US reverses travel ban over court ruling as Trump fumes

The US authorities have rolled back a controversial travel ban on people from seven mainly Muslim countries after a judge suspended it.

The state department said it was reversing the cancellation of visas, 60,000 of which were revoked after President Donald Trump's order.

Judge James Robart ruled there were legal grounds to challenge the ban.

Mr Trump reacted furiously, calling Mr Robart's ruling "ridiculous" and vowing to restore his ban.

People affected by the ban treated news of the suspension warily as airlines began allowing them to board flights to America on Saturday.

• Trump border policy: Who's affected?

• US entry ban victims vent fury

• Trump border policy: World reacts

So has the ban been lifted completely?

Judge Robart's temporary restraining order on Friday halted the ban with immediate effect.

Since then, the state department has said it is reversing visa cancellations and US homeland security employees have been told by their department to comply with the ruling.

Customs officials told airlines that they could resume boarding banned travellers. Qatar Airways, Air France, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa and others said they would do so.

What can Trump do?

The Trump administration argues that the travel ban is designed to protect the US.

It has promised to seek "at the earliest possible time" an emergency stay that would restore the restrictions.

Meanwhile, the US president has raged against Judge Robard on Twitter.

"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!" he wrote..

"When a country is no longer able to say who can, and who cannot , come in & out, especially for reasons of safety & security - big trouble!"

How have those affected by the ban reacted themselves?

"I am very happy that we are going to travel today," Fuad Sharef, an Iraqi with an immigration visa who was prevented along with his family from boarding a flight to New York a week ago, told Reuters news agency from Irbil on Saturday. "Finally, we made it."

Image captionFuad Sharef (right) and his family were turned back last month

Image captionThe plight of four-month-old Fatemeh has been highlighted in the US Congress

A cardiologist training in the US, who wished to remain anonymous, told BBC News his Syrian wife had recently joined him but people in her situation would not "take the risk of leaving the country in case things change back again".

Among those standing to benefit most from the suspension of the ban is four-month-old Fatemeh Reshad, an Iranian infant with a heart defect who will now receive life-saving surgery in the US after all.

US doctors have pledged to treat her for free, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. .

Just how drastic was the ban?

Turkey: 'IS' link to deadly Gaziantep blast

A suicide car bomber has killed two policemen in south-eastern Turkey.

The bomb went off outside police headquarters in the south-eastern city of Gaziantep, near the Syria border.

More than 20 people, some of them civilians, were injured in the early-morning explosion, which was heard several kilometres away.

Police later raided the home of a suspected member of the so-called Islamic State group, who is believed to have carried out the attack.

His father has been detained for DNA testing.

Turkey has been hit by a series of deadly blasts over the past year, linked either to Kurdish militants or IS.

Ankara, Istanbul and Bursa are among cities that have been targeted by suicide bombings.

Sinai plane crash: No survivors on Russian airliner KGL9268

A Russian airliner has crashed in central Sinai killing all 224 people on board, Egyptian officials have said.

The Airbus A-321 had just left the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.

Wreckage was found in the Hasana area and bodies removed, along with the plane's "black box". An official described a "tragic scene" with bodies of victims still strapped to seats.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared Sunday a day of mourning.

He has ordered an official investigation into the crash, and for rescue teams to be sent to the crash site.

Egyptian officials said 214 of the passengers were Russian and three Ukrainian.

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A commission headed by Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov is to leave for Egypt on Saturday afternoon.

A criminal case has also been opened against the airline, Kogalymavia, for "violation of rules of flight and preparation for them", Russia's Ria news agency reported.

Oksana Golovin, a spokeswoman for the airline, said the company did not see any grounds to blame human error.

She told a press conference that the pilot had 12,000 hours of flying experience. Kogalymavia did not yet know what caused the crash, she said, but the plane was fully serviced.

Police are reported to be searching the company's offices.

Russian authorities say the plane was carrying 217 passengers, 138 of them women and 17 children aged between 2 and 17. Most were tourists. There were seven crew on board.

Egyptian officials investigating the scene said there were no survivors.

A centre to help relatives of the passengers has been set up at Pulkovo airport, Tass news agency quoted St Petersburg city officials as saying.

Sudden altitude loss

Initially there were conflicting reports about the fate of the plane, some suggesting it had disappeared over Cyprus.

But the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail confirmed in a statement that a "Russian civilian plane... crashed in the central Sinai".

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Media captionMikael Robertsson from flight tracking service Flight Radar 24: ''This was something more than a planned diversion''

Officials say up to 50 ambulances have been sent to the scene.

Access to the area is strictly controlled by the military and the terrain is difficult, correspondents say.

One official told Reuters news agency that at least 100 bodies had been found.

"I now see a tragic scene," the official said. "A lot of dead on the ground and many died whilst strapped to their seats."

The plane split in two, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock, he added.

The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement that flight KGL9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 05:58 local time (03:58 GMT)

It added that the aircraft went off the radar 22 minutes after take-off.

The flight had been due into St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport at 09:10 GMT.

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Image copyrightReuters

Kogalymavia airline

• Also known as KolAvia
• Founded in 1993
• Carried out regular and charter flights to other parts of Russia from the western Siberian towns of Kogalym and Surgut, and helicopter flights for the oil and gas industry
• Rebranded as Metrojet in 2012
• After takeover by tourism company TH&C in 2013, began flights to international destinations popular with Russian holiday-makers
• Currently has fleet of seven Airbus-321s and two Airbus-320s

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Egypt's civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 9,450m (31,000ft) when it disappeared.

Live flight tracking service Flight Radar 24's Mikail Robertson confirmed the altitude.

He told the BBC that the plane started to drop very fast, losing 1,500 metres in one minute before coverage was lost.

Aviation official Ayman al-Mukadem said the pilot had reported technical difficulties before the plane went missing, the Associated Press reported.

The BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo says it is likely there will be speculation about militant involvement in the incident - Sinai has an active militant network, with local Jihadis who have allied themselves to so-called Islamic State.

But the aircraft's altitude suggests that it could not have been struck from the ground, she adds.

Local weather observations in the vicinity of the rescue scene suggest relatively benign conditions.

Menstruation adverts deemed too racy for NYC's metro

China professor's wife-sharing proposal sparks ire

A Chinese professor's controversial suggestion that poorer men could share wives has sparked debate online on how to solve China's gender imbalance.

Zhejiang University economics professor Xie Zuoshi's proposal has been met with heavy criticism that it is immoral.

China has one of the biggest gender imbalances in the world, with about 118 boys born to every 100 girls.

The imbalance is largely due to the one-child policy and cultural preferences for male children.

Increasing wealth and population movement also means many women are leaving the countryside to work in cities, with men who stay behind struggling to find partners.

'Value of women'

In a piece that was widely picked up by local media, Prof Xie noted there were reports that China could possibly have 30 to 40 million bachelors by 2020.

The huge demand for women and the lack of supply would result in the "value of women going up", he wrote.

"Men with high incomes will have an advantage in finding women, because they can afford the high price.

"And what about the low income men? One way is for several men to band together to find a wife. This isn't some pie-in-the-sky idea of mine. In some remote and poor areas there are cases where brothers jointly marry one wife, and they can live happily and harmoniously."

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionMore Chinese bachelors have taken to marrying women from neighbouring countries, including this Vietnamese woman

He also advocated for greater economic growth so that poorer bachelors could earn more income and could thus attract women from other regions such as South East Asia or Africa.

The shortage of wives in some rural parts of China has led to more men marrying women from neighbouring countries such as Vietnam and Myanmar, but has also fuelled human trafficking. and wedding scams.

'Serious social problem'

Prof Xie's essay, which was published last week and later picked up by Chinese media, attracted mostly appalled derision from readers, who criticised his idea as immoral and illegal.

"If you can't find a mate then don't bother, if women are just only meant for producing heirs and have to mate with many men just to solve the population growth issue, how does this make us any different from animals?" said Weibo user Superelfjunior.

Jing Xiong, a project manager with Chinese women's rights group Media Monitor for Women Network, told the BBC that the gender imbalance problem "is basically a problem stemming from teachings that prioritise men over women".

"And now the solutions are still very much male-centred. This is extremely ridiculous."

"Prof Xie's suggestion ignores the wishes and rights of women, and casts women as tools used to satisfy men's needs for sex, marriage and reproduction... this suggestion is basically sexual discrimination."

Image copyrightSina

Image captionProf Xie's blog essay was entitled "30 million bachelors is a groundless fear"

In a subsequent essay, Prof Xie said he had been bombarded with angry phone calls and comments on social media.

But he stuck to his guns, arguing that laws and morals were mutable.

"If we wave the big stick of morality, keep to the one-husband-one-wife social contract, and let 30 million bachelors have no women and no hope, they hate society, then we would have a serious social problem."

"So please don't talk to me about morals. If we don't let the 30 million bachelors have women, their lives would have no hope and then they may go around raping, killing, setting off bombs... (let me emphasise that this is a possibility, I'm not saying they would definitely do that). Don't tell me that is your morality?" he said.

Israel and Jordan strike deal on Jerusalem holy site

Israel and Jordan have agreed on moves aimed at reducing tensions surrounding a prominent holy site in Jerusalem, US Secretary of State John Kerry says.

Issues relating to the complex have been at the centre of fresh violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Mr Kerry was speaking after talks in Jordan, the formal custodian of what is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and as Haram al-Sharif to Muslims.

He said Israel had renewed a pledge to maintain existing rules there.

In the latest upsurge of violence, at least eight Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in knife or gun attacks by Palestinians, following rumours that Israel was planning to change the rules.

About 50 Palestinians, including several of the attackers, have been killed in recent weeks.

Mr Kerry, who is on a tour of the region, met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman on Saturday.

"All the violence and the incitement to violence must stop. Leaders must lead,'' Mr Kerry told reporters.

The steps he announced include round-the-clock video monitoring and Israel's agreement to reaffirm Jordan's historic role as custodian of the religious complex.

Israel says it has not challenged the status quo on the Temple Mount and has no intention of doing so.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionMr Kerry held talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital

Mr Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, and said the talks had raised ideas that were worth exploring.

Later on Saturday, Mr Kerry will travel to Saudi Arabia for talks with regional leaders.

In the latest violence, Israeli police said they shot dead a Palestinian attacker in the northern West Bank early on Saturday.

"A terrorist, who arrived armed with a knife, tried to stab a security guard at the site. In response, the terrorist was shot by the security force," it said, according to AFP news agency.

---

What is happening between Israelis and Palestinians?

There has been a spate of stabbings of Israelis and some shootings - several of them fatal - by Palestinians since early October, and one apparent revenge stabbing by an Israeli. The attackers have struck in Jerusalem and across Israel, and in the occupied West Bank. Israel has tightened security and its security forces have clashed with rioting Palestinians, leading to deaths on the Palestinian side. The violence has also spread to the border with Gaza.

What's behind the latest unrest?

After a period of relative quiet, violence between the two communities has spiralled since clashes erupted at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site in mid-September. It was fuelled by rumours among Palestinians that Israel was attempting to alter a long-standing religious arrangement governing the site. Israel repeatedly dismissed the rumours as incitement. Soon afterwards, two Israelis were shot dead by Palestinians in the West Bank and the stabbing attacks began. Both Israel and the Palestinian authorities have accused one another of doing nothing to protect each other's communities.

Is this a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising?

There have been two organised uprisings by Palestinians against Israeli occupation, in the 1980s and early 2000s. With peace talks moribund, some observers have questioned whether we are now seeing a third. The stabbing attacks seem to be opportunistic and although they have been praised by militant groups, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said Palestinians are not interested in a further escalation.

Israel and Jordan strike deal on Jerusalem holy site

Israel and Jordan have agreed on moves aimed at reducing tensions surrounding a prominent holy site in Jerusalem, US Secretary of State John Kerry says.

Issues relating to the complex have been at the centre of fresh violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Mr Kerry was speaking after talks in Jordan, the formal custodian of what is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and as Haram al-Sharif to Muslims.

He said Israel had renewed a pledge to maintain existing rules there.

In the latest upsurge of violence, at least eight Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in knife or gun attacks by Palestinians, following rumours that Israel was planning to change the rules.

About 50 Palestinians, including several of the attackers, have been killed in recent weeks.

Mr Kerry, who is on a tour of the region, met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman on Saturday.

"All the violence and the incitement to violence must stop. Leaders must lead,'' Mr Kerry told reporters.

The steps he announced include round-the-clock video monitoring and Israel's agreement to reaffirm Jordan's historic role as custodian of the religious complex.

Israel says it has not challenged the status quo on the Temple Mount and has no intention of doing so.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionMr Kerry held talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital

Mr Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, and said the talks had raised ideas that were worth exploring.

Later on Saturday, Mr Kerry will travel to Saudi Arabia for talks with regional leaders.

In the latest violence, Israeli police said they shot dead a Palestinian attacker in the northern West Bank early on Saturday.

"A terrorist, who arrived armed with a knife, tried to stab a security guard at the site. In response, the terrorist was shot by the security force," it said, according to AFP news agency.

---

What is happening between Israelis and Palestinians?

There has been a spate of stabbings of Israelis and some shootings - several of them fatal - by Palestinians since early October, and one apparent revenge stabbing by an Israeli. The attackers have struck in Jerusalem and across Israel, and in the occupied West Bank. Israel has tightened security and its security forces have clashed with rioting Palestinians, leading to deaths on the Palestinian side. The violence has also spread to the border with Gaza.

What's behind the latest unrest?

After a period of relative quiet, violence between the two communities has spiralled since clashes erupted at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site in mid-September. It was fuelled by rumours among Palestinians that Israel was attempting to alter a long-standing religious arrangement governing the site. Israel repeatedly dismissed the rumours as incitement. Soon afterwards, two Israelis were shot dead by Palestinians in the West Bank and the stabbing attacks began. Both Israel and the Palestinian authorities have accused one another of doing nothing to protect each other's communities.

Is this a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising?

There have been two organised uprisings by Palestinians against Israeli occupation, in the 1980s and early 2000s. With peace talks moribund, some observers have questioned whether we are now seeing a third. The stabbing attacks seem to be opportunistic and although they have been praised by militant groups, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said Palestinians are not interested in a further escalation.

What is driving the latest violence?