Qatar today lodged a "final offer" to buy the owner of London's landmark Canary Wharf office quarter for 2.6 billion pounds.
	Sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority and US group Brookfield Property Partners said in a statement they have increased their bid for Songbird, a property firm which controls 69 per cent of Canary Wharf Group.
	The cash bid, pitched at 350 pence per share, compared with the previous 295-pence-per-share or 2.2-billion pound offer that was rejected last month by Songbird. The group has yet to respond to the improved bid.
	"QIA and Brookfield... Believe the Songbird final offer price to be full and fair, based on their view of the fundamental value of Songbird's existing assets," the pair said in a statement.
	They added that they "wish to avoid a protracted debate on value and so minimise the uncertainty for the management of CWG".
	The QIA, which owns Harrods department store and the Shard skyscraper in London, already has a 28.6-per cent stake in ...

Qatar makes 'final' 2.6bn pound bid for Canary Wharf owner

PTI Automatic

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon heads to Lima next week to help spur action on climate change and clinch a draft deal on emissions reduction.
	Ban today said he wanted to "keep ambitions high" at the UN climate talks that opened in the Peruvian capital on Monday and are due to wrap up December 12.
	"We are determined to sustain the momentum generated by the recent important announcements by the United States, China, the European Union and, yesterday, Germany," Ban told reporters at UN headquarters.
	Last month, China and the United Sates reached a deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and similar commitments were made by the European Union, while Germany adopted an action plan yesterday.
	Ban hailed those "encouraging" steps, saying he hoped that in Lima, "we will be able to have a draft text that would be finally adopted in Paris."
	Negotiators from 195 countries are hoping to agree on a draft agreement to address climate change that will be adopted at a landmark conference in .

UN chief to help push for Lima climate draft deal

A top American diplomat was back in Bahrain today five months after being declared "unwelcome" by the Sunni-ruled US ally after he met with the Shiite opposition.
	The official BNA news agency said Tom Malinowski, US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, was received in Manama by Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa.
	Sheikh Rashid spoke of the "special relationship" between Bahrain and the United States, and called for reinforcing their security cooperation.
	The Gulf Arab monarchy is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet and a member of the US-led coalition against the jihadist Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
	In July, Malinowski was told he was unwelcome in Bahrain after meeting with members of the Shiite opposition and "should immediately leave the country, due to his interference in its internal affairs".
	At the time, the United States expressed deep concern over the move.
	Malinowski had met leaders of the opposition, ...

US diplomat back in Bahrain after expulsion

Britain is pressing ahead with an overhaul of its ageing nuclear plants despite trouble at home with the French firms leading the drive and doubts after the Fukushima disaster, officials said today.
	"The public supports nuclear," Hergen Haye, director of new nuclear projects at the energy ministry, said at Britain's Nuclear Industry Association conference.
	"All the main political parties support nuclear broadly speaking and we have an industry willing to take up the challenge," he told executives.
	Several energy companies -- none of them British -- have lined up to build at least 10 new reactors in a scramble that critics say will end up severely delayed and costing much more than planned.
	A plan led by French electricity giant EDF for two reactors at the Hinkley Point plant in southwest England is the most advanced, having already received approval from the European Commission.
	A final decision is expected in the first quarter of next year and the reactors are planned to be ...

Britain eyes nuclear overhaul despite French delays

Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels said today they had agree to halt fire across the eastern war zone on December 9 under the terms of a Kremlin-brokered truce.
	President Petro Poroshenko said the terms of the new ceasefire were already included in an earlier peace deal agreed with the help of European representatives in the Belarussian capital Minsk on September.
	But the Minsk Agreement published at the time made no mention of a specific date on which the two sides were due to lay down their arms.
	Poroshenko said Kiev had prepared "measures that should ensure the implementation of the Minsk Agreement concerning a Day of Silence that is due to begin on December 9."
	A source in Poroshenko's office told AFP the president's statement meant that Ukraine would begin withdrawing heavy weapons from the eastern frontline on December 10 -- as long as the separatists also observe the truce.
	The parliament speaker of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic confirmed that the ceasefire ..

Ukraine and rebels announce December 9 ceasefire

Brazil will launch a satellite from China Sunday to keep an eye in the sky on deforestation in the Amazon, the National Space Agency (Inpe) said today.
	An agency spokesman said the launch of the Cbers-4 satellite was scheduled for 0326 GMT December from Tayuan, China, about 750 kilometers southwest of Beijing.
	Brazil and China will share the USD 30 million cost of sending the two-ton satellite into a 778-kilometer high orbit, the spokesman added.
	Both countries participated in the development of the satellite, which has four cameras in its payload module.
	The launch comes a year after its predecessor satellite failed to enter orbit because of a fault with the launch vehicle, China's Long March 4B.
	Cbers, standing for China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite, will allow Brazil to keep a close watch from space on deforestation in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rain forest, as well as administer agriculture and monitor livestock movement.
	Brazil and China began space ...

Brazil to launch new satellite to track deforestation

The European Central Bank today announced it was ready to act early next year should the euro area show signs of tipping into deflation and kept its key interest rates at record lows unchanged.
	At its final policy meeting of the year, the ECB held its main "refinancing" rate steady at 0.05 per cent, and its two other rates -- the marginal lending and the deposit rates -- at 0.30 per cent and minus 0.20 per cent respectively.
	But the ECB's decision to "substantially" downgrade its latest inflation and growth forecasts for the next three years suggested there is room for additional monetary easing.
	ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank had stepped up preparations to undertake additional stimulus measures, such as central banks in Britain, Japan and the United States have done.
	According to the ECB's new forecasts, inflation in the single currency area should average 0.5 per cent this year and pick up only gradually to 1.3 per cent in 2016, a long way off the central bank's target 

ECB prepares to fire anti-deflation gun next year

At least 310 people have been killed and over 220,000 fled their homes in attacks in Kenya this year, the United Nations said today, warning of rising conflict.
	Cattle rustling and revenge killings between rival communities are common in Kenya's remote and impoverished northern regions, an area awash with automatic weapons.
	But clashes have escalated this year due to harsh drought, as well as tensions sparked by the decentralisation of political power, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
	"Violent conflicts involving pastoralists have become widespread and increasingly severe in the northern Rift Valley and north-eastern regions of Kenya," OCHA said.
	"By end October 2014, 310 people had lost their lives, 214 had been injured and 220,177 had fled their homes as a result of inter-communal conflicts attributed to revenge attacks, competition over land and water resources, cattle rustling, and struggles over political representation," the report ...

Over 300 killed, 220,000 displaced in Kenya conflict in 2014

One year after the death of former president and Nobel peace laureate Nelson Mandela, South Africans are remembering his life through prayer, walks -- and cricket.
	Official commemorations on the anniversary tomorrow include an interfaith prayer service in Pretoria led by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and the laying of a wreath by veterans from the country's struggle against apartheid.
	"Although Nelson Mandela is no longer physically with us his legacy remains to guide us," said his one-time jailer FW de Klerk in just one of many statements to mark the anniversary.
	On Friday, bells, hooters, vuvuzelas and sirens will chime, honk, blow and wail for three minutes and seven seconds -- followed by three minutes of silence: a six-minute and seven-second dedication to Mandela's 67 years of public service.
	At the weekend, poets will recite, musicians play, and bikers ride in honour of the anti-apartheid icon who died on December 5 last year after a lengthy battle with ...

South Africans remember Mandela, one year on

Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious centre of learning, today urged Christians in the Arab world to stand firm in the face of jihadist violence and not flee into exile.
	The call, made at a Cairo conference organised by Al-Azhar, came just days after Pope Francis pressed the world's Muslim leaders to condemn terrorism carried out in the name of Islam by groups such as the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda, and called for an end to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
	"We condemn the forced exile of Christians and other religious or ethnic groups," the conference said in a final statement.
	"We urge Christians to stay rooted in their homelands and to weather this wave of terrorism we all are suffering."
	Accusing extremist militants of distorting the meaning of jihad, the statement said it is really one of "self-defence or repelling aggression and should not be left to a single individual or group to declare."
	"All armed groups and sectarian militias who use violence .

Al-Azhar urges Mideast Christians not to flee jihadists

Airbus will deliver its first new, next-generation long-haul A350-900 plane to Qatar Airways on December 13, the European aerospace giant said today.
	"We confirm the first A350XWB (extra wide body) delivery to Qatar Airways will be celebrated on 13th December in line with our commitments," an Airbus spokesman told AFP.
	Designed to help the European manufacturer catch up with its American rival Boeing in the market for long-haul, fuel-efficient planes, the A350-900 makes extensive use of light composite materials that reduce fuel consumption and costs.
	Airbus has positioned its A350 between Boeing's popular 777 and its 787 Dreamliner, hoping to eat away at both planes' markets.
	The plane can carry 315 passengers over a distance of 14,500 kilometres and to date, 750 A350 aircraft have been ordered by 39 customers worldwide.

Airbus to deliver first A350 to Qatar Airways December 13

Chinese President Xi Jinping today hailed visiting South African President Jacob Zuma as China's "good friend", months after the latter's government refused the Dalai Lama a visa.
	"President Zuma is the Chinese people's old friend and good friend," Xi said as he welcomed Zuma on a state visit as trade and political ties between Pretoria and Beijing grow closer.
	"South Africa is the comprehensive and strategic partner of China in Africa," said Xi, who visited South Africa in March 2013 as part of his first foreign trip as head of state.
	"We are good friends and good brothers that mutually benefit each other."
	Zuma, who is accompanied by a high-profile delegation including ministers for the environment, international relations, trade and energy, transport and finance, responded by thanking Xi for his "warm hospitality" since arriving.
	"For me, this is a manifestation of the friendship and solidarity that exists between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of South ...

China's Xi hails South Africa's Zuma as China's 'good friend'

Russia is now a "strategic problem" for the European Union amid the crisis in Ukraine but Brussels will work to make Moscow a partner again, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said today.
	Juncker also insisted that the huge South Stream gas pipeline to Europe could still be built, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly pulling the plug on the multi-billion-dollar project.
	"Yes, Russia is a strategic problem for the time being and I hope that tomorrow Russia will be a strategic partner," Juncker said after talks with Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whose country stands to be one of those worst affected by the pipeline cancellation.
	"Everything the Commission can do in that respect will be done," he told reporters.
	Juncker was asked about comments by Donald Tusk, the former Polish premier who took over as head of the European Council of EU leaders on Monday, who was quoted by the Financial Times as saying Russia had become a strategic ...

Russia is 'strategic problem' for EU: Juncker

An Emirati woman has been arrested over the fatal stabbing of an American teacher and a foiled plot to bomb the home of another US citizen, UAE authorities said today.
	Interior Minister Saif Bin Zayed said the woman, believed to be the veiled suspect who killed the American woman Monday in a shopping centre toilet, had also attempted to plant a makeshift bomb in front of the home of an American doctor in Abu Dhabi.
	"We are witnessing an unprecedented heinous crime in the UAE," the minister said.

UAE arrests suspect in US teacher death, foiled bombing

The first test launch of NASA's new deep space capsule, Orion, was delayed today due to wind gusts, technical issues with the rocket and a misplaced boat off the coast.
	The capsule is meant to carry humans to an asteroid or Mars in the coming years.
	No astronauts were on board the spacecraft, poised atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral, now set to blast off at 8:26 am (1326 GMT), an hour and 21 minutes after the initial target time.
	The launch window ends at 9:44 am (1444 GMT).
	Tourists and space enthusiasts lined the area known as Florida's Space Coast to see the take-off at sunrise, and 27,000 guests were at the Kennedy Space Center for a close-up look.
	The capsule's four-and-a-half hour test flight is due to carry the spacecraft around the Earth twice before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
	The launch is the first of a US spacecraft meant to carry people into deep space in more than four decades, since the Apollo missions that brought men to the Moon.
	With no ..

Wind gusts delay NASA's deep space capsule Orion launch

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen today stormed two towns in northeast Nigeria, raiding banks and burning government buildings as well as political party offices, residents said.
	Scores of gunmen dressed in military uniform arrived in Bajoga, 60 kilometres from Gombe city in a convoy of 20 vehicles at about 7 am (0600 GMT).
	Troops managed to push out the attackers and they then drove towards the town of Ashaka five kilometres away near the border with Yobe state to the northeast.
	Both raids came after an attack on the Yobe state capital, Damaturu, on Monday, which left more than 150 people dead, including 38 police and six soldiers.
	Militant fighters in that raid are thought to have come from the Buni Yadi area in the southern part of Yobe, which Boko Haram has controlled for some time.
	Although not as badly hit by Boko Haram violence as Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states, Gombe has seen a number of attacks, including a bus station bombing in October which killed at least eight.
	Ashaka, ..

Boko Haram raid two northeast Nigeria towns: residents

An Islamic State group advance spearheaded by a suicide bomber on a government-held enclave in eastern Syria killed at least 19 government troops and militia, a monitoring group said today.
	The overnight bombing struck a government position near Deir Ezzor military airport, a vital supply line for the besieged troops holding out in the eastern city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	In ensuing fighting, the jihadists captured several government positions in the area and lost at least seven of their own fighters, the Britain-based group said.
	They also seized two tanks, an armoured vehicle, artillery and heavy machine guns from the positions they overran, it added.
	IS forces control most of Deir Ezzor province, but half of the its capital remains in government hands, along with the military airport to its southeast.
	The oil-rich province lies between IS-controlled Raqa province and the Iraqi border and is a key prize for the jihadist group.

IS advance in east Syria kills 19 troops, militia: monitor

Jetstar today announced the appointment of a woman as its chief pilot -- the first to hold such a position in Australia and one of the few in the world.
	Georgina Sutton, currently Qantas' Boeing 767 Fleet Captain, beat off stiff competition and will take up the job in February.
	"We are delighted that Captain Georgina Sutton will join us early next year as chief pilot after being successful against a number of high calibre internal and external candidates," said Jetstar Australia and New Zealand chief David Hall.
	"Georgina has demonstrated strengths in leadership, technical expertise, operations and shares our strong focus on safety."
	Sutton will become one of the few women in the world to reach such lofty heights, following in the footsteps of Davina Pratt at Aer Lingus, the national carrier of Ireland.
	Sutton first took to the sky as a 16-year-old when she flew gliders in South Australia.
	She has piloted Boeing 747s and 767s, and previously said one of her career highlights was 

Woman appointed chief pilot in Australian first

Lebanese authorities are holding a daughter and an ex-wife of the head of the Islamic State jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the interior minister said.
	It was initially reported that a wife and son of the self-proclaimed "caliph" had been arrested last month.
	The woman, who has been named as Saja al-Dulaimi, was travelling with two sons and a daughter, Interior Minister Nouhad Mashnuq told the Lebanese MTV channel late yesterday.
	He said DNA tests showed that the girl was Baghdadi's child.
	"Dulaimi is not Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's wife currently. She has been married three times: first to a man from the former Iraqi regime, with whom she had two sons," he said.
	"Six years ago she married Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for three months, and she had a daughter with him. Now, she is married to a Palestinian and she is pregnant with his child," Mashnuq added.
	"We conducted DNA tests on her and the daughter, which showed she was the mother of the girl, and that the girl is his (Baghdadi's) .

Lebanon holding IS chief's daughter, ex-wife: minister

President Vladimir Putin today accused the West of exploiting the Ukraine crisis to undermine Russia and said in a key speech that Crimea had "sacred" significance for Russia.
	Addressing hundreds of dignitaries, lawmakers and officials in his annual state of the nation address at the Kremlin, Putin said however that Russia would not sever ties with the West despite raging confrontation with Brussels and Washington over the Ukraine conflict.
	"Every time someone believes Russia has become too strong, independent, these instruments get applied immediately," Putin said, referring to sanctions.
	The West "would have thought up some other excuse to contain Russia's growing possibilities", failing the current tension over Crimea and Ukraine, Putin said.
	But the Russian strongman dismissed Russia's mounting economic troubles as the economy slides into recession under the pressure of Western sanctions and falling oil prices.
	"We are ready to take upon any challenge and win."
	Employing ...

Putin: West using sanctions to undermine Russia, Crimea sacred

A super typhoon gained strength today as it tracked towards the Philippines, threatening more devastation for mostly poor communities where thousands of people have died in an annual tirade of mega-storms.
	Weather forecasters warned Hagupit, already generating wind gusts of 240 kilometers an hour, would continue to intensify as it swept in from the Pacific Ocean, and likely hit eastern islands on Saturday.
	"Let's prepare for everything," President Benigno Aquino told a nationally televised meeting of disaster agency chiefs, after hearing warnings of giant storm surges and house- destroying winds.
	Authorities said Hagupit would likely hit or pass near areas yet to recover from Super Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful storm ever recorded on land that killed or left missing more than 7,350 people in November last year.
	In Tacloban, one of the cities worst-hit by Haiyan, some residents began evacuating from vulnerable coastal areas well ahead of Hagupit's expected arrival, while others 

AFP

AFP

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