CORONAVIRUS: DEATH TOLL CLIMBS TO 106 AS CHINA TIGHTENS MEASURESChina says 106 people have died from the new coronavirus and the cases ofnewly infected have almost doubled.The number of total confirmed cases in China rose to 4,515 as of 27 January,up from 2,835 a day earlier.The country has meanwhile further tightened travel restrictions to try andcurb the spread of the virus.The city of Wuhan, thought to be the epicentre of it, is already ineffective lockdown as is much of surrounding Hubei province.The coronavirus causes severe acute respiratory infection and there is nospecific cure or vaccine.Most of the deaths have been of elderly people or those with pre-existingrespiratory problems.In a sign of mounting official concern, Premier Li Keqiang visited groundzero to oversee containment efforts in Wuhan, a city of 11 million peoplewhere the disease first appeared late last month. The government has sealedoff Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province, effectively trapping tens ofmillions of people including thousands of foreigners, in a bid to containthe virus as the Lunar New Year holiday unfolds.China decided to extend the holiday, initially due to end on January 30, forthree days to limit population flows and control the epidemic. U.S.President Donald Trump said the United States has offered Beijing "any helpthat is necessary" in combating the virus.POMPEO URGES IRAQ TO UPHOLD 'SOVEREIGNTY' FACED WITH IRAN 'ATTACKS' ON U.S.TARGETSSecretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday urged Iraqi Prime Minister AdilAbdel Mahdi to uphold his country's "sovereignty" in the face of "attacks"from Iran on U.S. facilities in Iraq.Pompeo "expressed his outrage at the continued assaults by Iran's armedgroups against U.S. facilities in Iraq, including yesterday's rocket attacksagainst our Embassy, which resulted in one injury," the State Departmentsaid in a statement.The statement said that "these attacks demonstrate a wanton disregard forIraqi sovereignty and a failure to rein in these dangerous armed groups."Pompeo said on Twitter that "the government of #Iraq must take immediatesteps to protect our diplomatic facilities as required by internationallaw."U.S. MILITARY JET 'CRASHES' IN TALIBAN TERRITORY IN AFGHANISTANA U.S. military jet crashed in the mountainous territory of easternAfghanistan, where there is a heavy Taliban presence, the Pentagon confirmedMonday, rejecting the insurgents' suggestions that it was shot down.Afghanistan U.S. Forces spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett confirmed in astatement that the aircraft was a U.S. Bombardier E-11A, a type of jet usedas a military airborne communications node in the region. "While the causeof crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash wascaused by enemy fire," he said.Col. Leggett gave no information on casualties in the crash. Earlier, aTaliban spokesman said the plane had crashed and there were no survivors,but another version of the statement from the insurgents said they hadbrought the plane down."An aircraft of American occupiers has crashed in Ghazni province," Talibanspokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a Pashto-language statement, addingthat all crew members onboard had been killed. Large swathes of rural areasin Ghazni province are controlled or under the influence of Talibanmilitants, making access difficult for officials.BOLTON REVELATIONS ANGER REPUBLICANS, FUELING PUSH FOR IMPEACHMENT WITNESSESThe White House and Senate Republican leaders struggled Monday to salvagetheir plans to push toward a quick acquittal of President Donald Trump thisweek in his impeachment trial, after his former national security advisercorroborated a central piece of the charges against him, angering keyRepublicans and reinvigorating a bid to hear from witnesses.Three Republican moderates indicated they were inching closer to joiningDemocrats in a vote to subpoena John Bolton, the former adviser whoseforthcoming book details how Trump conditioned military aid for Ukraine onthe country's willingness to furnish information on his political rivals.Feeling political pressure, other members of the president's party privatelyexpressed new openness to including witnesses in the trial, even as theirleaders insisted that doing so would only delay the president's inevitableacquittal."I think it's increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those ofus who think we should hear from John Bolton," Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah,told reporters. At a closed-door lunch with Republican senators Monday,Romney made a strong case for witnesses, arguing that calling them would bea wise choice for Republicans politically and substantively.As they opened the second day of their defense in the impeachment trial,Trump's lawyers ignored the revelations from Bolton, reported Sunday by TheNew York Times, which bolstered the case made by the Democratic prosecutorsfrom the House that the president had sought to use his position to gainforeign help in his reelection campaign.Instead, the White House team doubled down with a defense that was directlycontradicted by the account in Bolton's book, due out in March. Trump'slawyers again told senators that no evidence existed tying the president'sdecision to withhold security aid from Ukraine to his insistence on theinvestigations, which they have claimed were requested out of a concern forcorruption.ALABAMA FIRE: EIGHT KILLED AS BLAZE ENGULFS 35 BOATS IN MARINAAt least eight people were killed when a massive fire destroyed dozens ofboats in a marina in the US state of Alabama on Monday, officials say.The fire quickly spread as people slept at Jackson County Park inScottsboro. The aluminium roof of the wooden dock collapsed, and some of theboats sank.Seven people who jumped into the water were rescued and taken to hospital.It was not clear what caused the fire. Rescue teams will search the water tomake sure there are no other victims.The fire started around 00:40 local time (06:40 GMT) and engulfed 35 vesselsfrom house boats to pontoons docked on the Tennessee River. The identitiesof the victims have not been released."This is absolutely devastating," Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus toldreporters. "[It's] one of the most devastating things I've ever seen. Ithink as we learn more details, that tragedy will continue to grow."Images posted on social media showed a row of boats engulfed in flames. Awitness, Mandy Durham, said the vessels had propane and gas tanks, whichprobably fuelled the fire.UK COURT ORDERS SALE OF FORCE INDIA YACHT LINKED TO VIJAY MALLYAA British court Monday ordered that a luxury yacht owned by Force IndiaLimited be sold and its proceeds be used to pay back Qatar National Bank toenforce its mortgage on the vessel.During court proceedings, brought by the bank in the Admiralty Division ofthe High Court in England, it had been claimed that liquor tycoon VijayMallya's son Siddharth Mallya was the ultimate beneficial owner of theyacht.However, the bank said that without grappling with that issue, their claimwas focused on recovering outstanding loan payments estimated at around Euro6 million."Security for the loan. included a personal guarantee from Dr Mallya, anindividual closely connected with the borrower," notes the judgment handeddown by Justice Nigel Teare in London on Monday."The sum claimed in this action in rem is Euro 5 million plus interest andthe costs of 'collection' which the claimant is entitled to recover," itadds.The judgment also takes note of the fact that the Defendant, listed as "theowner of the yacht Force India", chose not to appear at a scheduled trialearlier this month after its solicitors "came off the record" in Novemberlast.The yacht itself remains under arrest in Southampton, a port on England'ssouth coast, and court appointed Admiralty Marshal Paul Farren will nowproceed with organising the appraisement and sale of the vessel in order torecover the costs.75 YEARS ON, SURVIVORS RETURN TO AUSCHWITZSeventyfive years after the liberation of Auschwitz, a dwindling number ofelderly Holocaust survivors gathered at the former German Nazi death camp onMonday to honour its more than 1.1 million, mostly Jewish, victims and toshare their alarm over rising anti-Semitism.More than 200 survivors came from across the globe to the camp the Nazisbuilt at Oswiecim in then-occupied Poland, to share their testimony as astark warning amid a recent surge of anti-semitic attacks on both sides ofthe Atlantic, some of them deadly. Survivors dressed in blue and whitestriped caps and scarves symbolic of the uniforms prisoners wore at thecamp, passed through its chilling "Arbeit macht Frei" (German for "Workmakes you free") black wrought-iron gate.Accompanied by Polish President Andrzej Duda, they laid floral wreaths bythe Death Wall in Auschwitz where the Nazis shot dead thousands ofprisoners.Organisers insist that Monday's memorial ceremony must focus above all onwhat survivors have to say rather than the bitter political feuds that havetainted the run-up to the anniversary.The Presidents of Israel and Poland called on Monday for greater globalefforts to combat anti-Semitism as the world marked 75 years since theliberation of the Auschwitz death camp amid concerns over a resurgence ofanti-Jewish prejudice.TURKISH RESCUERS FIND LAST QUAKE VICTIMS; DEATH TOLL HITS 41Turkish emergency teams on Monday recovered the bodies of the last twomissing quake victims from the rubble of a collapsed building, raising thedeath toll from the powerful tremor that hit eastern Turkey to 41.The magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck Friday night also injured more than1,600 others, authorities said. At least 45 survivors have been pulled outof the rubble alive.Rescue teams on Monday drilled through the rubble in the eastern city ofElazig, trying to reach a missing 75-year-old woman and another person, asrelatives waited nearby.Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Mehmet Gulluoglu, the head of theTurkish disaster management agency, later announced that their bodies werepulled out from the debris.The quake destroyed 76 buildings and damaged more than 1,000 others, forcingsurvivors to take refuge in tents, mosques, schools, sports halls andstudent dormitories. Authorities warned people not to return to homes thatcould be unsafe.Friday's quake hit at 8:55 pm in the city that lies 565 kilometers (350miles) east of Ankara. It was followed by close to 950 aftershocks - 21 ofthem of them measuring magnitude 4 or higher.