No refugees will be sent to US this year – Australia PM

Australia’s prime minister said on Monday resettlement to the US of many of the 1,200 asylum seekers held in prisons on Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru would begin after president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
Whether Trump honours the deal Australia reached with the outgoing Obama administration, and announced earlier this month, will provide an early test of the new president’s anti-immigration stance.
Campaigning for the presidency, Trump started by advocating a blanket ban on Muslims entering the US, but later adjusted his stance to propose that the ban should apply to people from nations that had been “compromised by terrorism”.
Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Sunday that the US had agreed to take a “substantial” number of the 1,800 refugees held on Manus Island and Nauru. Many of them are Muslims who have fled

Israeli committee approves bill legalising outposts

Israel has approved a controversial draft bill aimed at authorising Jewish settlements that were built on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank without Israeli government permission.
The bill must now pass through three readings in parliament and also be ratified by the Supreme Court before it can become law.
Sunday’s vote was rushed through the ministerial committee for legislation in an attempt to prevent the evacuation of the outpost of Amona in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by the end of the year.
The Supreme Court had ordered the evacuation of settlers from Amona and the demolition of their homes by December 25.
Amona, near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, is home to about 40 Jewish families and was built on land privately owned by Palestinians who had petitioned the court for the outpost to be removed.
The international community considers all Israeli settlements in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and the

I will only take $1 as salary – Trump

Donald Trump said Sunday that he wasn’t even sure what the presidential salary was — but he wasn’t taking it.
During his first television interview as president-elect, Donald Trump, told CBS News’ Leslie Stahl Sunday night that he would forgo taking a salary while he’s president. He added that he did not even know how much the president earned.
“I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year,” Trump said. “But it’s a ― I don’t even know what it is. Do you know what the salary is?”
“$400,000 you’re giving up,” Stahl answered.
“No, I’m not gonna take the salary. I’m not taking it.”

China threatens to cut iPhone sales if Trump declares a trade war

China’s state-run newspaper says the government would respond with “countermeasures” if President-elect Donald Trump starts a trade war against the country, warning that the sales of iPhones and US cars would suffer a “setback.” In an editorial published on Sunday, the Global Times said it would be “naive” for Trump to follow through on his campaign promises to implement a 45 percent tariff on Chinese exports to the US and to declare the country a currency manipulator.
Trump repeatedly targeted China during his presidential campaign, vowing to take a tougher stance on trade in the hopes of reviving manufacturing in the US. In its editorial, the Global Times dismissed the notion that Trump alone could implement a 45 percent tariff on Chinese exports, though it warned that any protectionist measure could leave trade “paralyzed.”
“China will take a tit-for-tat approach then,” the editorial reads. “A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced

Nigerians ‘fear’ Trump win – report

Many Nigerians have reportedly said that they would prefer Democrats leader Hillary Clinton over her main rival Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump in becoming the next US president.
According to BBC, many Nigerians were concerned about the New York City born billionaire’s immigration policies.
Furthermore, some of the Nigerians were also fearful of the impact this would have on their own livelihoods as they were also dependent on financial support from their relatives abroad.
In his campaign trail the property mogul indicated that he would look into a possible ban on immigration.
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Gunmen kill five Niger soldiers as Mali insurgency spreads

Heavily armed gunmen riding motor bikes and other vehicles raided a village and killed five soldiers in Niger near the border with Mali early on Tuesday, the interior ministry said, amid signs of a growing Islamist insurgency in the region.
Dozens of attackers entered Banigabou, about 20 km (12 miles) from the frontier before dawn – gunshots rang out for two hours, said residents.

Weakened South Korean president takes another hit

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Tuesday agreed to dump her nominee for prime minister and cede control of some state affairs in a major climbdown forced by a corruption scandal battering her administration.
The same scandal saw prosecutors carry out a morning swoop on the offices of South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Electronics, looking for incriminating documents.
In a significant political concession, Park told the speaker of the National Assembly she would accept a prime minister chosen by the opposition-controlled legislature “and let him control the cabinet”.
The premiership is normally a largely symbolic post in South Korea, where power is firmly concentrated on the executive.
It was a double surrender by Park — effectively jettisoning her own choice for prime minister and relinquishing some of her extensive powers to whoever parliament puts forward.
Her climbdown underlined just how weakened she has been by the scandal involving a close personal friend, Choi Soon-Sil, who has been arrested on charges of fraud and abuse of power.
The charges relate to allegations that Choi leveraged her personal relationship with Park to coerce

Hong Kong lawyers to protest against China’s decision

Hundreds of lawyers in Hong Kong are scheduled to hold a silent march after China’s most direct intervention in the Chinese territory’s legal and political system since the 1997 handover.
Tuesday’s protest march comes a day after China’s parliament passed a ruling that effectively bars two elected Hong Kong pro-independence politicians from taking office.
The dispute flared after the young politicians deliberately misread their oaths of office in October, inserting expletives and draping themselves with “Hong Kong is not China” flags.
The National People’s Congress in Beijing ruled on Monday that the two must swear allegiance to Hong Kong as part of China.
It also said that candidates would be disqualified if they changed the wording of their oath of office or if they failed to take it in a sincere and solemn manner.
The situation is seen among many across Hong Kong’s legal and political elites as well as young citizens of Hong Kong as one of the biggest tests the global financial hub has faced since its handover to China, with some fearing its vaunted rule of law is under threat.
Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said he would implement China’s ban on the two