US President Donald Trump signs new travel ban, exempts Iraq
Updated 0741 GMT (1541 HKT) March 7, 2017
US President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Monday that bans immigration from six Muslim-majority countries, dropping Iraq from January's previous order, and reinstates a temporary blanket ban on all refugees.
The new travel ban comes six weeks after Trump's original executive order caused chaos at airports nationwide before it was blocked by federal courts. It removes out language in the original order that indefinitely banned Syrian refugees and called for prioritizing the admission of refugees who are religious minorities in their home countries. That provision drew criticism of a religious test for entry and would have prioritized Christians over Muslims fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East.
'Parched' Chinese city plans to pump water from Russian lake via 1,000km pipeline
Urban planners in Lanzhou have drawn up proposals to pipe water into the chronically dry region from Siberia’s Lake Baikal.
China is reportedly considering plans to build a 1,000km (620 mile) pipeline to pump water all the way from Siberia to its drought-stricken northwest.
According to reports in the Chinese media, urban planners in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, have drawn up proposals to pipe water into the chronically parched region from Russia’s Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake on earth.
Li Luoli, an academic who is one of the plan’s cheerleaders, claimed the mega-project - roughly the equivalent of pumping water from Lake Como to London - was both theoretically feasible and “certainly beneficial” to China.
Battle for Manbij shows Syria’s civil war is almost over – and it looks like Bashar Assad has won
Isis is under military pressure on every side and it seems to be more than it can stand
Winners and losers are emerging in what may be the final phase of the Syrian civil war as anti-Isis forces prepare for an attack aimed at capturing Raqqa, the de facto Isis capital in Syria. Kurdish-led Syrian fighters say they have seized part of the road south of Raqqa, cutting Isis off from other its territory further east.
Isis is confronting an array of enemies approaching Raqqa, but these are divided, with competing agendas and ambitions. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whose main fighting force is the Syrian Kurdish Popular Mobilisation Units (YPG), backed by the devastating firepower of the US-led air coalition, are now getting close to Raqqa and are likely to receive additional US support. The US currently has 500 Special Operations troops in north-east Syria and may move in American-operated heavy artillery to reinforce the attack on Raqqa.
N. Korea bans Malaysians from leaving in row over Kim Jong Nam killing
Pyongyang has temporarily barred all Malaysian citizens from exiting North Korea in a row over the assassination of the brother of Kim Jong Un. In turn, Malaysia banned Pyongyang's diplomatic staff from leaving.
North Korean officials proclaimed the measure on Tuesday, saying they were aiming to ensure the safety of its diplomats and citizens in Malaysia.
"All Malaysian nationals in the DPRK will be temporarily prohibited from leaving the country until the incident that happened in Malaysia is properly solved," the official Korea Central News Agency said on Tuesday, citing the foreign ministry.
Malaysians would be allowed to "conduct business and live normally" while the travel ban is in place, the report added.
Egypt campus: The students versus the regime
University campuses remain a site of opposition to the new authoritarianism and its policies.
In the wake of the 2013 military coup, students affiliated with - and sympathetic to - the Muslim Brotherhood demonstrated in public universities to demand the return of the deposed President Mohamed Morsi. Their demonstrations turned universities into a new battleground between security forces and students as Egypt's new rulers moved to crackdown on student activism.
The clampdown has been harsh.
Egypt's ruling generals have used laws, regulations, procedures, and security tools to subdue student dissidents. The government has employed private security companies to patrol public university campuses and pushed university administrations to enforce harsh penalties against non-compliant students.
The general prosecutor has transferred hundreds of student dissidents to criminal courts and even more have remained in police detention. In the academic year following the coup, at least 14 students were killed in campus violence and hundreds arrested or suspended.
North Korea says missile launches were part of training for striking U.S. bases in Japan
BY JESSE JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER
North Korea’s firing of a barrage of missiles Monday — what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe characterized as “a new level of threat” — was training for striking U.S. military bases in Japan, Pyongyang’s state media said Tuesday.
“Involved in the drill were Hwasong artillery units of the KPA Strategic Force tasked to strike the bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces in Japan in contingency,” the report said.
North Korea demonstrated its growing military capabilities with the apparent simultaneous launch of the four ballistic missiles, three of which fell into the Sea of Japan.
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