Apple chief executive Tim Cook, the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company, is donating money to help fund a gay rights initiative in his native Alabama and two other Southern states, organizers said today.
	The amount of Cook's contribution to the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign wasn't disclosed, but the advocacy organization called it "substantial."
	Organizers said it would help fund a three-year, USD 8.5 million campaign launched in April in Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi.
	Called Project One America, the goal of the public relations effort is to build acceptance for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people in the states.
	The campaign includes advertising on TV and elsewhere, direct-mail fliers and staff members hired in each state.
	"We hope Tim Cook's substantial personal investment inspires others to support this vital and historic project," Jason Rahlan, a spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, said in an email.
	Human Rights Campaign announced the ...

Apple CEO donating to gay rights campaign in US South

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Pope Francis praised the "small steps" of diplomacy and peacemaking that brought about the rapprochement between the US and Cuba, expressing joy over the outcome that he helped bring about.
	"Today we're all happy, because we saw how two people who had been so far apart for so many years took a step closer yesterday," Francis said today in his first public comments about the breakthrough.
	In remarks to a group of new ambassadors to the Holy See, Francis said diplomacy was a "noble job ... A work of small steps, of little things that always end up making peace, to bring people's hearts together and spread fraternity among peoples."
	Francis played a crucial role in bringing the US and Cuba together, writing letters to Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro this past summer inviting them to find humanitarian solutions to their differences.
	He offered the Vatican as a facilitator and an agreement was hammered out at the Vatican in October.
	Francis' seasoned top diplomat, Secretary of 

Pope praises the diplomacy of US-Cuba accord

British police said today they are investigating three allegations of murder as part of an inquiry into claims that politically powerful people sexually abused children several decades ago.
	London's Metropolitan Police force said a man who says he was abused from the age of 7 alleges that three boys were killed.
	Detectives revealed the claim today as they appealed for witnesses and abuse victims to come forward. They said they were examining old missing-persons cases, and no bodies had been found.
	The force is investigating allegations that a group of pedophiles linked to senior levels of British politics and law enforcement abused children in the 1970s and '80s.
	The inquiry focuses on an apartment building near Parliament that was long popular with politicians as a London base.
	Police say abuse also may have taken place at other addresses in southern England, "including military premises."
	Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald, who is leading the investigation, appealed ...

UK police probe murder claims in child abuse case

Ireland is debating its constitutional ban on abortion again amid a case involving a brain-dead pregnant woman on life support.
	Irish media reported today that family members want to turn off the woman's life support systems but doctors are refusing because the law requires them to defend the right to life of her 16-week-old fetus.
	Fetuses typically cannot survive outside the womb until around 24 weeks.
	An expert on Irish medical law, Dr Adam McAuley, says Dublin High Court most likely will determine whether the woman will be kept on life support to attempt delivery of the baby.
	Ireland last year amended its abortion ban, legalizing the right to a termination if a woman's life is endangered by continued pregnancy.
	Health Minister Leo Varadkar says Irish law remains too restrictive.

Irish face new abortion row over brain-dead woman

More than 70 years after South Carolina sent a 14-year-old black boy to the electric chair in the killings of two white girls in a segregated mill town, a judge threw out the conviction, saying the state committed a great injustice.
	George Stinney was arrested, convicted of murder in a one-day trial and executed in 1944 -- all in the span of about three months and without an appeal.
	The speed in which the state meted out justice against the youngest person executed in the US in the 20th century was shocking and extremely unfair, Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen wrote in her ruling yesterday.
	The girls, ages 7 and 11, were beaten badly in the head with an iron railroad spike in the town of Alcolu, authorities said. A search by dozens of people found their bodies several hours later.
	Investigators arrested Stinney, saying witnesses saw him with the girls as they picked flowers. He was kept away from his parents, and authorities later said he confessed.
	His supporters said he was a ...

Judge: Boy, 14, shouldn't have been executed in US

A Berlin coffee business found stimulants it didn't expect in a shipment of unroasted coffee from Brazil: 33 kilos (nearly 73 pounds) of cocaine.
	Police in the German capital said today that employees at the coffee-roasting business found the bag full of the drug the previous day when they opened a newly arrived container of coffee, and contacted authorities.
	The delivery was shipped from Brazil to the German North Sea port of Bremerhaven on its way to Berlin. Police said in a statement they're investigating who was responsible and how the drugs ended up at the coffee business.

Germany: 73 pounds of cocaine in coffee shipment

: Inching towards realising India's ambition to send humans to space, ISRO successfully tests an unmanned crew module on board an experimental mission of its heaviest rocket GSLV Mark-III that blasted off from here. (MDS12)
	New Delhi: India is working with its mission in Pakistan to prepare a strong response against granting of bail to LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, one of the masterminds of the 2008 terror attack. (DEL28)
	New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister charges that CBI was being used as a "political tool" by the NDA government and was functioning as "a department of the PMO". (DEL26)
	New Delhi: The government holds a meeting with more than 30 African mission heads here and assures them that India is committed to ensuring safety and security of all foreign nationals living in the country, including those from the African countries. (DEL30)
	New Delhi: Deadlock in Rajya Sabha continues for the fourth day as opposition keeps demanding reply by Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) Following are the news highlights

The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land has condemned violence on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his annual Christmas message.
	In a statement today Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal said "we condemn the Gaza war and deplore its dramatic consequences: killing and destruction."
	More than 2,100 Palestinians died in this summer's war between Israel and Islamic militants in the densely populated coastal strip.
	But Twal also condemned Palestinian attacks, including the recent killing of four worshippers and an Israeli security man during morning prayers at a Jerusalem synagogue.
	After two years of relative calm, 2014 saw a sharp spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence, including the Gaza war and clashes linked to rising tensions over a Jerusalem holy site that is sacred both to Jews and Muslims.

Top Catholic cleric in Holy Land condemns violence

One of Sierra Leone's most senior physicians died today from Ebola, the 11th doctor in the country to succumb to the disease, a health official said.
	Ebola has killed more than 350 health workers in West Africa, depleting the ranks of doctors and nurses in countries that already had too few to begin with.
	Because Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, it is only transmitted through close contact.
	It is often called the "caregivers' disease" because those infected are typically family members caring for the sick or health workers treating them.
	Dr Victor Willoughby tested positive for Ebola on Saturday and was being treated at a clinic near the capital run by the medical charity Emergency, said Dr Brima Kargbo, the country's chief medical officer.
	"Dr Victor Willoughby was a mentor to us physicians and a big loss to the medical profession," said Kargbo. "He has always been available to help junior colleagues."
	The 67-year-old died this morning, just hours after an experimental ...

11th Sierra Leonean doctor dies from Ebola

The Russian economy will rebound and the ruble will stabilise, Russian President Vladimir Putin said today at his annual press conference.
	He said the current crisis could last two years at most, but the economy could recover faster if external factors change for the better.
	Putin said the government and the Central Bank are generally working correctly to deal with the current economic woes, albeit some of their action was belated.
	"The current situation has been provoked by external factors, but it's worth noting that we haven't done what we planned to do to diversify our economy," Putin said, adding that the current crisis should create incentives to diversify the nation's economy and ease its dependence on oil and gas earnings.
	Putin said the nation's currency reserves are sufficient to keep the economy in stable condition, adding that the Central Bank shouldn't aimlessly "burn" its reserves, currently standing at USD 419 billion.
	The government also needs to work with ...

Putin: Russian economy will recover

Cubans cheered the surprise announcement that their country will restore relations with the United States, hopeful they'll soon see expanded trade and new economic vibrancy even though the 53-year-old economic embargo remains in place for the time being.
	"This opens a better future for us," said Milagros Diaz, 34. "We have really needed something like this because the situation has been bad and the people very discouraged."
	Bells tolled in celebration and teachers halted lessons midday as President Raul Castro told his country yesterday that Cuba would renew relations with Washington after more than a half-century of hostility.
	Wearing his military uniform with its five-star insignia, the 83-year-old leader said the two countries would work to resolve their differences "without renouncing a single one of our principles."
	Havana residents gathered around television sets in homes, schools and businesses to hear the historic national broadcast, which coincided with a statement by US .

Cubans cheer historic renewal of US relations

A police officer who oversaw the case of a teenager wrongfully convicted of murder and executed in 1996 had been arrested, the official Xinhua News Agency said today.
	Feng Zhiming, now a deputy police chief in the northern city of Hohhot, was charged with using torture to coerce a confession, dereliction of duty and taking bribes, Xinhua said.
	Three days earlier the Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court overturned the conviction of Huugjilt, who was 18 years old when he was sentenced to death and executed over the killing of a woman in a public toilet.
	A convicted serial rapist and murderer confessed to the killing in 2005.
	Feng was in charge of investigating Huugjilt, who used only one name.
	Chinese police have routinely used to torture to coerce confessions, especially in high-profile cases, but Beijing has vowed to rule the country according to law.

China arrests policeman blamed for wrongful conviction

From a Western perspective, Vladimir Putin's days as president of Russia should be numbered: the ruble has lost more than half its value, the economy is in crisis and his aggression in Ukraine has turned the country into an international pariah.
	The situation as seen from a Russian point of view is starkly different from that painted in the West, and it is driven largely by state television's carefully constructed version of reality and the Kremlin's methodical dismantling of every credible political alternative.
	As Putin prepares to face his public in a much-anticipated televised news conference, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released today found that about 80 per cent of Russians still support him.
	But it also showed that confidence in the economy is slipping. This is particularly true in Moscow, where people have become accustomed to imported goods and foreign travel, now once again off-limits for many because of the fall of the ruble and ...

80 per cent back Putin even as ruble falls: Poll

An Afghan police officer was killed and another three wounded today when a suspected suicide bomber they were following detonated the explosives in his vehicle, an official said.
	"A suicide bomber was trying to enter Kabul with the intention of detonating explosives in a crowded part of the city," said Hashmat Stanekzai, spokesman for the Kabul provincial police chief. He was being followed by police."
	The chief of Kabul's provincial police, Abdul Rahman Rahimi, said the blast occurred after police stopped the car.
	The Taliban issued a statement to media claiming responsibility.
	Afghan authorities regularly claim to have thwarted attacks on the capital as the insurgents concentrate on government, military and foreign targets.
	Five foreigners have been killed in the past month in attacks on soft targets such as a French-run school last week, where a German aid worker was killed.
	The US-led international combat mission, which peaked in 2010 with 140,000 American and NATO troops, ..

Afghanistan: Suicide bomber kills policeman

Vladimir Yevtushenkov, a Russian tycoon placed under house arrest in September in a move that rattled markets, has reportedly been released from under house arrest just hours before President Vladimir Putin's annual televised press conference.
	A lawyer for Yevtushenkov, Vladimir Kozin, was quoted by Interfax news agency on Thursday as saying his client had been freed.
	The last-minute release echoes a similar move last year, when Putin announced after his annual press conference that another tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, would be set free.
	Shares in Sistema, a company that Yevtushenkov controls and manages, surged by more than 30 percent in the early hours of trading on Moscow's MICEX stock exchange.
	One of Sistema's most lucrative assets the oil company Bashneft was transferred to the government this month.

Jailed Russian tycoon leaves house arrest: reports

Former President George W Bush made a surprise visit to the September 11 museum in New York City over the weekend.
	A museum spokesman says the man who was president at the time of the terrorist attacks arrived unannounced around 6 pm Sunday. He was greeted by museum President Joe Daniels and Director Alice Greenwald.
	Spokesman Michael Frazier says Bush toured the museum and exhibit and "took the time to shake a lot of hands" from people who thanked him for his service.
	The museum announced in September that it had gotten its millionth visitor in less than four months after opening to the public. Visitors have come from all 50 states and more than 130 countries.

Bush makes surprise visit to September 11 museum in NYC

An Egyptian official says prosecutors have referred 26 men arrested in a raid on a bath house to trial on charges connected to their suspected homosexuality.
	The prosecution official said today the trial will begin Sunday, a quick referral in a case that has captured public attention following the men's televised arrest.
	Scenes of half-naked men escorted by policemen out of the bath house in Cairo on Dec. 7 were filmed by a private TV channel and later aired amid criticism from activists.
	Many in the public were also stunned by the widely circulated pictures of the bathers covering their faces from cameras.
	Egyptian law doesn't explicitly prohibit same-sex relations. So the defendants are tried for "debauchery."
	The official spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Egypt refers to trial 26 suspected homosexual men

The gunman responsible for a deadly siege in a Sydney cafe was once on the national security agency's watch list, but was dropped off it years ago for reasons that remain unclear, Australia's prime minister said today.
	Man Haron Monis, a 50-year-old Iranian-born, self-styled cleric described by Prime Minister Tony Abbott as deeply disturbed, took 17 people hostage inside a downtown Sydney cafe on Monday.
	Sixteen hours later, the siege ended in a barrage of gunfire when police rushed in to free the captives. Two hostages were killed along with Monis.
	Abbott said Monis was on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's watch list in 2008 and 2009, but was later dropped from it.
	The agency was watching Monis because he had sent a series of offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers, Abbott said.
	"I don't know why he dropped off the watch list in those days, I really don't," Abbott told reporters.
	Monis was convicted and sentenced last year to 300 hours of 

Aussie leader: Siege gunman dropped off watch list

The international community delivered a stinging rebuke to Israel's settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying today the practice violates its responsibilities as an occupying power.
	A declaration adopted by consensus among 126 of the 196 parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention insists that international humanitarian law must be followed in areas affected by the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
	The Geneva Conventions govern the rules of war and military occupation. Nations that took part in a one-day conference in Geneva "emphasize that all serious violations of international humanitarian law must be investigated and that all those responsible should be brought to justice," according to the 10-point declaration.
	Swiss Ambassador Paul Fivat, who chaired the conference, told reporters afterward the declaration is legally binding on all nations that adopted it. Israel and the US didn't participate.
	"This is a signal and we can hope that words ...

Geneva Conventions invoke rights of Palestinians

Pope Francis got a cake, cards and a tango demonstration for his 78th birthday today and 800 kilograms of chicken meat for the poor.
	The Vatican said today the meat, provided by a Spanish producer, would be distributed to soup kitchens.
	Francis also greeted eight homeless people bearing sunflowers during his general audience today, held under brilliantly sunny skies in St Peter's Square.
	As he drove around in the open-air car to greet the crowds, children handed up birthday cards they had made for him.
	Francis asked one: "Did you make this? It's good!" Others held up signs saying "Feliz Cumpleanos" ("Happy Birthday" in Spanish) and sang to him.
	Outside the square, dozens of couples danced the tango, the Argentine pope's favorite. The pope quipped: "It looks like a two-by-four!" - a reference to tango.
	"The tango is a dance that unites all people no matter where they come from," said Patrizia D'Aquino, part of a group from the Abruzzo region of Italy.
	Despite the joyous ...

Pope gets cake, tango and chicken for birthday

He may be president now, but Barack Obama says he's a black man who has been mistaken for the valet.
	"There's no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys," Obama told People magazine in an interview out today. That happened to him, he said.
	First lady Michelle Obama said her husband also once was mistaken for a waiter at a black-tie party and asked for coffee. She said even when she went to Target as first lady, a fellow shopper asked her to get something from a shelf.
	"I think people forget that we've lived in the White House for six years," she said. "Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs."
	The first couple spoke about their experiences with racism amid protests nationwide over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in State Island, New York. The president 

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