TRUMP IMPEACHMENT: SENATE SAYS TRIAL IS CONSTITUTIONAL AND CAN GO AHEAD

The US Senate has found that the impeachment trial of former President

Donald Trump is constitutional, allowing full proceedings to begin.

Mr Trump's defence team argued that he cannot face trial after leaving the

White House.

But a 56-44 majority voted in favour of continuing, with a handful of

Republicans backing the measure.

Mr Trump is accused of "inciting insurrection" when Congress was stormed

last month.

Thousands gathered in support of false claims that widespread electoral

fraud denied Mr Trump victory in the US presidential election.

Democrats prosecuting the case opened Tuesday's proceedings by showing a

video montage of Mr Trump's 6 January speech and the deadly rioting by some

of his supporters.

"That's a high crime and misdemeanour," Representative Jamie Raskin of

Maryland said of the footage. "If that's not an impeachable offence, then

there's no such thing."

The 56-44 split means six Republicans joined Democrats in voting to go ahead

with the trial.

Although this shows some bipartisanship, this result implies loyalty toward

the former president in his party remains high enough to avoid a conviction.

COVID: WHO SAYS 'EXTREMELY UNLIKELY' VIRUS LEAKED FROM LAB IN CHINA

International experts investigating the origins of Covid-19 have all but

dismissed a theory that the virus came from a laboratory in China.

Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) mission,

said it was "extremely unlikely" that the virus leaked from a lab in the

city of Wuhan.

He said more work was needed to identify the source of the virus.

The investigation could now focus on South East Asia, one expert said.

The WHO team are currently at the end of their investigation mission.

Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province, is the first place in the world

that the virus was detected in 2019. Since then, more than 106 million cases

and 2.3 million deaths have been reported worldwide.

Dr Embarek told a press conference the investigation had uncovered new

information but had not dramatically changed the picture of the outbreak.

Experts believe the virus is likely to have originated in animals before

spreading to humans, but they are not sure how.

Dr Embarek said work to identify the origins of Covid-19 pointed to a

"natural reservoir" in bats, but it was unlikely that this happened in

Wuhan.

He said identifying the animal pathway remained a "work in progress", but

that it was "most likely" to have crossed over to humans from an

intermediary species.

The experts also said there was "no indication" that the virus was

circulating in Wuhan before the first official cases were recorded there in

December 2019.

SINGLE DOSE OF PFIZER VACCINE SHOT GIVES TWO-THIRDS PROTECTION, DATA

SUGGESTS

One dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offers two-thirds protection against

coronavirus, data seen by the U.K. government suggests.

Early findings from the U.K.'s vaccination program, due to be released

within days, show that the first dose reduced the symptomatic infection risk

among patients by 65% in younger adults and 64% in over-80s, a person

familiar with the matter said.

The data, first reported by The Sun newspaper, showed that two doses of the

Pfizer vaccine saw protection rise to between 79% and 84%, depending on age.

The AstraZeneca vaccine offers similar protection, the newspaper said.

While efficacy results are lower than those found in Pfizer's clinical

trials, Boris Johnson's government is likely to hail the U.K.'s first

real-world data as a significant boost to its efforts to immunize the

population. A successful mass vaccine rollout is key to the government's

hopes of reopening the economy after months of lockdown.

More than 12.6 million people in the U.K. have so far received their first

doses of either the Pfizer shot or the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, according

to latest data published Tuesday. That includes more than 90% of the

over-80s.

FOR HONG KONGERS, CANADA IS BEATEN PATH OUT OF CHINA'S GRIP

A second generation of Hong Kongers is heading to Canada for refuge from

political uncertainty, but unlike their parents in the 1980s and 1990s, this

time seems for good.

Cities such as Vancouver and Toronto are a magnet for those looking to

escape as China tightens its grip on the territory of 7.5 million people.

Some 300,000 already have Canadian citizenship after many families initially

moved there ahead of Hong Kong's return from British to Chinese rule in

1997.

Back then, many families separated, with one parent staying in Hong Kong for

work, usually fathers who were dubbed "astronauts" as they soared through

the sky on visits. Among those who went to Canada, many eventually returned,

lured by the booming economy and what still seemed to be a relatively free

environment.

Things have changed.

With recent pro-democracy protests virtually snuffed out and Beijing

enshrining control last year via a national security law, bags are being

packed once more.

Thanks to Canada's liberal immigration system, 335,646 Hong Kongers moved

there between 1984 when Britain's handover was declared and 1997, according

to the Canadian International Council think tank. That was most of the

half-million exodus.

This time, Britain may take most Hong Kongers as it offers visas to

potentially 300,000 people.

The flow to Canada may also be large, with existing Canadian

passport-holders in Hong Kong from the first wave and new immigration

pathways for the younger generation.

MYANMAR MILITARY RAIDS SUU KYI'S PARTY OFFICES AS UN SLAMS VIOLENCE

Myanmar's military raided the Yangon headquarters of ousted leader Aung San

Suu Kyi's party late Tuesday, officials said, hours after the United Nations

condemned "unacceptable" violence against protesters demanding a return to

democracy.

The latest assault on Myanmar's civilian leadership came as anger at last

week's coup and the detention of Suu Kyi by the generals has driven hundreds

of thousands of people into the streets in recent days, defying a junta ban

on rallies.

"The military dictator raided and destroyed NLD headquarters at around

9:30pm," the National League for Democracy announced on its Facebook page.

The party's short statement gave no further details.

The raid came after demonstrations erupted for a fourth straight day

Tuesday, with police using water cannons in several cities, firing rubber

bullets at protesters in the capital Naypyidaw and deploying tear gas in

Mandalay.

The rallies came despite a warning from the junta that it would take action

against demonstrations that threatened "stability", and a new ban on

gatherings of more than five people.

TRUMP'S TOUGH CHINA STANCE WAS RIGHT: STATE SECY BLINKEN

Former U.S. president Donald Trump was right to take a tougher approach on

China, newly-appointed Secretary of State Tony Blinken has said, reiterating

the Biden administration's policy of engaging Beijing from a position of

strength.

Mr. Blinken, in an interview to CNN, commented on Mr. Trump's tough approach

on China, saying the way Mr. Trump went about it, in his judgment, was wrong

across the board, but the basic principle was the right one.

"I think in fairness to President Trump he was right to take a tougher

approach to China. That was the right thing to do.

"But what does this require of us? We have to engage China from a position

of strength. And whether it's the adversarial aspects of the relationship,

the competitive ones, or the cooperative ones which are there in our mutual

interest, we have to deal with it from a position of strength," he said on

Sunday.

Mr. Blinken explained that this means having strong alliances.

"That's a source of advantage for us - not denigrating our alliances. It

means, as we were talking about earlier, showing up again in the world,

engaging. Because if we don't, when we pull back, China fills in," he said.

"It means standing up for our values, not abdicating them, when we see the

abuse of the rights of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang or democracy in Hong Kong. It

means making sure that we're postured militarily to deter aggression, and it

means investing in our own people so that they can compete effectively," Mr.

Blinken said.

"If we do all of these things, and all of these things are within our

control, we can engage China from a position of strength," he asserted.

PRACHANDA SEEKS HELP OF INDIA, CHINA AGAINST OLI

Chairperson of the Nepal Communist Party's splinter faction Pushpa Kamal

Dahal Prachanda said on Tuesday that his party has appealed to the

international community, including India and China, to extend support to its

ongoing struggle against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's "unconstitutional

and undemocratic move" to dissolve Parliament.

Nepal plunged into a political crisis on December 20 after Oli dissolved the

House of Representatives, amidst a tussle for power with Prachanda. "The

House of Representatives must be reinstated if we are to consolidate

federalism and democracy and take the peace process to the logical

conclusion," Prachanda said during an interaction with a select group of

international media representatives based in Kathmandu. If the House is not

reinstated, the country would plunge into a political crisis, he said.

MULTIPLE PEOPLE SHOT AT MINNESOTA CLINIC; 1 DETAINED

A 67-year-old man unhappy with the health care he'd received opened fire at

a clinic on Tuesday and injured five people, and bomb technicians were

investigating a suspicious device left there and others at a motel where he

was staying, authorities said.

All five victims were rushed to the hospital. Three remained in stable but

critical condition on Tuesday evening, and a fourth had been discharged. The

condition of the fifth victim was not immediately known.

The attack happened on Tuesday morning at an Allina clinic in Buffalo, a

community of about 15,000 people roughly 64 kilometers northwest of

Minneapolis. Authorities said Gregory Paul Ulrich, of Buffalo, opened fire

at the facility and was arrested before noon.

Though police said it was too early to tell if Ulrich had targeted a

specific doctor, court records show he at one point had been ordered to have

no contact with a man whose name matches that of a doctor at the clinic.

It was not immediately clear whether that device exploded, but TV footage

showed several shattered plate-glass windows at the clinic. Mr. Deringer

said suspicious devices were also found at a local Super 8 motel where

Ulrich had been staying, and there were at least two shattered windows there

as well.