Canberra is pursuing efforts to save two convicted Australians from the firing squad in Indonesia, Foreign Minister Julia Bishop said today after Jakarta executed six drug offenders.
	"The prime minister (Tony Abbott) has written again to President (Joko) Widodo," Bishop said.
	"The Australian government will continue to make representations at the highest level."
	Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia and expressed fury yesterday after Jakarta put to death two of their citizens along with four other drug offenders from Vietnam, Malawi, Nigeria and Indonesia.
	The six were the first people executed under new President Widodo, who took office in October and has voiced strong support for capital punishment.
	Widodo's stance has raised fears for other foreigners sentenced to death, particularly two Australians who were part of the "Bali Nine" group caught trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005.
	One of the pair, Myuran Sukumaran, had his clemency 

Australia pursues plea to spare drug smugglers on death row

PTI Automatic

Negotiators for Iran and six global powers striving to reach a complex deal on Tehran's nuclear programme had "serious and useful" discussions in Geneva and will meet again next month, the EU said.
	High level officials from the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia met with Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi for a day of talks as part of "ongoing diplomatic efforts to find a comprehensive solution to the Iranian nuclear issue," the European Union yesterday said in a message sent to journalists.
	"They had serious and useful meetings chaired by EU political director Helga Schmid and decided to meet again in early February," the message said.
	The negotiations are aimed at hammering out a comprehensive deal which would rein in Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for relief from a tight network of sanctions.
	Following an interim accord agreed in Geneva in November 2013, two deadlines for a final deal have been missed, and now a third one is looming on .

EU hails 'serious' Iran nuclear talks

Pope Francis will fly back to Rome today after a dramatic week in Asia that saw him draw record crowds and hammer home his pro-poor message to millions.
	The pontiff visited Sri Lanka and the Philippines on his second trip to Asia in five months, as he seeks to promote the Catholic Church in one of its most important growth regions.
	Yesterday saw one of the highlights of his journey, with six million people turning out in the Philippine capital Manila as he celebrated mass - a world record for a papal gathering.
	The Philippines is famed as the Catholic Church's bastion in Asia, with 80 per cent of the former Spanish colony's 100 million people following the faith.
	But even the pope was stunned at the size of the crowd, which surpassed the previous world record of five million during a mass by John Paul II at the same venue in 1995.
	"I cannot fathom the faith of the simple people," Francis said, according to the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who acted as the ...

Pope to end record-setting Asia tour

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe flew into Tel Aviv today at the start of a visit hailed by Israel as an opportunity to boost economic ties.
	The three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories is part of the final leg of a six-day tour of the Middle East, aimed also at promoting regional stability and peace.
	The visit "gives us an historic opportunity to bring together the great capabilities of the people of Japan and the people of Israel," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Abe in Jerusalem.
	"I think there are many economic areas, technological areas and other areas in which we can cooperate," Netanyahu added.
	Travelling with Abe is a 100-strong delegation of government officials and top business executives from Japanese firms which are world leaders in their field.
	It is the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to Israel in nine years, and Netanyahu told his cabinet it was an opportunity to continue its economic efforts in Far Eastern markets, ...

Japan PM on 3-day trip to Israel, West Bank

Belgium will request the extradition of a suspect arrested in Greece who could be linked to a jihadist cell dismantled by Belgian security forces earlier this week, federal prosecutors said today.
	"Out of two suspects arrested, there is one who could be linked" to the group, the prosecutors' spokesman Thierry Werts told RTL television. But he declined to comment on speculation that the cell's ringleader was among those detained in Athens yesterday.

Belgium to request extradition of terror suspect from Greece

Ukraine rushed tanks to the front lines and claimed today to have cleared pro-Russian rebels from most of Donetsk airport after days of intense fighting, with heavy shelling shaking the key eastern city.
	As fighting wracked the country's war-torn east, thousands of people held a common prayer and peace march in the capital Kiev attended by President Petro Poroshenko, who vowed the country would not yield to rebels he says have been backed by Russian troops and weapons.
	At least 14 people were killed, including four soldiers, houses were destroyed and electricity was cut for many homes and businesses as explosions repeatedly ripped through parts of the Donetsk region at the weekend.
	Most of the blasts rang out from the area surrounding Donetsk airport northwest of the city as the army and rebels battled for control of the blackened and wrecked site hit by months of on-off clashes.
	But some were also heard closer to the city centre, and Donetsk officials reported "massive damage to .

Ukraine says tank offensive pushing rebels from airport

European security officials are scrambling to meet what they say is a changing and more complex threat from jihadists -- both from sleeper cells and fighters returning from Middle Eastern battlegrounds -- made clear in the deadly Paris attacks.
	European police agency chief Rob Wainwright said the security landscape is "more difficult, more challenging" than at any time since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
	It is an extremely dangerous time, stressed British Prime Minister David Cameroon, who said the threat was "severe" and an attack "is highly likely."
	The three days of violence that left 17 dead in Paris last week -- starting when gunmen stormed into the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo January 7 -- have left the world reeling, with questions being raised about how the perpetrators slipped through the cracks.
	The two Charlie Hebdo attackers, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, had ties to jihadist groups in Yemen and Syria.
	Cherif and a third gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, .

Islamist threat evolving, European officials say

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin today urged his Palestinian counterpart to renew peace talks instead of pursuing efforts at the International Criminal Court or United Nations.
	"There is no other way than direct negotiations. Unilateral steps will not solve the conflict, but just give more power to the extremists," Rivlin said during a visit by a delegation of US senators headed by Republican John McCain.
	"I call upon President (Mahmud) Abbas: instead of going to The Hague or to the United Nations, come to Jerusalem. Come to talk directly to the Israeli government and people," Rivlin said.
	The Palestinians applied earlier this month to become a party to the Hague-based ICC and recognised its jurisdiction to retroactively cover a period including the Gaza war.
	The ICC announced Friday it was launching a "preliminary examination" into Israel's actions in the Palestinian territories, including last summer's war with Gaza militants.
	The Palestinians last month also attempted to have a 

Israeli president calls on Abbas to renew peace talks

Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria today kidnapped at least 60 people in a new attack in northern Cameroon in which some people were killed, police said.
	The Islamist militants "burst into two villages in the Tourou area... They torched houses and left with around 60 people. Most of them were women and children," a police officer told AFP.
	He said the cross-border attack had "left some people dead" without giving an exact toll, adding that the Cameroon army had "launched an operation" in the wake of the assault.
	The kidnapping was the biggest in Cameroon by the Islamists who have staged a series of attacks in the country in recent months and escalated their bloody insurgency in their stronghold in northeastern Nigeria.
	The assault was launched after neighbouring Chad deployed troops to combat Boko Haram both in Cameroon and Nigeria.
	In Nigeria the Chadian troops are seeking to recapture the strategic city of Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad, which straddles the borders of Chad, ...

Boko Haram kidnaps at least 60 in deadly Cameroon attack

Bangladeshi telecoms authorities today shut down smartphone messaging and voice services Viber and Tango, which have become a popular communication medium for supporters of the anti-government protests now in their third week.
	The Bangladesh Telecommunications and Regulatory Commission closed down the apps "for the time being" on orders from law enforcement and security agencies, a commission spokesman told AFP.
	He did not give reasons for the decision, but local television station Channel 24 said Viber and Tango were shut down to prevent protesters from "exchanging information" across the country.
	Viber and Tango have been popular among opposition protesters, including  activists from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist allies who have launched a crippling nationwide transport blockade to try to topple the government.
	The protests have turned increasingly violent with activists firebombing hundreds of buses and trucks, and security forces retaliating with live 

Bangladesh shuts down messaging services to quell violence

The governor of Yemen's Shabwa province warned today that oil companies will turn off their taps at midnight unless Shiite militiamen in control of the capital free a presidency official.
	President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi's chief of staff Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, who was kidnapped yesterday by the Shiite Huthi militias who control Sanaa, is from the southern province of Shabwa in deeply-tribal Yemen.
	"Oil companies in Shabwa will stop production starting midnight if Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak is not released," said the governor, Ahmed Ali Belhaj.
	Yemen's only gas terminal of Belhaf, which is located in Shabwa, would also stop operating, he said.
	An industry official confirmed to AFP that Shabwa's oil companies had received orders to halt their operations.
	Shabwa has three oilfields and produces about 50,000 barrels per day.
	Political sources in Sanaa said Mubarak's kidnap was a bid to press for amendments to Yemen's newly drafted constitution.
	It came just before a meeting of the ...

Yemen province to halt oil flow unless official freed

Canada's top diplomat denounced today the International Criminal Court for opening a preliminary probe into possible war crimes by Israel, which counts on his country as one of its staunchest allies.
	In a brief statement to reporters, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said the ICC's decision was "deeply regretable" and would feature in his meetings with Israeli officials.
	"We look forward to discussing a range of issues, from trade to security, to the deeply regretable decision at the ICC," he said before meeting Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman.
	The ICC said on Friday it was opening "a preliminary examination" into Israel's actions, which will cover a period including last summer's war in Gaza.
	Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the move as "scandalous" and Washington said it was a "tragic irony" that the Jewish state, which had been hit by "thousands of terrorist rockets... Is now being scrutinised by the ICC".
	Canada played a central role in establishing 

Canada's Baird denounces ICC war crimes probe of Israel

Europe remained on high alert today as the suspected mastermind of a jihadist cell in Belgium remained at large and anti-Islamist rallies were blocked by nervous authorities in Germany and France.
	Amid the heightened tensions, the second gunman in the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack was given a secretive burial in an unmarked grave near Paris late last night, designed to ensure it did not become "a pilgrimage site" for radical Islamists.
	Meanwhile, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, considered the brains behind the cell plotting to kill Belgian police, was still on the run days after the group was busted by intelligence services.
	DNA tests showed the 27-year-old was not among suspects arrested in Athens and is still at large, Belgium's Justice Minister Koen Geens told VRT television.
	German police banned a rally by the anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement and other open-air gatherings planned for Monday in the eastern city of Dresden, saying there was a "concrete threat" of an attack against its ...

Manhunts and death threats as Europe on high terror alert

At least 18 people have been killed in unprecedented fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops in the northeastern city of Hasakeh, a monitoring group said today.
	The clashes, which erupted in the early hours yesterday, were continuing for a second day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	"So far, eight Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters and security police have been killed, along with nine regime soldiers and militiamen," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
	A woman civilian was also killed in the fighting yesterday.
	The clashes broke out after Kurdish fighters detained around 10 regime loyalists they accused of seizing part of a demilitarised zone.
	Under a deal agreed last year, Kurdish forces control around 30 per cent of the city's Kurdish and mixed Kurdish-Arab districts, with regime forces controlling most of the city's majority-Arab neighbourhoods.
	Certain districts are off-limits to both sides under the deal.
	The two ...

18 dead as Kurds battle regime forces in Syria city

The presumed mastermind of the jihadist cell dismantled this week in Belgium remains at large, a Belgian minister said today, after arrests in Greece.
	Asked if the suspected leader remained on the run after two people were arrested in Athens yesterday in connection with the Belgian probe, Justice Minister Koen Geens told VRT television: "That is indeed the case."
	"Last night's arrests did not succeed in nabbing the right person. We are still actively looking for him and I presume we will succeed," he added.
	Belgian media have named the suspected leader of the cell uncovered by police Thursday in the eastern town of Verviers as Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin.
	Two suspects were shot dead in a fierce gun battle with police during the raid, which smashed a cell plotting to kill Belgian police officers on the street and in police stations, local authorities said.
	According to Belgian media, the group's suspected leader Abaaoud spent time fighting ...

Mastermind of jihadist cell in Belgium 'still at large'

AB de Villiers hit the fastest century in ODI history as South Africa overwhelmed the West Indies in the second one-day international at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday.
     De Villiers raced to his century off 31 balls - five balls fewer than the previous record - on the way to an astonishing 149 off 44 balls.
     With opening batsmen Hashim Amla and Rilee Rossouw also hitting centuries in a South African record first wicket stand, South Africa piled up a massive 439 for two.
     The West Indies were never likely to chase down a world record target but managed a respectable 291 for seven to give South Africa a 148-run win and a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
     The target was never likely to be within the reach of the West Indies, especially after big-hitting Chris Gayle was caught at deep midwicket off Morne Morkel for 19 in the fifth over.
     Dwayne Smith, caught off a Morkel no-ball in the first over when he had four, made 64 off 65 balls and Denesh Ramdin ...

De Villiers shatters record and West Indies in 2nd ODI

A powerful vigilante leader in the Central African Republic, accused of masterminding a massacre of some 300 minority Muslims in December 2013, has been arrested, prosecutors said today.
	UN peacekeepers arrested Rodrigue Nagibona, alias General Andjilo, who had been on the run for several months, yesterday in the northwest of the impoverished country, the prosecutors said.
	A Cameroonian contingent of the UN force known by the acronym MINUSCA arrested Andjilo in the town of Bouca after a firefight with "his men", a judicial source said.
	"General Andjilo is wanted for multiple crimes including killings, rebellion, illegal possession of weapons of war, criminal association, rape and pillage," said Maurice Dibert-Dollet, Bangui's general prosecutor.
	Violence between rival factions has plunged the deeply poor, landlocked country into an unprecedented political and security crisis.
	Mostly Muslim Seleka fighters backed by armed Muslim civilians have battled the anti-balaka, who emerged .

Top militia chief arrested in Central African Republic

A teenage US couple who spent two weeks on the run after allegedly carrying out a crime spree across several southern states was arrested today, authorities said.
	Police had been looking for 18-year-old Dalton Hayes and his 13-year-old girlfriend Cheyenne Phillips after they allegedly stole at least two vehicles and cashed stolen checks.
	US media outlets had described the couple as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, the Depression-era lovebird outlaws.
	Phillips was reported missing on January 3 by her father in Grayson, Kentucky, and was spotted with Hayes nine days later in a Walmart in Manning, South Carolina, about 750 kilometers away.
	According to a statement from the Grayson County Sheriff's Office, the couple was arrested today by authorities in Panama City Beach, Florida.
	They had been found asleep in a pickup truck that had been stolen in Georgia, the statement read.
	"It should be noted that throughout the multi-state hunt for them, no civilian was injured, neither one of ...

Modern day 'Bonnie and Clyde' arrested in US

Egypt is to reopen the Rafah crossing with Gaza for three days starting Tuesday, for the third time since it was shut in late October after a deadly suicide bombing, security officials said.
	The crossing, the only access point to the Palestinian Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel, was to be reopened last week, but the decision was postponed after an Egyptian police officer working at the terminal was kidnapped and killed.
	The reopening of the crossing will allow Palestinians students who have been stranded on either side to travel through the frontier, a security official said.
	The terminal was shut by Egypt after a deadly bombing in the Sinai Peninsula killed 30 soldiers in late October.
	It was later reopened twice.
	The Egyptian army has been battling an insurgency in the restive Sinai, which also borders Israel, ever since it overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
	Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, Egypt's deadliest militant group, is based in the peninsula and has ...

Egypt to reopen Rafah terminal for 3 days from Tuesday

Israel today laid charges against seven Arab Israelis over allegations they set up a militant cell linked to the Islamic State group, the Shin Bet internal security agency said.
	The seven, who all come from Israel's northern Galilee region, were all arrested in November and December and indicted at Haifa District Court today. They are aged between 22 and 40.
	Shin Bet said they were indicted on charges of "membership of, and activity within an illegal organisation, support for a terror organisation and attempts to make contact with an enemy agent".
	In September, Israel outlawed both IS and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades as "illegal organisations", allowing for legal measures to be taken against them or anyone supporting or financing them.
	In a statement, Shin Bet identified the ringleader as 40-year-old Adnan Alaaeddin and said the group met frequently with a radical Salafist cleric.
	"Adnan presented himself to the other members as an senior commander within the ..

7 Arab Israelis charged with setting up IS cell

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe flew into Tel Aviv today at the start of a three-day official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
	He flew in from Jordan to begin the final leg of a six-day tour of the Middle East aimed at promoting regional stability and peace as well as boosting economic ties.
	Travelling with him is a 100-strong delegation of government officials and top business executives from Japanese firms which are world leaders in their field.
	It is the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to Israel in nine years.
	Abe, who was re-elected as premier last month, began his trip in Cairo where he pledged USD 2.5 billion in humanitarian and development aid for countries affected by violent expansion of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Iraq and Syria.
	In Israel, he will hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin tomorrow before heading to the West Bank to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday.
	Abe is ...

AFP

AFP

Page 2591 - Afp