US SECY OF STATE TELLS SAUDIS TO HOLD KHASHOGGI’S MURDERERS ACCOUNTABLE
RIYADH : US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said he told the king and crown prince of Saudi Arabia on Monday that the Trump administration expects the kingdom to hold accountable “every single person” responsible for the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. In talks with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been accused by some of complicity in the murder, Pompeo said he had been clear about the administration’s expectations. Pompeo also said that President Donald Trump’s threat to devastate NATO ally Turkey’s economy if it attacks Us-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria underscored America’s commitment to its Kurd partners. AP
Some of Trump admin’s birth control rules blocked
OAKLAND: A judge in California on Sunday partially blocked a set of Trump administration rules that allow employers to opt out of providing health insurance that covers women’s birth control from taking effect. US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland granted a request by 14 Democratic attorneys general for a preliminary injunction. The rules, which are set to go into effect January 14, allow businesses or nonprofits to obtain exemptions to an Obamacare requirement for contraceptive coverage on moral or religious grounds. Led by California attorney general Xavier Becerra, the attorneys general had asked for a nationwide injunction, but Gilliam limited it to the states challenging the rules. REUTERS
Squabble over venue latest hurdle in Taliban-us talks
KABUL: Efforts to negotiate a peace deal to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan, already beset by disagreement about the agenda, are facing a new hurdle over the venue for the talks. “Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have made it clear that they will not participate in the peace talks if the meeting takes place in Qatar. But the Taliban insists on holding them in Qatar,” said a Kabul-based diplomat whose country. REUTERS
Man jailed for killing Indianorigin doctor in UK mishap
LONDON : A man who killed doctor Jasjot Singhota,30, in a road traffic collision in January 2017 after failing to clear frost from his car windscreen has been jailed after he pleaded guilty to careless driving and driving uninsured. Scotland Yard said on Monday that Alexander Fitzgerald, 26, was sentenced at the Kingston Crown Court to 10 months imprisonment for causing death by careless driving, reduced from 16 months, and four and a half months for causing death by driving uninsured, to be served concurrently. He was disqualified from driving for 23 months.
At least four killed in Kabul car bomb attack
KABUL : A car packed with explosives blew up near a heavily fortified foreign compound in Kabul on Monday, killing at least four people and wounding more than 90, officials said, in the latest deadly attack to rock the Afghan capital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the huge blast, which shook the sprawling city, but it comes as diplomatic efforts to end the 17-year war with the Taliban gather pace. The explosion happened near Green Village, a highly secure compound close to a busy road and residential neighbourhoods in the east of the city.