A court in Volgograd has convicted four men for their roles in the twin suicide bombings that killed 34 people in the southern Russian city a year ago and heightened security fears ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, investigators announced today.
	All four men are from Dagestan, a republic in Russia's North Caucasus that is the centre of an Islamic insurgency.
	Alautdin Dadayev and Ibragim Magomedov were found guilty of complicity in terrorism for sheltering the two suicide bombers as they prepared the explosives they later used to blow themselves up in a train station and on a crowded electric trolleybus, the spokesman for the federal Investigative Committee said.
	Both men were sentenced to 19 years in prison.
	Brothers Magomed and Tagir Batirov were convicted of transporting the suicide bombers to Volgograd in a heavy truck by hiding them inside a load of hay, investigative agency spokesman Vladimir Markin said in a statement.
	They were each sentenced to five years and 10 ...

Russian court convicts 4 in Volgograd bombings

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Australia will continue to directly pay for climate change mitigation in vulnerable South Pacific island nations through its aid budget rather than donate to a United Nations' Green Climate Fund designed for the same purpose, the foreign minister said today ahead climate talks in Peru.
	Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said governments should judge for themselves whether bilateral action to reduce the impact of climate change on developing countries was a more efficient use of aid money than donating through the UN.
	"The Green Climate Fund is about supporting developing countries build resilience to climate change. Australia is already doing that through our aid programme," Bishop told The AP before leading the Australian delegation to Lima for a UN climate summit.
	"From my experience, bilateral work is able to customise responses when we're working directly with another partner country," she said.
	Rich countries have pledged about USD 10 billion to the recently launched Green Climate 

Australia won't give to UN Green Climate Fund

A US couple cleared in the death of their 8-year-old daughter has arrived home to Los Angeles and reunited with family members following a legal battle that kept them in Qatar for nearly two years, including almost a year spent in jail.
	Matthew and Grace Huang arrived yesterday with smiles on their faces, according to The David House Agency, which represents them.
	"Mission accomplished. Matt and Grace are in Los Angeles. They have not stopped smiling," the agency tweeted.
	The agency later tweeted a photo of the couple embracing their sons and other relatives, saying it was a "Glorious family reunion. If the Qatari prosecutors could only see this moment!"
	The Huangs gained international attention when they were arrested in January 2013 on charges of starving their African-born daughter, Gloria, to death.
	The couple, who are of Asian descent, had adopted Gloria in Ghana when she was 4 years old, and are the parents of two other adopted, African-born children.
	Throughout the case, .

Couple cleared in daughter's death arrives in US

President Barack Obama has kicked off the holiday season in Washington with the lighting of the national Christmas tree.
	Obama yesterday joined hundreds of people for the annual event held just steps from the White House. First lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha, and Mrs Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, also attended the event on a chilly night in the nation's capital.
	Obama said the national tree is a "symbol of hope and holiday spirit." He urged Americans to remember members of the US military serving overseas, as well as their families.
	"As we hold our loved ones tight, let's remember the military families whose loved ones are far from home," Obama said. "They are our heroes."
	This year's ceremony marks the 92nd annual lighting of the Christmas tree near the White House. The National Park Service says the tradition was started by President Calvin Coolidge in 1923.

Obama lights the national Christmas tree

A top officer says the Navy is investigating allegations of illegal video recording and distribution aboard a submarine that was among the first to allow American women to serve alongside men.
	Vice Adm MJ Connor, commander of the Navy's submarine force, said in a letter dated yesterday that the alleged perpetrators have been removed from the USS Wyoming while an investigation is conducted. The nuclear-armed submarine is based at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia.
	Connor didn't describe the content of any recordings. His letter came a day after the Navy Times reported female officers on the Wyoming were secretly recorded undressing. A Kings Bay spokeswoman declined to share details.
	The Navy says 59 women serve on American submarines after it began integrating the previously all-male force in 2011.

Navy investigates illegal video allegation on sub

The UN envoy for Kosovo is urging the parties to a power-sharing agreement to speedily form a new government, saying six months of political squabbling following elections in June has damaged the country.
	Farid Zarif told the UN Security Council yesterday that the standoff has also led to increased public dissatisfaction with political leaders and further delays in achieving needed reforms and resuming a European Union-facilitated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.
	Kosovo came under UN and NATO administration after a 1999 NATO-led air war halted a crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. The Security Council resolution that established the interim UN administration left the final status of Kosovo, a province of Serbia, in question.
	Kosovo's predominantly ethnic Albanian leadership declared independence in February 2008 but Serbia rejects its secession.

UN urges speedy formation of new Kosovo government

Jeremy Thorpe, an influential British politician who helped revive the Liberal Party before his career was cut short by scandal, died today.
	He was 85.
	Thorpe's death was announced by his son, Rupert, and was mourned by current party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and other party stalwarts.
	Clegg praised Thorpe's "leadership and resolve" in reviving the party, now called the Liberal Democrats, but the former party leader once a familiar, dapper figure in Parliament had largely stayed out of the public eye since he was cleared of serious criminal charges in 1979. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease for more than 30 years.
	Widely admired as a speaker and organiser, Thorpe had enjoyed a successful career that was cut short by scandal after he was accused of conspiracy and incitement to murder former male model Norman Scott.
	Thorpe was leader of Britain's venerable third political party from 1967 until 1976, when he stepped down from that post following allegations 

Ex-Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe dies at 85

Ahead of the first anniversary of Nelson Mandela's death, inmates at a South African prison have been making brightly coloured blankets to commemorate the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president.
	The prisoners at the Zonderwater medium security facility outside Pretoria, the South African capital, have crocheted the blankets as part of a charity project for poor communities.
	"A lot of them want to make a difference. They want to do something for Nelson Mandela," said Carolyn Steyn, founder of a charity called 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day.
	South Africans and others around the world annually mark July 18, Mandela's birthday, with charitable work for 67 minutes to honour what many people refer to as Mandela's 67 years in public service, which include many years as a prisoner of white racist rule.
	He died December 5 last year at the age of 95 after a long illness. South Africans were also preparing to pay tribute to Mandela tomorrow, a year after ...

South African inmates crochet blankets for Mandela

A series of car bomb attacks at a group of restaurants and a market today killed 21 people in Baghdad, said Iraqi officials.
	Police officials said the first attack targeted a line of small restaurants in the Shiite district of Sadr City tonight, killing 11 people and wounding 25 others.
	Minutes later, a second car bomb blast near an outdoor market in the same district killed seven people and wounded 21 others. Several cars were either burnt or damaged due to both attacks.
	Later on, a bomb exploded near a restaurant in Baghdad's Shiite northern neighborhood of Shaab, killing three people and wounding 12 others.
	Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
	Iraq sees near-daily bombings and other attacks mainly targeting Shiite neighborhoods and security forces.
	The attacks are often claimed by the Sunni extremist Islamic State group which seized much of northern and western Iraq in a .

2 car bomb attacks kill 21 people in Iraq

Protests erupted in New York and other US cities after a white police officer was cleared in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man, a case that drew comparisons to the deadly police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.
	Eric Garner died as officers were attempting to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes on the street. The controversy has once again cast a spotlight on police tensions with African Americans, even as the nation's president and top law enforcement official are both black.
	Unlike the Missouri case, where the circumstances surrounding Michael Brown's death remain in dispute, Garner's July 17 arrest was captured on videotape. The Garner case could have even wider repercussions, particularly because it happened in the nation's most prominent city and one with a liberal tradition.
	New York City police said today that 83 people were arrested, most for disorderly conduct.
	The decision yesterday by the Staten Island grand jury not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo ...

Protests erupt after decision in chokehold death

Afghanistan's leader was asking international politicians today to stand with his country amid the withdrawal of most foreign troops and a surge in Taliban attacks.
	Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and British Prime Minister David Cameron jointly hosted a conference in London attended by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and diplomats from some 50 countries.
	Talks focused on nurturing civil society, curbing corruption and encouraging political reform at a meeting that was less about promising new money than about stiffening resolve in Kabul and around the world at a critical moment for Afghanistan.
	The 13-year international combat mission ends December 31, though Ghani has signed security agreements with Washington and NATO permitting a continued international military presence. Some 10,000 American troops will remain by the end of the year.
	Insurgents have sought to destabilise Ghani's government and unnerve international agencies with a series .

Afghanistan seeks support at London conference

Swiss authorities have given the all-clear after locking down a university building in Zurich due to an anonymous threat.
	Zurich police said today that they had found no danger at the Zurich University of the Arts. Thousands of students had been told to stay in their classrooms as police searched the building after the anonymous threat came in.
	They say the building will remain closed for the rest of the day but that classes will resume tomorrow.
	No further information was released and police say the investigation is ongoing.
	Police responded to another alarm at the school a week ago but it turned to have been accidentally triggered.

All-clear given at locked-down Swiss university

Gun battles early today in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya left 10 police officers and at least nine militants' dead after two buildings were stormed, including a school, authorities said.
	The fighting, which punctured the patina of stability ensured by years of heavy-handed rule by the Kremlin-appointed leader, broke out hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his annual state of the nation address in Moscow.
	In his address, Putin said he was confident that local Chechen forces were capable of dealing with the "rebels," who he suggested were receiving support from abroad.
	Security officials said militants travelling in three cars entered the republic's capital, Grozny, at 1 am local time, killing three traffic police at a checkpoint.
	The National Anti-Terrorist Committee, a federal agency, said the militants then occupied the 10-story Press House in central Grozny. It was later destroyed by fire, killing six gunmen.
	The agency said more ...

Gun battles in Chechen capital leave 19 dead

Russian President Vladimir Putin in his annual speech today defended the Kremlin's aggressive foreign policy, saying the actions are necessary for his country's survival.
	Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in March and was later accused of supplying pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine with ammunition and manpower.
	Putin in his annual state-of-the-nation address at the Grand Kremlin Palace on Thursday defended the annexation of Crimea, describing the peninsula as Russia's spiritual ground, "our Temple Mount," and added that national pride and sovereignty are "a necessary condition for survival" of Russia.
	"If for many European countries, sovereignty and national pride are forgotten concepts and a luxury, then for the Russian Federation a true sovereignty is an absolutely necessary condition of its existence," he told a full room of Cabinet ministers, lawmakers and community leaders.
	"I want to stress: either we will be sovereign, or we will dissolve in the world. ...

Putin defends Russia's foreign policy

Hong Kong student leaders said today they're considering retreating from protest sites on city streets after more than two months in the latest sign that momentum is fading in their movement for greater democracy.
	Members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students said Thursday that they're mulling whether to stay or go, with spokeswoman Yvonne Leung telling a local radio station that the group hopes to come to a decision within the next week.
	The protesters have few options left after rallying supporters in a failed bid earlier this week to surround government headquarters that resulted in a night of violent clashes with police armed with batons and pepper spray.
	Public support for the protesters has fallen as the government has stuck to its apparent strategy of waiting them out.
	Prominent student leader Joshua Wong said on his social media accounts that his group will discuss and coordinate with the federation on the decision. Wong, 18, and four other members of his Scholarism ...

Hong Kong student leaders mull protest retreat

An Afghan official says an attack on a police checkpoint in the country's north has killed four local policemen.
	Abdul Manan Raoufi, the police spokesman for the police in northern Jawzjan province, said today that the attack took place in Darzab district in the early hours of yesterday.
	No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
	Raoufi says a local police chief, identified as Mohammad Nahim, was among the casualties.
	The spokesman blamed the Taliban for the attack and said an investigation was underway to determine if the insurgents had accomplices inside the police force.
	The Taliban have stepped up their attacks targeting local police and Afghan security forces in the countdown to the departure of foreign combat troops by the end of the month.

Attack on checkpoint kills 4 Afghan policemen

Syrian activists say Islamic State militants have launched an attack the last major Syrian military air base in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.
	The Local Coordination Committees activist collective and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights both reported the fighting for the airfield, which is just outside of the city of Deir el-Zour.
	Almost all of the surrounding province is under IS control.
	The Observatory said today that at least 19 government troops have been killed in the fighting, which began overnight with a suicide bombing on a Syrian military position near the air base. It said seven IS fighters have been killed.
	The Local Coordination Committees and the Observatory both reported heavy clashes and government shelling on the villages surrounding the airfield.

IS attacks government airbase in eastern Syria

New Zealand lawmakers have unanimously passed a bill which will give police increased powers to tackle match-fixing ahead of next year's Cricket World Cup.
	The bill passed this week will become law before the World Cup in February and March and ahead of football's under-20 World Cup in New Zealand in May and June and makes match fixing a criminal offense in New Zealand for the first time.
	Offenders face terms of up to seven years in prison. Sports minister Jonathan Coleman welcomed the passing of the bill and said "match-fixing is a growing problem internationally and it is the number one threat to the integrity, value and growth of sport.
	In New Zealand we are not immune to this growing threat."
	The bill, which makes match fixing a form of criminal deception, will become law by December 15, after receiving the "royal assent" of New Zealand's governor general.
	Opposition lawmakers expressed some concerns that the bill had been "drafted in haste" because of the proximity of the ...

NZ law assigns prison sentences for match fixing

The Philippines' chief anti-corruption prosecutor has ordered the suspension of the country's top police officer in connection with an alleged abnormal contract with a courier company to deliver gun licenses.
	Conchita Carpio Morales today issued the order to suspend National Police chief Allan Purisima and 11 other officers for six months without pay for entering into the courier contract.
	There was no immediate comment from Purisima, who is on an official trip to Saudi Arabia. He has also been under scrutiny in the media because of his ownership of a provincial mansion and other properties.
	The ombudsman's investigators have found that the courier company was incorporated only after it signed an agreement with the national police in 2011. Purisima approved the agreement last year.

Filipino top cop suspended over suspect contract

In the dusty badlands along its disputed border with Afghanistan, Pakistan is carving out a massive trench to keep out separatists, smugglers and militants in an attempt to bring order to a lawless, tribal region.
	But like the Berlin Wall or Israel's West Bank barrier, the planned 485-kilometer (300-mile) trench is giving physical form to a border that locals have long seen as artificial, dividing families and crippling trade. And it is adding to simmering tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, US allies which have long accused each other of turning a blind eye to insurgents.
	The trench runs along part of the 2,640-kilometer (2,640-mile) Durand Line, named for British diplomat Mortimer Durand, who drew the now internationally recognised border in an agreement with Afghan ruler Abdur Raham Khan in 1893. But the modern Afghan government has never accepted the border, and neither have the mainly tribal communities that straddle it. They are accustomed to moving back and forth ...

Pakistan trench along Afghan border enrages Kabul

A gun battle broke out early today in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, leaving at least three traffic police officers and six gunmen dead, authorities said.
	The fighting punctured the patina of stability ensured by years of heavy-handed rule by a Kremlin-appointed leader.
	Security officials and the leader of Chechnya said militants traveling in several cars killed three traffic police at a checkpoint in the capital of the republic, Grozny.
	State news agency RIA-Novosti cited an unnamed law enforcement source as stating that five police officers were killed.
	More than six hours after fighting broke out, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said a multi-story publishing house building the militants had occupied in central Grozny had been destroyed by fire and six of the gunmen had been killed.
	He later said several other gunmen had been found in a city school and an operation was under way to "liquidate" them, the Interfax news agency quoted him as ...

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