America

    A woman reportedly burned down her ex-boyfriend’s house in a row over a teddy bear, then chased him with a knife before stabbing a police officer who tried to protect him. Brittany Bonin, 26, flew into a rage when demanding Michael Demalia return a stuffed animal she had given his 18-month-old daughter Natalie, his sister Jacqueline said. After an exchange of words at the door of the house in Edgewater, Florida, she pushed her way past, charged down the hall and set fire to the child’s crib. Ms Bonin reportedly then ransacked the house including smashing a 90-gallon fishtank which flooded the property before chasing Mr Demalia with a knife. He fled across the road to a neighbour off-duty deputy Captain Cliff Williams who stood between the pair, but Ms Bonin allegedly stabb...

    It was the night his supporters waited nine long months for. Barack Obama returned to the fray on Thursday with a fervent denunciation of Donald Trump in all but name, condemning the politics of division and rekindling the politics of hope. The former US president earned deafening cheers at a rally ostensibly for the Democratic candidate in a gubernatorial election in Virginia. In championing Ralph Northam’s cause, Obama expressed his views on the state of the nation in the strongest terms since the inauguration of his successor and antithesis. You’ll notice I haven’t been commenting a lot on politics lately, Obama told thousands of supporters in Richmond. But here’s one thing I know: if you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you’re not going to be able to govern t...

    Russia may have got what it wished for with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, but almost a year later Moscow’s foreign policy community shows more signs of alarm than triumph. Alongside statements of neutrality toward the U.S. vote from officials and others at a Kremlin-sponsored gathering of foreign and domestic Russia-watchers this week, there’s deep concern that the role of an unpredictable, militarily adventurous superpower played by Russia since 2014 may be passing to the U.S. Russia’s ability to influence the debate in Washington, let alone reset a damaged relationship, has vanished, according to current and former policy makers at the annual Valdai Club conference in Sochi. With an official investigation under way into alleged Russian meddling in last yea...

    Trump decertifies one sided Iran nuclear dea. President Trump has refused to recertify the Iran nuclear deal, calling it one of the worst and most one sided agreements America has ever entered in to. The landmark Obama brokered deal limited Iran's nuclear capability in return for the lifting of some sanctions. Mr Trump savaged Iran's rogue regime in a speech at the White House, in which he also imposed extra sanctions on the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. He blamed Iran for spreading death, destruction and chaos all around the world and said it had committed multiple infringements of the deal. However, the President's decision does not mean the pact will be scrapped immediately, instead it will be forwarded to the US Congress. It will then have 60 days to decide wh...

    A British Islamic State recruiter known as the White Widow and her 12-year-old son are believed to have been killed in a CIA operation, after Donald Trump relaxed restrictions on the US spy agency’s drone strike programme. Sally-Anne Jones reportedly died close to the border between Syria and Iraq, in a strike thought to have also killed her son Jojo Dixon. The punk rock singer-turned-jihadist become Britain’s most wanted women after fleeing to Syria from Kent in 2013 to marry computer hacker Junaid Hussain, an Isil fighter from Birmingham. Jones became a prolific online recruiter for the extremist movement and is believed to have attracted dozens of female recruits using social media. A defence source said the strike had been carried out by the CIA, which runs its own fle...

    An American woman, her Canadian husband and their three young children have been released after years of being held captive by a network with ties to the Taliban, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Thursday. U.S. officials say Pakistan secured the release of Caitlan Coleman of Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, and her husband, Canadian Joshua Boyle, who were abducted five years ago while traveling in Afghanistan and had been held by the Haqqani network in Pakistan. Coleman was pregnant when she was captured. The couple had three children while in captivity, and all have been freed, U.S. officials say. A U.S. national security official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation, commended Pakistan for their critical assistance in securing the family's rele...

    President Trump was livid. Why, he asked his advisers in mid-July, should he go along with what he considered the failed Obama-era policy toward Iran and prop up an international nuclear deal he saw as disastrous? He was incensed by the arguments of Secretary of State Rex ¬Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and others that the landmark 2015 deal, while flawed, offered stability and other benefits. He did not want to certify to Congress that the agreement remained in the vital U.S. national security interest and that Iran was meeting its obligations. He did not think either was true. He threw a fit, said one person familiar with the meeting. He was furious. Really furious. It’s clear he felt jammed. So White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster and other senio...

    The fugitive jihadi, who was once a punk rock singer was killed in June in a US strike close to the border between Syria and Iraq. For more than three years Jones has been the world’s most wanted female terrorist. She fled to Syria from Kent in 2013 to marry computer hacker Junaid Hussain, an Isil fighter from Birmingham, and took her then 11-year-old son, Joe “JoJo” Dixon with her. A Whitehall source last night told the Sun: The Americans zapped her trying to get away from Raqqa. Quite frankly, it’s good riddance. CIA officials told their UK counterparts that a US Air Force Predator killed 50-year-old Jones in June, it reports. It is not known if her son was with her. US intelligence chiefs say they cannot be 100 per cent certain that the strike killed Jones as the...

    Diplomats are discussing plans for a working visit by the US president that will be shorn of the pomp and flummery of a full-blown State Visit. And instead of a red carpet event to showcase the special relationship, it is likely to form part of a tour of several countries by Mr Trump. The downgrading of Mr Trump’s first trip as President to the UK follows the huge controversy when Theresa May tried to steal a march on other world leaders by offering a State Visit as guest of the Queen that was intended to take place this summer, breaching a convention that the honour is usually reserved for a president’s second term. There were threats of boycotts and mass protests when the VIP treatment was announced - with Commons Speaker John Bercow declaring that the President would no...

    Melania Trump had a message for US President Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana on Monday: Enough of the self serving comments. The US first lady was responding to Ivana Trump’s interview on ABC’s Good Morning America program in which she jokingly referred to herself as first lady while promoting her book, Raising Trump. I have the direct number to White House but I don’t really want to call him there because Melania is there, the Czech-American, who was married to Donald Trump from 1977 to 1992, told ABC. I don’t really want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that because I’m basically first Trump wife, OK? I’m first lady, OK? Melania Trump’s spokeswoman issued a statement that mentioned her son with Donald Trump, Barron. Mrs. Trump has made the White House a ho...