Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci today gave up on his plans for a rapid transformation of the nation's defence force into an army, ceding to strong opposition from Western allies.
	Thaci had submitted to the parliament in early March a draft bill to establish a regular army for Kosovo by changing the current law on the Kosovo Security Force (KSF).
	It would have been done without amending the constitution and would therefore circumvent a likely veto by Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority, who are hostile to the move. The majority of Kosovo's population is ethnic Albanian.
	Since Kosovo's 1998-1999 war with Serbia, NATO-led multinational troops have been deployed in the territory which is currently not allowed its own army.
	But now Thaci is endorsing the process of a constitutional amendment.
	"We agree fully that this process should happen through constitutional changes," Thaci told AFP today.
	"We want to establish the army of Kosovo in order to be an integral part of NATO and not a Kosovo 

Kosovo's president bows to pressure on his army plan

PTI Automatic

The Islamic State group forces locked in battle with Iraqi troops for the northern city of Mosul are estimated to be down to fewer than 1,000 fighters, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said today.
	Colonel Joe Scrocca, a spokesman for the Baghdad-based coalition, said IS had an estimated 2,000 fighters in west Mosul when the Iraqi push began in mid-February. "We believe it's less than half now," he said.

Fewer than 1,000 jihadists left in embattled Mosul: coalition

A Palestinian sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 2000 lynching of two Israeli soldiers has been released after new evidence emerged, the army said.
	A photo of a man with bloody hands screaming with joy in a Palestinian police station after the two soldiers were beaten to death became an iconic image from the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
	Hatem Maari, a Palestinian arrested shortly after the incident and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 for his role in the lynching, had sought a new trial.
	The military court granted his request following "new elements that make it difficult to prove his effective participation in the killing of one of the soldiers," the army said in a statement.
	The statement gave no further details on the new evidence.
	He was still found guilty of aggression against a soldier and not preventing an offence and sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison, the army said.
	With time already served he was immediately released.
	In ...

Palestinian released over murder of Israeli soldiers

Russian President Vladimir Putin today said climate change was unstoppable and not caused by human activity and urged countries to adapt to global warming.
	One day after he visited the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic, Putin claimed that icebergs had been melting for decades and suggested that global warming was not mankind's fault.
	"The warming, it had already started by the 1930s," Putin said in comments broadcast from an Arctic forum held in the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk.
	"That's when there were no such anthropological factors, such emissions, and the warming had already started."
	The Kremlin strongman added: "The issue is not stopping it... Because that's impossible, since it could be tied to some global cycles on Earth or even of planetary significance. The issue is to somehow adapt to it."
	Putin supported his argument by saying that an Austrian explorer who had a "photographic memory" visited the Franz Josef Land archipelago "in the 1930s."
	Twenty ...

Putin says climate change not caused by emissions

President Donald Trump is "serious" about solving the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said ahead of a meeting with the US leader.
	"The US administration of President Donald Trump is seriously considering a solution to the Palestinian issue," Abbas told AFP yesterday after a meeting of the Arab League in Jordan.
	Abbas met with Trump's Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt before leaving for the summit and said contacts with the administration were ongoing.
	"(There is) continuing dialogue with the American administration and there were a number of issues they wanted our opinion on or our answer to them," he added.
	"We gave them our position on all their questions."
	Abbas is expected to meet with Trump in Washington for the first time in April.
	Trump is also expected to meet other Arab leaders in the coming weeks, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
	Trump caused alarm among Palestinians and many parts of the ...

Abbas: Trump 'serious' about Israel-Palestine peace

A Syrian man set himself on fire at a migrant camp on the Greek island of Chios today in despair over his bid to gain asylum, the Greek news agency ANA reported.
	Video footage, posted on Twitter by the BBC's Greece correspondent, showed a young man holding a petrol can and addressing camp residents, and then catching fire as a policeman approached.
	The unidentified man was rushed to hospital with burns over 90 per cent of his body, ANA said. The policeman who tried to save him was also hospitalised with burns.
	Thousands of people, many of them Syrians fleeing war, are stuck in Greece's Aegean islands as a result of an EU-Turkish agreement that curbed the influx of migrants to the European Union.
	Most of them have filed for asylum to avoid being sent back to Turkey, but these applications take months to handle. Humanitarian groups have repeatedly sounded the alarm over declining morale in their camps.
	In a separate incident, Greek police said today they had arrested a people ...

Syrian migrant sets himself on fire in Greece protest: report

German automaker Volkswagen AG said today it reached a settlement with 10 US states on environmental and consumer claims stemming from its emissions cheating scandal.
	The company has agreed to pay USD 157.5 million to the states, including New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, resolving suits by the states against VW for violating emissions standards.
	"The agreement avoids further prolonged and costly litigation as Volkswagen continues to work to earn back the trust of its customers, regulators and the public," VW said in a statement.
	Volkswagen so far has agreed to pay out more than USD 20 billion in the US, including criminal penalties, to federal and state authorities, as well as consumers and car dealers, to resolve its "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal which has rocked the company since 2015.
	Regulators discovered Volkswagen diesel cars sold as clean were in fact emitting as much as 40 times the permissible levels of nitrogen oxide during normal driving but were ...

VW reaches USD 157 mn diesel settlement with 10 US states

The once powerful speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress Eduardo Cunha was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for corruption.
	The sentence, detailed in a court document signed by leading anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro, was a landmark in Brazil's ongoing struggle with rampant high-level embezzlement and bribery.
	Until his arrest last year, Cunha was one of the most influential politicians in Brazil and an architect of the impeachment of leftist president Dilma Rousseff.

Brazilian ex-speaker sentenced to 15 years for corruption

The speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly accused President Nicolas Maduro today of staging a "coup" after the Supreme Court took over the powers of the opposition-majority legislature.
	"Nicolas Maduro has staged a coup in Venezuela," top lawmaker Julio Borges said in a fiery speech outside the National Assembly, after the high court -- condemned by the opposition as a Maduro lapdog -- granted itself legislative powers.

Speaker of Venezuelan congress accuses Maduro of 'coup'

The United Nations Security Council will vote tomorrow to cut the number of troops and police in its peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo by around seven per cent.
	According to a draft council resolution seen by AFP, which diplomats expected to pass unanimously, the force of 19,815 uniformed personnel will be reduced to 18,316.

UN to cut back DR Congo peacekeeping force: draft resolution

Ghana's new gender minister has warned schoolgirls that what they wear can attract rapists, sparking controversy and debate in a traditional but evolving society.
	Otiko Djaba told girls at a senior school in eastern Ghana they should demand respect and equality but added short dresses "can attract someone who would want to rape or defile you.
	"You must be responsible for the choices you make," she said during a visit last week.
	The minister's comments have been widely criticised, with many arguing they wrongly place the blame for rape and sexual assault on the victim rather than the perpetrator.
	Djaba joins a growing list of political figures around the world who have caused outrage by making a direct link between what a woman wears and rape.
	Ghana, which has seen rapid growth in recent years, remains socially conservative: in a 2012 survey, 96 per cent of Ghanaians described themselves as religious.
	Clothing for girls and women is a mix of Western imports and traditional print .

Ghana's gender minister causes storm over rape comments

Spain's parliament will probe the alleged illegal funding of the conservative Popular Party (PP), an accusation that has long plagued Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's party without ever being proven.
	Lawmakers in the lower house, including those in the PP, voted today to create an investigative commission into the allegations, as proposed by the Socialists and two other opposition parties.
	The PP has been hit by a series of corruption scandals over the years, and several former lawmakers and civil servants from the party are currently on trial over claims that companies showered them with bribes to win public contracts.
	Most of the defendants are facing criminal charges, but the party itself is accused only of having benefitted from funds obtained illegally, making it liable to civil penalties.
	But during the hearings, Luis Barcenas, a former party treasurer on trial, said publicly for the first time that the PP once had a slush fund, a claim that is now being investigated by ...

Spanish parliament to probe funding claims against ruling

European leaders vowed today to fight populism and prevent a haemorrhaging of the EU a day after Britain started the exit process.
	"Those who take aim at European unity threaten their own communities," EU President Donald Tusk told a congress of the European People's Party (EPP) in Malta, which currently holds the presidency of the bloc.
	"We must challenge the populists, we must say loud and clear that they are the opposite of modern patriotism.
	"Today they are efficiently and cynically taking advantage of social fears and uncertainty, building their own model of security based on prejudice, authoritarianism and organised hatred. Our response must be clear and decisive," he said.
	Britain launched the historic process of leaving the European Union yesterday, but its European partners were quick to warn of the difficult path that lies ahead amid fears a good deal for London could encourage others to leave.
	The centre-right EPP, the biggest party in the European Parliament, approved 

EU leaders vow to fight populism in Brexit wake

All football regions will see their World Cup slots increased when the tournament expands to 48 teams in 2026, with Africa the biggest winner, according to FIFA recommendations released today.
     The plan to expand the competition beyond its current 32-team format, which is subject to approval at FIFA's May Congress in Bahrain, guarantees Africa nine places, marking an increase of four.
     Asia, currently guaranteed between four and five World Cup entries, will get eight slots, while European confederation UEFA gets a boost from 13 to 16.
     The confederation for North, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) will have six places, above its current level of between three and four.
     South America (CONMEBOL), which now has between four and five slots, will get six, according to the recommendations from FIFA's ruling council.
     Oceana, which has not been guaranteed an entry in past World Cups, will be assured one spot.
     The January 10 decision to expand the World ...

All regions get more slots in 2026 World Cup - FIFA plan

The debate surrounding US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has focused almost entirely on the Latino community, leaving other groups affected -- notably Asians -- largely out of the discourse, experts say.
	Of the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, some 80 per cent are from Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America. But the second largest group -- 1.5 million -- are from Asia, according to government figures and researchers.
	The majority hail from China, India, the Philippines and South Korea, representing the fastest-growing segments of unauthorized immigrants in the United States since 2000, according to the Pew Research Center and the Migration Policy Institute.
	The number of unauthorized immigrants from India, for example, grew by about 130,000 from 2009 to 2014, to an estimated half a million, according to Pew.
	And yet Asians have often been overlooked in the current debate over illegal immigration, which has mainly been cast by the ...

Asian community rattled by Trump immigration policies

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) will restructure the lower levels of the sport in a bid to significantly reduce the number of professional players.
     A three-year review by the governing body of professional and junior tennis found not enough players are making a living from the game and that the age of those players is increasing.
     Around 14,000 players currently compete in professional events, almost half of whom do not earn any prize money.
     The ITF would like to reduce this to no more than 750 men and 750 women and the reforms, which have been approved by the ITF board, is for the introduction of a new Transition Tour from 2019.
     The new tour would replace the lowest level of professional tournaments on the ITF Pro Circuit, with players earning ITF entry points instead of ATP or WTA ranking points.
     The two systems will be linked to ensure that the more successful players are able to use their entry points to gain acceptance into higher-level ...

Tennis chiefs slash number of pro players

A Bahraini court today sentenced three Shiite Muslims to jail and stripped them of their citizenship over terrorism-related charges, as the Gulf kingdom toughens its stance against dissent.
	One of the defendants was jailed for 15 years while the two others were sentenced to 10 years in prison each, said a judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	The three were found guilty of forming a terrorist cell and receiving Iranian funding aimed at destabilising Bahrain, the source said.
	They were also convicted of training with the Iraq's Ketaeb Hezbollah, one of the main groups in that country's Hashed al-Shaabi umbrella organisation.
	Since the outbreak of protests in Bahrain, Sunni authorities have accused Shiite Iran of mobilising anti-government protests among the country's majority Shiite population. Iran has consistently denied involvement.
	Today's trial came a day after two Shiites were handed the death sentence and 20 others jailed in connection with a 2015 bombing ...

Bahrain jails, strips 3 of citizenship for 'terrorism'

Four more Russian competitors were snared today in the International Olympic Committee's targeted drive to root out doping at the Games, the IOC said.
     The quartet had their doping samples from the London 2012 Olympics reanalysed -- the IOC has been using new technology to retest samples from 2012 and the 2008 Beijing Games and has caught dozens of drug cheats.
     The four have all been retroactively disqualified from the London Games.
     The IOC named the Russians as: weightlifter Khadzhimurat Akkaev, 31; Mariia Bespalova, 30, who came 11th in the hammer; Gulfiya Khanafeeva, 34, 16th in the hammer; and triple jumper Victoria Valyukevich, 34, who was eighth in the event.
     All four took the banned steroid turinabol.
     The IOC has reanalysed 1,545 samples from the London and Beijing Games and caught more than 100 drug cheats as a result.
     A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report said that Russians had used banned substances in numerous Olympic sports over several ...

Four doping Russians snared in IOC crackdown

President Donald Trump lashed out a rebellious conservatives today, threatening to "fight them" in 2018 legislative elections if they "don't get on the team."
	Deepening a fissure that destroyed his first major effort to pass a law, Trump took aim at members of the so-called "Freedom Caucus," branding them as a foe in the same vein as Democrats.
	"The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!" Trump tweeted.
	Trump's characteristically strong-handed approach is another effort to bring the fiercely conservative group, which has repeatedly voted against Republican leaders in Congress, into line.
	Most of the group of 30 House Republicans rejected a previous White House ultimatum to vote for Trump's health care reform, delivered the new president a stinging political defeat.
	The Freedom Caucus has long been a thorn in the side of Republican leaders. But during eight years of a Democratic ...

Trump targets dissenting Republicans

Russian President Vladimir Putin today denounced the scandals over Donald Trump's ties to Moscow, adding that he would be happy to meet with his US counterpart this year.
	Speaking at an international forum on the Arctic organised by Russia in the northern city of Arkhangelsk, Putin once again denied any Kremlin involvement in the US election last year, slamming the recent accusations as "absurd" and "irresponsible."
	"We are just waiting for when the situation improves," Putin said in televised comments. "When it's over, I hope we decide on holding a meeting" with Trump.
	Putin said he would be keen for their first face-to-face talks to happen at the G20 summit in July or earlier, for example at a summit Finland may host after becoming chair of the Arctic Council intergovernmental forum in May.
	"Such events should be prepared by both sides. If it happens, then we would be glad, I would be glad, to take part in this event," Putin said at the forum, which Finnish President Sauli ...

Putin says will be 'glad' to meet Trump when scandals over

China has announced bans on beards and burkas in its remote violence-wracked Xinjiang region as part of tighter 'anti-extremism' regulations that also prohibit refusing to watch government propaganda.
	Xinjiang is the homeland of the Uighurs - a traditionally Muslim group, many of whom complain of cultural and religious repression and discrimination.
	The area has been hit by a wave of deadly unrest, while authorities have stepped up already-strict controls and organised mass rallies of thousands of military police to indicate Chinese resolve in crushing security threats.
	The new regulations, which will come into force on Saturday, outline prohibitions on growing "abnormal" facial hair or wearing robes that cover the whole body and face.
	They also ban spreading "extremist ideas", refusing to watch or listen to government propaganda on radio or TV, and preventing children from receiving "national education", according to the text of regulations published on a government ...

AFP

AFP

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