Pakistan and New Zealand dedicated the trophy for their two Twenty20 matches in the Dubai starting on Thursday in memory of Australian batsman Phillip Hughes who died last week.
     Hughes died last Thursday, two days after being hit by a bouncer in a first class match in Sydney, leaving the cricketing world to mourn his death.
     Hughes's funeral was held early Wednesday, as Pakistan and New Zealand prepare for the shortest format of the game after drawing a preceding Test series 1-1.
     Pakistan's Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi said Hughes's tragic death has left the cricketing world in a shock.
     "Hughes died very young and his tragic death has left everyone shocked," said Afridi on Wednesday. "We are thankful to the sponsors who have decided to dedicate the trophy in memory of Hughes as a mark of respect," said Afridi on Wednesday.
     Pakistan are boosted by the return of paceman Umar Gul, who has not played international cricket since April due to a knee problem.
     ..

Pakistan, New Zealand dedicate T20 trophy to Hughes

PTI Automatic

A car bomb struck the residence of Iran's ambassador in the Yemeni capital Sanaa today, killing at least one person and wounding 17 others, security officials and witnesses said.
	Ambassador Hassan Sayed Nam was not in the house when the attack took place in the diplomatic district of Hada, according to a security official.
	One guard was killed, according to officials who said two of the 17 wounded were guards and the rest passers-by.
	The blast left a hole in the outer wall of the house. Nearby homes and cars were also damaged.
	The identity of the attackers was unclear.
	Violence has increased in Yemen since members of the Shiite Huthi militia, also known as Ansarullah, overran Sanaa in September.
	The Huthis are accused of receiving backing from Shiite- dominated Iran.
	Their attempt to advance in regions south of Sanaa has been met by deadly resistance from Al-Qaeda insurgents who are active in the country, as well as tribes in central Yemen.
	It was not immediately clear if ...

Car bomb hits home of Iran envoy in Yemen, one dead

A lawmaker from Thailand's toppled ruling party was jailed for two-and-a-half years today for defaming the royal family, the latest in a series of such convictions since the army grabbed power.
	Prasit Chaisrisa, 49, a former MP for the Peau Thai party, confessed to committing lese majeste during a speech to "Red Shirt" supporters of the then-government, shortly before it was toppled in a May coup.
	"The judge initially sentenced him to five years in prison but halved the term because he confessed," a Bangkok Criminal Court official told AFP.
	His comments can not be reported as they would be in breach of Thailand's lese majeste law -- one of the world's toughest -- that shields the king, queen, heir or regent.
	Anyone found to have defamed, insulted or threatened them faces up to 15 years in jail for each count. Thai media outlets frequently censor themselves to avoid falling foul of the law.
	Prasit, a former lawmaker for the impoverished northeastern province of Surin, was arrested 

MP from former Thai ruling party jailed over royal slur

Tajikistan's prosecutors said today that nearly 50 young men from banned Islamist groups have been arrested on grounds they were preparing to join jihadists in Syria.
	The men, aged between 20 and 30 and allegedly members of banned groups, were accused of "organising a criminal group for participating in armed conflicts or warfare in other countries," a statement by the regional prosecutor's office in northern Sogd region said.
	They were arrested in northern Tajikistan and "were planning to leave to participate in the Syrian war on the side of the armed opposition," it said, adding that they were suspected also of preparing to fight with Islamic State groups.
	Authorities in Tajikistan, a mountainous Muslim country that is Central Asia's most impoverished former Soviet republic, have said that 300 Tajik nationals have fought against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
	Tajikistan, which has been led since 1992 by former Soviet apparatchik Emomali Rakhmon, has arrested scores of ..

Tajikistan arrests dozens suspected IS recruits

Iranian fighter jets bombed Islamic State jihadists in eastern Iraq in recent days, but the strikes were not coordinated with US forces, the Pentagon has said.
	"We have indications that they did indeed fly air strikes with F-4 Phantoms in the past several days," Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told AFP.
	His comments yesterday came after Al-Jazeera recently ran footage of what appeared to be an F-4 fighter, similar to those used by the Iranian air force, attacking targets in the eastern province of Diyala.
	At a press conference earlier, Kirby said it was up to the Iraqi government to oversee and coordinate military flights by different countries and not US commanders.
	"We are flying missions over Iraq. We coordinate with the Iraqi government as we conduct those. It's up to the Iraqi government to deconflict that air space," Kirby told reporters.
	"Nothing has changed about our policy of not coordinating military activity with the Iranians."
	Iranian forces have ...

Iranian jets carried out anti-IS air raids in Iraq: US

Eleven more bodies were recovered today from the area where a South Korean trawler sank in the Bering Sea as hopes dimmed of finding any survivors among 41 crew members still missing.
	The 11 comprise seven Indonesians, three South Koreans and a Filipino, the South Korean foreign ministry said in a press statement.
	A total of 12 bodies have now been recovered while seven people were rescued, leaving 41 still unaccounted for.
	The 1,753-tonne Oryong 501 trawler, with 60 people on board, went down in rough, icy seas on Monday.
	A US coastguard plane has been helping the South Korean and Russian ships scouring the area, and a US vessel specialised in search and rescue operations was due to arrive early Thursday, a Seoul foreign ministry official said.
	The discovery of four empty, damaged lifeboats on Tuesday fuelled concerns that the missing crew members were pitched into the freezing waters when the boat sank.
	Those on board included 11 South Koreans, 35 Indonesians, 13 Philippine ...

Eleven bodies from S Korea trawler found in Bering Sea

At least four people were killed today when a suicide bomber in the Somali capital Mogadishu rammed a car packed with explosives into a UN convoy, police said.
	The attack took place close to the heavily fortified gates of the airport in Mogadishu, the entrance to the "green zone" and base of foreign embassies in the Somali capital.
	"The bomber drove in between the security escort and the UN armoured vehicles and detonated the car, ramming into one of the escort vehicles," police officer Mohamed Liban said.
	"I saw four dead people so far, but the casualties are believed to be more, we are still investigating the incident and there is chaos in the area," Liban added.
	A dark plume of smoke was seen rising high in the sky after the large blast, which was heard across the seaside capital.
	"The explosion was very big and there is smoke all around the area, I can hardly see people lying on the ground, either dead or wounded," said witness Shamso Idle.
	"It is difficult to go nearby as ..

4 killed in suicide attack on UN convoy in Somali capital

Japan today launched a rocket carrying a space probe destined for a distant asteroid, just weeks after a European spacecraft's historic landing on a comet.
	The H-IIA rocket blasted off from Tanegashima Space Center in the south of the country at 1:22 pm (0422 GMT) after delays due to bad weather.
	The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sent the probe, Hayabusa2, on a six-year mission.
	The USD 260-million project will send the explorer towards the 1999JU3 asteroid in deep space.
	It will blast a crater in the asteroid to collect materials unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation, in the hope of answering some fundamental questions about life and the universe.
	It is expected to reach the asteroid in mid-2018 and spend around 18 months in the area.
	It will also study the surface by dropping tiny robots. If all goes well, asteroid samples will be returned to Earth in late 2020.

Japan launches rocket carrying asteroid probe

US Ambassador to Haiti Pamela White has met with opposition leaders seeking an end to the rule of President Michel Martelly.
	The closed-door meeting, arranged at the request of the activists yesterday, was held in the party offices of Haiti's social democrat Fusion party, and lasted nearly one hour.
	"We told Mrs White in no uncertain terms that the current crisis is one of Haiti's making, and it is up to Haiti to find a solution," opposition leader Jean Andre Victor told reporters after the meeting.
	It came just days after thousands of angry protesters fanned out across the country Friday to demand the resignation of the Haitian leader.
	Haiti has been mired in political crisis for three years over the failure to hold long delayed municipal and legislative elections.
	If elections are not held before January 12, the legislature will be automatically dissolved and Martelly can rule by decree.
	Demonstrators for Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe to step down, accusing them .

Haiti opposition meets with US ambassador

US rescue teams have joined an increasingly desperate search for 52 people missing from a South Korean trawler that sank in freezing waters off Russia's far eastern coast, Seoul's foreign ministry said today.
	A US coastguard plane was already on the scene in the Bering Sea and a US vessel specialised in search and rescue operations was due to arrive early Thursday, a ministry official told AFP.
	They will join five ships that have been searching the area since the 1,753-tonne Oryong 501 trawler, with 60 people on board, went down in rough seas on Monday morning.
	The discovery of four empty, damaged lifeboats has fuelled concerns that the missing crew members were pitched into the icy waters when the boat sank.
	Those onboard included 11 South Koreans, 35 Indonesians,13 Philippine crew members and a Russian identified by Russian news agencies as a fisheries inspector.
	The body of one Korean has been recovered, while the Russian inspector and six foreign crew members were ...

US rescue teams join search for missing S Korea boat crew

Kenya's interior minister and police chief have been removed from their posts, hours after Somalia's Shebab rebels carried out a fresh massacre in the northeast of the country.
	In a televised address to the nation yesterday, President Uhuru Kenyatta also vowed his security forces will "intensify the war on terrorism" after a spate of killings in the country by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgents.
	A group of Shebab rebels stormed into a quarry near the border town of Mandera shortly after midnight, and police and officials said they weeded out 36 non-Muslims for execution.
	Those labourers not shot as they slept were placed in lines in the dusty quarry, with insurgents shooting most in the head but also beheading others.
	Their bodies were flown to Nairobi later on Monday on a military transport plane.
	The Shebab said in a statement their latest cross-border attack was fresh retaliation for Kenya's 2011 invasion and continued presence in Somalia, as well as its treatment of Muslims ..

Kenya security chiefs ousted after new Shebab massacre

Authorities in Canada has said they put two poultry farms in British Columbia under quarantine after they tested positive for bird flu.
	"Preliminary testing by the province of British Columbia has confirmed the presence of H5 avian influenza on two farms in the Fraser Valley" region of the province, said a statement released by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) yesterday.
	The tests were conducted Monday at the two infected sites -- a turkey farm and a chicken breeding facility, said officials.
	Authorities said that within a few days they expect to receive the results of testing "to confirm pathogenicity and to determine the precise subtype and strain of the virus."
	The testing was undertaken after both farms experienced an unexpectedly high number of sudden bird deaths over the weekend.
	Officials said infected poultry would be euthanized and discarded in accordance with international health and safety protocols.

Bird flu found at two farms in Canada

Facebook Argentina was ordered to pay a firefighter one million pesos (USD 177,000) for failing to comply with an order to delete insulting fake profiles of the plaintiff, the Ministry of Justice has said.
	The plaintiff, whose identity was not disclosed, called on the social network for over a year to delete fake profiles by people who wrote insults related to a labour dispute.
	Yesterday, judge Carlos Cadierno ordered the firefighter be compensated and the company to pay a 50,000 peso (USD 5,900) per month penalty.
	The case began in April, 2013 and initially the plaintiff did not ask for compensation, the ministry of justice's news agency said.
	According to the plaintiffs' counsel, Facebook made "excuses" for why it didn't need to unsubscribe users who attacked his client online.
	Notification of the court decision was sent to the social network's offices in Argentina and in the United States, the plaintiffs' lawyers said.
	The judge issued the first favorable ruling for the ...

Facebook Argentina fined over fake profiles

Sudanese troops repelled rebel attacks on two villages in the war-torn South Kordofan region, killing 50 insurgents and losing four of their own men, the army has said.
	Fighting has flared in the region in the past month after the end of the rainy season, which leaves roads impassable, and two weeks after peace talks between the rebels and the government ended.
	The Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) attacked the villages of Bilinja and Al-Atmur with the loss of 50 fighters, army spokesman Colonel Al-Sawarmy Khaled Saad said in a statement yesterday.
	Four government soldiers were also killed in the failed attack, Saad said. The villages lie south of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state.
	The SPLA-N could not be reached for comment.
	On Monday, both the SPLA-N and the Sudanese Armed Forces issued statements claiming that they had repulsed attacks by the other side in South Kordofan.
	The most recent clashes came two weeks after delegations from the government and ..

'Sudan troops beat back rebel attacks in Kordofan, kill 50'

A US ban on blood donations by gays could be eased after 31 years, depending on the decision of a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee that began two days of meetings today.
	Current US law bars any man who has had sex with a man -- even once since 1977 -- from donating blood.
	The restrictions were established in 1983 when the AIDS epidemic was spreading quickly in the gay community, sparking widespread fear about the deadly infection, which was then poorly understood.
	But now, a growing number of medical and legal experts say that the restrictions are outdated, and that sophisticated tests for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) exist which can make blood donation by gay men a much safer practice.
	When the 17-member committee makes its recommendation tomorrow-- advice the FDA does not have to follow but typically does -- the ban could be lifted or relaxed, or not changed at all.
	An advisory committee to the Department of Health and Human Services recently recommended ...

US mulls lifting ban on gay blood donations

An Egyptian court today condemned 188 people to death for murdering 13 policemen in August after security forces dispersed sit-ins by supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, a judicial source said.
	Since the army deposed Morsi in July 2013, at least 1,400 of his supporters have been killed in a crackdown on pro-Morsi protests and hundreds sentenced to death in swift trials.

Egypt court condemns 188 to death for police killings

The European Union's top court ruled today that tests to prove claims of homosexuality by asylum seekers were unlawful.
	Authorities must refuse all offers by applicants to "demonstrate their homosexuality" either through sexual acts or videos, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said.
	Broader checks to prove asylum seekers sexuality were allowed, but must meet the European Charter on Human Rights, the Luxembourg-based court added.
	It was ruling on a case brought by the Netherlands, where three people from unspecified countries were refused asylum on the basis that claims of homosexuality could not be proven.
	A Dutch court ruled at the time that any attempt to verify the applicants' homosexuality would likely violate the EU's charter for fundamental rights, but referred to case to the ECJ to be sure.
	The ECJ said interviews to determine "facts and circumstances" about the applicants' declared sexuality were allowed.
	But it stressed that questions about "sexual practices" breached 

EU court outlaws 'gay tests' for asylum seeker

Qatar is to allow an American couple to fly home tomorrow, after a three-day holdup since they were cleared of wrongdoing in their adopted daughter's death, the US ambassador said.
	An appeals court in Doha yesterday acquitted Matthew and Grace Huang of parental neglect following the death of eight-year-old Gloria, who had been adopted from an orphanage in Ghana, and said they were free to leave.
	But at the airport, the Huangs were prevented from leaving Doha.
	In a Tweet today, US ambassador Dana Shell Smith wrote: "Just informed by GoQ (the government of Qatar) that all requirements met... Travel ban to be lifted. Huangs can go tomorrow (Wednesday)."
	State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington on Monday that US officials were working with Qatari counterparts to resolve the case.
	"While the case was overturned, the travel ban was not yet overturned," spokeswoman Psaki said, referring to "some paperwork that needs to be filed."
	The Huangs, who are of Asian .

Qatar to allow US couple to fly home Wednesday: envoy

Germany urged NATO today to resume dialogue with Russia to avoid the risk of military misunderstandings in and around Ukraine getting "completely out of control."
	Russian intervention in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea in March saw the alliance suspend all cooperation with Moscow through the NATO-Russia Council, which was set up in 2002 to formalise channels of communication after the end of the Cold War.
	"We now have very few ways of talking about events which come up suddenly, for example military exercises, (aircraft) over-flights or the presence of Russian warships around the world," German Foreign Minister Franz Walter Steinmeier said.
	"We no longer have the possibility to determine what lies behind such moves and whether they are cause for concern or not," he said on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.
	Steinmeier warned that current contacts with Russia were even less than during the Cold War and this should be changed so as to avoid events ..

Germany wants NATO, Russia to restart dialogue

The head of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) today said that Pakistan had introduced 50 home-assembled multi-role JF-17 Thunder fight jets into its airforce.
	Air Marshal Javed Ahmed, chief of the state-owned Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), said the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had already received 50 of the home-made aircraft and that the supply of the second block would start this month.
	"The five aircraft of the next block would be inducted (into PAF) this year," Air Marshal Javed Ahmed, told AFP on the sidelines of the International Defence Exhibition And Seminars (Ideas) in Karachi, an arms fair that brings together dealers from all over the world.
	Pakistan has been manufacturing the JF-17 aircraft since 2009 with the help of the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation of China (CACC).
	"JF-17 is a modern aircraft, it fulfils all the needs of PAF, it is affordable, the cockpit is very user friendly, all beyond visual range attack capabilities as well as stand of deliveries ...

Pakistan adds home-made fighter jets to airforce

US forces and their Iraqi counterparts have trained about 2,000 Sunni fighters in Iraq as part of efforts to defeat the Islamic State extremist group, a senior US official said today.
	Iraq's Shiite-led government, trying to reverse the marginalisation of Sunnis, is seeking to form a "bridging entity" where Sunnis tribesmen defend their provinces before they are brought into an Iraqi national force, the State Department official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
	The official disclosed the information as US Secretary of State John Kerry prepared Wednesday to host talks in Brussels with foreign ministers from scores of countries which are trying to help defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
	The official said the training was occurring at Al-Asad air base in Anbar province and elsewhere.
	Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite whose more inclusive government was formed in September, "is committed ultimately to bringing the Sunnis into the mainstream," the official ...

AFP

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