A Chinese consortium is set to acquire a 40 per cent stake in Pakistan's main bourse, the country's stock exchange said today.
	   At least 17 entities had expressed an interest in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), whose benchmark stock index was one of the best performing indices worldwide in 2016.
	   The deal is estimated to be worth about USD 84 million, according to an official who requested anonymity.
	   The PSX is currently owned by more than 300 Pakistani brokers.
	   "The bid submitted by Chinese Consortium @ Rs 28 per share emerged as the highest and acceptable under the relevant regulations," the PSX said in a statement.
	   The consortium comprises three Chinese exchanges -- China Financial Futures Exchange Company Limited, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and two local financial institutions -- Pak-China Investment Company Limited and Habib Bank Limited.
	   "The Divestment Committee will now issue the Letter of Acceptance to the above ...

Chinese consortium wins 40 pc stake bid in Pakistan bourse

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Saudi Arabia today projected a 2017 budget deficit of about USD 53 billion and a lower than expected shortfall for this year after government cost-cutting in response to lower oil prices.
	Expenses next year will reach 890 billion riyals (USD 237 billion) against revenues of 692 billion riyals (USD 184 billion), the cabinet said in a statement.
	It said this year's deficit will be 297 billion riyals (USD 79 billion), down 8.9 per cent from 2016's budget forecast.
	"This budget comes at a time of a highly volatile economic situation...And which led to a slowdown in world economic growth and a drop in oil prices that impacted our country," King Salman said on official television, with Finance Minister Mohammed Aljadaan seated nearby at a table of cabinet ministers.
	Revenues for this year are expected to be 528 billion riyals, higher than projections a year ago of 513.75 billion, the cabinet said.
	Spending is expected to come in at 825 billion riyals for 2016, 1.8 per cent lower than ..

Saudi Arabia projects USD 53 bn deficit in 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin today called for the country to reinforce its military nuclear potential and praised the army's performance in its Syria campaign.
	In a speech that recapped military activities in 2016, Putin said the army's preparedness has "considerably increased" and called for continued improvement that would ensure it can "neutralise any military threat".
	"We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defence systems," the Kremlin strongman said.
	"We must carefully monitor any changes in the balance of power and in the political-military situation in the world, especially along Russian borders, and quickly adapt plans for neutralising threats to our country."
	He said Russia's military had successfully demonstrated its capabilities in Syria, showcased its technology to potential arms buyers and helped the Syrian army make considerable ..

Putin urges Russian nuclear weapons boost

Kenya's opposition leader called today for protests over a new law to allow manual vote counting if the electronic system fails, accusing the ruling party of seeking to rig the 2017 elections.
	Kenyan lawmakers passed the vote in a special session of parliament boycotted by opposition members who stood outside shouting at passing members of the ruling Jubilee coalition.
	The vote took place as Raila Odinga, former prime minister and leader of the CORD opposition alliance, was trying to block it in a Nairobi court.
	"India, which is one of the largest democracies in the world, registered 863 million people biometrically, and also used EVID (Electronic Voter Identification System) in the elections and it worked without any problem, why can't Kenya do the same?" said Odinga.
	"This is because they are used to stealing the vote using the manual voter identification, they are used to waking up the dead to vote before they go back to the graves."
	Odinga warned that "if there is no ...

Kenya opposition urges protests over new election law

The UN said today that it had deployed dozens of observers in east Aleppo to monitor the last stage of an evacuation, which is clearing the way for Syria's army to retake the city.
	"Thirty-one staff are now assigned for monitoring," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, told AFP, adding that the observers included both national and international staff members, and that some had been reassigned from other tasks.
	"They are all on the job right now," he said.

UN says observers on ground to monitor east Aleppo evacuation

Surgeons in Poland said today they had successfully attached a hand from a deceased donor to a man born without one, in what they claimed was a world first.
	"It is the first graft in the world of an upper limb onto an adult with this congenital defect," said Adam Domanasiewicz, who headed the team of surgeons at Wroclaw Medical University Hospital.
	"We are talking about a man who lived 32 years without this member."
	Up to now, a similar procedure had been performed only on newborn conjoined twins in Indonesia and Canada, Domanasiewicz said.
	Hands have also been grafted onto patients whose own limbs were amputated.
	The transplant to the wrist was performed on December 15 in an operation that lasted 13 hours.
	As of today, the patient can only move his fingers and not the hand itself, but doctors are optimistic that he will gain more mobility over time.
	"This is an important breakthrough in neurophysiology and the practice of transplants because up to now, it was thought that -- ..

In 'world first', man born without hand gets one: Surgeons

As police hunt for Tunisian Anis Amri, the top suspect in Berlin's Christmas market attack, public anger has grown over a catalogue of failures that allowed him to evade arrest or deportation.
	An incredulous public has learned that Amri was a rejected asylum seeker and known radical jihadist with a history of crime who had been under police observation for plotting an attack before surveillance was dropped.
	"They knew him. They did nothing," ran the scathing headline of Berlin's B.Z. Tabloid.
	Here are the missed chances that may have prevented Monday's attack, according to what we know so far from official statements and press reports.
	It seemed too good to be true when police said Monday night they had arrested a suspect within an hour of the attack -- a Pakistani man who had apparently been identified by an eyewitness.
	By the time police let him go late Tuesday for lack of evidence, they had lost 24 hours during which the public had not been told the armed killer was still on ..

Missed chances: How Berlin attack suspect slipped through net

Russia's defence minister today accused the British army of using Russian insignia to designate the enemy during training, a method he said was employed by Nazi Germany during World War II.
	Minister Sergei Shoigu said that British troops at the Salisbury Plain training facility "have started to use Russian-made tanks and uniforms of the Russian military to designate the enemy".
	"The last time this training method was used was by Nazi Germany during the Second World War," Shoigu said, according to a transcript published on the defence ministry's website.
	He added that NATO had doubled the intensity of its military exercises and that the majority of its drills were "anti-Russian".
	"NATO has declared Russia a main threat and continues to build up its military potential at our borders," he said.
	Relations between NATO and Russia have soured since Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula of Ukraine in March 2014, and eastern European countries are worried that they too could be targets of .

Russian minister compares UK army with Nazi Germany

China began daily civilian charter flights to Woody Island in the contested South China Sea today, the official Xinhua news agency said, in a move likely to raise regional tensions.
	Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost all of the strategically vital South China Sea despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.
	It landed its first passenger plane in Sansha city on Woody Island in the contested Paracels chain, where Vietnam and Taiwan each have rival claims.
	China established Sansha by unilaterally awarding it two million square kilometres of sea in 2012 and declaring it the country's largest city.
	The Asian giant hopes to turn the area around Woody Island into a "major tourist attraction comparable to the Maldives", the state-run China Daily said in May.
	China has encouraged patriotic citizens to visit the contested Paracels, which are known as Xisha in Chinese.
	Chinese tourists have 

China starts regular charter flights to disputed Paracels

A Christmas-themed train today set out on a journey to criss-cross Pakistan in an effort to promote tolerance in the overwhelmingly Muslim country.
	Adorned with Christmas lights and mock snowmen, and with carriages that have portraits and tributes to notable Christian Pakistanis, the government says it hopes to change mindsets in Pakistan, where attacks and persecution of religious minorities have become routine.
	Christians make up an estimated 1.6 per cent of Pakistan's 200 million people and have long faced discrimination -- sidelined into lowly paid jobs and often the target of trumped-up blasphemy charges.
	"This is a sign of tolerance, everybody will celebrate Christmas together," Human Rights Minister Kamran Michael told AFP, adding that members of the public would be welcomed to visit the train and see its exhibits along its many stops.
	It set off this afternoon from Islamabad to Peshawar, capital of the conservative northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and will travel .

Christmas train to spread tolerance in Pakistan

More than 4,000 fighters left rebel-held areas of Aleppo, the Red Cross said today, in the "last stages" of an evacuation clearing the way for Syria's army to retake the city.
	A week into the rebel withdrawal from the east of Syria's second city, the evacuation of fighters and civilians from the one-time opposition stronghold appeared to be reaching its final hours.
	The loss of east Aleppo marks the biggest defeat for Syria's rebellion in more than five years of civil war and a major victory for President Bashar al-Assad, who today hailed his allies Moscow and Tehran.
	"The liberation of Aleppo is not only a victory for Syria but also for those who really contribute to the fight against terrorism, notably Russia and Iran," state news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying.
	"It is also a defeat for countries hostile to the Syrian people who used terrorism to achieve their interests," Assad said after a meeting in Damascus with Hossein Jaberi Ansari, an Iranian deputy foreign ...

4,000 rebels leave Aleppo in 'last stages' of evacuation

A triple car bombing killed at least 23 people today in a town recently retaken from the Islamic State group, near the jihadists' final stronghold of Mosul, Iraq's army said.
	"A terrorist attack in the form of three car bombs at a market in Gogjali killed 15 civilians and eight police," a coordination centre for forces battling IS said in a statement.

Car bombs kill 23 in former IS-held town near Mosul: Iraq army

Seventeen people have been killed in clashes between DR Congo police and members of a cult that believes the end of President Joseph Kabila's mandate will usher in the apocalypse, a regional governor said today.
	Bienvenu Esimba, governor of DR Congo's northwestern Mongala province, said the clashes broke out Wednesday in the provincial capital Lisala when members of the sect burned dozens of houses and attacked a market before launching an assault on local electoral commission offices.
	"The toll from the clashes is 14 militiamen from the political-religious cult and three dead police officers," Esimba told AFP by telephone, adding that cult leader Wami-Nene was among those killed.
	A local Catholic priest confirmed that cult members had launched the attack.
	DR Congo is mired in political crisis two days after Kabila's second and final term in office had been due to end on December 20, with no indications that he is planning to step down.
	Esimba said the cult members, armed with ...

17 dead as DR Congo police clash with cult members

Mortar fire killed 11 people including four aid workers as civilians gathered to receive assistance in the battleground Iraqi city of Mosul, the United Nations said today.
	"According to initial reports, four aid workers and at least seven civilians queuing for emergency assistance in eastern Mosul city have been killed by indiscriminate mortar fire," Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement.
	"Within the last 48 hours, there have been two separate incidents" that also wounded up to 40 people, Grande said.
	"People waiting for aid are already vulnerable and need help. They should be protected, not attacked," she said, adding: "The killing of civilians and aid workers violates every humanitarian principle."
	Iraqi forces launched an operation on October 17 to retake Mosul, the country's last city held by the Islamic State jihadist group, and have retaken areas on its eastern side.
	But the battle - during which more than 100,000 people have been displaced, .

Mortar fire kills 11 including aid workers in Iraq's Mosul: UN

Britain's Prince Charles warned against intolerance towards refugees fleeing religious persecution today, saying the rising tide of populism was reminiscent of the "dark days" of the 1930s.
	"The suffering doesn't end when they arrive seeking refuge in a foreign land," the heir to the throne told BBC radio.
	"We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive towards those who adhere to a minority faith."
	The 68-year-old, in his third broadcast for the "Thought for the Day" section of popular news programme Today, added: "All of this has deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s."
	Charles said his comments applied not just to Christians fleeing parts of the Middle East but also to other persecuted faiths in the world including Yazidis, Jews, Ahmadi Muslims and Baha'i people.
	Referring to the "monstrous extremism" seen in World War II, the Prince of Wales said the fact that "nearly 70 years later we should still be ...

Prince Charles warns of return to 'dark days of 1930s'

Evacuations from rebel-held parts of Aleppo continued overnight with dozens of vehicles leaving the city and the operation likely to end today, aid workers said.
    The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is assisting in the evacuation, said dozens more buses and smaller vehicles were expected to carry rebel fighters and civilians out of the city today.
	"We expect today to be the last convoys, the operation will continue all day long and during the night. If it goes smoothly the evacuation will end tonight," said Ingy Sedky, the ICRC's spokeswoman in Syria.
	Around 30,000 people have left the one-time opposition stronghold of east Aleppo since Thursday, including all of the wounded and sick in critical condition, according to the ICRC.
	Ahmad al-Dbis, who heads a team of doctors and volunteers coordinating evacuations, said some 400 vehicles, including trucks and cars, had arrived overnight in Khan al-Assal, the staging ground where evacuees from Aleppo arrive after ...

Aleppo evacutions continue, 'last convoys' expected

China saw 66,000 workplace deaths in 2015 despite strengthened legislation, Chinese authorities said, highlighting often dangerous labour conditions in the world's second largest economy.
	The world's workshop also saw 282,000 workplace accidents in 2015, according to a report posted Wednesday on the official website of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China.
	Deaths have dropped 50 percent since 2002, with total accidents down from one million in the same year, it said, but insufficient safety precautions in the workplace remain a major problem.
	In 2015, the country saw 38 accidents involving over 10 deaths or causing more than 50 million yuan ($7.2 million) of damage, the report said.
	"There was a rising tendency to put an emphasis on development while overlooking safety," the report quoted Zhang Ping, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee as saying.
	Zhang singled out coal mines and steel factories as places where poor safety supervision had resulted in ...

66,000 workplace deaths in China last year: report

Japan said today it has paid millions of dollars in UNESCO annual funding dues after holding back the payment over a World War II-era history row.
	UNESCO, the UN cultural and scientific body, last year agreed to China's request to include documents in its Memory of the World register recording atrocities by Japanese troops after the fall of the Chinese city of Nanjing 1937.
	Japan -- one of UNESCO's biggest contributors -- had protested the listing and warned that it might pull its funding for the Paris-based organisation.
	Tokyo said it feared the memory project risked being politicised.
	Tokyo then failed to pay its dues on time earlier this year, but Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed that Tokyo made the contribution totalling 3.85 billion yen ($32.7 million) earlier this week.
	Kishida told reporters Japan considered it "significant progress" the Memory of the World registry system was under review.
	The massacre, often referred to as the "Rape of Nanjing", is an ...

Japan pays UNESCO dues suspended over Nanjing row

Bahraini authorities say they have interrogated detained opposition leader Nabil Rajab for spreading "false information" in an article published in French daily Le Monde that accused Gulf monarchies of fomenting "extremism".
	Rajab, who already faces 15 years in jail for his criticism of Manama's main ally Saudi Arabia, was accused of making comments that "harm the interests" of Bahrain and other Gulf countries, the official BNA news agency said Thursday.
	It said the case had been transferred to the prosecutor's office and added that Rajab, a leading opposition activist and the founder of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, denied writing the article in question.
	A piece published by Le Monde on Tuesday attributed to Rajab denounced the Islamic State group and accused Gulf nations of failing to tackle the rise of its violent ideology.
	"Gulf states claim to be allies in the fight against extremism, but they are fuelling the crisis," the article said.
	Rajab was arrested in June for 

Leading Bahrain activist grilled over Le Monde article

France and Britain are pushing the UN Security Council to ban the sale of helicopters to Syria and to impose the first sanctions over the use of chemical weapons in the five-year war.
	A draft resolution obtained by AFP yesterday calls for asset freezes and travel bans against four Syrian officials and 10 entities including a Syrian research center tied to chemical weapons development.
	Diplomats however said the measure is certain to be vetoed by Russia, Syria's ally, which has blocked council action on Syria with six vetoes so far.
	A vote at the council is expected as early as next week.
	A joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found that several units of the Syrian army had used toxic weapons against three villages in northern Syria in 2014 and 2015.
	It was the first time an international probe blamed President Bashar Al-Assad's forces after years of denial from Damascus.
	Government helicopters flying from ..

France, Britain push for helicopter ban, sanctions on Syria

Japan drafted in troops today  to help contain a rapidly spreading fire, fanned by strong winds, which engulfed dozens of buildings and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from a northern city.
	Aerial footage broadcast live on Japanese TV showed massive orange flames and thick smoke spewing out of buildings in the city of Itoigawa in Niigata prefecture.
	Troops were on their way to the coastal city after Niigata Governor Ryuichi Yoneyam requested military aid, an official in the fire division of the prefectural government said.
	"At the moment, activities to put out the fire are still going on," he told AFP on the phone.
	"About 50 houses and buildings have been damaged," he said.
	The blaze started at 10:28 am at a Chinese restaurant, and a total of 17 fire trucks have been deployed in the area.
	The blaze spread quickly due to strong winds, according to public broadcaster NHK.
	"Sparks of fire flew around," a man in the neighbourhood told NHK.
	"That's why far away ...

AFP

AFP

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