Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today announced an "historic" contract for sales of billions of dollars worth of Israeli natural gas to Egypt.
"This will bring billions of dollars to state coffers," he said in a statement announcing the accord with Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
The Israeli energy group Delek said the value of the contract was USD 15 billion.
In September 2015, Jordan struck a deal to buy 300 million cubic feet (8.5 million cubic metres) of Israeli gas per day over a 15-year term.

Israel announces historic gas contract with Egypt

PTI Automatic

Heavy Syrian regime bombardment of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta killed at least 18 civilians today, a monitor said, as government forces appeared to prepare for a ground assault.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes battered the town of Hammuriyeh in Eastern Ghouta, leaving nine civilians dead.
Another nine, including a woman, were killed in air raids, artillery fire, and rockets that hit elsewhere in the enclave.
"The regime is bombing Eastern Ghouta to pave the way for a ground offensive," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Held by rebels since 2012, Eastern Ghouta is now the last opposition-controlled pocket around Damascus.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dispatched reinforcements there in recent weeks in an apparent bid to retake the region.
The Observatory and Syrian daily newspaper Al-Watan had said negotiations were under way for the evacuation of jihadists from the enclave.
But government forces ramped up military pressure on Eastern .

Syria bombardment of rebel enclave kills 18 civilians: monitor

Israeli warplanes carried out a fresh round of strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday after a rocket fired by Palestinians slammed into southern Israel, the army said.
The cross-border exchange followed a weekend escalation in violence seen as among the most serious since Israel and the coastal enclaves Hamas rulers fought a war in 2014.
The Islamist militant group was quick to say that it did not seek further confrontation.
Israeli fighter jets "targeted underground infrastructure in the southern Gaza Strip, in response to the projectile that was launched at Israel earlier," an army statement said.
It did not give further details, but Palestinian security sources said several missiles were fired at farmland east of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
No casualties were reported on either side.
Monday's strikes followed fierce exchanges over the weekend after an improvised bomb apparently planted by Palestinian militants exploded Saturday, injuring four Israeli soldiers inspecting the .

Israeli warplanes pound Gaza after new rocket attack

Turkey's foreign minister today warned against any intervention by Syrian pro-government forces alongside Kurdish militias in northern Syria, saying it would not prevent Ankara from continuing its month-old offensive.
Mevlut Cavusoglu was reacting to a report from Syrian state news agency SANA saying pro-government forces were expected in the Afrin region to counter the Turkish offensive against the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) militia.
"If the regime is entering (Afrin) to oust the PKK, YPG, there is no problem. But if they are entering to protect the YPG, then no one can stop us and Turkish soldiers," Cavusoglu said during a visit to Jordan.
"This is true for Afrin, Manbij and the east of the Euphrates River," Cavusoglu added at a joint news conference in Amman with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi.
Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), blacklisted by Ankara, the United States and the European Union.
On Monday, ...

Turkey warns against Syria regime support to Kurd militia

The unified Korean women's hockey team would be welcome at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as a "message of peace", the head of the International Ice Hockey Federation said today.
The team was hastily assembled following a landmark deal between the two Koreas only a few weeks before the Pyeongchang Games, and has 12 North Koreans on its roster.
They have found little success, having shipped 22 goals and scoring only once in four games. But they have been hailed as a potent symbol of the "Peace Olympics" in Pyeongchang.
"We are thinking about this, whether we should continue. I say, Why not?" IIHF chief Rene Fasel told a press conference at the Gangneung Hockey Centre.
"I think that would be a very good operation to do it in 2022 to still keep the joint team in Beijing and have this unified team as a message of peace," Fasel added.
Lee Hee-beom, head of the Pyeongchang organising committee, said the joint team was a "proud" achievement for the Games.
"Putting athletes from South and ..

Hockey chief wants joint Korean team at Beijing 2022

A governor in northern Afghanistan has become the second in the region to defy an order by President Ashraf Ghani to step down, deepening a political crisis facing the US-backed government in Kabul.
Abdul Karim Khadam, the governor of northern Samangan province, was sacked along with four other provincial governors last week.
But he followed Atta Mohammad Noor, the heavyweight governor of neighbouring Balkh province, who refused to leave office after he was also sacked in December.
Noor's refusal to step down has turned the so-called "King of the North" into one of Afghanistans most infamous politicians and a potential contender in presidential elections due in 2019, while underscoring the weakness of Ghanis government.
Khadam's decision to follow suit has deepened the crisis and threatened to further ethnic divisions between Tajiks and the Pashtun-dominated south, which often dominate Afghanistans politics.
An ethnic Turkmen, Khadam belongs to the Tajik-dominated Jamiat-e-Islami ...

Afghan political crisis deepens as second governor refuses to resign

Australia opened a long-awaited  inquiry into its massively-profitable finance industry today  after a string of scandals rocked confidence in the sector.
The country's "big four" banks -- among the developed  world's wealthiest -- have been under increasing scrutiny in  recent years amid allegations of dodgy financial and life  insurance advice, and mortgage fraud.
There have also been claims of anti-money laundering laws  being breached and benchmark interest rates rigged.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had long resisted Labor  opposition calls for a royal commission into misconduct,  claiming it would be a waste of money, but mounting political  pressure forced his hand.
With uncertainty over the issue hurting offshore investor  confidence, he announced the inquiry late last year to probe  "the nation's banks, big and small, wealth managers,  superannuation providers, insurance companies".
Australian Bankers' Association head Anna Bligh said the  hearings may be ...

Australia opens national inquiry into finance sector

New York state sued Harvey  Weinstein, his brother and their production company for  failing to protect employees from years of his alleged sexual  misconduct despite multiple complaints from staff.
The lawsuit comes four months after the Hollywood mogul's  downfall over allegations of sexual harassment, assault and  rape now leveled against the producer by more than 100 women  over 40 years.
State prosecutors said the legal action, the result of an  ongoing four-month investigation, was filed Sunday out of fear  that an imminent sale of The Weinstein Company, now on the  verge of bankruptcy, could leave victims without adequate  redress.
The lawsuit, which could delay the sale, accuses the  company's board and executives of repeatedly failing to take  adequate steps to protect staff or curb Weinstein's behavior,  despite multiple complaints to human resources.
It alleges that female assistants were required to  facilitate Weinstein's sex life as a condition of employment  and had ...

NY state sues Weinstein and Co. for failing to protect staff

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei  Lavrov has said that accusations of a state-sponsored doping  conspiracy which led to his country's Olympic banishment were  orchestrated by the United States because they "can't beat us  fairly".
"I think it's a form of competition without scruples  because the US team, obviously, are not capable of beating us  fairly at sport," Lavrov said in an interview broadcast by  Rossiya-1 TV and published on the website of the Russian  Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Russia has been banned from taking part in the ongoing  Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)  allowed a large group of Russians deemed clean to take part as  "Olympic Athletes from Russia".
Lavrov, meanwhile, accused the United States of  engineering the ban as a means for them "to find and keep  their place as indisputable world leader in sport".
"All rivals must be pushed to one side," he added. "All  means are good (in a) campaign which is .

Doping row because US 'can't beat us fairly' - Russia FM

German Chancellor Angela Merkel  today said she plans to serve another full four-year term,  despite growing criticism within her conservative ranks of the  sweeping concessions she made to hold onto power.
The veteran leader said that despite the sniping over a  poor election result and the loss of key ministries in a fresh  coalition deal, she felt no loss of authority and wanted to  stay at the helm of Europe's biggest economy until 2021.
"I understand the disappointment," she said, but stressed  that she "naturally" planned to stick with her pledge to stay  on for another four years, rather than make way for a  successor before the end of the term.
"I am a person who keeps what they have promised," she  told public broadcaster ZDF.
Merkel won September elections but fell short of a clear  majority, in large part due to the rise of the far-right,  anti-immigration AfD which took votes away from all major  parties.
After a gruelling marathon of negotiations, she managed  on ...

Merkel says she plans to govern for full four-year term

The case of a French nun who  recovered from a decades-old back problem that prevented her  from walking normally has been recognised as the 70th miracle  at the fabled French shrine of Lourdes, her church said today.
Sister Bernadette Moriau from northern France visited the  holy spring in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains in July  2008, aged 69, seeking a cure to her ailment like millions of  other pilgrims each year.
Shortly after returning home, her chronic sciatica or  pinched spinal nerve disappeared for the first time since she  was first diagnosed at the age of 27.
Sister Bernadette had undergone four unsuccessful  operations.
"She experienced an unusual feeling of relaxation and  heat in the whole of her body (and) heard a voice telling her  to take off her equipment, the corset and the leg brace," said  a statement from her parish in Beauvais in the north of  France.
After further examinations by doctors and three meetings  of church figures in Lourdes, the medical ...

Cured French nun named as 70th miracle in Lourdes

Iraq has asked British energy giant  BP to draft a study on boosting production in all the  oilfields of northern Kirkuk province, Oil Minister Jabbar  al-Luaybi said today.
Luaybi told AFP he hoped to discuss the proposal with  BP's head, who is due to visit Kirkuk in the coming days.
"I suggested they study my proposal and I am waiting for  their reply," Luaybi said.
In 2014, the oil ministry and BP signed a consultancy  deal under which the oil titan would study reserves in the  Baba Gurgur and Havana fields and ways of developing them.
But Baghdad lost the Kirkuk fields to Kurdish forces that  year during a sweeping offensive by the Islamic State group,  and the deal was never implemented.
"Because of IS, it was frozen," Luaybi said.
Iraq signed a new memorandum with BP in January after the  federal government took back control of the area.
Baba Gurgur, discovered in 1927, is Iraq's oldest  oilfield.
Central government forces reseized it from the Kurds in  October along with the ..

Iraq asks BP to study developing Kirkuk oilfields

Oxfam announced a new raft of  measures to tackle sexual abuse cases after being ordered to  meet the British government tomorrow to explain its handling  of a 2011 prostitution scandal involving its aid workers in  Haiti.
The British-based charity will reexamine the episode as  part of an independent review started this year to drive out  unacceptable behaviour, while pledging to improving the  recruitment, vetting and management of staff.
"It is not sufficient to be appalled by the behaviour of  our former staff -- we must and will learn from it and use it  as a spur to improvement," Caroline Thomson, Oxfam's chair of  trustees, said in a statement.
She confirmed the charity would meet with the Department  for International Development (DFID) tomorrow and the Charity  Commission, which regulates the sector, later this week.
Earlier Sunday Britain's International Development  Secretary Penny Mordaunt warned Oxfam to cooperate with a  renewed probe into the scandal or face ...

Oxfam vows shake-up after Haiti sex abuse

A Russian passenger plane carrying  71 people crashed outside Moscow today after taking off from  the capital's Domodedovo airport, killing everyone on board.
The Antonov An-148 plane operated by the domestic Saratov  Airlines was flying to Orsk, a city in the Urals, and crashed  in the Ramensky district on the outskirts of Moscow.
"Sixty-five passengers and six crew members were on  board, and all of them died," Russia's office of transport  investigations said in a statement.
News agencies said witnesses in the village of Argunovo  saw a burning plane falling from the sky.
President Vladimir Putin offered "his profound  condolences to those who lost their relatives in the crash,"  his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
State television aired a video of the crash site, showing  parts of the wreckage in the snow.
Russia has seen record high snowfall in recent days and  visibility was reportedly poor.
The Russian-made plane was reportedly seven years old and  bought by Saratov Airlines from 

71 dead, no survivors in Russian passenger plane crash

Mario Balotelli was booked during  Nice's 3-2 loss at Dijon for complaining about racist abuse,  his French Ligue 1 club and a local newspaper have claimed.
A tweet from Nice at half-time in Saturday's match said  Balotelli had "picked up a yellow card after... getting  annoyed at fans' racist abuse".
Local newspaper Nice Matin in its match report said  Balotelli "eyeballed and pointed his finger" at fans and  "complained of racist abuse".
The newspaper said Dijon goalkeeper Baptiste Reynet had  tried to calm down a furious Balotelli telling him he "hadn't  heard any racist chants", to which the Italian forward replied  it was coming from "two or three supporters".
Nice Matin said Balotelli's booking was for his reaction  to the Dijon fans, after which he had "alerted the fourth  official to the alleged abuse".
It would not be the first time Balotelli, 27, has been  targeted by racist abuse, in France and beyond.
Last season some Bastia fans hurled insults at the former  Liverpool, ...

Balotelli 'booked for racist abuse complaint'

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte  believes blame should be shared for the  dramatic slump that  has the Italian fighting for his job as West Brom visit the  English champions tomorrow.
A 4-1 thrashing at Watford on Monday followed an  embarrassing 3-0 loss to Bournemouth in Chelsea's last home  game to leave the blues in serious risk of failing to qualify  for next season's Champions League.
Conte has repeatedly complained this season about his  lack of input into the club's recruitment policy as tensions  have risen with the Chelsea hierarchy.
But the former Juventus coach accused his players of  performing "with fear" and lacking "personality" as they  surrendered meekly by conceding three times in the final 10  minutes at Vicarage Road.
"When you have this period with such poor results, you  have to divide the responsibility between me, the players and  the club," said Conte.
"As you know very well, because we are talking about  football, a lot of times - I don't agree with this - the 

Chelsea slump not all my fault, insists under-pressure Conte

French Prime Minister Edouard  Philippe today hailed the signing in Dubai of a USD 16 billion  purchase by Emirates Airlines of the Airbus A380 superjumbo  commercial airliner.
"This is obviously excellent news for the French  aerospace industry and for the European industry as a whole,  as it allows Airbus to consider continuing production of the  A380," the visiting premier told reporters on the sidelines of  the World Government Summit.
The deal was signed by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum,  the Emirates chairman and CEO of Emirates, and Mikhail Houari,  president of Airbus Middle East.
In December, Emirates agreed to buy 20 of the double-  decker aircraft with an optional 16 more, just days after the  European manufacturer said it would have to halt production if  no new orders were received.
The economics of the 853-seat, four-engine A380 have  proved daunting, with airlines having to operate every flight  at full capacity in order to make a profit.
The Emirates order was in ..

French PM oversees major Airbus deal signed in Dubai

US President Donald Trump today  said in an interview published today that he was "not  necessarily sure" Israel was seeking to reach a peace  agreement with the Palestinians.
Trump has previously denounced the Palestinians for what  he sees as their unwillingness to negotiate, but he has  largely refrained from criticising Israel.
Speaking to freesheet daily Israel Hayom, Trump noted  that while US-Israel relations were "great", peace with the  Palestinians would make them "a lot better".
"Right now, I would say the Palestinians are not looking  to make peace. They are not looking to make peace," Trump said  in the interview with the right-wing paper.
"And I am not necessarily sure that Israel is looking to  make peace. So we are just going to have to see what happens."
Trump also expressed concerns about Israeli settlement  building, although his administration has been far less  critical of settlements than his predecessor Barack Obama.
Trump's ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, 

Trump says unsure Israel seeks peace with Palestinians

All 71 people aboard a Russian  passenger plane that crashed outside Moscow today were killed  in the disaster, investigators said.
"Sixty-five passengers and six crew members were on  board, and all of them died," Russia's office of transport  investigations said in a statement.
The Antonov An-128 disappeared from radar screens four  minutes after taking off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport, the  office added.

71 dead, no survivors in Russian plane crash: investigators

Olympic officials on Sunday  said a cyberattack was responsible for an internet and wifi  shutdown during the Pyeongchang Winter Games opening ceremony,  but refused to say who was responsible.
Internal systems crashed just before Friday's ceremony  but didn't disrupt the high-tech gala, which was attended by  VIPs including the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un,  and US Vice-President Mike Pence.
Cyber security experts had warned of potential attacks on  the Winter Olympics, with both North Korea and Russia touted  as possible sources. In January, a malware attack targeted  organisations involved with the Olympics.
South Korea's defence ministry and cybersecurity experts  are included in the taskforce investigating Friday's attack,  but the possible culprit is being kept under wraps.
"We are not going to reveal the source," said Sung Baik-  you, spokesman for the Games' local organisers.
Mark Adams, spokesman for the International Olympic  Committee, said it was "normal ...

Olympics hit by cyberattack, source not revealed

Eleven months ago Mark McMorris  was fighting for his life after breaking 17 bones and  suffering a collapsed lung and ruptured spleen in a  snowboarding accident. Today he won Olympic bronze.
The 24-year-old staked an early claim for the most  inspirational story at the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the  snowboard slopestyle, sealing third behind compatriot Max  Parrot, in silver, and Amercian teenage gold medallist Red  Gerard.
McMorris's remarkable feat after cheating death did not  go unnoticed by US ski "queen" Lindsey Vonn, who tweeted a  split photo, one half of the Canadian in a hospital bed with  numerous tubes attached to him and the other showing him  smiling and a superimposed bronze medal.
"This is amazing!" Vonn tweeted to her 987,000 followers.
Talking after winning bronze, McMorris reflected on his  journey from near-death to worldwide headline maker.
"I don't want to think too much about the past today, but  I appreciate the fact I'm here on my snowboard," he ...

AFP

AFP

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