House of Cards: Robin Wright to play lead in season 6 after Spacey exit

The final season of Netflix’s political drama “House of Cards” will focus on Robin Wright’s first female president character and will start production in 2018, following a hiatus after the exit of star Kevin Spacey, the company said on Monday.

Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told the UBS 45th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York that the sixth season would be shortened to eight episodes instead of the usual 13.

Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) severed ties in November with Spacey, one of its biggest stars who played fictional U.S. president Frank Underwood in “House of Cards,” after accusations of sexual misconduct against the Oscar-winning actor.

Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told the UBS 45th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York that the sixth season would be shortened to eight episodes instead of the usual 13.

Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) severed ties in November with Spacey, one of its biggest stars who played fictional U.S. president Frank Underwood in “House of Cards,” after accusations of sexual misconduct against the Oscar-winning actor.
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US SC hands Trump a win, lets his latest travel ban go into full effect

The US Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to President Donald Trump by allowing his latest travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries to go into full effect even as legal challenges continue in lower courts.

The nine-member court, with two liberal justices dissenting, granted his administration’s request to lift two injunctions imposed by lower courts that had partially blocked the ban, which is the third version of a contentious policy that Trump first sought to implement a week after taking office in January.

The high court’s action means that the ban will now go fully into effect for people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen seeking to enter the United States. The Republican president has said the travel ban is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Islamic militants.

In a statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the Supreme Court’s action “a substantial victory for the safety and security of the American people.” Sessions said the Trump administration was heartened that a clear majority of the justices “allowed the president’s lawful proclamation protecting our country’s national security to go into full effect.”
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Yemen's Ex-President Saleh killed after switching sides in civil war

Veteran former president Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed in a roadside attack on Monday after switching sides in Yemen’s civil war, abandoning his Iran-aligned Houthi allies in favour of a Saudi-led coalition, foes and supporters said.

Analysts said Saleh’s death would be a huge moral boost for the Houthis and a serious blow to the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in the conflict to try to restore the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Any hope within the coalition that Saleh could have been bought off to help turn the tables against the Houthis after a protracted stalemate, in which a Saudi-led blockade and internal fighting have exposed millions to hunger and an epidemic, has been dashed.

The coalition will either have to continue waging a grinding war, possibly trying big offensives against Houthi-held areas at the risk of high civilian casualties, or offer compromises to bring the Houthis to the negotiating table.

Sources in the Houthi militia said its fighters had stopped Saleh’s armoured vehicle with an RPG rocket south of the embattled capital Sanaa and then shot him dead. Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) party, in a statement on its website, mourned its leader.
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US SC allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban on 6 Muslim countries

The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries.

The justices, with two dissenting votes, said that the policy can take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts. The action suggests the high court could uphold the latest version of the ban that Trump announced in September.

The ban applies to travellers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Lower courts had said people from those nations with a claim of a "bona fide" relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have left the lower court orders in place.

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals and the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, will be holding arguments on the legality of the ban this week.

Both courts are dealing with the issue on an accelerated basis, and the Supreme Court noted it expects those courts to reach decisions "with appropriate dispatch."

Quick resolution by appellate courts would allow the Supreme Court to hear and decide the issue this term, by the end of June.
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10 arrested in Malta over investigative journalist's murder

Ten people have been arrested in Malta over the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Prime Minister said on Monday.

Galizia, who was a relentless critic of corruption and organised crime in the country, died in October in a powerful car bomb blast yards from her home.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in an early morning press conference that there was "reasonable suspicion" that the arrested individuals were involved in the murder.

The police have 48 hours to question the suspects and decide whether to prosecute or release them. At least eight of the suspects were Maltese citizens, the Guardian reported.

The arrests followed an operation that lasted several weeks and involved police, the armed forces and security services assisted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the European Police Office.

"I would like to emphasize the commitment of the state and my own personal commitment to bringing the persons who may have commissioned and or executed this crime to justice," Muscat said.
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Chabahar: China hopes port launch conducive to regional peace

China today hoped that the launch of the strategic Chabahar port in Iran which enables India to directly trade with Afghanistan besides rivalling Pakistan's Gwadar port is conducive to regional peace and stability.

The first phase of the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman coast was inaugurated yesterday by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan while bypassing Pakistan, and reflecting growing convergence of interests among the three countries.

The port in Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich nation's southern coast is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar port, which is being developed with Chinese investment and is located around 80 kms from Chabahar.

Asked how China views the launch of the project, considering that China is investing heavily in Gwadar as part of the USD 50 billion ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang declined to comment on it directly.

"As for the (Chabahar) port, I want to give you a principled answer. We welcome the development of friendly relations between the regional countries and conduct mutually beneficial cooperation," he said.
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Wall Street cheers Senate's approval of tax bill; Dow up 200 pts

Wall Street indexes surged on Monday after the U.S. Senate passed its version of a tax code overhaul, bringing the Republicans closer to implementing corporate tax cuts.

Some of the biggest gainers included bank and industrial stocks. Bank of America and JPMorgan rose more than 3 percent, while Caterpillar and Boeing gained about 2 percent.

"This is a positive reaction to the Senate's passage," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.

The Senate on Saturday approved their version of tax bill in a narrow 51-49 vote. The Senate and the House of Representatives will have to settle differences in their respective versions before it becomes a law.

"That (reconciliation) can be a bit of a challenge because there are differences and the number of approvals to pass it is a little bit higher than it was for the individual two sides of the Congress," said Frederick.

The S&P 500 has risen about 18 percent this year on strong corporate earnings and solid economic growth and also on hopes that Trump's agenda of corporate tax cuts and looser regulations could come through.
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