US vows to step up pressure on Assad regime as talks fail
Rancho Mirage (US), February 15
As Syrian peace talks in Geneva floundered, US President Barack Obama has vowed to step up pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Obama's remarks came as he hosted Jordan's King Abdullah II at the Sunnylands retreat in Palm Springs, California, to address issues including the flood of Syrian refugees into Jordan.
Barack Obama, us President

Give talks with Taliban a chance: Imran to govt
Lahore, February 15
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan today warned the Pakistan government against suspending the peace process with the outlawed Taliban, saying the failure of talks will only lead to military operations. "First give peace a chance, otherwise a military operation is the ultimate choice," the head of the Pakistan Tehrik-e- Insaf party told reporters here.

No threat to regional peace by maritime disputes: China
Beijing, February 15
Faced with a US warning against unilateral actions in its maritime disputes, China has described the situation in the South China Sea as "stable" and said it was capable of working with ASEAN to safeguard regional peace.

Indian-origin donor in CBI’s blacklist
London, Febraury 15
The Liberal Democrats, a partner in Britain's ruling coalition, finds itself in a controversy after it has emerged that one of its donors is an international arms dealer who figures in a blacklist of "undesirables" drawn up by India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Tokyo, February 15
Japan's road, rail and air travel services faced further disruptions today, reports and officials said, after a fresh snow storm killed three people and injured 850 others following last week's blizzard.

Snow began falling yesterday morning in the capital Tokyo and piled up to 26 cm by early today, a week after the heaviest snowfall in decades left at least 11 people dead and more than 1,200 injured across the nation.

Public broadcaster NHK said some 850 people, including one in a coma, have been injured in snow-related accidents across the nation since snow hit western Japan late Thursday.

Drivers were struggling to move their cars in district of Setagaya in downtown Tokyo. Hundreds of passengers resting on benches and floors under blankets at Haneda airport in Tokyo as public transport services were suspended. At least 628 flights were cancelled today at Haneda and other airports in eastern Japan, NHK said. Two commuter trains collided at Motosumiyoshi station in Tokyo early today, leaving 19 passengers injured. — AFP

Philadelphia, February 15
A winter storm that brought snow and ice to the US East Coast has moved off-shore, leaving at least 25 people dead and hundreds of thousands without power and causing a large pileup in Pennsylvania that injured 30 people.

Across the US, this is shaping up as one of the snowiest winters on record. As of early this month, Washington, Detroit, Boston, Chicago, New York and St Louis had gotten roughly two or three times as much snow as they normally receive at this point in the season.

The latest go-round of bad weather came just in time to delay tens of thousands of deliveries of Valentine's Day flowers, dropping snow, sleet and rain on roads already covered with deep puddles and icy patches.

The snow, sleet and ice that bombarded the Southeast Wednesday brought its ferocity into the Northeast on Friday. Numerous traffic accidents involving multiple tractor-trailers and dozens of cars completely blocked one side of the Pennsylvania Turnpike outside Philadelphia today and injured 30 people, none seriously.

The crashes were reported about five hours after snow ended. Speed restrictions enacted during the storm had been lifted, but motorists say the roadway was coated with ice.

By the time it stopped falling, 57 centimeters of snow was reported in one Pennsylvania County. Parts of upstate New York got up to 68.5 centimeters. Washington, DC, received 23 centimeters of snow yesterday, while New York City got nearly 25 cm. — Agencies

Rancho Mirage (US), February 15
As Syrian peace talks in Geneva floundered, US President Barack Obama has vowed to step up pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Obama's remarks came as he hosted Jordan's King Abdullah II at the Sunnylands retreat in Palm Springs, California, to address issues including the flood of Syrian refugees into Jordan.

The US leader said both he and the Jordanian king "recognise that we can't just treat the symptoms" of the Syrian crisis. "We're also going to have to solve the underlying problem -- a regime led by Bashar al-Assad that has shown very little regard for the well-being of his people.

"We are going to need a political transition in that region." "We don't expect to solve this any time in the short term so there are going to be some immediate steps that we have to take to help the humanitarian situation there," Obama said.

"There will be some intermediate steps that we can take to apply more pressure to the Assad regime, and we're going to be continuing to work with all the parties concerned to try to move forward on a diplomatic solution," he said, without specifying what those steps may be.

At the meeting Obama pledged $1 billion in loan to Jordan and a renewal of a five-year memorandum of understanding. — AFP

geneva: Syria has added opposition delegates at peace talks in Geneva to a “terrorist list” and seized their assets, including the house of one of them, anti-government negotiators and a diplomat said on Saturday.

Kabul, February 15
The Taliban called on Afghans to expel the United States from Afghanistan on Saturday just as they said Afghan mujahideen fighters had done to Soviet forces 25 years ago to the day.

In a statement issued on the 25th anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, a national holiday for Afghans, the Taliban sought to connect the steady departure of US and NATO troops ahead of a year-end deadline to the end of the decade-long Soviet occupation.

“Today America is facing the same fate as the former Soviet’s and trying to escape from our country," the Taliban said in a statement emailed to reporters by Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a spokesman for the group. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is calling on its people to deal with today's invaders the same they did with the yesterday's invaders," he said, using the name the Taliban government used during its repressive 1996-2001 rule.

"We want to remind the Americans that we did not accept invaders with their sweet and nice slogans in the past. We eliminated them from the world map. God willing, your destiny will be the same,” the statement said. — Agencies

Beijing, February 15
Faced with a US warning against unilateral actions in its maritime disputes, China has described the situation in the South China Sea as "stable" and said it was capable of working with ASEAN to safeguard regional peace.

The overall situation in the South China Sea is stable and China is capable and confident of working with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to safeguard peace, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Elaborating on China's stand on the maritime dispute, Wang said during their meeting here yesterday that the freedom and safety of navigation in the South China Sea "was, is and will always be unquestionable". All countries enjoy the lawful right to free navigation in the South China Sea, he said. — PTI

A rescuer evacuates an elderly woman from Malang village at east Java in Indonesia on Saturday. AfP

92 prisoners escape
Tripoli: A Libyan local official on Saturday said 92 prisoners escaped from a prison in a western town due to weak security. Hassan bin Sophia, who is spokesman of the Zliten local council, said only four guards were watching 220 criminal and political detainees at the prison on Friday. AP