Hamburg's bid to host the 2024 Olympics fell at the first hurdle today when residents voted 'No' in a crunch referendum as the German public again torpedoed plans to host a Games.
	Local residents in Hamburg and Kiel, where the sailing events would have been held, vetoed the proposed bid with 51.7 percent of the 650,000 votes against the Olympic bid while 48.3 were in favour.
	This is the second time in two years that the German public has turned down the chance to host an Olympics after residents scuppered Munich's bid to host the 2022 Winter Games in a 2013 referendum.

Olympics: Hamburg residents vote against 2024 Games bid

PTI Automatic

Israeli border police killed a Palestinian today during clashes in occupied east Jerusalem, an official at the Palestinian health ministry said, without giving further details.
	An Israeli police statement said that officers fired at a Palestinian holding a petrol bomb in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood after they came under attack from a volley of the missiles, but they could not confirm hitting him.

Israeli police kill Palestinian in Jerusalem

The European Union and Turkey agreed on a deal to stem the migrant crisis including a three-billion-euro (USD 3.2-billion) aid package for Syrian refugees in Turkey, EU president Donald Tusk said after a summit in Brussels today.
	   "Our agreement sets out a clear plan for the timely re-establishment of order at our shared frontier. We will also step up our assistance to Syrian refugees in Turkey through a new refugee facility of three billion euros," Tusk told a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

EU, Turkey agree 3bn euro aid deal to stem migrant crisis

The bearded drifter accused of being America's latest random killer apparently made a family planning clinic that does abortions his specific target, the mayor of the town rocked by the shooting said today.
	Details have begun to trickle out about what may have driven the suspect, Robert Lewis Dear, 57, to go on a rampage with a high-powered rifle at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing three people.
	The clinic performs abortions -- a highly emotive and divisive practice in America.
	NBC News, citing two law enforcement officials, reported Saturday that, when questioned after his arrest, Dear mentioned "no more baby parts" in reference to Planned Parenthood.
	Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told ABC's "This Week" Sunday talk show that police have yet to disclose what Dear told them under interrogation as to his motive.
	But when asked if he thought Planned Parenthood was targeted, Suthers said: "It certainly appears that way." He declined to ...

'US shooter apparently targeted clinic that does abortions'

Paris riot police fired teargas today in clashes with far-left activists in Paris during a climate change demonstration ahead of key UN talks after several thousand protesters had formed a human chain in the city.
	Riot police took action after a group of protesters pelted officers with bottles and candles from one of the tributes to the victims of the November 13 attacks on the French capital. Around 100 people were arrested.
	Organisers said around 10,000 activists had linked hands in a peaceful protest near the site of the deadliest attack, pleading for leaders to curb global warming. Police said half that number took part.
	The colourful human chain passed near the Bataclan concert hall where 90 people were killed in the suicide bombings and shootings.
	Stretching for two kilometres long a wind-blown Boulevard Voltaire in eastern Paris, it was the first organised demonstration since the attacks claimed by the Islamic State in which 130 people died and hundreds were injured.
	Out ..

Riot police clash with protesters at Paris climate demo

Climate negotiators in Paris vowed today to craft a historic pact to avert catastrophic global warming in honour of the victims of this month's horror attacks in the French capital.
	The undertaking was made as negotiators met ahead of tomorrow's formal opening of a two-week conference tasked with forging a pact unifying long-bickering nations in the struggle to end the world's dependence on climate-altering fossil fuels.
	The summit opens two weeks after the November 13 gun and suicide bomb attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State group, in which 130 people died.
	"The best way to honour the memory of those who have fallen, those who are victims of barbaric attacks, is to carry out what we have committed to," one of two chairmen of the talks, Ahmed Djoghlaf, told participants as he launched the negotiations.
	Negotiators observed a minute's silence today for the 130 victims of the Paris attacks.
	French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius appealed to all 195 nations involved in the .

Negotiators vow to honour Paris victims with climate deal

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic today passed a lie detector test that he took voluntarily over local tabloid allegations of involvement in a blackmailing affair.
	"The premier took upon his own initiative a lie detector test after Kurir published very serious charges that he had rejected," Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told a press conference.
	The daily published on Sunday the content of a criminal report submitted to prosecutors by Kurir's former director Aleksandar Kornic. The latter alleged that leading figures from another tabloid, Informer, were involved in the blackmailing affair involving Vucic as well.
	Vucic went to police after the article was published and decided to undergo a test.
	"The lie detector showed that he (Vucic) was telling the truth," the minister said, adding its results proved that Vucic never met with Kornic.
	"It is evident that these lies targeting the prime minister aim at destabilising the country .... Which we will succeed in preventing .

Serbian PM takes lie detector test over tabloid claims

South African anti-apartheid icon, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said today that a failure by world leaders to take action against climate change at the Paris conference will trigger global social upheaval.
	"Failing to grasp the nettle will send a direct message of contempt to poorer nations and people, who cannot afford the costs of mitigating the impacts of increasing temperatures" Tutu said in a statement.
	"It will trigger unprecedented economic and refugee crises, and dramatically deepen global insecurity."
	Tutu, 84, a friend of South Africa's first democratic president Nelson Mandela, is seen as the moral conscience of the nation through the years of apartheid racism and beyond.
	"COP21 is not just about the weather; it is a unique opportunity for the world's leaders to address global inequity," he said.
	It was an opportunity for powerful people and nations to acknowledge that their well being was dependent on the well being, security and sustainability of others.
	"Our leaders ...

Tutu says failure to act on climate will trigger social crises

Hundreds of Saudi women began campaigning for public office today, in a first for women in the conservative Muslim kingdom's slow reform process, even as three activists were disqualified.
	More than 900 women are standing alongside thousands of men in the December 12 municipal ballot, which will also mark the first time women are allowed to vote.
	"I've been eliminated as a candidate for the municipal elections," Loujain Hathloul said in a tweet.
	Saudi authorities detained Hathloul for more than two months after she tried to drive into the kingdom last December from the United Arab Emirates, in defiance of a Saudi ban on female motorists.
	She had said she wanted to run "to increase the percentage of women's participation".
	Another driving activist, Tamadour al-Yami, told AFP her name was also dropped from the final list of authorised candidates. She vowed to appeal, "but I don't think it will change anything."
	And Nassima al-Sadah, a human rights activist and would-be candidate ..

3 activists barred as Saudi women launch first vote bid

French President Francois Hollande today condemned the "scandalous" behaviour of far-left activists who clashed with police in Paris ahead of key UN climate talks.
	"These disruptive elements have nothing to do with defenders of the environment," Hollande said at an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels.
	"It is doubly regrettable, even scandalous that this happened at the Place de la Republique where flowers and candles have been left in memory of those who were killed by the terrorists' bullets" in the November 13 Paris attacks, he said.

France's Hollande slams 'scandalous' clashes at Paris  talks

Hundreds of people protested in the Polish city of Poznan today against terrorism and racism, in one of the first such demonstrations called by Muslim leaders in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.
	Around 300 demonstrators gathered in the centre of the western city carrying banners reading "Muslims against terrorism" and "Stop racism".
	Poland, where 90 per cent of the 38 million population is Catholic, is estimated to have around 15,000 to 25,000 Muslims.
	"We condemn all forms of terrorism and we express our solidarity with the French people and all victims of terrorist attacks around the world," said Youssef Chadid, the imam of Poznan who organised the rally.
	He said some Polish people were "very racist" and thought all Muslims were terrorists.
	"So we are protesting today against terrorism and racism," he said.
	Poland's new conservative government has taken a tough stance on Europe's migrant crisis, refusing to take in refugees under the EU's redistribution programme.

Polish Muslims rally against racism and terrorism

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, today condemned the West's "double standards" in a letter to the youth of America and Europe following the Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
	"Anyone who has benefited from affection and humanity is affected and disturbed by witnessing these scenes -- whether it occurs in France or in Palestine or Iraq or Lebanon or Syria," he wrote in the letter, translated into English and French.
	"It is correct that today terrorism is our common worry," he said, while condemning the "contradictory policies" of the United States in "creating, nurturing and arming Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their inauspicious successors".
	"The military invasions of the Islamic world in recent years -- with countless victims -- are another example of the contradictory logic of the West," Khamenei argued.
	"The pain that the Islamic world has suffered in these years from the hypocrisy and duplicity of the invaders is not less than the pain from the material damage," ..

Iran condemns West's 'double standards' in letter to youth

Negotiators observed a minute's silence today for the 130 victims of the November 13 Paris attacks on the eve of a summit aimed at averting a climate disaster.
	"The best way to honour the memory of those who have fallen, those who are victims of barbaric attacks, is to carry out what we have committed to," co-chair of the talks, Ahmed Djoghlaf, told participants in Paris.

World urged to honour Paris victims with climate deal

About 300 people today protested the arrest of two prominent journalists on charges of spying over their reports about Ankara's alleged arms supplies to Syrian rebels in a case that has revived long-standing criticism of Turkey's press freedom record.
	The demonstrators, including journalists, rights groups and opposition MPs, marched to the Istanbul offices of the Cumhuriyet daily to express solidarity with its editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul.
	"Shoulder to shoulder against fascism," they shouted, according to an AFP photographer.
	They held placards that read: "We stand up for press freedom. Free press cannot be silenced."
	Addressing the crowd outside Cumhuriyet, the main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu denounced the arrest as a "black stain on the history of press."
	"We have a common responsibility to protect our media and our democracy," he said.
	"Dundar will get out and reveal the secrets again," the crowd ...

Protests in Istanbul over journalists arrested for 'spying'

Stabbings at an entrance to Jerusalem's Old City and near a bus stop today left two people wounded and an attacker killed, while Israel closed a third Palestinian radio station accused of incitement.
	The attacks and closure of the station came with Israeli security forces struggling to halt two months of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming assaults.
	Several weeks ago, an Israeli security crackdown in Jerusalem, including roadblocks in Palestinian neighbourhoods, was followed by a lull in attacks in the city, but violence has returned.
	Early today, a 38-year-old Palestinian stabbed and lightly wounded an Israeli border police officer at Damascus Gate, a main entrance point for Palestinians to east Jerusalem's Old City and the site of several previous attacks.
	The attacker was identified as Bassem Salah from the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
	Later in the morning, a foreign woman of around 30 was lightly wounded in a stabbing near a bus station in west Jerusalem and the ...

Fresh Jerusalem stabbings as Israel weighs next moves

Two people died and about 3,000 were left homeless when a fire destroyed 800 shacks at the Masiphumelele informal settlement in Cape Town today, officials said.
	"Disaster risk management and the South African Red Cross Service are on scene to co-ordinate relief efforts including providing food, baby packs, mattresses and blankets," mayor Patricia de Lille said in a statement.
	"At this stage the cause of the fire is unknown and the incident was handed over to the South African Police Service for investigation."
	The settlement, near Fish Hoek on the Southern Peninsula, has recently been rocked by vigilante killings carried out by residents who complain of a lack of policing in the area.
	Shack fires are a perennial threat to the impoverished residents of sprawling informal settlements near major cities throughout South Africa.

Two die, 3,000 homeless in SAfrica shack fire

Gunmen wounded a senior army commander in western Burundi, a military spokesman said today, with at least four killed in following clashes.
	Colonel Serge Kabanyura was shot when gunmen opened fire in an ambush as he was driving on Saturday to the capital Bujumbura, some 20 kilometres from the city, said army spokesman Gaspard Baratuza.
	The area is a stronghold of the former rebels from the 1993-2006 civil war, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), many of whom now oppose the third term in power of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
	Burundi descended into violence in April after Nkurunziza launched his now successful bid for a third consecutive term in office, despite concerns over the legality of such a move.
	Army officers said four insurgents had been killed as troops hunted the attackers, although insurgent sources denied they were responsible for the shooting.
	While insurgents have repeatedly targeted the police including in regular grenade attacks, they have largely refrained from .

Gunmen ambush Burundian army commander

Clashes broke out today between hundreds of asylum seekers at a shelter in Berlin, in the second mass brawl to erupt over the weekend in Germany's crowded migrant accommodations.
	Several people were arrested at the fight that started in the food distribution queues at the former airport of Tempelhof, which has been turned into a temporary accommodation for 1,200 refugees, an AFP photographer witnessed.
	The brawl came just hours after another mass fight at a refugee shelter in the Berlin suburb of Spandau, where migrants went at each other with fire extinguishers, a police spokesman said.
	Windows were smashed, sofas were thrown, and fire extinguishers emptied, said police, adding that several residents of the shelter were wounded.
	Some 500 people evacuated the building "in fear and panic" over the dispute.
	Separately, two other fights broke out in other shelters.
	At a refugee home in Berlin's Kreuzberg area, a 18-year-old struck a 17-year-old on the head with a belt, police ...

Mass brawls erupt in crowded migrant shelters in Germany

Protesters linked hands near the heart of the Paris terror attacks today but others clashed with police, giving an emotional jolt to world leaders flying into the French capital to try to save Earth from climate catastrophe.
	As hundreds of thousands of people joined protests worldwide, the human chain aimed to send a highly symbolic message to leaders on the eve of the official opening of a 195-nation UN climate summit in Paris.
	French authorities cancelled two climate demonstrations in the City of Light after gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people on November 13 for security reasons.
	Though the Paris protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, a small band of anti-capitalist militants clashed with riot police in the late afternoon leading to the arrests of about 100 people.
	Instead of marching, many activists left thousands of pairs of shoes -- weighing more than four tonnes according to organisers -- on Place de la Republique square. A pair of running shoes was left by UN ...

Paris human chain presses leaders for climate deal

European Union leaders were set to sign a deal with Turkey's prime minister at a summit today giving Ankara cash and a boost for its membership bid in exchange for its cooperation with the migrant crisis.
	Desperate to stop the flow of humanity from Turkey where some 2.2 million refugees from the Syrian conflict are living, the EU offered Turkey three billion euros ($3.2 billion) to take action, according to draft summit conclusions obtained by AFP.
	Turkish premier Ahmet Davutoglu, standing in for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will also be offered the opening in December of a new chapter in Turkey's stalled accession talks for the 28-nation bloc, the draft said.
	But concerns over human rights and Turkey's role in the Syrian conflict, including the shooting down of a Russian warplane in the last week, have made EU nations wary of offering Turkey too many concessions without safeguards.
	EU president Donald Tusk said in his opening speech that while the bloc was ready to help, "in ..

Turkey to get cash, closer EU ties at migration summit

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said today that his enemies abroad had increased support for the regime's armed opponents since the start of a major offensive to win back lost territory.
	Meeting with a senior Iranian official in Damascus, Assad highlighted "important gains by the Syrian army in the fight against terrorism, with the support of its friends led by Iran and Russia," state news agency SANA reported.
	But these gains, he said, have "pushed certain countries hostile to Syria and who pretend to fight terrorism to... increase their financing and arming of terrorist groups."
	Since the outbreak of Syria's conflict in 2011 Assad has accused Sunni Muslim countries including Turkey and Gulf nations of arming his mainly Sunni opponents.
	Assad's regime, dominated by the Shiite Alawite sect, launched a key offensive to retake areas seized by opponents after Moscow launched air strikes in support of the government in late September.
	Iran, the region's main Shiite power, has also ..

AFP

AFP

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