Kurz to meet with senior EU officials +++ Yemen’s Houthis say they fired missile towards Riyadh

19. Jänner 2018, 02:00

Kurz to meet with senior EU officials

Austria's new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz will hold talks with senior EU officials in Brussels this evening. He will try to calm foreign concerns about his coalition government of the People's Party and the Freedom Party, and emphasise its pro-European course. Israel has made it clear that it will not hold high-level talks with Austria's new Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl - who was placed in that role by the FPÖ. Kurz says he hopes concerns about his coalition will be dispelled once it sets to work. He also promised to consult closely with Rome on contentious plans to offer dual citizenship to German-speakers in South Tyrol.

Yemen’s Houthis say they fired missile towards Riyadh

A Saudi-led military coalition says it has intercepted a missile fired towards the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Earlier, the Houthi rebels in Yemen said they'd launched a rocket aimed at one of Riyadh's palaces. The Houthis are fighting the Saudi-led coalition, which supports Yemen's government in the country's civil war.

McMaster accuses Russia of ‘subversion’

President Trump's National Security Advisor has accused Russia of engaging in a campaign of subversion, to undermine confidence in democratic countries. General HR McMaster said this included interference in last year's US election. He said Russia's strategy had its roots in the Cold War era: "Of course we have to counter Russia's destabilising behaviour and the sophisticated campaigns of propaganda and disinformation... efforts to polarise communities and pit them against each other, especially in the democratic world and in free and open societies."

US national security strategy angers Russia and China

Russia and China have both condemned President Trump's new national security strategy, which portrays them as rivals to the United States. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that at first glance the strategy was "imperialist" and based on a vision of the world with just one super power. China's foreign ministry accused Washington of having a Cold War mentality. Both China and Russia deny posing a threat to the US.

Derailed US train was over speed limit

Safety investigators in the United States say a train that plunged off a new section of line onto a motorway in Seattle was travelling at well over twice the speed limit. 85 people were on the train, three were killed and more than 70 were injured. Bella Dinh-Zarr is part of the team investigating the crash: "The investigator in charge has obtained a download of the event data recorder on the rear locomotive. Preliminary indications are that the train was travelling at 80 miles per hour, in a 30 mile per hour track."

The weather

Mostly sunny in the south, and cloudy elsewhere, with the chance of light snowfall in the west. Top temperatures ranging from minus 5 to plus 4 degrees.

Übersicht

• News In English