The US-led coalition has killed a key leader of the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria, the Pentagon said today.
	"Coalition warplanes targeted and killed Tunisian Boubaker al-Hakim, in Raqqa, Syria, November 26," Pentagon spokesman Ben Sakrisson said in a statement emailed to AFP. "Al-Hakim was an ISIL leader and longtime terrorist with deep ties to French and Tunisian Jihadist elements.

US-led coalition strike kills IS leader in Syria: Pentagon

PTI Automatic

Jihadist fighters of the Islamic State group today re-entered Syria's famed ancient desert city of Palmyra from which they were driven out eight months ago, a monitor said.
	"IS entered Palmyra on Saturday and now occupies its northwest. There is also fighting with the army in the city centre," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

IS jihadists re-enter Palmyra in Syria: monitor

A global deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions contains elements "of great concern", retired US general David Petraeus, seen as a contender to be Washington's top diplomat, said today.
	The agreement took effect in January following its signing last year after years of international effort.
	It calls on Tehran to curb its controversial nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief from the United States and other nations.
	Iran has denied that it seeks to acquire a nuclear weapons capability.
	"There are some significant downsides that should cause us great concern," Petraeus told the Manama Dialogue security forum in Bahrain of the accord.
	He pointed to the 10-15 year validity of the pact, and the fact that it gives Iran access to tens of billions of dollars in previously frozen assets.
	Petraeus is on the shortlist to be secretary of state under Donald Trump, who will assume the US presidency at the end of Barack Obama's term in January.
	Trump has promised to tear up the Iran 

Petraeus sees 'downsides' to Iran nuclear pact

A suicide bomber killed 35 soldiers and wounded around 50 today at a military camp in Yemen's southern city of Aden, military and medical sources said.
	The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
	The bomber detonated his explosives belt as hundreds of troops gathered to receive their monthly pay at the barracks in Al-Sawlaban near the city's international airport, a military source said.
	"A martyr from the Islamic State denotated his explosives belt in Al-Sawlaban military camp in Aden during a gathering of the Yemeni army," the IS-affiliated Amaq news outlet said.
	Yemeni authorities have for months pressed a campaign against jihadists who remain active in the south and east of the war-torn country.
	IS and its jihadist rival Al-Qaeda have taken advantage of a conflict between the government and the Huthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa, to bolster their presence across much of the south.
	The two groups have carried out a spate of attacks in Aden, Yemen's 

IS suicide bomber kills 35 Yemen soldiers

Incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will take the oath of office on Monday, hoping to show he is primed for action despite anxiety over the US role in the world under unpredictable Donald Trump.
	During a formal ceremony at the General Assembly, Guterres will be sworn in before outlining in an address to all 193 UN member-states his plans to confront global crises and reform the 71-year-old United Nations.
	The first former head of government at the UN helm, Guterres will take over from Ban Ki-moon on January 1, just weeks before President-elect Trump moves into the White House.
	The choice of the former refugee chief as the ninth secretary-general energized many diplomats who see Guterres as a skilled politician, able to overcome divisions that have crippled the United Nations, notably over Syria.
	The 67-year-old former prime minister of Portugal has put ending the five-year carnage in Syria at the top of his to-do list and is keen to put forward a new plan to achieve a ..

New UN chief to be sworn in amid uncertainty over Trump

Turkey's ruling party today submitted a bill to parliament that could expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a move his opponents fear will lead to one-man rule.
	The constitutional change, which has been sought by Erdogan since he became president in 2014, would see Turkey switch to an executive presidency along the lines of the United States or France.
	His supporters say it will streamline the political system but it has become the latest polarising issue surrounding the Turkish strongman.
	Erdogan has been accused by domestic rivals and foreign critics of increasingly authoritarian rule, especially after an attempted military coup in July.
	The drive for the reform comes at a critical time for Erdogan, with a relentless crackdown after the coup straining ties with the West and the Turkish lira currency under severe pressure.
	The proposal was presented to parliament, the official news agency Anadolu reported, after months of talks between the ruling Justice and ...

Turkey submits bill to strengthen Erdogan's powers

Around a thousand protesters rallied in Hong Kong today against a crackdown on pro-democracy lawmakers and an electoral system skewed towards Beijing ahead of elections for a new city leader.
	It comes a day after unpopular chief executive Leung Chun-Ying said he would not run for office again in the March vote.
	While jubilant at his announcement, Leung's critics fear another hardline Beijing-backed leader will take his place.
	There are increasing fears that China is tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city, particularly after two pro-independence lawmakers advocating a complete split from Beijing were barred from taking up their seats.
	The Hong Kong government is also taking four other pro-democracy legislators to court Thursday in a bid to unseat them after an intervention from Beijing.
	"The direct message we hope to send to Beijing is we will not forgive and we will fight for democracy and freedom," said Joshua Wong, who led mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014.
	"We will .

Anti-China protesters rally in Hong Kong as vote looms

Gambian President-elect Adama Barrow today called on his predecessor Yahya Jammeh to accept defeat in the December 1 election and appealed for calm.
	Barrow said Jammeh had no constitutional right to reject the results and declared: "I urge him to change his current position and accept the verdict of the people in good faith for the sake of the Gambia our homeland." Barrow also appealed to his own supporters to act with "discipline and maturity.

Gambian president-elect urges Jammeh to accept defeat

A bomb killed 20 soldiers and wounded around 30 more today at a military camp in Yemen's southern city of Aden, where jihadists are active, security sources said.
	The explosion came as hundreds of troops gathered to receive their monthly pay at the barracks in Al-Sawlaban near the city's international airport, they said.
	There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Bomb kills 20 soldiers at Yemen military camp:security sources

Air strikes pummelled the shrinking rebel enclave in Aleppo today as US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Syrian regime's "indiscriminate bombing" amounted to crimes against humanity.
	Western powers meeting in Paris called for the resumption of peace talks and for civilians to be allowed to leave Aleppo, where tens of thousands have already fled a fierce regime offensive.
	The diplomatic flurry came as a US-backed alliance announced it would launch the second phase of its battle for the Islamic State group's de facto Syrian capital Raqa further east.
	The regime's more than three-week-old assault aimed at retaking all of Aleppo has triggered mounting international outrage.
	"The indiscriminate bombing by the regime violates rules of law, or in many cases, crimes against humanity, and war crimes," Kerry said after the talks in Paris, urging Russia to do its "utmost to bring it to a close".
	US and Russian officials meanwhile were to gather in Geneva for what Kerry described as a .

Air raids pound Aleppo as US decries 'war crimes'

Colombia's peace deal between the government and the Marxist FARC rebels is a model for war-torn countries like Syria, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said today as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
	The peace accord, signed on November 24 to end five decades of conflict, is a "model for the resolution of armed conflicts that have yet to be resolved around the world."
	"It proves that what, at first, seems impossible, through perseverance may become possible even in Syria or Yemen or South Sudan," Santos said during a lavish ceremony at Oslo's City Hall, decked out in red, orange and white roses and carnations imported from Colombia for the occasion.
	After a first peace deal was rejected in a popular vote on October 2, the rebels and government negotiated a new accord to end the conflict, which has killed more than 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and forced nearly seven million to flee their homes.
	"The Colombian peace agreement is a ray of hope in a world troubled by so 

Colombia's Santos receives Nobel Peace Prize

Bomb kills 20 soldiers at Yemen military camp: security

Sri Lankan security forces fired warning shots today to disperse striking dock workers who have prevented a Japanese vessel from leaving the port for four days, a navy spokesman said.
	Captain Alavi Akram said armed navy sailors used boats to reach a pier occupied by dozens of workers preventing Japan's "K" Line vessel Hyperion Highway leaving for its next destination Oman.
	"We were called in because the action of the dock workers amounted to sea piracy," Akram told AFP. "We went in to make sure that the foreign vessel could have free passage."
	A spokesman for the local agent for the vessel said its Bulgarian captain and 24 other crew members from the Philippines were safe, but the shipping line was losing money at the rate of USD 100,000 a day because it had been unable to leave on schedule.
	Akram said the vessel should now be able to leave by today night.
	Temporary port labourers at Hambantota port have been striking since Tuesday demanding that they be taken on as permanent ...

Sri Lanka navy breaks up dock worker strike

The Syrian opposition is willing to resume negotiations with Bashar al-Assad's regime "without pre-conditions", France's foreign minister said after talks between Western powers and opposition representatives in Paris today.
	   "We need to tie down the conditions for a genuine political transition, and negotiations must resume on a clear basis within the framework of the UN resolution" Jean-Marc Ayrault added, referring to a roadmap for ending the five-year-old Syria war.

Syrian opposition willing to resume talks: France

A man has self-immolated in protest against China's presence in Tibet while calling for the return of the Dalai Lama, a rights group said today, the first Tibetan to set themselves on fire since March.
	Horrific video footage online showed the man, aged in his thirties and named by The International Campaign for Tibet as Tashi Rabten, walking down the road in northwest China's Maqu region with his entire body engulfed in flames while a passerby recited prayers.
	According to the Tibetan government in exile based in India, Rabten is the 145th Tibetan to self-immolate since 2009.
	Local authorities, who collected his charred remains, could not be reached for comment.
	Rabten's wife, two of his children and several other family members were placed in detention by local police after they went to claim the body, according to rights group Free Tibet.
	"Having lost a father and a husband, Tashi Rabten's family now find themselves in detention. The cruelty of this system knows no bounds," ...

Tibetan self-immolates in China: rights group

US Secretary of State John Kerry said today the Syrian regime's "indiscriminate bombing" of Aleppo amounted to crimes against humanity and war crimes and called on its backers Russia to try to stop it.
	"The indiscriminate bombing by the regime violates rules of law, or in many cases, crimes against humanity, and war crimes," Kerry said after a meeting of Western powers and Syrian opposition representatives in Paris and he called for Russia to "do their utmost to bring it to a close".

'Syrian regime guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes'

Kuwait's prime minister formed a cabinet today that includes a new oil minister but keeps all the ruling family members, following elections in which the opposition performed well.
	The government has seven new faces including Essam al- Marzouk who was named minister of oil, electricity and water.
	Marzouk, a member of a merchant family, was a board member in national oil conglomerate Kuwait Petroleum Corp. And also the head of the Kuwait Bourse Company.
	Besides Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah, the cabinet includes five members of the Al-Sabah family which has ruled Kuwait for two and a half centuries, as many as in the previous cabinet.
	But Sheikh Mohammad Khaled Al-Sabah, the former interior minister and a senior royal, was moved to the defence post, apparently after many opposition lawmakers vowed to grill him over the revoking of citizenships of several opposition activists.
	The defence minister in the previous cabinet, Sheikh Khaled Jarrah Al-Sabah, who is also a .

Kuwait names new oil minister as cabinet formed

Greek lawmakers were to approve today a new round of pay cuts and tax hikes for 2017 demanded by international creditors, with Athens hoping for an ECB stimulus next year.
	The vote in parliament, expected after midnight, will levy around one billion euros (USD 1.07 billion) in extra taxes on cars, fixed telephone service, pay TV, fuel, tobacco, coffee, beer and other items.
	Public spending on salaries and pensions will also be cut by 5.7 billion euros next year.
	Thousands of Greeks took part in union demonstrations and a general strike this week against the new cuts, but the leftist government majority is expected to approve the budget despite the misgivings of many of its lawmakers.
	Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras needs to stay on good terms with EU-IMF creditors to conclude an ongoing reforms audit early next year.
	Greece hopes that a deal will persuade the European Central Bank (ECB) to include Greek sovereign debt in its asset purchase programme, known as quantitative easing, ..

Greece to approve new cuts for 2017 in parliament vote

At least five people were killed today and 27 were injured when a freight train transporting gas derailed and exploded in the northeastern Bulgarian village of Hitrino, officials said.
	"Five victims have been confirmed dead so far and 27 injured," the interior ministry said in a statement.
	The train was carrying more than 20 tankers of propylene gas and propane butane when it derailed while entering the village's rail station.
	The last two tankers hit a power line and exploded and seven tankers full of propylene went off the tracks, local police spokeswoman Assia Yordannova said.
	The blast occurred at 5:37 AM (local time) at the village, located about 100 kilometres from Varna, Bulgaria's main port on the Black Sea.
	The interior ministry said there were 200 firefighters and rescuers at the scene. More than 50 houses were damaged and 40 families evacuated.
	"Four victims have been identified but we fear there will be more. Twenty-five people were injured," civil defence chief ...

5 killed in Bulgarian gas train blast

China announced today that it was suspending coal imports from North Korea for three weeks, in line with the latest UN sanctions against the hermit state.
	"After the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2321... China is suspending North Korean coal imports," the government said in a statement.
	The three-week suspension starts tomorrow and ends on December 31, according to the statement.
	The Security Council passed the resolution on the international sanctions against Pyongyang on November 30 in the wake of the North's September 9 nuclear test.
	It limits North Korea's coal exports next year to 7.5 million tonnes or just over USD 400 million, down 62 per cent on 2015.
	The cap represents a fraction of the North's current annual exports to China, the isolated country's sole ally and its main provider of trade and aid.
	China imported 1.8 million tonnes of coal worth USD 101 million from North Korea in October alone, according to the most recent figures available on the Chinese .

China halts North Korean coal imports

Malaysian security forces have killed a key member of a Philippine Islamist militant group in a shootout in waters off Sabah in Borneo, the Philippine military said today.
	Abu Sayyaf leader, Abraham Hamid, had led the kidnapping of several foreigners from a tourist resort in the volatile southern Philippines last year, two of whom were later beheaded.
	"The death of Hamid is a big blow to the (Abu Sayyaf) as it neutralised one of the notorious bandits and will degrade their capability for spotting and kidnapping victims in the future," said regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan.
	Two other militants were killed alongside Hamid in the shootout with Malaysian police in Lahad Datu in eastern Sabah, he said.
	The Abu Sayyaf beheaded two Canadian hostages after demands for millions of dollars were not met, but released two others, a Norwegian and Filipina, after ransoms were believed to be paid.
	Tan said Hamid had also been involved in the kidnapping of four Indonesian crewmen in 

AFP

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