News in brief
Reuters, Sydney
President Donald Trump has confirmed that his administration will honor a refugee resettlement deal with Australia, a source close to the Australian government said on Sunday.
Trump spoke by telephone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier on Sunday, officials in both countries said, one of a number of conversations the new U.S. president held with world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Indian soldiers buried under Kashmir snow rescued
AFP, Srinagar
Five Indian soldiers have been rescued alive after they were buried under heavy snow Saturday in Kashmir, where 20 people were killed by avalanches earlier this week, a military official said.
The soldiers had been approaching a border post in Machil, northwest of the main city of Srinagar along the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the territory with Pakistan, when the track they were following caved in.
Taliban’s new chief replaces 24 officials
Reuters, Islamabad
The leader of the Afghan Taliban recently replaced “shadow” governors in 16 of the country’s 34 provinces, as he sought to consolidate his influence over the insurgency, senior figures in the movement said this week.
A list seen by Reuters, and confirmed by the Islamist terrorist movement’s main spokesman, names another eight provincial-level officials, including one whose job will be to offer technical support for major attacks on urban areas.
Missing Pak activist Haider ‘recovered’
Reuters, Islamabad
Pakistani poet and activist Salman Haider who went missing from the country’s capital Islamabad earlier this month, just days after four other human rights campaigners disappeared, has been found, local media reported on Saturday.
The five missing liberal activists, some of whom have posted blogs criticising the political influence of the military and speaking up for the rights of religious minorities, had each gone missing separately since January 4.
