GREECE MIGRANT CRISIS: REFUGEE CENTRE ABLAZE AS TENSIONS RISEA fire has ripped through a refugee shelter on the Greek island of Lesbos astensions over a surge in migration from Turkey continue to rise.Flames engulfed the One Happy Family centre, near the island's capitalMitilini, on Saturday.It is not clear how the fire started. No causalities have been reported.In recent days, there has been hostility towards migrants on Lesbos after anincrease in arrivals from Turkey.Hundreds of migrants have attempted to reach the island since TurkishPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week he was "opening the doors" forrefugees to enter Europe.But on Saturday, Mr Erdogan partially reversed his position. He ordered theTurkish coastguard to stop migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea to Greecebecause it is unsafe to do so.The EU has accused Mr Erdogan of using migrants for political purposes. Itinsists its doors are "closed".Meanwhile, clashes have again erupted at the land border between Greece andTurkey.There appears to have been no change in Turkey's position with regard toletting migrants try to enter Greece via this route.On Saturday, Greek police fired tear gas at crowds at the border crossing atKastanies, who responded by throwing stones and shouting "open the gates",according to the AFP news agency.CHINA REFUTES REPORT ITS SHIP FIRED LASER AT US NAVY SURVEILLANCE PLANEChina's Defence Ministry says a report one of its Navy ships fired a laserlast month at a US Navy surveillance plane circling overhead does not"accord with reality."The report last month was the latest accusation that Chinese forces haveused lasers to harass and potentially damage US and other nations' militaryaircraft and personnel.However, ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang was quoted as saying Friday thatthe ministry "refuted" the report and said a Chinese squadron was conductingroutine exercises in international waters on Feb. 17 when the incidentallegedly happened.In China's first pubic comments on the alleged incident, Ren accused anAmerican P-8A Poseidon of carrying out "long-period circling reconnaissanceat low-altitude despite repeated warnings from the Chinese side.""The American aircraft's behavior was unfriendly in intention andunprofessional by operation, which severely threatened the safety of thevessels, aircraft and crew of both sides," he said.The US Navy waited more than a week before accusing the Chinese ship offiring a laser at a US surveillance aircraft flying over the Philippine Seawest of Guam, an act the US deemed unsafe and a violation of internationalcodes and agreements. The statement from US Pacific Fleet said the laser wasdetected by sensors on the aircraft, but was not visible to the naked eye.The Philippine Sea lies far to the north and west of the South China Sea,which China claims virtually in its entirety despite countering claims byothers.The US has sought to avoid such incidents with the signing of agreementswith China on handling unexpected incidents at sea and in the air, butBeijing has apparently not followed those protocols consistently.TRUMP NAMES MARK MEADOWS CHIEF OF STAFF, OUSTING MICK MULVANEYPresident Donald Trump on Friday pushed out Mick Mulvaney, his acting WhiteHouse chief of staff, and replaced him with Rep. Mark Meadows, a stalwartconservative ally, shaking up his team in the middle of one of the biggestcrises of his presidency.Trump announced the change on Twitter after arriving in Florida for aweekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate, choosing to make one of the mostsignificant switches he can make in his White House on a Friday night whenmost of the country had tuned out news for the weekend. As a consolationprize, the president named Mulvaney a special envoy for Northern Ireland.Trump's decision to push out Mulvaney came as the president confronted acoronavirus outbreak that has unsettled much of the country, threatened theeconomy and posed a new challenge to his reelection campaign. But thedecision was seen as a long-delayed move cleaning up in the aftermath of theSenate impeachment trial as he shuffles his inner circle for the eight-monthsprint to Election Day.The replacement was widely seen in the West Wing as a chance for thepresident to reinvigorate his staff, over which Mulvaney was seen as losingcontrol. In Meadows, Trump will have an ally whom he has treated as aconfidant and a bellwether of congressional conservatives for much of histerm.