International banks have stepped up their enquiries and talks about switching operations from London to Paris following Britain's vote for Brexit, according to a senior official at France's markets regulator.
	"Large international banks... Have already undertaken real due diligences and we have received a lot of practical questions regarding the way they are going to be managed from our perspective, with their relationship with the French regulators," Benoit de Juvigny, secretary general at the AMF, said in an interview with BBC television late yestersday.
	He stressed however that the enquiries remained "informal" at this stage, as did similar steps being taken by consultants and lawyers.
	Other financial centres said to be in the running include Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg.
	Powerful lobby group the British Bankers' Association (BBA) has warned that international lenders with operations in the UK are ready to transfer some of their activities out of the country from .

Banks in UK step up action on possible Paris switch

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Moscow's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov today denounced the "myth of a Russian threat" and accused Western powers of destabilising Europe, at a meeting in Germany of OSCE nations.
	He urged all sides to take "a map of the continent and together look at what's where and what belongs to whom", referring to NATO's enlargement in eastern Europe since the Cold War, which Moscow regards as a threat to its security.
	"We are sure such a review will convincingly dismantle the myth of a Russian threat and demonstrate where the real risks are coming from," Lavrov told Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe nation foreign ministers at an annual meeting in the northern city of Hamburg.
	"The euphoria the West was in after the end of the Cold War didn't lead to an architecture of security for all in the Euro-Atlantic space," he said, adding that instead "the choice was made for a closed NATO-centred system".
	Lavrov also said the Western military interventions in Iraq and Libya had ...

Lavrov rejects 'myth of a Russian threat' in Europe

The bodies of scores of Islamic State group fighters have been retrieved from the former jihadist bastion of Sirte, which Libyan pro-government fighters seized this week, loyalist forces said today.
	Three days after the fall of IS's last remaining stronghold in the north African country, forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) said "sweep and clean-up" operations in the city had discovered the bodies of 266 jihadists.
	The remains were "in the streets or in houses in different neighbourhoods," a statement said.
	The pro-GNA coalition announced its full control of Sirte on Monday, in a major blow to the jihadists, and that dozens of IS fighters had surrendered.
	Sirte's fall comes as IS also faces a string of military setbacks in Syria and Iraq.
	Loyalist forces launched the offensive against Sirte on May 12, quickly seizing large parts of the city and cornering the jihadists.
	But IS put up fierce resistance with suicide car bombings, snipers and ...

Scores of IS bodies found in former Libya bastion

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen proposed today that the children of illegal immigrants should be refused public school places as part of tough proposals to restrict state services.
	"I've got nothing against foreigners but I say to them: if you come to our country, don't expect that you will be taken care of, treated (by the health system) and that your children will be educated for free," Le Pen said.
	"That's finished now, it's the end of playtime," she told an audience at a conference organised by a polling group in Paris.
	Opinion polls suggest the leader of the National Front (FN) will finish second in next year's presidential election but she is hoping for new momentum after Donald Trump's victory in the United States.
	Speaking to AFP afterwards, she clarified that she wanted to block education for immigrants who are in France illegally, not all foreigners.
	Such a move would contravene current French law which guarantees school places for all children.
	She also said ...

France's Le Pen pledges no schooling for illegal migrants

Turkey is subjecting German diplomats to stricter controls at the country's main airport, in a tit-for-tat move after a Turkish MP was held this week, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported today.
	President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had the day earlier lambasted German authorities over the treatment of senior MP Ayse Nur Bahcekapili at Cologne airport.
	The German ambassador was summoned, in the latest diplomatic row between Ankara and Berlin whose relationship has been eroded by a series of crises in recent months.
	The extra controls for German diplomatic passport holders began at Istanbul's main international Ataturk airport Wednesday evening, Anadolu reported.
	Four German diplomats who wanted to travel abroad missed their flight on Thursday due to the strict measures, it added.
	Bahcekapili, the deputy speaker of the Turkish parliament, was stopped by German police at the Cologne airport on Monday and made to wait, according to Ankara.
	Turkey claimed German officers sought to ...

Turkey targets German diplomats in tit-for-tat airport move

A 6.5 magnitude earthquake today struck off the coast of northern California, but no major tsunami threat was expected, seismologists said.
	The epicenter of the quake, which hit at 6:49 am (1449 GMT), was located 157 kilometers west of Ferndale, California at a depth of 10 kilometers, the US Geological Survey said.
	The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no Pacific-wide tsunami threat was expected from the event, and there was no specific threat to Hawaii.

Strong quake strikes off northern California, no tsunami

A 6.5 magnitude quake strikes off northern California

Adolf Burger, the last of the concentration camp inmates forced by Nazi Germany to churn out phoney British money, has died at the age of 99, media reports said today.
	Burger wrote a book about his astounding experience, which was turned into the film "The Counterfeiters" that went on to win the Oscar for best foreign film in 2008.
	Czech public radio reported that he died on Tuesday, citing information from his daughter. Burger had lived in Prague since the end of World War II.
	He was a Jewish activist from Slovakia who spent two years working in the ultra secret counterfeiting operation, one of the largest in history, in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin.
	The 139 printers and forgers would succeed in replicating the pound and the dollar before the end of the war, and would produce 131 million pounds in false notes as part of a scheme by the bankrupt German state to flood the British economy with fake cash.
	Drawn from Burger's book, "The Devil's Workshop", the .

Nazi camp cash counterfeiter Adolf Burger dies at 99

When the earthquake struck before dawn, Marthonis and his family had no time to run out of their home before it collapsed into ruins around them.
	Pinned under concrete in the pitch dark, Marthonis - the chief of Kuta Pangwa village - was not alone.
	Every house in his small hamlet was flattened when a 6.5-magnitude quake tore through Aceh province in Indonesia's west, killing more than 100 people.
	Marthonis' mother was among the dead, crushed in her sleep.
	"My mother didn't survive. Maybe it was her destiny to die in a disaster like this," Marthonis told AFP.
	It was not his mother's first encounter with nature's fury: she had survived the destruction of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, that killed 170,000 in Aceh alone.
	But for Marthonis - who like many Indonesians goes by one name - there has been little time to grieve.
	Fifteen people from his village died in the quake - so many from one family they were buried in a single grave.
	As daylight arrived, similar tragedies were ...

'Everything destroyed': Indonesians face quake destruction

The brother of a Pakistani social media starlet, who confessed to strangling his sister in a so-called "honour killing" was due to be brought to court with two alleged accomplices today, but the trial was postponed because of a lawyers' strike.
	Model Qandeel Baloch, who shot to fame for her provocative selfies that polarised the conservative Muslim country, was strangled in July by her brother Muhammad Waseem. He said she had brought shame on the family and confessed to his crime in a press conference after his arrest.
	The model was criticised by detractors who found her posts indecent, but fans praised her for daring to challenge social norms by appearing in videos that by Western standards would appear tame.
	Waseem was set to be produced before a court in the central city of Multan on Thursday along with his cousin Haq Nawaz whom police deemed to be an accomplice, and Abdul Basit, a taxi driver.
	The alleged nature of the accomplices' involvement was unclear.
	But Jam Salahuddin, 

Pakistan court postpones star's murder trial

China's Shanghai Electric plans to spend USD 9 billion overhauling electricity infrastructure in Karachi, a minister said, just months after the multinational revealed it was buying a Pakistan power company.
	China is ramping up investment in its South Asian neighbour as part of a USD 46 billion project unveiled last year that will link its far-western Xinjiang region to Pakistan's Gwadar port with a series of infrastructure, power and transport upgrades.
	In a presentation made to Pakistani authorities, Shanghai Electric said it would invest an average of $700 million a year until 2030 to increase capacity, improve cabling and target bill defaulters.
	"The investment would be utilised in distribution, generation, transmission" and training, Miftah Ismail, minister for state and  chairman of Pakistan's Board of Investment told AFP on Wednesday.
	The investment would also aim to tackle widespread electricity theft and other losses that cost about $269 million a month in the city, ...

China's Shanghai Electric to invest USD 9bn in Pak upgrades

Islamic State group jihadists killed at least 26 members of Syrian government forces today in an assault on regime positions in the central province of Homs, a monitor said.
	IS launched simultaneous attacks near the Mahr and Shaar oil and gas fields and elsewhere in the desert in eastern Homs where clashes were continuing, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	"IS was able to take control of seven checkpoints and other positions held by government forces, who were forced to withdraw amid fierce clashes," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
	IS once held several key towns in Homs, including ancient Palmrya, but has been driven from all but the desert in the east of the province.
	It now regularly attacks isolated army positions in the area, as well as oilfields under government control.
	Some northern parts of Homs are held by various rebel groups, but the government holds the rest of the province.
	Elsewhere in the country, the Observatory said at least 22 civilians 

IS kills 26 Syria regime fighters in Homs: monitor

Britain will ban junk food ads aimed at children from both print and social media from next year, the advertising rules watchdog said today, a move welcomed by campaigners against child obesity.
	The new rules, which come into effect in July 2017, extend an existing ban on television ads for "high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) food or drink products".
	"The new restrictions will lead to a major reduction in the number of ads for HFSS food and drinks seen by children," the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) said in a statement.
	The body said the ban reflected changing advertising methods and media habits among children.
	It cited research saying that children aged between five and 15 in Britain are now spending more time online than watching television.
	Children's Food Campaign co-ordinator Malcolm Clark said: "CAP has finally listened to the voices of parents and health professionals, after years of resisting calls for stronger measures".
	But Clark and other campaigners pointed ..

UK bans online ads for junk food targeting children

President Bashar al-Assad said victory for his forces in Aleppo would be a "huge step" in ending Syria's war, as government troops battled today to retake more rebel ground.
	Despite pleas from increasingly cornered opposition fighters, Western countries and the UN, Assad also rejected talk of a ceasefire in Aleppo.
	Repeated diplomatic efforts this week to end the fighting have stalled, with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov failing to make a breakthrough in their latest talks.
	In a wide-ranging interview with Syrian daily Al-Watan, Assad was confident of victory though he admitted retaking the city would not end the country's conflict entirely.
	"It's true that Aleppo will be a win for us," Assad said.
	"Let's be realistic -- it won't mean the end of the war in Syria," Assad said. "But it will be a huge step towards this end."
	Regime forces have retaken about 80 per cent of former rebel territory in Aleppo since launching an all-out offensive ..

Confident Assad eyes victory in Aleppo

Wild giraffe numbers have plummeted by 40 per cent in the last three decades, and the species is now "vulnerable" to extinction, a top conservation body said today.
	The population of the world's tallest land mammal dropped to below 100,000 in 2015, mainly due to habitat loss and illegal hunting, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported.
	"These majestic land animals are undergoing a silent extinction," Julian Fennessy, co-chairman of the IUCN's specialist group on giraffes, said in a statement.
	Previously, giraffes had been classified as a species of "least concern" on the IUCN's Red List, which tracks the conservation status of fauna and flora.
	The long-necked leaf eaters are spread out across southern and eastern Africa, with smaller pockets in west and central Africa.
	Of nine distinct subspecies, three have shown an increase in population. But five experienced a sharp decline, with one remaining stable.
	Numbers have crashed in 30 years from an ...

Giraffes 'threatened with extinction'

A man who wrote a social media post critical of China's decades-old land reform policies was sentenced to a year in prison, reports said, amid a tightening of civil liberties and free speech.
	The man, surnamed Miao, ran the Twitter-like Weibo social media account for the traffic police of Zizhou county in northern Shaanxi province, the Global Times newspaper reported today.
	In June 2015 he wrote a post that criticised China's land reform policy of 1950, which abolished landowners' rights and saw the violent confiscation of property and its redistribution to peasants.
	Since that law was enacted, "a vigorous land reform was carried out across China, a movement under which people were killed for money and property, leading to hatred and decay of traditional moral values," he wrote in the now-deleted post, according to the Global Times.
	"The land reform was the start of the collapse of Chinese moral values!"
	The post was quickly scrubbed and the traffic police posted an apology ...

Chinese man who wrote online post given 1-year prison sentence

A Chinese company's purchase of German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron has failed after US President Obama blocked the deal, the company said today.
	The Chinese government-backed Grand Chip Investment said that its offer could no longer be fulfilled after Washington rejected the inclusion of Aixtron's US unit over concerns it could put sensitive technology with potential military applications in Chinese hands.

Chinese purchase of German tech firm fails after US block

Russian prosecutors today demanded a five-year jail sentence for a 21-year-old female student accused of trying to join the Islamic State group in Syria.
	Varvara Karaulova is on trial in the high-profile case after she was detained last year as she tried to cross into war-torn Syria while still a philosophy undergraduate at the renowned Moscow State University.
	She was charged with preparing to participate in a "terrorist organisation", but has plead not guilty, saying that she had fallen in love with an IS fighter online and was trying to find him.
	Her supporters argue that the authorities are trying to make an example of her to warn off others from trying to head to Syria, where Moscow is conducting a bombing campaign in support of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
	Prosecutors asked in their summing up for the five-year term, arguing that Karaulova's behaviour represented a "public danger" as she could have become a sniper or suicide bomber.
	The final verdict is expected in the ...

Russia seeks jail for student accused of trying to join IS

Nearly 150 civilians, many disabled or sick, were evacuated overnight from a health facility in Aleppo's Old City after the army retook the area, the Red Cross said today.
	The bodies of 11 people who died at the facility after being caught in crossfire or failing to receive medication were also retrieved, the humanitarian organisation said.
	Syria's army has recaptured around 80 percent of the former rebel bastion of east Aleppo since beginning an assault three weeks ago, and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced.
	The International Committee of the Red Cross said it carried out an operation overnight with Syria's Red Crescent (SARC) to evacuate 150 patients and civilians from the Dar al-Safaa facility in the Old City.
	Previously an elderly care home, the facility had been expanded to host patients with mental health problems or physical disabilities, the ICRC said.
	Around three dozen other civilians, some of them injured, had also sought refuge there, it ...

150 rescued from Aleppo health facility: Red Cross

The European Commission launched legal action today against authorities in seven EU nations including Germany for failing to crack down on emissions cheating exposed by the Volkswagen "Dieselgate" scandal.
	The commission, the EU's executive arm, "is today acting against seven member states on the grounds that they have failed to fulfil their obligations" under EU law, said a statement.

EU launches legal action against Germany over VW scandal

The Islamic State group has released a video showing John Cantlie, a British journalist kidnapped in Syria four years ago, alive in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
	The propaganda video by the IS-affiliated Amaq network shows an emaciated Cantlie speaking in English to the camera in the style of a news report similar to previous videos in which he appeared.
	The footage was not dated but the destroyed bridges seen behind Cantlie in the video suggest it was shot in recent weeks.
	The US-led coalition assisting Iraq in its fight against IS has destroyed several bridges in central Mosul over the past few weeks.
	Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops backed by coalition warplanes on October 17 launched a massive offensive on Mosul, the last major urban centre in Iraq still controlled by the jihadists.
	Cantlie was kidnapped along with fellow journalist James Foley while covering the war in Syria in November 2012.
	Foley then became the first of several hostages to be slain by IS.
	Media rights ...

AFP

AFP

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