PALESTINIANS HAVE CUT SECURITY TIES WITH U.S. AND ISRAEL: ABBASThe Palestinian Authority has cut all ties with the U.S. and Israel,including security relations after rejecting a West Asia peace planpresented this week by U.S. President Donald Trump, Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas said on Saturday.At a meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers in Cairo, Mr. Abbas reiterated his"complete" rejection of Mr. Trump's peace plan, which calls for creating ademilitarised Palestinian state with borders drawn to meet Israeli securityneeds."We've informed the Israeli side... that there will be no relations at allwith them and the U.S. including security ties," Mr. Abbas told the one-dayextraordinary session to discuss Mr. Trump's plan.Mr. Abbas also said he had refused to discuss with Mr. Trump his plan byphone or to receive even a copy of it to study it.The Trump plan, unveiled on Tuesday, also calls for U.S. recognition ofIsraeli settlements on occupied West Bank land and of Jerusalem as Israel'sindivisible capital.Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip's Islamist rulers Hamas onSaturday after cross-border mortar fire by Palestinian militants, theIsraeli Army said.MALDIVES REJOINS COMMONWEALTH AFTER OVER THREE YEARSThe Maldives on Saturday re-joined the Commonwealth, more than three yearsafter the Indian Ocean island nation quit the association amid mountingcriticism of its human rights record then.In 2016, the Maldives pulled out of the Commonwealth terming "unjust" thegrouping's decision to penalise the country over former President MohamedNasheed's controversial ouster in 2012. It followed the CommonwealthMinisterial Action Group (CMAG)'s warning to Maldives of suspension from thebloc, voicing "deep disappointment" over the country's lack of progress inresolving the political crisis during former President Abdulla Yameen'spresidency, whose authoritarian slant sparked concern domestically andinternationally.However, months after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the 2018presidential elections, promising to restore democracy, he wrote to theCommonwealth, requesting to re-join the bloc.Following the island nation's readmission Commonwealth Secretary-GeneralPatricia Scotland said: "The reform process under way in Maldives alignswith the values and principles of the Commonwealth and we encourage thenation to continue on this path."President Solih said in a tweet: "A short while ago, I had a conversationwith the Commonwealth's Secretary General who informed me that the Maldiveshas been formally reinstated into the Commonwealth as its 54th member state.We shall long strive to uphold the Commonwealth's values of democracy andhuman rights."IRAQ PRESIDENT APPOINTS ALLAWI AS NEW PREMIER, PROTESTERS REJECT HIMIraqi President Barham Salih appointed Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi as primeminister on Saturday, state television reported, after squabbling partiesfailed to name a candidate in the two months since Adel Abdul-Mahdi wasousted by mass protests.Allawi, who will run Iraq until early elections can be held, must form a newgovernment within a month and will likely get stuck between powerful partiesvying for cabinet posts, prolonging the political deadlock.Allawi said he would resign if political blocs attempted to imposecandidates for cabinet jobs, and called on protesters to continuedemonstrating until their demands are met."I'm an employee (at your service) carrying your trust, so do not go backuntil you get what you want, whether from me or someone else," he said in avideo message posted to his Twitter feed and broadcast by state television."If the political blocs try to impose their candidates (for ministers) onme, then I will resign."Soon after the president's announcement, protesters gathered in Baghdad andsouthern cities expressed opposition to Allawi's appointment in videosposted on social media."Allawi is rejected," they chanted in one video that was filmed at Baghdad'sTahrir Square, the centre of the uprising in the Iraqi capital.COUNTRIES CLOSE BORDERS AS CORONAVIRUS SPREADSCountries around the world have closed their borders to arrivals from China,as officials work to control the rapid spread of the coronavirus.The US and Australia said they would deny entry to all foreign visitors whohad recently been in China, where the virus first emerged in December.Earlier, countries including Russia, Japan, Pakistan and Italy announcedsimilar travel restrictions.But global health officials have advised against such measures."Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hinderinginfo-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies," the head of theWorld Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.The WHO recommends introducing screening at official border crossings. Ithas warned that closing borders could accelerate the spread of the virus,with travellers entering countries unofficially.China has criticised the wave of travel restrictions, accusing foreigngovernments of ignoring official advice."Just as the WHO recommended against travel restrictions, the US rushed inthe opposite direction," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said."[It is] certainly not a gesture of goodwill."The death toll from the new virus, which is officially called 2019-nCov, nowstands at 304.Meanwhile authorities in Hubei extended the Lunar New Year holiday until 13February and announced marriage registrations would be suspended todiscourage public gatherings.DONALD TRUMP CURBS IMMIGRANTS FROM SIX NATIONS IN US ELECTION-YEAR PUSHThe Trump administration announced Friday that it was restricting immigrantsfrom six additional countries that officials said failed to meet minimumsecurity standards, as part of an election-year push to further clamp downimmigration.Officials said immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudanand Tanzania will face new restrictions in obtaining certain visas to cometo the United States. But it is not a total travel ban, unlike PresidentDonald Trump's earlier effort that generated outrage around the world fortargeting Muslims.Trump signed a proclamation on the restrictions Friday; they go into effectFeb. 21The announcement came as Trump tries to promote his crackdown onimmigration, highlighting a signature issue that motivated supporters in2016 and hoping it has the same effect this November. The administrationrecently announced birth tourism restrictions, is touting the sharp declinein crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border and citing progress on building theborder wall."It is fundamental to national security, and the height of common sense,that if a foreign nation wishes to receive the benefits of immigration andtravel to the United States, it must satisfy basic security conditionsoutlined by America's law enforcement and intelligence professionals," theWhite House said in a statement.Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea and Nigeria would have all immigrant visassuspended; those are applicants seeking to live in the U.S. permanently.They include visas for people sponsored by family members or employers aswell as the diversity visa program that made up to 55,000 visas available inthe most recent lottery. In December, for example, 40,666 immigrant visaswere granted worldwide.Nonimmigrant visas were not affected _ awarded to those traveling to theU.S. for a temporary stay.The new restrictions were swiftly met with criticism from immigrantadvocates who slammed them as a new Muslim ban.PAKISTAN DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY TO BATTLE LOCUSTSPakistan, which is facing its worst locust attack in decades, has declarednational emergency to tackle the insects destroying crops on a large scalein Punjab province, country's main region for agricultural production.The decision was taken at a meeting convened by Prime Minister Imran Khan onFriday. The meeting, attended by federal ministers and senior officials ofthe four provinces, also approved a National Action Plan (NAP) that requiresa sum of Rs 7.3 billion to overcome the crisis.Minister for National Food Security Khusro Bakhtiar informed the NationalAssembly about the gravity of the situation and the steps so far taken bythe federal and provincial governments to deal with the crisis, the Dawnnewspaper reported.During the meeting at the Prime Minister's Office, which was also attendedby Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Hafeez Shaikh among others, adetailed briefing on the overall situation was given to the prime minister.The meeting was informed that besides involving the officials concerned atthe provincial and district levels, different tasks have been given to theNational Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), provincial disastermanagement authorities and federal and provincial departments to deal withthe threat.Prime Minister Khan ordered formation of a high-level committee to be headedby Mr. Bakhtiar to take decisions at the federal level for the eliminationof insects.The prime minister directed the authorities concerned to make immediatemeasures on the basis of damage of ripened crops.AS CORONAVIRUS MISINFORMATION SPREADS ON SOCIAL MEDIA, FACEBOOK REMOVESPOSTSFacebook Inc said it will take down misinformation about China'sfast-spreading coronavirus, in a rare departure from its usual approach todubious health content that is presenting a fresh challenge for social mediacompanies.The coronavirus outbreak has stoked a wave of anti-China sentiment aroundthe globe. Hoaxes have spread widely online, promoted by conspiracytheorists and exacerbated by a dearth of information from the cordoned-offzone around China's central city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began.Nearly 12,000 people have been infected in China, according to local healthauthorities, and more than 130 cases reported in at least 25 other countriesand regions.Facebook said in a blog post that it would remove content about the virus"with false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leadingglobal health organizations and local health authorities," saying suchcontent would violate its ban on misinformation leading to "physical harm."The move is unusually aggressive for the world's biggest social network,which generally limits the distribution of content containing healthmisinformation to its 2.9 billion monthly users through restrictions onsearch results and advertising, but allows the original posts to stay up.It also puts it at odds with other major -based social networks. AlphabetInc's YouTube, which has 2 billion monthly users and Twitter and Reddit,which have hundreds of millions of users, confirmed they do not considerinaccurate information about health to be a violation of their policies.Those companies, like Facebook in other cases, rely on techniques such aselevating medical information from authoritative public health sources andwarning users about content that has been debunked.