Iraqi security forces cracked down on anti-government protesters in the strife-torn south Thursday, leaving 15 people dead in a bloody escalation hours after the torching of an Iranian consulate.
Iraq's capital and its south have been torn by the worst street unrest since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, as a youth-dominated protest movement has vented their fury at their government and its backers in neighbouring Iran.
Late Wednesday protesters burned down the Iranian consulate in the city of Najaf, yelling "Victory to Iraq!" and "Iran out!", in an attack condemned by Tehran which voiced its "disgust".
Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi immediately ordered military chiefs to deploy in several restive provinces to "impose security and restore order", the army said.
On Thursday, reinforcements were sent to his birthplace of Nasiriyah, a southern city that has been a protest hotspot for weeks.
Security forces violently cleared sit-ins from two bridges, shooting dead at 

Iraq crackdown kills 15 protesters after Iran mission torched

PTI Automatic

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that European nations should be involved in any talks to forge a new pact limiting mid-range nuclear missiles held by the US and Russia, after a landmark Cold War-era accord fell apart this year.
"We cannot just content ourselves with bilateral treaties," Macron said after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Paris.

Macron says EU must be part of any future US-Russia nuclear missile treaty

Disgraced Maldives ex-president Abdulla Yameen was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering on Thursday after a corruption probe into the former strongman's rule of the luxury tourist destination.
Yameen, who ran the Indian Ocean archipelago with an iron fist before his shock election loss in 2018, was accused of illegally transferring one million dollars from one of his bank accounts during an ongoing graft investigation.
The 60-year-old was arrested in February on charges of bribing witnesses in the ensuing money laundering trial.
Authorities also froze bank accounts belonging to Yameen that held around USD 6.5 million at the end of last year following accusations he had taken illicit payments.
Investigators believe Yameen could have millions more stashed abroad and are working to repatriate the cash.
Yameen's government regularly jailed opponents or forced them into exile during its five years in power, and the former president relied heavily on China for political ...

Former Maldives leader jailed for money laundering

Germany's economy ministry on Thursday said it planned to tighten rules on non-EU takeovers of hi-tech firms, against a backdrop of growing alarm about Chinese firms buying up German know-how.
The ministry said it had drafted an amendment to the Foreign Trade Regulation that would allow the government to review or block foreign purchases of stakes as low as 10 per cent in "critical technology" companies.
It would affect firms working in the areas of robotics, artificial intelligence, semi-conductors, biotechnology and quantum technology.
"It's not about banning acquisitions, but about being able to look at them more closely in cases where it concerns critical technologies," the ministry said in a statement.
The move goes further than previous efforts by Berlin to protect strategic firms from foreign acquisitions.
Economy Minister Peter Altmaier will unveil the proposal at a Berlin press conference on Friday.
Concern has mounted in recent years as Chinese companies have bought up or ...

Germany aims to shield tech firms from foreign takeovers

Stock markets mostly fell on Thursday as China-US trade talks took a jolt from a US law backing Hong Kong protests that has angered Beijing.
US President Donald Trump signed into law a bi-partisan bill that voiced support for the pro-democracy protests, prompting a sharp response from Chinese officials.
Global equities have been surging in recent weeks -- with Wall Street hitting multiple records -- on expectations the closely followed trade negotiations would result in a partial pact soon.
"European stock markets are in the red today as US-China trade tensions have ticked up a little on the back of President Trump signing the Hong Kong bill," said David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets UK.
"This is a new dimension to the US-China relationship, and it has the potential to derail the trade talks. Traders are fearful that China will lash-out at the US, which is why stocks are lower," he added.
The dollar dropped versus main rivals and oil prices were lower as well.
Trump on Wednesday put .

Stock markets retreat as Trump triggers Chinese anger

Bebo Haider's beauty parlour is bright, small, and decorated sparsely with three large photographs: transgender models who became her clients because the Karachi salon is one of the few in Pakistan which caters to them without judgement.
Tarawah, in a middle-class neighbourhood of the sprawling southern port city, is owned and run by Haider, herself a transgender person who came to Karachi in 2003 from a small rural town in southern Sindh province with dreams of becoming a beautician.
It was not easy.
Even when the owner of one salon in a posh Karachi neighbourhood finally decided to take a chance on her, the clients refused her services -- or to return her greetings, she told AFP.
It took two years before one salon regular finally returned her hello, she said -- but the thaw, for that customer at least, was complete.
"After that day she would not get her hair and make up done by anybody else at the parlour," Haider told AFP jubilantly, sitting in her hairdressing chair.
"Good manners 

The hair salon changing how transgenders are seen in Pakistan

China on Thursday defended its security crackdown in Xinjiang after French and German leaders condemned its mass detention of religious minorities in the region.
The French foreign ministry on Wednesday called on China to "put an end to mass arbitrary detentions" in Xinjiang.
German chancellor Angela Merkel on the same day told lawmakers she backed the EU's condemnation of human rights abuses in the region, and echoed calls for United Nations representatives to be allowed access to Xinjiang as soon as possible to report on the situation.
China initially denied the network of internment camps existed, but changed its position recently to say they are vocational schools that combat Islamist extremism through education and training.
China's foreign ministry on Thursday repeated previous assertions that "Xinjiang affairs are purely China's internal affairs."
"Xinjiang's local government has taken counter-terrorism and anti-extremism measures that are upright and completely beyond ...

China defends Xinjiang crackdown after criticism from European leaders

Afghan security officials have released two rights activists detained by the country's powerful intelligence agency for exposing an alleged paedophile ring operating in the country's schools.
Musa Mahmudi -- a youth social worker -- told Britain's Guardian newspaper earlier this month that teachers and local officials were involved in the ring based in Logar province, sparking outrage across the country.
Mahmudi and activist Ehsanullah Hamidi were later detained by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) on their way to meet with the European Union ambassador in Kabul last week.
"They are in Kabul now and reunited with members of their families. There is no restriction to their movement," Naeem Nazari, deputy head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), told AFP.
At least 546 boys from six schools were allegedly abused, the Guardian reported.
Some victims went on to be murdered, the newspaper said, adding that rights campaigners had uncovered more than 100 ...

Afghan officials release men who exposed alleged paedophile ring

A canvas by the French artist Pierre Soulages has sold for $10.5 million, a new world record for the "painter of black" who is about to celebrate his 100th birthday.
The work from 1960 of thick black stripes went for 9.6 million euros at an auction in Paris just days before the Louvre opens a huge retrospective celebrating Soulages' long career.
The prolific veteran, who turns 100 on Christmas Eve, and who is still painting, took the radical decision to paint almost entirely in black in the late 1970s.
Called "the world's greatest living artist" by former French president Francois Hollande, Soulages told AFP earlier this year that if he was not 100 percent happy with a painting "I burn the canvas outside. If it is mediocre, it goes," he added.
The painting sold by the Tajan auction house had been estimated to go for up to six millions.
But after a bidding battle that also involved Asian and American collectors, the work "will finally be added to a European collection", said Julie ...

Painting by French 'master of black' sets new world record

Russia's Olympic Committee will do all it can to ensure Russian athletes take part in the 2020 Games, its chief said Thursday, as the country faces a four-year doping ban.
"We will do everything in our power to ensure our team is in Tokyo under the Russian flag," news agency RIA Novosti quoted Stanislav Pozdnyakov as saying.
He said there were no "objective obstacles" to the "vast majority" of Russian athletes fully participating in the Olympics.
The compliance review committee at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday recommended a four-year sporting ban over falsified lab data it received from Russia.
If WADA chiefs adopt the committee's recommendations at a meeting in Paris on December 9, Russia faces exclusion from key sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The scandal has tainted Russia's sporting reputation since the revelation of large-scale state-sponsored doping aimed at improving Russia's medal performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Russian ...

Olympic chief says will "do everything" to ensure Russia at 2020 Games

Harry Kane wants to build a "strong relationship" with new manager Jose Mourinho that will help take Tottenham to the next level.
Kane, whose two goals in the 4-2 win over Olympiakos helped book a Champions League knockout place, was a staunch supporter of former boss Mauricio Pochettino, but he knows Mourinho could be the man to help him win silverware with Spurs.
The Portuguese coach has a record of strong relationships with strikers, with Didier Droba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Diego Costa all excelling under him and Kane wants to add his name to that list.
"It's early days, we have a good relationship so far. We talk, we try and help the team," said Kane, who became the fastest player to 20 Champions League goals.
"Obviously me being one of the leaders in the team he looks to me for feelings and advice on the team.
"When you are winning games it definitely helps your relationship. Hopefully we can build a strong relationship."
Spurs are through to the last 16 of the Champions League .

Kane wants to build 'strong relationship' with Mourinho at Spurs

Bangladesh Twenty20 team Chattogram Challengers Thursday called for action against West Indies star Chris Gayle if he fails to show for an upcoming tournament, after he said he was taking a break from cricket.
Gayle was picked by the Challengers to play in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) from December 11.
But he said after departing South Africa's Mzansi Super League on Monday -- following a pitiful campaign for Jozi Stars -- that he was surprised his name had been included in the squad, adding that he planned to "take a break" from the sport.
"I am not going to the Big Bash (Australia's T20 league). I'm not sure what cricket will come up, I don't even know how my name reached the BPL, but I have been drafted in a team and I don't even know how that happened," he told ESPNcricinfo.
Challengers team director Jalal Yunus said his team had held negotiations with Gayle's agent after the former West Indies captain was picked.
"His agent confirmed Chris was aware about it," Yunus ...

Team demands action if Gayle fails to show up for Bangladesh T20 league

Hong Kong police on Thursday entered a ransacked university campus where authorities faced off for days with barricaded pro-democracy protesters, gathering a huge haul of petrol bombs and other dangerous materials left over from the occupation.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University became the epicentre of the territory's increasingly violent protest movement when clashes broke out on November 17 between police and protesters armed with bows and arrows as well as Molotov cocktails.
The standoff settled into a tense stalemate during which hundreds fled the campus -- some making daring escapes, others caught and beaten by officers during failed breakouts -- leaving a dwindling core of holdouts surrounded by police cordons.
But in recent days, the last few people barricaded in the campus seemed to disappear.
University staff said they were only able to find a single protester on campus and reporters there struggled to see any major presence in the last 48 hours.
Late Wednesday, a lone ...

Hong Kong police enter ransacked campus after protest siege

Pakistan were set to recall paceman Mohammad Abbas Thursday for the second Test against Australia as they look to add consistency to their bowling attack under lights at Adelaide Oval.
Skipper Azhar Ali will also drop down the order to bat at number three in the day-night Test starting Friday, with Imam-ul-Haq set to get the nod to open the innings alongside Shan Masood and Haris Sohail dropped.
Seamer Abbas has taken 66 wickets at just 18.86 in his 14 Tests but was a surprise omission for the opening clash in Brisbane, where Pakistan were crushed by an innings and five runs.
"Definitely there will be some changes," Azhar said of the team line-up, which will be announced on Friday. Asked if Abbas would be one of those changes, he replied: "Yes."
"He's (Abbas) done well in Test matches, he can definitely bring a lot of control and he has worked a lot since the last Test match on his rhythm and he is feeling better," he said.
"Obviously a bowler of his class, you feel he has something ..

Pakistan recall Abbas after Gabba horror show

- French police removed several hundred migrants from a camp in northeast Paris on Thursday, the latest move in a crackdown on the makeshift settlements that regularly spring up in the capital.
"More than 500 people, including 216 of the most vulnerable (families and single women), have been brought to dedicated shelters or to centres for examining their situations," an official with the Ile-de-France regional authority encompassing Paris told AFP.
The operation was carried out without incident, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
It was the 60th evacuation of a camp in Paris since the European migrant crisis began in 2015, and came three weeks after some 1,600 people were removed from two sprawling camps on the city's northern edges.
The government has vowed to clear all camps in the capital by the end of the year, after President Emmanuel Macron said France must end its "lax" approach to immigration.
Critics say that unless the migrants are provided secure lodgings or a ...

Paris police clear 500 migrants from camp

Japanese electronics giant Panasonic said Thursday it was exiting the semiconductor business, selling its loss-making subsidiary to a Taiwanese firm as it struggles with intense competition from China and South Korea.
It marks the end for a once iconic Japanese business, with Panasonic seen as a global chipmaking powerhouse in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Japanese conglomerate said it was offloading its subsidiary Panasonic Semiconductors Solutions to Taiwan's Nuvoton, with the sale scheduled to take place in June.
A spokeswoman for the firm told AFP Panasonic would receive $250 million.  The firm said it was the "best way" in the face of "extremely intense competition with rival firms' business expansion and massive investment".
The unit logged an operating loss of 23.5 billion yen ($215 million) for the fiscal year ended in March, according to the Nikkei business daily.
Panasonic as a whole forecast a 27-percent drop in operating profit to 300 billion yen this fiscal year to March ...

End of an era as Japan's Panasonic exits chip business

The death toll from the most powerful earthquake to strike Albania in decades rose to 40 on Thursday, after 10 more bodies were pulled from the rubble, the defence ministry said.
"Ten more victims were found during the night, bringing the number of dead to 40," the ministry said in a statement.
The 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the Balkan state before dawn on Tuesday, levelling buildings and trapping bodies underneath the wreckage in towns near the Adriatic coast.

Albania earthquake death toll hits 40: defence ministry

South Korea will suspend up to a quarter of its coal-fired power plants in the next three months, even as demand for electricity peaks during the bitter winter, as it seeks to tackle air pollution, Seoul said Thursday.
The world's 11th largest economy is struggling to address growing public concern over airborne particles and pollutants, known as "fine dust", that have raised public fears of omnipresent environmental harm.
Air pollution is designated as a "social disaster" and many South Koreans blame China, the source of the prevailing winds and the world's biggest polluter, which is more frequently affected by choking bouts of filthy air.
The South is generally poor in resources but still operates 60 coal-fired power stations, which provide over 40 percent of the country's electricity supply.
At least eight and as many 15 will have operations suspended from Sunday until February 29, the Ministry of  Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement.
The remaining plants will reduce ...

S Korea to suspend 25% of coal plants to fight pollution

The families of some of the 39 Vietnamese people found dead in a truck in Britain prepared for emotional burials for their children Thursday after an agonising weeks-long wait to bring their bodies home.
The first of the remains arrived in Vietnam Wednesday morning before being quickly shuttled to their homes in central provinces, where many of the victims came from.
All 31 men and eight women found in a refrigerated container in Essex last month were from Vietnam, many from rural towns that have been shaken by the tragedy.
On Thursday villagers gathered to lay their loved ones to rest after long nights of emotional vigils for the returned.
"I'm very sad to have to bury my own son," said Vo Van Binh, whose 25-year-old child was on the ill-fated truck.
Families like his took out loans from the government to cover the cost of repatriation -- USD 1,800 for ashes, or USD 2,900 for the body.
Binh opted to bring his son Vo Van Linh's body home but planned to cremate him later Thursday.
"I ..

Vietnam families to bury victims of UK truck tragedy

Iran arrested eight people "linked to the CIA" during street violence that erupted in nationwide demonstrations against a decision to hike fuel prices, state news agency IRNA reported late Wednesday.
"Some elements who tried to collect information about the recent riots and send them out of the country... were identified and arrested," IRNA quoted the director-general of the intelligence ministry's counter-espionage department as saying.
Six of those arrested were alleged to have been "attending the riots and carrying out orders", IRNA said, without naming the official.
Two others accused of trying to collect information and transfer it abroad were arrested before they could leave the country, the news agency said.
They had all been "trained in different countries on how to collect information... as citizen-journalists", it added.
Iran's arch-foe the United States said on Tuesday it had received thousands of messages from the Islamic republic about protests, including photos and ...

Iran arrests eight 'linked to CIA' during unrest: state media

Ukraine has lashed out at Apple for showing the annexed Crimea peninsula as part of Russia, saying the US tech giant did not "give a damn" about the pain of the Ukrainian people.
Russian lawmakers said on Wednesday that Apple had complied with a demand from Moscow for Crimea to appear as Russian territory on its maps and weather apps.
"Let me explain in your terms, @Apple," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko wrote on Twitter in response to the news.
"Imagine you're crying out that your design & ideas, years of work & piece of your heart are stolen by your worst enemy but then smb ignorant doesn't give a damn about your pain. That's how it feels when you call #Crimea a (Russian) land," he said.
"@Apple, please, please, stick to high-tech and entertainment. Global politics is not your strong side."
As of Wednesday, the Black Sea peninsula and its largest cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol were being displayed as Russian territory on Apple's apps when used in ...

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