Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing criminal charges and a new general election, will resign from all other ministerial positions he holds but remain premier, his lawyers said Thursday.
The announcement to the supreme court came the same morning as parliament dissolved itself and set a date for a new election, the third within a year.
The court had received a petition from the Movement for Quality of Government in Israel (MQG) demanding that Netanyahu, who is also minister of agriculture, diaspora, health and welfare, step down from all his positions in light of his indictments.
Attorney general Avichai Mandelblit last month charged Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different corruption cases.
Israeli law stipulates that ministers facing criminal charges resign, but has no such provision for prime ministers.
Following the petition, Mandelblit said that while Netanyahu could not be forced to resign as premier, the issue of his ...

Indicted Netanyahu to resign ministries, remain PM: lawyers

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Germany's antitrust watchdog on Thursday said it had issued a 646-million euro ($720 million) fine against three steel manufacturers and three individuals for fixing prices for plate steel.
Between 2002 and 2016, Germany's Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, Salzgitter-owned Ilsenburger Grobblech and Austria's Voestalpine Grobblech "agreed on the most important price supplements and surcharges for specific quarto plates in Germany", said Andreas Mundt, president of Germany's Federal Cartel Office.
The companies have admitted to the accusations and accepted a settlement, he added.

Germany fines 3 steelmakers 646 mn euros for price fixing

Flanked by more than 2,000 oarsmen rowing to a steady drumbeat, Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn travelled down Bangkok's Chao Phraya river as part of a 52-barge flotilla on Thursday, marking the final event of his coronation.
The flotilla comes seven months after the monarch was crowned in an elaborate three-day affair that involved sacred bathing rituals and a grand procession where he was carried on a palanquin around Bangkok's historic old quarter to greet the public.
Thousands of well-wishers dressed in royal yellow sat along the riverbanks, cheering on the king who wore a feather-adorned hat and Queen Suthida, his fourth wife, as they passed on a gilded Suphannahong -- or "Golden Swan" -- barge.
Seated next to them was Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the king's 14-year-old son from his third marriage, while his two daughters from previous marriages were on a separate barge decorated with a pink exterior and naga-head figurines.
The river procession allows Thais a rare chance to .

Thousands gather for glimpse of Thai king at final coronation event

New Zealand's Neil Wagner took a brilliant return catch to claim the prize wicket of David Warner just before tea Thursday in the day-night opening Test against Australia in Perth.
After Australia won the toss and elected to bat against the pink ball in scorching heat, Warner looked set to continue his golden summer as the home team neared the interval having only lost the wicket of Joe Burns.
After an unbeaten triple century against Pakistan his run-glut ended on 43 when he miscued a full toss and left-arm quick bowler Wagner clutched a sharp right-handed reflex catch millimetres above the turf on his follow-through.
At tea the home side were 76 for two, with Marnus Labuschagne on 15 and Steve Smith yet to score.
After a horror run in the Ashes, the resurrected Warner had made an incredible start to the 2019-20 season and again looked in imperious form until Wagner's catch.
The left-hander scored 489 runs against Pakistan in two innings in the previous Test series, including his 335 .

Wagner stunner removes Warner in pink-ball Australia Test

Nissan's new boss said Thursday a top priority was to restore trust after the scandal over former chief Carlos Ghosn roiled the Japanese carmaker and its uneasy three-way alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi.
In his first foreign media interview since taking office on December 1, Makoto Uchida told AFP he wanted everything laid bare "without hiding," as he seeks to regain credibility and sales for the once-mighty auto giant.
"The difficulties of the past may have sometimes left people insecure in terms of what they are doing. So it is my job to go back to the basics," said the new boss, in a clear reference to the Ghosn scandal that resulted in his arrest over financial misconduct.
Uchida said he wanted everyone in the three-way alliance to "respect each other... understand each other... be transparent, put any problem or issue on the table, without hiding. To show everything." "Once we start to do this, definitely the trust will come.... this is one of my first priorities," stressed .

New Nissan boss vows to restore trust after Ghosn scandal: AFP

Two rockets were fired at a military base near Baghdad airport housing US troops, the 10th such attack since late October, the Iraqi army said on Thursday.
There were no casualties in the overnight attack, which follows one on the same base on Monday which wounded six members of Iraq's elite US-trained counterterrorism force, two of them critically, the army said.
Washington has expressed mounting concern about the flurry of attacks on US bases and diplomatic missions, several of which it has blamed on Shiite militia groups trained by its foe and rival for influence Tehran.
Security sources have linked at least one attack last week to Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite faction close to Tehran and blacklisted by Washington.
Iran holds vast sway in Iraq, especially among the more hardline elements of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary force largely made up of Shiite militias.
A US defence official told AFP the rocket attacks made the Hashed a bigger security threat to American troops 

New rocket attack targets Iraq base housing US troops

Rescuers have found human remains during the search for a Chilean air force plane that went missing en route to Antarctica with 38 people aboard, a provincial government leader said Wednesday.
Search teams are combing waters off the southern tip of South America for any sign of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, which disappeared late Monday.
Chile's military have yet to publicly announce the discovery but said earlier that search and rescue teams had recovered floating debris and personal items suspected to come from the plane.
But Jose Fernandez, the governor of sparsely populated Magallanes region in Chile's far south, said the air force had confirmed the find to him.
"They told us that they had found other airplane debris as well as human remains from those on board," Fernandez told reporters in provincial capital Punta Arenas, where many family members were gathering to be close to the rescue effort.
His comments came shortly after the air force issued a statement saying ...

Human remains found in search for Chilean plane: provincial leader

Russia said Thursday it was expelling two German diplomats, in a tit-for-tat move after Berlin ejected two Russians over the killing of a former Chechen commander in a Berlin park.
"As a retaliatory measure, the Russian side has decided to declare two employees of the German embassy in Russia 'persona non grata'," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement, giving them seven days to leave the country.

Russia to expel two German diplomats in tit-for-tat move

Polls opened in Algeria on Thursday in a presidential election bitterly opposed by a protest movement that sees it as a regime ploy to cling on to power.
All 61,000 polling stations around the North African country opened as planned at 8 am (0700 GMT), the official APS news agency said.
No opinion polls have been published but observers expect an extremely low turnout nationwide after months of demonstrations opposing the vote.
Five candidates are in the running, all of them widely rejected as "children of the regime" of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whom people power ousted in April after two decades in office.

Polls open in Algeria vote bitterly opposed by protesters

A US court has suspended a law banning makers of vegetarian substitute meals from using the word "meat" to describe their products, as trendy plant-based food companies push back against a wave of restrictions.
Livestock farmers have seen the rise of meat substitutes as a threat to their bottom line, and have successfully pushed for labeling restrictions in several states.
The southern state of Arkansas introduced a law in July that fined manufacturers $1,000 per violation for using words like "sausage," "roast" or "burger" to describe vegetarian or vegan foods, even if packaging clearly shows the products are plant-based.
Tofurky, a maker of turkey-flavored tofu snacks, filed a complaint the same month, saying the law infringed on its constitutional right to freedom of speech.
A federal court in state capital Little Rock sided with Tofurky on Wednesday and agreed to temporarily suspend the law ahead of further hearings.
"Tofurky has satisfied the Court that it will likely suffer ...

US court suspends naming restrictions on fake meat firms

Sri Lanka reached 222-5 Thursday when rain stopped play on the second day of the first Test in Rawalpindi, Pakistan's first home Test since a deadly attack in 2009.
Intermittent rain forced an early lunch with just 7.5 overs of play possible in the morning session after Sri Lanka, who resumed at 202-5, adding 20 runs without further loss.
Dhananjaya de Silva was unbeaten on 54, his sixth Test half-century, while Niroshan Dickwella was 15 not out.
The brief period of play saw wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan claim a catch to dismiss de Silva off the bowling of 16-year-old pace bowler Naseem Shah, but third umpire Richard Illingworth ruled the ball had bounced before being taken.
Next ball de Silva completed his half-century with two runs off Naseem, who with 2-65 was the pick of Pakistan's bowlers.
The Test is the first in Pakistan since a militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus killed eight people in March 2009, suspending international cricket in the country as foreign teams refused ..

Early lunch after rain stops play in Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test

Ernie Els' young International team got off to dream Presidents Cup start as they stunned Tiger Woods' star-studded United States to take a 4-1 lead after the opening fourballs Thursday.
The Americans were heavy favourites ahead of the matchplay event at Royal Melbourne, having won all but one of the 12 editions of the biennial clash, with one drawn.
But Els boasts intimate knowledge of the difficult sandbelt layout where he holds the course record, and spent hours schooling his team on its fast greens and treacherous bunkers.
It paid dividends with the Internationals in front after the opening day for the first time since 2005.
Superstar Woods and world number four Justin Thomas put the first point on the board for the US with a 4 and 3 victory over Australian Marc Leishman and Chilean newcomer Joaquin Niemann, with the 43-year-old sinking the winning putt.
But that was as good as it got on a blustery day that began in overcast conditions and light drizzle before the sun burst ...

Captain Woods on song but US stunned 4-1 by Internationals on opening day

Rain stopped play on the second day of the first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Thursday, Pakistan's first home Test in a decade after a deadly attack in 2009.
Resuming at 202-5, Sri Lanka had reached 222-5 in 7.5 overs before the umpires stopped play as rain started to pour heavily at the Rawalpindi stadium.
Dhananjaya de Silva was unbeaten on 54 for his sixth half-century, while Niroshan Dickwella was 15 not out.
The brief period of play was not without incident as 16-year-old pacer Naseem Shah had de Silva caught behind by wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, but the third umpire Richard Illingworth ruled the ball had bounced.
Next ball, de Silva took two runs off Naseem -- the pick of Pakistan's bowlers, with 2-65 -- to complete his half-century.
The Test is the first in Pakistan since a militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus killed eight people in March 2009, suspending international cricket in the country as foreign teams refused to visit over security fears.

Rain stops play in Pakistan's first home Test since 2009 attack

An Indonesian cave painting that depicts a prehistoric hunting scene could be the world's oldest figurative artwork dating back nearly 44,000 years, pointing to an advanced artistic culture, according to new research.
Discovered two years ago on the island of Sulawesi, the 4.5 metre (13 foot) wide painting features wild animals being chased by half-human hunters wielding what appear to be spears and ropes, said the study published in Nature on Wednesday.
Using dating technology, the team at Australia's Griffith University said it had confirmed that the limestone cave painting dated back at least 43,900 years during the Upper Paleolithic period.
"This hunting scene is -- to our knowledge -- currently the oldest pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the world," researchers said.
The discovery comes after a painting of an animal in a cave on the Indonesian island of Borneo was earlier determined to have been at least 40,000 years old.
For many years, ...

World's oldest artwork uncovered in Indonesian cave: study

A Texas man who killed a prison officer was executed late Wednesday, bringing to 22 the number of people put to death in the US this year.
Travis Runnels, 46, was pronounced dead at 7:26 pm (0126 GMT), the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said, after a lethal injection at Huntsville prison north of Houston.
Runnels made no final statement, the department said.
Just minutes earlier, the US Supreme Court had rejected a stay of execution request.
Runnels had received a 70-year jail sentence in 1997 for armed robbery.
In 2003, he slashed the throat of a prison supervisor, Stanley Wiley. Two years later he pleaded guilty to the killing and was sentenced to death.
His lawyers later sought to have the penalty reversed. They said mitigating factors about his childhood were not introduced in the trial, and that an expert witness, A.P. Merillat, gave false testimony.
The lawyers accused Merillat of falsely telling a jury that if Runnels were given a life sentence instead of the death ...

Murderer becomes 22nd person executed in US this year

With border guards, clean-up crews and hospitals, Iraqi protesters have created a mini-state in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, offering the kinds of services they say their government has failed to provide.
"We've done more in two months than the state has done in 16 years," said Haydar Chaker, a construction worker from Babylon province, south of the capital.
Everyone has their role, from cooking bread to painting murals, with a division of labour and scheduled shifts.
Chaker came to Baghdad with his friends after the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage to the Shiite holy city Karbala, his pilgrim's tent and cooking equipment equally useful at a protest encampment.
Installed in the iconic square whose name means "liberation", he provides three meals a day to hundreds of protesters, cooking with donated foods.
In the morning he coordinates with the surrounding tents, dividing sacks of rice, sugar, flour and other ingredients then assigning meals, drinks and sandwiches for volunteers to prepare.
The ..

Iraq protesters form 'mini-state' in Baghdad's Tahrir Square

Democrats warned that US President Donald Trump was on the verge of dictatorship while Republicans fiercely defended his record at the opening of a stormy, historic debate on impeachment charges Wednesday.
The parties held tightly to diametrically opposed views of Trump as they weighed articles of impeachment at the beginning of a two-day debate.
Trump is alleged to have wielded the power of the presidency for personal and political gain by pressuring Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 US election.
There is little question about the outcome in the House Judiciary Committee: by the end of the week the majority-Democrat panel is expected to approve the charges and send them to the entire House of Representatives for passage next week.
But lawmakers in the televised hearing appeared focused on speaking to voters, whose sentiment will be crucial if, as expected, Trump goes on trial in the US Senate in January.
In a grave voice, Democratic committee chairman Jerry Nadler opened the ...

Trump impeachment debate opens with fiery partisan battle

Snooker great Ronnie O'Sullivan added another chapter to his colourful career by refusing to shake hands with his opponent and the referee before a match at the Scottish Open on health grounds.
Traditionally, players shake hands with each other and the official before play begins but five-times world champion O'Sullivan was reluctant to do just that in Glasgow because of health concerns.
Instead he tried to fist bump both James Cahill and the referee before triumphing 4-0 in an all-English contest.
"I'll admit I'm a bit OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) with germs," O'Sullivan told Eurosport after the match.
"I don't open door handles, I always have tissues on door handles. I am a bit OCD like that," the 44-year-old added.
"I have got a bit of a germ thing. It's easier to do that and I don't get any germs."
Cahill recorded a shock win over O'Sullivan at last year's World Championship but 'the Rocket' was too strong for the 23-year-old on Wednesday, taking just over 30 minutes to ...

Snooker star O'Sullivan refuses to shake hands over germ fears

Atletico Madrid claimed the final spot in the Champions League last 16 with a 2-0 win over Lokomotiv Moscow, after Atalanta completed an impressive comeback in Group C to qualify.
Bayern Munich sealed consecutive victories over Tottenham with a 3-1 success at the Allianz Arena, while Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus also finished their group campaigns on winning notes.
Diego Simeone's Atletico went into their game knowing defeat, coupled with a Bayer Leverkusen win against Juve, would see them dumped out.
Kieran Tripper had a second-minute penalty brilliantly saved by Lokomotiv goalkeeper Anton Kochenkov at the Wanda Metropolitano, but Joao Felix made no mistake from the spot a quarter of an hour later.
Atletico wasted a string of chances and Alvaro Morata had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside.
But their place in the knockout rounds was secured when centre-back Felipe volleyed home Koke's cross after a short corner routine.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his second Champions .

Atletico, Atalanta reach last 16 as Bayern cruise past Spurs

Australian Ashleigh Barty, whose breakout 2019 campaign included a French Open crown and world number one ranking, was named the WTA Player of the Year.
Barty, who is the first Australian to top the women's tennis rankings since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1976, took the award with 82 percent of the media vote.
It was a fitting end to a campaign that saw Barty claim her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.
Her four titles in 2019 included the prestigious WTA Finals, where she cemented her place atop the year-end rankings.
Barty, who led the tour with 57 match wins, had ascended to number one in September and finished the year nearly 2,000 points ahead of second-ranked Karolina Pliskova.
The 23-year-old started the season ranked 15th in the world.
Her coach, Craig Tyzzer, was named WTA Coach of the Year.  In voting for the award Barty finished ahead of fellow Grand Slam champions Bianca Andreescu, Simona Halep and Naomi Osaka.
Canada's 19-year-old US Open champion Andreescu was ...

Top-ranked Barty named WTA Player of the Year

Hours after sharing a podium at 196-nations climate talks with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, the head of Greenpeace International found herself locked out of the building Wednesday along with hundreds of other observers ejected from the talks.
Jennifer Morgan, who has been attending the troubled UN negotiations for 25 years, said the expulsion was without precedent.
"This afternoon there was a peaceful protest outside of the plenary," Morgan told AFP.
"The protesters were abruptly and roughly moved out of the building. When I tried to get back in I found that the security had closed access to all observers."
Credentialed observers -- including research institutes, NGOs and other civil society groups -- play a critical role in the talks, which are tasked with saving the world from runaway global warming.
"We are the ones who can apply pressure and hold governments accountable," Morgan said.
"When we are not in the building, we are not able to do that."
"I call on the Secretary ...

AFP

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