Bangladeshi opposition leaders Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid have been executed for war crimes committed during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistan.
The two politicians were hanged in Dhaka’s central jail.
They were convicted of genocide and rape – charges they denied.
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury has been an influential politician – he was elected member of Bangladeshi parliament six times. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid was a top leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said they were hanged after President Abdul Hamid rejected appeals for clemency by the two men.
However, family members have dismissed reports that the men had made any such appeals, which would have also required admissions of guilt.
“My father said he did not seek any mercy,” Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury’s son, Humam Qauder Chowdhury, told AFP news agency, after meeting his father for the last time hours before his execution.
“He has always said he’s innocent.”
The Supreme Court upheld their sentences earlier this month.
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was the most senior leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party to be sentenced for crimes against humanity.
Two years ago, a special war crimes tribunal found him guilty of nine out of 23 charges including genocide, arson and persecuting people on religious and political grounds.
The prosecution said that his father’s residence in Chittagong was turned into a torture cell during the war.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid was the secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami. He was sentenced to death in July 2013.
He was accused of responsibility for the killings of a number of pro-independence Bangladeshi leaders and intellectuals.
The tribunal found him guilty of five charges, including abduction and murder.
Bangladesh’s government says the war crimes trials are necessary to bring murderers to justice.
However, the opposition says they have been used to persecute them and human rights groups have said the tribunal does not meet international standards.
Bitwalking is a digital crypto-currency that is generated by human movement.
Once installed on your phone, the free app converts steps to Bitwalking dollars (BW$).
The new digital currency will be earned by walking, unlike other digital currencies such as Bitcoins that are “mined” by computers.
The app counts and verifies users’ steps, with walkers earning approximately 1 BW$ for about 10,000 steps (about 5 miles).
Initially, users will be given the chance to spend what they earn in an online store, or trade them for cash.
The project founders, Nissan Bahar and Franky Imbesi, have attracted more than $10 million of initial funding from mainly Japanese investors to help launch the currency and create the bank that verifies steps and any transfers.
Electronics giant Murata is working on a wearable wristband that will provide an alternative to carrying a smartphone and show how many BW$ the wearer has earned.
Shoe manufacturers are poised to accept the currency, and a UK bank is in talks to partner with the project at one of the UK’s biggest music festivals next year.
Nissan Bahar and Franky Imbesi have a track record in disruptive technology that could help developing nations as much as richer ones.
In 2014, they launched Keepod, a $7 USB stick that acts like a computer in Nairobi, Kenya.
The idea of Bitwalking is to take advantage of the trend for fitness trackers by offering an additional incentive to keep fit.
The global scheme plans to partner with sportswear brands, health services, health insurance firms, environmental groups, and potentially advertisers who could be offered unique insights into the audiences they are targeting.
In the future, employers may be invited to take part in a scheme that would be offered to their employees to encourage them to stay fitter, with the currency they earn converted and then paid alongside their salaries.
In developed nations the average person would earn around 15 BW$ a month, but it is hoped that in poorer countries where people have to walk further for work, school, or simply to collect water, the Bitwalking scheme could help transform lives.
The impact Bitwalking could make in developing countries isn’t lost on the founders. It is one of the central reasons for creating the currency. In Malawi, one of the African nations to join at the launch of the project, the average rural wage is just US$1.5 a day.
Carl Meyer, the Bitwalking manager for Malawi, has set up the first two Bitwalking hubs in Lilongwe and Mthuntama where local people will be trained how to trade the BW$ online for US$ or the local currency, Malawi Kwacha.
Photo Tumblr
Eventually an automatic online exchange is planned that will match up buyers with sellers and a rough exchange rate will begin to emerge.
The Go! app for iOS and Android devices will initially be offered to a handful of countries, including the UK, Japan, Malawi, and Kenya, to give the organizers a chance to iron out any difficulties before other countries come on board.
The idea of making money by simply walking isn’t completely new. Several start-ups have tried to connect keeping fit to earning rewards but most have failed to measure movement accurately enough to avoid scammers.
Bitwalking hasn’t officially released the algorithm used to verify steps but says it uses the handsets’ GPS position and Wi-Fi connections to calculate the distance traveled.
The team has created its own walking algorithm to verify users’ workouts after testing Google’s and finding that steps could be spoofed.
The phone reports the speed and type of movement as measured by the accelerometer.
At its launch the total amount someone can claim in one day will be capped at around 3 BW$ (roughly 30,000 steps) and running multiple accounts will be banned.
The success of the scheme is likely to depend on how much interest there is from established companies such as big sportswear brands, health insurance firms, or charity and environmental groups all of whom have an incentive to work with the fitness sector.
In Japan, it is not unusual for companies to offer employees rewards for fitness activities. Bitwalking’s founders hope their project could help extend this idea to other nations.
Japan’s largest convenience chain store, Lawson, runs a successful scheme that pays its workers up to $50 a year to eat healthily and keep fit.
However, the Lawson scheme is based on promises and trust, so unlike Bitwalking it is not verifiable. The vouchers earned cannot be traded for cash.
Despite the freedom to trade, it is likely that unless BW$ can be freely used to buy goods and services they are likely to drop in value from parity with the US$ – the point where the founders are launching it.
The online store will sell goods for the same price in BW$ as US$.
Keeping the virtual shelves of this online store fully stocked will be one of the first challenges.
The store isn’t expected to be open all the time, but plans are in place for other retailers and service providers to accept the currency in their stores too.
It is still not clear how a currency that appears to be so easy for users to produce could maintain its value, nor if the initial funding for the scheme will be sufficient to sustain it in the initial period while confidence in its value is being built up.
The Bitwalking website will invite people to apply to join the scheme so the company has some control over user numbers.
Because the new scheme necessarily tracks its users there will be data available that could be particularly valuable to advertisers – and accompanying concerns over privacy.
Transfers of the new currency will also be carefully monitored with transactions going through a central “bank” which verifies each deal using the block chain method used to transfer other crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin.
Users will have access to their own wallet which stores the Bitwalking dollars they have earned and will be able to transfer them to others via the app.
Chipotle shares have slumped more than 12% on November 20 after the Center for Disease and Control (CDC) reported more cases of E. coli linked to the Mexican restaurant chain.
According to the CDC, 45 people had been infected with a strain of E. coli, 43 of whom reported eating at a Chipotle restaurant.
The cases were in California, Minnesota, New York and Ohio.
Earlier this month, Chipotle temporarily closed 43 outlets in and around Washington and Oregon states.
This was after health officials investigated an E. coli outbreak that made at least 22 people ill.
Photo The Columbian
“The epidemiologic evidence available at this time suggests that a common meal item or ingredient served at Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants in several states is a likely source of this outbreak,” the CDC said.
“The investigation is still ongoing to determine what specific food is linked to illness.”
Chipotle shares are now down by almost 19% this year, valuing the company at $17.3 billion.
coli, short for Escherichia coli, is a type of bacterium present in the gut of humans and other animals.
Most strains are harmless but some can produce toxins that cause sickness in humans.
According to Mayo Clinic, E. coli infection typically begins three or four days after exposure to the bacteria, though you may become ill as soon as one day after to more than a week later. Signs and symptoms include:
Diarrhea, which may range from mild and watery to severe and bloody
Abdominal cramping, pain or tenderness
Nausea and vomiting, in some people
Contact your doctor if your diarrhea is persistent, severe or bloody.
Nike stocks have jumped more than 5% after the company announced a dividend rise, a massive share buyback and a stock split.
The $12 billion buy-back, 14% dividend increase and share split were revealed on November 19 and sent the sportswear giant’s shares up almost 7 cents to $132.65.
Photo Twitter
The buy-back will be spread out over the next four years.
Nike said it was “built for growth while staying committed to creating shareholder value.
“We’ve proved it time and again, having returned over $23 billion to shareholders over the last 14 years through repurchases and dividends.”
US-based Nike is the biggest sportswear maker in the world, and recently announced a sharp rise in profits thanks largely to rising sales in China.
Profits for the three months to the end of August were $1.18 billion, up nearly a quarter from a year earlier.
Facebook says it is testing some breakup tools that will help people to manage the new status.
The company will begin testing the breakup protection on mobile devices in the US before deciding whether to offer it to all of its 1.5 billion accountholders worldwide.
A judge in New York said using Facebook to send a divorce summons was completely legal.
Facebook’s new breakup tool is about altering what a former flame can see, but without them knowing you’ve done anything.
Photo Facebook
According to the company, the tool allows people to see less of a former partner’s name and profile picture around Facebook without having to unfriend or block them. Their posts won’t show up in News Feed and their name won’t be suggested when people write a new message or tag friends in photos. The tool will also limit the photos, videos or status updates that a former partner will see.
Facebook users can also edit who can see their past posts with a former partner and untag themselves from posts with that person.
If you have already broken up with someone and have adjusted your Facebook status accordingly, you can still go back and use these tools, says Facebook – they will be available from the Help Center at any time.
Mark Zuckerberg has announced he will take two months of paternity leave after the birth of his daughter.
The Facebook chief executive made the announcement on his timeline, calling it “a very personal decision”.
Photo Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg wrote: “Priscilla and I are starting to get ready for our daughter’s arrival. We’ve been picking out our favorite childhood books and toys. We’ve also been thinking about how we’re going to take time off during the first months of her life. This is a very personal decision, and I’ve decided to take 2 months of paternity leave when our daughter arrives.”
Photo Facebook
Facebook allows its US employees to take up to 4 months of paid parental leave – time which can be used at once or throughout the child’s first year.
Mark Zuckerberg, 31, announced in July that he was expecting a baby girl with his wife, Priscilla Chan.
The Facebook founder did not say who would be replacing him at the company.
In his statement, accompanied by a picture of a pushchair and his dog, Mark Zuckerberg said: “Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families.”
Belgium has raised the terror alert in Brussels to the highest level fearing an attack “like the one that happened in Paris” last week, PM Charles Michel says.
The fear was that “several individuals with arms and explosives could launch an attack… perhaps even in several places”, Charles Michel said.
Some of the attackers who killed 130 people in Paris lived in Brussels.
Paris attacks leading suspect Salah Abdeslam is believed to have gone back to Belgium.
A huge manhunt is under way.
The Brussels metro is closed till November 22 and people have been told to avoid crowds.
Photo AP
These include shopping centers and concerts, and the authorities have also recommended that large events, including football matches, be canceled, a statement said.
The warning for the rest of Belgium stays at a lower level, which is still at a “serious” level.
The Belgian government will review the security situation in Brussels on November 22, Charles Michel added.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon earlier told reporters Belgium’s situation was “serious”, but “under control”, as he arrived for a special security cabinet meeting on November 21.
Turkish police say they have arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan descent on suspicion that he scouted out sites in Paris, Turkish news agencies report.
The Belgian authorities have so far charged three people with involvement in the attacks, which ISIS said it carried out.
Mali has declared a 10-day state of emergency following the attack on Radisson Blu Hotel by suspected Islamist militants in the capital, Bamako, in which gunmen killed 19 people.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has also declared three days of mourning.
Announcing the death toll, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said two militants had also been killed.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliate, al-Murabitoun, said they carried out the attack.
More than 130 hotel guests and staff were freed when Malian Special Forces, French Special Forces and off-duty US servicemen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel on November 20 to break the siege.
Photo Reuters
Among those killed were three Chinese business executives, and China’s President Xi Jinping has called the attack “cruel and savage”, Reuters news agency reports.
An American was also killed, and President Barack Obama said the attack was yet another reminder that the “scourge of terrorism” threatened many nations.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said Mali would “do everything to eradicate terrorism” in the country.
Earlier reports said at least 27 people had died.
A UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 12 bodies were found in the basement and 15 on the second floor.
It is not clear how many gunmen too part. Eyewitnesses said up to 13 entered the hotel shooting and shouting “God is greatest!” in Arabic – however the company that runs the hotel, Rezidor Group, said on November 20 that only two attackers were involved.
There is as yet no established link with the attacks in Paris one week ago that killed 130 people last week.
Mississippi House race has been won by Democrat Blaine “Bo” Eaton II after drawing a longer straw, an official way to break a tie in a legislative election for the state.
Bo Eaton met rival Mark Tullos to draw straws and the Republican drew the shorter one.
The Democrat’s fateful grasp of the longer straw gave him the victory, keeping Republicans from having a supermajority in the state house.
Mark Tullos, not admitting defeat, filed an appeal on November 20.
Bo Eaton, a farmer, said after winning: “There’s always happiness in a good crop year.”
Mark Tullos apparently left the room quickly and did not show emotion.
Bo Eaton, a 20-year incumbent, had said he did not approve of the straw-drawing, but he would accept the results.
“Look, my life’s a gamble,” he said, according to the New York Times.
“I’m a farmer. I depend on the weather and the rain. The statute’s clear, but my life is not.”
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant presided over the short straw-drawing ceremony.
Each candidate had received 4,589 votes in the legislative election for the House seat.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 24 states legally decide the outcome of tied legislative elections by drawing straws or flipping coins.
Similar cases have happened in New Mexico and Alaska, using a coin toss.
Connecticut decided in 2007 to eliminate chance games for breaking ties, a year after a coin toss determined a state house election.
The US has released former navy analyst Jonathan Pollard, who was jailed for life in 1987 for passing classified information to Israel.
Jonathan Pollard, 61, was freed from a feeral prison in North Carolina on November 20, ending one of the longest-running and most contentious issues between the US and Israel.
His parole conditions require him to remain in the US for five years.
Repeated Israeli appeals over the years for the US to show clemency towards Jonathan Pollard were rejected.
Jonathan Pollard traveled to a federal courthouse in New York on the day of release to challenge the conditions of his parole.
He must wear a GPS ankle bracelet and submit to inspections of his home and work. His legal team calls the terms “onerous and oppressive'”.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli people welcomed his release.
The prime minister’s spokesperson tweeted: “As someone who has raised Jonathan Pollard’s case for many years with US presidents, I have wished for this day.
“After 30 long and hard years, Jonathan Pollard is finally reuniting with his family.”
Jonathan Pollard passed secret information to Israel for a year in return for payments until his arrest in 1985. He said he had been frustrated by the US withholding key intelligence from its staunch ally.
After he was questioned by the FBI, Jonathan Pollard and his then-wife, Anne, sought asylum at the Israeli embassy in Washington but were turned away.
Israel initially denied Jonathan Pollard had spied for them, insisting he had worked with “rogue” officials.
In 1995, Israel granted Jonathan Pollard citizenship, and two years later, they admitted he was their agent.
Supporters of Jonathan Pollard in Israel and the US campaigned for his release, arguing that his sentence was unjust.
The US reportedly considered freeing Jonathan Pollard in 2014 in return for Israeli concessions to the Palestinians during faltering peace talks, before negotiations collapsed.
In an interview with the Associated Press in 1998, Jonathan Pollard said the price he had paid for spying had not been worth it.
“There is nothing good that came as a result of my actions,” he said.
“I tried to serve two countries at the same time. That does not work.”
President Barack Obama has admitted that he does not dye his hair, unlike other world leaders.
Barack Obama, 54, was responding to a Cambodian student who asked him for wise advice.
The president participated in a town hall meeting with Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) attendees at Taylor’s University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia November 20, 2015, before attending the ASEAN summit meeting.
Barack Obama entered office in 2009 with dark black hair, however in recent years it has turned markedly more grey.
The color of a president’s hair has been controversial at times, with some leaders keeping secret the fact that they dyed their hair.
Barack Obama told the student: “The first thing I want from young people is to stop calling me old.
“I don’t dye my hair and a lot of world leaders do.
“I won’t say who. But their barbers know, their hairdressers.”
President Ronald Reagan never admitted to dying his jet-black hair, and his barber never spilled the beans, either.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder once sued a news agency for claiming that he hued his hair.
The Redemption Of The Devil, a documentary about American rock band Eagles of Death Metal has been pulled from the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.
The documentary follows band frontman Jesse Hughes in the build up to the release of their new album.
Gunmen killed 89 people at the band’s gig
Eagles of Death Metal were performing at the Bataclan concert hall where gunmen killed 89 people in last week’s Paris attacks.
The band escaped, but members of their crew and record company were killed.
The documentary, made by director Alex Hoffman, follows the band’s charismatic, hard-living frontman as he hits 40, becomes ordained as a Catholic minister and ponders a future in politics.
On November 19, Eagles of Death Metal issued their first statement about the attack and said they were “bonded in grief with the victims, the fans… and all those affected by terrorism”.
Photo Facebook
They said they were “horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France” and all shows were on hold until further notice.
Meanwhile, new figures show ticket sales for concerts in Paris have fallen by around 80% since the series of attacks in the city.
Following the incident at the Bataclan, bands including U2 and Foo Fighters cancelled gigs.
A spokesman for Prodiss, the music industry producers group, said: “The attacks sent a shock wave that has hit our audiences hard.”
The group is carrying out a full audit to see how many concerts have been cancelled, but fear the cost of extra security measures might lead to more shows being pulled.
“Producers are extremely worried about the future. They work on quite a narrow margin,” the spokesman said, adding the Christmas period was crucial for the industry.
French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin has promised an emergency fund of 4 million euros to help get live entertainment up and running again and help with the cost of new security measures.
However, Prodniss said double that was needed.
“We have to rebuild the public’s confidence, make them feel happy and relaxed about going out to concerts again,” it said.
Celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred says she has been contacted by Charlie Sheen’s exes after the actor revealed he had HIV.
Charlie Sheen revealed on November 17 he was diagnosed four years ago.
Gloria Allred confirmed she had been “contacted by women with reference to Charlie Sheen and their rights. I have no comment on what will happen next”.
In the Today show interview, Charlie Sheen said it was “impossible” that he would have passed HIV on to anyone else.
Charlie Sheen, 50, said he hoped the interview would put a stop to an “onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of sub-truths of very harmful and mercurial stories about threatening the health of so many others, which couldn’t be further from the truth”.
Photo Twitter
The actor said when he revealed his HIV status to friends “the truth became treason”, leading to “blackmail and extortion and a circle of deceit”.
Charlie Sheen said he had paid “enough to take it into the millions” to keep people from going public about his illness.
Since the interview a number of his exes have given TV interviews.
Gloria Allred is known for taking on high-profile cases connected to celebrities.
She is currently representing several women who claim they were either drugged or assaulted by the comedian Bill Cosby.
Gloria Allred was involved in cases against OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson.
People with HIV may be prosecuted for intentionally or recklessly infecting another person.
In the US, 67 laws explicitly focused on people living with HIV had been enacted in 33 states by 2011. They cover not disclosing the virus to partners – even if the transmission risk is minimal or nonexistent – donating HIV-infected organs and spitting HIV-infected bodily fluids.
French prosecutors have said that a third body has been recovered from the apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis raided by police after last week’s attacks.
They confirmed the body was that of Hasna Aitboulahcen, and was found overnight in a search of the flat following November 18 raid.
Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26, is widely reported to have been the cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and blew herself up.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of Paris attacks, was also killed in the raid.
The near-simultaneous attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen on bars and restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and Stade de France stadium on November 13 killed 129 people and left hundreds of people wounded.
Photo Twitter
ISIS said it was behind the attacks.
Demonstrations have been banned under France’s state of emergency, but dozens of French artists and cultural figures have urged people to make a lot of “noise and light”, by turning on music and lights, at 21:20 local time on November 20 to mark the exact time a week ago that the attacks began.
Prosecutors have now confirmed the identities of two of the three suspects who died in the seven-hour-long raid in the Rue Cormillon apartment on November 18.
The prosecutor’s office said Hasna Aitboulahcen’s passport was found near her body.
News that Abdelhamid Abaaoud – a well-known face of ISIS and on international “most wanted” lists – and at least one of his accomplices may have travelled undetected from Syria before carrying out the attacks has raised fears about the security of the European Union’s borders.
EU interior ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss tougher measures, including tightening the external borders of the passport-free Schengen area.
France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, on his way into the meeting, said the EU had “wasted too much time on a number of urgent issues” and hoped “today takes the decisions that we must take”.
A draft resolution for today’s EU meeting says ministers will agree to implement “necessary systematic and co-ordinated checks at external borders, including on individuals enjoying the right of free movement”.
This means EU citizens, along with non-EU citizens, will have their passports routinely checked against a database of known or suspected terrorists and those involved in organized crime.
Ministers will also consider cracking down on the movement of firearms within the EU, the collection of passenger data for those taking internal flights and also blocking funding for terrorists.
At least three people have been killed after gunmen launched an attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel in the centre of Mali’s capital, Bamako.
Two gunmen have locked in 140 guests and 30 employees in “a hostage-taking situation”, the hotel’s US owners said.
The attackers entered the Radisson Blu Hotel, which is popular with expat workers, shooting and shouting “God is great!” in Arabic.
A Malian army commander told the AP news agency that about 20 hostages had been freed.
Hostages able to recite verses of the Koran were being released, a security source has told Reuters news agency.
Six staff from Turkish Airlines are staying at the hotel, and a Chinese guest told China’s state news agency Xinhua that he was among about seven Chinese tourists trapped there.
French newspaper Le Monde quoted the Malian security ministry as saying at least three hostages had been killed, AFP news agency reports.
In August, suspected Islamist gunmen killed 13 people, including five UN workers, during a hostage siege at a hotel in the central Malian town of Sevare.
France, the former colonial power in Mali, intervened in the country in January 2013 when al-Qaeda-linked militants threatened to march on Bamako after taking control of the north of the country.
“It’s all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor,” a security source told AFP.
Malian soldiers, police and Special Forces are on the scene along with some UN peacekeeping troops and French soldiers, the agency reports.
The US embassy in Bamako tweeted that all American citizens were asked “to shelter in place” and were “encouraged to contact their families”.
Some reports say about ten gunmen in total are involved in the attack.
The Rezidor Hotel Group, which owns the Radisson Blu, said it was in constant contact “with the local authorities in order offer any support possible to re-instate safety and security at the hotel”.
The UN force in Mali took over responsibility for security in the country from French and African troops in July 2013, after the main towns in the north had been recaptured from the Islamist militants.
South Korea has accepted an offer from North Korea to hold talks on November 26, Seoul officials have confirmed.
The talks, to be held at the Panmunjom truce village, will set the stage for high-level meetings which were agreed in principle in August.
That deal followed a stand-off in August that began with landmine explosions on the border and involved an exchange of artillery fire.
South Korea said it had sent requests for meetings before but had no response.
North Korea and South Korea are technically still at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
In August 2015, a landmine explosion at the heavily militarized border seriously injured two South Korean soldiers.
In response, South Korea resumed its abandoned practice of blasting propaganda over the border, and evacuated people from the border region. North Korea said it had put its military on a “war footing”.
Tensions bubbled over in a brief exchange of fire at the heavily guarded border.
After crisis talks, South Korea agreed to turned off the loudspeakers while North Korea agreed to step down its military.
The agreement included a pledge to resume talks on improving ties, and to hold the first reunions for families separated during the Korean War in over a year.
North Korea also expressed regret over the mine explosions, though later clarified it was not accepting responsibility for the blast.
Former US Navy intelligence Jonathan Pollard, who was convicted of spying for Israel, is set to be released on parole from a federal prison.
Jonathan Pollard, now 61, was caught selling classified documents in 1985 and given a life sentence two years later.
Campaigners and successive Israeli governments have tried to secure Jonathan Pollard’s early release.
The case has been one of the most contentious issues between the two countries for the past 30 years.
Jonathan Pollard has been serving his sentence at a prison in North Carolina. His parole terms bar him from leaving the US without permission for five years.
He has said he wants to move to Israel to be reunited with his second wife.
In 2014, it was reported that the US was considering freeing Jonathan Pollard in exchange for concessions from Israel to the Palestinians amid faltering peace talks.
Jonathan Pollard’s lawyers said earlier this year that they had found employment and accommodation for their client in the New York area, but gave no further details.
At the time of his arrest, Jonathan Pollard said he gave classified documents to Israel, a key US ally, because Washington was not passing on important information.
However, some intelligence officials have said that Jonathan Pollard also offered information to other countries.
Israel initially denied Jonathan Pollard had spied for them. However, in 1996, Israel made Jonathan Pollard a citizen and two years later officials admitted he was their agent.
New Zealand is voting in a referendum which could see the country getting a new national flag.
People in New Zealand have just under a month to send in a postal ballot on which of five potential new flags they prefer.
A second vote in 2016 will ask whether they want to replace the existing flag, which features the UK’s Union Jack, with the new design.
PM John Key has said the current flag is not representative of modern New Zealand.
He also believes it is too similar to Australia’s, but has admitted that polling indicates most New Zealanders would rather keep it.
The Flag Consideration Panel received 10,292 entrants to its nationwide design competition.
Not all were entirely serious, though some of the rejected designs – including Laser Kiwi – gained something of a cult following.
Four designs were on the shortlist announced in September, but there was criticism that they were too similar or uncreative.
Three featured a fern design and the fourth the curving koru Maori symbol.
After a social media lobbying campaign, New Zealand’s government changed the rules so a fifth design – called Red Peak – also made the final cut.
To help people make a decision, the five flags are being put on display across the country.
Sets of flags are being given out free to communities who have five suitable flagpoles to display them from, so the public can see them in “real-life situations”.
Dozens of Democrats joined Republicans as the House of Representatives has passed a bill that tightens restrictions on the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, amid security concerns.
The House passed the measure 289-137, in a rebuke to the White House.
President Barack Obama has said he will veto the legislation.
The bill follows the ISIS-led attacks in Paris that left 129 people dead.
Seven of the perpetrators died in the attacks, and one of them is thought to have been a Syrian who entered Europe via Greece with migrants.
The bill still needs to pass the Senate before hitting Barack Obama’s desk.
Photo AP
It would require the head of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence to sign off on each refugee as being “not a threat to the security of the United States,” following an FBI background check.
Calling the Paris attacks “a game changer”, Rep Brad Ashford, a Democrat from Nebraska, said: “I cannot sit back and ignore the concerns of my constituents and the American public.”
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he supported the bill because “it is against the values of our nation and the values of a free society to give terrorists the opening they are looking for”.
Others urged compassion for those fleeing the war-torn regions.
“Defeating terrorism should not mean slamming the door in the faces of those fleeing the terrorists,” said Rep Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York.
“We might as well take down the Statue of Liberty.”
Republicans do not have the votes to override Barack Obama’s veto, but say that their affirmative vote in symbolic.
Rand Paul, a senator from Kentucky who is currently running for president, has highlighted a 2011 case in his home state of two Iraqi refugees who schemed to send rifles, missiles and money to al-Qaeda against US troops in Iraqi. They are now imprisoned.
The White House has said that 2,174 Syrians have been admitted to the US since the attacks in September 2001, and noted that none of them has been arrested or deported for terror offences.
Millions of Syrians have fled to neighboring countries and to Europe since the Syrian conflict began about four years ago.
The Obama administration announced in September that it wanted to resettle about 10,000 Syrian refugees in the US by the same time in 2016.
ISIS militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of last week’s attacks in Paris, was among those killed in a French police raid on November 18, prosecutors say.
French prosecutors confirmed Belgian citizen Abdelhamid Abaaoud had died in a flat in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s body was found riddled with bullets and shrapnel in the apartment.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he had received intelligence that Abdelhamid Abaaoud passed through Greece on his return from Syria.
It is unclear whether Abdelhamid Abaaoud had concealed himself among the thousands of refugees arriving in Greece before heading for other EU nations.
One of the other dead Paris attackers, who blew himself up at the Stade de France stadium, was traced to Greece by his fingerprints, where he was registered as a refugee.
In another development, nine arrests were made in Belgium after searches in connection with Paris attacks, and police carried out new searches in France.
Confirming Abdelhamid Abaaoud left for Syria last year, Bernard Cazeneuve said no EU states had signaled his return.
The minister also implicated Abdelhamid Abaaoud in four out of six attacks foiled in France since this spring.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 28, was linked to a plot in April to attack a church near Paris and police are also investigating a possible connection to the attack on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris in August.
In Belgium, Abdelhamid Abaaoud had links to an Islamist cell broken up by security forces in the town of Verviers in January, with the deaths of two gunmen.
He was identified from his fingerprints.
Paris attacks left 129 people dead and hundreds injured.
Eight people were arrested and at least two killed in the raid on the property in Saint Denis. Heavily armed police stormed the building after a tip-off that Abdelhamid Abaaoud was in Paris.
A woman at the flat – reported in French media to be Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s cousin – died during the raid after activating a suicide vest.
The prosecutor’s office said it was still unclear whether Abdelhamid Abaaoud had blown himself up or not.
Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters that a non-EU state had alerted France on November 9 that Abdelhamid Abaaoud had been in Greece.
Donald Trump has said he would be open to having a “Muslim database” in the US in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The Republican presidential hopeful said in an interview with Yahoo Politics that he would consider “drastic measures” for monitoring the community.
Asked if that may include registering Muslims in a database or using special ID cards, Donald Trump did not rule it out.
ISIS militants said they carried out the attacks in Paris.
The suicide bombs and shootings at various venues across Paris killed 129 people on November 13.
Photo Instagram
“We’re going to have to do things we never did before,” said Donald Trump, a frontrunner in the Republican race for the White House.
“And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling security is going to rule.”
Donald Trump told Yahoo Politics certain things would have to be done “that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy.”
The US is going to have to do certain things that were “frankly unthinkable a year ago,” said Donald Trumo, who has previously said mosques should come under surveillance and Syrians should be deported.
Dozens of state governors and Republican lawmakers have called for a halt to the processing of Syrian refugees into the US.
One of the suicide bombers in Paris is thought to have entered Europe with refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war.
A bill tightening the vetting restrictions is due to come before Congress on November 19.
This week, President Barack Obama criticized Republicans as hysterical and un-American for saying the US should not accept Muslim refugees.
The world’s second-largest diamond has been discovered in Botswana.
The 1,111-carat stone was recovered from the Lucara Diamond’s Karowe mine, about 300 miles north of the capital, Gaborone.
The gem is the biggest diamond to be discovered in Botswana and the largest find in more than a century.
Photo Lucara Diamond Corp
The 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond was found in South Africa in 1905 and cut into nine separate stones, many of which are in the British Crown Jewels.
William Lamb, the CEO of Lucara Diamond, a Canadian diamond producer, said in a statement: “The significance of the recovery of a gem quality stone larger than 1,000 carats, the largest for more than a century… cannot be overstated.”
Photo Lucara Diamond Corp
Lucara says two other “exceptional” white diamonds – an 813-carat stone and a 374-carat stone – were also found at the Karowe mine.
“I am truly at a loss for words. This has been an amazing week for Lucara with the recovery of the second largest and also the sixth largest gem quality diamonds ever mined,” William Lamb said.
Botswana is the world’s largest producer of diamonds and the trade has transformed it into a middle-income nation.
France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned that his country could face chemical or biological attack from terror groups, as lawmakers debate the state of emergency extension following last week’s attacks in Paris.
Belgian police have meanwhile raided properties linked to suspected Paris attackers Bilal Hadfi and Salah Abdeslam.
Seven raids took place in and around Brussels, and one person was detained, Belgian media reported.
November 13 attacks in Paris killed 129 people.
PM Manuel Valls was addressing France’s lower house of parliament before its deputies voted to extend the state of emergency by three months.
He told lawmakers that “terrorism hit France, not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria … but for what it is”.
“What is new are the ways of operating; the ways of attacking and killing are evolving all the time,” Manuel Valls said.
“The macabre imagination of those giving the orders is unlimited. Assault rifles, beheadings, suicide bombers, knives or all of these at once.”
Manuel Valls also called for Europe to adopt measures on sharing information about airline passengers as a way of protecting collective security.
French police officers will be allowed to carry their weapons while off duty as long as they wear an armband to identify them, under a police directive issued to coincide with the state of emergency.
Paris police have extended their ban on gatherings and demonstrations until midnight on November 22, although they will be allowed at the various sites attacked on November 13.
It remains unclear whether the suspected ringleader of the attacks was killed in yesterday’s raid in Paris.
French authorities say the raid on a flat in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis foiled another attack, reportedly planned for the La Defense business quarter of western Paris.
Eight people were arrested in the raid, in which police fired over 5,000 rounds of ammunition, but those arrested did not include Abdelhamid Abaaoud – suspected of being the man who organized the Paris attacks.
At least two people were killed in the raid, one of them a woman who blew herself up with a suicide vest.
She is widely reported to be Hasna Aitboulachen, a cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
Further attacks by ISIS were likely elsewhere in Europe, according to the head of the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol.
The members of American rock band Eagles of Death Metal, whose concert at the Bataclan concert hall was stormed during last week’s Paris attacks, have made their first statement since returning to the US.
The rockers said: “While the band is now home safe, we are horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France.”
Eagles of Death Metal (EODM) members said they were “bonded in grief with the victims, the fans… and all those affected by terrorism”.
Gunmen killed 89 people at the band’s gig at the Bataclan concert hall.
Among those who died were Nick Alexander, a man selling merchandise at the venue, and three employees of the band’s record company.
Photo Facebook
“Our thoughts and hearts are first and foremost with our brother Nick Alexander, our record company comrades Thomas Ayad, Marie Mosser, and Manu Perez, and all the friends and fans whose lives were taken in Paris, as well as their friends, families, and loved ones,” Eagles of Death Metal’s statement reads.
“Although bonded in grief with the victims, the fans, the families, the citizens of Paris, and all those affected by terrorism, we are proud to stand together, with our new family, now united by a common goal of love and compassion.
“We would like to thank the French police, the FBI, the US and French State Departments, and especially all those at ground zero with us who helped each other as best they could during this unimaginable ordeal, proving once again that love overshadows evil.
“All EODM shows are on hold until further notice.”
Eagles of Death Metal members escaped uninjured in the attack on the Bataclan, part of an orchestrated series of gun and bomb attacks that left 129 dead.
Charlie Sheen’s father, Martin Sheen, has praised his son following the actor’s confirmation he is living with HIV.
“I couldn’t believe the level of courage I was witnessing,” Martin Sheen, 75, said at an event in Florida.
“I hope that this day is the first day of the rest of Charlie’s life as a free man,” Charlie Sheen’s father is quoted as saying by the Naples Daily News.
Charlie Sheen, 50, ended days of intense media speculation by confirming he is HIV positive on NBC’s Today show.
“I have to put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of sub-truths,” Charlie Sheen told Matt Lauer, adding he was diagnosed in 2011.
Photo Twitter
“It’s a hard three letters to absorb,” the actor went on, saying his “shame and anger” at the initial diagnosis led to “substance abuse and fathomless drinking”.
Charlie Sheen said he felt “the responsibility to better myself and help a lot of other people”.
“With what we’re doing today, others may come up and say, <<Thanks Charlie, thanks for kicking the door open>>,” he said in an interview broadcast on November 17.
“He had been leading up to this… for several months, and we kept encouraging him to do it,” Martin Sheen revealed at the Global Financial Leadership Conference on the same day.
“He kept backing away and backing away because it was like going to his own execution, I guess. It was the most difficult thing he’d ever done.”
Martin Sheen, who was appearing at a panel event with House of Cards star Kevin Spacey, said he felt “a great sense of relief” his son had chosen to make his public admission.
“I left him a message, and I said that if I had that much courage, I would change the world.”
Martin Sheen appeared alongside his son in 1987’s Wall Street and again in the 1993 comedy Hot Shots! Part Deux.
Charlie Sheen’s father played a fictional president in The West Wing, a TV drama that ran for seven seasons.
