Mexican governor, senator killed in helicopter crash: reports

A Mexican governor and her husband, a former governor of the same state, were killed in a helicopter crash in the center of the country on Monday, local media and politicians said. Martha Erika Alonso, the new governor of the central state of Puebla, and her husband, Senator Rafael Moreno, died when their helicopter came down not far from the state capital Puebla, according to Reforma newspaper. It was unclear if the pilot died.

Alonso, from the center-right National Action Party (PAN), took office earlier this month after a violent, hotly contested election. An electoral tribunal had to validate the results months after the vote amid accusations of fraud. “May they rest in peace; (the PAN) is in mourning,” PAN President Marko Cortes said on Twitter.

Moreno was governor of Puebla between 2011 and 2017. A number of Mexican politicians have died in aircraft accidents in the past few years, including federal interior ministers in 2008 and 2011. Both were members of the PAN, like Alonso and her husband. It was not immediately clear what caused the Christmas Eve crash. The fact the accident occurred just days after Alonso took office triggered speculation of foul play on social media.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-helicopter/mexican-governor-senator-killed-in-helicopter-crash-reports-idUSKCN1ON179?il=0

Gunmen kill at least 28 in raid on Afghan government building

Gunmen who raided a government building in the Afghan capital killed at least 28 people - mostly government employees - and wounded more than 20 others in a seven-hour standoff with police that ended on Monday night, Afghan authorities said. Others killed included a policeman and three of the attackers who were shot dead by Afghan security forces, Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

The attack began in the afternoon when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a car outside the public works ministry. Militants then stormed the building of the National Authority for Disabled People and Martyrs’ Families, taking civilians hostage as they fought a gun battle against Afghan soldiers. Afghan security forces went from floor to floor of the building in an operation to rescue over 350 people inside, but had to exercise restraint in their operations against the attackers given the number of employees there, a senior security official said. No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ambulances raced to the scene during a lull in the shooting, a witness who lives nearby told Reuters. At least 20 people wounded in the clashes were taken to hospital. An official working in another government building close by said employees had locked themselves in their offices after hearing the explosions and gunfire. During the standoff, the building’s second floor caught fire, local news channels reported. Attacks on government offices are frequent and are generally carried out by the Islamist Taliban, who are fighting to expel foreign forces from strategic provinces, topple the Western-backed government and restore their version of hardline Islamic law. The 17-year-old war with the Taliban has seen both fighting and diplomacy intensify in recent months.

On Thursday, an official said U.S. President Donald Trump was planning to withdraw at least 5,000 of the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a day after Trump unexpectedly announced that U.S. troops in Syria would be withdrawn. The United States went to war in Afghanistan in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, seeking to oust the Taliban militants harboring Saudi-raised militant Osama bin Laden, who led plans to carry out the attacks. At present, American troops make up the bulk of the Resolute Support mission to train and advise Afghan forces fighting the Taliban and the Islamic State militant group. Others are part of a U.S.-led counter-terrorism mission.

The prospect of a U.S. drawdown has triggered widespread uncertainty in war-torn Afghanistan. With security deteriorating, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday replaced his defense and interior ministers with two uncompromising opponents of the Taliban.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-attack/gunmen-kill-at-least-28-in-raid-on-afghan-government-building-idUSKCN1ON0LM?il=0

Trump, Democrats spar over government shutdown with no deal in sight

President Donald Trump and top Democrats in Congress sparred over the partial shutdown of the U.S. government on Monday, with no sign of tangible efforts to reopen agencies closed by a political impasse over Trump’s demand for border wall funds.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, accused Trump of being under the sway of conservative House Republicans and blasted the White House for saying “different things about what the president would accept or not accept.” It’s Christmas Eve and President Trump is plunging the country into chaos,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement as the shutdown dragged through its third day. “Meanwhile, different people from the same White House are saying different things about what the president would accept or not accept to end his Trump Shutdown, making it impossible to know where they stand at any given moment,” they said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who canceled plans to go to his Florida resort on Friday for Christmas because of the shutdown, was scheduled to discuss border security with U.S. homeland security officials on Monday afternoon. Earlier he said on Twitter that he was “all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security.” Each side has blamed the other for the shutdown, with no sign of renewed negotiations between lawmakers on Capitol Hill or between lawmakers and the White House.

On Sunday, a top Trump aide said the shutdown could continue to Jan. 3, when the new Congress convenes and Democrats take control of the House. Funding for about one-quarter of federal programs - including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture - expired at midnight on Friday. Without a deal to break the impasse over Trump’s demand for $5 billion for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, the shutdown is likely to stretch into the new year. Building the wall was one of Trump’s most frequently repeated campaign promises but Democrats are vehemently opposed to it. The U.S. Senate adjourned for the Christmas holiday on Saturday as Trump held fast to his demand and Democrats refused to budge.

A day earlier, Republican leaders in the Senate came up short in their effort to win enough support to approve a bill passed by the House that had the wall funds Trump has demanded. Schumer and Pelosi on Monday lashed out at the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative group that includes some of the president’s most loyal supporters in Congress. Trump discussed border security at a Saturday lunch with Republican lawmakers that included some Freedom Caucus members but no Republican leaders. “As long as the president is guided by the House Freedom Caucus, it’s hard to see how he can come up with a solution that can pass both the House and Senate and end his Trump Shutdown,” the two Democrats said in their statement.

Over the weekend, Trump budget director and White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the White House had made a counter-offer to Democrats on border security funding that fell between a Democratic proposal of $1.3 billion and Trump’s much higher demand. Media reports said Vice President Mike Pence had proposed $2.1 billion in funding in a meeting with Schumer on Saturday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-budget-democrats/trump-democrats-spar-over-government-shutdown-with-no-deal-in-sight-idUSKCN1ON12K?il=0