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 ...

DR Congo tense ahead of key talks on Kabila's future

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The European Union today proposed tighter checks on cash and gold transfers as part of a crackdown on terrorist financing across a bloc grappling with a wave of terrorism.
	EU officials put forward greater powers to freeze or seize assets of suspected terrorists, crack down on money laundering and stop the flow of terror funds.
	"With today's proposals, we strengthen our legal means to disrupt and cut off the financial sources of terrorists and criminals," the European Commission's First Vice President Frans Timmermans said.
	"We must ensure we have the right tools in place to detect and stop suspicious financial flows."
	Timmermans said the plan will boost cooperation between law enforcement authorities across the bloc as Berlin became the latest terror-hit city when a truck ploughed through a Christmas market, killing 12 people.
	"We meet again in this press room today in the shadow of the tragic events in Berlin Monday night, which have deeply shocked and saddened us all," ...

EU to tighten screws on terror financing

Police in Bahrain today clashed with protesters supporting a top Shiite cleric who has been stripped of his citizenship and is on trial in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, activists said.
	Security forces fired teargas canisters to disperse dozens of protesters outside the home of Sheikh Isa Qassim in the village of Diraz west of the capital, activists said.
	Protesters have been staging a sit-in at Diraz since authorities revoked Qassim's citizenship in June, after accusing him of sowing sectarian divisions in the country.
	Images posted online today showed protesters including women in traditional black robes brandishing posters of Qassim, whose trial on charges of illegal fundraising and money laundering opened in July.
	Clashes also erupted in the nearby Shiite villages of Bani Jamrah, Bilad al-Qadim and Shahrakan, activists said.
	The interior ministry said it made several arrests today, but did not refer to the clashes.
	Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since security forces crushed ...

Bahrain police clash with supporters of Shiite cleric

A military plane crashed at an air base in northern Malaysia today, leaving one dead and three injured.
	The air force said an investigation team would be formed to look into the crash in the town of Butterworth involving the Beechcraft B200T turboprop.
	Its statement gave no further details.
	Local reports said the plane was being used for training at the time.
	In May a Malaysian air force Aermacchi MB339CM jet crashed in a small town in the rural state of Pahang but there were no casualties.

Malaysia air force plane crashes at air base

Pope Francis was the toast of social media today after successfully completing his latest groundbreaking mission: popping out of the Vatican to buy himself some new footwear.
	To the barely containable delight of his many fans in cyberspace, the 80-year-old pontiff visited a pharmacy near the Holy See yesterday to pick up a pair of the orthopaedic shoes he wears to offset the pain caused by chronic sciatica.
	The visit was filmed and snapped on smartphones by a handful of customers who were in the shop at the time and later uploaded images to social media.
	A selection of pictures was posted on a Facebook page described as belonging to Rome barmaid Martina Duarte with the caption: "A Tuesday with the Pope... My love I am incredibly proud of you!"
	Most of the online comments were similarly breathless in tone, admirers appearing to share Duarte's amazement at the sight of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics doing his own shopping, posing for pictures and blessing a crucifix belonging to .

Pope's new mission: buying his own shoes

Moscow's police service said today that it would use lorries to barricade public areas used for holiday festivities in the wake of the Berlin Christmas market attack.
	"Heavy trucks will be used to close off major junctions" leading into areas where public festivities are taking place, Russian news agencies quoted police chief Viktor Kovalenko as saying.
	"We understand and see the events that are happening in the world, including the use of heavy trucks" to carry out attacks, he added.
	Twelve people were killed after a 40-tonne lorry barrelled through a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin late Monday in what German authorities called a "terrorist attack."
	The Islamic State jihadist group claimed the attack yesterday.
	The scenes instantly revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault on the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamist.
	Moscow has suffered a number of terrorist attacks, including a 2011 suicide bombing in its ...

Moscow aims to thwart Berlin-style truck attacks

Pope Francis appealed to the people of DR Congo today to be "artisans of peace" after at least 11 were killed in protests against the country's longtime president.
	"I renew my heartfelt appeal to all Congolese so that in this delicate moment of their history, may they be artisans of reconciliation and peace", he told his weekly audience.
	"May those who are in positions of political responsibility listen to the voice of their conscience, learn to see the cruel sufferings of their fellow citizens and have at heart the common good".
	Tension has been mounting in the Democratic Republic of Congo for months ahead of the December 20 deadline for President Joseph Kabila's second and final term in office to end.
	With no election planned and no sign of him stepping down, veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi issued a plea to the country's 70 million people to "peacefully resist" and "reject" the Kabila regime.
	Violence in Kinshasa and other cities left at least 11 dead on ...

Pope issues 'heartfelt appeal' to people of troubled DR Congo

Swiss competition authorities said today they had handed eight large global banks a joint fine of nearly USD 100 million for creating cartels and rigging international interest rates between 2005 and 2010.
	Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Societe Generale and UBS were hit with fines totalling 99.1 million Swiss francs (USD 96.3 million, 92.7 million euros), the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said.
	COMCO, which first started investigating the banks in February 2012 for the suspected manipulation of a range of rates, said in a statement it had pursued them through five separate procedures, which today have been partially or totally concluded."
	The largest portion of the fine -- 45.3 million francs of it -- was imposed over the manipulation of the Europe Interbank Offered Rate, or the EURIBOR rate -- a benchmark used to determine the price or interest rate for a range of financial products, including saving accounts and .

Swiss regulators fine banks for rate-rigging

Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed, whose Twitter account gave a tragic description of the bombing of Aleppo in Syria, today met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara.
	Erdogan received Bana and her family at his palace, the state-run Anadolu agency said, publishing a picture of Erdogan hugging the girl.
	A video published by the agency also showed a seated Erdogan holding Bana and an unidentified boy sitting on his knees, flanked by his wife Emine.
	The young Syrian girl was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.
	She was evacuated on Monday and Turkish officials promised she would come to Turkey with her family. But it was not clear when she had crossed over.
	For her 330,000 followers, Bana is a symbol of the tragedy unfolding in Syria, although Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has slammed her and her mother's nearly daily tweets as propaganda.
	Turkey is ...

Syrian girl blogger, 7, meets Erdogan at Ankara palace

EU trade deals require a potentially bruising process of ratification by all member states, a key opinion at the European Union's highest court said, with possible consequences for Brexit.
	Britain hopes to win a fast-track trade deal with Europe after it negotiates its divorce from the EU but today's opinion, if followed by the bloc's highest court, could cripple that plan.
	The view of the European Court of Justice's top advisor pertained to an EU-Singapore treaty signed in 2013.
	In her opinion, Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston found that the EU-Singapore trade deal "can only be concluded by the EU and the Member States acting jointly," said a statement from the court summarising the decision.
	In denying the commission's view, Sharpston said several parts of the agreement fell strictly under national competence, including "fundamental" norms involving the environmental policy.
	The ECJ is not obliged to follow the advocate general's rulings when it hands down its final decision .

EU court lawyer deals blow to quick trade deals

A Japanese programme aimed at accepting a small number of refugees from war-torn Syria promised today to remove language from documents which implied that pregnant women are not welcome to apply.
	Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in May that immigration-shy Japan, with a population of about 127 million, would accept up to 150 Syrian students over five years from 2017.
	That number compares with vastly higher figures in other countries. Norway, with a population of about 5.1 million, has pledged to accept some 9,000 Syrians.
	Abe separately pledged at a refugee summit hosted by US President Barack Obama in September that Japan was also prepared to "warmly welcome" family members of the students.
	But the Japanese unit of Amnesty International has raised concerns that the programme for Syrians virtually excluded pregnant women.
	As advertised, the programme - entitled "Japanese Initiative for the future of Syrian Refugees" - has several requirements for applicants.
	Originally, it ...

Japan backs off pregnancy clause for Syria refugees

A deal to return American military land on Okinawa to the Japanese government was hailed today as the biggest such land transfer in more than four decades.
	But the move is unlikely to reduce frustration on the strategic island that remains crowded with American bases - a legacy of World War II.
	The agreement covers about 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) of the 7,500-hectare Camp Gonsalves jungle warfare training centre, also known as the Northern Training Area.
	It marks "the largest land return to the Japanese government" since Okinawa reverted to Japanese control in 1972, Lieutenant General Jerry P Martinez, US Forces Japan Commander, said in a statement.
	"It will reduce the amount of US-administered land on Okinawa by 17 percent," he added.
	But the area being handed back is in a sparsely populated region, while other facilities, including air bases, are located farther south in or near crowded residential areas of the small island with a population exceeding one million ...

US makes biggest Okinawa land return since 1972

Turkish authorities were today looking into claims the alleged mastermind of the failed July coup was involved in the assassination of Moscow's ambassador, but the Kremlin warned against jumping to conclusions.
	Monday's murder of Andrei Karlov stunned Russia and prompted warnings of retribution from the Kremlin. But both sides responded by vowing to step up cooperation, particularly on the Syria conflict.
	Off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into Karlov at an art gallery in Ankara before he himself was killed by police in a shootout.
	The pro-government press has repeatedly said that US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for the attempted putsch, was behind the assassination plot.
	And Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call yesterday that Ankara believed Gulen was involved.
	"Turkey and Russia know that behind the attack... There is FETO," his ministry quoted Cavusoglu as ...

Turkey claims Gulen link to envoy killing, Kremlin cautious

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has barred 15 more companies linked to coal operations, most of them American and Asian, the Norwegian central bank said today.
	Norway's parliament voted in June 2015 to pull the fund out of coal, requiring it to sell its holdings in mining and power companies that generate more than 30 per cent of their output or revenue from the polluting fossil fuel due to its environmental impact.
	Currently worth around 7.53 trillion kroner (USD 869.3 billion), the fund first barred 52 companies and subsidiaries in April, most of them from the United States and China, such as China Coal Energy, AES, and Peabody Energy, the biggest US coal producer.
	Today, it added 15 more companies and subsidiaries to the list, including five from the US, three from Japan and two from China.
	Eleven other companies have been placed on observation.
	"Further exclusions will follow in 2017," said the central bank, which is tasked with managing the fund fuelled .

Norway fund blacklists more coal groups over climate concerns

German police launched a manhunt today for a Tunisian suspected of driving the truck that ploughed through a Berlin Christmas market in a deadly assault claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
	Media reports said asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry used in the attack that killed 12 people.
	The man is in his early 20s, known by three different names, and was born in the southern city of Tataouine, the reports said.
	He applied for asylum in Germany in April and received a temporary residence permit, according to the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
	A previous suspect -- a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker -- was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country.
	Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into the crowded holiday market late Monday, smashing wooden stalls and ...

Germany hunts Tunisian suspect after IS claims truck attack

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte today urged communist rebels waging a decades-old rebellion to spend time with their families over the Christmas holidays, pledging to guarantee their safety.
	His government is observing a ceasefire with the Maoist insurgents while holding peace talks to bring an end to a 47- year-old armed campaign has left tens of thousands of people dead according to official estimates.
	"Leave your arms wherever you are now and you can come down to the city and visit your family," Duterte said in a speech to soldiers ahead of the long Christmas weekend.
	"I guarantee you: No arrests, no oppression," he said, adding he was sure many of the guerrillas had not been with their families for years.
	"No one wants to fight during the Christmas season."
	The government has earlier announced Duterte was likely to grant amnesty to hundreds of detained New People's Army rebels.
	He freed 18 rebel leaders earlier this year to kickstart talks being hosted by Norway, and ...

Philippines' Duterte offers Christmas pass to rebels

The young Turkish policeman who killed Russia's ambassador to Ankara this week had provided security for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eight times since the July 15 failed coup bid, a report said today.
	Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, pumped nine bullets into ambassador Andrei Karlov at an art exhibition centre on Monday evening, before he himself was killed by Turkish police.
	Altintas, a member of the Ankara anti-riot police for two- and-a-half years, had been on duty at eight events attended by Erdogan since July, the Hurriyet daily said.
	At such events he was part of the second wave of Erdogan's security after the personal bodyguard team of the president, wrote Hurriyet's writer Abdulkadir Selvi, known for his contacts in the ruling elite.
	Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told US counterpart John Kerry in a phone call on Tuesday that Turkey believed the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it blamed for the July 15 coup bid, was behind the assassination plot.
	Turkish ...

Russian envoy's killer had protected Erdogan: report

South Korea's top carrier Korean Air said its staff followed company procedure in restraining an unruly passenger after 80s pop singer Richard Marx tweeted that he helped the "ill trained" crew handle the situation.
	Marx said he and his wife were flying from the Vietnamese capital Hanoi to Incheon airport, the South's main hub, when a passenger started physically attacking another passenger sitting next to him and the crew members.
	"Passenger next to us attacked passengers and crew. Crew completely ill trained," Marx said on Twitter, posting a series of photos showing him trying to hold down the unruly passenger.
	The pictures -- taken by Marx's wife, TV host and model Daisy Fuentes and posted on their Twitter and Facebook pages -- show the male passenger apparently grabbing a female flight attendant by her hair and another crew member pointing a taser gun.
	Fuentes said the all-female crew members did not know how to use the taser nor how to secure the rope around the man and ...

Korean Air says crew followed procedure on unruly passenger

German police are searching for a Tunisian man in connection with the deadly truck attack on a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, media reported today.
	The man is aged 21 or 23 and known by three different names, according to reports in the daily Allgemeine Zeitung and the Bild newspaper.
	Both said asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the truck.
	The documents, which announced a stay of deportation, were found under the driver's seat of the 40-tonne lorry that barrelled through the Christmas market in the heart of the German capital.
	Police were reportedly searching for the suspect, who was born in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
	Twelve people were killed in what German authorities have called a "terrorist attack" in Berlin late Monday, including the Polish driver of the truck.
	The scenes instantly revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of 

German police hunt Tunisian man over Berlin attack: reports

President Vladimir Putin will attend as Russia buries slain ambassador Andrei Karlov tomorrow, the Kremlin said, days after he was gunned down in Ankara by a Turkish policeman.
	Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov today said Putin had decided to postpone his major annual press conference scheduled for the same day to Friday in order to attend the farewell events for Karlov.
	"The president will take part in the mourning ceremonies," Peskov told Russian news agencies.
	Veteran diplomat Karlov was shot nine times in the back by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas at the art gallery opening of a show of Russian photography on Monday.
	His body arrived back in Moscow late yesterday after Russian investigators landed in Turkey to help probe the assassination.
	The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but had recently begun to cooperate closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.
	The Turkish government has pointed the 

Russia to bury slain ambassador tomorrow: Kremlin

Eleven children were killed when a bus driver lost control of his vehicle and ploughed into a Muslim procession marking the birthday of Prophet Mohammed in northern Nigeria, police said today.
	The accident yesterday in Malam Sidi village in Gombe state was due to a brake failure, said police spokesman Ahmed Usman.
	"A total of 11 children died in the incident while 17 others were seriously injured," Usman told AFP.
	He said the victims were aged between 11 and 15, prompting an angry mob to descend on the bus driver and beat him to death.
	Police have launched an investigation into the accident, he added.
	Muslims in northern Nigeria celebrate the birthday of Prophet Mohammed with month-long religious gatherings and street processions.
	Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a mainly-Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

AFP

AFP

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