Trump slams Tehran govt on New Year’s greeting
Reuters, Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump sent greetings on Monday to Iranians celebrating the New Year’s holiday known as Nowruz, but used the message to attack Iran’s government, particularly its powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “I wish a beautiful and blessed Nowruz to the millions of people around the world who are celebrating the arrival of spring,” Trump said.
GOP won’t support efforts to protect Mueller
AP, Washington
More Republicans are telling President Donald Trump in ever blunter terms to lay off his escalating criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller and the Russia probe. But party leaders are taking no action to protect Mueller, embracing a familiar strategy with the president – simply waiting out the storm.
Trump blistered Mueller and his investigation all weekend on Twitter and started in again Monday, questioning the probe’s legitimacy with language no recent president has used for a federal inquiry.
SC rejects Arizona challenge to ‘Dreamers’ plan
Reuters, Washington
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday required Arizona to continue to issue driver’s licenses to the young adult immigrants known as Dreamers, refusing to hear the state’s challenge to an Obama-era program that protects hundreds of thousands of people brought into the country illegally as children.
The case centered on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created in 2012 under Democratic former President Barack Obama that Republican President Donald Trump already has sought to rescind.
US-ROK exercises next month
Reuters, Seoul
The United States and South Korea will resume joint military drills next month, Seoul and Washington said on Tuesday, exercises that will go ahead despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Seoul and Washington said in January they would delay the annual exercises until after the Winter Olympics and Paralympics held in South Korea last month, helping to create conditions for a resumption of talks between South and North Korea.
8 dead in Mali ethnic clashes
AFP, Bamako
At least eight people have died in clashes between two ethnic groups in central Mali, several sources said Monday, the latest outbreak of violence in the troubled desert region.
Simmering clashes between the Fulani and Dogon communities have now claimed at least 25 lives since the beginning of the month.
Mali’s army said that intercommunal violence around the town of Koro near the border with Burkina Faso on Sunday resulted in the burning of the village of Sabere.
