Armed men attacked a lorry carrying migrants in northern Mali, killing four people and wounding six, UN and medical sources have said.
	Four men on motorbikes opened fire on the lorry as it travelled towards Kidal, in the country's far northeast, a medical source told AFP, citing witness accounts.
	They shot out the tyres before turning the guns on the passengers, who included people from Mali, Guinea, Niger and Nigeria.
	The UN mission in Mali yesterday said the wounded were taken by helicopter to Gao, the main city in the restive north, for treatment. The dead were buried where they were.
	The medical source said the dead included four Malians and a Guinean, without saying whether they were men or women.
	A Malian security source in the north of the country confirmed the attack, without giving a death toll, but adding that 30 people had survived.
	The migrants are thought to have been on their way to Algeria. Mali has been plagued by unrest since the north of the vast west African ..

Four dead as migrant truck attacked in Mali: sources

PTI Automatic

A French court has lifted a freeze order on slain Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi's personal plane, following a bitter battle over the luxury aircraft between a Kuwaiti conglomerate and the Libyan government.
	Kuwait's Al-Kharafi group had the Airbus A340, seen as a symbol of Kadhafi's extravagance by the rebels who overthrew him, seized amid a near billion-euro debt related to a contract to build a beach resort in Libya.
	The plane has been in the southern French city of Perpignan since 2012, soon after Kadhafi's regime fell, where it had been sent for three million euros' worth of maintenance work by Air France -- as yet unpaid.
	"It is very satisfying to see the judge has recognised the fact this plane, which belongs to the Libyan state, has immunity from being seized," said Carole Sportes, lawyer for the Libyan side yesterday.
	In 2006 Al-Kharafi signed a contract with the Kadhafi regime to build a beach resort on Libya's Mediterranean coast, which it was to run for 90 years, but .

French court rules on Kadhafi's plane

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that deploying peacekeepers to Burundi was an option to quell the violence but recommended that a UN team be first sent to help bolster dialogue.
	Ban laid out three options to address the crisis in a letter to the UN Security Council yesterday, which has adopted a resolution calling for measures to prevent mass atrocities in Burundi.
	Among those options was setting up a special political mission to monitor human rights, support political dialogue and lay the groundwork for a possible peacekeeping operation.
	Citing "existing political realities" and security concerns, Ban however shied away from recommending the deployment of a full-fledged peacekeeping operation or a political mission.
	He put forward a third option - a UN support team - that would work with the Bujumbura government to shore up a dialogue with the opposition.
	"Violence in Burundi has reached alarming levels," Ban said in the letter to the 15-member council.
	Launching a ...

UN chief proposes peacekeepers, urgent talks for Burundi

Overwhelmed by a stream of migrants, Sweden will soon benefit from a "relocation" programme for some of its asylum seekers, the European Commissioner of Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos has said.
	"Sweden is among the group of member states that has welcome the highest number of refugees this year," Avramopoulos said at a press conference in Stockholm yesterday, adding that Sweden had made "tremendous efforts".
	In September, the EU unveiled a plan for redistributing nearly 160,000 migrants and refugees from frontline states Italy and Greece although so far only a small number have been relocated.
	Earlier this month Sweden asked Brussels to relocate to other EU countries some of the asylum seekers arriving by the thousands in the Scandinavian country.
	"Sweden has asked to become beneficiary of the relocation mechanism," Avramopoulos said. "We completely understand this."
	The Commissioner added that in the future Sweden would be exempt from taking in migrants under the relocation ...

EU to relocate Sweden asylum seekers

The US has repatriated 108 Cuban migrants who were picked up at sea in recent days trying to reach American shores in unseaworthy vessels, the US Coast Guard said today.
	The migrants were in seven rustic craft intercepted in the Florida Strait, a treacherous, shark-infested body of water that lies between Cuba and the United States, the Coast Guard said.
	They were returned to Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba yesterday in two Coast Guard patrol boats, it said.
	Since the United States and Cuba announced a historic rapprochement in December 2014, there has been a surge in attempts by Cubans to reach the United States.
	US law allows Cubans who reach dry land to stay and ultimately gain permanent resident status, a Cold War era policy that some would-be immigrants fear will end as US-Cuban relations normalize.
	"US immigration policies have not changed and we urge people not to take to the ocean in unseaworthy vessels. It is illegal and extremely dangerous," Coast Guard Captain Mark Fedor ...

US repatriates 108 Cuban migrants

Scoreboard of the third and final Twenty20 international between Pakistan and England played at Sharjah stadium:
	   England
	   J. Roy lbw b Yamin                      0
	   J. Vince c Umar b Tanvir               46
	   J. Root b Afridi                       32
	   Moeen Ali c and b Afridi                0
	   E. Morgan b Malik                      15
	   J. Buttler run out                      2
	   S. Billings c Umar b Anwar              7
	   C. Woakes c Umar b Tanvir              37
	   D. Willey not out                       3
	   C.

Pakistan vs England Twenty20 scoreboard

England beat Pakistan in the third and final Twenty20 international in a thrilling Super over finish after the regulation match ended in a tie in Sharjah today.
	Pakistan needed three runs off the last four deliveries but managed just two to tie the match at 154-7 before a packed Sharjah stadium.
	Pakistan then managed just three runs in the Super Over which England made off just four balls for a 3-0 clean sweep of the series.
	England won the first match by 14 runs and the second by three -- both in Dubai.

England win third Twenty20 in Super over finish

France pulled out its culinary big guns today for one of the greatest kitchen challenges ever: cooking lunch for the largest one-day gathering of world leaders in history.
	Five chefs, each awarded stars by the demanding judges of the Michelin food guide, joined forces for a gastronomic tour de force to defend France's culinary reputation at a climate summit in Paris.
	Undaunted by the challenge of catering to banquets with their familiar perils of rubber chicken and agonisingly long waits, the quintet sought to tempt the palates of 150 leaders, from US President Barack Obama to China's President Xi Jinping or Russia's Vladimir Putin.
	"It was a very good lunch, a surprising lunch, very friendly and relaxed," Albanian President Bujar Nishani told AFP after leaving his table.
	Judging his meal "very tasty and delicious", Nishani said his lunch was prepared with organic foods, "which go very well with this climate summit".
	Albania's leader said he washed lunch down with a glass of ...

French chefs cook up a storm for climate

A South African mother today pleaded guilty to trying to sell her 19-month-old baby on the Internet site Gumtree for 5,000 rand (USD380), officials said.
	The woman was arrested in October during a police sting at a local KFC restaurant following a tip-off that the 20-year-old had offered her son for sale on the popular advertising website.
	"The mother pleaded guilty to trafficking in persons, money laundering and contravening the Children's Act by putting her child up for sale," National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman Natasha Ramkisson-Kara told AFP.
	In a statement read out in court in the eastern coastal town of Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal province, the woman said she tried to sell her baby after her boyfriend was found not to be the child's biological father, reported local news website News24.
	"In September, I placed an advertisement in Gumtree, selling my baby for 5,000 rand. Two days later, I received a call from an Indian saying she was interested in the child," she ..

S African mother pleads guilty in Internet baby sale case

One member of staff died and 37 people were injured today after a security drill at a Nairobi university was mistaken for a real attack, sparking scenes of panic, the university said.
	A 33-year-old female employee "has died from severe head injuries", said Strathmore University's communications director Betty Ngala.
	Police said they were merely carrying out a security exercise, but images showed terrified students standing on window ledges at the university, which is close to the centre of the Kenyan capital.
	Ngala said "around 15" people needed hospital treatment after the incident, while 22 others were hurt less seriously.
	She said most of those injured suffered broken bones after "jumping from high floors".
	Students later said the rush to escape to safety came as they were startled by the sound of gunfire.
	In a statement, the university said the exercise on campus was "aimed at testing the preparedness of the university community and emergency team in the event of an ...

one killed, 37 injured after security drill sparks panic

Seventeen people have been killed in fighting inside a maximum security prison in Guatemala, officials said today as hundreds of police moved to take control of the facility.
	Army troops and police officers surrounded the Granja Penal Canada prison, which holds 3,100 inmates, following violence that erupted on Sunday.
	After police went inside to round up prisoners and search for reported firearms, AFP saw groups of inmates made to stand or sit on the grounds as officers monitored them, batons in hand.
	More than 2,000 police were deployed at the prison, backed by dozens of soldiers and an armored vehicle. The facility is circled by three security fences, one of them electrified.
	Meanwhile the death toll from the episode increased from 16 to 17 after one inmate died in a state hospital from injuries, an official from the district attorney's office said.
	The violence appeared to have been triggered during a prison yard football game, with tensions between general prisoners and ...

Seventeen killed in Guatemala prison fight: official

The US government has halted its controversial program to collect vast troves of information from Americans' phone calls, a move prompted by the revelations of former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.
	Privacy advocates and some tech firms are welcoming the end of the bulk gathering of so-called "metadata," but some security hawks fear law enforcement will be hampered in their efforts to thwart terror attacks.
	As of yesterday, the National Security Agency (NSA) stopped the program whose existence its former analyst Snowden revealed in 2013.
	US lawmakers earlier this year passed legislation known as the USA Freedom Act to stop the program and roll back some powers the NSA had gained under the Patriot Act in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
	The new law halts the NSA's ability to scoop up and store metadata -- telephone numbers, dates and times of calls, but not the content -- from millions of Americans who have no connection to terrorism.
	It shifts responsibility for ..

US ends bulk collection of phone data

Russian President Vladimir Putin today accused Ankara of shooting down a Russian warplane to protect supplies of oil from the Islamic State group to Turkey.
	"We have every reason to think that the decision to shoot down our plane was dictated by the desire to protect the oil supply lines to Turkish territory," Putin said during a news conference on the fringes of UN climate talks near Paris.

Turkey shot down Russian jet to protect IS oil trade: Putin

The United States has not lost Thailand to China, Washington's envoy to Bangkok said today, despite acrimony between the two allies and a palpable shift by the kingdom's junta towards its giant northern neighbour.
	"I don't spend a lot of time, I don't spend any time, saying to Washington here's how we get Thailand back. We haven't lost Thailand," ambassador Glyn T Davies told reporters in Bangkok.
	"I think it's a good thing for Thailand to have a good relationship with China," he added.
	Thailand has been one of Washington's staunchest military allies in Southeast Asia and could have expected to see that relationship blossom under US President Barack Obama's "pivot" to Asia.
	But the May 2014 coup, the second in the last decade, and the junta's subsequent rights crackdown has strained those ties.
	Thailand's latest crop of military leaders have been embraced by Beijing, a warmth that has been reciprocated.
	The junta has also begun forcibly deporting critics of Beijing back to ...

US has not lost Thailand to China: ambassador

An attack by Ugandan rebels in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has left at least 24 people dead, including a United Nations peacekeeper, the UN said today.
	UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the overnight attack in troubled North Kivu province, blamed on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
	Felix-Prosper Basse, spokesman for the UN mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO) said that in addition to the peacekeeper, 12 rebels were killed, along with four Congolese soldiers and seven civilians who were hacked to death with machetes in a hospital in the town of Eringeti.
	"I saw four civilians killed by bullets... And seven patients and a nurse cut up by machete at the hospital," a regional official told AFP at Eringeti, which lies in the north of North Kivu province.
	A local non-governmental organisation however gave a higher toll of 30 dead.
	MONUSCO's interim commander General Jean Baillaud ..

UN peacekeeper among 24 killed in Ugandan rebel attack

Boko Haram fighters killed eight people at the weekend in northeast Nigeria and southeastern Niger, in deadly raids that saw houses burnt and villagers kidnapped.
	The attacks in Bam-Buratai, in Nigeria's Borno state, and in the Diffa region of Niger, happened on Saturday while there was another raid in Gulak, in Nigeria's Adamawa on Sunday.
	Boko Haram hit-and-run raids -- once a trademark of the Islamic State group affiliate -- have declined in recent months in the face of a sustained Nigerian army counter-offensive in rural areas.
	Instead, the group has increasingly favoured suicide and bomb attacks against civilians in towns and cities to secure maximum casualties and publicity.
	Nigerian army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman confirmed the attack in Bam-Buratai, which residents who fled said started when the gunmen arrived on bicycles and on foot at about 11:00 pm.
	The attackers were "shooting indiscriminately and throwing explosives into homes", said one local, who asked not to be .

Boko Haram raids in Nigeria, Niger kill eight

Internet giant Google today denied a report from Israel's foreign ministry that it has reached an agreement with the government to jointly monitor YouTube videos inciting attacks.
	The ministry last week said that Google, which owns YouTube, had agreed a joint mechanism to monitor online materials -- including videos encouraging attacks on Israelis -- after a meeting between Google executives and the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely.
	But the firm said no such agreement had been struck.
	A Google spokesman told AFP the meeting, in which Hotovely met Google's senior counsel for public policy, Juniper Downs, and YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki, was just "one of many that we have with policymakers from different countries to explain our policies on controversial content, flagging and removals".
	"The Israeli ministry for foreign affairs has corrected its original announcement which, in error, suggested there had been an agreement with Google to establish a mechanism .

Google denies monitoring accord with Israeli government

The International Monetary Fund welcomed China's yuan into its elite reserve currency basket today, recognising the ascendance of the Asian power in the global economy.
	The yuan, also known as the renminbi, will join the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound next year in the basket of currencies the IMF uses as an international reserve asset.
	IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde called the decision "an important milestone in the integration of the Chinese economy into the global financial system."
	"It is also a recognition of the progress that the Chinese authorities have made in the past years in reforming China's monetary and financial systems."
	The move by the IMF executive board, representing the institution's 188 member nations, solidifies China's ambition to see the yuan achieve global status as one of the world's top currencies.
	China, the world's second-largest economy, asked last year for the yuan to be added to the Special Drawing Rights basket, but until ..

IMF approves China's yuan as elite reserve currency

Filmmaker David Attenborough, whose soothing voice narrated the vicarious journey of millions of TV viewers through the wonders of the natural world, called at a climate summit today for scientific investment in "saving the world".
	Governments with science research budgets should be spending their cash on finding new ways to gather, store and distribute energy from sources like the Sun, wind and waves, he said on the sidelines of a UN conference tasked with clinching a climate rescue pact.
	"The essence of the thing is that it should be cheap," the acclaimed documentary-maker told AFP.
	"Goodness me... If we could catch one five-thousandth part of the energy that the Sun sprays onto the Moon, onto this globe every day, we would supply all the energy requirements of humanity.
	"So how inefficient are we that we can't get that much?"
	Attenborough is one of the public faces of an initiative dubbed the Global Apollo Programme, which seeks to make renewable energy cheaper than coal ...

Naturalist David Attenborough says Sun can save Earth

Russia risks causing an "environmental disaster" in eastern Ukraine with its support for rebel forces, President Petro Poroshenko told a UN climate conference in Paris today.
	"My country has become a victim of hybrid warfare, which has hybrid effects. One of them is a risk of environmental disaster in the eastern part of Ukraine, Donbass," Poroshenko told delegates.
	He paid tribute to the "courage and unbroken spirit" of the French in the wake of this month's attack by the Islamic State group that left 130 dead in Paris.
	But he said this was "a daily reality for Ukraine for almost 21 months".
	"We have been suffering from the terrorism sponsored and promoted by the Russian Federation," he said.
	Poroshenko accused pro-Russian forces in the eastern Donbass region of having "flooded many mines", leading to the poisoning of drinking water and the soil.
	Russia denies directly supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine, and Poroshenko's speech underlined the challenge of reaching a ...

Russia causing 'environmental disaster' in Ukraine: Poroshenko

Critics brand the Commonwealth ineffectual, but its incoming chief believes the 53-country organisation can use its strength to achieve miracles -- such as eradicating domestic violence.
	Dominica-born lawyer Patricia Scotland, who was appointed the Commonwealth's first female secretary-general on Friday, told AFP she would harness the international family's "huge convening power".
	Among her top priorities: "Action to combat any form of abuse against women".
	"One in three women in our world suffer from domestic violence. It's the greatest cause of morbidity between women and girls," she said, adding that there was "a lot of work to do".
	"Forced marriage, female genital mutilation, child abduction... These issues affect all of us," said the 60-year-old, who will take over the reins from Indian diplomat Kamalesh Sharma in April 2016.
	Not everyone is convinced the Commonwealth, which includes vastly different countries accounting for around a third of the world's population, is ready 

AFP

AFP

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