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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council votes Wednesday on a resolution that would impose the toughest sanctions on North Korea in two decades.

Angola's U.N. Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins, the current council president, said Tuesday that hopefully the resolution will be adopted "by consensus."

The U.S. and North Korea's traditional ally China spent seven weeks negotiating the new sanctions — which include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by sea or air — in response to Pyongyang's latest nuclear test and rocket launch. Both are in defiance of previous council resolutions.

But Russia, which received the new draft Thursday along with other council members, asked for time to study the lengthy text, and suggested changes. The U.S. wanted a vote Tuesday afternoon but Russia delayed it to Wednesday morning.

The U.S., its Western allies and Japan pressed for new sanctions that went beyond the North's nuclear and missile programs but China, Pyongyang's neighbor, was reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of North Korea and cause its economy to collapse.

The final draft, obtained by The Associated Press, would eliminate loopholes in previous sanctions resolutions and impose new ones. But it stresses that the new measures are not intended to have "adverse humanitarian consequences" for civilians, the majority who face economic hardships and food shortages.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the U.S. administration knows the North Korean people "have suffered for far too long" because of decisions from their government. "And that's why this sanctions regime is targeted more specifically at the North Korean elite."

For the first time, the draft resolution would require the 192 other U.N. member states to inspect all cargo from North Korea or heading to the country for illicit goods, ban any sale or transfer of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang, and require all countries to expel diplomats from the North who engage in "illicit activities."

It would also for the first time impose significant sanctions on broad sections of the North Korean economy.

The draft resolution would ban the export of coal, iron and iron ore that is being used to fund North Korea's nuclear or ballistic missile programs — and it would prohibit all exports of gold, titanium ore, vanadium ore and rare earth minerals. It would also ban aviation fuel exports to the country, including "kerosene-type rocket fuel."

Earnest said North Korea uses revenue from sectors like coal, iron, gold, titanium and rare earth materials to bankroll its nuclear and missile programs, and "the North Korean ruling elite" also benefits from those sectors.In the financial and banking sector, countries would be required to freeze the assets of companies and other entities linked to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. Under a previous resolution, they were encouraged to do so.

The draft would also prohibit all countries from opening new branches, subsidiaries and representative offices of North Korean banks, and ban financial institutions from establishing new joint ventures or establishing or maintaining correspondent relationships with these banks. It would also order countries to close all North Korean banks and terminate all banking relationships within 90 days.

North Korea is already subject to four rounds of U.N. sanctions imposed since the country's first nuclear test in 2006.

Under those resolutions, it is banned from importing or exporting nuclear or missile items and technology as well as luxury goods.

The new draft would expand the list of banned items — adding luxury items such as expensive watches, snowmobiles, recreational water vehicles and lead crystal.

It would also add 16 individuals, 12 "entities" including the National Aerospace Development Agency which was responsible for February's rocket launch, and 31 ships owned by the North Korean shipping firm Ocean Maritime Management Company to the sanctions blacklist which requires the freezing of assets, and in the case of individuals a travel ban as well.

In addition to the mandatory inspection of cargo heading to or from North Korea by air or sea, the draft resolution would ban Pyongyang from chartering vessels or aircraft, and call on countries to "de-register" any vessel owned, operated or crewed by the North.AP

An Emirates Airbus A380 touched down in New Zealand on Wednesday, completing what is believed to be the world's longest non-stop scheduled commercial flight.

The service from Dubai to Auckland covered 14,200 kilometres (8,824 miles), according to industry website airwaysnews.com, pipping Qantas' 13,800-kilometre Sydney-Dallas route launched in 2014.

It said the route was also the longest in duration, with passengers set to spend 17 hours 15 minutes in the air during the return leg from Auckland to Dubai.

However, that record is expected to be short-lived because Emirates' upcoming Dubai-Panama City service will take 17 hours 35 minutes when it launches later this month.Emirates described it as "one of the longest air routes in the world by distance".

"But with the assistance of clever technology and good planning, passengers will get to their destination in the shortest possible time," it said.

"Emirates will be using flexible routes, which can vary by day, taking advantage of tail winds and avoiding head winds to reduce the time in the air."

The inaugural Dubai-Auckland flight was made by an A380 but the regular service will be carried out using the Boeing 777.

New Zealand Transport Minister Simon Bridges said the non-stop service, which cuts three hours off current Dubai-Auckland travel times, improved New Zealand's connectivity to the rest of the world."Direct flights will encourage even more trade and tourism between our two countries, by offering more choice to passengers and freight customers," he said.  AFP

The comments from the two top Republicans in the U.S. Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, came as many of the party's lawmakers struggle to come to terms with the growing possibility that Trump will be their nominee.

Trump's policies are often at odds with those of conservatives, and his comments on the campaign trail have often been both incendiary and crude.

He has racked up victories in three of the four states that have already held their nominating contests. The comments from Ryan and McConnell coincided with "Super Tuesday," the biggest voting day in the race to pick the 2016 presidential nominees for the November election.

Ryan said any Republican nominee must reject any group "built on bigotry" while McConnell said Senate Republicans condemned groups such as the Klan and "everything they stand for."

The Klan, whose roots reach back to the Civil War, is known for its segregationist, racist views.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Trump did not immediately repudiate support from David Duke, a former Klan leader who is also a former Louisiana state representative. Trump later said he had not heard the questions well because of a bad earpiece.

Both Ryan and McConnell said they did not want to weigh in further on the presidential race, something they have declined to do for months.

Ryan, a former vice presidential candidate who will chair the Republicans' national convention in July, reiterated on Tuesday he would support whomever is his party's nominee.

A number of Southern states are among the 11 states holding Republican nominating contests on Tuesday, including Virginia, and opinion polls show Trump is likely to consolidate his status as the favorite to win the nomination.

REID: "TALK IS CHEAP"

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid scoffed at Ryan's remark a few hours later. Reid said Republicans were afraid to withdraw their support publicly because the Trump "millions" might turn on them.

“Republicans say they’ll support a man who refuses to denounce the Ku Klux Klan. So until they withdraw their support, talk is really cheap," Reid said.

McConnell sidestepped a question on whether it was true, as reported over the weekend by The New York Times, that he had told fellow Republicans in private that they could drop Trump "like a hot rock" if he becomes the party's presidential nominee.

McConnell said he did not recall saying anything like that to reporters.

In recent days other lawmakers on Capitol Hill have become more outspoken on Trump. A handful of lawmakers have endorsed him, including Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a conservative.

On Sunday evening, Senator Ben Sasse, a conservative Republican from Nebraska, announced on Facebook that he could not support Trump because his "relentless focus is on dividing Americans and on tearing down rather than building back up this glorious nation.

"If Donald Trump ends up as the GOP nominee, conservatives will need to find a third option," Sasse wrote.

But in the halls of Congress on Tuesday, there appeared to be few lawmakers prepared to distance themselves from Trump who had not done so already.Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who gave up his own presidential quest in December, said, "The party’s been burned and the country’s going to get burned” by Trump.

To avoid this, he said, the party should consolidate around an opponent to Trump instead of diffusing the opposition among so many candidates.

Trump is now one of five remaining Republican contenders. The others are Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who had endorsed Jeb Bush before he dropped out, said lawmakers have not shied away from criticizing Trump.

"That has happened continually. Many of us did it when he made comments about John McCain many months ago," she said, referring to how Trump had mocked the military record of McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona. As a Navy pilot, McCain was shot down over Vietnam. Trump said he liked people who weren't captured.REUTERS

MIAMI (AP) — Hillary Clinton widened her lead over Democratic rival Bernie Sanders as minority voters helped her secure key victories in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia in the Super Tuesday contests.

Sanders won his home state of Vermont as well as Oklahoma and pledged to stay in the race.

Clinton had aimed for a sweep of Southern states in the delegate-heavy series of primaries and caucuses Tuesday before losing Oklahoma. Both campaigns were vying for support in Colorado, Massachusetts and Minnesota.

"What a Super Tuesday!" Clinton told supporters in Miami as the results came in. "We will need all of you to keep volunteering, doing everything you can, talking to your friends and neighbors, because this country belongs to all of us."Clinton and her allies have already shifted some attention to Donald Trump, casting the Republican front-runner as divisive and unprepared to lead the country. "It's clear tonight that the stakes in this election have never been higher and the rhetoric we're hearing on the other side has never been lower," she said.

All told, Clinton and Sanders were competing for 865 delegates in 11 states and American Samoa on Tuesday, the biggest single-day prize of the 2016 campaign.

Clinton is now assured of winning at least 318 delegates on Tuesday. Sanders will receive at least 124.

According to the AP's count, Clinton now has at least 866 delegates, including super delegates — the party leaders and members of Congress who can support any candidate. Sanders has received at least 211. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

Black voters powered Clinton to victory in South Carolina last weekend and gave her a huge advantage throughout the South.

Of the seven Southern states that voted Tuesday, Clinton got more than 8 in 10 black votes everywhere but Oklahoma, where three-quarters of blacks backed her. Blacks made up made up more than a quarter of the votes overall. But that ranged from nearly half in Alabama and Georgia to about 15 percent in Oklahoma and Texas.

Greta Lewis voted with her mother at the Central Christian Church in Memphis. Both women are black and chose Clinton.

"She has been the one who has stepped out to at least try to identify with most of the minorities, whether they're women, black, Asian, Hispanic," said Lewis, a 31-year-old receptionist at her mother's dental office.

Exit polling also showed voters pushing to continue President Barack Obama's policies rather than the kind of leftward shift championed by Sanders.

Clinton visited Minnesota before heading to Miami, foreshadowing the importance of Florida for the general election.

Sanders decamped to his home in Burlington, Vermont. He has vowed to stay in the race until the party's convention — and he showed no signs of retreating as he addressed a raucous rally of supporters after the Vermont polls closed.

"Thirty-five states remain and let me assure you that we are going to take our fight for economic justice, for social justice, for environmental sanity, for a world of peace, to every one of those states." Sanders said.

The event had the feel of a valedictory for Sanders, who said he was "so proud to bring Vermont values all across this country."

Despite his obstacles, the Vermont senator has little incentive to fold. He reported raising more than $42 million in February, a sign that he will   AP

Conventional wisdom says a Donald Trump nomination should bring presidential election gold for Democrat Hillary Clinton -- but given how the brash billionaire has outperformed expectations at every turn, it might not be so simple.

Analysts and experts who spoke with AFP acknowledged that Trump's strong performance on Super Tuesday, when millions of Democrats and Republican voters in a dozen states chose their nominee, put him in the driver's seat on the road to the GOP nominating convention in July.

From there, it would be a head-to-head battle against the Democratic nominee, most likely Clinton, who dominated rival Bernie Sanders in seven of the 11 states where party voters had their say Tuesday.

At first glance, the experience and temperament of a former secretary of state, senator and first lady would be enough to see her soar against a politically untested, deeply controversial billionaire who has yet to flesh out many of his policies."It certainly would be a good thing" for Democrats, Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said about a Trump nomination.

A recent CNN poll showed Clinton beating Trump 52 percent to 44 percent among registered voters in a hypothetical matchup. Other polls have reflected similar results for months.

But a November Clinton victory is "no sure thing," Ornstein cautioned.

"Big divisions in the Republican Party are good for Democrats, but that doesn't mean if Donald Trump is the nominee that there is certainty that he'll lose."

- Trump's appeal -

Trump has rallied supporters with his politically incorrect talk about immigrants and trade.

But he has ruptured the party with his hostility: he has called some Mexicans rapists, urged a ban on Muslims entering the United States, Mexicans rapists, urged a ban on Muslims entering the United States, mocked women and the disabled, prompting outcries from establishment Republicans.

Many experts have assumed that Trump's insults, exaggerations and taunts will hurt him in November.

But the 69-year-old real estate mogul appears to operate in an alternate reality, unrestrained by traditional political rules.

This is an election dominated by the unbridled fury at establishment politics. That bodes well for the ultimate outsider who has spent months jabbing a finger in Washington's eye.

"Trump has broad appeal," Republican strategist Brad Marston of Massachusetts said.

"Yes, he has incredibly high negatives, but both on the left and right, people are tired of their leaders lying to them."

Clinton meanwhile is the ultimate establishment candidate, who polls poorly with voters on honesty and trustworthiness.

Marston points out that there was record turnout in the first four primary races, beginning with Iowa and New Hampshire.

"People are being drawn out of the woodwork to vote for Trump," and that can happen too in November, he said.

But the Republican "train wreck" can also energize Democrats in the presidential election, argued Bakari Sellers, a Democratic former lawmaker in South Carolina's state legislature.

"The biggest push for Democratic base voters to come out is Donald Trump," he told CNN. "We haven't had a better motivator for African-American and Hispanic voters to come out and vote Democratic in a long time."

- 'Clenched fist' -

Clinton has already begun shifting her campaign talk toward the general election.

On Tuesday in Minnesota, the 68-year-old assailed Republicans for "running their campaigns based on insults."

"I don't think that's appropriate in a presidential campaign," she said.

Trump signalled Tuesday he is ready to go to war against Clinton and that their showdown will be "pretty tough."

Savoring his victories, he signalled he could moderate his tone as he shifts to the general election, even praising the work of women's health provider Planned Parenthood, which conservatives loathe for its abortion practices.

"Planned Parenthood has done very good work for some, for millions of women," Trump said.

"I'm going to be good for women's health issues. It's very important to me. Maybe that's not a perfect conservative view," he said.Marston had a message to Democrats: dismiss nominee Trump at your peril.

"There's a good chance he's being underestimated," Marston said. "A lot of people doing the estimating don't like him in the first place."  AFP

Philippine authorities were on Wednesday probing an assassination attempt against an influential Saudi preacher who was on an Islamic State hit list, after the gunman was killed and two suspects arrested.

Preacher Sheikh Aaidh al-Qarni and Saudi diplomat Sheikh Turki Assaegh were both wounded in a shooting as they left a university auditorium in the southern port city of Zamboanga, where the cleric had given an address.

Their Filipino police escorts killed the lone assailant, while two other suspects who were seen with the gunman were arrested as they tried to escape, police said.

"It all happened so fast. Suddenly there were gunshots," local Muslim community leader Wakil Kasim, who was at the auditorium at the time of the incident, told reporters.

The gunman "popped up from the crowd, moved in close and shot the victim" as he was boarding his car, said city police spokeswoman Chief victim" as he was boarding his car, said city police spokeswoman Chief Inspector Helen Galvez, adding that the gunman then walked to the other side of the vehicle and shot the Saudi diplomat.

Qarni was shot in the right shoulder, left arm and chest while Assaegh, a religious attache at the Saudi embassy in Manila, was wounded in his right thigh and left leg, according to a police report.

A student driver's licence and a local government ID were recovered from the man, which identified him as a 21-year-old Filipino, but police said they were not ruling out forgery.victim" as he was boarding his car, said city police spokeswoman Chief Inspector Helen Galvez, adding that the gunman then walked to the other side of the vehicle and shot the Saudi diplomat.

Qarni was shot in the right shoulder, left arm and chest while Assaegh, a religious attache at the Saudi embassy in Manila, was wounded in his right thigh and left leg, according to a police report.

A student driver's licence and a local government ID were recovered from the man, which identified him as a 21-year-old Filipino, but police said they were not ruling out forgery.

A uniform for engineering students in the Western Mindanao State University, where Qarni was speaking, was found hidden in his backpack, but university officials could not immediately confirm the gunman was enrolled in the institution.

Footage from ABS-CBN television showed the remains of the gunman, who was wearing a hoodie, sprawled face down on the ground beside the victims' car.

A uniform for engineering students in the Western Mindanao State University, where Qarni was speaking, was found hidden in his backpack, but university officials could not immediately confirm the gunman was enrolled in the institution.

Footage from ABS-CBN television showed the remains of the gunman, who wasvictims' car.

Islamic State militants who control vast swathes of Iraq and Syria had called on "lone wolves" to attack Qarni and several other Saudi clerics whom they accused of apostasy in the latest issue of Dabiq, their monthly online magazine.

- 'Unspecified threat' to Saudi embassy -

The Philippine government should investigate whether the Islamic State group (IS) had influenced the shooting, international security analyst Stephen Cutler told reporters in Manila.

"Its possible it is Daesh-related because he was on this hit list but I don't know yet," the American said, using an Arabic abbreviation for the IS group. wearing a hoodie, sprawled face down on the ground beside the victims' car.Tuesday's shooting also came as the army quelled a rampage by an obscure armed group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Butig, a poor farming town some 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Zamboanga.

At least 12 militants and five soldiers were killed while more than 30,000 people were displaced over several days of fighting, which ended as the army seized the gunmen's main camp over the weekend.

However, Filipino authorities have not linked sympathisers of Islamic State jihadists to Tuesday's attack.

Saudi media outlets described Qarni as a senior Islamic scholar and he has more than 12 million followers on Twitter. In his book "Awakening Islam," the French academic Stephane Lacroix included Qarni in his list of "the most famous" Saudi preachers.

Last week, the Saudi embassy in Manila asked local police for increased security for its premises, as well as for the Saudi national airline due to an unspecified threat, Philippine foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose said.

Zamboanga, 800 kilometres south of Manila, is one of the largest cities in the southern Philippines, an area troubled by a decades-long separatist rebellion by the mainly Catholic nation's Muslim minority that has claimed more than 100,000 lives.

The port city has a mixed Christian and Muslim population, and has been a frequent target of attacks by local Muslim militant groups.  AFP

US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth Wednesday after spending almost a year in space in a ground-breaking experiment foreshadowing a potential manned mission to Mars.

The 340-day mission saw Kelly break the record for the longest single stay in space by a US astronaut, while Kornienko is now fifth on the list for lengthiest mission by a Russian cosmonaut.

"We have landing," Russian Mission Control confirmed after the trio touched down southeast of the settlement of Dzhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan at around 0430 GMT.

After returning from his lengthy stint in space Kelly was clearly in high spirits as he was lowered to the ground by burly Russian rescue workers at the landing site.

"The air out here feels great. I've no idea why you guys are so bundled up," NASA TV reported him as saying as he sat upright in a chair on the steppe in temperatures just below zero.

Kelly and Kornienko returned with Russia's Sergei Volkov, who was stationed at the ISS for over five months and was met upon landing by his father, retired cosmonaut Aleksandr Volkov.

The "one-year crew" mission -- which began on March 27 last year -- was the longest by any astronauts aboard the ISS and seen as a vital chance to measure the effects of a prolonged period in space on the human body.

They have been subjected to a battery of tests and other experiments in preparation for a future manned mission to Mars and beyond.

Weightlessness reduces muscle mass and bone density and is believed to diminish eyesight by increasing cerebrospinal fluid around the optic nerve.

Kelly, 52, was also part of an experiment comparing his development and Kelly, 52, was also part of an experiment comparing his development and changes in space with his identical twin brother -- Mark -- back on Earth.

- Gorilla in space -

In his year aboard the space station Kelly has been an avid Internet poster, capturing stunning views on his Instagram page and tweeting regularly to nearly a million followers while travelling some 143 million miles (230 million kilometres).

In one particularly eye-catching stunt the bald-headed astronaut posted a short video of himself dressed up in a gorilla suit and floating through the ISS in pursuit of a colleague.

"Needed a little humour to lighten up a year in space," he wrote on Twitter on February 23, when he posted the video.

One image Kelly tweeted captured the economic divide between North and South Korea as visible from space, with the South aglow with electric lights and the North cast in a blanket of darkness.Another impressive shot was one of the Milky Way which Kelly described as "old, dusty, gassy and warped. But beautiful."

"Spaceflight is the biggest team sport there is, and it's incredibly important that we all work together to make what is seemingly impossible possible," Kelly said when handing over command of the ISS to fellow NASA astronaut Tim Kopra on Monday.

Kelly, Kornienko and Volkov leave behind Kopra, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and the European Space Agency's British astronaut Tim Peake.

NASA's Jeff Williams and Roscosmos' Oleg Skriprochka and Alexey Ovchinin, will join them following a launch from Baikonur later this month.  AFP