Nearly half a million tourists annually walk past two fenced-in minefields to visit Qasr al-Yahud, meaning Castle of the Jews in Arabic - the site where Jesus was believed to have been baptised in the River Jordan.
A $4m project launched last year by the de-mining charity Halo Trust is hoping to make the site safer, after the group struck an agreement with Israeli authorities, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and local churches that own plots in Qasr al-Yahud. The deal allows Halo Trust to work on de-mining the site, located several kilometres from Jericho.
But Israel, whose army peppered the site with mines after the 1967 war, is not paying for these de-mining efforts, observers note.
Israel not paying to de-mine Christian holy site
At least 14 killed by avalanche in Pakistan
At least 14 people were killed in an avalanche that buried several houses in the village of Sher Shall, part of the town of Chintral, located in the Hindu Kush mountains in northwestern Pakistan.
According to CNN, six women, six children and two men were among the dead. Officials fear more people are trapped beneath the thick wall of snow.
The Pakistani state media said rescue personnel are doing their best to search for bodies and deliver recovery supplies, like blankets, stoves and food. Inclement winter weather has made search and rescue efforts difficult. Many of the local roads are blocked by snow and ice.
Mexico denies report that Trump threatened to send in troops during call with Peña Nieto
The Mexican government on Wednesday denied reports that Donald Trump threatened the Mexican president with U.S. troops during his phone call with the foreign leader.
In a radio interview Wednesday, Peña Nieto spokesman Eduardo Sanchez insisted he knows with absolute certainty there was no threat.”
“The things that have been said are nonsense and a downright lie,” Sanchez added.
Bob Alexander: Stumped
From the election of Fucko the Clown to his inauguration, I’ve started … and stopped … seven “moments”. I can’t finish them. I’ll type out what I think is a pretty good sentence or paragraph, but when I read it again it just seems like so much junk. The stuff I write reads like the purple prose H.P. Lovecraft would crank out for Weird Tales magazine at a penny per word. But what the hell … we’re inside a Pulp Fiction world where every day is another issue of Amazing Stories. Just because something sounds like an article from Famous Monsters of Filmland doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
About a week ago, a friend of mine sent me an email with this subject line, “We are headed towards the demise of our Democracy.”
State Dept. Officials Draft Dissent Memo After Trump’s Ban
Consider this a major bureaucratic uprising on the part of career foreign service officers against the President on his executive order on refugees.
Numerous Foreign Service officers and other diplomats have drafted a dissent memo expressing opposition to President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States. ABC reported this morning on the draft, which is likely to be submitted today.
Trump signs executive order to cut regulations on businesses
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order requiring that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be removed.
"This will be the largest ever cut by far in terms of regulation," Trump said during a signing ceremony.
Trump signed the order, which he said was "a big one," following a meeting with small business leaders. During the meeting, Trump said the "American dream is back," adding that he wants to end regulatory discrepancy between small and big business.
Maureen Dowd: Wild Chlld Takes Charge
WASHINGTON — So now we’re getting the crazy straight up.
The Doomsday Clock is ticking faster, the resistance is growing, and teetotaler Donald Trump already seems drunk with power.
He’s got the role of his life and he’s casting his show: Steve Bannon is his Roy Cohn, the combative hammer and agitprop genius; Theresa May is Maggie to his Ronnie; Ivanka and Jared are his consiglieri, family to help him figure out who stays and who gets iced; Vladimir Putin echoes the role of Trump’s dad, Fred, who was supremely aggressive and calculating, cool where Donald was hot, someone who believed the world was divided into killers and losers. (But in Putin’s case, it’s literal.)
John Hurt, Star Of ‘The Elephant Man’ And ‘1984,’ Dies At 77
Hurt, who announced he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, died in London on Friday, his spokesman told The Associated Press.
Hurt was a man of many personas on screen and stage. But he was unrecognizable in his most memorable role as the star of 1980’s “The Elephant Man,” in which he portrayed with great dignity and pain the real-life John Merrick, who suffered from a disfiguring, debilitating disease.
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Iraqi refugee, one of two held at JFK, is released
One of two Iraqi refugees being held at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York under President Donald Trump's new order barring refugees from several Muslim countries was released Saturday, though his future status in the United States remains unclear.
The man, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, worked for the U.S. military as an interpreter during the Iraq war. The U.S. government had approved his asylum request and issued him a green card to move to the United States prior to Trump's executive order, but he was detained upon arrival.
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