The party of Catalonia's  dismissed president Carles Puigdemont will run in a December  regional election called by Spain's government in response to  a declaration of independence by Catalan leaders, a  spokeswoman said today.
"We will go to the polls on (December) 21. We will go  with conviction and with a commitment to letting the Catalan  people express themselves," Marta Pascal, spokeswoman for the  PDeCAT party, told reporters.
On Friday, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he  had dissolved the Catalan parliament and called a snap vote  for the region under sweeping powers approved by the Senate to  stop the secessionist movement.
Separatist parties of all political stripes, from  Puigdemont's conservatives to the far-left, have dominated the  Catalan parliament since the last election in 2015, holding 72  seats out of 135.

'Deposed Catalan leader's party will run in snap vote'

PTI Automatic

The United States will pledge  USD 60 million to support the new G5 Sahel regional counter-  terrorism force, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said today,  ahead of UN talks on the operation.
"This is a fight we must win, and these funds will play a  key role in achieving that mission," he said, describing G5  members Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger as  "regional partners."
Washington has previously expressed support for the  force, and has troops and drone operators in the region  supporting operations against Islamist militants, but opposes  United Nations involvement.
The UN Security Council was due to meet later today to  look at ways of shoring up the G5 force, with France seeking a  multilateral platform to provide assistance to its former  colonies.
But US officials have been clear that, while they are  ready to support the G5 members directly, they do not want the  United Nations to authorize the force or take charge of its  funding and logistics.
Tillerson's ...

US pledges USD 60 million to regional Sahel force

A fast-rising cabinet minister  and former army chief seen as a frontrunner to succeed  Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said today that he  was ready to take over if asked.
Political succession in the affluent city-state was  thrust into the limelight last year after Lee, now 65, fainted  briefly while delivering a televised speech.
Elections do not have to be held until early 2021. The  political succession has always been an orderly exercise in  the city-state ruled by the same party since 1959.
Lee, son of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and  himself a former brigadier-general, has said the country needs  a younger crop of ministers to lead Singapore after he steps  down. He has been prime minister for 13 years.
"All of us have to be prepared to do the job when called  upon," Chan Chun Sing, 48, told the Foreign Correspondents  Association when asked if he was ready to take on the role.
"In Singapore, leadership is a responsibility to be borne  not a position to be .

Former army chief says ready to serve as Singapore PM if asked

A convoy carrying aid for some  40,000 people entered the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta  region outside Syria's capital Damascus today, a UN  spokeswoman told AFP.
The joint UN-Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy was carrying  aid to the Kafr Batna and Saqba districts, a week after  doctors said at least two children in Eastern Ghouta had died  of malnutrition and related complications.

Aid for 40,000 enters besieged rebel area near Damascus: UN

Israel's military said it blew up  a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into its territory  today, a rare case of such an incident since the last  Israeli-Gaza war in 2014.
The Israeli army "neutralised a terror tunnel leading  into southern Israel from the vicinity of Khan Yunis",  military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists,  referring to a city in southern Gaza.
"The tunnel was detonated from within Israel, close to  the security fence. The (Israeli army) actions are in light of  this grave and unacceptable violation of Israeli sovereignty."
He added, however, that the Israeli military was not  seeking a further escalation.
Conricus said the tunnel was targeted around two  kilometres (less than two miles) from the Israeli village of  Kissufim, but added that no Israelis had been in danger.
He said the tunnel was still being dug and no opening was  found in Israeli territory. The military had been monitoring  it for "some time", Conricus said, declining to say when it  .

Army blows up tunnel stretching from Gaza into Israel

A Muslim feminist activist who has  accused prominent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan of violent  rape detailed her claims in a hard-hitting interview today.
The leading Oxford professor, whose grandfather  founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement, is  facing investigations in France for the alleged rape of two  women.
Ramadan has denied the accusations as a "campaign of  lies launched by my adversaries".
Henda Ayari, a former Muslim fundamentalist who says  Ramadan raped her in a Paris hotel room in 2012, said she was  encouraged to speak out against him publicly by the "Me Too"  campaign sweeping the world.
"It was the #BalanceTonPorc campaign that pushed me to  reveal his name," she told the Parisien newspaper, in  reference to France's version of the hashtag which means  "Expose your pig".
Ayari, who lodged a rape complaint against the 55-  year-old Swiss national on October 20, charged that for Tariq  Ramadan, "either you wear a veil or you get raped".
"He choked me so .

Muslim activist details rape claims against Oxford professor

Catalonia's dismissed separatist  leader Carles Puigdemont was in Brussels today, a Spanish  government source said, as prosecutors called for him to be  charged with rebellion over his drive for Catalan  independence.
The news came as Madrid took political control of  Catalonia after declaring that Puigdemont and his separatist  regional administration were dismissed on Friday, following  the Catalan parliament's independence declaration.
Yesterday Belgium's immigration minister suggested  Puigdemont could receive asylum in Belgium on the grounds that  he might not get a fair trial in Spain.
Today the Spanish government source told AFP that  Puigdemont "is in Brussels".
Catalan daily La Vanguardia reported that he was  accompanied by others from his former administration.
Puigdemont, 54, said the result of an outlawed  independence referendum on October 1 gave the region a mandate  to declare independence.
Madrid and the Spanish courts said the referendum was  illegal and that a ...

Catalonia's axed leader 'in Brussels'

A Bahraini court today sentenced 19  Shiites to lengthy jail terms on charges of spying for Iran  and plotting to overthrow the regime, judicial sources said.
Eight people were sentenced to life in prison, nine to 15  years in prison and two to 10 years in jail for espionage and  inciting public dissent, according to a statement released by  the counter-terrorism prosecutor's office.
Fifteen of those convicted were also stripped of Bahraini  citizenship, the statement said.
The court found the group guilty of leaking information  to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon's Iranian-  backed Hezbollah and of receiving "material support" from the  two forces.
They were also convicted of forming a cell to "incite the  public against the government and call for regime change by  force".
The prosecutor's office said the 19 belonged to the Al-  Wafaa Islamic movement, a little-known group which Bahraini  authorities say is linked to the Revolutionary Guards and  Hezbollah.
Speaking on 

Bahrain convicts 19 Shiites as spies for Iran

Catalonia's axed separatist leader  Carles Puigdemont was in Brussels today, not in his home  region as previously thought, a Spanish government source  said.
Puigdemont, 54, dismissed by the central government on  Friday, "is in Brussels," the source told AFP.
The Catalan daily La Vanguardia reported that he was  accompanied by others from his former administration.

Catalonia's axed leader in Brussels: govt source

Seven people have died as heavy  storms lashed central Europe, leaving authorities in Germany,  Poland and the Czech Republic scrambling to restore rail and  road links.
Storm "Hewart" had yesterday pounded the region with cold  rains and heavy winds, downing trees and flooding coastal  areas and the German port city of Hamburg while leaving  200,000 people without power in western Poland.
In Germany, emergency workers were today trying to move a  stranded freighter off a sandbank near the East Frisian island  of Langeoog in the North Sea. None of the 22 crew were hurt  and the ship was intact, authorities said.
German police also raised the nationwide death toll from  the storm to three, some three weeks after storm "Xavier"  killed seven people in northern and eastern Germany.
A 56-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman died after a  pleasure boat yesterday sank in rough waters in the Peenestrom  Inlet on the Baltic coast, where another man, also 48,  remained missing.
Police had ...

Central Europe storms leave seven dead

A mass trial resumed in Turkey today  of more than 220 suspects, including former generals, accused  of being among the ringleaders of last year's coup bid to  unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The suspects face life sentences if convicted of charges  ranging from using violence to try to overthrow the government  and parliament, to killing nearly 250 people.
Turkey blames the July 2016 coup attempt on Muslim cleric  Fethullah Gulen, a claim he strongly denies.
Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United  States, is among several of the 221 suspects named in the  indictment who are on the run.
The rest are due to appear in court in Sincan near the  capital Ankara at a facility that was purpose-built to hear  coup-related trials.
The attempted coup on July 15, 2016, left 249 people  dead, not counting 24 plotters.
Also among the suspects in one of Turkey's highest-  profile prosecutions are several high-ranking military  officers including ex-air force commander Akin ...

Mass trial of Turkey alleged coup ringleaders resumes

Belgian police held four people  today over the 2015 attack on a high-speed Thalys train to  Paris in which an Islamic State extremist shot and seriously  wounded a passenger before being overpowered.
Police raided six properties around Brussels and "four  people were taken in for questioning", Belgian prosecutors  said in a statement.
An investigating judge will decide later what further  action to take against the detainees.
A bloodbath was only narrowly averted on the train from  Amsterdam to Paris when quick-thinking passengers including  two off-duty US servicemen subdued gunman Ayoub El Khazzani --  who was armed with a Kalashnikov, a pistol and a box-cutter  knife -- as he opened fire.
Two of today's raids were in the gritty Brussels district  of Molenbeek, which has gained notoriety as a hotbed of  international jihadists after the Brussels bombings in March  2016 and the Paris attacks in November 2015.
"No explosives nor weapons were found" during Monday's  raids, prosecutors 

Four held in Belgium over 2015 Thalys train attack

At least five people were  killed today when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a  mosque in northeastern Nigeria, a militia member assisting the  military against Boko Haram jihadists said.
The leader of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in  Ajiri Yala, some 15 kilometres north of Maiduguri, said the  attack happened at about 4:30 am (local time).
"A male suicide bomber disguised as a worshipper entered  the mosque while people were gathering for the morning  prayers," he told AFP by telephone.
"He detonated his explosives. He killed five people and  injured several others."
Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has  used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year  insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic state.
Mosques that do not ascribe to its extremist views are  seen as legitimate targets, as are people and places seen to  be supportive of the secular government.
Yesterday, a CJTF member manning a checkpoint in the Muna  area of Maiduguri was 

Five dead in suicide bombing in Nigeria mosque: militia

South Korean prosecutors demanded a  10-year jail term today for the chairman of embattled retail  giant the Lotte Group for embezzlement and breach of duty.
The country's fifth largest conglomerate has been  battered by boycott campaigns in China over South Korea's  deployment of a US missile defence system -- for which it  provided the land -- and by criminal trials for members of its  founding family.
Chairman Shin Dong-Bin was charged with embezzling USD50  million and illegally offering relatives business favours that  cost the group about USD120 million.
Similar charges were levelled against his older brother  and sister and their father, Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-Ho -- as  well as the latter's mistress.
"The family members tried to run the group as if it was  their private property using all possible ways imaginable for  such a long time," the prosecutors said in a statement.
Dong-Bin awarded lucrative deals or paid "wages" worth  millions of dollars to relatives who made little .

S Korea prosecutors seek 10 years' jail for Lotte boss

Tehran today rejected as "ridiculous  and baseless" accusations by Saudi Arabia that Iran is  supporting rebels and blocking peace efforts in Yemen.
"The Saudi foreign minister's claims that our country has  been blocking peace efforts in Yemen are ridiculous and  baseless," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said.
"Iran has condemned the aggression (against Yemen) since  the beginning... and will not spare any efforts to stop this  bloody and detestable war," Ghasemi said in a statement  published on the ministry's website.
Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition backing Yemen's  government in its fight against the Shiite Huthi rebels.
Both sides in the Yemen conflict have come under harsh  criticism for their neglect of civilian safety, but the Saudi-  led coalition has in particular been accused of bombing  schools, markets and hospitals.
"Repeating such false accusations will not reduce the  responsibility... of those who have committed heinous crimes,  particularly murder, 

Iran rejects 'ridiculous' Saudi accusations on Yemen

A Kurdish video journalist  with a channel backing Iraqi Kurdistan's leader Massud Barzani  was stabbed to death at his home overnight in disputed Kirkuk  province, a security source said today.
Four armed men broke into the home of Arkan Sharif, a 54  -year-old journalist with Kurdistan TV, at 2:30 AM (local  time) in the Daquq area south of Kirkuk city, the source said.
Sharif, a father of three, was stabbed five times after  his family were locked up in another room, the source said.
Iraqi security forces backed by Hashed al-Shaabi  paramilitaries in mid-October seized oil-rich Kirkuk province  from the Kurds in the wake of a Kurdish independence vote held  in defiance of Baghdad.
Kurdish media have since accused the Hashed, an alliance  composed mainly of Shiite militias, of carrying out a campaign  of retribution against Kurdish civilians.
Long-time Kurdish leader Barzani, the architect of the  referendum, announced yesterday he is stepping down after it  led to Iraq's recapture .

Kurd journalist stabbed to death in Iraq's disputed Kirkuk

Four civilians and a  policeman were killed today in clashes in eastern DR Congo as  demonstrations took place to demand President Joseph Kabila  stand down this year, a correspondent said.
The journalist said he saw the bodies of four civilians  lying in blood in the Madjengon district of Goma, capital of  the troubled North Kivu province, while the body of a  policeman who had been hit with stones was on the ground in  the neighbouring district Mabanga.
The protest was organised by an associations of civil  society groups, including the pro-democracy Struggle for  Change (Lucha).
"The resistance against the bloody and predatory regime  of Kabila has well and truly begun," Lucha said on Twitter.
Tensions are running high in the Democratic Republic of  Congo after Kabila failed to step down on the expiry of his  second and final term last December.
Elections were due to take place this year under a  transitional deal aimed at avoiding bloodshed in a country  beset by ethnic divisions .

Four civilians, policeman killed in clashes in DR Congo

A fresh round of peace talks seeking  to end Syria's war opened in the Kazakh capital Astana today,  as part of a Moscow-led push supported by Iran and opposition  backer Turkey.
The latest round of talks begins days after the Islamic  State jihadist group was forced out of its de facto capital  Raqa in northern Syria, in a major victory for the US-backed  Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces.
Recent rounds of talks in the Central Asian nation have  focused on ironing out the details of a Russia-led plan for  four de-escalation zones in Syria.
"Closed-format talks have begun," Kazakh foreign ministry  spokesman Anuar Zhainakov told AFP, adding that the two-day  negotiations would conclude with statements to the press.
Zhainakov confirmed that delegations from the Syrian  government and the rebels seeking President Bashar al-Assad's  overthrow had arrived in Astana, as had negotiators from  Turkey and regime backers Russia and Iran.
Despite backing opposite sides in the war, Ankara ...

Fresh Syria talks open in Astana

Iranian environmentalists have  mobilised to protect the world's last Asiatic cheetahs,  estimated to number just 50 and faced with the threats of  becoming roadkill, a shortage of prey and farmers' dogs.
"The last time our photo traps caught a cheetah here, it  was two years ago. But we're sure they are still in the  region," said Rajab Ali Kargar, deputy head of the National  Protection Project for the Asiatic Cheetah.
His camp is just a stone's throw from an old royal  hunting pavilion in the Garmsar area of Semnan province,  around 120 kilometres south of Tehran, but these days the  focus is on preservation rather than killing.
The world's fastest land animal, capable of reaching  speeds of 120 kilometres per hour, once stalked habitats from  the eastern reaches of India to the Atlantic coast of Senegal.
Their numbers have stabilised in parts of southern  Africa, but they have practically disappeared from northern  Africa and Asia.
The subspecies "Acinonyx jubatus venaticus", ...

Iran moves to save last 'mascot' Asiatic cheetahs

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un took  his stylish wife and powerful sister to a make-up plant for a  "field guidance trip" amid the country's nuclear standoff with  the US.
During a visit to the Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory in the  capital, Kim hailed its "world-level" products that realised  "the dream of the women who want to be more beautiful", the  official KCNA news agency reported.
Kim was accompanied by Kim Yo-Jong, his younger sister  and a senior member of the ruling Workers' Party, it said,  with photos showing Kim's wife Ri Sol-Ju following him at the  factory in a floral pattern dress.
The two are seen as the most powerful women in the  isolated, deeply patriarchal nation.
They have often accompanied Kim to official events since  he took power in 2011, in a break from the past when former  leaders' spouses or sisters rarely made public appearances.
Ri, a former star singer also known for her affinity for  luxury fashion, is known to have three children with Kim.
Yo-Jong, ...

N Korea's Kim tours cosmetics plant with wife, sister

Saudi Arabia will allow women into  sports stadiums for the first time from next year, authorities  have said, in a landmark move opening up three previously  male-only venues to families.
The ultra-conservative kingdom, which has some of the  world's tightest restrictions on women, has long barred women  from sports arenas by strict rules on segregation of the sexes  in public.
The yesterday's announcement is in line with powerful  Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitious reforms shaking  up the kingdom, including the historic decision to allow women  to drive from next June.
"Starting the preparation of three stadiums in Riyadh,  Jeddah and Dammam to be ready to accommodate families from  early 2018," the General Sports Authority said on Twitter.
Restaurants, cafes and video screens would be set up  inside the venues, the authority added.
Last month hundreds of women were allowed to enter a  sports stadium in Riyadh, used mostly for football matches, in  a one-off event to ...

AFP

AFP

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