The UN urged rich nations today to ramp up financial aid to help poor countries shore up their defences against climate change.
	Finance is a hot-button topic at the annual round of UN climate talks underway in Marrakesh, Morocco -- the first since the world's nations adopted a hard-fought agreement last year to rein in global warming from fossil fuels.
	Rich nations pledged back in 2009 to mobilise USD 100 billion (93 billion euros) per year from 2020 for climate aid to the developing world.
	But poor nations are insisting on a clear roadmap for reaching the goal, and on a bigger focus on money for climate adaptation, which entails building resilience against global warming's impacts.
	So far, though, adaptation has received less than a fifth of climate finance made available.
	"The cost for developing countries of adaptation alone could range from USD 140 billion to USD 300 billion by 2030, and from USD 280 billion to USD 550 billion by 2050 -- up to five times higher than ...

UN seeks more climate finance from rich nations

PTI Automatic

US President Barack Obama today praised Greece for showing "extraordinary compassion" to hundreds of thousands of migrants, many of them fleeing war, in what has become an enormous challenge for the entire European Union.
	"I want to thank Greek people for their humanitarian response" and their "extraordinary compassion," Obama said in Athens as he began a final foreign trip to Europe.
	Over a million people passed through Greece last year, and the crisis-hit country has struggled to accommmodate over 60,000 refugees left stranded on its territory when Balkan states farther north shuttered their borders earlier this year.
	Even with EU funds and assistance, there is overcrowding in Greek camps and frequent brawls between rival ethnic groups.
	Humanitarian agencies are now warning that conditions must urgently improve before cold weather sets in.

Obama praises Greece's 'extraordinary compassion' for refugees

NATO head Jens Stoltenberg today said he was sure Donald Trump would live up to all US commitments to the alliance, just days after urging the president-elect not to go it alone.
	"President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of NATO," Stoltenberg said in Brussels as he arrived for talks with EU defence ministers.
	"And I am certain that he will be a president... Who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong NATO is important for Europe but it's also important for the United States."
	Trump's upset election badly rattled nerves in Europe after he appeared to call into question Washington's near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help NATO allies if they paid their way.
	He also appeared to be much more friendly towards Russia, praising President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader in marked contrast to a weak Barack Obama in Washington.
	Asked about a telephone call between Trump ...

NATO chief 'certain' Trump will meet US commitments

Israel nominated a new ambassador to Turkey today, its first since the two countries normalised ties after the 2010 crisis triggered by Israel's deadly storming of a Gaza-bound ship.
	Eitan Naeh was formally selected by a government committee, said foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.
	He said the timeline for him being confirmed was not yet determined.
	Naeh, the current deputy head of mission at the Israeli embassy in London, will become his country's first ambassador to Turkey since Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound ship of activists in 2010.
	The raid killed 10 Turks and prompted Ankara to expel the Israeli ambassador.
	The two sides finally agreed in June to end the bitter six-year rift after long-running secret talks in third countries with Israel offering USD 20 million in compensation, an apology over the raid and permission for Turkish aid to reach Gaza.
	The normalisation agreement had been urged by the United States, which is keen to see its NATO ally, ...

Israel names first ambassador to Turkey since 2010

Israel today invited bids for 24 new offshore oil-and-gas exploration licences it hopes will bring more major finds in the Mediterranean as it strives to become an energy exporter.
	"We are offering for exploration half of our economic waters in 24 blocks," Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said, announcing the offer which closes on April 21.
	"Estimates are that most of the natural gas in Israel's economic waters is yet to be found," he said at a news conference, adding the US energy department shared that view.
	The government hopes the new blocks turn up discoveries comparable to the Tamar and Leviathan natural gas fields found off its coast in recent years.
	Israel hopes the Leviathan field and others to come will eventually allow it to become a gas exporter, which could provide it with additional leverage in the turbulent Middle East.
	In September neighbouring Jordan signed a contract to buy gas from Leviathan for the first time and Steinitz said there had been contacts with the ...

Hopeful Israel invites bids for gas exploration

Fourteen million people in northeast Nigeria urgently need humanitarian assistance and 75,000 children risk dying in "a few months", the United Nations warned today.
	Boko Haram jihadists have laid waste to the country's northeast since taking up arms against the government in 2009, displacing millions.
	UN humanitarian coordinator Peter Lundberg said the crisis was unfolding at "high speed."
	"Currently our assessment is that 14 million people are identified as in need of humanitarian assistance," Lundberg told reporters in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
	Out of the 14 million people who need aid, 400,000 children are in critical need of assistance, while 75,000 could die "in (the) few months ahead of us," Lundberg said.
	The UN hopes to target half of the 14 million people -- a population bigger than Belgium -- with the Nigerian government working to reach the rest.
	Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has reclaimed territory from the Islamists but the insurgency has taken a brutal ...

UN says 75,000 children in Nigeria risk dying in 'months'

Chinese state-run media lauded Donald Trump today after a phone call between him and President Xi Jinping, saying that the president-elect's emergence could mark a "reshaping" of Sino-American relations.
	The pair spoke yesterday, when Xi said that the two powers needed to co-operate and Trump's office said the leaders "established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another".
	On the campaign trail Trump frequently demonised Beijing, but questions have been asked whether his conduct in the White House will match his promises as a candidate.
	Yesterday's conversation was "diplomatically impeccable and has bolstered optimism over bilateral relations in the next four years", China's frequently nationalistic Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.
	Barack Obama, whose foreign policy pivot to Asia alarmed Beijing, was "profoundly affected" by the Cold War-shaped outlook of American elites, the paper said, but Trump's views "have not been kidnapped by Washington's political ...

Chinese media praise Trump's 'experience and ideology'

An Israeli minister who decided to give a drone as a gift to visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev came under fire today after it emerged it may contain sensitive technology.
	Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel gave Medvedev a tour of a research centre last week and reportedly asked him if he wanted the drone on display there as a gift after the Russian premier took an interest in it.
	Footage broadcast on Israeli television shows Medvedev enjoying himself flying the drone with its remote control.
	Medvedev accepted the gift -- but it was not clear whether Ariel was allowed to give it away.
	Israeli media reported that not only was the drone worth as much as USD 50,000, but it also may have contained technology not meant to be shared.
	The drone was made by Spanish company Alpha Unmanned Systems, while its thermal camera was from US company Flir, the Jerusalem Post reported.
	There were also reports that Medvedev did not receive the remote control or the thermal camera ..

Israel minister in hot water after giving drone to Russian PM

Cuba has pardoned 787 prisoners in response to Pope Francis's call for world leaders to show mercy to inmates, authorities said today.
	The communist country's powerful Council of State, headed by President Raul Castro, issued the sweeping pardon in honor of the Jubilee year declared by the pope, said a front-page notice in the official communist party newspaper, Granma.
	Pope Francis declared the Jubilee year last December, a special time of remission of sins and universal pardon.
	Cuba said those pardoned included women, youths and sick inmates.
	"The crimes for which they were punished, their conduct while fulfilling their sentences and the time served were taken into consideration," it said.
	Prisoners convicted of murder, homicide, corrupting minors, rape, drug trafficking and other "extremely dangerous" crimes were excluded.
	Francis kicked off the Jubilee with calls to world leaders to improve prison conditions for inmates and consider granting them amnesty.
	In September last .

Cuba pardons nearly 800 prisoners at pope's request

Iraqi forces have retaken the ancient city of Nimrud, but it has been heavily damaged by the Islamic State group, an journalist who visited the site today said.
	Statues lie shattered, a reconstructed palace is wrecked and the remains of a ziggurat -- once one of the tallest structures left from the ancient world at some 50 metres (yards) high -- has been reduced to a fraction of its height, the AFP journalist said.
	Iraqi forces announced that Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century and became the capital of the Assyrian empire, was recaptured on Sunday as part of the massive operation to retake Mosul, the last IS-held city in the country.
	IS overran Nimrud along with swathes of other territory in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained much of the territory they lost to the jihadists.
	In April last year, IS released a video of its fighters destroying monuments there before planting explosives around the site and blowing it up.
	In the video, militants with sledgehammers ..

Iraq's ancient Nimrud recaptured but heavily damaged

Arab leaders must treat the region's 100 million young people as an asset, not a liability, the UN's youth envoy said in Saudi Arabia today.
	"This is a generation that is so willing to contribute," but is beset by obstacles in the 22-nation region plagued by conflict since a wave of Arab uprisings demanding reform erupted after late 2010, Ahmad Alhendawi told the MiSK Global Forum.
	Releasing figures from a forthcoming study, he said the region's average age is below 25 -- but the average age of Arab world politicians is 58.
	"This region has the highest rate of youth protest if you compare it to all other regions in the world," said Alhendawi, a Jordanian named to the post in 2013.
	He said two-thirds of Arab women are looking for jobs.
	A separate report by the United Nations labour agency in August showed that Arab states count the world's highest youth unemployment rate, above 30 percent.
	Overall, the region needs to create 60 million jobs by 2020, Alhendawi said.
	Even though ..

Arab region's young people not a 'liability': UN

A 94-year-old man was knocked down and killed by a ram that was protecting its flock in southwest France, police and the animal's owner said on today.
	The elderly man "was charged at" by the ram which launched a frenzied attack on him on a farm in the town of Cestas, south of Bordeaux, yesterday, police said.
	The man was found dead, with a swollen and badly bruised face.
	Investigators believe the ram knocked the man off balance, causing him to fall, and then trampled on him, inflicting more injuries.
	"It was a young, one-year-old ram who is not at all aggressive -- my daughter reared him by bottle," the farmer who owns the animal told AFP, asking not to be named.
	"But in this case he was protecting his flock. He was playing the role of the dominant male because there were a lot of ewes."
	The man had been visiting the farm to talk to the farmer and had taken a short cut across the field when the incident took place.
	Shortly afterwards, the sheep also charged at, and injured, a ..

Rampaging sheep kills 94-year-old Frenchman

Nicolas Sarkozy's links with Moamer Gaddafi came under fresh scrutiny today after a businessman claimed he had delivered three suitcases full of cash from the Libyan leader toward the Frenchman's first presidential bid.
	In an interview with the Mediapart investigative news site, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine said he had made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007 with cash for Sarkozy's campaign.
	Each time he carried a briefcase containing between 1.5 and 2.0 million euros in 200-euro and 500-euro notes, Takieddine said in a video interview, adding that he was given the money by Gaddafi's military intelligence chief Abdallah Senussi.
	Sarkozy, who is bidding to recapture the presidency in next year's election, has for years been dogged by allegations that he accepted millions from Gaddafi during his successful 2007 run for the top office.
	During questioning in a separate case, Takieddine accused Sarkozy of having been in Gaddafi's pocket in ...

Sarkozy hit by fresh claims of Gaddafi campaign funding

Los Angeles 2024 bid officials sought today to reassure the "Olympic family" following the election of Donald Trump, claiming the US was an "outward looking" country.
     The American city, alongside rivals Paris and Budapest, unveiled for the first time details of their bids to host the Summer Olympics in eight years' time to the Association of National Olympic Committees' General Assembly being held in Qatar.
     Although they did not mention the president elect by name the LA mayor Eric Garcetti and six-time Olympic gold medallist Allyson Felix tried to address concerns delegates might have about a US bid following comments made by Trump during the presidential election.
     "My vision of America is a country that is informed by the Olympic vision," said Garcetti.
     "An America that remains actively engaged in the world.
     "An America that is outward looking, ready to play its role alongside the competing nations to address our world's most pressing challenges."
     ...

LA 2024 bid team tries to soothe nerves over Trump

Olympic bosses made an impassioned plea to Brazilian authorities today to allow Irish Olympic Committee (IOC) president Patrick Hickey to return home while awaiting trial over an alleged ticketing scam.
     Hickey, who is also the head of the European Olympic Committee, was arrested by Brazilian police during the Rio Olympics in August as part of a raid into an illegal ticket sales scheme.
     He denies any wrongdoing but has been formally charged, along with nine others, with ticket-touting, ambush marketing, theft, tax evasion, money-laundering and criminal association. He has stepped down from both posts while the investigation continues.
     The trial date has still not been set but could take up to two years to be heard, according to his lawyers.
     The 71-year-old Hickey remains under house arrest in Brazil but has had his passport confiscated and  has been banned from leaving the country.
     His lawyers and Olympic officials have asked that he be allowed to return home ..

Bosses urge Brazil to send Hickey home

Two white men in South Africa have been charged with assault after an online video emerged showing them pushing a black man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive, a court official said today.
	The pair are due in court tomorrow in the northeastern town of Middelburg charged with assault and intent to cause grievous bodily harm, according to the court's clerk.
	The footage was apparently shot on a mobile phone by one of the two white men involved in the incident.
	The 20-second clip shows one white man shoving the black man, who makes distressed noises, into the wooden coffin and trying to force down the lid.
	"Do you want to speak? Come, come. We want to throw the petrol on," said one of the men, speaking Afrikaans, according to the News24 website.
	They are also accused of threatening to put a snake in the coffin.
	The video, which is undated, has spread rapidly across social media.
	It was allegedly taken at a farm close to Middelburg town in Mpumalanga.
	The Economic ...

White men charged with shoving black S African into coffin

South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries said today it will split its non-shipbuilding businesses into separate companies to improve management efficiency as the country's shipyards undergo massive restructuring.
	South Korean shipbuilders including Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine have struggled with mounting losses as global demand slows and competition from Chinese rivals intensifies.
	The government and creditor banks -- including the state-run Korea Development Bank -- in recent months have urged intense restructuring efforts including mass job cuts.
	Under the plan approved at a board meeting today, Hyundai will operate six separate companies to spin off the non-core equipment and construction sectors from its core businesses, including shipbuilding, offshore and industrial plants, the company said in a statement.
	Its non-core divisions range from construction equipment, green energy to robotics and account for 13 per cent of sales.
	The shipbuilder ...

S Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries confirms spin-off plans

Veteran Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev is set to feature on new banknotes in the Central Asian country, the national bank said today, in another testimony to his personality cult.
	New 10,000-tenge (USD 30) banknotes that feature the portrait of the 76-year-old leader will be put into circulation on December 1, in time for a holiday celebrating his leadership.
	"All Kazakhstan's achievements since independence are inextricably linked to the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev," national bank chairman Daniyar Akishev said today at a press conference in the capital Astana.
	The tenge is one of many ex-Soviet currencies that have been battered by Western sanctions against neighbouring Russia over Ukraine and depressed energy prices.
	Nazarbayev, officially known by the title "Father of the Nation", is already the subject of a flattering biographical film while glitzy Astana has a museum in his honour.
	But the autocrat, whose rule over Kazakhstan ...

Kazakhstan president to feature on banknotes

Around 200 Rohingya Muslims fleeing a surge in violence after security forces took control of Myanmar's Rakhine state last month are stranded at the Bangladesh border, community leaders said today.
	Bangladeshi border guards pushed back the Rohingya - mostly women and children - to the Myanmar side on Monday, community leaders told AFP.
	"We heard they are 200 in number. They are mostly women and children who were only seeking a safe place to stay. They have no homes to go back," one of the Rohingya leaders told AFP from a refugee camp in Bangladesh's Teknaf border town.
	A border guard spokesman put the figure at closer to 80.
	Nearly 70 people have died in clashes with security forces since the Myanmar army swooped into Rakhine state, an area along the border with Bangladesh that is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority.
	Violence escalated over the weekend, with troops killing more than 30 people in two days of fighting, according to the Myanmar army.
	Activists say the actual toll .

Around 200 Rohingya stranded at Bangladesh border

US President Barack Obama today said he would press upon European allies his view that austerity alone "cannot deliver prosperity."
	"In my message to the rest of Europe I will continue to emphasise our view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity," Obama told Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the start of his final trip as president to Europe.
	Tsipras, who signed a hugely unpopular bailout agreement with the European Union last year, is anxious for a new US pledge to help alleviate the country's enormous public debt.
	Obama said that it was "important" to help the Greeks with debt relief and other strategies.
	The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was party to two prior Greek rescues in 2010 and 2012, has refused to join the third bailout without debt relief.
	But Germany, which holds elections next year, is strongly opposed to the idea.

'Austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity': Obama

A Hong Kong court today ruled to disqualify two pro-independence lawmakers from parliament, a week after Beijing said it would not allow the pair to be sworn into office as fears grow of the city's liberties coming under threat.
	Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching, who deliberately misread their oaths of office, inserted expletives and draped themselves with "Hong Kong is not China" flags during a swearing-in ceremony last month, said they would appeal the decision.
	"Mr Leung and Ms Yau have been disqualified from assuming and have vacated the office of a member of the Legislative Council," judge Thomas Au said in a written judgement.
	"The oaths purportedly taken by Mr Leung and Ms Yau on October 12 2016... Are invalid and void and have no legal effect," Au said.
	Au also said the way the democratically elected pair took their oaths showed "clearly that they did not truthfully and faithfully intend to commit themselves to uphold and abide by" the city's constitution.
	Leung said they ...

AFP

AFP

Page 1325 - Afp