The first of two Brazilian air force planes carrying the remains of a football team killed in a plane crash arrived today in the city of Chapeco in southern Brazil.
	Fireworks lit up the sky as the plane touched down in pouring rain after a flight from Medellin, where Cinderella- story club Chapecoense Real had been travelling for a big match when their plane ran out of fuel and crashed Monday night, killing 71 people including 51 players, coaches and staff.

1st plane arrives with bodies of Brazil footballers

PTI Automatic

US President-elect Donald Trump has assured Afghanistan's leader in a phone call that his administration stands ready to up support to the country if necessary, a Kabul statement said today.
	"If Afghanistan needs more security assistance, his administration, after assessing the needs, will focus on providing more security support," the statement released by President Ashraf Ghani's office read.
	The statement cited a phone call between Trump and Ghani yesterday, the first official communication between the two since Trump's November 8 election.
	"President elect Trump praised the Afghan forces' defence of Afghanistan and its people and emphasised that the US will continue to remain with the government and people of Afghanistan during his term," it said.
	Fifteen years and hundreds of billions of dollars after the US led an invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the security situation in the country remains unstable.
	Afghan ..

US ready to offer Kabul more support under Trump: statement

Malaysia accused Myanmar of engaging in the "ethnic cleansing" of its Rohingya minority today, as former UN chief Kofi Annan visited a burned out village in strife-torn Rakhine state.
	Tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled their homes since a bloody crackdown by the Myanmar army in the western state of Rakhine sparked by a string of deadly attacks on police border posts in early October.
	"The fact that only one particular ethnicity is being driven out is by definition ethnic cleansing," Malaysia's foreign ministry said in an unusually strongly-worded statement.
	Myanmar has balked at such criticism, saying the Rakhine crisis is an internal issue -- but international pressure on the country is mounting.
	Malaysia's statement noted that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighbouring countries in recent years -- including some 56,000 to Muslim-majority Malaysia.
	That, the statement said, "makes this matter no longer an internal matter but an international ...

Malaysia hits out at Myanmar over 'ethnic cleansing'

The heavyweights of world trade, including the United States, China and Japan, meet in Geneva this weekend to establish a list of environmentally friendly products for which tariffs can be eliminated or reduced.
	The green products include solar panels, wind turbines and air quality monitors "that can help achieve environmental and climate protection goals," the World Trade Organisation said.
	EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem is expected at the WTO talks today along with senior officials of 17 countries, including US Trade Representative Michael Froman.
	The officials hope to finalise an accord tomorrow but nothing is guaranteed, a source close to the WTO said.
	Talks on the Environmental Goods Agreement began in July 2014, based on a proposal at the World Economic Forum in Davos six months earlier.
	Malmstroem said some 300 environment-related products would be considered at the Geneva talks.
	Over USD 1,000 billion (940 billion euros) worth of goods in this sector are traded 

WTO seeks trade deal on 'green' products

An Indonesian police plane carrying 13 people went missing today on a short domestic flight and is feared crashed, police said, the latest blow to the country's aviation sector.
	The M28 Skytruck plane lost contact with air traffic control during what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour flight in western Indonesia.
	"Fishermen found clothes, suitcases and air plane seats we fear belong to the plane," national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told AFP.
	The plane was on its way from Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung province, to Batam in the Riau Islands.
	An earlier police statement said the plane had set off at 9:24 am but that air traffic control lost contact with the plane at 10:15 am.
	It was carrying five crew and eight passengers.
	Indonesia's search and rescue team have been deployed and Singapore said it was also helping as the incident happened close to the city-state.
	Indonesia has a poor aviation safety record and has experienced several air disasters recently.
	Last week, an ...

Indonesia police plane missing, feared crashed

Syria's army advanced overnight deeper into east Aleppo where it now controls more than half of the former rebel stronghold after a fierce assault that has sparked an international outcry.
	Tens of thousands of civilians have fled eastern neighbourhoods of the battered city since President Bashar al-Assad's regime began its latest offensive in mid-November.
	Overnight, government troops and allied forces seized the district of Tariq al-Bab where heavy fighting had raged a day earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.
	The government has now recaptured around 60 percent of eastern parts of the city that the rebels overran in mid-2012, according to the Britain-based monitor.
	The advance opens the road leading from the government- controlled west of the city to the international airport just outside Aleppo to the east, which is also held by the regime.
	And it has prompted more civilians to flee, heading either further south into remaining rebel-held districts or ...

Syria army retakes over half of rebel east Aleppo

Representatives of around 40 countries today approved plans to establish a fund to protect heritage sites in war zones and a network of safe havens for endangered artworks.
	"We are committed to pursuing (these) two ambitious, long-term goals to guarantee the further mobilisation of the international community for the safeguarding of heritage," a statement issued after a two-day meeting in the United Arab Emirates capital said.
	The meeting's Emirati and French co-sponsors had set a USD 100 million target for the fund but the statement did not specify how much had been pledged.

Abu Dhabi meeting approves heritage protection fund

A prominent Thai dissident was arrested under the country's draconian royal defamation law today for sharing a BBC Thai profile of the new King Maha Vajiralongkorn on Facebook, supporters said.
	Thailand's monarchy is protected from any criticism inside the kingdom by a harsh lese majeste law, use of which has skyrocketed since the military seized power in 2014.
	Vajiralongkorn, 64, ascended the throne on Thursday, seven weeks after his widely revered father King Bhumibol Adulyadej died after 70 years on the throne.
	The military authorities have vowed to pursue critics of the royal family at what is a delicate transition for the monarchy given Vajiralongkorn does not yet boast the widespread popularity of his father.
	Jatupat "Pai" Boonpattararaksa, a leader of a small group of anti-junta students in the country's northeast, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
	"Pai was arrested this morning and is in police custody now," Sunai Phasuk, a researcher with Amnesty ...

Thai dissident arrested for sharing new king article

French President Francois Hollande vowed today to spend the final months of his presidency fighting to protect the rights of the most vulnerable in society and the world.
	Speaking on his first foreign trip since announcing he would not stand for re-election, the socialist president also hit out at the policies of the conservative candidate who is now favourite to succeed him in May.
	"My decisions as president have been based first and foremost on protecting," Hollande said, adding that he had always sought to look out for the "most vulnerable" and "civilian populations threatened by wars and terrorism".
	"This will be my task until the month of May."
	Hollande took issue with a campaign pledge by conservative frontrunner Francois Fillon to shed 500,000 public sector jobs if he becomes president.
	"When you have no civil servants, you have no state, and when you have no state, you have no France," he told members of the French expatriate community in Abu Dhabi.
	Hollande was in the ..

Hollande vows to fight for weakest until he steps down

Relatives of missing MH370 passengers were headed to Madagascar today, harbouring hopes of finding seaborne debris, 1,001 days since the mysterious disappearance of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines jet.
	Four Malaysians and two Chinese nationals left from Kuala Lumpur and will be joined in Madagascar by other MH370 next-of-kin travelling from France.
	The Boeing 777 jet was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
	It is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean, but an extensive deep-sea hunt off Australia's west coast has so far failed to find a single piece of debris from the plane, with the search set to end by early 2017.
	"It has fallen into our hands to take on this search upon ourselves," Grace Nathan, a Malaysian attorney who lost her mother on the flight, told reporters at the airport.
	"After repeated requests for mobilisation of a search along the east African coastline, nothing has been done to ...

Fed-up MH370 relatives head to Madagascar

Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was today fined by his team for his "disrespectful" comments about teammate Matthew Wade on the eve of their opening one-day international with New Zealand in Sydney.
     Maxwell said on Thursday he felt as though batting below Wade at No.6 for Victoria in the domestic Sheffield Shield cricket hurt his selection chances for Australia's third Test against South Africa in Adelaide last week.
	Captain Steve Smith and Australia's leadership party fined Maxwell for what they termed his  "disrespectful" comments towards his state skipper and ODI teammate Wade.
	Head Coach Darren Lehmann said Maxwell's words in a media conference were "disappointing" leading to Smith and Australia's senior members to impose a fine on the 28-year-old.
	"Everyone was disappointed in his comments," Smith told reporters Saturday.
	"I've expressed that to him myself and spoke to the team.
	"One of our values is respect and having respect for your teammates, opposition, the ...

Australia's Maxwell fined for disrespectful teammate comments

Hundreds of thousands of protestors gathered in Seoul for the sixth-straight week today to demand the ouster of scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye ahead of an impeachment vote in parliament.
	The latest in a series of massive anti-Park demonstrations in the South Korean capital came just hours after opposition parties filed an impeachment motion that will be put to a vote by MPs yesterday.
	Whether the motion is adopted or not, Park is firmly on course to become the first democratically-elected South Korean president not to complete a full, five-year term.
	The 64-year-old stands accused of colluding with an old friend who has been formally indicted for attempted fraud and abuse of power.
	The only real questions that remain are precisely when she will go, and whether she will step down or be removed.
	The protestors who have taken to the streets in their millions in recent weeks want her out immediately, but the political establishment is struggling to find a similar unity of ...

Mass anti-Park protest in Seoul ahead of impeachment vote

Syrian troops and allied forces advanced overnight seizing Aleppo's Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood from rebels as they press an offensive to recapture all of the city, a monitor said today.
	The capture of the neighbourhood means the government has now retaken around 60 percent of the east of the city, which the rebels overran in mid-2012, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syria army seizes new rebel district in Aleppo: monitor

A Pakistani man suspected of starting a devastating factory fire in Karachi four years ago that killed 255 people has been arrested in Bangkok, Thai police said today.
	Abdul Rehman, 46, was detained at a hotel in the red light district Nana area of the capital on Friday evening, said Thailand's Interpol chief.
	"Thai Interpol tracked this suspect following an arrest warrant sought by the Pakistani authorities," Major General Apichart Suriboonya told AFP.
	"He will be repatriated as soon as Pakistan is ready," he added.
	Apichart said Rehman was suspected of being part of a criminal gang that was extorting the owners of a Karachi garment factory.
	The gang burned down the factory when the owners refused to pay seven million baht (USD 200,000), he said.
	The fire at the Ali Enterprises factory in September 2012 was one of Pakistan's worst industrial disasters.
	A judicial probe into the blaze was damning, pointing to a lack of emergency exits, poor safety training for workers, the ...

Thai police arrest suspect in Pak factory fire that killed 255

Britain's Supreme Court will Monday begin hearing the government's appeal against a ruling it must obtain parliamentary approval before triggering Brexit, in a constitutional showdown that has further inflamed political tensions.
	The High Court dramatically ruled last month that Prime Minister Theresa May's government did not have the power to invoke Article 50 of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, the formal procedure for leaving the EU.
	The judgement prompted fury amongst Brexit supporters who fear that lawmakers, who are overwhelmingly in favour of staying in the EU, may seek to delay or soften Britain's withdrawal.
	They have warned of a potential "constitutional crisis" as the judges rule on the limits of executive power.
	Following a heated and divisive campaign, Britons voted by 52 per cent to leave the EU in the June 23 referendum.
	But the act legislating the vote did not make the result legally-binding, meaning either the government or parliament still has to pull the ...

UK's Supreme Court set for highly-charged Brexit case

The bodies of the 71 victims killed in a plane crash in Colombia that wiped out a Brazilian football team returned home, as mourners prepared a massive funeral.
	Along the road to the airport, hundreds of people brandished flowers, white balloons and Colombian flags to pay a final farewell to the victims of Monday's tragedy.
	The remains of the first victim, Paraguayan crew member Gustavo Encina, were handed over to his family early Friday in a coffin draped in his country's flag.
	The other victims -- 64 Brazilians, five Bolivians and a Venezuelan -- were flown home on a series of flights throughout the day.
	"What we want now more than anything else is to go home, to take our friends and brothers home. The wait is the worst," said Roberto Di Marche, a cousin of football team Chapecoense Real's late director Nilson Folle Junior.
	In the club's hometown, the southern Brazilian city of Chapeco, more than 100,000 people -- about half the city's population -- are expected to attend a ...

Bodies of Colombia plane crash victims flown home

Morocco has arrested eight men with alleged ties to the Islamic State jihadist group active in the cities of Fez and Tangiers, the interior ministry has said.
	A rifle, ammunition "and documents inciting towards jihad" were seized during the operation on Thursday, it said in a statement yesterday.
	An initial investigation pointed towards the men having ties with IS in Syria and Iraq, "recruiting and sending Moroccan volunteers" there.
	A study by the US-based Soufan Group said last December that at least 1,200 Moroccans had travelled to fight alongside IS in Iraq and Syria in the previous 18 months.
	In 2011, a cafe bombing killed 17 people, mostly foreign tourists, in the central city of Marrakesh.
	It was the deadliest attack in Morocco since Casablanca blasts in 2003 that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers, and were claimed by Islamic militants.

Morocco arrests eight over alleged ties with IS

Two DR Congo police officers accused of rape were decapitated as violence flared between authorities and supporters of a traditional tribal chief killed in August, a governor's aide has said.
	Violent clashes between supporters of the slain chief and government forces that they blame for his death broke out in Kasai province in central DR Congo on Tuesday.
	"On Tuesday locals decapitated two police officers accused of rape. About fifteen police and soldiers sent as backup were targeted by supporters of Kamwina Nsapu who attacked them with machetes during the night," an aide to the Kasai governor told AFP yesterday.
	The clashes happened in Kabeya-Lumbu, 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Tshikapa, the capital of Kasai.
	For more than three months the regions around Kasai have been rocked by violence between followers of Nsapu and the Congolese security forces.
	"I saw ten police officers and soldiers decapitated or killed with machetes at around 10:00 am (0800 GMT), their bodies were in ...

Rape accused DR Congo police decapitated

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake that struck southeastern Peru killed one person, injured 17 others and damaged dozens of homes, officials have said.
	"Authorities in the district of Ocuviri have confirmed the death of a minor and 17 injured who are now being assisted by medics," the National Civil Defense Institute (INDECI) said on Twitter yesterday after Thursday's quake.
	The quake in the Puno region hit at 5:40 pm (local time) on Thursday, its epicenter 58 kilometers (36 miles) from the town of Lampa and at a depth of 30 kilometers, according to the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP).
	"Eight collapsed homes are reported in Lampa and 40 affected in the Paratia district. People are located in safe areas," INDECI had earlier reported, adding that communication with the area had been disrupted.
	IGP head Hernando Tavera reported that "the population was scared and took to the streets" in Lampa, which has 15,000 residents.
	The tremor lasted about 30 seconds and was also felt in the nearby 

One dead, 17 hurt in Peru earthquake

The United States has blacklisted 23 North Korean companies and officials, notably flag carrier Air Koryo, in response to the country's September 9 nuclear test.
	It follows the UN Security Council's newest and toughest sanctions resolution against Pyongyang yet, aimed at increasingly isolating the Asian country politically and economically after its nuclear bomb test two months ago.
	The US Treasury Department laid sanctions yesterday, which aim to lock companies and individuals out of the global financial system, on several North Korean banks, construction and trading companies, as well as an oil company.
	New on the US sanctions list was Air Koryo, which the Treasury Department painted as a part of Pyongyang's military network after one of its aircraft "undertook a fly-over in the Victory Day military parade" in July 2013.
	The airline also transported spare parts or other items used in North Korea's SCUD-B ballistic missile systems, and the country's leader Kim Jong Un uses a ...

US blacklists North Korea companies, officials after nuke test

Several people taken hostage today evening in a Paris travel agency were released safe and sound, police said, but the armed robber who seized them was on the run.
	"Armed robbery on Massena Boulevard in Paris: operation over," police tweeted. "Six people have left. The thief is not on the premises."
	Sources said seven hostages had been "found safe and sound" after the hold-up at the southern Paris travel agency.
	Police sources had earlier told AFP that the robber was armed with a handgun and holding seven people.
	Drivers had been warned to stay away from the area.
	Police were positioned at the site and a security perimeter was established in the neighbourhood near the ring road around Paris.
	The incident comes as fears over security remain high in France, following three major terrorist assaults over the last two years including the November 2015 Paris attacks which left 132 people dead.
	The capital is under tight security, with troops patrolling the streets daily, under a ...

AFP

AFP

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