Spanish prosecutors have brought tax fraud charges against three former Real Madrid players, Xabi Alonso, Ricardo Carvalho and Angel di Maria and opened investigations into two other players, a prosecution source confirmed today.
     None of the cases are related to the "Football Leaks" scandal, which has accused a host of Madrid players, including three-time World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo, of hiding income from image rights in tax havens in recent days.
     Prosecution sources said the Spanish inland revenue has not provided them with any details over Ronaldo's tax dealings.
     Ronaldo has strongly denied any wrongdoing via his representatives Gestifute.
     In February prosecutors presented charges on three counts of tax fraud amounting to three million euros ($3.2 million) against Bayern Munich midfielder Alonso between 2009 and 2011.
     Argentine winger Di Maria is now at French champions Paris Saint-Germain, whilst 38-year-old veteran Carvalho was released by ..

Ex-Real players on tax fraud charges

PTI Automatic

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today extended sanctions against Russia over doping until further notice.
     The IOC first imposed sanctions on Russia in July in the wake of Richard McLaren's report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that revealed a widespread state-backed scheme in Russia to rig drug tests at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
     The revelations led to the exclusion of more than 100 Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics and the entire Russian team from the Paralympics.
     The IOC executive board "decided to extend the provisional measures ... Against Russia until further notice", two days before the McLaren's full report is released, in London.
     "Once the above-mentioned process is complete, the IOC Executive Board will take all the appropriate measures and sanctions in the context of the Olympic Games, such as disqualification of athletes from competition at the Olympic Games, and the exclusion of implicated officials, ...

IOC extends sanctions against Russia over doping

The IAAF Diamond League, the 14-meeting elite circuit in the world athletics season, has adopted a championship-style model with the finalists competing for a prize pool of USD 3.2 million, organisers announced today.
     In previous seasons, athletes accumulated points throughout the Diamond League season with the overall winner of each of the 32 events being the athlete with the most points irrespective of whether they won the final.
     But in a major restructure aimed at throwing up a "dramatic showdown between the world's best athletes", competitors will from next season earn points in the first 12 Diamond League meetings to qualify for two final meetings where $100,000 will be at stake in each of the 32 Diamond disciplines, including $50,000 for each winner.
     "After seven seasons which have established the IAAF Diamond League as our premier circuit it is important to assess its impact and build for the future," said IAAF president Sebastian Coe, also chairman of the ...

Diamond League adopts championship model

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has told authorities investigating him over a rape allegation that his accuser "made it very clear" she wanted to have sex, according to testimony he released today.
	His statements are the first he has made to investigators since taking refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London over four years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in the matter.
	He has said he fears Sweden would then hand him over to the United States to answer for the leaking of diplomatic cables and other classified documents by his whistleblowing website.
	"I want people to know the truth about how abusive this process has been," the 45-year-old Australian said in a statement he released with the testimony.
	Swedish prosecutors dropped a sexual assault probe into Assange last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired.
	But they are still investigating a 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations.
	An Ecuadoran prosecutor grilled him 

Assange claims sex was 'consensual' in released testimony

Prime Minister Theresa May told Gulf leaders today that Britain would help "push back" against Iranian aggression as they agreed on a strategic partnership to deepen ties.
	Addressing a summit of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council in Bahrain, May reaffirmed British support for traditional allies in the region, while also seeking to strengthen post-Brexit trade.
	"I want to assure you that I am clear-eyed about the threat that Iran poses to the Gulf and to the wider Middle East," she told leaders of the GCC, which brings together Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
	The mainly Sunni Arab Gulf monarchies and Shiite Iran are bitter regional rivals, at odds over a range of issues including the wars in Syria and Yemen.
	GCC countries are concerned about Iran's growing influence in the region, especially after last year's nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers took a step towards ending its international isolation.
	The Iran agreement was ...

Britain's May says to help Gulf leaders 'push back' Iran

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed for a ceasefire today in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo to allow aid to reach civilians, calling the situation "heartbreaking".
	"I have been urging the Syrian authorities and Syrian armed groups, and also the coalition... To keep their promises so that we can do our humanitarian" job, Ban, on his last foreign trip as head of the UN, told reporters in Vienna.
	"What we have seen most recently in eastern Aleppo, that is really heartbreaking.
	"Most of the infrastructure, hospitals, clinics, water supplies, food supplies have been cut off. This is a serious humanitarian crisis," added Ban, speaking alongside Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.
	In the face of a blistering assault by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, rebels were reported to have retreated today from all of Aleppo's Old City, the latest in a string of territorial losses.
	After three weeks of heavy fighting, regime forces appear closer than ever to retaking all .

UN chief urges ceasefire in Aleppo

The United States, Britain and France led a call today from six countries for an immediate ceasefire to allow aid into the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.
	A statement jointly issued with Canada, Germany and Italy also hit out at the regime in Damascus and its "foreign backers, especially Russia," accusing them of blocking emergency help.
	"The urgent need now is for an immediate ceasefire to allow the United Nations to get humanitarian assistance to people in eastern Aleppo," the statement said.
	The countries said 200,000 civilians in Aleppo, including many children, were "cut off from food and medicine supplies".
	A humanitarian disaster is "taking place before our very eyes," the six countries said.
	"We condemn the actions of the Syrian regime and its foreign backers, especially Russia, for their obstruction of humanitarian aid," the statement said.
	They called on Iran and Russia to "use their influence" to ensure Damascus agrees the UN's four-point plan for Aleppo.
	The plan ...

US, Britain, France lead call for Aleppo ceasefire

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced he would resign today, three days after suffering a stinging defeat in a referendum on constitutional change.
	The centre-left leader had announced he would step down immediately after the vote but was persuaded to stay on until the completion of parliamentary approval of Italy's 2017 budget, which happened today.
	"Budget law approved. Formal resignation at 1900. Thanks to everyone and viva l'Italia!" ("long live Italy!"), Renzi wrote on Twitter.
	There had been speculation that Renzi would delay his final departure until Friday -- Thursday being a public holiday in Italy -- to give his party more breathing space.
	The leadership of Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) was to meet later today for talks that will be crucial to his hopes of making a comeback at the next election.
	The party is beset by internal divisions that were painfully exposed by Renzi's battle to modify Italy's constitution.
	An election must be held by February .

Italy's Renzi announces he will resign today

More than 30 people were missing off the Yemeni island of Socotra today after a cargo vessel carrying islanders home from the mainland sank in the Indian Ocean, authorities said.
	At least 26 passengers were rescued from the water after a major search operation in the early hours, President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi said in a statement on the official sabanew.Net website.
	The ship sank northwest of Socotra - around 350 kilometres from Yemen's south coast - which has been hit by rare tropical cyclones in recent months.
	Hadi called for "doubling efforts to broaden rescue operations to reduce the scope of the catastrophe that has struck the inhabitants of Socotra."
	Officials declined to say if inclement weather was behind the disaster but Yemeni Fisheries Minister Fahd Kavieen earlier told reporters that the vessel had "an accident."
	"Sixty people, including women and children, were aboard the vessel, which was also carrying small fishing boats," he said.
	The government said United ...

More than 30 missing in Yemen shipwreck

UN human rights experts have urged China immediately to investigate the fate of a prominent Chinese rights lawyer missing for over two weeks, the latest example of a growing crackdown on legal activism.
	Jiang Tianyong took on numerous high-profile rights cases, including those of Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan protesters, victims of the 2008 contaminated milk powder scandal and those of fellow lawyers Gao Zhisheng and Chen Guangcheng before being disbarred for his activism in 2009, according to campaign group Amnesty International.
	He disappeared on November 21 en route to Beijing from Changsha, the capital of the central province of Hunan, where he had gone to inquire about the situation of a detained human rights lawyer.
	"We fear that Mr Jiang's disappearance may be directly linked to his advocacy and he may be at risk of torture," a group of three UN experts said in a statement Tuesday, adding that they could not "rule out the possibility" that state agents were to blame for .

China urged to investigate case of missing rights lawyer

Volkswagen recall of cars in India stuck due to regulatory hurdles

The fine is the largest ever handed out by the FTC in a false advertisement case

S Korea slaps fine of $32 mn on Volkswagen for false advertising

Press Trust of India

JPMorgan Chase today denied any wrongdoing after the EU's anti-trust regulator hit it and two other banks with fines for alleged interest rate rigging, saying it may appeal.
	"We have cooperated fully with the European Commission throughout its five year investigation," the US bank said in a statement.
	"We did not engage in any wrongdoing with respect to the EURIBOR benchmark. We will continue to vigorously defend our position against these allegations, including through possible appeals to the European courts."
	The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, earlier Wednesday slapped huge fines on JPMorgan, HSBC and Credit Agricole for allegedly rigging the Euribor interest rate benchmark, which is used in a wide range of financial instruments.
	The fines "for participating in a cartel in euro interest rate derivatives" totalled 485 million euros (USD520 million).
	The banks hit with the fines had rejected a 2013 settlement that the EU reached with Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale .

JPMorgan Chase denies wrongdoing in EU rate rigging case

Polar bear numbers could drop a third by mid-century, according to the first systematic assessment, released today, of how dwindling Arctic sea ice affects the world's largest bear.
	There is a 70 percent chance that the global polar bear population -- estimated at 26,000 -- will decline by more than 30 percent over the next 35 years, a period corresponding to three generations, the study found.
	Other assessments have reached similar conclusions, notably a recent review by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which tracks endangered species on its Red List.
	The IUCN classified the sea-faring polar bear -- aka Ursus maritimus -- as "vulnerable", or at high risk of extinction in the wild.
	But the new study, published in the Royal Society's Biology Letters, is the most comprehensive to date, combining 35 years of satellite data on Arctic sea ice with all known shifts in 19 distinct polar bears groupings scattered across four ecological zones in the ...

Polar bear numbers to plunge a third as sea ice melts: study

Sri Lankan cricket legend Arjuna Ranatunga Wednesday abandoned a bid to build a record-breaking 100-metre tall Christmas tree after the head of the Catholic church on the island called it a waste of money.
	Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to victory in the 1996 World Cup, had been at the forefront of the project to first raise the money and then erect a 325-foot artificial tree in central Colombo.
	However Ranatunga had to beat a retreat after the Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Ranjith said the scheme was "wasteful expenditure" and the money would have been better spent on helping the poor.
	"In deference to the wishes of the archbishop, I have ordered a stop to the construction of this tree," Ranatunga, who is now a government minister, said in a brief statement.
	The 53-year-old, who represents a largely Catholic parliamentary constituency, had recently laid the steel base of the tree which was beginning to take shape on Colombo's Galle Face beachfront promenade.
	Ranatunga had said ...

Sri Lanka scraps tallest Xmas tree after church snub

Four sub-Saharan African migrants drowned today after their boat capsized off the Moroccan coast, local media reported.
	A further 34 people including five women were rescued during a joint operation by local police and rescue services, semi-official news agency MAP quoted local authorities as saying.
	The inflatable boat had capsized off the northern city of Al-Hoceima, it said, adding the prosecutor's office had opened a probe "to clarify the circumstances of this attempt at illegal emigration".
	Migrants often attempt to reach Europe via the Strait of Gibraltar, just 16 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, leaving from a point on the coast several hundred kilometres west of Al-Hoceima.
	Attempts to reach mainland Spain by sea from Al-Hoceima, some 130 kilometres away, are less common.
	Al-Hoceima lies halfway between the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta on Morocco's northern coast.
	Migrants also frequently try to cross into the two Spanish territories by swimming along the 

Four migrants drown off Morocco coast, 34 rescued

Three teenage boys went on trial in Germany today, accused of a jihadist bomb attack on an Indian wedding that left a Sikh priest badly wounded.
	The three extremists, all 16 at the time, allegedly set off a home-made bomb in April outside a prayer hall where a Sikh wedding was taking place, also leaving two others with lesser injuries.
	The youths, who were born in Germany, had met on social media after being radicalised by ultra-extreme Salafist Muslims, and got together to commit the attack in the western city of Essen.
	Prosecutors charge they had sought to kill "non-believers" with a device they had built from a fire extinguisher shell and chemicals ordered from online shopping site Amazon.
	At the trial, which is being held at a juvenile court in Essen without media access, all three face charges including attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm.
	Neriman Yaman, mother of one of the accused, the now 17-year-old Yusuf, has described her torment as she watched her young .

3 German teens on trial for jihadist attack on wedding

Paris choked today under its worst winter pollution in a decade, with commuters enjoying free public transport and half of the cars ordered off the road in an effort clear the air.
	The surge in pollution has been driven by cold weather and near windless conditions that have trapped car exhaust, wood smoke and other pollutants, said the French capital's AirParif air monitoring service.
	Though bad by local standards, current levels of fine airborne particles known as PM10 in Paris are around 60 percent of levels in notoriously polluted Beijing and a fraction of readings in New Delhi, known as one of the world's most polluted capitals.
	City authorities announced a second day of traffic restrictions, with a ban imposed on private cars with registration plates ending in even numbers from between 5:30 am (local time) and midnight.
	They imposed the same restriction on cars with odd-numbered plates yesterday.
	Public transport in the city was also free for a second day running to ...

Paris chokes under worst winter air pollution in decade

Ghanaians voted today in tight presidential and parliamentary polls that are seen as a litmus test of stability for Africa's most secure democracy as it wrestles with a stumbling economy and corruption scandals.
	Once praised by US President Barack Obama for its peaceful transfers of power, Ghana has come under fire amid reports of voter intimidation and questions over the independence of its election agency.
	Charismatic President John Mahama is running for reelection against veteran politician Nana Akufo-Addo, who has chipped away at the popularity of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) party by criticising the country's sluggish growth and high-profile corruption scandals.
	There are some 15 million registered voters in this West African country, and polling stations opened at 0700 GMT.
	The winner will serve a four-year term in a formerly booming country that has seen its economy slow, currency deteriorate and inflation soar.
	An exporter of gold, cocoa and oil, Ghana ...

Ghana votes in tight election amid economic slump

French President Francois Hollande denounced today "systematic obstruction" by Russia at the UN Security Council after the failure of a resolution calling for a seven-day ceasefire in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
	Russia vetoed the French-backed measure yesterday in New York, the sixth time it has blocked a council resolution on Syria since the conflict began in March 2011. China also vetoed it.
	"Russia's systematic obstruction bolsters the regime of Bashar al-Assad in its destructive drive which is harming the defenceless civilian population," a statement from Hollande's office said.
	Syria's army took control of all of Aleppo's Old City Wednesday as rebels retreated in the face of an offensive that has seen troops capture three-quarters of opposition territory in the battered city.
	French ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre accused Russia on Tuesday of having "decided to take Aleppo regardless of the human cost."
	The draft text, backed by France, the United States and Britain, ..

France slams Russia's systematic obstruction at UN over Syria

Ankara is doing "everything possible" to facilitate negotiations between Moscow and Syrian opposition groups to halt the bloodshed in Aleppo, Turkey's premier said in an interview published Wednesday after meeting President Vladimir Putin.
	"We are doing everything possible to bring about contacts between opposition representatives and Russia and have achieved very good success on this score," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told Russia's Interfax news agency.
	"If any consensus reached is turned into a signed document then that would be to everyone's benefit. Now is the time when you need to get results," Yildirim said in comments translated into Russian.
	Yildirim yesterday met with Putin in the Kremlin as Moscow and Ankara continue moves to put a furious row over Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane last year behind them.
	A source told AFP in late November that Russian representatives had met with Syrian rebels in Turkey with Ankara's mediation to discuss the possibility of a ...

Turkey says pushing Aleppo talks between Russia, Syria opp

Several Israeli missiles struck near the Mazzeh airbase outside Damascus overnight without causing any casualties, Syrian state media reported today.
	"At 3:00 am (local time), the Israeli enemy fired several surface-to-surface missiles from inside occupied territory," the state news agency SANA said, citing a military source.
	SANA said the missiles were fired from a position "west of Tal Abu Nada," a mountain in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights known as Mount Avital in Israel.
	It said they caused a fire but no casualties.
	The Mazzeh airbase, less than eight kilometres (five miles) southwest of Damascus, hosts the headquarters of the feared air force intelligence service and its notorious prison.
	It was the second time in eight days that Israel, which is technically still at war with Syria, had targeted positions outside Damascus.
	It has sought to limit its involvement in the five-year conflict in Syria, but has carried out sporadic sorties against Hezbollah inside Syria.
	The .

AFP

AFP

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