Months after declaring victory over  jihadists, war-battered Iraq hopes to attract billions of  dollars from private investors as well as donors to fund its  reconstruction.
Baghdad is looking to drum up funds at a reconstruction  conference in neighbouring Kuwait from February 12 to 14 after  announcing the defeat of the Islamic State group at the end of  last year.
The country is still reeling from the rise of IS and the  punishing fightback it took to crush the jihadists, with  swathes of its territory in ruins and millions of people  displaced.
Authorities in the resource-rich nation say there has  been a heavy toll on oil, electricity and manufacturing  infrastructure, as well as basic services such as water and  sanitation.
Iraq needs to raise USD 100 billion to rebuild, Prime  Minister Haider al-Abadi has said, after the fight against IS  and decades of sanctions and war.
"It's a huge amount of money. We know we cannot provide  it through our own budget," he said at the World ..

Iraq banks on private sector for post-IS reconstruction

PTI Automatic

A Russian man promising stolen  hacking tools and compromising information on President Donald  Trump fleeced American spies for USD 100,000 last year,  according to a media report.
In a story worthy of a John le Carre novel that included  secret USB-drive handovers in a small West Berlin bar and  coded messages delivered over the National Security Agency's  Twitter account, CIA agents reportedly spent much of last year  trying to buy back from the Russian hacking programs stolen  from the NSA, the New York Times reported yesterday.
The seller, who was not identified but had links to both  cyber criminals and Russian intelligence, tantalized the US  spies with an offer of the NSA hacking tools that had been  advertised for sale online by a shady group called the Shadow  Brokers.
Some of the tools, developed by the NSA to break into the  computers of US rivals, were used by other hackers last year  to break into computer systems around the world, including the  global malware attack ...

US spies bilked for USD 100,000 by Russian peddling Trump

The UN Security Council is  considering a draft resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire in  Syria to allow for urgent deliveries of humanitarian aid.
Sweden and Kuwait presented the measure that would also  demand an immediate end to sieges, including in Eastern Ghouta  where a bombing campaign by government forces has killed more  than 240 civilians in five days.
Earlier this week the council failed to back an appeal by  UN aid officials for a month-long pause in fighting after  Russia rejected the proposal.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said it was "not  realistic" to impose a ceasefire because armed groups fighting  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces were unlikely to  uphold it.
Russia has repeatedly blocked action in the council that  would target its ally in Damascus.
Diplomats said it was unclear whether Russia would resort  to its veto to block the draft resolution proposing the 30-day  truce.
The measure would demand that all parties in Syria allow  medical ...

UN Security Council considers measure demanding 30-day

US Secretary of State Rex  Tillerson faces "difficult" talks next week with NATO ally  Turkey on Syria and human rights, his delegation said before a  regional tour.
Late last month, Ankara began a cross-border offensive in  northwestern Syria against what it calls a "terrorist" Kurdish  militia supported and armed by Washington whose troops are  back local militias against the Islamic State group (IS).
The Turkish operation further raised tensions between the  two countries, whose relations were already complicated.
"We are urging them to show restraint in their operations  in Afrin, and to show restraint further along the line across  the border in northern Syria," a senior US State Department  official told reporters ahead of Tillerson's tour that begins  Sunday and will also take him to Cairo, Kuwait City, Amman and  Beirut.
"You start with asking for restraint and look for ways  that you can help bring it to an end as quickly as possible,"  the official said, speaking on ...

Tough Turkey talks await Tillerson: officials

The third-ranking official at  the US Justice Department is resigning just nine months after  taking the powerful position, according to a media report.
The resignation of Associate Attorney General Rachel  Brand, a national security law expert, comes as President  Donald Trump and Republican legislators have stepped up  attacks on the department over special prosecutor Robert  Mueller's investigation of possible Trump campaign links to  Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Brand was in position to inherit oversight of the Mueller  probe if the department's number two, Deputy Attorney General  Rod Rosenstein, is forced out.
The Justice Department did not immediately confirm the  report. The New York Times said Brand is leaving for a job in  the private sector.
A Republican appointee, Brand, 44, was named to the  Justice Department by then president George W. Bush in 2003,  and left four years later to work in the private sector.
In 2012 president Barack Obama appointed her to ...

US Justice Dept's No. 3 official resigns: report

Three people were shot  dead in central Nigeria, police said, with suspicion falling  on cattle herders after a wave of communal violence that has  heaped pressure on the government to act.
Unknown gunmen opened fire on the men on Thursday evening  in Anyiin, in the Logo area of Benue state, where early last  month more than 80 people were killed.
Benue state police chief Fatai Owoseni said the identity  of the gunmen had not yet been established.
But given the location and similarity to previous  attacks, suspicion locally immediately fell on herders.
Owoseni said officers sent to the scene at the sound of  gunshots found that four people on two motorcycles had been  attacked, with three others collecting water.
"Three survivors are still receiving treatment at the  hospital. (They) happened to be those that were fetching water  from the stream," he said.
"The ones that were dead were those riding on the  motorcycles while one of them survived."
More than 168 people have been killed .

Herders suspected after police say 3 killed in central Nigeria

UN Secretary-General Antonio  Guterres urged North Korea's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong  Nam to engage in dialogue on ending the nuclear crisis during  a brief exchange in South Korea, a UN spokesman said today.
Kim and Guterres attended a dinner ahead of the opening  of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
"He did have a brief exchange with president Kim," said  UN spokesman Farhan Haq.
Guterres reiterated "his expectation and hope that all  parties will use dialogue to achieve the peaceful  denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," he added.
Kim is leading the North Korean delegation to the  Olympics that also includes Kim Yo Jong, the younger powerful  sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The UN spokesman said Guterres did not meet with Kim's  sister.
The exchange with Kim however was the highest-level  meeting between the UN chief and North Korea.
Guterres has met with the foreign minister and  Pyongyang's ambassador to the United Nations. Kim holds the  title of ...

UN chief urges dialogue in talks with N Korea ceremonial

"Taliban --  what's that?" asks Sultan Begium shyly from her freezing home  in Afghanistan's mountainous Wakhan Corridor, a region so  remote that its residents are untouched by the decades of  conflict that have devastated their country.
The frail-looking grandmother whose harsh life has etched  deep lines in her face, is a woman of the Wakhi, a tribe of  roughly 12,000 nomadic people who populate the area.
Known to those who live there by its Persian name Bam-e-  Dunya, or "roof of the world", it is a narrow strip of  inhospitable and barely accessible land in Afghanistan  bordered by the mountains of what is now Tajikistan and  Pakistan, and extending all the way to China.
Few venture out, even fewer venture in -- but this  isolation has kept the Wakhi sheltered from almost forty years  of the near constant fighting that has ravaged their fellow  Afghans.
"War, what war? There has never been a war," Begium says,  poking at a dying fire of yak dung, though she remembers  people ...

The people who know no war: Afghanistan's most isolated corner

German prosecutors today  said Airbus had agreed to pay a fine of 81.25 million euros  (USD 99 million) to settle a corruption probe into the 2003  sale of Eurofighter jets to Austria.
The investigation did not fine evidence of bribery to  secure the lucrative contract, the Munich prosecutors said in  a statement.
But they said Airbus had failed it its supervisory duty  by allowing former management to make multi-million-euro  payments linked to the deal for "unclear purposes".
The European aircraft manufacturer said in its own  statement it had accepted the fine, meaning that the probed  first opened in 2012 "has been terminated".
Authorities in Austria however are still investigating  claims bribers were paid to land the two-billion-euro sale of  18 Eurofighter jets to Vienna, a deal long alleged to have  been very shady.
The Austrian government last year also launched a lawsuit  against Airbus, seeking up 1.1 billion euros in damages. It  accuses the aircraft giant of deliberately .

Airbus to pay 81 mn euros to end German corruption probe

Waymo and Uber announced an  agreement today in the blockbuster federal lawsuit over  allegedly stolen trade secrets from the former Google self-  driving car project.
The agreement ends a trial between two Silicon Valley  rivals competing in a race to develop autonomous cars after  four days of testimony before a federal judge in San  Francisco.
According to a source familiar with the confidential  deal, Uber agreed to a financial settlement giving the  Alphabet unit 0.34 percent of Uber shares -- which would be  some USD 244 million based on Uber's valuation of USD 72  billion.
Uber also agreed not to use any of Waymo's technology for  autonomous driving as part of the settlement.
Waymo said in a statement: "We have reached an agreement  with Uber that we believe will protect Waymo's intellectual  property now and into the future. We are committed to working  with Uber to make sure that each company develops its own  technology."
Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a ...

Waymo, Uber end trade secrets theft trial with settlement

Facebook said today that it will  issue up to USD 10 million in grants to help support and train  community leaders around the world.
The tech giant unveiled its new initiative at a London  summit of more than 300 community leaders from across Europe.
The Facebook Community Leadership Programme will offer  residency, fellowship and training opportunities, as well as  community leadership circles and specialised assistance on the  social networking platform.
"Facebook will commit tens of millions of dollars to the  programme, including up to USD 10 million in grants that will  go directly to people creating and leading communities," it  said in a statement.
While the social network is a platform for virtual  communities to gather, it is also a vehicle for advertisers to  reach its more than 2 billion active users.
Facebook last week said it booked nearly USD 13 billion  in sales in the last three months of last year.
Leaders at today's Facebook gathering included those from  Blind ...

Facebook pledges USD 10 mn for community leaders

A Korean intruder was tackled  by Olympic security and thrown out of the Pyeongchang Winter  Olympics opening ceremony after attempting to accost two  performers, organisers said today.
The unwanted guest made a daring entrance, sliding  down a long icy chute forming the backdrop to a stage to reach  the performers before being wrestled out by security  officials.
The invasion came just after the two Koreas had  marched into the stadium behind the blue-and-white unification  flag, possibly indicating the stunt was politically motivated.
Police were investigating the incident, but they said  no arrests had been made.
"It was a Korean spectator and he was removed from the  stadium as soon as he was taken off the stage," a spokeswoman  for Games organisers told AFP.
"He is currently not in police custody but the police  are investigating the situation."
As the two Koreas marched together in sub-zero  temperatures, South Korea's president shared a historic  handshake with Kim Jong Un's ...

Korean intruder ejected from Olympic opening ceremony

Robbers posing as plumbers kidnapped  the daughter of a cash van driver and demanded the vehicle's  contents as ransom in a heist that could have netted them over  20 million euros, investigators said today.
The hold-up, which resembles the plot of a Hollywood  action movie, took place Thursday near the French-Swiss  border.
It began in the evening in the southeastern French  city of Lyon, where two men pretending to be plumbers  kidnapped a young woman from her apartment, a source close to  the investigation told AFP.
They bundled her into a car and then had accomplices  ring her father, who works for a Swiss company that transports  money between companies and banks, to demand a ransom.
The father, who lives in the French border town of  Annemasse, was carrying out a cash delivery when the call came  through, Europe 1 radio reported.
He agreed to meet the kidnappers in a car park just  across the border on the Swiss side, to hand over the van's  contents, investigators said.
Police .

'Millions' robbed in French cash van kidnap and heist

A male intruder was tackled by  Olympic security and thrown out of the Pyeongchang Winter  Olympics opening ceremony today after attempting to accost two  performers.
The unwanted guest made a daring entrance, sliding down a  long icy chute to reach the performers before being wrestled  out by security officials.
The invasion came just after the two Koreas had marched  into the stadium behind the blue-and-white unification flag,  possibly indicating the stunt was politically motivated.
Police said no arrests were made, while South Korea  organisers confirmed the incident but were unable to give  further details when contacted by AFP.
As the two Koreas marched together in sub-zero  temperatures, South Korea's president shared a historic  handshake with Kim Jong Un's sister as the Games marked a thaw  in the often frosty relations on the peninsula.
However, just a block from the Olympic a few dozen  protestors raged against the presence of North Korean athletes  and officials at the ...

Unidentified intruder ejected from Olympic ceremony

Dozens of Russians implicated in  doping lost a last-minute court bid to take part in the  Pyeongchang Winter Olympics today, prompting relief among  rivals but fury in Moscow.
Just hours before the opening ceremony, the Court of  Arbitration for Sport rejected the cases of 47 Russians who  wanted to overturn a decision not to invite them to take part.
The court decision was quickly welcomed by the  International Olympic Committee, which said it "brings clarity  for all athletes", and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
However, the Kremlin expressed regret over the rejection  of the late appeal.
"We regret this. We are taking this decision into  consideration... and undoubtedly we will continue to help  athletes to stand up for their rights," Russian President  Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, who is banned  by the IOC, railed against the decision and said CAS had come  under "pressure" from the International Olympic ...

Kremlin 'regret' as dope-tainted Russians lose late Oly bid

The US Olympic Committee  defended its method of selecting a Games flag-bearer after  speed skater Shani Davis expressed his anger at losing on the  flip of a coin and said he would skip the opening ceremony.
African-American Davis, the top medal winner among the US  team at Pyeongchang, missed out to luger Erin Hamlin for the  prestigious role in Friday's opening ceremony.
Davis will not attend the opening ceremony, according to  a US spokesman. He had not originally planned to attend,  preferring instead to better prepare for competition in the  500, 1,000 and 1,500m.
Voting from one US representative from each of the eight  winter sports federations was deadlocked 4-4 between Hamlin --  the first US luge singles medalist -- and Davis. In such cases  a coin flip settles the issue.
But Davis, a two-time 1,000m champion, took issue at how  he lost out and noted it came during what in America is "Black  History Month".
"I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I  became the ...

Davis to skip opening ceremony after 'dishonorable' coin toss

Dual Sochi 2014 silver medallist  Patrick Chan was among the star names to take a tumble but  Canada still asserted their position as favourites for Winter  Olympic figure skating team gold today.
American quad wonder Nathan Chen and Russia's European  champion Mikhail Kolyada also fell on the first day of action  at the Gangneung Ice Arena.
That opened the door for Japan to top the early table  after an impressive skate from Shoma Uno, proving more than an  able deputy to the absent Yuzuru Hanyu.
In the following pairs short programme Canadian duo  Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford took second behind European  champions Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov from Russia to  propel Canada from third to first on 17 points.
American couple Alexa and Chris Knierim produced a  season's best to leave the USA in the silver medal position,  three points adrift, with Japan in third.
The 27-year-old Chan tumbled on his opening quadtoe loop  and again on a triple axel.
"It's not the best start I ..

Chan the fall guy but Canada rise to the top in team skate

The United States is not seeking  to host the 2026 Winter Olympics but is not ruling out a bid  for 2030, US Olympic Committee chairman Larry Probst said  today.
On the opening day of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics,  Probst indicated the US doesn't want to foil planning for the  2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
"We don't currently have any plans to bid for 2026 and  we'll keep our options open for 2030," Probst said in South  Korea.
He noted issues with sponsor support at wedging another  Olympics in ahead of one already set, thanks to a deal last  year that also handed Paris the 2024 Summer Olympics.
"It would make things extremely complicated from a  financial standpoint for LA and their holding of the Games,"  Probst said.
Asked what might happen if the International Olympic  Committee again decided to secure two hosts at the same time,  for 2026 and 2030, Probst said: "If the IOC goes down that  path we are prepared to have those discussions.

US to skip 2026 Winter Olympic bidding but eyes 2030

Pyeongchang Olympic organisers said  they had apologised to Iran today after a diplomatic furore  over its athletes being denied special Samsung phones issued  for the Games.
The head of the Pyeongchang organising committee, Lee  Hee-beom, confirmed he had written to the Iranian team "to  apologise for the misunderstanding".
The problem started on Wednesday, when Games organisers  said Iranian and North Korean athletes would be refused the  Galaxy Note 8 devices from sponsor Samsung, loaded with  essential logistical and competition information.
Although the organisers later backtracked, it sparked  anger in Iran, where Samsung has a major commercial presence,  and its athletes refused to accept the phones until there was  a full apology.
The source of the misunderstanding was not explained.
The committee had initially claimed the phones were  denied "because of existing UN sanctions", even though all UN  sanctions on Iran were lifted in 2015 apart from those linked  to arms and ...

Olympics committee apologies to Iran

Scoreboard at stumps on day two of the  second and final Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at the  Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka today:
Sri Lanka first innings 222 (K Mendis 68, R Silva 56;  Abdur Razzak 4-63, Taijul Islam 4-83)
Bangladesh first innings (overnight 56-4)
Tamim Iqbal c & b Lakmal
4
Imrul Kayes lbw b Perera
19
Mominul Haque run out (De Silva/Dickwella) 0
Mushfiqur Rahim b Lakmal
1
Liton Das b Lakmal
25
Mehedi Hasan not out
38
Mahmudullah b Dananjaya
17
Sabbir Rahman c Chandimal b Dananjaya
0
Abdur Razzak c and b Dananjaya
1
Taijul Islam run out
1
Mustafizur Rahman lbw b Perera
0
Extras (lb 2, w1, nb1)
4
Total (all out, 45.4 overs)
110
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-4, 3-12, 4-45, 5-73, 6-107, 8-  107, 8-109, 9-110, 10-110
Bowling: Lakmal 12-4-25-3, Perera 11.4-4-32-2, Dananjaya  10-2-20-3, Herath 12-1-31-0
Sri Lanka second innings
D Karunaratne c Kayes b Mehedi
32
K Mendis lbw b Razzak
7
D de Silva b Taijul
28
D Gunathilaka lbw b Mustafizur
17
D Chandimal lbw ...

Dhaka, Feb 9 (AFP) Scoreboard at stumps on day two of the

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's  hoped-for fourth government suffered a first defeat today  before even being sworn in, as prospective foreign minister  Martin Schulz stepped back after a series of U-turns.
The perception among Social Democratic Party activists  that party chief Schulz had fashioned himself a life raft from  the wreckage of an election disaster threatened chances the  rank and file would green-light a controversial coalition deal  sealed just two days ago.
"I hereby renounce joining the federal government and at  the same time implore that this should be an end to debates  about personalities," Schulz said in a statement.
"My own personal ambitions must be placed behind the  interests of the party."
Schulz managed this week to clinch a coalition deal with  Merkel's CDU/CSU that gave his centre-left SPD six ministries  as well as securing a string of policy concessions.
But reneging on his vow not to serve as a minister in a  Merkel-led cabinet prompted a wave of ...

AFP

AFP

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