World

GENEVA — Two Syrian men were arrested in Geneva on Friday after traces of explosives were found in their car, Switzerland's attorney general said on Saturday, confirming media reports.

Criminal proceedings have been opened against the two under a law prohibiting groups such as Al Qaeda and Daesh, a statement from the attorney general's office said. It did not give any names or other details about the pair.

They denied criminal intent but are to be handed over to Swiss federal police, Geneva prosecutor Olivier Jornot told a news conference.

The two men, who had two valid Syrian passports, had been stopped by Geneva gendarmes, he said. "Due to their behaviour and their nationality they were subjected to extra checks."

They did not speak French and said they had only just arrived in Geneva and recently acquired the car. It was possible that the traces of explosives in the car had no link to them, he said.

The attorney general's initial statement said the men were suspected of making, hiding and transporting explosives or toxic gas. Jornot clarified however that the relevant law covered both explosives and toxic gas, but there was no suspicion of gas in this case.

Police in the Swiss city, home to the European headquarters of the United Nations, the Red Cross, and many banks and trading houses, moved onto a high state of alert earlier this week after a suspicious Belgian-registered vehicle fled from a late-night police check and crossed the border into France.

Geneva's Le Temps newspaper reported on Thursday that one of the two occupants was a friend of Salah Abdeslam, the man wanted in connection with the Paris attacks on November 13.

On Friday Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga said federal authorities had been tipped off by foreign authorities about a suspected Daesh cell in the region.

Two sources confirmed to Reuters the US Central Intelligence Agency had provided a photo of four men to Swiss authorities on Wednesday, saying they could be on Swiss territory.

The photo, published in Swiss newspapers, showed four bearded men seated, with their faces blurred and index fingers raised in the air.

But Jornot said there was no indication the men were on Swiss territory, and no connection between the various strands of investigations had been established.

He said the heightened security alert in Geneva had prompted many calls from the public and led to the arrest of another man with an "absolutely impressive arsenal" including a Kalashnikov machinegun, Glock pistols and about 30 antique muskets. The man also had Nazi flags and was not linked to the other investigations, Jornot said.

"There will definitely be more arrests in the next few days because the police have an enormous amount of information. But it doesn't mean that each time we put our hand on someone that we have found a terrorist. We are just doing our job," he said. 

BUENOS AIRES — Business-friendly conservative Mauricio Macri was sworn in as Argentina's new president Thursday, turning the page on 12 years under left-wing power couple Nestor and Cristina Kirchner.

Kirchner and her allies in Congress boycotted the ceremony after a tiff over protocol escalated into a messy court battle, so the oath of office was administered by incoming Senate speaker Federico Pinedo, the acting president since midnight.

Macri, 56, laid out an agenda for sweeping change in his inaugural address.

"This government will know how to defend freedom, which is essential for democracy," he said.

He also promised to fight "tirelessly for those who need it most" — a nod to his campaign pledges to keep the Kirchners' popular social programmes.

His swearing-in marks the start of a new era for Argentina after three terms under the Kirchners, who led the country back to stability in the wake of an economic meltdown in 2001.

Macri has vowed to reboot Latin America's third-largest economy, which is slumping back toward recession, by ending protectionist import restrictions, cutting heavy taxes on agricultural exports and scrapping the official exchange rate puffing up the Argentine peso.

Kirchner, whose eight years in office were marked by her confrontational brand of politics and distaste for compromise, made her exit in characteristic style.

She rejected Macri's plans for inauguration day, insisting it was a waste of time to take the oath of office at Congress, then travel to the iconic presidential palace, the Casa Rosada, to receive the presidential sash and scepter.

Kirchner, 62, accused Macri of disrespecting her on the phone when they discussed the matter.

Determined to have his moment in the sun at the famous pink palace where iconic leaders like Juan and Eva Peron rallied the masses of yore, Macri took the matter to court, which ruled in his favor.

Kirchner, irate, announced she would not attend.

Perhaps seeking to smooth over the spat, Macri made an appeal for "unity" in his speech, before heading to the presidential palace, waving to crowds of cheering supporters from the sunroof of a white SUV.

Corporate Cabinet 

Macri won a run-off election against Kirchner's chosen successor, Daniel Scioli, on November 22.

The son of a wealthy businessman, he rose to fame as the president of Argentina's most popular football club, Boca Juniors, during a storied string of trophy wins.

The twice-divorced father of four, who is married to a former model, had been Buenos Aires mayor since 2007.

He has stressed his pro-business credentials, naming a Cabinet with ministers from the ranks of companies like IBM, Shell, General Motors and Deutsche Bank.

His administration will be tasked with finding an exit from Argentina's drawn-out fight with American hedge funds that are demanding full repayment of debt that Buenos Aires defaulted on in 2001.

The US court battle has derailed the country's efforts to restructure its debt and left it cut off from global capital markets.

Political realignment? 

His victory has political analysts talking about a possible "realignment" in Argentine politics.

Since the end of the country's 1976-1983 dictatorship, he is only the third leader elected from outside the "Peronist" movement founded by Juan Peron, the towering figure of 20th-century Argentina.

The other two failed to finish their terms — an unsettling reminder of the difficulties Macri could face in dealing with Peronist labour unions, governors and lawmakers.

His room for maneuver will be limited by Congress, where the Peronists will be the largest party in the lower house and have an absolute majority in the Senate.

But, in a sign of the right's new momentum, his ally Maria Eugenia Vidal took office Thursday as governor of the powerful province of Buenos Aires — the first time a non-Peronist has won the post in 28 years.

Across Latin America, there are signs that the left's political dominance over the past 15 years may be fading along with the region's erstwhile economic boom.

Macri's win in Argentina was followed by a resounding victory for the Venezuelan opposition in legislative elections, as well as the opening of impeachment proceedings against embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

GENEVA — The Swiss city of Geneva raised its alert level on Thursday and said it was looking for suspects who, according to national officials, had possible links to terrorism.

A security guard at the United Nations' European headquarters told Reuters that Swiss authorities were searching for four men believed to be in or near the city.

Another guard said the UN compound was on maximum alert, and Geneva prosecutors said they were investigating the preparation of criminal acts.

Separately, the Swiss attorney-general said it opened an a criminal inquiry on the basis of a "terrorist threat in Geneva" against unknown persons suspected of belonging to a criminal organisation and of violating the ban on Al Qaeda or Daesh operating in the country.

The Geneva daily Le Temps reported that a friend of Salah Abdeslam, the latter wanted in connection with the deadly Paris attacks on November 13, was in a van spotted by Geneva police on Tuesday after a tip from French authorities that the two men in the car were strongly suspected of ties to radical groups.

The van, which had Belgian plates, crossed the border into France, the paper said. Geneva officials could not confirm the report.

A French police source said Swiss authorities had been in touch to ask for information, about some suspects, including photographs.

Swiss federal police in the capital Berne said they had passed on information about people with possible links to terrorism, but were not connecting them to militant attacks in Paris last month in which 130 people were killed.

Earlier, the newspaper Le Matin said a Belgian-registered car that drove through a police check prompted police to examine a photograph of four suspected militants provided by the US Central Intelligence Agency. The paper said it had obtained a document describing the men as "armed and dangerous".

Two sources confirmed that the CIA had provided the photo, which shows the four bearded men seated, with their faces blurred but index fingers raised in the air. A CIA spokesman in Washington declined to comment.

Swiss television said the city's Jewish community had been told to be vigilant.

"Sensitive sites have been alerted," a Swiss official said.

The guards stationed at vehicle entry points to the UN grounds were, unusually, carrying Mp5 sub-machine guns on Thursday. One guard said the UN premises had been evacuated for a time late on Wednesday night "as a precaution".

The sprawling complex sits at the heart of "international Geneva". The headquarters of the World Health Organisation, the UN human rights office, the refugee agency UNHCR, the World Trade Organisation and the International Committee of the Red Cross are a short walk away.

"The heightened security affects the entire Geneva area, and the UN is taking measures that are commensurate with those taken in the host country," UN spokesman Rheal LeBlanc said.

Senior US and Russian diplomats are set to hold talks on Syria in Geneva on Friday, but the United Nations said the location would be kept secret.

Swiss and French officials say they have been working closely together since the Paris attacks. The Swiss Attorney General's office is currently conducting 33 criminal proceedings linked to militancy, and opened nearly a dozen new investigations in October and November, a spokeswoman said. 

WASHINGTON — A growing global backlash against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US cut across nationalities and religions on Wednesday and began to hit the real estate mogul's brand in the Middle East.

Trump's comments have been condemned by the White House, US congressional leaders, the United Nations, the prime ministers of France and Britain, a wide array of human and civil rights groups and many of Trump's Republican rivals and potential Democratic opponents in the November 2016 US presidential election.

Trump, who leads opinion polls in the Republican nominating race, on Monday called for blocking Muslims, including would-be immigrants, students and tourists, from entering the country following last week's deadly shootings in California by two Muslims who authorities said were radicalised.

In the Middle East, sales of "Trump Home" products took a hit. The Landmark firm, one of the region's biggest retail companies with 190 stores in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, said it was pulling all Trump merchandise off its shelves.

"In light of the recent statements made by the presidential candidate in the US media, we have suspended sale of all products from the Trump Home décor range," Landmark Chief Executive Officer Sachin Mundhwa said in an e-mailed statement. The company did not give any details on the value of the contract.

Although there were no other immediate announcements of business partners breaking with Trump, others made clear they were uneasy using his brand name in the Middle East, where he has been actively expanding his footprint in recent years, heavily concentrated in the Gulf business hub of Dubai.

A former Trump business partner in Dubai, construction billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor, said Trump had wrecked his prospects for successful future collaborations in the region.

"He is really creating war. He's creating hatred between Muslims and Christians," Habtoor, who at one time held the contract to build a later-cancelled Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai, told Reuters.

"Muslims have invested hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars [in America], creating jobs for Americans. They can go invest it somewhere else."

Left- and right-wing Israeli politicians, as well as Israeli Arab lawmakers, condemned Trump's remarks and said he should be barred from visiting. Omer Bar-Lev of the main center-left opposition party, the Zionist Union, took to Twitter to call Trump a "racist".

Netanyahu issued a statement saying he rejected Trump's remarks but a planned December 28 visit, set two weeks ago, would go ahead as planned and did not indicate support for Trump.

"The prime minister rejects the recent comments by Donald Trump with regard to Muslims. Israel respects all religions and diligently guards the rights of its citizens," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.

In Britain, the number of signatories to the petition demanding Trump be banned from visiting exceeded 250,000 and was growing fast. But the country's finance minister, George Osborne, said the former reality TV star should not be banned.

In the past, people have been banned from entering the United Kingdom for fostering hatred that might provoke intercommunity violence.

Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland, revoked an honorary degree it had awarded Trump in 2010, saying on Twitter that his statements "are wholly incompatible with the ethos and values of the university".

In China, home to about 20 million Muslims, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she could not comment on internal US matters but said China believed "the international community should make a concerted effort to fight terrorism, and at the same time we have always opposed linking terrorism to any specific ethnic group or religion".

Trump has courted controversy during his White House run with derogatory comments about immigrants and controversial proposals to deport undocumented immigrants and implement a database to keep track of Muslim Americans.

Some supporters rallied to his defence. Evangelist Franklin Graham, son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, posted on Facebook that Trump was echoing his own longheld belief that Muslim immigration should be stopped until "we can properly vet them or until the war with Islam is over". The post had more than 50,000 likes on Facebook.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said he disagreed with the proposed ban but voiced support for Trump, saying the proposal was meant to gain political mileage.

"I don't think he means it. He has many Muslim friends. He has investments in Muslim countries. And at the same time he has only put this out of context just to gain some more votes," he said.

Trump defended his proposal on Tuesday, comparing his plan to ban Muslims to the US government's World War Two detainment of Japanese-Americans. He said President Franklin Roosevelt had overseen the internment of more than 110,000 people in US government camps after Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941.

BEIJING — Seeking treatment for respiratory illnesses, Beijing hospital-goers complained Wednesday that their conditions were being worsened by toxic smog, now in its third day and which prompted authorities to declare a pollution "red alert".

The capital's 21.5 million residents were besieged by levels of PM2.5 — harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs — over 300 micrograms per cubic metre, according to the US embassy, which issues independent readings.

The World Health Organisation's recommended maximum exposure is 25.

"Because of the smog, I generally tend to wear a mask indoors as well as outside, but today, I don't even dare to go out," said Yu Silong, who has been hospitalised for three days and had to quit his supermarket job to seek treatment.

"Polluted smog didn't cause my asthma, but it greatly aggravates it," he added, sitting on his bed at the Wangfu Hospital in northern Beijing, an antibiotic drip running into his arm.

Liu Yanping, whose husband had just been diagnosed with a benign throat tumour that prevented him from speaking, said: "The past few days, he's been coughing and feeling horrible."

All they could do was "close the windows and doors" of their Beijing housing, she added.

Beijing and much of the country has has been blighted by chronic air pollution for years, and the capital's red alert coincided with global climate change talks in Paris, where China is in the spotlight as the world's biggest polluter.

Most of the country's greenhouse gas emissions come from the burning of coal for electricity and heating — particularly when demand peaks in winter — and is also the main cause of smog, which can include multiple pollutants.

Gao Yongda, the head of the respiratory ward in which Yu was hospitalised, told AFP that PM2.5 penetrates into the respiratory system to cause coughing, sore throat and shortness of breath. 

"The number of patients has grown in recent years. Smog is an important factor in the aggravation of diseases," he said. 

Long-term damage was more significant, however, as PM2.5 "doesn't necessarily cause visible effects right away", he explained, adding that there would probably be "an explosion of disease cases" in five years' time or later. 

'Unfavourable conditions' 

Pollution red alerts spread to more Chinese cities, state media reported Wednesday, with officials warning that poor conditions could last until Saturday in some places.

Dingzhou and Xinji, two cities in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, followed the capital's lead to issue their first ever red alerts, the state-run China Daily reported, while 27 other cities across northern parts of the country also upgraded their public warning levels Tuesday, it said. 

More than 300 million people in the region were affected by the toxic air, it added.

"According to forecasts, from December 8 to 12, the overall conditions for the atmospheric diffusion [of smog] are unfavourable," said the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau on its official website earlier this week. 

The capital issued its first ever red alert for pollution on Monday — the highest in the four-tiered, colour-coded warning system adopted nationally, but lacking in standardisation, with regulations differing from city to city.

It has grounded half of the capital's private vehicles, ordered construction sites and certain factories shut, and recommended school closures, forcing parents to scramble for childcare options.

The chronic haze blanketing northeastern China was so thick earlier this month that, unlike the Great Wall, it could be seen from outer space, according to satellite photographs from NASA. 

WASHINGTON — A firestorm erupted Tuesday over Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States as religious leaders, the White House and his rivals on the presidential campaign roundly condemned the proposal.

The leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination made the provocative remarks — just his latest on a range of topics on the campaign trail — after last week's shooting that left 14 dead in California by a Muslim couple said to have been radicalised.

In a rare primetime speech to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday, President Barack Obama called the attack in San Bernardino an "act of terrorism" and vowed to defeat extremism, but also stressed that it was not "a war between America and Islam".

Less than 24 hours later, Trump's bombastic bid for the White House plumbed what critics called a new low and triggered calls for him to be barred from taking power after he urged a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".

In a speech late Monday, the 69-year-old billionaire real estate mogul and reality television star doubled down on his initial statement.

"We have no choice," Trump said, saying that radicals want to kill Americans. 

"It's going to get worse and worse. We're going to have more World Trade Centres," he said, referring to the deadly attacks on September 11, 2001.

His comments were condemned by the White House as "totally contrary" to American values and similarly slammed as far afield as London and Cairo, where Egypt's official religious body Dar Al Iftaa denounced them as "extremist and racist".

The strongest reaction came in the United States, including from Trump's rivals in the race to run for the White House in 2016.

Senator Lindsey Graham branded the remarks "un-American" and said Trump was only fueling radical Islam.

Trump was the "ISIL man of the year", said Graham, referring to the Daesh terror group.

"Do you know how you win this war? You side with people in the faith who reject this ideology, which is 99 per cent," Graham told CNN, before invoking Trump's campaign slogan — "make America great again".

"And do you know how you make America great again?" asked Graham, who is lagging badly in the nomination race.

"Tell Donald Trump to go to hell."

Other Republican contenders including Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, as well as Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, also rejected Trump's proposal.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, tweeted: "Declaring war on Islam or demonising Muslim Americans is not only counter to our values — it plays right into the hands of terrorists."

And Rick Kriseman, the Democratic mayor of Saint Petersburg, Florida, tweeted: "I am hereby barring Donald Trump from entering St Petersburg until we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps."

'Like lynch mob' 

Muslim leaders in the United States also hit out at Trump.

Sohaib Sultan, Muslim Life Coordinator and Chaplain at Princeton University, was scathing, drawing parallels between Trump and the radical ideology of the Daesh terror group.

"ISIS is to Islam what Donald Trump is to American values: a complete distortion of everything that we as a country and a society stand for."

He added: "I think he's clearly disqualified himself from being the president of the United States."

But Sultan also lambasted other Republicans.

"I know a lot of Republican candidates are jumping on Trump about his latest comments, but a lot of Republican candidates have really been using similar type of rhetoric throughout the election cycle as well," he told CNN.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, added: "Donald Trump sounds more like a leader of a lynch mob than a great nation like ours." 

But Trump was characteristically unrepentant Tuesday, comparing the proposed ban to "presidential proclamations" made by Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.

Asked in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" programme if his proposal went against treasured American values, he responded: "No, because FDR did it!"

But that failed to quell the firestorm, with Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who also set up the space company Blue Origin, tweeting: "Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket. #sendDonaldtospace."

The British government also weighed in.

Prime Minister David Cameron "completely disagrees" with the remarks, which are "divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong", a spokeswoman for the Conservative leader said.

In Geneva, the United Nations refugee agency — though not directly responding to Trump's remarks — warned that rhetoric in the US presidential campaign was threatening a key refugee resettlement programme in the United States.

BEIJING — Half of Beijing's private cars were ordered off the streets Tuesday and many construction sites and schools closed after authorities in China's smog-shrouded capital responded to scathing public criticism with their first-ever red alert for pollution.

A grey haze hung over the city of around 21.5 million people, with levels of PM2.5 — harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs — reaching 350 microgrammes per cubic metre according to the US embassy, which issues independent readings.

The World Health Organisation's recommended maximum exposure is 25.

The alert coincided with global climate change talks in Paris, where China is in the spotlight as the world's biggest polluter.

Most of the country's greenhouse gas emissions come from the burning of coal for electricity and heating — particularly bad when demand peaks in winter — and is also the main cause of smog, which can include multiple pollutants.

It was the first time Beijing authorities declared a "red alert" since emergency air pollution plans were introduced two years ago, although levels were far from the city's worst.

Last week it was enveloped in a toxic soup, cutting visibility severely and sending PM 2.5 levels as high as 634 microgrammes per cubic metre.

Under the alert — the highest in a four-tiered, colour-coded warning system — an odd-even number plate system bans half the city's roughly 4.4 million private vehicles from the streets on alternate days.

Outdoor construction work is barred and some industrial plants were told to cease or reduce operations, with some schools also urged to close.

The measures, while welcomed by many, created difficulties for working parents who had nowhere to send their children.

"Some parents still brought their children this morning, hoping that the teachers could at least mind them, but they had no choice but to leave them at home alone," Li Jianguo, a primary school caretaker, told AFP.

The school would be closed all week, he added.

In contrast, in India's New Delhi — the world's most polluted capital — government schools remained open, although some international schools stopped pupils going outside.

That city has no pollution alert system but has been suffering from weeks of choking smog, with PM 2.5 levels reaching 377 on Tuesday according to US embassy measurements.

Heavy smog also hit other parts of China, with state news service Xinhua blaming it for a 33-car pileup in the northern province of Shanxi, which killed six people.

On its social media feed, Beijing's environmental protection bureau posted a steady stream of comments in an attempt to demonstrate that its inspectors were working hard to ensure clean air.

Administrators said they were "dealing with" businesses that had violated the orders and had disciplined several factories, in one case with a 30,000 yuan ($4,700) fine. 

One bus manufacturer, they wrote, had reduced production from 30 vehicles a day to around six.

'Poison gas' 

Beijing's stepped up response came after city authorities were heavily criticised for only issuing an orange alert for last week's pollution.

"The red alert is a welcome sign of a different attitude from the Beijing government," said Dong Liansai, climate and energy campaigner for environmental group Greenpeace.

"However, this, the latest of a series of airpocalypses to hit Beijing, is also a firm reminder of just how much more needs to be done to ensure safe air for all."

Some social media commenters said the moves were not enough.

"Can we apply to work at home? The air in our office is totally 'poison gas'," said one poster on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter.

The decision to issue the red alert despite relatively low pollution numbers also provoked ridicule.

"Today wasn't as serious as the previous time," said one user. "How could they not issue a red alert then and issue a red alert now?"

Despite the warning, Beijing's streets remained busy as people went about their routines, with only a few donning masks to protect against the foul air.

Traffic, however, appeared lighter than usual. 

Engineer Wang Shaoang drives an electric car, which are not subject to the odd-even rule, an attempt by the government to promote the use of cleaner vehicles.

The measures imposed for the alert were good, he said, "but we need much more radical moves than this".

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama vowed Sunday that America would destroy the Daesh terror group and hunt down its followers at home or abroad, in a rare address from the Oval Office to a jittery nation.

Facing questions about his leadership and strategy, Obama harnessed the highest trappings of US power to calm a country rattled by a rampage in California that killed 14 people.

"After so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure," Obama said in a solemn speech, adding that the San Bernardino massacre was evidence of an "evolving" and increasingly homegrown threat.

As a father of two daughters, Obama said, he could imagine himself or his kin in San Bernardino or in Paris, where scores of people were killed last month in attacks claimed by Daesh.

"Here's what I want you to know," he said. "The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy Daesh and any other organisation that tries to harm us," he said.

"Our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary."

Obama urged Muslims in America and around the world to "decisively and unequivocally reject the hateful ideology that groups like Daesh and Al Qaeda promote."

He detailed a multi-pronged strategy against the extremists that will rely as much on community action, technology and countering propaganda as military force.

It is just the third time Obama has delivered an Oval Office address — used by presidents since Harry Truman to convey resolve in the face of a national crisis.

A senior administration official said the speech was designed to convey the seriousness with which Obama was taking the shootings, which are being investigated as a terror attack.

On Wednesday, US-born Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik dropped off their six-month-old daughter with her grandmother, donned tactical gear and burst into an office party full of Farook's co-workers, spraying them with bullets.

Obama said the pair "had gone down the dark path of radicalisation."

"They had stockpiled assault weapons, ammunition, and pipe bombs. So this was an act of terrorism." 

But he added that there was "no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organisation overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home."

Both shooters died in a hail of police bullets, leaving questions about how, when and why they may have become radicalised.

Daesh has praised the attackers as "soldiers" of its self-proclaimed “caliphate”, while stopping short of claiming outright credit.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, Farook's father suggested his son approved of the group's ideas and was fixated with Israel.

But several reports, citing unnamed officials, say investigators are looking into whether Malik radicalised her husband.

In Pakistan, she attended one of the country's most high-profile religious seminaries for women, according to a teacher.
Muslim allies 

Woven throughout Obama's address was a plea for unity.

"We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam," he said, facing down some of his shrillest critics who have called for a registry of Muslim-Americans.

"Daesh does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers. Part of a cult of death" he said.

"If we're to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies rather than push them away through suspicion and hate."

After two decades battling extremism, Americans appear increasingly divided on the nature of the problem and how to respond.

According to a new CNN/ORC poll, 68 percent of Americans say the US military response to Daesh State has not been aggressive enough. Conducted before the shootings, the poll also found that 60 per cent disapprove of Obama's handling of terrorism.

Republicans have demanded that Obama back a full-scale deployment of NATO ground forces to Syria and resume controversial interrogations at the Guantanamo Bay camp, which the president wants to close.

Conservatives have also taken issue with Obama's refusal to use the phrase "radical Islam" which the White House says would confer on terrorists the legitimacy of a faith they have betrayed.

"Well, Obama refused to say [he just can't say it], that we are at war with radical Islamic terrorists," Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump tweeted after the address.

Obama, elected on an anti-war platform, showed little sign of meeting his political foes in the middle as he reiterated calls for gun control and ruled out a ground intervention. 

"Our success won't depend on tough talk or abandoning our values or giving into fear." he said.

"We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq and Syria. That's what groups like ISIL want.

"They know they can't defeat us on the battlefield... but they also know that if we occupy foreign lands, they can maintain insurgencies for years, killing thousands of our troops and draining our resources, and using our presence to draw new recruits." 

CARACAS — Ecstatic opposition leaders vowed on Monday to use their new majority in Venezuela's legislature to free jailed opponents of the Socialist government but also said they would not move to dismantle popular welfare policies.

The opposition Democratic Unity coalition won more than twice the number of national assembly seats as the Socialists in elections on Sunday that punished President Nicolas Maduro's government for the country's deep economic and social crisis.

It was the first time in 16 years the "Chavismo" movement, named for former socialist president Hugo Chavez, lost its majority in the 167-member assembly, and gives the opposition a platform to further erode Maduro's power in the OPEC nation.

The 53-year-old president, who was handpicked by Chavez but lacks his charisma and political guile, quickly accepted defeat in a speech to the nation that calmed fears of violence.

Aware that victory owed more to public discontent with Maduro than love for the opposition, coalition head Jesus Torrealba urged Venezuelans to bury their differences.

"We have been divided for years and the country has won nothing with this historic mistake ... The Democratic Unity is not here to mistreat anyone," Torrealba, who was mocked by Maduro as an "evil Shrek" during the campaign, told supporters in a victory speech in the early hours of Monday.

Reiterating that an Amnesty Law will be the opposition's priority when the new assembly begins work on January 5, Torrealba promised to return the rights of "those who have been unjustly persecuted, jailed, blocked from politics or exiled".

Venezuela's best-known jailed politician is Leopoldo Lopez, sentenced to nearly 14 years on charges of promoting political violence in 2014 that killed 43 people. But the opposition has a list of what it says are more than 70 other political prisoners.

Torrealba also reassured despondent government supporters the coalition would not try to dismantle welfare programmes that were wildly popular during Chavez's 1999-2013 rule and which Maduro repeatedly warned they want to end.

With 99 seats to the Socialists' 46 in counting so far — and results not yet in for the remaining 22 seats — the opposition looks certain to reach a three-fifths majority, meaning they could in theory have ministers fired after a censure vote.

With two-thirds, they could try and shake up institutions like the courts widely viewed as pro-government.

"The sheer scale of its victory could potentially give the opposition real teeth as it tries to alter the course of government policy under Mr Maduro," said Fiona Mackie, Latin America analyst at The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Amnesty law?

Even with just a simple majority, the opposition can exercise control over the budget, begin investigations that could embarrass the government, and pass the amnesty law.

Torrealba has also said the assembly will open an investigation into the arrest of two relatives of Maduro, cousins of his wife, caught in a sting in Haiti and indicted in a New York court on charges of cocaine smuggling.

The United States, which has had an acrimonious relationship with Venezuela under both Chavez and Maduro, has long accused the Socialists of complicity in the drug trade, as well as human rights abuses.

The government calls that lies and frequently recalls US support for a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez.

A former bus driver and foreign minister who narrowly won election in 2013 after Chavez died from cancer, Maduro may face a backlash in the ruling party and from grassroots supporters who think he has betrayed his predecessor's legacy.

Though his term ends in 2019, hardline opposition leaders want to oust him in a recall referendum next year. They would require nearly 4 million signatures to force the recall vote.

"I can't see this government finishing its term because it is too weak," said opposition leader Henry Ramos, touted as a possible leader for the new assembly. "Internal frictions are beginning. They're blaming each other for this huge defeat."

Maduro, whose government has replaced Cuba as the most vocal adversary of the United States in Latin America, blamed an "economic war" waged by business leaders and other opponents out to sabotage the economy and bring him down.

"In Venezuela, a counter-revolution won, not the opposition," he said in a speech in the early hours.

"The economic war has triumphed for now."

Venezuelans have not in large bought that argument, though, blaming him for the world's highest inflation, shortages from milk to medicines, and a devalued currency that trades on the black market at nearly 150 times its strongest official rate.

Maduro's persistence with policies like complex currency controls have contributed to Venezuela's economic distortions but, unlike Chavez, he also had the misfortune to see a plunge in the price of Venezuela's only significant export, oil.

"This is Nicolas Maduro's defeat, not Chavez's," said Humberto Lopez, 57, a diehard Chavista well-known to Venezuelans for dressing like Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara at government rallies. "I'm not hugely surprised."

Underlining the unprecedented mood in Venezuela, videos circulating online seemed to show five prominent socialist politicians — including Chavez's brother Adan — being booed at voting centres on Sunday, with crowds yelling "The government will fall!" or "Thief!".

Foreign markets reacted positively, with dollar bonds rising strongly on hopes of business-friendly change.

The government's defeat was another disappointment for Latin America's bloc of left-wing governments following last month's swing to the centre-right in Argentina's presidential election.

But words of consolation came from the Venezuelan government's closest ally, Communist-run Cuba.

"I'm sure new victories for the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution will come under your leadership," President Raul Castro wrote to Maduro, referring to Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar as well as his late friend Chavez.

LONDON — British counter-terror police were questioning a 29-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder Sunday after a stabbing attack in a London Underground train station that is being treated as a "terrorist incident".

Detectives from Britain's Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) were searching a home in east London in connection with Saturday's attack at Leytonstone station, which left a 56-year-old man with serious knife injuries.

Amateur video footage of the incident showed one passer-by shouting "You're no Muslim" at the suspect as he was pinned down by officers in the ticket hall, where a pool of blood was seen on the ground.

Sky News television reported that the man "apparently shouted 'this is for Syria'", although it did not quote anyone.

Police could not confirm the report when contacted by AFP and it is not evident from video footage circulating online.

"As a result of information received at the time from people who were at the scene and subsequent investigations carried out by the CTC, I am treating this as a terrorist incident," said the police unit's chief Richard Walton.

"I would continue to urge the public to remain calm, but alert and vigilant."

Saturday's attack came at the end of a week in which the British parliament voted to extend air strikes on the Daesh terror group from Iraq into Syria.

The attack also comes less than a month after the November 13 terror attacks in Paris, claimed by Daesh, which killed 130 people.

Police said the stabbed 56-year-old man was in a stable condition in an east London hospital and his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

A second man sustained a minor injury but did not require medical assistance, while a woman was threatened by the suspect but was not injured, police said.

 'You ain't no Muslim' 

Amateur video shows a pool of blood and bloody footprints at the ticket gates of the suburban Leytonstone Tube station.

Shouts are heard as the suspect is seen remonstrating with people before swinging at one of them.

Officers shout "Drop the knife!" and fire Taser electric stun guns.

"Who is this idiot?" one onlooker says of the suspect, adding: "Yes! Stupid idiot," after the man is Tasered.

Officers shout "Put the knife down!" and "Drop it now!" at the stunned man, who does drop the short-bladed knife as he quivers on the ground.

On his front, the man is handcuffed behind his back while another officer pins him down with his knee and passers-by are told to get back.

One man then shouts at the suspect: "You ain't no Muslim, bruv! You're no Muslim, bruv! You ain't no Muslim!"

The hashtag #YouAintNoMuslimBruv was trending on Twitter on Sunday as people reacted to the news.

Salim Patel, 59, who runs the station shop, said: "I saw the guy attacking the victim, punching him so hard. The victim was screaming 'please, somebody help me. Help'.

"The attacker started kicking him on the floor. I think the victim was unconscious, he passed out. Then the attacker took a knife out and started stabbing him as he lay on the floor."

Witness Khayam told the BBC that when the suspect was taken to a police van, "I saw pedestrians shouting at him... one pedestrian tried to throw a bottle."

 Terror threat level 'severe' 

Police said they were initially alerted at 7:06pm (1906 GMT) Saturday to the "violent unprovoked knife attack".

Officers attempted to engage with the man but were threatened with violence, police said. He was arrested at 7:14pm (1914 GMT).

Britain's national terror threat level was raised in August 2014 to severe, the second-highest of five levels, meaning an attack is considered highly likely.

London's transport system was hit in July 2005 by a series of suicide bomb attacks that killed 52 people.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office said: "We are monitoring the situation closely as further details emerge."

Leytonstone station was open again Sunday, with a police officer standing guard outside.