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 ...

Hostages safe in Paris armed robbery, thief on the run: police

PTI Automatic

A British-Dutch project aiming to send an unmanned mission to Mars by 2018 announced today that the shareholders of a Swiss financial services company have agreed a takeover bid.
	"The acquisition is now only pending approval by the board of Mars One Ventures," the company said in a joint statement with InFin Innovative Finance AG, adding approval from the Mars board would come "as soon as possible."
	"The takeover provides a solid path to funding the next steps of Mars One's mission to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars," the statement added.
	Mars One consists of two entities: the Dutch not-for-profit Mars One Foundation and a British public limited company Mars One Ventures.
	Mars One aims to establish a permanent human settlement on the Red Planet, and is currently "in the early mission concept phase," the company says, adding securing funding is one of its major challenges.
	Some 200,000 hopefuls from 140 countries initially signed up for the Mars One project, which ..

Swiss firm acquires Mars One private project

Afghan security forces have lost control over a small percentage of the terrain they previously held, but are getting better at repelling the Taliban overall, a top US general said today.
	Kabul now directly controls about 64 per cent of the country's population of 30 million, General John Nicholson, the chief US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said -- down slightly from 68 per cent he cited earlier this year.
	The Afghans now no longer under government control are not in the hands of the Taliban, but live in areas that are being "contested," he said.
	"While the enemy controls slightly more terrain than before, they do not control more of the population than they did in April," Nicholson said.
	All told, Kabul still directly controls about two-thirds of the population.
	"The enemy holds less than 10 per cent, and the balance is contested," Nicholson said.
	Afghan police and army units took over providing security for Afghanistan from NATO in 2015.
	Their first year was something ..

Afghan forces lose some ground but improving overall: US Gen.

Representatives from dozens of countries gathered in Abu Dhabi today to focus on setting up a USD 100-million fund to protect and restore heritage sites threatened by extremism and conflict.
	The two-day conference reflects growing international alarm over the destruction of ancient artefacts by Islamic State group jihadists using sledgehammers, bulldozers and explosives.
	Another key aim is to establish "refuge zones" around the globe for endangered works of art, according to organisers.
	There were calls today by its Emirati, French and UN initiators for joint action to safeguard endangered cultural treasures.
	"To succeed, we need to work together... United for heritage," UNESCO director Irina Bokova told participants.
	Protecting heritage "is inseparable from protecting human life", she said, describing its deliberate destruction as a "war crime".
	On the eve of the meeting, five Nobel prize winners appealed for urgent action to safeguard world heritage sites, pointing to ...

International push aims to protect endangered heritage

Three Haitian presidential candidates have formally contested the election's preliminary results, their parties said today, after the vote count gave the ruling party's Jovenel Moise victory in last month's first-round voting.
	Jude Celestin, Moise Jean-Charles and Maryse Narcisse are challenging the tally giving more than 55 per cent of the vote to Moise, chosen by former president Michel Martelly to represent his party, Tet Kale (PHTK).
	He claimed all but certain victory in an interview with AFP yesterday.
	If officially verified, the result would bar a run-off round of voting, handing Moise outright victory.
	Celestin is second so far with 19.52 per cent of the vote, according to the preliminary results. They gave Jean-Charles 11.04 per cent and Narcisse 8.99 per cent in the November 20 balloting.
	All candidates had the right to file disputes by 10 am (1500 GMT) today. After the country's electoral courts analyse the vote count and issue their verdict, the official results will ..

Candidates formally challenge Haiti presidential election

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in power for 37 years, will stand down before next year's general election, state radio said today citing sources in the ruling MPLA party.
	National Radio of Angola said that Defence Minister Joao Lourenco would take over as MPLA leader, in news confirmed to AFP by Joao Pinto, a senior member of the party.
	"The president will not be a candidate and he already has a successor," Pinto told AFP.
	"It will be Joao Lourenco, who will be presented to members of the party on December 10 when we celebrate the party's anniversary."
	At a meeting of the MPLA (People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola) today in Luanda, Dos Santos, 74, launched his party's campaign for the election, but declined to say if he would seek a new term.
	"Our goal is to win the election," he said. "The key to success will be the discipline and the unity of all our candidates."
	He made a surprise announcement in March that he would step down in 2018, but has given no ...

Angola's President Dos Santos to stand down in 2017

President-elect Donald Trump, who already has filled the core of his cabinet with multimillionaires, today announced a new advisory council stacked with Wall Street and corporate leaders.
	The Who's Who of corporate power hitters includes the head of the largest asset manager in the world, leaders of Walt Disney, Wal-Mart and IBM, and a former central banker.
	They will form Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, to help the incoming president implement "his plan to bring back jobs and Make America Great Again."
	"This forum brings together CEOs and business leaders who know what it takes to create jobs and drive economic growth," Trump said in a statement.
	"My administration is committed to drawing on private sector expertise and cutting the government red tape that is holding back our businesses from hiring, innovating, and expanding right here in America."
	The council, which will meet for the first time at the White House in early February, will be chaired by Stephen Schwarzman, CEO 

Trump names Wall Street, corporate leaders to advisory council

Iceland's president today invited the anti-establishment Pirate Party to form a government, after both the right and left-wing parties each failed in their bids.
	President Gudni Johannesson made the announcement after meeting with the head of the Pirates parliamentary group, Birgitta Jonsdottir.
	"Earlier today I met with the leaders of all parties and asked their opinion on who should lead those talks. After that I summoned Birgitta Jonsdottir and handed her the mandate," he told reporters.
	Iceland held snap legislative elections on October 29, in which none of the seven parties or alliances obtained a clear majority.
	The conservative Independence Party, which performed best at the polls, initially tried to form a government with the liberal, centre-right Reform Party and the centrist Bright Future.
	But they failed to find common ground on a range of divisive issues including relations with the European Union, institutional reform and fishing.
	The president then called on the ...

Iceland's Pirate Party to try to form government

The sister of a jihadist killed in a terror raid in Belgium last year and charged with terrorist activity has been released under conditions, the federal prosecutor's office said today.
	A prosecution spokesman confirmed reports that Chaimaa Amghar had been freed but declined to list the terms of her release.
	Chaimaa was arrested in Brussels in September after police traced social media messages suggesting she was attempting to "commit acts of terror-linked crimes in a conflict zone," the prosecutor said at the time.
	Chaimaa is the sister of Sofiane Amghar, one of two suspected Islamic State members killed in a raid in the eastern city of Verviers in January 2015.
	Prosecutors later said the group was under the orders of Abdelhamid Abaaoud who led the deadly November 13 attacks in Paris last year.
	The two men killed in the Verviers raid, Amghar and Khalid Ben Larbi, went to Syria to join IS in April 2014.
	They then slipped back into Belgium to the Verviers hideout.
	Authorities ...

Sister of killed jihadist released in Belgium

A robber armed with a handgun was holding seven people in a Paris travel agency tonight, police sources said.
	"Intervention under way in an armed robbery. Drivers should avoid the area" of the Massena boulevard in the Porte d'Italie area in the south of the French capital, local police tweeted.
	Police are positioned at the site and a security perimeter has been established in the neighbourhood near the ring road around Paris, police sources said.

Armed robber holding 7 people in Paris travel agency: police

Opposition candidate Adama Barrow pulled off a stunning victory in The Gambia, comfortably winning a presidential election and putting an end to the 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh, official results showed today.
	Jammeh had conceded defeat, the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said as Gambians began to take to the streets to celebrate the biggest upset in the west African nation since Jammeh seized power in a 1994 coup.
	"It's really unique that someone who has been ruling this country for so long has accepted defeat," Alieu Momar Njie told reporters.
	Barrow won 54.54 per cent (263,515 votes) while Jammeh took 36.66 per cent (212,099) and third party candidate Mama Kandeh 102,969 votes (17.80 per cent) in yesterday's poll, the IEC said.
	Turnout was around 65 per cent.
	Jammeh, who once said he would govern for a billion years if God willed it, was attempting to win a fifth term with his Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC).
	On the streets 

Shock defeat for Gambia's Jammeh in historic presidential poll

Vladimir Putin today told artists not to confuse freedom of expression with "outrageously dangerous behaviour" and suggested the Charlie Hebdo massacre could have been avoided if the magazine had not insulted Islam.
	The Russian President told members of the artistic community not to "divide society" during a televised debate with theatre and screen star Yevgeny Mironov who voiced concerns about growing restrictions on artistic freedom in Russia.
	The Russian strongman said there was a "very subtle line between what I would call dangerously outrageous behaviour and creative freedom".
	"It's a very subtle thing, a very subtle line. It depends on a feeling of tact, from all of us: officialdom on the one hand and people in creative professions on the other," he said.
	"Those activists -- I'm speaking approximately -- at Charlie Hebdo's offices, they came and shot people. The question is, did those cartoonists have to insult Muslim believers?" Putin said of the 2015 attack by Islamic ...

Putin warns artists against 'dangerous behaviour'

Drugs against one type of hepatitis may activate another, sometimes with fatal consequences, Europe's medicines watchdog warned today.
	The medicines, which are highly effective against hepatitis C, may trigger latent hepatitis B in patients infected with both types, the European Medicines Agency said in a statement.
	It named the antivirals Daklinza, Exviera, Harvoni, Olysio, Sovaldi and Viekirax used to treat chronic hepatitis C, an infectious liver disease.
	"Cases of the return of previously inactive hepatitis B infection, which can be fatal, have been reported in patients treated," with this class of drug, the agency said in a statement announcing the findings of a probe.
	There have been only about 30 cases of hepatitis B reactivation out of thousands of patients taking the drugs, the agency said. And there was not enough information to draw a conclusion on cancer risk.
	But a special risk assessment committee of the agency recommended that all patients be screened for hepatitis 

Drug for one hepatitis type may activate another: watchdog

The US unemployment rate in November fell to its lowest level since August 2007 as the economy continued to add new jobs, all but guaranteeing an interest rate hike this month.
	The jobless rate fell a unusually large three-tenths to a surprising 4.6 per cent, the Labor Department reported today.
	A solid 178,000 net new positions were created, in line with analysts' expectations. The economy has added jobs at an average rate of 180,000 a month so far this year, a healthy pace but below the 229,000 rate in 2015.
	The big drop in the unemployment rate was a shock as it had moved little over the prior year. The number of people in the workforce -- the labor force participation rate -- was also little changed at 62.7 per cent.
	Private firms added 156,000 in the latest month, with continued gains in construction, healthcare and leisure.
	However manufacturing firms lost jobs again in November, for a drop of 15,000 over the past three months, and retail fell slighty, unusual at a time ...

US unemployment lowest in 9 years as job creation continues

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that convoys of humanitarian aid would now be able to pass safely into the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.
	"We have informed the UN in New York and Geneva that there is no longer a problem with the delivery of humanitarian cargo to eastern Aleppo," he told reporters in Rome, according to a RIA Novosti news agency transcript.
	Russia has previously decreed the establishment of humanitarian corridors, but the UN has never used them for lack of security guarantees.
	Speaking alongside his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni, Lavrov said approval from the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad remained essential.
	Assad's regime has been conducting an offensive on the battered northern city since November 15, spurring a mass exodus.
	"It is necessary to agree with the Syrian government on the passage of these convoys, which are no longer threatened," RIA Novosti quoted the top diplomat as saying.
	"The UN is still thinking about .

Lavrov says Aleppo aid corridors safe

Fourteen former executives of the Wendel investment company will face trial for tax fraud while US bank JP Morgan Chase is to be pursued for complicity, legal sources told AFP today.
	The former head of Wendel, Jean-Bernard Lafonta, and Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, the former head of the main French employer's association, are among those to be tried, legal sources said.
	An investigation was opened in 2012 following complaints by tax authorities over a scheme called Solfur that saw Wendel executives buy shares at a knockdown price.
	Financial prosecutors estimated in 2015 that the executives made a net gain of 315 million euros (USD 336 million) euros in 2007 for an investment of just under one million euros without paying any taxes, according to documents seen by AFP.
	JP Morgan Chase and a tax lawyer are to face trial for complicity in tax fraud over suspicions they participated in the creation of the scheme.
	Jean-Bernard Lafonta was convicted last December for spreading false ...

France to try 14 execs and JP Morgan Chase over tax fraud

Syrian government forces have recaptured half the former rebel stronghold of east Aleppo, a monitor said today, in an offensive that has left bodies in streets and sparked global outrage.
	Rebels put up fierce resistance in the southeastern outskirts of the battered city, but government forces closed in on opposition territory from the east.
	President Bashar al-Assad's forces have made swift gains since their offensive against Aleppo -- once Syria's commercial powerhouse -- began on November 15.
	Tens of thousands of civilians have streamed out of the city's east, and Russia has renewed calls for humanitarian corridors so aid can enter and desperate residents can leave.
	Today, regime forces "consolidated their control" over two eastern districts and were pushing further to squeeze the shrinking rebel enclave, said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman.
	"After the recent advances, the regime is comfortably in control of half of former rebel territory in the ...

Half of rebel Aleppo falls to Syrian forces

Taliban insurgents have killed 23 civilians after they lost 29 of their fighters in an abortive attack on police in southern Afghanistan, police sources said today.
	"The Taliban insurgents have launched coordinated attacks on police checkpoints in Nesh district of Kandahar yesterday (Thursday), and they faced resistance from Afghan forces," Kandahar police said in a press statement.
	"Following the Taliban attack, 29 Taliban fighters were killed and a number of others sustained injuries, and large numbers of weapons and ammunition were confiscated from them," the statement added.
	"The brutal enemy after suffering defeat against Afghan forces, took their revenge by killing 23 civilians including five children and two women," it said.
	The police statement said the Taliban had sought refuge in the homes of civilians and killed them after they opposed the insurgents.
	According to Nesh district police commander Niaz Mohammed the attacks occurred Wednesday and yesterday.
	"After their ..

Taliban kill 23 civilians in Afghanistan: police

South American economic bloc Mercosur confirmed today it has suspended Venezuela, the harshest international punishment yet for President Nicolas Maduro's crisis-racked government.
	The foreign ministers of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay said in a statement they had informed Venezuela it had "ceased to exercise its rights" as a member of Mercosur, citing a failure to comply with the group's rules on trade.

South American bloc Mercosur confirms Venezuela's suspension

Beijing's pledges to pursue trade liberalisation in the face of a potentially more protectionist US under Donald Trump meant it was time for China to "walk the talk" on the issue, former WTO director-general Pascal Lamy said today.
	Lamy, also a former EU commissioner who negotiated China's entry into the World Trade Organisation, said that despite a rise in anti-globalisation rhetoric, he expected the EU and China to remain key players in keeping international trade open.
	But, speaking in the Chinese capital, he added: "China has had a lot of talk of trade-opening and globalisation, and not much walk.
	"It is time for China to walk the talk," he told a conference at Renmin University's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies.
	US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to ditch the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) once taking office, and analysts say the move could give Beijing an opportunity to forge ahead with its own trade deals and fill a vacuum left by any American ...

China must 'walk the talk' on trade: former WTO chief

Spanish police said today they have arrested a British fugitive who was convicted in Britain of raping two teenage boys.
	Officers arrested the unidentified man on Monday in Benidorm on Spain's eastern coast less than 24 hours after a European arrest warrant was issued for him, police said in a statement.
	Spanish police said he fled to Spain after it was discovered that he sexually abused two brothers aged 14 and 16 on 22 occasions in Britain between 2007 and 2010.
	"The fugitive befriended the victims' parents, who allowed him to spend time with their sons, unaware of the sexual acts the boys were subjected to," the statement said.
	A British court sentenced the man in absentia to 43 years in jail for six counts of rape and several counts of sexual assault on the minors.
	Spanish police had already detained him for possession of a  "huge amount" of child pornography which he shared online.
	He was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

AFP

AFP

Page 1280 - Afp