German luxury carmaker BMW said today its 2017 net profit soared 26 per cent to a record 8.7 billion euros (USD 10.7 billion), driven by strong demand for electrified vehicles and a tax bump from the United States.
The Munich-based group said deliveries of its electrified vehicles jumped 65.6 per cent to 103,080 units, as it plans to put half a million such cars on the road by the end of 2019.
The group, which also owns the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, said automobile deliveries were up 4.1 per cent to 2.46 million vehicles, while revenues also rose a corresponding 4.8 per cent to 98.6 billion euros.
"We can look back on the most successful year in our corporate history and have achieved record levels for revenues and earnings for the eighth year in succession," said Harald Krueger, BMW chairman.
And the group is targeting another record year in 2019 as it eyes a further rise in deliveries in 2018.
"This year we are targeting another new sales record, with deliveries slightly up on ...

BMW posts record net profit of 8.7 bn euros for 2017

PTI Automatic

Chief Justice of Philippine Maria Lourdes Sereno

A US-style impeachment trial in the Senate will follow if the House adopts the committee report

Philippines' top judge vows fight as Duterte, allies seek her ouster

Press Trust of India

A "sudden turn" by the American warship USS John S McCain led to a collision with a tanker last year off Singapore that left 10 sailors dead, a report by the city-state's government said.
Singapore's transport ministry, releasing the results of its investigation into the incident, said a "series of missteps" by the destroyer's crew and insufficient action by those of the tanker, the Alnic MC, contributed to the accident.
The vessels smashed into each other in the predawn hours of August 21, 2017 in the busy shipping lanes around the Strait of Malacca. There were no casualties among the tanker's crew.
The commander of the John S McCain is facing charges including negligent homicide and dereliction of duty, the US Navy said in January, after its own investigation into the incident found "multiple failures" by the ship's crew.
Singapore said its 35-page report did not blame any organisation or individual for the fatal crash, but found the warship made an abrupt turn after a transfer of ..

'Sudden turn' by US warship led to collision off Singapore: report

Male readers of left-wing French daily Liberation were asked to pay 25 per cent more for their paper on today, to underscore the gender pay gap on International Women's Day.
The paper published two versions with different cover pages, one marked "for women, 2 euros, normal price" with a pictogram of a woman, the other marked "for men, 2.50 euros" with a pictogram of a man.
In a front-page message the paper noted that despite equal pay for equal work being enshrined by law since 1972, French women earn on average 25.7 per cent less than men, according to a 2017 report from an inequality watchdog.
"To highlight this injustice Liberation has decided to apply the same difference to its sale price for a day, meaning 50 cents more for men," it said, adding that profits from the operation would be donated to France's non-governmental Equality Observatory.
Liberation said it was inspired by Canadian monthly Maclean's, which charged men more for its March edition -- also to denounce the wage ..

French newspaper charges men more on Women's Day

A regional leader of Germany's far-right AfD party today said he would resign after he insulted Germans of Turkish origin, calling them "camel drivers".
Andre Poggenburg, 42, is the leader of the AfD in the formerly communist eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt as well as chief of the anti-immigration party's state parliamentary group.
He will leave both posts from the end of March because of "pressure from the parliamentary group and party", the Saxony-Anhalt state chapter of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said in a statement.
Poggenburg made the inflammatory comments in February after a Turkish community organisation had questioned plans in Berlin to create a new "homeland" ministry.
He said Germany needed no advice on its culture and history from Turks who he said bore responsibility "for their own genocide", the mass killings of Armenians in the World War I-era.
"Are they crazy?" he told several hundred mostly-male AfD supporters in Nentmannsdorf, a village near ...

German AfD politician quits over 'camel drivers' race slur

US actress Meghan Markle has been baptised by the leader of the Church of England ahead of her marriage to Prince Harry in May, the Daily Mail reported today.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby performed the 45-minute ceremony at London's Chapel Royal on Tuesday in the presence of Prince Charles, her future father-in-law, the paper said.
Prince Harry's Kensington Palace office declined to comment.
Markle, 36, is understood to have chosen to be baptised and confirmed into the Anglican church out of respect for Queen Elizabeth II's role as the head of the denomination.
The ceremony involved the "Suits" actress being doused with holy water from the River Jordan from the private royal family font, according to the Mail.
The couple will wed on May 19 at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, a residence of Queen Elizabeth II's located west of London.
Markle's father is an Episcopalian -- an offshoot of the Anglican Church in the US -- while her mother belonged to another Protestant ...

Meghan Markle baptised ahead of royal wedding: report

Washington's top diplomat began his first Africa tour today by meeting with the African Union chief, who said the continent had moved on from a reported insult by President Donald Trump.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and AU commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed security and counter-terrorism, trade and development, corruption and conflict in an hour-long meeting at the continental body's headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
But looming over the meeting was Trump's alleged description of African nations as "shithole countries" in January, which forced the president to pen a letter reaffirming his commitment to the continent.
Faki, however, insisted the slur was now in the past.
"I received a letter written by President Trump to myself and I shared that with other African leaders. I believe this incident is of the past," he said.
Tillerson's five-nation Africa tour - to include Djibouti, Kenya, Chad and Nigeria, all key allies in fighting Islamic extremism - has been ...

AU chief meets Tillerson, says Trump slur in 'the past'

Dozens of people were treated for breathing difficulties after air strikes slammed into Syria's Eastern Ghouta, a monitor said, with medics reporting symptoms consistent with a toxic attack.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 60 people in the besieged rebel enclave were left struggling to breathe after air strikes and barrel bombs hit the towns of Saqba and Hammuriyeh late yesterday.
Doctors at one medical facility in Eastern Ghouta said they treated at least 29 patients with signs of exposure to chlorine, according to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS).
SAMS is a medical charity that supports hospitals in Eastern Ghouta and other rebel-controlled zones in Syria.
It did not report any deaths but said it was likely that more victims were being treated at other clinics.
"Due to chlorine attack in #EastGhouta, patients are struggling w/symptoms such as severe dyspnea, sweating, congestion of mucus membranes, severe runny nose, wheezing & conjunctival ...

Dozens treated for breathing problems after raids on Syria's Ghouta

Tehran has barred the widow of an Iranian-Canadian environmentalist who died in prison from leaving the country, drawing protests from Ottawa and her family.
Maryam Mombeini attempted to fly out of Tehran on Wednesday evening with her sons Ramin and Mehran but airport security prevented her joining them on board the Lufthansa flight for Canada via Germany.
"Enough is enough," Ramin Seyed Emami, a well-known singer, said on his Instagram account alongside a picture of him and his brother on the plane without their mother.
He warned the Iranian authorities not to "think that my brother and I will stay silent for one second until we are reunited with our mom."
Environmentalist Kavous Seyed Emami, 63, died in prison in February after being arrested on espionage charges the previous month along with seven other members of the Persian Heritage Wildlife Foundation he founded.
The authorities say he committed suicide, but the family have questioned the verdict and say they were threatened by .

Iran bars widow of dead environmentalist from leaving

Germany has remanded in custody a 17-year-old Iraqi suspected of having planned an explosives attack for the Islamic State jihadist group in Germany or Britain, prosecutors said today.
The teenager, identified only as Deday A., hoarded a large amount of pyrotechnics at his home and allegedly planned to use the black powder to make an explosive device, said federal prosecutors.
The suspect, who was first arrested on February 13 in the state of Hesse, faced a judge Wednesday who ordered him remanded in pre-trial custody on charges of having planned an attack.
"The accused is alleged to have procured explosives to commit an Islamist attack in Germany or Britain," the prosecutors said in a statement, adding that he was a suspected member of IS.
German authorities have been on heightened alert since IS claimed a lorry assault on a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 which killed 12 people.
Dozens of suspects have been arrested or charged over alleged terror plots.

Iraqi, 17, held for 'bomb attack plot' in Germany or Britain

A pair of Indonesian Islamic universities are pushing female students to ditch niqab face veils -- with one threatening expulsion for non-compliance -- as concerns grow over rising fundamentalism in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.
Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University said it issued the edict this week to more than three dozen niqab-wearing students, who will be booted from school if they refuse.
Although niqabs are common in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, they're rare in secular Indonesia, where around 90 percent of its 260 million people have traditionally followed a moderate form of Islam.
For many Indonesians, the niqab -- a full veil with a small slit for the eyes -- is an unwelcome Arab export and some associate it with radical Islam, which the country has wrestled with for years.
"We are a state university... we've been told to spread moderate Islam," the school's chancellor Yudian Wahyudi told a press briefing this week.
The school, ..

Indonesian universities 'ban' niqab over fundamentalism fears

Three prominent South Korean writers and artists who have been accused of sex abuse will have their works and almost all mentions of their names removed from school textbooks, the government said today, as the country's nascent #MeToo campaign spreads.
A growing number of women have spoken out about abuses they suffered at the hands of powerful figures in multiple fields, making headlines in a country that remains socially patriarchal despite economic and technological advances.
Those accused of sexual misconduct include Ko Un, a top poet regularly tipped for the Nobel prize for literature, prominent stage director Lee Yoon-taek and playwright Oh Tae-seok.
Seoul poet Choi Young-Mi accused Ko of sexually abusing many women in literary circles, after publishing a thinly veiled poem "Monster" in which she detailed her experiences at his hands.
Lee is under investigation for raping or sexually harassing more than 10 actresses at his theatre group, and Oh is also accused of harassing ...

South Korea to erase sex abuse accused from textbooks

Working themselves into a trance, bare-chested men in eastern China lean into incandescent fountains of sparks to cleanse themselves of evil spirits and ensure a fortuitous new year.
The spectacular scene takes place annually in villages such as Xiaohu in coastal Fujian province, which is home to an array of colourful centuries-old Lunar New Year rites linked to ancient customs and local gods.
Selected devotees allow themselves to be "possessed" by those gods, then chant intonations and blow on horns as they are escorted to the courtyard of Xiaohu's main temple.
There, they lean for up to 10 seconds into a spray of bright white sparks shooting upward from fireworks placed on the ground while waving small flags or fans as hundreds of people watch.
Opening their mouths, they pretend to "eat" the sparks, thus giving the custom its local name, "eating flowers".
The villagers emerge singed and darkened with soot, but off to a clean start to the Year of the Dog, which began on February 16 ..

China villagers 'eat' sparks to ring in Year of the Dog

British detectives today scrambled to find the source of the nerve agent used in the attempted murder of a Russian former double-agent and his daughter.
Sergei Skripal, 66, who moved to Britain in a 2010 spy swap, is in a critical condition in hospital along with his daughter Yulia after they collapsed on a bench outside a shopping centre on Sunday.
A policeman also fell ill after coming to their aid but is showing signs of recovery, according to interior minister Amber Rudd.
"The two targets are still in very serious condition, the policeman is talking and is engaging so I'm more optimistic for him, but it's too early to say," she told ITV1's Good Morning Britain.
The brazen poisoning in the southwestern English city of Salisbury is already being linked with Russia by British politicians and the media, sparking an angry response in Moscow.
On Wednesday, British police confirmed for the first time that a nerve agent was used and that their probe was now an attempted murder ...

UK races to find source of poison used against Russia ex-spy

Thousands of Pakistanis imprisoned in Saudi Arabia and dozens sentenced to death in the ultra-conservative kingdom have been denied their legal rights to a defence, a report in Islamabad has warned.
Saudi Arabia executes more Pakistanis than any other foreign nationality annually, nearly all for heroin smuggling, according to the study by Justice Project Pakistan and Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Sixty-six Pakistanis were beheaded in the country between 2014 and 2017 alone, the report entitled "Caught in a Web" said.
"You not only have the death sentence, but you have it without due process or elementary fair trial," Saroop Ijaz, an HRW researcher, told AFP.
Pakistani migrants are "exceptionally disempowered and marginalised," Ijaz told AFP, adding that the group faces a "premodern discriminatory" criminal justice system in Saudi Arabia.
With 1.6 million nationals, Pakistanis constitute the second largest foreign community in Saudi Arabia, and most are members of a low-skilled workforce ..

Thousands of Pakistanis detained and sentenced to death in Saudi denied rights: report

China warned the United States today that everyone will be harmed if President Donald Trump launches a trade war, as official figures showed the Asian power maintained a robust trade surplus with the US.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued the stern message as the Trump administration geared up to formally introduce steel and aluminium tariffs today despite global concerns.
"Choosing a trade war is surely the wrong prescription, in the end you will only hurt others and yourself," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
"China will certainly make an appropriate and necessary response," Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the Communist Party's annual parliamentary session.
Yesterday, at the World Trade Organization, China led a group of 18 members urging Trump to scrap the planned tariffs, with its representative saying the levies would pose a systemic threat to the rules-based global trading system.
US imports from China of steel and aluminium make up a small proportion of ..

China says ready for trade war as Trump tariffs loom

China will create a bastion for giant pandas three times the size of Yellowstone National Park to link up and encourage breeding among existing wild populations of the notoriously slow-reproducing animal, state media reported today.
At least 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) has been secured over the next five years for construction of the Giant Panda National Park in mountainous southwestern China for the nation's favourite creature, the China Daily reported.
Plans for the park -- which would cover 27,134 square kilometres (10,476 square miles) -- were first put forward early last year by the ruling Communist Party and the State Council, China's cabinet, the paper said.
Yellowstone, established in 1872 as the first US national park, spans 8,983 square kilometres.
The Chinese park plans are aimed at enabling wild pandas that are currently isolated in several different areas of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces to mingle and hopefully breed.
Giant pandas have a notoriously low ...

China plans panda park that will dwarf Yellowstone

An aid convoy planned to bring assistance today to besieged civilians in Syria's battered Eastern Ghouta will not go through, the International Committee for the Red Cross said.
"The convoy for today is postponed, as the situation is evolving on the ground, which doesn't allow us to carry out the operation in such conditions," ICRC spokeswoman Ingy Sedky told AFP.

Planned aid convoy to Syria's Ghouta postponed: Red Cross

The US state of Florida, scene of America's latest school shooting, has passed bill that raises the minimum age to buy firearms to 21 while funding a program that allows some teachers and school employees to be armed.
The "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act," which takes its name from last month's mass shooting in which 17 people including 14 students were killed, passed the legislature's lower house a day after clearing the senate.
It will now be sent to Governor Rick Scott to sign.
The Republican has not indicated whether he would veto the law, but he has previously expressed opposition to US President Donald Trump's call to arm teachers.
America's long moribund gun control debate was revived by survivors of the Parkland shooting, who a day after their school was attacked launched the "Never Again" movement demanding legislative action.
The bill raises the minimum age to purchase all firearms from 18 to 21 -- a move opposed by the powerful National Rifle ...

Florida passes bill to restrict guns, arm some teachers

Roger Federer, who regained the world Number One ranking last month, is on a quest to make history in the California desert by winning an unprecedented sixth Indian Wells title.
The 36-year-old Swiss marvel continues to defy the aging process, claiming his 20th Grand Slam title and sixth Australian Open crown in January.
He has enjoyed a perfect start to 2018 by winning both events he has competed in and taking his career singles title tally to 97.
"He shows there is no limit," said third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov on Wednesday.
"He keeps on proving it every year on the tour."
Federer opens the defence of his Indian Wells title by playing a second-round match against either American Ryan Harrison or Federico Delbonis of Argentina.
He also won this tournament three straight years beginning in 2004, and in 2012 as well as last year.
Federer comes into the elite event as the oldest ATP Number One in history. In the Open era, only American Jimmy Connors has won more titles than Federer, with .

Swiss star Federer showing no signs of slowing

A luxury yacht linked to allegations that $4.5 billion was looted from Malaysia's state investment fund 1MDB is being handed over to the FBI, which is probing the scandal, Indonesian police said today.
US and Indonesian authorities last week searched the Cayman Island-registered Equanimity, reportedly worth some $250 million, which was moored off the Indonesian tourist island of Bali.
"(The handing over) is in the process of being done," national police senior detective Daniel Silitonga told AFP.
The US Justice Department alleges in civil lawsuits that $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB -- set up by Prime Minister Najib Razak -- in a campaign of fraud and money-laundering. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.
The suits list $1.7 billion in assets allegedly bought with the stolen funds, which US officials are seeking to recover.
Those assets include the 300-foot (90-metre) yacht which US officials said was purchased by Malaysian financier known as Jho Low, an unofficial adviser to ...

AFP

AFP

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