A group of bikers led by a pub landlord from Yorkshire in northern England has begun night-time patrols of flood-ravaged towns and villages to scare off potential looters following reports of thefts.
	"We're big chaps, a lot of us. If people see us they're liable to go away," 57-year-old Lloyd Spencer, head of the Drifters motorcycle club told AFP today before setting off for a third night of patrols.
	"We saw something on Facebook about looters," he said.
	Spencer said he was expecting around 30 bikers to turn out, including some from other clubs Pyratz, Nuntaii Mortis and Broken Bones who have volunteered.
	"We get negative press but we're normal blokes, most of us," said Spencer, adding that he and the others would not be on their beloved motorbikes because of the high water -- resorting to cars and vans instead.
	Spencer said the police had welcomed the bikers' help and locals had kept them warm with pots of tea and chip butties -- a type of sandwich made up of French fries in a ..

British bikers start anti-looting patrols after floods

PTI Automatic

A son of the Syrian-born radical cleric Omar Bakri has been killed in Iraq fighting alongside the Islamic State group, security sources said today.
	The Popular Mobilisation, a paramilitary group, said that it and the security forces had killed Bilal Omar Bakri.
	He was "leading a group that tried to attack one of our units," in Salaheddin north of Baghdad, according to a statement from the group, dominated by Tehran-backed Shiite militias.
	A Lebanese security source confirmed that Bilal Omar Bakri, who was in his late 20s, had been killed "fighting in the ranks of IS" in Salaheddin province.
	Another of the preacher's sons, Mohammad Omar, who was in his late 30s, died fighting for IS in Aleppo in Syria several months earlier, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
	The brothers had travelled together from Britain to Iraq, the source added.
	Omar Bakri, who holds Lebanese citizenship, became known in Britain for supporting Al-Qaeda.
	A security source said that he was ...

Son of 'Tottenham Ayatollah' killed in Iraq: sources

Measures to protect hundreds of thousands of revelers expected to ring in 2016 in New York are "more extensive than ever," Mayor Bill de Blasio said today, amid global fears of an attack during New Year's Eve celebrations.
	The Big Apple is a popular destination on December 31, with about one million people packing into Times Square every year for the countdown to midnight.
	"I certainly understand that everyone's concerned and I want everyone to understand and to hear that the NYPD is ready, that the preparations for New Year's Eve are more extensive than ever," De Blasio said in a local radio interview.
	"The planning is extraordinary. We'll have a huge number of police out on New Year's Eve, including a lot of our new anti-terror force, the Critical Response Command -- that's 500-plus officers ... Who are specialized in preventing terror," he added.
	After the Paris attacks on November 13, an Islamic State group propaganda video broadcast images of New York from Times ...

'Extensive' security prep in NY for New Year's Eve: mayor

An Islamic State leader with "direct" ties to the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks was among 10 of the group's higher-ups killed in Syria and Iraq this month, the Pentagon said today.
	The US military says such strikes are helping weaken the jihadist group, which captured large parts of Iraq and Syria last year but has recently seen significant setbacks including this week's loss of Ramadi in Iraq.
	Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters that French national Charaffe el Mouadan was killed in a US-led coalition air strike on December 24.
	Mouadan had been actively plotting further attacks against the West, Warren said, without giving additional details.
	"He was a Syrian-based ISIL member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Paris attacks cell leader," Warren said in a video call.
	Abaaoud was killed in a major police raid in northern Paris five days after the attacks that left 130 people dead and wounded hundreds more in a series of ...

IS leader linked to Paris attacks 'mastermind' killed in Syria

Two French engineering companies were chosen today to carry out environmental impact studies on Ethiopia's planned Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile River, at a meeting in the Sudanese capital.
	Following a two-day meeting of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan's foreign and water ministers, Khartoum's chief diplomat, Ibrahim Ghandour, said firms BRL and Artelia had been tapped for the work.
	Sudanese Water and Electricity Minister Moutaz Moussa Salim told AFP that "BRL will carry out 70 percent of the study, and Artelia the rest."
	They will begin work in February and take six months to complete it, Salim said, adding that their conclusions would be accepted by the three countries.
	Ethiopia began building the huge dam on the Blue Nile in 2012 and the three countries have failed since then to overcome their differences on sharing the water.
	Egypt draws about 90 per cent of its water from the Nile, which runs from Khartoum to the south, where the Blue and White Nile rivers converge. It is ...

French companies tapped to study Nile dam project

Israel government officials said today that new plans for settler homes in one of the most contentious areas of the occupied West Bank were commissioned without authorisation and have no validity.
	A statement in the name of "officials" at the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a move to revive and extend plans for construction in the zone east of Jerusalem known as E1, was launched during his previous government by then housing minister Uri Ariel, of the far-right Jewish Home party.
	"He did so of his own initiative and without the required authorisation," the statement said. "The ministry of housing has no authority either to plan or build beyond the Green Line," which separates Israel from the West Bank.
	"These plans therefore have no standing and are not binding on anyone," it added.
	Ariel, himself a resident of Kfar Adumin settlement, northeast of E1, is now agriculture minister.
	Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said yesterday that the housing ministry was ..

Israel says new eastern W Bank settlement plans invalid

A Chinese carer has confessed in court to killing her elderly patient in order to receive her salary early, and claims to have killed seven more, reports said today.
	The deaths highlight weaknesses in the elderly care system in the country, whose vast population is ageing rapidly.
	He Tiandi, 45, went on trial last week in the southern city of Guangzhou for the murder of a woman in her 70s.
	According to local media reports, the victim's daughter-in-law had promised He a full month's wage in the event of her patient's death regardless of how many days she had worked.
	After only four days of looking after the patient, He allegedly fed her broth spiked with sleeping pills and toxic chemicals, injected the potion into her belly and buttocks and finally garrotted her with a nylon rope, the Guangzhou Daily said.
	"I didn't want someone else to get the money," she told the court, the paper reported.
	During a police interrogation, He confessed to murdering another seven patients and ...

Chinese carer killed eight elderly patients by poison: reports

A Moscow court has jailed two young women for more than five years on charges of aiding Islamic State jihadists, with one of them found guilty of transferring some USD 600 to an IS bank account.
	Yelena Arshakhanova and Saida Khalikova, medical students in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan, were respectively sentenced to five years, three months and five years, six months behind bars, court spokeswoman Irina Zhirnova told AFP today.
	"They were accused of transferring funds to terrorists," Zhirnova said, adding that the court had reached its verdict yesterday.
	The women allegedly sold household items and homemade soap to raise funds that they would then transfer to the accounts of IS fighters.
	Both women pleaded guilty, Zhirnova said.
	Khalikova -- who had been held awaiting trial from December 2014 -- is accused of transferring 43,000 rubles (USD 594, 544 euros) to an IS-linked bank account, according to the opposition Open Russia group.
	But the 24-year-old's lawyer, Sabir ...

Two Russian women jailed for aiding IS group

Police in Pakistan have arrested a locally powerful landowner and two accomplices for allegedly chopping off the hands of a 17-year-old farmworker whose family had failed to repay a loan of 15,000 rupees (USD 150).
	The incident took place around two months ago in the agricultural district of Hafizabad, some 80 kilometres northwest of Lahore city. It was only reported to police yesterday after the victim's family decided to speak out.
	Landowning families wield considerable power in rural Pakistan, practising a form of feudalism over the peasant and subsistence farmers in their employ.
	"Asad Israr-ul-Haq and his two accomplices have chopped off hand of Akram Abu Bakar, 17 years old," said a copy of the police report.
	"The victim's family had borrowed 15,000 rupees from the landlord and they were not able to return it," it added.
	Local police station chief Mahmood Butt said the attackers had used a feed chopper to mutilate the teenager.
	Abu Bakar's family returned to their native ..

Police arrest landowner for chopping off teen farmer's hands

Parts of China's capital Beijing suffered air pollution more than 20 times recommended levels today, but authorities refrained from issuing the highest smog alert.
	Counts of PM2.5 - harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs - reached 529, according to the US embassy, which issues independent readings.
	The World Health Organization's recommended maximum exposure is 25 over a 24-hour period. China is often hit by heavy smog, mostly a result of coal burning.
	China's state weather observatory issued a yellow alert - the second highest in a four-tier warning system - for smog in Beijing and other parts of north China, the official Xinhua news agency said.
	The pollution will linger until tomorrow, it added.
	Beijing issued its first red pollution alert - reserved for when authorities forecast an air-quality index of above 300 for at least three consecutive days - earlier this month.
	The alert requires construction sites to halt work, while half the city's cars ...

Beijing pollution soars but no red alert

A German court today sentenced a Rwandan Hutu man to life in jail for his active role in orchestrating a church massacre of hundreds of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.
	Former town mayor Onesphore Rwabukombe, 58, had previously been sentenced to 14 years prison for aiding and abetting the crime.
	But an appeals court convicted him of having been part of a group of leaders who actively ordered and oversaw the mass killing with machetes, axes and hoes.
	"It was an unimaginable bloodbath in which the accused gave orders while standing ankle-deep in blood," presiding judge Josef Bill said, according to national news agency DPA.
	The defendant was sentenced to "life imprisonment... For his participation in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994," the state high court in Frankfurt said in a statement.
	Rwabukombe and other local leaders "organised, commanded and executed" the April 11 massacre of at least 450 "and probably far more" Tutsis hiding in a church in Kiziguro in northeastern Rwanda, the 

Rwandan man jailed for life in Germany over church massacre

An Islamic State leader with "direct" links to the alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks was killed in an air strike in Syria as he was plotting additional attacks, the Pentagon said today.
	   Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters that Charaffe al Mouadan had been killed on December 24.
	   "He was a Syrian-based ISIL member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Paris attacks cell leader," Warren said, adding that he "was actively planning additional attacks against the West.

IS leader linked to Paris attacks killed in Syria: Pentagon

Every New Year Thailand's top political journalists traditionally come up with satirical nicknames for the government and senior ministers but this year they will forego the pleasure, having decided the junta is no laughing matter.
	The occasion is usually a rare moment of light relief for reporters covering the febrile world of Thai politics, in a country which has witnessed a string of military coups, violent street protests and toppled governments - and where defamation is a criminal offence.
	But this year, in a statement, the Government House press corps said they were opting to stay mum because "the cabinet of [Prime Minister] General Prayut Chan-O-Cha came into power by special way, not by the normal election under the democratic system".
	The statement added that it was normal for the press corps to take such steps with coup governments, or during times of political upheaval.
	"We also do not want the 2015 skipping of the nicknaming to be used to expand existing conflicts in ..

Thai media decide junta chief no laughing matter

Pakistani teen Ali Shah was on his way to school when he lost half of his right hand and his left leg after stepping on an IED - the Taliban's weapon of choice in its decade long insurgency.
	Now the 13-year-old, along with hundreds of others maimed by such bombs every year, is learning to use a prosthetic in a society where the disabled have traditionally been shunned and forced to stay at home.
	Nearly a year on, he is set to receive a new leg at the Pakistan Institute of Prosthetic and Orthotic Sciences in Peshawar (PIPOS) where thousands have been treated, a lifeline for many in the country with some of the highest IED death rates in the world. Ali remembers the day he lost his limbs vividly.
	"I thought something happened to my heart when the blast occurred, I lost my senses, someone took me to the doctor and there I returned to my senses," he said, speaking at the Doctors Without Borders hospital where he is being treated.
	It's not clear who was behind the blast that tore into .

Prosthetic limbs put Pakistani terror survivors together again

Steven Finn took three crucial wickets, including two in successive overs, as England pushed for victory on the fourth day of the first Test against South Africa at Kingsmead today.
     Set to make 416 to win, South Africa were 136 for four at the close of play, facing a long struggle to bat out the final day to earn a draw and prevent England from going ahead in the four-match series.
     England hopes soared when the tall Finn had South African captain Hashim Amla caught behind for 12 before removing the limpet-like Dean Elgar for 40. Elgar, who carried his bat for 118 not out in the first innings, was caught at second slip by Joe Root. He had been on the field for the entire match up to that point.
     AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis batted through 103 minutes and 23.5 overs to raise hopes that South Africa might pull off another rearguard action to save the game as they have done against Australia, India and Sri Lanka in recent seasons.
     But, in what proved to be the last 

Finn strikes as England push for win

Spanish police said today they had detained two people who kept their 59-year-old brother locked up in "inhuman conditions" in a tiny, roofless room adjoining their home.
	The man, who suffers from mental problems, was discovered naked in a tiny room without a roof in the southern town of Dos Hermanas, on a filthy mattress next to which bottles and buckets were laid out for him to go to the toilet, police said in a statement.
	Police in the town near Seville made the grisly discovery when they brought his 76-year-old drunk brother back to his home following complaints of disorderly behaviour.
	"Once inside the home, they saw a door at the end of a corridor closed with a chain... And padlock," Spain's national police said in a statement.
	"After asking the man, he said that was where his brother lived, who had mental problems and whom they kept isolated for his security."
	His 61-year-old sister also lived in the house and said she kept him fed and cleaned, and looked after his ...

2 detained in Spain for locking brother in inhuman conditions

Qatar's former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has undergone an emergency operation in Switzerland after breaking a leg while on holiday, the government said today.
	The former ruler, known as the "Father Emir" in Qatar, was flown to Zurich on Saturday for treatment following the weekend incident, according to an official statement.
	"Following a successful operation, his Highness the Father Emir is currently in Zurich recovering and undergoing physiotherapy treatment," it said.
	The royal family was thought to be holidaying at a Moroccan resort in the Atlas mountains, although it is unclear how the sheikh broke his leg.
	The injury was confirmed by one of his sons, Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad.
	"For anyone who's asking about the father Emir, he's good and well, praise God," he wrote on Twitter.
	"He broke his leg and had surgery and now is in the physical therapy phase... Thanks for asking."
	A statement today from the Schulthess Clinic in Zurich said the former emir had undergone .

Qatar's former emir breaks leg in holiday accident

A Turkish court today acquitted all football fans of the Istanbul club Besiktas who had been put on trial on widely-ridiculed charges of seeking to stage a coup in 2013 protests.
	Fans from Besiktas's main fan group Carsi had played a leading role in May-June 2013 protests against then prime minister now President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
	They had been charged with seeking to overthrow Erdogan's government in a coup and forming a criminal gang, with the trial starting on December 17.
	The suspects, who risked being jailed for life if found guilty, were not remanded in custody.
	But the Istanbul court acquitted all 35 suspects on all charges of forming a criminal gang, resisting police, and staging an illegal protest, the Dogan news agency reported.
	The verdict had been widely expected after prosecutors on September 11 asked for the acquittal of all the suspects in what was seen as a major U-turn in the investigation.
	The anti-government protests began in May 2013 in Istanbul over ...

Turkish football fans acquitted in 'coup trial'

Iran said today it had entered the final days of completing its commitments under a landmark international deal to curb its atomic programme after it shipped low-enriched uranium to Russia.
	Iran's atomic energy agency said 11 tons of uranium materials were sent to Russia on Monday, a move US Secretary of State John Kerry said was "significant progress" under the July 14 nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers.
	By doing so Iran has now vastly depleted a stockpile of uranium that, were it enriched to higher purities, could have been used in developing a nuclear weapon, a goal the Islamic republic has denied pursuing.
	Kerry said Iran's shipment to Russia had already tripled the amount of time it would take to produce enough fuel for a bomb from two or three months up to six or nine.
	Yesterday's shipment was part of an exchange under which Iran received natural uranium from Russia and Kazakhstan to be used in nuclear reactors for future energy production.
	Behrouz ...

Iran says days away from nuclear deal implementation

A small recreational drone hovered near President Barack Obama's motorcade in Hawaii, prompting the Secret Service to intervene, but no one was arrested or charged, officials and reports said today.
	The incident took place yesterday as Obama was headed back to his vacation home following a golf outing, according to NBC News.
	"The subject was completely unaware that the presidential motorcade would be transiting the area of operation and immediately complied with law enforcement requests to cease and desist," Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole Mainor said in a statement.
	"No charges were filed. The motorcade proceeded without further incident."
	Obama, his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia are spending their year-end vacation in a beachside villa in the Oahu town of Kailua, about a 30-minute drive from Honolulu.
	Residents and fellow vacationers often line the motorcade's route in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the president as he heads to the golf course, gym or area ...

Drone flies near Obama motorcade in Hawaii, no arrests

Oil prices firmed today but held near recent multi-year lows as dealers weighed Saudi Arabia's budget in a market dogged by stubborn oversupply and tepid data.
	At 1830 IST in London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February was up 12 cents at USD 36.74 a barrel.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained 11 cents to USD 36.92 compared with yesterday's close.
	The market struggled today, one day after major crude exporter and OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia cut subsidies on fuel, power and water to counter the impact of plunging oil prices on its finances.
	Riyadh posted a deficit of USD 98 billion (89 billion euros) in 2015 after a sharp decline in oil revenues.
	And with crude prices expected to remain low, Saudi authorities also projected a shortfall of USD 87 billion in the 2016 budget, the third year in a row with a shortfall.
	"The Saudi budget ... Reinforced the 'lower for longer' sentiment in that market," said analyst Augustin Eden at traders Accendo Markets, in ...

AFP

AFP

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