A toddler left alone with her pre-school siblings in their Texas home suffered fatal burns after they put her in the oven and switched it on, US media reported.
	J'Zyra Thompson, 19 months, was left unsupervised along with her three-year-old twin siblings in the Houston apartment. A five-year-old was also present.
	Court records obtained by ABC-13 News in Houston said the twins told child protective services that one of them put their little sister in the oven and the other one made it "hot."
	Their mother Raqual Thompson, 25, is set to appear in court Monday on four counts of child endangerment, according to the Harris County Sheriff's office.
	Thompson reportedly told police that she had gone out with her boyfriend to collect a pizza and a prescription at the drug store when her child burned to death on November 16.
	When they returned home they found the three other children crying and pointing to the kitchen. The oven had toppled over with the door face down on the floor.
	Child ..

Texas toddler dies after siblings put her in oven

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Russia's announcement it is deploying its most hi-tech air defense system to its base in Syria is raising "significant concerns" for the US military, a US official said today.
	Russia says it is sending S-400 anti-aircraft missiles to Latakia in northwestern Syria, in a move that comes after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in the increasingly crowded air space along the border on Tuesday.
	The S-400 missiles have a range of about 400 kilometers, posing a potential threat to US-led coalition planes, and adding yet another dangerous element to an already volatile mix of competing military interests in Syria.
	"It's a capable weapons system that poses a significant threat to anyone," a US official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP. "There are significant concerns related to air operations in Syria."
	The United States has for more than a year been leading a coalition that has flown more than 8,000 bombing runs against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.
	Russia, ...

US has 'concerns' over Russian missile system: US official

The US investigation into a deadly air strike on a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Afghanistan showed a "frightening catalogue of errors" by American troops, the charity said today.
	The October 3 air raid on the French charity's hospital during a Taliban offensive in the northern city of Kunduz killed at least 30 people, sparked an avalanche of global condemnation and forced the facility -- the only trauma centre in the region -- to close.
	"The frightening catalogue of errors outlined today illustrates gross negligence on the part of US forces and violations of the rules of war," said MSF general director Christopher Stokes, responding to the earlier release of a US investigation into the attack that described it as "caused primarily by human error".
	The US commander in Afghanistan John Campbell gave details of the US inquiry earlier Wednesday, describing how a Special Operations AC-130 gunship aircraft hit the hospital instead of a nearby Afghan intelligence compound ...

US strike on hospital was frightening catalogue of errors: MSF

French lawmakers today voted overwhelmingly to extend air strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria, which have been stepped up following the Paris attacks.
	Paris has intensified its campaign against IS since the November 13 Paris assaults that left 130 people dead, this week launching its first strikes from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.
	The National Assembly approved a motion to prolong strikes by 515 votes to four, with 10 abstentions, as the defence minister said all 27 other European Union members had offered "direct or indirect" military support.
	Prime Minister Manuel Valls told lawmakers again that France was "at war" with IS.
	"There is no alternative: we must destroy Daesh," Valls said, using an alternative name for IS.
	He said French planes, which started hitting IS targets in Iraq in September 2014, had carried out more than 300 strikes against the jihadists.
	President Francois Hollande met his US counterpart Barack Obama at the 

French lawmakers vote to extend air strikes in Syria

US securities regulators have filed charges against an ex-Goldman Sachs information technology employee who allegedly made more than USD 460,000 in illegal insider trades before fleeing to China, officials announced Wednesday.
	Yue Han, 30, pocketed the money after trading stock options on four companies advised by Goldman investment bankers on impending buyout offers, according to charges filed Tuesday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
	Shares of the four companies -- Yodlee, Zulily, Rentrak and KLA-Tencor -- jumped when takeovers were announced.
	Han gained access to bankers' email accounts because his job entailed developing surveillance software designed to monitor other employees for misconduct such as insider trading.
	Han, a Chinese national, worked at Goldman from December 2014 to October 2015. He left New York City on October 22 for Shanghai, where he is believed to reside, the SEC said.
	"We allege that Han's employer gave him access to confidential ...

US charges ex-Goldman employee with insider trading

Holloway women's prison, which held suffragettes as well as notorious murderers and where the last woman to be executed in Britain was hanged, is to close down, finance minister George Osborne said today.
	The largest female prison in western Europe, Holloway in north London is being closed as part of government plans to sell off city-based prisons to turn into housing and build more modern facilities further away.
	"Old Victorian prisons in our cities that are not suitable for rehabilitating prisoners will be sold," Osborne told parliament.
	"I can tell the House that Holloway prison -- the biggest women's jail in western Europe -- will close," he said.
	The historic institution opened as a mixed prison in 1852 before becoming female-only in 1902.
	The Victorian complex was torn down and completely rebuilt between 1971 and 1985.
	Well-known inmates have included "Moors murderer" Myra Hindley and serial killer Rose West.
	Before it was redeveloped, it also housed many leading ...

Suffragettes' historic London prison to close

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) today condemned a string of arrests of journalists in Niger, saying five had been detained in 10 days in "total violation" of the freedom of the press.
	RSF said Souleymane Salha, director of the weekly Le Courrier, had been in custody in the capital Niamey since Monday over the publication of an article in which he criticised the deputy police chief over the arrest of opposition presidential candidate Hama Amadou.
	Amadou, a former prime minister who fled the country to escape baby trafficking charges, was detained on November 14 as he returned after a year in exile in France.
	RSF called for the "immediate release" of Salha, urging Niger's government to "stop using these preventative detentions to intimidate media professionals".
	Two journalists and two cameramen covering Amadou's return on November 14 were arrested and their footage confiscated, RSF said, adding that they were freed the next day.
	In January, around a dozen of ...

Five journalists arrested in Niger: rights group

Tunisia said today it is closing its border with Libya, a hotbed of Islamist unrest, a day after a deadly suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
	No reason was given, but the interior ministry said earlier the explosive used in the attack that killed 12 presidential guards was the same used to make explosive belts illegally brought from Libya and seized last year.
	The National Security Council, headed by President Beji Caid Essebsi, decided to close the frontier from midnight with "reinforced surveillance of maritime borders and in airports", a statement said.
	It also decided to "step up operations to block (Internet) sites linked to terrorism".
	And authorities would "take urgent measures regarding people returning from hotbeds of conflict, in line with the antiterrorist law," the statement added, without elaborating.
	Earlier, the transport ministry said security would be reinforced at ports and only passengers would be allowed to enter Tunis's international ...

Tunisia closing border with Libya after deadly bus bombing

Wolves have returned to a large national park on the northern outskirts of Warsaw, decades after they were wiped out in the area under a hunt launched by the communist authorities.
	"We're really happy," said Magdalena Kaminska, spokeswoman for the 385-square-kilometre Kampinos national park, Poland's second largest.
	"The fact that wolves have returned to our park, from which they completely disappeared in the 1960s, means that Nature is in good health and is renewing itself," she told AFP.
	Park employees spotted a first wolf in 2013, but the animal was just passing through. Now there are several and they appear to have settled in for the long haul, she said.
	A young male wolf was caught on a hidden camera just a few days ago, and in September another was spotted drinking at a watering hole.
	The country's communist regime organised a vast wolf cull in the 1960s in response to the perceived danger they posed, paying residents for every animal shot dead.
	Locals killed off the ...

Wolves return to Warsaw area after decades

Less than one third of voters cast ballots in the second phase of Egyptian parliamentary elections held across almost half of the country's provinces at the weekend, authorities said today.
	The 29.9 percent turnout was only marginally higher than the 26.6 percent registered in the first stage of voting last month, which was followed by a run-off that saw 21.7 percent vote.
	Experts say the result of the election is a foregone conclusion, with the 596-member parliament expected to rubber-stamp President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's iron-fisted policies in the absence of any opposition.
	The turnout in the second stage of voting held across 13 of the country's 27 provinces was 29.83 percent, said electoral commission chief Ayman Abbas.
	Ninety-nine out of 102 constituencies will now hold a run-off vote on December 1-2, he told reporters, adding that of the 222 individual seats that were contested only nine saw candidates winning with a clear majority.
	In the latest vote, 60 seats from the ..

Less than third of voters turn out in Egypt election

French lawmakers today voted overwhelmingly to extend air strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria, which have been stepped up following the Paris attacks.
	The National Assembly approved a motion to prolong the operation by 515 votes to four, with 10 abstentions.

French parliament votes to extend air strikes in Syria

Portugal's new prime minister, Antonio Costa, today formed a new government that will have to pull off a tricky balancing act, satisfying both Brussels and his allies on the radical left.
	Costa was named prime minister yesterday at the head of a new Socialist administration, ending more than seven weeks of political turmoil in Portugal after inconclusive elections.
	Harvard graduate Mario Centeno has been named in the key post of finance minister in a government set to take power on Thursday.
	Centeno will play a key role in juggling Portugal's financial commitments as it recovers from a massive 2011 bailout with the promises Costa made to hard-left parties in order to snatch power from the conservatives earlier this month.
	Portugal's centre-right bloc won the most seats in elections on October 4, but lost its absolute majority.
	In a dramatic parliamentary vote on November 11, the Socialists teamed up in an unprecedented alliance with the Communists, Greens and Left Bloc to topple .

New Portugal PM forms government in delicate balancing act

Tunisia announced today it was closing its land border with war-torn Libya for 15 days following a deadly bus bombing in Tunis claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
	The National Security Council headed by President Beji Caid Essebsi decided to close the frontier from midnight with "reinforced surveillance of maritime borders and in airports", a presidency statement said.
	Thousands of Tunisians have travelled to Libya, Iraq and Syria to fight alongside Islamic extremists, according to the authorities.

Tunisia says shutting border with Libya for 15 days

Seven people were murdered here today by half a dozen gunmen in the second massacre in as many days in Honduras, a Central American country gripped by gang violence, police said.
	Six men and a woman, all aged between 18 and 36, were brought from three separate houses to the location in the southwest of the city where they were shot to death, police spokesman Leonel Sauceda told reporters.
	Yesterday, in the north of the country, another eight people working for a local transport company were killed in a separate attack, he added.
	The motives of the massacres were not yet known, Sauceda said.
	Honduras is suffering frequent bloodshed linked to armed street gangs that battle each other and the police.
	Drivers and other employees of bus companies have been especially targeted by the gangs, which extort money from them for a so-called "war tax."
	A Violence Observatory at the country's National University has recorded 92 massacres so far this year, for a total of 335 victims -- half of 

Seven massacred by gunmen in Honduran capital

A UN conference to craft a climate rescue pact will start a day earlier than planned, the UN's climate forum said today.
	It said in a statement that "an early opening of the session will offer an opportunity to make the best possible use of the very limited time available to finalise negotiations."
	The official opening with heads of state and government will take place on Monday as scheduled.

Paris climate conference to start a day early: UN

Russia today accused Turkey of a "planned provocation" over the downing of a warplane on the Syrian border as a rescued pilot claimed that no warning had been given.
	As the diplomatic fallout from yesterday's incident raged on, Ankara sought to play down tensions and its allies in NATO issued urgent appeals for restraint.
	Moscow said Russian and Syrian special forces had rescued one of the two pilots who ejected from the bomber as it plunged to the earth in a fireball but confirmed the second airman and a soldier sent to rescue him died.
	In his first interview, rescued pilot Konstantin Murakhtin told Russian state media there had been no warning before his plane was shot down by Turkish fighter jets.
	"There was no warning, not by radio exchange nor visually. There was no contact at all," Murakhtin said at Moscow's base in Syria, with his back to the cameras.
	Turkey insists it gave 10 warnings in the space of five minutes, an account backed up by its NATO ally the United States ...

Russia says jet downing 'provocation' as pilot denies warning

The United States imposed sanctions today on supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, including a middleman it alleged buys oil for the regime from the Islamic State group.
	"The Syrian government is responsible for widespread brutality and violence against its own people," said Adam Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement announcing the sanctions action.
	"The United States will continue targeting the finances of all those enabling Assad to continue inflicting violence on the Syrian people.

US sanctions Syria for buying oil from Islamic State group

Pope Francis said the world was facing a "grave environmental crisis" as he arrived in Kenya today on a landmark Africa trip just days before a crucial UN summit aimed at curbing climate change.
	"The grave environmental crisis facing our world demands an ever greater sensitivity to the relationship between human beings and nature," he told Kenyan political leaders in the capital Nairobi, shortly after arriving in the east African country.
	"There is a clear link between the protection of nature and the building of a just and equitable social order."
	Francis has taken on a vocal role in the fight against climate change, injecting a moral voice into a debate usually dominated by economic and political concerns.
	His remarks come on the eve of a United Nations climate conference in Paris which will gather more than 145 world leaders for a 12-day summit aimed at securing a climate rescue pact.
	The 78-year-old pontiff said environmental concerns should be at the forefront of ...

World facing 'grave environmental crisis', pope warns

A catastrophic US strike on a charity-run hospital in Afghanistan was a "painful demonstration of the cost of war", Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said today after the US military detailed an investigation into the attack.
	"Such mistakes can and should be avoided," Ghani said in a statement. "But it is also a painful demonstration of the cost of war being brought upon us by terrorist groups and enemies of Afghanistan," he said, adding that the US investigation "will enable the authorities to learn from the mistakes and hold people accountable".

'MSF hospital strike painful demonstration of the cost of war'

Tackling climate change and countering violent extremism will top the agenda at the Commonwealth summit in Malta this week, attended by Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Hollande.
	Coming after the Paris terror attacks this month and just before the COP21 world climate talks hosted in the French capital, the meeting will bring together G20 powers and tiny microstates spanning the continents.
	Because the 53-country group contains such diverse countries, the talks are being closely watched in world capitals for signs of agreement on climate change that could herald a deal at the UN COP21 summit.
	"It can really help the outcome in Paris," Liz Gallagher, programme leader at the E3G environmental think-tank, told AFP -- even though major powers such as China and the United States are not involved.
	The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) begins on Friday and wraps up on Sunday, a day before the COP21 talks start in Paris.
	Born out of the British empire, the ..

Climate, extremism top agenda at Commonwealth summit talks

Brazilian police today arrested a senior ruling party senator and a billionaire investment banker in the intensifying probe of a huge corruption network centered on state oil giant Petrobras.
	Senator Delcidio Amaral, who leads President Dilma Rousseff's Workers' Party in the upper house, was the first sitting legislator to be arrested in the widening corruption scandal.
	"He is in preliminary detention. He was detained in Brasilia and has already arrived at the police station," a press officer for the attorney general's office told AFP.
	Police in Rio de Janeiro also arrested BTG Pactual investment bank CEO Andre Esteves, who is estimated by Forbes magazine to have personal wealth of some USD 2.2 billion, overseeing about USD 200 billion in assets. Search warrants were issued for residences and offices in Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Rio and Mato Grosso.
	Both men, and a lawyer who was also arrested, are suspected of obstructing investigations into the Petrobras bribes and kickbacks scheme, .

AFP

AFP

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