Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese president visited Nasa’s space centre in Houston on Sunday, in a move that indicates deepening ties between Taipei and Washington, but which is expected to infuriate Beijing. 

The trip to the Johnson Space Centre in Texas marks the first time a sitting leader from the self-ruling island has entered a US federal building in an official capacity, although her presence in Houston and in Los Angeles a week earlier were only brief stopovers en route to Paraguay and Belize. 

But even short transit stops on US soil have traditionally provoked a sharp response from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and has tried to undermine its sovereignty and stepped up pressure on the international community to exclude Taipei from global forums. 

Taiwan’s population of 23 million meanwhile operates like any other democratic nation with its own government, currency, military and foreign policy and the majority of citizens identify as Taiwanese.

Only 18 countries, mainly small Pacific islands and Central American nations, have formal ties with the Taiwanese government, however. 

The US has not officially recognised Taiwan since 1979, when it shifted its recognition to China’s communist government and imposed restrictions on visiting senior Taiwanese officials to keep Beijing on side. 

Ms Tsai’s transit is the first stopover for the Taiwanese president since the US Congress unanimously passed the Taiwan Travel Act earlier this year, allowing US government figures up to cabinet-level security officials to travel to the island and high-level officials from Taiwan to enter the US.

Previously US policy did not permit bilateral visits by Cabinet-level officials. But behind-the-scenes, democratic Taiwan has long had influential allies in Washington’s corridors of power, with high profile legislators giving a nod to its strategic importance to America’s interests in the Pacific region. 

During her earlier stop in Los Angeles, Ms Tsai met with three senior US politicians, including California Representative Brad Sherman, who called for the president herself to be granted a trip to Washington, reported Politico. 

“I want to see one of the highest level” of visits between the US and Taiwan and that is to “welcome you [Tsai Ing-wen] in Washington DC,” he said. 

Ed Royce, the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, who also met with President Tsai, praised the “many positive developments in the US-Taiwan relationship this year.”

He added: “By encouraging more frequent visits between our two peoples and governments, we further strengthen the critical US-Taiwan partnership.” 

Washington has recently called attention to its positive relations with Taiwan amid soaring tensions with China over trade and Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. 

“We’ll never know for sure if this [visit] is because of the Taiwan Travel Act or if it would have happened anyway because the Trump administration, as well as Congress, is filled with very enthusiastic supporters of US-Taiwan relations,” said Ross Feingold, a Taipei-based lawyer and political analyst.

“It’s good that President Tsai was welcomed to visit this facility. Does it change what was already a positive trajectory of US-Taiwan relations? Probably not.”

China would likely react with the “same style of anger and public statements that we have seen throughout any kind of stopover by the Taiwan president,” he told The Telegraph. 

“The fact that it was a federal building doesn’t make it unprecedented if China was to do something like cancel bilateral scientific meetings,” he said. 

Regardless of ongoing tensions with Beijing, Taiwan’s government was clearly thrilled by the invitation to Nasa.

“#Houston, we’ve to a president! Couldn’t be more proud. @iingwen is the 1st leader of #Taiwan to tour @NASA_Johnson during a #US stopover. Thanks @Astro_Ellen for helping realize this milestone moment,” tweeted Joseph Wu, the foreign minister. 

President Tsai also took to Twitter to express her gratitude. “Before we take off, I want to thank everyone involved for making my #Houston stopover a wonderful one filled with good memories. My administration will continue strengthening every aspect of #Taiwan-US relations. Until next time!”

Two thieves who stole an antique diamond and ruby-studded solid gold lunch box worth over £2million from a museum in southern India ate like royalty out of it for days before being arrested earlier this week, police have said.

The men would order takeaways, empty the food into the majestic three tier-lunchbox that they had pilfered from the Nizam Museum in Hyderabad on 2 September, and "savour each meal they consumed", according to officials.

“The duo confessed to having food from the golden box several times” Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said after arresting the two robbers on Tuesday.

Besides the lunch box, police also recovered a golden teacup and saucer studded with rubies and emeralds and a golden spoon, which have a combined worth of £4.5million, that were also stolen from the museum.

The relics belonged to the former Nizam or ruler of Hyderabad state – he was considered one of the world’s richest men in the early 20^th century.

His fabled wealth included the famous Jacob diamond, which is the size of a hen’s egg, and a string of rare grey pearls as well as numerous other pieces of exquisite jewellery and precious objects, many of which have been on public display at Hyderabad’s Nizam Museum since 2000.

Police said that two men initially visited the museum premises last month, checking out the CCTVs and display cupboards, before breaking into the building via one of 28 ventilator shafts.

After gathering the lunch box and the two other objects, the burglars were about to carry away a gold-coated handwritten copy of the Quran, when they heard the early morning call for Muslim prayers and decided against it, police said.

The two men then fled to the western port city of Mumbai, hoping to find a buyer for their booty, and checked into a five-star hotel where they lived in luxury for some days, eating most of their meals from the magnificent lunch box.

But unable to find a buyer they returned to Hyderabad where the police, having meticulously examined footage from each of the museum’s 32 CCTV cameras, had gathered vital clues and proceeded to arrest them.

Police said one of the two arrested thieves is a 25-year old professional mason who is wanted for some 26 other robberies.     

Meanwhile, according to some local accounts Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, the original owner of the gold lunch box, is believed to have never ever eaten out of it even once

At least one person has been killed and dozens have been arrested in Uganda as the government intensified its crackdown on opposition supporters on Monday.

Police fired tear gas and opened fire on demonstrators in several locations around the country who were protesting the alleged beating of detained opposition MP and musician Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine.

One person was shot and killed and five others were injured when police opened fire on a minibus during one of the protests, a police spokesman said.

The east African nation has been roiled by political tensions after Mr Kyagulanyi and other MPs were arrested last week during a local election campaign in the northern town of Arua, when the convoy of President Yoweri Museveni was pelted with stones.

The unusual wave of violence in the normally quiet Ugandan capital is a sign that Mr Museveni is tightening his grip, observers say, as the president takes aim at the wildly popular Afro-beat musician and politician who many Ugandans believe poses a threat to the leader’s long-term ambitions. 

One of Mr Kyagulanyi’s drivers was killed in the fray, and the MP has since been charged with illegally possessing fire arms and ammunition.

Mr Kyagulanyi’s lawyer has said that his client has been tortured in detention and has suffered multiple injuries, claims that the president has called “fake news.”

Mr Museveni said on Sunday that he had personally checked with army doctors and that Mr Kyagulanyi was not injured.

He said that “violence, threats and intimidation” in elections “will not be tolerated,” in a subsequent statement on Monday, and that the action security forces took against Mr Kyagulanyi and his supporters last week was necessary.

“If the Army had not intervened in Arua, a lot of people would have been killed by this Bobi Wine group. They had gathered stones, knives and there were reports of even guns,” he said.

Mr Musveni, who has been in power since 1986, is one of Africa’s long-ruling heads of state.

In 2005 he amended the constitution to remove presidential term limits, and at the end of last year he signed a bill eradicating the country’s 75-year-old presidential age limit, paving he way for the 74-year-old to run again in presidential elections slated for 2021. Civil rights groups and opposition politicians vehemently have been critical of the move.

Uganda won its independence from British colonial rule in 1962.

A knife attacker on Friday stabbed two people at Amsterdam’s Central Station before being shot by police in a suspected terror attack, Dutch police said.

The suspect was identified late on Friday evening as a 19-year-old Afghan man with a German residency permit.

"We are seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive," Frans Zuiderhoek, Amsterdam police spokesman, told AFP.

Witnesses described scenes of panic earlier as gunshots sounded and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus shortly after midday.

"Around 12.10 a man in the west side tunnel of Amsterdam Central Station stabbed two other people and directly after that he was shot by the police," another police spokesman Rob van der Veen said, adding terrorism was not being ruled out by investigators.

"The two people are very badly injured, and they were brought to the hospital," he said.

"We are looking at all scenarios, also the worst scenario, which is terrorism."

One witness said he saw a young man "stumble" into his flower shop at the station with a bleeding wound to his hand.

"Shortly afterwards I heard some shots and I know something has gone badly wrong," Richard Snelders told the ANP news agency. A while later he saw another man lying on the ground nearby, he said.

"The first thing that comes up in your mind is that it’s a terror attack. After all, you are at Amsterdam Central Station. There was a lot of panic," Snelders said.

Police quickly arrived at the scene with video images showing police ordering the suspect in English to "stay down" after he had been shot.

"It happened really quickly," Mr Snelders said.

Images posted on social media showed security guards ushering passengers towards exits and paramedics arriving at the scene with stretchers.

Mr Zuiderhoek said the knifeman’s condition was not life-threatening, but that he had been shot in the lower body.

"At this moment he is under police custody in hospital. He is being questioned about his motive," Mr Zuiderhoek added.

Dutch police were also in close contact with their German counterparts in regards to the suspect’s background, he added.

Initially, police said that the station – located in the Dutch capital’s historic canal-ringed city centre – had been evacuated and closed off to all rail traffic.

However, police shortly afterwards issued an update to say there was "no talk" of a complete evacuation and that only two platforms had been closed off to passengers.

A special police department opened a routine probe into why police shot the man.

The Netherlands has so far been spared from the spate of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years.

But amid reports that people linked to those attacks may have crossed into the country, senior Dutch security and intelligence officials have warned of an elevated risk.

Police declined to speculate on the reasons for Friday’s incident, but the Afghan Taliban in a statement Thursday called for attacks on Dutch troops following plans by Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders to stage a Prophet Mohammed cartoon competition in the Dutch parliament.

The plan angered Muslims and sparked protests before Mr Wilders, who received several death threats, announced he was cancelling the competition, saying he wanted to "avoid the risk of making people victims of Islamist violence".

About 250,000 people travel through Central Station every day, according to statistics provided by the Amsterdam.info travel guide.

A former adviser to Donald Trump, whose remarks in a London pub set off the investigation into possible collusion with Russia, has been jailed for 14 days after lying to the FBI.

George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty last year to not being truthful with agents investigating whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia before the 2016 election.

At his sentencing on Friday he told a court in Washington: "In January 2017, I made a terrible mistake for which I paid dearly, I am ashamed. I was young and ambitious.

Russia investigation timeline: Every step in Robert Mueller's probe of Trump campaign alleged collusion

Papadopoulos had cooperated for more than a year with the probe being led by special counsel Robert Mueller in to possible collusion.

During the election he  was a foreign policy adviser to Mr Trump, and relayed to the campaign that he had been told by a Maltese academic, Joseph Mifsud, that the Russians had "dirt" on Hilary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.

Papadopoulos also suggested to the Trump campaign that he could set up a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

US authorities were alerted in mid-2016 after Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat, during a drinking session in a London pub, about his meetings with Professor Mifsud.

The diplomat told US investigators, but Papadopoulos then lied and said his contact with the professor happened before he joined the campaign.

US District Judge Randolph Moss, sentencing, noted that he "lied in an investigation that was important to national security."

The judge said he took into consideration Papadopoulos’s "genuine remorse" in issuing the light sentence, which included a $9,500 fine, a year on parole and community service.

By lying to investigators, Papadopoulos had made "a calculated exercise of self-interest over the national interest," said the judge.

In cooperating with Mr Mueller’s investigation Papadopoulos has said that senior Trump campaign members encouraged him during 2016 to build ties with Russia.

Out of the 35 people and entities so far charged in the probe Papadopoulos is one of five who have pleaded guilty, and the second to be sentenced.

Mr Trump has regularly lashed out against the sprawling investigation, which he dubs a "witch hunt" driven by his Democrat enemies.

Papdopoulos’s lawyer Tom Breen said "the President of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever did".

Papadopoulos, from Chicago, was a petroleum analyst based in London when he joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 as one of a handful of members of the Republican candidate’s national security and foreign policy advisory board.

Within weeks he had made contact with Prof Mifsud, who introduced him to others including a woman who claimed to be Mr Putin’s niece.

At the end of March 2016 Papadopoulos told Mr Trump, then-senator and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and members of the national security team at their first meeting in Washington, that he had connections in London who could set up a Trump-Putin meeting ahead of the November election.

"While some in the room rebuffed the offer Mr Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," Papadopoulos later claimed in a statement to a court.

The number of people infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has topped 100 – including 63 who have died, the World Health Organization said on Friday. 

The ongoing outbreak which has affected 103 people is largely focused in the east of the country in the province of North Kivu where a number militant groups currently operate.

Now, a case of the disease has been discovered in a doctor in the town of Oicho in North Kivu, 30 kilometres east of the trading city of Beni, raising concerns that more cases could be discovered in the area.

Although Oicho is designated by the UN as a security "yellow zone" which means that armed attacks are unlikely, the UN considers the road to Oicha to be a highly insecure "red zone". 

"It is the first time we have a confirmed case and contacts in an area of high insecurity. It is really the problem we were anticipating and at same time dreading," said Dr Peter Salama, WHO’s deputy director-general for emergency preparedness and response.

Oicha is almost entirely surrounded by ADF Islamist militia and can only be accessed with an armed military escort. 

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Despite the challenging security situation, the WHO and the Ministry of Health have made the perilous journey to Oicha and have identified ninety-seven contacts of the doctor who are being inoculated using an experimental vaccine against Ebola. 

Although the WHO has a system of alerts in place in the region to try and pick up any cases of the disease as quickly as possible, it did not rule out that cases in "red zones" such as Oicha could be missed. 

"They’re blind spots because in many of these areas due to the conflict there are no health facilities functioning and very few health workers still operating, so there’s really no platform for surveillance and picking up cases", said Dr Salama.

He added that although it was unlikely the WHO were missing a large cluster of cases in one of these blind spots, small number of cases could be missed or picked up later. 

Last week, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of the severity of the outbreak given the security challenge in North Kivu. 

“This is a very dangerous outbreak,” he said. “What makes the outbreak in eastern DRC or northern Kivu more dangerous is there is a security challenge – there is active conflict in that area.”

Some 100 armed groups are active in North Kivu, which has seen over 120 violent incidents since January. Lack of access to the zones of active conflict makes finding, isolating and treating potential cases very difficult for both local and international responders.

Another issue complicating the current response is the relatively high number of health care workers who have been infected. 

FAQ | Ebola

"The other critical part of the response… is the issue of how healthcare facilities and healthcare workers seem to be driving the epidemiology of this response and particularly its amplification. We now have 14 healthcare workers with confirmed or probable infections, one death among healthcare workers and a part of our work really has been to ensure protection for the healthcare workers," said Dr Salama. 

He added: "We are at quite a pivotal moment in this outbreak in the terms of the evolution of the outbreak epidemiologically and in terms of the response. We are truly at the crossroads."

"Due to the trajectory of the initial set of cases and the likely amplification from healthcare facilities we are very likely to continue to see at least one additional wave of cases moving forward and we know from that particular incident now in Oicha that we are going to have to operate in some very complex environments due to security and access concerns,"  he said. 

More than 80 per cent of cases and deaths so far have been in or within a 20 to 30 kilometre radius of the village of Mangina – in areas accessible to international and local health responders.

The WHO has mounted a so-called "ring" vaccination campaign to vaccinate the contacts and contacts of contacts of people infected with the disease. Among the priority to receive the vaccines have been healthcare workers in areas where the disease have been detected. 

Are we prepared for the next Ebola-scale epidemic?

So far, 2,900 people – including 500 healthcare workers – have received the vaccine including people in 21 "rings" around the 40 most recent cases.

As part of the effort to fight the current outbreak, five experimental drugs to treat patients have also been approved under "compassionate use" grounds.

Two of these – mAb114, which was developed by the United States National Institutes of Health using the antibodies of an Ebola survivor from 1995 and remdesivir, developed by pharmaceutical company, Gilead have been used so far in the current outbreak. 

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Seven people were killed in New Mexico on Thursday after a Greyhound passenger bus collided head-on with a semi-trailer truck that jumped a highway median strip, state police said.

A tire blew out on the eastbound truck, which jumped the grass median to hit the bus travelling in the opposite direction, police officer Ray Wilson told a news conference.

The bus was carrying 49 passengers, a Greyhound spokeswoman said. It collided with the truck around 12 pm on Interstate 40 near the city of Thoreau, about 100 miles west of Albuquerque, the state police said.

All but six of those on the bus were taken to nearby hospitals, said Wilson, adding that their injuries were minor and treated at the site. Injuries to the driver of the semi-trailer truck were not life threatening, state police said.

Greyhound Lines spokeswoman Crystal Booker said the bus was headed from Albuquerque to Phoenix, but deferred comment on the crash to the state police.

The National Transportation Safety Board said a team of its investigators would arrive on the scene early on Friday.

Investigators were uncertain of the truck’s cargo, but Wilson said: "There are a lot of vegetables" at the crash site. He did not know if speed was a contributing factor to the crash.

Eric Huff was heading to the Grand Canyon with his girlfriend when they came across the crash.

Huff said the semi’s trailer was upside down and "shredded to pieces," and the front of the Greyhound bus was smashed, with many of the seats pressed together. Part of the side of the bus was torn off, he said.

"It was an awe-inspiring terrible scene," he said.

Truck driver Santos Soto III shot video showing the front of the Greyhound sheared off and the semi split open, with its contents strewn across the highway.

He saw people sobbing on the side of the road as bystanders tried to comfort them.

"I was really traumatised myself, because I’ve been driving about two years and I had never seen anything like that before," Soto said.

"I’m a pretty strong person and I broke down and cried for at least 30 minutes," he added.

Gallup Indian Health Services received 37 of the injured, said Jennifer Buschick, a spokeswoman for the Gallup hospital. Six people with injuries too severe to be treated there were stabilised and taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.

Three of the six taken to UNMH were in critical condition but the condition of the rest had not been released, said spokeswoman Cindy Foster.