Workers prepare the New Year's eve numerals above a Toshiba sign in Times Square Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 26, 2016. Picture taken December 26, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Over the three days, the company's market value declined by an approximately 781 billion yen ($6.70 billion)

Toshiba shares plunge after loss warning

Agencies

A drone strike in Yemen likely carried out by US forces today killed a local Al-Qaeda chief and his guard, a security official said.
	The strike hit a vehicle at Sawmaa in Al-Bayda province, killing Jalal al-Seydi, who was the "emir" of Al-Qaeda in the town of Loder, in the neighbouring southern province of Abyan, the official said.
	The United States is the only country operating drones over Yemen, but it only sporadically reports on the long-running bombing campaign against the country's powerful Al-Qaeda branch.
	The US authorities consider Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, to be its most dangerous.
	AQAP and the Islamic State group have exploited a power vacuum created by the conflict between the government and Shiite Huthi rebels to expand their presence in Yemen, especially in the south and southeast.

Drone strike kills local Qaeda chief in Yemen

PTI Automatic

Poland's culture ministry today bought a private art collection worth an estimated two billion euros that includes Leonardo da Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine".
	The 15th-century portrait of a young woman holding a white ermine, a kind of short-tailed weasel, is one of just four known paintings of women by the Renaissance master. Another is the Mona Lisa.
	"Ladies and gentlemen, as Polish citizens, we are now all owners of the Czartoryski collection," Culture Minister Piotr Glinski said to applause at the signing ceremony at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
	Sitting alongside him among marble columns and chandeliers and under a fresco was Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski, president of the foundation that sold the collection.
	"I am basically just following my ancestors who always worked for the Polish nation," the 76-year-old prince, who lives abroad, told the audience.
	Glinski said the country paid 100 million euros (dollars) plus tax for the tens of thousands of items, "a small fraction of ...

Poland buys Da Vinci's 'Lady with an Ermine'

Greece's ambassador to Brazil, Kyriakos Amiridis, went missing three days ago near Rio de Janeiro while vacationing with his family, police said today, asking for information that could help locate him.
	"A case has been opened to investigate the ambassador's disappearance," Rio state police said in a statement.
	The investigation is being led by the missing persons section of the homicide division in the Rio neighborhood of Baixada Fluminense, on the city's west side, it said.
	According to "preliminary information," Amiridis was last seen on the night of December 26, it said.
	Amiridis, 59, had been on vacation in the picturesque but crime-plagued city since December 21. He was due to fly back to Brasilia on January 9, a Greek embassy official told AFP.
	However, the embassy has not confirmed that he is missing, and is "waiting for further information," she said.
	Brazilian media reports said the ambassador's wife had reported him missing after he left the apartment they were ...

Greek ambassador missing in Brazil: police

The United States today cautiously welcomed a nationwide ceasefire deal in Syria brokered by Russia and Turkey as a "positive development," saying it hoped it would lead to fresh talks on the war-wracked country's political future.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry invested significant time and energy in trying to bring an end to the civil war in Syria through diplomatic means. But more than five years on, his efforts were in vain as several truce efforts collapsed.
	And with just three weeks to go before he leaves office, Washington was not part of the talks that led to the agreement announced earlier today by Syria's army and Moscow. The ceasefire is due to take effect at midnight.
	"News of a ceasefire in the Syrian civil war is a positive development," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
	"We hope it will be implemented fully and respected by all parties. Any effort that stops the violence, saves lives, and creates the conditions for renewed and productive ..

US calls Syria ceasefire deal a 'positive development'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today said the planned ceasefire for Syria was a "historic opportunity" to end the nearly six-year Syrian conflict, saying it was a chance that could not be wasted.
	"This chance absolutely should not be lost. This is a historic opportunity," he told a news conference in Ankara alongside Kosovo President Hashim Thaci.
	"This is a window of opportunity that has been opened and should not be squandered," Erdogan added in his first public comment on the ceasefire deal that was announced earlier by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
	Erdogan reaffirmed that "terror groups" were not included in the deal brokered by Turkey and Russia which is due to come into force at midnight.
	He indicated that Turkey would press on with its four month incursion into Syria against Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurdish militia.
	"The fight against terror groups, including Daesh (IS), will continue with determination until the security of our citizens is ...

Syria ceasefire 'historic opportunity' to end conflict:Erdogan

China said today it would almost double the number of foreign currencies it uses to determine the official value of the yuan, thereby diluting the role of the dollar.
	The move to expand the foreign exchange basket used to set a daily reference rate for the yuan, or renminbi, will help Beijing shake off the weakness of the currency against the greenback and project an image of stability in the unit.
	The dollar will see its prominence in the basket dented by the newcomers, with its share falling from 26.4 percent to 22.4 percent. It is followed by the euro at 16.34 percent.
	Among the 11 currencies to join the 13 existing ones are the South Korean won, the South African rand, the Hungarian forint, the Turkish lira and the Polish zloty, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trade System, which is run by the central bank.
	The expansion is designed to "strengthen the representativeness" of the basket and will come into force on January 1, it added.
	"The move is aim (ed) to reduce ..

China expands forex basket, dilutes role of dollar

The UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura praised a nationwide ceasefire deal announced today and voiced hope it would help aid reach civilians across the war-ravaged country.
	"The Special Envoy welcomes the announcement of a nationwide ceasefire between the Government of Syria and armed opposition groups in Syria", which is due to take effect at midnight, de Mistura's office said in a statement.
	The UN envoy also hopes that the deal, brokered by Russia and Turkey, "will save civilian lives, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance across Syria, and pave the way for productive talks in Astana", the statement added.
	Moscow, which backs Syria's regime, and rebel supporter Ankara are pushing for peace talks to start soon in Astana, Kazakhstan's capital.
	While de Mistura offered support for those talks, which would take place outside the UN umbrella, he also reiterated that he wants negotiations mediated by his office to continue early next year.
	"The Special Envoy is of the .

UN envoy welcomes Syria ceasefire deal

Kagiso Rabada made two crucial breakthroughs as South Africa chipped away at a stubborn Sri Lankan batting order on the fourth day of the first Test at St George's Park.
     Sri Lanka were 240 for five at the close of play, with their last two recognised batsmen at the crease, after being set to make an improbable 488 to win.
	Rabada twice dismissed set batsmen, on both occasions with the second ball of a new spell.
	He trapped Kaushal Silva leg before wicket for 48 with his second ball after tea.
	Then, late on a hot afternoon, he broke a 75-run partnership between captain Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis.
	A fast, short delivery bowled from around the wicket induced an involuntary ramp shot by Mendis, who was caught behind by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock for 58.
	In contrast to the first innings, when they were bowled out for 205, with several batsmen playing poor strokes in seam-friendly conditions, South Africa had to work hard for their wickets on a pitch which had lost most of ..

Rabada double gives South Africa sight of victory

Scores at close of play on the fourth day of the first Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka at St George's Park:
     South Africa, first innings, 286
	Sri Lanka, first innings, 205
     South Africa, second innings (overnight 351-5)
     Cook c Chandimal b Chameera 117
	Elgar c Mathews b Lakmal 52
	Amla lbw b Pradeep 48
	Duminy c Mathews b De Silva 25
	Du Plessis not out 67
	Bavuma c Mendis b De Silva 8
	De Kock lbw b Herath 69
	Extras: (b-5, lb-2, nb-10, w-3) 20
     Total: (6 wkts dec, 90.5 overs) 406
     Fall of wickets: 1-116, 2-221, 3-244, 4-267, 5-277, 6-406
     Bowling: Lakmal 18-2-64-1, Pradeep 14-0-65-1, Mathews 4-0-10-0, Chameera 15-0-85-1, Herath 24.5-1-84-1, De Silva 15-0-91-2
     Sri Lanka, second innings
	Karunaratne run out (Duminy) 43
	Silva lbw b Rabada 48
	Perera c De Kock b Maharaj 6
	Mendis c De Kock b Rabada 58
	Mathews not out 58
	Chandimal c Rabada b Maharaj 8
	De Silva not out 9
	Extras: (b-4, lb-3, nb-1, w-2) 10
     Total: (5 wkts, 83 overs) 240
     ..

Port Elizabeth, Dec 29 (AFP) Scores at close of play on the fourth day of the first Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka at St George's Park:

Ten years after Saddam Hussein's execution, the ghost of the Iraqi strongman still haunts America, serving as a potent reminder of its broken ambitions to bring stability and democracy to the Middle East.
	When Saddam was hung in Baghdad on December 30, 2007, then president George W Bush already knew that the invasion of Iraq, which had already left 3,000 US forces dead, had not yielded the progress Washington sought.
	"Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead. Yet the safety and security of the American people require that we not relent in ensuring that Iraq's young democracy continues to progress," Bush said at the time.
	The democratic Iraq that Bush had envisioned turned out to be little more than a pipe dream, with the Americans failing to stop the deadly spiral of sectarian violence in the country.
	The Sunni minority that once ruled Iraq grew increasingly resentful toward a predominantly Shiite government -- a resentment that helped fuel the rise of the ...

Saddam still haunts Washington, 10 years after his death

A 40-year-old Tunisian man who was held on suspicion of being an accomplice of suspected jihadist Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri has been freed, German prosecutors said today.
	Investigations had shown that the unnamed man detained Wednesday "is not the suspected contact of Anis Amri," said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecution service which handles terrorism cases.
	"He has therefore been released from detention," the spokeswoman, Frauke Koehler, told a press conference.
	She confirmed that shortly before Tunisian Amri steered a lorry through a Berlin Christmas market in an attack that killed 12 people, he had sent a mobile phone voice message and a picture to a contact -- but said this was not the man who had been detained.
	"The investigation into further accomplices or possible people who knew... Will continue at full speed," Koehler said.
	She also said that a video message released four days after the December 19 rampage, in which Amri is seen swearing allegiance to the ...

Tunisian suspect in Germany truck attack freed

An Istanbul court today ordered the release of novelist Asli Erdogan in her trial on terror propaganda charges after over four months behind bars, reports and a friend said.
	The court ordered the release under judicial supervision of Erdogan as well as the linguist Necmiye Alpay, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. They remain on trial over their involvement in a pro-Kurdish newspaper, with the next hearing scheduled for January.
	As is customary in Turkey, they were not released in the courthouse but taken back to their prison in Bakirkoy in Istanbul to complete formalities.
	One of Erdogan's supporters, Aysegul Tozeren, who followed the trial confirmed the release order and said she was expected to walk free later in the evening.
	Erdogan will still have to report to police and remains subject to a ban on leaving Turkey, she told AFP.
	Supporters were also heading to the Bakirkoy women's prison in anticipation of their release.

Turkey court orders release of detained novelist Asli Erdogan

Russia's FSB security agency today said it had detained seven alleged Islamic State rebels in the volatile North Caucasus who were planning "terrorist attacks" around Moscow.
	The FSB said the group in the Dagestan region had been plotting "a series of high-profile terrorist actions" in the Moscow region on the direct orders of a senior IS commander in Syria.
	Security operatives confiscated a large quantity of firearms, ordnance and components to make improvised explosive devices, the FSB said in a statement.
	The Kremlin is currently conducting a bombing campaign in Syria to back up leader Bashar al-Assad that has seen IS issue threats of attacks against Russia.
	The security services have in recent weeks announced several operations that thwarted potential attacks in Moscow and the second city Saint Petersburg.
	The North Caucasus region -- where Moscow is still fighting a dwindling Islamist insurgency -- has been a major source for foreigners fighting in Syria and Iraq.
	In the ...

Russia says detains IS group planning Moscow attacks

Some 50,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, the foreign ministry in Dhaka said today, seeking shelter from a bloody crackdown by the army.
	Bangladesh has stepped up patrols to try to stem the tide of refugees crossing the border since an eruption of unrest in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine in early October.
	The foreign ministry summoned Myanmar's ambassador to express "deep concern at the continued influx" of tens of thousands of members of the stateless ethnic minority into its territory.
	"(We) mentioned that around 50,000 Myanmar citizens took shelter into Bangladesh since 09 October 2016," the ministry said in a statement.
	Rakhine borders Bangladesh and is home to the Rohingya -- a Muslim minority group loathed by many of Myanmar's Buddhist majority.
	Dhaka also demanded early repatriation of all Burmese citizens who have been living in the Muslim-majority nation for years, including some 300,000 Rohingya -- most of them illegally.
	A spokesman for ...

50,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh from Myanmar: government

Madrid today lifted an unprecedented ban on half of most private cars as pollution in the Spanish capital eased up.
	A day earlier and for the first time in Spain, authorities decided to implement a measure already used in other cities abroad by ordering vehicles with even-number registration plates to drive on even-number days, and cars with odd-number plates on odd-number days.
	The measure took effect today, but it was short-lived.
	In a tweet, Madrid city hall said it had lifted the partial ban from tomorrow "given the improvement in NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) and (weather) forecasts."
	The partial ban on cars is activated when levels of harmful NO2 in the atmosphere go above 200 microgrammes per cubic metre in at least two measuring stations for a specific period of time, and if the air is unlikely to clear imminently.
	There are exceptions to the ban, such as for mopeds, hybrid cars, those carrying three people or more or used by disabled people.
	Buses, taxis and emergency vehicles 

Madrid lifts partial car ban as pollution eases

Israel's attorney general has decided to order a criminal probe against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and he is to soon be questioned by police, Israeli media reported today.
	The justice ministry and police have declined to comment. Police have however issued a statement saying that it would inform the public "in due time" on the issue, while warning that media reports have included speculation.
	Israeli media have reported that the investigation is to involve suspicions of corruption.
	Channel 10 television reported that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has authorised police to conduct a criminal investigation.
	The station and other Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu is to be questioned by police.
	In July, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said he had ordered a preliminary examination into an unspecified affair involving Netanyahu.
	No details were given on the nature of the preliminary examination and Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
	He has ...

Criminal probe to be opened against Israel PM: reports

A 40-year-old Tunisian man held on suspicion of being an accomplice of jihadist Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri has been freed, prosecutors said today.
	Investigations have shown that the man detained yesterday "is not the suspected contact of Anis Amri," said a spokeswoman for the prosecution. "He has therefore been released from detention.

Tunisian suspect in Germany truck attack freed: prosecutors

Russian warplanes have for the first time bombed jihadist targets around the town of Al-Bab in Syria held by Islamic State (IS) extremists but surrounded by Turkish forces, a report said today.
	The Dogan news agency, citing military sources, said the air strikes took place yesterday. The report was published after the announcement of a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria.
	There was no official confirmation of the report. The agency did not specify if the strikes were coordinated with Turkey.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "strikes suspected to be Russian" had been hitting Al-Bab for the last two days "in support of the Turkish operation".
	There was no comment from the Russian army.
	Turkey has for four months pressed an incursion against IS jihadists inside Syria in support of pro-Ankara fighters.
	But they have faced stiffening resistance in the battle to take Al-Bab, taking increasing casualties.
	Turkey has in the ..

Russian jets bomb IS-held Syrian town

Bosnian prosecutors today charged four former police officers over the killing of eight ethnic Serb members of the then Yugoslav army at the start of the 1990s war.
	The eight Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) soldiers were detained in the Sarajevo suburb of Dobrinja in April 1992 after their vehicle broke down, a prosecutor's office statement said.
	They were taken to a downtown Sarajevo park where they were shot dead. Two of the accused participated in the shooting, said the statement.
	The victims' bodies were removed from the execution site to cover up the crime and so far only partial remains of two of them have been found, according to the prosecutor's office.
	The other two accused "as members of police and security forces ... Were informed about the crime or personally witnessed it after which they failed to arrest, process and sanction the perpetrators," it said.
	One of the four indicted men, Dragan Vikic, commanded a special Bosnian interior ministry unit. He is considered a ...

Bosnia charges policemen over killing prisoners of war

German state rail operator Deutsche Bahn said today it planned to significantly ramp up cargo transport to China following a record year, using the world's longest train line in a modern-day revival of the Silk Road route.
	More than 40,000 containers were transported between the two countries in 2016, up from 35,000 a year earlier and "the largest volume of goods" moved on the iron link so far, Deutsche Bahn (DB) said in a statement.
	"This is a good basis from which to increase the number of containers to about 100,000 by 2020," DB board member Ronald Pofalla said.
	The trans-Eurasian rail stretch spans a distance of 10,000 to 12,000 kilometres, passing through Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia before stopping at several Chinese cities.
	The journey takes 12 to 16 days, around half the time it would take for the goods to arrive by sea.
	Air travel would be fastest but considerably more expensive.
	The freight train service has proved especially popular with clients ...

AFP

AFP

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