Diane is a perfectionist. She enjoys searching the internet for the hottest events from around the world and writing an article about it. The details matter to her, so she makes sure the information is easy to read and understand. She likes traveling and history, especially ancient history. Being a very sociable person she has a blast having barbeque with family and friends.
Cyprus’ Greek and Turkish leaders have for the first time given a joint TV address to wish residents a happy holiday.
President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said they hoped for a peace deal in 2016.
The latest round of negotiations aiming at reunification of the divided island has been going on for more than seven months.
The Turkish-controlled north broke away in 1974 after a Greek-inspired coup.
Nicos Anastasiades said his wish was for Greek and Turkish Cypriots to be able to live peacefully together in a reunified Cyprus, while Mustafa Akinci said he hoped 2016 would bring lasting peace for all.
“I wish the New Year will bring lasting peace, serenity and prosperity to all Cypriots,” Mustafa Akinci was quoted as saying by the Cyprus Mail.
According to the Cyprus Mail, Nicos Anastasiades and Muastafa Akinci will meet three times in January.
In 2004, Greek Cypriots rejected a UN plan to reunify the island. They were unhappy at limits on their right to return to property in the Turkish north.
Turkish Cypriots voted in favor of the plan.
The self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is diplomatically isolated, recognized only by Turkey.
UN peacekeeping forces estimate that 165,000 Greek Cypriots fled or were expelled from the north, and 45,000 Turkish Cypriots from the south, although the parties to the conflict say the figures are higher.
Exiled Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been placed on an international wanted list over the 1990s murder of a Siberian mayor.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been living in exile in Europe since he was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin in 2013 for fraud after 10 years in jail.
Russia’s once-richest man said the authorities had “gone mad”.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky is accused of ordering several of his employees to kill both the mayor and a businessman, who survived.
Investigators allege Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyugansk, was killed on June 26, 1998, for demanding Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s oil firm, Yukos, pay taxes that the company had been avoiding.
Photo Getty Images
Local businessman Yevgeny Rybin was allegedly targeted because his activities “clashed with Yukos’s interests”, Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee (SK) said in a statement as it announced his arrest in absentia.
Yevgeny Rybin survived a gun attack in November 1998 and a second attack on his car in March 1999, when another man in the vehicle was killed and several people were injured.
Five people have already been tried for the attacks and the arrest warrant is unlikely to make any difference unless Mikhail Khodorkovsky returns to Russia.
Armed police raided the Moscow offices of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia pro-democracy movement on December 22, in a move that authorities said was linked to allegations of tax evasion. The flats of at least seven activists who work for Mikhail Khodorkovsky were also searched.
The exiled oil tycoon, who now spends much of his time in London, has repeatedly criticized Vladimir Putin in recent months. He said December 22 raids were acts of intimidation and the sign of an “authoritarian regime” nearing its “inevitable” end.
In further comments on December 23, Mikhail Khodorkovsky said the authorities were acting like bandits: “They’ve gone mad. I realized that yesterday.”
After Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003, Yukos was broken up and taken over by a state oil firm.
In 2014, an international arbitration court in The Hague said Russian officials had manipulated the legal system to bankrupt Yukos, and jail Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The court told Russia to pay former shareholders in Yukos $50 billion in compensation.
Somalia’s government has decided to ban Christmas celebration in the country, warning that such Christian festivities could threaten the nation’s Muslim faith.
An official at the religious affairs ministry said: “Those celebrations are not in any way related to Islam.”
Security agencies have been directed to stay alert to stop any gatherings.
Foreigners are free to mark the Christian holiday in their own homes, but hotels and other public places have been prohibited from marking the day.
Local media quote Mohamed Kheyrow, a top official at Somalia’s justice and religious affairs ministry, as saying: “Having Muslims celebrate Christmas in Somalia is not the right thing, such things are akin to the abandonment.”
Correspondents say as Somalia recovers from years of civil war, a growing number of Somalis who grew up in the diaspora are returning home, some of them bringing Western customs with them.
Christmas is not widely celebrated in Somalia, which officially adopted Sharia in 2009, but the odd event was held – especially as an excuse to hold a party.
Christmas celebrations will be allowed at UN compounds and bases for African Union peacekeepers, who are in the country to back the government’s fight against the al-Qaeda-linked militants.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number of refugees crossing into Europe by land and sea this year illegally has passed one million.
This represents a fourfold rise on the total last year.
Most of the refugees crossed by sea – with more than 800,000 traveling from Turkey to Greece. Half are refugees from Syria.
Eleven more migrants drowned on December 22, adding to the IOM toll of 3,695 dying or missing at sea.
Seven people were rescued by Turkish coast guards after the craft went down, apparently en route from Kusadasi in Turkey to the Greek island of Samos. One report said the dead were Syrians.
The huge influx of refugees has caused significant political rifts within the EU, with some states inside the border-free Schengen area putting up fences and reimposing frontier controls.
Hungary and Slovakia are taking legal action at the European Court of Justice to challenge EU plans to share asylum seekers across EU states.
Meanwhile, many refugees are pressing to be allowed to settle in richer northern countries like Germany and Sweden.
According to the IOM, migration passed the symbolic milestone on December 21, with the total for land and sea reaching more than 1,006,000.
Entries via six EU nations – Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus – are covered in the report.
The IOM report found among other things that:
Half of the refugees crossing the Mediterranean were from Syria, 20% were from Afghanistan and 7% from Iraq;
Most of the refugees who died – 2,889 – were making the sea crossing between North Africa and Italy, while more than 700 died in the Aegean crossing to Greece from Turkey;
Only 3.5% of migrants made a land journey to Greece or Bulgaria via Turkey.
The IOM gathers its statistics from registrations, law enforcement agencies and its own monitors.
IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said it was not enough to just count the figures.
“We must also act,” he said.
“Migration must be legal, safe and secure for all – both for the migrants themselves and the countries that will become their new home.”
A joint IOM and UNHCR statement said found a “more co-ordinated European response” was beginning to take shape.
However, it said more needed to be done to improve reception facilities, accommodation and registration, and to identify those who do and do not qualify for refugee protection.
Save the Children campaigns director Kirsty McNeill said: “This is the test of our European ideal. When children are dying on our doorstep we need to take bolder action. There can be no bigger priority.”
The EU last week agreed to increase the numbers of Frontex border agency staff in Greece, a key arrival point.
Germany alone has received a million refugees and migrants this year, although many were already within Europe, particularly in the Balkans.
Macedonia is now refusing to allow anyone through its Greek border who does not come from a war zone.
A UN report also last week warned that the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide would “far surpass” 60 million this year.
Sweden’s trains to and from Denmark will be canceled starting with January 4, 2016, over ID checks.
The state-owned train operator SJ will stop services because it cannot carry out ID checks demanded by the government to stem the influx of refugees.
Under a new Swedish law, transport companies will be fined if travelers to Sweden do not have valid photo ID.
SJ said it would not have time to check people traveling between Copenhagen and Malmo over the Oresund bridge.
Sweden has already received about 150,000 asylum applications in 2015.
The government has secured a temporary exemption from the EU’s open-border Schengen agreement, in order to impose border controls.
About 18,000 people commute to work daily across the Oresund bridge, Radio Sweden reports.
SJ said all services between Denmark and Sweden would be suspended from January 4 when the new law comes into force.
“Our planning of the introduction of ID border checks in Copenhagen before the departure of SJ trains bound for Sweden has shown that we are currently unable to carry out ID checks in accordance with the requirements of the new law in the amount of time allowed,” the company said on its website.
SJ added it had chosen to “cancel its departures until there is a working solution in place”.
Oresundstag, another train operator which runs a Sweden-Denmark commuter service, said it would remain in operation after January 4, but scale back rush-hour traffic to allow time for the checks, according to reports.
One million migrants have arrived in Europe by land or sea in 2015, the International Organization for Migration says.
Along with Germany, Sweden is one of the main destinations of choice – with some 150,000 applying for asylum in 2015.
In contrast, Denmark expects to receive about 20,000 asylum seekers in 2015.
Last week a Danish government proposal to seize asylum seekers’ valuables to make them pay for their stay drew sharp criticism in international media.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has defended her claim that ISIS is using videos of Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric to recruit followers.
Donald Trump disputed that the videos exist and demanded an apology, to which Hillary Clinton’s spokesman said “hell no”.
During December 19 debate, Hillary Clinton said the Republican front-runner was becoming the group’s “best recruiter”.
Donald Trump has called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, drawing criticism from around the world.
Despite providing no evidence, Donald Trump has also said American Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks. He has also opposed the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the US.
Rivals in both parties have accused Donald Trump of xenophobia and preying on Americans’ heighten fears about terrorism after attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
Earlier, a spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton’s campaign said they are not aware of a specific Islamic State video featuring Donald Trump, but that jihadis use his comments about Muslims for recruitment.
“She lies about everything,” Donald Trump said, adding that the Democratic front-runner was “making up tapes and video which don’t exist”.
Hillary Clinton’s spokesman Brian Fallon told CNN: “Hell no. Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing to Donald Trump for correctly pointing out how his hateful rhetoric only helps [Islamic State] recruit more terrorists.”
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama told NPR that Donald Trump is “exploiting” the anger and fear among blue-collar men in the current US economy.
Economic and demographic changes in the country allows for Donald Trump to spread ideas, he said.
Of that fear and anxiety, “some of it [is] justified, but just misdirected,” Barack Obama said.
“I think somebody like Mr. Trump is taking advantage of that. That’s what he’s exploiting during the course of his campaign.”
NBC asked Donald Trump if he was holding Hillary Clinton to a double standard because he could not back up his own claim that people in New Jersey were cheering when the World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11.
Donald Trump said he had been “totally exonerated” from that and that he had been proven right.
Republican presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham has announced he is dropping out of the race for GOP’s nomination.
The South Carolina senator said in a video posted on YouTube: “Today, I’m suspending my campaign for president.”
Lindsey graham, 60, said it had been “a campaign we can be proud of” that was focused on US security.
He has performed well in the second-tier televised debates but failed to make an impact in the polls.
Photo Wikipedia
When Lindsey Graham launched his campaign earlier in the year, the foreign policy hawk emphasized his national security credentials, and he did so again when quitting the race on Monday.
He said the centerpiece of his campaign had been “securing our nation” and he had tried to “turn back the tide of isolationism that has been rising in the Republican Party”.
In this he said he had made enormous progress because some fellow Republicans had come round to his thinking that more US troops were needed on the ground in Syria and Iraq to fight ISIS.
Lindsey Graham’s departure leaves 12 main Republicans left in the contest, six weeks before the battle for each party’s nomination begins in Iowa.
Spain faces political uncertainty after new movements Podemos and Ciudadanos won nearly a third of the seats in the country’s election.
Anti-austerity Podemos and liberal Ciudadanos made big gains as the conservative Popular Party (PP) lost its majority.
“Spain is not going to be the same anymore and we are very happy,” said Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias.
The PP and the Socialists had alternated running the government for more than three decades.
The parties must now embark on negotiations to form a coalition.
The PP had 28.72% of the vote, the Socialists 22.01%, Podemos 20.66% and Ciudadanos 13.93%.
Photo Reuters
PP leader Mariano Rajoy said he would try form a government, insisting: “This party is still the number one force in Spain.”
However, Mariano Rajoy admitted that his party had taken some “difficult and even unpopular decisions” over the past four years as Spain struggled through an economic crisis.
Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez said his party was ready to start negotiations.
“Spain wants a move to the left,” he said.
Many Spaniards are poorer now than they were at the time of the last election, fuelling the rise of Podemos.
Spain’s unemployment remains high at 21%, the second-highest rate in the EU after Greece, although it has fallen from its 2013 peak of 27%.
The economy, corruption allegations and a separatist drive in the prosperous north-eastern region of Catalonia were all dominant issues in the election.
Podemos claimed it won more votes than any other party in Catalonia and the Basque region and came second in Madrid.
“Many people have lost their confidence in traditional parties,” said deputy leader Inigo Errejon.
“The two-party system has ended.”
Podemos’s rise was also hailed by Greek PM Alexis Tspiras, whose Syriza party is its ally.
“Austerity has been politically defeated in Spain,” said Alexis Tsipras, adding that the result was a sign that “Europe is changing”.
Albert Rivera, leader of the fourth-placed party Ciudadanos, meanwhile said the election marked a new era for young Spaniards like him, who were born after the country’s dictatorship ended in 1975.
“Those of us who didn’t experience the first democratic transition are experiencing a second one,” he said.
Election turnout was 73.2% – up slightly compared to the 2011 election.
In line with Spain’s constitution, after talking to each party, King Felipe VI will nominate a candidate for prime minister. This cannot take place until after the new Congress holds its inaugural meeting on January 13.
The nominee must then win a vote of confidence in parliament. If this fails, another candidate can be nominated and seek parliamentary approval.
If no administration can be formed within two months of the election, another must be held.
Chinese rescue teams are looking for survivors after a landslide hit 33 buildings in the southern city of Shenzhen.
Seven people were pulled from the rubble with minor injuries but 91 are still missing. About 900 were evacuated as the landslide struck on December 20.
Local authorities said a huge man-made mound of earth and construction debris lost stability and collapsed.
Shenzhen is one of China’s biggest and is a major industrial center.
The city is situated in the southern province of Guangdong, across the mainland border from Hong Kong.
The landslide has blanketed a vast area of 380,000 sq m covering it with up to 10m of mud at an industrial park, Shenzhen’s emergency management office said on its official microblog.
State news agency Xinhua said that the landslide caused an explosion at a natural gas pipeline. Workers have cleaned up about 400m of damaged pipeline and are now repairing it.
China’s land and resources ministry said in a statement on its website that initial investigations showed the landslide happened when a huge mound of soil, cement chunks and other construction waste became unstable.
“Because the mound was very large, and the angle of its slope was overly steep, this led to it losing stability and collapsing,” it said.
According to People’s Daily, the mound had accumulated at a stone quarry that had been converted into a dumping area with its entrance and exit facing an industrial district.
Residents evacuated from the surrounding area described hearing loud roars when the landslide happened.
Amateur footage of the incident broadcast on state television showed waves of red soil quickly engulfing and crushing buildings.
A video taken by an eyewitness and posted online by Beijing Daily newspaper shows plumes of soil shooting up in the air as the mound of earth collapses.
Spanish voters are to go to the polls in a landmark election that will see more than two parties compete for power for the first time in decades.
Newcomers Podemos, an anti-austerity party, and Citizens, a liberal party, are challenging the ruling Popular Party (PP) and the Socialists.
Opinion polls have put PM Mariano Rajoy’s PP narrowly ahead.
While he has been in power, Spain has emerged from a financial crisis into a period of economic growth.
The conservative PP currently has a majority in Spain’s lower house of parliament.
Podemos and Citizens are fielding national candidates for the first time.
Both Podemos and Citizens look set to take a take a large chunk of the vote, ending the power monopoly of Spain’s traditional heavyweights.
It is almost certain that no party will get a majority of lawmakers in the parliament meaning some form of coalition will have to be agreed before a government can be formed.
Spanish politics have been dominated by the economy, corruption allegations and a separatist drive in the prosperous northeastern region of Catalonia.
Mariano Rajoy’s administration adopted unpopular austerity measures and job reforms that have been credited with returning the Spanish economy to growth.
Candidates:
Pablo Iglesias, 37, university lecturer, leader of new anti-capitalist party Podemos. Sound-bite: “The problem isn’t Greece, the problem is Europe. Germany and the IMF are destroying the political project of Europe.”
Pedro Sanchez, 43, academic, leader of established Socialist party (PSOE). Sound-bite: “The head of the government, Mariano Rajoy, has to be a decent person, and you are not.”
Albert Rivera, 36, lawyer and former competitive swimmer, leader of new Citizens (Ciudadanos) party. Sound-bite: “They [Podemos] blame the system – we blame the people who have corrupted the system.”
Mariano Rajoy, 60, current prime minister and leader of established, conservative Popular Party. Sound-bite: “Who today is talking about bailout Spain? No-one.”
However, unemployment remains high at 21%, the second-highest rate in the EU after Greece, although it has fallen from its 2013 peak of 27%.
The PP has also been damaged by corruption scandals.
The central government in Madrid has also had to contend with an attempt by Catalonia to breal away from the rest of Spain.
Pro-independence parties in Catalonia won an absolute majority in regional elections in September and a month later passed a motion to begin the process of declaring independence.
Spain’s Constitutional Court has revoked that motion, but Catalonia’s leaders said they would ignore it.
Mariano Rajoy has vowed to quash the threat to Spanish unity, but other parties favor negotiations to devolve more power to the region, which accounts for about a fifth of Spain’s economic output.
Ahead of the vote, the party leaders made a point of relaxing as they observed a “day of reflection”.
Mariano Rajoy said he wanted some fresh air and went for a jog around the official prime minister’s residence.
However his campaign was marred last week after a teenager punched him in the face during a visit to the town of Pontevedra in the northwest.
Mariano Rajoy has also raised questions about his future by including his deputy, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, on campaign posters and fielding her in his place during a leaders TV debate.
Meanwhile Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, a 43-year-old former basketball player, watched his daughters play basketball match and Pablo Iglesias booked a ticket for the new Star Wars movie.
Polling stations open at 9AM and close at 8PM. Exit polls are expected minutes afterwards and complete results are due two days later.
Democrat presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has apologized to fellow candidate Hillary Clinton after his staff stole valuable voting data from her campaign.
“This is not the type of campaign that we run,” Bernie Sanders said during Abc New debate on December 19.
The candidates criticized Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
They clashed over Syria, with Bernie Sanders accusing Hillary Clinton of being set on regime change while she said US leadership was needed.
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley also took part in the debate in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remains the frontrunner.
Photo AP
On Syria, Hillary Clinton insisted that the US should seek to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.
“If the US does not lead, there is not another leader – there is a vacuum,” she said.
Bernie Saunders however argued that the US should first concentrate on defeating ISIS.
“Getting rid of dictators is easy, but you have to think about what happens the day after,” he said.
Both the main speakers had strong words for Donald Trump, with Hillary Clinton calling him “the biggest recruiter for ISIS” and saying he used “bigotry and bluster to inflame people”.
The debate was the first for Democrats since 14 people were killed by a married couple that the authorities say had been radicalized.
All three candidates said it was important to work more closely with Muslim-American communities to tackle radicalism at home.
Bernie Sanders admitted that on two occasions his campaign could see proprietary data from Hillary Clinton’s campaign following computer breaches – which he said were the fault of the software vendor.
He said that the most recent breech involved inappropriate behavior by one of his staff members, adding that person had now been dismissed.
Bernie Sanders said that the Democratic Party’s decision to temporarily suspend his campaign’s access to the strategically crucial database was “an egregious act”.
The Sanders campaign on December 18 filed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee in a federal court to restore its access to the voter data.
Strategically important information on voters is contained in the database, which campaigns use to decide strategy.
That data takes on a crucial role as campaigns prepare for early primary voting in just over a month’s time.
Mining giants BHP Billiton and Vale’s assets in Brazil have been blocked by a federal judge over the deadly collapse of a dam.
The joint-venture company they own, Samarco, does not have enough resources to cover the potential damages, estimated at 20.2 billion reais ($5.2 billion), the judge ruled.
Samarco owned the dam, which held back waste water from iron ore mining.
The dam burst last month, flooding a vast area and killing at least 13 people.
Anglo-Australian company BHP Billiton and Brazil-based Vale said they had not been officially notified.
Judge Marcelo Aguiar Machado’s ruling was published on December 18.
The two companies will also have to implement “immediate damage-mitigating environmental measures” or they will be liable to a daily fine of 150 million reais ($38 million), ruled Judge Marcelo Aguiar Machado.
Photo AP
On November 28, the Brazilian government filed a lawsuit against Samarco for the environmental damage caused by the accident.
Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said the accident in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais had “a huge impact from an environmental point of view”.
The village of Bento Rodrigues was totally destroyed and the toxic mud generated by the November 5 dam collapse polluted drinking water over a vast area.
The money will be used to compensate the victims and help repair the environment.
“It is not a natural disaster, it is a disaster prompted by economic activity, but of a magnitude equivalent to those disasters created by forces of nature,” said Izabella Teixeira when the lawsuit was filed.
About 310 miles of the Rio Doce – one of Brazil’s most important rivers – will have to be dredged in parts, vegetation replanted and fresh-water springs cleared, the minister said.
Less than a week after the accident, Samarco had its mining license suspended.
Samarco also agreed to pay 1 billion reais ($260 million) temporary compensation to the victims.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, the leaders of India’s opposition Congress party, have appeared in court in connection with corruption allegations.
The mother and son were both granted bail minutes after arriving, and the case was adjourned until February 20, the AFP reported.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi deny misusing party funds to buy a company that published the now-closed National Herald newspaper.
The case has been brought by a member of the ruling BJP.
Subramanian Swamy says the Gandhis took over the company to try to acquire more than $300 million in property assets.
The Delhi high court on December 7 rejected the Gandhis’ plea to be exempted from making personal appearance in the district court at Patiala House on December 19.
Sonia Gandhi, the party president, welcomed being granted bail and said she had no doubt that truth would prevail.
Rahul Gandhi, who is the party vice-president, accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and PM Narendra Modi of making false allegations against him and his mother and said they would not be defeated.
The National Herald ceased publication in 2008. The party had previously said it wanted to revive the paper, established in 1938 by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
However, Subramanian Swamy has alleged that Sonia and Rahul Gandhi used party funds illegally to acquire the newspaper’s properties.
The case has also disrupted the current session of parliament, with lawmakers accusing the ruling BJP of a “political vendetta”.
The BJP has rejected the allegations.
“How is parliament involved if some people have been summoned by a court? You [Gandhis] want to silence the judiciary. You want to intimidate the judiciary. You are telling the judiciary, how dare you summon us,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said.
Congress party lost the general election in 2014, winning only 44 of the 543 seats after governing India for 10 years. The BJP won a landslide victory.
The majority of Rwandans have voted to allow President Paul Kagame to extend his term in office, initial referendum results show.
Some 98% of voters support changing the constitution to allow Paul Kagame to run again in 2017 after his second term ends, the National Electoral Commission said.
Paul Kagame, 58, could remain in power until 2034 if the changes are passed.
The vote took place despite criticism of such an amendment by the US and other Western donors.
Rwanda’s electoral commission said 21 out of 30 districts had published results so far, covering about 70% of voters.
Full results are due to be released later on December 19.
Paul Kagame has not said if he will run again, but he is widely expected to.
Asked at the polling station if he would stay on, the president said: “What is happening is the people’s choice. Ask people why they want me.”
However, the US has said Paul Kagame should step down in 2017 to allow a new generation of leaders to emerge.
Rights groups accuse the government of stifling the media and political opposition.
The small opposition Democratic Green Party claimed it had been prevented from campaigning against the change.
Paul Kagame has been president since 2000 but has held power since 1994, when his rebel force entered the capital Kigali to end Rwanda’s genocide.
The debate over extending presidential terms has led to instability in other African countries such as Burundi and Congo Republic, but has not caused unrest in Rwanda.
Donald Trump has said it is a “great honor” to receive a compliment from Vladimir Putin during the Russian president’s annual news conference.
The Republican presidential hopeful hailed Vladimir Putin as a man “highly respected within his own country and beyond”.
It comes after Vladimir Putin said Donald Trump was a “very colorful, talented person” during the news conference.
The two men, both known for their blunt manner of speaking, do not know each other personally.
After hearing Vladimir Putin’s comments on December 17, Donald Trump released a statement praising the Russian leader.
“It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond,” he said.
“I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect.”
Donald Trump is currently widely regarded as the frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential ticket, a race where other candidates have made no secret of their wariness of Vladimir Putin.
President Vladimir Putin made his remarks during his televised annual news conference at which he used crude language to lash out at Turkey, a NATO member and key US ally in the conflict in Syria.
He had warm words for Donald Trump, telling viewers: “He says that he wants to move to another, closer level of relations. Can we really not welcome that? Of course we welcome that.”
In October, Donald Trump told US TV network CBS that he and Vladimir Putin would “probably get along… very well”.
During one presidential debate, the property tycoon said: “If Putin wants to go and knock the hell out of ISIS [the Islamic State group], I am all for it, 100%, and I can’t understand how anybody would be against it.”
One of Donald Trump’s rivals for the Republican ticket, Jeb Bush, criticized his response to the Russian leader’s remarks on December 17.
Jeb Bush tweeted: “A true freedom-loving conservative wouldn’t be flattered by praise from a despot like Putin.”
Rwanda is voting in a referendum on a constitutional amendment to allow President Paul Kagame to seek a third term in office.
Most voters, some 6.4 million, are eligible to vote on December 18, but around 37,000 Rwandans living overseas were able to have their say on December 17.
The change would allow Paul Kagame to potentially remain in power until 2034.
Rwandans are expected to vote overwhelmingly in favor of changing the constitution.
Paul Kagame is praised at home and abroad for bringing about development and economic growth.
However, the president’s critics accuse him of heavy-handed rule and human rights abuses.
Paul Kagame himself has said he will wait for the outcome of the referendum before making his decision on whether to run in 2017.
Rwanda’s Senate approved draft constitutional amendments last month allowing Paul Kagame to run for another seven-year term.
But the amendments also shorten the length of a term from seven to five years and maintain a two-term limit.
However, those rules would not come into effect until 2024, after Paul Kagame’s third term.
Paul Kagame could then potentially run for another two five-year terms – ruling for some 40 years.
The president’s Rwanda Patriotic Front, an ethnic Tutsi rebel force, ended the 1994 genocide perpetrated by Hutu extremists.
Some 800,000 people – Tutsis and moderate Hutus – are estimated to have been killed.
Donor countries, which support the Rwandan government, have been very critical of the move to change the constitution.
The US urged Paul Kagame to step down in 2017, saying he had “an opportunity to set an example for a region in which leaders seem too tempted to view themselves as indispensable to their own countries’ trajectories”.
Paul Kagame has hit back at “other nations” for interfering in Rwanda’s internal affairs.
But the issue of African presidents seeking a third term in office has caused unrest elsewhere on the continent.
Violence has engulfed neighboring Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April his plans to seek a third term, in violation of a peace accord that brought an end to the country’s brutal 12-year ethnic civil war.
In September, there were major protests in the Republic of Congo as President Denis Sassou Nguesso called a referendum to approve constitutional changes allowing him to stand for a third term.
The US and Cuba have agreed to restore regular commercial flights, in a deal that could jumpstart economic relations between the two countries.
The agreement paves the way for thousands of visitors to Cuba on a daily basis.
The deal was announced on December 17, exactly one year since President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, President Raul Castro, announced a historic detente.
It is not known when the first Cuba-bound flights will take off.
The pact – the most significant business development since the presidents’ announcement one year ago – allows US airlines to negotiate with the Cuban government over commercial flight routes and schedules.
It could mean more than a dozen flights arriving into Cuba from the United States a day, officials said.
The understanding is a key development as Cuba and the US continue to negotiate over a number of issues which could ultimately see the US trade embargo lifted.
Photo AP
The news comes as travel between the United States and Cuba surged by over 70% in 2015, according to Reuters.
Thousands of Americans are already visiting Cuba and hotels and hostels are booked for months.
Those traveling have to do so using difficult-to-book charter flights or via third countries, and are forced to navigate an intricate web of laws in order for their travel to be legal.
The State Department reminded US citizens on December 17 that a ban on touristic travel to Cuba remains in place.
Raul Castro and Barack Obama announced the normalization of relations on December 17, 2014, after more than 50 years of hostility between the Cold War foes.
One year out, President Barack Obama is marking the anniversary by calling on the US Congress to lift the trade embargo on Cuba, releasing a statement that says, in part: “Congress can support a better life for the Cuban people by lifting an embargo that is a legacy of a failed policy.”
Since then, embassies have opened in Havana and Washington, a pilot postal program has been agreed, phone links established, environmental deals have been inked, human rights talks have started, as well as a number of other developments.
Yet much stands in the way of fully-restored relations, most notably the US-imposed trade embargo, which Republicans have strongly defended.
US and Cuba Agree to Restore Regular Commercial Flights
IMF head Christine Lagarde is facing trial French trial for alleged negligence over a €404 million ($438 million) payment to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008.
Christine Lagarde, 59, was finance minister in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government at the time of the compensation award to Bernard Tapie for the sale of a company.
Bernard Tapie supported Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election.
Christine Lagarde’s lawyer described the court’s decision as “incomprehensible”, and said the IMF chief would appeal.
In a statement Christine Lagarde said she had “always acted in this affair in the interest of the state and in respect of the law”, AP reported.
Photo Getty Images
Bernard Tapie was once a majority shareholder in sports goods company Adidas but sold it in 1993 in order to become a cabinet minister in Francois Mitterrand’s Socialist government.
He sued the Credit Lyonnais bank over its handling of the sale, alleging that the partly state-owned bank had defrauded him by deliberately undervaluing the company.
Bernard Lagarde’s case was later referred by Christine Lagarde to a three-member arbitration panel which awarded the compensation, causing a public outcry.
Investigators suspect he was granted a deal in return for his support of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Earlier this month, a French court ruled that Bernard Tapie was not entitled to any compensation for that sale and should pay back the €404 million with interest.
France’s Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) decided that Christine Lagarde should be tried on the charge of “negligence by a person in position of public authority” over the compensation case, iTele TV channel and the Mediapart website reported on December 17.
A court spokesman later confirmed the decision.
If convicted, Christine Lagarde could be sentenced to one year in prison.
French media said the CJR investigation magistrates declined to follow the recommendation of another court which last year decided not to pursue the case.
“I will recommend Mrs. Lagarde appeal against this decision.”
A spokesman for France’s attorney general said Christine Lagarde would have five days to appeal, once the court decision is made public on December 18 or December 21.
Meanwhile, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said the organization – which represents 188 member nations – “continues to express its confidence in the managing director’s ability to effectively carry out her duties”.
Christine Lagarde replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn as IMF managing director in 2011.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn – also a former French minister – resigned following his arrest in New York on charges of assault that were later dropped.
Vladimir Putin has used crude language at the 11th annual news conference to launch a furious new attack on Turkey over the downing of a Russian combat jet last month.
The incident on the Syria-Turkey border was a “hostile act” but Russia was “not the country” to run away, the Russian president said.
“The Turks had decided to lick the Americans in a certain place,” he said.
There was, he said, a “creeping Islamization of Turkey that would have Ataturk rolling in his grave”.
The remark appeared to be aimed at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose AKP party, with its Islamist roots, has been accused of seeking to dismantle the secular state founded by Kemal Ataturk.
Vladimir Putin is now into his third term as president since 2000, battling an economic crisis. Critics say civil liberties have been steadily eroded under his rule.
He remains one of the world’s most recognizable politicians, and has topped the list of The World’s Most Powerful People compiled by Forbes magazine for the third year running.
Russia deployed its air force to Syria in September in support of President Bashar al-Assad and has been carrying out air strikes on his opponents.
Photo Reuters
Its intervention has been heavily criticized by Turkey, the US and Gulf Arab states.
Vladimir Putin said he saw “no prospect” of ties improving with Turkey, which Russia has put under sanctions, under its current leaders.
He said Turkish officials should have picked up the phone to talk to Russia about their concerns that air strikes in Syria were hitting Turkmen rebels.
Turkey, Vladimir Putin said, had achieved nothing by shooting down the jet while Russia had bolstered its presence in Syria by deploying anti-aircraft missiles.
On America, he said Russia wanted to develop relations “irrespective” of who would become its next president.
Vladimir Putin said his country’s economic crisis had peaked.
While oil prices had fallen sharply, he said, manufacturing had shown slight growth and there was a healthy trade balance in agriculture.
“Our economy depends on oil and gas prices, we expected Brent to be worth $100 dollars per barrel, but then it was 50, but this was an optimistic prediction too, our forecasts have to be amended again,” he said.
“GDP is falling, inflation is 12.3%, incomes, investment are falling too but the peak of the economic crisis is over.”
Vladimir Putin is known for his marathon performances at his news conferences, where he frequently uses hard-hitting, colorful language.
In an interview with state TV on December 16, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was a target in a “big information war [which] has been waged for a long time”.
In 2014, Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference lasted 3 hours and 10 minutes, while the record was set in 2008 at 4 hours 40 minutes.
On other issues raised at the news conference, President Vladimir Putin:
Praised Sepp Blatter and suggested the suspended head of FIFA should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Said Russia was against doping as it “destroyed the principle of competitive sport”, and anyone found guilty should be punished
Denied Russian regular troops were deployed in rebel-held eastern Ukraine but said there could be “people there who were carrying out certain tasks including in the military sphere”
Praised his daughters, saying they lived in Russia and were “not involved in politics or business”
Predicted economic growth in Russia the new year of 0.7%, rising to 1.9% in 2017 and 2.4% in 2018, based on oil at $50 a barrel
The United States and Cuba have reached an understanding on resuming regular commercial flights between the two countries, Cuban and American officials said on December 16.
It is unclear when the flights would start because negotiations between the Cuban government and the US airlines could take months.
The move is a significant step nearly a year after the US and Cuba began restoring diplomatic relations.
The US reopened its embassy in Havana in August after a 54-year absence.
A State department spokesperson said the two countries “are making progress but still negotiating” on resuming flights.
The understanding is a key development as Cuba and the US continue to negotiate over a number of issues which could ultimately see the US trade embargo lifted.
The news comes as travel between the US and Cuba surged by an estimated 50% this year.
Thousands of Americans are already visiting Cuba and hotels and hostels are booked for months.
However, those traveling have to do so using difficult to book charter flights or via third countries.
A formal agreement could mean more than a dozen flights arriving into Cuba from the US a day, officials said.
China’s foreign ministry has summoned the US charge d’affaires Kaye Lee in protest after Washington announced it would sell two warships to Taiwan.
Vice-Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang made “solemn representations” with Kaye Lee, the US charge d’affaires, the ministry said.
The arms deal, worth $1.83 billion, comes as tensions rise over China’s island-building in the South China Sea.
Taiwan expressed gratitude to Washington for helping with its defense needs.
China views Taiwan as a breakaway province which will one day be reunited with the mainland, though relations have warmed in recent weeks.
Leaders from both countries met last month for the first time since the 1949 civil war.
China maintains a right to use force if Taiwan attempts to gain independence.
The Chinese statement said Zheng Zenguang had told Kaye Lee at the December 16 meeting that Taiwan “is an inalienable part of China’s territory” and that it “strongly opposes the US arms sale”.
It added that the deal had “severely damaged China’s sovereignty and security interest”, and pledged to sanction the US companies involved in it.
The US said the deal, the first in four years, was consistent with its “long-standing policy on arms sales to Taiwan”.
Relations between the US and China are frayed over China’s construction of artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
Two decommissioned US Navy frigates, anti-tank missiles, amphibious assault vehicles, as well as surface-to-air missiles and other equipment are all included in the deal.
It will be approved in 30 days, unless Congress objects. That is thought unlikely, as there has been growing concern in the US about Taiwan’s ability to defend itself from China’s military might.
State department spokesman John Kirby said the sale was consistent with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which requires the US to provide Taiwan with sufficient weaponry to defend itself, even though the US does not recognize Taiwan as a state independent of China.
The move did not need to have a negative effect on US-Chinese relations, John Kirby said, adding: “We still want to work to establish a better, more transparent, more effective relationship with China in the region.”
Canadian Christian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim has been sentenced by North Korea’s Supreme Court to a life term of hard labor for “crimes against the state”.
Hyeon Soo Lim, 60, was arrested in Pyongyang after he traveled there in January for humanitarian work.
The Toronto-based pastor, who is of South Korean origin, was shown at a news conference earlier confessing to a plot to overthrow the government and set up a “religious state”.
North Korea bans religious activity.
The authorities periodically detain foreigners for religious or missionary activity and similar cases have seen staged public confessions from prisoners.
Photo YouTube
Hyeon Soo Lim was sentenced after a 90-minute trial at the North Korean Supreme Court.
He was convicted of joining the US and South Korea in an anti-North Korea human rights “racket” and fabricating and circulating false propaganda materials tarnishing the country’s image.
The pastor was also accused of funding and helping “defectors” to escape, in some cases through Mongolia.
Hyeon Soo Lim entered and left the court in handcuffs flanked by two public security officers in uniform, the Associated Press reports.
The handcuffs were removed in court during the trial, it adds. The pastor kept his head bowed most of the time and answered questions in a subdued tone.
Hyeon Soo Lim and his colleagues traveled to Pyongyang on January 31st as part of a humanitarian mission. His family said it was to support a nursing home, nursery and orphanage.
The pastor, who heads the Light Korean Presbyterian Church, had made numerous humanitarian aid missions to North Korea for nearly two decades, the Church said.
He was detained in February and in July a KCNA report said he had given a press conference in Pyongyang where he admitted to using humanitarian work as a “guise” for “subversive plots and activities in a sinister bid to build a religious state”.
Hyeon Soo Lim also reportedly admitted to giving lectures that “North Korea should be collapsed with the love of <<God>>”, and to helping the US and South Korea to aid North Korean defectors.
GOP presidential candidates sparred over how to stop ISIS, in the first debate since attacks in San Bernardino and Paris.
The national security focus yielded heated exchanges between Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio who clashed on surveillance and immigration policy.
Jeb Bush also sought to revive his struggling campaign by forcefully attacking front-runner Donald Trump.
“You’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency,” he said.
Donald Trump was on the defensive early in the debate for his proposed ban on Muslims entering the US, saying: “We are not talking about religion, we are talking about security.”
However, the GOP debate quickly expanded to broader issues of foreign policy and national security.
The candidates repeatedly addressed heightened fears of terrorism in the US on the same day an emailed threat shut down Los Angeles’ school system.
The big question going into this last Republican debate of 2015 was how Donald Trump’s competitors would try to take the front-runner down.
It seems, however, that only Jeb Bush got that memo. He alone among the candidates engaged the real estate mogul directly, and if he had been as forceful several months ago as he was last night, his campaign might be in much better shape.
Photo Getty Images
Instead, most of the fireworks during the Las Vegas event occurred between the trio of first-term senators – Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
On the issues of national security and immigration, Marco Rubio faced off against his two congressional colleagues in often acrimonious exchanges.
Barely mentioned over the course of an evening that focused on foreign policy was Donald Trump’s call to close the US border to all Muslims.
Given how all the candidates assiduously avoided the subject, one would never have guessed that it was a story that merited global headlines and ignited a firestorm of controversy.
The top nine candidates disagreed over the scope of government surveillance and how to end the civil war raging in Syria.
“If terrorists strike again… the first question will be, <<Why didn’t we know about it and why didn’t we stop it?>>” said Marco Rubio, taking aim at Ted Cruz, who had voted to curtail government surveillance powers.
Another of Donald Trump’s proposals – “closing that internet up” to stop ISIS recruitment – has been hotly debated, with the candidate saying: “I don’t want them using our Internet.”
After defending it, he seemed confused by loud booing from the audience, and replied: “These are people that want to kill us folks.”
It was not the only time that the crowd played a part in the program; on several occasions the audience’s cheers and jeers forced a pause in the candidates’ conversation.
At one point, a heckler interrupted Donald Trump with inaudible comments.
Donald Trump loomed large over the so-called undercard debate, with the four candidates split over the efficacy of his proposed ban.
Senator Lindsey Graham apologized to US-allied Muslim leaders saying: “I am sorry. He does not represent us.”
Democrats debate on December 19, and both parties will hold debates in January.
The state-by-state primary contests in the presidential election begin in six weeks in Iowa on February 1st and will last for months.
Each party will formally nominate their candidate over the summer, with Hillary Clinton the favorite to win the Democratic nomination.
Americans will go to the polls in November 2016, and the newly elected president will assume office in late January of 2017.
Marine Le Pen has been acquitted of charges of inciting hatred on the December 2010 campaign trail in Lyon, France.
The charges relate to the National Front leader’s comments comparing Muslims praying in the streets to the Nazi occupation of France in World War Two.
In October Marine Le Pen told a court in Lyon she did not commit any offence.
Prosecutors said she had exercised her right to free speech and was not referring to all Muslims.
Marine Le Pen was charged in July 2014 after her immunity as a member of the European Parliament was lifted following a vote requested by French authorities.
In her 2010 speech to far-right FN supporters, broadcast by French media, Marine Le Pen said that France had initially seen “more and more veils”, then “more and more burkhas” and “after that came prayers in the streets”.
She said: “I’m sorry, but some people are very fond of talking about World War Two and about the occupation, so let’s talk about occupation, because that is what is happening here…
“There are no tanks, no soldiers, but it is still an occupation, and it weighs on people.”
The case was originally dropped last year by the Lyon court of appeal but was revived by anti-racism groups who made a civil complaint.
Praying in the streets was banned in Paris in 2011 in response to growing far-right protests.
In the same year France became the first EU state to ban public wearing of the face-covering Islamic veil (niqab).
The ruling came after Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration FN gained a record number of votes in regional elections.
The FN led in six of the 13 regions after the first round of voting, though due to tactical voting it did not go on to win any regions in the second round.
The party received 6.8 million votes in the second round, amounting to a 27.36% share of the vote.
“Nothing can stop us now,” Marine Le Pen told supporters after the result announcement.
“By tripling our number of councilors, we will be the main opposition force in most of the regions of France.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District has closed all schools as an unspecified threat is investigated, the police have said.
Officials would not specify the nature of the threat, which led to students being sent home and school buses returned to depots.
A school district spokesman said it involved rucksacks, and they were exercising “an abundance of caution”.
The LA Unified School District (LAUSD) is the second largest in the US, with 640,000 students attending more than 1,000 schools.
Police are searching all the schools, which will remain closed until the threat is over, officers told reporters at a press conference.
“Earlier this morning we did receive an electronic threat that mentions the safety of our schools,” said Steven Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles school police department.
“We have chosen to close our schools today until we can be absolutely sure that our campuses are safe.”
An unnamed police official told Associated Press the threat was emailed to a school board member and was thought to have come from overseas.
It comes amid a heightened alert after 14 people were killed by a radicalized Muslim couple in San Bernardino, 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
“I think it’s important to take this precaution based on what has happened recently and what has happened in the past,” said district superintendent Ramon Cortines.
“It was not to one school, two schools or three schools. It was to many schools, not specifically identified. But there were many schools. That’s the reason I took the action I did… It was to students at schools.”
When asked what was meant be “electronic” threat, he said simply that “it was a message”.
In a separate incident, classes were also canceled at San Bernardino Valley College on December 15 due to a bomb threat made on the previous day.
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