WION News brief, January 3, 2018
Story highlights
Several towns and cities in Maharashtra were on edge Tuesday as Dalit protests against Monday's violence in Pune spilled over to capital Mumbai, with agitators damaging scores of buses, and disrupting road and rail traffic, officials said.
Section 144 imposed in Maharashtra's Thane till midnight, January 4
After North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's message that he was always within reach of the nuclear button comes President Trump's tweet that the "US nuclear button is bigger and more powerful one than his."
Trump tweeted: "North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the "Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times." Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"
Supporting President Donald Trump's decision to block $255 million military aid to Pakistan, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Tuesday said that the country has played a "double game" with the United States for years.
Nikki Haley accused Pakistan of at times working with the US while also harbouring terrorists that attacked its troops in Afghanistan. She said this was unacceptable to the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump admitted the Middle East peace process was in difficulty Tuesday and threatened to cut US aid to Palestinians, currently worth more than $300 million a year.
"We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect," Trump tweeted.
"With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"
It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening all of the budget, worth $319 million in 2016, according to US government figures.
Canadian Joshua Boyle who was held captive by a faction of the Afghan Taliban for five years, has been arrested after being accused of sexual assault, illegal confinement and issuing death threats, media reports said on Tuesday.
Boyle's lawyer Eric Granger said his client was "presumed innocent" and had never been in legal trouble before. He said the identity of the alleged victim was being withheld by a court.