Canada's Liberal government introduced a bill to increase voter eligibility, including rolling back a measure that excluded more than one million expatriates from voting in 2015.
	Maryam Monsef, the minister for democratic institutions, told a news conference yesterday that the reforms will "break down unnecessary barriers to voting, while enhancing the efficiency and integrity of our elections."
	The measures do not, however, go as far as the Liberals pledged during the last campaign to revamp the way Canadians vote, by dropping the current first-past-the-post system in favor of a more representational model.
	Those efforts have been met with significant pushback from the opposition which has called for a referendum on proposals, while in polls Canadians showed little appetite for such a drastic change.
	Monsef said she hopes to introduce that legislation in the first half of 2017, while renewing her opposition to holding a referendum.
	"I don't believe that a referendum is the best .

Canada tweaks electoral system to allow expats to vote

PTI Automatic

A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan early today, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
	The quake hit at 5:55 am (local time) and was centred 81 kilometres east of the city of Hualian at a depth of 10 kilometres, USGS said.
	The tremor comes after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in February left 117 dead when an apartment complex collapsed in the southern city of Tainan.
	That quake also raised questions over shoddy construction -- five people have been charged over the deadly building collapse.
	Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes.
	A 6.3-magnitude quake that hit central Taiwan in June 2013 killed four people and caused widespread landslides.
	The island's worst quake disaster came in September 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed around 2,400 people.

5.4-magnitude quake hits Taiwan

Gunmen have kidnapped six police officers in northern Mexico, sparking a massive manhunt involving troops, officials said.
	Some 30 armed men occupied the village of La Simona on Wednesday, installed checkpoints at the entrance of the community and forced the six municipal officers into vehicles, said Carlos Huerta, spokesman of the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office.
	The assailants also took weapons and a police car.
	Soldiers and local and state police have been "deployed in several communities near the location (of the kidnappings) to find the officers," Huerta said yesterday.
	La Simona, which has a population of 250 people, is part of the municipality of Madera in a mountainous region near the state of Sonora. Shootouts have erupted in the area in the past.
	The state of Chihuahua, which borders the United States, has endured some of the worst violence in Mexico's decade-long militarized battle against drug trafficking.

Gunmen abduct six police officers in Mexico

At least one dead after armed man burst into French

Armed police were surrounding a retirement home for monks in southern France after a masked man burst in carrying a knife and a sawn-off shotgun, sources close to the investigation said.
	"An individual, who was masked and armed with a knife and a sawn-off shotgun came into the retirement home where 70 monks live yesterday," one source said, adding that the man's motivations were unknown.

Armed man bursts into French retirement home for monks: source

Boko Haram jihadists have raided three villages in northeastern Nigeria, killing five people and setting fire to several homes and fields, residents have said.
	Armed members of the extremist group on Wednesday sped into the villages of Huyum, Sabongarin Huyum and Wasada on motorbike, killing five villagers and looting their property before setting fire to their homes and farms, witnesses said.
	"The armed men arrived at 4 pm and for four hours they held us all hostage," Huyum resident Bala Jonah said.
	"They killed five people and burnt down our houses and farmland, just when we were about to harvest our crops," he added.
	Hundreds of people living in the three villages fled for the relative safety of the town of Askira, located some 10 kilometres away.
	A local official from the village of Wasada confirmed the toll.
	"There is no doubt the attacks were the work of Boko Haram. We have lost five men, our homes and our food," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	News 

Boko Haram jihadists kill five in Nigeria: villagers

At least 32 civilians, including five children, were killed in Syrian regime air strikes and artillery bombardment on rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo, a monitor said citing a new toll.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday's toll, up from an earlier figure of 16 killed, was one of the heaviest since the regime launched an offensive on eastern Aleppo on November 15.
	"There was an escalation in the evening, with successive bombardments," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that many people were trapped under rubble.
	"There are many wounded people, and bodies, still trapped under the rubble," he said, adding that several neighbourhoods had been hit across insurgent-controlled neighbourhoods.
	An AFP correspondent said that the sound of the bombardment was deafening.
	The reporter was able to travel to Al-Mashad neighbourhood where he saw rescuers sifting through the rubble of a building that had been hit, working in total darkness.
	Three floors ...

Syria regime bombardment kills 32 civilians in Aleppo:monitor

The United Nations today dismissed rumours that its special envoy for the Syrian conflict, Staffan de Mistura, had resigned.
	"Media reports that Special Envoy de Mistura is resigning his post are not accurate. The Special Envoy remains fully engaged on his mission," the UN said in a statement.
	Arabic media had reported earlier today that de Mistura had handed in his resignation for personal reasons.
	The 69-year-old was named to the post in July 2014, charged with the daunting task of trying to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict that has torn Syria apart since 2011, killing 300,000 people.
	Two other special envoys had previously held the post before resigning: former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, and former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi.
	De Mistura, a Swedish-Italian career diplomat, told Swiss public TV network RTS last month that he had no plans to quit the job, despite the difficulty of the task.
	"If I did it, it would only be if I thought there was no ..

UN dismisses rumours that Syria envoy has quit

Tunisia paid tribute today to 12 presidential guards killed in a jihadist bombing a year ago, as questions were raised over a state of emergency still in force despite improved security.
	The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group claimed the attack in central Tunis as well as bombings earlier in 2015 at the Bardo National Museum and at a beach resort that killed 59 foreign tourists and a Tunisian guard.
	The state of emergency has been in place since the attack, in spite of government assurances that security has improved in the north African nation.
	"The security situation is (now) stable," Prime Minister Youssef Chahed told AFP earlier this month. "I would say that we are no more under threat than other countries in the world."
	Tunisia, which relies heavily on money generated from tourism, last witnessed a major security incident in March, when dozens of jihadists assaulted state security installations in a town near the border with strife-torn Libya.
	That attack killed 13 security ..

Year since bus bomb, Tunisia still in state of emergency

European Union member Hungary will waive fees for long-stay visas for citizens of neighbouring Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said today.
	EU member states on November 17 approved visa-free travel for Ukrainians but this still has to be approved by the European Parliament.
	Orban said after meeting Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman in Budapest that while waiting for this approval his country would offer long-term visas for free.
	"After the three hard years that Ukraine has gone through in the name of European values, the EU has a moral obligation to grant visa-free access to Ukraine," Orban said.
	"Unfortunately, as (other EU countries) are blocking this, Hungary has decided from today to grant D type or national visas free of charge to Ukrainian citizens," Orban told a joint news conference.
	D type visas allow people to stay in the country for longer than 90 days and to travel around Europe's Schengen zone, albeit with certain time restrictions.
	Visa-free travel, ..

Hungary offers Ukrainians free long-stay visas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today if proof was discovered that any of the fires across Israel were deliberately sparked they would be treated as acts of "terror."
	Netanyahu did not say whether he believed the six fires in the northern city of Haifa and others were caused by arsonists, but said his government had noticed "encouragement to arson" on social media.
	"Every fire caused by arson or incitement to arson is terror and will be treated as such accordingly," he told reporters in Haifa near the scene of the fires.
	More than 60,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Haifa, its municipality said, while other fires broke out occurred up near Jerusalem and other parts of Israel.
	Meteorologists say the dry weather and strong winds mean conditions are perfect for fires to spread - whether sparked by accident or on purpose.
	Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said up to 50 percent of the fires in recent days had been deliberate, labelling it "arson ..

Netanyahu says any deliberate Israel fires acts of 'terror'

Brexit supporters rounded on gloomy forecasts predicting a 59-billion pound bill for Britain's departure from the EU today, while finance minister Philip Hammond warned of "uncertainty" over the numbers.
	Former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith said the predictions from the government's budget watchdog, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, had offered "another utter doom and gloom scenario" in its latest update yesterday.
	"The key thing is that the OBR has been wrong in every single forecast they've made so far. On the deficit, on growth, on jobs, they've pretty much been wrong on everything," Duncan Smith told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
	His criticism followed that of another eurosceptic lawmaker in Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative party, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who told BBC television that "experts, soothsayers, astrologers are all in much the same category".
	Hammond delivered his regular autumn mini-budget yesterday, presenting OBR forecasts for significantly 

Anti-EU campaigners round on Brexit bill forecasts

A prominent television anchor, Amr El Leithy, said he was barred from leaving Egypt today, in the third case of authorities imposing a travel ban in less than a week.
	Leithy, an employee of the private Al-Hayat channel, was prevented from taking a flight from Cairo to Dubai with his family, an airport official said.
	"There is a legal complaint against El Leithy accusing him of incitement to protest against the state and disturbing social peace," a prosecution official said, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
	Leithy in October broadcast an interview with a tuk-tuk taxi driver who harshly criticised the government and state institutions over price increases and a slump in living standards.
	"I was shocked by this travel ban, which wasn't relayed to me, and in spite of having no legal investigation against me," Leithy told AFP.
	"I will request this decision be investigated, and I will appeal," he said, adding he has already asked for an ...

TV anchor in latest case of Egypt travel ban

China weakened the yuan's reference rate to beyond 6.9 to the dollar for the first time in more than eight years today as the surging greenback further pressures the carefully controlled unit.
	The People's Bank of China set the value of the yuan - also known as the renminbi - to 6.9085 to the dollar, down 0.26 per cent from yesterday's fixing, according to data from the Foreign Exchange Trade System.
	The dollar rose to 14-year peaks as markets expect the US Federal Reserve to hike interest rates next month.
	China only allows the yuan to rise or fall two per cent on either side of the daily fix, one of the ways it maintains control over the currency.
	It weakened it for 12 consecutive sessions up to and including Monday, and today's level was the lowest since June 2008.
	"There are no fundamental reasons for CNY to do anything other than weaken," Michael Every, head of Asia-Pacific financial markets research at Rabobank, told AFP in a written response, referring to the onshore yuan .

China weakens yuan-dollar rate below 6.9 mark

Spanish prosecutors have asked that Cameroonian football great Samuel Eto'o be handed a 10-year jail sentence and pay a 14.3-million-euro ($15 million) fine for alleged tax fraud, a court filing today.
     They allege that Eto'o -- now at Antalyaspor in Turkey -- set up front companies to avoid paying taxes from 2006 to 2009, when he was a striker at Barcelona before leaving for Inter Milan.
     The fraud, they say, amounts to some 3.9 million euros.
     "The footballer pretended he had ceded his rights to two other companies in Hungary and Spain so as to fraudulently avoid paying taxes," they added in accusations seen by AFP calling for Eto'o to be tried.
     Prosecutors estimate the footballer, a four-time former African Player of the Year, should reimburse the alleged fraud to tax authorities plus interest, and pay a 14.3-million-euro fine.
     They want a prison sentence of 18 months for the 2006 fraud, and then three years jail for each subsequent year until 2009.
     Eto'o 

Football: Eto'o on massive tax fraud charges

A Pakistan province today passed a law making "forced conversions" punishable with a life sentence and forbidding minors from changing their religion, a bid to protect minorities in the conservative Muslim country.
	The new bill, passed by legislators in southern Sindh province, also mandates a 21-day waiting period for any person who wants to convert.
	"It is necessary to criminalise forced conversions and provide protection for those who are victims of this abhorrent practice," an excerpt of the bill, seen by AFP, reads.
	Forced conversions, particularly of Hindus to Islam, are an issue in Sindh and throughout the Muslim nation of some 200 million, where minorities have long fought for their rights.
	In 2014, an advocate group which campaigns against religious violence in Pakistan told US Congress that forced conversions generally involved the abduction of girls or young women who were made to convert to Islam and married.
	The Movement for Solidarity and Peace said girls were often 

Pakistan province criminalises 'forced conversions'

Sudanese security agents have detained dozens of foreign exchange dealers for black market trading, as the authorities struggle to curb speculation against the pound, brokers said today.
	An acute shortage of hard currency has seen the gap between the official and black market rates for the Sudanese pound widen sharply, with the currency losing 60 per cent of its value against the dollar in the past six months.
	Today, the pound was trading at between 18.70 and 19.10 to the dollar, compared with an official rate of 6.50.
	"Security agents have arrested more than 40 foreign exchange traders in the past few days for trading on the black market," one foreign exchange broker told AFP on condition of anonymity.
	"Trading is very volatile. Every broker has his own rate."
	The arrests came as the authorities warned of firm action against black marketeers to stem the slide in the value of the pound.
	"We will adopt new measures against black marketeers as they are indulging in speculation," ..

Sudan arrests dozens in foreign exchange crackdown

Afghan ministries today signed an agreement to eliminate violence against women, a largely symbolic effort in a country that foreign observers still consider one of the worst in the world to be female.
	The Afghan attorney general's office recorded more than 3,700 cases of violence against women in the first eight months of 2016, with 5,000 cases recorded in the whole of 2015.
	"We are seeking ways to cooperate, and for an effective and lawful fight against the existence of violence against women in the country," attorney general Farid Hamidi said at the signing ceremony between his office and four government ministries at the presidential palace in Kabul.
	He said the Afghan government was determined to fight against corruption and combat violence against women in the country.
	The campaign was launched on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
	"Unfortunately, violence against women is on the rise," Maleha Hassan, deputy attorney general, ...

Afghanistan vows to reduce violence against women

German flagship carrier Lufthansa said it is scrapping 830 flights tomorrow, grounding more than 100,000 passengers, as a strike by pilots over wages extends to a third day.
	The walkout - the 14th since April 2014 - has affected more than 315,000 passengers, with the airline forced to cancel 2,618 flights over three days.
	The Lufthansa pilots going on strike are demanding a pay rise of an average of 3.66 per cent per year, retroactive for the past five years.
	Their union says pilots have endured a wage freeze over that time and suffered a "significant loss of purchasing power" due to inflation, while Lufthansa has made billions in profits.
	It had offered a 2.5 per cent wage hike.
	Lufthansa's hub management board member Harry Hohmeister said it was "not possible" to meet the pilots' demand for a bigger wage hike.
	"The starting point is that we already pay our pilots far better than our competitors," he said.
	Affected passengers can rebook their flights without charge, the ...

Lufthansa cancels 830 flights tomorrow as pilots strike again

Iraq truck bomb kills 70, mostly Iranian pilgrims: official.

Former Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard announced his retirement from professional football today at the age of 36, calling time on an emblematic career.
     Gerrard spent 17 years at his home-town club Liverpool, 12 as captain, and won seven major honours including the 2005 Champions League before finishing his career with an 18-month stint at LA Galaxy.
     "Following recent media speculation surrounding my future, I can confirm my retirement from playing professional football," Gerrard said in a statement.
     "I have had an incredible career and am thankful for each and every moment of my time at Liverpool, England and LA Galaxy."
     Although the Premier League title famously eluded him, Gerrard did win two FA Cups, three League Cups, the UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup and the Community Shield.
     His finest hour came in Istanbul in May 2005, when he inspired Liverpool to come from 3-0 down against AC Milan at half-time of the Champions League final to win the club's .

AFP

AFP

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