May back in the breach as Brexit battles resume
AFP, London
The British government faces another nerve-rattling test this week as its flagship Brexit legislation is picked over once again by a restive parliament.
The upper House of Lords, which wants to keep Britain close to the European Union after the UK leaves in March, will rake over the EU (Withdrawal) Bill on Monday, before it returns to the lower House of Commons on Wednesday.
Merkel faces ultimatum from ally over migrants
AFP, Munich
Hardliners of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc are poised Monday to give the German leader an ultimatum to tighten asylum rules or risk pitching the country into a political crisis, as tensions over migration reignite across the EU.
Three years after her decision to open Germany’s borders to migrants fleeing war in Syria and Iraq and misery elsewhere, Merkel is still struggling to find a sustainable response to the complaints from her Bavarian allies CSU over her refugee policy.
3 dead as quake hits Japan’s Osaka
Reuters, Tokyo
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook Osaka, Japan’s second-biggest metropolis, early on Monday, killing three people, halting factory lines in an industrial area and bursting water mains, government and company officials said.
No tsunami warning was issued. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said authorities were assessing damage and their top priority was the safety of residents. About 150 people were injured, the broadcaster NHK said, lowering an earlier toll after a revision by city officials.
Five immigrants dead after fleeing US border patrol
HuffPost
At least five people were killed and several others injured when an SUV believed to be carrying undocumented immigrants crashed in southern Texas after being chased by Border Control agents.
The Chevrolet Suburban rolled over several times on a highway in Big Wells, Texas, around 12 p.m. local time on Sunday following a high-speed pursuit, officials told reporters.
Suicide blasts in NE Nigeria kill 31
AFP, Kano
Suspected Boko Haram jihadists killed at least 31 people in a twin suicide bomb attack on a town in northeast Nigeria, a local official and militia leader told AFP on Sunday.
Two blasts ripped through the town of Damboa in Borno state on Saturday evening targeting people returning from celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday, in an attack bearing all the hallmarks of Boko Haram.
Following the suicide bombings, the jihadists fired rocket-propelled grenades into the crowds that had gathered at the scene of the attacks, driving the number of casualties higher.
