Tradisional Sabah Borneo

Last month's inter-Korean crisis was triggered by landmine blasts that maimed two South Korean soldiers on patrol along the border with the North. A deal to de-escalate was reached last week.

"We need to make sure that North Koreans always understand that any provocation with them will be dealt with, and they stand no chance of defeating us and our allies in South Korea," Carter told troops in a televised broadcast.

Carter referred to the latest tensions as a "dust-up," and said they showed how quickly things could go awry.

"Korea is one of these places that is a tinder box," he said. "It's probably the single place in the world where war could erupt at the snap of our fingers."The US military has played a key role on the Korean Peninsula since the end of the 1950-1953 war. Close to 30,000 US troops are permanently stationed in South Korea.

Seoul blamed Pyongyang for the latest crisis and responded to the landmine blasts by switching on banks of giant speakers and blasting propaganda messages into North Korea.

The North denied any involvement and threatened to attack the propaganda units as cross-border military tensions soared. Those broadcasts were stopped under the deal.

AFP

Around 1,000 people waved tickets, clapping, booing and shouting "Germany! Germany!" outside the station. Later they sat down, staring at a police blockade erected at the entrance.

"Please, we are human too," said a sign in German held up by a young boy in a smaller group which protested into the evening.

A refugee crisis rivalling the Balkan wars of the 1990s as Europe's worst since World War Two has polarised and confounded the European Union, which has no mechanism to cope with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of poor and desperate people.

Germany is likely to accept by far the largest share. In the case of those fleeing the Syrian civil war it has effectively suspended an EU rule that asylum seekers must apply in the first EU country they reach.

But with trainloads of migrants rolling into Munich and Rosenheim from Austria and Hungary, it insisted on Tuesday that the rule was nevertheless still in force and urged other EU countries to abide by it.

The vast majority of refugees fleeing violence and other migrants escaping poverty arrive on Europe's southern and eastern edges but are determined to press on and seek asylum in richer countries further north and west. That means illegally crossing a bloc with no internal border controls to stop them.

Hungary has emerged as one of the main flashpoints of the crisis as the primary gateway for migrants travelling over land through the Balkans and into the EU.

Officials shut the Budapest train station altogether on Tuesday, then reopened it but barred entry to migrants. The decision was a reversal from Monday, when Hungary and Austria let trainloads of undocumented migrants head for Germany.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the closure was an attempt to enforce EU law. The presence of about 2,000 people camped out in 40 degree-Celsius (104-Fahrenheit) heat in the square next to the station showed how hard that would be.

"We are thousands here, where should we go?" said Marah, a 20 year-old woman from Aleppo, Syria, who said her family had bought tickets for a Vienna-bound train.

European laws, known as the "Dublin rules", require asylum seekers to apply in the country where they enter the EU and stay there until their applications are processed, even though 26 members of the bloc have no border controls between them.

The countries where most first enter the European Union - Italy, Greece and Hungary - say they have no capacity to process applications on such a scale.

Germany announced last month it would allow Syrians arriving from elsewhere in the EU to apply for asylum without being sent back to the country where they entered the bloc.

"The decision, driven by practical considerations ... not, in most cases, to enforce the sending back of Syrian asylum seekers to other EU member states underlines the humanitarian responsibility of Germany for these particularly hard hit refugees," a German Interior Ministry Spokesman said.Germany has not suspended Dublin. Dublin rules are still valid and we expect European member states to stick to them."

WHERE SHOULD WE GO?

European leaders want the 28-member EU to do more to organise the unprecedented influx.

"For those refugees who are being persecuted or have fled war, there should be a fair distribution in Europe based on the economic strength, productivity and size of each country," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a joint news conference in Berlin with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

She and Rajoy both said the bloc's executive European Commission should draw up a list of safe countries, making it easier to send home migrants who were not genuine refugees.

The EU executive will outline new plans next week to share out refugees across European states and speed the deportation of unwanted migrants, the bloc's migration commissioner said.Some countries that were a bit reluctant ... have changed their mind because now they realise that this problem is not the problem of other countries but theirs as well," Dimitris Avramopoulos told Reuters.

Thousands of migrants have drowned this year trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean in rickety vessels, while the peril of the overland journey was hammered home when 71 dead bodies were found in an abandoned truck in Austria last week.

Austrian police said on Tuesday they had freed 24 teenagers from Afghanistan from a van in Vienna which had been welded shut, and arrested the Romanian driver. "It was like a rolling prison cell..they were crammed in, sitting and standing on top of each other," said Thomas Keiblinger, spokesman for the police in Vienna. "They would not have made it too much further."

Political parties that oppose immigration have gained ground across Europe, not least in Hungary where the government has reinforced the border with a razor wire fence and deployed thousands of extra police. More than 140,000 people have crossed into Hungary from Serbia this year alone.

Antal Rogan, the parliament caucus leader of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling centre-right Fidesz party, said on Tuesday "the very existence of Christian Europe" was under threat.Would we like our grandchildren to grow up in a United European Caliphate? My answer to that is no," Rogan told the pro-government daily Magyar Idok.

German Labour Minister Andrea Nahles said the influx of refugees and migrants would mean an extra 240,000-460,000 people would be entitled to German social benefits next year, costing the state an extra 3.3 billion euros ($3.7 billion).

Bavarian state minister for labour and social affairs, Emilia Mueller, said her state had been quick to set up an arrival and deportation centre for migrants from the Balkans unlikely to get refugee status but could not cope alone.

"We have a system in Europe which no longer works and Hungary is making this very clear."

The unenviable circumstances are far different from what he faced during his last report on Sept. 2, 2014, just after he had won passage of a series of energy, education and telecom reforms, a success he said would put Mexico on the path to greater growth.

At the time, Pena Nieto was delivering on his main pledge, which was to reduce Mexico's drug-war-era violence. But progress there seems to have stalled. Homicides in the first seven months of 2015 were running about 3 percent above figures for the same period last year.

Other numbers are depressing as well. The Mexican peso has fallen 29 percent against the U.S. dollar over the last year.

Pena Nieto's own approval ratings have fallen as well, from 55 percent in August 2014 to about 35 percent one year later, according to a Buendia&Laredo poll published Tuesday. It had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.And the administration suffered a major embarrassment on July 11, with the escape of Mexico's top drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, through a tunnel from Mexico's highest-security prison.

Pena Nieto announced changes in his cabinet last week in an apparent attempt to change direction.

But tough international market conditions may limit his maneuvering room, and officials have lowered this year's expectation for economic growth.

"This is the year that he has the least to show for," said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst and professor at Mexico's Center for Economic Research and Teaching. "He hasn't had any achievements, just difficulties" this year, Crespo said.

If Pena Nieto tries to strike an upbeat tone Wednesday in his speech marking the written report, Crespo said, "nobody will believe any of it."

Officers searched an apartment in the southern city of Algeciras on Tuesday morning at the request of the French courts which are investigating the August 21 attack, a police source told AFP.

The apartment is home to the parents of Ayoub El Khazzani, who is accused of launching an attack on the train armed with a pistol, an assault rifle and 270 rounds of ammunition.

French prosecutors have brought terrorism charges against the 25-year-old Moroccan, accusing him of a "targeted and premeditated" attack on the Amsterdam to Paris train after he stepped out of a toilet cubicle with an assault rifle, 270 rounds of ammunition and a Luger pistol strapped to his chest.

He was quickly overpowered by a group of French, British and American passengers, who have since been awarded France's top honour, the Legion d'Honneur.The Spanish police source said that El Khazzani's parents had been to a police station to make a statement but had not been formally detained.

Their apartment is in the El Saladillo district of Algeciras, a southern port just a 90-minute ferry ride across the Mediterranean from Morocco.

El Khazzani was born in northern Morocco and moved in 2007 to Spain, where he was convicted at least once on drugs charges. Spanish authorities said they had flagged him as radicalised and potentially dangerous before last month's attack.

AFP

The so-called Cadillac tax was meant to discourage extravagant coverage. Critics say it's a tax on essentials, not luxuries. It's getting attention now because employers plan ahead for major costs like health care.

With time, an increasing number of companies will be exposed to the tax, according to a recent study. The risk is that middle-class workers could see their job-based benefits diminished.

First to go might be the "flexible spending accounts" offered by many companies. The accounts allow employees to set aside money tax-free for annual insurance deductibles and out-of-pocket health costs. That money comes out of employees' paychecks, and they're not able to use it for other expenses. Savvy consumers see it as a way to stretch their health care dollars.

The catch is that under the law those employee contributions count toward the thresholds for triggering the tax.

There are other wrinkles: Companies in areas with high medical costs, such as San Francisco, are  morelikely to be exposed to the Cadillac tax than those in lower-cost areas like Los Angeles. Ditto for employers with unionized workers who won better benefits through bargaining.

Republicans in Congress and a sizable contingent of Democrats are calling for repealing the tax. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner Democratic presidential candidate, says she's concerned and would re-examine the tax. Since it doesn't take effect right away, it's an issue for the next president.

"As currently structured, I worry that it may create an incentive to substantially lower the value of the benefits package and shift more and more costs to consumers," Clinton said in response to a candidate questionnaire from the American Federation of Teachers.

The Cadillac tax has two purposes: to act as a brake on health care spending and to raise money for covering the uninsured.

The value of employer-sponsored health insurance is tax-free to workers and tax-deductible for companies. It amounts to an income tax break worth $206 billion this year, according to the president's budget. Many economists call that an indirect subsidy that encourages wasteful spending. They argue that if not the Cadillac tax, some other kind of limit is needed. Major Republican health overhaul plans have also proposed curbs.A recent study from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that 26 percent of all employers would face the tax in at least one of their plans during its first year, 2018. Nearly half of larger companies would face the consequences of the tax that same year, because they tend to offer better benefits.

"It is a pretty broad-based tax that has a powerful effect on controlling the growth of premiums," said Larry Levitt, a co-author of the study. "The downside is workers may see an increase in their out-of-pocket costs."

Since the tax is indexed to general inflation, which rises more slowly than health insurance premiums, over time it would affect a growing share of health plans.

The Obama administration says such studies overstate the potential impact. The Treasury Department said in a statement that only "a small fraction of workers" would be affected. Regulations to implement the tax could soften some feared consequences, but proposed rules aren't expected until late this year or early next.

The Cadillac tax is 40 percent of the value of employer-sponsored plans that exceeds certain thresholds: $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage. The tax is levied on insurers and plan administrators, who are expected to pass it back to employers. The 40 percent rate is well above the income tax rates that most workers face.Joe Kra of the benefits consultancy Mercer said he believes many employers will be required to make fundamental changes in their health plans to mitigate the tax's impact. Measures such as ditching flexible spending accounts may not be enough. That would accelerate a shift to high-deductible plans that require workers to pay a bigger share of health costs before insurance kicks in.

Here are some other potential twists:

— The Treasury Department says it is considering an exemption for flexible spending account contributions for dental and vision care, which are two popular uses.

The health care law already limited FSA contributions and without such accommodations, the Cadillac tax could lead to their demise.

"A benefit that you are offering your employees so they can save money on taxes is going to wind up costing you money," said economist Paul Fronstin of nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute.

— Treasury is also trying to figure what do about a different kind of workplace arrangement called a "health savings account."

A growing number of workers have high-deductible health insurance that comes with tax-sheltered health savings accounts, or HSAs, that they and their employer can contribute to.But if an employee has his or her contribution deducted from their paycheck, it could potentially trigger the tax.

Officials say they're considering options.

Chaos enveloped the city's Keleti station. Forced into the midday sun, scores of migrants protested for hours, waving newly purchased train tickets angrily in the air. The official U-turn surprised observers, given that Hungary over the weekend had started to allow migrants to travel by train to the west without going through asylum procedures.

Janos Lazar, chief of staff to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, told lawmakers that Hungary disagreed with Germany's openness to taking refugees from war-torn Syria. He blamed Germany and what he called other "left-wing governments" in Europe for encouraging the rush of migrants that has staggered Hungary both on its borders at in its capital city.

"The defense of our borders is important, not opening the borders," he said.But human rights watchdogs called Hungary's actions incoherent and indefensible. They said Hungary's open residential centers for asylum seekers already were too overcrowded to cope, and blocking migrants from using cross-border public transport forces them to cross the border dangerously hidden in smugglers' vehicles.

Hungary rail shutdown came less than a week after Austrian police found 71 migrants dead in a smuggler's abandoned truck, the apparent victims of suffocation.

"If you deny them — although they have a paid ticket — and you don't let them get on board, you push them right into the hands of smugglers," William Lacy Swing, director general of the International Organization for Migration, told The Associated Press. "So they get into vans and into trucks and they die."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected Hungary's criticism of German asylum policy, saying her country was offering the same welcome to people fleeing war in Syria that all members of the 28-nation EU, including Hungary, should provide.Speaking in Berlin, Merkel said Germany shouldn't be expected to take the lion's share of Syrian refugees and appealed to EU partners to volunteer to take more. Germany expects to take in 800,000 asylum seekers this year, compared to under 3,000 for fellow EU member Spain.

Merkel said Germany typically did give refugee protection to Syrian citizens fleeing the country's 4-year-old war. "That should come as no surprise. Actually, it should be the same in every European country," she said.

European nations say more than 332,000 migrants have arrived already this year. The front-line border nations of Greece, Italy and Hungary as well as non-EU members Serbia and Macedonia have been overwhelmed by the thousands surging across their border. More than 2,600 migrants have also drowned this year as they cross the Mediterranean in smugglers' often-unseaworthy boats.

Scuffles broke out Tuesday morning at Budapest's Keleti station as hundreds of migrants pushed toward the metal gates where a train was scheduled to leave for Vienna and Munich, only to be blocked by police.Authorities announced over loudspeakers that all trains would be stopped indefinitely from leaving. Migrants' papers were checked, and those with train tickets but no EU visas were ushered out of the station.

Outside, hundreds who had spent heavily on the tickets chanted "Germany!" and "U.N.!" But Hungary's national rail company, Mav, said it no longer would sell train tickets to customers who could not present proper ID and, where required, visas. It said customers would be allowed to buy only tickets for themselves, not multiple purchases.

Mohammed, a 24-year-old economist from the Syrian city of Aleppo, said the chaos was the worst he has seen since leaving Syria. He had bought a ticket to Munich for 200 euros ($225) after Hungarian police told him Monday night they would be allowed to leave.

Despite showing a valid Syrian passport Tuesday to police guarding the train platform, he was told he could not get on board because he did not have a visa for Germany. He refused to give his last name to an AP reporter citing security concerns about his family still in Aleppo.

"This is crazy," said Baba Mujhse, a Egyptian-Hungarian volunteer inside the train station. He carried a small boy separated from his family in the uproar. He called the decision to block migrants from boarding trains "not a solution to anything."

Hours later, train service was restored for passengers with valid travel documents.

By evening rush hour, the train station was unusually quiet as most commuters found other ways home. The train leaving for Vienna shortly after 6 p.m. was less than one-quarter full.

Outside, more than 300 people continued to protest. One man held a placard made from a pizza box on which he had drawn a picture of a train, a crying child and the plaintive word "Germany!"a placard made from a pizza box on which he had drawn a picture of a train, a crying child and the plaintive word "Germany!"

Hungary's train crackdown appeared prompted in part by pressure from other European Union nations trying to cope with their own influx of migrants. Austrian police in Vienna said 3,650 migrants arrived Monday from Hungary at the city's Westbahnhof station. Most were heading for Germany.

Orban plans to discuss the migrant crisis Thursday in Brussels with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Council President Donald Tusk and European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

The train tensions were matched by highway delays as Austrian authorities reimposed border controls at main crossings from Hungary. Vehicles at the Hegyeshalom crossing on the main highway from Budapest to Vienna faced 6-kilometer (4-mile) traffic jams at one point Tuesday because of the Austrian inspections.

Tensions flared again Tuesday at Greece's northern border with Macedonia, where about 1,500 migrants are waiting to cross. Fights and scuffles broke out near the Greek village of Idomeni after migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, attempted to rush past Macedonian border police.Greece's coast guard said it had rescued nearly 1,200 migrants, significantly more than usual, from the sea off its eastern Aegean islands in the past 24 hours.

Democratic Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Chris Coons of Delaware on Tuesday became the 32nd and 33rd senators to announce support for the deal, just one shy of the 34 votes needed to uphold an Obama veto of GOP legislation aimed at blocking it.

"This agreement will substantially constrain the Iranian nuclear program for its duration, and compared with all realistic alternatives, it is the best option available to us at this time," Casey said in a statement. In remarks at the University of Delaware, Coons said: "I will support this agreement despite its flaws because it is the better strategy for the United States to lead a coalesced global community in containing the spread of nuclear weapons."

Earlier Tuesday Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, predicted that Obama would get to 34 votes by week's end.

Republicans unanimously oppose the deal, which aims to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions, and the Israeli government is vehemently opposed. But critics have failed to use Congress' summer recess to turn the tide against the deal. Only two Democratic senators have come out against it.

With 34 votes looking to be within reach, supporters have begun aiming to get 41 votes, which would block the disapproval resolution from passing in the first place, and would spare Obama from having to use his veto pen. Cardin, who said he remains undecided, didn't address that possibility.

In a session with students at Johns Hopkins University, Cardin discussed the pros and cons and said his decision will be made on which approach is likeliest to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state. Either decision carries risks, he said.

"I think it's a tough call and I sort of bristle when people say this is such an easy decision, why haven't you made it," Cardin said. "I don't think it is an easy judgment call. I think there are high risks either way."