An Indian national arrested for possible links to an alleged plot to assassinate Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena was on Wednesday further remanded in custody until February 27.
Marceli Thomas was arrested in October following a complaint by Namal Kumara, a police informant, who had alleged a plot to assassinate Sirisena and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the former top defence ministry bureaucrat and brother of ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Kumara also claimed that the senior police officer in charge of the police's counter terrorism division Nalaka Silva had masterminded the plot. Silva has since been interdicted and questioned extensively by the police CID.
The police maintained although no details had emerged on the alleged plot to kill Sirisena, Silva had been arrested for plotting the murder of a police officer.
Thomas, said to be from Kerala,  appeared before a court on Wednesday.
Sirisena in late October sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe triggering an unprecedented ..

Indian national on Lanka assassination plot further remanded in custody

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Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at hundreds of hardline Islamists who attacked minority Muslims in northern Bangladesh, leaving at least 25 people injured, officials said Wednesday.
The clashes erupted Tuesday night after days of tensions over a planned convention of the Ahmadi Muslim minority community in the town of Ahmadnagar.
Majority Sunni Muslim groups demanded the event be cancelled.
Hardline Islamists do not consider the Ahmadis to be Muslim and have called for them to be banned. The 100,000 Ahmadis in Bangladesh have faced repeated attacks and are often barred from establishing mosques. The group is banned in Pakistan.
Police said several Sunni groups have been holding protests against the Ahmadis' local convention, scheduled to start in just over a week.
"Some 700-800 men wielding sticks and batons marched towards Ahmadnagar and clashed with the Ahmadis," local police chief Abu Akkas said.
Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to "maintain law and order", he told 

Hardline Islamists injure dozens in attack on minority Muslims in Bangladesh

An Indian teenage boy, who mistakenly crossed into Pakistan, has been repatriated as a goodwill gesture, according to a media report.
Bimal Narjere, 16, from Assam inadvertently crossed into the Pakistani side in August last year.
Pakistan Rangers informed India's Border Security Force (BSF) about Bimal and initiated inquiry into the matter, The Express Tribune reported.
After completion of all legal requirements and verification of the Indian citizen's identity, he was handed over to the BSF personnel via the Wagah Border.
On December 26 last year, Indian authorities too had released Abdullah Shah and Imran Warsi, two Pakistani nationals, through the Wagah Border.

Indian teenager who mistakenly crossed into Pakistan released

A senior Russian diplomat says that because America "completely failed" in Afghanistan, this has opened the way for Moscow to expand its clout in the country.
Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin's envoy for Afghanistan, says many Afghans now view Russia as an impartial mediator that could help advance political process despite the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
Kabulov told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday that the US has "completely failed" in Afghanistan. He argued that it's in the US interests to withdraw its troops as quickly as possible and focus on financial assistance to the Afghan government to help the post-war recovery.
Last week, a meeting in Moscow brought together Afghan former officials, opposition igures and the Taliban but sidelined President Ashraf Ghani's government.

Envoy says Russia's clout in Afghanistan rises

The Maldivian government urged its citizens to support its anti-corruption drive Wednesday after it launched a website to help trace millions of dollars reportedly stolen during the former regime.
The whistleblower site went live on Tuesday, days after the government sought international help to find millions of dollars allegedly siphoned off by former president Abdulla Yameen, who faces embezzlement and money laundering charges.
Launching the portal, President Mohamed Ibrahim Solih called on government employees and ordinary citizens to anonymously lodge reports of corruption, an official in his office told AFP.
"The campaign is to assure the community that his administration will not tolerate corruption at any level," the official said.
Users were encouraged to access the whistleblower site through proxy servers to ensure anonymity.
Maldivian police have said their investigations found evidence linking Yameen and his justice minister Azima Shakoor to the theft of state funds and ...

Maldives seeks whistleblowers in search for looted cash

Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday that any negotiations with the US would "bring nothing but material and spiritual harm" in remarks before an American-led meeting on the Mideast in Warsaw.
The comments from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were part of a seven-page statement read word-for-word on Iranian state television and heavily promoted in the run-up to its release.
They also come two days after Iran marked the 40th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.
"About the United States, the resolution of any issues is not imaginable and negotiations with it will bring nothing but material and spiritual harm," Khamenei said.
The supreme leader went on to describe any negotiations as an "unforgiveable mistake."
He also said negotiations would be like "going on your knees before the enemy and kissing the claws of the wolf."
That tone is a long way from 2015, when Khamenei approved of talks between Iran and the United States that ...

Iran's supreme leader says any talks with US can only 'harm'

Catalan separatist and right-wing lawmakers in the Spanish parliament's lower house rejected Wednesday the ruling Socialist government's 2019 budget plan, likely paving the way for a call of early elections by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The 191-158 vote, with one abstention, opens a new crisis in Spanish politics. Members of the cabinet had signaled that a defeat in parliament would lead to a general election.
The only other time that a Spanish government lost a budget vote, in 1995, the Socialists were forced to dissolve the parliament and call an election.
Opposition leader Pablo Casado, head of the conservative People's Party, said Wednesday's vote was "a de facto confidence vote against Pedro Sanchez."
Catalan deputies from pro-independence parties had demanded to open talks on the northeastern region's self-determination in exchange for supporting Sanchez's spending proposal, but the center-left minority government had rejected that.
The socialist party holds only 84 seats in .

Budget defeat puts Spain's center-left government on ropes

There is no competition or clash of interest between Nepal and India and the bilateral relations need to be harmonised in accordance with the changing time and  geo-political realities, the Nepalese ambassador designate to New Delhi has said.
Ambassador Nilamber Acharya while speaking at a programme organised here to felicitate him said Nepal and India are close neighbours and the relations between the two countries are centuries old.
"In such a close relationship it is natural to have some differences, which need to be sorted out through open dialogue between officials of the two countries," said Acharya.
He said there was no anti-India sentiment among the people of Nepal as reported in some sections of the media.
"The Nepalese people want to see their southern neighbour progress and move forward. There is no competition or clash of interest between Nepal and India as there is only place for cooperation and collaboration between them," he pointed out.
Acharya said the relations ...

No clash or competition between Nepal and India: Acharya

Bulgaria and the US have halted what they believe could be a scheme to illegally channel money out of Venezuela, which is under sanctions from Washington amid the ongoing political crisis in the South American country, officials said.
Bulgarian officials and US ambassador Eric Rubin told a news briefing that "millions of euros" in payments from Venezuela's state oil company PVDSA had been seized in bank accounts in Bulgaria.
The funds -- ostensibly earmarked for the purchase of food and to finance a Venezuelan sports federation -- had been paid into a number of accounts held by a lawyer with dual Bulgarian and foreign nationality, who had now left the country.
Some of the money had already been transferred out of the accounts to other countries, Bulgarian chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov said.
The Bulgarian and US authorities suspect that the reasons given for the money transfers "have nothing to do with reality," he said.
"We will most probably open a probe for money laundering," ...

Bulgaria freezes suspicious payments from Venezuela

Pakistani authorities Wednesday vowed to carry out a "massive" crackdown targeting hate speech and extremism on social media, as a minister boasted arrests have already been made.
Officials in Pakistan are frequently accused of muzzling the media and targeting individuals critical of the country's powerful military establishment and have blocked hundreds of websites and social media accounts over the years.
Information minister Fawad Chaudhry announced the government was setting up a new enforcement arm to regulate social media during a speech in the capital Islamabad.
"We made some arrests last week and by the will of Allah we are launching a massive crackdown against social media users spreading hate speech and violence," he said.
Self censorship in the South Asia nation is widely believed to be rife at traditional news outlets.
"Our problem is that digital media is over taking formal media so it is important for us to regulate this," Chaudhry added, saying: "Informal media is a ...

Pakistan announces 'massive' social media crackdown

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed adding seven countries including Saudi Arabia to the EU's money-laundering blacklist of governments that do too little to thwart the financing of terrorism and organised crime.
The move comes as tensions between Riyadh and European capitals are heightened over the murder last year of the columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The proposal must now be approved by the European Parliament and the 28 member states, with France and Britain against the new list.
The new countries targeted by the commission, including Saudi Arabia and Panama, would join another 16 already on this register -- such as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Ethiopia and North Korea.
Inclusion on the list does not trigger sanctions, but it does oblige European banks to apply tighter controls on transactions with customers and institutions in those countries.
"We have put in place the highest standards in the world in the fight against money laundering," said ...

Brussels proposes adding Saudi Arabia to EU money laundering blacklist

Fifteen people were killed in a stampede at an election campaign rally in southern Nigeria held by President Muhammadu Buhari, health officials said on Wednesday, in an updated toll.
Kem-Daniel Elebiga, spokesman for the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, said "a total of 15 bodies were brought in" on Tuesday.  Three were men and the others were women, he added.
Twelve injured people were brought in, nine of whom remain in hospital. "They are all responding well to treatment," he said.
Police in Rivers state, of which Port Harcourt is the capital, earlier gave a toll of four dead and four injured, while Buhari's office said "several" people lost their lives.
Conflicting death tolls are not unusual in Nigeria, although the authorities often issue lower numbers.
Local media said the stampede happened when panic broke out at the end of a rally, held in the city's Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium.
Crowds tried to force their way through a locked exit.
"Those from behind were pushing 

Death toll now 15 after Nigeria election stampede: hospital

India was among the top export destinations for Scotch whisky in 2018, a year during which the export value of Scotland's popular tipple grew by 7.8 per cent to hit a record 4.70 billion-pound.
Official figures from the UK's Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) analysed by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) revealed this week that India remains among the top 10 export destinations for whisky produced in Scotland.
The Indian market was also among the top three in terms of volume, with 112.6 million bottles sold to India in 2018, compared to top-ranked France at 187.8 million bottles and second-placed US at 136.8 million bottles.
In terms of value, India came in at 138.8 million pounds, up 34.1 per cent compared to 2017.
"2018 was another year of strong export growth for Scotch Whisky, attesting to its enduring popularity in different countries and among cultures right across the world. Quite simply, Scotch Whisky remains the whisky everyone wants to drink," said Karen Betts, Chief 

India helps drive up UK's Scotch whisky export boom

People tend to be at their happiest at 16 and then 70 years old, according to a new study by a UK-based think tank released on Wednesday.
The Resolution Foundation analysed official data to asses higher and lower well-being, levels of which it found vary significantly depending on someone's age, income level, housing tenure, and where they live.
"The report finds that well-being levels - which include happiness, life satisfaction, self-worth and lack of anxiety - generally fall between someone's mid-20s and early 50s, and then start rising again until people reach their 70s. On the basis of age alone, the key to happiness is to be 16 or 70," the think tank notes.
It calls on policy-makers who want to boost well-being to dig deeper into what drives those improvements. A secure job, a home of your own, and more money, particularly for low-income households, are all key drivers of higher well-being, and should therefore be prioritised.
"Well-being matters to all of us, and yet we've only 

UK study finds 16 and 70 as happiest age to be

Maldives' former president Abdulla Yameen, who is accused of using money stolen from state coffers, was charged with money laundering on Wednesday, according to a local media report.
The case stems from an allegedly shady deal to lease islands for tourist resort development and the discovery of USD 1 million in his bank account.
The case has been filed at the criminal court, the Prosecutor General's office tweeted on Wednesday.
Yameen, who lost presidential election to Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in September 2018 after a five-year rule, is accused of using money stolen from state coffers, police said last week, after wrapping up investigations, The Maldives Independent reported.
Under the 2014 anti-money laundering law, the offence carries a prison sentence between five to 15 years or a fine of up to USD 64,850.
Separate charges were sought over alleged false testimony to the Anti-Corruption Commission during its investigation into the theft of USD 90 million from the Maldives Marketing ...

Maldives' former president Abdulla Yameen charged with money laundering

The British government denied Wednesday it was secretly plotting to force MPs into a last-minute choice on Brexit between a rejigged deal or a lengthy delay.
ITV television reported that it had overheard Prime Minister Theresa May's chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins in a Brussels bar saying the European Union would probably let Britain extend its March 29 departure date.
Such a move would effectively mean removing the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without a deal.
ITV reported that it eavesdropped on Robbins, one of the key figures in the Brexit negotiations, talking to colleagues in a hotel bar on Monday.
He was said to have indicated that if lawmakers - who overwhelmingly rejected the deal struck between London and Brussels - did not vote for a rehashed withdrawal agreement, then the delay to Brexit would be "a long one".
"The issue is whether Brussels is clear on the terms of extension. In the end, they will probably just give us an extension," he was quoted as ...

London denies plotting last-minute Brexit vote

The global unemployment rate inched down last year, the UN said Wednesday, warning though that jobs often failed to guarantee decent living, with some 700 million workers wallowing in poverty.
Unemployment around the world fell last year to 5.0 per cent - from 5.1 per cent in 2017 - for the first time dropping to the level seen before the global financial crisis hit in 2008, the International Labour Organization said.
But in its flagship "World Employment and Social Outlook" trends report, the ILO also raised serious red flags about the health of the planet's job market.
Deborah Greenfield, ILO's deputy director-general, told journalists in Geneva that the decline in global unemployment "is projected to stall", amid "uncertainty on many fronts," and a "deteriorating economic outlook".
The UN agency said it expected the jobless rate to remain at roughly the same level this year and in 2020, although the number of unemployed people should swell by two million to a total of 174 million ..

Global unemployment down, but too many working poor: UN

A Kenyan pilot and four foreigners have died after a small plane carrying them from Kenya's Maasai Mara nature reserve crashed in the west of the country, police said Wednesday.
"There were five occupants in the plane and they did not survive," said Edward Mwamburi, police chief for the Rift Valley region.
He said the Cessna plane was heading from the famed Maasai Mara to Lodwar, near Lake Turkana, which is also popular with tourists.
"There was a Kenyan pilot on board and four foreign nationals," said James Mugera, commander with the Kericho police.
Emergency services have been sent to the scene.
In June last year, a plane belonging to the FlySAX airline crashed on the edge of the Aberdares mountain range, leaving 10 people dead.
Kenya has a vibrant airline industry, with national airline Kenya Airways operating internationally and locally alongside successful low-cost airlines and charter companies.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2014, some ...

Kenyan, four foreigners killed in plane crash: police

Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday that negotiations with the US "will bring nothing but material and spiritual harm" in remarks just ahead of an American-led meeting on the Mideast in Warsaw that's expected to largely focus on the Islamic Republic.
The comments from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were part of a seven-page statement read out word-for-word on Iranian state television and heavily promoted in the run-up to its release. They also come two days after Iran marked the 40th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.
"About the United States, the resolution of any issues is not imaginable and negotiations with it will bring nothing but material and spiritual harm," Khamenei said.
The supreme leader went on to describe any negotiations as an "unforgiveable mistake." He also said negotiations would be like "going on your knees before the enemy and kissing the claws of the wolf."
That tone is a long way from 2015, when Khamenei ...

Iran's supreme leader says talks with US can only 'harm'

Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn Wednesday shook up his top legal team as he vowed to prove his innocence and defend himself with vigour against charges of financial misconduct.
In the latest twist to a saga that has gripped Japan and the business world since his stunning arrest in November, Ghosn confirmed in a statement from his detention centre that he had hired a new lead counsel.
He replaced former prosecutor Motonari Otsuru with hot-shot lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, who has a history of taking on high-profile cases and enjoys an enviable acquittal rate in a country where almost every trial results in a guilty verdict.
"I look forward to defending myself vigorously, and this represents the beginning of the process of not only establishing my innocence but also shedding light on the circumstances that led to my unjust detention," said Ghosn, 64.
Earlier Otsuru's firm issued a brief statement saying only that he and another lawyer had "submitted letters of resignation to the court as .

Ghosn shakes up legal team from Japanese cell

The conviction of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in all 10 criminal charges against him clearly demonstrates that the US will not tolerate those who bring drugs and violence into the country to destroy people's lives, America's drug czar Uttam Dhillon has said.
Guzman, 61, was found guilty on all 10 counts at his high-profile drug-trafficking trial at a federal court in New York on Tuesday.
The Mexican, famed for his brazen escapes from Mexican prisons, was accused of being behind the all-powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, which prosecutors say was the biggest supplier of drugs to the US.
He was convicted on numerous counts including the distribution of cocaine and heroin, illegal firearms possession and money laundering.
In 2009, Guzman entered Forbes' list of the world's richest men at number 701, with an estimated worth of USD 1 billion.
While Guzman will be sentenced on June 25, he faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for leading a continuing ..

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