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 .

Israeli missiles hit near airbase outside Damascus: media

PTI Automatic

The EU's top anti-trust regulator on today slapped fines on banks HSBC, JP Morgan and Credit Agricole for rigging the Euribor interest rate benchmark used for a wide range of financial instruments.
	The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, fined the banks "a total of 485 million euros (USD 520 million) for participating in a cartel in euro interest rate derivatives," according to a statement.
	The decision is the latest example of authorities trying to punish malpractice by the world's biggest banks in the years running up to the financial crisis in 2008.
	The three banks had held out from a settlement with the EU in 2013 that saw Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale and Royal Bank of Scotland accept responsibility in the case.
	"Today's message sends a clear message: banks and all companies have to respect EU rules," said the EU's competition chief Margarethe Vestager at a news briefing.
	The Euribor case is one of many involving the complicated business of setting benchmark ...

EU fines three major banks over interest rate rigging

Taiwan's tech giant Foxconn confirmed today it is in talks over a new US investment, while SoftBank shares soared after President-elect Donald Trump unveiled a USD 50 billion deal with the two firms.
	Trump announced the agreement -- which he said would bring 50,000 jobs -- in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, alongside SoftBank's flamboyant chief executive Masayoshi Son.
	Son brandished a document featuring the names of his firm and Foxconn which read: "Commit to invest USD 50bn + USD 7bn in US, generate 50k + 50k new jobs in US in next four years."
	Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple, confirmed in a statement it is "in preliminary discussions regarding a potential investment" that would expand its current US operations, but would give no further details.
	"We will announce the details of any plans following the completion of direct discussions between our leadership and the relevant US officials," the statement said.
	The firm is the world's largest contract electronics maker ...

Foxconn confirms US investment talks after Trump boast

The official search for MH370 in the Indian Ocean has been reduced to one ship, Australian authorities said today, as relatives of the missing passengers launch their own hunt for crash debris in Madagascar.
	The Fugro Equator, one of four vessels involved in the search, remains in the 120,000 square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) zone where investigators believe the Malaysian Airlines jet went down.
	The ships, three of which were contracted from Dutch firm Fugro, had been scouring the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia state for the Boeing 777.
	China's Dong Hai Jiu 101, which was hunting for debris with a remotely operated vehicle - a device tethered to a ship by a cable - departed on Saturday, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), said.
	The plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 passengers and crew.
	No trace of the jet has been found, but investigators have confirmed that three pieces of debris recovered along ...

One ship left in MH370 underwater search

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck western Indonesia today has nearly doubled to 97, the military said, as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of scores of shattered buildings.
	The shallow 6.5-magnitude quake struck Pidie Jaya district in Aceh province at dawn as many in the mainly Muslim region on Sumatra island were preparing for morning prayers.
	The death toll has steadily climbed as rescue crews search, often by hand, through the homes, mosques and shops reduced to ruins.
	The earlier figure of 52 dead was revised up significantly by the Indonesian military, which has taken over responsibility for the search and rescue operation.
	"So far 97 people have been killed and the number keeps growing," Aceh military chief Tatang Sulaiman told AFP.
	"When we retrieve bodies sometimes there's five, sometimes 10 corpses."
	More than 1,000 soldiers and about 900 police have been deployed to the worst-hit areas to set up shelters and evacuation points, he ...

Indonesia quake toll jumps to 97 as more bodies found

Britain will help Gulf states "push back" against aggressive regional actions by Iran, Prime Minister Theresa May told the Gulf Cooperation Council in Bahrain today in a televised address.
	"We must... Continue to confront state actors whose influence fuels instability in the region," May told Gulf leaders at the summit.
	"So 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 added: "We must... Work together to push back against Iran's aggressive regional actions."
	May said she wanted a "strategic partnership" to help boost security in Gulf countries, including defence investment and military training in Bahrain and Jordan.
	The prime minister also spoke about discussions to improve trade ties with Gulf countries as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.
	"I want these talks to pave the way for an ambitious trade arrangement" after Brexit, she said.
	King Salman of Gulf heavyweight Saudi Arabia opened the .

Britain will help Gulf 'push back' against Iran aggression: PM

Thai authorities are investigating the BBC over a Thai-language profile of the nation's new king, officials said today, after the article outraged ultra-royalists in a country where criticism of the monarchy is outlawed.
	Thailand's harsh royal defamation law has been used to jail scores of critics and spawned a culture of self-censorship across the media, academia and the arts.
	Any member of the public can allege royal defamation and the police are duty bound to investigate.
	The BBC is now under scrutiny for a Thai-language profile it published out of its London offices of the nation's new monarch, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who ascended to the throne last week.
	The royal succession was Thailand's first in seven decades and is considered a delicate moment for the institution. Vajiralongkorn does not command the respect enjoyed by his revered father.
	The BBC profile included information about Vajiralongkorn's personal life that is well-known inside the kingdom but rarely printed by 

BBC under investigation for profile of new Thai king

China has urged Washington to block Taiwan's president from passing through the US, after reports said she may stop in New York for talks with Donald Trump's team, following a protocol-smashing phone call between the pair.
	The president-elect broke with decades of precedent last week to accept a congratulatory phone call from Tsai, angering Beijing which regards the island as a rogue province awaiting unification.
	Taiwan's Liberty Times reported that President Tsai Ing-wen may seek to meet members of Trump's team while in New York on her way to Central America, though her office would not confirm the plan to AFP.
	The trip would take place before Trump's inauguration on January 20, the newspaper said.
	Taiwan has diplomatic relations with 22 states and the island's leaders make regular visits to its small group of allies in Central America and the Caribbean, often stopping in the US for meetings with sympathetic lawmakers.
	China's foreign ministry called on Washington to block any .

After Trump row, China urges US to bar Taiwan leader

Bangladeshi child labourers who live in slums work for an average of 64 hours a week, many of them in textile factories making clothes for top world brands, a major study said today.
	The new report from the London-based Overseas Development Institute has found that 15 per cent of Dhaka slum-dwellers aged between six and 14 did not go to school and worked full-time.
	The report, entitled "Child labour and education - a survey of slum settlements in Dhaka", found that two-thirds of girls from slum areas who are working full-time were employed in the booming garment sector.
	The findings raised concern over Bangladesh's USD 30 billion clothes manufacturing industry, which is one of the world's biggest despite a dreadful safety record.
	The manager of one unnamed garment factory told researchers that while he was aware children aged 11-14 should not be working, he did not regard their employment as illegal.
	He also admitted that many of his employees did not carry identification cards ..

Bangladesh child labourers toil 64 hours a week: survey

Death toll from Indonesian quake climbs to 97: military

Malaysian ruling party icon Mahathir Mohamad has accused current leader Najib Razak of "destroying" the country by clinging to power despite a corruption scandal, and vowed to campaign vigorously for the opposition in coming elections.
	In an interview with AFP, the 91-year-old former prime minister excoriated Najib over the sensational graft allegations swirling around the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
	The man who strove to subdue Malaysia's opposition parties during his time in office from 1981-2003 said he could now work with them to topple Najib, including the party of his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim.
	"He (Najib) is destroying this country... He is bringing in racism... Very, very serious crime has been committed," Mahathir said yesterday at his office at Putrajaya south of the capital Kuala Lumpur.
	In a July lawsuit the US Justice Department detailed how an unnamed "Malaysian Official No. 1" -- later identified as Najib -- and his family members and close associates ...

PM Najib destroying Malaysia, stoking racial tensions:Mahathir

An 18-year-old was sentenced today to seven years in prison for planning a Mother's Day attack in Melbourne, the latest of a series of plots in Australia involving teenagers.
	The young man, who was 17 when he was arrested by police last year, pleaded guilty to one charge of committing an act, or planning the preparation of an act, of terrorism.
	He will be eligible for parole in five years and three months.
	The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the teenager, who cannot be named, was making pipe and pressure cooker bombs for a May 10 Mother's Day attack last year when he was arrested.
	Police seized several items from his home, including a document entitled "Make a Bomb in Your Mom's Kitchen" on his computer, ABC said.
	Canberra has become increasingly worried about homegrown extremism and the terror threat level was raised in September 2014.
	Australian officials say they have now prevented 11 terror attacks on home soil in the past two years. But some have gone ahead, ...

Teenager jailed for seven years for Australia terror plot

SoftBank shares soared today after US President-elect Donald Trump said the Japanese telecoms giant would invest USD 50 billion in business and job-creation in the United States.
	The Tokyo-listed firm jumped more than five per cent after the opening bell, hours after the tycoon announced the deal, while wrapping an arm around SoftBank's flamboyant billionaire founder Masayoshi Son.
	In afternoon trading market heavyweight SoftBank was up 4.2 per cent at 7,249 yen.
	"This is Masa of SoftBank from Japan and he's just agreed to invest USD 50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs," Trump told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York.
	In New York, the SoftBank chief executive brandished a document featuring the names of his firm and that of Foxconn, the Taiwanese technology giant, that read: "Commit to invest USD 50bn + USD 7bn in US, generate 50k + 50k new jobs in US in next four years."
	The soon-to-be US president offered no specific details, and a Tokyo-based ...

SoftBank shares soar after Trump boasts of $50 bn deal

The son of Donald Trump's national security advisor -- who has pushed wild conspiracy theories on social media -- has been dismissed from the president-elect's transition team, Vice president-elect Mike Pence has confirmed.
	"Mike Flynn Jr. Is no longer associated with general Flynn's efforts or with the transition team and we're focused eyes forward," Pence told CNN, saying the younger Flynn had been helping his father with scheduling and other administrative work.
	The ouster of 33-year-old Michael G. Flynn, son of retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn -- who was tapped last month for the powerful national security advisor role -- came after he made controversial statements about an armed man's weekend attack at a popular pizza restaurant in Washington.
	Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, said he was investigating online "reports" that Comet Ping Pong was at the center of a pedophile ring linked to defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
	No one was hurt after Welch ...

Son of Trump advisor booted after 'Pizzagate'

Death toll from Indonesian quake rises to 41: official.

Donald Trump

The US president-elect has announced a $50 billion Japanese telecoms investment designed to create 50,000 US jobs

Trump trumpets $50 bn investment ahead of victory rally

Press Trust of India

Almost 60 people missing after ship sinks off Yemen:

Syria's army has seized key ground in its battle for east Aleppo, capturing more districts and penning rebels into less than a quarter of territory they held in mid-November.
	The yesterday's advance came as Moscow and Washington traded barbs over stalled efforts to end fighting in the city, where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have made significant advances since last week.
	But US Secretary of State John Kerry said he would try to get Syrian peace talks going again with Russia's help.
	On the humanitarian front, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was a "disgrace" that the international community had been unable to alleviate the suffering in east Aleppo.
	Yesterday, government troops retook seven districts including the strategic Shaar neighbourhood and were in control of more than three quarters of former rebel territory in east Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	The monitor called Shaar "the most important neighbourhood in the heart of east ...

Syria army makes new gains, pins down rebels in Aleppo

Arda Turan grabbed a hat-trick and Lionel Messi his 10th Champions League goal of the season as a much-changed Barcelona still cruised past Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-0 on Tuesday.
     Barca had already booked their place in the last 16 as Group C winners, but were looking for a morale boosting win after three successive draws, including the concession of a last minute equaliser to Real Madrid in a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
     Messi continued to cut the gap on Cristiano Ronaldo as the Champions League's all-time top goalscorer when he slotted home the opener after just 16 minutes.
     Turan then struck his first Barca hat-trick in a 17-minute second-half spell as the hosts took out their frustration on a dispirited Monchengladbach.
     "I have to congratulate the players because today was a game in which we had little to win and things could have gone very differently," Barca boss Luis Enrique told BeIN Sports Spain.
     "It is perhaps the most precise we have been all season and ..

Perfect 10 for Messi in Barca cruise

Real Madrid launched a staunch defence of star forward Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday, demanding respect for the three-time World Player of the Year amid allegations he hid millions of euros earned from image rights in tax havens.
     "In light of the information published in recent days and the certificate released by the Spanish tax agency which shows our player Cristiano Ronaldo is up to date with all his tax obligations, Real Madrid demand the maximum respect for a player like Cristiano Ronaldo, whose behaviour has been exemplary during his entire time at our club," Madrid said in a statement.
     An international consortium of media organisations on Friday claimed that a huge data leak involving 18 million documents showed the Portuguese skipper hid 150 million euros (USD 160 million) from image rights in the British Virgin Islands.
     Ronaldo, 31, has strongly denied the claims in a statement via Gestifute, the firm controlled by his agent Jorge Mendes.
     "Cristiano Ronaldo 

Real demand respect for "exemplary" Ronaldo

At least 25 people died and hundreds were injured after a strong earthquake struck off Aceh province on Indonesia's Sumatra island today, local officials said.
	The shallow 6.5-magnitude quake struck Pidie Jaya district at dawn, as some in the predominantly Muslim region prepared for morning prayers.
	Mosques and shops were flattened in the small town of Meureudu, where the force of the quake sent people fleeing from their homes. No tsunami alert was issued.
	The head of the local disaster agency, Puteh Manaf, said the sole hospital in the district had been overwhelmed by the number of injured.
	"The data we have now is that 25 people have been killed and hundreds are estimated to have suffered injuries," he told AFP.
	Local district secretary Iskandar Ali also confirmed the figure, citing preliminary data that showed at least 25 had died in the quake.
	Rescue operations were under way to find those believed trapped beneath the rubble, with heavy machinery being used to shift the ...

AFP

AFP

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