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 ...

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

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British Prime Minister David Cameron defended the right to speech that gives offense to others' religious beliefs, in a rebuttal to Pope Francis who said there should be limits.
	In an interview that aired today on CBS's Face the Nation, Cameron said the West must show that its values, like free speech, are stronger than those of Islamist extremists pursuing a "poisonous death cult narrative."
	"I think in a free society, there is a right to cause offense about someone's religion. I'm a Christian. If someone says something offensive about Jesus, I might find that offensive but in a free society I don't have a right to wreak my vengeance upon them," Cameron said.
	"We have to accept that newspapers, magazines can publish things that are offensive to some as long as it's within the law," he said.
	Cameron, who was interviewed after his meeting here Friday with US President Barack Obama, was responding to the pope's comments suggesting that religion should be off limits.
	"There are ...

Cameron rebuts pope on speech offensive to religion

At least 35 Syrian soldiers were killed overnight when an army cargo plane crashed in bad weather in the northwest of the country, a monitor said today.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the plane crashed after hitting electricity lines in heavy fog in Idlib province, a claim echoed by Syrian state media.
	But Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front claimed on Twitter that it had shot down the aircraft.
	Syrian state media reported the crash without giving a death toll.
	"A medium-sized cargo plane crashed last night while landing at the Abu al-Duhur military airport because of bad weather conditions and heavy fog, killing the crew on board," state news agency SANA said.
	It gave no further details on the incident.
	The Observatory said regime forces were involved in heavy clashes with Al-Nusra fighters in a bid to reach and recover the bodies of those killed in the crash.
	On one of its Twitter accounts, Al-Nusra claimed it had shot down the plane and posted photos it ..

35 Syrian soldiers killed in plane crash: monitor

Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi gave evidence today for the first time his espionage trial, launching into a tirade against his successor whom he accused of removing him in a "coup".
	Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, was toppled by former army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in July 2013 after mass protests demanding the Islamist's resignation after just one year in office.
	Appearing in a caged dock dressed in white prison uniform, Morsi was fired up as he presented his own defence for the trial in which he stands accused of espionage along with 35 other people.
	"I am the president, and I have not been stripped off this title," Morsi said during his two-hour appearance in which he attacked Sisi several times without mentioning him by name.
	"On 3 July (2013), I was surprised by military chiefs suspending the constitution and toppling the president: if this is not a coup, then what is?" said the Islamist whose ouster was followed by a relentless ...

Morsi launches tirade against Sisi 'coup' in Egypt trial

An Israeli helicopter carried out a strike today against "terrorists" in the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights who were allegedly preparing an attack on Israel, an Israeli security source said.
	The source told AFP the strike took place near Quneitra, close to the ceasefire line separating the Syrian part of the Golan Heights from the Israeli-occupied sector, confirming a report by Lebanon's Al-Manar television.
	The source could not provide details about the identities of the targets or the nature of the attack they were allegedly preparing.
	The Israeli army would not comment.
	According to the source, Israeli drones were present in the area during the attack. Last month, the Syrian army said it shot down an Israeli reconnaissance drone flying over Quneitra province.
	In August, five rockets fired from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights and in July Israel shelled Syrian army positions after a Syrian rocket hit Israel.
	Syria and Israel are officially in a ...

Israeli helicopter strikes Syrian Golan: security source

Eurostar travellers faced further disruptions today after an electrical problem shut down the Channel Tunnel for two hours, a day after a lorry fire forced the closure of the crucial transport link.
	Eleven trains -- two return services between Paris and London and seven trains between Brussels and London -- were cancelled.
	Eurostar services had only just resumed after being suspended yesterday when another problem surfaced in the tunnel between Britain and France at around 10 am (GMT).
	"Eurotunnel had another infrastructure problem, an electrical incident around 10 am this morning, and so they shut down the two tunnels from 10:00 am till noon," Eurostar's chief executive Nicolas Petrovic told AFP.
	The company, which offers passenger rail services between London, Brussels and Paris, had said schedules would return to normal on Sunday.
	But the electrical incident caused further disruptions, adding to passenger woes after Saturday's fire had forced thousands to rearrange their ...

Eurostar cancels trains after new Tunnel incident

A pan-Islamic human rights body today urged Muslims to show restraint despite what it called the "hatred" displayed by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
	The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's human rights body accused Charlie Hebdo of "ridiculing the most revered personality" of Islam but urged the world's more than 1.5 billion Muslims "to continue to exercise restraint".
	The appeal came after thousands around the world demonstrated against a new cartoon published by the French weekly last week.
	The worst unrest has been in the African nation of Niger, where 10 people were killed and at least eight churches torched.
	The new cartoon is an "intolerant, disrespectful and manifest expression of hatred as well as insensitivity" toward Muslims, said the OIC's Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission, an expert advisory body established by the Saudi-based Muslim bloc.
	The commission had earlier condemned the "barbaric" January .

Pan-Muslim body urges restraint after cartoon 'hatred'

German police banned a planned rally by the anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement and other public open-air gatherings in the eastern city of Dresden tomorrow, citing a terrorist threat.
	Dresden police said today they had received information from federal and state counterparts indicating a "concrete threat" against the right-wing populist group "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident".
	There had been calls for would-be "assassins to mingle among the protesters... And to murder an individual member of the organising team of the PEGIDA demonstrations", police said in a notice on the 24-hour ban.
	This was consistent with "an Arabic-language Tweet that called the PEGIDA demonstrations an enemy of Islam", it said.
	Top-circulation daily Bild said online that the threat targeted PEGIDA's most prominent leader Lutz Bachmann.
	The PEGIDA marches -- which have voiced anger against Islam and "criminal asylum seekers" and vented a host of other grievances -- began in Dresden in .

German police ban anti-Islamic rally citing terror threat

Libya's army announced a ceasefire today, joining an Islamist-backed militia alliance in declaring a truce that the UN hailed as a "significant" step towards ending months of violence.
	"We declare a ceasefire from midnight (2200 GMT) Sunday," the army said, stressing however that it would continue to pursue "terrorists", as UN-brokered peace talks resume in Geneva next week.
	The army also said it would monitor the situation on the ground "to prevent any change in front lines or transportation of weapons and ammunition," which it would consider a violation of the truce.
	Soldiers "have been given the right to defend themselves if they come under fire," the statement added.
	The UN's Libya mission welcomed the ceasefire as a "significant contribution" to the country's peace process.
	Libyan armed forces spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mesmari said the army was "engaged in pursuing its duty to protect the Libyan people".
	He said the military would "ensure the security and stability of the ...

Libya army declares ceasefire after UN talks

Pope Francis drew a record six million people as he celebrated mass in the rain-swept Philippine capital today, a triumphant finale to an Asian tour in which he championed the plight of the poor.
	Filipinos are famous for practising a passionate brand of Catholicism and they turned out in a celebratory mood that defied the gloomy skies, determined to see the charismatic 78-year-old pontiff.
	Francis made an exhilarating entrance to a Manila bayside park for the mass aboard a "popemobile" that was styled after the nation's iconic, flamboyant and much-loved "jeepney" minibus.
	Dressed in a plastic yellow poncho, he waved and smiled to wildly cheering crowds, stopping repeatedly so he could lean over barriers and kiss babies, before reaching the sea of believers at Rizal Park.
	The Philippines is famed as the Catholic Church's bastion in Asia, with 80 percent of the former Spanish colony following the faith.
	But even the pope was stunned at the size of the crowd which he looked out on ..

Pope attracts world-record crowd in wet Philippines

A suicide bomber killed four people and wounded dozens today in an attack at a bus station in Potiskum, northeastern Nigeria, police and hospital sources said.
	The town has come under frequent attack by Boko Haram militants and was the scene last Sunday of a bombing in a crowded market carried out by two female suicide attackers, one believed to be aged around 15.
	A police officer at the scene of the latest bombing said four bodies and 48 injured people had been taken away.
	The bomber "blew up his car at a bus station," said the officer, asking not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
	A nurse at the Potiskum General Hospital gave a similar death and injury toll, and said local residents had rushed to the hospital in search of their loved ones.
	Brutal raids, massacres, suicide bomb attacks and kidnappings by Boko Haram have claimed at least 13,000 lives and driven an estimated 1.5 million people from their homes, mainly in arid northeast ...

Suicide bomber kills four at Nigeria bus station

South Africa's AB de Villiers hit the fastest century in one-day internationals today against the West Indies in Johannesburg.
     The 30-year-old South African captain needed just 31 balls to reach 100 -- five balls fewer than Corey Anderson's hundred for New Zealand against the West Indies in 2013/14.
     De Villers helped South Africa -- 1-0 up in the series -- score an imposing 439 for two after being sent in to bat.
     That was the second highest total in one-day internationals and the highest between two Test nations.
     De Villiers made 149 off 44 balls. His innings included 16 sixes, which equalled the record set by Rohit Sharma on the way to a score of 209 for India against Australia in Bangalore in 2013/14.
     It was an astonishing display of power hitting mixed with finesse.
     Hashim Amla (153 not out) and Rilee Rossouw (128) put on 247 for the first wicket - a record partnership for any wicket for South Africa.
     Rossouw was dismissed off the third ball of ...

AB de Villiers hits fastest one day century

Asylum-seekers in a detention centre in Papua New Guinea said today that Canberra was holding them "hostage" in an effort to deter others from paying people-smugglers to bring them to Australia.
	After days of hunger strike protests on PNG's Manus Island, refugee advocates said asylum-seekers were continuing to protest against their 18 months of detention in the offshore location.
	"The Australian government is planning to resettle us in PNG against our will, by forcing us," asylum-seekers wrote in a letter distributed by the Refugee Action Coalition.
	"We are not willing to be resettled in PNG because there is no safety (or) any future for us and our family.
	"Today we consider us to be hostage for the Australian government so they can deter others not to come to Australia."
	Asylum-seekers who try to enter Australian waters on unauthorised boats are sent to offshore detention centres on Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the Pacific with no prospect of being settled on the mainland -- ...

Asylum-seekers say held 'hostage' by Australia

Almost half of French oppose publication of cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammed, according to a poll today, as global debate deepened on the limits of free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings.
	The Ifop poll found 42 per cent believe such cartoons seen as offensive by many Muslims should not be published. Fifty per cent said they backed "limitations on free speech online and on social networks."
	However, 57 per cent said opposition from Muslims should not prevent the cartoons being published, according to the poll, published in Le Journal du Dimanche.
	The poll found overwhelming support -- 81 per cent -- for stripping French nationality from dual nationals who have committed an act of terrorism on French soil.
	Sixty eight per cent favoured banning French citizens from returning to the country if "they are suspected of having gone to fight in countries or regions controled by terrorist groups," such as Syria.
	The same percentage backed bans on people suspected .

Almost half French oppose publishing Mohammed cartoons: poll

Japan's battle-scarred main opposition party today chose Katsuya Okada as its new leader as it tries to recover from a disastrous showing in December's general election and years of drift.
	Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's crushing win last month -- his second in two years -- was believed by some commentators to be largely due to the absence of a credible alternative.
	The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which governed for three years until December 2012, won just 73 seats in the 475-seat lower house where Abe's Liberal Democratic Party has 291 seats.
	Okada, a 61-year-old Harvard-trained former deputy prime minister, will have his work cut out rebuilding public trust in the nominally centre-left party. Its three years in power to December 2012 were characterised by power struggles, policy flip-flops and diplomatic mis-steps.
	"I want to rebuild the DPJ by returning to our starting point," Okada said in a speech before his fellow DPJ lawmakers voted today.
	"We are a party for consumers, .

Japan's battered opposition picks new leader

Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia and expressed fury today after Jakarta defied their pleas and executed two of their citizens along with four other drug offenders by firing squad.
	The other convicts were from Vietnam, Malawi, Nigeria and Indonesia. The six were the first people executed under new President Joko Widodo.
	Indonesia has tough anti-drugs laws and Widodo, who took office in October, has disappointed rights activists by voicing support for capital punishment despite his image as a reformist.
	A spokesman for Brazilian President Dilma Roussef said she was "distressed and outraged" after Indonesia ignored her last-ditch pleas and put to death Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, who was convicted of smuggling cocaine into Indonesia in 2004.
	"Using the death penalty, which is increasingly rejected by the international community, seriously affects relations between our countries," the spokesman said in a statement.
	The Brazilian ambassador to ...

Fury as Indonesia executes foreigners by firing squad

Nelson Mandela's former personal assistant, Zelda la Grange, has apologised after sparking an online race row with comments that white people were being made to feel unwelcome in South Africa.
	La Grange, who published "Good morning, Mr Mandela" last year about her close relationship with the late anti-apartheid hero, attacked President Jacob Zuma for blaming all the country's problems on whites.
	"I am SICK of Jacob Zuma's constant go at whites every few months," she tweeted yesterday. "Why can't we co-exist without it having to be at the expense of one another?"
	Zuma, under fire over an ailing economy and government mismanagement, had told a rally of the ruling African National Congress: "All the trouble began in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck landed in the Cape."
	Van Riebeeck was a Dutch colonial official who established the first white settlement in South Africa.
	La Grange, raised as a conservative member of the Afrikaner group descended from Dutch settlers,became something of a ...

Mandela's former aide sparks South Africa race row

Falling global oil prices dragged down the net income of Saudi petrochemical giant SABIC by 29 per cent in the fourth quarter, the company said today.
	SABIC, the largest publicly traded firm in the Gulf, reported net profit of 4.36 billion riyals (USD 1.16 billion) for the three months to December.
	That compared with 6.16 billion riyals in the same quarter a year earlier.
	"The decrease in net income is mainly attributable to lower average sales prices, partially offset by lower costs for certain feedstocks (raw materials)," a statement from Saudi Basic Industries Corp said.
	SABIC is one of the world's largest petrochemicals manufacturers, producing chemicals, fertilisers, plastics and metals.
	Global crude prices have fallen by more than 50 per cent since June on worries over global oversupply and weak demand growth.
	Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter.

Saudi giant SABIC Q4 profit down 29 per cent on lower oil

Pope Francis celebrated mass with millions of singing and cheering Catholics in the Philippine capital today, in one of the world's biggest outpourings of papal devotion.
	Rain fell steadily in Manila in the hours before the mass but Filipinos are famous for practising a passionate brand of Catholicism and they turned out in a joyous mood that defied the gloomy skies.
	The 78-year-old pontiff thrilled crowds on his way to the bayside park venue for mass. He travelled along a motorcade route in a "popemobile" styled after the Philippines' iconic minibuses known as jeepneys.
	The pontiff, dressed in a plastic yellow disposable poncho, waved and smiled to cheering crowds that were 20-deep. The popemobile stopped repeatedly so he could lean over barriers and kiss babies.
	He then arrived to a sea of devoted followers for a mass expected to last two hours.
	The Philippines is the Catholic Church's bastion in Asia, with 80 per cent of the former Spanish colony followers of the faith, and he 

Pope celebrates mass with millions in wet Philippines

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer begin their quest for five Australian Open titles while Serena Williams is chasing her 19th Grand Slam crown in the year's first major starting tomorrow.
     World number one Djokovic looms as the player to beat in the men's draw having won four of the last seven Australian editions, and he holds an affinity with the hardcourts in Melbourne.
     "There are so many players who are contenders to win the title," said the Serb.
     "Considering the success that I had in my career in this tournament gives me enough reason and confidence to believe I can go far."
     While Djokovic has never lost a final in Melbourne, Federer will be again be the sentimental favourite at 33 years old, pursuing his 18th major title having not won one since Wimbledon 2012.
     "I would hope that over the years I've always improved. I think I'm serving more consistent and stronger than I ever have," Federer said.
     "I definitely think the racquet has helped me with that 

Djokovic, Federer vie for five Aussie Open crowns

Train service through the Channel Tunnel between France and Britain resumed today, a day after a lorry fire forced the crucial link's closure and suspension of all trains, operator Eurotunnel said.
	"Our passenger service is currently operating to schedule with up to one departure per hour," the firm said on its website.
	Services resumed from Britain at 2:45 am local time and from France at 4:30 am (0330 GMT), it said on Twitter.
	Eurostar, which offers passenger rail services between London, Brussels and Paris, said schedules would return to normal on Sunday.
	The fire yesterday forced all Eurostar trains already en route to turn back to their stations of origin, while 42 people were evacuated from the truck shuttle using the service tunnel.
	Police in southern England have said the fire was "at the French end of the tunnel and is being dealt with by the French authorities."
	"There are no reported injuries," police added.
	 The fire sparked travel chaos in Britain and France with ..

AFP

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