Isreal to build 1,800 new houses in West Bank
AP, Jerusalem
A watchdog group says Israel began building 1,800 new settlement homes in the West Bank in 2015.
Peace Now, a dovish Israeli group that tracks settlement construction, says most of the building has taken place in isolated settlements in areas of the West Bank that Israel would likely evacuate in the event of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War and built settlements there.
Fire ruins 600 houses in Myanmar
AP, Myanmar
A fire destroyed 600 houses in Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi region, an official report said today.
The fire broke out on Saturday night when a child was playing with a lit candle in Palaw town, Xinhua quoted the police as saying.
As the village area was not accessible by fire engines, firefighters had to battle the blaze with water pumps.
Iran remains off limits to US banks
AFP, New York
Iran remains essentially off limits to US banks, despite the lifting of some US sanctions following the landmark Iranian nuclear deal.
The Obama administration in mid-January eased several restrictions on doing business with Iran, including former “secondary” sanctions that had threatened to penalize companies outside the US for their business with Iran, as well as some restrictions on Americans seeking to make inroads in the oil-rich country.
30 dead in two Nigeria village raids
AFP, Nigeria
At least 30 people have been killed in fresh Boko Haram raids on two villages in northeast Nigeria, vigilantes told AFP on Saturday, again calling into question President Muhammadu Buhari’s claim that Nigeria had largely defeated the terror group.
Gun and knife-toting assailants on bikes and in vans stormed the remote villages of Yakshari and Kachifa on Friday and Saturday, said Mustapha Karimbe, a local vigilante assisting the military in the fight against Boko Haram Islamists.
