America

    When Republican frontrunner Donald Trump offered a provocative retort to criticism by Pope Francis, it may have been a calculated political move to boost his standing ahead of South Carolina's presidential primary. Two-thirds of South Carolinians are Protestants, with evangelical voters comprising the largest voting block in the state during its Republican primary, which is being held on Saturday. The evangelical faithful are often suspicious of hierarchical authority, and a Pew Institute study in Jan-uary said liberal Americans have a more favorable view of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church than conservatives. This could serve in Trump's favor when it comes to the spat between him and the pontiff, who triggered the controversy when he said the billionaire real estat...

    US President Barack Obama is not a fan of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and does not think he has a chance of winning the presidency. The president shared his thoughts about the upcoming presidential election, saying he believes the American people know getting into the White House "is not a reality show. I continue to believe Mr Trump will not be president, Obama said at the end of the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Rancho Mirage, California. "And the reason is because I have a lot go faith in the American people. And I think they recognise that being president is a serious job. He continued: It's not hosting a talk show or a reality show. it's not promotion, it's not marketing. It's hard. And a lot of people count on us getting it ri...

    At least three people have been killed and scores injured in a motorway pile-up involving more than 50 vehicles in Pennsylvania, authorities say. The crash, 120km (75miles) north-west of Philadelphia, left trucks and cars strewn across three lanes of traffic and the central reservation. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency said 40 people had been taken to hospital and 70 to a temporary shelter. Drivers have been urged to use caution during the icy weather. A spokeswoman for Penn State Hershey Medical Center said three patients had been brought in in a critical condition, three more with moderate to severe injuries and four with minor injuries. Agency spokesman Cory Angell said drifting snow had been reported in the area of the crash, which took place in strong wind...

    A woman has died after being hit by a stray bullet while sitting in her car and talking to her father on the phone. Aaren O'Connor was outside her apartment complex in Chicago, Illinois, when she was hit in the head on Friday, according to US media reports. The 25-year-old's father David told CBS Chicago: "Every few moments she said, 'My head hurts. My head hurts.” Mr O'Connor eventually hung up, not quite sure what had happened. "I didn't realise at the time but I was just having the last conversation with my daughter," he said. Mr O'Connor discovered what had happened when he contacted his daughter's boyfriend, who called her roommate to check up on her. Aaren was found unresponsive in her car and was taken to hospital. She died on Sunday. CBS Chicago reported Aaren moved...

    More than 3,100 pregnant Colombian women are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, Presi-dent Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday, as the disease continues its rapid spread across the Ameri-cas. Brazil is investigating the potential link between Zika infections and more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly, a birth defect marked by an abnormally small head size that can result in developmental problems. Researchers have identified evidence of Zika infection in 17 of these cases, either in the baby or in the mother, but have not confirmed that Zika can cause microcephaly. There are so far no recorded cases of Zika-linked microcephaly in Colombia, Santos said. The govern-ment is now uncertain about a previous projection for up to 500 cases of Zika-linked microce...

    Julian Assange has accused Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, of insulting the United Nations in his response to a panel finding that Assange’s circumstances amount to “arbitrary detention”. Hammond called the panel’s finding “ridiculous” and said the Wikileaks founder was a “fugitive from justice”. Assange said the remarks were “beneath the stature that a foreign minister should express in this situation”. Assange said of the panel’s finding: “This is the end of the road for the legal arguments that have been put forward by Sweden and the UK.” Appearing at a west London press conference by videolink from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has remained since seeking asylum in 2012, Assange said that if Sweden and the UK continued to dispute the report, “the diploma...

    Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden planned the September 11 attacks after being “inspired” by a chance discussion about a plane crash in the US, al-Qaeda propaganda has claimed. In its weekly al-Masrā newspaper, Ansar al-Sharia released an article claiming to tell the “untold story” behind the 2001 plot that killed almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. Just under two years before, Egypt Air Flight 990 had crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during its journey from Los Angeles to Cairo, killing all 217 people on board – almost half of them Americans. Egyptian investigators insisted mechanical failure was the cause but the US National Transportation Safety Board found that co-pilot Gameel Al-Batouti had deliberately downed the plane, continua...

    Donald Trump loomed large over the final Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses, despite not being on stage. His absence was mocked by his rivals, who tried to fill the space vacated by Trump's boycott by attacking each other on immigration and other issues. Trump decided to withdraw after Fox News refused to drop debate host Megyn Kelly, whom he accused of bias. The billionaire held a rally nearby, in honour of war veterans, that threatened to overshadow the debate itself. On Monday, voters in Iowa are due to pick their presidential nominee for each party. Days ahead of that critical test, Trump's absence on the stage in Des Moines was keenly felt by his seven rivals in the race to be Republican presidential nominee. Texas Senator Ted Cruz addressed it with humour in ...

    The powerful blizzard that slammed the East Coast on Saturday quickly surpassed forecasters dire predictions, claiming at least 18 lives, flooding coasts, unleashing hurricane-force winds and paralyzing life for residents of at least 20 states from Georgia to Massachusetts. The storm was well on its way to smashing snowfall records. Mayors and governors said they did not expect their cities to be back in business until next week. We are going into uncharted territory here New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned as the heart of the storm hit his state. Visibility was so low that those walking across the Brooklyn Bridge couldn't see the East River beneath it or the Manhattan skyline soaring above. Cuomo took the rare step of banning all travel in the nation's largest city Saturday...

    A potentially record-setting blizzard has killed at least eight people in the US as it continues to surge across the East Coast, threatening to leave some areas under more than 100cm of snow. More than 85 million people in at least 20 states are in the path of the worsening storm, which is set to “supercharge” as it travels on towards the Atlantic. “The fuse was just lit,” said CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers, adding once the storm reaches the Atlantic jet stream, “that’s when the fire cracker will go off.” Six people have been killed in traffic accidents on icy roads in North Carolina, CNN reports. Pedestrians walk along the National Mall as snow begins to fall in Washington, DC Treacherous driving conditions have also lead to the death of a man in Virginia; another death ha...