US holds back $65m aid to Palestinians

*US  Holds back $65m aid to Palestinians 😱*

The US is withholding more than half of a $125m (£90m) instalment destined for the UN relief agency for the Palestinians, American officials say.

It will provide $60m in aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) but will hold back a further $65m.

A UN official said the move would have devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people.

President Donald Trump said earlier the US could cut aid if Palestinians rejected peace efforts with Israel.

The US funds almost 30% of the UN agency's work overall and gave $370m to UNRWA last year. The money withheld is part of this year's first instalment.

On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sharply attacked Mr Trump's Middle East peace efforts, saying he would not accept any peace plan from the US after it recognised Jerusalem last year as Israel's capital.

He accused Israel of putting an end to the 1994 Oslo Accords, which began the peace process.

Syria war Turkish forces

*Syria war: Turkish forces mass 👀 near Kurdish areas*

Turkey's president has warned of imminent military offensives on two Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria, as tanks and troops mass on the border.

"Turkey is aware about the fact that entering Afrin will not be easy because it was the people of Afrin who turned this region into a graveyard for Turkey-backed extremist mercenaries," he told the ANHA news agency.

Turkish officials have watched in alarm over the past six years of civil war in Syria as the YPG and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance that it dominates have taken control of tens of thousands of square kilometres of territory.

In 2016, Turkey supported an offensive by Syrian rebels - dubbed Operation Euphrates Shield - to drive Islamic State (IS) militants out of the key towns of Jarablus and al-Bab, and also to stop YPG fighters moving westwards towards Afrin and taking full control of the Turkish border.

Last October, Turkey stepped up the pressure on the Kurds in Afrin by deploying troops to northern Idlib province as part of a deal agreed with Russia and Iran that set up a "de-escalation zone" with the aim of reducing fighting between rebel factions and Syrian pro-government forces.

Iran spies targeted in German police searches

*'Iranian spies' targeted 👀 in German police 👮 searches*

German special police teams have searched flats linked to 10 suspected Iranian state spies. Germany's Focus news said the raids took place in Berlin, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg.

In 1997 a Berlin verdict linked top Iranian politicians to the killing of four Iranian Kurdish dissidents.

German investigators concluded that the assassination at Berlin's Mykonos restaurant in 1992 was the work of Iranian secret service agents.

The force carries out special operations abroad for Iran's Revolutionary Guards and has links to Lebanese Hezbollah militants and the Palestinian Hamas movement.

Bangladesh and Myanmar agree repatriation timeframes

*Rohingya crisis: Bangladesh and Myanmar agree repatriation timeframe*

Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed a timeframe for repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled crackdowns from the military. Myanmar has agreed to accept 1,500 Rohingya each week, Bangladesh says, adding that it aims to return all of them to Myanmar within two years.

More than 740,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh amid violence in Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017. Aid agencies have raised concerns about forcibly repatriating them.

Bangladesh says it aims to repatriate families together, as well as orphans and "children born out of unwarranted incidence" - meaning children conceived as a result of rape. However, displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh have expressed concerns about returning to Myanmar.

Ex-CIA officer Jerry Chin arrested

*Ex-CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee held over secret records*

A former CIA officer has been arrested on charges of unlawful retention of classified information, the US justice department says. Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a naturalised US citizen, was held after arriving at New York's JFK airport on Monday. He worked for the CIA between 1994 and 2007, when he left for Hong Kong.

When he returned to America in 2012, FBI agents searched his hotel rooms in Hawaii and Virginia and found finding two small books with secret records. The US justice department says in a statement that the books contained handwritten notes on details such as "true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees".

The statement says that Mr Lee, 53, has been charged "with unlawful retention of national defence information and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted". Mr Lee, also known as Zhen Cheng Li, began his CIA career as a case officer, maintained a top secret clearance and signed non-disclosure agreements. He has made no public comments on the issue.

Mayon Volcano's Eruption at Night

*Mayon Volcano's Eruption at Night

Lava flowing down the slopes of Mayon Volcano lit up the sky in Albay on Monday night. Netizens who live near the volcano have shared their photos of the erupting volcano. One of them is Department of Science and Technology employee Richard Esplana, who snapped the photo from Brgy. Tamaoyan in Legazpi City.

Esplana, who lives within the 10-kilometre danger zone, advised his fellow Bicolanos to tune in to government advisories and follow the precautionary measures. Mayon is under Alert Level 3, meaning "increased tendency towards hazardous eruption," Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) research specialist Paul Alanis told ABS-CBN News.

More than 12,000 residents living near the volcano have already fled to evacuation centres according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.