Turkish-backed Syrian rebels announced today that they had taken full control of the northern town of Al-Bab from the Islamic State jihadist group after weeks of deadly fighting.
	Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported that rebels had overrun the centre of the town, which had been a key IS stronghold just 25 kilometres south of the border.
	"We are announcing Al-Bab completely liberated, and we are now clearing mines from the residential neighbourhoods," said Ahmad Othman, commander of the Sultan Mourad rebel group.
	"After hours of fighting, we chased out the last remaining IS rank and file that were collapsing after the fierce shelling of their positions," he added.
	But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that IS fighters were still present in parts of the town and the rebels were in control of less than half of it.
	The rebels launched their offensive to capture Al-Bab last year with the support of Turkish ground troops, artillery and air strikes.
	Field commanders ...

Syria rebels announce capture of Al-Bab from IS

PTI Automatic

Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf has urged news organisations to report objectively on the Nordic nation, after US President Donald Trump drew attention to the country's immigration challenges.
	In an interview with the Sydsvenskan newspaper published today, three days after a riot broke out in a Stockholm suburb with a large immigrant population, the monarch called for a balanced approach in news reporting.
	"It's important for Sweden's image in the world to report about the good examples," the 70-year-old king told the daily.
	"It won't happen without a serious and well-sourced media," he said.
	Images of the violence spread like wildfire around the world, blurring Sweden's response to Trump and the Fox News channel's report linking rising crime to immigration to which he had referred.
	The king praised Sweden for its research on immigration.
	"A lot of good research on integration issues is being conducted at the University of Malmo," he said after a visit on Wednesday to Sweden's ...

Report 'seriously' on Sweden, king tells global media

At least five patients at a traditional Chinese medicine hospital in China were accidentally infected with HIV, officials said today, as authorities moved to censor online discussion over the incident.
	A technician at the Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine re-used a tube employed in an earlier medical exam for an HIV-positive patient, the province's health and family planning commission said in a statement on its official website, calling it a "severe violation of procedure".
	The local centre for disease control confirmed that five patients were infected, it added, without offering further information about the total number of patients the technician may have exposed to the virus.
	The government body had been notified of the situation by the hospital on January 26. It did not explain why no statement was issued in the interim period, nor did it specify when the infections occurred.
	It was not clear what those who were accidentally infected were originally 

Five infected with HIV at China traditional medicine hospital

The Islamic State group said today that it was responsible for rocket fire on the Israeli resort of Eilat from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
	"Thanks to God alone, a military platoon fired several Grad rockets yesterday" towards Eilat, the jihadists' Egyptian affiliate said in a statement circulated on social media.
	The Israeli army said Wednesday evening's rocket fire did not cause any casualties.
	Three rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system and a fourth fell short of the town.
	IS has waged a deadly insurgency against Egyptian security forces in the Sinai but attacks on Israel from Egyptian territory are rare.
	In 2011, assailants who came from the Sinai killed eight Israelis in a triple ambush north of Eilat. Pursuing Israeli forces killed seven attackers and five Egyptian police.
	In 2013, four jihadists were killed by an Egyptian air strike as they were about to fire a rocket at Israel, according to the Egyptian military.
	In 2014, two Israeli soldiers on .

IS says it fired rockets at Israel's Eilat from Egypt

An explosion at a nuclear power plant on France's northwest coast caused minor injuries today, but the authorities said there was no risk of radiation.
	The blast took place in the engine room at the Flamanville plant, which lies 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of the port of Cherbourg and just across from the Channel Islands.
	"It is not a nuclear accident," senior local official Jacques Witkowski told AFP.
	He said a ventilator had exploded outside the nuclear zone at the plant, which has been in operation since the 1980s.
	Five people suffered smoke inhalation but there were no serious injuries, Witkowski said.
	One of the two pressurised water reactors at the plant was shut down after the explosion and the incident was declared over at 1100 GMT, the authorities said.
	A new third-generation reactor known as EPR is also being built at Flamanville, which will be the world's largest when it goes into operation in late 2018.
	Construction of the new plant at the site in Normandy began ..

Explosion at French nuclear plant, 'no radiation risk'

German police in overnight raids arrested an Algerian and a Nigerian man suspected of planning an Islamist attack, authorities said today.
	More than 450 officers took part in the mass raids targeting 12 locations, mostly in the central city of Goettingen in Lower Saxony state, they said.
	Police investigating the fundamentalist Islamist community had acted on information pointing to "a possibly imminent terrorist attack", said the city's police chief Uwe Luehrig.
	They detained the two men, a 27-year-old Algerian and a Nigerian, 23, who had both lived for some time in the city with their families.
	Germany was hit by several attacks last year claimed by the Islamic State group -- the most deadly of them a December 19 truck rampage though a Berlin Christmas market that claimed 12 lives.
	German security services say they consider some 550 known Islamists as potentially dangerous and capable of carrying out an attack.
	German federal prosecutors, in charge of terrorism cases, have ...

Germany arrests Algerian, Nigerian attack plot suspects

Japanese police have arrested six men for alleged involvement in child pornography that possibly involved the abuse of as many as 168 boys, media reported today.
	The arrested were aged 20 to 66, the top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun and other media said, citing a police statement.
	The victims reportedly ranged from the ages of four to 13.
	Police could not immediately comment on the reports when contacted by AFP, and it was unclear from them when the arrests occurred.
	But they came as Japan takes gradual steps to toughen laws against child pornography after years of criticism from international campaigners.
	In 2014 the country joined other major developed nations and criminalised the possession of child pornography, not just production.
	Among the detained was a tour company employee whose job involved being at camps for children, the Asahi Shimbun daily and other media reported.
	The man, from Osaka prefecture in western Japan, allegedly touched and undressed children at those events ..

Japan arrests six over child porn

The bodies of six passengers believed to be from a boat which capsized in rough seas off Malaysia have been found, a coast guard official said today.
	The boat was carrying more than a dozen suspected illegal immigrants from Indonesia, said Awil Kamsari, a spokesman for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
	The six bodies, including those of three children, were recovered by Indonesian authorities in Indonesian waters, said Awil.
	Two passengers were rescued alive by a fisherman and some villagers in waters near Sabah state on Borneo island on Wednesday evening and taken to hospital.
	They told authorities the boat had been travelling from the southwestern coast of Sabah to Indonesia on Tuesday evening when it overturned and sank.
	The coast guard said the boat likely sank shortly after it set sail due to bad weather and rough seas.
	In January several bodies washed ashore at a beach in the Malaysian state of Johor after a boat believed to be carrying some 40 Indonesian illegal .

6 bodies found after boat capsizes off Malaysia: official

Bangladesh has ordered construction to start at a desolate island where it wants to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, an official said today, despite warnings the site is uninhabitable.
	The move comes as Human Rights Watch described as "ridiculous" claims by Bangladesh that shifting the Rohingya to a barren island prone to monsoonal flooding would improve their living conditions.
	Bangladesh is seeking international support for its plan to relocate the Rohingya to Thengar Char in the Bay of Bengal, an idea that caused outcry when first mooted in 2015.
	Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina deployed an aide to the remote island yesterday, who ordered construction begin on a jetty, helipad and visitor facilities, the government official overseeing administration of Thengar Char told AFP.
	"He asked that those structures were built promptly, so visitors could have easier access to the island," said Rezaul Karim, the official who accompanied the prime minister's aide to Thengar ...

Bangladesh orders work begin at proposed Rohingya island

The former chairman of Chinese auto giant FAW was jailed today for taking more than a million dollars in bribes, in the latest penalty meted out to a top executive of a state-owned firm.
	Xu Jianyi was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for taking more than 12 million yuan (USD 1.75 million) in exchange for assisting "the business operations and promotion and relocation" of others, a Beijing court said.
	The graft happened from 2000 to 2013, the First Intermediate People's Court said in a brief statement posted on its official social media account, without providing further details.
	FAW, originally known as First Automotive Works, is China's third biggest automaker with sales of more than three million vehicles last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
	Headquartered in Changchun city in the northeastern province of Jilin, FAW has a passenger car joint venture with Volkswagen that produces the German automaker's Audi brand, among ...

China jails ex-chairman of auto giant FAW for bribery

Explosion at French nuclear plant, no contamination risk:

Porn producers in Japan are preying on young modelling hopefuls, with a quarter of women who sign contracts with street touts asked to perform in sex videos, a new government survey has found.
	Chilling stories of young women duped into signing modelling contracts only to find themselves on adult movie sets and instructed to perform sometimes brutal sex scenes have created alarm over Japan's multi-billion dollar adult film business in recent months.
	Campaigners have won a rare pledge to reform from the sex industry, which is so ubiquitous that actresses can become household names, appearing on mainstream talk shows and in magazines.
	But with a growing number of women speaking out about being forced into porn work, Japan's government launched its first study into the industry's recruitment methods in December.
	The online survey, seen today by AFP, found some 200 young women who signed modelling contracts after being approached on the street, most of them minors.
	Of these 53 said ...

'Porn brokers preying on young Japanese modelling hopefuls'

German heavy industry and steel giant ThyssenKrupp today confirmed its full-year forecast after swinging back to profit in the first quarter, lifted up by its elevator and auto parts businesses.
	In what it described as a "good start to the new fiscal year", the industrial giant reported a net income of 8.0 million euros (USD 8.5 million) between October and December, recovering from a 23-million-euro loss over the same period a year earlier.
	Sales were up six percent at 10.1 billion euros in the first quarter, slightly beating analyst expectations, while the group's closely watched adjusted earnings before interest and tax rose by 40 per cent to 329 million euros.
	The uptick comes as ThyssenKrupp is switching its focus from its traditional steel business, which has been battered by low prices, to making industrial goods and offering technical services.
	Chief executive Heinrich Hiesinger said the latest results showed that "our strategy is right".
	"We're increasing our share of ...

ThyssenKrupp returns to profit, lifted by elevator unit

Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced today an order for a total of 39 Boeing passenger planes worth USD 13.8 billion as part of its growth plans for the next decade.
	The carrier said in a statement that it had signed a letter of intent with the US manufacturer for 20 777-9s and 19 787-10s, with options for six more of each aircraft, bringing the total to 51 if exercised.
	"Today's major order for widebody aircraft enables us to continue operating a modern and fuel-efficient fleet, providing the SIA Group with additional expansion opportunities to ensure that we retain our industry-leading position," chief executive Goh Choon Phong said in a statement.

Singapore Airlines to buy 39 Boeing planes worth USD 13.8 bn

Chinese authorities are investigating a banquet where government officials may have feasted on endangered pangolins, considered the most trafficked mammal on earth, after posts about the meal drew outrage on social media.
	The animal's brown scales are made of nothing more than keratin -- the same substance as fingernails -- but are highly prized in Vietnam and China where they are misleadingly touted as having medicinal properties.
	Police are investigating whether the "scaly anteater" was indeed consumed at a banquet in the southern province of Guangxi, the Xinhua state news agency reported late Tuesday.
	A post from 2015, which recently resurfaced on the Chinese social media site Weibo, claimed that Guangxi officials invited investors to eat the animal, which is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
	Several photos showed an abundant feast, along with the user's observation: "It was my first time eating [pangolin]...I've already ...

Chinese police probe endangered animal banquet

Iran has commuted death sentences against six juvenile offenders following UN criticism it was executing people who had committed crimes as children at "an unprecedented rate", a report said today.
	Prosecutors asked the judiciary to reconsider 10 cases, the Shahrvand newspaper quoted Tehran chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying.
	"Six requests were accepted and their death sentences overturned," he said.
	International conventions outlaw the death penalty for offences committed by minors but Iranian law allows executions of those convicted of such offences once they reach 18.
	However, it also allows for death sentences to be commuted to compensation to victims' families if it is determined that the juvenile offenders did not understand the full gravity of their actions.
	Shahrvand did not specify what the judiciary decided in the other four cases referred to it.
	Last week, UN human rights experts appealed to Iran to cancel the looming execution of Hamid Ahmadi who was .

Iran commutes death sentences of six juvenile offenders

Hundreds of South Korean artists filed a lawsuit against impeached President Park Geun-Hye and two officials today over a state "blacklist" of creatives who had criticised the authorities.
	Park's former chief of staff and the ex-culture minister were charged this week for compiling and enforcing the list of nearly 10,000 artists in music, literature, film, dance, fine arts and theatre.
	The list of "left-wing" artists was aimed at starving them of government subsidies or private funding, according to prosecutors probing a wider scandal around Park.
	In the legal action, 461 artists sought one million won (USD 872) each for breach of their basic rights in privacy and freedom of expression and belief, said lawyers representing them.
	"The artists were forced to censor themselves to avoid being labelled as 'leftists' and treated unfairly in state support, or becoming targets of state surveillance," the Lawyers for a Democratic Society said in a statement.
	"We would like to show that it 

'Blacklisted' S Korea artists sue president, officials

Anti-Rohingya protesters gathered at a Yangon port today to meet a Malaysian ship carrying aid for thousands of refugees from the persecuted Muslim minority fleeing a bloody military crackdown.
	Dozens of Buddhist monks and demonstrators waving national flags and signs reading "No Rohingya" congregated at the Thilawa port waiting for the ship to dock.
	Hundreds of Rohingya are thought to have been killed in a brutal four-month campaign by security forces that the UN says may amount to ethnic cleansing.
	Tens of thousands have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh bringing harrowing tales of murder and rape.
	"We want to let them know that we have no Rohingya here," a Buddhist monk named Thuseitta, from the Yangon chapter of the Patriotic Myanmar Monks Union, told AFP at the docks.
	Myanmar denies citizenship to the million-strong Rohingya, despite many of them living on its soil for generations.
	Buddhist nationalist groups are especially strong in their vitriol, portraying them as illegal .

Protests greet Malaysia aid ship for Myanmar's Rohingya

The embattled ruling party of South Korea's impeached President Park Geun-Hye has picked a new name -- Liberal Korea -- officials said today, as it seeks to distance itself from a sprawling corruption scandal.
	The Saenuri, or New Frontier, party was formed from a merger of several centre-right parties in 1997 and known as the Grand National Party until 2012.
	Elections are due this year and a spokesman said: "We've decided to change the party name to the Liberal Korea Party with a promise to be born anew."
	Party leaders will meet to approve the title on Monday, he added, when it will go into effect.
	South Korean political parties have a tendency to don new names to sever ties with a tainted past or to appeal to larger audiences.
	Park adopted the Saenuri name in 2012 as part of an attempt to reform and regain voter support ahead of that year's general elections, which the party won.
	But a swirling corruption scandal has since surrounded Park, with huge demonstrations demanding her 

S Korea's struggling ruling party changes name

More than a million Hindus gathered in temples across Malaysia today to celebrate the annual Thaipusam festival, with many piercing their bodies with hooks and skewers to showcase devotion to the deity Lord Murugan.
	Massive crowds descended on the stunning Batu Caves temple complex on the outskirts of capital Kuala Lumpur to participate in the festival, which commemorates the day when the goddess Parvathi gave her son Lord Murugan a powerful lance to fight evil demons.
	Armed with gifts including milk pots and coconuts which are eventually smashed as offerings, worshippers walked barefoot up 272 steps to reach the temple -- an important religious site for Tamil Hindus.
	Many displayed their fervour by carrying heavy ornate metal structures called kavadis, affixed to their bodies with sharp metal spikes that are hammered into the skin.
	Some devotees appeared to be in a state of trance as they carried the kavadis, which can weigh as much as 100 kilogrammes.
	Others pierced their faces 

Thousands celebrate Hindu Thaipusam festival in Malaysia

US tech giant Intel unveiled plans for a USD 7 billion chip factory in Arizona, in an announcement at the White House with President Donald Trump.
	While Trump appeared to take credit for the plan, Intel called the investment an "update" of a 2011 plan to invest USD 5 billion for the same facility in the southeastern US state.
	An Intel spokesman said the initial plan had not been completed due to lack of demand, and that Wednesday's move represented a "new" investment of USD 7 billion.
	It marked the latest in a string of such announcements since Trump began pressing companies to create more American jobs and reverse the trend of offshore manufacturing.
	"Intel is very proud of the fact that the majority of our manufacturing is here in the US and the majority of our research and development is here in the US, while over 80 percent of what we sell is sold outside of the US," chief executive Brian Krzanich said at a White House event with Trump.
	The company said the Arizona plant ...

AFP

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