Boko Haram today launched two separate attacks on state capitals in northeast Nigeria, when two female suicide bombers hit a busy market and fighters launched a major assault on police.
	The blasts in Maiduguri and dawn raid in Damaturu came just days after a deadly mosque attack in the northern city of Kano left at least 120 people dead and hundreds more injured.
	Almost daily attacks have heightened tensions in Nigeria's far northeast and sparked fears of unrest beyond the country's borders.
	Both Maiduguri, which is the capital of Borno state, and Damaturu, the main city in neighbouring Yobe, have been hit repeatedly by Boko Haram.
	The site of the latest blasts in Maiduguri -- the popular Monday Market -- was hit just last Tuesday when two women detonated explosives hidden in their hijabs among the crowds of shoppers.
	In that attack, more than 45 people were killed.
	Two suspected female suicide bombers were arrested in the city on Wednesday and Thursday, while on Friday, a ...

Nigeria rocked by new Boko Haram raid and suicide attack

PTI Automatic

More than half of infants in the United States are being placed to sleep with bedding that puts them at greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), researchers warned in a report today.
	The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other institutions found that despite regular warnings, unsafe bedding threatened nearly 55 per cent of infants.
	Cuddly toys and loose bedding, such as thick blankets, quilts and pillows, can obstruct an infant's airway and pose a suffocation risk, the NIH has warned.
	The organisation has reiterated safety guidelines that infants should be placed to sleep alone, on their backs, on a firm sleeping surface such as a mattress in a safety-approved crib, covered by a fitted sheet.
	The research found that unsafe bedding use dropped sharply from 85.9 per cent in 1993-1995 but remained high at 54.7 per cent in 2008-2010.
	"Parents have good intentions but may not understand that blankets, quilts and ...

Unsafe bedding threatens nearly 55 pc of US infants: study

Crude oil prices climbed back after hitting five-year lows today, dragging down the share prices of energy companies, while miners were hit by weak Chinese manufacturing data, traders said.
	Oil futures tumbled in early trading, extending last week's sharp sell-off in response to the decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to maintain its output level despite a supply glut and slumping prices.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in January hit USD 63.72 a barrel -- the lowest level since July 2009 -- but later recovered to $68.38 a barrel.
	Brent crude for January sank to an October 2009 low of USD 67.53 a barrel before rebounding to USD 71.94 a barrel.
	"Brent oil bottomed out early this morning and the move higher is showing no signs of letting up, but energy still has a long way to go before it gets back to the pre-OPEC meeting level," said David Madden, market analyst at trading group IG.
	Countering the downward trend, shares in ...

Oil prices, manufacturing slump weigh on stocks

The European Union welcomed Britain's return to a controversial EU-wide arrest warrant system today following a vote by the British parliament.
	Britain's government opted out of all 133 EU police and criminal justice measures last year, but decided to rejoin some of them before that decision came into effect today.
	Parliament voted to back that decision in November.
	The decision came despite growing questions over Britain's place in the EU, with Prime Minister David Cameron promising a referendum on its membership in 2017.
	"The European Commission very much welcomes the move by the UK, which means that the UK will continue to work alongside its neighbours to fight against cross-border crime in an EU-wide framework," the commission's First Vice President Frans Timmermans said.
	"Historically Britain has been always at the forefront helping to shape European mutual recognition policies in the justice and home affairs areas and I am happy the British voice will still be heard around .

Britain rejoins EU arrest warrant system

Afghanistan will face further violence next year after NATO ends its longest ever combat mission, chief Jens Stoltenberg admitted today, but he insisted local security forces could stem the tide.
	Stoltenberg, who meets new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani later today, said a recent surge in attacks in Kabul was timed to grab headlines as the Afghan government met its international backers.
	"There are going to be violent attacks also next year but the Afghan national security forces are capable and the time has come to leave responsibility for security to the Afghans themselves," he said.
	"The Taliban are still able to conduct high-profile terrorist attacks but less capable of seizing and holding territory," he added.
	In the latest violence, a suicide attack on a funeral in northern Afghanistan killed at least nine people today.
	This follows a series of attacks in the capital Kabul which have heightened concern that the costly gains of NATO's 13-year operation in Afghanistan could ...

'Afghanistan to face more violence but local forces capable'

A hacker group has tapped into email accounts of executives in more than 100 companies that could give them lucrative access to market-moving information, a US security firm said today.
	San Francisco-based FireEye said the mysterious group, dubbed FIN4, showed deep familiarity with the way businesses work and appeared to target the accounts of officials with knowledge of merger and acquisitions and other valuable corporate secrets.
	Based on information from its corporate security clients, FireEye said FIN4 has gone after access to email accounts of companies' top executives, legal counsel, outside consultants and researchers.
	Some two-thirds of the companies FIN4 has targeted since mid-2013 are in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, where there has been a surge of large deals in the past year, FireEye said.
	FireEye said that of the companies it knows were targeted by the group, all but three were listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq exchange.
	But it would not 

Hacker group targets company financial info

Vanilla sugar for Christmas biscuits trickling from an envelope sparked a bioterrorism scare at a German mail distribution centre today, local police said.
	Police, paramedics and a fire brigade team in full protective suits swarmed the facility after staff spotted the white powder and an employee complained of itching, apparently fearing it was a dangerous chemical or biological agent.
	Testing quickly determined that the material was not dangerous, said police after the incident in the town of Pinneberg near the northern city of Hamburg.
	Further investigation found that the material was home-made vanilla flavoured sugar which a 40-year-old woman had mailed to her mother, who was planning to bake traditional Christmas biscuits for the family.

Christmas biscuit sugar sparks German terror alert

An oasis of prosperity in struggling Europe, Germany is now the favoured location for immigrants on the continent, who continue to skirt crisis-hit southern states, the OECD said in a report today.
	Germany has become the main destination for people freely moving between European Union nations and is also the world's largest recipient of new asylum seekers.
	In its latest migration outlook report, the 34-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said countries needed to see migrants "as a resource rather than a problem" and invest in integration policies to harness their skills.
	"There are many ways for migrants to contribute to economic growth," said the report.
	In Germany, the OECD said immigration had contributed to employment growth, the lack of which is a key problem for many European nations.
	"After the United States, Germany is now the OECD's second most important destination country, up from eighth position in 2009," said the report.
	In 2013, the country 

Migrants flock to prosperous Germany: OECD

A bomb attack blamed on Al-Qaeda killed two soldiers and wounded two more in southern Yemen today, a military official said.
	The blast targeted a 39th armoured brigade checkpoint in Mahfad town in Abyan province, the official said, accusing Al-Qaeda militants of being behind the remotely detonated device.
	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is active across several parts of Yemen, taking advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
	The United States considers AQAP to be the most dangerous affiliate of the global jihadist organisation.

'Qaeda' bomb attack kills two Yemeni soldiers: army

A British businessman accused of murdering his girlfriend in a swanky Paris hotel appeared confused and evasive as his trial opened today, struggling even to recall his own childhood.
	Ian Griffin, 45, appeared in a Paris court dressed in a dark suit and on crutches because of a degenerative neurological disorder.
	He faces up to 30 years behind bars if convicted of the 2009 murder of Kinga Wolf, a wealthy woman of Polish origin who was found dead in the bathtub of the room they shared in the five-star Bristol Hotel in Paris.
	Asked about his childhood, Griffin replied in a slow and hesitant voice: "I don't really remember. I mainly swam. For 10 years it was most of my life."
	Details then emerged of a troubled childhood and early adulthood.
	Born into a rich family, the son of an architect, Griffin was regularly beaten by his father. A turbulent adolescence followed but then he embarked -- with family support -- on what would prove a successful business career.
	He set up a chain of .

Briton on trial for Paris 'bathtub murder'

Hong Kong pro-democracy protest leader Joshua Wong and two other leaders from the student group Scholarism announced today they have gone on hunger strike.
	"Living in these troubled times, there is a duty. Today we are willing to pay the price, we are willing to take the responsibility," the students wrote in a declaration on Facebook, after announcing the hunger strike on stage at Hong Kong's main Admiralty protest camp.
	Wong and female leaders Lo Yin-wai and Wong Tsz-yuet, 17, said they are fasting to attempt to force the Hong Kong government to respond to their demands for free elections in the semi-autonomous Chinese city in 2017.
	"Our future, we will take it back," they wrote.
	The trio are calling on Hong Kong authorities to reopen stalled talks with students and for the Chinese government to withdraw its decision to vet candidates for leadership of the city.
	They will drink only water during the strike, a local television station reported.
	It comes as the two-month-old ...

Three Hong Kong protest leaders announce hunger strike

A Dutch court sentenced a jihadist to three years in prison today for fighting in Syria, reportedly the first penalty of its kind in the Netherlands.
	The Hague district court convicted the 20-year-old man, identified only as "Maher H" under Dutch privacy laws, for having fought in the Syrian conflict.
	His wife, aged 20, was acquitted of recruiting two women to go to Syria to marry jihadists. The court found that wives of jihadists are not necessarily taking part in armed combat.
	Dutch media said the jailing of a former fighter in Syria was the first of its kind in the country, but the public prosecutor's office could not immediately confirm this.
	Maher H, who was in Syria from July 2013 to February 2014, was also convicted of spreading propaganda calling for terrorist attacks.
	He admitted going to Syria, but said he only engaged in humanitarian work such as distributing food packets.
	The prosecutor showed the court photos from social media in which the suspect could be seen with 

Dutch court jails Syria jihadist, frees wife

Brazil legend Pele is making good progress and does not require dialysis but remains in intensive care as he battles kidney problems, the Sao Paulo hospital treating him said today.
     "The patient Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele) has made good progress though he remains in intensive care," read a statement from the Albert Einstein Hospital, which described the 74-year-old as "lucid and stable with regard to blood flow and breathing".
     The clinic added that it did not consider it necessary to resume renal assistance, suspended Sunday.
     "Taking clinical and laboratory parameters into consideration it will not be necessary today to undertake renal assistance. Antibiotic therapy remains the same," the hospital said.
     Three-time world champion Pele, widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, was hospitalised last Monday where early tests showed a urinary infection requiring administration of intravenous antibiotics.
     On Thursday, the hospital said the man ...

Pele off dialysis, remains in intensive care

Prime Minister Tony Abbott today opened the door to the use of nuclear energy as Australia faces growing pressure to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
	Australia is the world's third-ranking uranium producer behind Kazakhstan and Canada but does not use nuclear power, largely due to its abundance of low-cost coal and natural gas reserves, and community sentiment.
	But with demands growing for Canberra to announce its climate targets for beyond 2020 at global talks in France late next year, Abbott said he was open to the idea.
	"On nuclear energy, as I have said on many occasions, I don't have any theological objection to nuclear," said the prime minister, who recently called coal "good for humanity" and once said climate change science was "absolute crap".
	Australia is among the world's worst per capita polluters due to its reliance on coal-fired power and mining exports.
	Canberra has so far committed to reducing emissions to 5.0 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020. ...

Australia opens door to nuclear energy

A Saudi Arabian woman who tried to drive into the kingdom from the United Arab Emirates said today she is stuck at the frontier and unable to pass.
	Conservative Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which does not allow women to drive.
	"I have been at the Saudi border for 24 hours. They don't want to give me my passport nor will they let me pass," Loujain Hathloul said in a Tweet at around midday, before Tweets from @LoujainHathloul stopped.
	Activists said she was arrested this afternoon, but the interior ministry could not immediately comment on her case.
	"They don't want her to come because she is a woman driver," one activist told AFP, asking to remain anonymous.
	"The customs (department) have no right to prevent me from entering even if in their opinion I am 'a violator' because I am Saudi," Hathloul tweeted this morning.
	She said her driving licence "is valid in all GCC countries", a reference to the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council which includes Saudi ...

Border blues for Saudi woman trying to drive home

Dutch authorities today ordered the preventative cull of 50,000 poultry after a bird flu outbreak on a nearby farm was confirmed as the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain.
	The move came after authorities yesterday identified bird flu at a poultry farm at Zoeterwoude outside The Hague, where 28,000 birds needed to be culled.
	"There is another poultry farm within one kilometre (over half a mile) of the affected farm," the economics ministry said in a statement.
	"Now that H5N8 has been confirmed, the birds on that farm will now be culled. There are around 50,000 birds."
	Two other farms within a 10-kilometre radius have been given the all clear, and another farm is under investigation, the ministry said.
	The highly-infectious H5N8 strain of bird flu was discovered in the Netherlands two weeks ago, where authorities suspect it might have been brought in by birds migrating from Asia.
	Some strains of avian influenza are fatal for chickens, and pose a health threat to humans, who can fall ...

New Dutch cull ordered after bird flu confirmed as H5N8

The WHO issued a call to action to China today over HIV/AIDS as government figures said nearly half a million people are living with the disease or its precursor, with hundreds of thousands more thought to be undiagnosed.
	Bernhard Schwartlaender, the World Health Organisation's representative in China, wrote in an op-ed in the state-run China Daily newspaper that "there is much more China needs to do" to prevent infection and better help those living with HIV.
	"Perhaps most importantly, we must eliminate stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV, and at-risk populations such as men who have sex with men, sex workers, and injecting drug users," Schwartlaender wrote.
	"I've seen some of my own colleagues in the medical profession turn patients away because they disapproved of the person's sexual orientation. That is simply unacceptable, and it has to stop," he added.
	The op-ed was published on World AIDS Day, a day after the National Health and Family Planning ...

WHO warning as China says nearly 500,000 living with HIV

A South Korean fishing vessel with 60 people aboard sank today off Russia's far east coast, leaving one crew member confirmed dead and 52 missing, Seoul officials said.
	Seven people were saved after the 1,753-tonne Oryong 501 operated by South Korea's Sajo Industries went down in the western Bering Sea at 0520 GMT, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
	The trawler was carrying one Russian inspector, 11 South Koreans, 35 Indonesians and 13 Philippine crew members, a ministry spokeswoman said.
	One Korean sailor was confirmed dead while the Russian and six foreign crew members were rescued, she said.
	"The ship tilted slowly after taking in water, forcing crew members to abandon it," the spokeswoman said.
	"Several vessels from nearby waters were involved in search and rescue efforts, but the operation has been hampered by bad weather."
	Four Russian fishing boats are taking part in the search in stormy weather, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
	"The search is ...

Dozens missing as S Korea fishing boat sinks in Bering Sea

Four suspected top drug traffickers in Kenya, including an Indian and a Pakistani, awaiting extradition to the United States were freed on bail today, amid concerns of east Africa's growing importance as a smuggling hub.
	The four - including two Kenyans - were arrested last month with 98 packets of suspected heroin, with the US issuing an Interpol "red notice" for their capture and request for their extradition.
	They are accused of orchestrating large scale shipments of heroin weighing several hundred kilo grammes, drugs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
	Each was released on a cash bail of USD 55,000 and made to surrender their passports, magistrate Maxwell Gicheru said.
	Two, Baktash Akasha Abdalla and Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla, are members of a Kenyan family linked to several drug trafficking trials.
	Their wealthy father, Ibrahim Akasha, was gunned down in Amsterdam in 2000, after fleeing Kenya where he was sought in connection with the seizure of several tonnes of ...

Kenya releases US-wanted suspected drug kingpins on bail

Turkey today assumed the presidency of the G20 group of major economies for the first time in its history, pledging to fight global inequality during its turn at the helm.
	The presidency of the G20 is seen by Ankara as a major opportunity for Turkey to showcase its status as an economic and political power under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
	"Three words will guide Turkey... Inclusivity, implementation and investment," Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan told a press conference in Ankara in televised comments.
	"We aim to make the G20 reach out to low income countries and take care of countries that are not G20 members in an inclusive way," Babacan said.
	"Turkey will bridge the gap between developed economies and undeveloped countries to fight global inequality," he added, vowing to include poor countries in decision-making.
	Turkey took over the presidency of the G20 group of developed and major developing economic countries from Australia. China is preparing to take ..

Turkey assumes G20 presidency, pledges to fight inequality

At least 16 Iraqi border guards were killed today in a dawn assault by the Islamic State jihadist group on their post near the Syrian frontier, provincial and security officials said.
	"Sixteen border guards, including a captain, were killed and four wounded in an attack targeting their headquarters in Al-Walid, near the Syrian border," Faleh al-Issawi, deputy head of Anbar provincial council, told AFP.
	He said the attack occurred at around 6:00 am (local time).
	A commander in the Iraqi border force and a police major confirmed the death toll.
	The Al-Walid crossing is one of the country's most remote outposts and lies near the westernmost point in Anbar province where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan meet.

AFP

AFP

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