Green groups said today that one of the world's biggest pulp mills which started production on Indonesia's Sumatra island last month was causing enormous environmental damage.
	The groups said the USD 3 billion mill belonging to industry giant Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) was sourcing raw materials mostly from trees grown on drained peatlands, where haze-belching fires occur every year.
	The mill produces a raw material which can later be made into paper.
	Woro Supartinah, whose NGO was among the groups protesting the mill, called on the Indonesian government to "promote a broader set of interests" than just helping major companies reap profits.
	"Restoring peatlands will generate economic growth and environmental security over the long term," she said.
	The groups who protested the mill included Wetlands International, Eyes on the Forest and Rainforest Action Network. APP did not respond to requests for comment.
	Vast areas of peatland, which store carbon, have been drained in recent ...

Activists slam giant Indonesian mill for environmental damage

PTI Automatic

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said peace talks in the Kazakh capital next week will focus on enforcing a cessation of hostilities to allow aid access across the country.
	"I believe that they will focus, in the beginning, and will prioritise, as we see it, reaching a ceasefire," Assad told Japanese television channel TBS, according to excerpts released by his office.
	"This will be to protect people's lives and allow humanitarian aid to reach various areas in Syria," he said.

Syria's Assad says Astana talks will focus on ceasefire

Several children were among more than 25 people unaccounted for, feared dead, today after an avalanche engulfed a mountain hotel in earthquake-ravaged central Italy.
	The national civil protection agency said the Hotel Rigopiano had suffered a direct hit by a two-metre high wall of snow yesterday.
	Emergency services were struggling to get ambulances and excavation equipment to the remote site with the first snow plough only arriving just before midday.
	Italian broadcasters showed images of piles of masonry and rubble inside the hotel, which had been moved some ten metres from its original location by the force of the snow.
	Local officials confirmed that one body had been recovered from the ruins and that two guests who were not inside when the avalanche struck had been saved.
	Civil protection chief Fabrizio Curcio said there had been around 30 guests and staff at the small ski hotel on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain when the first of four powerful tremors ...

Children among many feared dead in Italy avalanche

China should not be so "narrow-minded", Taiwan said today, after Beijing pressed Washington to block the island from attending Donald Trump's inauguration.
	A former premier will lead Taipei's delegation as foreign dignitaries from around the world descend on the US capital for the president-elect's swearing in.
	But Beijing has asked the US to bar the self-ruling island it sees as a renegade province and part of "one China" to be reunified.
	"We urge again the American side not to allow any Taiwanese official delegation to attend the US presidential inauguration ceremony and to have any kind of official contact with Taiwan," said Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's ministry of foreign affairs, at a regular press briefing Thursday.
	Former premier Yu Shyi-kun, who is leading Taiwan's delegation hit back.
	"Don't be so small," Yu, who belongs to the ruling Beijing-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party, was quoted as saying by Taiwan's state Central News Agency.
	"There hasn't been ..

Taiwan tells Beijing to grow up over Trump ceremony row

A Jordanian was charged today with stabbing to death his wife and two young daughters and seriously wounding a third in apparent "honour" killings, judicial and security sources said.
	The killings took place yesterday in the northern town of Ramtha and the prosecutor charged the 28-year-old with premeditated murder, a judicial source said.
	A security source said the man turned himself in to the authorities after the crime, claiming to have killed them to defend the family's "honour" because he "suspected that his wife was cheating on him".
	According to the security source, the couple had a row during which the wife told her husband that their three daughters -- aged three, two and one -- were not his but fathered by another man.
	"He went crazy and grabbed a kitchen knife with which he stabbed his wife and three daughters," said the source.
	The wife and two of the girls -- the three-year-old and the two-year-old -- were killed on the spot while the one-year-old was admitted to ...

Jordanian kills wife, young daughters for 'honour'

Gambia's president-elect Adama Barrow will be sworn in at the country's embassy in Dakar, Senegal, his spokesman said today.
	"It is going to take place at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, they have changed the venue, at 4:00 pm (1600 GMT)," spokesman Halifa Sallah said.
	Organisers had planned a large ceremony in a stadium in The Gambia but were forced to change plans due to the political crisis caused by incumbent Yahya Jammeh's refusal to step down.

Adama Barrow to be sworn in at Gambian embassy in Senegal

Egypt's prosecution has referred 304 suspects including Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Turkey to military trial for allegedly organising militant groups that claimed several attacks in Cairo last year.
	The case is one of the largest to link armed attacks with the Muslim Brotherhood movement of Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president toppled by the military in 2013.
	A prosecution statement on Wednesday said the suspects, many of them abroad, had set up the Hassam militant group that claimed responsibility for several assassinations and attacks in Cairo and the Nile Delta.
	Morsi's ouster ushered in a crackdown that decimated the Islamist movement and killed hundreds of his followers, and set off a jihadist insurgency that has killed hundreds of security personnel.
	"The accused, after many Brotherhood leaders were arrested, agreed to revive armed operations," a prosecution statement said.
	It also accused them of establishing Lewaa al-Thawra, another group that surfaced in 2016 to claim 

Egypt to try 304 over 'Brotherhood militant attacks'

Afghanistan suffered its deadliest year on record for journalists in 2016, according to a report released today which said the country is the second most dangerous for reporters in the world after Syria.
	As least 13 journalists were killed last year, the Afghan Journalists' Safety Committee (AJSC) said, adding that the Taliban was behind at least ten of the deaths.
	The committee also found 101 cases of violence against the media in 2016, a 38 percent increase on 2015, underscoring the threat against a small band of media workers who put their lives on the line to report events in their war-torn country.
	"This increase in violence against journalists has turned Afghanistan into the second most dangerous country for journalists in the world, after Syria," Najib Sharifi, chairman of the committee, told reporters on Thursday.
	The report noted that a shift in the Taliban's policy towards the media was the "main driver of the increase in the level of threats and deadly violence against .

2016 deadliest year for journalists in Afghanistan: watchdog

Twin rockets fired from the rebel-held outskirts of Yemen's third city Taez killed nine civilians late, a medic and a loyalist military source said.
	A garrison loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has held out in the city largely surrounded by the Huthi rebels and their allies who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north.
	Taez is one of the key battlegrounds of the civil war and government-held neighbourhoods have come under repeated rebel fire.
	A medical source at the city's Al-Rawda hospital told AFP that seven civilians were also wounded by the rocket fire.
	A loyalist military source said that the rockets struck one after the other in the city's Al-Nour district.
	Since March 2015, pro-government forces have been backed by a Saudi-led military coalition but they have made little headway outside their southern stronghold.
	The United Nations has stepped up peace efforts this week with UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed meeting Hadi at his base in second city Aden on ..

Rocket fire kills nine civilians in Yemen's Taez

Dozens of firefighters were feared trapped under the rubble after Iran's oldest high-rise, the 15-storey Plasco building in downtown Tehran, collapsed live on TV today following a fire.
	State television said 200 firefighters had been called to the scene and 38 had already been injured battling the blaze before it fell.
	The building, dating from the early 1960s and including a shopping centre and clothing workshops, had been evacuated after the fire broke out early today.
	But state television said "tens" of firefighters may have been inside when it collapsed.
	Dramatic images showed flames pouring out of the top floors before it crumbled to the ground.
	"We had repeatedly warned the building managers about the lack of safety of the building," fire brigade spokesman Jalal Malekias said, adding that it lacked fire extinguishers.
	"Even in the stairwells, a lot of clothing is stored and this is against safety standards. The managers didn't pay attention to the warnings," he said.
	The .

Iran firefighters feared trapped in building collapse

An enormous fire engulfed a historic market in the Indonesian capital Jakarta today, with hundreds of firefighters deployed to battle a blaze that sent huge clouds of black smoke floating over the city.
	The fire began at dawn on the ground floor of Pasar Senen market, a sprawling complex of stalls on several levels that was built during Dutch colonial rule.
	Fifty fire engines were deployed to battle the blaze, which was still going strong in the afternoon. Several people suffered from minor burns.
	It was not clear what caused the fire in the market, which is in central Jakarta and sells goods ranging from textiles to food.
	Despite the fire, some shop owners rushed into the market in a bid to salvage their goods, while others who were barred from entering by security guards and police hurled stones at the complex in frustration.
	"My shop is inside. It's all gone, finished, nothing left," shopkeeper Edwin, who only gave his first name, told AFP.
	Pasar Senen -- which translates as .

Massive fire engulfs historic Jakarta market

China said it will ban or closely monitor overseas investments by state-owned firms in certain sectors, the latest move in a government fight to stem capital flight and what it has called "irrational" spending abroad.
	The state-assets watchdog, which manages the country's 102 state-owned giants, plans to draw up a list of sectors that will either be off-limits to investment by SOEs or under strict supervision, according to a government statement yesterday.
	The notice by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission gave no details on what sectors would be singled out, nor any timing.
	But the state-run China Daily reported today that the list would include heavily polluting industries or those vulnerable to global commodity price fluctuations, such as business related to energy, mining, real estate and the oil sector.
	It quoted the commission's vice-chairwoman Huang Danhua as saying the government would, however, seek to encourage SOE overseas investment in ...

China to curb foreign investment by state-owned firms

Defending champion Novak Djokovic was sensationally knocked out in the second round of the Australian Open by Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin today.
     The 117th-ranked Istomin ousted the six-time winner 7-6(10/8), 5-7, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in 4hr 48min on Rod Laver Arena.

Defending champ Djokovic stunned by Istomin

Scorecard from the one-day
international between Australia and Pakistan in Perth today:
	   Pakistan
	   Mohammad Hafeez      lbw Hazlewood        4
	   Sharjeel          Khan b Head            50
	   Babar Azam c Handscomb b Hazlewood       84
	   Asad Shafiq  c Khawaja b Head             5
	   Shoaib Malik    c Wade b Stanlake        39
	   Umar Akmal      c Wade b Hazlewood       39
	   Imad Wasim      c Head b Cummins          9
	   Mohammad Rizwan   not out                14
	   Mohammad Amir     not out                 4
	   Extras (lb7, w8)                         15
	   Total (for 7 wickets in 50 overs)       263
	   Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-85, 3-99, 4-162, 5-222, 6-244, 7-246.
	   Bowling: Hazlewood 10-0-32-3, Stanlake 10-1-55-1, Cummins 10-1-42-1, Head 10-0-65-2, Faulkner 10-0-62-0.

Perth, Jan 19 (AFP) Scorecard from the one-day

Pakistan set Australia a target of 264 to win but squandered the opportunity to post a big score in the third one-day international at Perth's WACA Ground today.
     With the five-match series level at 1-1 Pakistan looked to be building to a massive score in excess of 300 after being asked to bat by Australia captain Steven Smith.
     On a flat wicket ideal for batting they had raced along at better than six runs an over, but the steady loss of wickets eventually slowed them and Pakistan finished with a disappointing 263 for seven from their 50 overs.
     Paceman Josh Hazlewood was the man who reined in the visitors, picking up three for 32 from his 10 overs.
     He claimed the vital wickets of Babar Azam, who top-scored with 84, Umar Akmal (39) and opener Mohammad Hafeez (4).
     Babar played beautifully and appeared set to add another century to his blossoming career, before he was brilliantly caught by ODI debutant Peter Handscomb.
     The Pakistani number three equalled the .

Hazlewood puts brakes on Pakistan

South Africa's ruling ANC party, which has dominated the country's politics since the end of apartheid, has begun its search for a new leader to succeed President Jacob Zuma.
	Dwindling popular support, corruption scandals and rampant in-fighting mean that the contest looks set to be a bitter battle exposing divisions at the heart of the party.
	The contenders will face each other at the African National Congress' (ANC) 54th national elective conference in December when Zuma is expected to stand down as party chief.
	The likely frontrunners are outgoing African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is Zuma's former wife, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
	The victor will then be the party's candidate for president in 2019's general election.
	The ANC's powerful women's league opened the campaign for the party's top job when earlier this month it called for a female leader -- a clear endorsement of Dlamini-Zuma.
	Dlamini-Zuma, who has four children with President Zuma, is ...

Starting gun fired in race to succeed S Africa's Zuma

Several people have died after a ski hotel was buried by an avalanche in earthquake-hit central Italy, local media reported today quoting rescue services.
	"There are many dead," Antonio Crocetta, the head of a group of Alpine police that was trying to reach the cut-off hotel, was quoted as saying.
	Media reports said there had been at least 20 guests and seven staff at the Hotel Rigopiano on the lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain when the first of four powerful quakes hit the region yesterday morning.

'Many dead' in avalanche-hit hotel after Italy quake

Johanna Konta set up a mouth-watering third-round clash against former world number one Caroline Wozniacki at the Australian Open today, with both players looking in fine touch.
     The British ninth seed, who made the semi-finals last year to kickstart a breakthrough season, doused the threat from promising 19-year-old Japanese Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.
     Dane Wozniacki followed her on court and dismantled Croatia's Donna Vekic 6-1, 6-3, barely putting a foot wrong.
     Both players are angling for a maiden Grand Slam title with the winner of their clash on Saturday potentially facing sixth seed Dominika Cibulkova in the fourth round and Serena Williams in the quarters.
     "There is still a lot of tennis to be played between now and the fourth round," said Konta, reflecting on the Wozniacki showdown.
     "It will be an incredibly tough one. Every round so far has been. I think my first round and also today, they were incredibly competent opponents.
     "But ...

Konta sets up Wozniacki blockbuster

Tennis greats slammed the behaviour of Australia's bad boy Nick Kyrgios after yet another inexplicable meltdown triggered a spectacular early exit from the Australian Open.
     The combustible 21-year-old was booed off court and accused of giving up as he crashed out in the second round in a stormy five-set defeat to Italian Andreas Seppi on Wednesday, despite winning the first two sets.
     John McEnroe labelled Kyrgios as "mentally (ranked) about 200 in the world" and giving the sport a "black eye", while Rod Laver criticised his countryman's antics.
     The latest episode in the tempestuous tennis career of Kyrgios comes as he makes his return from a ban for "lack of best efforts", commonly known as tanking, during a match in Shanghai. He has since been seeing a psychologist.
     After he was penalised for throwing down his racquet in the third set, Kyrgios unravelled and started playing casually and lethargically, unnecessarily hitting a 'tweener' shot between his legs.
     ..

Greats at a loss over latest Kyrgios meltdown

'Many dead' in avalanche-hit hotel after Italy quake:

A South Korean court today refused to authorise the arrest of the heir to the Samsung business empire, in a setback to prosecutors probing a corruption scandal engulfing President Park Geun-Hye.
	Officials on Monday sought the arrest of Lee Jae-Yong on charges of bribery, embezzlement and perjury, sending shock waves through the group, which is a major part of the South Korean economy and includes the world's largest smartphone maker.
	It is already reeling from the debacle over the recall of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 device and reports have suggested it could face sanctions from overseas authorities if Lee is punished.
	Lee, who became Samsung's de facto head after his father suffered a heart attack in 2014, is accused of bribing Choi Soon-Sil, Park's secret confidante at the centre of the scandal, and receiving policy favours from Park in return.
	But the court rejected the request on grounds of insufficient evidence, which could mar investigators' plan to question Park -- ...

AFP

AFP

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