At least 26 dead in Mexico fireworks market blast:

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President-elect Donald Trump's transition team today denied a report that his sons were seeking donations of up to USD 1 million in exchange for possible post-inauguration access.
	The Center for Public Integrity, an award-winning group that addresses ethics and other policy issues, said a non-profit foundation was set up last Wednesday making discreet potential pay-for-play possible.
	According to the CPI report, the "Opening Day Foundation" was planning to hold a fundraising event on January 21, the day after the inauguration and Trump's first full day in the White House.
	The report said major donors would receive: a "private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with President Donald J Trump," a "multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for 4 guests with Donald Trump Jr. And/or Eric Trump," "autographed guitars by an Opening Day 2017 performer," and other goodies.
	"Unlike political committees, such non-profits aren't required by law to reveal their donors, allowing ...

Trump team denies report saying sons selling access

An explosion ripped through a fireworks market in Mexico's capital, killing at least nine people and injuring 70, according to police.
	The conflagration, in the suburb of Tultepec, set off a quickfire series of multicolored blasts and a vast amount of smoke yesterday that hung over Mexico City.
	   "We have a preliminary toll of 70 people injured who are being taken to various emergency rooms, and nine people dead," the federal police said on its Twitter account.

'At least 9 dead, 70 hurt in Mexico fireworks market blast'

An explosion ripped through a fireworks market in Mexico's capital, killing at least nine people and injuring 70, according to police.
	The conflagration, in the suburb of Tultepec, set off a quickfire series of multicolored blasts and a vast cloud of smoke that hung over Mexico City.
	Fire crews were struggling to control the blaze. But the head of the civil protection service, Luis Felipe Puente, said they had to wait for all the fireworks explosions to stop.
	"We have a preliminary toll of 70 people injured who are being taken to various emergency rooms, and nine people dead," the federal police said on its Twitter account.
	The military was deployed to help emergency crews transport casualties to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter.
	The governor of Mexico state, Eruviel Avila, said on Twitter that the priority was to "tend to the injured."
	"The sound of blasts started to go off and we thought it was a nearby fireworks workshop," local resident Alejandra Pretel told AFP.
	But ..

Nine killed, 70 hurt in Mexico fireworks market blast

At least 9 dead, 70 hurt in Mexico fireworks market

Unspecified number of deaths in Mexico fireworks market

Seven people were killed in a double bomb attack near the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish opposition party, in a rare assault in Iraq's relatively secure autonomous Kurdish region, a senior security official said.
	The blasts hit the town of Koysinjaq about 10:00 pm (local time) yesterday, killing five members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran, a member of the security forces and a child, said Jalal Karim, the Kurdish region's deputy interior minister.
	The attack also left people wounded, said Karim, who did not provide a specific figure.
	Iraq's Kurdistan region, which has its own government, security forces and flag but is still part of Iraq, has largely been spared the horrific violence that has plagued other parts of the country in the years after 2003.
	The Islamic State jihadist group, which Kurdish forces have battled in the north, including as part of the still ongoing operation to recapture Iraq's second city Mosul, is the usual culprit for attacks in the Kurdistan ..

Bombs kill 7 near Iranian Kurdish party HQ in Iraq

The World Bank has announced an additional USD 1.5 billion aid package for Iraq, to help the war-torn country implement reforms, improve public services and boost its economy.
	The package includes loan guarantees from the UK for about USD 372 million, and from Canada for about USD 72 million.
	"Despite an ongoing war and low oil prices, Iraq is undertaking bold transformational reforms that will safeguard economic stability and lay the foundations for longer term private sector development and inclusive growth for all Iraqis," said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank director for the Middle East.
	The reforms also will help to expand social safety nets "to reach the most vulnerable segments of the population," he said in a statement yesterday.
	The bank also approved USD 41.5 million for a program to improve management of the country's public funds.
	With the new package, the World Bank engagement in Iraq rises to nearly USD 3.4 billion, including support for reconstruction of areas recently ...

World Bank approves USD 1.5 bn in aid for war-torn Iraq

French screen legend Michele Morgan, who starred in some 70 movies and took home the best actress prize at the first-ever Cannes film festival has died, her family said.
	She was 96.
	An icon of glamour, Morgan was remembered for a regal azure gaze which she first turned on Jean Gabin as an 18-year-old ingenue in "Port of Shadows" ("Quai des Brumes"), a 1938 gangster movie.
	"You've got lovely eyes, you know," he told her, forever sealing Morgan's fate in French filmography as the "most beautiful pair of eyes in cinema".
	"It bothers me to hear that repeated so often", she was known to say much later -- though she still gave her 1977 memoirs the title "With eyes like that..."
	"Michele Morgan was more than just a gaze. She personified elegance and grace, and her legend left its mark on many generations," French President Francois Hollande said in a statement.
	Claude Lelouch, who directed her in the 1975 "Cat and Mouse," paid tribute to her as "the one we all wanted to hold in our ...

French acting great Michele Morgan dies, aged 96

Barricades went up at Christmas markets in Montreal and Toronto -- Canada's two most populous cities -- and security was increased following an attack that killed 12 people in Berlin.
	The national threat level however remained unchanged, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale yesterday told AFP.
	As revellers went about their usual holiday shopping, city crews laid large blocks of cement at the entrance of the Place des Arts, which hosts one of the nation's largest Christmas markets, while security searched visitors' bags.
	Similar security measures were taken at another popular Christmas market in Toronto, public broadcaster CBC reported.
	The Islamic State group earlier claimed responsibility for the truck rampage in Berlin.

Canada's two largest cities hike security at Christmas markets

Spanish police said they have arrested five suspected members of a guerrilla-style graffiti gang that forced trains to a sudden and dangerous halt to paint over carriages in lightning operations.
	The five are believed to belong to a gang called the "Zorros Viejos", or "Old Foxes", which is accused of causing over USD 209,000 worth of damage to train carriages across the country.
	The well-organised group would stop a train dead by pulling its security levers "which caused the convoy to break violently, with the consequent risk of injuries to passengers," police said in a statement yesterday.
	"Once the train was stopped they would open and block the doors and descend to the tracks, where they would paint the carriages," the statement added.
	Police said the group filmed their activities and posted the videos on social media sites.
	The five suspects have been charged with four offences of public disorder and 54 counts of damage to property.
	They are thought to have acted in Madrid, .

Spanish police smash graffiti gang that stopped trains

Syria's army has urged the last remaining rebels and civilians to leave the besieged opposition enclave in Aleppo as it prepares to take full control of the devastated city.
	The evacuation of Aleppo's rebel sector is seen as a pivotal moment in the nearly six-year war that has killed more than 310,000 people and triggered a major humanitarian and refugee crisis.
	The government and other parties on the ground have agreed to allow 20 observers to be sent to east Aleppo to monitor evacuations, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
	Following a flurry of diplomatic activity, key regime allies Russia and Iran as well as rebel supporter Turkey agreed to act as guarantors in Syria peace talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier.
	They also backed expanding a ceasefire, according to Lavrov, who said the evacuation of east Aleppo should finish within "one or two days".
	In east Aleppo, soldiers using megaphones called on the remaining fighters and civilians to exit the ...

Syria army tells last rebels to quit Aleppo

Twin bombings near the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish opposition party killed seven people, a rare attack in Iraq's relatively secure autonomous Kurdish region, a senior security official said.
	The bombings hit the town of Koysinjaq about 10:00 pm (local time), killing five members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, a member of the security forces and a child, said Jalal Karim, the Kurdish region's deputy interior minister.

Bombs kill 7 near Iranian Kurdish party HQ in Iraq: official

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu today blamed the group of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen for the assassination of Russia's ambassador in Ankara, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
	In an interview with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Cavusoglu said "Turkey and Russia know that behind the attack... There is FETO," it said, referring to Turkey's acronym for Gulen's organisation.
	Gulen -- an exile accused of orchestrating an abortive coup in Turkey in July -- had earlier condemned the assassination as a "terrorist act" that left him "shocked and deeply saddened.

Gulen network behind killing of Russian ambassador:Turkish FM

A "soldier" of the Islamic State group carried out a truck attack that killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, a news agency linked to the jihadists said today.
	"A soldier of the Islamic State carried out the Berlin operation in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries," the IS-linked Amaq news agency said in a statement posted online.

IS behind Berlin truck attack: jihadist-linked agency

Security was beefed up at Christmas markets across Europe after a lorry ploughed through a market in Berlin killing 12 people and heightening security fears at the onset of the holiday season.
	The carnage in the German capital had particular resonance in France, which has borne the brunt of terror attacks in Europe for the past two years.
	The witness accounts of a truck barrelling through a crowd of revellers immediately brought to mind the scenes in the Riviera city of Nice in July, where an Islamist used a lorry to mow down 86 people during Bastille Day celebrations.
	President Francois Hollande said France was under a "high level of threat" following the events in Berlin but pointed out that the country already has a large-scale security operation in place.
	"We have a high level of threat and we also have a particularly high level of mobilisation and vigilance," Hollande said.
	France's best-known Christmas market in the picturesque eastern city of Strasbourg has been a ...

After Berlin, Europe beefs up security at Xmas markets

At least 11 people died as gunfire erupted during protests in Democratic Republic of Congo against longtime President Joseph Kabila, who is refusing to leave office as his mandate ends.
	Shots rang out in the capital Kinshasa, where at least nine people were killed, and there was sustained gunfire in the country's second-largest city, Lubumbashi, where two died -- including a policeman who was lynched by an angry crowd.
	In central Kananga the sound of heavy weapons sent crowds of panicked residents pouring into the streets, but there were no reports of clashes in northeastern Kisangani or in Bukavu in the country's east.
	The UN's large DR Congo mission, MONUSCO, said it was probing reliable reports of dozens of deaths and voiced alarm over the arrests of 113 opposition leaders and civil society activists in just four days.
	Tension has been mounting for months in DR Congo ahead of the December 20 deadline for Kabila's second and final term in office to end.
	With no election planned 

Deadly protests in DR Congo as Kabila clings to office

Russian President Vladimir Putin today ordered his secret services to boost security at home and abroad after the killing of Moscow's envoy in Ankara and an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.
	"I ask the special services to take additional measures to ensure security inside Russia and outside, to raise the security of Russian institutions and employees abroad," Russian news wires quoted Putin as saying to security bosses.
	"And I ask you through channels of partnership to strengthen your work with the intelligence agencies of other states", Putin added.
	The directive came the day after the killing of Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara by a Turkish policeman shouting "Allahu Akbar", in what Moscow called a "terrorist act".
	Putin on Tuesday also expressed shock at the "brutality and cynicism" of the attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in which a lorry ploughed through a crowd killing 12 people.
	In response to the envoy's killing on Monday, Putin already ordered his ...

Putin tells secret services to boost security at home, abroad

Russian investigators arrived in Turkey today to probe the assassination of Moscow's ambassador at an Ankara art show, as both sides pledged the murder would not damage improving relations.
	Veteran diplomat Andrei 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.
	The brazen killing stunned Ankara and Moscow, which have rowed repeatedly over the Syria conflict but in recent weeks have begun cooperating closely on the evacuations from war-wrecked Aleppo.
	An unprecedented three-way meeting on Syria between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Iran went ahead in Moscow Tuesday despite the assassination, with the diplomats backing a widening of a truce.
	Six people have been detained over the Karlov assassination, including the sister, mother, father and uncle of the 22-year-old Altintas, Turkish media said.
	Adding to the jitters, with Turkey already on high alert after 

Russia joins probe into Turkey envoy murder

President Barack Obama has called German Chancellor Angela Merkel to offer assistance and condolences following a deadly attack on a Berlin Christmas market.
	"The President offered his condolences, and those of the American people, for the horrific apparent terrorist attack," the White House said following the call late yesterday.
	"The President reiterated the US offer of assistance and underscored that no attack could sway our determination -- and that of our German allies -- to defeat terrorism in all of its forms.

Obama calls Merkel to offer US help after attack: White House

The China-owned AMC Entertainment theater chain won US regulatory approval today for its USD 1.2 billion takeover of rival Carmike after agreeing to divest movie theaters in 15 US markets.
	US antitrust regulators required AMC, which is owned by China's Wanda Group, to sell its theaters in those markets to buyers to be approved by the Justice Department.
	The cities, which include Peoria, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin, are markets where AMC and Carmike are each other's most significant competition, the Justice Department said in a court filing.
	"Moviegoers across the United States have benefitted from head-to-head competition between AMC and Carmike that has kept ticket prices in check," said acting attorney general Renata Hesse.
	"Today's settlement will ensure that movie theatre competition is preserved."
	The Justice Department also required AMC to reduce its stake in National Cinemedia, a cinema advertising company, to avoid excessive concentration in the movie advertising ...

AFP

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