Venezuela, Jan 27 (AP/UNB) — Nicolas Maduro's government backtracked Saturday from its order for U.S. Embassy personnel to leave Venezuela, moving to defuse tensions with Washington just hours after international diplomats traded heated rhetoric at a special U.N. Security Council meeting on the South American country's crisis.

The socialist president broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, a move that Maduro called a "vile" coup attempt.

His order gave U.S. diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration said it wouldn't obey, arguing that Maduro is no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a potential showdown at the hilltop U.S. Embassy compound Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set on Venezuela's capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduro's government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30-day window for negotiating with the Trump administration on setting up a "U.S. interests office" in Venezuela and a similar Venezuelan office in the United States. The U.S. and Cuba had a similar arrangement for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.

The State Department did not confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.

"That is true diplomacy," Maduro said after reading out the statement on national television.

Earlier in the day, critics and supporters of Maduro's government faced off at the U.N. Security Council, reflecting the world's deep divisions over Venezuela, which is mired in political confrontation as well as an economic collapse that has caused millions to flee the country.

During the debate, which was requested by the U.S., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support Guaido. He told the council it is time to back the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from what he called Maduro's "illegitimate mafia state."

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia charged that the Trump administration is trying "to engineer a coup" against Maduro. He said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security, and he accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's legitimate government of choosing "maximum confrontation," including the artificial creation of a parallel government.

Nebenzia urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesize on what the U.S. will do next."

Pompeo was accompanied to New York by Elliott Abrams, who was named a day earlier as the U.S. special representative for Venezuela. Abrams is a former assistant secretary of state for Latin America who worked at the White House when a 2002 coup in Venezuela briefly ousted Maduro's predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

On his first day on the job, Abrams met with exiled leaders of Venezuela's opposition. He also spoke by phone with Guaido, the leader of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress. Abrams reaffirmed U.S. support for Guaido as interim president, said Kimberly Breier, the current assistant secretary of state for the region.

The Security Council, the U.N.'s most powerful body, has not taken action on the Venezuelan crisis because of the divisions. The Security Council's five veto-holding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.

The leaders of two of those council nations — France and Britain — joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro, saying Saturday that they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido as president unless Venezuela calls a new presidential election within eight days.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that if there is no announcement of a new election in the next days, the 28-nation bloc "will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership."

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline.

"Europe is giving us eight days?" he asked the council. "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It's almost childlike."

Arreaza said Venezuela "will not allow anyone to impose on us any decision or order" and demanded that someone show him where in Venezuela's constitution says an individual can proclaim himself president.

Guaido says he is acting in accordance with two articles of the constitution that give the National Assembly president the right to hold power temporarily and call new elections.

While the council debated, a man identifying himself as Venezuela's military attache in Washington posted a video saying he had broken with Maduro and now would report to Guaido.

"The armed forces have a fundamental role to play in the restoration of democracy," Col. Jose Luis Silva said in the video, which he said was shot at his office in the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, sitting in front of the nation's red, blue and yellow flag.

He called on other members of the military to join him in supporting Guaido, saying they need to avoid "attacking" protesters whose only aim is to feed themselves.

Guaido celebrated Silva's decision to defect.

"We welcome him and everyone who with honesty want to follow the constitution and the will of the Venezuelan people," he said on social media after attending a small assembly in Caracas to discuss the opposition's next moves.

Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for U.S. National Security Council, encouraged others to follow Silva's lead "to protect constitutional order, not to sustain dictators and repress its own people."

Venezuela's top commanders have pledged loyalty to Maduro's government in the days since Guaido declared himself interim leader on grounds that Maduro's re-election last year was fraudulent — an allegation supported by the U.S., the European Union and many Latin American nations.

But support for Maduro's rule is weaker among the military's rank and file, whose households are suffering from widespread food shortages and hyperinflation like their civilian counterparts. Last week, a small National Guard unit stole a stockpile of weapons in what it said was an attempt to oust Maduro. The uprising was quelled and 25 guardsmen arrested.

The standoff could set the scene for more violence and has plunged troubled Venezuela into a new chapter of political turmoil that rights groups say has already left more than two dozen dead as thousands take to the street demanding Maduro step down.

It also threatens to worsen the country's economic crisis, as directives sent Friday by the State Department to the Federal Reserve will make it harder for Maduro to gain access to the government's sizable overseas assets, including revenue from oil sales and profits by Houston-based Citgo, a unit of the state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

Serbia, Jan 27 (AP/UNB) — Several thousand people have marched through snow-covered streets in Serbia's capital to protest the populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic for an eighth week.

The protesters accuse Vucic of stifling hard-won democratic freedoms in the Balkan country that was involved in a series of wars during the 1990s. He denies the accusation.

Braving freezing temperatures, the president's critics blocked traffic in the center of Belgrade as they marched by the state TV building and toward the government headquarters on Saturday.

The organizers want Vucic to ease what they say is a tight grip on Serbian media. He is a former extreme nationalist who now says he wants Serbia to join the European Union.

The protests started after thugs beat up an opposition politician in November.

Philippines (AP) —The death toll in the bombing of a cathedral on a southern Philippine island has risen to 27 with 77 others wounded.

According to the latest tally provided by regional police, the dead included 20 civilians and seven troops. The wounded included 14 troops, two police and 61 civilians.

Security officials say the first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral during Sunday Mass, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack.

The government says in a statement it will pursue the attackers "until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy."

Jolo Island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

The Philippine government says it will "pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators" behind bomb attacks that killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens during a Sunday Mass at a cathedral on a restive southern island.

Security officials say the first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral during Mass, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were arriving in the area.

The government says in a statement it will pursue the attackers "until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy."

It says authorities are now investigating the attacks.

Jolo Island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

The Philippine national police chief says two bombs that exploded during a Sunday Mass at a cathedral on southern Jolo Island have killed at least 19 people and wounded nearly 50.

Oscar Albayalde gave the latest casualty figures as military and police are responding to the blasts targeting the Jolo cathedral.

Security officials say the first bomb went off in or near the cathedral during Mass, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were arriving in the area.

Jolo Island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

Philippine officials say two bombs have exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least eight people.

Security officials say the first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral during a Sunday Mass, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack.

Police and military reports say at least eight people died, including five troops and three civilians. At least one civilian has been wounded.

Jolo Island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility.

United Nations, Jan 26 (AP/UNB) — The U.N. system's chief scientist on weather and climate warned Friday that climate change has "a multitude of security impacts" and is increasingly regarded as a national security threat — with global warming records broken in 20 of the last 22 years.

The Maldives' foreign minister, Abdulla Shahid, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on "the impacts of climate-related disasters on international peace and security" that there is no bigger security threat than climate change which endangers the Indian Ocean island nation's very existence.

But the acting U.S. ambassador, Jonathan Cohen, never even mentioned the words "climate change" or "security" in his council speech. And Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia objected strongly to discussing climate change in the Security Council, saying it is not a threat to international peace and security and should only be discussed in specific cases where it is a risk factor.

More than 80 of the 193 U.N. member states spoke at the day-long council meeting and virtually everyone except the United States agreed that climate change was happening.

Russia's Nebenzia said it should be discussed elsewhere in the U.N. system by experts, but the U.S.' Cohen spoke only of "natural disasters" like hurricanes and floods that "frequently lead to breakdowns in social order and spikes in crime, violence and instability."

Professor Pavel Kabat, chief scientist of the World Meteorological Organization, recalled that the first warnings of the world's changing climate were issued at its First World Climate Conference in 1979. And he began his speech saying this week's World Economic Forum in Davos ranked extreme weather, natural disasters, climate change and water crises as the top four existential threats in its new Global Risks Report 2019.

Kabat said the global average greenhouse gas concentrations of carbon dioxide — which causes global warming — continued rising to record levels in 2018-2019.

"The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of carbon dioxide was 3-5 million years ago, when the temperature was 2-3 degrees Celsius warmer and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than now," Kabat said.

In December, countries agreed on a set of rules to ensure that the target set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) is met. At the talks in Poland, many countries wanted to formally back a more ambitious temperature goal of 1.5 C (2.7 F) which scientists say is safer, but opposition from countries including the United States delayed any change.

Kabat, the first representative of the World Meteorological Organization ever to address the Security Council, said the global average temperature is already nearly 1 degree Celsius (1.8 F) above the pre-industrial era and posing threats.

Rosemary DiCarlo, U.N. undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, told the council that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report in October predicting more heat waves, heavier rain events, higher sea levels and severe damage to agriculture represents "a security risk for the entire world."

But she said "their consequences are felt most strongly in regions that are already vulnerable, where climate change and extreme weather compound existing grievances and threats." As examples, she pointed to the impact of hurricanes on small islands in the Caribbean and tensions between herders and farmers in Africa's Sahel region fueled by climate change and competition for land, forage and water.

The Maldives' Shahid recalled speaking at the Security Council at its first-ever debate on the impact of climate change on peace and security on April 17, 2007.

"I reminded the council on that day that climate change is not only an everyday fact of life for the Maldivians, but an existential threat," he said. "I reminded the council that a mean sea-level rise of two meters would suffice to virtually submerge the entire Maldives under water. That would indeed be the death of a nation."

Twelve years later, Shahid said, "I am still repeating the same message" and "prospects for our future are far worse than we ever imagined."

"While we are still busy trying to decide which form of the United Nations must address which aspect of climate change, our lakes are drying up, depriving fresh water to tens of millions of people. Unseasonal droughts are leaving millions of people homeless. Hunger and displacement are leading to conflicts, and entire nations are sinking under water," Shahid said.

"What is a bigger security threat to us than this?" he asked.

Washington, Jan 25 (AP/UNB) — A prominent American-born anchorwoman for Iran's state television says she believes the U.S. government jailed her because of her work as journalist and her beliefs, and as a warning to her to "watch your step."

Marzieh Hashemi spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after being released from custody. She was not charged with a crime but was detained for 10 days as a material witness in a grand jury investigation in Washington. Details of the investigation are under seal, and Hashemi said she could not provide details. But she said it is not related to terrorism and has to do with her job and the fact that she lives in Iran.

Hashemi said her arrest was unnecessary because she would have voluntarily appeared for questioning and would have complied with a federal subpoena.

"I'm not sure what the meaning of 'Make America Great Again' is, but if it means just basically taking away human rights more and more every day, that doesn't seem to be a very great America to me," she said, in a reference to President Donald Trump's campaign slogan.

Responding to a request for comment, the Justice Department noted that federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be detained if the government can "demonstrate probable cause to believe that the witness can provide material evidence, and that it will be impracticable to secure the witness's attendance at the proceedings by means of a subpoena."

The Justice Department had previously released two unsealed court orders. One confirmed that she was a material witness and the second confirmed she had been released.

Arrests of material witnesses occur infrequently, but the length of Hashemi's detention wasn't unusual for a material witness.

The case comes at a time of heightened U.S.-Iran tensions over President Donald Trump's withdrawal from a nuclear deal and criticism against Iran over its arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties. Iranian officials decried her arrest as part of what they called the "apartheid and racist policy" of the Trump administration.

Hashemi, 59, who works for the Press TV network's English-language service, is a U.S. citizen and was born Melanie Franklin. She lives in Tehran and returns to the United States about once a year to see her family and work on documentaries.

In the interview, Hashemi gave her first detailed account yet of her arrest. She was waiting to board a plane with her son in St. Louis, Missouri, on Jan. 13 after filming a Black Lives Matter documentary when she heard her name called. Hashemi went to the gate and was told she had been selected for pre-boarding, she said. As she was walking down a jet bridge with her son, she was stopped by two FBI agents who her she had to come with them, she told the AP.

She said an agent told her, "You're under arrest in connection with some investigation.'"

Hashemi was brought to a hotel in St. Louis and held overnight before being flown to Washington. When she arrived at an FBI facility there, she was fingerprinted and forced to provide a DNA sample, she said.

The next day, she appeared before a judge and was told she was being held as a material witness. Prosecutors argued they needed to take the drastic measure because Hashemi was a flight risk, she said.

"I said, 'I'm not running away from anything because I haven't done anything,'" Hashemi recalled. "You had no basis to say I was a flight risk."

Hashemi said she believes she was detained "because of my belief system, because of who I am."

"I am a firm believer in truth and speaking out the truth. I believe in adding a voice to the voiceless, and there are times that this, of course, will contradict the policies of the powers that be. That's a big part of it," she said.

Hashemi appeared before a judge four times and was questioned by prosecutors before the grand jury on three occasions, according to court documents. She said prosecutors appeared to only have "circumstantial" evidence in the case and did not have "anything of any concrete importance."

At the Washington jail, Hashemi said she was forced to remove her hijab, despite objecting because of her religious beliefs. She was offered a white T-shirt to put on her head. As she was led down a hallway in a facility that houses both male and female inmates, she was told by officers that she could not wear the shirt to cover her head and could only wear it once she arrived at her cell, she said. For several days, her religious dietary restrictions were also not met, she said.

A spokeswoman for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Three of Hashemi's children were also subpoenaed to the grand jury, though only one was compelled to provide testimony. Prosecutors also threatened to charge Hashemi if she did not cooperate with their investigation, she said.

"This is not the United States that we want. This is not what we believe in," she said.

She also decried the federal material witness statute and will participate in a demonstration Friday protesting what opponents see as an arcane and unfair law.

A 2012 report by the Justice Department's inspector general identified 112 cases in which material witnesses were detained from 2000 until 2012. In those cases, the median period of time the witnesses were detained was 26 days.

"If we allow it, if we turn a blind eye to it, believe me, it will come back to haunt us, and I don't think most Americans want the country to go in that direction," she said.