Two women died of hypothermia during an operation to rescue more than 730 migrants off the Libyan coast, the Italian coast guard and medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said today.
	The women were found unconscious in a large dinghy in the Mediterranean that was partly deflated and taking on water.
	"Devastatingly..., two women died of hypothermia despite huge efforts from the #Aquarius team. We are heartbroken, again," said MSF on Twitter, referring to the Aquarius rescue boat chartered by themselves and another charity, SOS Mediterranee.
	Five large inflatable dinghies and five smaller boats were rescued during the operation which took place over a 24-hour period yesterday to today.
	Among those rescued were several families with young children from Aleppo, Syria's war-torn second city.
	The rescued migrants were en route to Italy today.
	Italy has already seen more than 173,000 migrants arrive on its shores this year, up 12 per cent on the 2015 total and outstripping the ...

Two dead as over 700 migrants rescued in Mediterranean

PTI Automatic

Five Palestinians have been killed in incidents in tunnels in the Gaza Strip, officials said today, including four found dead after the flooding of a passage linking the enclave to Egypt.
	Four men aged 22 to 45 "were found dead after the tunnel they were working in was flooded nine days ago by the Egyptian army", local authorities in the city of Rafah near Egypt's border said in a statement.
	Egypt had not confirmed the information, though it has destroyed hundreds of tunnels in the area, alleging they are used to transport arms and militants.
	Gazans use such tunnels to smuggle goods into the Palestinian enclave, which is run by Islamist movement Hamas and has been under an Israeli blockade for a decade.
	The border between Egypt and Gaza has also remained largely closed since the 2013 overthrow of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
	Separately, Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said today that one of its fighters was killed while working in a "resistance" .

Five Gazans killed in tunnel incidents

Turkish students protested today outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul over Moscow's military support for President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.
	"Russia murderer, go away from Syria!" chanted several dozen students who called for an end to the siege on Syria's second city, Aleppo.
	The protest came as Moscow and Damascus denied claims by Ankara that the regime was responsible for an air strike that killed four Turkish soldiers last month.
	A similar demonstration against Russia's backing of Assad took place on Friday, outside Istanbul University in which demonstrators called for "imperialist Russia to leave Syria".
	Russia is the chief ally of the Syrian president in the conflict that has claimed more than 300,000 lives since 2011.
	Since September 2015, it has provided Assad with military support that Western observers say has killed civilians, not just jihadists and rebels.
	"Thousands of people are losing their lives," said Mehmet Akif Olgun, vice president of the ...

Protest outside Russia consulate in Istanbul over Syria

At least 46 people were killed in suspected Russian air strikes on several areas of Idlib province in northwest Syria today, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	The Britain-based monitor said those killed in the strikes, on three locations in the province, were mostly civilians.
	The Observatory says it determines whose planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.
	The toll included 26 civilians, among them three children, killed in the town of Kafr Nabal, and another 18 people who were killed in the town of Maaret al-Numan.
	In Kafr Nabal, an eyewitness told AFP that warplanes carried out several strikes.
	   "Six strikes hit houses and a crowded local market," Hossam Hosber said.
	In Maaret al-Numan, an AFP photographer saw local residents and White Helmets rescue workers trying to reach survivors in the rubble at a vegetable market hit in a strike.
	The Observatory said most of those killed in Maaret al-Numan ...

Suspected Russian raids kill 46 across Syria's Idlib: monitor

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi voted today in a constitutional referendum that has put his future on the line, divided Italy and raised fears of political and economic turmoil across Europe.
	Renzi, who has vowed to quit if he loses, was counting on a last-minute turnaround in voter sentiment to win backing for his proposals to streamline parliament and centralise some powers currently held at regional level in the name of more effective and stable government.
	"Have you decided how you are going to vote, prime minister?" a female voter cheekily asked Renzi as he turned up at a voting station in his home town of Pontassieve near Florence.
	"Now I'm thinking about it!" Renzi quipped back before spending ten minutes standing in line to register his vote.
	Opposition parties have denounced the proposed amendments to the 68-year-old constitution as ill-considered and dangerous for democracy because they remove important checks and balances on executive power.
	Spearheaded by the populist ...

Renzi's future on the line as Italy votes on his fate

Fidel Castro's ashes were buried alongside national heroes in the cradle of his revolution today, as Cuba opens a new era without the communist leader who ruled the island for decades.
	Capping a week of tributes and mass rallies, Castro was laid to rest near the mausoleum of 19th century independence icon Jose Marti and comrades of his rebellion in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.
	A small group of guests attended the ceremony, which was closed to the public, after a jeep pulled the cedar urn into the Santa Ifigenia cemetery as thousands lined the streets, chanting "viva Fidel!"
	"There were no speeches. It was very simple. There were just the ashes that were interred, the family, the government and officials," French Environment Minister Segolene Royal told AFP after the hour-long funeral.
	An AFP photo showed about 30 guests and five women in green-olive uniform standing next to a monument to rebels who died in Castro's failed raid on Santiago's Moncada military barracks in ...

Cuba buries Castro, entering post-Fidel era

The bodies of 51 unidentified victims of fierce fighting in a local kingdom in Uganda's restive Kasese region were buried in a mass ceremony today, officials said.
	They were among nearly 90 people killed in fighting last month between palace guards of a tribal monarch and security forces in the western region, said Kasese district official Geoffrey Sibendire Bigogo.
	"No relatives had turned up to claim them .. It is a painful exercise but we had no way out," he told AFP. "The bodies were rotting away and the stench is unbearable considering such (a) high number."
	The government accused Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere of stoking a secessionist rebellion and stormed his palace on November 27, a day after his palace guards attacked local officers, according to police.
	The local monarch was taken to the capital Kampala where he was charged with murder. The death toll from the clashes stands at 87, although local reports suggest the real number could be more than 100.
	Ugandan ..

Mass burial for victims of Uganda unrest

South African President Jacob Zuma has launched a court challenge to a watchdog probe that raised allegations of misconduct against him, an affidavit showed today, as he fights to hold on to power.
	Zuma, who last week beat back an attempt within ruling ANC party to unseat him, has been under pressure since the probe uncovered possible criminal activity in his relationship with the Guptas, a wealthy business family.
	The president, who came to power in 2009, has faced growing calls to resign over multiple graft scandals and the country's poor economic performance, with unemployment at a 13-year high.
	The watchdog instructed Zuma to set up a judicial inquiry into the allegations that the Guptas had influence over ministerial appointments and lucrative government contracts.
	"To accede to that instruction... Would be to abdicate my responsibility," he said in the affidavit quoted in South African papers today.
	"(I) cannot be instructed by anyone as to when I should appoint a ...

S Africa's Zuma pushes to overturn graft probe

Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo said today she was told that President Rodrigo Duterte had barred her from cabinet meetings, and alleged there was a plot to oust her as his deputy.
	Robredo, who said she would resign from the cabinet, did not say who was behind the alleged plot to remove her as vice-president.
	But she cited differences with Duterte, such as over the rash of extrajudicial killings during his "war on drugs" and the hero's burial granted to dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
	In the Philippines the president and vice-president are elected separately. Duterte and Robredo come from rival parties.
	"I had been warned of a plot to steal the Vice-Presidency. I have chosen to ignore this and focus on the job at hand. But the events of recent days indicate that this plot is now being set in motion," Robredo said in a statement on her Facebook page.
	"I will not allow the Vice-Presidency to be stolen" despite leaving the cabinet, she said.
	"We received a text (SMS) message last 

Philippine vice-president says plot to oust her

Turkish authorities today charged four people today in connection with a deadly fire that killed 11 schoolgirls at a dormitory in the southern Adana region, state media reported.
	Among those charged and placed under arrest pending trial was the dormitory manager and the head of a linked association, state-run news agency Anadolu said.
	An adult tutor was also killed in the fire on Tuesday, which officials said was likely caused by an electrical fault.
	Some 24 people were injured, including eight adults, as they tried to escape the blaze in Aladag district which tore through the building's wooden interior.
	The agency said a total of 14 people had been detained over the fire but six have been released into "judicial control", the equivalent of probation.
	The dormitory is said to have belonged to a religious Sunni Muslim sect known as the Suleymanci.
	After the fire, the government came under attack by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) who accused it of failing to ...

Turkey charges 4 over deadly schoolgirl dorm fire

Bosses at troubled German auto giant Volkswagen have been forced to pay the company back millions of euros for flights on its private jets, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported today.
	For years members of the group's executive board were offered flights aboard its fleet of private jets at or below the price of a commercial trip.
	But by 2014 directors' use of the planes for personal travel -- including family holidays -- had grown so extensive that Ferdinand Piech, then chairman of the supervisory board, demanded they pay back millions in costs.
	They included chief executive Martin Winterkorn, who later stepped down over the automaker's admission that it had installed software to fool regulatory emissions tests in 11 million cars worldwide.
	Among others presented with a bill -- which in some cases exceeded one million euros (USD 1.1 million) -- were Hans-Dieter Poetsch, now chairman of the supervisory board, and Rupert Stadler, chief executive of VW subsidiary Audi.
	VW bosses ...

VW bosses forced to pay back private jet costs

Air strikes on a village in the Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 21 civilians today, among them three children, a monitor said.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which earlier reported an initial toll of 14, said dozens more had been injured in the strikes on the village of Kafr Nabal.
	It said the strikes appeared to have been carried out by a Russian warplane.
	The Observatory says it determines whose planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.
	Hossam Hosber, who witnessed the attack, told AFP "six strikes hit houses and a crowded local market."
	Russia began a military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad in September 2015, saying it was carrying out strikes against "terrorists".
	It denies that its strikes have caused civilians casualties.
	In November, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian forces had begun a "major operation" targeting Idlib and Homs provinces.
	The ...

Air strikes kill 21 in Syria's Idlib: monitor

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro was buried in a "simple" funeral in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba today, a French minister who attended the ceremony said.
	"There were no speeches. It was very simple. There were just the ashes that were interred, the family, the government and officials," French Environment Minister Segolene Royal said after the hour-long funeral at Santa Ifigenia cemetery, which was closed to the public.

Fidel Castro buried in 'simple' funeral: foreign guest

A gunman shot dead three women, including a local council official, as they were leaving a restaurant in a small Finnish town, police said today.
	Investigators cited by the SST news agency today said the municipal council head and two local journalists were killed last night in the town of Imatra by a man who was swiftly arrested.
	The 23-year-old suspect, who was armed with a shotgun, already had a record of violent crime, police said.
	He was interrogated today but the motive for the attack remained unclear and the attacker could have picked his victims at random, investigators said.
	No other suspect was being sought.
	Finland enjoys relatively low crime rates compared to other European nations but, with many Finns keen hunters, it has one of the biggest gun ownership rates in the world.
	The town mayor Pertti Lintunen confirmed that among the victims was social-democrat council leader Tiina Wilen-Jappinen, who was in her 50s.
	The names of the slain journalists were not ...

Gunman shoots dead three women in Finland town

Fidel Castro buried in 'simple' funeral: foreign guest.

The mayor of a Finnish town near the border with Russia and two local journalists were shot dead as they left a restaurant, police said today.
	   Investigators said the three women were killed last night by a man with a shotgun who was later arrested and was interrogated. The motive for the attack was not clear.

Finland mayor, two journalists shot dead: police

The ashes of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro were taken today to be laid to rest at a cemetery in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.

Cuba begins Fidel Castro funeral

Cuba begins Fidel Castro funeral. (AFP)

Steve Smith hit a record-breaking century and took two superb catches as Australia beat New Zealand by 68 runs in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy ODI series opener in Sydney on Sunday.
     The Australia skipper smashed 164, the highest one-day international score at the Sydney Cricket Ground, to lead Australia to 324 for eight.
     Man of the match Smith struck 14 fours and four sixes in his seventh ODI century after winning the toss to give the Black Caps a tough target to chase down. The Kiwis were dismissed for 256 in 44.2 overs.
     Smith's knock, the seventh highest by an Australian in a ODI, surpassed South Africa's AB de Villers 162 at the same ground in last year's World Cup.
     It was also the joint-highest by an Australia captain. Ricky Ponting also made 164 against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2006.
     Smith underlined his man-of-the-match qualities with two decisive catches in the Black Caps innings. It was his throat-high catch at slip that got a big breakthrough, ...

Smith record century leads Aussies to ODI win

Complete scoreboard in the first
Chappell-Hadlee Trophy ODI between Australia and New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday
	   Australia innings
	   D Warner    b Ferguson              24
	   A Finch     b Henry                  0
	   S Smith     c Munro b Boult        164
	   G Bailey    c Watling b Neesham     17
	   M Marsh     run out (Neesham)        1
	   T Head      c and b Boult           52
	   M Wade      b Henry                 38
	   P Cummins   not out                  0
	   M Starc     c Watling b Neesham     11
	   A Zampa     not out                  2
	   Extras (lb-1, w-9, nb-5)            15
	   Total (For 8 wickets, 50 overs)         324
	   Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-47, 3-89, 4-92, 5-219, 6-302, 7-311, 8-322
  	   Bowling: Henry 10-0-74-2, Boult 10-1-51-2, Ferguson 9-0-73-1, De Grandhomme 6-0-27-0, Santner 9-0-40-0, Neesham 6-0-58-2
	   New Zealand innings
	   M Guptill  c Maxwell (sub) b Zampa 114
	   T Latham    b Hazlewood              2
	   K ...

Sydney, Dec 4 (AFP) Complete scoreboard in the first

Four Palestinians have been found dead in a smuggling tunnel linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, local officials said today, accusing the Egyptian military of flooding it.
	The four men aged 22 to 45 "were found dead after the tunnel they were working in was flooded nine days ago by the Egyptian army," local authorities in the Gazan city of Rafah near Egypt's border said in a statement.
	Egypt had not confirmed the information, though it has destroyed hundreds of tunnels in the area, alleging they are used to transport arms and militants.
	Gazans use such tunnels to smuggle goods into the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas and under an Israeli blockade for a decade.
	The border between Egypt and Gaza has also remained largely closed since the 2013 overthrow of Egyptian Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
	While the tunnels into Egypt have been used for smuggling, Gazan tunnels into Israel have been used for attacks, particularly in the 2014 war between ...

AFP

AFP

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