The European Union expanded its tax haven blacklist by 10 countries on Tuesday, adding the United Arab Emirates and Bermuda despite the objections of powerful member states such as Italy.
The list, now 15 countries long, was first drawn up in 2017 in the wake of several scandals, including Panama Papers and LuxLeaks, that pushed the EU into doing more to fight tax evasion by multinationals and the rich.

EU adds 10 countries, including UAE, to tax blacklist: Statement

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The legal risk of Britain being stuck in EU trade arrangements after Brexit fundamentally "remains unchanged", the UK government's chief legal advisor said Tuesday.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said last-minute new agreements "reduce the risk" of Britain being "indefinitely and involuntarily" held in the so-called Irish border backstop.
However, "the legal risk remains unchanged" that Britain, without being able to prove bad faith on behalf of the European Union, would have no legal means of exiting the backstop without the agreement of Brussels.
Prime Minister Theresa May rushed to Strasbourg on Monday for last-minute talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in a bid to salvage the Brexit deal, with British MPs set to vote Tuesday on whether to accept the withdrawal agreement.
The two sides then announced a three-part package of legally-binding changes to the old deal.  T
he backstop, designed to keep the land border between the UK and Ireland free-flowing after .

Brexit backstop legal risk 'unchanged': UK attorney general

Rwanda, which has accused France of complicity in the 1994 genocide that killed some 800,000 of its citizens, said Tuesday it had invited President Emmanuel Macron to attend the 25th anniversary of the massacre on April 7.
Kigali has long insisted that France supported the Hutu regime and helped train the soldiers and militiamen who carried out the killing of minority ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
"President Macron has... been invited to the 25th commemoration of the 1994 genocide," Rwanda's state minister for foreign affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, told AFP.
Macron has not indicated whether he will attend the event in the Rwandan capital.
If he accepts, Macron will become only the second French president to visit the country since the genocide, which still poisons relations between the two nations.
Nicolas Sarkozy was the first to visit Kigali in February 2010, when he admitted France had made "serious errors" but gave no apology.
Paris has consistently denied any involvement in ..

Rwanda invites Macron to attend 25th anniversary of genocide

A Chinese official on Tuesday rejected international criticism of internment camps in the restive Xinjiang region, calling them job training centres that will "gradually disappear" if "one day society no longer needs it".
Nearly one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic minorities are being held in detention centres in Xinjiang, according to estimates cited by a UN panel.
A US official described the situation in Xinjiang as "horrific".
But Beijing has denied the accusations, saying people are attending "vocational education centres" to rid them of any extremist thoughts in a region that was hit by deadly riots and attacks in recent years.
"Our education and training centres have been set up according to our needs. The students that come in to learn, it's a dynamic number that changes," Shohrat Zakir, the chairman of Xinjiang's government, told journalists on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary meeting.
"As a whole, the number of people in the education centres ...

Xinjiang camps will 'gradually' disappear: China

Jurgen Klopp brings Liverpool to Germany to resume their battle against Bayern Munich with the hosts billing Wednesday's Champions League last 16 return leg as an all or nothing showdown.
After a goalless draw at Anfield in the first leg three weeks ago, everything is to play for at Munich's Allianz Arena.
Klopp knows what awaits his Reds in the highly-charged arena where Bayern tend to raise their game and away teams face a barricade of whistles whenever they touch the ball.
"The four goals are all well and good," said Klopp after Liverpool's 4-2 win on Sunday at Burnley, with Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane both scoring twice.
"But what does that have to do with Munich? It will not be so easy to score four goals there as well."
The 51-year-old has a modest record of nine wins, five draws and 16 defeats in 30 games against the Bavarians -- as coach of either Liverpool or former clubs Mainz and Dortmund -- dating back to 2004.
However, in his seven seasons with Dortmund, between 2008 ..

Klopp wary of Allianz Arena return with Liverpool

The pound sank Tuesday after the government's chief legal advisor declared that the legal risk of Britain being stuck in EU trade arrangements after Brexit fundamentally "remains unchanged".
Sterling, which had been rising after British Prime Minister Theresa May secured last-gasp changes to her Brexit deal, sharply reversed direction following the legal advice from Attorney General Geoffrey Cox.

Pound slides on Brexit legal advice

Kurdish-led forces Tuesday said more people were surrendering from the Islamic State group's last scrap of territory in Syria, after overnight air raids and shelling ravaged jihadist outposts.
A ragged tent encampment in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz is all that remains of a once-sprawling IS "caliphate" declared in 2014 across large swaths of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have been trying to crush holdout IS fighters for weeks but the mass outpouring of men, women and children from the riverside hamlet has bogged down their advance.
Backed by the US-led coalition, the SDF renewed their assault on Sunday after warning remaining IS fighters that time was up for surrenders.
Airstrikes and shelling have since pummelled Baghouz for two nights in a row, killing scores of fighters and prompting hundreds of jihadists and their relatives to surrender.
"There was fierce fighting." Ali Cheir, an SDF unit commander, told AFP from a rudimentary ...

More surrenders from IS Syria bastion as end nears

Mammoth German carmaker Volkswagen massively expanded Tuesday its plans for electric car sales in the coming decade, as its scramble to meet tougher greenhouse emissions targets has already begun weighing on profitability.
Higher unit sales and increased revenues in 2018 helped VW to a net profit 6.0 per cent higher, at 12.15 billion euros (USD 13.7 billion), the group said.
But profit margins were squeezed as the group with its 12 brands struggled with new EU emissions tests - introduced following its "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal broke in 2015 - and massive investments in the switch to electric.
The costs did not put bosses off doubling down on their battery-powered ambitions, saying they now plan 70 new electric models by 2028 rather than 50 and lifting sales targets by seven million, to 22 million vehicles by the same date.
In 2018, "pressure on our profit margins grew, not least because of electric mobility," Volkswagen finance chief Frank Witter told business daily ...

Emissions squeeze sparks electric surge for Volkswagen

Iran's foreign ministry warned the UK on Tuesday that giving diplomatic protection to a British-Iranian mother jailed in Tehran would not make the situation "easier", state news agency IRNA reported.
Britain on Friday extended the status to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested in Tehran in 2016.
"What is certain is that the British government's move lacks goodwill and is in no way constructive or positive," said ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi on Tuesday.
"If it does not make the situation more complicated, it will surely not make things easier."
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation -- the media organisation's philanthropic arm -- is serving a five-year jail sentence for sedition.
She has denied all the charges against her.
Diplomatic protection is a rarely-used mechanism allowing governments to seek protection for their citizens on the grounds that they have been wronged by another state.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Friday that ...

Iran says UK diplomatic protection of jailed mother won't 'make things easier'

The United States said Tuesday it expects South Africa to hand over Maputo's ex-finance minister, held since December on a US warrant over corruption allegations -- despite a separate request from Mozambique.
Manuel Chang, 63, was arrested at Johannesburg's main airport on December 29 over alleged involvement in USD 2 billion (1.76 billion euros) of fraudulent loans to Mozambican state firms.
Both the US and Mozambique have issued their own extradition requests over the scandal that has shaken the poor southern African country.
US Assistant Secretary of State Tibor Nagy said he expected Pretoria to honour the extradition accord it signed in September 1999.
"We have an extradition treaty with South Africa, we are very much expecting (extradition) will happen," Nagy told journalists during a phone briefing.
"The US expects South Africa to respond by extraditing Mr Chang to the United States."
A South African court is considering the complex law applicable to the conflicting demands and .

US 'expects' S Africa to hand over ex-Mozambique minister

A Chinese official accused "anti-China forces" in the West of using Christianity to subvert the country's political power and said worshippers must follow a Chinese form of religion.
China's officially atheist government, which oversees religious groups through state-sponsored institutions, has tightened its grip on all faiths in recent years.
"Anti-China forces in the West are attempting to continue to influence the social stability of our country through Christianity, and even subvert the political power of our country," Xu Xiaohong, chairman of the state-backed National Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee, which oversees the Protestant churches, said on Monday.
Speaking at the annual gathering of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a largely ceremonial advisory body, Xu described the introduction of Christianity in China as "accompanying the intense colonial aggression by the West".
Only by incorporating Chinese culture into Christianity would the ...

West using Christianity to subvert Chinese state: official

The nurse who cared for late British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking was on Tuesday banned for failing "to provide the standards of good, professional care that we expect and Professor Hawking deserved".
Britain's Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) made the ruling at a hearing where Patricia Dowdy, 61, faces multiple misconduct charges over her care of the professor -- who died last year -- including financial misconduct, not providing appropriate care and not having the correct qualifications.
Hawking was confined to a wheelchair, almost completely paralysed and unable to speak except through his trademark voice synthesiser after having being diagnosed with motor neurone disease aged 21.
"As the public rightly expects, in serious cases such as this -- where a nurse has failed in their duty of care and has not been able to (provide) evidence to the panel that they have learned from their mistakes and be fit to practise -- we will take action," said the NMC's Matthew McClelland.
"We ...

Stephen Hawking's nurse struck off over care failings

Malaysia on Tuesday banned Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft from its airspace, the aviation regulator said, becoming the latest country to do so following a deadly plane crash in Ethiopia.
"The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia with immediate effect is suspending the operations of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft flying to or from Malaysia and transiting in Malaysia until further notice," said a statement from the regulator's chief executive Ahmad Nizar Zolfakar.
The statement noted there had been "two fatal aircraft accidents involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in less than five months".
No Malaysian carriers currently operate the model, the aviation authority said. It did not say which airlines regularly operate the planes in the country's airspace.
However, flag carrier Malaysia Airlines has ordered a number of 737 MAX aircraft, and the government on Monday ordered an urgent review into the planned purchase.
Earlier Tuesday, Singapore and Australia both barred Boeing 737 MAX planes from their .

Malaysia bans Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes from its airspace

Israeli police said Tuesday that undercover officers had broken up a drug-dealing network that used a popular messaging app and had connections in the United States, Ukraine and Germany.
"After several months of covert investigation 42 suspects were this morning detained in Israel and abroad for questioning under caution on suspicions of trafficking various types of drugs," a police statement said.
It said the transactions amounted to "hundreds of millions" of Israeli shekels (tens of millions of dollars/euros).
The suspects, the statement added, traded through the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
Police designated the ring "Crime Organisation 420" and published its organisational chart, with one person at its head and a hierarchy of executives for finance, infrastructure, security and development, among others.
The statement did not give any names and did not link the suspects to the Israeli drug marketplace Telegrass, which uses Telegram.
Israeli public radio, however, said that ...

Dope-dealing ring on messaging app busted in Israel

The remains of suspected American airmen killed in Myanmar during World War II will be repatriated to the United States on Tuesday in the first-ever ceremony of its kind in the Southeast Asian nation, US officials said.
The remains of hundreds of American military personnel are still unaccounted for in Myanmar, a key conflict arena in Asia between the Allies and Japan during World War II.
The remains to be repatriated on Tuesday are believed to be linked to a crashed B-25G aircraft in February 1944 in the Salingyi area of the northwest Sagaing region.
The wreckage was found in an investigation two years later but the graves could not be located.
A ceremony was to be held at Mandalay International Airport on Tuesday to honour the servicemen.
"Today, we repatriate the possible remains of what may be US citizens who died in service to our nation more than 75 years ago," US Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel said in a statement.
"We owe it to them to always honour their memory, never ...

Myanmar to repatriate remains of suspected WWII US airmen

The US is weighing a complaint at the World Trade Organisation against "discriminatory" new taxes on digital giants such as a Facebook and Google which are being planned by France and other EU nations, a top US trade official said Tuesday.
"Various parts of our government are studying whether that discriminatory impact would give us rights under trade agreements and WTO treaties," Chip Harter, a Treasury official and US delegate for global tax talks, said in Paris.

US warns of WTO action over 'discriminatory' new digital taxes

The European Union expanded its tax haven blacklist by 10 countries on Tuesday, adding the United Arab Emirates and Bermuda despite the objections of powerful member states such as Italy.
The list, now 15 countries long, was first drawn up in 2017 in the wake of several scandals, including the Panama Papers and LuxLeaks, that pushed the EU into doing more to fight tax evasion by multinationals and the rich.
Seven countries are to be moved back from a grey list because reform commitments had not been met. These are Aruba, Belize, Bermuda, Fiji, Oman, Vanuatu and Dominica, an EU statement said.
They are joined by three other countries whose tax policies have grown more aggressive in the past months. They are Barbados, the United Arab Emirates and the Marshall Islands.
Italy long resisted the addition of the UAE. The Middle East powerhouse has recently made significant investments in the economically troubled European country.
Rome had wanted to keep the Emirates on the so-called grey ...

EU adds 10 countries, including UAE, to tax blacklist

Iran's Foreign Ministry warned the UK on Tuesday that extending diplomatic protection to a British-Iranian mother jailed in Tehran would not make the situation "easier", state news agency IRNA reported.
"What is certain is that the British government's move lacks goodwill and is in no way constructive or positive," said ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi, after Britain announced Friday it would give diplomatic protection to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
"If it does not make the situation more complicated, it will surely not make things easier.

Iran says UK diplomatic protection of jailed mother won't 'make things easier

Thai police arrested a Jordanian man who confessed to murdering his one-year-old son by strapping the child into a stroller and pushing him into the Gulf of Thailand, the country's immigration head said Tuesday.
The alleged infanticide occurred in the seaside town of Pattaya, where 52-year-old Wael Nabil Salman Zureikat was holidaying with his wife and one-year-old son.
His arrest follows the discovery of the toddler's body on Monday by fishermen off Pattaya's main pier.
"Last night, he confessed that he tied his son to the stroller and pushed it into the sea," immigration head Lieutenant General Surachate Hakparn said at a press conference Tuesday.
The couple had checked into a guest house on March 6, and the boy was taken two days later by the father -- who told his wife he was under the care of others.
His wife filed a complaint to the authorities, which led to the man's arrest.
"The father said he could not raise the boy and did not want to have children," Surachate said. "It is a 

AFP

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