Death toll hits 20 following mudslides in California
MONTECITO, Calif. Parishioners prayed on Sunday for those killed and for families still searching for missing relatives in a Southern California community ravaged by mudslides, and authorities announced another body had been found, increasing the death toll to 20.
The body of 30-year-old Pinit Sutthithepa was discovered Saturday afternoon. His 2-year-old daughter, Lydia, remained missing. His 6-yearold son, Peerawat, nicknamed Pasta, and his 79-year-old father-in-law, Richard Loring Taylor, also were killed in the mudslides.
The list of those still missing in the mudslides has shrunk to four.
Trump negative about dreamers’ future
PALM BEACH, Fla. President Donald Trump said Sunday that a program that protects immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children is “probably dead,” casting a cloud over already tenuous negotiations just days before a deadline on a government funding deal that Democrats have tied to immigration.
At issue is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by President Barack Obama to shield hundreds of thousands of these individuals, known as “Dreamers,” from deportation. Trump, who has taken a hard stance against illegal immigration, announced last year that he will end the program unless Congress comes up with a solution by March.
“DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military,” the Republican president tweeted. “I, as President, want people coming into our Country who are going to help us become strong and great again, people coming in through a system based on MERIT. No more Lotteries! #AMERICA FIRST.”
Republicans and Democrats were already at odds over funding the government, and the negotiations became more complicated after Democrats — whose votes are needed to pass a government funding bill — insisted immigration be included. Government funding expires midnight Friday without a deal in place, and some government functions will begin to go dark.
US to cut money for Palestinian refugees
WASHINGTON The Trump administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, cutting the year’s first contribution by more than half or perhaps entirely, and making additional donations contingent on major changes to the organization, according to U.S. officials.
President Donald Trump hasn’t made a final decision, but appears more likely to send only $60 million of the planned $125 million first installment to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, said the officials, who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Future contributions would require the agency, facing heavy Israeli criticism, to demonstrate significant changes in operations, they said, adding that one suggestion under consideration would require the Palestinians to first re-enter peace talks with Israel.
The State Department said Sunday that “the decision is under review. There are still deliberations taking place.” The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the matter.
Chelsea Manning confirms Senate run
NORTH BETHESDA, Md. Chelsea Manning on Sunday confirmed via Twitter that she is a candidate for U.S. Senate.
Three days after making her intention known to federal election officials, Manning tweeted “yup, we’re running for senate” with an attached campaign video indicating her intention to run in the 2018 Maryland Democratic primary. She sent a subsequent tweet seeking donations to her campaign.
The 71-second video weaves together images of white supremacists holding tiki torches in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as protesters clashing with police elsewhere.
“We live in trying times . times of fear . of suppression . of hate,” Manning said.
The montage shifts to the U.S. Capitol and President Donald Trump sitting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats.
Earthquake in Peru
LIMA, Peru A powerful earthquake struck off Peru’s coast early Sunday, tumbling adobe homes in small, rural towns, killing at least one person and leaving dozens injured, officials said.
The earthquake destroyed 63 homes, displacing about 130 people, and it injured 65 people, Peru's Chief of Civil Defence Jorge Chavez said.
The sole fatality was man killed when he was crushed by a fallen rock, said officials, adding that many of those injured were in Chala district, a coastal area dependent on fishing and mining that is popular with tourists.
Emergency crews responded by sending tents and mattresses to the displaced families, officials said.
“Everything that is needed is going to be sent,” Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said. “We are already responding at full speed.”
Plane dangles off cliff after skidding off runway in Turkey
ISTANBUL A commercial airplane that skidded off a runway after landing in northern Turkey dangled precariously Sunday off a muddy cliff with its nose only a few feet from the Black Sea.
Some of the 168 people on board the Boeing 737-800 described it as a “miracle” that everyone was evacuated safely from the plane, which went off a runway at Trabzon Airport.
Images show the aircraft on its belly and perched at an acute angle just above the water. If it had slid any further along the slope, the plane would have likely plunged into the sea in the Turkish province of Trabzon.
Pegasus Airlines said no one was injured during the incident late Saturday, despite the panic among the 162 passengers on board Flight PC8622. The sixmember crew, including two pilots, was also evacuated. Flights were suspended at Trabzon Airport for several hours before resuming again Sunday.
10 slain in eastern Mexico
XALAPA, Mexico A state governor in eastern Mexico is confirming the deaths of 10 people in apparent clashes between criminal gangs, saying nine of the dead were dismembered.
Veracruz Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes also announced Sunday that a new federal effort would be launched to reinforce security in the state capital, Xalapa.
The dismembered bodies were found Saturday in a residential neighbourhood about 500 yards (meters) from the city’s main bus terminal. Yunes said most have been identified.
The picturesque, oil-rich state has long been plagued by drug gang violence and the new year had already gotten off to a gory start, with the discovery of five heads atop a taxi in a tourist town and four others found in another city.
Norway government expands coalition, still lacks majority
TALLINN, Estonia Norway’s two-party centreright government has agreed to include the small centrist Liberal Party in the Cabinet, but the expanded three-way government will still fall short of having a majority in parliament.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s Conservatives, the anti-immigration Progress Party and the Liberal Party announced Sunday that the two weeks of talks had yielded an updated government program that includes tax cuts and reform of Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, among other pledges.
Even with the Liberals’ eight additional seats, the coalition maintains only 80 of the 169 seats in the Storting and would need support from the Christian Democrats to pass legislation.
Under Solberg’s lead, the Conservatives scored a narrow victory in September's parliamentary election. She has been prime minister of the Nordic country since 2013.
Turkey vows imminent assault on Kurdish enclave
ISTANBUL Turkey’s president said Sunday the country will launch a military assault on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria “in the coming days” and urged the U.S. to support its efforts.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the operation against the Afrin enclave aims to “purge terror” from his country's southern border.
Afrin is controlled by a Syrian Kurdish militia known as the YPG. Turkey considers the YPG to be a terrorist group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged a bloody insurgency within its borders.
A YPG spokesman in Afrin said clashes erupted after midnight between his unit and Turkish troops near the border with Turkey. Rojhat Roj said the shelling of areas in Afrin district, in Aleppo province, killed one YPG fighter and injured a couple of civilians on Sunday.
Turkey and its Western allies, including the U.S., consider the PKK a terrorist organization. But the U.S. has been arming some of Syria’s Kurds to defeat the Islamic State group in Syria — a sore point in already tense U.S.Turkish relations.