Rising oil prices will lead to higher inflation in the eurozone over the next two years than previously expected, a European Central Bank survey said today.
	The report comes a day after ECB president Mario Draghi said it was still too early for the bank to start scaling back its easy money policies despite a recent spike in consumer prices.
	According to the ECB's quarterly survey of professional forecasters, eurozone inflation is expected to rise by 1.4 per cent in 2017 and 1.5 per cent next year, up from a previous estimate of 1.2 and 1.4 per cent.
	"These upward revisions largely reflect the increase in the price of oil," the ECB said in a statement.
	The forecasters also gave their first readings for 2019, when they predict inflation will hit 1.6 per cent -- still a way off the ECB's goal of keeping the rate below but close to 2 per cent.
	The Frankfurt-based institution has embarked on an unprecedented effort to drive up growth and inflation in the region using a combination of .

Oil prices to push up eurozone inflation: ECB survey

PTI Automatic

Outgoing US President Barack Obama today left the Oval Office for the last time, as he prepares for the inauguration of his successor Donald Trump.
	Obama walked into the Oval Office holding a letter, which he placed on the Resolute desk -- a 19th century desk used by many presidents.
	It is customary for the outgoing president to leave a personal note for his successor. Obama was to have morning tea with Trump before they make their way to the Capitol for the inauguration ceremony.

Barack Obama leaves Oval Office for last time

A car bomb exploded today near a mosque in Libya's second city of Benghazi, wounding 12 people including a former interior minister, medical and security sources said.
	Ashour Shwayel, who served as interior minister in the government of former prime minister Ali Zeidan, and his son were seriously hurt in the blast, said the spokeswoman of Al-Jala hospital, Fadia al-Barghati.
	A security source said the blast was caused by an explosive device placed inside a car parked near Abu Houraira mosque in the central Al-Majouri neighbourhood of the eastern coastal city.
	Benghazi was the cradle of the 2011 revolution that toppled and killed veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
	Libya has since fallen into chaos, with the UN-backed Government of National Accord based in Tripoli failing to assert its authority over the country.
	The GNA is opposed by a rival administration that is based in Libya's far east and backed by military strongman Marshal Khalifa Haftar, whose forces are battling jihadists ..

Car bomb wounds 12 in Libya's Benghazi

The UN today led condemnation of attacks by Islamic State jihadists on two sites in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, calling the destruction a "war crime" and "cultural cleansing."
	In a statement, Irina Bokova, director general of the Paris-based UN cultural agency UNESCO, described the wrecking as "a new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity."
	"This new blow against cultural heritage... Shows that cultural cleansing led by violent extremists is seeking to destroy both human lives and historical monuments in order to deprive the Syrian people of its past and its future," Bokova said.
	IS recaptured Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, from government forces on December 11 and the new devastation reportedly occurred earlier this month.
	Syria's antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP in Damascus earlier Friday that local sources said IS destroyed Palmyra's tetrapylon monument, while satellite images showed damage to the facade of the city's ...

IS destruction at Syria's Palmyra a 'war crime'

Five Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Syria blamed on the Islamic State group, local media reported today, quoting the Turkish military.
	Another nine soldiers were wounded in the bombing in Al-Bab, where Turkish-backed rebels have suffered heavy casualities in a weeks-long bid to retake the town from IS, the private Dogan news agency said.

Five Turkish soldiers killed in IS attack in Syria: report

Turkey said today it was no longer "realistic" to insist on a solution to the Syria conflict without President Bashar al-Assad.
	Ankara acknowledged last year that Assad is an actor in Syria but it is the first time a senior Turkish official has openly said it would be unrealistic to insist on the embattled leader's departure for any solution.
	"We have to be pragmatic, realistic. The facts on the ground have changed dramatically," Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told a panel on Syria at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
	"Turkey can no longer insist on a settlement without Assad. It is not realistic."
	Turkey, a vocal critic of Assad, has backed Syrian opposition rebels fighting for his ouster since the complex conflict began with anti-government demonstrations in March 2011.
	"As far as our position on Assad is concerned, we think that the suffering of Syrian people and tragedies clearly... the blame is squarely on Assad," Simsek said.
	Turkey and Russia, which backs the Syrian 

No longer 'realistic' to exclude Assad from Syria deal: Turkey

Sri Lanka has failed to attract bids from international airlines to privatise its loss-making flag carrier, but will continue its efforts to salvage the company, a minister said today.
	   The government received nine offers for Sri Lankan but none were from a major international airline operator, State Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim said.
	   "We are still evaluating the proposals, but we are keen to have an airline of international repute that can also bring in traffic that will help our tourism industry," the minister told reporters in Colombo.
	   Of the proposals received, the government has shortlisted three, including one from TPG, a San Francisco-based private equity firm.
	   Hashim is heading a new three-member ministerial panel to decide the future of Sri Lankan which has debts and accumulated losses of over USD 2 billion.
	   "The new committee was appointed to explore other options," the minister said. "We don't know yet what those options are, but we want ..

Sri Lanka's airline sell-off stalls

Hours before his inauguration today, US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that his job of shaking up America's political and economic status quo is about to begin.
	Trump turned to his favorite mode of communications at one of his favorite tweet times -- early morning -- as crowds began to gather on the National Mall in the center of Washington for his swearing-in as the 45th US president.
	The political outsider, real estate mogul and former TV reality star wrote: "It all begins today! I will see you at 11:00 A.M. For the swearing-in. THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES - THE WORK BEGINS!"
	An estimated 800,000 people are forecast to turn out at the foot of the Capitol and along the vast Mall to witness the culmination of Trump's unlikely bid for the White House.

Trump tweets his work is about to begin

German football fans have a daily newspaper dedicated to the game for the first time with the launch of "FussballBild" ('FootballBild'), to coincide with the resuming of the Bundesliga season, today.
	Retired Germany striker Lukas Podolski, who now plays for Galatasaray will write a weekly column which he says will be "technical, professional, but also written with humour".
	The 32-page 'FussballBild' will be published from Monday to Saturday and costs a euro (USD 1.06).
	The content will be pooled from the 23 regional editions of Bild.
	The tabloid-format daily has been tested since the start of the season in Munich and Stuttgart, but from Friday has been distributed nationwide.
	It has been launched by the Axel Springer media house, one of Europe's biggest media groups, which publishes Germany's most popular daily newspaper Bild, which sells a 1.8 million copies.
	Unusually for a country where football is by far the main sport, a sports daily newspaper has never taken root in ...

First dedicated football daily launched in Germany

Four Israeli settlers were rescued from angry Palestinian villagers in the occupied West Bank today after they entered in unclear circumstances, Palestinian officials said.
	The four armed settlers entered the village of Qusra, sparking a confrontation with residents, municipality head Abdul Azeem al-Wadi told AFP.
	Villagers surrounded them but Palestinian security forces stepped in to detain the four for their own safety, he said.
	A Palestinian security source said the four were later moved to the outskirts of the village, from where Israeli forces took them to safety.
	Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said three of the four were off-duty soldiers and an investigation was under way to detemine why they entered the village.
	"Villagers hurled rocks at them, shots were fired in the air," he told AFP, confirming the four were later brought out safely with the help of local officials.
	Some 430,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank alongside around 2.75 million Palestinians. ...

Settlers rescued after entering Palestinian village

Destruction by Islamic State jihadists at Syria's ancient city of  Palmyra is a "real tragedy" for the world's cultural treasures, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today.
	"What is happening (in Palmyra) is a real tragedy from the point of view of cultural and historical heritage," he told journalists. "Barbaric actions of the terrorists are continuing."
	Palmyra, an ancient site in central Syria with famous UNESCO-listed temples, was overrun by IS jihadists before being seized in a Russia-backed offensive in March in a highly symbolic victory, and Russian maestro Valery Gergiev gave a concert in its ancient amphitheatre.
	However, IS took control of the area again late last year and Syria's antiquities chief said today that the jihadist group has destroyed Palmyra's third century AD tetrapylon and that the amphitheatre was damaged.
	Asked whether the Russian military is likely to step in to recapture Palmyra for the second time, Peskov merely said, "Russian ...

Palmyra sites' destruction by IS 'real tragedy': Kremlin

Post-Brexit Britain will keep its doors open to skilled foreigners who attend the best universities, finance minister Philip Hammond said today as the country bids to regain control over immigration.
	Hammond made his assurance at a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, after he was confronted by an Oxford University professor about the potential fallout of Britain's divorce from the EU on research and academia.
	"The political debate in the UK around migration is not about computer scientists, academics and brain surgeons, it's about the other end of the economic spectrum," the chancellor of the exchequer said.
	Pushing out the high skilled "would be exactly as you've suggested, shooting our knee-caps off before we've even started (negotiating Brexit) and we are not going to do that".
	Brexit will likely deprive British academics of EU research funds and make entry into Britain's universities a more cumbersome process for Europeans.
	But Hammond said the brightest and the best would ..

Hammond says Britain open to brightest migrants

The destruction by Islamic State jihadists of two key cultural sites in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra is a "war crime", UNESCO said today.
	"This destruction is a new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity," Irina Bokova, director general of the UN cultural agency, said in a statement following reports that IS destroyed Palmyra's tetrapylon monument and the facade of the city's Roman amphitheatre.

IS destruction at Syria's Palmyra a 'war crime': UNESCO

Destruction of Syria's Palmyra monument, theatre a 'war

Andy Murray saw off giant-killer Sam Querrey today as he ramped up his bid for a first Australian Open title after the shock departure of six-time champion Novak Djokovic.
     On a cool day in Melbourne, the men's number one and women's top seed Angelique Kerber both hit a hot patch of form as the final rounds beckoned.
     Murray will have watched from the sidelines as second seed Djokovic, his conqueror in four Melbourne finals, suffered a stunning defeat to 117th-ranked Denis Istomin on Thursday.
     Querrey also upset Djokovic at Wimbledon last year but Murray, made a knight in Britain's New Year honours, never looked like slipping on any banana skins in round three.
     He put Querrey away 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in just under two hours, winning 77 percent of points on his first serve and facing only three break points in a clinical display.
     The Scot also showed no signs of discomfort in his right ankle, after he rolled it painfully during his second-round win over Andrey Rublev.
 

Shining knight Murray spurs maiden title bid

Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen's Red Sea coast have killed at least 29 rebels over the past 24 hours, military sources said today.
	The strikes hit two military camps, an ammunition depot and an arms transporter in Hodeida province, the sources said. Around 20 fighters and renegade troops were also wounded.
	The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 in support of beleaguered President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
	But despite its massively superior firepower, the rebels and their allies still control the capital Sanaa and much of the central and northern highlands as well as the Red Sea coast.
	Pro-government forces launched a major offensive earlier this month aimed at ousting the rebels from Dhubab district at the southern end of the 450 kilometre long coastline.

Saudi-led air strikes kill 29 Yemen rebels

China's state-owned chemical corporation ChemChina has asked US anti-trust regulators to greenlight its USD 43 billion acquisition of Swiss seed giant Syngenta, a report said today.
	China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) has filed for approval from the Federal Trade Commission and the process is on track, Bloomberg News reported.
	Winning the approval is a critical step towards wrapping up the biggest overseas takeover ever for a Chinese firm.
	US regulators have been a stumbling block for other Chinese deals. In December, American President Barack Obama blocked a Chinese company's purchase of German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron over security concerns, resulting in the termination of the deal a few days later.
	Bloomberg said the proposed deal, announced last February, has faced delays as competition authorities are concerned the acquisition might raise prices or reduce choice for crop-protection products sold to farmers, and ChemChina has extended its offer for Syngenta ..

ChemChina 'to file for anti-trust approval in US' for takeover

China's largest chip maker has announced it will invest USD 30 billion to build a new semiconductor factory, as the world's second largest economy seeks to reduce its dependence on foreign technology.
	The state-owned Tsinghua Unigroup will open the facility in the city of Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province, where it will mainly produce chips used in consumer electronics such as cellphones, cameras and computers, according to a statement posted Thursday on the company's official website.
	The project "is of great significance to the independent innovation, large-scale production, and marketization of China's integrated circuit industry", the statement said.
	The announcement comes after attempts by the company to take-over US chip makers Micron Technology and Sandisk were curbed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) over national security concerns.
	Its ambitions to acquire American technology thwarted, Tsinghua Unigroup has shifted its focus to building 

China's chip company to build $30 bn semiconductor factory

A 40-year-old British man has died while working on a Qatar 2022 World Cup stadium site, tournament organisers in the Gulf emirate have announced.
	The Briton was working on the Khalifa International Stadium, which will also be used for the World Athletics Championship in 2019.
	"Earlier today (Thursday), a 40-year-old British male lost his life working on Khalifa International Stadium," the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the body overseeing the organisation for the World Cup in Qatar, said in a statement.
	The dead man's family have been informed and an investigation launched, said the Supreme Committee.
	No cause of death has yet been announced.
	"The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy shares our deepest condolences with the family for their loss," added the statement.
	It said further details would be released later.
	The death is the latest tragedy to hit the controversial World Cup.
	Last October, a Nepalese labourer, Anil Kumar Pasman, died after being hit ...

British worker dies on Qatar 2022 World Cup site

Jihadists of the Islamic State group have demolished two more treasured monuments in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra a month after recapturing it from government forces, the antiquities chief said today.
	"Local sources told us that 10 days ago Daesh destroyed the tetrapylon," a 16 columned structure that marked one end of the ancient city's colonnade, Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP using an Arabic acronym for IS.
	"Yesterday (Thursday), we received satellite photographs from our colleagues at Boston University showing damage to the facade of the Roman amphitheatre," he added.
	Before being forced out of Palmyra in a Russian-backed offensive in March last year, IS carried out a campaign of destruction at the city's UNESCO-listed world heritage site, razing treasured temples and towers tombs.

IS in new demolitions at Syria's Palmyra: antiquities chief

Japan will carry out a tabletop exercise next week to simulate its response in the event of a military clash between China and Taiwan, Japanese media said.
	The Self-Defence Forces will conduct drills from Monday through Friday with the US military participating as an observer, a Japanese government source told Kyodo News.
	The exercises, which do not involve actual troop deployments, assume that the US and Japan are responding to a military conflict, Kyodo said in its Thursday report.
	A Japanese defence ministry spokesman declined to comment.
	China's foreign ministry said Japan should keep out of what it called an "internal affair".
	"I think this reflects that some people in Japan have a certain mentality that the last thing they want is a stable world," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing in Beijing today.
	"I want to emphasise that the Taiwan issue is an internal affair of China, and we hope that Japan will be very cautious with its words and ...

AFP

AFP

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