TRUMP WANTS SENATE HOPEFUL TO STEP ASIDE IF SEX CLAIMS TRUE

DANANG, Vietnam: US President Donald Trump would expect Senate candidate Roy Moore to withdraw from an upcoming vote if allegations that he had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl were true, the White House said on Friday. Moore, a former judge and the Republican nominee for a vacant Senate seat in Alabama, has denied explosive allegations from four women that he pursued them when they were 18 or younger while he was in his 30s. One woman said she was just 14 at the time. “Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One before Trump arrived in Vietnam to attend an Asia-Pacific summit. “However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.” The four women were interviewed on the record by The Washington Post, alleging a range of incidents while Moore was working as an assistant district attorney in Alabama.

ARMED SEPARATISTS OCCUPY VILLAGES IN INDONESIA’S PAPUA – POLICE

JAYAPURA, Indonesia: A group of armed separatists were occupying two villages near a huge US-owned copper mine in Indonesia’s eastern Papua province, police said Friday, as they sought to end the tense standoff. Around 1,300 residents were being held hostage by a two-dozen strong group that authorities said was part of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), which has been fighting a long-running insurgency marked by periodic bouts of violence. Villagers have been prevented from entering or leaving their small communities for two days, but have so far not been harmed, authorities said, as some 700 heavily armed Indonesian military personnel kept an eye on the situation. “These people are from a criminal group that commit violence and intimidation—what they want is war,” local police chief Victor Dean Macbon told Agence France-Presse. “For now we are prioritizing pre-emptive and preventive measures. We still have not forced our way in because we don’t want the villagers to be victimized,” he added. The villages sit near US firm Freeport-McMoRan’s mine where there have been a string of recent shootings including one in late October that left a policeman dead.

EU WARNS BREXIT TALKS CLOCK IS TICKING

BRUSSELS: The EU warned Britain on Thursday that time is running out to reach a divorce deal by the end of the month, a necessary step to guarantee moving the Brexit process on to trade negotiations. As Brexit talks resumed in Brussels, concerns are growing among EU officials that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s mounting political woes are slowing down negotiations on the historic split. Stalling by Britain on its exit bill has prompted fears that EU leaders will be unable to advance to the next phase of talks on a trade deal as hoped in December, and that the deadline could even slip to March. “Time is pressing,” chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said in a speech in Rome before flying back to Brussels to start the sixth round of the slow-moving talks. “The European Council summit in October wanted to keep up the dynamic of the negotiations and I am of the same state of mind,” he said. “But the real moment of clarification is coming.” Barnier added that future ties would depend on whether Britain stuck to the “European model” of regulation, in a pointed warning after US Trade Secretary Wilbur Ross said London should move closer to US rules after Brexit.

TOLL HITS 6 AFTER COLLAPSE OF RUSSIAN HIGH RISE

MOSCOW: The death toll climbed to six people on Friday after the corner section of a nine- storey residential building collapsed in the provincial city of Izhevsk, officials said. “There are three injured and six dead,” said the health ministry in the Udmurtia region of which Izhevsk is the capital. The sixth body was discovered earlier Friday, an emergencies ministry official told Agence France- Presse. “A woman has been found in the building’s basement,” the official said, adding that a search and rescue operation continued. One of the six victims was a child, officials have said. The incident happened on Thursday afternoon when a corner section of the Soviet- era residential block collapsed after what was believed to be a gas explosion. Video footage showed flats on all nine floors reduced to debris. A total of eight apartments are believed to be completely destroyed. Explosions caused by gas leaks are frequent in Russia, especially in older Soviet- era buildings.