Nigerian troops have rescued 1,880 civilians from a Boko Haram redoubt in the restive northeast in the past week and arrested hundreds of insurgents, a military commander has said.
	The Sambisa forest, covering about 1,300 square kilometres , is a stronghold of the notorious jihadist group, who kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in 2014.
	"During our operations in the period 14 - 21 December 2016, a total of 1,880 civilians were rescued from Boko Haram enclaves," Major-general Leo Irabor said in a statement after a news conference in the northeastern city of Maiduguri yesterday .
	He said the operation was part of a military campaign launched last year to clear the area of the jihadists.
	Irabor added: "564 Boko Haram terrorists were arrested while 19 others surrendered to our troops. Also, seven suspected kidnappers and 37 foreigners were equally arrested."
	He said several Boko Haram fighters were killed and a cache of arms and ammunitions was discovered.
	Boko Haram seeks to ...

Nigerian troops rescue 1,880 civilians from Boko Haram in one

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Alviro Petersen, a veteran of 36 Test matches, today became the highest-profile South African cricketer to be banned for corruption since former captain Hansie Cronje in 2000.
	Former opening batsman Petersen, 36, was banned for two years after agreeing a plea bargain with Cricket South Africa (CSA).
	He is the sixth player to be banned following a corruption scandal which led to former international player Gulam Bodi being banned for 20 years for attempting to fix matches in South Africa's domestic Twenty20 competition during the 2014/15 season.
	More players could yet be charged. A statement by CSA announcing Petersen's ban said investigations were continuing.
	Petersen admitted several breaches of CSA's anti-corruption code -- four charges of failing to disclose details of an approach to engage in corrupt conduct; four charges of failing to disclose full details of evidence involving another player, four charges of failing to provide accurate and complete information to ...

Cricket: Ex-South Africa batsman Petersen banned for two years

A total of 14 Turkish soldiers were killed and 33 wounded today in attacks by Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria as the military backs rebels seeking to take the town of Al Bab from the extremists, the army said.
	The toll, the heaviest single day loss for the Turkish army in its Syria operation that started in August, came in fighting with jihadists that included three suicide car bomb attacks, the army added in a statement quoted by Turkish media.

14 Turkish soldiers killed, 33 wounded in IS Syria attacks

Taliban gunmen stormed the residence of an Afghan lawmaker in the capital Kabul today, with casualties feared in the ongoing gun battle that follows a recent lull in violence.
	It was not immediately clear if Helmand MP Mir Wali was in the compound when the attack began this evening, but local media reported some members of his family may have been killed or taken hostage, citing security officials at the scene.
	The Taliban in a statement said their suicide bombers raided the house to disrupt an "important gathering of security officials".
	Sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard from the house as Afghan forces cordoned off the property after launching a clearance operation.
	Security officials were tight-lipped about the attack, which underscores the worsening security situation in Afghanistan.
	The Taliban are escalating their insurgency despite the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs, even as international efforts intensify to restart stalled peace talks.
	Fifteen years 

Taliban gunmen storm Afghan MP's house, casualties feared

The Kremlin said today that nearly all the communication channels between Moscow and Washington were frozen, local media reported.
	"Practically all levels of dialogue with the United States are frozen," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Mir TV, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
	"We don't communicate with one another. Or we do so minimally."
	Russia finds itself locked in its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War over its 2014 annexation of Crimea, the conflict in Ukraine and lingering disagreements about the conflict in Syria.
	US State Department Spokesman John Kirby assured later today that "diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues".
	"That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn't been a break in dialogue," Kirby said, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had spoken on the phone about the situation in Syria yesterday.
	The ...

Kremlin says almost all Russia-US dialogue 'frozen'

Brazil-based construction giant Odebrecht today agreed to pay fines of at least USD 2.6 billion to US, Brazilian and Swiss authorities, in what the US is calling the largest foreign bribery case in history.
	The US Justice Department said the conglomerate pled guilty to paying hundreds of millions to bribe government officials in countries on three continents.
	In the same case, Brazilian petrochemical firm Braskem will pay a combined total of USD 957 million to the three countries in criminal and regulatory penalties, the statement said.

Brazil construction group Odebrecht fined USD 2.6 bn in

Spanish banks were dealt a blow today after a European court ruled lenders must reimburse clients who signed mortgage contracts that prevented them benefiting from a steady drop in interest rates.
	The decision comes as Spain's banking system is struggling with the impact of mounting loan defaults, shrinking credit demand and tougher capital rules.
	The Bank of Spain estimates the ruling could cost Spain's banking sector over four billion euros (USD 4.2 billion), just four years after it received 41.4 billion euros in European Union bailout funds.
	Spain's Supreme Court had ruled in May 2013 that so-called mortgage "floor clauses", which impose a limit on how far mortgage interest rates can fall in line with a benchmark rate, were unfair as consumers had not been properly informed of the consequences.
	But the court said lenders did not have to reimburse clients for any excess interest payments before the date of the 2013 ruling.
	Today, the European Court of Justice ruled that the ...

Spanish banks ordered to reimburse mortgage interest

Tunisian anti-terrorism police were today questioning the family of Anis Amri, the prime suspect in the deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market, a security official told AFP.
	"A unit of the anti-terrorism brigade has questioned the suspect's family," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tunisia police question family of Berlin attack suspect:

German police have arrested a Moroccan man suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group and having close ties with the ringleader of last year's Paris attacks, officials said today.
	The suspect, identified as Redouane S, 24, was detained yesterday, accused of being a member of a cell that took orders from Belgian-Moroccan jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who led the November 2015 attacks in Paris before being killed in a police raid.
	Redouane S was tasked with locating safe houses in Turkey and Greece between October 2014 and early 2015 that were used as bases "for the preparation of attacks", the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.
	The suspect was allegedly also aware of Abaaoud's plans and preparations for an attack in the eastern Belgian city of Verviers, before the cell was dismantled in a deadly raid in January 2015.
	"Even after his arrival in Germany in May 2015, he was in contact with the group around Abaaoud and was ready for further instructions," ...

Germany arrests Moroccan IS suspect linked to Paris attacks

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today said for the first time the Turkish policeman who assassinated the Russian ambassador to Ankara was a member of the group of the US-based preacher blamed for the July coup.
	"There is no need to make a secret out of the fact he was a member of FETO," Erdogan said at a news conference, two days after the killing of ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara.
	Turkey has embarked on a massive crackdown on what it calls the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) in the wake of the July 15 coup aimed at unseating Erdogan.
	But Erdogan said the assassination of Karlov showed Gulen supporters were still present within the security forces.
	"I have to say this very clearly -- this dirty organisation is still within the military, still within the police," he said.
	"We of course are continuing and will continue to carry out purges. We will do this with sensitivity," he added.
	But the Kremlin, which has sent 18 Russian investigators to Ankara, indicated earlier that 

Erdogan says killer of Russian envoy was member of Gulen group

US regulators fined Goldman Sachs USD 120 million today for attempting to manipulate a widely-used global interest rate benchmark to benefit its trading positions.
	Goldman Sachs traders, between 2007 and 2012, deliberately timed and priced trades to influence the published price of the benchmark interest rate, the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission said in a statement.
	Goldman, one of a group of banks whose data set the benchmark daily, also made false submissions to skew the rate at the expense of counterparties, the CFTC said.
	The US Dollar International Swaps and Derivatives Association Fix is a daily benchmark used for a wide range of financial products, such as interest-rate swaps and derivatives.
	In addition, the company's cooperation "was not satisfactory" prior to the latter stages of the investigation, the CFTC added.
	The agency previously fined Citigroup and Barclays for attempted manipulation of the same benchmark interest rate.
	"This matter, the third ...

US fines Goldman Sachs USD 120 mn in rate-rigging scandal

Evacuations from the last rebel-held pocket of Aleppo resumed today despite heavy snowfall, clearing a path for Syria's army to take full control of the devastated city.
	The evacuations -- which have seen thousands withdraw from the one-time opposition stronghold of east Aleppo -- faced delays earlier today, leaving hundreds hungry and cold waiting to escape.
	But Syrian state television reported that after a 24-hour delay, 20 buses carrying "armed men and their families" had left for rebel territory to the west of the city.
	Ahmad al-Dbis, who heads a team of doctors and volunteers coordinating evacuations, said a convoy of 20 buses had transported 1,500 people out of the last rebel pocket of Aleppo, including 20 wounded.
	The evacuations were on the verge of being finished, according to Ahmad Qarra Ali of the powerful Ahrar al-Sham rebel group.
	"All the evacuations will be completed today, in several convoys," he told AFP.
	A Syrian military source also told AFP the last ...

Aleppo evacuations resume after delays

Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav was freed from prison today after prosecutors declined to appeal a parole board decision to release him after he served five years of a seven-year term for rape.
	Katsav, 71, did not speak to a crowd of journalists gathered outside the Maasiyahu prison near Tel Aviv as he left while surrounded by family.
	He was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice.
	The Iran-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant, resigned from the largely ceremonial role of president in June 2007 and became an outcast of the political establishment.
	When he entered prison in December 2011, he became the first former president to be jailed in Israel since its creation in 1948.
	Katsav had been rejected twice by the parole board since he became eligible for the customary one-third reduction for good behaviour.
	He had maintained his innocence, and his previous applications were .

Israel ex-president freed after rape term

A US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance advanced today to several kilometres from the largest prison held by the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria's northern province of Raqa, a monitor said.
	Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were eight kilometres from the jail near the country's largest dam at Tabqa on the Euphrates River, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	On December 10, the SDF announced "phase two" of its campaign against IS's de facto Syrian capital of Raqa some 50 kilometres east of Tabqa in the same province.
	The alliance has since captured dozens of villages and hamlets, the Observatory says, after taking 700 square kilometres from the jihadists in a first phase of the assault from November 5.
	Western hostages of the jihadist group are believed to have been held at the jail near the town of Taqba, where top IS leaders live, the Britain-based Observatory said.
	The SDF is backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition as well as by some US forces on the 

US-backed alliance advances in north Syria near IS jail

Nigeria has seized over 100 bags of plastic rice smuggled into the country, where prices of the staple food are rocketing ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays.
	A suspect has been arrested over the haul of 102 bags of the fake rice, which officials warned today was dangerous for human consumption.
	They are suspected to have been smuggled or illegally shipped in from China through Lagos port, a senior customs official in Nigeria's commercial hub told AFP.
	The 50-kilo bags, branded "Best Tomato Rice", had no date of manufacture and were intercepted on Monday in the Ikeja area of the sprawling city, the official said on condition of anonymity.
	"We have done a preliminary analysis of the plastic rice. After boiling, it was sticky and only God knows what would have happened if people consumed it," Ikeja area customs controller Mohammed Haruna was quoted as saying.
	Nigeria has banned rice imports as it seeks to boost local production.
	Haruna said the plastic rice was to be sold 

Nigeria seizes smuggled plastic rice

A Yemeni-American YouTube star from New York, Adam Saleh, called for a boycott of Delta Airlines after charging he was removed from one of its flights today for speaking Arabic.
	Delta said he was asked to leave the London to New York flight this morning following an unspecified "disturbance".
	"We spoke a different language on the plane, and now we're getting kicked out," the 23-year-old prankster, who has more than 2.2 million YouTube followers, said in a video filmed as the incident unfolded, and posted on Twitter.
	Saleh said he had been talking to his mother on the phone when fellow passengers complained, and he was told to leave.
	"You guys are racists. I spoke a different language and you say you feel uncomfortable! I can't believe my eyes. We spoke a different language and now there are six white people against us bearded men."
	Several passengers could be seen voicing their support for Saleh, with one calling out the airline staff in protest, but others at the rear of the ...

YouTube star says kicked of Delta flight for speaking Arabic

German prosecutors today named their prime suspect in the deadly Berlin Christmas market attack as 24-year-old Tunisian national Anis Amri in a wanted notice.
	The federal prosecutors office offered a reward of 100,000 euros (USD 104,000) for information leading to the arrest of Amri, who they warned "could be violent and armed".

Berlin attack suspect named as Tunisian Anis Amri

Volkswagen today inaugurated a new assembly plant in Kenya, returning to the East African country after four decades as it seeks to take advantage of surging car sales on the continent.
	The German car manufacturer's return to Kenya comes just weeks after it signed a deal to build an assembly plant in Algeria, and ahead of a trip by its brand chief to Rwanda for a new project.
	"Overall car sales in Africa are bound to rise by 40 per cent within the next five years, that is why we are expanding our business," said Volkswagen Brand CEO Herbert Diess.
	"It is fair to say that the whole continent has seen a long period of economic stagnation, but just like China in the early 80s, Africa offers great business opportunities. That holds especially true for Kenya."
	The assembly plant in the industrial town of Thika is expected to produce cars for Kenya as well as the wider East African market, starting with the Polo Vivo, described as the company's most successful passenger car model in ...

Volkswagen launches Kenya plant in Africa expansion

Turkey has recalled the head of a key religious organisation in The Netherlands after he informed Ankara about Dutch citizens believed to oppose the Turkish government, the Dutch foreign ministry said today.
	Handing over such information "is an undesirable and unacceptable form of interference in the lives of Dutch citizens by a diplomatic representative," Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said in a letter to parliament.
	According to Dutch media, Yusuf Acar, the representative here for Turkey's powerful Diyanet religious affairs directorate and a member of embassy staff, had been gathering information on suspected sympathisers of the alleged mastermind of Turkey's failed July coup.
	The Netherlands has a large community of citizens with Turkish roots. And last week Acar was quoted by the daily De Telegraaf saying he had indeed collected information, but denied spying on people.
	"I drew up a list based on information available on the internet," he said.
	Following the revelations, ...

Turkey recalls religious leader from Netherlands

Tens of thousands of displaced Syrians say they have become trapped in an "open-air prison" in the northwestern province of Idlib which they fear will be the army's next target.
	Rebels and civilians who have sought refuge in the opposition-held province, most recently from second city Aleppo, say they are suffering from skyrocketing prices and overpopulation.
	At least 25,000 people, including rebel fighters, have left east Aleppo since Thursday under an evacuation deal that will see the city come under full government control.
	Many of them have headed to neighbouring Idlib province to stay with relatives or in displacement centres.
	"We did not want to leave our land, but they used every weapon available to force us out," says Abu Mohammad, a father of four from east Aleppo.
	"Now they've prepared a prison for us in order to besiege us and bombard us," he adds, speaking to AFP in a camp hosting around 100 displaced families.
	Idlib city has been held since March 2015 by a coalition 

In Idlib, displaced Syrians bemoan 'open-air prison'

Tension ran high in DR Congo today, with police out in force in the capital and activity slowed following deadly protests against President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down as his mandate ends.
	Life very slowly resumed in Kinshasa, a megacity of 10 million, with few buses and taxis on the streets at morning rush-hour, trading slack at the market, and troops and police posted at major crossroads.
	A day after at least 11 people died in street protests, eyes were on talks due to resume Wednesday that were launched by the Catholic Church in hopes of finding a peaceful way out of the political crisis.
	Kabila's second and final term in office ran out Tuesday with no election on the near horizon and no sign of plans to leave power any time soon.
	So far the mainstream opposition has called for "peaceful resistance" from Democratic Republic of Congo's 70 million people in hopes of clinching a deal at the negotiating table.
	But gunfire rang out across the vast and troubled nation as ...

AFP

AFP

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