UK needs nuclear weapons for 'outsized' world role

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter speaks at a news conference

Britain must renew its submarine-borne Trident nuclear weapons system if it is to maintain its "outsized" role in world affairs, U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter said in comments published on Saturday.

A decision on replacing the ageing fleet of four submarines which carry nuclear warheads is due to be made this year and while Prime Minister David Cameron is committed to renewal, the issue has caused deep divisions in the opposition Labour Party.

The government has said replacing the submarines will cost 31 billion pounds while Reuters has puts the overall cost of renewing and maintaining a successor to Trident at more than 167 billion pounds over 32 years.

Carter said the submarine fleet helped the "special relationship" Britain enjoyed with the United States, the BBC said on its website.

The deterrent allowed Britain to "continue to play that outsized role on the global stage that it does because of its moral standing and its historical standing," he was quoted as saying.

"It's important that the military power matches that standing and so we're very supportive of it. We depend upon the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom depends on us, that's part of the special relationship."

While most lawmakers in Cameron's party support keeping nuclear weapons, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran left-wing and anti-war activist, supports unilateral disarmament and is holding a review of the party's policy.

That has led to deep divisions among its lawmakers and earlier this week Labour's home affairs spokesman Andy Burnham said it might be impossible for the party to agree a position.

Peace hopes fade as Syrian army tightens grip on Aleppo

A man carries a girl as they rush away from a site hit by an air strike [Bassam Khabieh/Reuters]

Syrian government forces continue to make military advances and tighten their grip around the key city of Aleppo, days after the main players in the nearly five-year conflict pledged a cessation of hostilities.

World leaders have admitted the likely success of a plan to cease "hostilities" in Syria within a week is roughly 50-50.

The Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes and fighters loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on Saturday regained control of al-Tamoura town and several surrounding hills located in Aleppo's northern suburbs, according to Syrian activists and the state news agency.

The offensive means government troops are now closer to cutting off one of the main supply routes for Syrian rebels, who still control much of Aleppo city.

"Army units, in cooperation with supporting forces, restored security and stability to al-Tamoura village at the northern countryside of Aleppo," Syrian state news agency SANA said.

Sami Kekhia, a Syrian activist on the Turkey-Syria border confirmed to Al Jazeera that al-Tamoura was captured, but said that rebels were fighting back in ongoing clashes.

The Syrian government launched a major offensive from the north of Aleppo and captured several strategically important towns earlier this month.

The offensive has led to the displacement of more than 50,000 civilians from Aleppo, tens of thousands of whom have amassed in camps at the Turkish border.

Abu Thaer al-Halabi, who heads the media office at the rebel-controlled Aleppo local council, told Al Jazeera that most of Aleppo's northern suburbs have been evacuated.

"The humanitarian situation in Aleppo is horrible. We are running out of supplies and resources are very limited. People are fleeing their homes and heading north towards Turkey or west towards Idlib suburbs," he said.

"What the government is trying to do is push further south and control a supply line that connects northern areas to western areas. In return the government would have surrounded Aleppo city blocking it from Nubul and Zahra.

"Heavy clashes are still taking place as rebels are trying to recapture al-Tamoura town," Halabi added.

As the situation worsened in Aleppo earlier this week, world powers - including the US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia - agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria that could serve as a bridge towards the resumption of genuine peace talks later this month.

But when asked on Saturday at a security conference in Munich to assess the chances of the ceasefire deal succeeding, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answered: "49 percent".

Asked the same question, his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier put the odds at 51 percent.

Their comments came after the publication of an interview with President Assad, where the Syrian leader said his armed forces would try to retake the entire country "without hesitation".

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that government and Russian war planes targeted areas near the town of Azaz near the border with Turkey on Saturday.

The Observatory reported on Wednesday that at least 500 people, including 89 civilians, have been killed since the offensive began on February 1.

Refusing to sit on lead, Trump gets bitter in Republican debate

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop in Tampa, Florida

Donald Trump, his face red with emotion, lashed out at rivals Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz on Saturday at the most acrimonious debate to date between Republican presidential candidates, shouting insults and casting aside a pledge to be more measured.

The New York billionaire went into the CBS debate with a head of steam, having won New Hampshire last Tuesday and holding a big lead in polls in South Carolina a week before Republicans vote on Feb. 20.

Rather than play it safe, Trump responded to every comment levelled his way, interrupted his opponents at will and called them liars repeatedly in an emotional outburst that could raise more questions about whether he has the temperament to serve in the White House.

He made his most blistering attacks against Bush and his brother, former President George W. Bush, who has many admirers in the Republican establishment.

It was hard to declare a winner in the debate amid the constant volley of insults, not all of them from Trump. Cruz and fellow Senator Marco Rubio also took pointed jabs at each other over illegal immigration.

But Trump dominated the debate conservation on Twitter with 40 percent of the mentions, according to data from the micro-blogging platform.

Trump's combative style has set the tone for much of the campaign but in recent days, he had pledged to pursue a more measured, positive approach. At the debate, that strategy lasted only through his comments about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was found dead on Saturday.

Trump was quickly goaded when Bush criticized Trump's past statements that Russia has a role to play in Syria. Russia, Bush said, is not attacking Islamic State militants but instead helping Syrian President Bashir Assad, who Washington wants to leave power.

Trump blasted Bush's brother for launching the Iraq war in 2003 over claims, later proven false, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"A big, fat mistake," said Trump, noting that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had also occurred on Bush's watch.

"George Bush made a mistake," Trump thundered. "We all make mistakes. But that one was a beauty ... They lied! They said there were weapons of mass destruction. And there were none."

Many in the crowd booed Trump and the Republican front-runner dismissed them as "lobbyists and special interests" supporting the former Florida governor.

Bush, who has wilted in the past under assault from Trump, stood firm this time. He will campaign with his brother George on Monday in North Charleston, South Carolina.

"I'm sick and tired of him going after my family," Bush said. "My dad is the greatest man alive in my mind. While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I'm proud of what he did.

"He had the gall to go after my mother," Bush said, reminding the audience that Trump had criticized his 90-year-old mother, Barbara Bush, wife of former President George H.W. Bush. "My mother is the strongest woman I know."

"She should be running," Trump responded.

Bush provoked another outburst from Trump by saying the Republican nominee should be someone "who doesn't brag, for example, that he has been bankrupt four times."

"That's another lie," Trump said. "I never went bankrupt."

TRUMP VS. CRUZ

Trump also was drawn into a fight with Cruz over whether the real estate developer is sufficiently conservative. Trump called himself a "common-sense conservative," which Cruz dismissed.

"If Donald Trump is president he will appoint liberals to the Supreme Court," Cruz said.

"You are the biggest liar," Trump said sharply.

As they tried to talk over each other, Cruz chided Trump by saying, "Donald, adults do not interrupt each other."

Ohio Governor John Kasich, who finished second in the New Hampshire primary last Tuesday and who pushes an optimistic message, called for calm.

"These attacks, some of them are personal. I think we're fixing to lose the election to (Democratic front-runner) Hillary Clinton," he said.

Cruz and Rubio renewed their battle over who is the toughest on illegal immigration with Cruz insisting that the Florida senator, as part of a Gang of Eight senators who sought a compromise on legislation in 2013, was for "amnesty" but now is against it for political purposes.

He insisted that Rubio had said in Spanish on Univision that he would not rescind an executive order signed by President Barack Obama in support of the children of illegal immigrants.

Rubio shot back: "I don't know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesn’t speaking Spanish."

As the crowd roared, Rubio said Cruz is "telling lies... He's lying about all sorts of things and now he makes things up."

Before the clashes broke out, the Republican candidates urged Obama not to nominate a successor to Scalia, saying it should be up to the next president to decide.

US Supreme Court vacancy upends presidential race

Death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia created the vacancyin the apex court

The sudden and shocking death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia opened a new and incendiary front in the already red-hot 2016 presidential race, one that promises to divide Democrats and Republicans and, perhaps, Republicans from themselves.

The vacancy on the court, which is now evenly split 4-4 between its conservative and liberal wings, had Republicans calling on President Barack Obama to refrain from choosing a successor to the right-leaning Scalia while Democrats urged Obama to do as the U.S. Constitution requires and put forward a candidate to face confirmation in an albeit hostile Senate.

The prospect of such a battle drew swift and furious comment from candidates vying to be elected president in November.

Facing off in a debate only hours after the 79-year-old Scalia's death was announced, some Republican presidential candidates seized the moment to caution voters that their party's front-runner, billionaire businessman Donald Trump, could not be trusted to nominate a stalwart conservative.

"If Donald Trump is president, he will appoint liberals," charged U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas during the debate in South Carolina, which holds a Republican nominating contest next Saturday.

"Two branches of government hang in the balance, not just the presidency, but the Supreme Court," Cruz said. "If we get this wrong, if we nominate the wrong candidate, the Second Amendment, life, marriage, religious liberty, every one of those hangs in the balance."

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also took a shot at Trump. "Donald Trump is not a conservative, so I don’t trust him to pick a judge," Graham said before the debate. A real estate mogul, Trump has supported Democratic politicians in the past.

Trump, who also has taken several positions at odds with Republican orthodoxy, joined other candidates at the debate in insisting that Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican majority leader in the Senate, stand by his promise to block any Obama high court choice.

“It’s up to Mitch McConnell and everyone else to stop it," Trump, a former reality TV show host, said. "It’s called delay, delay, delay."

Under the U.S. system, the president nominates justices for the nine-member court and the Senate confirms them. The last justice to be approved by the Senate of the opposite party during an election year was Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988.

Obama has already indicated that he intends to send a choice to the Senate in coming weeks, meaning that the nominee will be heavily scrutinized by presidential candidates in both parties - and more than likely be opposed by the majority of Republicans.

"The court may genuinely be a major issue this year," said David Axelrod, a former top political adviser to Obama. "It will be a hell of a fight."

SOCIAL ISSUES ON DOCKET

Criticism of the court, which in recent years has upheld Obama's sweeping healthcare plan and legalized same-sex marriage, has already been a thread running through several Republican candidates' campaigns.

The conservative majority on the court had appeared poised to invalidate Obama's immigration and climate-change policies. The loss of Scalia, considered to be a lodestar of conservative legal thought, and the potential swing of the court to the left, ensures that whatever drama plays out in the Senate this year will be mirrored on the campaign trail.

“There is no more clarifying debate in politics these days than when it comes to Supreme Court nominees,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. "This now is for all the marbles."

Reid was majority leader of the Senate when it confirmed previous Obama court nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Manley called McConnell's threat not to allow a vote on a potential Scalia replacement "completely beyond the pale."

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton seemed inclined to make McConnell's threat a campaign issue.

"The Republicans in the Senate and on the campaign trail who are calling for Justice Scalia’s seat to remain vacant dishonor our Constitution," Clinton said in a statement.

Axelrod said that the issue could help Clinton, locked in a tight race with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

“I think it will make electability and experience in this realm more important," he said.

OBAMA'S OPTIONS

Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a longtime observer of the Supreme Court nomination process, said Obama likely has two options.

"He could nominate a more liberal candidate who would have no real chance of getting through a Republican Senate - in which case this would become a salient political issue in 2016," Hasen said. Or he could nominate a more moderate candidate who might gain enough Republican support to gain approval, he said.

There are risks to both approaches: A Republican obstruction of a liberal nominee would animate the Democratic Party's progressive base in an election year but would leave the court without a potentially tie-breaking vote for perhaps a year.

That same Democratic base might view a moderate nominee as a betrayal, while conservative Republican voters likely would frown on any senator who voted to approve an Obama choice.

Manley said that McConnell has already shown that he is unwilling to support any choice made by Obama and that the White House must act aggressively. “The president should go forward and nominate the most liberal candidate possible,” he said.

Given the need to fire up its most passionate voters, that might just be exactly what Republican candidates want as well.

Israel says its forces shot dead three Palestinian assailants

Israeli emergency service personnel evacuate the body of a Palestinian who was killed by troops.

The Israeli army said troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers who were throwing stones at cars in the occupied West Bank on Sunday after coming under fire from one of them.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli paramilitary policeman at a checkpoint in the West Bank, near Jerusalem, and was shot dead, police said.

Israeli soldiers have killed at least 161 Palestinians, 105 of whom Israel says were assailants, while the others were shot dead during violent anti-Israeli protests, as the bloodshed persists into a fifth month.

Stabbings, shootings and car rammings by Palestinians have killed 27 Israelis and a U.S. citizen since early October.

As well as frustration over Jewish settlement-building, deemed illegal by the United Nations, on land Palestinians want for a state, tensions have been rising over Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound and Islamist calls for Israel's destruction.

In Sunday's shooting near the West Bank city of Jenin, "two assailants hurled rocks at cars", a military statement said. "Forces arrived and were fired upon by an assailant. Soldiers responded and shot the attackers, resulting in their deaths."

The Palestinian Health Ministry said two 15-year-old Palestinians were killed.

Wassef Abu Baker, a 56-year-old local resident, told Reuters that after hearing gunshots, he drove to within 40 metres (yards) of where one of the teenagers was lying on the ground.

"He was still moving. The soldier shouted at me to move back and they fired at him - maybe it was 12 bullets," he said.

Abu Baker said he could not see whether the person on the ground was armed. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted a photograph of what appeared to be an M-16 assault rifle on the pavement, which he said was the weapon used against the soldiers.

Our gods arrested suspect in MP’s murder, not Police – Townfolks

The late Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu

The Greater Accra Regional Police Command continues to receive tonnes of praises for the swift manner in which they have arrested the suspected killer of the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu Tuesday dawn.

The police after their remarkable feat which they chalked within forty-eight (48) hours after the crime was committed are being lauded for their show of competence in unraveling complex situations.

A section of the public are comparing the proficiency of personnel of the Ghana police service to the likes of those in the USA and the United Kingdom.

However to some family members of the slain MP, the commendation being heaped on the police is misdirected and undeserving since to them, the police did not contribute to the arrest of the suspect.

In an interview with Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa FM, Mr Kofi Oduro was rather of the view that the gods of Akim Tafo are solely responsible for the arrest of the suspect.

“We are most grateful to the god of this town which is known as Agyampremu Kofi, for listening to our prayers. God has been too nonchalant for our liking. When this unfortunate incident happened, we bought drinks and poured libation asking our gods to expose whoever is behind this heinous crime. The way J.B Danquah helps the various churches in this area, we were shocked how God looked on for such calamity to befall someone like J.B Danquah. We had to fall on our gods in this matter to help us, and they did not fail us. We are extremely grateful to our god, Agyampremu Kofi for being good to us.”

The operation to arrest the suspect was led by the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander DCOP George Akuffo Dampare.

J.B Danquah was stabbed to death at his East Legon residence during the wee hours of Tuesday. The police said they suspected foul play and launched forensic investigations into the case.

Reports say the unknown assailants may have used a ladder to enter the MP’s room via his window to execute their plan.

JB Danquah served as a Deputy Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs under the erstwhile Kufuor administration. He was the Abuakwa North MP from 2000 until 2008 when he lost the seat.

He, however, returned to win the seat in 2012. He left behind a wife and two children. Joseph Boakye Danquah, a chartered Accountant by profession, is the grandson of late J.B Danquah, a Ghanaian statesman, pan-Africanist, scholar and historian, who played a significant role in pre- and post-colonial Ghana.

Dangote Group launches 20,000-hectare rice production scheme

Logo of the Dangote Group.

The Dangote Group yesterday launched 20,000 hectare rice production scheme, aimed at making the country self-sufficient in rice production and food secure by the year 2018.

Speaking at the flagging-off of the scheme at Hago Fadama kafin-Hausa local government area of the state, the state governor Alhaji Badaru Abubakar Badaru said, the project was part of his government’s commitment to improve agriculture and industrialise the state for job creation and poverty eradication.

“Right from my inaugural speech, I made it clear that, agriculture was one of my government cardinal points and we are ready to collaborate with private investors in achieving the desire goals.

The project we are launching today is one of the numerous projects we intend to embark in collaboration with private investors from within and outside the country, and we have already signed memorandum with many of them,” the governor said.

The governor assured Dangote Group of the state government’s support in making any policy and intervention that will make the investment profitable and generate jobs to the teeming population of the state.

Speaking at the occasion, the minister of state for agriculture Mr Heineken Lokpobiri said the federal government was worried over the production gap it has in rice and the millions of dollars spent annually on its importation despite having vast arable land that can make Nigerians rice exporters if properly utilized.

He disclosed that presently the country needs 6.8 million metric tons of rice annually for consumption, but that “we are locally producing only 2.6 million metric tons.

In view of this, the federal government has come up with plan to encourage massive investment in rice production and agricultural sector in general to end rice importation by the year 2018,” he said.

In his remarks, the president, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said his company targeted 120,000 hectares for rice production across the country by the year 2020.

He said the Jigawa rice scheme targets 20,000 hectares in which the out growers will produce 8,000 hectares while the company will cultivate 12,000 hectares.

According to him, the project will provide direct job opportunities to over 10,000 youths in addition to food security and internally generated income to the state government.

He expressed appreciation to the Hadejia Emirate Traditional Rulers, the Jigawa State government and federal government for the support given to the company, and also called for more policy and incentives that would create more enabling environment and encourage private sector investment in to the sector.

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