Belgium risks alienating Muslim communities through its "sometimes abusive" response to the Brussels and Paris terror attacks, Human Rights Watch said in a report today.
	The rights group said that overly harsh Belgian counterterrorism laws and "heavy-handed" police operations in the past year were undermining efforts to prevent further attacks.
	Islamic State-linked suicide bombers killed 32 people at Brussels' airport and metro on March 22, while the same cell was responsible for the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed.
	"Belgium has worked hard this past year to prevent further attacks, but its law and policy responses have been undermined by their overbroad and sometimes abusive nature," said Letta Tayler, senior terrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch, who wrote the report.
	"We share Belgium's and France's outrage and grief and want those responsible brought to justice. But heavy-handed police raids risk alienating communities whose cooperation can 

Belgian attacks response raises rights concerns: HRW

PTI Automatic

Foreign Minister Stephane Dion has said he would formally ask Saudi Arabia to release jailed blogger Raif Badawi and allow him to rejoin his wife and children living in Canada.
	Dion made the remarks yesterday prior to a meeting with Saudi Arabia's chief human rights official, Bandar Bin Mohammed Al-Aiban.
	"We will continue to seek clemency from the (Saudi) king for someone who has just expressed his opinion and we will ask that this person, Mr. Badawi, be allowed to reunite with his family," Dion told reporters.
	Badawi's wife Ensaf Haidar has lived in Canada as a refugee with their three children since her husband's arrest in 2012 and conviction for insulting Islam.
	He is serving 10 years in jail and has received 50 lashes of a 1,000-lash sentence that caused international outrage.
	Dion and visiting Saudi Human Rights Commission president Al-Aiban were scheduled to meet to talk about "a full range of human rights issues, including the case of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi," according 

Canada to press Saudi king to release blogger Badawi

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vigorously defended Canada's free press, and said he would consider stricter safeguards after it was revealed that police spied on at least eight journalists.
	Trudeau yesterday said Canadians are rightly concerned after Montreal and Quebec provincial police were found to have monitored the communications and movements of reporters at several news organizations.
	It is "troubling for all Canadians," he said, "because not only is freedom of the press important, it's one of the foundational safeguards of a free democracy, of a free society," Trudeau declared.
	On Monday, La Presse journalist Patrick Lagace said he learned the police had been tracking his texts and movements through his smartphone's GPS.
	Police wanted to know the reporter's contacts and whether they may have information about open cases, as well as who within the force might be leaking information to the media.
	And they did so with judicial authorization, obtaining no less than 24 ...

Canada's Trudeau decries police monitoring of journalists

Syrian rebels has renewed their bid to break a government siege of eastern Aleppo, shelling regime-held parts of the city hours before a brief Russian-declared ceasefire was due to begin.
	State media yesterday said at least 12 people had been killed in rebel rocket and gunfire on regime-controlled neighbourhoods, after an assault that began with a double car bomb attack.
	Rebels have been battling for nearly a week in a desperate bid to break the three-month siege but have so far been unable to push through government lines in western Aleppo.
	The opposition forces yesterdayannounced a new phase in their assault on government forces in the city's western outskirts.
	"We have started the second phase in our fight to break the siege with heavy artillery fire" on several neighbourhoods, rebel fighter Abu Hamza told AFP on the edges of Aleppo.
	Thick black smoke billowed out of the Dahiyet al-Assad district, where rebels had lit tyres to try to shield themselves from warplanes circling ..

Syria rebels renew Aleppo attack before Russia ceasefire

Renault forays into pre-owned car business in India

Renault confirmed the development on Twitter, describing an 'exclusive nego(tiation) to develop our brand in Pakistan, incl. A manufacturing plant'

Renault to start assembling cars in Pakistan by 2018, says Board of Investment

Press Trust of India

Android gets record 87.5% of smartphone market: survey

Android's leadership of the global smartphone market looks unassailable at the moment, says Strategy Analytics' Woody Oh

Campaigners in London sent a rallying cry to Americans today to get out and vote in the forthcoming presidential election and avoid getting "Brexited".
	Dressed in hard hats and high-visibility vests to symbolise danger, activists gathered outside the British parliament to issue a warning to US citizens: "vote or regret it", drawing parallels with Britain's referendum on leaving the European Union.
	"We really want to make sure that Americans don't wake up on November 9 with election regrets having not turned out to vote," said Bert Wander, a campaign director for the Avaaz activist group.
	Campaigners insisted they were not telling Americans how to vote, though many were vocal in their opposition to Republican candidate Donald Trump.
	Saskia McCulloch, a New Zealand citizen living in London, said she could not register in time to vote in the EU referendum -- residents from Commonwealth countries had the right to vote -- and "felt distraught" at the result.
	"Brexit came down to a ...

'Don't get Brexited', UK campaigners tell US voters

German auto giant Volkswagen said today it had appointed a historian to look into the firm's actions during Brazil's military dictatorship, following allegations it had allowed the torture of employees critical of the regime.
	The move comes after former employees filed a civil lawsuit in Brazil last year which claimed 12 workers were arrested and tortured in a VW factory near Sao Paulo during the 1964-1985 dictatorship, and dozens of people there were placed on a blacklist.
	Volkswagen said in a statement it had commissioned Professor Christopher Kopper of Bielefeld University in Germany "to clarify the group's role during the military dictatorship in Brazil".
	The announcement was overshadowed however by a spat brewing at home over the sudden departure last month of VW's longtime chief historian Manfred Grieger, who led efforts to shed light on the group's actions in Nazi Germany.
	Founded in the 1930s by a Nazi trade union, VW has in the past won praise for being open about its ...

VW appoints historian to research Brazil dictatorship years

A controversial Danish law allowing authorities to seize cash and valuables from asylum-seekers has been used on a handful of occasions since coming into force in February, Danish police said today.
	A total of 117,600 kroner (USD 17,525), all of it in cash, had been confiscated, Danish police told AFP in an email.
	"When they asked if I had 10,000 kroner, I answered 'yes'," asylum-seeker Ali Abdel Razaq told broadcaster Radio24syv in an interview broadcast yesterday, adding that he had been unaware that any cash or valuables above that amount had to be handed over to the authorities.
	Soon after, police came knocking on his door at an asylum centre in the small southern town of Bolderslev on October 22, forcing him to hand over 8,000 kroner.
	"I was hit by three roadside bombs in Iraq during my work as a police officer," Razaq said, adding that he "would have have spent the money on an operation or some equipment".
	The law was first used on June 30, when five Iranians had to hand ...

Denmark confiscates thousands of euros from migrants

German police arrested seven Afghan asylum seekers in raids on refugee shelters today on suspicion the men repeatedly raped an Iranian teenager and filmed the sexual assault.
	More than 30 police joined the raids on 10 rooms in several accommodation facilities in the towns of Nagold and Wildberg in the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg, said police.
	"The Afghan asylum seekers are suspected of having raped a 17-year-old Iranian asylum seeker several times and of having filmed the acts," police and prosecutors said in a brief joint statement.
	Germany took in almost 900,000 asylum seekers last year -- about half from conflict-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- and put them up in shelters countrywide, including hostels, shops, sports gyms and army barracks.
	Tensions have at times flared in the often overcrowded facilities, where refugees typically have little space or privacy and face the frustration of months-long waits to have their cases heard.
	While some shelters have seen .

Germany arrests 7 Afghan refugees accused of raping teen

Italian police have used beatings and electric shocks, potentially constituting "torture", to coerce migrants into being fingerprinted as the country cracks under pressure from the EU, Amnesty International said today.
	But the report was bluntly rejected by Italy's chief of police, who completely denied the use of violent methods in the force's handling of migrants.
	"The European Union's pressure on Italy to 'get tough' on refugees and migrants has led to unlawful expulsions and ill-treatment which in some cases may amount to torture," the London-based rights watchdog said in a report.
	The EU-sponsored "hotspot approach" for processing people -- which requires Italy to fingerprint new arrivals so they can be prevented from claiming asylum elsewhere -- has even seen minors abused, according to testimony from over 170 migrants.
	Some migrants do not want to be finger-printed as they hope to continue on to an EU-nation of their choosing and apply for asylum.
	The allegations of ...

Amnesty alleges Italian police 'torture' migrants

Only days after the landmark Paris Agreement enters into force, diplomats from 196 nations gathering in Marrakesh on Monday will face intense pressure to translate the climate pact's planet-saving promise into action.
	It is a tall order, even if the UN talks are still riding the political momentum that carried the deal - decades in the making - across the ratification finish line in record time.
	Greenhouse gas emissions pushing the planet into the red zone of dangerous warming continue to climb, putting newly ambitious goals for capping rising temperatures potentially out of reach.
	Discussions on how to disburse USD 100 billion a year to poor, climate-vulnerable nations remain contentious, even as a major report estimates that the level of annual investment needed over the next 15 years in developing nations is 20 to 30 times that amount.
	And hanging over the whole proceedings is the shadow of climate denier Donald Trump, whose improbable run at the White House is gathering ...

UN climate talks feel the heat of high expectations

Men and boys from Iraqi villages recaptured from the Islamic State group in the operation to retake Mosul have been unlawfully detained, tortured and ill-treated by tribal militia, Amnesty International said today.
	The Hashed al-Ashaeri (Tribal Mobilisation), made up of Sunni tribal militiamen, have been carrying out revenge attacks in villages south-east of Mosul against those residents suspected of having ties to IS, the London-based rights group said.
	Some were beaten with metal rods and given electric shocks, and some were tied to the bonnets of vehicles and paraded through the streets or placed in cages, it said, citing interviews with local officials and village witnesses.
	"There is strong evidence that Sabawi tribal militia members have committed crimes under international law by torturing and otherwise ill-treating residents in Qata al-Sabaween (Sabaween sector) in revenge for crimes committed by IS," said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's deputy director for research in ...

Tribal militia torturing detainees in Mosul offensive: Amnesty

The White House announced plans today to create a 40,000 kilometre recharging network for electric cars that it hopes will encourage drivers to switch from gasoline-powered vehicles.
	He Department of Transportation will designate 48 official electric vehicle routes on highways that cover 35 of the 50 states, with the aim of eventually building out further as demand grows.
	With the new power network, electric car drivers will be able to find a recharging station every 80 kilometers, with regular signage indicating the locations.
	The government will work with the states, private businesses, and public groups to establish the recharging stations "to enable coast-to-coast zero emission mobility on our nation's highways," the White House said in a statement.
	Electric car makers Nissan, BMW, General Motors and a number of major power companies are among the companies participating in the initiative.
	The move also will better support companies, states and cities building their own ...

White House announces US electric car recharging network

Moroccan-born Leila Slimani won France's top literary prize, the Goncourt, today with a novel guaranteed to "scare the wits out of parents".
	The chilling tale of a "perfect" nanny who murders the two children she is looking after, "Chanson douce" (roughly translated as "Sweet Song") is based on the real-life story of a Dominican child-minder shortly to stand trial for the double murder of her charges in New York in 2012.
	The book -- which begins with the words "the baby is dead" -- is already a bestseller in France.
	A mother herself, 35-year-old Slimani, who caused a stir with her first book about a female nymphomaniac, said "the idea of paying someone to love your children for you" fascinated her.
	"It leads to a very ambiguous relationship... We are always afraid they will steal our place in our children's hearts," said the writer, who is pregnant with her second child.
	"I had nannies when I was a child and I was always very aware of their place somewhere between a mother a ...

Thriller about 'killer nanny' wins France's top literary prize

Just five days before the bitter presidential campaign comes to a head a new poll today showed a tightening race, with Hillary Clinton's edge over Donald Trump shrinking and few voters saying they remain undecided.
	The New York Times/CBS News poll showed the Democratic White House hopeful with 45 percent to her Republican rival's 42, a three-point lead that had diminished from the more comfortable nine-point margin she had weeks earlier.
	Few voters said that they might change their mind in the final dash despite a flurry of late controversies, with 92 percent saying they were set in their choice.
	Last month national polling averages showed Clinton pulling further ahead of Trump as he sank under accusations by a number of women that he had made unwanted sexual advances, but the latest poll showed enthusiasm for the bombastic billionaire was rebounding.
	Six in 10 likely voters who have yet to cast their ballots said the allegations had little impact on their choice.
	Similarly ...

New poll shows Clinton with narrowed edge over rival Trump

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today accused Germany of being one of the worst countries in the world for harbouring "terrorists", saying Berlin had not responded to requests to hand over suspects from the July 15 failed coup.
	Erdogan said that he had handed German Chancellor Angela Merkel some 4,000 dossiers about suspects in Germany but had received no response in return.
	With Merkel yesterday calling Turkey's crackdown on media "highly alarming", Erdogan said Germany was more interested in voicing concern for the newspapers, which he said "support terror groups".
	Ankara accuses the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen of being behind the coup, saying he leads a group called the Fethullah Terror Group (FETO). Gulen denies the charges.
	"You (Germany) are going to be remembered in history for playing host to terror," Erdogan said in a speech at his presidential palace in Ankara.
	"We are worried that Germany is turning into FETO's back garden," he said, also accusing Germany .

Turkey's Erdogan accuses Germany of 'harbouring terrorists'

Kyrgyzstan formed a new government today following the collapse of the ruling coalition last week amid a row over a controversial constitutional referendum next month.
	The previous government unravelled last week after President Almazbek Atambayev's Social Democratic Party quit the ruling coalition.
	Atambayev faces fierce criticism over the December 11 vote to reform the constitution, with opponents accusing him of trying to extend his control over the country.
	His single six-year term in office ends next year.
	The country's parliament said in a statement today that Prime Minister Sooronbay Jeenbekov would stay in place to lead the new government made up of three parties, including the Social Democratic Party.
	But two other leading political blocs have now quit the coalition to join the Respublika-Ata-Jurt party in opposition after their leaders protested the proposed constitutional reform.
	Kyrgyzstan is commonly viewed as the most democratic nation in the ex-Soviet Central ...

Kyrgyzstan forms new government amid constitution row

Thousands of citizens of Pakistan's Lahore, one the world's most polluted cities, complained today of breathing difficulties and irritable eyes as a blanket of thick smog was forecast to persist for several days.
	Readings of dangerous "fine particulate matter" were more than four times the World Health Organization's recommended level, exceeding 104 micograms per cubic metre of in the worst-hit parts of the city of around 10 million.
	Visibility plunged to less than 20 metres and citizens wore face masks to help with breathing.
	Nasimur Rehman, a senior official in the Environment Protection Agency blamed the pollution on less-than-average rainfall over the Punjab region, traffic standing still through various points of the city, and tyre-burning factories located to the city's north.
	Separately, at least 13 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in two pile-ups involving 16 vehicles on the Lahore-Islamabad motorway due to dense smog, local police official Aslam Gondal told ...

Pakistan's Lahore chokes on toxic smog

Israeli troops today shot dead a Palestinian who attempted to stab a soldier near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, the army said.
	"Palestinian assailant armed with a knife attempted to stab an Israel Defence Forces soldier guarding a bus stop near the community of Ofra," a statement in English said.
	"Responding to threat, forces at the scene shot the assailant, resulting in his death," it said.
	A wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks began a year ago, but the violence has significantly declined in recent months.
	Since October last year, the violence has claimed the lives of 238 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count.
	Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out attacks, according to Israeli authorities. Others were shot dead during protests and clashes, while some were killed in air strikes in the Gaza Strip.
	Most of the attacks were by lone-wolf assailants, many of them young people, ...

Israeli troops shoot dead knife-wielding Palestinian: army

A NATO airstrike killed at least 30 Afghan civilians, including women and children, today in the volatile northern province of Kunduz, officials said, after a Taliban assault there left two American soldiers dead.
	The airstrike, which occurred early today, triggered emotionally-charged protests in the provincial capital, with the victims' relatives rallying outside the governor's office while carrying the bodies of dead children.
	The carnage underscores worsening insecurity after the Taliban last month overran Kunduz city for the second time in a year, as NATO-backed Afghan forces struggle to beat back the insurgents.
	"Afghan forces and coalition troops conducted a joint operation against the Taliban insurgents," provincial spokesman Mahmood Danish told AFP. "In the bombardment 30 Afghan civilians were martyred and 25 others were wounded."
	Police spokesman Mahmoodullah Akbari gave the same toll to AFP, adding that the dead included infants aged as young as three months and other ..

AFP

AFP

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