“Won’t tolerate Pak terror havens,” Haley

The US will not tolerate Pakistan providing safe havens to terrorists, America’s envoy to the UN Nikki Haley has said and backed the creation of a strategic alliance with India to fight terrorism and maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Haley, in her keynote address to the 20th annual Legislative Conference of the Indian American Friendship Council, also strongly condemned the terrorist attack in New York that killed eight persons. She said that the US recently embarked on a new strategy for combating terrorism in Afghanistan and South Asia. “America’s overriding interest in Afghanistan and throughout South Asia are to eliminate the terrorist safe havens that threaten US and to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists,” Haley said.

                                          N Korea calls Trump ‘mentally deranged’

North Korea has slammed US President Donald Trump as “incurably mentally deranged” in a personal attack ahead of his first visit to Asia as head of state, amid high tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. Trump and the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults against each other in recent months, heightening worries about a potential conflict on the divided Korean peninsula. Trump has warned of “fire and fury” and “calm before the storm”, telling the UN General Assembly that Washington would “totally destroy North Korea” if it had to defend itself or its allies. He dubbed Kim “Rocket Man” in the same speech – Pyongyang has tested missiles apparently capable of reaching much of the US mainland – and days later Kim responded with a personal statement calling Trump a “dotard”, an obscure term for a weak or senile old man.

  Residents of UAE warned not to fall for IKEA scam

Residents in the UAE have been receiving messages on WhatsApp, claiming that they can win a US$500 gift voucher to mark Ikea’s 75 anniversary. Ikea has warned residents not to fall for the scam, which asks residents to hand over personal information in exchange for gift vouchers. On its Facebook account, Ikea announced that it is aware of the fake message circulated recently on WhatsApp, and urged residents not to participate or share any personal information with the scammers.

55 workers fall ill after inhaling chemical fumes in Sharjah

A total of 55 workers were taken to hospitals after they were exposed to chemical fumes at a plant in Sharjah, media from Sharjah reported. The authorities are investigating the incident which occurred at a plant owned by Bee’ah, a waste management company, police said. Details about the plant or nature of its activity were not immediately available.

The affected workers were exposed to chemical fumes. The incident occurred at around 4am on Wednesday and the workers who complained of uneasiness were taken to Kuwait Hospital, Al Qassimi Hospital and Al Dhaid Hospital. A total of 55 workers were treated and discharged and only one worker was admitted.

Shinzo Abe gets re-elected as Japan’s PM

Japan’s lower house of parliament has re-elected Shinzo Abe as PM after his party won a resounding victory in a snap election last month. Abe, who has been Japan’s leader since December 2012, easily won the balloting with 312 votes in the 465-seat lower house. He reappointed the same ministers to his Cabinet later in the day. Abe, 63, dissolved the lower house in September to force an election. Analysts saw the move as an attempt to win a new public mandate and re-establish his hold on power after a plunge in approval ratings. His Liberal Democratic Party won a large majority in the October 22 vote.

7-yr-old runaway boards plane without ticket

A seven-year-old girl who ran away from her parents managed to take a train to Geneva airport and board a plane despite having no ticket. The girl gave her parents the slip near Geneva’s central railway station and then took the one-stop ride to the airport. Her parents rang the Swiss police, who tracked her progress through the airport on security videos, airport spokesman shared with media. She went through the security gate and managed to pass herself off as the child of adults around her, before using her small stature to slip through the departure gate, the airport said in a statement.