combat greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced to $29m (£23m) under proposal
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could face cuts of up to 70 per cent to its climate change programmes under a new White House proposal.
President Donald Trump has long made clear his intention to reverse his predecessor Barack Obama's green legacy, however he also pledged that any changes would not jeopardise America's water and air quality.
The 23-page budget proposal for 2018 aims to slice the environmental regulator's overall budget by 25 per cent to $6.1 billion (£5bn) and staffing by 20 per cent to 12,400 as part of a broader effort to fund increased military spending.
It would also cut deeply into programmes like climate protection, environmental justice and enforcement.
Blind man's death on Iran bridge a wake-up call for authorities
The death of a blind man in Iran has reignited a debate over whether the Islamic Republic is doing enough for the estimated 120,000 sightless Iranians. Our Observer says current measures aren't enough.
According to Iranian media, Abbas Nobaghi died on January 30 when he fell from a pedestrian bridge in his home town of Varamin, a suburb of Tehran. He reportedly used the bridge every day. But when workers removed the horizontal section of the bridge for maintenance, they left the stairs unblocked. Nobaghi took his normal route up the stairs as usual — but when he reached the top he fell five metres to the ground, sustaining head injuries. He later died in hospital.
According to Iranian media, Abbas Nobaghi died on January 30 when he fell from a pedestrian bridge in his home town of Varamin, a suburb of Tehran. He reportedly used the bridge every day. But when workers removed the horizontal section of the bridge for maintenance, they left the stairs unblocked. Nobaghi took his normal route up the stairs as usual — but when he reached the top he fell five metres to the ground, sustaining head injuries. He later died in hospital.
There was a similar incident in 2010 when a blind journalist fell on to the tracks in the Tehran metro, where she was run over by a train. The event was a wake-up call for the authorities, who started to put place better public facilities for visually impaired people. They started installing traffic cones and temporary barriers in some parts of the metro, later replacing them with tactile paving tiles. (Tactile paving tiles have surfaces that feature bumps or other textures that sightless people can feel with their canes. They serve as a warning sign on the edge of a metro platform or sidewalk.)
Life in the VRAEM, Peru's 'cocaine valley'
A soldier, a local radio presenter and a coca leader give their view on life in Peru's main cocaine-producing region.
The Peruvian region VRAEM, the valley of the three rivers Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro, has long been stigmatised by the outside world as a "lawless" region overrun by "narco-terrorists". It's a description that holds some truth: about 70 percent of Peru's cocaine is produced in the region and it is home to the last remnants of the Shining Path, a Maoist armed group that fought a war against the state between 1980 and 2000. Today an estimated 300 fighters remain in the region.
But for the more than 400,000 people living in the VRAEM, their story is predominantly one of struggling for survival, with basic needs such as education, energy, asphalted roads and clean water often unfulfilled. Here, the economic potential of coca, the plant used to make cocaine, is unrivalled and can offer some respite in the face of poverty. A soldier who grew up in the region, a local radio presenter and a leader of the coca movement give us their take on living in the VRAEM.
Grilled over Osaka land deal, Abe balks at demand for probe into LDP
BY ERIC JOHNSTON
STAFF WRITER
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rejected a call by the opposition Thursday to open an investigation into his Liberal Democratic Party over its possible role in a land deal for a private, nationalist school in Osaka at the center of growing controversy involving him and his wife.
Abe, who is also LDP president, told a diet session that the most the government can do is cooperate “thoroughly” with the Board of Audit, which is independent of the Cabinet, in the fact-finding efforts.
Abe’s testimony came on the same day a new video emerged of his wife, Akie, speaking to the school in April 2014, asking the students if they knew who her husband was and hearing them say he was the man who protected Japan from China.
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