The United Nations announced today it has appointed a new peacekeeping chief in Mali, amid criticism of the country's peace process.
	Chad's foreign minister Mahamat Saleh Annadif will replace Tunisia's Mongi Hamdi, who held the position for just a year.
	Annadif served as foreign minister from 1997 to 2003, a UN statement said, and has taken part in several peace processes in Africa, including in Niger, the Central African Republic and Sudan.
	The 59-year-old diplomat also directed the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) between 2012 and 2014.
	Annadif's appointment was first announced by diplomatic sources in Bamako. He will begin his new role on January 15.
	Under Hamdi's watch, Mali concluded a landmark peace deal between the government and a Tuareg-led rebellion which has launched several uprisings since the 1960s.
	But jihadist violence has intensified on the ground and the management of the transition to peace has been criticized by the international community.
	With more 

UN appoints new Mali peacekeeping chief

PTI Automatic

Former French president Jacques Chirac left hospital today after two weeks of medical checkups and will spend Christmas with his family, relatives said.
	Chirac, 83, was taken to hospital in Paris on December 9 after complaining he had felt "weak for a few days," his daughter Claude Chirac had said at the time, adding that there was no "cause for concern".
	"He has returned home safely," a family member told AFP.
	However journalists waiting outside Chirac's apartment building in the centre of Paris did not see him return, and a source told AFP the former president may now be residing in a new apartment nearby.
	The family declined to confirm or deny the information.
	Chirac, who served two terms as head of state from 1995 to 2007 and is probably best remembered internationally for his opposition to the US military intervention in Iraq in 2003, was long known for the athletic physique and rude health that helped earn him the political sobriquet of "the bulldozer".
	However a small ...

French ex-president Chirac leaves hospital for Christmas

Poland's former president Lech Walesa lashed out today at the policies of the ruling conservatives, saying they were undermining democracy and making his country a laughing stock.
	Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement that brought an end to communism in Poland, added his voice to an increasingly large chorus of criticism at home and abroad against the actions of the EU country's new government, by calling for a referendum to force early elections.
	He has been sharply critical of the ruling Law and Justice Party (Pis) which yesterday pushed through a controversial law that the opposition says will paralyse the country's top court and remove important checks on government power.
	"This government is acting against Poland's interests, against freedom, against democracy, and is ridiculing us around the world," Walesa said on Radio Zet.
	"I am ashamed to travel abroad."
	Calling for a referendum on a new election, he said: "We must show that two thirds (of society) is against this type 

Walesa warns over democracy in Poland, urges new election

Somalia's government has banned celebrations of Christmas and New Year in the Muslim majority country, saying the festivities might attract Islamist attacks.
	"All events related to Christmas and New Year celebrations are contrary to Islamic culture, which could damage the faith of the Muslim community," the director general of the religious affairs ministry told reporters yesterday.
	Sheikh Mohamed Khayrow said security forces had been ordered to break up any such celebrations. "There should be no activity at all," he said.
	Sheikh Nur Barud Gurhan, of the Supreme Religious Council of Somalia, said that non-Muslim festivities might provoke the ire of the Shebab, East Africa's Al-Qaeda branch, which is headquartered in Somalia.
	"We are warning against the celebration of such events which are not relevant to the principles of our religion," Gurhan added, saying it could provoke the Shebab "to carry out attacks".
	Last year Shebab militants launched a Christmas attack on Mogadishu ...

Somalia bans Christmas and New Year festivities

A fierce gun battle killed at least eight separatists and two paramilitary soldiers during an ongoing anti-terrorist operation in southwest Pakistan today, officials said.
	The incident occurred in southwestern Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
	"The security forces raided a compound as part of the ongoing operation... Which triggered a gunfight between the paramilitary Frontier Corps troops and the terrorists, killing eight rebels and two soldiers," spokesman Muhammad Manzoor told AFP.
	He said three militants were killed in a similar raid on yesterday. A paramilitary lieutenant colonel and a solider were also injured.
	Manzoor said those killed today belonged to different proscribed Baloch separatist organisations but did not disclose their names.
	Resource-rich Balochistan is the largest of Pakistan's four provinces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth.
	Rebels began ...

Eight separatists, two soldiers killed in SW Pakistan

Chinese police are investigating a troubled state-managed metal exchange for criminal offences, the local government said, months after it failed to pay investors.
	Fanya Metals Exchange, which claims to be the world's largest minor metals exchange and managed around 40 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) in assets, has defaulted on payments to a reported 220,000 investors since April due to plunging commodity prices worldwide.
	The exchange, in the southwestern city of Kunming, offered investors a bet on increased metal prices, promising some speculators double-digit returns on their investments.
	Police have opened an investigation into the exchange on suspicion of "illegal business practices", a statement on the city's news portal said.
	The announcement yesterday comes as Fanya chairman Shan Jiuliang has been missing since October 15, according to a stock exchange statement from Imagi International Holdings, another company Shan chairs.
	Imagi said Shan had missed two board ...

Police probe China metals exchange: govt

A coalition of conservative parties in Croatia put forward today a pharmaceutical executive as a candidate for prime minister to try to end a political standoff since inconclusive elections last month.
	"We agreed upon premier-designate... A non-partisan person, Tihomir Oreskovic," leader of the small Most party, Bozo Petrov, told reporters.
	Most and the larger HDZ informed President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic yesterday that they had secured the support of a majority of deputies in the 151-seat parliament.
	Grabar-Kitarovic was expected to decide later today to name Oreskovic, the chief financial officer for global generic medicines at Teva, as PM-designate or call fresh elections.
	The breakthrough in forming a coalition comes more than six weeks after the November 8 election that failed to produce an outright winner.
	The incumbent Social Democrats and the HDZ struggled to cobble together a coalition with reforms needed to spur Croatia's economy, which is only slowly emerging from ...

Pharma exec put forward as PM to heal Croatia politics

The head of the unrecognised Libyan government in Tripoli has met with Russia's foreign minister to discuss the political and military situation in the country, officials from the two sides said today.
	Khalifa Ghweil's talks with Sergei Lavrov in Moscow yesterday came as the United Nations presses rival camps in Libya to accept a new premier named under a UN-sponsored agreement signed last week.
	Ghweil raised with Lavrov the "current situation in Libya and subjects of concern to both countries in various economic and commercial areas," said a statement issued by the Tripoli administration.
	In Moscow, a foreign ministry statement said "the current military and political situation in Libya as well as prospects for the development of multi-faceted Russian-Libyan contacts were discussed at the meeting".
	It added that Lavrov had expressed gratitude to Libya for the help in securing the release of Russians who were part of the crew of an oil tanker detained in Libya on September 16.
	It 

Tripoli 'premier' discusses Libya situation with Russia FM

A female cleaner was killed and another wounded early today after an explosion near a plane at Istanbul's second international airport, with Turkey on high alert for possible attacks.
	The authorities said it was too early confirm if the airport had been targeted in an attack, but the transport minister said there had been no security lapses.
	Five planes suffered slight damage as a result of fragments from the explosion, the minister said.
	Airport cleaner Zehra Yamac, 30, died of head wounds hours after the blast just after 2:00 AM (0530 IST) on the tarmac at Sabiha Gokcen airport on the Asian side of Turkey's largest city, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
	Turkey's private carrier Pegasus Airlines said in a statement the explosion occurred next to one of its planes while the two cleaners were nearby.
	"There were no passengers either on the plane or on the stairway. Sabiha Gokcen airport is continuing its normal operations," Pegasus said.
	The wounded victim, also a ...

Istanbul airport blast kills one, damages planes

An Israeli who was shot, apparently by stray police fire, in the course of a Palestinian stabbing attack in Jerusalem today has died of his wounds, a hospital statement said.
	"The critically injured gunshot victim has died of his injury," Shaarei Tzedek hospital said in a statement.
	In the attack, near the main tourist entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, two Israelis suffered serious knife wounds and police said officers shot dead the Palestinian assailants as they stabbed a victim.
	A third Israeli was shot in the melee, "apparently from the police fire to neutralise the terrorists," a police statement said.
	A wave of violence since the start of October has claimed the lives of 125 on the Palestinian side, 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.
	Many of the Palestinians killed have been attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during clashes.
	The stabbers have often been young Palestinians, including teenagers, who appear to be acting on their ...

Israeli shot during Jerusalem attack dies: hospital

Dozens of families the Islamic State group had been using as human shields in Ramadi escaped to safety today as Iraqi forces closed in on the jihadists' last redoubts.
	A day after punching deep into the city centre, forces led by the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) inched towards the governmental compound in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast Anbar province.
	"The anti-terrorism troops are now poised to break into the Hoz area where the governmental compound is located," a brigadier general in the force told AFP.
	Anbar officials said around 50 families managed to slip away during the fighting around the government compound.
	"Ramadi residents who were held by Daesh (IS) in the city centre escaped the siege and went towards the military units in Tal Mshahideh" in eastern Ramadi, provincial council spokesman Eid Ammash al-Karbuli said.
	He said thew were mostly children, women and elderly men who raised white flags as they approached the security forces.
	Another council ...

Civilians escape IS grip as Iraqi forces push on in Ramadi

Russia said today it had issued an international arrest warrant for top opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as Moscow ramped up the pressure on a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin.
	The announcement from the Investigative Committee, a top law enforcement body which reports directly to Putin, came nearly two years to the day since the Kremlin strongman stunned Russia by announcing that his political enemy, who had spent a decade in prison, would be pardoned and set free.
	Khodorkovsky's supporters say the new move is aimed at silencing Putin's exiled foe.
	Investigators earlier this month charged the former oil tycoon in absentia with organising the 1998 murder of a mayor in Siberia.
	Khodorkovsky, 52, was also charged with the attempted murders of two other people.
	Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said in a statement that an international arrest warrant had been issued for the Kremlin critic, who lives abroad and spends much of his time in ...

Russia issues international warrant for Kremlin foe

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has warned that the cash-strapped and war-scarred nation faced an "economic catastrophe" if parliament failed to pass an IMF-backed austerity budget in a vote tomorrow.
	Deputies are set to debate legislation that could unlock the release of a delayed USD 1.7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund and other Western aid.
	But Ukraine's increasingly-splintered parliament has already blocked the implementation of some 2016 budget amendments that could make the former Soviet state's finances more transparent and loosen the state's hold on its biggest industrial companies.
	Yatsenyuk sounded a note of exasperation at a cabinet meeting today.
	"The lack of responsibility by some parliamentary factions and deputies could lead to the non-payment of pensions and salaries," he said in televised remarks.
	Parliament's failure to adopt the budget and major tax amendments could result in a lack of government funds "for Ukraine's army, police, ..

'Ukraine faces 'catastrophe' if IMF-backed budget not passed'

Two young Syrian brothers have been arrested in a refugee camp in southern Austria on suspicion of belonging to terrorist groups, prosecutors said today.
	Police detained the two men, aged 16 and 18, in the Leibnitz district in Styria state last Thursday after a tip-off from German authorities, the prosecutor's office in the city of Graz said.
	While the younger brother is accused of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) group, his older sibling is thought to have fought for the Ahrar al-Sham militia, the office added.
	The pair allegedly fought each other during the Syrian civil war, which has so far claimed more 250,000 lives and forced millions to flee their homes since it broke out in March 2011.
	They face charges of committing terrorist acts, including attempted murder and torture, Austrian prosecutors said, adding that a third brother had been arrested in Germany.
	The arrests are likely to add fuel to an already heated debate in Austria over how to handle Europe's worst migrant .

Syrian 'jihadist' brothers arrested in Austria

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy suffered a setback in his bid to stay in office as the Socialists refused today to back his attempt to form a new government following an inconclusive general election.
	Rajoy's conservative Popular Party won the most ballots in Sunday's vote but lost its absolute majority in the 350-seat lower house of parliament, taking just 123.
	The opposition Socialists won 90 seats, followed by the far-left Podemos with 69 seats and the centre-right Ciudadanos with 40.
	Rajoy in January will face a vote of confidence on whether he can stay on as leader of the government.
	In a first vote he needs to get the backing of more than half of 350 lawmakers in the assembly.
	If he falls short a second vote will be held 48 hours later with a lower bar to success  -- he would just need to get more votes for than against him that time around.
	That means if Ciudadanos and the Socialists were to abstain from voting in the second vote Rajoy would be able to get ...

Socialists block Spain PM's bid to stay in power

A French convert to Islam and her husband were under arrest today after police discovered a fake stomach used to make someone appear pregnant.
	The couple from the southern town of Montpellier, aged 23 and 35 respectively, were initially arrested on charges of condoning terrorism, a judicial source said.
	But national counter-terrorist prosecutors were brought in last week after investigators found the homemade fake stomach, which could have been used to hide objects.
	No explosives were found but an analysis of their computer found they had consulted bomb-making information and photos of jihadists, a source close to the investigation said.
	The couple have not yet been charged.
	Their arrest comes with France on high alert following the attacks in Paris of November 13 that left 130 dead.
	Police say they foiled a jihadist plot last week near Orleans southwest of Paris by two men who were planning to attack "soldiers, police and representatives of the state".

French terror suspects arrested over fake baby bump

Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili resigned today after just two years, with the ruling coalition struggling to boost its popularity ahead of parliamentary polls next year.
	"I took the decision to leave my post," Garibashvili, head of the Georgian Dream coalition, said in a televised address to the nation, without disclosing the reason.
	"All posts are temporary. Only God and the motherland are eternal," a stone-faced Garibashvili added.
	Opposition politicians said earlier that his resignation may likely be part of the coalition's efforts to reverse a rapid loss of popularity amid economic turmoil before parliamentary elections set to take place in October 2016.
	Garibashvili, now 33, became the youngest head of government in Europe when he was appointed to the job in the former Soviet republic in November 2013.
	He was a political unknown before his billionaire tycoon predecessor Bidzina Ivanishvili named him interior minister in October 2012.
	Garibashvili said ...

Georgia prime minister resigns after two years

Michelin-starred chefs are vying to create Christmas delights for astronauts spending the festive season 400 kilometres away from Earth and  their families.
	The latest in the pack is London celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal who is crafting delicacies for British astronaut Tim Peake currently on board the International Space Station (ISS).
	The first British astronaut to the ISS space station, Peake's mission began in the middle of this month, and the Christmas and New Year treats include dishes to remind him of home during his six-month stint.
	These include Christmas pudding and foreign delights, including Thai chicken curry and Alaskan salmon. Also on the menu is a Sunday roast and a curry.
	Blumenthal, who is known for using science in his cooking, said the challenge was to create gravity-defying but delicious food -- which for astronauts is usually dry-frozen, dehydrated or thermo-treated.
	"I felt a surge of pride to be involved in such a historic moment for both astronomy and ...

Celebrity chefs create gourmet delights for astronauts

The OPEC oil cartel sees only a gradual improvement in the global crude market, with prices recovering to above USD 70 per barrel after four years, according to a report released today.
	With the global benchmark oil price touching an 11-year low of USD 36.04 on Monday, the cartel which produces a third of the world's crude said that it foresees a "gradual improvement in market conditions as growing demand and slower than previously expected non-OPEC supply growth eliminate the existing oversupply and lead to a more balanced market".
	The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in its annual World Oil Outlook report, bases its reference scenario on USD 70.70 for a barrel of crude in 2020 and USD 95 in 2040.
	Those projections represent a sharp drop in market value compared to last year's report, which predicted a nominal price of USD 110 for the rest of this decade.
	The oil market has been rife with drama over the past year and a half as OPEC abandoned its policy of ...

Four more years of cheap oil: OPEC

Russia is exchanging information with the Taliban and sees shared interest with the insurgents when it comes to counteracting the spread of the Islamic State group, a senior Russian diplomat said today.
	"Taliban interests objectively coincide with ours," Zamir Kabulov, head of the department at the Russian foreign ministry responsible for Afghanistan who is also a Kremlin special representative in the country, told Interfax news agency.
	"I have said before that we have communication channels with the Taliban to exchange information," he said.
	"Both the Taliban of Afghanistan and the Taliban of Pakistan have said that they don't recognise (IS leader Abu Bakr) Al-Baghdadi as a caliph, that they don't recognise ISIL," he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
	"That is very important," added Kabulov, an Afghanistan expert who held negotiations with Taliban leader Mullah Omar in the mid-1990s, when the group seized a Russian transport plane and held seven Russians hostage .

Russia sees interests 'coincide' with Taliban on fighting IS

Four-year-old Aliya's life collapsed last year when her illiterate Christian parents were falsely accused of tossing out pages of the Koran in their rubbish, and then lynched and burnt on a brick kiln by an angry mob.
	The mob killing of Shama Bibi and Shahzad Masih triggered outrage in Pakistan, where desecration of Islam's holy book is legally punishable by death and even unproven allegations of blasphemy often lead to bloody killings at the hands of vigilantes.
	After the ordeal on November 4, 2014, Aliya, which is not her real name, left the dusty brick factory where even as a toddler she had worked with her family as bonded labourers. Five other Christian families also fled.
	Now she comes home from school every day, wearing her backpack and new shoes, to the lower-class area of Lahore where she lives with her maternal grandfather, elder brother and sister.
	The children play cricket on the roof terrace of the tiny, two-room concrete house, with a view of a dusty track lined with 

AFP

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