At least 10 Nigerian soldiers have been killed and nine severely injured in an ambush by jihadists in restive northeast Nigeria, military sources said Thursday.
Another 12 soldiers were missing after a column of troops on patrol was ambushed by the fighters on Wednesday in Damboa district of Borno state, a military officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Fighters loyal to the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killings, but said they had slain 22 soldiers after an assault by the army.
A decade-long jihadist insurgency in northeast Nigeria has killed 35,000 people, displaced two million others and spilt into neighbouring countries.
"We lost 10 troops in the intense fighting with the terrorists who ambushed our soldiers conducting a clearance operation in the area," said the officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak about the incident.
"Nine soldiers were injured and 12 are still missing." The troops came under attack while ...

Ten Nigerian troops killed in jihadist ambush: military sources

PTI Automatic

At least 10 people were killed and others were missing after an illegal gold mine collapsed in northeastern Guinea, local officials and the Red Cross said on Thursday.
Accidents in clandestine mines are common in Guinea, which has reserves of gold, diamonds, bauxite, and iron ore, though most of the population of the West African country lives in poverty.
"At least 10 people died on Wednesday morning when a landslide hit a gold mine in Kintingnan in Siguiri province," said local government official Aliou Cisse.
The death toll was confirmed by the local Red Cross and a security official, who also said three children were among the victims.
"Some other victims are missing through we don't know the number. We are trying to find them as quickly as possible, but we don't have much hope they will be alive in the tunnels," Cisse said.
Cisse said Kintingnan mine had been shut down by authorities but local residents had reopened it without authorisation.
At least 17 people were killed in ...

At least 10 dead in northeast Guinea gold mine collapse

The Bank of England has left its main interest rate at 0.75 percent, it said Thursday after a regular meeting and before next month's UK general election to unlock Brexit.
The central bank also upgraded its UK growth forecast to 1.4 percent in 2019 but downgraded 2020 guidance to 1.2 percent.
The new forecasts, which assume that Britain leaves the European Union with a deal on January 31, contrasted with the Bank of England's (BoE) prior predictions of 1.3 percent for both years.
The bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 7-2 to hold borrowing costs, according to minutes of the rate-setting meeting that took place Wednesday.
"Two members preferred a 25 basis point cut in bank rate at this meeting," the minutes read.
The pair judged that "some extra stimulus was needed now to ensure a sustained return of inflation to the target".
The minutes meanwhile noted "downside risks to the MPC's projections from a weaker world outlook and from more persistent Brexit uncertainties affecting 

Bank of England holds rate, tweaks UK growth forecasts

The EU said Thursday it was "deeply concerned" by an incident involving an inspector with the UN's nuclear watchdog last week in Iran which led to her having her accreditation cancelled.
In a statement delivered to a special meeting of the governing body of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an EU representative said: "The EU is... deeply concerned by the incident concerning one IAEA inspector." "We understand that the incident was resolved and call upon Iran to ensure that no such incidents occur in the future," the statement said.
Reiterating the European Union's "full confidence in the inspectorate's professionalism and impartiality", the statement called "upon Iran to ensure that IAEA inspectors can perform their duties in line with its legally binding safeguards agreement".
Iran said Thursday it had cancelled the inspector's accreditation after she triggered an alarm last week at the entrance to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.
The alarm during a check at the ...

EU voices 'deep concern' over Iran nuclear inspector incident

Bangladesh has banned a radical Islamist group over a threat to the Muslim-majority country's "security and safety", officials said, as the government steps up a crackdown against extremists.
The South Asian nation has been ravaged by Islamist extremism since the late 1990s after jihadists who fought in the war in Afghanistan alongside the Mujahideen and Taliban returned home.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina clamped down on extremist organisations following the killing of 18 foreigners at an upscale Dhaka restaurant in 2016 by a group linked to the Islamic State.
The latest group to be banned is Allahr Dal, or the Party of Allah, with police alleging it was planning attacks.
"Their activities are a threat to public security and safety," a senior home ministry official told AFP.
Allahr Dal's leader Matin Mehedi was arrested in 2006 after he helped Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the nation's biggest militant group, carry out more than 400 small blasts across the ..

Bangladesh bans fringe Islamist group

Britain's two main parties promised billions of pounds of investment for hospitals, schools and infrastructure on Thursday as they seek to woo voters weary of austerity ahead of next month's election.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives confirmed an end to a decade of belt-tightening with new plans to borrow to invest, while attacking the rival Labour party for pledging even greater largesse.
Speaking in Manchester, northwest England, Finance Minister Sajid Javid said the Tories would "get Brexit done", allowing Britain to move on after three years of uncertainty over its European Union exit.
In September, Javid announced plans to raise government spending by ?13.8 billion ($16.8 billion, 15.3 billion euros) on health and education and to put more police on the streets.
He said on Thursday that his government would never spend day to day more than it brings in, but "we can borrow in real terms at negative interest rates, meaning it is a responsible time to invest".
With ...

UK parties turn on the spending taps in election pitch

Three small parties opposed to Britain's looming EU exit revealed plans Thursday to work together to deliver anti-Brexit candidates in next month's election.
The Liberal Democrats, the Greens and Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru will stand aside for each other in 60 of the 650 seats contested on December 12.
"This arrangement will help elect more pro-Remain MPs in the next parliament," said Jo Swinson, leader of the Lib Dems, who have pledged to reverse Brexit.
Britons voted by 52 percent to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum, but MPs have been divided over how, when and even if that result should be delivered.  The political wrangling has forced two successive Conservative governments to ask the EU to delay Brexit three times this year. It is now set for January 31.
Current Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes the snap election next month will give him a majority in the House of Commons to allow him to ratify his exit terms and finally leave the EU.
But anti-Brexit ...

Anti-Brexit alliance targets tenth of UK election seats

A student from mainland China arrested at a Hong Kong democracy protest was sentenced on Thursday to six weeks in prison for possession of an offensive weapon -- the city's first such case involving a mainlander in almost five months of unrest.
Since the first mass demonstrations in June, more than 3,300 people have been arrested in Hong Kong in connection to the protest movement, with some charged for rioting and illegal assembly.
Around one-third of the arrestees are students.
Chen Zimou, a 24-year-old music and English student originally from Chongqing in southwestern China, was arrested for carrying an extendable baton during a protest in July.
He denied participating in the protest and the prosecutors did not have any evidence to identify him as a protester.
He has already spent two weeks in custody after his conviction and will spend four more weeks behind bars following his sentencing in court on Thursday.  Hong Kong has been upended by the huge, often violent, pro-democracy ...

Mainland Chinese student jailed in Hong Kong protests

The head of Russia's security service on Thursday said the Islamic State group is setting up a base in Afghanistan to target ex-Soviet countries using militants from Central Asia.
"We are seeing increased activities of IS branches in Afghanistan," the chief of Russia's Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov told a regional security forum in Tashkent, quoted by TASS state news agency.
"Their goal is to increase a base to expand into the CIS (ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States) territory." He said IS was uniting branches in Afghanistan and working in tandem with a group called Jamaat Ansarullah and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, also known as the Turkestan Islamic party.
The expansion into the ex-Soviet countries "will be done by militants who are citizens of Central Asian republics with experience of warfare as members of terrorist groups," Bortnikov said.
The comments come on the heels of an attack Wednesday on a border post in Tajikistan which officials blamed ..

IS plans Afghan base targeting ex-USSR: Russian security chief

French President Emmanuel Macron wants European nations to break their "taboo" against using deficits to stimulate growth and investment, and scrap a strict limit on eurozone deficits, he said in an interview published Thursday.
"We need to rethink our economic deal," Macron told The Economist magazine in an interview, referring in particular to the eurozone's limit of government budget deficits at three percent of GDP.
That limit has been the bedrock of the common euro currency created in 1999, along with a rule limiting overall debt ratios to 60 percent of GDP.
France has been leading calls for Germany in particular to start investing part of its huge budget surplus in order to counter an EU-wide slowdown and spur investment.
If not, Macron warned, the continent risks being outpaced in key technological and defence realms -- not least 5G network development -- by the US and China, which are spending massively.
"Europe is one of the continents with the highest levels of savings. A ...

Macron says EU deficit rule 'belongs in the past century'

The International Criminal Court sentenced Congolese rebel chief Bosco "Terminator" Ntaganda to 30 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity on Thursday, the highest ever penalty issued by the tribunal.
Ntaganda was convicted in July of offences including murder, sexual slavery and using child soldiers in a mineral-rich region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 2000s.
Most of the charges against Rwandan-born Ntaganda, 46, related to a series of gruesome massacres of villagers carried out by his fighters.
"Murder was committed on a large scale," presiding judge Robert Flemr said, adding that the Hague-based court had taken the "particular cruelty" of some of Ntaganda's actions into account.
"The overall sentence imposed on you shall therefore be 30 years of imprisonment." But while the judges gave him the maximum sentence allowed by the ICC in terms of the number of years, they said that "despite their gravity" his crimes did not warrant a full-life prison .

Congolese 'Terminator' warlord gets harshest ever ICC sentence

The United States on Thursday called for "serious steps" to be taken after Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow plant in a new step back from its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal.
Engineers began feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into the plant's mothballed enrichment centrifuges in "the first minutes of Thursday", the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization announced.
The suspension of uranium enrichment at the long secret plant was one of the restrictions Iran had agreed to in return for the lifting of UN sanctions.
"Iran's expansion of proliferation-sensitive activities raises concerns that Iran is positioning itself to have the option of a rapid nuclear breakout," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
"It is now time for all nations to reject this regime's nuclear extortion and take serious steps to increase pressure. Iran's continued and numerous nuclear provocations demand such action." Iran's announcement that it would resume enrichment drew 

US calls for 'serious steps' as Iran resumes uranium enrichment

Turkish police arrested 17 foreigners on Thursday suspected of ties to the Islamic State group, state news agency Anadolu reported.
The 17, whose nationalities were not given, were arrested in Ankara and taken for interrogation by counter-terrorism officers, Anadolu said.
Turkey has highlighted its efforts to crack down on the Islamic State group (IS) following the assassination of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by the United States last week.
Turkish officials said they arrested Baghdadi's sister this week, and announced they had been holding his wife since last year.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that members of Baghdadi's entourage were seeking to enter Turkey and that several -- "close to double figures" -- had been arrested.
In the early years of the Syrian conflict when Turkey was keen to see the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, it was accused of failing to prevent the passage of jihadists over its border.
That changed following a series of IS attacks ...

Turkey arrests 17 on suspected IS links

British police on Thursday said all 39 bodies found inside a refrigerated truck in southeast England last month had now been identified as Vietnamese nationals.
Essex Police, the local force investigating the gruesome discovery of 31 men and eight women in the back of a truck on October 23, confirmed that the victims' families had been informed.

All 39 victims found dead in UK truck were Vietnamese: police

French President Emmanuel Macron says he believes NATO is undergoing "brain death," lamenting a lack of coordination between Europe and the United States and unilateral actions in Syria by key member Turkey, in an interview published Thursday.
"What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO," Macron told The Economist magazine in an interview.
"You have no coordination whatsoever of strategic decision-making between the United States and its NATO allies. None.
"You have an uncoordinated aggressive action by another NATO ally, Turkey, in an area where our interests are at stake," he added, according to an English transcript released by The Economist.
Macron's comments questioning the effectiveness of NATO threaten to send shock waves through the alliance ahead of a summit meeting Britain next month.
NATO has already been hit by Turkey's latest military operation against Kurdish militia in northern Syria -- which was staunchly opposed by fellow members like France -- and .

France's Macron says NATO experiencing 'brain death'

Defending champions Croatia will be without Marin Cilic in the Davis Cup finals later this month after the former US Open winner announced his withdrawal on Thursday because of a knee injury.
Croatia, who beat previous winners France in last year's final, play the inaugural match in Madrid against Russia on November 18.
"My recurring knee injury has continued to give me problems, and as the season progressed it was becoming more evident that surgery was inevitable," Cilic, world number 39, wrote on Facebook.
The "rehab work was successful enough that surgery is not necessary at this stage," he continued.
"However, I will need to undergo a few minor interventions which will keep me off the tennis court for a longer period and unfortunately means I will not be able to compete at the Davis Cup this month."
Adding that he was "extremely disappointed", the 31-year-old Croatian said he would dedicate himself to getting back into shape to kick off the 2020 season "healthier, more prepared, ..

Cilic pulls out of Croatia's Davis Cup squad due to injury

Indonesia will search for a new national team coach after football officials announced Simon McMenemy would be sacked following this month's World Cup qualifier against Malaysia.
The Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) said it would part ways with the Scot after a World Cup match in Kuala Lumpur on November 19.
No reasons were given, but Indonesia sit bottom of Asian World Cup qualifying Group G after losing all four matches so far, leading to a #SimonOut social media campaign to get rid of the coach.
The 41-year-old McMenemy signed a two-year contract last year to manage the national team.
"We thank Simon for his cooperation so far," newly-elected PSSI chairman Muhammad Iriawan said Wednesday.
"We hope for a positive result in the match against Malaysia."
The PSSI said it was considering several candidates to replace McMenemy, including former South Korea head coach Shin Tae-yong and ex-Barcelona and Real Madrid midfielder Luis Milla.
McMenemy's sacking was the first major ...

Indonesia axe coach after World Cup losing streak

Russia did not doctor data on athletes' test results that it sent to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as part of attempts to clear up a long-running scandal over state-sponsored doping, Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov insisted Thursday.
Kolobkov said Russian experts had sent explanations to WADA, adding that these "experts consider nothing was removed."
Russia transferred the electronic data to WADA investigators in January. This was one of the key conditions for Russia's reinstatement by WADA.
In September, WADA asked Russia to respond to "inconsistencies" in the data saying evidence of some positive tests handed over by a whistleblower does not show up in the data.
Russia risks being declared non-compliant by WADA if it fails to explain how this happened.
President Vladimir Putin said in October that Russia is "actively cooperating with WADA" and the "requirements presented by this organisation are being fully complied with."
"These are purely technical questions linked to the way 

Russia denies doping data sent to WADA was falsified

World number two and recent WTA Finals semi-finalist Karolina Pliskova said Thursday she was parting ways with her Spanish coach Conchita Martinez.
"I decided I will no longer work with Conchita," the 27-year-old Czech wrote on her Facebook page.
"It was (a) tough decision as the season was great. Thank you for all this year and wish u only the best. Life is a change!!!" added the 2016 US Open finalist.
Her manager and husband Michal Hrdlicka told the Czech news agency CTK they were in talks with a new coach, without disclosing the name.
"It has been an incredible year full of great moments and emotions," tweeted Martinez.
"I wish Kaja and her team the best for the future," added the 47-year-old Wimbledon champion from 1994.
Pliskova hired Martinez during last year's US Open and she immediately won the Pacific Open in Tokyo.
She went on to win four WTA tournaments this year and reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open and at last week's WTA Finals where she bowed out to world ...

World number two Pliskova parts ways with coach Martinez

African players still do not get the recognition they deserve, Cameroon legend Samuel Eto'o told AFP in an exclusive interview, as he hopes that this will finally be the year another player from the continent wins the Ballon d'Or.
George Weah, the former Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan striker who is now the president of Liberia, won the Ballon d'Or in 1995 but remains the only African player ever to have claimed the award.
"Western media dominate our media in Africa, so they definitely have an influence. People prefer to see a Lionel Messi goal," Eto'o, 38, told AFP during a visit to Paris last month.
The former Barcelona star, once a teammate of Messi, believes that "African players are not respected" and are "not always properly appreciated".
He recently hung up his boots after a glorious career in which he won the UEFA Champions League three times and the Africa Cup of Nations twice.  He never won the prize for the world's best player, although he insists he has no regrets.
"No, .

African players 'not respected' in Ballon d'Or vote, says Eto'o

Liverpool forward Sadio Mane says he will not change his style of play despite Pep Guardiola's "diving" accusation.
The Manchester City boss made the claim at the weekend, when the Senegal international was booked after going down in the penalty area following a challenge by Aston Villa's Frederic Guilbert.
Manager Jurgen Klopp jumped to his defence and Guardiola subsequently rowed back on the comments, saying they were part of a longer speech in which he praised the forward.
Mane, unaware of the subsequent climbdown, was unmoved by Guardiola's initial criticism as he believes if there is contact he has a right to go down.
And he offered a sarcastic response to the City boss ahead of the match between the two sides at Anfield on Sunday, saying: "If it could be a penalty for sure I will 'dive' again.
"If the 'dive' will give me a penalty then I will do it. Why not? But what Jurgen said is correct. I do not dive," said Mane.
"There was contact (at Villa) for sure. Maybe it was not a ...

AFP

AFP

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