Italian President Sergio Mattarella on today asked outgoing Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to delay his resignation for long enough to oversee the adoption of the country's 2017 budget.
	The presidential office confirmed the move after Renzi went to see Mattarella after announcing his intention to step down following a crushing defeat in a referendum on constitutional changes.
	"The prime minister, following the outcome of the constitutional referendum held yesterday, announced that he could not continue with the mandate of the government and has therefore expressed his intention to resign," a statement said.
	"The president of the republic, given the need to complete the parliamentary process of approval of the budget law... Asked the prime minister to postpone his resignation until this requirement has been fulfilled."
	The approval of the budget is expected to be completed by the end of the week, according to Italian media. The government has already won a vote of confidence on its ...

Italy president asks PM Renzi to delay resignation for budget

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Russia and China today vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a seven day ceasefire in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo.
	Venezuela also voted against the text presented by Spain, Egypt and New Zealand, while Angola abstained.

Russia, China veto UN resolution demanding Aleppo truce

Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein stepped up her efforts today to secure election recounts, travelling to Trump Tower in New York to announce that a federal lawsuit had been filed in Pennsylvania.
	Stein has spearheaded efforts to force recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, traditionally Democratic-leaning states where Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by thousands of votes.
	While experts say the recount has no chance of dislodging Trump as president, Stein says her purpose is to iron out voting irregularities for the future.
	Stein has sought to finance the recounts, estimated to cost USD 9.5 million, by so far raising USD 7.2 million from more than 130,000 individual donors, according to her campaign website.
	The Stein campaign said Saturday that an attempt to pursue the Pennsylvania recount in a state court had been dropped, citing difficulties raising a million-dollar bond, but a federal suit was instead filed today.
	The 66-year-old ...

Stein goes to Trump Tower to step up recount drive

Let the sweepstakes begin.
	The US Senate today published the so-called Plum Book, the official list of some 9,000 federal appointments to be made by President-elect Donald Trump.
	The list ranges from the very highest presidential appointments - cabinet secretaries and the like - to such mid-level senior postings as under secretaries, heads of government agencies and a number of diplomatic and military posts.
	The book lists the grade level and salary for each position.
	In Paris, for example, the new president will have at his disposal the positions of US ambassador to France and Monaco, US representatives to UNESCO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as the head of the European office of the National Science Foundation (annual salary: USD 135,783.
	Unlike career bureaucrats, who enjoy job security, the political appointees serve at the pleasure of the president and must pack their bags when a new administration comes in.
	Trump must recruit ...

Scramble for Trump appointments begins

The Islamic State jihadist group, on the defensive in Iraq and Syria where it declared a "caliphate" two years ago, today presented a new spokesman who urged its fighters not to flee.
	The new spokesman was named as Abulhassan al-Muhajer, in an audio message broadcast by Al-Furqan, an IS propaganda organ.
	IS has said his predecessor Abu Mohammad al-Furqan was killed earlier this year. The Pentagon said a precision air strike killed him three months ago near the group's de facto Syrian capital of Raqa.
	In the audio message, the new IS spokesman called for patience from the group's fighters and urged them to hold fast and "not to flee" the battlefield, promising "victory".
	On November 3, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi broke a nearly year-long silence as Iraqi forces closed in on Mosul, urging his jihadists to hold their ground in the city against an offensive launched on October 17.
	It was in Mosul that Baghdadi in June 2014 announced the creation of the Islamic caliphate straddling 

New IS spokesman urges fighters not to flee

Over 1,300 migrants have been rescued from the Mediterranean over the past 48 hours with 16 bodies recovered, the Italian coastguard said today.
	Yesterday, the Italian coast guard ship Diciotti discovered 11 bodies on a boat which had run into difficulty, while a commercial vessel intervening at another boat found three dead.
	The Aquarius, a relief vessel chartered by the NGOs SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), meanwhile, said efforts to resuscitate two women found on a dinghy had failed.
	"Two women died of hypothermia in spite of the colossal efforts of the team. We are heartbroken, again," MSF said on Twitter.
	The reasons for the other deaths were not specified, but burns or fuel inhalation can prove fatal to already weakened migrants setting off from crisis-hit Libya, where abuse and torture is rife.
	A turn in the weather over winter usually slows departures, but the pace has remained steady this year while the number of NGO vessels patrolling off Libya has ...

1,300 migrants rescued in Mediterranean, 16 found dead

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls today threw his hat in the ring to succeed Francois Hollande in next year's presidential election.
	"I am a candidate for the presidency of the Republic," the 54-year-old said, announcing he would step down as prime minister tomorrow to fight for the Socialist nomination in a primary in January.
	"My candidacy is one of reconciliation," said Valls, saying he wanted to "bring together" the bitterly divided French left following Hollande's announcement last week that he would not be a candidate.
	"The time has come to go further in my (political) commitment," Valls said.
	The leftwing primary takes place on January 22 and 29.
	However polls shows that while Valls would win that contest, he would finish behind far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and the rightwing candidate Francois Fillon in the first round of the presidential election in April, failing to make the runoff.

French PM Valls announces bid to become president

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closed in on a deal with a key rival today that could lead to approval of controversial legislation legalising nearly 4,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank.
	The bill has drawn harsh criticism internationally, with its main backer, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, calling it the start of Israel's eventual annexation of most of the West Bank.
	It would still need preliminary approval and three full votes at Israel's Knesset, or parliament, but an agreement between Netanyahu and Bennett would likely assure passage.
	The bill has severely tested Netanyahu's coalition, seen as the most right-wing in Israeli history. A previous version was given preliminary approval last month.
	"With this law, the state of Israel has moved from the path leading to the creation of a Palestinian state to the path leading to (Israeli) sovereignty" over most of the West Bank, Bennett told army radio.
	Netanyahu told a meeting of members of his Likud party ...

Israel closes in on deal that could legalise 4,000 settler

Eurozone finance ministers, led by Germany and the Netherlands, today scrapped a European Commission proposal for richer countries to spend more in order to boost a lacklustre European economy.
	The Commission, the EU's executive arm, last month tabled unprecedented plans that would have compelled states with strong enough public finances to loosen the purse strings after years of austerity.
	Eurogroup head and Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said national governments had refused to endorse the Commission's recommendation that they spend the equivalent of 0.5 per cent of annual economic output to boost the economy.
	"We believe that a number of countries are moving in a much more favourable fiscal position and that opens up opportunities to prioritise investments - in the Netherlands we will do so, I'm sure," Dijsselbloem said after the ministers discussed the proposal in Brussels.
	"But putting a figure on that or making that a target has not been agreed by the Eurogroup," 

Eurozone ministers torpedo EU plans for more spending

Inflation-stricken Venezuela will launch a new 20,000-bolivar banknote to help shoppers struggling with huge wads of currency in the country's economic crisis, the central bank said.
	The biggest denomination banknote currently in circulation is 100 bolivars - worth fewer than three cents of a dollar at current market rates.
	The Venezuelan central bank said in a statement yesterday it will start to release a series of new notes from December 15, to "make the payment system more efficient and commercial transactions easier."
	The new notes range from 500 to 20,000 Bolivars - the latter amount being equivalent to about USD 5.00.
	Certain smaller denominations will be changed from notes to coins, it said.
	Falling world prices for Venezuela's crucial oil exports have caused a shortage of dollars in the country.
	That has driven up the price of imports of food, medicine and other crucial goods.
	The government fixes a special low exchange rate for purchases of essential goods.
	But ...

Venezuela to print 20,000-unit banknote

Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi would cede power only to an "elected" leader, after rejecting a UN peace roadmap asking him to hand over to a deputy, an official said today.
	Hadi made his statement during talks last week in Aden with UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who has begun a new attempt to restart negotiations between the government and Iran-backed rebels.
	The official said the roadmap, whose content was not made public, requires Hadi to cede power to a vice president named in agreement with the rebels, a plan the president rejected.
	Hadi referred to a former peace plan brokered by Gulf states, which stipulated that he would supervise the country's political transition.
	"The roadmap has contradicted the Gulf initiative in terms of the president's powers," the official told AFP, adding that Hadi should run Yemen during the transition and supervise national dialogue and elections.
	"He would pass his powers to an elected president," the official said.
	The ..

Yemen's Hadi would only give way to 'elected' leader

Relatives of missing MH370 passengers launched their own campaign to search for crash debris in Madagascar today, hoping to solve the mystery of how the plane disappeared in 2014.
	Families from Malaysia, China and France gathered in the capital Antananarivo as frustration grows over the failure to find the plane and as search efforts are scaled down.
	The Malaysia Jet Boeing 777 jet was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
	Several pieces of debris have been picked up in Madagascar after the first debris - a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon - was found washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion in July 2015.
	"We have been asking the authorities to mobilise a coastal search here and we have had no success," Grace Nathan, a Malaysian attorney who lost her mother on the flight, told a press conference.
	"We wanted to do it ourselves so we have come here to try to inform everybody about this ...

MH370 relatives in Madagascar to hunt for clues

Vietnam today punished two editors of a major newspaper which had earlier been fined for publishing what authorities said were false reports on toxic fish sauce.
	Deputy chief editor of Thanh Nien newspaper Dang Ngoc Hoa, and senior executive Vo Van Khoi had their press cards revoked, Vietnam's information and communication ministry said.
	Communist Vietnam heavily restricts the media, which is all state-owned, meaning authorities rarely have to sanction an industry already under its thumb.
	No reason was given for the order. But it comes after Thanh Nien was fined for reporting on a food scare that received widespread coverage mid-October.
	In Vietnam, fish sauce is consumed daily by most of the country's population of 93 million - as a dipping sauce, marinade or in soups.
	A total of 50 news organisations were fined in November for running reports about high arsenic levels found in fish sauce, causing widespread panic.
	Thanh Nien newspaper received the highest fine.
	Authorities ...

Vietnam punishes editors over fish sauce story scandal

Two Russian army medics were killed today in rebel shelling of a field hospital in Syria's Aleppo, Moscow said, blaming Western nations who support rebel fighters.
	One female medic was killed on the spot when a shell hit the reception area of the hospital, while a second died from her wounds later, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
	Medics were still fighting to save the life of a third doctor - a paediatrician - who was badly injured, Konashenkov said.
	A photographer who supplies AFP with photos described burned tents and charred boxes of medical supplies at the scene.
	Konashenkov earlier said the attack had "undoubtedly been carried out by 'opposition' fighters" and laid the blame at the door of Western nations - including the US, Britain and France - that have backed those fighting its ally, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
	"We understand who gave the fighters the exact information and coordinates of the reception area of the Russian hospital as it was ...

Russian medics killed in Aleppo shelling: Moscow

US Secretary of State John Kerry kicked off a European farewell tour today, six weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump whose shock victory has deeply unsettled the continent.
	The top American diplomat is visiting Germany and Brussels, seat of the EU and NATO, to stress the importance of transatlantic ties before he and the rest of President Barack Obama's administration hand over to the Trump team on January 20.
	Trump has vowed to rip up key diplomatic achievements reached under Kerry - from the Iran nuclear deal to a trans-Pacific trade pact - and was this week looking for a successor at the helm of the State Department.
	Kerry started his trip in Berlin, where he and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier were to discuss ongoing crises, from the Syria and Ukraine conflicts to Yemen and Libya, as well as upcoming NATO and OSCE ministerial meetings.
	In the evening Kerry was to receive the German Cross of Merit from Steinmeier, for their close ...

Kerry on Europe farewell tour to reassure US allies

The death toll from a fire at a California warehouse crowded with dance party revelers rose to 36 today as fire officials announced they had suspended work because the structure was at risk of collapsing.
	Alameda County Deputy Sheriff Tya Modeste said 11 of the 36 bodies recovered so far at the site in Oakland have been positively identified. Previously, the toll had stood at 33.
	"We're no closer to finding a cause and we absolutely believe that the number of fire fatalities will increase," Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said.
	The fire erupted Friday night in a warehouse known as the Oakland Ghost Ship as a rave attended by between 50 and 100 people was under way.
	It spread quickly through the structure, trapping partygoers whose bodies were found scattered through the building's mazelike interior.
	Reed said firefighters have reached an area in the back of the building where they believe the fire originated.
	The area was cordoned off and work was suspended there late yesterday ..

Death toll in Oakland warehouse fire rises to 36

Jailed Venezuelan opposition leaders have launched a hunger strike to demand the government release political prisoners and allow a vote to settle the country's economic and political crisis.
	The 14 prisoners accused President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government of breaking promises made during fragile Vatican-backed negotiations with the opposition.
	"Due to the regime's failure to honor the accords that it accepted in the talks, such as the freeing of the political prisoners, the setting up of a humanitarian supply channel and elections... We have decided to start a hunger strike," they said in a statement today.
	The dialogue aims to calm tensions as the center-right opposition demands a vote on removing Maduro.
	It blames his management for the crisis driven by falling oil prices that has caused desperate shortages of food and medicine.
	Maduro says the crisis is a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.
	He has rejected talk of holding a vote before the next general elections, ...

Jailed Venezuela dissidents launch hunger strike

Finnish police today said the man arrested for the murder of a local politician and two journalists at the weekend was suffering from a mental disorder.
	Flags were flying at half mast in the small lakeside town of Imatra, which was in shock after the killing of the three women in Saturday's late-night shooting.
	"On current information, police consider it likely that the cause of this deed was linked to social exclusion and mental health (problems)," the police department in southeastern Finland said in a statement.
	Police said yesterday that the 23-year-old suspect acted alone and there were no indications that the triple murder was linked to "political issues or extremism".
	The suspect, who had previous convictions for violence, shot the women at close range as they were leaving a restaurant in Imatra, hitting them in the head or torso.
	All three victims - the head of the municipal council and two journalists from the Uutisvuoksi newspaper - died at the scene.
	The gunmen was ...

Finland gunman likely had 'mental disorder'

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today unveiled a television tower aimed at broadcasting Kiev news to the rebel east for the first time in two years.
	Rebel regions of the splintered former Soviet republic have only been receiving Russian channels aired from Moscow throughout much of their 31-month war with the pro-Western government in Kiev.
	The main transmission tower that showed Ukrainian television in the eastern conflict zone was destroyed by the insurgents in July 2014.
	Many analysts in Kiev believe the rebels would get much less local support if people were not fed constant Kremlin propaganda that appears on Russian TV that they now receive.
	The information war is being fought alongside ground battles that have killed nearly 10,000 people and injured more than 22,000.
	Most of these have been civilians and Western efforts have failed to end one of Europe's bloodiest conflicts since the 1990s wars in the Balkans.
	Poroshenko today visited a Kiev-controlled town near the ..

Ukraine unveils TV tower to target pro-Russian east

China today criticised a US decision to block a Chinese company's purchase of German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron, saying business should not be politicised.
	President Barack Obama blocked the deal by rejecting the inclusion of Aixtron's US unit in it.
	The US Treasury Department said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States had found that the risks posed by the purchase, which could put sensitive technology with potential military applications in Chinese hands, were too great.
	Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the move to purchase Aixtron was purely market-driven.
	"China opposes politicising normal business behaviour or interfering in it in a political way," he told a regular press briefing.
	"We hope the US side can stop making groundless accusations to Chinese companies and provide a fair environment and good conditions to Chinese investments."
	In a statement Friday the US Treasury said publicly-traded Aixtron SE's expertise in technology .

China criticises US decision to block Aixtron deal

European stocks and the euro rebounded sharply today as investors were reassured by the speed of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's resignation after losing a crunch referendum.
	The region's markets began the day in negative territory, with Milan tumbling two per cent, but recovered somewhat with sentiment soothed also by the defeat of the far right in Austria's presidential election.
	"The Italian referendum is the major story that will dominate market moves throughout Monday... After Renzi left his position after a bruising defeat," said GKFX analyst James Hughes.
	"The initial market reaction was to the downside, but Renzi's decision to leave so quickly after the result meant that added clarity drove the euro and European equity markets to the upside."
	Renzi stood by his promise to resign after his attempt to change the constitution was overwhelmingly rejected in yesterday's poll, leading to fears about the future of one of the eurozone's biggest economies.
	The referendum ...

AFP

AFP

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