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 

Pakistan minorities live in fear after blasphemy mob killings

PTI Automatic

Turkmenistan hailed today the completion of a USD 2.5 billion gas pipeline connecting its abundant eastern gas fields to the Caspian Sea while potentially expanding Europe's energy security options.
	The approximately 800-kilometre (500-mile) long East-West pipeline could connect the isolated state possessing the world's fourth largest gas reserves with markets in the West via an ambitious link that would traverse the Caspian.
	"With the completion of the East-West pipeline, cooperation with our European partners acquires a new quality," said Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov at the opening ceremony at the Belek compressor station, some 500 km northwest of the capital, Ashgabat.
	The East-West pipeline may prove an important component of a bigger link planned by the European Union, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia that would funnel natural gas along the floor of the Caspian before connecting with pipelines threading into Europe.
	The Trans-Caspian pipeline is expected .

Turkmenistan eyes Western markets with new $2.5 bln gas link

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today hosted Turkey's pro-Kurdish party leader Selahattin Demirtas for talks on the Syrian conflict and Moscow's potential support for Kurdish groups fighting Islamic State jihadists.
	Ankara is warily watching if Moscow will tighten links with Kurdish factions amid the crisis in bilateral ties following the downing of a Russian bomber by Turkey at the Syrian border last month.
	"We know that there are Iraqi and Syrian Kurds who are fighting the threat of Isis and other extremist groups with weapons on the ground," Lavrov told Demirtas, the leader of Turkey's Democratic People's Party (HDP).
	"Russia... Is ready to actively cooperate with those on the ground who are fighting this threat," he said in remarks released by the foreign ministry.
	"We will be ready and interested in considering your views in our further work on this multi-level front," he said.
	Demirtas is the first high-profile Turkish figure to visit Moscow since Turkey shot down a .

Russian FM hosts pro-Kurdish party leader for Syria talks

Saudi King Salman today said he has ordered economic reforms to diversify sources of income and reduce high dependence on oil following a sharp drop in crude prices.
	"Our vision for economic reform is to increase the efficiency of public spending, utilise economic resources and boost returns from state investment," he said in an address to the Shura Council.
	"I have directed the Council of Economic and Development Affairs to devise the necessary plans, policies and programmes to achieve that," he told the consultative body, without elaborating.
	Oil income accounts for more than 90 percent of public revenues in Saudi Arabia.
	The world's largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia is facing an unprecedented budget crunch as the price of oil has dropped by more than 60 percent since mid-2014.
	At midday today, benchmark Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February stood at USD 36.50 a barrel, hovering just above an 11-year low.
	The king said Saudi Arabia carried out a large number of mega .

Saudi to diversify economy away from oil: King Salman

A helicopter battling a fire in northern Spain crashed on today, killing the pilot, emergency services said.
	The helicopter crashed and burst into flames in a forest in a rural area in the northwestern region of Asturias, local emergency services said in a statement.
	The pilot -- the sole occupant of the helicopter -- was already dead when rescuers arrived at the scene, it added.
	About 100 wildfires broke out almost simultaneously in Asturias on Saturday night as Spain basked in unusually warm weather for this time of year.
	The wind-fanned flames affected mainly the northwestern part of the region, which boasts old and elegant seaside towns and a wealth of forests and vegetation that has made it popular with tourists.
	Firefighters, aided by lower winds and rainfall, have managed to gain the upper hand against the blazes and only a handful are still burning.

Helicopter crashes fighting wildfire in Spain, pilot dead

Saudi King Salman accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today of having aided the rise of the Islamic State group and called for a political settlement with moderate forces to end the war there.
	The solution would be to form "a transitional government made up of moderate opposition forces, ensuring the unity of Syrians and the departure of foreign forces and terrorist organisations," the king said in an annual speech to the consultative Shura Council.
	These organisations "could not have found fertile ground in Syria, had it not been for the Syrian regime's policies, which have exterminated hundreds of thousands... And displaced millions" of people, said the monarch.
	More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict broke out in March 2011.
	The kingdom, a key-backer of Syrian opposition groups, has repeatedly insisted on Assad's departure.
	Earlier this month, Riyadh hosted a meeting of various Syrian armed and political opposition groups who agreed to ...

Saudi king blames Assad for IS rise in Syria

A roadside bomb attack today killed at least three people including two children in a restive Pakistani region near the Afghan border, officials said.
	It was the third attack in as many days in the Mohmand tribal region, one of seven such semi-autonomous districts where the military has been battling Al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants for over a decade.
	Two separate bomb attacks had Monday killed at least three people and wounded two others including a senior Pakistani army official.
	"An improvised explosive (IED) device planted along the roadside exploded as a vehicle carrying five people including a driver passed by, killing two children aged eight and 10 and the driver on the spot," a senior local administration official, Naveed Akbar, told AFP.
	He said two passengers were injured in the attack.
	"The security agencies are investigating the incident as the target of the attack is unclear," Akbar said, adding dozens of IEDs have been planted along roads in Mohmand.
	The army .

Three killed in a roadside explosion in NW Pakistan

The sun-powered plane Solar Impulse 2, grounded in Hawaii since the summer for repairs, will be ready to fly again by April 20, the project's spokeswoman said today.
	The plane completed nearly half of an unprecedented round- the-world journey without using a drop of fuel before battery pack damage during a gruelling five-day leg from Japan to Hawaii in July forced its grounding.
	Solar Impulse spokeswoman Alexandra Gindroz told AFP that the project had raised enough money to complete the repairs and fund the next phase of operations, confirming details given by pilot Andre Borschberg in an interview with Switzerland's 24 Hours newspaper.
	"April 20 is the first possible date for departure," Gindroz said.
	Borschberg told the paper that the April date marks "the opening of the optimal energy window, when the days are long enough and the nights are sufficiently short to fly."
	But, he added, details of the journey's next leg have not yet been decided, with the possibility of flying ...

Solar Impulse 2 ready to fly again by April 20: spokeswoman

The EU's top court ruled today that Scotland's minimum price system for alcohol, designed to stop people "drinking themselves to death," was contrary to EU law.
	The European Court of Justice said the measure violated the bloc's single market rules while its objective of reducing alcohol intake would be better achieved by tax measures.
	The Scottish government introduced the system in 2012 to tackle what it said was "Scotland's unhealthy relationship with alcohol" and the toll it was taking, especially among the young.
	The ECJ ruling, made in response to a request by a Scottish court, was closely focused on the impact the system has on single market rules.
	"The court... Considers that the effect of the Scottish legislation is significantly to restrict the market," the Luxembourg-based court said in a statement.
	Cheaper drinks imported from other member states lose their competitive edge in the Scottish market as a result, it said.
	"That is sufficient reason to conclude that the ...

Top EU court rules against Scottish minimum drink price law

Russia's Central Bank today issued a banknote depicting famous landmarks of Crimea, commemorating last year's annexation of the peninsula that was slammed by the West and led to sanctions against Moscow.
	The banknote with the denomination of 100 rubles (about USD 1.40) is "dedicated to Crimea and Sevastopol becoming a part of the Russian Federation," the Central Bank said in a statement.
	The beige note depicts famous architectural landmarks of Crimea and Sevastopol, the Black Sea city where Russia's Black Sea fleet has a base. Twenty million of such banknotes have been issued, the bank said.
	Images on the note also include Russian Empress Catherine II, various war monuments and religious structures.
	Russia formally annexed Crimea in March 2014 by a controversial referendum after sending special forces troops there to take over key institutions and military bases.
	The events unfolded against political chaos in Kiev, where Ukraine's ex-president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by ...

Russia issues banknote celebrating Crimea annexation

A Saudi Arabian court has commuted the death-by-stoning sentence passed on a Sri Lankan maid convicted of adultery, the government in Colombo said today.
	"We have succeeded in getting the death sentence overturned. Our concern was to make sure that the original sentence was not carried out," Harsha de Silva, the deputy foreign minister, told reporters in Sri Lanka's capital.
	"The government of Sri Lanka wishes to acknowledge and appreciate the good offices of the Saudi authorities," De Silva said.
	"The sympathy, understanding and the concern expressed, and assistance extended, by many other parties is also noted and deeply appreciated."
	De Silva said the woman would now serve a "short jail sentence" but details on the exact time that she would have to remain behind bars were not yet clear.
	The 45-year-old married mother of two, who has not been named, was convicted of adultery in August after her arrest in April last year.
	She was sentenced to death by stoning, while an ...

Saudis commute maid's stoning death sentence: Sri Lanka

The Afghan government today rushed reinforcements to Helmand after Taliban militants captured large swathes of a strategic opium-producing district, prompting the first British troop deployment to the troubled province in 14 months.
	The Islamists broke through the frontlines of Sangin district on Sunday after days of pitched clashes with besieged Afghan forces, tightening their grip on the southern province.
	The Taliban began advancing on the district centre after storming government buildings, sending civilians fleeing as fears grew that the entire province was on the verge of falling to the insurgents.
	Government reinforcements began arriving in Sangin after food and ammunition were air-dropped to besieged Afghan forces, deputy Helmand governor Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar told AFP today.
	"I am confident that we will not lose Sangin," said Rasoolyar, just days after he warned that Helmand was teetering on the brink.
	The war in Helmand, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund 

Afghan reinforcements reach Helmand as Taliban advance

The French cabinet today backed reform proposals that could see the state of emergency called after last month's Paris attacks enshrined in the constitution.
	Special policing powers used under the state of emergency -- such as house arrests and the right to raid houses without judicial oversight -- are currently based on an ordinary law which can be challenged at the constitutional court.
	In the wake of the Paris attacks that left 130 dead, President Francois Hollande called for the emergency powers to be protected from litigation by placing them in the constitution.
	"The threat has never been higher," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters following a meeting of government ministers today.
	"We must face up to a war, a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam," he said.
	The constitutional reforms must now be passed by a three-fifths majority in the upper and lower houses of parliament, where debates will start on February 3.
	Valls said the latest ...

France to enshrine emergency anti-terror laws in constitution

Oil prices rose today awaiting data on energy stockpiles in the United States, the world's biggest consumer of crude.
	Around midday in London, benchmark contract Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February was up 39 cents at USD 36.50 a barrel compared with yesterday's close.
	New York's West Texas Intermediate for February won 37 cents to USD 36.51 a barrel.
	Analysts said today's report from the Department of Energy on US oil inventories could reverse the recent gains.
	The worry is that the DoE report will be a repeat of last week's that showed big increases in stocks of oil and key petroleum products.
	Yesterday meanwhile marked the first time since January that WTI traded above Brent.
	John Kilduff, a founding partner at Again Capital, said the push of WTI above Brent could mark a "new phase" between the two contracts in the wake of last week's measure passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama to lift a 40-year ban on US oil exports.
	"It seems ..

Oil prices rise before US data

Two Palestinians stabbed three Israelis near Jerusalem's Old City today before police shot them, killing one attacker and wounding the other, police said.
	Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said the three victims were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem in serious condition.
	The incident occurred at the Old City's Jaffa Gate, a popular entrance for tourists at a time of increased visits to the Holy Land for the Christmas season.
	A wave of violence since the start of October has claimed the lives of 124 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.
	Earlier today, border police arrested a woman in the flashpoint southern West Bank city of Hebron after a knife was found on her during a routine search.

Palestinians stab three in Jerusalem, one shot dead: police

Firebrand Islamist preacher Abu Qatada, who was deported from Britain to Jordan in 2013, said today that his 23-year-old son had been released after almost three weeks in detention.
	"My son Qatada was released in the night of yesterday to today," he told AFP.
	According to the Jordanian cleric, his son was arrested on December 2 by Jordan's state security, although the reason is not known.
	Jordanian authorities refused to comment.
	Palestinian-born Abu Qatada - once described as the right-hand man in Europe of late Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden - was deported from Britain in July 2013 after a 10-year legal fight.
	Last year, he was found not guilty by an Amman court of conspiring to attack tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations, due to insufficient evidence.
	Born Omar Mahmud Mohammed Othman in Bethlehem in 1960, the burly father of five was one of the most prominent of a set of extremist preachers based in London in the 1990s and 2000s.
	Videotapes of his sermons were 

Islamist cleric Abu Qatada says Jordan releases son

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls outlined reform proposals, agreed by the government today, that could see the state of emergency called after last month's Paris attacks enshrined in the constitution.
	The reforms must now be passed by parliament. After going back and forth on the issue, the government decided to include the power to strip French citizenship from people convicted of terrorist offences, if they have another nationality.

French cabinet backs reforms to enshrine emergency rules

A Frenchman who killed his boss and pinned his severed head to a fence at an industrial gas factory has committed suicide in his jail cell, prison authorities said today.
	Yassin Salhi, 35, hanged himself from the bars of his cell using electrical cable last night, according to authorities at Fleury-Merogis prison, in the southern suburbs of Paris.
	The deliveryman carried out the grisly attack on employer Herve Cornara in Isere, southeastern France in June, displaying his boss's head outside the plant surrounded by Islamic flags.
	After sending pictures of the scene to a friend who had left to join the jihad in Syria, he tried to blow up the facility by driving his van into gas cannisters, but was arrested and remanded in custody.
	Salhi had been placed in solitary confinement but was not considered a suicide risk.
	Prison authorities had previously said he hanged himself using bedsheets.
	He had always disavowed any religious motive for his crime, saying it was a personal dispute ...

Frenchman who decapitated boss kills himself in jail

Russian investigators said today that top Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky had been put on the international wanted list as Moscow ramps up pressure on a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin.
	Earlier this month the Investigative Committee, which reports directly to Putin, charged the former oil tycoon in absentia with organising the 1998 murder of a mayor in Siberia, a move supporters say is aimed at silencing the self-exiled Kremlin foe.
	Khodorkovsky, 52, was also charged with the attempted murders of two other people.
	"Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been put on the international wanted list," spokesman for the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said in a statement.
	He also said that following a request from investigators a Russian court had ordered the arrest of the former tycoon, who lives abroad and spends much of his time in London.
	Khodorkovsky's spokeswoman Kulle Pispanen dismissed the announcement as political pressure, adding it would not affect him.
	"Mikhail ...

'Russia puts Khodorkovsky on international wanted list'

China's largest food company COFCO is to buy 100 per cent of the agricultural arm of embattled trader Noble Group, the companies said today, in the latest move by China to expand its global reach.
	COFCO, which says it supplies grain and oil to a quarter of the world's population, bought 51 per cent of Hong Kong- based Noble's agricultural subsidiary in April 2014.
	COFCO will now spend USD 750 million to buy the remaining 49 per cent of Noble Agri, which trades grain, sugar, cotton and coffee in around 30 countries from South America to the Middle East.
	The deal is seen as a move by Noble to avoid having its credit rating downgraded to junk. The company said in a statement it would use the proceeds to repay debt.
	"It helps Noble to raise the cash it needed to avert being downgraded to junk status, and also to get rid of liabilities," Bernard Aw, a strategist at IG Asia Pte, told Bloomberg News. "It's critical for Noble to convince investors that it can transform the ailing ...

China's COFCO to buy agri-arm of top Asian trader

China Southern Airlines announced today it would buy 10 aircraft worth a total USD 2.27 billion from European aerospace giant Airbus, as a Chinese boom in air travel defies slowing economic growth.
	The carrier, one of China's "big three" with the largest fleet by size, will take delivery of the A330-300 planes between 2017 and 2019, it said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange.
	It was the company's second major purchase this month, following a USD 10 billion order for 110 planes from Boeing.
	China, the world's second largest economy, is Asia's biggest aircraft buyer as a growing middle class takes to the skies in ever-increasing numbers.
	Earlier this month China's budget carrier Spring Airlines announced plans to buy 60 aircraft from Airbus worth USD 6.3 billion at list prices.
	State-owned China Aviation Supplies Holding Group signed a deal with Airbus at the end of October, pledging the purchase of 100 A320 aircraft worth USD 9.7 billion at list prices.

AFP

AFP

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