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 

New Commonwealth chief pledges group will get gutsy

PTI Automatic

Severe shortages of food and vaccines due to border protests have left millions of children in quake-hit Nepal at risk of disease or death this winter, UNICEF said today.
	The landlocked Himalayan nation has been struggling to cope with a sharp drop in vital supplies after protesters on September 24 began blockading a key border crossing to demand changes to a new constitution.
	Nepal's government accuses neighbouring India of orchestrating the blockade, a charge it denies.
	The disruption has caused crippling shortages of fuel and medicine, leaving aid organisations scrambling to deliver relief to homeless quake victims seven months after the April 25 disaster killed nearly 9,000 people.
	"More than three million children under the age of five in Nepal are at risk of death or disease during the harsh winter months due to a severe shortage of fuel, food, medicines and vaccines," UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, said in a statement.
	More than 200,000 families are still living in ...

Nepal shortages put millions of children at risk: UNICEF

Belgium called for the creation of a European intelligence agency today to counter the threat of jihadist violence in the wake of the Paris attacks.
	Prime Minister Charles Michel told French radio RTL that "we must quickly put in place a European intelligence agency, a European CIA" to collate information on suspected radicals and "unmask those with hostile intentions".
	His call comes after the Paris attacks earlier this month -- carried out by an extremist cell partly operating out of Belgium -- exposed failings in information sharing between several European intelligence agencies.
	Michel warned that one of the major problems facing security services was that information was being shared only between individual countries with no similar Europe-wide protocols.
	"If intelligence services were able to share information without fail there might never be another attack," he said, but no system had been put in place to regularise these exchanges.
	On Friday, European Home Affairs ...

Belgium calls for 'European CIA' after Paris attacks

US President Barack Obama pushed today for a "de-escalation" of a furious war of words over Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane, a White House official said.
	Obama called for an easing of inflamed Russia-Turkey tensions in a closed-door meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a climate summit in Paris, the official said.
	Hours earlier, Turkey sent back to Russia the body of a pilot killed when his plane was shot down by the Turkish air force on November 24 for allegedly violating its air space on the Syrian border, reports said.
	One of the Russian pilots aboard the downed plane was shot dead in Syria after parachuting from the burning aircraft, while the second was found safe and sound. One Russian soldier was killed in a rescue operation.
	Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been locked in a furious war of words since the incident and the Kremlin strongman rejected the Turkish leader's offer of face-to-face talks on the sidelines of the .

Obama pushes for calm in angry Russia-Turkey row

Three top Kenyan athletics officials were suspended today over suspicions they siphoned off sponsorship money from Nike and subverted anti-doping controls.
     In the latest hammer-blow to global track and field, the IAAF ethics commission announced the provisional suspension of the Kenyan athletics federation president and two other top officials in the "interests of the integrity of the sport".
     Athletics Kenya (AK) president Isaiah Kiplagat was suspended along with vice-president David Okeyo, an IAAF Council member, and Joseph Kinyua, former federation treasurer and Kenya Team Leader at the IAAF 2015 World Championships in Beijing.
     The trio were suspended "from any IAAF or Athletics Kenya position pending investigation of complaints made against them and evidence and information which has been received by the IAAF Ethics Commission".
     "This provisional suspension, which is made in the interests of the integrity of the sport, is for a period of 180 days," the IAAF said 

Three top Kenyan officials suspended - IAAF

At least 13 people, including a UN peacekeeper, were killed in an overnight attack by Ugandan rebels in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sources said today.
	"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 in the north of the troubled North Kivu province.
	A local non-governmental organisation however put the toll much higher, at 30 dead: 14 rebels, seven civilians, eight Congolese soldiers and one soldier with the large UN mission in the DRC, MONUSCO.
	The Study Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO) blamed the attack on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
	MONUSCO's interim commander General Jean Baillaud confirmed to AFP that a Malawian soldier serving with the force had been killed, and a second was wounded when their unit tried to fight off the attackers.
	The rebels "attacked our positions at Eringeti and ..

UN peacekeeper among 13 killed in Ugandan rebel attack

The Balkan state of Montenegro will on Wednesday be formally invited to join the NATO military alliance, diplomatic sources said, a move which could further strain already difficult ties with Moscow.
	The offer is expected to come after a meeting of foreign ministers from the 28-nation alliance in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday.
	"The proposed text has been approved at (NATO) ambassador level," one source said today, asking not to be named. "After that, it would take at most a year and a half for Montenegro to become a member state," the source added.
	NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said he could not confirm the decision because it was up to the grouping's foreign ministers but he commented positively on the prospect.
	"Montenegro has come a long way on its path to join the Euro-Atlantic family," he told a briefing ahead of the meeting.
	"Extending an invitation to Montenegro to start accession talks would be a historic decision. It would signal our continued commitment to the Western 

NATO set to invite Montenegro to join alliance: sources

Boko Haram activists raided a border village in Niger, killing four people and torching some 50 homes, a local official said today.
	Two other people were wounded in the assault yesterday evening, said Fougou Boukar, an official from the restive Diffa region, adding that the attackers then fled to Nigeria.
	"There has been enormous damage with about 50 houses burnt," he told state television, putting the number of assailants at about 10.
	"The Boko Haram members were armed with Kalashnikovs and came across the Komadougou Yobe" river that divides Niger and Nigeria, Boukar said.
	State television showed hundreds of distressed villagers, praying in memory of the victims. Some of them showed scores of empty cartridges they had gathered after the attack.
	Boko Haram, the radical Sunni jihadists who want to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, have spread their attacks to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
	Their six-year insurgency has left at least 17,000 people dead .

Boko Haram jihadists torch 50 homes, kill four people in Niger

British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn is offering his Labour Party's MPs a free vote on whether Britain should join air strikes but will ask Prime Minister David Cameron for more time, media reports said today.
	A senior source confirmed a report in The Guardian outlining Corbyn's offer to his top officials, making it more likely that Britain will join the air campaign, despite the Labour leader himself being opposed.
	"Jeremy Corbyn gives Labour MPs free vote," read a headline on The Guardian website, adding that Corbyn would ask for "a longer timetable" for a vote that had been expected to be held later this week.
	The party's press office declined to comment.
	Experts said Corbyn would have faced a rebellion from dozens of Labour MPs who are in favour of the strikes if he had ordered lawmakers to oppose them.
	Cameron's spokesman earlier today said: "We have always said we would only come back to the house for a vote if we felt there was a clear majority".

Labour opens way for UK MPs to back Syria strikes: reports

Two French men arrested attempting to join Islamic State fighters in Libya via neighbouring Tunisia are now being held in Paris.
	The suspects, aged 19 and 20, who told authorities they were on their way to a training camp so they could fight in Syria, were arrested in southern Tunisia and flown to France on November 13, the day of the Paris attacks, a judicial source told AFP today.
	It is the first time French citizens have been held trying to join jihadists in Libya, where an IS affiliate group holds the city of Sirte, the hometown of the country's deposed leader Moamer Kadhafi.
	The two men, one from Lyon and the other from the southern port of Marseille, did not know each other before meeting up in Tunisia, a source said.
	The 20-year-old girlfriend of one of the men, a convert to Islam who authorities said had at one stage intended to join her partner in Libya, has also been charged with terrorist offences.
	Tunisia closed its border with Libya for two weeks after an attack on a 

France arrests two men 'who tried to join IS in Libya'

The Eiffel Tower turned green for the opening of the Paris climate conference, marking the launch of an art project that will see "virtual trees" grow on the landmark to support reforestation.
	UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard attended the launch of the week-long "1 Heart 1 Tree" project, which allows smartphone users to "plant a tree" on the tower.
	"Everyone will be able to plant a virtual tree on the Eiffel Tower, which will grow to the beat of their heart, and then every virtual tree will be really planted in a reforestation programme," said Naziha Mestauoi, the digital artist behind the concept.
	Users can download a smartphone application which records their heartbeat via a sensor and then projects this along with the image of a tree, their name and a short message onto the landmark, using lighting and mapping technologies.
	Participants will be able to track the growth of their real-life trees, which will be planted in areas of .

'Virtual trees' turn the Eiffel Tower green for COP21

Barcelona pair Lionel Messi and Neymar were today named on the shortlist for FIFA's prestigious Ballon d'Or along with double reigning title holder, Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid.
     While Portuguese Ronaldo has triumphed over the last two seasons (in a total of three wins), Argentinian Messi has previously claimed the coveted award four times while Brazilian Neymar makes the shortlist for FIFA's player of the year award for the first time.
     Messi was the catalyst for Barcelona's impressive run to three titles last season (the Champions League, La Liga and the Spanish Cup) and will be the standout favourite ahead of Ronaldo.
     The Portugal international might have finished the season without a trophy, but his individual talent shone out as he was La Liga's highest scorer with 48 goals, and has notched up a leading seven in the Champions League this term.
     World Cup-winning captain Carli Lloyd (USA/Houston Dash), Aya Miyama (Japan/Okayama Yunogo Belle), and Celia Sasic .

Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar on shortlist for Ballon d'Or -- FIFA

Northern Ireland's restrictive abortion legislation is in breach of human rights law, the Belfast High Court found today in a judgement hailed as "historic".
	The case was taken by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in a bid to allow women and girls to access abortion in cases of rape, incest, or where their baby has no chance of survival, without facing criminal charges.
	"Today's result is historic, and will be welcomed by many of the vulnerable women and girls who have been faced with these situations," Les Allamby NIHRC chief commissioner said in a statement.
	Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, the law in Northern Ireland currently bans abortion unless it is required to save a woman's life or if there is a serious risk to her health.
	The ruling does not change the law and any reform has to be debated by the regional parliament, where there is significant political opposition.
	Judge Mark Horner told the court that "rights of women in Northern Ireland who are ...

Court declares N Ireland abortion law against human rights

Police have apprehended an army deserter who hid in a forest in eastern Russia for more than a decade and kept his whereabouts secret from even his family, regional authorities said today.
	The 30-year-old man, whose identity was not made public, was drafted into the military in 2003 and was stationed in the remote Kamchatka peninsula for one year before fleeing the army's ranks, police said.
	"He lived in Kamchatka all this time, mainly hiding in the forest," the regional branch of the interior ministry said in a statement. "He got by with odd jobs and did not attempt to get in touch with his family."
	The search for the deserter, who hails from the southern Russian city of Taganrog, was stopped when his family erroneously identified a dead body as that of their missing relative a few months after his disappearance, the statement said.
	TASS news agency reported that the deserter's family had even buried who they thought was their missing relative.
	The soldier would have deserted ...

Russian deserter detained after 10 years of hiding in forest

Russian President Vladimir Putin snubbed a meeting with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Paris on Monday as the body of a pilot killed when Ankara downed one of Moscow's warplanes was flown home.
	Turkish authorities, meanwhile, again pledged not to apologise over last Tuesday's downing of the Russian jet as Moscow rolled out its sanctions aimed at exacting economic revenge on Ankara.
	Putin and Erdogan have been locked in a furious war of words since the incident and the Kremlin strongman rejected the Turkish leader's offer of face-to-face talks on the sidelines of a climate conference in the French capital.
	"No meeting with Erdogan is planned. There is no discussion of such a meeting," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
	The downing of the Russian jet on the Turkey-Syria border -- the first time a NATO member has shot down a Russian plane since 1952 -- has seen ties shattered between the two rival players in the Syria conflict.
	Russia's government on ...

Putin snubs Erdogan in Paris as pilot's body returns to Russia

US President Barack Obama urged world leaders gathered for the UN climate conference in Paris to act now to secure a future for humanity.
	The "future is one that we have the power to change right here right now, but only if we rise to this moment," Obama told 150 leaders at the summit.

Obama urges world to 'rise to the moment' at climate summit

At least 12 people, including a UN peacekeeper, were killed in an overnight attack by Ugandan rebels in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sources said.
	"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 in the north of the troubled North Kivu province.
	A local non-governmental organisation however put the toll much higher, at 30 dead: 14 rebels, seven civilians, eight Congolese soldiers and one soldier with the large UN mission in the DRC, MONUSCO.
	The Study Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO) blamed the attack on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who have moved beyond bases in the Ruwenzori mountains by the Ugandan border.
	MONUSCO commander General Jean Baillaud confirmed that a Malawi national serving with the force had been killed, and a second was wounded, when their unit fought the attackers in ...

12 killed in Ugandan rebel attack in DR Congo

Dutch police have suspended an officer who tried to sell online souvenirs said to have come from the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 shot down over war-torn Ukraine last year.
	The man is under arrest for embezzlement and An investigation has been launched and the man is under arrest for embezzlement, police said in a statement late Sunday.
	He had tried to sell "a piece of the clothing he used at the crash site" when teams were investigating the disaster involving the plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, the statement added.
	All 298 people on board MH17, mostly Dutch citizens, were killed when the plane was hit by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from territory held by pro-Russian rebels in July last year, according to a Dutch-led inquiry.
	Apart from the clothing, the man had also tried to sell on the Dutch website Marktplaats (Marketplace) a packet of Malaysia Airlines tissues and another unknown item which allegedly came from the downed plane.
	Marktplaats told .

Dutch policeman held for online sale of MH17 'souvenirs'

Syria today denied ever using chemical weapons in its four-year civil war, telling a global watchdog it is cooperating fully with the destruction of its toxic stockpile.
	"We wish here to state categorically that we have never used chlorine or any other toxic chemicals during any incidents or any other operations in the Syrian Arab Republic since the beginning of the crisis and up to this very day," Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Moqdad told the annual meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
	Damascus's denial comes as a growing number of countries including the European Union, the United States and Canada have cast doubt on whether the Syrian regime is truly making efforts to destroy its lethal arms.
	There are "many uncertainties regarding the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons programme, notably the gaps and contradictions contained in Syria's declarations," EU representative Jacek Bylica told the meeting, attended by delegates from the OPCW's 192 .

Syria denies ever using chemical weapons in civil war

Award-winning Japanese cartoonist Shigeru Mizuki, known for his comics of ghosts and monsters inspired by folklore and for his accounts of World War II horrors, died today at 93, his office said.
	Mizuki, whose real name was Shigeru Mura, was hospitalised in early November after he collapsed in Tokyo, the office said on its website.
	He underwent surgery but died this morning of multiple organ failure in hospital, it said.
	The native of Tottori prefecture in western Japan began his career as a cartoonist after surviving World War II during which the conscripted Japanese soldier lost his left arm in a US air strike.
	Mizuki had enjoyed widespread popularity for decades since the release of his "GeGeGe no Kitaro" comics -- called manga in Japan -- depicting battles between the hero monster Kitaro and rival spirits and ghosts.
	His works also covered the horror of war based on his battlefield experiences in New Britain island, now part of Papua New Guinea, and the harsh treatment common 

Japanese manga artist Mizuki dies at 93

Iran said today that Saudi Arabia's plan to host a meeting of armed and political opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would breach declarations made during recent international peace talks.
	Tehran and Riyadh are on opposite sides of the conflict in Syria but both have taken part in two major meetings in Vienna aimed at finding a political solution.
	The planned meeting in Riyadh in December could boost unity in the Syrian opposition to enter talks on ending the conflict, in which 250,000 people have been killed, the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said.
	But Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iran's deputy foreign minister for Arab and African Affairs, slammed the planned gathering of anti-Assad political and military groups, calling it "hasty and unconstructive".
	"It was agreed in Vienna that the UN representative in Syrian affairs try to determine a list of opposition groups by broad consultation," he was quoted as saying on state television's website.
	"Tehran does ..

AFP

AFP

Page 1901 - Afp