US President-elect Donald Trump has condemned the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, calling the gunman a "radical Islamic terrorist."
	"Today we offer our condolences to the family and loved ones of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, who was assassinated by a radical Islamic terrorist," Trump said in a statement.
	"The murder of an ambassador is a violation of all rules of civilized order and must be universally condemned.

Trump condemns Russian envoy's killing by Islamic terrorist

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The African Union mission in Somalia has said its troops had killed six people in a minibus which refused to stop at a checkpoint, responding to accusations it had gunned down civilians.
	AMISOM troops have been accused by local officials of killing 11 civilians in two separate incidents in southern Qoryoley and Marka yesterday.
	In the first, Qoryoley traditional elder Mohamed Maow said AMISOM "destroyed a civilian minibus, which was carrying vegetables to Mogadishu, with a missile. All the six passengers including the driver of the minibus have died."
	According to the UN mission, its troops had set up a checkpoint in the region on Saturday after they came under mortar attack and noticed "an unusual movement of vehicles ... believed to have been ferrying Al-Shabaab fighters."
	"A minibus approaching the roadblock was ordered to stop but the driver defied the order and reversed the vehicle in haste, forcing our troops to shoot, killing six people in the minibus," AMISOM said in a ...

AU mission in Somalia says troops killed 6 at checkpoint

German Chancellor Angela Merkel "mourns the dead" after at least nine people were killed when a truck ploughed through a Christmas market in central Berlin, her spokesman said.
	"We mourn the dead and hope that the many people injured can be helped," her spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted.
	Around 50 people were hurt, four of them seriously, police said.

Merkel 'mourns dead' after truck crashes into Xmas market

A lorry ploughed into a busy Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least nine people and wounding 50 more in what police said was a possible terror attack.
	Ambulances and police rushed to the area after the driver drove up the pavement of the market in a central square popular with tourists, in scenes reminiscent of the deadly truck attack in the French city of Nice in July.
	"There are at least 50 injured... Some seriously. Some are dead," a police spokeswoman told AFP.
	Police subsequently said nine had been killed and that one person has been detained over the incident -- which comes less than a week before Christmas.
	"We are investigating whether it was a terror attack but do not yet know what was behind it," a police spokesman said.
	Germany has been shaken this year by several assaults claimed by the Islamic State group and carried out by asylum-seekers.
	An axe rampage on a train in the southern state of Bavaria in July injured five people, and a suicide bombing wounded 15 ..

Nine killed as lorry ploughs into Berlin Xmas market

A Pakistani opposition party today sought an emergency session of parliament after a senior judge slammed the country's top law enforcement official for holding meetings with leaders of banned militant groups.
	The move by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehreek-i-Insaaf (Movement for Justice) party is set to put the government under added pressure as it fights a major corruption case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
	Last week a report by Supreme Court Justice Qazi Isa into a suicide bombing of a hospital in August that killed 73 people strongly criticised the government for failing to implement anti-terror policies.
	It singled out Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for holding meetings with cleric Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi.
	Ludhianvi heads the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group, which claimed the hospital attack along with the Islamic State.
	The two groups jointly also claimed an attack on a police academy in October that killed 61 ..

Pak govt under pressure over meetings with militants

A lorry crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin today, killing several people and injuring at least 50, a police spokeswoman said.
	"There are at least 50 injured... Some seriously. Some are dead," she said after a driver drove up the pavement of the market in a central square popular with tourists.

Several dead, 50 hurt in Berlin Xmas market attack: police

Turkey today said it would not allow the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Ankara to damage relations with Moscow, describing the killing as a "terror attack" on bilateral relations.
	"We will not allow this attack to cast a shadow on Turkey-Russia relations," said the Turkish foreign ministry in a statement.
	Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the killing of Andrei Karlov was "a terror attack on relations between Russia and Turkey".

'Won't allow envoy killing to cast shadow on Russia ties'

Syria today condemned the murder in neighbouring Turkey of the ambassador of its key ally Russia as a "despicable crime", state news agency SANA said, quoting the foreign ministry.
	"The Syrian republic condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly terrorist attack that led to the death of the Russian ambassador in Turkey, Andrei Karlov," a ministry statement said.
	"This despicable crime confirms once again the urgent need to expand all efforts and means to fight and eliminate terrorism," it added.
	Russia is Syria's main ally in the nearly six-year war, and has helped President Bashar al-Assad's forces to retake the battleground northern city of Aleppo from rebels.
	On September 30, 2015, Russia began a campaign of air strikes in Syria to help government forces.
	The gunman who shot Moscow's envoy at an art exhibition in Ankara shouted "Aleppo" and "revenge", a witness said.
	Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek has identified the shooter as a Turkish policeman.

Syria denounces 'despicable' murder of Russian envoy

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen today said it had made "limited use" of British-made cluster bombs, a type of weapon which 100 countries have pledged not to use.
	In its 21-month campaign against Shiite rebels who have seized much of Yemen, the Saudi-led alliance has faced repeated allegations of killing civilians.
	It said it used the BL-755 cluster bombs "against legitimate military targets to defend Saudi towns and villages against continuous attacks" by the Huthi rebels.
	The insurgents have killed more than 100 civilians and soldiers on the Saudi side of the border.
	The coalition deployed the weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, and not in civilian areas, it said, adding that Saudi Arabia no longer uses the BL-755.
	London-based rights group Amnesty International in June alleged that "at least 16 civilians -- including nine children -- have been killed or injured by cluster submunitions between July 2015" and May of this year.
	Amnesty said its ...

Saudi coalition says UK-made cluster bombs used in Yemen

The Chinese military is expected to return a seized underwater probe to the US Navy in the South China Sea on tomorrow, a US defense official said.
	The small craft, taken around 90 kilometers northwest from Subic Bay in the Philippines last week, will be handed over to the crew of a US warship in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal.
	"A US destroyer will be there," the official told AFP today, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	The handover was slated to occur sometime on December 20, though details of how it would happen were still being worked out.
	The Pentagon says the marine probe is a commercial craft that gathers unclassified data that can be used to help submarines navigate and determine sonar ranges in murky waters.
	The defense official said it was not the first time the US Navy had lost such a probe. One was taken near Vietnam earlier this year, but who took it and what became of it remain unclear.
	Last week's seizure was the first time China had "brazenly stolen a piece .

China to hand back US probe within 24 hours: US official

The United States moved quickly today to condemn a gun attack in Ankara that left the Russian ambassador to Turkey severely wounded.
	"We condemn this act of violence, whatever its source. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
	The US spokesman did not suggest who might have been behind the attack, which witnesses said was carried out by a gunman demanding "revenge" for Aleppo.
	Russian forces were instrumental in helping government troops recapture the city of Aleppo from rebel forces in Turkey's neighbor Syria last week.
	Washington has previously warned Moscow that its support for Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime risks radicalizing moderate rebels and boosting support for extremists.

US condemns attack on Russia's Ankara envoy

A Turkish policeman crying "Aleppo" and "revenge" shot dead Russia's ambassador to Turkey at an art exhibition in Ankara today, in what Moscow said was a "terrorist act".
	Andrei Karlov died of his wounds after the shooting, which occurred on the eve of a key meeting between the Russian, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers on the Syria conflict.
	Dramatic television footage showed a man in a dark suit and tie waving a gun and gesturing in the air at the Ankara exhibition hall.
	The state-run Anadolu news agency said the gunman had been "neutralised" in a police operation, without giving further details.
	"Today in Ankara as a result of an attack the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov received wounds that he died from," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in televised comments.
	"We qualify what happened as a terrorist act."
	The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the attack.
	The incident came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia's role .

Russian ambassador shot dead in Turkey attack

The Russian ambassador to Ankara died today after being shot in the Turkish capital, the foreign ministry in Moscow said, describing the incident as a "terrorist act".
	"Today in Ankara as a result of an attack the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov received wounds that he died from," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in televised comments.
	"We qualify what happened as a terrorist act," she said. "The murderers will be punished.
	"Today this issue will be raised at the UN Security Council. Terrorism will not win out."
	The gunman, identified by the Ankara mayor as a Turkish policeman, shot the ambassador at an Ankara art exhibition, shouting "Aleppo" and "revenge".
	The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had been informed.
	The incident came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia's role in Syria, although Moscow and Ankara are now working closely together to evacuate citizens from the battered city of Aleppo.

Russia says Ankara envoy killed in 'terrorist' act

Russia says ambassador to Ankara dies after gun attack.

A 29-year-old female Italian jihadist was sentenced in absentia to nine years in jail today in the country's first such conviction, according to media reports.
	Maria Giulia Sergio adopted the name Fatima after converting to Islam and married an Albanian in September 2014 so she could join the so-called Islamic State militants who hold ground in Syria and Iraq.
	Several days into the marriage the couple flew from Rome to Turkey and clandestinely entered Syria.
	Her husband, named as Aldo Kobuzi, trained at an IS camp and the female militant learned how to handle weapons.
	She also sent congratulatory messages about a jihadist attack at the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in January 2015.
	Kobuzi was also convicted in absentia and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
	After encouragement from the female jihadist her parents and younger sister, Marianna, converted to Islam, sold their furniture and applied for passports to try and follow her.
	But all three were ...

Italy sentences female jihadist to nine years in jail

A gunman who badly wounded Russia's ambassador to Ankara, Andrey Karlov, at an art exhibition today shouted out "Aleppo" and "revenge" as he fired, an eyewitness said.
	"When the ambassador was delivering a speech, a tall man wearing a suit fired into the air first and then took aim at the ambassador," Hasim Kilic, a correspondent for the daily Hurriyet, told AFP.
	"He said something about 'Aleppo' and 'revenge'." The attack came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia's role in Syria.

Attacker of Russia's Ankara envoy shouted 'Aleppo,' 'revenge'

A French court today found IMF head Christine Lagarde guilty of negligence over a massive state payout to a tycoon when she was French finance minister but spared her a fine or prison sentence.
	The ruling was a rare setback in Lagarde's glittering career but it was not clear how it would affect her position at the International Monetary Fund, whose board was to meet in Washington to discuss the court's decision.
	A special court in Paris found against Lagarde over her handling of a dispute between the state and flamboyant businessman Bernard Tapie, which ended in a 404-million-euro (USD 422 million) award for Tapie.
	The court rapped Lagarde for failing to contest the massive payment, which was linked to Tapie's sale of the Adidas sportswear brand to Credit Lyonnaise bank.
	Crucially, however, the Paris court exempted her from any penalty, citing her "international reputation" and the fact that at the time of the events in 2008 she had been busy fighting a global financial ...

IMF chief Lagarde found guilty over French tycoon payment

Elderly people who were treated by female doctors in the hospital had significantly better survival rates and fewer readmissions than those treated by male doctors, said a US study Monday.
	The findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine were based on a sample of more than one million people whose records were analyzed from 2011 to 2014.
	Those with female doctors were significantly less likely to die within 30 days of admission, or to be readmitted within 30 days of discharge.
	If men could achieve the same success as women in this realm, researchers estimated that there would be 32,000 fewer deaths each year among Medicare patients alone, a group that includes people over 65.
	The number is about the same as the death toll across the United States from car accidents in a given year, the report said.
	"The difference in mortality rates surprised us," said lead author Yusuke Tsugawa, research associate in the Department of Health Policy and ...

Patients of female doctors show better survival: study

Russia's ambassador to Ankara Andrey Karlov was today badly wounded in a gun attack while visiting an art exhibition opening in the Turkish capital, television reports said.
	Karlov was hospitalised and several other people were wounded, NTV and CNN-Turk televisions said. The attack came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia's role in Syria.

Russian ambassador to Ankara wounded in gun attack: reports

Russian ambassador to Ankara wounded in gun attack:

The International Monetary Fund board is expected to meet shortly to discuss the implications of the surprise guilty verdict against IMF chief Christine Lagarde today in a French court.
	"The Executive Board has met on previous occasions to consider developments related to the legal proceedings in France. It is expected that the Board will meet again shortly to consider the most recent developments," fund spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement.
	A French court found Lagarde guilty of negligence over a massive payout to a tycoon when she was finance minister, but she will not be fined or face prison.
	Lagarde was found to be at fault over her decision allowing a dispute over sale of the Adidas sports brand to Credit Lyonnais bank to be resolved by a private arbitration panel rather than through the courts, then failing to challenge the 404-million-euro (USD 422 million) award that followed.

AFP

AFP

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