Germany's parliament voted after a  heated debate today to resume family reunions for temporary  refugees from mid-year but sharply restrict the number of  relatives arriving at 1,000 a month.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere defended the law,  which passed by a margin of 376 against 298, as "a compromise  between humanity and responsibility... between generosity and  realism".
The measure was agreed Tuesday in ongoing coalition talks  between Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative camp and the  Social Democrats, in the hope of launching a new joint  government by late March.
Germany, which has taken in more than a million asylum  seekers since 2015, stopped family reunions for such  "subsidiary" status refugees in March 2016 to slow the mass  influx.
Those with subsidiary status are not considered political  or war refugees, but are temporarily spared deportation on  safety grounds.
An increasingly heated debate on immigration has pitted  left-leaning parties and pro-refugee ...

Germany sharply caps refugee family reunions

PTI Automatic

Premier League clubs spent a record  430 million in the January transfer window as top sides  scrambled to boost their squads in the race to secure  lucrative Champions League spots, according to analysis by  Deloitte.
The sum spent was nearly double the previous record of  225 million, with deadline day alone, January 31, seeing  clubs complete deals totalling 150 million ($214 million, 172  million euros), also a new record for the winter window.
Deloitte's Sports Business Group estimates spending by  Premier League clubs in the 2017/18 season to be a record 1.9  billion, eclipsing last season's record of 1.4 billion.
"Premier League clubs have taken the opportunity to  refresh their squads in January before the decisive phase of  the season," said Dan Jones, a partner in the accountancy  firm.
Nearly two-thirds of the gross expenditure was by the top  six, while the bottom six accounted for about a fifth.
The winter transfer window usually sees the bulk of  spending by clubs at the 

Premier League smashes January transfer window record

Ten North Korean skiers and skaters  arrived in the South today to take part in the Pyeongchang  Winter Games, setting the stage for a "peace Olympics" after a  year of high tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
Eight days before the opening ceremony, the athletes were  among a delegation that landed in Gangneung, on South Korea's  east coast, after a rare direct flight between the two halves  of the divided peninsula -- for which a special exemption had  to be sought from US sanctions.
In black fur hats, they made their way through the  terminal without saying a word to a pursuing pack of reporters  and boarded buses that took them to the athletes' village.
Well-wishers at the airport held up banners depicting  reunification flags -- a blue Korean peninsula on a white  background -- with one proclaiming: "We are one".
In the past year tensions reached fever pitch as  Pyongyang carried out a series of weapons tests -- including  intercontinental ballistic missiles that brought .

North Korean athletes land in South for Winter Olympics

Dhananjaya de Silva struck a  century and shared 187 runs in an unbroken second wicket stand  with Kushal Mendis as Sri Lanka gave a strong reply to  Bangladesh in the first Test in Chittagong today.
De Silva made an unbeaten 104 while Mendis hit 83 not  out, guiding Sri Lanka to 187-1 at stumps on the second day.
Earlier, Rangana Herath and Suranga Lakmal took three  wickets each to help the visitors dismiss Bangladesh for 513  in their first innings.
The pair came together after spinner Mehedi Hasan got rid  of Dimuth Karunaratne for a duck shortly after Bangladesh's  innings ended with skipper Mahmudullah Riyad unbeaten on 83.
De Silva led Sri Lanka's batting charge with his  aggressive approach and brought his fourth Test hundred off  122 balls with a cover drive off left-arm spinner Taijul  Islam.
This is de Silva's second successive Test century after  scoring an unbeaten 119 in Sri Lanka's last match against  India in New Delhi in December.
Bangladesh, who are now leading Sri ..

De Silva hits ton in strong Sri Lankan reply

Hundreds of Bangladeshi journalists  took to the streets today to protest against a new digital  security bill that campaigners say would damage media freedom  in the country.
The Digital Security Act 2018 approved by the cabinet  this week would mean a journalist could be convicted of  espionage for entering a government office and gathering  information secretly using an electronic device, an offence  that would carry a 14-year jail sentence.
It also provides for a life sentence for spreading  "negative propaganda" about the country's war of independence  or its founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman using a digital  device.
Media rights groups including the International  Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have already condemned the  bill, which parliament has yet to vote on.
"(The) IFJ believes the proposed act provides more  grounds to grossly misuse the provisions to harass journalists  and restrict freedom of expression," the Brussels-based group  said.
"It will also empower the ...

Bangladesh journalists protest security bill

Two female suicide bombers blew  themselves up in northeast Nigeria, shortly after another  bomber killed four at a displaced persons' camp, an emergency  services official said today.
The failed mission at Mandarari village, near the town of  Konduga in Borno state, and the successful attack just outside  the state capital, Maiduguri, both came after ramped-up  military action against Boko Haram Islamists.
Nigeria's military announced in late 2016 that it had  cleared the jihadists' Sambisa Forest stronghold but they are  said to have since returned.
The head of the Borno state emergency management agency,  Ahmed Satomi, said soldiers and civilian militia intercepted  two women at Mandarari at about 9:00 pm yesterday.
"The women detonated their explosives, killing  themselves, having realised they had been uncovered," he told  AFP.
About 45 minutes earlier, a male suicide bomber scaled a  rear fence at the Dalori camp on the outskirts of Maiduguri  and blew himself up. As well as the 

Suicide bombers target NE Nigeria in Boko Haram 'fight-back'

Two Chinese men have been arrested  in Indonesia for attempting to smuggle 200 kilograms (440  pounds) of illicit turtle shells out of the country, police  said today, as they try to stamp out a lucrative illegal  wildlife trade.
Acting on a tip, authorities said they raided a house in  Makassar on the island of Sulawesi Wednesday and found the  massive haul of turtle shells stuffed into boxes.
The suspects, 25-year-old Chen Jianyi and Zhong Qiushan,  31, admitted to buying the shells in Indonesia's Papua  province and then shipping them by boat to Makassar, police  said.
The suspected traffickers planned to move the shells to  China where they would be used to make accessories, trinkets  and souvenirs, according to authorities.
"They admitted they would sell the turtle shells in the  local and international market," local police chief detective  Ivan Wahyudi told AFP.
Turtles, which are under threat due to poaching and  habitat destruction, are protected under Indonesian law.
The ...

Chinese turtle shell traffickers arrested in Indonesia: police

A Cameroonian soldier shot dead  three civilians overnight in the northern town of Mora,  sources close to the security services said today.
The man, a corporal deployed as part of the fight against  the Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram, killed two  women and a boy, according to one source. Nine others were  injured.
Another security source confirmed the toll and called the  shooting "an act of madness".
A source said the man had deserted his base and had been  going house-to-house while under the influence of cannabis,  demanding money and opening fire on those who refused.
The victims are believed to be from among those displaced  in the region by the fighting.
The situation in Mora on Thursday was described as tense,  with the refugees demanding retribution against the soldier.
Mora is home to the headquarters of the local sector of  the Multinational Joint Task Force fighting Boko Haram, in  which Cameroon participates along with four other countries in  the ...

Cameroon soldier kills three civilians

A second Taiwanese businessman has  been questioned over his alleged involvement in selling oil to  North Korea, prosecutors said today, as their probe into the  illicit sanctions-busting trade widens.
The UN Security Council imposed three sets of sanctions  on North Korea last year in response to the reclusive state's  nuclear and missile tests, including restrictions on oil  sales.
But the US has said companies with ties across Asia were  violating those sanctions, including by transferring oil to  North Korean vessels at sea to avoid detection.
The latest man to be questioned, identified only by his  family name Chuang, owns a ship suspected of transferring oil  products to North Korea in the East China Sea, the Kaohsiung  district prosecutor's office in southern Taiwan said.
Chuang, 56, allegedly purchased 7,000 tons of diesel in  Taiwan, falsely claiming in December that the ship was bound  for Hong Kong when it was instead headed to international  waters.
He also intentionally ..

Second Taiwanese man probed over secret N Korea oil sales

Three Catalan leaders imprisoned in  Spain over their role in their region's independence crisis  will take their case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary  Detention, their lawyers in London said today.
"Their detention by Spain is an affront to human rights,  designed to prevent them from performing their role as  political representatives of the Catalan people," lawyer Ben  Emmerson said at a press conference.

Three jailed Catalan leaders appeal to UN panel: lawyers

A man threw a petrol bomb at the  lakeside Yangon compound of Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi  today, officials said, a rare attack on a national figurehead  who enjoys strong domestic support but has drawn global outcry  over her reticence to speak up for the Rohingya.
There was little damage caused by the attack, Kyi Toe, an  official from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party  wrote in a Facebook posting.
"Nothing was destroyed or burned... Our respected  security forces are continuing their work so they can arrest  the culprit," he added.
But the attack is symbolic -- Suu Kyi was held for long  years at the house by the former junta, occasionally leaning  over the famous gates in appearances that galavanised the  democracy movement.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay confirmed the attack,  without speculating on a possible motive.
But he circulated a photo on his Facebook page of a  suspect wearing a pink t-shirt and blue longyi.
The democracy heroine has lost much of her ...

Petrol bomb thrown at Suu Kyi's lakeside villa

A Myanmar court today denied bail to  two Reuters journalists charged under a secrecy act that could  see them face up to 14 years in jail, in a case that has  sparked outcry over shrinking media freedom.
Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, are  accused of possessing classified documents thought to relate  to the violent military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim  minority.
The crackdown in northern Rakhine state has forced nearly  700,000 Rohingya Muslims over the border into Bangladesh since  August, many carrying allegations of rape, mass murder and  arson at the hands of Myanmar's army.
"The pair can't be granted bail according to the law...  and the court has decided not to give them bail," judge Ye  Lwin told the Yangon court of charges under the colonial-era  Official Secrets Act.
The journalists, who have been in custody since December,  say they were given the papers by two policemen who had  invited them to dinner in the outskirts of Yangon.
As they left the ..

Myanmar court denies bail to Reuters journalists

China rebuked Berlin today after a  German official called for the release of a prominent human  rights lawyer "without delay".
Yu Wensheng, 50, was charged last weekend with "inciting  subversion of state power", a week after he was detained as he  prepared to take his son to school in Beijing.
Best known for suing the Beijing government over the  city's once chronic pollution, Yu has been a persistent voice  for reform despite an increasingly severe crackdown on  activism under President Xi Jinping.
Hours before his detention, he had circulated an open  letter calling for five reforms to China's constitution,  including the institution of multi-candidate presidential  elections.
"The arrest of the legal activist Yu Wensheng has  increased my concerns about the human rights situation in  China," German human rights commissioner Barbel Kofler said  Tuesday.
"All Yu Wensheng has done is campaign for democratic  reforms in China and support fellow citizens who were harassed  for ...

China chides Germany for calling for lawyer's release

Prominent Islamic scholar Tariq  Ramadan remained in custody in Paris today after spending a  night behind bars over rape allegations that emerged in the  wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
The Oxford professor was taken into custody on Wednesday  as part of a preliminary inquiry in Paris into rape and  assault allegations, with a legal source saying investigators  wanted to question him further on Thursday morning.
Ramadan, a Swiss national whose grandfather founded  Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement, has furiously  denied separate accusations from two Muslim women that he  raped them in French hotel rooms in 2009 and 2012.
A regular face on French television, the 55-year-old  academic is the most prominent figure to be held in France  over the sexual assault and harassment claims that have  rippled around the world as a result of the online "Me Too"  campaign.
Henda Ayari, a feminist activist who used to practise a  conservative strain of Islam, had described being ...

Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan held in Paris over rape claims

Australia announced tougher  restrictions on foreign buyers of agricultural land and  electricity infrastructure today amid fears over rising  Chinese influence.
Foreign investors now need to demonstrate when purchasing  farmland worth more than Aus$15 million (US$12 million) that  the property has previously been widely marketed to locals for  a month to allow them an adequate opportunity to buy.
Treasurer Scott Morrison insisted Canberra still welcomed  foreign investment in agricultural land "where it is not  contrary to the national interest".
In a similar vein, foreign purchases of electricity  infrastructure will also come under greater scrutiny, with a  range of new restrictions including an assessment of the  "cumulative level of ownership within a sector".
"Electricity distribution and transmission infrastructure  are critical national assets and a key national security  safeguard is the diversity of ownership of these assets,"  Morrison said.
"The government is committed to .

Aus toughens foreign investment rules amid China concerns

Russia today welcomed a decision by  the Court of Arbitration for Sport to lift bans on 28 of its  athletes accused of doping, and said that its efforts to  defend its rights were paying off.
"We are very glad for our athletes," President Vladimir  Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"The information about the decision of the Court of  Arbitration for Sport proves that energetic work to stand up  for our rights in court and elsewhere -- it is justified, it  can be effective and it should continue," Peskov added.
"And we are hoping that this work will certainly  continue."
Peskov said it was not clear whether the 28 Russian  athletes would now be able to take part in the Winter Games  set to begin in Pyeongchang, South Korea next week.
"It is a difficult question," the Kremlin spokesman  added, noting Russian officials would continue talking to the  International Olympic Committee.
Earlier Thursday, the Lausanne-based court lifted life  bans on 28 of the 43 Russians accused 

Kremlin 'very glad' at lifting of ban on 28 Russian athletes

Food and consumer products giant  Unilever today posted soaring 2017 profits of 6.5 billion  euros (USD 8.05 billion), after a year of "major change" when  it spurned a Kraft Heinz takeover bid.
The announcement came a day after Unilever announced it  was adding to its popular ice-cream ranges, which include  Magnum, by scooping up Romania's leading ice-cream maker,  Betty Ice, for an undisclosed price.
Net profit leaped 16.9 per cent on sales of 53.7 billion  euros, up 1.9 per cent year-on-year, which chief executive  Paul Polman said "demonstrates the progress we have made in  transforming Unilever into a more resilient and more agile  business".
"We have delivered a good all-round performance with  competitive growth," he said in a statement, adding the  company had also made two billion euros in savings during the  year.
"This puts us well on track towards our savings target of  EUR6 billion, and a targeted underlying operating margin of 20  per cent by 2020," Polman said.
The ...

Ice, ice baby: Unilever posts rising 2017 profits

This month's Winter Olympics in South  Korea will set a record even before the first athlete comes  out of a starting gate, organisers said today - for the  largest number of free condoms handed out at a Winter Games.
Over little more than two weeks from the opening of the  Olympiad next Friday, a total of 110,000 contraceptive sheaths  will be distributed, 10,000 more than at Vancouver in 2010 or  Sochi in 2014.
With 2,925 athletes taking part, it equates to an average  of 37.6 condoms per sportsman and sportswoman.
But they will be made available to all participants.
"Baskets with condoms will be placed at both men's and  women's toilets" at athletes' villages in Pyeongchang and  Gangneung, the main press centre, the media village as well as  medical centres, the organisers said.
Rubber manufacturer Convenience Co has donated 100,000 of  the condoms, saying it did so for "a successful hosting of the  Winter Olympics and the prevention of the spread of the HIV  virus".
But spokesman .

Pyeongchang sets Winter Olympic record - for condoms

The Court of Arbitration for Sport  (CAS0 today lifted life bans on 28 of the 43 Russians accused  of doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, meaning some  could still compete at this month's Pyeongchang Games.
Sport's top court ruled there was "insufficient" evidence  that the athletes had benefited from a system of state-  sponsored doping at the last Winter Games, hosted by Russia.
CAS said in its judgement: "In 28 cases, the evidence  collected was found to be insufficient to establish that an  anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) was committed by the  athletes concerned."
It added: "The evidence put forward by the IOC in  relation to this matter did not have the same weight in each  individual case."
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said he was  "very glad" about the ruling.
The International Olympic Committee has banned Russia  from competing at Pyeongchang as a team over the doping  scandal, although 169 Russian competitors have been cleared to  take part as ...

Sports court lifts life bans of 28 Russians accused of doping

Royal Dutch Shell today said that  profit after taxation almost tripled to just under USD 13  billion (10.5 billion euros) in 2017, energised by rising oil  and gas prices.
Net or bottom-line earnings for the full year compared  with a figure of USD 4.6 billion in 2016, the Anglo-Dutch  energy giant revealed in a statement.
Earnings in the fourth quarter leapt 147 per cent to USD  3.8 billion compared with the same part of 2016.
Shell was boosted particularly by a major recovery in  crude oil prices, which tends to ramp up revenues and profits  for the entire sector.
World oil prices leapt by about 15 per cent to finish the  year at around USD 60 per barrel, aided by oil cartel OPEC's  efforts to limit its collective production.
"Full-year earnings benefited mainly from higher realised  oil, gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, improved  refining performance and higher production from new fields,  which offset the impact of field declines and divestments,"  the company ...

Shell says annual profit almost triples to $13 bn

Saudi and Emirati envoys shuttled  between Yemeni government forces and besieging southern  separatists in second city Aden today in a bid to end a tense  standoff after days of deadly infighting.
The Sunday assault on the embattled government's  headquarters by its former allies has opened up a new front in  the devastating civil war that has created what the United  Nations says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the two  major contributors to a military coalition that has backed  President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since he fled into exile in  2015.
But they have struggled to keep together the disparate  alliance supporting him against Shiite Huthi rebels who  control the capital Sanaa and much of the north.
South Yemen was an independent country until union with  the north in 1990 and Hadi has relied heavily on militia that  support its restoration.
Many of them have been recruited into special forces  units trained by the UAE to ..

AFP

AFP

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