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WASHINGTON: The United States (US) Secret Service said it had detained the driver of a rented box truck that crashed into security barriers near the White House on Monday night, perhaps intentionally, but that there were no injuries or ongoing danger. A Reuters witness said investigators found a Nazi swastika flag that apparently came from inside the truck, which crashed into barriers at Lafayette Square, adjacent to the White House grounds. Officers retrieved the flag and plastic evidence bags that had been laid out on the sidewalk following the crash and placed them in the back of the U-Haul, a Reuters photographer said. “Preliminary investigation reveals the driver may have intentionally struck the security barriers at Lafayette Square,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said on Twitter. United States (US) Park Police would file charges with investigative support from the Secret Service, he added. WUSA television showed video of a box-type, U-H...

Authorities detained the driver of a truck on Monday night after he crashed into security barriers on Lafayette Square adjacent to the White House grounds, a US Secret Service spokesperson said. “There were no injuries to any Secret Service or White House personnel, and the cause and manner of the crash remain under investigation,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the US Secret Service, said on Twitter. Some roads and pedestrian walkways were closed, the Secret Service said. The nearby Hay Adams hotel was evacuated, Fox 5 television news reported. WUSA television showed live video of a box-type, U-Haul truck stopped alongside a row of steel bollards, with uniformed law-enforcement officers approaching the vehicle. A remote-controlled robot pried open the truck’s door, revealing a dolly but no other obvious cargo. After crashing, the driver hit the barriers a second time, WUSA reported, citing a witness report. A spokesperson for the Washington Fire Department said ...

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could not reach an agreement Monday on how to raise the US government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling with just 10 days before a possible default that could sink the US economy, but vowed to keep talking. The Democratic president and the top congressional Republican have struggled to make a deal, as McCarthy pressures the White House to agree to spending cuts in the federal budget that Biden considers “extreme,” and the president pushes new taxes that Republicans have rejected. Both sides stressed the need to avoid default with a bipartisan deal after Monday evening’s meeting, however, and signaled that they’d be talking regularly in coming days. A source familiar with the situation said that White House negotiators were returning to Capitol Hill on Monday night to resume talks. “We reiterated once again that default is off the table and the only way to move forward is in good faith toward a bipartisan agreement,” Bide...

El Salvador was in shock Sunday after 12 people died and hundreds were injured in a stampede at a soccer stadium. Authorities said initial reports pointed to a crush of fans who tried to enter the 35,000-seat Cuscatlan Stadium in the Central American country’s capital San Salvador to watch a game between two local teams, Alianza and FAS. The match was suspended as emergency personnel evacuated people from the stadium, where hundreds of police officers and soldiers gathered as ambulance sirens wailed. Carlos Fuentes, spokesman for the emergency services group Comandos de Salvamento, said they were treating more than 500 people. The stampede apparently started after a stadium gate fell, causing people to crowd together, he said. Fredy Alexander Ruiz, a 28 year old survivor, said, “I am traumatized from seeing people thrown on the ground, dead, bruised, with their faces stepped on.” The stampede started 10 minutes into the game and after it was suspended even the players joined in ...

Five Iranian border guards were killed Sunday during clashes with an armed group in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, state media reported. The guards were killed in Saravan, near Iran’s border with Pakistan, the official IRNA news agency said. Earlier, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website had quoted local prosecutor Mehdi Shamsabadi as saying that six border guards were killed but later the number was revised down to five. Sunday’s attack was carried out by “a terrorist group that was seeking to infiltrate the country” but whose members “fled the scene after suffering injuries”, IRNA said. from International News Today - Breaking News, US News, World News https://ift.tt/KXpkATo

Nine people were killed Saturday in a stampede at an El Salvador stadium where soccer fans had gathered to watch a local tournament, police said. “The number of deaths after the stampede at the Cuscatlan Stadium amounts to nine,” the National Civil Police posted on Twitter. The security agency also noted that “several” injured people, including at least two in critical condition, were being taken to nearby hospitals. The police said initial reports point to a crush of fans who tried to enter the stadium in the Central American country’s capital San Salvador to watch a match between teams Alianza and FAS. El Salvador’s Interior Minister Juan Carlos Bidegain said the civil protection service’s first responders were on the scene and attending to people impacted by the incident. The match was suspended as emergency personnel evacuated people from the stadium, where hundreds of police officers and soldiers gathered as ambulance sirens wailed. Health Minister Francisco Alabi said the ...

At least 10 people were killed and nine wounded on Saturday when gunmen attacked a group of amateur rally drivers in the northern Mexican town of Ensenada, near the US border, authorities said. The motorists, who were participating in a race, were parked on the side of a highway when a group of men got out of a pickup truck and opened fire. The attack “left nine wounded and 10 people dead,” Ensenada authorities said in a statement. The prosecutor’s office of the state of Baja California, where Ensenada is located and which has been hard hit by drug violence, announced the formation of a “special investigation group” to identify the killers and determine the motives behind the shooting, the statement said. Some of the wounded received emergency care and were later transferred to hospitals in Ensenada, a municipality of some 440,000 people. Baja California is among Mexican states with the most intentional homicides, the majority attributed by the government to violence between orga...

KARACHI: Ex Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Rabbani said his confidence in the US, as the champion of human rights, shattered for good, when he experienced their treatment first hand during bogus trials and investigation sessions during his two-decade incarceration in the notorious facility. Rabbani, in fifties, was picked up in September 2002 from his Pakistani residence, alongwith his brother Rahim Rabbani, in a mistaken identity case, by local authorities who handed them over to the CIA as they invaded Afghanistan in aftermath of nine-eleven attacks. They were looking for Hasan Gul, but I was a cab driver named Ahmed Rabbani, I kept telling them that, he remembered. He was expatriated first to Afghanistan’s black sites run by the CIA where he suffered horrific torture in the name of special investigation methods. Then in 2003, he was put away in notorious Cuban facility in Guantanamo Bay. For more videos, documentary reports, and feature stories, visit  ARY STORIES  websi...

NEW DELHI: China said on Friday that it is opposed to a G20 tourism meeting next week in the disputed Himalayan territory of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and will not attend. India, which holds the chair of G20 this year, has organised a series of meetings across the country in the run-up to the summit in New Delhi in September. “China is firmly opposed to holding any kind of G20 meetings in disputed territory, and will not attend such meetings,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. In 2019, India split the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir to create the two federal territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. A large chunk of Ladakh is under Chinese control. Ties between New Delhi and Beijing have been strained since a military clash in Ladakh in 2020 in which 24 soldiers were killed. Srinagar, the summer capital of IIOJK, will host a meeting of the tourism working group for G20 members on May 22-24. Pakistan has also opposed ...

Xi Jinping called on China and Central Asia to “fully unleash” their potential in trade, economic and infrastructure cooperation in a speech to heads of state from the strategically vital region on Friday. The Chinese president said they must “fully unleash the potential of traditional cooperation in economy, trade, industrial capacity, energy and transport,” according to a state media readout. He also stressed the need to develop “new growth drivers… such as finance, agriculture, poverty reduction, low carbon, health, and digital innovation”. “China and Central Asian countries should deepen strategic mutual trust, and always offer clear and strong support for each other on issues of core interests,” Xi said. The Chinese leader is hosting the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan at a summit in Xi’an in northern China this week — a meeting Beijing has said is of “milestone” significance. Beijing says trade with Central Asia reached $70 billion...

XIAN: China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday unveiled an ambitious plan to help elevate Central Asia to the next level of its development – from building infrastructure networks to boosting trade – while shunning “external interference” at the same time. China stands ready to synergise development strategies with the five Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and make joint efforts to promote the modernisation of all six countries, said Xi in an address at the China-Central Asia Summit in northwest China. “The world needs a Central Asia that is stable, prosperous, harmonious, and well-connected,” Xi said. At the same time, the six countries should oppose “external interference” in the internal affairs of regional countries and attempts to instigate “colour revolutions”, and maintain a zero-tolerance stance against terrorism, separatism and extremism, Xi warned. “China is ready to help Central Asian countries improve their law enf...

WASHINGTON: Montana Governor Greg Gianforte on Wednesday signed legislation to ban Chinese-owned TikTok from operating in the state to protect residents from alleged intelligence gathering by China, making it the first US state to ban the popular short video app. Montana will make it unlawful for Google and Apple’s app stores to offer TikTok within the state, but will not impose any penalties on individuals using the app. The ban is to take effect Jan. 1, 2024, and is almost certain to face legal challenges. TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, did not respond to a Reuters question asking if it planned legal action. Earlier, TikTok issued a statement saying that the new law “infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok,” and said it will “continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.” TikTok, which has over 150 million American users, has faced growing calls from U.S. lawmakers and sta...

Gunmen attacked a US convoy in southeast Nigeria’s Anambra State on Tuesday, police and a US official said, killing four people and abducting three others. Separatists who operate in the region have escalated their attacks in recent years, usually targeting police or government buildings. “No US citizen was in the convoy,” said police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu. The gunmen “murdered two of the Police Mobile Force operatives and two staff of the consulate,” he said, before setting their vehicle “ablaze”. The attack took place on Tuesday at “3:30pm (14:30 GMT) along Atani, Osamale road” in Ogbaru district, according to the police. Joint security forces deployed to the scene, said Tochukwu, but the gunmen managed to abduct two police operatives and a driver. A “rescue/recovery operation” was underway Tuesday evening, he added in his statement. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed the attack during a briefing with reporters in Washington DC. “A US convoy of v...

SEOUL: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday his country is ready to partner with South Korea on critical minerals and clean energy projects, and to fend off North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. Addressing South Korea’s parliament, Trudeau said Canada was committed to increase military engagement to mitigate threats to regional security, while working together with Seoul to denuclearise North Korea. “Canada is ready to strengthen our partnership with friends like Korea on everything from critical minerals to high-tech innovation to clean energy solutions,” Trudeau said. He said the issues will be “at the core” of a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol set for later on Wednesday, which will be followed by a press conference and official dinner. Trudeau arrived in Seoul on Tuesday in the first visit in nine years by a Canadian leader as the two countries seek to boost cooperation on security and critical minerals used in electric vehicles (EV...

An 18-year-old gunman killed three people and injured several others including two police officers during a shooting in a New Mexico city on Monday, law enforcement said. Officers responding to multiple emergency calls found “a chaotic scene where a male subject was actively firing upon individuals,” local police deputy chief Baric Crum told a press conference. Four officers confronted the subject and “were able to stop his actions,” Crum said. “The suspect is deceased, but prior to that, we know that three civilians were killed by this person’s actions,” he said. The shooting took place in Farmington, a town of 50,000 people located some 200 miles (320 km) from state capital Santa Fe, and close to Navajo and Ute Native American reservations. Nine people were wounded, said Crum. Further details of exactly where and how the shooting unfolded were not immediately provided. Investigations into the incidents are ongoing. The two police officers shot during the incident are bein...

A fire ripped through a four-storey hostel in New Zealand’s capital in the early hours of Tuesday, killing at least six people as others fled for their lives, with some plucked from the roof. Towering flames and thick smoke could be seen pouring from the top-floor windows of the Loafers Lodge hostel in central Wellington during the night, as 80 firefighters and 20 trucks battled the blaze. Emergency services said multiple people had died in the 92-room hostel and 52 people had been rescued. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said at least six people had been killed and the city’s mayor said the toll could be significantly higher. Firefighters used a ladder truck to save people trapped on the roof, said Fire and Emergency deputy national commander Brendan Nally. “They plucked quite a few people off the top of the roof from an area directly above the fire,” Nally told local media. “There was no other way. Those people were going to perish, except for the intervention of our team. Multip...

Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary polls in Türkiye ended with another victory for incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party, according to unofficial results. Addressing his supporters after midnight at the AK Party headquarters in the capital Ankara, Erdoğan said they were waiting for the “outcome of the national will,” but they had a “clear lead, though unofficial results have been announced.” Erdoğan had secured 49% of the vote as he spoke according to the initial unofficial results. “Türkiye has proven once again that it is among world’s leading democracies with its commitment to superiority of national will, freedom of its citizens in their political choices,” he added. “We believe that we will win this election with more than 50% of the votes,” Erdoğan also said. Erdoğan and his main rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, did not secure more than 50% of the vote, setting up a runoff vote scheduled for May 28. After an uneventful vote that end...

Turkey votes Sunday in a momentous election that could extend President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 20-year grip on power or put the mostly Muslim nation on a more secular course. The presidential and parliamentary ballot has turned into a referendum on Turkey’s longest-serving leader and his Islamic-rooted party. It is also the toughest of more than a dozen that Erdogan has confronted — one that polls suggest he might lose. The 69-year-old has steered the nation of 85 million through one of its most transformative and divisive eras in the post-Ottoman state’s 100-year history. Turkey has grown into a military and geopolitical heavyweight that plays roles in conflicts stretching from Syria to Ukraine. The NATO member’s footprint in both Europe and the Middle East makes the election’s outcome as critical for Washington and Brussels as it is for Damascus and Moscow. But Erdogan’s first decade of economic revival and warming relations with Europe was followed by a second one filled with...

A ceasefire was in effect on the Gaza Strip Sunday, drawing people back into the streets after five days of cross-border exchanges killed at least 34 Palestinians and one Israeli. The truce got off to a rough start after the final 30 minutes running up to the expected deadline saw a volley of fire. Dozens of rockets were launched from Gaza towards Israel, prompting renewed air strikes, AFP correspondents in the territory said. Egypt brokered the latest ceasefire, saying it had secured agreement from both Israel and the Palestinian. “Israel’s National Security Adviser Tsahi Hanegbi… thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and expressed the State of Israel’s appreciation for Egypt’s vigorous efforts to bring about a ceasefire,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said. – ‘What have we done?’ – For days, life in Gaza and Israeli communities near the border has been a daily routine of air strikes and sirens warning of incoming rocket fire. Residents in the...

Azerbaijani troops on Friday killed one Armenian soldier in border clashes between the arch foes, Yerevan said, on the second day of fighting which threatens to derail EU-led weekend peace talks. The Caucasus neighbours are locked in a decades-long territorial dispute over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, over which they have fought two wars. Armenian defence ministry said there was “one killed and two more injured” among its troops, adding that “the intensity of fighting has decreased”. It had reported earlier on Friday that “Azerbaijani Armed Forces violated the ceasefire in the direction of Sotk (eastern part of the state border) using UAVs (drones)” and “opened fire using heavy weapons on the Armenian positions near the village of Kut,” in the Gegharkunik province near the border with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said: “Armenian armed forces opened fire from trench mortars on Azerbaijani positions” at the border. On Thursday, an Azerbai...