Police broke up a terror ring plotting an attack in France after arresting seven suspects in Strasbourg and Marseille over the weekend, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said today.
	The arrests of the alleged plotters from France, Morocco and Afghanistan "enabled us to prevent a long-planned terror attack on our soil," Cazeneuve told a televised news conference.
	Investigators are trying to determine whether "the foiled attack was a coordinated attack aiming to target several sites simultaneously on our soil".
	Police raids were carried out overnight Saturday in the eastern city of Strasbourg and Marseille in the south following an investigation by security services lasting more than eight months.
	"Credible information made these arrests necessary," one security source told AFP earlier who was not authorised to comment on the case and spoke anonymously.
	The mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, said the interior ministry had told him the targets were "in the Paris region" and not in .

French police foil terror attack, arrest 7: Minister

PTI Automatic

China's President Xi Jinping made a state visit today to Peru, one of its partners in its drive to boost world trade in the face of protectionist stirrings.
	A day after taking part in the APEC Asia-Pacific trade summit, Xi made a formal visit to the host nation, a major mineral and food exporter.
	He was expected to discuss a deal for exporting Peruvian prawns and blueberries to China, the head of the Peru-China chamber of commerce Jose Tam was quoted as saying by Peruvian newspaper El Comercio.
	During the APEC summit, Xi cast his country as a leader of free trade cooperation.
	That was seen as a response to US President-elect Donald Trump's threats to restrict free trade deals in order to protect US jobs.
	Xi was welcomed at the presidential palace on today by Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. The latter was elected this year on promises to attract foreign trade and investment.
	Peru and its neighbours Brazil and Bolivia are also reportedly hoping to secure Chinese investment 

Chinese president talks trade with Peru

The Catholic Church in Rwanda has again asked for forgiveness "for all Christians" implicated in the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000, the head of the country's bishops commission said today.
	A letter of apology signed by the bishops representing the nine dioceses in Rwanda, a copy of which AFP received, had been read in all churches yesterday, marking the end of the Holy Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis.
	"We ask for forgiveness for all Christians who were involved in the genocide," said the bishops commission president, Philippe Rukamba, recalling that the Church had already called for understanding in 2000.
	The bishop added, however, that the Church was seeking forgiveness for individuals and not for the institution as such. "The Church did not participate in the genocide," he said.
	That comment came after Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said on Twitter late yesterday: "The Catholic Church of Rwanda apologises for its role in the 1994 genocide, 22 years 

Rwanda's Church seeks genocide forgiveness for Christians

The death toll from a petrol tanker explosion last week in Mozambique has risen to 80, officials said today, after the blast ripped through crowds jostling to illegally collect fuel.
	The government said people had used hose pipes and jerry cans to collect the petrol, which had also spilt around the truck when the blaze erupted.
	The tanker exploded in Tete province, a remote western region near the border with Malawi, killing 43 people on the spot, with more than 100 others badly burnt, including many children.
	"For now, the total number of deaths is up to 80," Tete's deputy hospital director Veronica de Deus told the daily O Pais newspaper, adding that 35 people were still in a critical condition.
	An inquiry has been launched into the cause of the blast.
	The truck was reported to be carrying fuel from Mozambique's port city of Beira to landlocked Malawi.
	The government in Mozambique, one of the world's poorest countries, recently increased the price of fuel after the value of ...

Death toll from Mozambique tanker blast rises to 80

A violent backlash against fragile peace efforts to end Colombia's half-century civil war has intensified in recent days with the killings of numerous community leaders, officials and rebels warned today.
	The government and leftist FARC rebels are closer than they have ever been to sealing a historic peace accord, but violence appears to have resurged in places as that deal has faltered.
	Observers from the Organization of American States said Sunday that civil organizations in conflict areas reported 33 of their leaders killed this year, including several in recent days.
	Just over a week ago Colombia's government said it had drawn up a revised peace deal to end the 52-year civil war with the FARC leftist rebels.
	But remnants of right-wing paramilitary groups who took part in the many-sided conflict are said to remain active.
	"A new genocide is taking place against civil and rural leaders," the FARC said in an open letter to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos today.
	It said ..

Wave of killings threatens Colombia peace bid

Israeli authorities will extend for a second time the detention without charge of a Palestinian journalist accused of belonging to a "terrorist organisation", his wife said today.
	Omar Nazzal, 54 a member of the Palestinian Journalists' Union, was arrested on April 23 at the border between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan, from where he had been due to fly to a European Federation of Journalists gathering in Bosnia.
	His initial four-month detention was extended for three months in August and he was expected to be released tomorrow, his wife Marlene Rabadi told AFP.
	"But the court informed us that his detention would be extended again," she said.
	In a later Facebook post she said the extension would be for three months.
	The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
	Israel insists that Nazzal was detained for "his involvement in terror group activities", not "because of his activity as a journalist".
	He is accused of being in the Popular Front ...

Israel again extends Palestinian journalist's detention

The Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat said today it fired its Baghdad correspondent, a day after printing controversial accusations wrongly attributed to a UN spokesman.
	The report drew condemnation from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and several other leading Shiite figures and bodies demanding an apology.
	The sacking of the journalist, who was not named, came after the paper ran an article yesterday accusing Iranian pilgrims taking part in the Shiite Muslim commemoration of Arbaeen of sexually harassing women.
	The article quoted a World Health Organisation spokesman as saying that after last year's pilgrimage, more than 169 Iraqi women became pregnant out of wedlock.
	The UN's health agency said the "claim that this information was released by a WHO headquarters communications officer is completely erroneous."
	The London-based daily paper published the WHO statement today in what it said was evidence of "its commitment towards the truth...And to correct the erroneous ..

Saudi paper sacks Iraq correspondent over 'fake' report

Canada will shutter its coal-fired power plants by 2030 as part of its strategy to cut greenhouse gas emission under the Paris climate accord, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announced today.
	The plants, located in four provinces, produce about 10 percent of Canada's total CO2 emissions, and closing them will remove the equivalent in emissions of 1.3 million cars from roads, or five megatons of greenhouse gas emissions, she told a press conference.
	"As part of our government's vision for a clean growth economy, we will be accelerating the transition from traditional coal power to clean energy by 2030."
	With an abundance of hydroelectric power, as well as nuclear, solar and wind power, 80 per cent of Canada's electricity production emits no air pollution.
	McKenna said she aims to ramp that up to 90 per cent by 2030.
	The minister, however, added that carbon capture would be an acceptable substitute to closing a plant if any province wished to continue burning coal.

Canada to phase out coal power by 2030: official

US President Barack Obama insisted Donald Trump still needs space free from criticism to get his team together and policies in place, but suggested he would speak out if core US values were threatened.
	"I want to be respectful of the office and give the president-elect an opportunity to put forward his platform and his arguments without somebody popping off," Obama said, amid concerns about Trump's administration picks and public statements.
	But, he said if there is something that "goes to core questions about our values and our ideals, and if I think that it's necessary or helpful for me to defend those ideals then I'll examine it when it comes.

Obama says he will speak out if core US values threatened

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today urged the European Union and West to step up backing of Ankara's fight against Kurdish militants, as he addressed a meeting of NATO lawmakers.
	Erdogan said he expected the support of NATO countries in Turkey's fight against "all terror groups" including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Islamic State (IS) jihadists and the group blamed by Ankara for the failed July 15 coup.
	He called on the European Union to tighten its approach to the PKK, which Brussels designates as a terror group but whose members, according to Erdogan, are allowed to roam freely within the bloc.
	"Those who have a hesitant attitude against terrorist organisations will be hit themselves sooner or later," he said in a speech to deputies at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
	Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952 but its bid to join the European Union has been further set back by disputes over the magnitude of its crackdown in the wake of the coup.
	Erdogan had at .

Erdogan demands support against PKK at NATO meeting

One policeman was shot dead and three others shot and wounded in four US cities, coinciding with an epidemic of racially-tinged gun violence involving law enforcement.
	Police were shot in San Antonio, Texas, Sanibel, Florida, and in the Missouri cities of St Louis and Gladstone, local police departments said.
	There was no known connection between the shootings.
	In San Antonio, authorities were hunting for a suspect who fatally shot 20-year service veteran Detective Benjamin Marconi twice in the head after being pulled over in traffic in front of police department headquarters.
	Police, who are receiving support from federal and state law enforcement, offered a USD 10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case, describing the unnamed suspect as a black male wearing a hoodie and baggie pants.
	A police officer in Sanibel, on the picturesque island of the same name off the Florida coast, was shot and wounded during a "routine" traffic stop, officials said.
	The ...

Four police officers shot in US cities

Millions of black-clad Shiite Muslims, crying and beating their chests in mourning, streamed through a shrine in the Iraqi city of Karbala today under heavy protection from the security forces.
	The processions of faithful walking to Imam Hussein's mausoleum from all over Iraq have been routinely targeted by bombings over the years, but this time the Arbaeen commemoration saw very few attacks.
	The Islamic State group is battling tens of thousands of Iraqi forces in and around its last major stronghold of Mosul, and observers had feared it might seek to strike Baghdad or Karbala during Arbaeen.
	The authorities in Karbala, which lies about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Baghdad, said at least 24,000 soldiers and police were securing the area.
	Some pilgrims came from as far afield as Basra, Iraq's main southern port city some 500 kilometres away by road.
	"I came walking from Basra with my wife and three sons... This is the third time," said Jaber Kadhem Khalif.
	"We started ...

Millions throng Iraq shrine despite fears of IS attack

Pope Francis, making permanent a temporary measure put in place for the Vatican's jubilee year, declared today that all priests would have the right to forgive abortion.
	"I henceforth grant to all priests, in virtue of their ministry, the faculty to absolve those who have committed the sin of procured abortion," the pope wrote in an apostolic letter marking the end of the "Year of Mercy", which wound up yesterday.
	"The provision I had made in this regard, limited to the duration of the Extraordinary Holy Year, is hereby extended, notwithstanding anything to the contrary," he wrote.
	The 79-year old Argentine said he had to "restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life".
	Yesterday, as he brought the jubilee to an end by closing the bronze-panelled Holy Door in Saint Peter's Square, Francis gave an interview in which he slammed abortion as "a horrendous crime".
	But he said today that the end of the special year did not mean the ...

Pope makes permanent priests' ability to pardon abortion

A 48-hour ceasefire ended today in Yemen after failing to stem violence across the country, with both sides blaming each other for deadly "violations" of the US-backed truce.
	The ceasefire, aimed at ending the chaos and bloodshed that has gripped Yemen since March 2015, came into effect on Saturday following the intervention of US Secretary of State John Kerry.
	But despite a lull in air strikes on the rebel-held capital, both parties traded accusations over hundreds of violations.
	The Saudi-led coalition said the truce ended at midday (0900 GMT) Monday, and accused Iran-backed insurgents of repeatedly breaking it.
	"There is no respect (for the truce), only violations," coalition spokesman Major General Ahmed Assiri told AFP.
	"There have been more people killed in (the southwestern city of) Taez and more attacks with surface-to-surface missiles, so automatically the conditions are not there" for prolonging the ceasefire deal, he said.
	"At the military level, for the moment, we ...

Yemen ceasefire ends without extension

Rights groups condemned Malaysia's government today for a crackdown on organisers of a weekend anti-government rally, including the arrest of the protest leader under a tough law aimed at terrorism.
	Tens of thousands of people flooded Kuala Lumpur with the yellow colours of the reformist movement Saturday to demand Prime Minister Najib Razak resign and face justice over a massive corruption scandal.
	Authorities arrested more than a dozen people before, during and after the demonstration including Maria Chin Abdullah, the leader of the "Bersih" civil society alliance that staged the rally.
	Most detainees have since been released but Chin remains in solitary confinement under a national security law that allows detention without charge for 28 days and can bring a lengthy prison sentence.
	Six Asian human rights organisations in a joint statement called the crackdown a grave breach of basic rights.
	"These arrests violate international human rights standards," it said, calling for all 

Malaysia accused of 'abuse of law' in rally crackdown

Twin attacks blamed on jihadists during weekend municipal elections in Mali left six people dead, security sources said today.
	The violence came as the country held its first election since 2013. Turnout was low however due to continuing fears over security despite the presence of international peacekeepers.
	In the first incident, security sources told AFP that five Malian soldiers died after being ambushed while transporting ballot boxes in the restive north.
	"After the voting yesterday, an army convoy taking the ballot boxes for counting was attacked in the north by jihadists. Five Malian soldiers were killed," a security source said.
	Another Malian security source said the assailants "wanted to sabotage the elections" and were unable to make off with the ballots.
	In the second attack, in the town of Dilli in southwestern Mali overnight yesterday to today, a group of alleged jihadists nabbed several vehicles and killed a civilian.
	"They arrived early today in Dilli. They ...

Malian soldiers, civilian killed in election-linked attacks

Turkish police detained today the pro-Kurdish co-mayor of Mardin, state media reported, the latest municipal chief of a major southeastern city to be taken into custody in a growing crackdown.
	Ahmet Turk was detained along with Emin Irmak, co-mayor of central Artuklu district in Mardin, as part of a "terror probe", the official news agency Anadolu said.
	Before the latest detentions today, the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) said that so far, 53 mayors have been dismissed and 39 mayors arrested in the region.
	Most of the arrested mayors are from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) which is closely allied to the HDP.
	The new detentions come after the mayors of the southeastern cities of Siirt and Van as well as the eastern city of Tunceli were also suspended and detained last week.
	Meanwhile, Van co-mayor Bekir Kaya was placed under arrest on Friday, charged with "knowingly and willingly helping" the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
	Last month, the two mayors of 

Turkey detains another pro-Kurdish mayor in southeast

Children as young as nine could be jailed in the Philippines for certain crimes under a proposed law backed by the president, sparking concern today from the United Nations and rights groups.
	President Rodrigo Duterte's allies have been pushing to pass laws by December that would restore the death penalty and lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9.
	Duterte won May elections largely because of a vow to kill tens of thousands of drug dealers, also promising on the campaign trail to close a loophole in the juvenile justice system that he said allowed traffickers to use minors as narcotic couriers.
	"Adult criminals knowingly and purposely make use of youth below 15 years of age to commit crimes, such as drug trafficking," Pantaleon Alvarez, one of the proposed law's main backers, said in an explanatory note.
	While Duterte wanted the age threshold dropped to 12, his allies went one step further by calling for it to be lowered to nine.
	The UN children's agency ...

Alarm over proposed Philippine law to jail 9-year-olds

There are no more functioning hospitals in the rebel-held eastern part of Syria's Aleppo, where more than 250,000 people are living under siege and many need urgent medical care, the UN has said.
	Health facilities have repeatedly been targeted during the country's brutal civil war, a pattern that has continued in a ferocious government assault launched last Tuesday to recapture eastern Aleppo.
	"There are currently no hospitals functioning in the besieged area of the city," the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement on Sunday, citing reports from its partners in the area.
	"More than 250,000 men, women and children living in eastern Aleppo are now without access to hospital care," the United Nations agency added.
	WHO noted that some health services in the devastated area "are still available through small clinics", but that trauma care, major surgeries and other responses to serious conditions have stopped.
	UN agencies, including WHO, have been barred from entering ...

No more working hospitals in eastern Aleppo: UN

The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen's government against Iran-backed rebels said a 48-hour ceasefire ended at midday today due to repeated "violations".
	"There is no respect (for the truce), only violations," coalition spokesman Major General Ahmed Assiri told AFP, adding that there were "no orders to extend the ceasefire."
	"There have been more people killed in (the southwestern city of) Taez and more attacks with surface-to-surface missiles, so automatically the conditions are not there" for prolonging the truce, he said.
	The ceasefire began on Saturday following an intervention by US Secretary of State John Kerry who met rebel representatives in Oman and urged the government of Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to sign up.
	The coalition had said the truce could be renewed if the rebels abided by the deal and allowed aid deliveries to besieged cities.

Yemen ceasefire ends without extension: coalition

A massive suicide blast at a Shiite mosque in Kabul killed at least 27 people today and wounded 35 as worshippers gathered for a religious ceremony, officials said.
	"It was a suicide bomber who blew himself up among worshippers inside the mosque, killing 27 and wounding 35," senior police official Fridon Obaidi said.
	Police cordoned off the area around the Baqirul Olum mosque in the west of the Afghan capital.
	"I was in the mosque, the people were offering prayers. Suddenly I heard a bang and windows broke. I had no idea what had happened. I rushed out screaming," Ali Jan told AFP.
	Worshippers were gathering to mark the Shiite ceremony of Arbaeen, which comes 40 days after the major festival of Ashura.
	Ashura commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was assassinated in the year 680.
	His fate laid the foundation for the faith practised by the Shiite community, a minority in mainly Sunni Muslim Afghanistan.
	Arbaeen marks the end of the mourning 

AFP

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