Four employees fired by Google ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday have said that they were seeking a federal investigation into their dismissal, which they claimed was in retaliation for their labour organisation efforts.
The dismissal of the group dubbed the "Thanksgiving Four" on social media highlighted deepening tensions at Google, which had stated the employees violated data security policies.
A Medium post signed by the four said Google "fired us for engaging in protected labor organising" at the Silicon Valley giant.
"We spoke up when we saw Google making unethical business decisions that create a workplace that is harmful to us and our colleagues," said the posting signed by engineers Laurence Berland, Paul Duke, Rebecca Rivers and Sophie Waldman.
"We participated in legally protected labor organizing, fighting to improve workplace conditions for all Google workers."
The four said they would file a complaint alleging unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations ...

Fired Google engineers seek US federal probe

PTI Automatic

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai will assume the CEO role at parent firm Alphabet in a shakeup at the top of the Silicon Valley titan, the company has said.
Pichai will take over from Larry Page, a co-founder of the internet firm, at the parent company which includes Google as well as units focusing on "other bets" in areas including self-driving cars and life sciences.
Page and Google co-founder Sergey Brin "will continue their involvement as co-founders, shareholders and members of Alphabet's board of directors," the company said.
Alphabet was formed in 2015, giving a separate identity to the original company Google and other units such as autonomous car unit Waymo and smart cities group Sidewalk Labs.

Google's Sundar Pichai named CEO at parent firm Alphabet

The North Africa edition of US news site HuffPost, covering Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, announced its closure, six years after it launched.
"As of December 3rd, HuffPost Maghreb will no longer be publishing content," the site's homepage read, inviting readers to visit the US version.
HuffPost Maghreb was the first version of HuffPost -- formerly Huffington Post -- to cater specifically to an African audience.
Launched in the United States in 2005 and since rolled out in several other countries, HuffPost has since 2015 been owned by US telecoms firm Verizon.
The North African version had offices in Rabat, Tunis and Algiers, and posted content written by its own teams and outside contributors in a blog section.
No explanation was given for the closure apart from it "based on strategic reasons", according to an internal memo.
It comes after a wave of layoffs at the start of the year within the parent company, symptom of a shaken business model based entirely on advertising.

HuffPost Maghreb closes 6 years after launch

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed at talks in Cairo aimed at resolving a feud over a massive dam project on the Nile to reconvene next week in Washington, Egyptian authorities said.
The irrigation ministry said the three countries would hold ministerial-level meetings on December 9 in the United States capital followed by "technical" discussions in Khartoum on December 21-22.
Their two days of meetings in Cairo were held in the presence of World Bank and US observers.
Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan set last month in Washington a January 15 target for resolving the dispute over the construction by Addis Ababa of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile.
US President Donald Trump has agreed to mediate at the request of Egypt, which fears that the dam would disrupt the river that provides 90 percent of its drinking water.
The Nile is a lifeline supplying both water and electricity to the 10 countries it traverses.
Its main tributaries, the White and Blue Niles, converge in the Sudanese .

Nile states to return to US for talks on controversial dam

A porter who had a one-on-one fight with London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan has said that he acted on instinct by tackling him with a stick.
Lukasz, who only wanted to give his first name, said he was recovering from stab wounds and coming to terms with the trauma of the incident.
Khan, an Islamist terror convict released from prison on licence, killed two people and wounded three others in a knife attack on Friday that started in the Fishmongers' Hall, the headquarters of one of London's historic trade guilds.
Then he moved on to the bridge where armed police shot him dead, five minutes after being alerted.
In a statement issued through London's Metropolitan Police, Lukasz described the attack as an "unimaginable" tragedy.
"I and several others tried to stop a man from attacking people inside the building. I did this using a pole I found. Someone else was holding a narwhal tusk."
"The man attacked me, after which he left the building. A number of us followed him out but I stopped at .

Porter tackled London Bridge terrorist 'instinctively'

US President Donald Trump abused his power of office, a key Congressional committee from the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives has alleged in a report based on its impeachment hearings against the president.
"The evidence is clear that President Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and a debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election," said chairs of the three House Committees after the release of a report on Tuesday.
Released by the House Permanent Select Committee on IntelligenceThe Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report' was written by the staff of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs Committees.
In a joint statement, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B Maloney and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel alleged that the ...

Trump abused power of his office: House Intel Committee report

The gene edits given to Chinese twins last year meant to immunize them against HIV may have failed in its purpose and created unintended mutations, scientists said Tuesday after the original research was made public for the first time.
Excerpts from the manuscript were released by the MIT Technology Review for the purpose of showing how Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui ignored ethical and scientific norms in creating the twins Lula and Nana, whose birth in late 2018 sent shockwaves through the scientific world.
He made expansive claims of a medical breakthrough that could "control the HIV epidemic," but it was not clear whether it had even been successful in its intended purpose -- immunizing the babies against the virus -- because the team did not in fact reproduce the gene mutation that confers this resistance.
A small percentage of people are born with immunity because of a mutation in a gene called CCR5 and it was this gene that He had claimed he had targeted using a powerful ...

Scientists slam Chinese CRISPR babies research after manuscript released

Trains cancelled, schools closed: France scrambled to make contingency plans on Tuesday for a huge strike against pension overhauls that poses one of the biggest challenges yet to President Emmanuel Macron's sweeping reform drive.
Paris metro and rail workers will walk off the job starting Thursday, banking on widespread support for their protest against plans they say will require millions to retire later or face reduced pensions.
It is the latest expression of discontent by broad swathes of French society, from police and firefighters to teachers and hospital employees -- as well as a yearlong "yellow vest" movement demanding improved living standards.
Looming over the reform is the spectre of 1995, the last major attempt to change the pension system when weeks of strikes paralysed the country and forced the government to back down.
"The social discontent now is stronger than it was in 1995," according to Bernard Thibault, a former CGT leader during the protests 24 years ago.
The ...

France's Macron faces fresh challenge as massive strike looms

- The evidence for impeaching President Donald Trump for misconduct in office and obstruction is "overwhelming," the final report on the House investigation into the US leader said Tuesday.
"The evidence of the President's misconduct is overwhelming, and so too is the evidence of his obstruction of Congress," said the report, meant to support formal charges against Trump.
"The impeachment inquiry has found that President Trump, personally and acting through agents within and outside of the US government, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection.

Evidence of Trump misconduct 'overwhelming': House impeachment report

France believes there is still time to avert President Donald Trump's threat to slap tariffs on USD 2.4 billion in French merchandise in a dispute over a new digital services tax, a senior French official said Tuesday.
Ahead of a NATO summit in London, Trump on Monday unveiled plans for import duties of up to 100 per cent on French goods like Roquefort cheese as soon as mid-January, retaliating for a French digital tax which US officials say unfairly penalises tech giants like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
"We hope is that there is still room for discussion and for consultation and that this is not the end of the story," Cedric O, France's secretary of state for digital economy, told AFP.
"We have to explain and to convince them that first this is not a discriminatory tax, this is a tax that is supposed to tax every company that has a digital business model, be it an American, Chinese or European company."
US and French officials say they favour an over-arching agreement on ...

Paris hopes 'still room for discussion' on US tariffs

Burkina Faso's armed forces says soldiers have killed at least 20 militants after gunmen launched simultaneous overnight attacks on military positions.
The office of the armed forces commander general said in a statement Tuesday that 20 other unidentified gunmen were wounded, and dozens of motorcycles and other material were seized after the attacks overnight Monday into Tuesday on the military detachment in Toeni in the Sourou province and another in Bahn in the northern region's Loroum province.
Gen. Moise Minougou said three soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded, extending condolences to their families.
Islamic extremists have increased attacks and gained more territories this year in Burkina Faso, displacing nearly half a million people.

Burkina Faso forces kill 20 militants after attacks

Pakistan on Tuesday announced the appointment of its first permanent representative to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation "to further deepen cooperation" with the member countries.
The Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) said the newly-appointed Permanent Representative to the OIC Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, presented his credentials to OIC Secretary General Dr Yousef A Al-Othaimeen at the organisation's headquarters in Jeddah.
"The presentation of credentials by the permanent representative marks the establishment of Pakistan's dedicated permanent mission to the OIC," said the FO.
The establishment of the new mission, coinciding with the OIC Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2019, is based on Pakistan's desire to further deepen and strengthen its engagement with the OIC and its specialised and subsidiary institutions that form part of the broader OIC system.
Pakistan's decision to establish its Permanent Mission to the OIC comes in pursuance of the organisation's various resolutions and ...

Pakistan appoints permanent representative to OIC

French rail operator SNCF said Tuesday that 90 per cent of high-speed TGV trains across the country will not run on Thursday, when unions kick off an open-ended strike against a planned pension overhaul.
The SNCF expects 90 percent of regional trains as well as those on suburban lines in the Paris region will also be cancelled, while international services will be "severely disrupted".
"Thursday is going to be very difficult for our clients," SNCF spokeswoman Agnes Ogier said at a press conference.
"We ask our clients to cancel their trips or postpone them if they are able."
Around half of Eurostar trains, including 16 between Paris and London on Thursday have already been cancelled, according to its website.
A third of the Thalys trains between Paris and Brussels will be cancelled, and just one round-trip Lyria TGV serving Switzerland will run.
The Paris metro is also bracing for gridlock, with 11 of the city's 16 lines completely shut Thursday.
Three other heavily used lines will ...

France's SNCF cancels 90% of TGV trains for Thursday strike

Saudi King Salman has invited Qatar's emir to a meeting next week of the Gulf regional bloc in Riyadh, Qatari state media said Tuesday without specifying if Doha had accepted.
The invitation to the December 10 summit of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation (GCC) comes amid signs of reduced animosity between Qatar and Saudi Arabia which has led an economic boycott of Doha since 2017.
Saudi Arabia and allies Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates closed their airspace to Qatar Airways and banned travel to the country over charges that Doha backs radical Islamists and seeks closer ties with Iran.
Qatar vehemently denies the charges.
The three Gulf boycott countries are currently participating in a regional football tournament in Qatar having announced their participation at the last minute.
Saudi Arabia and hosts Qatar are facing off in the semi-finals on Thursday.
"The emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, received a written message from... Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud to ...

Saudi king invites Qatar emir to Riyadh summit: Doha

A UN envoy warned Tuesday that the continued use of violence against civilians in Iraq is "intolerable" and called on Iraqi leaders to respond with urgency to the Iraqi people's aspirations for change.
"Political leaders do not have the luxury of time and must rise to the moment," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN envoy to Iraq, said in a video presentation to the UN Security Council.
The envoy noted that more than 400 people have been killed and more than 19,000 injured in two months of unrest in Iraq that has pitted protesters demanding sweeping reform against security forces.
Last week, prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi resigned in the face of a fresh wave of protests, and Iraqi leaders were meeting in Baghdad Tuesday to search for a way out of the crisis.
Hennis-Plasschaert warned that attempts to buy time with "band-aid solutions and coercive measures ... will only further fuel public anger and distrust." "The vast majority of protesters are evidently peaceful," Hennis-Plasschaert 

UN envoy urges Iraqi leaders to respond to people's demands for change

The top US career diplomat on Tuesday unambiguously rejected a theory promoted by President Donald Trump that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election.
Asked at a hearing by Democratic Senator Robert Menendez if he had evidence of Ukrainian meddling in the election, David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs, replied, "I do not."
"No," he replied when Menendez asked him if Russian meddling in the election was a "hoax," a word often used by Trump.
"Yes, the intelligence community assessed that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at our presidential election," Hale told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Hale said he had no reason to doubt testimony by former White House expert Fiona Hill, who told the impeachment inquiry into Trump that the Ukrainian meddling theory was propaganda spread by Russia.
Trump, in a July call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, sought an investigation into a theory mentioned 

Top US career diplomat rejects Ukraine meddling theory

Saudi Arabia's King Salman invited Qatar's emir to a meeting next week of the Gulf regional bloc in Riyadh, Qatari state media reported Tuesday without specifying if Doha had accepted.
"The emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani received a written message from ... Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud to attend the meeting of the 40th session of the Gulf Cooperation Council supreme council in the capital Riyadh on December 10," the Qatar News Agency reported.

Saudi king invites Qatar's emir to Riyadh summit: Qatar media

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he supports the demonstrations in Iran and urged the world to watch the Iranian government's violent effort to quash protests that he says have killed "thousands of people."
Speaking in London, where he is attending the NATO leaders summit, Trump said, "Iran is killing thousands and thousands of people right now as we speak."
He added they were killed "for the mere fact that they're protesting," and he called it a "terrible thing."
Trump was mum on what, if anything, the US could do in response to the violence, but he said, "I think the world has to be watching."
Later, during a meeting, Trump misheard a question when he said he did not support the protesters.
The president also sent out a tweet that said: "The United States of America supports the brave people of Iran who are protesting for their FREEDOM. We have under the Trump Administration and always will!"
Amnesty International said on Monday it believes at least 208 people were killed in 

Trump says world 'has to be watching' the violence in Iran

Thousands of Thyssenkrupp steelworkers in Germany on Tuesday protested against planned job cuts, accusing bosses at the struggling conglomerate of mismanagement after a failed merger bid with Tata steel.
Germany's powerful IG Metall union said 6,000 workers gathered at Thyssenkrupp's Steel Europe headquarters in Duisburg to vent their anger.  The group, which makes products from raw steel to submarines and car parts, has said it intends to axe at least 6,000 jobs globally, including 2,000 in the troubled steel division.
Armed with flares, flags and whistles in IG Metall's red-and-white colours, employees urged Thyssenkrupp to preserve jobs and invest more to give the steel unit a better chance in a challenging environment.
"We need fresh money. All we've had these past few years is cost-cutting programmes," steelworker Joerg Jakob told DPA news agency at the demo.  In a statement, Thyssenkrupp said it would flesh out its plan for the steel unit in coming weeks and has already ...

Thyssenkrupp steel workers protest against German job cuts

President Donald Trump barreled into a NATO leaders' meeting on Tuesday aiming insults at French President Emmanuel Macron, slamming '"unpatriotic" Democrats at home for holding an impeachment hearing while he is abroad and playing down the impact his domestic troubles are having on his standing on the global stage.
Trump began his first of two days at the NATO conference by harshly rebuking Macron, once arguably his closest ally among foreign leaders, for recently saying NATO was experiencing "brain death" as a result of diminished US leadership in the alliance under Trump.
Before meeting with Macron on the sidelines of the meeting, Trump laced into the French president for what he said were "very, very nasty" comments.
"I think that's insulting to a lot of different forces," Trump said.
"You just can't go around making statements like that about NATO. It's very disrespectful."
Hours after the broadside, Macron and Trump sat side by side for a one-on-one meeting.
Macron said he stood 

Trump barrels into NATO summit, insults French president

A 28-year-old convicted felon was charged Tuesday in the fatal shooting last month of a Detroit police officer and the wounding of another as they searched for him following a home invasion.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said JuJuan Parks could be arraigned as early as Tuesday on 16 charges, including first-degree premeditated murder, murder of a police officer, assault with intent to murder, and resisting and obstructing police. He also could face charges in other shootings.
"The investigations ... are far from over," Worthy said.
"I don't want to taint any kind of jury pool."
Parks was arrested November 20 after a third officer shot him in the arm as he tried to flee from the home on the city's west side.
Police Chief James Craig has said he may be connected to several earlier shootings, including one that killed a 31-year-old man on Detroit's east side.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday if Parks has an attorney who could comment on the allegations.
Officer Rasheen McClain ..

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