The White House orchestrated a "gang-up" against Israel on last week's UN settlement vote, its ambassador to Washington said today, in the latest sign of anger between the longtime allies.
	Israel's ambassador Rob Dermer said in an interview with CNN that his government plans to show evidence of the alleged US maneuvering in due time.
	"What is outrageous is that the United States was actually behind that gang-up. I think it was a very sad day, really a shameful chapter," the Israeli diplomat told CNN.
	"We have clear evidence of it. We will present that evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels. And if they want to share it with the US people they're welcome to do it," Dermer said, adding that the Israeli government is "deeply disappointed" with Washington over the UN vote.
	On Friday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding that "Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including .

US led UN 'gang-up' on Israel settlement vote: ambassador

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Suranga Lakmal took four wickets and gave Sri Lanka a slight edge on the first day of the first Test against South Africa at St George's Park on Monday.
     Lakmal took four for 62 in 23 overs as South Africa reached 267 for six at the end of a day on which they failed to capitalise on a century opening partnership between Stephen Cook and Dean Elgar.
     Opening bowler Lakmal pegged back the hosts by taking the first three wickets and later dismissed South African captain Faf du Plessis. Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath took two wickets, including that of JP Duminy, South Africa's top scorer with a fluent 63.
     When Du Plessis won the toss and decided to bat on a well-grassed but slow pitch, it was anticipated that the first two hours would be the most difficult for batsmen, with early life before moisture in the surface dried out.
     Cook (59) and Elgar (45) were seldom troubled as they reached 92 for no wicket at lunch. They started cautiously and left the ball well before ...

Lakmal strikes give Sri Lanka the edge

Scores at close on the first day of the first Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka at St George's Park on Monday:
     South Africa, first innings
     S. Cook c Chandimal b Lakmal          59
     D. Elgar c Chandimal b Lakmal         45
     H. Amla c Chandimal b Lakmal          20
     J. Duminy lbw b Herath                63
     F. Du Plessis c Karunaratne b Lakmal  37
     T. Bavuma lbw b Herath                 3
     Q. De Kock not out                    25
     V. Philander not out                   6
     Extras (lb3, nb5, w1)                  9
     Total (6 wkts, 90 overs)             267
     Fall of wickets: 1-104 (Cook), 2-105 (Elgar), 3-178 (Amla), 4-213 (Duminy), 5-225 (Bavuma), 6-253 (Du Plessis)
     Bowling: Lakmal 23-6-62-4, Pradeep 17-4-48-0 (2nb), Mathews 13-5-26-0 (1w), Chameera 14-1-68-0 (3nb), Herath 20-4-48-2, De Silva 3-0-12-0.

Port Elizabeth, Dec 26 (AFP) Scores at close on the first day of the first Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka at St George's Park on Monday:

Russia's shock over the military plane clash that killed 92 people became all the more acute when Yelizaveta Glinka, a renowned doctor and charity worker, was on the doomed flight's passenger list.
	The diminutive 54-year-old woman, affectionately known as "Dr Liza", had boarded the same military flight to Syria as more than 60 members of the famed Red Army Choir, who were on their way to entertain troops stationed at the Hmeimim base Moscow uses to launch airstrikes in the war-scarred country.
	But Glinka's objective was neither musical nor military. She was on a mission to deliver medication to a university hospital in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia.
	Since yesterday's crash Muscovites have been laying flowers and candles in front of the headquarters of Fair Aid, the charity she founded in 2007 to care for the homeless, terminally-ill patients and abandoned pensioners in Russia which often offers little support to vulnerable social groups.
	"She didn't live her life in vain ...

Russia mourns doctor killed in Syria-bound plane crash

Former president Mario Soares, seen as the father of Portugal's modern day democracy, was in a deep coma and in "critical" condition, the Red Cross hospital in Lisbon said today.
	"Soares is in a very critical situation, in a deep coma, and the prognosis remains uncertain," spokesman Jose Barata told journalists.
	Soares, 92, has been in the Red Cross hospital's intensive care unit since December 13 after taking ill for an undisclosed reason.
	After briefly improving, Soares's health took a turn for the worse on Saturday.
	"There has been steady worsening of the state of his health," said Barata.
	The founder of Portugal's Socialist party, Soares was a towering figure in Portuguese politics for decades, having served as foreign minister, prime minister and as president from 1986 to 1996.

Portugal's ex-president Mario Soares in deep coma

President Barack Obama says he could have been reelected for a third term and that the nation still largely embraces his political vision despite last month's election of Donald Trump to succeed him.
	The US leader's remarks were made in an interview posted on the podcast "The Axe Files," produced by CNN and the University of Chicago.
	Obama, who winds up his second and final term in office in just over three weeks, said he believes the American public still supports his progressive vision, despite having voted for Trump -- his political opposite.
	"I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could've mobilised a majority of the American people to rally behind it," Obama tells his interviewer, former senior adviser David Axelrod, in the most recent of several exit interviews he has been conducting.
	He was philosophical and a little rueful about Democrats' loss of the presidential election, when Hillary Clinton was defeated 

Obama confident he could have won the White House again

At least 19 Brazilian migrants who went missing last month are feared drowned off the Bahamas as they tried to cross illegally to the United States, officials in Brasilia said today.
	"The fear is that the boat the Brazilians were traveling in went down in the Caribbean as it left the Bahamas," according to Brazilian authorities on the official government information website, Portal Brasil.
	The migrants' families have not heard from them since November 6, the Brazilian foreign ministry said.
	Brazilian media reports said there were also dozens of other migrants aboard the boat, which officials suspect went down while attempting the roughly 50-mile (80-kilometer) crossing between the Bahamas and the Florida coast.
	"The Brazilian embassy in Nassau, Bahamas and the Brazilian consulate in Miami, Florida are in contact with family members and Caribbean and US authorities to try to locate the missing persons," said Portal Brasil.
	The Brazilian foreign ministry said it was not ruling out .

Brazil says 19 migrants feared drowned off Bahamas

Nigerian troops today foiled an attempt by two female suicide bombers to attack a cattle market in the restive city of Maiduguri, a frequent target of Boko Haram jihadists, the emergency service said.
	Ibrahim Abdulkadir of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the northeastern city said one of the bombers was killed, while the other was arrested.
	"The incident happened at Kasuwar Shanu cattle market this morning. There were two suicide bombers. One accidentally blew herself up while the other was arrested by vigilant soldiers," he said.
	No one was killed in the explosion, but several people were injured.
	"We have taken those wounded to the hospitals," he said, adding that security forces have cordoned off the area.
	Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency began in Maiduguri, though it has since spread beyond Nigeria's borders to Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
	Monday's attack comes two days after President Muhammadu Buhari claimed the military had finally routed Boko Haram from 

Nigerian troops foil suicide attack in restive city

Democratic Republic of Congo troops killed 10 soldiers from neighbouring Burundi after they crossed the border last week in pursuit of rebels, the Congolese army said today.
	The Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) initially announced the death of five Burundian soldiers who had entered the country overnight on December 21, in the first known clash since the end of the Second Congo War in 2003.
	"There were 10 deaths," Major Dieudonne Kajibwami, told AFP on Monday following a previous statement that five bodies had been taken to Uvira, a lakeside town in the eastern South Kivu province.
	"In their flight, they didn't manage to recover the five other bodies," added Kajibwami, the military spokesman in South Kivu, much of which lies across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi.
	Questioned by AFP, the Burundian army declined to comment on the incident.
	Burundian medical sources said that wounded soldiers were admitted on Thursday to the military hospital in the capital Bujumbura, which lies on the .

DR Congo troops killed 10 soldiers from Burundi: army

More than 2,000 Saudis are fighting abroad with jihadist groups, with over 70 percent of them in Syria, the kingdom's interior ministry was reported as saying today.
	"The number of Saudis proven to be in conflict areas is 2,093," interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told daily newspaper Al-Hayat.
	He said that 1,540 of them were in Syria, where jihadists have flocked since the Islamic State group seized control of vast areas in mid-2014.
	Another 147 were in Yemen, which is the base of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the global terror network.
	Another 31 were believed to be in Afghanistan or Pakistan, Turki said.
	Only five were believed to be in neighbouring Iraq, where IS also seized significant territory in 2014.
	Turki said 73 Saudis had also been detained abroad "on charges related to acts of terrorism.

Over 2,000 Saudi jihadists abroad: ministry

A handful of South Korean lawmakers today finally got to question the woman at the heart of the impeachment crisis surrounding President Park Geun-Hye, after she snubbed a televised hearing at her detention centre.
	Choi Soon-Sil, a long-time friend of the president, has repeatedly ignored several summons to appear before a parliamentary committee probing a corruption scandal that triggered Park's impeachment earlier this month.
	So the lawmakers came to her, with the committee organising a special hearing Monday morning -- with TV cameras -- inside the detention facility where Choi is awaiting trial on charges of extortion and abuse of power.
	Choi initially refused to leave her cell, but eventually agreed to meet eight selected members of the committee behind closed doors.
	Citing the lawmakers, Yonhap news agency reported that Choi denied all her charges, including allegations that she colluded with the president and set up two dubious foundations that were later used for her ...

Lawmakers quiz S Korea's elusive 'Rasputin'

Turkey today said it wanted international air support for its army's assault on the jihadist-held Syrian town of Al Bab where the military is facing tough resistance from Islamic State (IS) extremists.
	Turkish forces have for weeks joined pro-Ankara Syrian rebels in fierce fighting for Al Bab, taking increasing casualties as they approach closer to the centre.
	Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against IS jihadists in Syria and lets Western war planes use its Incirlik air base as a hub for air raids.
	"As for our operations in Al Bab, the international coalition should assume its responsibilities, especially where air support is concerned," presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in televised comments in Ankara.
	"The weather conditions can sometimes entail delays," Kalin acknowledged. "But the absence of air support when there is no valid reason is unacceptable," he added.
	The US and its allies have been conducting their own air strikes against IS targets in Syria but there .

Turkey urges air support for assault on IS-held Syria town

At least 30 Ugandan members of a village football team and their fans drowned when their boat capsized on Lake Albert during a party, police said today.
	"The water was calm but the problem came in when the merrymaking team and fans tilted on one side of the boat yesterday... It capsized killing about 30 people," police commander John Rutagira told AFP.
	"We can say 15 people have been rescued by the police working with local fishermen," he added.

At least 30 drown in Uganda Christmas drama on Lake Albert

Russian divers today found parts of the military plane that crashed in the Black Sea with 92 people onboard, a local official said.
	"The (plane) debris are at the depth of 27 metres one mile from the shore," said Rimma Chernova, a spokeswoman for the Sochi-based search and rescue operations run by the Russian emergency ministry.
	Russian news agencies had earlier quoted an unnamed official as saying that the fuselage of the plane had been found, a statement local authorities did not confirm when contacted by AFP.
	Chernova added that divers were planning to use a remotely-operated diving machine to determine the precise coordinates and size of the plane parts in order to understand what to do next.
	Officials said earlier that the flight recorders that could contain information about the Tu-154 plane's last moments before the crash were located in its tail.
	The plane carrying 92 people, including over 60 members of the Red Army Choir, went down on Sunday minutes after taking off ...

Parts of crashed Russian plane found in Black Sea: official

A new indefinite truce in Ukraine held by a thread for a third day Monday as both pro-Russian insurgents and Kiev reported clashes near a prized railroad hub but no deaths.
	Ukraine and Russia -- two ex-Soviet neighbours that are now sworn foes -- agreed to the armistice Wednesday with the help of mediation from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
	The rebels signed on to the ceasefire Friday after some deliberation.
	Yet mortar and artillery fire has continued unabated without claiming any lives.
	"Our positions came under attack 33 times since early Sunday," the Ukranian military said in a statement.
	The insurgents' website said their side had come under fire from Ukrainian grenade launchers 62 times in the past day.
	Such weapons have been banned by a February 2015 peace agreement that both sides have long ignored.
	Kiev and its Western allies view the eastern separatists as Russian proxies who have been fighting for 31 months to destabilise the ...

Fragile new Ukraine truce holds for third day

Some 30 dead in Uganda boat accident on Lake Albert:

Russian divers today found the main body of the military plane that crashed in the Black Sea with 92 people onboard, an official told Russian news agencies.
	"Divers... Have found the fuselage of the plane that crashed yesterday in the Black Sea," agencies quoted a member of the emergency ministry's Sochi-based search and rescue team as saying.

Body of crashed Russian plane found in Black Sea: agencies

Syrian authorities have accused rebel fighters of executing 21 civilians, including women and children, at close range as they quit second city Aleppo last week, state media reported.
	The bodies were found in two neighbourhoods in east Aleppo, state news agency SANA said late Sunday.
	The head of Aleppo's forensic unit Zaher Hajjo told SANA that "21 corpses of civilian victims, including five children and four women, killed by terrorist groups" were examined.
	"The bodies were found in prisons run by the terrorist groups in Sukkari and al-Kalasseh, and they were found to have been executed by gunshot at very close range," Hajjo was quoted as saying.
	Under a landmark deal brokered by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey, 35,000 rebels and civilians left the former opposition stronghold of east Aleppo last week.
	Days before the evacuations began, the UN said it had received credible reports of at least 82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children, being executed by ...

21 civilians 'executed' by rebels in Aleppo: state media

Israeli ministers have approved a bill that would allow a court to order sites such as Facebook and YouTube to remove material found to be "incitement," which they say contributes to Palestinian violence.
	A panel of ministers approved the legislation yesterday and it will now be taken up by the country's parliament.
	Government watchdogs have expressed concern such a law could be abused and harm free speech.
	The legislation, known as the "Facebook bill" in Israel, would allow the government to petition a court to have online material it considers incitement removed.
	It would be removed in cases where it poses "a real risk to the security of a person, the public or the state," Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said in a statement.
	Israel has previously held discussions with Facebook officials to stop what it calls online incitement.
	In September, Shaked said that the social network giant had removed 95 percent of the posts Israel had referred to it.
	Shaked said Sunday that in 2016, .

Israel ministers approve bill to remove online 'incitement'

Body of crashed Russian plane found in Black Sea:

A militia from DR Congo's Nande ethnic group has killed thirteen civilians from the Hutu community in the restive North Kivu province, an official said.
	A military operation to put an end to the Christmas Day killing spree left three Nande fighters dead, said local official Alphonse Mahano.
	The violence came after 13 members of the Nande ethnic group were killed on Thursday by Hutu militia forces in the same region.

AFP

AFP

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