Cameroon's President Paul Biya has announced that neighbouring Chad will send troops to aid his country's army fight Boko Haram militants from Nigeria, a government spokesman said.
	"Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno has decided to send a substantial contingent of Chadian troops to back the Cameroonian armed forces who have faced repeated attacks from the Boko Haram terrorist sect with courage, determination and vigilance," the Cameroonian spokesman said in a statement.
	The Cameroonian army says it killed 143 Boko Haram fighters who attacked a military base in the northern town of Kolofata on Monday, in what the government said was the militants' heaviest loss yet on its territory.
	Yesterday's announcement didn't specify how many Chadian troops would be involved or give a date for their deployment.
	Chad's government on Wednesday pledged "active support" for  Cameroon in fighting Boko Haram.
	The offer followed a meeting in Chad's capital N'Djamena between President Idriss Deby and 

Chad to send troops to Cameroon to fight Boko Haram

PTI Automatic

Dozens of Kuwaiti Islamists rallied outside the French embassy in a protest against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for a cartoon.
	Protesters yesterday carried banners in Arabic, French and English condemning the magazine which was the target of a deadly attack last week.
	Dozens of members of the security forces stood guard at the embassy near the capital Kuwait City and prevented protesters from coming closer to the building.
	The demonstrators later dispersed peacefully.
	The Kuwaiti government has strongly condemned the terrorist attack against the French magazine and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
	The latest edition of Charlie Hebdo, published Wednesday, features a cartoon on its cover with a man holding a "Je suis Charlie" sign under the headline "All is forgiven".

Kuwaitis protest against Charlie Hebdo cartoon

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in France "to share a big hug for Paris" hours after funerals were held for five of the 17 people killed in last week's jihadist attacks.
	Seeking to put behind a furore over the absence of a senior US official at a mass Paris rally in the wake of the shootings, Kerry touched down just as an anti-terrorism operation was underway in neighbouring Belgium, leaving two suspects dead.
	Belgian investigators said earlier yesterday they were probing whether an arms dealer sold weapons used in the Paris attacks, but there was no immediate confirmation of any link between the investigation and the raid.
	In France, Kerry will hold talks with President Francois Hollande today and will make a speech -- some of it in French -- at city hall before giving way to US singer James Taylor of "You've Got a Friend" fame.
	"My visit to France is basically to share a big hug for Paris and express the affection of the American people for France and for our ...

Kerry arrives in France

Malawi deployed military helicopters and boats today in a bid to rescue desperate flood victims stranded on patches of high ground after raging waters killed at least 48 people and left 100,000 homeless.
	Vice President Saulos Chilima said the rescue operation had been delayed because of poor weather over the two previous days and helicopters were struggling to land because of the high water levels.
	"Around 800 people  have been rescued from the flooded areas in (the southern districts of) Nsanje and Chikwawa," he said in a statement, adding that more support such as boats, helicopters, tents and food was urgently needed.
	The two districts were the worst hit by the floods which have ravaged half of the 28 districts in t14he poor southern African nation, with neighbouring Mozambique also battling the rising waters.
	"We are racing against time to rescue everybody. We want to make sure everybody is safe," Chikwawa district commissioner Alex Mdoko told AFP.
	Scores of people in the ...

Malawi deploys military as floods leave 100,000 homeless

Ten US media organisations including the New York Times and Washington Post announced a coalition today to test drones for news gathering in collaboration with Virginia Tech University.
	The initiative is "designed to conduct controlled safety testing of a series of real-life scenarios where the news media could use small UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) technology to gather the news," according to a statement from the media coalition.
	Virginia Tech is among a small number of institutions authorized to conduct testing on various civilian applications for drones as the US Federal Aviation considers rules for these systems.
	Some drones going onto the market are designed as toys, while others have various applications for industries or agriculture, and online retailer Amazon wants to use drones for deliveries.
	Cable news giant CNN said this week it would conduct tests on drone use with Georgia Tech University.
	Rose Mooney of Virginia Tech said the collaboration with the news ...

10 news organizations join drone-test program

President Barack Obama will answer questions from YouTube creators in a live interview two days after his State of the Union address, the Google-owned video service said today.
	"This year we're doing something we've never done before: bringing a handful of YouTube creators directly to the White House to talk with the president in person in a live broadcast on Thursday, January 22," Google News Lab director Steve Grove said in a blog post.
	The interview will be done by Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green, who produce content for YouTube.
	They "will ask about the top concerns facing them and their audiences," according to Grove.
	YouTube is inviting users to offer questions for the president, some of which may be asked during the interview.
	Obama has been interviewed in the past on YouTube, and has used other social media including Facebook and Reddit to reach the public.
	Obama's annual message to Congress is set for January 20.

Obama to answer queries on YouTube after annual speech

Belgian police launched a "jihadist-related" anti-terrorism operation in the eastern town of Verviers today, with reports saying three people had been killed.
	Public broadcaster RTBF reported three deaths and said explosions were heard at the scene, but there was no immediate confirmation.
	The incident comes as Europe is on high alert after 17 people were killed in the Islamist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris last week.
	"An operation is under way," a source in the mayor's office told AFP without giving further details.
	Another official said separately that the incident in Verviers, which is close to the German border some 125 kilometres (70 miles) from Brussels, was "jihadist-related".
	In May 2014, four people were shot dead in a suspected Islamist attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, who had previously been in Syria, has been charged with murder.
	The men targeted in Verviers were under surveillance having ...

Three dead in Belgium anti-terror raid: report

Citigroup today became the latest big US bank to report disappointing results, with earnings plunging 86 per cent on a large legal charge and disappointing operating performance in some segments.
	Earnings for the fourth quarter were USD 350 million, down from USD 2.5 billion a year earlier.
	The biggest drag came from a previously announced USD 3.5 billion charge for legal costs and corporate repositioning.
	Like other banks, Citi has faced numerous government and private litigation allegations that it conspired with its competitors to rig interest rates and foreign-exchange trades.
	Large legal charges also weighed on annual net income, which fell 46.5 per cent from last year to USD 7.3 billion.
	Legal and repositioning expenses for the year were USD 7.4 billion, up from USD 3.6 billion in 2013.
	Citi chief executive Michael Corbat said 2014 results overall "fell short of our expectations," but that the company made progress simplifying its corporate structure, removing unnecessary .

Citigroup profits plunge on legal costs, weak trading

This US winter season's flu vaccine has been just 23 per cent effective at preventing doctor visits for people of all ages, according to health authorities' early estimates out today.
	The flu vaccine for 2014-2015 is not the worst ever -- the past decade has ranged from 10 per cent to 60 per cent effective -- but its record is worrying enough that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged doctors to ramp up the use of antiviral medications in people who fall ill with influenza.
	Its lack of punch is being blamed on multiple strains of the H3N2 virus that are circulating and making people sick, but that were not included in this season's vaccine.
	"Physicians should be aware that all hospitalized patients and all outpatients at high risk for serious complications should be treated as soon as possible with one of three available influenza antiviral medications if influenza is suspected, regardless of a patient's vaccination status and without waiting for confirmatory ...

Flu shot just 23 per cent effective: US

Germany's foreign minister said today no more deadlines must be missed in the Iran nuclear negotiations which had entered "a decisive phase", speaking at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart.
	"We must now use the newly opened time window, we must leave nothing undone to reach the solution that has eluded us in recent years," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said before the talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
	In a brief joint press appearance with Zarif, Steinmeier said "we probably share the understanding that this is now the decisive phase of the negotiations".
	Iran and major world powers have given themselves until late June to reach a comprehensive agreement that would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb, a goal it denies, in return for an easing of global sanctions.
	Sunday will see talks in Geneva between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group -- the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- seeking to break a stalemate that has seen two .

Iran nuclear talks 'in decisive phase': Germany

Oil prices resumed their downward trend today as dealers eyed weak demand, abundant global crude supplies and the uncertain world economic outlook.
	Brent briefly breached USD 50 a barrel in response to the weaker dollar, but fell back once again on stubborn oversupply worries.
	In late afternoon London deals, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery slid 34 cents to USD 48.35 per barrel, having risen as high as USD 50.62.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in February meanwhile dropped 80 cents at USD 47.68.
	"Oil prices made an early recovery on dollar weakness but fell back as new sellers used the bounce as an opportunity to come in above the USD 50 per barrel mark, on the belief supply and demand factors mean oil prices should head lower," said CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler.
	Crude futures also sank as traders digested news that US stockpiles had risen, adding to long-running concerns about a supply glut and faltering demand.
	"Prices have slipped slightly ..

Oil market slips after rebound

Clinging desperately to underwater ropes, an Indonesian search leader said his divers appeared to be "flying like Superman" as they scoured the seabed in the gruelling quest to recover bodies and wreckage from crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501.
	"The current is so strong that it could rip open our masks or drag us into a whirlpool," said Totok Subagio, in charge of a group that this week found the plane's two black box flight recorders, after a lengthy, difficult search.
	Trained to swim to depths of 45 metres (150 feet), the Indonesian navy's finest frogmen were drafted in to scour the seabed for wreckage of the Airbus 320-200 that went down in a storm last month en route to Singapore.
	But in the Karimata Strait between Indonesia's Sumatra island and Borneo island, they have had to contend with rough seas, powerful underwater currents, and weather that changes from bright and sunny one moment to cloudy and rainy the next.
	Grainy images from specialist Singaporean search equipment ...

Divers battle against nature in hunt for AirAsia debris

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has threatened to retaliate against Israel for repeated strikes on Syria, in an television interview to be broadcast today.
	Nasrallah told Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen that his Iran-backed Shiite movement was well armed and always ready to fight Israel, according to excerpts of the interview issued ahead of its broadcast.
	A key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Nasrallah said that Israeli strikes on Syria "target the whole of the resistance axis", which includes Hezbollah, Damascus and Tehran.
	"The repeated bombings that struck several targets in Syria are a major violation, and we consider that any strike against Syria is a strike against the whole of the resistance axis, not just against Syria," he said.
	"The axis is capable of responding. This can happen any time."
	The Israeli air force has carried out several raids against targets in Syria, including depots storing weapons meant for Hezbollah, since the conflict there started nearly four ..

Hezbollah chief threatens Israel over Syria strikes

The Frenchman who coined the slogan that was adopted globally in the wake of a jihadist attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine, is trying to copyright the phrase to stop its commercialisation, his lawyer said today.
	Graphic designer Joachim Roncin, 39 "will rely on his copyright to try and control the use of the slogan and keep the initial message intact," said his lawyer Myriam Sebban.

JeSuisCharlie creator seeks to copyright slogan

A firebomb attack on a bus killed one person today in a renewed surge of political unrest as Bangladesh was hit by a nationwide strike.
	Anti-government protesters attacked the bus outside the capital Dhaka, the second deadly firebombing in two days, as part of ongoing violent efforts to force the downfall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
	Police said the protesters set the stationary bus ablaze overnight while a worker was on board at Kaliakoir, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Dhaka.
	"He was sleeping in the bus at around 3.30 am in the morning when it was torched," Kaliakoir police chief Rafiqul Islam told AFP, adding that no one was arrested.
	Activists have taken to the streets across the country for the last 10 days to try to enforce a transport blockade called by main opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
	The opposition also called a 12-hour strike to protest an assassination attempt on Tuesday of one of Zia's longtime aides.
	Riaz Rahman survived after being shot four times in 

One killed in firebombing in strike-hit Bangladesh

Thousands of spectators packed a makeshift arena in Nepal's Himalayan foothills today to cheer a bullfighting festival whose popularity dates back to the 19th century.
	Unlike its Spanish counterpart, Nepalese bullfighting requires no matadors as the bulls -- usually buffalo -- fight each other in a contest to mark the Maghe Sankranti festival which heralds the end of winter according to the Hindu calendar.
	Around 5,000 people descended on the dusty village of Taruka, 35 kilometres (22 miles) northwest of the capital Kathmandu, to watch 16 pairs of bulls butt heads, with the winner of each bout taking home 2,000 rupees (USD 20) in prize money.
	Some of those present were watching the festival for the first time but many were repeat visitors, drawn to the spectacle year after year.
	Rudra Bahadur Poudel, a 65-year-old villager on his 13th visit to Takura, said the entertainment was well worth the annual trip.
	"It's fun to watch the bulls try to hit each other, I always enjoy watching 

Thousands celebrate Nepal bullfighting fiesta

A Malian described as a "hero" after he helped hostages at a Jewish supermarket hide during last week's Paris attacks will be awarded French nationality on Tuesday, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
	Lassana Bathily, who has lived in France since 2006 and applied for French nationality in July of last year, was praised for his "bravery" in a statement by Cazeneuve, which also said the 24-year-old Malian's naturalisation will be granted at a ceremony on Tuesday.
	As the hostage-taking siege by jihadist Amedy Coulibaly began January 9, Bathily -- an employee at the kosher store in eastern Paris -- ushered a group of trapped customers into a cold storage room, shut off the refrigeration system, and closed the terrified people inside for protection.
	"I heard shots and I saw my colleagues and clients running down," Bathily recalled later. "I told them 'Come, come,' (and) got them into the freezer."
	Bathily proposed helping the hiding clients escape the supermarket through its ...

Malian 'hero' of Paris attacks gets French nationality

A homeless cat in Russia has won praise for caring and keeping warm a baby boy abandoned in a chilly entrance-way.
	The story took place in the town of Obninsk in the Kaluga region, where the baby was abandoned in the entrance-way to an apartment block and left lying on the floor on Saturday, a day when temperatures were several degrees centigrade below zero.
	A local cat by the name of Masha that lived in a cardboard box in the hallway "warmed the baby for several hours with her body," TV Zvezda channel reported today.
	After hearing loud cries, one of the residents opened her front door and spotted the baby on the floor, with the cat sitting beside it, licking it and trying to warm it, TV Zvezda reported.
	"The residents are certain, if the cat hadn't taken care of it, the baby wouldn't have had a chance," the channel's anchor said.
	Nadezhda Makhovikova, who lives in a flat on the stairway, told REN TV she went out after hearing sounds as if the cat was miaowing in distress.
	"When 

Homeless Russian cat 'saves' abandoned baby boy

Canadian manufacturer Bombardier today suspended its Learjet 85 business jet program due to "weak market demand," laying off 1,000 employees in Mexico and the United States.
	The company will also take a USD 1.4 billion special charge in sunk development costs related to the jet in its fiscal fourth quarter, and revised downward its financial guidance for the year.
	The company's stock fell more than 25 per cent to 3.03 Canadian dollars in morning trading in Toronto following the announcement.
	"The pause is due to weak demand for the Learjet 85 aircraft," the company said in a statement.
	"This reflects the continued weakness of the light aircraft category since the economic downturn."
	The new six- to eight-seat Learjet 85, built of composite materials in order to boost fuel efficiency, had been set to compete with Dassault's new Falcon 5x business jet and the US luxury Gulfstream.
	The world's third largest aircraft manufacturer said it will continue making its slightly smaller ...

Bombardier slashes 1,000 jobs, suspends business jets

The two biggest Chinese politicians to fall in recent years, ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang and former high-flyer Bo Xilai, formed a "clique" together, state media reported today as President Xi Jinping pledges a crackdown on Communist Party factionalism.
	The two men "celebrated their political rapport" and vowed to "play a big game", the China Daily said, citing a lengthy report in Hong Kong's Phoenix Weekly magazine.
	The article appears to be the first time that mainland media have reported allegations of a faction formed by the two once-powerful men, long seen as allies by analysts.
	China's ruling party is riven by factional divisions but consistently seeks to present a united front to outsiders.
	Zhou, who was arrested and expelled from the ruling party last month, is the most senior party official to face prosecution since the 1980s, in a fall that sent shock waves through the communist elite.
	He moved one step closer to trial last week when the party's internal watchdog ...

China media: Zhou, Bo formed 'clique' to challenge leaders

Using digital technologies does not directly cause stress, but social media can increase awareness of problems facing friends and family, and this stress is "contagious," researchers said today.
	A report by the Pew Research Center and Rutgers University researchers concluded that the stress facing some users of social networks was related to "the cost of caring."
	"There is no evidence in our data that social media users feel more stress than people who use digital technologies less or not at all," said Rutgers researcher Keith Hampton, one of the author of the report.
	Hampton said data did not support the notion that people become stressed from keeping up with social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
	But he added that "learning about and being reminded of undesirable events in other people's lives makes people feel more stress themselves. This finding about the cost of caring adds to the evidence that stress can be contagious."
	Overall, the researchers found frequent ...

AFP

AFP

Page 2597 - Afp