Around 1,400 migrants were today rescued in the Mediterranean, as thousands of people continue to risk the dangerous crossing despite the arrival of winter.
	The migrants were onboard seven different vessels including six rubber dinghies, said the Italian coastguard, which coordinated the rescue operations.
	One of the boats, whose passengers were rescued by a ship operated by the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), was crammed with 800 people including nearly two dozen children, the aid group said.
	The charities SOS Mediterranee, Migrant Offshore Aid Station and Jugend Rettet also took part in the rescues.
	Since the start of November -- when attempts to cross the Mediterranean tend to drop as the winter chill sets in -- nearly 5,400 migrants have landed in Italy, hoping to start new lives in Europe.
	This compares to slightly over 3,200 for the whole of November last year.
	More than 4,000 men, women and children have died in the Mediterranean this year, according to ...

1,400 migrants rescued in Mediterranean

PTI Automatic

A reporter working for Iran's state television IRIB was killed today in a mortar attack in the Syrian battlefront city of Aleppo, the broadcaster said.
	Mohsen Khazaei died in the village of Minyan outside the northern city, one of two areas which Syrian government forces had recaptured from rebel fighters, it said.
	IRIB said that a cameraman was also wounded in what it described as a "mortar attack launched by terrorists", a term designating insurgents fighting the Syrian regime which Iran supports.
	Earlier in the day, the state television had broadcast footage showing Khazaei in Minyan.

Iran state TV reporter killed in Syria

Myanmar's military said its troops killed six people and lost two soldiers in clashes with attackers in Rakhine state today, in the latest flare-up of violence in the crisis-hit region.
	Northern Rakhine, which is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority and borders Bangladesh, has been under military lockdown ever since surprise raids on border posts left nine police dead last month.
	Soldiers have killed several dozen people and arrested scores in their hunt for the attackers, who the government says are radicalised Rohingya militants with links to overseas Islamists.
	The crisis and reports of grave rights abuses being carried out in tandem with the security crackdown have piled international pressure on Myanmar's new civilian government and raised questions about its ability to control the army.
	Authorities have also heavily restricted access to the area, making it difficult to independently verify government reports or accusations of army abuse.
	Today the military said it came ...

8 killed in surge of Rakhine violence: Myanmar army

Four Americans were killed today in a suicide bombing inside the largest US military base in Afghanistan, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said, in a major breach of security.
	The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing inside the heavily fortified Bagram Airfield, north of the capital Kabul, which left 16 other US service members and a Polish soldier wounded as the insurgents ramp up attacks on Western targets.
	The dead included two American soldiers and two contractors, in an assault which highlights rising insecurity in Afghanistan nearly two years after US-led NATO forces formally ended their combat operations.
	"Force protection is always a top priority for us in Afghanistan, and we will investigate this tragedy to determine any steps we can take to improve it," defense secretary Carter said, adding he was "deeply saddened" by the news.
	"We will not be deterred in our mission to protect our homeland and help Afghanistan secure its own future."
	The blast was caused by a ...

Four Americans killed in US base attack in Afghanistan

Four Americans were killed today in a huge explosion inside the largest US military base in Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said.
	The Americans -- two servicemembers and two contractors -- were killed at Bagram Airfield by "an apparent suicide bomber," Carter said in a statement, adding that the explosion wounded 16 other US servicemembers and a Polish soldier participating in US-led NATO military operations.
	Carter said he was "deeply saddened" to learn of the news, and expressed his "sincere condolences" to the families of the fallen.
	"Force protection is always a top priority for us in Afghanistan, and we will investigate this tragedy to determine any steps we can take to improve it," he said.
	As for the attackers, "my message is simple. We will not be deterred in our mission to protect our homeland and help Afghanistan secure its own future."
	The Taliban claimed responsibility for the morning bombing inside the heavily fortified airfield, located north of the ...

Four Americans killed in Afghanistan blast: Pentagon

Former Italy prime minister Silvio Berlusconi welcomed comparisons made between himself and US president-elect Donald Trump, in an interview published on today.
	While Italian comedians have jumped at the chance to mock the similarities between the two gaffe-prone, orange-skinned, questionably-coiffed businessmen-turned-politicians, Berlusconi himself pointed to other common traits they share.
	"There are some obvious similarities, even though my story as an entrepreneur is very different to Trump's, who I've never met," Berlusconi, who was known as a media mogul and president of AC Milan football club before entering politics in 1994, told Corriere della Sera.
	He could also have mentioned that the tax affairs of both men -- dubbed Trumposconi by Italian comedians -- have come under scrutiny.
	Berlusconi came to power on the back of voter discontent with the established order as the 'Mani Pulite' (clean hands) corruption affair of the early 1990s implicated many leading politicians ..

Comparisons with Trump 'obvious' to Berlusconi

Jihadist Oussama Atar denied investigators' claims that he was the "mastermind" of the Brussels attacks in March that left 32 dead in a letter to his mother, a Belgian newspaper reported today.
	La Derniere Heure (DH) published the entire letter - without explaining how it obtained a copy - that the daily said came from the 32-year-old Moroccan-Belgian, who is believed to be based in Syria.
	"No, I am not the mentor or mastermind who directed the Brussels attacks and I wasn't aware of what Brahim and Khalid were planning (may Allah have mercy on them)," Atar wrote, referring to the El Bakraoui brothers, distant cousins who were two of the three suicide bombers responsible for the Brussels attacks.
	Atar is believed to be a member of the Islamic State group and is also suspected of being a key plotter of the Paris attacks in November last year.
	The letter, sent to Atar's mother Malika Benhattal after connecting with one of his sisters through Facebook, made no mention of the Paris ...

Jihadist denies being Brussels attacks 'mastermind': report

The main Paris attacks suspect, Salah Abdeslam, has become even more radicalised since being imprisoned for his presumed role in the slaughter of 130 people a year ago, his former lawyer has said.
	"He's got a beard, he's become a true fundamentalist whereas before he was a kid wearing Nike trainers," Belgian lawyer Sven Mary told Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant's Saturday edition.
	Belgian-born French national Abdeslam is believed to be the only jihadist survivor of the November 13 attacks in the French capital that Belgian authorities claim were orchestrated by the Islamic State high command.
	After four months on the run, the 27-year-old of Moroccan origin was arrested in Brussels in March and subsequently transferred to France in April.
	Lawyer Mary said Abdeslam's detention conditions at a prison in the Parisian suburb of Fleury-Merogis amounted to "psychological torture" and had contributed to his apparent radicalisation.
	He is kept in solitary confinement and subjected to ...

Paris attacks suspect 'radicalised' since arrest: lawyer

A flotilla of Russian warships is now in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast after being sent to reinforce Russia's military in the area, a naval commander said on state television.
	The commander of Russia's flagship Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier Sergei Artamonov said via videolink that the ships are now in the "designated zone... In the eastern Mediterranean" and "are now jointly carrying out tasks, manoeuvering to the west of the Syrian coast".
	The battle group has travelled to Syria from the North Sea through the English Channel in the biggest such naval deployment in recent years as part of Russia's military intervention in Syria.
	Russia has been flying a bombing campaign in Syria for the past year in support of President Bashar al-Assad and has deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation.
	The naval task force has been monitored closely by NATO, whose chief Jens Stoltenberg voiced concern the ships would be used to support the Russian military ...

Russian warship flotilla now off Syrian coast: military

Cricket South Africa (CSA) said today they have charged former batsman Alviro Petersen with match fixing following a lengthy and ongoing investigation.
     Petersen, 35, captain of Highveld Lions, has been charged with multiple breaches of CSA's anti-corruption code.
     The charges include "contriving to fix or otherwise improperly influence matches during the 2015 Ram Slam".
     The South African batsman, who played for Lancashire last season, has been provisionally suspended and has 14 days to respond to the charges.
	Gulam Bodi, Jean Symes, Pumelela Matshikwe, Ethy Mbhalati and Thami Tsolekile were all handed lengthy bans by CSA earlier this year for their part in attempting to fix matches in the Ram Slam.
	Petersen previously played for English county sides Glamorgan, Essex and Somerset, before joining Lancashire as a non-overseas player after he retired from internationals in 2015.

Ex-South African batsman Petersen charged with match fixing

Prince Turki bin Abdel Aziz, a brother of Saudi Arabia's king, has died, a statement from the palace published on the official media said early today.
	Prince Turki -- who was born in 1934, according to his official biography -- was a son of the kingdom's founder, King Abdul Aziz bin Saud, and a member of a formidable bloc of brothers known as the Sudairi seven, after their mother Hassa bin Ahmed al-Sudairi, news agency SPA reported.
	The bloc also included king Fahd and princes Sultan and Nayef, all now dead, as well as Saudi Arabia's King Salman.
	Prince Turki, who was deputy minister of defence from 1968 to 1978, was to be buried later today.
	King Salman is to receive condolences for three days from today evening, the palace said.

Brother of Saudi king dies

Afghanistan's parliament today dismissed three government ministers including that of foreign affairs over poor performance, in a blow to President Ashraf Ghani's fragile government.
	Lawmakers voted to fire Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and the ministers of public works and social services, citing a failure to spend their allocated budgetary funds on time.
	The dismissals come as Afghanistan is embroiled in an economic crisis and is struggling to rein in an emboldened Taliban insurgency.
	"Three ministers were disqualified by parliament after failing to spend their allocated budgets," said lawmaker Abdul Rauf Inaami, the secretary of parliament's lower house.
	"If the ministers do not have the capacity to spend their budget they do not deserve to have their jobs."
	The ministers spent less than 40 percent of their budgets, Inaami said. Their removal is in accordance with the Afghan constitution, which gives parliament the authority to sack ministers.
	Fourteen other ministers ..

Afghan MPs sack three ministers including foreign affairs

Authorities have arrested more than 11,000 people since Ethiopia declared a state of emergency in early October amid violent protests, state TV said today.
	Ethiopia has been in political crisis for around a year with frequent outbreaks of violence as authorities have brutally cracked down on anti-government demonstrators.
	"Some 11,607 individuals have so far been detained in six prisons, of which 347 are female, in connection with the state of emergency declared in the country," State of Emergency Inquiry Board chairperson Taddesse Hordofa said in a statement broadcast by EBC.
	Hordofa reeled off a long list of offences ranging from serious crimes such as "attacking security forces using firearms" or "killing civilians and members of security forces" to the much more mundane "denying provision of public services" and "disrupting movement of vehicles".
	This figure is a huge increase on the 2,500 arrests that Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's government had announced at 

Ethiopia makes 11,000 state of emergency arrests: state TV

South Korean prosecutors investigating a corruption scandal engulfing President Park Geun-Hye questioned the head of the country's largest steelmaker as well as a top Samsung executive today.
	Posco chief executive Kwon Oh-Joon was grilled overnight about allegations surrounding the 2014 sale of the company's in-house advertising unit.
	Kwon was the first head of a major South Korean conglomerate to be questioned over the scandal centred on Park's close personal friend Choi Soon-Sil.
	The allegations are that one of Choi's associates attempted to force the company that bought Posco's advertising subsidiary to hand over 80 percent of its shares.
	Kwon, 66, returned home early Saturday after undergoing 12 hours of intensive questioning at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Yonhap news agency said.
	Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Choi, 60, leveraged her personal ties with Park to coerce donations from large companies like Samsung and Posco to non-profit ...

Posco chief, Samsung exec grilled in S. Korea scandal probe

Australia coach Darren Lehmann said his team would have to improve their fragile batting against the swinging ball after reaching another crisis against South Africa in the second Test in Hobart today.
     Australia suffered another one of their abject batting collapses in succumbing to the Proteas for just 85 off 32.5 overs, their lowest total at home against South Africa.
     The tourists reached stumps at 171 for five and a lead of 86 runs after the first day.
     The clatter of wickets again revived painful memories of recent catastrophic batting collapses which have plagued the team under Lehmann's reign as coach.
     The capitulation revisited the nightmares of their miserable 47 in Cape Town in 2011 and England's demolition of them for 60 at Trent Bridge last year.
     "For us we have just got to be better. It's a case of when the ball is swinging we struggle," Lehmann told reporters after the opening day's play.
     "There is no hiding from the fact, so we have been ...

Aussies must improve after another batting collapse - Lehmann

Elite Iraqi forces were engaged in "intense" fighting with jihadists in eastern Mosul today as they tried to fortify positions before advancing further into the city, an officer said.
	Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the country's second city from the Islamic State group on October 17, and the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) special forces have pushed the jihadists back from some Mosul neighbourhoods.
	But there are still weeks if not months of fighting ahead in the battle to recapture the last IS-held Iraqi city.
	"The fighting is intense this morning. We're trying to fortify our positions in Arbajiyah before continuing our attack into Al-Bakr," said Staff Lieutenant Colonel Muntadhar Salem of CTS, referring to two Mosul areas.
	CTS forces launched an assault on Arbajiyah the day before, and Salem said that they were in control of the area today.
	IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have since ...

'Intense' fighting in east Mosul: officer

Scoreboard at the close on the first
day of the second Test between Australia and South Africa at Bellerive Oval in Hobart today.
     Australia first innings
     J Burns     lbw b Abbott            1
     D Warner    c de Kock b Philander   1
     U Khawaja   c Amla b Philander      4
     S Smith      not out               48
     A Voges    c de Kock b Philander    0
     C Ferguson   run out                3
     P Nevill     lbw b Rabada           3
     J Mennie     b Philander           10
     M Starc     c Duminy b Abbott       4
     J Hazlewood   c Amla b Abbott       8
     N Lyon      c de Kock b Philander   2
     Extras (lb-1)                       1
     Total (all out, 32.5 overs)        85
     Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-2, 3-8, 4-8, 5-17, 6-31, 7-59, 8-66, 9-76, 10-85
     Bowling: Philander 10.1-5-21-5, Abbott 12.4-3-41-3, Rabada 6-0-20-1, Maharaj 4-2-2-0
     South Africa first innings
     S Cook      c Nevill b Starc       23
     D Elgar      lbw b Starc          

Hobart, Nov 12 (AFP) Scoreboard at the close on the first

Mitchell Starc offered Australia a lifeline with an inspired spell after a record low home total against South Africa on an opening day of carnage in the second Test in Hobart today.
     The left-arm pace spearhead put the brakes on the Proteas with three wickets in 10 balls post-tea after the Australians were skittled for 85 off 32.5 overs.
     The tourists reached stumps at 171 for five and pushed out their lead to 86. Temba Bavuma was unbeaten on 38 with Quinton de Kock on 28.
     Up until Starc's intervention South Africa had seized control of the first day with a total of 15 wickets tumbling for a combined 256 runs under cloudy skies.
     Vernon Philander powered the Proteas with five for 21 as Australia folded to their lowest total at home against South Africa to revive memories of recent catastrophic batting collapses.
     The capitulation revisited the nightmares of their miserable 47 in Cape Town in 2011 and England's demolition of them for 60 at Trent Bridge last year.
 

Starc gives Aussies hope after innings collapse

Syrian government forces have recaptured all of the areas taken by rebel fighters in a recent assault intended to break the regime siege on eastern Aleppo, a monitor said today.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army had recaptured key areas including the western district of Dahiyet al-Assad and the village of Minyan outside the city.
	The reversals undo all of the progress made during a recent push by opposition fighters, including former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham front, as they tried to end a government siege on eastern Aleppo city.
	Government forces surrounded rebel-held east Aleppo in July, severing the last supply line into opposition neighbourhoods and imposing a blockade that has led to food and fuel shortages.
	Rebels have tried several times to break the siege, succeeding briefly in August, but no aid has entered the east since July.
	The monitor said over 450 fighters and civilians had been killed since the rebels began their latest bid to break the ..

Syria regime rolls back rebel gains in Aleppo: monitor

Macau's disgraced former top prosecutor faces nearly 2,000 criminal charges, according to the Chinese gambling enclave's highest court, which will try Ho Chio-meng next month.
	Ho, who was Macau's prosecutor general for 16 years until 2014 and was once tipped for the job of the city's leader, was arrested earlier this year as he attempted to travel to Hong Kong, according to media reports.
	The 1,970 charges Ho faces include abuse of power, fraud, money laundering, illegal sharing of economic benefits and even starting a criminal syndicate, according to a statement from the city's court of final appeal released Thursday.
	Ho's case will be heard on December 5, the statement added.
	The charges also include an alleged 44 million patacas (USD 5.5 million) he took in kickbacks, reports said.
	The trial is one of the biggest corruption cases involving government officials in the former Portuguese colony since 2009.
	That year, former transport and public works minister Ao Man-long was ...

Macau ex-prosecutor faces nearly 2,000 charges

At least four people were killed early today in an explosion inside the largest US military base in Afghanistan, NATO said, with the Taliban claiming responsibility for the major security breach.
	The explosion struck at dawn inside the heavily fortified Bagram Airfield north of Kabul, as the Taliban step up attacks on Western targets before the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs.
	The nationalities of those killed were not immediately known after the blast, which highlights a worsening security situation nearly two years after NATO formally ended its combat operations in Afghanistan.
	"An explosive device was detonated on Bagram Airfield resulting in multiple casualties. Four people have died in the attack and approximately 14 have been wounded," NATO said in a statement.
	"Response teams at Bagram continue to treat the wounded and investigate the incident."
	Waheed Sediqi, spokesman for the governor of Parwan province where Bagram is located, said the blast was caused by a .

AFP

AFP

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